A weapon for hire.

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Fluttershy POV just before the battle of ponyville

Fluttershy in her kneeling deathscyth was hidden by the massive trees of the everfree. After the destruction of the tree of harmony the forest had grown, not outward -thankfully for ponyville- but in height. Where before tree had been barely reaching above a regular MS they now towered at at least three up to ten time their sizes. The trunk of the trees were also wider and had grown a bark that proved to resist almost any common weaponry, but for all its newfound growth and increased resistance the forest had grown "sluggish" as some said. Gone was the time when manticore, cockatrice or hydra where common sight, even timber wolf where now gone, the forest was bigger yes but devoid of actual danger for most who went in. The reason was that the forest dangers had swarmed its center. Once the only safe place in the forest the place where the fabled tree of harmony had its root was now surrounded by the wild magic and creatures of the everfree and its deadly danger. None could get through.

But all those fact were in fact welcome today since Fluttershy was quite grateful for the absence of threat as she exited the deathscythe. Her mission was capital, she was to infiltrate the enemy command landship and capture gilda piercedraft. If she succeeded the griffonian army stationed on equestrian soil would be leaderless and the next general appointed would have to restructure everything on arrival considering how the rest of the higher Commandment -composed solely of blackbeack children- had done their best to hinder it to discredit Gilda. By the time all was said and done, equestria would have pulled its head out of the water and the recently freed guards recuperated enough to bolster its army. In addition milliardo the general of the army settled between the crystal empire and equestria was well known to care greatly for is sister and it was likely he would surrender for her security once she was in equestrian custody. Following this equestria and the crystal empire could rebuild a united front again the griffonian on the east.

'once a few minor follow up operations are done a counter attack may even be possible.'

It was while thinking on this that she jumped off her units and landed heavily on the ground, her sharpened talon digging into the earth. She turned to the three jegan nearby,"alright everyone, pay attention please. I'll be going alone from here, you three stand ready to lend a hand if its alright with you. Since i probably wont be able to secure the target without being noticed I'll exit quickly using the explosives-"she tapped on the satchel on her lowed back."-that sunset kindly made for me. Those things once placed on a wall will pierce right through the hull all the way out, once done I'll rush out and i need you to cover me until I'm back here and in my unit, if its no trouble for you okay?"

The three jegan simply raised a thumb up and nodded. She smiled and nodded back before her face turned back into a determined one and taking off with a curt."I'll be right back."

She ran around the tree and stopped behind a bush to observe the land ship, hearing the sound of battle far in the distance she hoped the others would be alright and once she was sure the battle was going for long enough to direct most of the attention its way took a running stance. She focused on her sight alone. Slowly her vision grew more focused. She looked at the ship in detail searching for indication that someone was looking her way, a window or a camera or something, but she noticed none.

'lets go.'she thought, her heartbeat then jumped up higher to the point most would be able to ear it just by standing beside her, her chest actually shook with the strength of each beat. She pushed on her talon and she was off.

Her hips joint at that moment should have snapped under the immense strength of her artificial limbs, but her tightly weaved muscles held strong and compensated for her articulation. She felt the burn where her tight and Artificial leg met but held strong and in three second and one solid jump she had made it halfway to the Adrastea and was a good three feet above ground. In a superhuman feat of strength she tensed her abdominal and tight muscles and forced both her heavy metallic legs beneath her from her fully extended jumping stance to a slightly bent landing one, her posture was nothing but perfect and would have put to shame many athlete, especially considering she couldn't feel her limbs and had to rely on pure practice and know how. She landed with barely a sound, she bent down absorbing the shock and entire velocity she had gained on her fall like a spring and at the right time, when she felt her momentum was being redirected up she pushed. She exploded upward and forward tearing the ground beneath her to shred and flying all the way up the adrastea and crashed just a few meter above the landship belly. Her clawed hands and talon stabbing three inch deep right into its hull to keep herself in place.

Taking a deep breath she didn't waste time climbing the last meter between her and the command center, she placed her hand on the steel surface and clenched her claw, the talon digging into it and ensuring a good grip. She searched for the nearest entry point. She couldn't be sure no one had heard or noticed her presence and speed was of essence. She quickly found a ventilation grid and using her claw she ripped it off and crawled in. She had to break through four filter and bust one emergency seal door.

