Age of the Pony

by Jacoboby1

Chapter 4 "The Rainbow Rogue"

Chapter 4

“The Rainbow Rogue”

Kanterwall’s city guard was a vast and organized machine. Taking residence in the garrison attached to the Viscount’s keep they protect and serve the ponies of the city. Today Ebony was going to meet with one of those guards. The very same country mare he brought from Equestria.

Applejack’s back was to the dark warrior as he walked up and smiled “Applejack”

The orange earth pony didn’t look back at him for a moment. She was clad almost head to hoof in plate armor. Her blond mane was tied back and out of the way. Her head was only adorned by her Stetson hat and not by any helm. Her shield was strung to her back which bore Kanterwall’s symbol and a short sword was sheathed on her left foreleg for easy access.

She looked back at Ebony for a minute before returning to look at the postings on the board “Howdy Ebony”

Ebony raised a white eyebrow “Been busy?”

“What?” She looked back and shook her head “Sorry sugercube, just been ‘avin a lot on mah mind. Feels like Ah’ve only been talkin tah ya yesterday”

“We did talk yesterday” Ebony pointed out “We live in the same house”

Ever since the group arrived at Kanterwall they all stayed at one house together. Mostly Spike and Applebloom stayed at the house while Ebony, Twilight and Applejack all did their jobs. Rusty was not happy about opening up his home to so many ponies but Ebony was able to get him to let the group in anyway.

“Ah can’t thank ya enough fer takin us in” Applejack said smiling at her fellow earth pony “But Ah’ve been hearin about ya thinkin of dealin with Cranky”

“Spying on me again are we?” Ebony said a little annoyed

“Ah only do it because Ah care” Applejack said with a smile “That and I gotta make sure ya don’t lose Big Mac’s scarf”

Ebony smiled and looked down at himself. Ebony wore a little bit of chain mail armor to allow for free movement during combat. He wore no helm but Big Mac’s scarlet scarf was a constant companion to his neck. He hadn’t gone anywhere without it “Anyways I was hoping you could help me. You see Cranky’s asking for a lot of gold for this expedition and I was hoping you could find work”

Applejack thought for a moment “Well, Ah can think of one way to help. There was this donkey that’s been askin around for somepony to help him with a job. Ah believe his name was Anso…rather odd feller but he did say he’s willin to pay”

“Great” Ebony said with a smile “I’ll get right on it” He began to walk away before Applejack stepped in his path

Her expression was firm “Ah’m goin with ya sugercube, ya could use somepony who can fight”

Ebony shook his head “Applejack I can’t risk you”

Applejack punched him in the foreleg “Ah’m not some wall flower Ebony! Ah fought darklings longside ya! Ah’m goin”

Ebony sighed, there was no stopping Applejack once her mind was set on something. The dark warrior finally relented “Alright, just don’t do anything rash”

The country mare smiled “Great, Ah’ll see ya tonight at Lowtown”

_______________________________________________________

Ebony walked alongside Twilight as night fell in Lowtown. All manner of nasty ponies appeared at night…strangely in the same spots. Ebony didn’t have time to question the habits of bandits and thieves as the pair walked on.

Twilight looked at Ebony “Serah, are you sure it’s a good idea to be walking around at night like this?”

The dark warrior looked at Twilight with a comforting eye “Don’t worry Twilight, worst comes to worst I’ll be there to cover for you”

Twilight smiled a little “Serah you are too kind…”

Ebony simply returned the smile. Twilight reminded him a lot of Willow, not just because both were unicorns. But also because Twilight seemed to have such a gentle personality despite the power she has inside her.

Twilight however grew more and more curious as to why Ebony acts like this around her. He was always like a protective brother to her. He went out of his way to make sure no templars came knocking on their door and he bought a wide variety of things for her magical studies.

