Invincible

Her head bobbed in rhythm with her humming, as Applejack began to set up her apple stand with Big Macintosh and Apple Bloom's help. Granny Smith was too busy tending to making more Apple Pie's for tomorrow to be there at the moment. She began to wag her tail in tune as she started humming along with Apple Bloom.

Little Apple Bloom did her best to set the smaller basket of apples on top of her head. After a good solid two minutes of balancing, Apple Bloom was too excited to have noticed Nimbus right behind her when she turned around, bumped into him, and spilled all the apples around him and herself.

"Oops, sorry, mister." Apple Bloom apologized sweetly.

Hearing the apples spill, Applejack spun around and saw a dehydrated blue Pegasus who she had easily mistaken for Rainbow Dash when she saw him standing beside Pinkie Pie. "What in tarnation? Pinkie Pie, who in the hay is that?" Her hoof was rudely pointed at Nimbus pretty aggressively by accident. She was just surprised to have Pinkie Pie bringing a stranger so early to her cart.

"Oh!" Pinkie Pie was excited to finally do some introductions this morning. "Applejack, this is Nimbus."

Nimbus greeted Applejack with an ugly grunt. His throat was absolutely begging for him to drink some water before trying to talk again.

Continuing the introductions,"Nimbus, this is Applejack. She sells the best apples in all of Equestria!"

Applejack greeted Nimbus back with a grunt of her own, tipping her hat.

Getting the nasty impression from Applejack, Nimbus grunted in disapproval and instead guided his attention to Big Mac. He lifted his head towards him and introduced himself again with a grunt.

Big Mac nodded and gave a heavy "Eeyup." His deep voice and Nimbus' heavy grunting sounded like two humpback whales holding a conversation.

Nimbus smiled and grunted with happiness, wagging his tail. He gestured his head to the mug of water behind the giant red tank pony. Big Mac turned his head and questioned Nimbus looking at the water, "Hmm?"

Nimbus hummed a begging whine for some water.

Understanding the obvious signal, Big Mac approved, "Eeyup", and took a step back away from the water, giving Nimbus room to walk up and take it.

A huge smile was drawn across Nimbus' face and he charged for the mug like a predator taking it's prey. Big Mac watched with a disgusted look on his face as Nimbus grossly chugged the water. He shook his head with a "Nope" and turned away from the awful sight.

The mug was dried out in mere seconds before Nimbus gave a refreshing "Ahhh" and smacked his lips. "Way better."

Once Bic Mac started getting back to the set up, Apple Jack asked him, "Big Mac, can you get this by yourself?"

"Eeyup."

She turned around to see Nimbus licking the inside of the water mug to get what last bits he could out of it. She looked at Pinkie Pie with a curious look. "Well, he's quite the character. Who's he again?"

Pinkie Pie pointed at Nimbus friendlier than Applejack did earlier. "Nimbus" Nimbus' head picked up at the mention of his name. "He's one of Rainbow Dash's oldest friends from what he told me. He's known her almost as long as Fluttershy has."

"That's Nimbus?" Applejack looked hard at him.

Nimbus waved at her awkwardly. "Hey...how's it going?" The situation didn't exactly change when Applejack just kept staring at him. He flapped his wings closely to his side in a strange matter, as if he were trying to shoo away the awkward tension around him. "I-I uhh I can talk now."

Applejack tipped her hat back. "Ah can see that." She went back to Pinkie Pie and said, "He's sillier than ah imagined him to be."

"But he matches the description Rainbow Dash gave us." Pinkie Pie admitted. Her tail whipped behind her happily. "OH! And apparently Nimbus was looking for you anyways."

"Me?" Applejack repeated, looking over Pinkie Pie to see Nimbus helping Apple Bloom pick up and reorganize the basket she had spilled. She hadn't expected that out of somepony Rainbow Dash was friends with in the past, except for Fluttershy. Usually they shared her same ego filled personality, but only with the lack of respect, loyalty, and kindness. Going back to Pinkie Pie, putting Nimbus on a higher pedastool than her first impression of him, she asked, "What did he need me for?"

Answering for Pinkie Pie but keeping his eyes on the task he assigned himself, Nimbus replied, "You had talked to my friend, Nora, and she told me that - there's an apple behind you to your left" Nimbus pointed to the apple behind Apple Bloom with his wing. "She told me that you had found out somepony had planted some pest in your farm." He got up and held his wing out for Apple Bloom to set the basket on.

"Ah'll tell you first that I didn't talk to her directly, but yeah!" Applejack leaned on her left onto the now empty wagon. Her voice was now holding a hint of poison in it. "Somepony did put a bunch o' parasprites in mah farm. It had a timer and ereeything."

After Apple Bloom set the basket gently on his wing, Nimbus held it up to the height of his shoulders. "Had any shady characters come by past your farm before or after that?" It was probably more than likely that The Apple Family Farm was being hunted by shark loaners, but he had to make sure and who.

"Now that you mention it, yeah, there were these fancy smancy dressed stallions in pin stripes who came by exactly the day before we found out. They said they would offer us protection if we hoofed them over some bits. Ah told them no, repeatedly, until they marched off angrily. You reckon it was them?"

"Without a doubt. I think I might even know who it was." Nimbus looked down and off into space as he went deep into thought. What would Said-So want with such a large farm? He only deals in sharking small businesses and stealing old relics. He then remembered the other apple pony he helped awhile back. Though, he and his crew did have her hostage and asking a lot of questions. What does he want with this family? They're apple farmers, successful ones, really successful, but why them? What do they have?

He scratched his chin with his free wing and asked Apple Jack, "Do you happen to have some old family trinket that could be worth anything, do you?"

