Through a Mirror, Darkly

The convoy moved slowly through the Hayseed Swamps, the guards around it keeping a weather eye for any dangers that could lurk within the marshlands around them. It would be a shame to have come so far only to lose  what the had at the final hurdle.

At the head of the convoy sat Captain Har Dars finally relaxing after a month of wandering around Dragon and Diamond Dog territory, he glanced back at the four carts behind him, each filled to the brim with prizes of various natures, from gold to gems, precious ores and perhaps most importantly, slaves.

Only diamond dogs of course, the day a pony could command a dragon to do anything they wanted was the day that Tartarus would freeze over in the Captains opinion. As much as the Captain liked having diamond dogs to pull the carts for him it didn't half take effort to teach them not to try and burrow underground when they thought they had a chance of escape.

After lifting them out of said burrow, followed by a 'reminder' about the status quo the dog would be put back in front of the cart and the convoy would continue on. Not here though, even the dogs were smart enough not to go digging in the treacherous swamp. Their claws would do them no good versus a hydra, a beast the captain had been swift to remind them of.

Of course the odds on meeting a hydra were slim to none, after all if there was a high chance of it happening the captain would never take this route voluntarily. Not that he would ever tell the dirt mutts that of course.

The Captain smirked, the dogs should be pretty much lining up to get into Equestria, considering the sort of lives they lead. Quite literally under the feet of the dragons. Add to that what Equestria was offering, lovely accommodation and at least a meal a day if a lucky dog ended up in Vanhoover's famous national park.

The rest, well they would probably end up down the crystal mines under High peak, not so nice but at least they were adding to society, rather than living down some mud hole in the middle of the dragon lands. Where all they did was eat so they could dig and dig so they could eat, madness.

The captain was snapped from his daydreaming by a pegasus scout, "Sir, there's a crossroads ahead. There's a camp there, several carriages in all."

The captain was suddenly all business as he looked at the scout, "Affiliation?"

"Ponies."

The captain scowled at the guard, "I know that who else would be here? Are they nomads? Bandits? Guardsponies? What?"

The pegasus looked uncomfortable, "I'll go and check sir." He took wing once more, quickly vanishing down the road into the distance.

"Get ready colts, we could have possible hostiles ahead." The captain shouted as he pulled back on the reigns, slowing the caravan to a halt, "I want two units on either side of the road, one more ahead of the carts, and three behind them." As the guards moved to fill his demands the captain couldn't help but smile.

If he got a little extra today, well. He only had to hand over the stuff he had got in the dragon lands, 'other goods' would be a nice bonus to line his saddlebags with.

A few minutes after the guards took their positions the pegasus scout returned, saluting and giving his report to the captain, "Sir, the caravan seems to have apple clan markings, there are about twenty ponies grouped around various fires, an unknown number could be within the carriages themselves."

The captain nodded, "Good, lets do this by the book then." He signalled and the units on the side of the road began advancing into the trees, making their way towards the crossroads.

"Sir?" The captain looked at the now unnerved pegasus, "they're ponies."

The captain sighed and shook his head, he never liked dealing with ponies fresh out of boot camp, "No private, they're Apple Nomads, gypsies that are a strain on Equestria, they eat our food and drink our water." He looked back down the road as the unit in front of him started advancing in measured steps, "Besides, these are obviously bandits posing as Apple Nomads, killing them will be doing Equestria a favour, and we'll also be able to retrieve the goods they've stolen from honest working ponies."

"Shouldn't we check? I mean, I think I did see foals."

Again the captain shook his head, "An obvious ruse, trust me private, we march past and they'll jump us, kill us, and sell everything that we have worked so hard to gather. This is a pre-emptive strike, kill them, before they kill us."

"But what if they're really Apple Nomads?"

What happened next caused the righteous, heroic image the young colt had about the guard to shatter mercilessly, and forever be replaced with the cold gaze of his captain as he casually said, "Oops."

The captain looked at the camp, the scout was right around fires he could see a number of ponies wrapped against the cold, no weapons were in evidence and on each cart was emblazoned the symbol of a single red apple. "Move in." He muttered to the nearest guard who signalled to the rest of his comrades.

