//------------------------------//
// Daring Doo and the Shard of Betrayal 
// Story: Shards of Nightmare 
// by Stonedpony 
//------------------------------//


Daring Doo and the Shard of Betrayal



This was possibly the only thing that could make Rainbow Dash feel better since getting kicked out of the Wonderbolts and getting fired for poor performance at work, her friends had tried but had failed. But this, this was something special, none other then the world famous writer of Daring Doo, A.K. Yearling, had come to Ponyville just to meet Rainbow Dash. On top of that she had shared her secret with Rainbow Dash. The rumor that Daring Doo is real was true, and A.K. Yearling was her, and the books were her recounting of the events. Rainbow Dash felt like she was going to explode at any moment when she was showing the mare around town even if A.K. Yearling was trying to remain incognito by wearing a flowered light blue cloak with matching bonnet and a pair of dark sunglasses that covered most of her face. It was kind of hard with Rainbow Dash calling her Daring Doo all the time, that was something that only her friends called her. 
Rainbow Dash wasn't the only mare that was excited about the time they got spend together. Daring Doo was a big fan of amateur stunt fliers, Rainbow Dash herself being one of her favorites. The two mare's became fast friends, despite Rainbow Dash's “Fan-gasms” as Daring Doo put it.
After showing the gold colored mare around town Rainbow Dash had planed on meeting with Daring Doo's second biggest fan for lunch. “Twilight lives in the town library.” Rainbow Dash said as they walked down the street.
Daring Doo smiled “wow. Must really like books.”
“Yeah she's a real egg head.” Rainbow Dash replied with a buzz of her wings before she even realized what she said.
The blue pegasus looked over at the writer fearing she had offended her, but Daring Doo just chuckled “yeah, you just got to get out there and learn from the real world sometimes.”
With a flourish Rainbow Dash presented the Golden Oaks Library to her hero. Daring Doo giggled as the blue pegasus opened the door for her. The pegasus writer always enjoyed the library even if she preferred fieldwork. However as the older pegasus walked in her joy vanished as she looked upon the blue stallion at the table in the middle of the main room. Winchester was too busy writing to care that anypony had entered the library. Spike was behind the desk with Twilight doing some paper work she was expecting Daring Doo, although she hadn't told her coltfriend thinking it didn’t matter.  
Rainbow Dash happily introduced everypony, “that there is Twilight Sparkle, Ponyville's resident egghead and your second biggest fan, beside her is Spike. He's cool.” Daring Doo wasn't paying attention to anything her tour guide said, she was just staring at the stallion, her face slightly amused but it was hiding what she truly was feeling. “oh and that’s Winchester he's a writer too, I think you met before or something.” the blue mare added as Daring Doo approached him.
“oh we've met.” Daring replied, Winchester's ears twitched when he heard her voice. he looked up at her as she said. “Oh Winchester its been too long.” 
the Stallion smiled glad she was being civil “it has, hasn't Daring.”
“why haven’t you written?” Daring Doo asked plainly.
Rainbow Dash was confused while, Twilight's mouth fell open. Spike rolled his eyes and went back to work. Winchester sighed guessing she wasn’t going to be civil after, well it wasn’t the best brake up after all. “I didn’t want too hurt you anymore.” 
Daring Doo Scoffed “like you could hurt me.” Twilight Sparkle and Rainbow Dash looked at each other guessing the two had more history then they were told.
Winchester stiffened, 'every time.' he thought as he responded with “says the mare who I had to save every other Damn Day.”
“you save me?” Daring Doo Scoffed again, she wasn’t sure why seeing her ex again made her so mad she couldn’t control herself, and for a controlled pony like her that means something. “Half the time I got hurt was because of your help.” 
the stallion sighed and stood up grumbling “I seem to remember you needed an ice pack after every night with me.” he didn’t mean to heard but he was.
Daring Doo blushed and turned away as she said “not my fault your big.” Twilight blushed hard as she covered Spike's ears, both her and Rainbow Dash wanted to look away but couldn’t bring themselves too. 
“thank you but we both know I'm not that big.” Winchester was growing tired of the arguing, and could tell that the others were getting uncomfortable. That happens with couples fight, specially if they have broken up, Love and Hate are to sides of the same coin even for a pony. Daring Doo was about to speck but Winchester cut her off to say “and you know what I don’t want to do this any more.” he closed the book he had been writing in, as his magical aura enveloped all the notes and other books he used for various things. 
The gold pegasus glared at Winchester as he took the long way around to the check out desk. The mare sighed, Daring Doo didn’t know why they made each other so angry by just being near each other, her head fell as she realized she in fact did. Meanwhile Winchester checked out the books he needed. Twilight wanted to asked him about what just happened but decided a kiss would do for now. The stallion however shook his head and mouthed 'not right now' as he nodded at Daring. Twilight understood and smiled, best not too rub salt in their wounds. The thought crossed her mind to leave with him but, how often dose somepony get the chance to meet a famous writer. The irony of the fact she was dating one was lost of her. 
Winchester polity said good bye to everypony before making his exit, he whispered “have fun, Love you.” to his marefriend. He knew Twilight was smart enough to not listen to anything Daring had to say, he doubted that Daring was vindictive enough to say anything anyway.
The tension in the air seemed to get thicker after the stallion left, Twilight looked at Rainbow Dash hoping she knew how to break the ice. The blue mare was looking at her for the same thing, the unicorn started to regret not leaving now. Thankfully Daring Doo apparently knew what to say “you think it would be a match made in heaven.” she looked out the window “two writers who Actually live their stories.” she sighed as she looked at the two younger mares and their very confused dragon. “Who knew Discord worked part time in heaven.” the older mare saw that she was killing the mood, and Daring Doo is not a buzz kill “anyway lets not dwell on that crap.” she smiled and looked at her two fans “lets go have a nice lunch.” the two younger mare nodded. As they walked out Daring Doo asked “what Place has good drinks this time of the day.” and at that moment Twilight ordered Spike to watch the library.
It didn’t take long for the mood too lightened and soon enough the three mares had all but forgotten the fight in the library and the food they ordered. They sat outside of a local bar and grill under an awning. half a platter of fried potato skins cooled in front of Rainbow Dash, Twilight’s strawberry salad had wilted ages ago. Only Daring Doo cared for her order, but that’s because all she got was some plum wine. Currently she was doing something she rarely did with fans, spoiling the next book.
“and then I swooped in grabbed the tablet of Gato De Rock and blasted through the far door.” Daring Doo said using her hoof to mimic the arching flight path she had used, accidentally bumping her half empty wine glass as she did so. The golden pegasus took a moment to steady the glass then look at the half gone bottle thinking she should have eating something before drinking so much. She decided to fix that as she took her sunglasses off and asked Rainbow Dash if she could have a potato skin or two.
“yeah.” the blue pegasus replied as she pushed the whole platter over. “but how'd you get out?” Rainbow Dash's wings were sticking straight back, it was a little hard for the waiter to serve the table behind her.
“wasn't the temple collapsing already.” Twilight added.
“oh yeah,” Daring Doo said covering her mouth with a hoof as she chewed the mouthful of cheese covered potato. 
Before Daring Doo could continued telling the story a voice cut in saying “yes Daring how did you escape that deadly place.” the speaker was a handsome brown stallion with trouble making smirk. His black hair was too perfect to be good. He sat down and his eyes locked with Daring Doo's, behind the new comer stood two large earth ponies with muted coats. Rainbow Dash and Twilight Sparkle recognized the first pony as the mercenary leader Jackal, that wasn’t his real name but Daring Doo was nice enough to no use the real one.
“Ahh good.” Daring said with a sly smile “Jack you made it, I was worried I was going to have to wait for Ahuizotl to find a new lacky for me to punk all the time.” 
Jackal didn’t look all that pleased by what she said “Daring dear, do you really want to do this, in a place like this. You know with all these little ponies around, I’m sure you don’t want you friends getting hurt.”
Daring frowned for a moment before forcing a smile. Rainbow Dash popped her neck to show she was ready for a fight, while Twilight just leaned back on her cushion with her for hooves crossed over her chest and a smirk on her face. “but Jacky boy if its just you and a couple of goons you know your just going to get your butt whooped.” the mare was stalling till she found an advantage to win before the fright even started.
Jackal smirked more, “oh we're just here to talk to you dear, the rest of my boys are looking for the tablet I’m-”
“what are you boys doing here.” the voice sent a visible shiver down Jackal's spine as he slowly turned to see Winchester hanging on his two frightened bodyguard’s shoulders like he was an old friend. “its been too long Buster.” the blue stallion said to one “hows that ribs dose it still hurt you when it gets cold?” the writer looked at the other goon and said “you new? I don’t remember you, its been a few years since I hung out with you guys....” Winchester paused too look over the stallion in question a little more, he gasped and covered the earth pony's left eye with a hoof “oh its you, sorry I didn’t recognize you without a hoof mark over your eye.” the blue stallion smiled.
Jackal took a deep breath before saying “I thought the two of you broke up?”
“yeah but I’m not here for her.” Winchester replied as he nodded across the table to Daring Doo. “you can have her, but the Unicorn on the hoof.” he smiled almost evilly as he whispered “you threaten her you deal with me. Not that she needs me to defend her, she could kill you where you sit” 
Jackal looked at Twilight Sparkle as she sparked her horn, the earth pony finally realized who she was and that Rainbow Dash was also probably who she was. With that Jackal stood up from the cushion he had sat on and walked away, Winchester allowed the two bodyguards to leave as well before joining the mares at the table.
“we didn’t need your help.” Daring Doo said as Winchester claimed the fried potato skins. “Rainbow Dash and I could have taken them.”
“what about me?” Twilight said as her coltfriend scooted over to sit close beside her.
Rainbow Dash cut in for her favorite writer with a laugh “Twi, they were thugs, your more for blowing up big monster things.” Twilight smiled bashfully as Winchester nuzzled her whispering that Rainbow Dash was right.
Daring Doo was about to say something but cut herself off as she came to a sudden realization “shit” she growled looking out to the street. Her three companions asked her what was wrong, one intentionally through a mouthful of potatoes, “their raiding my room.”
