Chapters Operation One: Wings of Freedom
Operation One
WIngs of Freedom
“I don’t want to die.” That was all Adelle could think of while running as fast as she could from the a-class Dionaea. Looking behind, she saw the abductor heading towards her as she took a left turn to an alleyway. She pressed myself against the wall hoping that it wouldn’t see her. To her luck and surprise, it worked as the abductor ran past her.
“Straight out bullshit. This was not how I wanted to spend my freedom. I had it all planned out. Buy as many supplies as I can get, head over to the secret oasis that I found underneath the abandoned city, and live out the rest of my days in the comfort of my makeshift home in that small haven. But no! I'm running for my life from a fucking abductor sent here from the people On High...fuck to make matters worse. If I don't leave this place, then they'll think I have something to do with it...and then it's back to being a sinner." She said before shaking her head to get her thoughts together. “J-Just try to stay calm Adelle. At least things can’t get any worse right?” While she was sitting there trying to collect her thoughts, she felt something wet hit the top of her head. She thought it was raining until she heard a low growl. She slowly looked up and saw it was a tiger-like abductor with blood dripping from its fangs and claws as it was looming over her from the building in the alleyway she was in.
"....I fucking hate this world!" Adelle yelled before rolling out of the way of the abductor trying to pounce on her. The moment the human recovered from the barrel roll, she countered by pulling out an assault rifle and unloading a round into the robot's face. The moment she ran out of ammo and started to reload, the wall next to me exploded. The force behind it caused her to be sent flying backward and out of the alleyway leaving debris everywhere and revealing the Dionaea that ran past her.
She noticed that Dionaea opened its mouth and shot out a fireball at her. She didn’t have time to move out of the way as she switched out my binding thorn for her shielding thorn. She quickly formed a barrier of thorns around herself as the fireball crashed into it. To her surprise, the barrier worked well for a few seconds. The Dionaea swung its tail at her and was sent flying through four to five slabs of solid concrete walls. After going through the last piece of concrete, she was flung through the window of a house as her body hit the floor.
"Aw...hell," Adelle said as she tried to pull herself up, but soon fell back down and clenched her chest after hearing and feeling one of her ribs break. "Double hell...that attack could've killed me had I not used shielding thorns to boost my defense," She said before feeling the ground give out as she fell through the hole. Her eyes widened as she saw that the house she was in was hanging off of a cliff. The human quickly used my thorns to latch onto a nearby pipe sticking out of a building. She felt my arm dislocated the moment the length of the thorn reached its maximum length. Adelle quickly released the thorn’s grip on the pipe as she fell on a nearby rooftop. She felt herself rolling off the roof and landing on the roof of a broken-down car.
“Fuck that hurts!" She yelled while trying to pull herself up. She soon looked over her broken arm as she winced from seeing it twisted with two pieces of her arm bone sticking out “Scratch that, this hurts more than landing on a car back first.” With her other working arm, she pulled out a first aid pill along with some painkillers. It helped to nullify the pain and fix her arm a little, but it was still broken from what she could feel. “The universe just loves to screw around with me doesn’t it?” She grumbled before noticing something casting a shadow over her. Looking up she saw both Dionaea and Ramosa jump down heading towards her. “I need to keep my mouth shut.”
She quickly jumped off the car she landed on and ran down the streets just in time as the two abductors landed behind her. There wasn't anything she could do given the situation she was in. Her accessory was destroyed, her gear was only at level five which couldn’t do much damage, and most of the reinforcements were killed off due to the surprise attack from the people of On High. It was like trying to fight against a tsunami...with a butter knife.
As she was thinking of a plan to escape, a sudden particle of pale blue energy passed by Adelle’s vision. She looked behind herself to see Ramosa in the air firing off Will’O shots at her. The human’s eyes widened as she quickly tried to dodge the oncoming attack, but to her best effort, she was hit with a barrage of Will’O bursts. She was once again sent flying as her body hit a metal wall. She slid to the ground as blood ran down her left eye. She could only guess that her skull was injured seeing how she could hear a slight ringing sound in my ears and her vision was getting blurry. Slowly, she began to stand up from the ground but soon kneeled after feeling a slight surge of pain from her femur bone snapping.
"One thing...after another with me," Adelle said while cursing to herself. Even with the painkiller dulling most of the pain, she can feel her entire body screaming in pain. All she could do was ignore it while popping another painkiller into her mouth and swallow it. The perk of having medicine like this is that it’s fast-acting as she reached for her P.R.P. and tried to send an S.O.S. to anyone nearby for help. Unfortunately, because Panopticon systems were heavily damaged, connections to other people in different Panopticons were cut off. She soon heard the sounds of heavy metal footsteps making their way over to her location. "Seriously!? How are they able to find me so damn fast!"
She soon turned her attention behind herself and saw the abductors closing the distance between them and began to quickly limp her way down the only path that was presented to her. She could hear their footsteps getting closer as she turned around and fired upon them with her rifle, hoping that it would do some kind of damage to them, but to no avail. While she continued to return fire, she suddenly felt her foot slip. She looked behind herself to see the edge of a cliff and a large pool of Will’O energy in liquid form flowing down in the pit. Given how there were broken pipes and molten metal still visible. She can assume someone must've overheated the chambers where the Will'O vat was being held and triggered an explosion. Adelle continued looking down at the chasm full of Will’O, forgetting about her current situation. It was almost...calming in a way, but sadly reality brought her back when she heard the abductors walking toward her.
“Talk about being cornered like a rat,” Adelle said before weighing her options. “Okay, I have three options. I go down guns blazing, commit suicide, and hope I don’t feel anything from them ripping me apart, or I fall into the chasm of Will’O energy and hope I survive long enough before the energy kills me.” She let out a sigh of defeat, option one would work if she had a team and were doing a final stand formation. Option two, she was too much of a coward to blow her brains out. Option three was pretty much the only option that didn’t sound that bad, but she could still die just slow and painfully. Due to the amount of Will’O energy she would be absorbing, it would be like drinking poison if not treated quickly.
“Fuck it, I’ll take poisonous death over slaughter death.” She said while limping backward even further towards the edge. “Finally got my freedom and my reward is death…Suppose it’s better than being a sinner forever.” Adelle took one last look at the abductors that were preparing to attack her. She could feel tears running down her face before flipping off the abductors, leaning backward, and falling into the chasm of Will’O. The moment she made contact with the pool of Will’O energy, she felt a slight feeling of an adrenaline rush flowing through her body, but also pain as the poison began to flood her body. She could feel her vision beginning to fade as her life started to flash through her eyes.
“What will happen to me when I die? Will anyone remember me when I’m gone...or will I be forgotten? I guess it doesn’t matter seeing how they don’t care for us sinners.” She wondered as her vision faded into darkness.
[Equestria]
EverFree Forest
The sound of bugs chirping, plant life swaying in the wind, and water flowing down a stream caused Adelle to let out a small groan. The moment she felt a bug land on her nose, she nonchalantly batted it away. It was when she picked up the smell of plant life and water, that the human began to slowly wake up. A groggy groan escaped her lips as she rubbed her eyes due to how tired she felt. Once her vision was cleared, she was soon taken by surprise at the fact that she was in the middle of a forest. She blinked in surprise at this before pinching herself to see if she was dreaming.
"W-Where am I?” Adelle asked while scanning the area she was in. “I remember that I was falling to my death, everything went dark, and then-" Adelle paused the moment she brought her hand up. Instead of it being her usual brown skin, it was now replaced with gray fur. Looking down, she noticed that she didn't have any feet, only...stubs. "W-WHAT THE FUCK HAPPENED TO MY FEET!?” She screamed, wondering if someone cut off her feet, and left her for dead. She tried to pull herself up so she could walk over to the stream next to her, but couldn’t due to not being used to having stubs as feet. She decided to crawl over to the stream of water and her eyes widened upon seeing her reflection in the water.
"I...I'm a....horse?" She said while still looking at myself in the stream's reflection. "How the fuck am I a horse? An anthropomorphic horse with bat-like features…T-This has to be a dream…right?" The human turned bat pony asked before punching herself in the face. She winced from the pain she felt on her right face as a sense of dread developed over her. This wasn’t a dream, and this was real. At first, she was about to freak out due to this sudden knowledge of her situation. But soon stopped upon hearing the sound of a frog croaking off to the side. Upon noticing it, she finally took notice of her surroundings with much better attention as she was amazed by the greenery around her. She had only read about what this stuff looked like in books and holographic records back in her cell, but she had never seen it in real life before. It was breathtaking, to say the least, and gave her a moment to calm down. She soon slumps down to the ground as she sighs.
“This doesn’t make any sense. I know I died in a pool of Will’O energy because of the poison I felt flowing through my body. Did I survive the poison that caused this mutation? Can’t be a hallucination given how I punched myself in the face.” She said before looking up at the sky, which took her by surprise given how clear it looked. Due to the constant wars over the years back on earth. Seeing a clear sky that wasn’t covered in smog, clouds, or a sandstorm was nearly impossible. The only time when she could see something like that was in books or holograms.
“Focus Adelle, you need to assess the situation. First order of business, information about your anatomy.” The bat pony said before looking over at her reflection in the stream. “Okay, so I have horse ears…I think. Bat wings.” She said while opening her mouth to see she had bat-like fangs instead of normal human teeth. “Fangs similar to a bat, stubby feet similar to that of a horse's feet, horsetail, and possibly more stuff underneath your clothing. Let's see if I can walk like how I usually do.”
The bat pony would pat herself on the face as a means of encouraging herself to focus. She soon crawled over to a nearby tree stump and used it as support to help her stand up. Once she stood up, she carefully took one step forward as a means to test her leg’s stability before taking another step. She was a bit wobbly at first, but after a few minutes of walking around in her new body, she started to get a better handle on it…well the walking and running aspect of it. The flying part is a different story seeing how she has no idea how to fly.
“Okay, walking seems to be as normal as a human. That’s good, this means this body is almost like that of a human’s minus the fangs, wings, and eyes looking like cat eyes.” She said before pulling up her portable responsibility portal via a digital screen. “I’m a bit surprised that I can still access my resources given how I was only allowed to use it only in my cell. But I’m not complaining, this just means I have no restrictions on what I can or can’t access.” With the digital screen presented to her, she began looking over some of the items she had claimed over the four years she had been a sinner in the Panopticon of New York. So far she had a lot of the standard-issued weapons ranging from handguns, assault rifles, sniper rifles, rocket launchers, sub-machine guns, light swords, greatswords, polearms, laser cannons, grenades, etc. She soon made her way to her storage unit as she was heavily stocked on medical supplies, ammunition, abductor parts, and other miscellaneous items.