Both ponies looked on to see Applejack leaning against a wall “Bout time ya two showed up. Ah was wonderin if ya alls went off without me”

“You would probably kill me if I did” Ebony said with a laugh “We just need to wait up on the other two”

Applejack raised an eyebrow “Other two? Ya mean tah tell me we got company?”

“Here comes one of them now!” Twilight said pointing with a hoof. The group turned to see Pinkie Pie hopping happily towards them. Blinky was latched onto her back with a leather strap. Aside from that Pinkie was the only pony largely naked except for a simple leather jacket she wore.

She smiled wide upon seeing everypony “Hi Ebony! Hi Twilight! I’m so happy about our adventures together last night! Although it was kind of sad what happened to Fleur. But then we got Rarity in our party and it’s always good to have friends!”

Pinkie went on her endless tangent. Applejack looked over at Ebony “What in Celestia’s name did you find?”

“I don’t even know” Ebony said honestly “I think she’s some kind of magical experiment gone horribly wrong. Or a demon trying cause everypony to go deaf”

Pinkie Pie ran to Applejack and hugged her tight “Hi there I’m Pinkie Pie! You must be Applejack! It’s so awesome to meet you! I’m always happy to make friends! I can’t express enough how glad I am!”

“You might want to express it less then you normally do” Twilight said bemused “Applejack’s ribs can’t handle more gladness”

Pinkie blushed a little and released Applejack, whom gasped for air at being released. The country mare simply smiled after getting her air back. “Thanks fer the welcome Pinkie, Ah’m glad tah be here”

Ebony then felt something run against his side. He looked over to see Rarity brushing her coat against him. The white unicorn smiled upon seeing him “So wonderful to see you again darling. I heard you were getting a group together and I was willing to offer my staff for help”

Ebony flushed at being addressed by the beautiful white unicorn. Ebony had little experience with mares and none have ever approached him this…aggressively. He simply took a step away from the mare and bowed his head politely “It’s good to see you again Rarity, are you sure you can handle another job after…”

Rarity’s blue eyes betrayed her sorrow of yesterday. But she simply nodded “I appreciate your concern darling. But I’m a grown mare I can handle it”

“That’s good to hear” Ebony said smiling

Rarity looked on at the rest of the group and Twilight was noticeably frowning. Who was this mare to think she could just flirt with Ebony like that? He was their leader not some drunken fool you meet at the Hanging Pony.

Applejack looked at the mare and noticed her horn “Another mage? Judgin by yer robes ya ain’t from the circle”

Rarity frowned and spoke as polite fully as she can muster “Correct I am an apostate. But Sir Ebony has sought fit to use my services”

Applejack didn’t know what to make of this mare. She seemed alright but there was just something that the country mare couldn’t put her hoof on.

Pinkie Pie simply got the entire group into a big group hug “Great! Now that we’re all together let’s do this!”

Rarity and Applejack simply looked at Ebony who shrugged “You get used to it”

____________________________________________________

Ebony led the way as the group walked down the alleyway. At the end they found a donkey looking extremely nervous.

Ebony walked up to the donkey and spoke firmly “Are you Anso?”

The donkey let out a yelp and looked over at the dark warrior and his group “Sweet mother of Faust! You can’t just go sneaking up on somepony like that!”

Applejack simply rolled her eyes “Yah said ya needed somepony to do the job and we’re willin to do it Anso”

Anso spoke still nervously “Yes I’d be willing to…I mean if…sorry pony. I’ve only been on the surface for a short time and I keep thinking I’m going to fall up in that sky any second!” He finished that sentence looking up at the night sky like it was a pit of doom.

Pinkie chuckled “Cranky used to be like that, got jumpy every time I tried to get him to come outside”

Rarity simply laughed “Donkeys are quite humorous…”

“But I digress” Anso went on “I’ve been looking for somepony to recover an item that has been…misplaced”

The Donkey spoke more confidently as he talked business “The ponies I had delivering it decided not to…if you were to retrieve it I would reward you greatly”

Ebony raised an eyebrow and crossed his hooves “What kind of property are we talking about here?”

