Canterlot Academy Trials

While everything was going on down below, a dragon in dark onyx armor that had witnessed the situation had taken off…

Meanwhile, as if right on cue, the remainders of their team would arrive. Rufus would jump in across from Fang, and they now all had the dragoness surrounded on all sides.

“Looks like you’re outta luck,” Rufus snarked, “Best stand down now.”

“Who are you working for?” Spear asked, “And why are you selling vials of dragon blood to an Abyssinian?”

Hooktail scoffed as she spread her wings. Since none of them could fly like her, she figured it’d be easy to escape. “Hmph. I don’t have time to play with some dumb kids like you.”

As she prepared to fly off, a rope could be seen spinning around from her finger with a bladed tip.

“Hang on. We aren’t children,” Fang insisted, “We simply want to know what sort of customers you’ve been dealing wit--”

Hooktail hovered off of the ground, “Good luck with that. You’re not getting shit out of me!” And she tried to take off…

FWIP!

But as soon as she tried to leave the area, Lee flung out a rope dart that pierced one of Hooktail’s wings, preventing her from flying away. Then, Lee would pull on the rope, forcing the dragoness down to the ground where she’d be tied up in the rope as Lee placed her foot on her back.

“Rrgh!” Hooktail screeched upon hitting the dirt and finding herself tied up in rope that not even her fire could break through. “What the hell is this?!”

“Talk, serpent,” the primate commanded in a low tone, “You have no other options.”

“Fuck you!” she hissed.

As the team started to interrogate the dragoness, Uziel had been snooping through Hooktail’s shack the entire time. While there, she would find documentation that included a record of everyone she sold her wares to…as well as a seller’s permit?

“Hrm…” Uziel glared at it with suspicion as her pointed ears flopped downwards. It was entirely plausible that some of these documents could have been forged, so she made extra care to take them with her. “What else does she have in here…?”

Eventually, she’d look underneath one of the floorboards…and find some well-made plans for what seemed like a staged attack on the Dragon Lord. “...what in the hell is this?”

Back outside…

By this point, their efforts of interrogation hadn’t exactly worked the way the team had wanted. Hooktail refused to give up any further information which left them dry as far as what to do next. Lee made sure to keep her tied up so that she couldn’t escape.

However, what would happen next was enough to temporarily relieve them of their stresses.

“So my scouts did pick up suspicious activity near our borders after all,” Smolder bemoaned as she landed in front of them all with a pair of armored dragons next to her while smoking from a cigarette she held in her claw. “And it had to be goddamn Hooktail.”

“...M-Ms. Smolder!” the red dragoness nervously squealed upon seeing her leader.

“Lady Smolder,” Fang walked up to the orange dragoness, “You know this criminal?”

“Eeeeeyup,” she replied after blowing some smoke from her lips. Given that dragons were made of 10% smoke, cigarettes caused them no ill health effects for them. In fact, it was considered a stress reliever for them. And given Smolder’s position as the current Dragon Lord… “She and her brothers have been causing a pain in our asses for months. But it looks like you guys have managed to take care of her.”

“We did what we could,” Spearklip added, “We wanted to make sure we took her down without severely injuring her so we could interrogate her. Though…we haven’t had the best of luck so far.”

Smolder squatted down next to the tied-up dragoness, and blew some smoke in her face, causing the latter to flinch. “Hmph, Yeah, don’t worry about that. We’ll take care of her.”

Just then, Uziel exited the shack with a stack of documents that she handed off to Smolder. “Hey lizard lady. I found some shit on her you might wanna look at.”

Smolder took hold of the documents, and did a double take once she realized a goblin had handed them off to her. “...well that’s something you don’t see every day,” she commented before skimming through the documents. “...gooddamn. You must be some kinda crazy to think this would work, Hooktail.” She scoffed while teasingly waving the documents back and forth in her claw, “Do your brothers even know about this?”

“...” Hooktail fell silent, turning away from Smolder. It seemed as if the Dragon Lord’s presence had caused her to clam up. However, since she was in her most vulnerable state, she’d mumble something, “...dojo at the edge of the border…”

“Figures,” Smolder muttered while shaking her head. She handed the documents off to the black-armored dragon on her left, and snapped her claw-fingers. The armored dragon on her right immediately grabbed up the restrained Hooktail as she lit up another cigarette with her flame breath.But what she was tied up in caught her attention, “...huh. What’s this material made of?”

Lee would speak up, “Wukong Rope. Strong enough to restrain even the gods themselves. Don’t worry, I’ve got more.”

“...Impressive,” Smolder muttered as she rugged at the rope, and prepared to take off with her guards. “We’ll be sending you kiddos a reward back at Canterlot fairly soon. Thanks for your help.”

As the Dragon Lord left with her guards and the criminal, Rufus was simply gazing in pure amazement.

“Yooooo…we just met the damn Dragon Lord, guys! The actual Dragon Lord!” the yak squealed.

“Wasn’t a very big deal,” Spear added with a shrug of her shoulders, “She seemed as if she wanted to be treated casually. The smoking was a bit of a surprise, but makes sense given that she’s a dragon.”

“In any case, I think this solves one part of our problem,” Fang brought the conversation back to their objective, “We’ve successfully cut off Odu’s source of stimulants. Now we just need to deal with the tiger man himself.” He paused, then glanced at the goblin, “Smart of you to check out her building, Ms. Uzi. Thank you.”

Uziel cracked her knuckles with a toothy, shark-like grin. “No problem. I’m just ready to start kickin’ some more cat ass so we can go back living in peace. Anyone catch what that dragon hoe said before she took off?”

“...I believe it was something about a dojo,” Lee added, “Near the edge of Abyssinia. We may be in for a rough battle ahead of us.”

Rufus would scoff at this as he started walking back the way they came, “Nothing the Invincible King of Grappling can’t handle.”

“Damn right,” Uziel added as she hopped onto Rufus’ back, “Nobody can get through him.”

“Again with that? We’re on a mission, Rufu. Not a wrestling match.” Spear rolled her eyes as she followed them, “Being on this team feels more like babysitting by the minute.”

“How so?” Fang asked.

The zebra mare snickered. “A deluded yak who thinks he’s a pro wrestler, a foreign exchange student primate, and a diamond dog with the visage of a coffin-dweller.”

“...it’s like she is team’s big sister,” Lee giggled as she fell in line behind them as Fang stuttered.

“I--wh…” He sighed, realizing the zebra had him verbally cornered. “...I suppose I could use more sleep, yes.”

“Exactly,” Spear snorted and beckoned him, “C’mon, fearless leader. We’ve got a job to do.”

All the while, as Team Sigma chatted away, a certain tigress was watching their every move from the shadows within the sand across the border.

“...Master must know about this.”