“Other than having to upgrade a lot of my weapons, it seems I have everything. Now then let's see if I can find a town or city that can tell me where I am?" Just as she was about to look around, the bat pony heard a blood-curdling scream from over the bushes to the left of her. She blinks for a moment due to being taken by surprise from hearing the scream but begins to carefully make her way over to where the scream came from while making a sniper rifle appear in her hands. The moment she made it to the area where the scream came from, the bat pony saw that there was a blue anthropomorphic horse with a horn on her head wearing a mage-like outfit, next to her was some kind of animal that looked like a mix between a lion and a bird wearing a black shirt with a skull on it, blue jeans, and black fishnet stockings.
“...Well that’s something you don't see every day.” She thought before looking over to her right to see what they were looking at. To her surprise, she saw a monster with the head of a lion, the wings of a bat, and a scorpion tail. “...Shoot first, ask questions later.” The moment she saw the manticore taking a few steps forward, Adelle aimed from behind the bush she was hiding behind, and fired a warning shot at the manticore’s foot. The monster quickly jumps away after feeling the bullet pierced a hole in his foot as he scans the area to see who did it.
"Sorry ugly, but I can’t afford to have you eat them. I’m kind of lost and I need their assistance in something very important.” Adelle said after moving from behind the bush she was hiding behind. The manticore glared daggers at her before charging at the bat pony with the intent to kill her. The moment the manticore was halfway towards the bat pony. Adelle summoned red thorns around her right arm to latch onto a tree branch and pull herself out of the way of the charging monster’s path. Upon landing on the tree branch, she aimed and fired another bullet at the monster. Only this time she shot at the joint connecting the manticore’s arm to his shoulder.
The manticore let out a roar of pain due to feeling his right arm dislocated. He soon flapped his wings before flying towards Adelle in an attempt to tackle her to the ground. The bat pony reached behind herself, pulled out a flash grenade, and tossed it at the monster’s face. The bomb went off in a matter of seconds as a quick flash erupted in front of the monster. The beast roared in pain before crashing into the tree that Adelle was in and causing her to fall from the branch and onto her back.
“Not one of my best choices, but at least it worked.” She said before slowly pulling herself up as she saw the beast rolling around in pain from the flash grenade hurting his eyes and making him blind. The bat pony took this opportunity to use the binding thorns to wrap around the manticore’s body and pinned him to the ground. Once pinned, Adelle made her way over to the creature, placed the barrel of her sniper rifle against his head, and pulled the trigger as the bullet entered the monster’s head. The manticore’s eyes widened for a moment before rolling into the back of his head before falling to the ground. A smirk can be seen running across the bat pony’s face upon seeing that the manticore was dead. She soon turned her attention onto the unicorn and griffon before speaking.
“Hey, are you two okay?”
“Y-Yeah, we’re fine.” The griffon said while staring at Adelle in a mix of fear and disbelief.
“The great and powerful Trixie didn’t need your help...But she is fine, thanks for asking.” Trixie said as she looked at me up and down. “You wouldn’t happen to be one of Luna’s Night Guards…are you?”
“Don’t know who this Luna person is, but no. I’m not part of her…Night Guard?” Adelle answered before noticing the griffon carefully making her way toward the dead manticore. She walked around it for a moment before whistling due to being impressed by the clean kill.
“No way this girl is part of the royal guards. They’re not that good at taking on a manticore by themselves.” She said before looking at the SR-44/ET sniper rifle. “Nor do they have something like that. What the hell is that thing?”
“A Sniper rifle…have either of you ever heard of a firearm before?”
“What is a firearm?” Trixie asked while looking at the weapon in the bat pony’s hand. “Tell Trixie who you are and where you come from. The Great and Powerful Trixie demands it!” She demanded while slamming her hoof onto the ground. The bat pony stared at her for a moment before pondering her options in her head.
“Normally it would be against the rules to talk with someone from a different Panopticon, not to mention that I would have been sent back to becoming a sinner. But seeing how I’m not back at home, perhaps telling them wouldn’t hurt…right?” Before she could answer, her stomach started to growl, causing the bat pony’s face to turn red in embarrassment. “I’ll tell them after I get something to eat.” She said before looking over at the remains of that manticore she killed. "Hey, is it possible for me to eat that thing?"
“You want to eat that Manticore!?” Trixie asked as Adelle nodded. “But you’re a pony!”
“Well yeah. Why’d you ask?” I asked.
"B-but you're a pony, right? Ponies don't eat meat. The only species that I know that eat meat are griffons like her and dragons." She said while pointing a hoof towards the griffin girl.
"Oh, so that's what she is? Geez, do I even want to know how a bird and a lion procreate?" She thought before shivering at the thought of it.
"This griffin has a name you know?" She said with a pissed-off look on her face. "The name’s Gilda by the way kid." She said while extending her claw-like hand for Adelle to shake.
"Normally Trixie doesn’t give out her name to anypony...But seeing how you saved us, I suppose she can give her name out to you." Trixie said her horn started to glow as she jumped back from Adelle and Gilda. "The Great and Powerful TRIXIE!" She said as fireworks and sparklers shot out from behind the unicorn as she spelled her name out.
"Right...Anyway, my name is Adelle Topaz, a former sinner of Panopticon in New York.” Adelle replied while shaking Gilda's claw hand.
[Equestria]
Everfree Forest
Nighttime
A few hours have passed since the trio decided to camp out in the forest for the night. It wasn’t anything big. Just a small campfire, sleeping bags, and eating utensils for them to eat. Well, mostly Gilda and Adelle seeing how they were eating manticore meat while Trixie was having plant life from the surrounding area. During the past hours they had spent, Adelle exchanged a bit of information about where she came from, specifically Earth, and how it was in the past to the current year which was around the million-year mark. To say that Trixie and Gilda were kind of skeptical of her being from another planet, but given how she presented proof via hologram from the black boxes that she was carrying strapped around her waist. In exchange for said information on Adelle’s situation, they in turn gave her basic knowledge about Equestria, the history of how it was made, Princess Celestia & Luna, and the elements of harmony, and their current situation as to why they’re in the forest. Seems like the two of them got into a heated argument involving which direction to go. One thing led to another and Trixie fired off one of her fireworks in an attempt to hit Gilda, only for it to miss and hit a nearby sleeping manticore. Which in turn caused the two to run like bats out of hell due to the monster chasing them. It was a bit amusing to the bat girl but was glad she was able to help them as best as she could.
“So…you’re not a bat pony, but a hooman who somehow ended up turning into a bat pony after falling to some strange liquid that’s poisonous?” Trixie asked as Adelle nodded and showed her and Gilda what she looked like before the change. From what they could tell, the image showed a brown-skinned human with purple hair, and blue eyes, and was wearing ragged and revealing clothing. “Geez, you hoomans look ugly. Like hairless monkeys if Trixie is being honest.” She said, which caused Adelle to deadpan her and Gilda to smack the mare upside her head. “What!? It’s true!”
“Oh like you ponies are better looking than them?” Gilda said before looking over at the bat pony. “Is there a reason why you’re wearing rags like that?”
“It’s pronounced human, not hooman.” Adelle said while leaning back a bit on the ground before looking over at Gilda. “And to answer your question, Gilda, Sinners like me don’t get much when it comes to clothing or anything for that matter. The moment you get sent to jail, all your human rights are stripped away, you’re sentenced to one million years in prison, and you have to do whatever the people in charge of the Panopticon you’re in.”
“One million years!?” Gilda yelled as Adelle nodded.
“What kind of crime did you do to get that kind of sentence?” Trixie asked.
“I…prefer not to talk about it. But what I can say is that even if it’s just a minor crime, you would still get arrested and sentenced to prison for becoming a sinner. Oh, you stole a small piece of candy, it’s prison time for you. Oh, you killed someone out of self-defense, sorry. You’re going to prison. Doesn’t matter if you’re young or old, you’ll get a ticket to prison no matter the crime. Hell, it’s even worse if you’re a baby.”
“What do you mean?” Gilda asked as she flipped the manticore meat she was cooking on a stone in the campfire.
“Newborn infants born into the world are instantly labeled as a waste of human resources. They’re either killed off or worse. Trained in the Panopticon training facility to become sinners.”
“....Dear Celestia. How can somepony even think of doing something like that?” Trixie asked as Adelle shrugged.
“Well given how my planet is pretty much a barren wasteland of broken-down cities, sand, and lord knows what else. People have to do whatever they can to limit the use of resources wisely.” She said before looking up at the night sky. “Years of war and conflict in the past caught up to people like me in the distant future. You want your freedom, you have to undertake operations and donate materials to the greater cause for your Panopticon...I never believed that crap. I'm pretty sure the people in charge of that system use the resources just for themselves."
"Don't you have some kind of freedom while in jail? I mean, they can't just keep you locked inside and only let you out to do operations?"
"Not unless you're a level eight and claim the rights you lost upon becoming a sinner over time. Other than that, you're pretty much locked inside your jail cell."
“Trixie hates to live where you come from, though Trixie is wondering something?”
“How did I take down that manticore?” Addle asked as Trixie nodded. "Well back on earth, the missions I would be sent on were either taking down abductors that kidnapped people or fighting against the people from On High," she said before bringing up a couple of digital images of what an abductor looks like and On High soldiers. "The manticore kinda reminded me of a Ramosa. They’re kinda easy to take down if you know what you’re doing. Plus I've been doing this for the past four years.”
"...How old are you?" Gilda asked.
"Seventeen," The bat pony said as they were taken by surprise by what she said. "What? I was thirteen at the time when I was sent to jail after what I did."
"Okay…while I am a bit interested in what your world is like…what are your plans now?" Gilda said which caused Adelle to raise an eyebrow at her. “I mean, you’re no longer in jail but you don’t have any money to help start a new life in Equestria. So what are you going to do?”
“I…don’t know. Originally the plan was for me to relax in the hidden oasis that I found back in my world and live out my days as a free person. But after what happened and me ending up in Equestria, I don’t know what to do now.” She said which caused Trixie and Gilda to look at each other for a moment before looking at Adelle.
“Why not hang out with us?” Gilda said, which took Adelle by surprise. “I mean we’re kind of in the same boat, but different. So why not help each other out.”
“Trixie will have to agree with the feather brain on this one. Plus with skills like yours, you might pass off as Trixie’s assistant in her magical act.”
“Hm, I suppose it’s not a bad idea…but are you sure you want me around? I mean, you did see what I just did to that manticore, right?”
“All the more reason to have around with us. Mainly because I might have a way to make some easy money.”
“What do you mean griffon?” Trixie asked before noticing a grin appearing on Gilda’s face.
“Up on a mountain top far off from Ponyville, there’s a dragon that’s hoarding a crap ton of treasure. Given how good you are with those fancy tools of yours, I figure we take down the dragon and take his loot.”
"Are you crazy, doing something like that in Equestria!?" Trixie yelled as Gilda rolled her eyes.
"You have a better idea of making money? Keep in mind, given what happened in Ponyville with the Ursa Minor incident and me calling Ponyville lame. Word spread like wildfire real quickly, so we don't have much going for us at this time.”
“She has a point,” Adelle added. “Plus I can’t get a job here seeing how ponies don't just hire strangers without a background check…right?”
