In the end, fourteen of the thirty-nine ponies that they had rescued decided to accept Rebel Young's hospitality. Midnight (as Inkwell), Featherdancer, Sunbeam, Moonchaser, and Dust Runner spent the day sneaking around the city. Somewhere along the lines they had managed to pick up Cloudwing, Contrail, and Lotus Blossom as well. Nopony was quite sure how that last one's alter ego of Lace Heart had wound up as "Celestia's" general.
The purpose of their sneaking had been message delivery. Sometimes escorting the families of the refugees. All told, they would be smuggling forty-two ponies out of Everfree and into the forest.
The eight ponies were on the balcony of the Thief King's court, speaking quietly with the aforementioned. It wasn't going to be easy. They could also only take about a week's worth of supplies. Once those were out nopony knew what they were going to do. Honestly, about the only thing that they did have going for them was hope.
The fact that there were alicorns in Equestria again seemed to give these ponies hope that things could just possibly work out. That was the real reason that they hadn't told them yet about who they really were, they just couldn't bear to take that away. Even Contrail had tried, only to find his will broken by a dew-eyed filly who seemed to be about five. That had ended with him doing an hour of foalsitting retelling their previous misadventure, although Moonchaser had heard some of it and noticed that Midnight seemed to have been strangely edited out.
It seemed like things were going to work though. It was looking like they'd be able to make their getaway.
Then the great double doors flew open and the colt who had been sleeping in front of them the night before came running through. "Sound the alarm! Guards!"
Fortunately all nine ponies conversing atop the balcony had wings. They threw themselves over the railing and dove down, their landing in the center of the floor quelling the panic before it could start. (Moonchaser's training at projecting her presence in court finally paid off)
Rebel locked eyes with the colt. "Foil! Calm down and report. What's going on?"
The unicorn colt - Foil apparently - gulped. "M'Lord. There's at least three full companies of city guard poneekins on their way here through the tunnels as we speak. Scouts report at least twelve officers as well."
The Thief King swore. "How'd they find us?"
His guard's eyesdropped to the floor. "That's the worst of it sir... Rat was right at the front, leading them."
Rebel Young rocked back so far his haunches met the cold stone floor. He let out a sigh and closed his eyes. Then he turned to Sunbeam. "I'm sorry. You came here seeking safety and it seems that one of my own has betrayed you to your enemies."
The mare shook her head. "Betrayed us both old friend. You bear no blame for this."
"So what now?" Cloudwing asked.
Dust Runner spoke up. "First priority is keeping ponies safe. We need to evacuate."
Sunbeam turned back to Rebel. "Think you can handle that?" He nodded.
"Alright then," Midnight spoke up, "Second and third priorities are keeping the Draconequi from finding proof that the alicorns are back and keeping our 'princesses' safe. Agreed?" He took the other five joining him in shifting back to their birth forms as a sign of agreement.
"What next?" Everypony turned to look at Foil. None of them had realized that he was still in the conversation.
Two not exactly identical, but similar, thoughts ran through nine heads at the same time. One, if we're going to keep the illusion up, then the answer needs to come from a military leader, and two, Lotus Blossom isn't exactly our best strategist. All eyes turned to Midnight.
"I suppose it is night, so that's technically my job. Shade, Afterburner, you're on bodyguard detail. Stick with the princesses. Lace, we'll keep you with them for now as well, hold you in reserve until we need reinforcements on one end or the other. That'll also help keep us from getting cut in two by an ambush. Cloudwing, hang around there too, but fluctuate more freely, you're on medic detail. Featherdancer, I need you on vanguard duty, with your ricochet tricks and your ability to use your feathers as weapons, we need you on the front lines where you've got plenty of space to fight. I'll stay and play rearguard, I've got some surprises I can leave behind for our friends, plus I'm at an advantage if I take out light sources to cover our retreat.
"Thief King Rebel Young... I request your aid your majesty. Our forces are evenly spread now, but thinly. Your aid would be greatly appreciated, and you may feel free to deploy as you will."
The pegasus in question paused before nodding. "Foil, I want you on vanguard with the pegasus. How many thieves do we have here right now?"
"Nineteen sir, including seven too young to fight."
"Alright, names?"