“well that sucks for you.” Winchester said only to be ignored, Twilight Sparkle and Rainbow Dash jumped to their hooves saying they should go stop them.
The three mares jumped into the street leaving Winchester with a mouthful of cold fried potato skins and the bill. He wasn’t happy about ether.
Rainbow Dash, Daring Doo, and Twilight Sparkle got too the hotel where the golden pegasus was staying in just under three minutes but it wasn’t fast enough. The thugs had come and gone. The three mares pushed passed some curious towns ponies to get to the broken door. After shooing away on lookers, the three mares surveyed the damage. Daring Doo sighed, she had seen it so many times she was all but numb to the sight of all of her stuff being tossed around the room without care, the bed kicked over, suit cases smashed it was her third set this year. “where did you hide the tablet?” Twilight asked bring Daring Doo back to the real problem.
“it was in my back pack.” Daring Doo replied as she looked around for the tan pack. “the lamp, why always the lamp, don’t they know I got to pay for that.” she lightly kicked a piece of the shattered glass.
“Found your hat.” Rainbow Dash proclaimed proudly as she held up the pith helmet. She giggled almost like she was filly as she gave the hat to Daring Doo.
The golden pegasus thanked her fan and put the helmet on “I’m going to need this if I'm going to get back that tablet.”
“And were going to help.” Twilight said with a smile “as long as that’s okay.”
“I wouldn’t count on it.” Winchester called as he trotted up “oh and you owe me thirty bits Daring.”
“don’t listen to him.” Daring Doo said ignoring the stallions complaints about money “i would love to have the two of you along. Be fun to have competent ponies along for once.” the mare motioned toward Winchester with her head. The stallion snorted as Twilight Sparkle and Rainbow Dash almost explode with excitement, “and hey you two may end up in the new book.” after another round of squeals and excited unintelligible statements from the two young mares Daring Doo continued, “now go get packed you two.” she felt like a school teacher talking to her class as they galloped out giggling with excitement, it made her smile.
“you shouldn't get their hopes up.” Winchester said as he leaned on the wall.
“your the one who told me not to wright about you.” Daring Doo replied without looking at him. She was busy looking for her close and some intact luggage.
“you don’t need a reminder of those you loose.”
“i could have always written you out.” Daring replied as Winchester left.
“it doesn't help.” Winchester called from down the hall.
“Stop protecting me.” the angry mare shot back. She sighed and continued to pick up her belongings. “Daring Doo does not need to be protected,” she mumbled to herself, “specially not by some stallion that has no sense of self preservation."

*           *           *

“this is so exciting.” Twilight said barely controlling her voice as she and Rainbow Dash followed Daring Doo out of Ponyville. 
“YES!” Rainbow Dash yelled as she fluttered through the air beside her friend and her hero. 
“don’t you two do stuff like this all the time too?” Daring Doo asked with a laugh. She had discarded her frumpy dress and bonnet in favor or her Pith helmet and favorite green shirt, her lucky pack was perched on her back between her wings. Like the other two mares she was pulling a suit case, however her's was held together with duct tape.
“well sort of.” Twilight answered “but well...” she trialed off not sure how to say what she wanted to say . “we normally have the fate of Equestria in our hooves so its, not fun.”  
“Pinkie makes it fun.” Rainbow Dash added, Twilight agreed with a big smile.
Before the conversation could continued Daring Doo shushed her companions. “girls we got trouble.” having traveled for most of her adult life, normally alone, the writer/ adventurer always knew what was going on around her, as long as she was sober. The mare's rosy eyes where locked on the form of an armored pony leaning on the far side of a tree, normally she would just avoid the possible threat by flying over it. That wouldn’t work now, Twilight couldn’t fly. She silently pointed to the pony with her nose as she quickly formulated a plan.
“is it one of Jackal's thugs?” Twilight asked in a hushed voice that wasn’t as quite as she thought, she was too excited to control her volume.
“maybe.” Daring Doo replied as she started to fan out to the right side of the road.
“want me to tackle him?” Rainbow Dash asked as she went to the left trying to get around to the other side of the tree without being seen. Twilight stayed in the road, as a decoy so to speck. Although she was probably the safest of them all.
Daring Doo snorted when she saw who it was. “yeah go ahead.” she said smirking thinking it was going to be funny. Rainbow Dash took off like a shot, she rocketed around the tree, but her target stepped to the side just in time sending her slamming face first into the dirt. 
“Rainbow Dash?” Winchester said helping up his fallen friend “what'd you do that for?” 
“Daring Doo thought you were a thug.” the stunt flier replied after spiting out a mouth full of dirt. 
“Well I wasn’t far off.” Daring Doo said as she and Twilight hurried over to their fallen friend. Rainbow Dash blew her nose freeing it of dirt, grass and a couple of pebbles. From the looks of the stallion's armor the golden mare was right. He wore a miss-match suit of plate mail nothing like his old knights barding. However there was a chaotic balance to the writers armor, the stallion had collected the pieces of the suit over the many years before he had been knighted, he used pieces he found while exploring like the iron chest plate he wore with dozens of ruins carved into it. Some were trophies taking from notable foes Winchester had bested, like his left shoulder pad that looked like a the back plates of a cragodile. Some pieces he simply bought like the chain mail over his back, he had plans of upgrading it to scale before he had been knight and the point had become moot afterwards.
“why were you hiding behind the tree.” Twilight asked after checking that Rainbow Dash was unharmed. A quick healing spell fixed her bleeding nose.
“it was the shady side.” the stallion answered simply. He shifted in his older suit of armor letting the dozen or so knives settle in their sheaths, he used his magic to adjust the well used sword that hung from his mid section and tighten the belt for the holder of Tirek's ax.
“oh.” Twilight nodded, she giggled as Winchester stole a kiss when the others weren’t looking, although they were busted when the lavender unicorn pulled him in to a longer one.
“hey you two, get a room.” Rainbow Dash giggled and elbowed Daring Doo.
“knowing Winchester he'd want us to watch.” the golden mare laughed, as Twilight’s face vanished behind a veil of blush. Winchester intentionally made it worse by acting like he was thinking about it, the lavender unicorn hurried on down the path. “any way why are you wearing that tin suit and not the shiny one.” Daring Doo asked as they hurried to catch up with Twilight. 
“I cant rightly go adventuring dressed as a knight when I'm but a simple mercenary now.” Winchester replied with a laugh. Rainbow Dash just stared at him not quite understanding what he meant while Daring Doo sighed with a smile it was kind of like old times, when they were good. “now I have a Question for you.” Winchester added with a smile, Daring Doo nodded “Where are we going?”
“what do you mean We?” Daring Doo retorted, she knew Winchester was going to show up sooner or later.
“hey if my marefriend is going I’m going.”
“oh you don’t think Twilight can take handle herself, huh, huh.” Rainbow Dash teased.
“yeah.” the older pegasus taunted.
Twilight gave the stallion a knowing smirk now over her embarrassment, she knew how he really felt but he still needed a good explanation. “oh she can take care of herself, a whole hell better then the two of you, I just want to see her blow stuff up.” he chuckled and Twilight blushed, not a day had gone by since they started dating that he didn't mention her power. Specially now that she was studying more offensive magic now then ever.
“ssssuuurrrreee.” Daring Doo replied sarcastically “I’m the one who doesn’t know how to take care of my self.” 
Winchester glanced at her, he couldn’t tell if she was intentionally trying to start a fight or not but he wasn’t going to take the bait. “still haven't told me where we're going and how you know where to go.”
Daring left it to Rainbow Dash and Twilight to explain it, the three were discussing it shortly before they bumped into the stallion “well.” Rainbow Dash started “Jackal’s goons took the tablet of Gato De Rock. That’s the name right?” she checked with the others, they nodded and she continued, “so, with luck, they will have taken it back to their base in Manehattan.” 
“that most likely the cast since Ahuizotl hides out their sometimes.” Twilight added, “and if they didn’t take it there, we can probably find some info about where it is or what Ahuizotl needs it for.”
“And before you ask no, I haven’t had time to study the tablet yet.” Daring Doo answered Winchester's unasked question, “oh and yes, Jacques is taking us there.” both Rainbow Dash and Twilight Sparkle were lost to their excited giggles again.
“shit.” Winchester growled letting his head fall. Even before Rainbow Dash excitedly pointed out an approaching airship. 
Jacques was a classic royal griffon, with a bald eagle head and the lion back side. However the old flier’s feathers were a soft gray, and there were signs he was truly bald under the helmet and goggles he wore, his once soft tan coat was now a harsh gray as well. Despite his age and a bum wing he still moved with a grace only befitting of a true apex predator. 
The griffon was a the captain of a freelance airship called The Sparrow. It was a small decommissioned griffon warship ran by a very diverse crew. At the helm was a brown minotaur, he was missing his left horn, ear and eye. Above in riggings of the patchwork ship buzzed two bat ponies, they tightened ropes and loosens others as they prepared for landing. A sputtering smoking steam engine screeched loud and back fired. All three of the crew members called so someone named Barb, while their Captain waved to his favorite passenger, he had the up most confidences in his crew. 
With in seconds of the problem being detected a door opened in the deck of the ship and a pink monkey in with a blue and white striped bandana on her head and a belt of tools around her waist climbed out. The monkey hooted as she leapt onto steam engine a wrench in one hand a screw driver in the other and a hammer in her tail. 
Jacques smiled and lowered the ramp to the ground as the hull touched down. The ship was about twenty pony lengths long and maybe eight wide, it once had a graceful curved front and elegant round bottom but years of dangerous jobs and daring escapes had turned the ship into a patchwork creation of repairs. If any of the original ship still remained was anyone’s guess. It was exactly as Daring Doo had described it in her books right down to the ever changing figure head, which was currently a well carved and painted griffoness with a roaring eagle head and spear and shield clutched in her talons. The name Sparrow was painted across the front.
“aw Winchester it is nice to see you and Daring together again.” Jacques said as the passengers climbed adored his ship.
