And I thought we were normal. How wrong I was.

   I wake up with a mild yawn before flipping the switch on my clock to turn off the damnable alarm and getting out of bed. I immediately notice the presence of two small strands of thread on my right wrist and I just dismiss them after noticing the sets of cutie marks adorning them.

   I quickly slip into my thief outfit as Mac told me to do, but not before looking at the coat or more specifically the bullet holes at the coattail and remembering the mansion. At least I shouldn't have to worry about having that happening again this time.

   After tossing on my cowl and leaving the face cover down, I move into the common room and to my surprise I see Uefi sitting on the couch with his own clothes on and an apple in his hand, which has the same type of ribbons tied to it.

"'Bout time you got up." He comments and I nod.

"I'm surprised you're up to be honest."

"A pair of rowdy mares came in an hour or two ago and woke me up when they tagged me. Good thing I had the bow under my bed instead of on my nightstand." He bites into the red fruit.

"Yeah; although I don't think they'd of said anything about it anyway." I say and grab an apple of my own from the jar on the counter with some magical assistance.

"We've only got 45 minutes until the event starts so we better get moving." He tells me after taking a peek at the wall clock.

"Then we better get moving."

~\o/~

   We get to the town center with about five minutes to spare after getting a quick impotency spell casted on us and quickly join the male side of the division, trying to both find Mac or Thunderback and to distance ourselves from the hungry glares of the mares on the opposite side as they hoot and holler at the males.

   I fell pretty bad for most of the stallions here seeing as most of them have an obvious amount of fear in their faces and no less than a few of them are crying and talking of last year.

"... I had to keep bandages on for weeks until the skin healed enough to stop bleeding..." Was just one of the more mild statements I heard and I can see Uefi start to gain a more mild look of their own fear.

"Don't worry dude; they're just playing it up for the cameras." I try to comfort him as we swerve past a camera crew.

   After two or three minutes we manage to spot Mac through the abyss of fur and manes and quickly fall in next to him.

"You were almost late." He scolds, giving me a joking punch that a month or two ago would've hurt a little. He's still a little scary though.

   I had never actually seen Mac's clothes for the organization, but the pair of black overalls and white undershirt are quite underwhelming to my expectations.

"We got here before Thunderback though." Uefi beats me to the punch.

"Not by a long shot." I hear the voice of the aforementioned pegasus as he moves out from behind Mac.

   Thunderback's clothes don't surprise me too much, but they don't fall under my expectations. A simple black leather jacket and a pair of pants in a seemingly similar material. Now that I think about it, I've seen leather all over; so it's already to use their hides, but apparently it's wrong to eat the animals?

"I didn't see you there." I dismiss the thought as he opens his hand to reveal four small devices, not bigger than a push pin, each with a different colour.

"Yeah; I got the cameras from the news team." He says as he sticks the black one to his own face, just between the eyes and then does the same to Mac with the red one.

"They're definitely small enough; how are they going to hold a charge for seven days?" I ask as he pushes the device in between my eyes and I can feel a few small metal pins go into my skin and latch into my skull, just about the nose.

"They run off of magic and just take in a little from the air. They also periodically clean themselves to keep dirt and other things from ruining any good shots." Mac explains as Uefi gets his own camera attached.

"When do these things turn on?" I ask, prodding the end of the device idly.

"As soon as the opening speech starts." Thunderback chimes back in and I notice a glint of metal in his jacket.

"Woah; what are doing with your gun?" I catch him and he sighs.

"They're just rubber bullets. I'm not going to be really 'shooting' anypony." He defends himself as a horn blares above the sounds of the crowd and we turn to the center of the plaza as a pale yellow pony, who seems to be holding back urges of her own, takes a position behind the podium and I hear a small 'click' from each of our cameras.

   I don't much may attention to the speech since most of it just seems to be a short history of the event, the competing teams and tips of the hat to sponsors of the event; none of which I really care about. As far as I'm concerned it's just a game of cat and mouse between us and team harmony which I manage to spy across from us, each with a familiar hunger in their eyes.

   The speech lasts for about fifteen minutes before she stops and a rather plump green stallion takes her place wearing a clashing red suit.

"And now for the main event. Each of these stallions will have a thirty minute head start before the mares are allowed to give chase and remember; no chasing a stallion that your group didn't tag. Stallions you may ready yourselves." He finishes and the rest of the crowd turns in the exact opposite direction of the mares, towards Sweet Apple Acres, but, as we previously discussed, our group takes up positions facing towards the mares in the other direction. If we go this way we'll be able to avoid the crowd and get farther faster.

