Author's Notes:

See? No empty promises here!
Enjoy.

“THIEF!”

Kestral sprinted down the alley, panic-stricken. His legs carried him away at a speed he had rarely achieved before, and he was sure he set a record for heartbeats per minute.

He brushed by a trashcan, toppling it. Water from a puddle splashed up as he ran through. He nearly slipped on it, but kept his balance, and kept going. A glance behind let him know that the guard was still hot on his tail. At first, he thought she would try to tackle him, but did no such thing. She glided above him, and he quickly realized that she had something far worse in mind. She wasn't going to subdue him herself; no, she was going to keep him spotted and wait for backup.

A dozen angry guards really wasn't something he knew how to handle when they're all chasing him.

The worst part was that he had nothing to fall back on. He couldn't reach her and knock her down. He most certainly couldn't shoot her. What was he supposed to do? There was nothing he could do, except keep running.

As he kept passing by each building, he glanced between them, towards the open street. He was at the market, now. Each gap he passed by was another opportunity to try.... something. Anything. There has to be a way out of this.

He thought about just running straight out into the market. If he could cause enough panic, he might be able to get away in the chaos. Then again, there were probably just loads of guards around; if not, they were surely on their way.

Dammit Kestral, you're running out of time, here.

He spotted an open window coming up on his left. A plan formed in his head, but he wasn't sure it would work.

He slid to a stop, letting the pegasus fly over him. He turned to the window, then sprinted at it, preparing himself. He leapt, grasping the sill. He pulled himself, and managed to get halfway up before something grabbed his leg. He lost his balance, and slipped, but caught the sill again.

He cocked back his free leg and kicked, breaking the grip the mare had on him. He planted a foot on the wall and leapt off as best he could. He s grabbed the mare's foreleg, pulling her straight to the ground. He yanked her wing, and she tumbled, not wanting it to break.

He hopped over and straddled her. He punched once, then twice. She blocked the third punch with her hoof, then countered with a punch to the groin. He keeled over, then fell to the side as she threw a punch across his face.

He got up, but she was already in the air again, out of his reach. She circled him, making herself a beacon for other guards.

“There he is!”

Kestral snapped his eyes down the alley, where four more guards began charging him.

“Govno.”

He ignored any pain in his body, and bolted away, with the guards right behind him.

“If you stop now, we can reduce your sentence!”

“Not buying it!” He called back.

He followed the bend in the alley, desperately trying to find a solution. The odds were already stacked against him, and every second wasted made it worse.

Time to step it up, then. He thought. With a group of guards already hot on his tail, he decided it was time to really make an entrance.

On the next gap, he dodged right. He sped through the narrow path and went out the other side. He vaulted over a stall, sending pots and pans everywhere.

Immediately, a mare screeched like a banshee.

“It's the human!”

“He's come to kill us all!”

“No, just the changelings!”

“Everypony RUN!”

'Panic' was hardly a descriptor for what happened next. The sheer amount of chaos that flooded the crowded street rivaled any clearance section of a store on Black Friday. Families split up and ran around- one of them even colliding together and falling down. Others shoved people out of their way and scrammed. Shopkeepers packed up what they could and got away, while some just grabbed their bits and left. A minotaur in the distance got carried off unwillingly by a stampede.

He followed the stampede, going towards the middle of the city. He looked behind to see the guards still hot on his tail, but a couple had peeled off to try and calm ponies down.

“Huh.” He said. “Maybe distracting them will work.”

He looked forward again, and immediately dodged to the side. A guard had charged him from the front, with two others at his side. The closest one had only barely missed with a kick.

“Okay, maybe not!”

He knew his time was looking short lived. He needed to find some place he could just lose them in. As he saw an entrance, the sewers crossed his mind. He put away the thought; he didn't know how well he could get away in there, if at all.

He spotted more guards ahead, a couple flying up and towards the castle.

Okay. This was a bad idea. I'm only getting more attention.

He turned towards the buildings again, and ran around into the alley. He kept heading towards the middle of the city. As he started down the alley, he felt something graze his leg. He looked behind to see one of the ponies right at his heel.

“Hey, get off my leg!”

“Surrender!”

“Fuck off!”

The mare only got a little closer and tried again. Kestral magicked his pistol into existence without the silencer, pretending to pull it from his coat. He turned enough to aim at the ground a couple feet away. He made sure the gun was close enough, then-

BANG

The mare veered off and slowed down, reaching a hoof up to her now-ringing ear. She tripped over and fell behind the others, who barely gave her a glance.

He put his gun away in the same fashion, then focused ahead again. The alley was narrowing, until it was nearly only ten or so feet across. He glanced back and saw he had a bit of room between him and them, or at least, enough to let him pull a few tricks.

He ducked left, but as soon as he was out of sight, he teleported across the distance and went the other way. He came to the nearly empty street and went in the opposite direction he had been running previously. A few ponies saw him, but none of them were guards, so he didn't care. He just kept running.

He slowed down quite a bit, trying to catch his breath. His heart beat hard against his chest, which he began slowing with a spell. Kestral magicked his vest away, letting his body breathe a bit, After pausing to get a little more comfortable, he kept walking.