“So yeah, we’re going to kill a dragon,” Gilda said as Trixie deadpans at her. “What? If it makes you feel better, we’ll hide the body or something.”
“That's even worse!” Trixie yelled.
“What’s the big deal? Adelle's going to be the one that kills him, not use." Gilda said, which caused the bat pony to burst out laughing while Trixie stared at her with a dumbfounded expression on her face.
"I'm not against the idea, but let's try talking to the big guy and see if he would hand over some of his treasure," Adelle said as she noticed Trixie’s manic expression. "What? It’s not like I’m not going to kill him without giving him a chance to talk.”
“Oh my……me.”
“Don’t you mean Celestia?” Gilda said as Trixie glared at her.
“You worship your thing. Trixie worships hers!”
“Ladies, focus, please?” Adelle asked before looking over at Trixie. “Look at it this way, Trixie. If we get the treasure, then we can fix your wagon that was destroyed by the ursa minor that you mentioned. Not to mention buy you new stuff for your traveling act, right?”
“You…make a valid point, but Trixie has her doubts about this. Not to sound like a downer, but how can you take down a dragon? The ponies that Trixie knows that can do that are Princess Celestia and Princess Luna.” Trixie asked.
“If the dragons are anything like the Dionaea’s back home, then I’m sure I can handle taking them down,” The bat pony said before reaching for her sniper rifle next to her. “From what I’ve read in storytelling books, Dragons' scales are as hard as steel, so I just need to make a few armor-piercing rounds to bypass their scales.”
“Armor piercing rounds?” Gilda asked as Adelle reached into her pocket and pulled out a bullet. She quickly popped it into her sniper rifle and aimed at a large rock a few inches away from them. The bat pony soon aimed at the rock and fired the armor-piercing bullet. Within a matter of seconds, the rock that was still intact shattered into pieces which caused Trixie and Gilda’s eyes to widen. “They were meant for the abductors back home, but I’m sure they’ll work on a dragon just the same.”
“Okay…Trixie suppose that will work…she thinks?” Trixie said before shaking her head to regain her focus. “Now, how are we going to carry all that loot once you kill it?”
“I’ll work on something to carry the treasure tomorrow as we make our way to the dragon’s home. For now, we should get some rest while we can. It’s going to be a long day tomorrow, and I want to get some sleep for once in my life without the worry of being called for some stupid operation or something.” Adelle said as Trixie and Gilda nodded and went back to their respective meals.
Operation Two: Dragon Killer
Author's Note
WIP but this is what Adelle's pony form looks like. I'll color her in when I get the chance.
Operation Two: Dragon Killer
Operation Two
Dragon Killer
[The Next Day]
“So, this is the mountain with the dragon at the top?” Adelle asked as Gilda nodded.
“Yep, this is the place that I flew past a couple of days ago. The dragon should be up top hoarding tons of treasure that we can take for ourselves.”
“Trixie still doesn’t like this idea. She thinks we’ll have a better chance of trying to find a job than getting roasted alive by a dragon.” Trixie said as Gilda rolled her eyes.
“Again, you have an idea where someone is willing to hire us after what happened in Ponyville?” The griffon asked as Trixie deadpanned at her. “Thought so, now quit your whining and get to climbing.” She said before spreading her wings and flying up towards the plateau part of the mountain where the dragon was located. Trixie sighed in annoyance before looking over at Adelle as she extended a hand towards her.
“Grab Trixie’s hand and she’ll teleport us to the top…also you might want to turn your head to the side,” Trixie said as the bat pony held onto the unicorn’s hand.
“What do you mean by-” Before she could finish, Trixie’s horn lit up for a second as the two were teleported to the entrance of the cave where the dragon lives. In a matter of seconds, Adelle felt her stomach churn as she quickly got on all fours and threw up some of her food from this morning before they left the campsite. “A little warning then just that would’ve been nice! What the hell just happened!?”
“Teleportation magic. Comes in handy when you need to get from one place to another, or quick escapes.” Trixie answered as Adelle pulled herself up and wiped the bile from her mouth. “Don’t worry, you only throw up once due to your body not being used to moving from one place to another instantly. Now that you’ve experienced it, you’ll be okay for now.”
“Geez, well isn’t that just wonderful,” Adelle said in a sarcastic tone before noticing Gilda landing next to them.
“About time you two showed up. Was beginning to think you two had second thoughts about this.”
“Trixie is, but has no choice but to come along with you two,” Trixie said as Adelle looked over at the entrance and saw a black-colored dragon currently sleeping without a care in the world.
“So that’s the dragon you mentioned?” The bat pony asked as Gilda nodded. “Anything I should be worried about?”
“Other than dragons having hard scales, breathing fire hot enough to melt rock, and the ability to fly. That’s pretty much all I know from the books that my grandpa has.” Gilda answered as Adelle pulled up a digital screen to access the Facility Management. “A few Debilitators to deal with the dragon's scales if the armor-piercing bullets aren’t strong enough."
"Debilitators?" Gilda asked. "What's that?"
"Debilitators are used to weaken the durability of an abductor's joints. Makes it easy for when you have to use a weapon to cut off a piece of their limbs." She said before making the screen vanish and motioning for Trixie and Gilda to hide behind a boulder near the entrance of the cave. "Stay hidden while I deal with the dragon."
“If you die, I call dibs on your cool gear,” Gilda said which caused the bat pony to pause and glare at her. “What? I’m just saying it would be a waste to let something like that be buried or something.”
“Remind me to kick your ass later.” The bat pony said before turning around and walking over to the entrance of the cave. She was about to say something to wake the dragon up, but soon noticed something shining off the corner of her eye. She soon looked over to her right as her eyes widened upon seeing mountains upon mountains of gold, gems, weapons, jewel-encrusted furniture, weapons, and other miscellaneous objects. “Fucking hell this dragon is loaded. Might end up retiring at an early age if we survive this.”Just as she took a step forward, the dragon’s eyes shot open as he locked eyes with Adelle’s who simply stared at him. There was a moment of awkward silence in the air before the dragon spoke.
“....You have ten seconds to leave or give me a reason why I should burn you.” The dragon asked.
“I’ll leave if you give me enough of your treasure for me and my friends,” Adelle answered which caused the dragon to slowly raise his head with a deadpan expression on his face.
“You got a lot of nerves to make such. What makes you think I’ll hand over any of my treasure to you.”
“Because if you don’t, then I’ll kick your ass, or worse, I’ll kill you.” She said which caused the dragon to bellow in laughter.
“You, going to kill me? That is a nice joke, pony. But if you don’t leave in the next ten seconds, I will crush you under my foot.” The Dragon said as Adelle rolled her eyes.
“I’m not leaving until you give me part of your treasure. Now I would suggest that you do so, or else.” She said as the dragon lowered his head towards the bat pony.
“Or else what? In case you haven’t noticed. I’m ten times larger than you and can knock you off this mountain with just a flick of my claw. What can a tiny pony like you do-” Before the dragon could finish his sentence, the bat pony quickly summoned a chainsaw-like blade into her hand and embedded it into the dragon’s eye. The dragon recoils back from the pain he feels as he covers his right eye and rolls around in an attempt to lessen the pain.
“That’s what I can do.” She said before materializing another EZ Falke into her hand. “Now you already lost one eye, do you want to lose the other eye? Hand over your treasure, and I’ll be on my way.”
“You little insect!” The dragon yelled as he slowly regained his composure while covering his injured eye. “You will rue the day you mess with me. I gave you a chance to flee, but now you will be crushed by my wrath!” He yelled before taking a deep breath and unleashing a widespread flame attack upon the bat pony. The color of Adelle’s thorns changed from red to white as she quickly thrust the thorns into the ground. Within a matter of seconds, a wall of thorns appeared in front of her as the flames brushed past her like water off of a duck’s feathers.
“Dear Celestia!?” Trixie yelled as she saw the bat pony engulfed in flames.
“Dammit, I wanted to have that box with the weird weapons she had on her,” Gilda said in annoyance. “Wait, maybe I can still get it if they’re not melted down into rubble or something.”
"Seriously? You worry about my weapons being yours then worrying about me?" Adelle said as the unicorn and griffon looked over to where the voice came from. Their eyes widened upon seeing Adelle perfectly fine the moment the flames died off to reveal her.
“What sort of magic is that? How were you able to survive from my flames?" The dragon asked with a dumbfounded expression on his face.
“Shielding thorns, never thought stealing those would come in handy.” Adelle thought before the color of her thorns changed from white to red as she bolted toward the dragon. The dragon saw this as he lifted his tail and brought it down in an attempt to smash the sinner into the ground. The bat pony quickly shot out her binding thorn towards a hanging stalactite as she moved herself to it to avoid the oncoming attack. Once there she quickly reached into her inventory to pull out a Debilitator and threw it onto the dragon’s tail. The moment she succeeded in hitting her mark, she released her hold on the stalactite and landed on the dragon’s tail. Once there she quickly thrust her weapon into his tail and proceeded with cutting his tail off. The dragon lets out a primal roar from the pain he feels as he tries to throw the bat pony off of his tail.
“Get off my tail you annoying pest!” He ordered before slamming his tail into the side of the cave’s wall. Before she was slammed into the wall, the bat pony quickly pulled her weapon out of his tail and used the momentum from it to get a good distance away from the dragon. The moment his tail slammed into the wall of the cave, Adelle quickly used her thorns to latch onto a nearby stalagmite, swung herself around it, used the momentum from it to spin around like a spinning top, and lobbed off the dragon’s tail with little to no effort. Another roar was heard from the dragon as he recoiled back in pain from his tail being cut off as he glared at Adelle who was making her way over to the dragon.
“Look, you’re a smart dragon, right? It should be clear enough that if I can cut your tail off with ease, I can do the same with your head.” She said before aiming her weapon at the dragon. “So I’m going to ask again. Surrender now and hand over some of your gold, or else you’ll be made into…leather shoes. What the hell do you make out of dragon skin or its scales?”
The dragon snorted in defiance as he soon charged at the bat pony to her demand. Adelle rolled her eyes upon seeing this as she latched onto a stalactite above her thorns. Once above, she reached into her inventory and threw a Debilitator onto the dragon’s neck. The dragon looked up and began taking in a deep breath and fired off a barrage of fireballs at her. Adelle quickly releases her hold on the stalactite as she descends and lands on the dragon’s head. The moment she was on his head, she quickly used his scales to slide down his body, but not before reaching into her inventory and leaving a trail of sticky grenades down his neck. As soon as she jumps off the dragon and lands behind him, she quickly makes her weapon disappear and is replaced with her sniper rifle.
The dragon looked behind himself to see Adelle behind him. He took in a deep breath and was about to fire off a wide-range flame attack, only for Adelle to fire a bullet at the sticky grenades that were placed on her neck. The moment the bullet made contact with the grenade, it set off a chain of explosions on his neck as pieces of his flesh and scales shattered around the area of the cave they were in. Within a matter of seconds, the smoke from the explosion cleared up and revealed a headless dragon standing for a moment before falling off to the side causing the ground to shake a bit.
