Disharmony Rises

Jet led the group forward, passing several more rock formations on the way. After a few more minutes, they came up over a large hill just as the sun was coming up over the horizon. Across a small valley was a large steel fortress. It had a small, narrow land bridge leading up to the front gate. Surrounding the fortress was a moat of green liquid that seemed to steam as it touched the rock around it.

"There it is. Castle Doomstat, the place Star Swirl has been hiding all this time." Jet said as he pointed to the fortress.

"Why's it called Castle Doomstat?" Twilight asked.

"Because Star Swirl killed the previous owner and took the fortress for himself." Jet replied.

"Do we have a plan?" AJ asked.

"Yes. I've been studying this place for a while now." Jet replied as he pulled out a piece of parchment and a looked at his watch.

"Right about now, the guard shifts should be changing. If we move quickly, we can ambush the front gates before they know what hit them." Jet went on as he pulled out a pair of binoculars.

"On my signal, we move up to the rock formation just outside the gates..." Jet said.

He watched through the binoculars as the guards along the walls shifted on their feet, clearly uncomfortable. After a few minutes, the current guards moved away, leaving the barracks unguarded.

"Now..." Jet said as he moved down the side of the hill quickly.

Once the group was behind the rock formation, Jet checked the barracks through the binoculars just as the shift change made it up to the wall.

"Good, undetected. Now, our plan of attack." Jet pulled out the parchment, which was an intricately drawn map of the fortress, and pointed to a spot on the far wall.

"This is the armory of the fortress. A well placed explosive will send the whole south wall crumbling. It will scramble the guards and allow us to move in amongst the chaos unnoticed." Jet explained.

"Where do you propose we get and explosive from?" Twilight asked.

Jet sighed and opened a panel on his charred arm, revealing a timer. Dash gasped.

"You mean..." She began.

"I'm afraid so..." Jet looked away.

"Let's just get it over with..." Jet said as he stood.

Suddenly Dash pushed him to the ground.

"What the fuc..." Jet began as he looked up to see an arrow sticking out of her back.

He caught her before she fell and looked up at the fortress wall to see Star Swirl and an archer glaring at him.

"No no no no no." Jet was saying as he felt Dash going cold in his grip.

"D-Don't... do... anything... rash..." She said to him just before her eyes rolled back and her body went limp.