Nimbus then felt a quick breeze past his neck and below his chin as the weight of the basket left his wing. "Hey!" Apple Bloom yelled, making Nimbus turn his head towards her. Apple Bloom ran away from him a short distance and continued to yell. "Our apples, they're stealing our apples!"

Nimbus looked past Apple Bloom to see that she was running in the direction of the thief who stole her basket. Applejack chased after her sister with all her speed. "Apple Bloom get back here! You too, thief!"

The thief turned and made a smile that Nimbus found to be possibly the whitest smile for a criminal he'd ever seen. The thief flashed into a bright blue light before reappearing on a roof above her. "Ha! Come at me, bro." She said, taking the time to taunt Applejack with her tongue out.

Nimbus' unopened wing flung out like a switchblade as he ran towards the thief unicorn before taking lift off. He made his body narrow and straight to cut through the wind quicker.

"Oh, shit! He's coming at me!"The unicorn dropped the basket off her hoof and into the grasp of another unicorn's magical grasp down below her.

The unicorn below shouted to the one on the roof. "Initiate "The feline pursuit"." The unicorn up top nodded before running and jumping onto another roof.

Nimbus groaned as he chose to let the roof top running unicorn get away and chased after the second one instead. He landed hard on his hooves as he started to give chase to the unicorn on hoof instead. The second was surely going to run in between the buildings to get away. They figured Nimbus couldn't fly at him fast enough between that narrow passage without crashing into something.

The second unicorn smiled and commented on Nimbus before running away from him. "Impressive for a pegasus." It wasn't everyday that somepony saw a pegasus run instead of fly in a chase. Fortunately for the thief, it told him that Nimbus was from around here to have known how narrow the paths were between the buildings.

The second unicorn ran impressively backwards as he drew what Nimbus thought was a plain sword at first sight from behind his shoulders. When the unicorn pulled a firing hammer from behind the hilt of the sword, Nimbus realized this was a combination pistol sword. He had tricked Nimbus to follow him into a long narrow path with an overhead. Aiming at Nimbus was hardly even called a task. He winked at Nimbus and pulled the trigger.

Without so much as breaking a sweat, Nimbus saw the bullet coming and Aim Dodged it with a tilt of his head away from danger. He smiled and winked back at the backwards running unicorn.

The thief grunted and fired several more even wilder shots at Nimbus, all missing their target with one going way above Nimbus' head. He clicked the gun three more times to confirm it was empty to himself and Nimbus. The unicorn skidded to a stop on his hind legs and held the tip out towards Nimbus to keep him at a distance. "Hmm, most impressive."

"Can't say the same about you. You're kind of dumb for a unicorn." Nimbus teased, swatting at the sword with his wing to tempt the unicorn to go for a stab and miss.

"A unicorn always has a plan. Did you already forget about my friend from earlier?"

Nimbus' smile faded as he slouched his shoulders and groaned, "Awwww."

He turned around to see the first unicorn throw a punch at his face. With a smack, he fell to the ground like a spread eagle.

The male unicorn nodded at the female. "One punch, not bad,"

The female began to gloat and sat down on her hind legs as she grabbed her flexing bicep and squeezed it. "Well, I have been training at the gym a bit more." During that distraction, Nimbus got back up, tackled the female, and rolled on top of her before pinning her shoulders down.

In a mocking tone, Nimbus remarked, "You might want to keep going back."

The female unicorn went "Whoa" before purposely blinking quickly at Nimbus. "Wow, you are really easy on the eyes."

The comment threw Nimbus off a bit but not enough to take the unicorn behind him out of his peripheral in case he finally decided to take a stab at him with his back turned. "Huh?" Of all time and places to get a compliment, and who to get it from, why did it have be here, now and a criminal?

The female gently pushed Nimbus' head out of her way to address her colleague. "Run along without me, Strings, I'm being held in custody."

She turned Nimbus' head roughly back in front of her and asked, "Now where were we?" as she started to run her hoof up his golden mane.

What the hell is going on? Am I in some messed up porno? Nimbus picked his head up and away from the unnamed mare. "Lady, I don't know who you are"

"Evoleht" she whispered in Nimbus' ear after pulling on his mane and whispering seductively into his ear.

Strings rolled his eyes and dropped the basket he stole behind himself. "Alright, get off my sister before I reload my sword."

Nimbus jumped up and behind Strings, kicking the basket between his legs before it could get stolen back. I-is this a prank or something? He watched as Strings picked up his sister to her hooves. This has to be the strangest (and most arousing) chase I ever done, Nimbus admitted to himself before slightly tucking his tail between his legs.

Evoleht swiped her brother's hoof away from her once she was on all fours. "Lacey Strings, do you have to screw up everything?"

Nimbus stifled a laugh. His name is Lacey Strings? Peering around to see what his cutie mark was, Nimbus saw that Lacey Strings had a pair of shoes upside down with a hammer above them as a cutie mark. Celestia's sweet shining ass, he's a cobbler.

"Me?! You just mentioned our real names." Lacey Strings holstered his sword back behind his shoulder.

Nimbus looked down at the apple basket behind himself. He titled it back and forth like a baby inside a crib. I should probably get this back to Applejack before these two decide they want them again.

"Well, duh!" Evoleht tapped Lacey Strings on his head. "I'm trying to get laid over here."

But I can stick around for a little bit longer. Nimbus' tail wagged behind him as he cautiously kicked the basket behind him, careful to not spill any.

Strings neighed in disappointment. "He's probably not even into you."

Pushing her brother away, Evoleht stepped slowly towards Nimbus in a very temptress fashion. "I can fix that fact easily."

