Advent Of A Gunslinger

With his victory successfully achieved, and Rufang a mess on the floor, Chang was free to take the three ponies that he had rightfully earned from the battle. With the crowd cheering for ‘Jin’ the entire time, he opted not to stay as the champion and would instead leave with his slaves in tow.

“They’ll have to set up a brand new tournament to find another champion themselves,” he thought, “That should give us ample time to get our authorities down here to bust the operation.”

Axel caught up with him and they both left the building into the alley they had arrived in. “...Gyatdamn, pard. That was a mighty fine job you did--”

“Ahem,” Chang interrupted him, “We need to focus. We didn’t find any traces of Zhen Huxi firearms so we’re at a bit of a loss. But there were far too many clubbers in that building for us to conduct any sort of search…” He looked at the three mares that were attached to the leash he had been pulling.

All three were completely silent and avoided making eye contact with the monkey, completely subservient.

“For now, we weed to get them out of here.”

Axel then made a suggestion, “Let’s take ‘em to the train station. They should be able’ta get free once they outta bounds, yeah?”

“Great thinking, Remington. But let’s check in with…”

They both looked up to the roof of the building they stood next to.

Kora could be seen peeking out to look at them. “Oh it’s you...I knew I heard voices but I wanted to be certain of who it was.” She leapt down and offered them their belongings. “How did everything go?”

Axel put his hat and facemask back on and replied, “Long ass story. Didja find anythin’ in there?”

“That I did,” she showed off the files that she found, “Weapons that shoot poisonous bullets, and Information on a boat schedule specifically for the exporting of slaves…” she looked up and noticed the ponies that Chang had in his possession. “...You found them?”

The primate had put his labcoat back on, and let out an awkward cough. “Erm...more like I won them. It’s a very long tale that I will go into more detail about later. Where is Lord Magpie?”

“Vido is trying to find the boat,” Kora explained as she pointed up to the night sky. “So what is our plan, Chang?”

The doctor gave it some thought for a moment. These mares were the utmost priority because they needed to be returned to their home across the border to the Neighjing Territory.

“...A train for Neighjing should be on its way soon. I will escort these mares there. Remington, I’d like you to come with me, and Kora, you and Vido shall destroy the boats that are to escort slaves.” He looked down at the ground with an annoyed frown on his lips, “We cannot save all those who are in captivity right now, but we can at least stop them from eluding us.” He looked up at the she-cat, “Can you accomplish that?”

“No problem for me at all,” Kora retrieved the tome that was attached to her hip, “I think I’m prepared to use this now--it’s the perfect opportunity.”

“Excellent,” Chang turned to Axel, and started to guide the mares away from the alley, “Follow me, my friend.”

The hippogriff took flight after him. “Right behind ya.”

Meanwhile, inside…

Once the match had concluded, Topaz had no clue how to react, evident by the look of amazement on her face. “Oh my. Zat was...certainly a show. Don’t you zink, Mr. Cat?”

“...” Alade flicked his tail. With his eyes shut, he didn’t comment on a single thing he had witnessed.

“That was fun, wasn’t it?” Sun commented as she entered the upper level of the room to speak to them, “We do this on a random schedule so those annoying little goody-officers can stay in line. It’s the perfect system.”

“Ooh, you’re quite ze organized ones are you not?” Topaz replied with a snide grin, “Now. About ze ponies zat we are to get…”

“Don’t you worry,” the monkey gal replied, “I’ve got your dozen ready to go on your boat when you are. Just follow me out back, hm?”

The unicorn clapped her hooves. “Ooh! Merveilleux! Let’s get zem loaded as fast as possible.”

Sun snapped her fingers, and made finger-gun motions at her. “Yeah, that’s exactly what I’m gonna go do. Wait right here, yeah?” With that, she left the room, and headed through the same door she entered.

At last, the large abyssinian would speak. “Do you tink she can be trusted?”

“Wh--of courze!” Topaz replied with a horse-like whinny of a huff, “We wouldn’t be all ze way out here if she wasn’t! Now cooperate if you want ze promotion zat I intend to ask your boss about for you.”

Alade held his hands up, displaying a desire to avoid a debate. “If you say so. Dis situation is entirely on you.”

Topaz threw her head back with a hysteric, sarcastic scoff. “Och! Don’t you worry yourzelf about zat!” She cleared her throat, and turned around. “I know very well what I am doing. Now come. Follow me, boy.”

With a grumble, Alade followed the mare into the room where Sun had went just moments ago. “...Is everyone around me simply foolish or ignorant?”

Outside…

And so, our unlikely heroes had a plan in motion. While Axel and Chang focused on escorting the mares to the train station, Kora would make herself busy looking for that boat.

Thankfully, it wouldn’t be long before her eye in the sky gave her the info she was looking for.

“Mira!” Vido’s voice rang out from the heavens above, “I see a dock this way. To the East.”

“Perfect…” Kora gave an excited purr as she scaled the nearest wall in order to climb up to a roof. From there, she followed Vido’s direction and leapt from rooftop to rooftop until she reached the docks.

...And there it was.

“Woah!” she hissed as she stopped in her tracks on the roof of a bait and tackle shop. The docks were located just down below, and there she could see a rather small private yacht. It was large enough to carry at least a dozen or so ponies, so this had to be the vessel they were looking for. “Quite the luxurious item. Just need to dismantle it so that it won’t be able to run…”

Moments later, Vido landed on the roof next to her. “What’s the plan, gata? Gonna blow it up?”

Kora shook her head in denial. “Tempting, but no. We need to make this as discreet as possible to avoid suspicion.” She then grabbed the Abyssinian Tome from her hip, opened it up, and started to flip through the pages. “Disabling enchantment, disabling enchantment…”

The griffon flicked his tail and his feathers ruffled. Something had given him a cold chill that ran through his his body. “...Brrr…”

Kora turned to him and asked, “Is everything alright, my friend?”

“Yeah, just--I have a bad feeling,” he replied as he expanded his wings and got ready to fly, “Go on and try to disable that boat. I’ll handle it.”

The she-cat already had a general idea of who it could be and why he would want to go off on his own. But with that in mind, she wanted him to be safe. “...Don’t hurt yourself in an attempt to settle a score, Vido.”

“Pfft, I could care less about some silly score,” the griffon replied with a scoff, “No. If I come into contact with that simia again, I want to learn more about what she knows about my old man. And maybe find out why so many of them hate western folk…especially griffons…”

Kora gave him a quick hug. “Do your best, alright? No matter what happens, you’re already my favorite griffon.”

Vido sighed, and returned the hug for a moment. “...Gracias, Kora. That means a lot.” He then let go and took off, “I’ll be right back. Do your thing.”

As Vido left the scene, the she-cat had to figure out what to do on her own. Within the tome, there were numerous spells written in the abyssinian language that only she could read. The boat was rather large, so she had to be smart about what sort of spell she’d choose to disable it--carefully and quietly.

“Come on...come to me…”

After flipping rapidly through the pages, the she-cat finally landed on something. A spell that read: መሰባበር.

“...This is it. It’s now or never.”