“I'm with her Jack.” the stallion said nodding to Twilight as she saluted and asked for permission to come aboard.
The griffon granted the unicorn permission as he asked “And who might you be my lovely little filly?” Rainbow Dash was already up among the rigging of the balloon talking to the bat pony pair, the laid back twins could barely keep up with what she was saying.
“I'm Twilight Sparkle.” the lavender unicorn said barely controlling her excitement, she had always wanted to meet Jacques. The books always made him out to be a honorable retired soldier with hundreds of stories to tell. “and that’s Rainbow Dash.” Twilight added.
The Griffon rubbed his beak and looked between his two new passengers then too Daring Doo, “they who I think they are.” the golden mare nodded as she greeted the rest of the crew. The old griffon smiled and called  “Well Boys.” Barb the monkey was quick to point out that half his crew was girls but she was ignored. “we got Royalty on bored, so we better break out the good wine.”
“You drank all the good whine sir.” the Bat pony mare called down with a smile, Rainbow Dash giggle. This was just like in the books.
“oh well.” Jacques cleared his throat “how about the good brandy.” Twilight smiled and tried to tell him that it was okay.
“drank that too.” the mare said as she decided to hang upside down from some of the rigging, the other bat pony sat next to her while Rainbow Dash took a seat on the other side of him. He was cuter then the books described him, Too bad she and Soarin kind of had a unofficial thing going.
“the Good rum?” Winchester perked up when the griffon mention rum.
“gone.”
the griffon was noticeably angry “Well hell, Night Runner, what do we have?” he growled a little with each word. Again Twilight tried to tell him it was okay this time a little worried.
“Whiskey sir.” Night Runner answered unafraid of her captain’s anger, she just ideally played with her vest.
“is it good?” 
“no but its hard.”
“then it will do.” Jacques proclaimed, “okay boys lets get going, Miss Doo needs to get after some villains for her book.” the crew of the Sparrow jumped to their jobs to get the ship to lift off.
“hey guys you got any Cider?” Rainbow Dash asked as she joined Daring and Twilight on the deck, Daring Doo snickered knowingly.
“oh uh. I wasn’t aware with were going to have a school filly on board.” Jacques replied with a smile. “I’m sure we can stop and pick up a case of juice boxes on our way to Manehatten.” 
“Hey I’m no School Filly.” Rainbow Dash said trying to defend her broken ego “I'm a Amateur Pro Stunt Flier.”
“that doesn’t make sense.” Night Runner said as she looked at her crew mates “how can you be an Amateur Professional.” 
“you can't” the minotaur at the wheel said as he steered ship into the clouds.
Rainbow Dash grumbled “what the hell guys.” as she more or less retreated back to her friends. 
“what did you expect from a bunch of pirates.” Winchester said as he watched the pirates go about their work. Daring was happily talking to Jacques on the far side of the ship.
“huh? What do you mean Pirates, aren’t they like retired soldiers?” Rainbow Dash asked.
“Rainbow Dash” Twilight sighed she had figured it out a little while ago. “most Pirates are actually ex soldiers.” she laid down on the deck next to Winchester, nether unicorn had the so called sea legs needed to stand comfortably on a shifting ship.
“Really?” the light blue pegasus questioned confused as she looked at the crew, After the Wonderbolts and Daring Doo the crew of the Sparrow were some of the ponies Rainbow Dash wanted to meet more then anything, and they were being really mean to her.
“yeah.” both the Unicorns said together.
“you know, I hate it when you two talk like your one pony.” 
“yeah, well, just relax. trying to show off is just going to make it worse.” Twilight said as Rainbow Dash set her saddle bags down next to unicorn pair. “what are you doing?” the lavender mare asked as her friend hoped up on the outer railing. 
“haven’t done any flying today. so I guess now is as good a time as any.” Rainbow Dash replied as she reared up on her hind hooves and gently allowed herself to fall over the side. 
“She didn’t listen to a word I said.” Twilight commented, Winchester nodded before he nuzzled his snout into her mane and swiftly dozed off. Twilight giggled and rolled her eyes as she watched the happenings about the ship.
“you know Daring I thought you hated having your fans follow you around?” Jacques asked as he looked over at Twilight then to Rainbow Dash as she flew gracefully around a cloud making it spin gently. 
“i do.” Daring Doo said after she finished their customer sip of hundred year old Griffon wine “but these girls are different.” the golden mare noticed the griffon's smile “not like that you old Coot.” she turned a trotted away.
“A griffon can dream.” 
Daring Doo joined Twilight Sparkle for a pleasant chat. It was nice for both of the mares to talk to someone close to their level of intelligence. Twilight had Winchester most of the time but he was in all actual fact a well read high school dropout. Daring Doo was about the same age as him, but Daring Doo had two collage degrees and spoke three none equine languages. Twilight would have more degrees then Daring when she was her age but that was doable in little over six years. Daring Doo didn’t seem to want to discus academics or the tablet they were after or even the fact that Jackal's thugs stole the rough draft of the story she had been writing. She just wanted to talk about Twilight’s friends, namely the other bearers of harmony.
Twilight quickly realized why, Daring Doo didn't wright completely factual representations of the events that happened on her adventures. They were mostly true, and her escapes were sometimes toned down to make them believable. Truth is stranger then fiction after all. She also made it a habit to make the less savory characters she worked with from time to time seem better. Accentuating the good parts of them and hiding the bad, sometimes even giving them completely new personality or giving them traits from somepony else. Daring Doo apparently did that a lot when Winchester was with her. He never appeared in her books, in any way.
The sun was setting and dinner would be served on the Sparrow soon. The smell of the stew the monkey, Barb, was cooking was everywhere on board. It smelt funny to Twilight but she didn’t say anything. Rainbow Dash joined her friend on the deck of the ship after buzzing it at supersonic speed, the shock wave knocked the bat ponies from the rigging. They easily caught the air with their leathery wings and flew back to place without much trouble. The twins would have some words for her later.
It wasn’t long after Rainbow Dash landed that Barb the monkey rang the dinner bell, she had many jobs on the ship, head engineer, cook, main weapons operator and so forth. The table was in the middle hold of the ship. It was round and could seat about ten ponies, Barb set down a large pot of boiling stew in the center of it so everyone could reach it. She carried enough bowls for everyone on board with her tail “what is this?” Twilight asked as she sat around the table with the rest of the crew. Barb was quick to make everyone's first bowl and set it in their place.
“oh this is Barb's Famous everything Stew.” Night Glider said as his twin Night Runner took a moment to carry a bowl of the stew up too the helms man, the minotaur would steer the ship for a few more hours before taking a break to sleep.
“oh really” Twilight said as she took a large spoonful, Rainbow Dash was all ready half way through her bowl. Winchester paused as he realized he should have told the two something but couldn’t remember what it was.
“yes, its got a little bit of everything.” Barb replied as she sat down too eat, “wheat grass, oats, carrots, pork sausage, broccoli and corn. I normally use make it a little spicier but we're low on spices. We'll need to pick some up in Manehattan.”
Twilight nodded till she realized what the monkey had said “did you say pork as in Pig?” the monkey nodded as if it should have been obvious, Rainbow Dash froze as she heard her friend speck. Both Rainbow Dash and Twilight Sparkle looked at each other then to their bowls finally they looked up in time to see Daring Doo pick out the last of the meat in her bowl and added it to Jacques's bowl. “by Celestia.” Twilight said as she tripped over herself trying to galloped up the stairs, Rainbow Dash was right behind her cursing far worse. 
Winchester and Daring Doo looked at each other as the pirates began to laugh. They had both become so accustomed to things like this they seemed normal. While the pirates continued to laugh at the Bearers of Harmony expense, the blue unicorn trotted up stairs to make sure his marefriend was okay. Twilight was leaning on the railing, while Rainbow Dash was still hanging over the side of the boat evicting everything she just ate. Twilight looked up as a blue light shined on her, Winchester was casting a minor spell that eased sickness. “how do you eat that stuff?” She mumbled weakly.
“I’ve eaten worse.” Winchester replied with a loving smile and gently nuzzle of her neck, before turning his light onto Rainbow Dash to make her feel better too.
“i don’t want to know.” Twilight mumbled as she stood on shaky legs, she swallowed then gagged at the taste. After the two mares felt better they returned to the dinner table, and only a small amount of joking. Twilight and Rainbow Dash were able to get some dry oats and broccoli too eat. Though the lavender unicorn couldn’t for the life of her understand the logic of the pirates when they said “Why would you drink coke with out Whiskey in it.” Twilight wasn’t a drinker, and when she did it was just a glass of wine or two maybe a bright and tasty cocktail or some spiked punch that was mostly fruit juice anyway, so a half of glass of whiskey and coke that was mostly whiskey had her waving about in her seat more then the shaking ship should have made her. 
The next morning Twilight awoke in what had become her favorite place, Winchester's embrace. Normally the beat of his heart was pleasant but this morning when it was combined with her own heart beat it was a cacophony of thunderous explosions. Thankfully when you have a day that starts like that it can really only get better from there. After a normal breakfast of fired eggs and toast Twilight was feeling better and a quick stop for supply’s ensured the rest of the trip would be far more bearable.
The trip to Manehattan was nearly three days by fast train, and Jackal just so happen to own one. Luckily the Sparrow was easily as fast as one. However once they arrived in Manehattan it took the better part of the day to get clearance to make port, meaning everypony had to stay on board till then. That was the most maddening thing to Rainbow Dash. The sun was setting behind the skyscrapers by the time the Sparrow touched down in the river. The ship drifted toward the dock as the purple sky peeked out between the building cutting large holes in the buildings shadows.
“about time” Rainbow Dash groaned. She watched dock workers toss ropes to the two bat ponies on board.
“Damn Right.” the griffon captain said before barking orders to his crew as they prepared to dock.
“you expecting trouble?” Twilight asked as Winchester checked his mismatched armor's belts fasteners and latches. 
“always.” Winchester replied a with a smile Twilight knew that all too well. “its why my eyes are always on you.” Twilight giggled as she felt his magic pull her close just as she expected, the mare closed her eyes and readied for the coming kiss but it didn’t come she just heard Winchester say “do you mind?”
