I was on my way in minutes, twenty rangy diamond dogs behind me. They had made good use of Big Boss's corpse; their cruddy armor was supplemented now with thick, scaled dragon-leather breastplates, and they were armed with weapons carved from claws and dragon bone. Twenty claws, twenty soldiers. Something symbolic about that.

It took us the full six hours to reach the meeting site. It was easy enough to find, though I had to stop a couple of times and re-cast the... hmm. Needs a cool name... the Evil Eye? DarkVision? Demon Gaze? The flying Eye spell. Anyway, had to re-cast it to get our bearings.  That wasn't what slowed us down.

What slowed us down is that I was having to blaze a trail.

Not just blaze a trail, build a road. It was going to be a long haul back with those wagons, and I wanted a nice smooth grade to do it. I started out simple, blasting everything in my path to gravel and ash, then laying the rubble down smooth and packing it hard. Some of the plants resisted... and I mean that literally; we were attacked by vines and branches and one point a particularly vicious patch of toadstools. At first I just blasted them like everything else, but I quickly got irritated at it; they didn't seem to learn by example.

After the fourth dead oak with a jack-o-lantern face, I discovered a new trick. I reached inside with the magic... just desperately wanting to grab them by the neck and rattle their skulls. Or whatever they kept their brains in.... the jack o lantern tree's hollow eyes started glowing purple, and suddenly it was obedient as a trained puppy. It scurried out of our path, following my pointing finger. I forced the glow to spread; vines curled back at the wave of my hand, plants and trees and and bushes uprooted themselves and crawled away. Even the grass shriveled and rippled back from my gaze. I marched forward, my posse of dog-orcs following along behind me.

This. Was. Awesome.

We reached the edge of the forest. It cut off at the edge, sharp as a knife. I sent out an Eye to scope out the location. Beyond the edge of the woods was a few yards of open clearing, followed by row after row of trees, the ground below them thick with orange and gold leaves. There was the fallen barn, too, slumped on its side.

The wagons weren't there yet. "Runt, stay with me. You, you and you, spread out and take cover," I told the dogs, pointing at several spots around the meeting site. I nearly croggled when they leapt into the air, dove head down at the ground, and began burrowing. In seconds they had all disappeared down tunnels into the earth. I saw little humped mounds appear here and there in the grass as they tunneled their way to their lookout points, almost as fast as I could have walked there. Sonuvagun but those mothers could dig.

I sent my eye patrolling around the perimeter... and heard laughing. Children laughing. Immediately suspicious, I followed the sound. A few yards in among the trees was one with a fairly good sized treehouse wedged in its branches.

Three ridiculously cute fillies-- One white unicorn with a mane and tail of powder-puff curls, an orange pegasus with teeny wings and a fluffy purple mane, and a yellow earth pony with a red mane and a bow on her head she could probably go sailplaning with-- were mucking around in it, galloping up and down the ramp into the branches, playing some game and giggling and squealing with carefree glee. Holy crap the scene was cloying. I recognized them from the schoolyard, the Cutie somethings. They were awfully close to the drop site. This could cause problems.

As I was mulling that over a high pitched taunting voice hit my ears. Who should come trotting up under the treehouse than Filthy Rich's brat. What was she doing here? Oh, right. Filthy Rich apparently had to bring her along when he came out here-- he went straight from the store, apparently.

She was obviously about as popular as a skunk at a lawn party. The other fillies looked at her from their treehouse with expressions of pure loathing. "What are you doin' here, Diamond Tiara?" the ribbon-wearing one said in a down-home twang. (Hey, I got the name right. Two points to me.)

The little prima donna threw a big theatrical sigh and said, "Daddy had to come out here to handle some business or other with your lame family. He told me to go find you blank-flanks and hang out with you." She stuck out her tongue and pretended to gag.

"Great. Wanna play hide and seek? The best hiding places are that way," the pegasus kid said, pointing towards the Everfree. "Just keep walking till you see a cockatrice."

"Aren't you afraid she'll look in its eyes and turn it to stone?" the yellow earth pony said.  The three laughed.

Diamond Tiara stuck out her tongue. "Laugh it up," she said. "Daddy's here on business with your family, Applebloom," she said to the yellow one, " and that means I'm your guest." She smirked triumphantly. "So you'd better be nice to me or my Daddy will make your lives miserable."

Wow. This kid was so unpleasant she was practically a caricature.

I suddenly had a nagging feeling I was missing something. The little royal brat was already here. So where was her Daddy with the wagons? I didn't smell a rat, yet, but something was off. I tapped a couple of dogs and whispered some careful instructions to them...

Once they were in place I circled my eye around... no, there they were, coming down between the rows of trees from the northwest: four wagons covered with tarps, pulled by two ponies apiece. I hoped the dogs were strong enough to pull the wagons. Feh, I'd just push them with magic if it came to that.

Filthy Rich was in the lead. He led them to the clearing with the barn and had them unhitch. "That's all fellas," he said. "Go on up to the farmhouse, Granny Smith has some cider for you all." The workponies cheered up and made themselves scarce.  Filthy Rich stepped out into the middle of the clearing, looking around.

That was our cue. I sent the dogs out, Runt in the lead, carrying two huge bags of coins and gems. He nearly bolted out from under his pompadour when he saw the diamond dogs skulking through the grass towards him, but he stood his ground.