Anso laughed nervously “Well it’s a very very valuable…the ponies I sent it with seemed like perfectly reasonable men. They smiled and everything, the goods are very…illegal and incurably important for me to have. You know how Templars can be…”

Twilight looked at the donkey “You’re smuggling Lyrium!”

Lyrium was a highly useful and incredibly dangerous substance that fuels magic. It was toxic to normal ponies and only the Donkeys had access to the stuff. Templars had almost exclusive access to the substance and they use it for all kinds of purposes. The stuff was incredibly valuable to the right ponies…though being caught with it meant almost certain…well you get the idea.

Anso shushed Twilight “Not so loud Pony! Do you want everybody in Kanterwall to hear?” He began talking “I knew I should’ve taken that job sweeping stables like mother insisted…”

Ebony simply shrugged “Well so long as we get paid it shouldn’t be too hard”

Anso smiled wide “Great! They have a little hideout in the Pegasus Alienage; I’ll give you directions…”

___________________________________________________________

Pegasi were a proud race of flying ponies that once held a vast empire. Nowadays the Pegasi are little more than a second class race. Constantly fighting to either blend in with the ponies that would take them in or fighting to keep their traditions alive among the Dalish.

None were there tonight so Ebony and the group entered the hovel silently. Ebony saw a large group of smugglers moving crates of something across a large room.

Ebony looked on and gave a signal. Suddenly from the ceiling came arrows from Pinkie Pie. One hit a pony in the shoulder and knocked him aside.

Twilight teleported in the center of the group and swung her staff to one side. Two ponies became frozen solid thanks to her spell work. Applejack then raised her shield and tackled the frozen ponies, shattering them to pieces.

Ebony swung his blades expertly at the last smuggler. His chest got two blade sized holes when Ebony was done with him. One smuggler tried to get an arrow at Ebony before he died but a barrier provided by Rarity protected the dark warrior.

Pinkie descended from the ceiling and opened one of the crates “Ebony! Empty!” She zoomed to all of the crates and found the same contents “They’re all empty!”

Rarity snorted “That no good ass! He had us fighting these men for nothing!”

Twilight frowned “I guess we’d better go back and tell him”

The dark warrior nodded and led the way out.

___________________________________________________________

The outside courtyard was filled with well armed ponies. They all wore armor of the Trotvinter Imperium, silver with red markings on the armor. The Trotvinter Imperium used to cover the entire known world. But it was thanks to the efforts of Saint Faust that the empire was held back although at the cost of the hero’s life.

One of them wearing a commander’s uniform looked at the group “They aren’t with the chicken! Who are they?”

“It doesn’t matter!” Another said drawing a blade “We were told to kill whoever came out of the house!”

Ebony looked over at Twilight “Twilight! Distraction now!”

Twilight stabbed her staff into the ground and fireballs rained on the group of soldiers. Those that survived the initial assault met Applejack’s shield and Ebony’s blades. Pinkie used this opportunity to shimmy up a nearby building and snipe the leader of the soldiers.

The commander got a crossbow bolt to the head and fell like a ton of bricks. Rarity walked up to Ebony and Applejack and her staff glowed brightly. Symbols appeared on Applejack’s shield and one of the swords that tried to hit the country mare snapped in two on contact. Applejack looked back at Rarity “And here ah thought you were just a pretty face”

Rarity smiled rather smugly “Just because one is gorgeous does not mean one is a wall flower” She then turned her attention to one of the soldiers that broke through. She twirled her staff and spikes shot out of the earth and into the soldier. The soldier let out a scream of pain before Rarity smacked him upside the head with her staff “It’s rude to sneak up on a lady like that!”

Ebony leaped over another commander and swung his blades at his neck. The commander went down headless as Ebony wiped blood and sweat from his dark coat. He looked up and saw another high ranking officer descending from steps.