“nope.” Daring Doo said with a smile “and I think you got cheesier in the past three years.”
Twilight was a little upset Daring was doing this. “Hey I like his cheesiness.” she smiled and kissed her coltfriend. Winchester smile smugly at Daring Doo as she lead the four ponies off the ship. The crew of the Sparrow would wait for them on the ship. Daring didn't have the current funds to buy their lives, As Winchester put it.
“we're going to have a hard time making it over to Jackal's base.” Daring Doo said looking around the dock. Workers scurrying about as they loaded and unloaded ships, Captain Jacques was talking to a working about something that the golden writer didn’t care about to figure out. She was too busy looking for possible Jackal mercenaries, then again it was possible that half the random ponies on the docks were on Jackal's payroll. “there's definitely no way we're going to make it to the rail yard with you dressed like that.” Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes, she had grown bored of Daring Doo and Winchester's snide comments on the second day.
Winchester snorted “says the world famous mare walking around in her most famous look.”
“you both have a point.” Twilight added drawing a look from her companions. “Daring Doo lives here so she wont stand out as much to the locals, But Jackal's goons are probably looking for her, so she should cover up anyway.” a certain smile came over the mare's face, “But that Doesn’t stop them or the police and even normal ponies from noticing Winchester in full armor.”
“oooohhhh No, I know that look.” Winchester said stepping away from his marefriend. Rainbow Dash flared her wings and stepped back as well, she had witnessed the magical experiments Twilight would try from time to time.
“bbuutt, Winchester, you said you'd always be my guinea pig.” Twilight whined playfully. Winchester opened his mouth to speak before vanishing in a blue, flash of magic. The lavender mare pouted while Daring Doo laughed. “Coward.” The unicorn mare yelled to the air.
In a flash the armored pony returned “damn it.” he smiled “what you going to do me?” 
“well Winchester.” Twilight began as Daring returned to the ship to throw on something, “i just so happened-”
“Hey, Twi, we actually got cool stuff too do so can you skip the explanation of the spell and a biography on who made it and, just cast it?” Rainbow Dash said while patting her friend on the shoulder.
Twilight gave a disappointed sigh and said “its called ghost walk, just give me a second.” the unicorn shimmer with magical energy as she mumbled some words. Winchester stood stoic as Twilight touched his chest with her horn, he couldn’t help but look a little nervous as he watched himself slowly fad away till he was completely invisible. Twilight smiled proud as she said “don’t you want to know more about the spell now?” 
“Nope.” Both Rainbow Dash and Daring Doo dead paned, the later of the two having just rejoined them wearing a loose fitting maroon outfit, with her adventuring outfit hidden under neath. Twilight sighed at the pegasi lack of interest in the powerful spell she just cast.
“you know, Twilight, I always knew you'd make me a ghost someday.” Winchester chuckled from no where. The lavender mare smiled, at least some one appreciated the spell.
“okay lets go.” Daring said as she put on a pair of sunglasses that looked like she had just came from the eye doctor.
Twilight felt a chill in her chest and heard Winchester laughing “what?” she asked.
“i touched your heart.” the invisible stallion replied with a laugh.
“stop, lets go.” Twilight scolded despite her smile.
It took the better part of dusk to get across the docks and to find the right compound in the train yard. Luna's moon was hidden by clouds this night, making the train yard nothing but shadows and darkness. Good for infiltrating a mercenary compound, both Winchester and Daring Doo said after the mare had discarded her disguise. The group circled the fairly nondescriptly compound. If it wasn’t for the sign that read 'Jackal Inc' hanging from the chain link fence, the group would have past it by with out a second look. The only indication that it was anything more then a shipping company was the guards. They wore padded shirts with steel rings embedded in them and ether carried short swords or knives. Most were ponies there were a few Griffon’s and even a monkey with a strange weapon that looked like a horn of some type. 
Twilight, Rainbow Dash, Daring Doo and Winchester crawled under a train car to watch front of the compound, trying to figure out how to sneak in. As they did, one of the garage doors opened and Jackal walked out. Winchester suggested that Twilight drop a massive fire ball on the place, the other unicorn was hesitant about it. Luckily for Twilight, Daring shushed them as a long black coach pulled by four large earth ponies stopped at the front gate of the compound. One of the mercenaries opened the stage couch door and a tiger jumped out followed by a black panther, a cheetah, then a bob cat and finally a little white cat carrying a glowing bag. The ponies hidden under the train car held their breath as a large blue unicorn with a dark blue mane and tail stepped out. 
“Ahuizotl.” Daring Doo muttered.
“i thought he was a big dog monster thing.” Rainbow Dash said confused, did her hero make up what he looked like.
“he is, just watch.” the golden mare replied. Even from their position they could hear the sicking crack of bones and snap of sinew as the blue pony grew to about four times the size of a pony, his hooves exploded like balloons revealing ape like hands, in a snap his tail became long and thin with another hand at the end. His eyes shifted down to just above his nostrils as his skull elongated, his smile stretched nearly all the way back to his ears. The transformation only took a couple of minutes. “see.” Daring Doo said as the black panther and cheetah slide a red and brass tribal neck and arm bands on him, the bobcat placed a band on his masters tail. Ahuizotl added the matching ear ring.
“she doesn’t put that in the book for reasons of self preservation.” Winchester said with smirk allowing his Canterlot accent out, “if she reveals it his company may sue for slander.” 
“but.” both Twilight and Rainbow Dash began together only to be shushed by Daring.
“we got better things to do then talk about that right now.” the golden pegasus slipped out from under the train as Jackal and Ahuizotl walked inside with most of the guards. “besides I do enough good, that the one bad thing I let slide is okay.”
the other ponies followed her while Winchester explained “he runs a legitimate business and employs nearly three hundred ponies. This is just a hobby of his.” the stallion smirked as he tried his best to be quite in his noisy armor.
“So how we going to do this?” Rainbow Dash whispered as the three mares jumped from shadow to shadow, they didn’t even have saddle bags to encumber them so they were outpacing the armored stallion while he tried to be quiet. 
“we'll hop the fence wait for the office to be clear and slip inside.” Daring Doo answered.
“that's where the stuff we need is, right?” the blue pegasus asked excitement filling her voice.
“maybe we should distract them so that we know the office is going to be clear?” Twilight suggested.
“how?”
the lavender mare nodded to Winchester as he walked up beside them. “Twilight’s right.” the stallion whispered “how often do you get caught doing this?”
“about half the time.” Daring replied with a nod “probably be best if we didn’t get caught this time.” she looked at Rainbow Dash and added “don’t know what he would do if he got his paws on two bearers of harmony.” Twilight agreed with a nod, while Rainbow Dash scoffed at the idea of being caught. 
Before Winchester slipped away Twilight pulled him close and said “be careful.”
“i don’t know the meaning of careful.” Winchester replied with a sly smirk, he leaned in close and gave his love a soft kiss, “but I will return too you all the same.” Rainbow Dash acted like she was gagging while Daring Doo look very upset. The stallion slipped away his armor making scraping and jiggling sounds. “get one of the guards to come this way.”
“you know he's going to go kill a bunch of ponies right?” Daring Doo dead paned.
“don’t remind me.” Twilight replied. The three mares snuck off into the night. Their hooves crunched in the gravel on the ground. The pegasus took flight to clear the fence, Twilight snorted as the pegasus landed as silently on the other side of the barrier behind several piles of wood pallets. Daring Doo tip hoofed her way to the edges of the pallets and looked around the corner, she searched the ground for something throw able to attract a guard.
Rainbow Dash smiled from ear to ear “this is so awesome.” the blue pegasus wanted to dance but a this wasn’t the time. She froze as a snap crack signaled Twilight teleporting through the fence. Daring jumped back cursing under her breath while Rainbow Dash growled “you want us to get caught?” 
“i know what I’m doing.” Twilit replied quietly. 
Daring Doo shushed them again “just wait for his signal.” she guessed that what Twilight did would do for the plan.
“What signal?” Rainbow Dash asked.
“We'll know.” Both the other mare's said together.
Near the door one of the guards that had stayed out side heard something in the still of the night, he walked around the corner intent on investigating it. He walked down the gravel path with heavy hoof falls sure it was just a couple of high school colts trying to be brave or something like that. The sound of his approach would be enough to scare them off. For anything else the earth pony drew his short sword from his back. However he noticed too late that his hoof steps had stopped making noise when the flat of a large ax slammed into the top of his head. He silently crumpled to ground, Winchester saw no reason to end this pony so he simple tossed the pony too the side between the stack of pallet and shipping crate where he had been hiding. He sighed as some of the moving gravel suddenly started to make noise again. Winchester's spell had failed, it didn’t last very long.
Up front the other door guard a orange unicorn grunted as he looked over too where his partner should have been when he heard the crunch of gravel. “Rock Crusher what yo-” his question was cut off by the flat of an massive ax to his nose, breaking it and sending him to the ground out like a light. Winchester slipped around the corner with several throwing daggers floating around him ready to be launched at any other threats, when he saw none they returned them to their sheaths.
In side the warehouse Ahuizotl nodded after he had inspected the last of the mercenary fighters that would be accompanying him and Jackal on the expedition the next day as well as the equipment namely maps and a few rudimentary translations of the tablet. “they will be fully armed and armored as per your request.” Jackal said proudly. Mercenary was an strange job for a pony to take, but still there were plenty of ponies that took up the call in name of fortune and adventure. They were simply the modern day equivalent of a fighter's guild, any that would put their marshal skills to use for any one with the coin to pay. The work could range from the honorable and difficult to the mundane and simple or even degrading and dishonest. They were not murders, doing such jobs would cost the company its reputation and possibly get it fined or maybe even the wrath of a knight upon them. To them fighting was just a way of life. 
“good.” the large blue and black creature said as he looked down at Jackal “hopefully they will do their job this time.” he recognized many from their last expedition. Ahuizotl thought many times about finding a new mercenary company, but that would leave more ponies out there with his secret and he was sure that Jackal would sell it for a good price. So he was stuck, but really he couldn't truly blame them for their failure, Daring Doo had bested even him.