"Alright then; I hereby initiate this estrus season." The overweight male says over the microphone and, with the sounds of hooves stamping and wings flapping into a frenzy in my ears, I conjure a ramp for Mac and I and we sprint up the surface of it as fast as possible and I also use my speed boost to keep up with them, but thankfully it doesn't drain me near as badly as before.

   We pass easily over the mares on my ramp and both Uefi and Thunderback fly upwards with us. After we get up about 30 meters into the air, which happens to be at the towns border due to the shallow nature of the ramp, I flatten it into a narrow plane for Mac and I to run on so that the environment's natural imperfections won't slow us down an I'd sneak a peek back at the town to see about half of the stallions still stuck trying to leave the plaza and a few other teams exiting the town on our side just behind us, seeming to have copied our tactic; posers.

"You think I should use one of those sheets now?" I yell at Mac through the wind as I continue to dispel the box as we pass it and create more ahead of us to avoid making a huge construct.

"No; wait until they catch us once so we'll be able to make an escape. The time it would buy us now wouldn't be enough." He answers back and I nod as we all lower our speeds slightly to avoid exhaustion.

   We continue on my path and after what feels like ten minutes I can't even make out the few teams that followed our example, but I can see a rather large purple box moving towards us with a few figures on it and I gulp. Damn adrenaline making a half hour feel like ten minutes.

"We've got a problem." I yell at them as a small voice comes from our individual cameras.

"Mares were released ten minutes ago, sorry for the late warning colts." A voice comes through and I can hear Uefi's curse blow through the wind past me.

"Nice fuc~king warning."

"Any ideas?" I ask, but Mac just laughs.

"Run, little unicorn, run." He boosts his speed and we all follow in suit.

"This seems terribly under balanced." Uefi calls out. "Can't you throw up a wall or something Sonata?" He asks and I shake my head.

"I can't. What if they fall because of it?"

"Tough luck?" Thunderback jokes and Mac glares daggers at him.

   Our jokes are quickly interrupted however as I feel something breach the tail end if my path.

"Why didn't we just hide out in the war room?"

"That thing wouldn't have lasted more than a day." Mac calls back out to me.

"We're going to last less than that at this rate."

"The first day is the most intense. It'll get easier if we can survive today." Thunderback yells and a cyan blur passes in between Mac and I, I barely duck in time to avoid having my hood grabbed onto.

   I see another yellow burr crash into Uefi and grab onto his sweater with ease. As the blue one diverts her attention to Thunderback, who swoops downwards into the forest under us.

"Mac." I yell as I feel fingers against the back of my coat but I don't dare to look back.

"Yeah?" I hear the fear in his voice, a stark change from how he was a minute prior.

"Have you even been to a water park?"

"No; why?"

"Then this is going to be a little weird for you." I laugh to keep from crying as I put a new seal in my head, one I developed with Twilight.

   I conjure a downwards ramp ahead of us at a 45 degree angle and the moment we get within a meter of it I form a wall behind us and widen the path to avoid injuries. I fill the symbol with magic quick as I focus on the slide and like magic a torrent of artificial red coloured water spews for from the air and down its surface, contained by the walls I put on both sides.

"Yeah!" I yell out; thankful that it actually works large scale.

   I opt to crouch on my two hooves and slide down with the water while Mac just falls on his flank and screams in a quite unmanly fashion. We reach the treetops rather quickly and I slowly modify the angle to slow us down before we hit the earth.

   I role through the grass before hitting a tree and stopping in my tracks. Giving my head a quick shake, I get up off the forest floor with grace to see Mac's face in the dirt next to me.

"Sorry about that; but we need to get moving." I say, pulling his face up the dirt.

"Don't. Do. That. Ever. Again." He manages to mutter through spiting dirt.

"It worked didn't it? Now come on; I doubt that's going to slow them down much."

"Glad to see you two are alright." I hear Uefi from my left and I sigh.

"Same to you. How'd you get away from Fluttershy?" I ask since the last I saw of him he was barreling into the canopy.

"I managed to lose her in the trees." He states simply with a smile I know well enough on his face.

"Good for you then." I mutter, returning a knowing look. If you don't want to tell me that's fine.

"Not to ruin this heartfelt moment, but we need to get moving again. I doubt those vines are going to hold up R.D. for long."

"You're right Thunderback. Let's get a move on again. With any luck they'll slow down to help their friends first." I agree with the black pegasus on the branches above me.

   After giving Mac a quick second to wash out his mouth with some water we brought, we decide it'd be better to try and zig-zag through the trees rather than using a straight forward path so we can throw them off.

