Twilight was struck violently on the back of the head, being knocked to the ground with a painful yell. The loud hooting of whomever was behind her drowning her ears out from the ringing she now heard. She heard Fluttershy screaming and kicking just behind her as they did whatever they were trying to, to her.
"We got ones still kickin' over here boss!" a fairly uneducated accent yelled, sounding older and slightly insane "Can we gut 'em right now!?"
"Back off 'em Gutsy" a cold voice chuckled, patting Twilight on the back of her head "The Princess's little ass-kisser here should get us a nice price back home" There were cheers and loud laughs from the men behind her as Twilight was grabbed and turned over, her limbs being tired together by strong, durable rope. She got a good look at her assailant, a man in his late thirties with dark brown eyes and black hair, his mane covered by a black Stetson hat with a copper snake tied around the crown, the hat being made of a foul-smelling felt.
"Ooh, this one's a pretty little girl!" the stallion laughed, petting Twilight's head. Twilight used her magic to quickly blind the stallion before tearing out of her bonds and darting away from them. As she attempted to run towards Applejack she was tripped before having her face slammed roughly into the ground.
"Get off me!" Twilight yelled. She had a rough rope tied around her throat and tightened to an extent that it was almost choking her.
"Sorry girly but I'm afraid you're not going anywhere this time" the dark voice chuckled "Now I'm gonna be nice about this and just let you calm down and I promise it'll be an easy ride back home with us for you and your friends, just take it easy and none of us has to get hurt" Twilight nodded her head slowly and the stallion undid the rope around the neck. She waited for it to be taken off before she rolled over and kicked the stallion in the fork of his legs. The stallion yelled in pain, giving Twilight the opportunity to roll away from him only to have something cold and metallic placed against the back of her head.
"Well, you were warned girly" an angry voice growled, a loud clicking noise sounding as something was primed "One less won't be too much of a draw on our wallets"
"Hog killin' time!" Applejack yelled, snapping through her ropes and tackling the stallion pointing the metal object at Twilight. A loud explosion sounded and smoke rose from the end of the metallic object, somepony off to the side yelling in pain.
"Dammit Davy, now the whole town's gonna know we're here!" the stallion with the dark voice yelled "Get the other four in the truck and let's get the hell outta this dump!" Fluttershy, Rarity, Rainbow and Pinkie were thrown roughly into the back of a wagon as two of the stallions pulled themselves into harnesses. It began to pull forwards as the others climbed into the bowl with Twilight's friends. Applejack leapt at the wagon, her legs barely grabbing on to the wooden latch that stopped cargo from rolling out. She attempted to grab hold of a rope to pull herself into the wagon's cargo den but she was swiftly kicked in the face and sent flying off the wagon. As she fell however her teeth clamped down on a stray piece of rope, hoping that it would allow her to hold onto the wagon for longer but instead she continued to fall, Rarity's scream following as she was dragged off the wagon and the two were sent tumbling into the dirt.
"I'll get em for that!" Applejack yelled, rolling back to her hooves and sprinting off after the carriage again.
"AJ wait!" Twilight yelled after her friend. She attempted to use her magic to teleport to the wagon and force it to stop but she couldn't lock onto its location because it was moving too fast for her to focus on the wagon. She growled angrily before digging up the dirt with a rapid increase in her running speed, attempting to shout for her friend to look out for for whatever weapon they were using but she was a second too late. Another explosion rang out through the night air followed by a cry of pain from Applejack.
"Applejack!" Twilight cried out, seeing her friend fall and roll painfully to a stop.
"Dammit" a gruff voice yelled from off to the side. Another explosion sounded, followed by a visible flash of light from the weapon. One of the stallions in the back of the wagon yelled loudly, clutching at the elbow of his right arm and dropping the strange item he used to hurt Applejack with. Twilight ground to a halt next to Applejack who clutched at her right side in pain, her face contorted in agony as she whimpered weakly. The stallion that had shot at the attackers immediately gave up on chasing them and dropped into a seating position next to Applejack.
"Don't worry Darlin'" he said with a comforting smile underneath his large white walrus mustache "You're gonna be alright I promise"
"Wha... does it hurt... so much?" Applejack asked with a pleading stare "Make it stop... please" The stallion moved Applejack's mane out of her eyes and patted her on the neck.
"Can you check on the other lady to see if she's alright?" he asked "I'm gonna try and patch this little lady up"
"S-sure" Twilight nodded, worry clenching at her heart as she looked at Applejack's shaking, blood drenched chest. Twilight walked over to Rarity, still feeling quite numb as the shock of what had just happened had not yet set in with her. She walked blankly over to Rarity and untied her friend, Rarity sobbing weakly as a large amount of blood running from underneath her right leg.