“Alright, a day in Equestria and I just committed murder. Well, I could go with self-defense if someone finds his body like this…better get rid of the body as soon as possible.” Adelle said before looking over at Trixie and Gilda off to the side of her. “Dragon’s dead. Don’t think he’ll be bothering anyone anytime soon.”
"Yeah, because you blew his head off!” Trixie yelled as she looked over at the headless body before gagging at the sight of it. “Dear Celestia, Trixie is going to be sick.”
"I knew it was a good call to have you around us," Gilda said as she whistled in astonishment at the dead body. “If my grandpa saw this he would be very impressed and jealous at the same time.”
“Nice to hear that I would be praised and jealous at the same time,” Adelle said before handing a small glowing cube over to Trixie as she caught it with her magic. “Head into the cave and gather as much treasure as you can.”
“And what are you going to do?” Gilda asked as she watched Adelle walk over to the dragon’s body.
“I’m going to dispose of the body.” She said which took them by surprise. “What? I don’t know what I did would count as a crime, but I prefer not to have this place’s law enforcement coming after us anytime soon. So I’m going to get rid of the body before anything bad happens to us.”
“...I mean, understandable, but how are you going to get rid of the body?” Gilda asked as she pointed out how large the dragon was. “You got something that could hide something that big?”
“I have my ways. Wouldn’t be the first time I had to dispose of a body.” Adelle said before summoning her severing weapon into her hand, though it would be noticed by the griffon and unicorn that instead of the pale green and gray color theme it had on before, it was red and black. “I just need to…improvise a bit.”
Operation Four
Busted
Adelle felt something warm hit her face as she slowly woke up. Upon waking up, she had the taste of metal in her which she turned to the side and spat out the blood that was in her mouth.
“What the hell happened? One minute I was about to escape with Trixie and Gilda, the next I was hit with something hard before blacking out.” She said before examining the darkness she was in. Given her bat pony anatomy, she could see crystal clear in her surroundings as she found herself in a cave.
“Thank Celestia, you’re awake.” said a familiar voice as the bat pony turned to her side to see Gilda carrying a few pieces of wood and a dead boar on her back. “We thought you would be asleep for another day or so after what happened two days ago.”
“Wait, I’ve been asleep for two days!?” Adelle asked which caused the griffon to nod. The bat pony stared at her for a couple of seconds before feeling a chill run over her body. Looking down, she noticed that her clothes were gone and were replaced with blood-covered bandages. “Jesus, what happened to my clothes…more importantly, why am I covered in blood-soaked bandages?”
"Trixie had to throw them out due to the blood," Trixie said as she moved from behind Gilda. "Couldn't you wake up with blood-covered clothes? So Trixie burned them."
“Dammit, and those were my favorite clothes. Couldn’t you have washed them or something?”
"Trixie is more surprised that you're awake. Especially given the injury that you had. But worry not. For The Great and Powerful Trixie has saved you!"
"...Care to explain?"
"You ended up with a piece of that weapon you were holding in your chest. You can thank Rainbow Dash for hitting you with a surprise attack from the side," Gilda answered as she pointed to Adelle’s chest. Moving the bandages from her chest area, she noticed the area was covered in a strange metal-like substance as she looked back at the duo. "We couldn't pull that thing out, so Trixie used a spell to fuse that piece of metal into your skin so you wouldn't die due to blood loss."
“...I...I'm amazed something like that is possible to do.” Adelle said before trying to pull herself up slightly but winced due to the pain she felt in her chest.
“I wouldn’t recommend moving anytime soon. After the beating you took and her quick magical surgery spell thing, you are in no condition to be moving around as much.”
“This wouldn't be the first time I've been in a situation like this...though at least someone was willing to patch me up without me giving up my stuff,” Adelle said before standing up but soon fell onto her knees.
"We can’t stay here for long. Especially given how those girls are pretty much looking for us."
“All the more reason why we need to hide out here,” Trixie said as her horn glowed, causing the entrance to the cave to seal up. “You’re the only one who can defend us against Twilight and her friends, and we need you back in working order before we can move out from here.”
“Yesh, so we’ll bring you food to eat so you can recover faster.” She said before making her way over to the center of the cave and began making a small campfire with the materials she found in the woods.
“They didn’t appear until the second day, I only assume that it’s a side effect of Trixie’s magic fusing that blade into your chest,” Gilda answered.
“What kind of spell allowed her to do something like that?”
“Trixie...honestly doesn't know. She kind of just mixed different fusion spells from a book she found in the castle of the twin sisters. Originally it was used to help repair pieces of my wagon, so this is the first time she has done this on another pony before.” Trixie answered as the bat pony stared at her in disbelief.
"...So this was your first time doing this...and you didn't think that it would kill me or worse?"
“I mean yes, but you shouldn't do something like that without testing it on someone else! I mean seriously, for all we know it could've turned me into a ball of flesh or something!”
“Yeah, because Trixie can just ask somepony to test it on,” Trixie said in a sarcastic tone.
“Look, you're not dead, so be grateful and stop complaining,” Gilda said before placing the meat on a stone placed in the fire. "Most ponies in your position wouldn't survive long enough to see the next day or so."
“...Fine,” Adelle said before looking over at Trixie. "Thanks for saving my life I suppose."
"The Great and Powerful Trixie accepts your gratitude towards her healing abilities." She said as Adelle rolled my eyes at her comment.
"Did you at least survey the area we're in while setting up traps in case someone was trailing us?" I asked as Gilda and Trixie looked over at each other for a moment before shaking their heads.
"Trixie placed a spell that would cover our tracks and around the cave we're in. The only way somepony would be able to find us would be the princesses or a highly skilled unicorn with a tracking spell."
“I suppose that will keep us hidden for a while.”
“Yep, so we can take it easy for a while and eat before we have to move.” She said as she started to put seasoning on the meat.
“Right…dammit, how the hell did I get taken out by that rainbow color freak. I should’ve seen it coming, but I didn’t think she was as fast as a bullet.”
“To be fair I’m sure you’re not the only one who got their flank handed to her. But on the bright side, at least you can say you fought against the Elements of Harmony. Most ponies wouldn't stand a chance against them seeing how they're all about the magic of friendship and stuff,“
"Indeed. It's very annoying when they talked about that stuff when Trixie met them for the first time." Trixie said as the bat pony snorted in amusement.
“This world is weird but peaceful. Though I will get payback for what that rainbow-haired jackass did to me."
"Right, she sucker-punched you from the side. I can't blame you for getting hit like that seeing how Rainbow Dash is really fast."
“I’ll have to make some kind of countermeasure for her speed. Wonder if I can make some kind of glue bomb to pin her down or prevent her from using her wings.” Adelle said before pulling a digital screen and began messing it.
"You’re making it right now?" Gilda asked.
"Making augmentations to help improve my physical skills. I never had the chance to make them due to being called upon to do missions non-stop."
"Augmentations?" Trixie asked.
"They're kind of like special tech that improves a person's physical abilities. It can range from physical strength, endurance, stamina, and regeneration. Though it takes longer for a lost limb or severely damaged organs to regenerate."
“Well aren’t you full of surprises,” Gilda said as a smirk appeared on her face.
“Annoying as they were, they at least give us sinners something to use so that we don’t die too quickly...I still fucking hate them.”
"How are you feeling by the way?" Trixie asked.
"Shit, I blame that stupid pegasus for that. The worst part about it was that I lost my favorite sword. It took me months to get it upgraded. Not to mention getting lightning materials is hard to come by."
“Hey, you wouldn't happen to have some spare weapons that I could borrow, do you?” Gilda asked. "You know, nothing big or anything. Just something that could be helpful for me when I go out hunting?"
"Hm...I'll see what I can make for you," Adelle said before bringing up a digital keyboard and beginning typing on it.
“Trixie would also like something from you as well. A staff so that it can make me stand out more when I do my magic.” Trixie said as Adelle rolled my eyes at her comment.
"I'll see what I can make for you as well, but don't expect it to be fancy or anything cool,” She said before getting distracted by the aroma of the meat cooking. “The smell of freshly cooked meat is something that I will never get over.”
“The perks of living in griffonstone,” Gilda said as she pulled a piece of boar meat from the boar and started to munch on it. “We may be rude, but we make good food when meat is involved.”
“If food was this good back in the Panopticon I lived in, I wouldn't mind working my ass off to the bone for them...well that and they didn't treat us like scum."
"Life was that hard on your planet wasn't it?"
“Oh, you have no idea. Even if you weren’t a sinner, life outside of the Panopticon is much harder. What with abductors, people from On High, and bandits living in the wastelands of Earth. Panopticons were the only places that would be considered an oasis/sanctuary…well half-ass is a more accurate term. Granted it provided protection, but that doesn’t stop the people from On High from attacking us.”
“And who are these On High ponies?” Trixie asked as Adelle brought up a digital image of a few people in well-dressed clothing, high-graded gear, a large flying disk-like craft, and abductors that were clean and polished.
“The On High is a place above the Panopticons. It’s a place where the privileged dwell where they have just about everything. Food, water, clothes, shelter, and higher standards of technology. They’re also the ones that make the abductors that attack the people in the Panopticons.”
“Wait a minute. You mean to tell me that they have all this stuff, and all they’re doing is causing the people in the wasteland below them to suffer?” Gilda asked as Adelle nodded. “...What the buck!?”
“Reminds of the ponies in Canterlot, only without those weird monster things that you’re showing us. But why would they do something like that? I can understand if they’re isolating themselves and only giving out a certain amount of supplies, but why terrorize humans below them, even though they’re already suffering?”
“Superiority complex perhaps?” Adelle said as she stopped her typing and looked over at Gilda and Trixie.
“The majority opinion of the people from On High is one of disgust towards the Panopticons and the people below. We don’t know why they’re like that, but we do know that everyone hates them to the point where they would wipe them off the face of the earth if given the chance. I’m on board with them as well. Fucking asshole cost me a lot of blood, pain, and misery due to their surprise attacks and relentless assault on the Panopticon in Manhattan.”
“Wait, you have a Manehattan on your planet?” Trixie asked as Adelle stared at the unicorn for a moment before speaking.
“....You’re joking…right? You call your Manhattan, "Manehatten?” She asked as Gilda and Trixie nodded. “...Swell, there’s gonna be a lot of pony-related words on this planet aren’t there?”
“I’m going to assume so, yes,” Gilda answered as she heard the bat pony groan in annoyance. Before the bat pony could say anything, a loud voice could be heard from outside of the cave, causing the trio to turn their attention at the entrance.
“Trixie Lulamoon and Gilda! We know you’re in there! Come out with your hands up!” The voice said as Gilda looked over at Trixie and Adelle for a moment before slowly making her way to the entrance of the cave. Upon looking down, the griffon saw nothing at first, but squinting her eyes she could see Princess Luna at the bottom of the clearing as the griffon quickly pulled her head back inside the cave.