"What time is it anyways?" Uefi mutters after some good time of walking through the dense underbrush.

"About 12 o'clock." I mutter through a mouthful of Manticore tail jerky, that I made sure to hide from the cameras, before putting my watch away.  You can really taste the rabbit...

"Shouldn't we have seen them again? It's been a few hours." He continues his questioning.

"They probably decided not to exhaust themselves too much. Think about it; they have all week to catch us, if they go all out today they'll get be exhausted. Not to mention in the trees we'll have a much better chance of getting away. I wouldn't worry until we reach a clearing." I reason and Mac nods in agreement.

"It's not an uncommon tactic, especially since they almost got us early on they'll be expecting us to be going as fast as possible. If we did that we'd ware ourselves out and be east targets, it's a marathon not a sprint." Thunderback joins in on the conversation and our other pegasus just sighs.

"Fair enough..."

   Sadly it takes another four hours before the dense brush clears up and night sets in rather quickly in rather quickly as we exit the forest into a grassy field.

"So do we stop her for the night or do we keep moving?" I ask, shaking off a few branches that got caught on me.

"We'll have to stop for the night. I don't trust the forest at night so we'll setup camp here." Mac says and we all nod in agreement.

"I guess we'll need somepony to take watch then. Any volunteers for first watch?" I ask and as expected none of them volunteer. "Ok; I'll take first watch and we'll alternate every four hours." I offer myself to avoid conflict.

"Alright then; let's get a fire going." Uefi says, taking out some crumpled paper. "This should be enough to get us started, but we'll need more. Any chance one of you has an easy way to get wood, or get a fire started at all for that manner?"

"I can get it started with some magic, but I can't gather wood any faster than picking it up."

"Then we better get to work before we run out of light altogether." Mac directs us and we split up into the woods to maximize our ability to gather timber.

   I take a path directly into the woods, picking up any wood lying on the earth, but I find myself jumping at the sound of everything in the forest and the thought of being jumped while I'm alone.

   I push the thought aside for the time being and after about ten minutes if scavenging I manage to fill both of my arms with various twigs and branches, from there I start gathering more with magic to maximize my load.

   I finally start to calm down and just enjoy the sounds of the forest as darkness begins to set in when a large booming sound hits me and I feel the ground quake under my feet, causing me to drop the wood in my spell's grip.

"What in the bloody hell?" I mutter, grabbing the dropped wood. That sounded like it came from where we were going to camp...

   I don't waste any time and run back through the forest, dropping a few smaller twigs held in my arms and within what feels like seconds I find myself back in the clearing next to Mac and Uefi.

"What the hell Thunder?" Mac says as we all stare at the scene before us.

   A large, obviously decaying, pile of wood lies on the ground about 3 meters from us in shambles, smoke rising off of some of it, with a rather pompous looking Thunderback standing on top of it with arms crossed and a small device in his left hand.

"What? You said to gather wood." He replies simply, pocketing the device and jumping off of the pile.

"Not that; what are you doing with explosives?"

"You know I'm no good without tools."

"But what made you think you'd need to blow something up?"

"I don't know... Intuition?" He smiles rather sheepishly.

Mac just sighs in defeat, obviously having dealt with this behavior before. "You're crazy; you know that?"

"Yeah, but where's the fun without it?"

"Excuse me, but what just happened." Uefi interrupts them and Thunderback just laughs.

"What just happened is Thunder here just blew up a tree." Mac explains.

"Blew up is such a rough term. I prefer forcefully and explosively deconstructed."

"Why would he have explosives?" I ask, wondering more so where he got them rather that why he had them.

"Your guess is as good as mine. I felt like I might need it so I took it. I'm not ones question premonitions." The pegasus in question shrugs as I toss all of my wood onto the pile.

"Rather have it and not need it than need it and not have it, huh?" I return a smile.

"Glad to see somepony gets it. Now come on, we've got a fire to build." He returns to his natural demeanor and grabs a few pieces of the shredded wood.

   Deciding not to question him any further, we all go up and begin grabbing pieces of decaying bark and plant fiber.

"Is he always like this outside of town?" I whisper to Mac, remembering the manticore incident.

"He may not outright say it, but if you watch him you'll learn that he's a little... Off. When he's not pretending to be a good civilian like we always do, he gets a bit extreme. He isn't homicidal in any way, but he won't protest to hurting ponies a little to get from point A to point B."

"I'm glad I'm on his good side then."

"You're not the only one." He huffs as we toss an armful each into the pile.

