Band of Five Attributes (Re-Written)

Spitfire trotted down the hall, eyelids slanted and a frown adorning her face. Her ears were flat on her skull, and so were those of two ponies clad in striking blue and yellow jumpsuits that followed her. She stopped before a door, turning her body to enter the room beyond as she opened said door. On one bed, the two ponies she escorted here were sound asleep and apparently locked in an embrace of forelegs. Apart from that and a slight musky smell, the room looked as though it was not disturbed at all.

The mare groaned and trotted to the two ponies who shared one bed. Their eyes were closed, and they looked like they were at peace as they dozed. Spitfire placed a hoof on Yuuki’s shoulder and started shaking her, hoping to arouse her from sleep. All the purple pegasus did, though, was shift a bit and mumble in her sleep. Spitfire shook her again, this time more vigorously. The purple mare shifted again, though she didn’t mumble this time.

Spitfire groaned in annoyance, moving her hoof to shake Nagare. He basically yielded the same result. The mare turned to the pegasi who had accompanied her down the hall. “Bring me a bucket.” She said. One of the ponies in jumpsuits nodded, and trotted away posthaste.

The other stayed put. “Did they…?” He started, only to fall silent.

“Probably. Just look at them, they’re both happy campers. Heck, I never expected to walk in with them like this.” Spitfire replied, noticing that the two snoozing ponies shuddered a bit and let their wings flutter like those of birds in a bath. She saw the second pegasus trot in, holding a bucket in his mouth by the handle. But the odd thing about this one was it had a pony’s face, and all four limbs, the upper ones poised on the sides of the rounded mass and awkwardly crossed before it.

“And why did you bring this one, exactly?” Spitfire asked, eyes widening as she stared at the bucket, who mumbled and grumbled to itself incoherently.

“It was the only one the closet had.” The pony answered, handing Spitfire the bucket. She trotted into the bathroom and turned on the tub’s faucet. Water was pouring out, ice cold at first, before producing steam that was the tell-tale trademark of heated liquid. She put the bucket under the flow of liquid, and only then did it start to protest.

“HEY! What do you think yer doing!? I don’t like being filled up like this!” The bucket shrieked, its voice distinctly masculine. It began flailing its meager limbs frantically, but to no avail.

Spitfire rolled her eyes and groaned again, waiting until the bucket was three-quarters full of piping hot water. She turned the faucet off, and carefully made her way back to the dozing duo. She stood on her hind legs, holding the frowning and grouchy bucket in her front hooves, poising his frame above the two and slowly tipping said frame forward.

And then she let the water crash onto the two, soaking them thoroughly and giving them a nice jolt temperature-wise.

“WHAT THE?!” Nagare nearly shrieked, eyes wide as he sat up in the bed. His wings spread wide from shock alone, and then he saw Spitfire as she returned to all fours and placed the bucket on her backside.

Yuuki yelped, and tumbled clumsily out of the bed. Spitfire back away quickly, watching as the mare quickly shook her head free of the water. “For a moment, I thought hell froze over.” She remarked, standing up on all fours.

“This could’ve gone better.” Spitfire mumbled, shaking her head sadly. The bucket on her backside continued to grumble to itself, but she paid it no heed at the moment. She watched as the stallion clambered out of the bed looking like a soaked wreck. “You two take a quick bath and meet me outside the academy.” She said before trotting out in short order.

The two ponies looked at one another before obliging by the request. The bath didn’t last long, no more than fifteen minutes for either, since they quickly washed themselves with quick but thorough movements. Drying themselves with the towel and putting weapons on hoof and midsection via saddlebag didn’t last long either. Both ponies then rushed out the room, down the hall and down another after taking a sharp left.

A sharp right in short order brought them to doors that led to the outermost part of the campus, and thus, the rest of Cloudsdale. There in the nearby street stood Spitfire, whom both ponies noticed was facing to their right as if a statue. They trotted to her and turned their heads to where she was staring at, only to be rendered speechless at the sight the world had to throw at them.

There were many lightposts lining both sides of the street. They could’ve easily passed off as such had visible hind legs and forelegs poised like a dog begging for food not been present. They also had frail wings, sickly thin as the legs themselves, folded against their metallic bodies. Heads hung at an angle, ears poking out the top and the faces aligned to stare at the cloudcrete.

“Lightpost...pegasus ponies? Really?” Nagare asked at last, his eyes narrowing as he stared at the sight.

“Who created these...and the bucket on my back...exactly?” Spitfire asked, a brow arched. She scratched her head with a hoof.

“Something’s up. These weren’t here last night.” Yuuki pointed out, stretching her wings briefly as she sighed.