After the twelve thieves were assigned (three supporting the vanguard, three supporting the medic, five guarding the group as a whole, and one additional bodyguard for Sunbeam and Moonchaser), Foil rose to go relay the orders. He stopped after only three steps. "M'Lord? Is there a reason you haven't assigned anypony to the rearguard?"
"Actually Foil, I have. I'll be taking care of that myself."
"So, explain the concept here to me."
"Ambient magic. It uses magic that's already in the environment to charge spells."
A low whistle sounded. "Where exactly did you learn how to do this? More importantly, would whoever taught you be willing to sell me some of this stuff?"
"That's... not exactly possible."
"Why not?"
"Because I didn't learn it... I created it."
"...Please, elaborate."
"Well, as I'm sure you can tell by my wings I'm a bat pony by birth, which means I can't manifest magic into spells. As I'm sure you can also tell by my cutie mark, my special talent is magic, specifically spellwork. I found myself facing one of two lives of misery, either never being able to do anything with my talents, or being forever doomed to study an art that I would never be able to do myself."
"So instead of choosing, you built a workaround."
"Yes."
"How?"
"I apprenticed myself to a mage. Initially my hope was that I would be able to discover something, some ritual or something of the sort, that would let me manifest my magic in the way that unicorns do."
"That's an interesting phrasing."
"And that turned out to be the key for inspiration. A few archaic tomes mentioned it that way - a year into my apprenticeship I had already read a good third of my master's library - I would occasionally hear older ponies mention it that way, or somepony would say it that way when they weren't really thinking about unicorns, but the magic itself. I dug deeper and found my first landmark."
"Which was?"
"We are raised, taught, to believe that unicorns are the only ponies who use magic. All the teachers and schools are wrong."
"Come again?"
"They're wrong. All ponies use magic, it just manifests itself differently. For example, you. Your magic focuses itself in your wings. Did you know that when you fly you break several laws of physics?"
"I do?"
"Yes, it's just that nopony noticed because they never thought to look at something that was such a basic part of life."
"So why'd you?"
"Because I was desperate. I won't make any pretense, I was two years into my apprenticeship and going nowhere. I was grasping for anything I could use, and this one happened to work.
"Pegasi focus magic in their wings, which lets them fly, as well as interact with clouds the way they do. Unicorns naturally focus it through their horns, letting them cast spells. Earth ponies through their hooves, giving them a massive boost to their physical abilities. Bat ponies their eyes and ears, allowing sharper day vision, night vision, and echolocation."
"So how'd that help you?"
"It gave me a place to start. After two years, I'd finally moved off of square one."
"...Wait a second... How old were you when this started if it took you this long?"
"Well, after I got on the right track the process sped up, but... when I began my apprenticeship, I was six. That was eleven years ago. I've been able to use ambient magic competently since I was thirteen."
Another whistle. "So you're saying you invented a completely new form of magic at thirteen?"
"Yes. You see, whenever anything - pony or not - uses magic, it leaves just a little bit of residual magical energy behind. Think of it like a sunburn on the world. It can be in the air, the ground, items, buildings, ponies, anything. I rebuilt the way that ritual magic works, so that it doesn't need a power source. Instead, it powers itself by drawing in and feeding off of ambient magic. Perhaps the biggest advantage to this is that it makes it completely undetectable to any modern magical sensor spells. Although the stamps are quite useful."
"Stamps?"
"Yes, I discovered early on in my experiments with ambient magic that if you attach a spell to a pony - directly or through something that they're wearing - then it will automatically feed itself off of whatever unused magic leaves them."
"...You know Midnight, I could really use a pony like you by my side. We could probably take over Equestria's entire criminal underworld together."
"That's funny, Sunbeam keeps saying the same thing."
Laughter was the only sound for a while.
Twenty-five minutes after Foil had burst through the doors, Discord's forces arrived. Midnight (as Inkwell) and Rebel Young were standing at the far end of the room, next to the curtain behind the throne, both wearing cloaks that obscured them completely. A quick head count revealed seven living opponents had arrived so far.
Rebel Young broke the tense silence, "Rat Tail you traitor! I honestly wish you had picked a different way to prove that I was right to not let you lead any pickpocket bands!"
"Traitor yourself Thief King! Helping enemies of the Draconequi!? No, there's a limit to risk, and I'm getting out now!"