Runt dropped the bags at Rich's hooves. I saw the gleam of greed in the pony's eyes when he opened the bags. But when Runt and the others made a move to the wagons he held out his hoof. "Hold it. Where's your boss?"

"Huh?" Runt, ever the glib conversationalist.

"I said I want to see the one you're working for," he demanded. "I want him to come out here and confirm that I delivered his merchandise, like I said." He pulled a clipboard out of his pannier, with what I presume was the receipt. "I don't want him coming back later and claiming I shorted him!"

I cursed under my breath. I guessed my little threat had been a little TOO effective; he wanted to cover his rear end. No choice for it. I picked up my staff, turned my eyes up to "high beam" and did my best Darth Vader skulk out of the shadow of the trees. I may have rasped a little into my microphone just for the heck of it too.

His face when he clapped eyes on me, oh man. I didn't think those big cartoony eyes could get any bigger... I strode over and stood there, looking down at him. "You wanted to see me?" I said, slathering it with as much sarcasm as I could muster.

He swallowed and held out the clipboard. I held it up: some sort of itemized list, with carbon paper underneath--- yup, he wanted a signed receipt. I would have loved to see him explain that one on his annual taxes. "Evil Overlord, sale to...."

He threw the tarps back so I could look inside the wagon. They were packed full with everything I'd ordered in boxes, crates, barrels. I made a show of looking over the contents and checking the list. "Good, good," I muttered. I pulled a pen out of my pocket and prepared to sign.

Wait. Barrels? And... why were they covered in writing? "What is in the barrels?" I said.

There was a pop like a giant champagne cork, and the top came off the nearest barrel like a bullet out of a gun. I yelped and stumbled backwards as my line of sight was filled with pink frizz. "SURPRISE!" someone yelled.

A pink pony with an enormous frizzy pink mane had jumped out in a cloud of confetti. "Ta-da!" she sang, striking a pose on her hind legs.

"The hell?" I yelled.

With assorted pops, cracks and bangs the other barrels burst, and five more ponies came tumbling out. I got over my shock and quickly recognized them all; the same six ponies that had tried to fry my brain with their magic amulets. "Hold it right there, Buster!" the purple winged one said. "You're under arrest in the name of the Princesses!"

"Which is her!" the pink one added.

"YOU!" I snarled. (Okay I kicked myself later. Geez, was I going to start wearing a top hat and twirling a sleazy mustache?)

"Okay, well ONE of her," the pink pony said. "Or she's one of them, or-- well, you get the idea." She dropped to all fours and tried to look tough.

"Yeah, give it up, fella, Amulet or not, you're outta your league," the rainbow pegasus said, pawing the ground with a hoof.

A moment later, a half dozen pegasi in armor popped out from behind a cloud I hadn't even noticed and glided down, taking up positions in a circle around me.

I turned on Filthy Rich. He had already scurried backward out of the circle. "You little WEASEL!" I yelled. "I PAID YOU!"

"You couldn't pay me enough to get me to betray Equestria," he said, full of pomposity. Don't think I didn't notice that he'd already secured the bags of money behind him.

"I paid you! PAID YOU!" I repeated myself. I was literally frothing at the mouth inside my helmet, just... choking on how angry I was at the betrayal. I could have just stolen or looted or taken what I wanted. I tried to buy it legit. I paid double. And this little four legged turd had backstabbed me.

I felt a loop of rope fall over my shoulders, binding my arms to my sides. The orange cowpony had lassoed me. "Now simmer down, Sally," she said around the rope between her teeth. "Yer comin' with us so's we can sort your hash!"

I lost it.

kill everything make them pay burn them all smash them all

I didn't even focus. I just let out this strangled scream and released a blastwave. The rope around me shredded to bits of thread. Every one of them went flying. Several of the armored pegasi went SPLAT against the side of the broken down barn and slumped to the ground. Others just tumbled end over end across the grass or whacked into tree trunks. I began lashing in every direction with bursts of darkfire, bolts of force, raw boiling wads of pure black energy. Trees exploded. The purple alicorn tried to contain me in a bubble; I burst it with ease.

Well, my dogs may not have been smart but they knew "the sign" when they saw it. A dozen dogs armed with spears burst from the ground around us and began harrying the few pegasi guards who had kept their senses.

Then we all heard high pitched screams. Little ponies began running out of the trees, nearly tumbling right into the middle of the battle. Behind them came the dogs I'd sent out, loping along on all fours, herding them. One of them had a struggling filly thrown over his shoulder.

"HAH!" I threw out a loop of purple-black energy, snaring my dogs and their captive and literally yanking them to my side. I plucked the screeching filly from the diamond dog's shoulder and held her up by the scruff of her neck. "EVERYONE BACK OR SHE DIES!"

Every pony there froze. The other fillies had run to their parents or sisters and were hiding behind their legs, whimpering. Wait, which one did I have? I saw the yellow one, the orange one, the white one--

"LEMME GO! LEMME GO! MY DADDY WILL HAVE YOUR HEAD FOR THIS!!" A pig-pink filly with a tiara on both her head and her butt squirmed in my grasp.

Great.

"You moron," I growled at the Diamond Dog who'd caught her. "Four possible hostages and you bring me the one they all HATE?"