Not even all the power of Celestia could stop Nimbus' tail from wagging at this moment. I am so glad I came outside today. What happened next couldn't have any proper warning on it. Before his very eyes, Evoleht went from a white unicorn with green eyes and blue mane to a pegasus of the same features. Nimbus slapped himself to make sure he wasn't seeing things. This mare was another changeling! Okay, I'm scared again.

"Evoleht!" Strings shouted and cutting a wound through the air as he drew his sword back out. "What are you doing?!"

Seriously, how many of these damn things live among us?

Evoleht pouted and stomped all her hooves around in a circle like a child in a store who wasn't getting a toy that day. "Will you shut up?" Her hoof changed in a flash into a bears arm, swiping at her brother's head. "You never let me have anything."

Scooting back a bit, Nimbus brought up his wings and pointed behind him. "I can go." In the same way she changed her hoof into a bear claw, Evoleht's tail flashed and grew longer, wrapping around Nimbus' neck and pulling him back to her with the tip of her tail over his lips, hushing him.

"No. You. Stay."

Nimbus nodded repeatedly.

"Thieves!"

"Eeyup!"

All three ponies turned to see the Applejack and Big Mac running at them with fury in their eyes. "Nimbus, pin them down!" Applejack ordered.

Evoleht went back to a normal pegasus form after using her tail to place Nimbus over top of her again. "Well, who's going to argue with that?" She grabbed Nimbus' hooves and placed them back on her shoulders. "Oh my, lookie where we are again." She lowered Nimbus' head and licked the inside of his ear before throwing him back up and yelling. "Oh no, brother, he's got me. Save yourself." On a side note, Nimbus admitted to himself that she was a better actress than Evening, though not by much.

Big Mac and Nimbus both looked at one another before Big Mac shared the smile Nimbus was hiding on the inside and gave him an approving "Eeyup!"

Nimbus giggled to himself. Is this what they mean by sexually confused? Cause I have so many emotions going through my body right now.

Even if he tried to, Strings wouldn't have gotten too far away from the three of them before coming back for Evoleht. He huffed and threw his sword back into his hostler. "Okay." He nodded and started to shove Nimbus off of Evoleht. "You got us. You got your apples. Just let us go."

Evoleht kicked her brother out of the way and brought Nimbus back on top of her. "Ten more minutes."

"What in tarnation is going in around here?" Applejack took off her hat and stretched her neck out.

"Applejack, this is not what it looks like. I"m actually innocent here." Nimbus confessed.

"Eeyup." Big Mac agreed, nodding to his sister.

Applejack shook her head. "Not that." She pointed her hat past Nimbus. "That."

Behind them, a hulking pony was standing behind Nimbus with a face not even a mother could love. "Ma'am, I think these are yours." The hulk threw the basket of apples Applejack and Big Mac had ran all the way out here for. Big Mac snatched the basket with his teeth better than any trained dog could so calmly.

"Uhh, thanks?" The hulking pony still posed to be a pretty intimidating sight, despite his kind gesture. The ponies who walked out from behind him didn't help his case or seem any better than he was.

The hulk of a pony grabbed Nimbus by his tail and dragged him back. "But this is ours."

"You let him go, ya hear?" Applejack threatened, placing her hat back over her head. "Ya'll don't want to know what happens when ya hurt a friend of the Apple Family, do ya?"

Big Mac, with the basket still between his teeth, bellowed a deep, "Nope!"

If Nimbus' tail wasn't currently being held at this very moment, it would have been wagging. Gasp! We're friends already?! ...why did I think the word "gasp"? Nimbus, still having his tail tugged on, stood up on all fours. "Applejack, go back to your little sister. She's going to need you two more than I am."

"Ya sure about that, pardner?"

"Yeah." Nimbus nodded. I think.

Applejack gestured to Big Mac. "Come on. He'll be okay."

Under his breath, worried for his new friend, Big Mac knew in his heart the true answer. "Nope." He still respected Nimbus' request though and left him to deal with this how he wanted it.

Following behind them, Lacey Strings and Evoleht were only a few seconds behind them. "Hey, don't forget about us!"

"Ya'll stole from me!"

"Meh, that was the past." Evoleht snapped her hoof innocently at Applejack. "You can trust us now."

"And weren't ya unicorn?"

"...no, that was another thief."

Nimbus felt lighter now that Applejack and Big Mac were out of harm's way. The hulk pony picked him up and held up to his giant stone face. Poor Nimbus swung back and forth like a lonely ornament on a Christmas tree. "So who are you guys, Trotting Talon?"

The hulk negatively shook his head with a grunt. "Try again, bird brain, or instead." He twisted Nimbus around to his back so he could see who all was with him. Every single pony here was strangely unique in their own way. The first one that caught Nimbus' attention was the one in the mask which he recognized from last night. Loony Bin's crooked teeth were hidden behind his mask as he smiled at Nimbus.

"My boy, long time no see."

Nimbus looked at the sun's position, which still could be seen through the cloth overhead above all of them. "It's only been a few hours."

Loon Bin nudged Evening Primrose, who Nimbus had just now noticed. "Look at him." Loony said, swinging Nimbus back and forth with a poke to his chest. "Even on the brink of danger, his sense of humor doesn't go away."

Nimbus looked at Evening Primrose's unicorn disguise and was surprised to see her wielding a sledge hammer aimed for his ribs. "Octave" He referred to her by her new name because he wanted to believe that she was somehow still innocent in all of this. What other reason would she have to betray him? "What are you doing?"

A large swing went for Nimbus' ribs as a response. He groaned and went to grab his ribs but it hurt even worse to try sitting up while hanging upside down. Another thundering strike went for the same side, this time actually cracking one of his ribs. The pain only intensified when Nimbus was dropped by the hulk pony.