"Alright Sonata; let's see you get that fire started." Thunder says and I nod, quickly getting a few sparks to fly off of my fingers and into the kindling.

   Luckily a flame quickly takes and slowly spreads throughout the pile. At this point I think most of us have stopped worrying about getting jumped, but more about catching a little shut-eye.

"I've got first watch then. You all get to sleep and I'll wake one of you in a while." I tell them and one by one they lie down in the grass, obviously just as tired as I am from the long day of running and being on edge.

   It isn't long until I can hear a rough and annoying symphony of snores and I groan, knowing full well it's going to be a long four hours of waiting. Soon the crackle of the fire becomes the only pleasant sounds I hear amongst the snoring, crickets and various woodland sounds.

   I periodically look around behind me, but for the most-part I keep my eyes on the dimly illuminated forest, barely able to keep myself from jumping at every stray sound.

   It takes what feels like an hour for my nerves to finally settle down and I relax against the pile of wood, occasionally tossing a few pieces into the blaze, waiting for something to happen.

   However, around four hours later at about 9 p.m. I get up and continue to look at the forest nothing besides moths and other insects came out of and I give Uefi a light kick to the arm, which succeeds in pulling him out of his slumber.

"Time to switch out Rose." I use his equestrian name, just in case somepony is listening in.

"Already?"

"Yeah; so far nothing has happened, but I need to rest too. Just keep the fire going and I don't think anything will happen tonight. Switch out with Mac or Thunder in about four hours." I direct the still groggy pegasus, who reluctantly gets up from his dirt bed.

"I should've taken first watch." He yawns.

"Just sit down on the wood pile and you shouldn't fall asleep." I take a place on the plush grass. "Good luck." I mumble falling into sleep rather quickly.

~\o/~

   I wake up to what feels like somepony kicking my shin and I open my eyes into the darkness. But I already took watch... I think as I notice something else. I can feel the ground moving under me and my arms being held up in the air.

   I activate a night vision spell to see just who decided to drag me off and sadly my second worst fears return. I look up and see a blue pegasus dragging me behind her and to my left I see Uefi staring at me, gagged and being dragged by Applejack, down from him I can see Mac then Thunderback, but I can't tell who's dragging them. I knew I shouldn't have let Uefi take the next watch.

   I cast a voice localization between Uefi and myself, but as I try to open my mouth to speak a find a rag wrapped around my face, effectively stopping me from speaking. I drop the spell and slowly move a leg over to kick him back, just to let him know I'm awake.

   His expression turns to relief as I turn to my right to see Twilight walking along side Dash and I mentally sigh. So I'm being held captive by the fastest one and I'm right next to the strongest one and most probably the smartest one; crap.

"No Dash; I'm just saying that I should have the first turn with him since I'm also a unicorn." I eavesdrop on their conversation.

"You wouldn't even know what to do with it egghead." The pegasus retorts.

"Yes I would; I've read plenty of books on the subject."

"Books can't teach you everything Twilight."

"They taught me plenty, so I should get the first turn." Twilight continues and I tune out their conversation. Neither of you will get a turn if I have anything to say about it.

   Taking another spell from my expanded arsenal, I begin to condense magic a few meters in front of the traveling mares until I'm confident that the thin sheet to hard enough to block their advance.

   I shudder a little as Dash and the rest of them impact the new invisible barrier, causing a few blue sparks to come off of the indistinguishable surface.

"What the hell?" My immediate captor responds, rubbing her head with one hand, allowing one of my own to fall from her grasp.

"Ah'm not sure, it's like there's some kinda wall here." Applejack chimes into the conversation, dropping Uefi's left arm to give the wall an experimental tap.

"I'll just break it down." My bet on Dash's own pompous nature pays off as she readies her free arm for a hard punch and I drop the barrier.

"Wait Dash-" Twilight beings but by this time it's already too late as Dash send the punch into the nothingness where my barrier was originally, causing her to stumble forward from the excess force and in turn release my remaining hand from her grasp.

   Ignoring Dash's curse, I send my hand straight into my coat pocket and activate one of the paper seals, cutting off the magical trail from my body. Activating Raven Fall, a cascade of faux black birds erupt from the ground under me and I back step away from the confused mares as Uefi tries to no avail to escape AJ's iron grip, sadly both Mac and Thunder remain oblivious in their sleep.

"I told you to wait. In case you forgot, I helped Sonata make some of his spells and I've seen him use even more." I can hear the purple unicorn complain from my position only a few meters away.