“oh yes sir th-” Jackal was cut off by the sound of a seaming motor and screeching metal. Sparks danced across the floor as large whole was cut in the garage door. The edges of the new opening glowed slightly as it fell to the ground revealing Winchester behind it. He stepped through and after a simple greeting the fight was on.
All three of the mares out back heard Winchester cut through the door. “There's his signal.” Daring Doo said before she jumped up on to the fire escape three stories up. After a quick backwards loop Rainbow Dash picked up Twilight and joined the other pony on the fire escape. The sounds of fighting grew louder after Daring Doo picked the lock on the door and opening it.
The three mare's slipped inside and looked around the dark, cluttered, office. There was only one desk, but a multitude of tables and shelves most had maps on them, there were a couple of filling cabinets as well. There were windows to the out and inside of the room all with the shades closed. “okay, I'll see if I can crack the safe.” Daring whispered as she fluttered over to the large floor safe, she pressed her ear to the door as her wings deftly worked at cracking the combination on the complicated lock. 
“okay I'll check these files here.” Twilight replied in the same tone as she pulled open a file cabinet. “Rainbow you check that one there.”
“cool.” the blue mare said as she noticed a stack of papers.
“hey keep your eyes and ears out for anypony coming up this way.” Daring called out quietly.
“yeah.” Rainbow Dash replied completely distracted by the stack of papers she had stumbled upon. It was the first draft of Daring's new book. Now it was all she cared about, the pegasus read every little note in the margins as she slowly and tenderly turned the pages. So enthralled was she with the papers she missed the sound of a pony crumpling to the stairs out side
When the fight had started Winchester had dominated it. A griffon and two pony mercenaries had fallen quickly to the whirling teeth of the writers ax, he couldn’t pull his punches like he did outside. these were trained fighters, and some of them were pretty good. As some mercenaries retreated to arm themselves others charged to distracted the powerful fighter, then fell back to let the better prepared to engage. To compound the problems of their numbers and skill they had advance weapons from far off lands.
The scariest of these weapons was that thing the monkey had. It launched tiny balls of metal in fire and smoke with such speed of power Winchester could not dodge them and the magical defensive aegis of his armor could barely hold it back ether. The runes in the iron chest plate glowed bright form an earlier glaceing blow. Winchester jump behind some crates, the monkey's weapon turned one end into splinters as the pony hid behind the other. 
“call the police.”  Ahuizotl ordered with a knowing smile. His cats and many of the mercenaries had formed a defensive perimeter around their leader and client.
“Why?” Jackal asked as they moved to the back of the warehouse, it was safe there and they could escape out the back door if they had to.
“this is a legitimate business transaction and his attack is not.” Ahuizotl answered as he slowly shifted back into his pony form. 
“oh.” the mercenary leader replied, he turned to another pony and ordered him to get on the telegraph mounted to the wall. 
“and send somepony to the office I’m sure we have a guest.” 
“ah of course Ahuizotl.” Jackal said his smile matching the false pony's. He turned to a pony next to him and nodded to the office above him, the mercenary nodded and followed his bosses orders. 
Winchester noticed the pony hurrying up the stairs to the office. The writer knew the girls were probably in there, luckily an accurate dagger throw served to end the threat but left him open for but a moment. An opportunity the monkey with the strange horn weapon didn’t miss he aimed at the pony midsection and fired. The runes on the stallions chest plate flared bright white as the smoke and fire washed over Winchester, the defensive aegis was over taxed and failed for a moment. He felt searing pain as his side was peppered of the shot. Blood pooled in his armor. “bastard.” he roared as lightning danced over his body, he knew he only had a few moments before the monkey had prepared his weapon to fire again. 
The stallion wiped around the other side of the crate and charged with The Screaming Ax, the name Winchester had giving it, held high. However a powerful blow from a tan minotaurs large hammer turned the pony aside with a large dent in his prized shoulder plate. The monkey had to wait. Winchester growled, he should have none that they would tag team him like this. The steel haft of the hammer turned side the saw teeth of the ax a few times before it snapped leaving the minotaur nothing to defend himself with.
In the upstairs office Daring Doo smiled as she heard the last of the tumblers fell into place “about time.” she said as she turned the handle then pulled the safe opened. Twilight looked over Daring shoulder, the unicorn had quickly searched through the filing cabinets and found nothing, now she divided her attention between watching Daring and watching Winchester one was more interesting and worrisome then the other. Inside the safe there was at least 60 large bags of bits and half that number of sacks full of gems, somepony also decided to store a stack of chocolate bars in the safe too. Daring didn’t care about any of it, all she was interested in was the large stone tablet on the bottom shelf. “okay whats going on out there?”
“uh.” Twilight replied not wasn't sure what to say as she watched Daring Do slide the tablet into her pack, “I think he's wining.” the lavender mare looked back out the window and cringed as Winchester splattered the minotaur's insides across the floor, the stallion turned to that monkey with strange horn that spit smoke and fire. It was a stand off between the two nether wanting to make the first move as the garage door opened revealing three police officers with flashing red and blue lights attracted to their shoulders. Twilight could hear the muffled shouts of the police as she turned to Daring Doo “uh the police are here, now what do we do?”
“get out of here.” the golden pegasus replied.
“okay.” Twilight replied as the pair scurried for the exit. Twilight quickly noticed that Rainbow Dash wasn’t following them. It took a few times calling her name to finally get the distracted pegasus to come along, although she wouldn’t leave without the rough draft. Daring didn’t mind, it was a lot of work in the first place. The three mare's vanished into the night but not before witnessing something that made Rainbow Dash and Daring Doo almost die laughing. Winchester his mane sparking from being tazed with hooves chained waiting for the patty wagon. Twilight sighed “good thing I know what I’m doing.”

  *       *       *

A Manehattan police officer stared at Twilight with a neutral face as the bearer of magic explained that Winchester was working as an royal agent, and should be released at once. Each time the pony behind the desk opened his mouth to say something, Twilight would cut him off with her knowledge of law and the fact that if somepony is working as an agent of the crown they can not be detained for breaking the law during that work.
Rainbow Dash sat on a bench behind her lavender friend, the pegasus snickered to herself about the whole situation. Daring Doo leaned on the door frame as she wined “come on girls lets go we don’t have time for this.” she looked away and mumbled that they didn’t need 'him' anyway. 
“nah, Daring Doo, we can’t leave the stallion hanging.” Rainbow Dash said barely holding back her laughter. “besides just think about how funny is going to be to see Winchester in jail.” the golden mare nodded with a smirk admitting it would be humorous, “oh hey it looks like Twilight’s heading back, we got to check this out.” Rainbow Dash pointed out as she jumped up.
Rainbow Dash and Daring Doo were right behind Twilight as she followed the officer down a hallway. Their hoof steps echoed around the mostly empty cells, none of the few other pony in jail were in for anything worst then a bar fight or petty theft. They finally came too a cell that glowed a soft blue color. Inside Winchester laid on a cot staring at the ceiling with bandages covering his wounds, which there were many.
“okay Chester apparently your story checked out.” the office said as he searched for the right key. Rainbow Dash and Daring Doo snickered as they watch the stallion jump up from the cot and hurry over to Twilight
“your lucky.” The lavender mare said as the couple kissed through the bars, Twilight’s horn crackled as it came within a few inch's of the glowing metal. Like most jails, it had at least one with an anti magic field to put unicorns in.
“y-yes.” Winchester said, he seemed nervous. Both Daring Doo and Twilight noticed it, there was something about how didn’t want to touch the bars, the way his tail twitched, even his posture, it was all off.
“you okay?” Twilight asked as the cop unlocked the door.
Winchester trotted in place as he waited for the door to be open “huh, yeah yeah.” 
the stallion hurried out form behind the bars as Twilight asked “you sure?”
“yeah.” the stallion replied seemingly relieved as he stepped out of the cell. “the field was suppressing my healing magic, so, I was just hurting.” he smirked hiding his lie well with a dismissive wave of his hoof, but Twilight and her friends knew that he wouldn’t show pain like that. 
As Twilight saved the stallion's hurt pride, Rainbow Dash turned to Daring Doo to ask “so what's next.”
“I'm sure that Ahuizotl will be heading to the Ruins of Gato De Rock.” Daring Doo said looking over her shoulder at the yellow stone tablet that was stuffed into her pack. “cant let him get there before us, specially if he figures out what to do without the tablet.”
“okay.” Rainbow Dash said turning away from the two unicorns as they did what marefriends and coltfriends do. “so do you mean we got to hit the books or something?”
“yep, its time for research.” Daring Doo replied.
“Research?” Twilight asked suddenly appearing in the conversation leaving Winchester nibbling on the air at Twilight’s ear level. 
“yep.” Daring Doo answered.
“YAY!” Twilight squealed, she had been waiting for the moment to show Daring her skills with a book. After thanking the police for their work and getting Winchester's equipment the small group of adventures hurried out into the night. The docks of Manehattan were mostly empty and quiet this time of night, other then the pirate ship that was waiting for them. The crew of the Sparrow were a wild bunch, specially after getting brand new stock of alcohol. 
The air ship took off soon after the four pony were back on bored, even though it was near midnight. Keen Eye the minotaur helmsmen informed Daring Doo that it looked like some of the Jackal mercenaries were watching the ship earlier in the night. Jackal had a small head start but the train tracks didn’t go all the way to the ruins, however they still had to be careful there’s no telling what tricks Ahuizotl or the resourceful mercenaries had up their sleeves. 
The four day long journey was plenty of time to research the tablet. Daring Doo was impressed with how easy the research seemed with Twilight's help. Rainbow Dash was decent assistant but she only really knew the information that was in Daring's books. Twilight Sparkle however knew nearly as much as Daring did, and that was before the unicorn read the books Daring Doo brought, all on the first night too. Winchester was intentionally no help to anyone but Twilight, because her intellect was what turned him on the most about her. Luckily what little uncontrolled lust the stallion had was slated with some deep, passionate kissing under some blankets in the crowded hold of the ship.