A murderous tide of steel descended into the camp on three sides as the guardsponies stormed in cutting, down the figures around the fires without pause. The brutal assault was over in mere moments as the last of the figures surrounding the fires toppled.

One of the guards looked at the victims, "Sir? You might want to see this."

The captain sighed and walked into the camp, if he got his hooves dirty because some bleeding heart wasn't okay with a little pest control....

As he approached the guard and the figure he stood near he finally noticed the problem. 'That isn't a pony.' he thought as he inspected the thoroughly impaled ponyikin, 'we've been had...' even as he thought it, a large rock breached the canopy above, crushing a number of guards as it impacted the road below with a dull boom.

'What the fu-' was all the guard captain managed to think as another dull boom echoed in the distance, before the captain could even complete his thought he felt himself being lifted off his hooves by a large steel fibre net that had come out of nowhere. As it carried him off down the road before landing with a crash of metal the remaining guards fell into disarray.

One guard however saw their opportunity and acted, swinging their spear into one of the nearby fellow guardsponies, cutting him down in one stroke, not even flinching as warm blood splashed onto her muzzle the guard grinned maniacally.

This action caused the nearby guards to stare at their comrade, as if waiting for their lack of attention another rock crashed though the canopy, crushing them where they stood. The traitor guard turned to the remainder and smiled like a wolf, "You may want to surrender now."

The guards paused, waiting for orders that would never come, more rustling in the canopy preceded the heavy presence of another rock descending amongst the panicked and confused company, killing several more guards as it smashed into the ground.

The traitor guard swiftly cut down several more guardsponies compounding the chaos even further. If a guard looked up to see if a boulder would bludgeon them the traitor would run them through the throat with her spear, if they kept an eye on the traitor they would be pulverised by the rocks that rained down from the canopy every couple of seconds.

A few unicorns among the guards attempted to form a shield over the company but found their efforts were negated each time by several powerful impacts, each accompanied by a dull boom that sounded like thunder, shattering the shield as it formed.

Very quickly the guards threw down their weapons in the face of their hopeless situation surrendering to an enemy they couldn't even see.

"You cowards! It's only one pony! Kill her!" the captain shouted from the net he was ensnared in, he continued shouting words to that effect until he was silenced by a dark hoof descending and crashing into the road surface, mere centimetres from his face.

"Actually I think you'll find there are a few more ponies than just her, you fucking scum." The black clad pony told him gently, as she walked past, "Good job Turncoat, go get cleaned up, Circe and Opalescence will take care of the hostages."

The traitor pony, Turncoat, walked out the mass of remaining guardsponies nodding to her black clad compatriot and walking past two more who had emerged from the side of the road to join her, "I'll go with Thunderhead and Buttercup and see what they were carrying shall I Hurricane?" her question was answered with a nod from her leader, she waved a hoof at a shadow in the canopy which raced off down the road in response.

As Turncoat walked away she looked back and smirked as a twin aura of lavender and light blue wrapped around the living guards, holding them for the foreseeable future. 'So this is what a good plan feels like. Okay Fluttershy, you've convinced me, we play your way.'

Fluttershy turned away from Twilight and Rarity who were putting the finishing touches on the guard's multi-hewed prison and walked over to where the captain was still struggling with the heavy net, his chest heaving from trying to lift the thing which was far heavier than any net had right to be.

"I wouldn't bother, it's imbued with a gravity spell." She told the struggling captain as she removed a horn ring from her saddlebag, the captain saw what she intended to do and struggled violently, trying to cast a spell he felt the nets weight on him increase until it was almost impossible to breath, "Did I mention it absorbs magic? Might want to stop doing that." admonished Fluttershy as she stood on his face, pinning it to the floor and allowing her to slip the ring on with little effort.

"Who are you?" The captain asked, gulping down air as the pressure on his chest eased off.

"I'm Hurricane, the leader of M.A.R.E." The mare smiled at him with all the sweetness of a hungry hydra "and I need you to deliver a message for me."