“No shit.” Nagare replied, a frown on his face. “I think the Quartet’s up to something again.”

“Who?” Spitfire asked, glancing at the stallion. Her brow was still arched.

“It’s a long story. But we have to deal with the lightposts first.” Nagare replied, spreading his wings and flapping them to get himself a few inches off of the street. Yuuki did the same, and both flew at a rather slow speed towards the lightposts. They flew to one, and Nagare tapped it on the head lightly with a hoof.

The lightpost moved, raising its head to direct its face at the stallion who disturbed it. It roared, flaring thin wings wide and taking to the air with surprisingly little effort. The other lightposts followed suit, and even more flew in, thus creating a swarm of metal. Spitfire’s eyes widened further as the lightposts roared in unison and viciously attacked the ponies who disturbed them, forcing them to fight with their weapons. From the looks of it, though, the battle was in favor of the swarming lightposts.

One lightpost had the yoyo coiled around its neck, but it also had the owner of said yoyo pinned to the cloudcrete. Yuuki kicked wildly and flapped her wings rapidly, trying to lodge herself free from the iron hooves that had her back to the street, but to no avail. Nagare was being overwhelmed, dodging like there was no tomorrow and occasionally slashing at his enemies with little success. The lightposts were much too quick for him, their speed akin to annoying insects.

Eventually, one lightpost knocked the pegasus onto the cloudcrete and held him there with all its might. The other lightposts still flew in the air, circling their companions who had the ponies pinned and struggling. Neither of the two could free themselves, and the lightposts moved their front legs to their throats and began applying pressure.

“Stop, in the name of Celestia!” A myriad of voices cried, all masculine and sounding much the same in tone. All at once, the lightposts that still flitted about like mosquitoes on a hot summer day stopped in the air before landing. The two that hat Yuuki and Nagare pinned down rose their heads, hooves still pinned on the throats of the ponies they held.

For an uncomfortable moment, all was silent. Even Spitfire, who still stood watching the sight of the lightposts, and the bucket on her back, made not a sound. And then, the source of the chorus made itself known: around two dozen or so white pegasus ponies, clad in gold armor and donning spears and swords, charging head on at the crowd of lightposts and flapping their wings nonstop.

The lightposts roared in unison, flapping their own wings and flying towards the royal guards. Even the two who had Nagare and Yuuki pinned flew towards the armored ponies, leaving the two pegasi struggling to get onto their hooves. Both had faces on the brink of turning blue from a lack of oxygen, and they coughed and gasped for air frantically. Eventually, both were standing but still gasping for breath lightly.

Yuuki looked at her forelegs, then back to the swarm of lightposts, then back to her forelegs. “Oh great, one of the pricks hijacked my yoyo!” She cried, eyes wide as she then glanced back at the swarm who duked it out with the royal guards. The mare flapped her wings, readying herself to fly right into the battle and take back what was hers. She took off, Nagare following close behind with his sword at the ready.

The lightposts, for some reason, went for defensive tactics, blocking the spears and swords wielded by the armored ponies with the backs of their heads. This made it difficult to detect exactly which one in question had the yoyo, and with the blades flying about as they hit the posts, the task was even more irksome.

Then one of the guards that donned a spear lead the the culprit away from the back, but he didn’t do much considering he was still being blocked by a metallic head. The yoyo swung to and fro, as if threatening to drop to the earth below. Quickly, Yuuki flew in and took back her weapon, receiving a cut across her chest from the spear as it was deflected with a metal head in the process. She moved out of the battle immediately, being thankful that the cut wasn’t more than three inches deep at worst.

“They seem to be handling these things pretty well. We kinda needed the backup.” Nagare remarked, flying just out of the margins of the fight. Yuuki suddenly flew next to him, blood trickling out of her wound. He turned to her, eyes narrowing in annoyance. “Why’d you do that?! You could’ve been impaled!”

“I know that, but I didn’t want to get chewed out by Kaguya!” Yuuki protested, a vein appearing on her cheek. “You remember when Tenmei lost his crossbow that one time? How he nearly had his head ripped off??”

“On second thought, you do have a point. I’d rather not trigger that pissy wrath myself.” The stallion agreed, glancing back at the battle between flying guards and lightposts. It seemed that the lightposts were now on the losing end of the battle as guards either made lucky slashes with their weapons or took the far simpler approach of whirling behind the posts and taking them out individually. They plummeted to the ground, but not for long, before vanishing altogether.

The two stray pegasi moved away from the battle altogether, landing back in the streets of Cloudsdale. They turned around and watched as more and more lightposts were felled and winked out of existence. Eventually, the last one dropped, and the guards flew above the city for a few moments before landing in the street.

The exact same one Yuuki and Nagare had watched them from.