A day out from their destination they finally figured out what the tablet did. It was a key to a garage of sorts that stored the ancient stone war machines of the Gato Recqua an extinct race of cats with culture and intelligence comparable to other countries of the day. They were decimated by the disasters Discord created, and were finally wiped out in the turmoil after the lord of chaos’s fall. However despite their lack of iron the relics the Gato Recqua left behind were dangerous and powerful.
The Sparrow arrived at the ruins late in the after noon. Daring Doo ask Jacques to fly over them so they could have a quick look before landing. As far as they could tell the forest had claimed most of the city, only the large segmented pyramid wasn’t covered in trees and brush. Meaning landing in the city would be dangerous specially with the fall wind blowing through the trees, even the fairly clear hill was be tricky to attempt “Hey Daring.” Winchester said finally going to ask a question that had been bugging him, Twilight leaned on his shoulder with a smile on her face as she looked from the sun to her colt friend.
“what?” Daring replied a little harsher then she really intended to.
“if we have the key why are we here?” the stallion asked as he used his tail to play with Twilight's tail, the mare hesitated before playing responding. “the garage has been secure for this long.”
“cause it was secure before dynamite was invented.” Daring Doo answered simply.
“true.” 
“We'll set her down in the river over there.” Jacques called out interrupting the conversation. He roared a few orders and his crew jump to their tasks. “hey Daring don’t get killed before you can pay for us the next time okay.” he joked as he walked over to her and add in a more serious tone “you know we know, your good for it right? we'll go with ya if you want.”
“i know but I don’t expect much trouble.” Daring replied, “we should be done before the other guys show up.” the griffon nodded, Daring Doo was the only client of his that his affection for wasn't based on the amount of coin in her pocket at any one moment.
Once the air ship landed in the large river a gang plank was set down and the four pony's set out. Only Winchester was armed but none of them were defenseless. Rainbow Dash was told to act as a scout for the group. The blue pegasus was eager to help research had been so boring, she dart between trees like a hummingbird bird too found the fastest paths to take. Twilight estimated that she cut their travel time in half if not more so. The blue mare could barely hold still when they all finally entered the over grown city. “so what building we looking for?” Winchester asked as he scanned city before him.
“um I believe the hanger is under ground so were just looking for the entrance.” Twilight said.
“from my experience its going to look kind of like a doughnut that somepony stuck in the ground.” Daring Doo explained. 
“leave it to me.” Rainbow Dash proclaimed before zipping off into the dead city. The sun dropped low in the sky casting long shadows into the few clearings below, but Rainbow Dash could see every little detail. She circled the small city, by her estimation it was about the size of Ponyville. Although there were what looked like crumbled huts and cabins among the trees, she and her friends had seen them up close just before they entered the main city. After the third time the winged mare circled the city she realized there wasn’t any structure that looked like what she was looking for. Before Rainbow Dash gave up she flew up high above the center of the city and scanned the surrounding area more thoroughly. Over to the east under Celestia's setting sun Rainbow Dash spied that cleared hill they had seen earlier.
The pegasus rode the wind over to the new area. On the far side of the hill was the stone doughnut she was looking for. As far as she could tell from the air, it was intact. Rainbow Dash smiled as she found her friends again, she proudly proclaimed she had found the thing. The blue pegasus was a little disappointed when all she got was a simple good job, but she didn’t press the issue as she led the way.
“So Daring Doo what are we going to do when we get inside?” Twilight asked as Winchester cut them a path through the underbrush like he did before.
“if what the tablet says is true and the giant rock war machines are there, and we're going to blow them up.” Daring replied, she was starting to think she and Rainbow Dash should have just flown over the trees and get started on opening the door. 
Twilight wondered why they were going to destroy such artifacts however before she could ask, Winchester inquired “how did creatures with out horns cast magic?” 
“the Gato Recqua practice rune magic.” Twilight explained quickly as she stumbled through the underbrush, “like your chest plate.” 
“oh.” Winchester said looking at the slightly glowing markings of his chest armor. “infusing the item with magic, I can understand that, but again how did they do it without horns.”
“through sacrifices.” Twilight answered “They used their own life force to power their creations rather then magical energy. flesh blood was needed to active their properties, the bigger the device more blood needed, something like the things we're looking for would probably need gallons.” Before Winchester or Rainbow Dash could comment the lavender mare asked a new question that had just came to her mind “do you really think Ahuizotl would use them for something if he has....too......kill........somepony.” she trailed off not sure if she was asking something obvious or not.
“if its cost effective he might.” Daring Doo said, only half answering the question.
“so we don’t want these big things falling in the wrong hooves?” Rainbow Dash said. “well, hands in this case right?” with one mighty swipe Winchester cut a hole in the underbrush that let them into the clearing with the hill.
“i don’t want them in anypony's hooves.” Daring Doo said coldly before hurrying the crew along. The golden mare's companion's were confused as they followed her around to the other side of the hill, Rainbow Dash pointed out the large moss cover stone door.
“why? If something can be used for good why not use it.” Twilight said as Daring Doo looked at the door they found, searching for the place to put the tablet. Winchester was about to say something but stopped as he felt a sting in his neck. when he touched the spot with his hoof his eyes widened with fear as a small plastic dart fell to the ground. He wanted to say something but his tongue had already gone numb. He could only hope that it wasn’t a deadly poison.
“because when power is in the right hooves the owner of those hooves begins to think their responsibility are more important then themselves.” Daring Doo explained as she used her wings to clear off the dirt and vines from the door. “many ponies believe that kind of self sacrifice is beautiful but what about their love ones. Why is the postmare to coming by your home the worst part of your day.” Daring Doo turned to Twilight the golden mare sounded like she was speaking from experience “why should the scariest thing you can think of be coming home to a note on your table.” she found the slot in the door with her wing. She turned and pushed the tablet into its place as she mimic a stallion's voice. “hey the princess needs me to go kill a demon that eats your soul by looking at you, might not make it back. love ya bye.”
Both Twilight Sparkle and Rainbow Dash looked at each other then back at Winchester. The stallion looked like he was in a daze, the lavender unicorn stepped foreword to see if he was okay only to watch him collapse to the ground his breathing normal but his eyes stared ahead unfocused . “Shit.” was all Daring Doo could say as two Griffon’s flew out of the trees and something stung Twilight in the neck. The griffons were fast, not as fast as Rainbow Dash in flight but the mare was on the ground. In the blink of an eye Daring Doo was pined to the dirt, Rainbow Dash was able to lift off but was slammed into the door before she could get away.
A jovial laugh filled the air around them. Over a dozen more mercenaries trotted out of the trees, most of them were ponies some were griffons and that monkey with the horn weapon was there. They were all wearing heavy armor with sticks and leaves covering it to hide in the underbrush. The lines of armed mercenaries spread apart to allow their leader now armed with a saber and what looked like a smaller version of the monkey's weapon to approach the captives, beside him was Ahuizotl. Both were flanked by the pack of cats that were always with their black and blue master.
“i should have known it was you Ahuizotl.” Daring growled as she tried to struggle out of her captors tight claws. 
“ARE THEY GOING TO BE OKAY?” Rainbow Dash yelled as she pushed against the wall as hard as she could, the griffon on her was surprised by her strength but still held her tight so a pony could tie her wings close to her side, another pony did the same to Daring Doo.
Ahuizotl looked at the two unconscious unicorns, “oh yes.” he gave Rainbow Dash a wining smile for what ever creature he was. “I can’t kill one of the bearers of harmony, that would make my home a less safe, as well as drawing the ire of the princesses.” her reached out and rubbed Rainbow Dash on the head “they'll be out for about half an hour or so. Just long enough that I can get the three of you out of the way till my plans are underway.”
“well speaking of your plans, Ahuizotl, what are they?” the golden mare said as she propped her head on one hoof, she smirked ready to form a plan to sabotage those plans. She didn’t care that her wings were being tied to her sides.
Ahuizotl motioned for the griffons too bring the two pegasi along. “well my dear there are a few settlements on land I wish to acquire, not in Equestria so don’t worry about that. I’m not going to waste your time explaining why I want the land, but I believe those machines back there are a very cost effective way to get it done, after, a few upgrades.” Ahuizotl and his cats lead the way into a near by temple in the trees. Daring Doo knew what they were here for. 
The group stopped in front of a couple of unicorns with clipboards, they were checking that the contraption they had been assigned to build was finished. With a snap of the fingers on his tail Ahuizotl got the ponies attention, the two ponies informed their boss that the thing was ready. “good! strap her in.” the griffon holding Daring Doo picked her up at his clients chipper command. The pegasus rolled her eyes and didn’t even struggle as she was strapped down to a large stone table. She did glare at a mercenary who had a bad case of wondering eyes.
“Don’t worry Daring Doo I'll get you out of this.” Rainbow Dash said as she tried her best to get out of the griffons sharp claws, she ignored the growled words of the beast holding her still.
Daring Doo just sighed as she looked form Rainbow Dash to the beast in charge. “so whats this one do?” she asked looking up at the multitude of stone gears and pulleys above her.
“well this one its an bit hastier then normal.” Ahuizotl explained with a big smile “i think it's made out of an oat grinding mill or something like that.” he placed his hand on a near by lever “but it should remove the flesh from your ribs well enough as it descends around you.”
“aww no snakes or spiders.” Daring Doo sounded generally disappointed.
“maybe next time.” Ahuizotl smiled as he pushed the lever “if there is one.” the group left to the sound of grinding gears, and Rainbow Dash vowing to save her hero.
It was a short walk back to the open garage where the mercenary had dragged Twilight and Winchester inside. Jackal was yelling at a pair of his troops about how they should treat the two prisoners. He lost interest in them when he saw the beast that paid him approached. He order the two outside to guard something and turned to Ahuizotl and reported “we count six that appear operational.”
“that will do.” 
“and we found the thing that should activate them.” 
“good.” Ahuizotl motioned for Jackal to lead the way, the earth pony mercenary did so.