The hulk pony walked around to Nimbus' front and pressed a heavy hoof on his head. He turned to the others and asked, "How long do you think it will take for me to stand on his head before it smashes like sparrow's egg underneath Pebble Stone's hoof."

His name is Pebble? Nimbus couldn't help but laugh at the irony. What is he a rock farmer?  Ha ha...ha, actually that would explain a lot.

Alloy, the steel coated unicorn was revolving three steel marbles around himself like planets around the sun. "He seems pretty tough, put on those boots you have, they'll crush him much faster."

Lifting his hoof up off Nimbus' head, Pebble flicked both his wrist, making a snapping sound to turn the metal bracers he had on into a matching set of full metal boots.

Dude, I want those.

Pebble placed his hoof back on Nimbus' head and began rubbing his metal boots across it. The rough metal underneath tugged and pulled on his hair's with each stroke, making Nimbus squirm a little.

Not on my head though.

One of the others stepped up and his shadow grabbed Pebble's to pull him physically off of Nimbus. "Said-So said he wanted him for himself. You know what happened last time." The shadow pony's shadow pointed behind him and to an Earth pony armed with a pair of knives on the sides of his wrist and a blow dart strapped to his side. He's most noticeable feature was the one eye he was missing.

"Yeah, and I'm a little sensitive about it." The ninja looking pony held up his right front leg and propped the knife to extend past his hoof. "Don't make me do the same thing to you, Vodun."

"Do you just want to reveal all of our names, Sanguine? I thought you ninjas were supposed to be discreet." Vodun bullied, his shadow pushed Sanguine's, shoving him back a few inches.

"He already knows more than half of us." Toledo said, coming out from the back. His sword trailed behind him like a fan colt.

Nimbus struggled to calm down as Pebble continued to slowly rub and pull the hairs on his head. "What does Said-So want with the apple family?"

Every single pony looked to Loony for an answer. His voice echoed with bass underneath his mask. "If you've been following my brother for as long he said you have, then you must know how fond he is of his relics." Loony Bin used to magic to ease Pebble's heavy body off of Nimbus. "The old coot who lives there is said to have been around during the time of The Fellowship Wands."

"Then why is he planting parasprites in her home?"

"My brother already tried politely asking her what she knew about them, but she insisted on staying quiet. He believes a few pest eating several hundred of her apples might help her jog her memory."

"And why not make some an annual salary off of them while were at it?" Evening Primrose added to Loony's answer.

"That's how they make a living! They need them to feed their family and others."

"And Said-So needs the wands to defeat and stop the return of Nightmare Moon." Alloy manipulated and shaped one of his steel marbles into an accurate replica of Nightmare Moon while expanding one of his other marbles to represent the moon behind her.

"What? She was banished to the moon a long time ago."

Toledo stabbed his sword into the ground a few inches away from Nimbus' muzzle. "Her return will be inevitable in about three months. So the clock is ticking."

"You're not going to hurt them." Nimbus slid out from beneath Pebble before he could place his hoof back on his head again. Standing wasn't too much of a problem. In all honesty, his ribs were cracked but not broken. He'd just have to be careful about letting them attack that side or extending too far with a punch.

Before he could get into a fighting position, Nimbus was grabbed by Loony Bin's magic and held up in the air like a statue being lifted by a crane. Loony Bin pulled him closer to face him. Once Nimbus got close enough, he tightened his muscles and twisted his own body with a hard jerk to release himself from Loony's hold. Everypony's eyes were wide with surprise that Nimbus was able to get out of the telekenesis. He laughed after landing on all four's. "It pays off to know two unicorn nerds who do nothing but study magic. Kinda rubs off on you."

This time Alloy threw a marble at Nimbus which he easily dodged out of the way of. "That wasn't even the speed of a bullet. You gotta do better than that."

Alloy gestured behind Nimbus with a nod of his horn. Nimbus turned around to notice that Alloy had expanded that one marble into an odd shaped almost horseshoe like object that was perfect for holding him down by his wings. He fell again and actually couldn't move around as easily as he could when Pebble was standing on him. He tried to twitch and twist his body around, but Alloy just kept moving the object around to keep Nimbus in place. One of the steel marbles revolved around his head slowly, passing past his eyes every few seconds, while Alloy's last marble revolved around himself.

Alloy kept his distance from Nimbus while most everypony else made a small school circle around Nimbus, leaving a gap large enough for Alloy to see him. "You're full of a bit more surprises than we credited you for. I don't know too many other non-magical individuals who can break out of magic like that, except for Ursa Minors and Majors of course, but that's self explanatory.

Pebble leaned over casually to Sanguine and asked him, "Why's that?"

Without taking his eyes off Nimbus, Sanguine answered, "You seen how big those things are? It takes an insane amount of magic to even lift a baby." He drew his sword out that nopony even noticed he had on him until now. "There's an old art with the sword that's been long forgotten." He aimed his sword up and let the shiny blade glisten, despite the lack of sunlight in the alley. "A true master could make one hundred cuts to a hostage's body without hitting anything vital or killing him. When Sanguine's sword appeared to have teleported over his head still held in his hoof, a delayed sound was heard imideately afterwards, along with a long cut across Nimbus' face that barely broke the skin.

Sanguine brought the tip of the sword to Nimbus' muzzle to began to drill the blade into it. "You claim to be the fastest Pegasus in Equestria, but how will you fare against the fastest ninja in all of the world?!" Sanguine's glowed red as he began to manically laugh to himself and ego.