"Twilight... what just happened?" Rarity asked "What's wrong with Applejack?"
"She got hurt" Twilight said meekly "That other man is patching her up now" There was a loud cry of pain from Applejack that caused Twilight to snap back into her senses.
"Applejack!" she screamed, rushing over to her friend as her chest began to bleed heavily again "What did you do to her?!"
"I had to remove the bullet from her body otherwise it would never heal properly, she would become a cripple as the muscle healed over the bullet" he said.
"Bullet?" Twilight asked, knowing the word from somewhere but she couldn't recall exactly where.
"She was shot in the chest but luckily the bullet didn't break through the muscle tissue, if that had happened she would be in real trouble" he explained "Can you use your magic to stem the blood flow for a while until we can get her to a hospital?"
"Of course" Twilight nodded, pressing her hoof over Applejack's wound, the orange mare still whimpering in agony, and began to slow her heart rate, putting her to sleep to achieve two things, stopping the bleeding and alleviating her pain "That should do it for now, now tell us, who are you?"
"I'll explain on the way back into the town" he said "Do you want me to carry your friend?"
"No thank you, I can teleport us to the hospital myself" Twilight said, shaking her head "Stay close to me otherwise this won't work"
"Alright" he nodded, moving closer to Twilight. Twilight focused on the main entrance to Canterlot's Royal Hospital and soon the four of them were jumping though matter itself for a long second until they touched down with a bright flash of purple light, getting the attention of everypony gathered in the main reception.
Celestia hugged, almost tackled, Twilight when she got over to her, breathing a heavy sigh of relief and looking almost teary.
"Thank the gods you're safe!" she exclaimed, stepping back and allowing Twilight's parents to check on her.
"Your Majesty, there is a lawman from the western provinces wishing to speak with you" Nurse Redheart said to Celestia quietly "He says he was there when the girls were attacked and that he has information on where the bandits went"
"Then I want to speak to him immediately" Celestia said "Bring him in now"
"Of course Your Royal Highness" Redheart said, bowing low and leaving the room. She returned a brief moment later with the older stallion with the slicked back white mane, blue hair and wearing a fine looking waistcoat. He had removed his Stetson and placed it down on the bedside table next to Applejack's sleeping form, before sitting down in a spare chair.
"Good evening Your Majesty" he said, bowing his head low.
"Sadly not" Celestia sighed "You said you have information on the ones that attacked my student and her friends?"
"And the ones who kidnapped her other three friends" he nodded.
"What is your name, first things first?" Celestia asked.
"Marshal Blackhall Your Majesty" he answered "I'm an Equestrian Marshal based in the western provinces"
"Your accent told me as much Marshal" Celestia nodded with a small smile "Continue"
"I've been trackin a group of bandits for several months now who run a rather large slave trading ring around the western province" he began "Their leader has still yet to drop a name but I know that he runs with three other guys in their main crew, Sliphorn Jeice, Gutsy and Dan, the last two are father and son"
"Can you give a description of these men to a criminal artist later tonight?" Celestia asked.
"I can but it won't do much good to start looking for them" Blackhall sighed, shaking his head.
"And why would that be Marshal?" Celestia asked, her face showing a confused expression.
"Because we already know where they live, who they're married to and what they do for a livin" Blackhall stated.
"Then why haven't you arrested them yet?" Celestia asked, keeping a calm voice and returning to a stone expression once more.
"Because we don't have the evidence we need to convict them and they're all smart enough not to keep any evidence of their activities at their homes or workplaces" Blackhall explained "No matter what they do, until they slip up we can't legally do anything to them, and these guys are too good to slip up"
"So what about removing them in an under-the-table manner?" Celestia asked, gesturing with her hoof.
"Because these guys are the best damn bandits we've ever seen in the west" Blackhall cursed angrily "They each in a mansion about as heavily fortified as a war den with more escape routes in em then a anthill, even if we charged up their houses with separate armies we'd never be able to get to em before they slipped away"
"Have you tried rallying the public against them?" Celestia suggested "A rat in there homes might be a helpful way to catch all of them in one fell swoop"
"As much as I hate to admit it no one in the entire western province is dumb enough to step out against these guys, even secretly, because everypony knows what they'll do to anyone that tries to report them or even speaks about them in the wrong way" Celestia scratched her chin with her hoof for several seconds before suggesting one final idea.