Rainbow Dash looked up at the large camber around her. Sections of the aged stone work had collapsed destroying the statues that must have been the things they were here for. However there were still plenty of the stone monsters left. Their big vacant eye holes stared straight ahead with their creepy wide smile filled with large sharpened teeth of obsidian. They had round heads attached to square bodies with rounded corners. All over their bodies were covered with runes that looked like leopard spots. They sat ready for the next time they were called to war. Rainbow Dash gulped seeing that the large obsidian claws were discolored with what could only be blood. Then she remembered something.
“hey dude.” the blue stunt flier looked at the griffon guarding her, he snorted as he looked at her “you uh you know how they turn theses things on right?” the griffon's long eye brow rose, good she had his attention, “they have to drain all the blood from a cat.” she nodded to the one of the stone monsters, the griffon was obviously shaken by the words. “and do you thank Ahuizotl going to give up one of his cats for this?”
“don’t worry Stefan.” Jackal said as he looked back at the griffon and his prisoner, “Ahuizotl's, Got a plan.” Rainbow Dash cursed under her breath, looked like she would have to escape the old fashion way.
“Yes.” the black and blue beast said as he examined the short pedestal before him. It was at the perfect neck height of his pet jaguar. the top was like a funnel to pour something in with a small hole in the center that lead to a complicated series of pipes connected to an to the war machines somehow. “in place of blood I'll use something far more powerful.” he motioned too the little white cat. It present the small black pouch with a meow. “the princesses cant control it but I-” he chuckled as he opened the pouch pulled out a shard of metal that made the air thick with animosity and anger. Ahuizotl just chuckled “believe I can control it as well.” 
Rainbow Dash reconsigned the feeling the shard gave her, it was definitely a piece of Nightmare Moon's armor. She could tell it was having an effect on the mercenaries around her, her ears twitched as she heard a few of them started to bicker. She glanced at her guard waiting for the right moment to escape. 
Ahuizotl dropped the shard into the funnel, it bounced back and forth as it disappeared down the hole. The room was quite for a moment as the shard made its wait through the stone tubing, pushed along by its own power. With a sudden shutter the eyes of the six intact cat robots flashed with an evil purple light. Ahuizotl laughed as they began to move shaking dust, dirt, mold and other plant matter from themselves. 
The mercenaries kept their eyes on the aged machines, a few ran for their lives as one of rock machines jaws broke off shattered on the ground. The closest of the rock machines stepped forward and crouched down to stare at Ahuizotl. He smiled “cats love me.” the black and blue beast looked back at his four ever present companions, all off whom were quite afraid and huddled be hind their master as he reach up and rubbed the rock monster in its 'nose'. He stopped and watched confused as a mane of strange black metal grew from the back of its head. 
Rainbow Dash saw her moment to break free. Stefan the griffon guarding her was watching the rock robots stand up in their bays more then the blue mare, she stomped on his talon and slammed her head into his chin. The griffon's head snapped back and everything went black, he collapsed unconscious and Rainbow Dash ran as Ahuizotl yelled for someone to stop her. However the mercenaries and their boss quickly realized that they had a bigger problem then an escaping prisoner. With a robotic roar that sounded like rocks scraping together, the rock cat with a mane smacked Ahuizotl across the garage. 
the sound of mercenaries yelling filled the room, some of them tried to fight but there were just too few of them with weapons that could actually damage the beasts. Rainbow Dash pulled at the rope around her midsection as she ran for her two friends near the door, a group of ponies ran to stop her only to skid to a stop and try to scramble out of the way of a massive stone claw. 
A vanilla colored unicorn lifted a large crossbow and ordered Rainbow Dash to stop. The blue mare ignored him as she finally got the rope untied. The stunt flier grinned the moment her powerful wings opened tossing the coils of the rope off her. she shot foreword flying with the tips of her wings just inches from touching the ground. With the rope trailing behind her Rainbow Dash's hoof connected with the unicorn's jaw and he dropped like a sack of potatoes. Her horse shoes slide on the stone floor as she tried to stop, she spun on a hoof to watch as the bale fire eyes of one rock beast turned to look at her and her two unconscious friends. 
The stone beast moved teasingly slow as Rainbow Dash hurried to tie the rope around Winchester and Twilight's midsection. The beast loomed over them as the pegasus grabbed the middle of the rope. Rainbow Dash was powerful but the combined wight of an armed and armored stallion and a mare who read more then she ran was too much, till one of the rock monstrosity's paw sent all three hurtling through the air. Rainbow recovered quickly and used the momentum to pull her payload toward the exit. Winchester hit the door frame and sent them all into a bone jarring crash.
Rainbow Dash stood up and shook the dirt from her mane, Daring Doo landed a in front of her looking no worse for wear. “whats going on?” the golden Pegasus asked.
“scary robots attacking everything.” Rainbow replied dazed from the crash. She shook her head then asked “hey, how'd you get out there?”
“that’s not good.” Daring Doo said as she checked that Winchester and Twilight Sparkle were okay. “And, you'll just have to read the book for that.” The unicorns were still incapacitated, the best Winchester could do was to flick his ear while all Twilight could do was drool. Jackal and his mercenaries were in full retreat there was only a hoof full now, Ahuizotl and his cats were right behind them as one the rock machine burst through the half open door with a mighty roar.
Daring turned to Rainbow and said “lets go.” the pegasi grabbed the rope and started to fly, their combined thrust was enough to slowly drag Twilight Sparkled and Winchester across the dirt. The stallion's head bounced off a rock as the monster spotted the four slow moving targets. It roared and gave chase only to take a large iron ball in the shoulder then a second in the face, the head and a foreleg broke off and its body fell apart. The Sparrow flew over head its two forward facing cannons still smoked as the airship made a hard turn to land. Jacques called for the pegasi too hurry up and get their friends on ship. 
Night Runner and Night Glider joined the two pegasi adding their wings to the effort inching their way to the airship's ramp. two more of the rock cats pushed the destroyed one out of the way. “shit.” the griffon said as he looked to the bow of his ship. Barb the monkey shrugged “boss that was the last of the cannon balls. They don’t sell'em in Equestria.” the Griffon captain growled as Daring Doo and Rainbow Dash pulled the unicorns on bored, Night Runner and Night Glider pulled the gang plank up and stored it. The griffon turned his eyes back to the danger, and watched in horror as the two stone beast absorbed the one the pirates had slain. one gained an extra head and tail along with more stone plates to cover its square body. The other took on a longer body and two additional legs. The captain didn’t need to give his helmsmen the order to lift off. The airship lazily turned as it slowly gaining speed and altitude, the steam engine struggled to spin the twin propeller any faster.
“We cant let them roam free.” Rainbow Dash yelled as she turned to watch the remaining three beast come out of the broken door, one of them with a glowing mane of metal shards. “there's no telling what they could destroy who they could hurt.” she was sure Twilight would agree.
“Girl there's nothing we can do.” Daring Doo replied.
Rainbow Dash fixed her with a glare “Daring Doo, you have said it your self in your books. Some times you got to do the impossible.” the blue pegasus smiled as she climbed up on the railing “besides, all we got to do is keep them together tell she wakes up.” the mare nodded to the lavender unicorn. Daring Doo realized she was right, even though these things were obsolete if they got loose in a town or even a city they would kill hundreds maybe even thousands before they were stopped. 
“can she really do it?” Night Runner asked as she pulled some ropes tight to increase their rate of climb just encase the rock machines could jump. 
Daring Doo joined Rainbow Dash on the railing as the blue mare smiled and said “yep. And so can I.” the mare fell over the side soon followed by Daring Doo. They opened their wings in unison. Rainbow Dash looked over at her hero, this was one of the proudest moments of her life diving down to fight some, black fire, breathing monsters. The two mare's snapped rolled to the side to avoid a stream of dark fire. “Nopony mentioned these things could do that. SO UH Daring Whats the plan?”
“WHAT!?” Daring Replied as she avoided another blast of fire, none of the writings mentioned that the machines could do anything like this or the power to take on the parts of their destroyed comrades. It must be the Shard of Nightmare doing it. “I thought you had a Plan.” she was starting to think they should have stayed on the boat.
“well Twilight or Applejack normally come up with the plans, I just make them work.” Rainbow Dash replied as she circled around another blast of fire. Her keen eyes noticed that the rock cat with out a lower jaw couldn’t breath fire, it only drip burning black slime from its mouth hole. “uh lets try to break their jaws.”
“Okay.” Daring Doo replied, she pressed her hind legs close together and held her forelegs straight out ahead of her as she rolled into a hard dive. The air rumbled around her as a multicolored streak raced passed her. Rainbow Dash cut through the jaw joint of one of the five stone beast like a rainbow sword through a hard melon, the other rock monsters jumped back and roared while there damaged comrade stepped to the side dripping burning black slime from the remain half of its lower jaw. Daring Doo's attempt to do the same did not go as well, she had targeted the one with the metal mane only to bounce off of a barrier of hard air. 
Daring Doo was tough, she had hit things far harder and kept going and this time was no different. The golden mare daftly dodge a swipe of the leaders claws, and a snap of its jaws. It roared and the other war machines reacted, they ignored Rainbow Dash as all of their black fiery eyes locked on the archaeologist. “Shit.” Daring Doo growled as every bit of her evasion skills were put to the test, the were not found wanting. 
Rainbow Dash could use the fact that the rock cats were focused on Daring Doo to her advantage. “Daring Keep them on you!” she yelled as the blue mare accelerated into a wide turn to build speed her again.
“i think I can manage that.” Daring muttered to herself, she didn’t have time to yell as her world quickly became nothing but a forest of obsidian claws and stone paws lit by black fire. Daring Doo dove under the belly of one of the beast. She didn’t care which she just wanted a quick breather, she didn’t get it as the burning black slime poured from the beast's jawless face and set the ground below it ablaze. “damn it all.” Daring yelled as she darted out from under the beast. it was engulfed in orange flames but was unharmed. 
Twin black flames raced at the golden writer as the two head machine charged at her. The pegasus flew straight up quickly above the reach of the beast as it slammed into its jawless comrade. A moment later the jawless beast was hit with an explosion of color blasting it and the fire onto the one with two heads. Daring Doo chose that moment for some pay back, she dove down hard on the injured monster. The other rock monsters watched as fire engulfed their two ally's the sound of breaking stone accompanied the crackle of fire. 