"Princess Luna is outside…and she doesn’t look all too happy," Gilda said as Trixie's eyes widened.
"You’re joking, right? Please tell me you’re joking?” She asked as the griffon shook her head. “Oh, we are so doomed!”
"I was expecting something like that to happen, but I didn’t think your ruler would be able to find us that quickly," Adelle said before summoning a sniper rifle into her hands.
“What are you doing!?” Trixie asked.
“Just a safety precaution in case things go south,” Adelle answered as she noticed Gilda’s and Trixie’s shocked expressions. “Relax, I’m going to kill her, I’m just going to do warning shots if she takes a step forward.”
“And you think something like that is going to work?” Gilda asked.
“I killed a fucking dragon, didn’t I? I’m sure I can handle a princess like her without any problems whatsoever.” Adelle answered as she staggered to her feet and slowly began making her way out of the cave. “I'll see what she wants first before making any decision. If I drop a flash grenade, then you two run for it.” Upon making it to the entrance, she would slowly make her way down the cliff, only to lose her foot as she was about to hit the ground face-first. Before she was inches away from eating dirt, she felt herself being levitated by Princess Luna as she was gently placed on the ground by the lunar princess. “Um…thanks?” She said before noticing the shocked expression on her face. “Is something the matter?”
“You’re…a child?” Luna asked as Adelle deadpanned at her.
“I’m not a child, I’m seventeen years old!” She yelled before kneeling and clenching her chest. “Fucking hell should’ve taken some painkillers before coming down here.”
“Child…what happened to you?”
“Your sister’s dumbass student and her friends happen, that’s what. Or did she not tell you about how her rainbow-colored friend almost killed me by having a piece of metal impaled into my chest?” She asked as Luna looked over at the bat pony’s body as she noticed her body was covered in blood-soaked bandages.
“Given the letter she sent us, she didn’t add that part in it…nor did she inform me that Trixie and Gilda had a child with them to run for their bits,” Luna said as she kneeled in front of her. “I take it you’re the bat pony she mentioned that killed a dragon?”
“Hey, he attacked us. Not our fault he wouldn’t let us leave due to Trixie’s teleportation magic failing.” She said before noticing Luna raising an eyebrow at her. “But let's say that I am the one you're looking for. What do you want with me?”
“You and your friends are to come with me to meet with my sister, Princess Celestia.”
“What for?”
“She would like to speak with you about what you did to that dragon. Not only that but she would like to ask you why you attacked Twilight and her friends.”
“And what would happen if I refuse to come with you?”
“Given the state that you’re in, I don’t think you have much of a choice. If you’re worried that you won’t get treatment for your injuries, then fear not. For we will have the medical ponies in Canterlot treat your injuries once we’re there.”
“Forgive me if I have a hard time believing that, especially given how your sister’s friends treated me two days ago. I can manage on my own.”
“With injuries like those, I doubt it,” Luna said with a slightly amused expression on her face. “What would it take to persuade you into coming with me, or believe me that nothing bad will happen to you and the others?”
“Under a few conditions. One, we are pardoned for any crimes that we may have committed. Two, you give Trixie a new mobile home that can fit me, her, and Gilda. Three, you tell your sister to come to meet me face to face the next time she wishes to speak with me.” Adelle said as she extended a hand toward Luna. “See that these conditions are met, and you’ll have yourself a deal.”
“The first one might be a problem considering how my sister can be with rules, but I might be able to lessen the punishment for that if we hold off treatment and go to her first. Given the state you’re in, you might be given a slap on your wrist due to that and you’re still a child.”
“Do we have a deal or not? Not trying to be an ass or anything…but I am in a serious amount of pain and I am having a hard time staying away or keeping focus on this conversation.” She said before feeling Luna shake her hand.
“We have a deal. Pray tell, what is your name, bat pony?”
“Adelle Topaz,” She said before cutting off the handshake as she motioned to the cave behind her. “The others are in the cave waiting for me. Inform them about what happened, and then you can take us to where your sister is…oh and bring the boar with us, I’m hungry you kind of interrupted our meal.”
“....You eat meat?”
“Is that a problem?”
“No…just bat ponies eat nothing but fruits or vegetables…where do you hail from, child?”
“Overseas…ended up here about a week ago due to a storm out in the ocean while I was traveling with my friends.”
“I see…interesting. That would explain a few things.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“Nothing, I’ll go bring your friends here before teleporting us to Canterlot,” Lun said before teleporting herself into the cave where Gilda and Trixie were hiding.
“Best keep the whole girl turning into a pony and from another planet to myself and those I trust. Telling them about it would make them think I’m crazy or worse.” Adelle thought before looking up at the cloud-covered sky. “Suppose this is a better life than life on earth,”
Operation Five: Royal Challenge
Operation Five
Royal Challenge
"So…this is how Trixie's life ends…She knew she would end up imprisoned on the moon, but at least she'd have a nice view of the planet." Trixie said before pulling out a piece of paper and began writing.
"What are you doing?" Luna asked.
"Writing Trixie's will. Pretty sure somepony will find my belongings, so might as well tell them where they are so they can do something with them." She answered as the dark alicorn deadpans at her before looking at Adelle and Gilda.
"Is she always this dramatic?"
"Seems like it…then again, she is a traveling magician, so I'm pretty sure it's her default personality," Adelle answered as the griffon nodded.
"I see…rest assured, you will not go to prison anytime soon. So long as you don't do what you did in Ponyville."
"Technically, she didn't do anything wrong if you think about it," Adelle said as Luna, Trixie, and Gilda looked over at Adelle. "From what she told us, it was due to two kids that brought that cosmic bear to Ponyville," She said before noticing Luna's blank expression. "Celestia's student did inform you both about that, right?"
"No…no, she did not. Or at least my sister didn't give me that little information in great detail."
"...So do you just listen to everything your sister is telling through Twilight's letters, or do you investigate the situation personally or have someone do it that does a good job?"
".... You're an odd pony for someone as young as you. I take it you've been in trouble with the law before?"
"No, but my parents were law enforcers before they passed away."
"Hm, interesting." She said momentarily before eyeing the bat pony before looking at Trixie. "I would like to have a word with you after the meeting of my sister and Adelle. If you don't mind?"
"O-Of course, Trixie means it's not that she has anywhere else to go or trying to run away would land me in the dungeon!" Trixie said while trying not to have a mental breakdown.
"Way to keep a level head, Trixie," Gilda said sarcastically before looking at Luna. "Can we go now? Because I'm pretty sure we're keeping Princess Celestia waiting too long."
"Of course, everypony, gather around me if you will?" Luna asked as Adelle, Trixie, and Gilda moved close to the alicorn. Once they were close, the horn on Luna's forehead lit up as the alicorn instantly teleported the group to the throne room of Canterlot Castle. Upon appearing in the throne room, the bat pony was surprised by the room's architectural design. She had only seen ruins and pictures of designs like this in the archives of New York's digital library, but she had never seen them up close in person before. It would be impressive if she were into that kind of thing, but Adelle's attention was focused on the throne to see a white alicorn in an elegant white dress, and around her were Twilight and her somewhat injured friends.
"Of course, they would be here," Adelle said before noticing the shocked expressions on the girls' faces.
"What are they doing here!?" Rainbow Dash yelled as she was about to charge at her, only for Applejack to stop her with an arm stretched out in front of her.
"They're here because I asked Luna to bring them here," Celestia said as she stood up from her throne and teleported before Adelle. She eyed the bat pony up and down momentarily before looking at Luna.
"If you're wondering how she came to be like this, ask Twilight and her friends about it." She said, which caused the white alicorn to look over at Twilight and her friends, who were looking away to avoid eye contact or in shame for what happened to the bat pony.
"The letter did say there was a fight between you and my student, but I didn't think it would be like this," Celestia said before hearing Adelle speak up.
"For the record, it was that rainbow-haired jerk that caused the damage to my chest. Were it not for Trixie and that spell she learned to fix her wagon, the blade that was in my chest would've caused me to bleed to death." She said before showing Celestia the metal covering her chest.
"Mother of me," Celestia said as the bat pony covered her injury with the bandages. "Luna, take her to the medical wing, now. We'll hold off on this meeting once she's recover from her-"
"I don't need help, especially given how angry I am. Now I came here because you couldn't bring your fat ass to me for some stupid reason, and I would like to get this over and done with before something else happens. Will we have this conversation about the dead dragon and your student attacking me or what?"
"While I can understand your anger, you need medical-"
"I'll get medical attention later; right now, we have more important matters to attend to involving my conversation with you about the dragon that I killed," Adelle said as Celestia looked over at Luna for a moment as she nodded. The white alicorn sighed as she took a few steps from the bat pony.
"If you insist, but should you show signs of bleeding or passing out, then I will cut this conversation short and bring you to our hospital, agreed?" She asked as Adelle nodded. "Okay, now. I would first like to apologize for the mistreatment at the hands of my student and her friends. While I can understand why they would try to detain given the letter she sent me, it's no excuse for such excessive force."
"Yeah, excessive force is an understatement. I say mindless order without so much a proper containing plan is a more accurate way to put it."
"Indeed, again, I'll speak with them after this. But would you explain why you killed that dragon atop the mountain?"
"We ended up on the mountain due to Trixie's failed teleportation spell. We planned on leaving, but the dragon wouldn't let us, so he attacked us. We didn't have much choice but to attack him in self-defense."
"That's a lie!" Applejack yelled. "Y'all attacked the dragon because y'all wanted his treasure!"
"Have you any proof of that?" Adelle asked, which caused Applejack to flinch. "Going by your word isn't enough, especially given the damage you girls caused me. Or did you forget what your rainbow friend did to me?"
"Hm, she does make a valid point. From what I've gathered when I went to look at the damage to the dragon, there wasn't anything inside the cave." Luna added before hearing Gilda chime in on the conversation.
"Yeah, where is your proof that the dragon had any gold inside the cave?" She said before noticing a glare from Applejack and Rainbow Dash.
"I'll consider that, though. Couldn't you have teleported out of the situation with Trixie's magic?" Celestia asked as Adelle shook her head.
"Unlike Twilight, Trixie is just a performer. She only knows performance magic and Illusions, not top-level magic like you can."
"Yet that didn't stop her from almost getting Ponyville destroyed!" Rainbow Dash yelled. "She boasted about being able to take down an Ursa Major, and look how that turned out; it wasn't even an Ursa Major but an Ursa Minor."
"If I recall from what Trixie had informed me, it was a pair of children known as Snips and Snails that brought the Ursa Minor to Ponyville, was it not?" Adelle asked as Rainbow Dash was about to reply but stopped due to being unable to come up with a counterargument. "So you blame a show pony who was just doing her job of showing off her magic and not reprimanding the two children who caused the problem for Ponyville?" She asked before noticing mixed expressions on her and her friends' faces.
"Yeah, it was their fault that Trixie lost my home!" Trixie said in anger while crossing her arms. "Do you know how hard it is to get a job as a show pony when your reputation is ruined by you, jerks?"
