“Oh Applejack, how much longer do we have to wait? Why won’t those ponies leave?” Despite the questions Fluttershy has actually calmed down a decent bit since they originally took refuge in this bakery over 20 minutes ago.

“I don’t know sugarcube, we might have to…we might have to fight our way out of this one ‘Shy.”

“Let’s just wait a few minutes longer….please? Maybe our friends will show up or another group of ponies will intervene and scare off the ponies waiting for us.”

“That just sounds like wishful thinking. I don’t think we can afford to waste any more time here, and for all we know all of our friends are already at the castle just waiting on us. I’m not saying you have to fight, but I think violence might be our only way out.”

Fluttershy opens her mouth to protest but she’s interrupted by the sound of several glass bottles shattering at the front of the store. With a startled yelp the two element bearers peak over their cover and gasp at the sight before them.

The entire wooden floor has been lit on fire. It’s already spreading to the tables they flipped over for cover and creeping towards the back of the store. Within a few seconds a few of the ponies huddling up in the bakery with the two bearers move into action. Running to the back of the kitchen they grab the detachable nozzle from the kitchen sink and start fanning the water over the counter and into the lobby of the building.

It helps a bit, but not much. The water can barely even reach half way across the room. They keep fanning the water hoping to get as much of the floor as wet as possible. That should at least help with the spreading, but even that’s a stop gap. Thankfully all of the windows at the front are completely busted open so the smoke isn’t accumulating too much.

The real kicker here is that the fire has now completely blocked off the only exit they had. Now they can’t even hope to rush outside and try to fight their way out. Applejack realizes pretty quickly that the “wishful thinking” Fluttershy had suggested earlier was now likely their only way out of this.

Time remaining until Canterlot reaches Ponyville shelter camp: 70 minutes.

I cannot believe all of my Glyphs of Warding are gone! I know they get dispelled if they move more than 10ft, but I didn’t think that included THE ENTIRE CITY MOVING! This is bullshit. By that logic no Glyph of Warding should ever work because the planet moves through space at such high speeds that the glyphs would move 10ft the instant the spell is cast. Oh I am actually so livid right now.

Looking up at the group of 15 ponies, that used to be 20, I give them the meanest glare I can muster. “I am in a really foul mood now, so how about you all just take those 5 ponies as an example and get out of the castle. Now.”

Intimidation Check

8 + 2 = 10.

“He can’t take all of us if we charge him at once! Knight or not he’s just one creature!” Some random mare yells out from across the room.

Squinting my eyes I zero in on the direction of the voice and find the mare who spoke up. “You’re first.”

“First for wh-” She doesn’t finish her question as I get serious and use mana to zip across the room at high speeds. The question dies in her throat and comes out as a quiet gurgle as she drops to the floor. I was still channeling mana through my body when I knocked the shit out of her. Did I kill her?

No, she’s breathing. I gotta focus the mana into just my legs. Ever since I got possessed by that shadow core it feels like my body can handle mana being infused into my muscles and blood vessels without just instantly placing a heavy burden on me. I’ve channeled mana through my legs three times now and they don’t even ache. Let’s use this group of 14 to limit test how far I can push it.

Wait, no. I might have to fight another 100 ponies after this. I can't risk giving myself any points of Exhaustion. Let’s just use it for half second bursts when I need to close a gap. This is literally just the lobby of the Castle. I need to clear every hallway, the entire second floor, and then the southwest tower leading up to the vault room. If it’s been about 20 ponies every encounter…30 minutes, tops.

The next 30 seconds are a blur. There’s much less jumping and flipping this time around as I try to minimize my movements and conserve as much energy as possible. Whenever ponies are within five feet of each other I strike all of them in one fluid motion, conserving momentum between ponies.

Dodging any blows with the most minute adjustments causes some of the ponies in the room to start freaking out. One of them even yelled something like “Why aren’t they hitting him, he’s not even moving?” Which I gotta say, really boosted my ego. Felt like Goku versus those two clowns from the Ginyu Force.

Although one of the guards did catch me by surprise though. She actually anticipated my movement since I was only doing the bare minimum to evade attacks. She managed to predict and adjust mid strike to nick the side of my stomach.

I may have hit her a bit harder than the others.

All in all though this went much faster than the group outside the main gate and I feel less tired. Both are positives.

Clearing the hallways before moving upstairs was much more efficient than the lobby or the outside areas. The hallways are narrow enough that I can just blitz straight through and move from pony to pony. Right before arriving on the second floor is when I hit my first snag, though.

Slamming my wooden sword into the armor of another rogue guard I click my tongue in annoyance as the wooden sword shatters to pieces. It finally took enough punishment and gave up, and to be honest I’m surprised it lasted as long as it did. I still have one more sword but it’s looking pretty rough too.

Wait this isn’t my Moonblade, can I imbue mana into this wooden sword to reinforce it the same way I do my body? Pausing my assault I stop and look at the sword as I try to force mana into the handle and up the blade. There’s a slight silver glow along the pattern of the wood and I’m pretty pleased with myself.

“Ahhhh! Die monster!” I look up from the sword with a somewhat annoyed face to find a pony just a few inches away from striking me.

“Shut up.” I give the wooden sword a haphazard swing with barely any force and it shatters through the pony’s spear, makes a sickening crack as it makes contact with his body and sends him cratering into the wall. A spiderweb of cracks appears in the stone and the pony coughs up blood.