Even though a sword was nearly puncturing his nose, Nimbus brought up a tip of his wing that was free and make the same gesture a teacher would make when teaching a new subject. "Uhhh about that whole fastest Pegasus thing."Sanguine's laughed stopped immediately but his eyes remained red and locked on Nimbus. Swallowing air, Nimbus continued to explain. "I know about seven, at least, other Pegasai that are way faster than I am. Number one, there's Spitfire from the Wonderbolts. Actually, if you want to get real technical, the entire Wonderbolts team is faster than I am, except for Soarin on a bad day.

The corners of Sanguine's psychotic smile slowly progressed into a frown throughout Nimbus' rant.

"I also remember hearing about some other pony who said she could make lighting eat her dust." Nimbus' eyes widened when he next said, "Ahh, and there was that one pony in my class that holds the record of all time in our school. She even performed a Sonic Rainboom!" Nimbus licked the bottom of his lips as he tried to remember the mare's name. "What was her name? It's on the tip of my tongue."

Evening Primrose peered at Nimbus curiously. "Didn't you say that was your friend, Rainbow Dash?"

After the signal was given, Rainbow Dash broke through the group and flew in between all of their hooves, tripping every single one. She looked as to why Nimbus wasn't moving and yelled at him. "Run, dumbass!"

"I can't, I'm stuck, you horses ass! Don't you think I would have tried that already?"

Rainbow Dash groaned and sprinted to Nimbus' aid. She slipped her wings underneath the weight of the odd horse shoe on top of Nimbus. Nimbus looked at her and asked, "Why did you wait up there for so long? Didn't you see I was in trouble?"

"You're always in trouble." Rainbow Dash argued. Veins popped up from her neck as she tried to lift the heavy object off of Nimbus. "I'm going to need your help. When I say three, lift."

"Okay." Nimbus nodded.

"GO!" Rainbow Dash strained and pushed her face against the heavy object as she tried with all her might to lift it. "Are you even trying?"

"...no."

She yanked her wings from underneath and slapped Nimbus across the face with both simultaneously on opposite sides. "Why not?"

"You said on three!"

"I said three!"

"No, bitch, you said 'Go'." Nimbus hollered at Rainbow Dash. Looking behind her, he could see that Pebble was getting up first before everypony else. He pointed behind Rainbow Dash and warned, "Look out!", but it was too late. By the time Rainbow Dash turned around, she was rudely introduced to Pebble's metal boots. She flew back over Nimbus and her back received the full impact of the wall behind her. "Rainbow Dash!" Nimbus growled and pushed his hooves into the dirt in front of himself.

His entire body began to vibrate violently and look like a blur to everypony's eyes. Nimbus felt like the wind and air around him was passing through his body instead of against it. His good heart was pumping at an incredible speed with an unbelievable calmness, while his other bad heart was destroying itself to keep up with it's partner.  Nimbus roared as he appeared from the bottom of Alloy's trap on to the top of it. He had moved the molecule's in his body to the frequency of air and was able to escape.

Gasping for air and unable to breath, Nimbus fell to his knees and placed his other front leg to his chest. He knew better than to excite himself like this, but what other choice did he have. Attempting to calm himself down, Nimbus breathed in through his nose and out his mouth as much as he could control it. "And...that's what I call getting out between a Rock...and a hard place." When he felt like everything was going to be okay, he looked up just in time to see Pebble with both his hooves clutched together and raised high.

Reacting quickly, Nimbus Zero Shifted into Pebble's chest, landing a crushing headbutt right into him and being far too close for Pebble to land his strike. The blow to Pebble wasn't enough to exactly hurt, but it compensated by pushing him back five feet away.

Pebble's back legs drug a few inches into the stone walkway while being pushed back. He picked his hooves up and stepped over the rubble. "Now, this is what I'm talking about." He could see Nimbus clutching his chest tightly again like earlier. He looked like he belonged on a football field. Obviously, Nimbus could move and react quickly, but his body could only suffer so much. He laughed watching the Pegasus cough for air. "Let me give you something to take your mind off of the pain in your chest."

At that instance, Pebble jumped up and tore through the overhead above him, out of Nimbus' sight. When he came back down, he ripped a second hole in the overhead and landed on Nimbus' right wing. Nimbus' entire body was slammed to the ground with Pebble crushing his wing. He had easily broken several bones in Nimbus' wing. To make matters worse, Pebble rotated himself and grinded the shatter bones into smaller fragments, almost dust.

The pain was excruciating, Nimbus could feel the bone fragments tearing through his skin and bleeding through the feathers. He closed his eyes and fought the tears wanting to break out of their prison.

Continuing to twist and grind, Pebble laughed at Nimbus' struggle. Picking up his hoof, Pebble hovered it over Nimbus' other wing. "Say good bye to flight!" Before he could stomp fast enough, a shotgun blast hit his boot and pushed him off Nimbus. He looked forward to see Talitha armed on both sides of her with 12 gauge shotguns.

She extended her wrist to load another two rounds into the chambers. She said nothing and unloaded another two 12 gauge slugs into Pebble's chest this time. Pebble's tough skin and hard body resisted the penetration if Talitha's rounds and shattered them into pieces. He growled and jumped off of Nimbus, his mammoth weight body rumbled everything around him. Talitha looked around to see everypony else that was behind Pebble Stone.

Vodun noticed her first out of everypony else. "Talitha." She stared in silence and set the focus of her shotguns shadow onto the shadow of Vodun's. She fired another two shots at his shadow. Vodun's shadow fell and brought Vodun down along with it when it got shot in the legs. Vodun didn't feel the shadow's pain, but he couldn't get back up since his shadow couldn't.

Talitha aimed at Sanguine next and pulled the trigger by flicking her wrist. A click echoed from both her guns and did so again when she tried to fire another round. "Shit!" She swore and unattached her guns weighing her down. Luckily she did so fast enough because right after, Sanguine leaped at her with his sword and swung at her head. She ducked, dodging it and drew her own sword out with the end of her tail.