Midnight rolled his eyes as a familiar unicorn guard stepped forward. "Rebel Young, alias 'The Thief King,' you are under arrest for High Treason Against the Draconequus Empire! All others with you presently and part of your organization are considered guilty by association! All of you are hereby ordered to surrender yourselves as prisoners!"
"Tell me," Midnight shouted, "How exactly does one commit treason against the traitors? Don't think that this is some kind of new movement, this is the true powers reasserting themselves. Tell the Draconequi that their coup is over. Oh, and Ever Wyte? Before you try and do something stupid, do try and remember what happened the last time you tried to arrest a thief."
The unicorn's nostril's flared and a bolt of his crimson magic flashed towards Midnight. The bat pony's eyes glowed as he activated the crystal lense in his eye that he had conjured as an alicorn. It was showy, but he had felt confident in this particular reaction. Some ponies never disappoint. The magical blast bent through the air. The display froze everypony in the room as the energy blast orbitted Midnight's head and then rocketted back at its caster, catching him full in the face.
Ever Wyte fell, hooves flying to his face as blood dripped onto the stone beneath him. As if it were a signal, the poneekins began marching towards their enemies -
And immediately erupted in flames as they met the trap spells that had been laid out for them.
It had taken two whole bottles of ink and over a score of quills, but Midnight and Rebel had arranged lines of patterns on floor, walls, and cieling. There were only a few actual spells, mostly congregated in the center of the floor, but the patterns drew the effects into a greater range, turning the entire room into one massive trap spell of doom.
They were also exceptionally lucky that the wooden poneekins caught fire as easily as they did. Once they got past that, things would start getting less safe for the fugitives. Which was why they weren't planning on sticking around.
The last glimpse that the guards caught of them was the pair of stallions vanishing through a curtain as Rebel Young's voice carried across the carnage, "Don't think this is over Rat, your treachery will not be forgotten."
Fire.
That was the only thing Sunbeam could think of as she blasted another one. The soldiers' response to Midnight and Rebels trap had been to send as many poneekins as they could down as many tunnels as they could. Fortunately, the city's supply still hadn't quite recovered from its last major battle, so they weren't coming in floods.
What it added up to was that the escapees kept running into the drones one, two, or three at a time, randomly, up and down the length of the caravan formation they had moved into. Which was why they had spaced the fighters out as evenly as they could along the group.
The only exception was the very front. Featherdancer and Foil were still spearheading their movement, with Rebel acting as guide. She could tell something was bothering her old friend, but before she could ruminate on it, wooden hoofsteps behind her drew her attention.
A group of five poneekins - street guards fortunately - marched out of a hallway to attack. She blasted two of them as the nearest thief took one down with a small sword. The other two reared up as they got in range of their targets, releasing their standard weapons, a retractible blade that came from each forehoof. Before they could attack, Sunbeam blasted the one on the left, and the thief with the sword started dueling the last one. A few strokes later, the two halves of the poneekin fell to the floor.
Distantly, she could hear the sounds of combat as another group entered a fray further up the line, but she didn't focus on it. Something was bothering her about that last exchange, it seemed different somehow, almost as if...
Her eyes widened as she realized what was happening. It was basic street guard tactics. "We're being tracked! Be ready for anything!"
Up and down the line, fighters reacted as they realized that the trail of wooden carnage they were leaving would lead their enemies right to them. Even moving the remains wouldn't do anything to bury their trail, poneekins left a beacon when they were destroyed. One that other poneekins could home in on.
Suddenly Rebel came flying past, hugging the tunnel cieling so that he could narrowly bypass the ponies below. "Add half again to the spacing! The main force should still be held up at the courtroom, but probably not for much longer. Once they get through that they can follow this breadcrumb trail right to us. Fortify the rearguard!"
It wasn't much longer before the main force came up on them from behind. The seven or so fighters who were back there managed to turn things into a fighting retreat for a good fifteen minutes, but slowly they were halted in said retreat as the group became too densely packed. While a third oftheir own forces had been occupied, poneekins had come at them from both front and flanks. Eventually, progress had been halted.
The group continued to tighten in on itself. Their only real advantage was that the poneekins had to slow their assault periodically to clear away the remains of other drones. However, the inexorable waves kept coming, and one by one the rebellious defenders found themselves worn down and driven back, out of the protecting circle and into the protected crowd.
In the end, that crowd is what saved them.