'No doubt that at least one griffin knew something is up by now.' fluttershy though. But as she looked down through a small ventilation grid into the corridor below she noticed that while panic was omnipresent none was about the damage she had done on her way here. It was more about how the griffonian army was being torn apart by the equestrian new model and the arrival of miliardo piercedraft on the battlefield and is subsequent engagement with what fluttershy was sure to be kshatriya.

'not good, i looked at the recording of kshatriya's fight and she lack instinct, her fighting is more shock and awe than effective. Milliardo will be unfazed by it and read her like an open book.'

Worried fluttershy crawled in the vent until she found a room with only one person inside it was a guard in the regular armor of maintenance personnel with reinforced steel boot along a one piece maintenance uniform with camouflage pattern and two large black latex glove that reached the elbows and finally a full helmet to deal with un-healthy environment a luxury only griffonian empire high ranks engineers got. She luckily arrived just as he was finished receiving a report telling him that others maintenance personnels were still looking for what could have caused the venting problems. Using her claw she waited him to answer, say over and put down is radio to tear the vent apart and drop on him, she grabbed is head mid fall and her prosthetic limbs weight ensuring he couldn't help but buckle and follow her down she slammed the back of his head on the ground. She stood up and striped him of is uniform, it was a bit too large on the shoulder and too tight on the chest but after knowing the panic she had seen in the corridor on her way she doubted any would pay attention to her, the boot would hide her talon and as long as she didn't grab anything her claw wouldn't tear the glove apart. She exited the room and moved quickly but inconspicuously along the corridor using her Pegasus innate sense of direction to move slowly toward the command center she stopped too check vent from time to time in case someone was watching her through the cameras along the way. She soon peeked around a corner and saw a guarded heavy blast door.

'this is the place, i need a alternative entry point, if i try to force my way through the guards and they make a ruckus those inside will gun me down when i try to pass the door.'

She walked back where she came from and after searching a bit found the room just beneath the command center, it was a military quarters for eight, probably for the guards just above. Inside were two griffon, not armed and seemingly 'busy' with each others.

'must be griffonian nobles teenagers here to reap easy military achievement, the more experimented personnels probably let them do as they please so long they don't disturb their work.' she moved silently behind them, the female cursed under her breath seeing what she thought was a rather high ranked maintenance agent and pushed the male off before clothing while apologizing, she didn't take long to leave and fluttershy didn't even need to say anything. The male seemed pretty pissed at is fun ending before he could get it done but after cursing and making a few threat using some nobles family name left all the same, no doubt sure this engineer would be worried the rest of the week.

'moron like those are best left alive, at least among enemy ranks.' she locked the door and slowly piled up the chest at the foot of the beds into a platform so she could easily stuck her ear to the ceiling, she heard nothing at first but closing her eyes and focusing on her hearing, she made out sound then voice grew and finally word started making make sense.

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Third person POV

Gilda slammed her fist on the armrest of the commander chair, "i don't give a damn about your safety protocol or that the reserve units we have are only borrowed, i am going out with my leo-R and the rest of the units to help milliardo!" she went to stand up but a hand pressed her shoulder down from behind, she turned to see a young griffon in black and silver uniform with a slightly off-center cap. He had a neutral almost bored look but the strength he applied on her shoulder was more than a bit painful.

"I was ordered to keep both you and your brothers away from each others, you are not leaving this seat." said the bored griffin while pulling is other hand out from is pocket and popping a date in his mouth.

Gilda gritted her teeth,"i don't care if you are one of blackbeack soldier-born i am not letting my brother and his knights die out there!"

His eyes widened a bit as if she had hit a nerve and he just looked down at the ground in thought.

Gilda harrumphed and stood up, she moved toward the door but stopped when she heard a hammer cocking. She turned around to see her crown appointed advisor, an old grey haired and sand skinned griffin with the badge of the emperor blessing on his vest, aiming at her from his hips with a handgun.

"Lady gilda, i have to ask you to sit back down this instant, the emperor was clear and you will obey."