"Hey! It's not our fault for you boasting to be the great and powerful." Rarity said. "If you haven't been boasting about who you are, things mightn't have ended up as they did. You only have yourself to blame."
"Why you stuck up little-"
"Enough," Celestia said, which caused Trixie and Rarity to go silent. "We're getting off-topic on the main issue here."
"She's right; there is a dead dragon in Equestria, and somepony has to pay for said crime," Luna said as the white alicorn nodded.
"There's that and the use of weapons on my student and her friends," Celestia added. "From the letter, you can materialize weapons out of thin air like magic." She said before eyeing the black rectangular boxes hanging from the bat pony's straps. "Something like this is unheard of and would be dangerous to be left alone. I can only assume that the black box is the source of the magic, correct?"
"And what if it is?"
"Perhaps a trade? I'm willing to pardon you of your crimes." She said, which took everyone by surprise.
"Forgive me for saying this, but are you crazy!?" Twilight yelled in disbelief. "You can't let somepony like her go and wander around Equestria."
"Yeah! For all we know, she could do the same thing she did to the dragon or some pony else." Rainbow Dash added before taking a step forward. "I say we take them down now-" Just as she was about to rush the bat pony, Celestia extended a wing in front of Rainbow Dash as the white alicorn continued.
"As I was saying, I'm willing to pardon you of your crimes, but in exchange for the foreign box and the name of the pony who made it. I don't know where you got it from or who made it for you, but a magical item that can create weapons on the spot is too dangerous for a child to hold onto. Rest assured that it will be put to good use to the royal guards, for they have more-"
"I refuse."
"...Excuse me?"
"I said I refused. You expect me to hand over my gear to some poor excuse of a leader? Sorry, but I'm refusing the deal."
"...You do realize what you're saying, right? I'm giving you a pardon for the crimes that you commit in exchange for your weapons, child."
"Oh, I do, and like I said, I refuse the deal. I'm not handing over my stuff to someone I only met today. So far, you're not someone I'm willing to trust with my life, let alone my gear. So you can take your offer and shove it up your-" Before Adelle could finish, Trixie and Gilda quickly made their way over to the bat pony and covered her mouth to silence her.
"E-excuse us; we must talk with our friend here in private," Gilda said as Trixie's horn lit up and a dome appeared around them. The moment the dome appeared around the group, the two released their hold around Adelle's mouth as they glared at her.
"Are you insane!? Trixie knows you come from a different planet with different rules and whatnot, but you can't just say no to somepony like her!" Trixie yelled as Gilda nodded in agreement.
"She's right; even I know not to poke a sleeping bear without a means to escape, " she said before motioning to Adelle's body. "Look at the state you're in. You think you can take on two princesses that can move the sun and moon?"
"I'm not handing over my gear," Adelle said sternly. Doesn't this place have some rule or something that would pardon us for any crime other than the princesses?"
"You think if Trixie knew we would be here? Trixie can't teleport us out, seeing how the Princesses will be able to track her magic." Trixie stated. "Look, I know you don't like this, but handing over your weapons might be our only chance to get out of this."
"...I mean, she could always challenge Celestia to a duel," Gilda said as Trixie looked at the griffon with a dumbfounded expression. "What? Page one-thousand two-hundred and fifty-five of the equestrian law states that anypony can challenge anyone to a combat duel. It's an old rule made one thousand years ago, but it should still apply to this day, seeing how they haven't changed a lot over the years."
"...Okay, how do you know this?" Trixie asked.
"What? I get in trouble with the law from time to time. Gotta cover your flank if you want to avoid jail time."
"While Trixie is impressed, you know this, but you must be joking, right? You can't expect her to win a fight against Celestia?" Trixie asked as the griffon shrugged.
"She doesn't have to challenge them now. They could give you a two-week preparation period before the fight. She can even use her chest injury to extend it even more if possible." She answered before looking at Adelle. "How long would it take for you to recover?"
"Well, if I boost the healing augment to one hundred percent, I can recover within four days to a week, depending," Adelle answered as the griffon grinned confidently.
"Perfect, then we got ourselves a plan."
"... It's like Trixie dealing with a bunch of crazy ponies," Trixie said while pinching the bridge of her snout. "Even if this plan works, how will you win against her?"
"That's for me to know and you to find out. Can you please lower the magical barrier you made?" Adelle asked as Trixie sighed in defeat before making the dome disappear.
"Are you finished?" Celestia asked as the bat pony nodded. "I can assume you're going to surrender the black box that you have?"
"No, but I do issue a challenge. If the rules of combat still apply from what Gilda informed me, then I'm allowed the right of a pardon by combat, no?" She said as the motherly smile Celesta had dawned quickly vanished to that of a disappointed frown. The atmosphere soon changed as Celestia shook her head before speaking.
"Trying to get you to understand your predicament has failed." She said before standing up from her throne. "Perhaps spending a day in the dungeon will make you see things more clearly and have a better mindset then-" Before she could finish her sentence, Adelle summoned a revolver into her hand, aimed it, and fired a warning shot at Celestia's face as a means to stop her from leaving.
"If you think that I'm going to prison, then you're sadly mistaken," She said before cocking the hammer of the gun. "Page one-thousand two-hundred and fifty-five of the equestrian law states that anypony can challenge anyone to a duel. That includes those of royalty like yourself."
"...She got you there, Celestia," Luna said with a smirk. "Nice to see that rule is still in place even after my banishment." She said before hearing Celestia letting out a sigh of annoyance.
"Youth these days. Thinking that just because they're young, they can do just about anything." Celestia said, sitting back down on her throne. "I'll play along with this little game of yours, but it should be obvious that you won't win."
"I wouldn't underestimate someone you have little information on," Adelle said before making her gun disappear.
"I should say the same thing, my little pony," She said before crossing her legs. "If I win, you will hand over your weapons, and you will have to learn the meaning of friendship from my faithful student and her friends."
"And if I win, you will pardon us of any crimes we may or may not know we committed and give Trixie a new mobile home. Do we have a deal?" she asked, and Celestia, in turn, nodded.
"Our battle will take place within a week."
"Two weeks."
"One week."
"Two weeks."
"...Is there a reason why two weeks?" Celestia asked as she noticed the bat pony pointing towards her chest.
"Think of it as an apology for what your rainbow-haired idiot did to me, or did you forget how I almost died from blood loss."
"...That is fair. For now, you and your friends will be staying in Ponyville on the Apple family farm, seeing how they have extra room for you three, so you can apologize to Twilight and her friends."
"Wait, what!?" Applejack said as she stared at Celestia in shock. "You can't be serious about that. You expect them to live with us on the farm."
"Considering the excessive force you used on…" Celestia quickly looked over at Adelle. "I'm sorry, I never got to ask you for your name?"
"Adelle Topaz," The bat pony said as Celestia nodded.
"Right, thank you." She said before returning her attention to Applejack. "Considering what happened, this is the least you can do. It can also help you better understand her and the others. Perhaps you can even forgive each other and become friends?"
"The day we become friends with them will be the day pigs learn how to fly," Adelle said as Gilda and Trixie nodded in agreement.
"We shall see. Now, I believe you are meeting with one of my doctors." Celestia said as she motioned for Luna to take her to the medical wing of the castle.
"Yeah, let's get this over with so I can rest."
Operation Three: Fight for your Freedom
Operation Three
Fight for your Freedom
Hours had passed since the group began their work of disposing of the body and collecting the treasure from the dragon’s cave. On Trixie’s and Gilda’s side, they were successful in collecting the treasure left behind by the dragon thanks to the storage cube the bat pony gave them. As the two were making their way outside of the cave, they noticed Adelle cutting into the body of the dead dragon and placing something inside it in different areas of the body.
“I’m afraid to ask, but what is she doing?” Trixie asked as they both watched the bat pony walk away from the body.
“I have no idea, but she’s putting something inside of the dragon’s body…why do I have a feeling this might end badly.” She said before noticing Adelle jumping off of the dragon and quickly heading over to Trixie and Gilda. “Do I dare ask what you’re going to do?”
“Isn’t it obvious? I’m going to blow the dragon up.” She answered.
“Oh, okay…wait what!?” Trixie yelled as she looked over at the dragon for a moment before looking at Adelle who was aiming for the dead dragon with her sniper rifle.
“I’m going to blow the dragon up. Can’t leave it here without someone noticing my work, right?” The unicorn and griffon looked at each other with shocked expressions on their faces as they quickly ran back to take cover from the explosion after Adelle fired at one of the bombs. Guts and debris flew in different directions on the plateau they were on. Within a matter of seconds, Trixie and Gilda popped their heads from behind the rock they were hiding behind as the color on their fur and feathers turned pale upon seeing the bloodbath that used to be the dragon.
“Hm, might’ve gone with a bit too much explosives on my part, but I suppose this will do,” Adelle said before looking over at the unicorn and griffon. “You two alright?”
“Other than witnessing a murder scene being made…I think we’re fine.” Gilda said before noticing Trixie fainting off to the side. “...Well I’m fine, I don’t know about her.”
“In her defense, I’m pretty sure she has never seen anything like this before.” The bat pony said before walking over to Trixie. Once she was there, she reached into her pocket to pull out a small rectangular bar and snapped it near her nose. Within a matter of seconds, a loud gasp escaped Trixie’s mouth as she woke up.
“Mother of Celestia! What in Equestria is that horrible smell!?” Trixie yelled as she let out a small coughing fit.
“Smelling salt is useful when waking someone up. Got everything we need?” She asked as Gilda nodded.
“Looks like it given how we didn’t see anything else inside. Seriously, there has to be like a million bits that the dragon was hoarding.”
“Alright, then I’ll start cleaning up the remains so we can-”
“The explosion came from up here!” yelled a tomboyish voice as the bat pony’s ear twitched upon hearing that. She soon looked over to the direction the sound was coming from as she saw a cyan-colored pegasus with a rainbow mane wearing a white tank top and navy blue shorts. The moment she saw the blood scene in front of her, her eyes widened before quickly bolting down the cliff.
“...Um…who was that?” Adelle asked before noticing an annoyed expression on Gilda and Trixie’s faces.
“Rainbow Dash, my former friend that I mentioned yesterday,” Gilda answered before hearing Trixie speak up.
“And if she’s here, then you know that Twilight and her other friends are here,” Trixie said before hearing the sound of a teleportation spell going off. Looking off to where the pegasus flew off to, she had returned with a purple unicorn with long dark indigo hair with streaks of purple and pink wearing a long-sleeved dress shirt and a dark purple dress. Next to her was a yellowish cream colored pegasus wearing a green long-sleeve sweater and a pink dress with butterflies on it. Beside her was a white unicorn with violet-colored hair wearing a dress with a diamond pattern across the lower right part of the dress. On the right of Twilight stood a pink-colored mare with pink curly hair wearing a pink shirt and blue overalls over it. Next to the pink pony was an orange earth pony with a dark orange tank top, blue bell bottom shorts, and a brown stetson on her head.