It was ironic really, that the group who was supposed the be recieving protection actually wound up carrying the day. In their brief preparations, they had completely emptied the thieves' makeshift arsenal, and the few ponies who didn't have weapons made do with poneekin legs, magic, or whatever else they could get their hooves on. It was a losing battle, a delaying tactic, but it bought time so that the powerhouses could recover and rally.
And for an alicorn powered teleporter spell to activate. Midnight insisted on being the one to open and power the portal. Featherdancer and Moonchaser were the last ones through, extracting a promise that he would come through himself before closing it behind him. As soon as they vanished into the circle of light, he closed it, then blasted the spell circle into a single scorch mark.
One of the officers had finally arrived and began monologuing before the cloaked alicorn had fired off a magical shockwave that knocked him and every poneekin within twenty feet of Midnight to the ground. "Tell the Dracoonequi that there are no more messages by word." And then in a flash of deep blue light, he was gone.
"So," Contrail was complaining, "Will somepony finally explain to me why we didn't just do that portal thing in the first place?"
"Because," Rebel Young snapped back at him, "It wasn't possible. Like most major cities, Everfree is equipped with a city shield spell maintained day and night by a dozen unicorns at a time. Thirty-six total, eight hour shifts. That spell includes a disruption field that does one of three things to a teleportation spell. It will either stop it, redirect it to a prison, or corrupt it so that what comes out isn't what goes in. Only exceptions are for spells powered by Draconequus chaos magic. Therefore we had to leave the city before we could teleport."
"But we didn't leave the city, we were still in the tunnels."
Sunbeam picked up the slack as Rebel's patience snapped and he walked off in exasperation. "Actually, we did. We couldn't be quite sure, which was why we had to go as far as we could before we tried, but we managed to go under the city walls."
The two unicorns (Sunbeam hid her wings with a similar magical item to the hornband that Moonchaser used to hide her horn) continued their conversation as Midnight and Moonchaser walked up next to the Thief King. they sat in companionable silence for a few moments until Moonchaser broke it. "So, what are you going to do now?"
Rebel sighed, "I'm going to go back to te city and my thieving ways. That wasn't my only stronghold, just my best. Besides, even though we sent runners out to warn them, I've still got ponies in Everfree. And I've got a score to settle with Rat Tail."
"And the Draconequi?" Midnight asked.
"Honestly, I still think you lot are completely crazy to think you can win this war you're trying to start. However... I'm not saying I'm ready to join your 'cause,' but I would like to think of you as allies. Perhaps we can keep in touch, you can help me... direct my operations towards more... deserving targets."
"In other words, you won't help us directly, but you're willing to commandeer supplies for us from the Draconequi and their allies. No doubt for a price." Moonchaser summarized.
"I was thinking a commission actually. We skim just a little off the top of what we take - not part of anything you've specifically requested, only from extras - and deliver the rest to you or somepony of your choice."
Moonchaser snorted, but Midnight spoke before she could. "I like it. It makes us harder to find and harder to fight if we're acting as united but separate groups. Plus, it lets each of us play to their strengths. Moonchaser, if it helps your conscience, remember that we're at war, and raiding enemy supply depots and encampments for material is universally recognized as an acceptable tactic."
The mare was silent for a moment as she thought. "I see the wisdom."
Silence continued for a minute as they looked out across the forest that they were in from the cliffside cave that had been transformed into their camp. Midnight cleared his throat. "On that note, I think I might have a perfect target for you. You remember Ever Wyte, that guard I blasted in the face? It's open season on him."
"I was going to call it open season on all guards."
"That might not be a good idea, there are a rare few who are actually trying to protect and help ponies."
"Oh, of course not the Protected."
"The what?"
"Sorry, that's our name for them. The Protected. There's about one of them for every twenty guards. That's those rare few. Part of the street code is to not hurt them and keep them out of trouble where you can."
"Well then, sounds like you know who's who better than I do."
Rebel laughed, "Only for a short while. If you keep going this way, you'll have more informants than I do fairly soon here. I'm afraid that my aid is limited to keeping the streets of Everfree safe for good ponies."
"That would be more help than you know." Moonchaser almost whispered.
The thief smiled and started walking back towards the spot he had marked out as his bed for the night. Behind him he could hear the mare's voice again, directed at the other stallion, "So why is it that every time you build a teleportation spell to help us escape we always wind up in the exact same forest?"