He glared at Ebony “I don’t know who you are friend but you made a serious mistake coming here!”

Ebony held his green gaze and unsheathed one of his blades “Nopony goes around attacks me and my friends on my watch…”

The Commander laughed and yelled “Lieutenant! I want everypony in the clearing now!”

Ebony’s eyes looked on as a pony limped from around the corner. He was clad in imperial armor and his throat was bleeding considerably. He choked out one last “Captain…” before collapsing on the ground.

A cyan colored Pegasus walked past the corpse and spoke simply “Sorry to rain on your parade but I took care of your men…” She walked past the commander smugly “Your trap failed miserably; I suggest you go running back to your bosses before somepony thinks you can’t handle a job…”

The commander growled and withdrew a blade “You are going nowhere slave!” He swung at the Pegasus with the blade.

In a blur that Ebony could barely see the Pegasus unfurled her wings. On the feathers were blades sharp as steel. She swung with them and cut the commander’s throat wide open. The commander gagged before falling to the ground dead. “I’m not a slave…” was the last thing the Pegasus said to the commander

The Pegasus standing before Ebony was younger then he was by a year. Her mane was the most striking feature; it was the colors of the rainbow. Her magenta eyes looked at the dark warrior with a mix of respect and gratitude “I’m sorry to get you guys involved. When I asked Anso to provide a distraction I didn’t think the hunters would want me that badly”

Ebony simply gaped “You were the one responsible for this?”

“Yeah” she said flattening her ears “Again, I’m sorry about this. My name’s Rainbow Dash, those guys you just mopped the floor with?” She gestured to the corpses lying on the ground “Yeah, they were after me”

“Why were they after you?” Twilight asked “That man called you a…”

“Slave?” Rainbow said rather bluntly “Yeah, that’s what I was before I made that awesome escape! Anyways those guys were trying to take me back to my former master. Yeah, not gonna happen pal”

“You know” Ebony said as the group gathered behind him “You could’ve just told us you were in trouble. We would’ve helped out anyway”

Rainbow smiled a little “Yeah, trust is kind of hard to come by in my line of work. Runways don’t exactly get used to trusting ponies” She walked over to Ebony “Anyways thanks for helping me out”

Rarity frowned “We didn’t exactly ask…”

Applejack nudged the mare and smiled at the Pegasus “Don’t listen tah Rarity here. Slavers deserve tah get smashed up fer trying to take away somepony’s freedom”

Rainbow smiled again and looked at Ebony “So what was in the crates anyway?”

Pinkie answered that question “As empty as my stomach on a diet day!”

Ebony rolled his eyes and went on “So that crate was simply bait?”

The cyan Pegasus nodded “Yeah, I was hoping to snag some stuff but I guess beggars can’t be choosers” She then walked to the commander and started searching his pockets “Just as I thought”

She looked over at the group “I know you got a lot of questions, but can they wait until after we stop my master from fleeing?”

Ebony nodded “If it means fighting more slavers you have some extra hooves to help”

Rainbow smiled “Not too often you see ponies willing to help out a Pegasus slave” She walked to Ebony “I’ll meet you guys in hightown as soon as you can. I promise I’ll come up with some way to repay you”

Ebony shook his head “You don’t need to pay me for simply keeping you safe…”

Rainbow shook her own head “I never leave anypony hanging”

___________________________________________________________

The mansion was large and empty. Ebony and the group entered the main foyer and Rainbow unfurled her wings and shouted “Alright Juthar! You’ve had your fun! Now come on out and face me!”

Silence greeted the party, and then Twilight looked over at Rarity “You feel it too?”

Rarity nodded “I sense magic in the air…shades!”

Everypony turned to see massive blobs form arms and heads as they came out of the walls. These were shades, lesser beings that mages could control through the forbidden power of Blood Magic. They were dangerous guardians hell bent on one thing…death.