The wind whistled when Talitha cut through it with her sword and got blocked by Sanguine's sword. Sparks flew when the two blades grinded and slid off each other. She huffed when she jumped back away and gained some distance from Sanguine. Her tail was shaking from the vibration her sword sent down her spine.

Determined to not be outmatched by such a low level sword master like Talitha, Sanguine breathed in deeply, ready to make a sound breaking slice through Talitha's body. As soon as he was ready to draw his blade, a small pink filly was resting on his head, armed with a heavy wrench above her head.

"Hey" Sugar Bomb asked, resting on Sanguine's head, "How's it going?"

Sanguine hadn't ever seen this pony before. How could she have moved so swiftly in such a small amount of time? She wasn't a ninja. This little filly wasn't even wearing the proper ninja attire like he was. In Sanguine's mind, she wasn't real, there was no way. He, Sanguine, was the fastest pony in all of the world! Not this filly, not Nimbus, not Rainbow Dash, only he!

Sanguine's sword helicoptered over his head after Sugar Bomb had already ducked and rolled off of his face out of the way. He breathed in quickly and swung his sword in front of him, clipping the tip Sugar Bomb's tail. With a follow up swing and slashed the left side of Sugar Bomb's cutie mark, a small laceration. The cut was thinner than a hairline, but deeper scratch.

Sugar Bomb yelped when she hurried to Talitha in a panic. "He just tried to kill a child!" She pointed to him like an animal in a cage. "Kick his ass, Tali girl."

"Yeah, him and his other fucking goof friends." Talitha made sure to keep each and everyone of them in front of her. She looked directly to Toledo, who was taking cover behind Pebble with his sword drawn out in a long guard. Twisting her head and cracking her neck as loudly audible as she could for everypony to hear, she asked them all, but keeping her eyes on Toledo. "What is it that Said-So has against Firebolt?"

Everypony in front of her exchanged glances between one another. Loony Bin and Evening Primrose spoke to one another in a whisper at the same time, unable to understand what the other one said.

Being a gentlestallion to her, Loony Bin let Evening Primrose go first. "Said-So didn't saying anything about killing Talitha, did he?" Loony Bin shook his head no. Evening smiled and put her hoof on Loony Bin's shoulder, confusing him with what intentions her gestures meant. She explained further, "Let's take her out. It'll be easy. There's..." Evening Primrose couldn't remember exactly how many of them there was, and she didn't fell like investing the time to count either. "There's more of us than there is of her."

Looking out of his peripheral vision, Loony Bin saw Alloy's unconscious body rag dolling through the air towards Evening and himself. He ducked quickly and pulled his new changeling friend down him, barely saving her from the impact.

Alloy crashed into the end of the alley twenty feet where Loony Bin was, sliding down it like a rain drop on a window. His body fell hard alongside with his marbles, which he lost complete control of when Talitha threw him.

Evening tossed Loony Bin's helping hoof off to the side as she looked up to see that Toledo was the only one left standing from the rest of her team, besides Loony Bin of course.

The text book perfect long guard kept Talitha at a comfortable distance away from Toledo. Although, he was growing more disturbed by the lazy amount of effort she was putting in to get around his sword. He anticipated her to go to the left and went for a stab. Just like he was taught, he stepped forward with the move.

Timing her reaction just a bit off, Talitha was able to draw her own sword with her tail again and deflected Toledo's attempt. Due to her miscalculations, Toledo was able to make a small incision from the bottom of her throat down to the bottom area of her ribs. The penetration barely broke the skin enough for her to actually fell it. The cut actually hurt more afterwards healing then when it actually cut her. Keeping her sword over Toledo's, she walked around her own tail and closed in the distance between herself and Toledo. Her muzzle was less than an inch from his, and if she hadn't wasted her last two shots on Vodun's shadow to incapacitate him, she could have wasted Toledo right then and there.

Instead of actually defeating him, Talitha added insult to injury by grabbing Toledo by the horn and pulling him behind her like he was a piece of trash she was sick of carrying around until the next dumpster.

Evening was surprised by the mare's skill. For a pony with such a large frame, Talitha reacted quick enough to put the basic Pegasus to shame, especially being as heavily armed. "H-how did she take out everypony? We talked for about twenty seconds!" She looked to see if Loon Bin would protect her from Talitha if need be. Not to her surprise, Loony Bin had moved just as fast as Taitha, staying in between her and Evening Primrose. Evening didn't know what caused Loony Bin to have such a sudden change of heart from when he was choking her hours earlier today, but she was incredibly grateful for it.

Loony Bin breathed in deeply, careful not to close his eyes. He ignored Evening telling him to kill her and professionally talked to Talitha as properly as possible. "What do you think of your pupils?" He could hear Evening gasp a little behind him after his question.

Talitha kept her tai wrapped around the handle of her sword, but laid the tip of the blade down to the ground, keeping it in front of herself. "To be honest", Talitha began, the permanent angry frown on her face curved  a tiny bit higher, but not enough to be even be mistaken for a smile.    "I'm quite ashamed to have been the one who trained them. They should have been able to kill me , but yet here I stand." She looked down to the small cut Toledo made on her. "Except for that pretty one. Her only problem is her confidence. Who is she?"

Loony Bin chuckled under his mask and cleared up Talitha's confusion. "That's Toledo, and he's a he."

Talitha snapped her neck nearly into tiny pieces when she whipped her head around. She peered at Toledo hard enough to finally notice the width of his shoulders. She turned back to Loony Bin and talked in a surprised tone that was a step above sour. "Get. The Fuck. Out of here! That's a guy?"