She felt he entire body shake in rage, since her mother had been interned for mental sickness blackbeard had grown more and more overbearing but now even his lapdog were seeing her ,the rightful princess of the grifonnian queendom, has a doormat they could step on just by dropping this usurper name. She stood tall, years of watching her mother rule showing clearly to the griffin who tensed and whose eyes widened. Raising her voice high she spoke."i am gilda of the Piercedraft household, 'those who aim beyond mere mediocrity' and i command you to drop your weapon and-"

The ground in front of her suddenly turned red hot and melted down leaving behind large hole with red hot edges. Something jumped right into the room and in a swift gesture red flowers of blood bloomed all around the room. Gilda ran to the door to call the guards but something grabbed her right wrist. She turned around seeing someone in maintenance personnel cloths, she froze a moment but widened her eyes when she looed down and saw a metallic claw around her wrist."who are you?! *guh!!*." grunting from the knee that was shoved into her abdomen she felt her consciousness slip.
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fluttershy POV

Fluttershy looked around her, she had waited to confirm her target position and even dared hope she would travel to the hangar at some point, it would have allowed her to intercept her on the way but when she had heard that someone was pointing a gun at her she was forced to act in a much less refined manner, she had used one of the simple one time use beam based implosion charge supplied by kshatriya and inspired from the technologie in her claws to melt a hole in the command center floor, then a few well timed throw of her pocket knifes got ride of the others griffin present, she then grabbed Gilda and knocked her out. Throwing her target on her left shoulder, she called in her radio."here is agent feral, the cake is ready for delivery, i repeat the cake is hot and rea-!?" fluttershy felt a shiver and dodged with a left side step, a knife went down just where she had just been without arming her she lashed out at the black clothed griffin with her right claw but he actually crouched below it with ease and stabbed right in her right elbow where there was no plating. The short blade stabbed from a precarious position hardly ruined her arm and a bending it she was able to snap the dagger in two. She slammed a talon on him, her legs blurring with the speed of her full force kick and despite the griffin last second cross guard she felt both of his arms break as she sent him crashing into the command center's doors just as the guard entered sending all of them down, the only door blocked and her only free arm damaged she took sunset explosive out and threw it at the wall its then that her right arm spasmed during the throw, sunset warning came back to her in a dread fueled flashback.

"This explosive use the elements fluttershy, since the tree they have grown more and more unstable and this bomb harness this, remember nightmare moon? The elements back then where barely powered and still burned all the alicorn level dark magic inside her, worse it erased it! This bomb harness that 'erasing' power to clear a circular shape on its path so place it slightly upward in case the effective range is greater than i theorized ok?"

Fluttershy palled to almost white seeing the device glued and biping faster and faster on one of the command center chair angled armrest, one of the spinning chair, once the chair stopped the bomb bip was just a long high pitched scream and went off. A rainbow exploded from the device and dug a long red hot melted path through the command center deck and outer hull all the way to the landship front, the ship had a perfectly straight trench dug into it who went from the commande center to the front if only slightly to the right. Not wasting time fluttershy rushed the new exit, among the griffin only the one in black reacted to her fleeing and in a show of unreal will grabbed one of the guard rifle and fired three burst, one missed the other hit two time on fluttershy armored leg and the last finally drew blood just as she exited the command center by walking on the melted hull.

With fluttershy out of sight and the only path blocked by molten steel the griffin frowned slightly."...bothersome."

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fluttershy POV

Fluttershy panted as she ran along the hull of the adrastea, her right shoulder blade hurt from the bullet that had found its mark, she could tell that the wound was not pretty from the fact her right arm wasn't responding at all anymore, thankfully, the enemy never though anyone would be crazy enough to climb atop their landship so the number of gun pointed at her was basically null.

As if to prove her wrong, a taurus appeared to her right, the unit forgo its weapon and reached with its massive hand.

"Trying to capture me? Don't be too greedy!"

She jumped at the hand easily passing between its finger despite her luggage. she landed feeling her blunted talon struggle to find a grip, the molten metal had not been kind to them. still she persevered and thankfully help was nearby. the head of the taurus behind her exploded into melted mess from a beam shot from the everfree forest. the cover fire was a godsend for fluttershy who heard and saw more taurus coming. now having more leeway she resumed her transmission.

"here agent feral, i have the VIP, i am badly wounded and largely incapacitated i need extraction!"