Rainbow growled low and flew at the nearest shade. She swung her wings like a pair of knives at the creature, cutting fast and furious.

Ebony swung his blades at the larger shade causing the creature to scream in agony. Ebony felt magic flow into his blades and saw that Rarity had enhanced them again. The dark warrior let out a battle cry and swung his blades to decapitate the beast.

Applejack and Twilight were standing back to back as the shades drew closer. Applejack blocked the beast with her shield “Twilight now!”

Twilight ducked under the beast and fired a blast of magical energy with her horn. The beast literality exploded from being hit by so much magic. Applejack high hoofed Twilight for a job well done.

Pinkie was hanging from a nearby chandelier aiming down at the shades. She then felt something grab her shoulder. She turned and saw a shade growling low “What the heck is that!!” The shade turned to see what the strange pony saw. When he looked back all he could see was a small ticking present…Shades don’t talk but if this one could he would say “Damn it…”

The present exploded and the chandelier fell onto another shade. Rainbow and Ebony stood back to back “What are those wings made of?”

“Pure Lyrium” Rainbow said proudly “Capable of cutting through anything I swing it at!” She demonstrated this by slicing the throat of a shade. “You’re not too bad in a fight yourself sword guy”

“It’s Ebony! Why does everypony refuse to call me by that?!” The Dark warrior exacerbated before slicing the last shade open with his blades.

When it was over Rainbow flew around the house in search of her master. She came back to the group with her wings drooped “Gone…he’s not here…”

Twilight walked over to the Pegasus with a hoof raised “Sorry Rainbow we did-“suddenly Rainbow smacked Twilight’s hoof away.

“Don’t touch me! I know what you are! You’re a unicorn! I saw you perform magic!” She glared at Rarity “You too! I saw you guys shooting off magic in the fight!”

Twilight looked taken aback “That same magic saved your life Rainbow! I would think you would be grateful!”

“Grateful!? You think I’m grateful to be hanging around with the same kind of ponies who carved Lyrium into my wings?!” Her magenta eyes betrayed her fury “How do I know you won’t just become an abomination within the next two-“

“Rainbow that’s enough” Ebony said getting in between Twilight and the cyan Pegasus “I’m sorry but you can’t blame Twilight and Rarity for what happened to you…”

Rainbow was about ready to retort then she hung her head apologetically “Sorry…I just freaked out there…I didn’t mean to snap at you guys like that…”

Rarity looked about ready to snap as well but one look from Applejack calmed the mage down.

Ebony looked at Rainbow “Listen, I know it’s hard but you have to understand. Not all mages are like the ones in the Imperium. Some are good and kind ponies who just want to help the only way they know how”

Rainbow nodded “I’m sorry really I am. It’s just there’s always that risk of somepony falling prey to one demon or another. I just didn’t want to take that risk…” She walked past the dark warrior and held a hoof before Twilight “Will you accept my apology?”

Twilight looked at the hoof then smiled. “Alright Rainbow, I’m Twilight Sparkle by the way” She shook the Pegasus’ hoof.

Pinkie brought the two in a group hug “Now that we’re all friends let’s leave this creepy mansion!”

______________________________________________________________

“You want to what?” Ebony asked when the group finally left the mansion behind.

Rainbow repeated what she said “I wanna help you guys out; you could use a rogue to help out”

Rarity snorted “After your comments about mages? We outta cast you out in the streets!”

Applejack looked at Ebony “We could use her, she’s a great fighter and a flier is always a plus in my book”

Pinkie simply smiled “The more the merrier I say!”

Ebony looked around, the group was hinging on his decision again. Ebony walked to Rainbow and held out his hoof “You have to promise to not let your hatred get the best of you”

Rainbow smiled and shook the dark warrior’s hoof “I never leave anypony hanging”

Comments

[Roach of Wrath]

Wish you would bring spike along more often he's the story teller he can't tell a story if his not there.