“Dear Celestia,” Twilight said as she looked over the scene in horror and disgust. It was only when she noticed Trixie and Gilda was when her attention was locked on them. “Trixie, Gilda, what are you two doing here? Did you two have something to do with this?”
“Of course not. We just so happen to come across this place due to Trixie trying to perform teleportation magic.” Trixie said as she noticed a deadpan expression on Applejack’s face.
“That’s a bald-faced lie. Especially given how y’all are here on top of the mouth.” Applejack said as she pointed a finger at some of the blood on their attire. “The proof is on your clothes.”
“Yeah! So start talking or else you’ll be eating a knuckle sandwich!” Rainbow Dash added as Gilda cracked her knuckles.
“I would like to see you try, feather brain!” Gilda said as she was about to take a step forward, only for Adelle to stop them by extending a hand in front of the griffon.
“Now's not the time for pointless scrabble, we got what we came for, so let’s just leave and be on our way,” Adelle said as she was about to leave, only for the Rainbow Dash to quickly move in front of her.
“And what’s that supposed to mean?”
“We came here to get treasure from the dragon. He didn’t want to cooperate or share some of his treasure. So in retaliation for attacking me, I killed him.” She said which took her along with the other girls by surprise.
“You…k-kill that dragon?” Fluttershy said as Adelle nodded. “W-Why!?”
“Like I said, we needed treasure, he wouldn’t give it to us, so I killed him in retaliation for attacking us as we were about to leave,” Adelle said as she moved past Rainbow Dash. “Trixie, Gilda, we’re leaving.” She said before continuing to walk away, only to pause upon hearing Fluttershy speak up.
“How could you kill that poor defenseless dragon!” Fluttershy yells as she appears in front of Adelle with a stern expression on her face. “He was just minding his own business and then you showed up and killed him just because you wanted his treasure!? You should be ashamed of yourself! Didn’t anypony tell you that hurting other ponies is wrong!?
“Not my fault the dragon chose to attack us,” Adelle answered before trying to move from in front of Fluttershy, only for the pegasus to move in front of the bat pony. “Look, I’m not in the mood to deal with your self-righteous attitude right now. I’m giving you a chance to walk away and go back to whatever it is you’re doing. Otherwise, you don’t want to find out what will happen to you and your friends.”
“Not by a long shot kid,” Applejack said as she made her way behind Adelle. “If you did kill that dragon, then somepony as dangerous as you ain’t going anywhere.”
“Applejack’s right. We can’t in good conscience let you three wonder Equestria on your own.” Twilight said as Adelle let out a sigh of annoyance before looking over at Trixie and Gilda.
“I had enough of this, we’re leaving.” She said while pushing past Fluttershy, only to stop when she felt the cream-colored pegasus place a hand on her shoulder.
“Listen to when somepony is talking to-” Before Fluttershy could finish her sentence, the sound of her sniper rifle went off as Adelle fired a bullet into her abdomen. It didn’t register to Fluttershy for a moment until she placed a hand where she felt the pain radiating from. Pulling away, she saw that her hand was covered in blood. She looked down to see that blood was being absorbed into her shirt and started to hyperventilate for a moment before collapsing to the ground and letting out screams of pain.
“Fluttershy!” yelled Twilight and her friends as the bat pony aimed Fluttershy once again, only for her to move out of the way as Rainbow Dash tried to deliver a punch to her face.
“You’re going to pay for that, you jerk!” Rainbow Dash yelled as she charged at Adelle in an attempt to deliver a haymaker to her face. The bat pony easily dodged the haymaker as she replaced her sniper rifle with a pair of brass knuckle-type weapons. The moment she was within striking range, the bat pony countered with three quick jabs.
Two of her jabs connect to Rainbow Dash’s left cheek and the third to her chin. The cyan pegasus recoiled back from the pain she felt and was about to charge at her again, only for her legs to give out and fall to the ground. “W-What the!? W-Why can’t I move!?”
“Didn’t you take some kind of anatomy class? Hitting someone in the chin hard enough will knock them out, but in your case it caused your brain to rattle inside your head, making you disoriented…if you even have a brain that is.” Adelle answered as she smirked at the downed pegasus trying to pull herself up, but fell back onto the ground. She soon turns her attention to her friends as she quickly pulls her arm up to intercept a lasso coming at her throat. The lasso soon wraps around Adelle’s arms as she feels Applejack pulling her in with surprising strength.
“Y’all not gonna hurt my friends and get away with it!” Applejack yelled as she continued to pull Adelle in. Once she was within grabbing range, the farm pony quickly grabbed her by the throat and lifted her. The bat pony glared down at Applejack as she delivered multiple left hooks to the farm pony’s face, which had little to no effect on her.
“Dammit, didn’t think someone like her would be this strong.” Adelle thought before getting the wind knocked out of her after Applejack slammed her onto the ground.
“Now stay down and think about what you’ve done,” Applejack said as she released her hold on Adelle and turned her attention to Trixie and Gilda. “As for you two, y’all in a lot of trouble if you two are behind tricking this kid into killing that dragon.”
“I’d be more worried about yourself than us, country bumpkin,” Gilda said as she pointed a finger at Adelle. Applejack looked down at Adelle as her eyes widened upon seeing some kind of strange device placed on her. A smirk appeared on Adelle’s face as she punched the sticky grenade she placed on the farm pony’s abdomen. The grenade let out a small glow before exploding as the force behind it sent the two tumbling backward due to her having the setting of the grenade reduced. The moment she stopped herself, she quickly pulled herself up to scan the area of who was doing what. From what she could see, Twilight and Rarity were currently tending to Fluttershy’s bullet wound, Rainbow Dash was currently still trying to stand on her two feet with Pinkie Pie’s assistance, Applejack slowly pulled herself up from the ground after the sudden grenade to her stomach, and Trixie and Gilda were slowly making their way behind a nearby boulder as a means to stay hidden.
“Other than the farm pony, rainbow girl, and bookworm, the others aren’t a major threat.” Adelle thought as she stretched her limbs a bit. “Last chance to leave. Is one life of a dragon worth this much trouble?”
“How can you be so nonchalant about this?” Twilight asked as she finished treating Fluttershy’s wound as best as she could. “Don’t you realize that you took another pony’s life?”
“Technically a dragon’s life, but in our defense. We would’ve just left if he hadn’t attacked us or parted with some of his money. But hey, you gotta do what you can to survive with the reputation that we have.” She answered before noticing Twilight standing up. “Look, I’m giving you girls one more chance, leave now and you won’t have to see us ever again.”
“Like we said before, we can't let you leave knowing that you could be a threat to somepony else,” Twilight said as her horn began to glow. “I’m sure Princess Celestia will be merciful and be willing to give you a reasonable punishment if you surrender.”
"Fine. Let it be known that I gave you the chance to leave just like I did with the dragon." Adelle said before quickly dodging a magical beam from Twilight’s horn. The moment she dodged it, her ears picked up the sound of wings flapping as she looked over to her right to see Rainbow Dash heading her way.
“Got you this time you little punk!” She yelled as she tackled Adelle to the ground. “Twilight! Hit her with a knockout spell or something-” Before the pegasus could finish, the bat pony delivered a right hook to her liver, causing her to let out a yell of pain before being thrown off by another punch to her liver again. Once Rainbow Dash was off her, Adelle quickly jumped to her feet before quickly lunging herself toward the downed pegasus to deliver a bone-crushing punch to her face, only to recoil back due to hitting a barrier made by Twilight. The bat pony soon felt herself being pulled away from the barrier and was headed towards Twilight with a large box made out of her magic next to her.
Before she was about to be placed inside the box made out of magic, the bat pony quickly materialized a flash grenade and tossed it at Twilight’s face. Once it was close to her face, a bright flash of light erupted causing Twilight to go blind as her hold on Adelle and the box she made vanished. The moment the bat pony saw that the unicorn was blind, she quickly delivered a right hook to the purple unicorn’s face as she heard the sound of bone cracking. Judging by the impact of it, Adelle could only guess that she broke the mare’s nose as she watched her roll around on the ground in pain.
“Y’all gonna pay for that!” Applejack yelled as she threw a lasso around Adelle’s neck while she was distracted. Once the lasso was around her neck, she let out a gagging noise before feeling herself being pulled off her feet into the air. “Pinkie Pie, now!”
“Eat this!” Yelled Pinkie Pie as the bat pony looked over to her left to see Pinkie Pie aiming a cannon at her. Adelle’s eyes widened upon seeing the cannon off to her right as she braced herself for impact. She was soon hit with what was expected to be a cannonball, but instead was hit a an assortment of cake batter, party streamers, confetti, and all sorts of miscellaneous items you would expect from a birthday party as she fell to the ground and was covered in a mountain of it with a cherry on top. There was a moment of silence hanging in the air before Adelle slowly made her way out of the pile of birthday mush with an annoyed expression on her face as she looked over at the party pony.
“Seriously…out of all the things you could’ve used to stop me, and this was the best you could think of?” Adelle asked while wiping off cake batter off her face. "You fucked up big time, fatty. Now I am going to punch your face in until it's nothing more than-" Before Adelle could finish her threat, she felt something hard hit me at the back of my head. Looking behind herself, she saw Rarity levitating a bunch of rocks around her.
“You uncouth ruffian! Stay away from Pinkie Pie!" She said while throwing another rock at the bat pony as she cocked her head to the side to avoid it.
“Look, you guys started this fight the moment you chose to not mind your own business.” She said before dodging another rock to the head. “You only have yourselves to blame for the beatdown that’s going to happen. Now I suggest you start running otherwise I am going to-” Before she could finish, she casually dodged another rock to her head as an annoyed expression was now plastered on the bat pony’s face. “Will you stop throwing rocks at me you stupid horse!”
“Excuse me!? Who are you calling a horse!? I am an elegant lady with much better class than you do you brute!”
“Oh yeah, you’re elegant…if you’re on sale for a cheap discount,” Adelle added before noticing an eye twitch from Rarity. She soon noticed the rocks that she was floating and soon turned into gems as she pointed the sharp parts of them at the bat pony. “...Okay that’s new.”
While Adelle was busy surviving an onslaught of gems either grazing her skin or piercing through parts of her body, Gilda and Trixie were currently watching from behind a nearby boulder in a mix of astonishment and slight fear. On one hand, you see a seventeen-year-old girl from another world handling her own against six ponies that were tasked to defend Equestria. And on the other hand, you never would’ve expected to see a white marshmallow turn a shade of red in anger and attack someone with such brutality.
"Are you seeing this?" asked Gilda.
"Trixie can not believe what she is seeing, but she's seeing it.”
"Should we do something?"
"Trixie believes we should, but she doesn't have a plan at the moment."
"Well we gotta think of something fast, I mean look at her," Gilda said as she pointed at Adelle who was using her brass knuckles to punch or block the ongoing barrage of gems hitting her. Trixie placed a hand to her chin as she began to think of an idea to aid them. Within a matter of a minute, a grin appeared on her face as she looked back at the griffon.