A gray scale streak followed the racing rainbow trail up so they could look down at their victory. Both the mare shook all over from the throbbing pain in their hooves. “Got two of'em.” Rainbow Dash said with a smile “maybe we wont need Twilight.” 
the pair watch sad as dark shapes moved with in the blazing inferno below. “i think you spoke too soon Dash.” the golden mare said as the two headed war machine stood the fire raged around it, flames danced in the multitude of creaks and gaps in its body. The teeth in both its head were ether broken or chipped, the black fire of one of its eyes dripped out of its broken eye hole. Worst still the jawless head pulled half it's body out of the fire, the rest of its body was missing from just below its chest.
“okay.” Rainbow Dash said as all their nightmarish glowing eye turned to lock on her and Daring “these things are really tough.”
“that’s the understatement of the year.” Daring Doo replied as she fluttered out of the way of a ball of fire from the machine with a mane of metal. She was about to suggest something when the sound of a screaming motor passed them. The pegasus's keen eyes saw that Winchester was hurtling toward the ground The Screaming Ax held with his hooves as magic corused over his body. 
The stallion impacted the jawless head right between its ears, his spell transferred all of the impact into the rock below him, to Winchester it was nothing more then a jump down from a short step ladder. Chunks of stone were sent flying as the unicorn drove the ax into beast forehead. The saw teeth of the weapon met little residence as the blue writer cleaved through his foe's head. The fire in the badly damaged beast eyes quickly went out.
“thataboy.” Rainbow Dash said “we set them up he'll knock them down?” she looked the other pegasus.
“that works.” Daring replied returning the smile as the pair dived down. 
Winchester freed his weapon as the light of the black fire surround him. The instant he was about to be enveloped in certain death he was swept up in a rainbow colored wave. “thanks Dash.” the stallion said looking up at her. Before the conversation could continued the stallion pulled free of her grip and used his magic to push her up out of the reach of a massive stone claw that swatted the stallion out of the air. The runes on Winchester's chest plate glowed bright as the defensive aegis with in it attempted to protect him from injury. The stallion rolled to a stop in the dirt as his massive ax dung into the ground beside him. The eight legged machined scurried its way over to him, the stallion was barely able to pull his weapon over to him. He braced the ax in the ground and caught the claws that came down to crush him.
Daring Doo's skin was starting to blister under her fur as the two head beast and the one that hadn't changed shot fire balls up at her. Even worse then the pain was that there wasn’t really a good way to counter attack it all just frustrated her more. The golden pegasus looped over a ball of fire, she growled as the burning pain rushed through her body. She dove down at the beast below her dodging side to side around two more more death balls of fire, the feathers on her wings blackened slightly as they started to burn. Still she dove her keen eyes finally locked on a target, the left foreleg of the unchanged war machine had a crack in its elbow and Daring Doo intend to smash it. Like a large gray scale spear the writer slammed through the joint of her target. It stumbled to the side to allow the two headed beast to ponce on the winged mare before she could get away.
Now Daring knew what a bird felt like when a cat caught it, she struggled to breath as she was held down only her head was free. Her wings and legs couldn’t moved, she could just hope help would come before the cat decided to crush her. Winchester was pinned and using all his magic to keep from getting crushed, So it was up to Rainbow Dash to save her companions and she would never leave her friends hanging. That’s what the fast mare told herself as she dodged the black fire of the maned rock cat that was growing metal fur. She drove down close to the ground her rainbow contrail became a zig-zag as she confused her opponents
the rock cats couldn’t keep up with the blue mare as she circled them in the most erratic pattern she could come up with. Suddenly she made her move and darted in between the legs of the one with half a jaw. the multicolored trail bounced from leg to leg. it was one of the hardest things Rainbow Dash had ever attempted, she had too catch herself and change her direction and launch off the leg all in less then a second. Her hooves were starting to throb and she knew she couldn’t keep this pace up much longer, hopeful the stones would give out before she did. As luck would have it did, as the blue pegasus slammed into its left hind leg and it broke off. The leg fell away and she continued through it. 
Rainbow Dash pulled up hard flying nearly straight up, scooping the air with each beat of her wings but it wasn’t enough. The leader of the beast used the its damage comrade to vault high enough to catch it's escaping prey. Rainbow Dash yelped as she was snatched out of the air, only a momentary reverse thrust with her wings kept her from loosing her heads. The massive steel coated beast landed with the blue pony still trapped in its mouth. 
“Damn it!” Rainbow Dash yelled as she tried to buck her way through the obsidian teeth. her captor looked at its subordinates its stone grin seem strangely accurate for its mood. Two were working on reattaching limbs with the other two were working on destroying their prey. 
Suddenly a blast of purple energy turned the six legged rock machine into rubble. The others didn’t know what happened as the leader looked up at over head air ship, Twilight stood on the railing her horn glowing as she summoned several massive comets from no where to hammer the hard air around the shard enhanced beast. It roared unable to retaliate.
From the dust of the six legged beast Winchester charged. The Screaming Ax cut through the leg hold Daring Doo down. The stallion growled as he hooked his ax around the severed leg and pulled it off enough for Daring to fly away. In a blur Daring Doo was gone she had a guess what was about to happen, Winchester vanished in blue flash a moment before a comet obliterated the two headed machine.
Rainbow Dash watched amazed as sky turned dark purple and the elements turned against the war machines. The earth swallowed the beast with only half a jaw, Lightning carved the one with half a jaw in half. One by one they were destroyed till only the steel furred monster was left with Rainbow Dash trapped in its jaws. Twilight didn’t relent she had magic to spare, however this war machine, like gods and demons, was protected by existence itself. Twilight knew from her studies that the air would attempt to deflect danger from the beast, but the air molecules could only stop so much depending on the power of the being. Daring Doo bounced of that barrier as she attempted to get to Rainbow Dash. Winchester did the same from below, his ax created bright flashes of light with each strike. “good.” Twilight said as she began to charge her next spell allowing the others to fade but the sky did not change.
Daring Doo dodged out of the way of the a swipe of the beast metal furred claws, before returned buck its barrier again trying to get too Rainbow Dash. Winchester moved to the back of the beast avoiding its tail as he stuck the divine shield. He felt the air tingle with a familiar magic, Twilight Sparkle was pulling out the big guns so to speck. “Daring Get out of here! Twilight’s got this!” he yelled a moment before he vanished. After seeing the display just seconds ago the golden mare just needed to barely hear the warning before she pulled off.
The metal covered beast had no idea what was about to hit it. Rainbow Dash didn’t know ether, she just knew that Daring Doo had flown away. The air was cut opened by a white beam of energy, the beast roared as its back exploded, freeing Rainbow Dash. The blue mare was gone before the beast was torn apart by the energy Twilight Sparkle was pumping into it. She didn’t relent until she was sure it was destroy. Soon enough the steel furred beast was nothing more then a pile of rubble.
the sky was returning to its normal color when Winchester appeared next to Twilight Sparkle while she surveyed what she had done. It wasn’t the proudest accomplishment with her magic, she preferred to create rather then destroy, but it was still an impressive feat. The stallion smiled and pulled her into what he thought was a kiss she deserved.
Below the smoldering remains of the beasts cooled, Rainbow Dash landed in what had been the leader. the metal fur it had turned into smoke and drifted away. Daring Doo landed next to her and smile “that was impressive.”
“yeah.” the blue mare looked up at the circling airship “Twilight's one of the coolest unicorns in the world.”
“no, I mean you.”
Rainbow Dash gasped with stiff wings she couldn’t form words that didn’t somehow praise her hero, Classic 'fan-gasm'. Daring Doo shook her head as she felt that strange sensation of anger wash over her. Luckily Daring knew how to deal with it, although a certain stallion would probably get an ear full when she gets back on the ship. The golden mare kicked a few stones out of the way and till she found a shard of metal, she sighed knowing what it was. She was one of the lucky few not in the military to have gotten information on the shards of Nightmare, but it came with the decree that if the shards were not brought directly to Canterlot she would be arrested upon discovery. Knowing that blue asshole of a coltscout up there she'd get found out quick.
The pegasi returned to the Sparrow. With the job done Jacques set course for Canterlot a two and a half day flight. They made a quick stop in Ponyville to let Rainbow Dash, Twilight Sparkle and Winchester off. The girls were a little sad but Winchester wasn’t, he couldn’t wait to get Twilight back home and he wasn’t the only one not that she would ever admit it. 
The Sparrow didn’t stop in Canterlot, Daring Doo didn’t need it too and she understood why the pirates didn’t want to stop in the capital, mercenaries like them need special permits to land there and if the air patrol was in a particularly bad mood they would need it just to fly with in twenty miles. Luckily today they met no trouble.
Daring Doo flew straight to the castle, she didn’t disguise herself needing the notoriety to get pass the guards to meet with who she needed too. It took about an hour but eventually she got through. Out side of Celestia and Luna’s court camber the princess' steward Red Tape met Daring Doo. “So you have a shard of Nightmare?” the gray mare asked, she was a little taller then Daring and had her black mane pulled back into a professional bun, a ribbon of red adorned the bureaucrat's flank.
“Yep.” Daring Doo replied as she pulled a small pouch out from under her wing, thanks to Twilight Sparkle the curse was trapped inside.
“Good Job.” Red Tape replied as her horn lit the same sickly green as her eyes when she took the bag form the pegasus “if what the researchers say is true then this should be the last one.”
“well that sounds like a good thing.” Daring Doo lied. “well, I need to get going. writing and such.” she really just wanted to hit up a spa for a message and a grooming, her wings ached and feathers needed to be plucked. She was also thinking about meeting her editor for dinner, it been too long since she had seen her coltfriend.
“Very Well.” Red Tape replied her eyes never left the bag as the golden pegasus turned and left. With no one watching in the green light of her horn the mare smiled a fanged smiled and removed the shard from the pouch “everything is going to according to plan.”