He stopped and hid in the nearest alley when he got within eyesight of the gate again. He peered around the side, spying at a mass of guards at the gate. Swift Strike was right there, making some announcement to the soldiers. He tried to get a count, but there were too many for an exact number. His best guess was... maybe a hundred and fifty? Far, far too many for him to handle- even with Discord's help.

Speaking of...

“Discord. You still there?”

Silence answered him.

He looked up and around, spotting several pegasai flying about. He noticed that they were particularly interested in the district's border, most likely to make sure the area is enclosed.

“Come on. I could use some help.”

Still, nothing. He focused his thoughts, then his magic, trying to use his telepathy to establish a connection himself. As he tried, a dull pain grew, like he was getting a headache, and his sight became a bit fuzzy. He stopped, and the symptoms left as quickly as they came.

“What the hell?” He said. “That's never happened before.”

Kestral shook his head and looked at the guards again. One of them- a unicorn- was lazily pointing over his Kestral's direction, talking to Swift.

They must be blocking it somehow. He thought. And I think I just tipped them off.

Swift made a few final words and waved his foreleg around. Following that, a few dozen pegasai hopped up into the air, and began flooding the skies.

“Dammit.”

With eyes from above on every inch of street, it was going to be nigh impossible for escape. He waited too long, and now he was trapped.

He looked at a window above him, deciding that hiding was his best option. He hopped up and opened the window, getting inside quickly. He shut the window, and only one of the shutters. He moved around to the other window in the room, and looked out.

The guards were now moving slowly down the street. All the pegasai were flying about, it seemed, and most of the rest were walking down the district in careful unison, but some of them were checking houses, particularly the unicorns. One of them sent a burst of light over a house, then made some kind of command with his foreleg. A group went into the house.

What the...?

He looked at another unicorn, and he did the same. The command seemed different, and there was no group going into the house his spell went over.

Hmm. He thought. He looked back over to the first one, and saw them pull out a griffon from the house. The unicorn sent a pulse of magic over the griffon, then signaled for a guard to escort him away.

Looks like that spell lets them know which houses have someone inside.

He backed away from the window, a plan already forming in his head. He looked to the window he came it, then went to open it. He pulled away the shutter and shoved the pane up. Across the gap between buildings was another window of a larger size. He took out his flatbar again, and teleported across, shoving the metal under the pane.

He hurried as much as he could, getting inside. The shutters were outside the window, and giving him some decent cover from pegasai. He popped it open, and landed on his feet. He backed away for a moment, making sure a pegasus didn't try to crawl in after him.

“He's here!”

“Run!”

His eyes snapped across the room to see a trio of ponies bolting down some stairs. A fourth one desperately tried to jump out a window until she caved in and followed the others.

“Fuck!”

He heard the flapping of wings at the open window, and saw a mare staring back at him. She hopped away, hovering in the alley, and started yelling.

“Suspect sighted!”

“Everything's going from bad to worse, Kes.” He spoke to himself. “Come on- Think!”

In the meantime, he slammed shut the window and shutters. He went around the large room, shutting the few windows that were open, then tried to find a way to block off the stairway, only to find -to his horror- that the whole level was open floor.

That was it.

He couldn't think of any way to either hold them back, or escape.

He currently couldn't get out of the district, couldn't move about without being spotted, couldn't get word out to Discord, and couldn't possibly fight his way out.

That was it. He's finished!

…but that didn't mean there wasn't more to do.

He pulled off his backpack and emptied all its contents. Everything that could connect 'Kestral' to 'Hunter', he left on the table; everything else went back in the bag.

He shoved a different table over, spilling its contents. He dropped the bottle of ink with it, making it look like it was thrashed about in the evacuation. He turned his attention back to the small pile of items, and focused his magic. The wooden table cracked into fiery life, burning away in a roaring blaze as he forced it all to burn faster and faster.

He put his backpack back on, content with his actions.

Commotion came from the stairwell, and he looked up. He stopped forcing the fire, and it died down to a low flame. Pegasai came in and positioned themselves as close as they could at his flanks. They were followed by unicorns and earth ponies, who lined themselves at his front, no more than twenty feet away.

And then in came Swift. The Captain sauntered in like this had been his plan all along, and that Kestral was an idiot trying to play checkers when the game was chess. A small cloak fell over his right shoulderblade, and he wore a helmet with spikes in the shape of and next to his horn. He walked until he was halfway between Kestral and his own men.

Kestral's eyes met his, and for a small moment, no one spoke. Swift's horn lit up, and flashed. A slow look to the side let Kestral know that the fire died out, leaving a slightly smoking pile of ash. His eyes went to Swift again, and stared on.

Swift didn't move his eyes a single bit. He kept looking right at Kestral, only tilting his head forward slightly, like a command.

Kestral knew it was a command. A silent one. He followed that command.

He slowly descended to his knees, placing his hands on his head, and two of the unicorns moved in. They pressed his arms toward his back, and he complied, letting them put a pair of chained braces on his arms. They motioned for him to stand up, and he did. They wordlessly commanded him to follow, and he did until they stopped at the captain.

The initial pride that Kestral sensed was mistaken; the captain was measuring him up. They continued their small battle of wills, with each of the other guards on edge. For an agonizing fifteen or so seconds, they just stared, until Kestral broke the silence.

“Lead the way.”