Loony Bin nodded his head. He had never seen her frown come any closer than three inches below a smile like this before, not even when her kids were born. In fact, now that he thought about it, her frown curved even lower when she gave birth to her first daughter, Aero Dynamic. That frown of hers hit a new world record low when Fire Bolt (Nimbus) was born five minutes later.

Coming back from his flashback, Loony Bin noticed Talitha was now holding both her and Toledo's sword in her tail. She read the word sketched on Toledo's blade out loud. "University of Mareland - Fencing Club. You got to be fucking kidding me." She tossed Toledo's sword behind her. "Said-So's offering jobs to college ponies now? What happened to the ponies you and I used to work with?"

Tracing the outline of his mask, Loony Bin slowly reminded her, "You killed them all and left me to die."

He watched her high frown go back to normal when she admitted, "Yeah, I did!"

Nimbus gasped as he rolled over his good wing to avoid injury to the other. He could fell the wind blowing in the alley push into his open wounds. There were tiny fragments of bone stuck to his feathers, falling off as he lifted it in the air to look at the damage. This was it. He was never going to be able to fly again. That is if his hearts didn't give out before then. He clutched his chest tightly and groaned. Both his hearts were playing drum solos at completely different rhythms and paces from one another. His weaker heart hurt the most and felt like it was going to drop to his stomach anytime soon.

He felt somepony softly touch his shoulder before lifting them up onto their shoulders. Nimbus gasped as he tried to speak and ask who they were. The only word he got out was, "Who?', before he nearly fainted. Even though his hooves were inches away from his face, Nimbus felt like they were leaving him as they drifted farther away from his sight.

Careful not to put more stress than there already was on Nimbus' body, Rainbow Dash positioned him very cautiously on her back, while giving herself enough room to fly comfortably. She laughed about all the times she used to ride on Nimbus' back due to the fact she didn't feel like walking or flying. He had never openly complained about it openly to her, but to keep a light mood on things, she humorously joked about his weight. "When we get back, we REALLY need to get you on a diet plan." She smiled when Nimbus slowly lifted his one good wing to give a vulgar middle feather.

Looking at Talitha, Rainbow Dash whispered, "I don't know who you are, but thank you." She saw Talitha's ear twitch before she turned and started to fly away with Nimbus.

Evening Primrose saw the two Pegsai flying off and went for them. Her wings buzzed as she lifted herself over Talitha and Loony Bin. She hesitated a quick second when Talitha swiped her sword over her own head and aimed for her. "Loon!" She screamed for his help, respectfully using his actual name rather than the derogatory one his brother gave him.

Loony Bin used his magic to grasp Talitha's sword by it's blade and fight her for control of it. He yelled at her, "You betrayed us. We trusted you. I trusted you." He aggressively threw Talitha's sword out of reach behind him, accidentally nearing Evening's head.  "Why, why did you leave me behind?" He went to headbutt her with his horn aimed for her neck, but he had entirely forgotten about Sugar Bomb who was resting on top of her head quietly this entire time.

With little effort, Sugar Bomb took her giant wrench and hammered it into the top of Loony Bin's head. The blow sent Loony Bin to the ground with a fuzzy vision and a loss of his own concentration.

Answering his question, Talitha bent down to his level and whispered into his ear. "I didn't leave you behind, you couldn't keep up." She hopped over him and grabbed her sword with a quick whip of her tail. Sheathing her weapon back behind her and dropping her shotguns off from her side, Talitha looked up and watched Evening Primrose gaining on Rainbow Dash. She suspected that Rainbow Dash must still be hurt  from Pebble's sucker punch. She was actually quite impressed that she got back up so quickly,and she even gave her extra credit for picking up Nimbus and flying away with him."

Sugar Bomb looked down at Talitha, waiting for her to make a comment. Noticing the filly's anticipation, Talitha said, "I'll tell you this, he sure can pick 'em", referencing to Nimbus' choice of mares. "Speaking of which" Talitha looked over to see that nopony had tried to attack her from the back and had ran off instead, except for Vodun and Sanguine. She stepped over to the to of them and bit the back of Sanguine's left back ankle and grabbing the shadow of Vodun's tail with her own. "I guess I'll pick you two for interrogation."

She signaled to Sugar Bomb, telling her what she needed to do. Sugar Bomb gave her a small salute and began taking out dynamite that were far too big to have realistically fit in her small saddle, but Talitha knew physics and logic didn't apply to Sugar Bomb. Since she had never known Pinkie Pie, Talitha thought Sugar Bomb was the only creature who could do such a thing.

Setting down her two new hostages into a corner, the first question, Talitha asked them was, "What does Said-So want with Fire Bo-" She shook her head and corrected herself. "Nimbus. What does Said-So want with Nimbus?" She would have preferred to call him by his birth name, but  she didn't feel like explaining it to the two of them.

Not surprisingly, both Sanguine and Vodun were intolerable. Sanguine told Talitha that what she was doing would ultimately lead to her death, and Vodun made exotic foreign nosies at her from a Zebra language he learned while practicing voodoo. His shadow however was struggling to move around on it's own.

Inhaling deeply, Talitha drew her sword out with her tail and held the shadow of the blade to the throat of Vodun's shadow. "Sanguine what's that practice called where you put a hundred cuts to the body, careful not to kill them?"

Sanguine remained silent and didn't answer. He could feel Vodun shaking next to him. Even though Vodun was immortal, his shadow wasn't and without it he would die. Looking back, he should have stuck to only coming out at night.

"How many do you think I'll make it to, Sanguine?" Talitha looked to Vodun and casually pulled the blade back smoothly like a marble rolling through sand. In the place of blood, Vodun's shadow leaked through his newly opened wound and escaped up in the air. No scream came from Vodun as his body began to disintegrate into a black fog.