"How was I supposed to know? I thought you had them all in a sleep spell or something?" Rainbow defends herself as Applejack gives Uefi a hard hit, effective stopping his thrashing.

"Its effectiveness is based on how long they've been asleep. If you remember; he was the first look-out so his was naturally weaker."

"Think we should go after him Twi'?" AJ asks, but to my relief she shakes her head.

"No. He probably ran already. Just make sure I get a turn with Mac and we'll go after him tomorrow when he starts leaving a trail again." The lavender pony sighs and they begin walking towards the forest again.

I guess I could run off now and leave them to their fates and maybe if I ran fast enough I could make it back to town; after all that's the last place they'd look for me. I think before crouching low and moving to follow at a distance.

Of course what kind of man would I be if I just chickened out and left my friends for the torture? A smart man, but I've never been that clever.

   A few minutes later they enter the forest on a path way and I wait for a minute before jumping into the branches. I follow them down the trail, moving from branch to branch quickly and quietly like a predator with magic coursing through my veins.

   They stop at a small break in the forestry where a small fire is going and six mats lie around it at periodic lengths.

   Fluttershy pulls Mac onto one of the mats, Applejack sets Uefi on the next and Thunderback is dropped onto the next by Pinkie and the mares form a circle a meter or so away from the unconscious colts as I watch from my timber perch across the camp from them.

"So who gets the first turn with Mac?"

"Well Dash, I think I should get the first turn since it was my spell that let us get them here so easily." Twilight defends her handy work as I begin to formulate my own plan as their argument continues.

Twilight knows most of my spell like the back of her hand and is probably the smartest, Dash is the fastest but not that smart, Applejack is the strongest, Pinkie is unpredictable, Fluttershy has those eyes and Rarity more of a commanding figure than an actual fighter from what I've seen. Come on think...

"Then we're agreed. I get Mac first, then Dash, then whoever wants a turn. Fluttershy and Pinkie will share Thunderback and Applejack will get Uefi then Rarity will follow." Twilight's voice breaks my concentration.

   I pull my cowl back over my head and face. Thinking: done.

~\o/~

This next part is going to be an experiment in my writing that I would very much enjoy to see some comments on. I guess I would call it a minimalistic style. Anyway, enjoy AJ's POV.

~\o/~

   I hear a solitary branch break some distance away, but I ignore it, circling the green pegasus with a grin. Just how big is this ball of feathers underneath, I wonder. I sneak a peek at Twi and Pinkie who seem to be doing the same thing, sizing up their prizes. I turn back to the others who all seem to be only hairs away from crossing the line and pouncing and I feel my smile widen in anticipation, despite the small discomfort from the camera bound to my face. I wonder how many perverts are tuning in right now...

   I take a step closer, but I immediately jump back as darkness floods through the camp. What in tarnation... I turn towards where the fire was by memory to see nothing but darkness.

"What's going on?!" Dashes voice breaks the silence as light returns to the camp in a wave revealing the still burning fire.

"Ah don't know." I yell back at her before turning to the sounds of leaves and branches rustling just in time to see Twilight hit the ground unconscious and the branches behind were she stood shaking.

"What's happening?" I can her Fluttershy whisper barely through the sounds of branches breaking all around.

"Ah don't know, just let me think." I yell at the poor thing as her and Rarity cluster near the fire.

"He's mine! Mine!" Pinkie screams into the darkness putting herself into a rather compromising position overtop Thunderback.

   I continue to spin, following the sounds of the branches which suddenly comes to a stop in front of Dash who's doing the same thing I am. I continue to watch the trees, waiting for something, anything, to come out.

   A cluster of small burning leaves fall down from the darkness although I can't distinguish where they came from, almost as of they were born out if the shadows. I watch them fall until I hear three small 'thumps' from behind me and I pivot on a hoof to see Pinkie, Flutters and Rarity all lying in a pile by the fire.

"AJ, get over here." I hear Dash yell back at me and turn back and run to my fellow mare, who now stands across the camp from the others.

"What do we do Dash?"

"Look if we stay together we'll be fine." She tries to comfort me.

"Ok; let's just get back to ba-" I begin, but a cascade of brown wood floods the camp and my vision, causing me to scream in fear unnaturally.

"Dash?" I mutter as the swarm dies down and I open my eyes to see an unconscious pegasus at my feet. "Just where the hell are you?" I yell before turning to see a dark figure holding Mac in his arms less than a meter from me.

"Right behind you, again." He whispers before a storm of birds fill the air between us and by the time they clear they're both gone, along with our other two prizes and I just fall to the ground, exhausted.

Damn Sonata.