"What about hiring an assassin brave, or stupid, enough to take care of them one by one?" she asked.
"With all due respect Your Highness, you seem to know quite a lot about the underworld tactics and backhand solutions to problems that I wouldn't expect a Princess to know" Blackhall said slowly.
"What do you expect?" Celestia asked with a genuine, small laugh "I am a politician after all" There was a silence between the two of them for several seconds before the Marshal continued speaking.
"Anyway, as I said there's no way, legal or not, to get a hold over these guys as to anyone who just moved into the west they're perfect, upstanding gentlemen" he continued.
"I have a small question, if you know where all of these men live then how do you not know the name of their leader?" Celestia asked quickly.
"Strangely enough, nopony ever refers to him by his real name, his wife calls him honey or darling all the time, his employees and strangers always refer to him as sir and his gang members never address him by anything other than 'Boss'" Blackhall elaborated.
"That is odd indeed" Celestia nodded "Then it seems there is nothing the law can do to help Twilight's friends, so can we expect them to show up anywhere, hopefully still alive?"
"I'm afraid not Your Majesty, as I received a tip from one of my men telling me that they were planning to leave Equestria in six weeks time and that information was given three weeks ago, so I'm sorry to say that if we do not find these girls in the next three weeks then we don't find them at all" Blackhall sighed, placing his hat back on his head and nodding at Celestia "Will you excuse me?"
"Of course" Celestia nodded, gesturing for him to go. Blackhall got out of his chair and walked out of the room, leaving Celestia with a moment to think of what to do. Until she was swiftly interrupted by Twilight.
"Princess Celestia, there must be something you can do to help my friends?" she asked.
"I'm afraid not Twilight" Celestia sighed "Despite the fact I'm the ruler of this country I have to act in line with the laws I set myself and if I contradict them I will be removed from the throne and it shall be given to somepony more able to rule with set guidelines, I could not arrest these men even if I wanted to, and believe me I do, but I physically cannot act on this situation"
"If you can't" Twilight growled with determination "Then I have to myself" For the first time that night Celestia's poker face was shattered completely, a look of worry appearing the the sun princess's face.
"No Twilight, you can't risk yourself going on a wild goose chase after men who will kill you without a second thought" Celestia cautioned "It's far too dangerous for you to go at all much less alone"
"But she won't be alone Your Royal Highness" Rarity said, standing up with her eyes narrowed "I'll be accompanying her on this fine journey"
"And ah'll tag along for the fun" Applejack said weakly, finally waking up after her adventure.
"Oh no you won't" Twilight said with a stern expression "You're staying here and getting better?"
"But ahm all better already!" Applejack exclaimed "The nurses used some of thar fancy magic on me and now ahm all better see?" Applejack showed her chest where the bullet had hit her and there was, true to her word, not a single mark upon where she had been injured.
"Mrs Sparkle, please tell me you don't actually support this idea?" Celestia asked, her eyes wide with worry.
"I don't like it myself" Star began.
"Oh thank you-" Celestia began before being interrupted.
"But if she believes she can do this then I'm not going to hold her back, plus she's recently turned eighteen and she's her own mare now" Star continued "But there's one thing I have to say about it, if you do go after these men then I implore you not to fight them yourselves, to quote a saying I used when I was your age you're going to have to fight this prick with an even bigger prick"
"M-mother!" Twilight exclaimed in shock "I've never heard you swear like that before"
"You should've heard her before Shining was born" Orion chuckled "Boy, it was eff this and eff that every few sentences"
"Don't say things like that" Star whispered, slapping her husband lightly on the shoulder "Especially not in front of the Princess"
"Sorry" Orion smirked "But you've got my go-ahead if you're really going to go through with this, but you better be careful while out there Twiley"
"I promise I will dad" Twilight said. Celestia looked between the three girls and Twilight's parents before sighing, lowering her head and closing her eyes.
"It seems this decision is unanimous" Celestia admitted "It seems you're going ahead with this no matter how I feel about it"
"I'm sorry to say Princess Celestia but yes we are" Twilight nodded.
"I'll sort everything out for your journey to the western province when I leave here" Celestia said, standing up again "THe three of you better get some good rest and be ready bright and early tomorrow, I'd like you to meet me at the gates of Canterlot where I'll have everything ready and waiting for you just after dawn"
"Yes Princess" the three nodded in unison.
"Good" Celestia said, allowing herself to chuckle again "You've all grown up so much since we first met haven't you?"