Nonchalantly, Talitha said, "Wow, didn't expect that." She held her sword up to her eyes and added, "Guess I"m not as good as you. Could use some practice." She slowly rested the blade on Sanguine's neck. There was no reaction or response to Talitha's threat. She warned, "I"m not going to ask you twice." Sanguine jut lifted an eyebrow and gazed down at Talitha's sword then back at her. "Look, I don't really have time to screw around. I'm kind of on a tight schedule."

"Unlike obviously specific parts of your body." Sanguine commented with humor.

Talitha pulled her sword back from Sanguine's neck, slightly nicking him. She held it over her head dramatically before driving it into the middle of the chest. Blood coated between Talitha and Sanguine wider than the radius of a fragment grenade. Sanguine let out a muffled grunt and grabbed his chest tightly. He looked up at the handle to see that Talitha's tail tip was still wrapped around it.

Talitha glared down with her alluring purple eyes and slowly spoke, "You know I know how to hurt you." She nearly jumped when Sugar Bomb hopped over her shoulder. The adorably unfitting filly lifted Sanguine's chin with her giant wrench and said in a low growl, "and how to kill you."

Sanguine blinked an unimpressed expression at Sugar Bomb before looking at Talitha. "You told the child cutting my head off is the only thing that can kill me?" He tried to stand up right but Talitha had pushed the sword deeper into his chest to keep him down.

Sugar Bomb kept the growl in her voice as she continued to speak. "You kidding me? A bottle of whiskey and one hour later, Tali here will tell you anything."

Sighing, Talitha shoved the sword deeper into Sanguine's chest until she pinned him into the wall. "Stay." She picked up Sugar Bomb by her tail with her own tail, waving her around and away from Sanguine to talk to her privately. Before she got too far away, Talitha swung around to Sanguine and added, "And don't go anywhere."

Waiting until Talitha got out of ear shot and started talking to Sugar Bomb, Sanguine struggled and twisted around underneath the sword. Giving up and sighing, he told himself, "If I don't know her better, I'd call her a smart ass."

Talitha held Sugar Bomb upside down by her tail. "Why are you always playing around?"

"I consider calling it 'horsing around'." Sugar Bomb giggled.

Sighing, Talitha slapped her face into the ground after the lame joke. The afternoon hadn't even started yet and she was already regretting her own existence. Life was already hard enough now that Aero Dynamic was being a sports model and appearing on the front cover of every "sports" related magazine.

"Halt!" A very loud and booming voice roared behind Talitha and Sugar Bomb. Both their ears rang as they slowly turned around and expecting to see a knight or police pony with a megaphone, but to their surprise it was a lonely Unicorn dressed in head to hoof in Old Empire armor that Talitha swore she recognized.

"Have we met?" Talitha asked Wondrous, who she was mistaking for Slash. She looked over to where she left Sanguine and without too much of a surprise, he was no longer there. Fuck me. That was my only and favorite sword. Looking to where she left Loony Bin, Talitha saw that he had either gotten up by himself, or sanguine snagged him before completely getting away. Fuck me with pigtails, he's gone too?! She frowned hard at Wondrous, figuring that she was probably just as powerful as her father, if not even more. Without a weapon, she'd probably struggle to take down Wondrous,but not without risking Sugar Bomb getting left behind, which she would go back for anyways.

Seeing how her last questioned wasn't answered, Talitha asked another. "What do you want?"

With her voice echoing inside her father's helmet, Wondrous answered in a growl, "Dark Wing."

Talitha was surprised by the answer. Ever since she saw Nimbus last night she had completely forgotten about Dark Wing. She expected to run into her at the club since she knew that's where she'd been seen before. Talitha risked a step forward. "It seems we have a mutual target."

"I"m not sharing." Wondrous replied back sourly, "Out of revenge for my father, she's mine to take."

So that's how she got the armor. Talitha was wondering if she had stolen it or not. She shrugged, "Fine, let me ask her a few questions, and then you can have her all to yourself."

"No problem, but that's all!" Wondrous magical aura began to envelop, making the hairs on Sugar Bomb's back stand up nervously.

"I wasn't asking your permission, but thanks."

Wondrous aura floated her a few inches off the ground and lifted her towards Talitha a few inches from her face. "I don't think I like you."

Half-ass laughing, Talitha truthfully admitted, "I sure hope that's true, because I know for a fact I REALLY don't like you."

Wondrous' aura was now "steaming" all around her body. She looked deep into the iris of Talitha's eyes while she did the best she could through her helmet. The purple in Talitha's iris danced wildly like fire as they stared back. "There's something 'inside' of you, isn't there?"

"Don't piss me off and you'll be safe." She turned around and began heading for Ponyville, picking up her shotguns on the way. "I got somepony in town who could help us." Without looking back and using a gesture from her tail, Talitha said, "Come on, let's go."

Wondrous looked down at Sugar Bomb questionably, wondering why she's with Talitha. The tiny pink filly looked back at her and nervously laughed with a smile. "Heehee...I-uh my eyes don't do that, just...Talitha's." Wondrous just looked silently at her again. Sugar Bomb adjusted her bomb saddle before running after and waving at Wondrous. "Well, you heard her. Come on...heehee."

Allowing her magic to calm down, Wondrous dropped back down to the earth of Equestria. If her father found out who she was getting help from, he came cut her branch from the family tree. Hopefully, if he never met her and found out she helped get Dark Wing, that may not happen. Before heading after the strange duo and walking through the alley of carnage she missed by a few seconds, she whispered to herself, "I HATE equinewolves" and judging from the tattoo or markings she couldn't make out underneath Talitha's eyes, Talitha was pretty dedicated to the lifestyle. "Especially marewolves."