"Trixie has an idea on how to help her…but she will need your help in this endeavor."
"And what is that?" asked Gilda, raising an eyebrow at the unicorn who motioned for her to follow after her. While the two began their plan of escape, Adelle was busy dealing with the seamstress as she switched out her binding thorns with her shielding thorns to create a wall in front of her to protect her from the gems. The moment the barrier was made, she returned to her binding thorns, and barrels to the left of the wall of thorns. Once she had a clear shot of Rarity, she shot out a thread of thorns at the seamstress as she was bound in place.
“What are these awful things!?” Rarity yelled while struggling to break free.
“Okay, guess I shouldn’t have let my guard down with her…or piss her off for that matter-”
“Surprise!” Pinkie yelled as the bat pony turned around and was met with a pie to the face. The pan that the pie was in fell to the ground as Adelle glared daggers at the pink pony.
“...I’m going to hurt you know…I don’t know when I’ll stop…but I can tell you that you’ll be in a world of hurt once I’m done.” Adelle said as she was about to get a running start at Pinkie Pie, only for Applejack to latch her lasso onto the bat pony’s arm and pull her close as she ended up in a bear hug by the farm pony. Once in the bear hug, Adelle would struggle to get out of Applejack’s iron-clad grip by kicking her in the legs.
"It'll take more than that to release my hold on you kid. Give up now, there's no way you'll escape."
"Then I guess I'll have to improvise!" The bat pony yelled as she used her binding thorns and quickly had them latch onto the farm pony's body. This took the earth pony by surprise as she felt restrained by the red glowing thorns and released her hold on Adelle. "That should keep you there for a while."
"Concarnit, what is this stuff!?" Applejack yelled as she tried to break free from her bindings. Her ears twitch upon hearing something coming from behind as she quickly jumps into the air. Looking down she saw Rainbow Dash trying to tackle her again, but missed. She soon heard the sound of a beam going off and quickly twisted her body around to avoid a magical beam from her right before landing back on the ground. On the right, she could see Twilight staggering to keep herself up while holding a broken/bloody nose with one hand as she was glaring at Adelle.
"Ok Adelle, think. You took down three of them and now there are only three left...well two seeing how that pink pony can't fight worth a damn. Getting around the pegasus won't be an issue, but the unicorn is another story seeing how she can use her magic to pin me down or restrain me like before." Just as she was about to make her move, Adelle noticed Trixie in the background making weird body movements saying ‘get into the air.’ "I'm going to assume they have a plan of escape." She thought before turning her attention to Twilight, Pinkie Pie, and Rainbow Dash.
"Welp, it's been fun and all. But I'll be taking my leave." Adelle said as she noticed Rainbow Dash coming after like a bullet. The bat pony in return pulled out another flash grenade and slammed it onto the ground causing the four ponies that were still standing to cover their eyes again. Adelle launched herself into the air with the help of a nearby boulder off to the side. While in the air, she notices Gilda flying at her telling her to put her hands up. She did as she was told and put her hands into the air, and Gilda grabbed them.
"Hey, you seemed to be able to handle yourself fighting them," Gilda answered. "You're not hurt are you dweeb?" Gilda asked as she and Adelle landed where Trixie was just as the light from the flash grenade disappeared.
"No serious injuries other than a few bruises and my pride taking a beating due to the pink pony and white unicorn." The bat pony answered while rubbing her neck. "Okay, so now what?"
"The Great And Powerful Trixie will teleport us out of here," said Trixie giving off a short victory pose.
"Okay...Why didn't you teleport us out of here sooner?" Gilda asked.
"Because Trixie wasn't expecting Twilight and her friends to be here. Plus, it takes a while to gather enough magic to teleport the three of us."
"Whatever, let's just go before we get-." Before Gilda could finish her sentence, the rock they were hiding behind was moved. "caught...horse apples."
"There you are!" said Twilight. "Now surrender or else."
"Flash Bang!" Adelle yelled as she reached into her pocket and threw a flash grenade at Twilight, only for the unicorn to teleport it.
“Nice try, but you’ll need to do better then-” The sound of a gun being fired cut the unicorn off as Adelle made her brass knuckles disappear, quickly materialized a revolver into her hand, and fired a bullet into Twilight’s shoulder. Upon being hit, Twilight lost her magical grip around the rock Adelle, Trixie, and Gilda were hiding behind as it landed back on the ground.
“I don’t have the patience to deal with these self-proclaimed heroes.” She said before looking over at Trixie. “Get us the hell out of here, because I am this close to committing murder…only this time it won’t be out of self-defense.”
"Trixie is working on it. She needs a few more seconds to build up some more magic." While Trixie was building her magic, Adelle saw something coming at her from the corner of her eyes charging at her.
"You’re not going anyway, not while I’m around!” said Rainbow Dash.
"Dammit," In a state of panic. Instead of using her Shielding thorn to block the oncoming attack, Adelle materialized a blue and white colored longsword and used it as a means to block Rainbow Dash’s kick. As the attack made contact with the long sword, Adelle was soon sent flying backward into a boulder.
“Ha! Bet you weren’t expecting that!?” Rainbow Dash yelled with a grin on her face. It wouldn’t have mattered much in Adelle’s case seeing how the impact from the kick and colliding with the boulder, caused her to go deaf temporarily as all she could hear was a high-pitched ringing noise.
"D...Dammit, I didn’t take into account Rainbow Dash’s speed." Adelle thought as her vision was getting blurry and was on the verge of passing out. Though the moment she tried to pull herself up, she felt a surge of pain radiating in her chest. Upon looking down with most of the vision returning, she could see part of her sword embedded into her chest. “....Oh shit…Were it not for the auto-healing augmentation, I'd be dead within seconds. I'll have to use the healing thorns just to make sure I didn't bleed out to death...but I don't have much strength left to even pull that off….this is not how I wanted my second life to end…”
"Thought you took out the great Rainbow Dash? Well, guess again chump." Rainbow Dash said before noticing Twilight, Applejack, and Pinkie Pie walking over to her.
"Rainbow what were you thinking!?" yelled Twilight as the cyan pegasus raised her hands defensively.
"Hey, she started it. Plus she was mopping the floor with us."
"You could’ve nearly killed her at the rate you were flying, I mean ever heard of-." Before she could finish lecturing her, Twilight could hear the bat pony let out a coughing fit along with blood trailing out of her mouth. The purple unicorn quickly moved over to the bat pony to turn her around. Upon seeing the blade in her chest, her eyes widened in shock and horror as blood was gushing out of the wound. “Oh no.”
“Oh crude.” Rainbow Dash said as her eyes widened in horror. “I-I didn’t mean to do that.”
"This isn’t good. The blade is lodged into her chest, and I don’t know how to get it out. We need to get to Ponyville hospi-." Before Twilight could finish, Gilda came from the unicorn’s blind side as she knocked her away from Adelle with a backhand to the face. Once she was away, the griffon quickly picked up Adelle by the tail.
“Get over here! Trixie has enough magic to perform her greatest feat of magic!” The blue unicorn yelled as the griffon darted past Twilight and her friends. Once she was within range of Trixie’s casting range, the trio was engulfed in a pillar of blue light. Within a matter of seconds, the pillar of light vanished revealing that they were gone.
"What the, where did they go?" asked Rainbow Dash.
"I don't know," Twilight answered "But they couldn't have gotten that far with the injury the bat pony has. If I’m right, they should’ve teleported to Ponyville’s hospital.”
"But what if they don’t head to the hospital?" asked Pinkie Pie. "We just can't let them roam free after what she did to that poor dragon."
"We're not, we'll come back after we inform Celestia of what happened, then return with a search party to find them."
"Why not now?" asked Rainbow Dash. "By the time we return, they will be long gone by now."
“Because we need to take Fluttershy to the hospital for her injuries, get Rarity and Applejack out of those thorny things, and I have a broken nose if you haven’t noticed?”
"You guys take care of Applejack, Rarity, and Fluttershy. I'm going on ahead and finding them." Before anyone could say anything, Rainbow Dash flew into the air towards the Everfree Forest.
"Rainbow Dash wait!" yelled Rarity as she watched the cyan pegasus fly off. "Why does she always do this?"
"We'll go after Rainbow Dash later," said Twilight as she levitated Fluttershy into the air. "I’ll take Fluttershy to the hospital. Once she’s there, I’ll come back and help break you out if Pinkie Pie hasn’t done it by the time I return " She said before teleporting to Ponyville Hospital, leaving Applejack, Rarity, and Pinkie alone on the plateau. While Pinkie Pie was attempting to break Rarity and Applejack free, near the other side of the mountain. A small cave could be seen giving off a flash of light as Adelle, Gilda, and Trixie appeared inside the cave and landed hard on the ground.
"Ugh...my head," said Gilda, pulling herself up from the floor. "I'm starting to remember why I hate magic so much."
"This is what happens when you rush magic. You should be lucky that you’re still intact."
"Whatever at least we got away from those dweebs with the loot we got from that dragon."
"Trixie agrees with you on that, but what do we do now?"
"We'll have to lay low for a while until the heat cools down, so until then let's just hide in this cave till th-." Before Gilda could finish, the griffon heard a cough echoing in the cave.
"Who said that?" asked Gilda.
“How in the flying feather did that blade get stuck inside her like that!?” Gilda asked as she rushed over to the injured sinner.
"Something tells me that it happened during the fight with Twilight and her friends."
"W-What do we do?" Gilda asked as she was about to remove the blade, only for Trixie to stop her.
“Don’t do that! If you remove the blade, then her blood will start to pour out of her like a fountain!”
“Can't you just use a spell to make her all better or something?"
"Magic doesn't work that way, you simpleton. You can't just simply use a healing spell and poof you're all better, it takes time and practice for that to work. The time that we don't have at the moment."
"Well, think of something! If we don’t do something fast, then we can kiss Adelle goodbye!” Trixie tried to think of a way to try to mend Adelle’s wound, but so far she couldn’t think of any ideas. Because they were miles from the nearest hospital, and that it might kill her if they teleported again. This looked like to be the end of the poor sinner’s life, that is until Trixie had an idea.
"Trixie has an idea!"
"And what would that be, Miss. Great and Powerful Trixie?" Gilda said sarcastically.
“Seeing how we can’t remove the blade without killing her, why not just use the blade on her body?”
"How are we supposed to do that?"
"Simple, my less intelligent friend. I have a spell that allows me to fuse certain items with anypony."
"And you didn't tell me this earlier, why?"
"Well, you didn't ask Trixie if she knew any spells that can do that."
"......You know what, forget it. I'm not even gonna argue with you about this, just do the spell on her."
"With pleasure, now stand back!" said Trixie as she pushed Gilda to the side. "Watch in awe as The Great and Powerful Trixie does her magic!" Trixie's horn started to glow as an arcane circle appeared underneath the unconscious bat pony. “I pray to Faust this works.”