“Oh shit, that’s my bad. Wow I didn’t think it’d work that well…?” He’s not dead so I use a first level spell slot to cast Cure Wounds. It only heals him for 11 Hit Points, but that’s more than enough to keep him alive…probably.

With renewed vigor I take off down the hallways of the second floor as I make my way to the southwest tower.

Time remaining until Canterlot reaches Ponyville shelter camp: 35 minutes.

“Princess, our scout reports a concerning amount of smoke a few blocks away from here. When she investigated further she found ponies waiting on rooftops with spears and rocks. They were all facing towards a bakery that was consumed in a large blaze, but they weren’t concerned. They seemed excited and happy. She seems to think they are waiting on somepony to leave the bakery and escape the fire so they can ambush them. Should we reroute and head that way?”

“Yes. I’m going on ahead, though. If they just have crude weapons I can suppress them in seconds, and if they are truly trying to target somepony stuck in the burning building then it’s highly likely to be one or more of the bearers. Get over there as soon as you can, but I’ll likely have everything resolved before you arrive.”

Celestia gives one strong flap of her wings and shoots into the sky. Once in the air she spots a plume of smoke and speeds that direction.

“It’s the Princess!”

“Princess help us! We have two of the ponies we’re supposed to stop in there.”

“Please help us so we can escape the city!”

Several ponies yell out towards the alicorn as she flies over and all she can do is look at them with a gaze that sends shivers down their spines. Her eyes speak of nothing but contempt, disgust, disappointment, and anger.

With a flash of her horn all of the bricks, stones, and spears being wielded by the monochrome ponies are enveloped in a golden aura and snatched from the grasp of their wielders foreleg. They all float into the air before turning to ash that scatters in the wind. All of the ponies start to scream and panic until a golden bubble surrounds every pony the Princess can see.

All of the offenders trapped in the bubble panic in their new prison as the bubbles all float towards each other. Once they’re all near each other the bubbles combine in a one large shield that compresses down into several rings. Those rings act like golden ropes. They wrap around the entire group of ponies and tie them together in one big group that’s unable to move.

Once that’s done she turns her attention towards the bakery that has massive walls of fire shooting out from the front windows and doorway. Using her magic to create a dense cloud of air she suffocates the fire and flies down into the building through a window.

“‘Shy we’re saved! It’s the Princess!” Applejack and Fluttershy jump up from behind the counter and run up to the alicorn with faces that scream several levels of gratitude.

“Oh Your Majesty, I’m so glad you’re okay! I was worried the, uhm, elf was going to hurt you.”

“Oh he definitely did. It’s ok though he managed to beat the spirit possessing him and then healed me. He’s actually probably at the castle now as we speak making sure it’s clear and safe for you girls to arrive. Are there any other bearers here with you? Miss Rarity and Young Rainbow Dash were traveling with me and should arrive any minute now along with my sister.”

“Naw I’m fraid not, it’s just me and Fluttershy. We had a pretty large group traveling with us though, until that group out there collapsed the bridge between the two buildings and blocked our path ahead. Then they all popped out and attacked us, dirty varmints!”

“AJ! Fluttershy!” The conversation is interrupted as a scratchy voice from a familiar pegasus breaches the air and a rainbow maned pony jumps into the building and nearly tackles her two friends.

“Rainbow, darling, don’t do our attackers job for them and take out our dear friends, please. It’d be a tragedy if we lost to discord because you accidentally gave poor Fluttershy a concussion.” Rarity teasingly scolds Rainbow as she carefully and slowly walks around the charred and soot covered wooden floor. Making sure to keep her hooves and forelegs clean of the black ash.

“I must agree with the dramatic mare. You shouldn’t spear tackle your friends, Loyalty.” Luna chimes in as she also joins the group in the bakery. “So now we have four. We’re missing your student and the hyperactive cotton candy one. Do you think they’re already at the castle sister?”

“It’s possible, especially if Pinkamena is with Twilight. My dear student has lived here all of her life so I wouldn’t be surprised if she had already made her way to the castle. Why don’t I speed this up and just teleport all of us over there?”

Suddenly the entire bakery rumbles and everyone looks in shock as the walls of the bakery lift off the ground and the entire building sprouts legs and walks away. “Ah tut tut, Sunny. You’re only supposed to use your magic to defend yourself from that dastardly demon and to unlock the vault. It’d ruin all of the fun if you just skipped to the end!”

Discord appears in the air and before Celestia can even respond her horn and wings disappear with a snap. “Discord! How dare you?! This is cheating! When we all make it to the vault room now I won’t even be able to unlock the stash holding the elements.”

“Oh relax, Celestia. I’ll give these back once you get there! You know me, I’d never cheat! There’s no fun in the game if I just rig it in my favor everytime. Ta ta now! Goodluck~”

With that the draconequus disappears again and leaves everyone a bit more uncomfortable than they were just a few minutes ago.

Time remaining until Canterlot reaches Ponyville shelter camp: 50 minutes.

Author's Note

The gang is almost all back together while Ignis clears a path for them once they arrive! One or two more chapters and we'll probably start the climax of the arc! I'm so excited :)

You all should be excited too cause remember, nothing bad ever happens. :)

Also some of you might have noticed this is two chapters in a row where I had a day off between them, and that class I started a few weeks ago has kinda ramped up a bit and I'm a bit busier than I was before. After next week I'll likely go back to daily or near daily for a couple of weeks, but for this week and next week I'd expect there to be a 1-2 day gap between chapters instead of daily.

Thanks for reading! <3