As Gilda flew towards Slicer, she watched as she brought her arms from her side and crossed them before her, her right above her left, ready to cut Gilda like a giant pair of scissors. Gilda, in response, crossed her arms left above her right. Right as Slicer began her swing, Gilda caught her hooves by the base and pulled Slicer’s arms out.

With her head exposed, Gilda thrust her face forwards into Slicer’s forehead. The blacked-out Slicer lost all movement in her body, allowing Gilda’s pounce to push her off and to the ground, rolling down the hill. Before Gilda could land on her feet, Bruiser came up the top of the hill and tackled her down, driving both her and himself into the snow.

Gilda used the momentum of the slide to roll over and toss Bruiser off of her, allowing her to stand back up. Gilda quickly scuttled to the left of the hill, watching as Bruiser stood back up to his hooves while Slicer, her forehead dripping with blood, galloped up and joined Bruiser’s side. With a toothy grin, Gilda acknowledged them both with a glance.

“Biggest mistake you’ve ever made…” panted Gilda, “is that you let me live.”

“Don’t worry,” Slicer responded, “we aren’t making that mistake again.”

Scowling furiously, Bruiser and Slicer charged at Gilda, who crouched down for another vicious pounce.
________________________________________________________________________________________

Annie sprinted through the woods, glancing behind her to see Flash Sentry tailing her, with Black Glass, White Glass, and Doctor appearing just beyond the backmost set of trees. Annie herself knew that she was no match for three unicorns at once, yet alone the one that nearly killed her previously. If she was to fight them, it would have to be on her terms.

Annie looked up ahead for the best possible place to use her Maneuver Gear, only able to see small tree after small tree. Up ahead, as the trees began to dwindle, there was the tall face of a cliff, with a narrow, but equally tall and moderately long stretch of rock running alongside of it, providing Annie with a ten-foot crevice in between both rock fixtures.

Annie gasped happily increasing her speed as fast as her body would allow. Upon entering the clearing, Annie launched a hook into the top of the front end of the narrow rock wall, flying up towards it. Flash Sentry flew up beside Annie as she bounded over the top of the wall, her body arcing over top.

Landing on her feet, Annie twisted her body around and drew both blades from her sheaths, awaiting the coming of the three unicorns. Flash Sentry landed behind her, his eyes scanning the area to the back of her. Annie breathed as she watched the three ponies approaching the end of the forest. Just as all three could exit, White Glass’s horn began to glow, where he disappeared in a puff of yellow sparks.

Annie watched as Black Glass and Doctor continue to run, Black Glass into the crevice and Doctor to the left of the wall. Flash Sentry, keeping his eyes peeled, watched as White Glass appeared at the top of the cliff further down, his horn still charged.

“Annie!” shouted Flash Sentry. “Behind you!”

Annie turning her head around, watched as a yellow ball of light shot out from White Glass’s horn, leaving behind a faint tail. Annie leapt back and rolled across Flash Sentry’s back, crossing her blades in a defensive shield. The spell crashed into the center of Annie’s cross, where it dissipated in a dusty burst.

At that moment, two spells were cast from both sides below her, one brown, the other blue. Annie dove forwards as the spells passed behind her and crossed off in two directions. Aiming his horn at Annie’s stopping spot, White Glass launched a spell at that direction. Annie, becoming upright as the spell came towards her, kept her right arm back for a swing. Right as the spell could hit her, Annie swung the blade at the ball of light, slicing it in half where it puffed into another cloud of dust.

From below, Black Glass and Doctor huffed angrily, charging their horns and disappearing from their spots on either side of the rock wall.
________________________________________________________________________________________

Gilda flew to the open right side of Bruiser, readying her talons to slash. Bruiser leaned in and put his hoof out, causing Gilda to collide her face into the base. The strength was enough to send both of them to the ground. Gilda found herself on her back with the corner of her beak bleeding as Bruiser tried getting up.

Slicer leapt over Bruiser with a loud battle cry, her arm reeled back for a punch. Gilda rolled over to avoid the hoof as it drove into the snow. Whipping her arm back out, Slicer’s blade caught Gilda on the wing near the base. Gilda let out a shrill shriek as she stood up right, feeling the immense sting. Gilda didn’t need to see that it was bleeding; she knew it would. Folding her wings in, Gilda reeled back for another pounce.

“Whatever,” scoffed Gilda. “Like I need my wings to deal with the likes of you.”

Bruiser managed to stand on his hooves, shaking his hurt right arm as he stood before Gilda with Slicer by his side. Gilda charged at Slicer, who began to ready herself for her attack. Just as Gilda looked ready to jump Slicer, she juked to the right at Bruiser, who put his arms up to block, but was knocked off his back hooves and fell down off the hill.

As Gilda and Bruiser rolled down, Gilda kept hold of Bruiser’s wrists with the tips of her talons, breaking the skin at each point and making each puncture bleed. As they reached the bottom, Bruiser managed to twist his body so that he and Gilda began to spin like a wheel down the hill. Once Bruiser found his back hooves planting into the ground, he threw his arms out. Gilda, her talons still in Bruiser’s arms, tore down the rest of his arm and hooves as her grasp was eventually relinquished.

Gilda somersaulted backwards and to her fours, looking upon the red, wet, and meaty strips running down Bruiser’s front hooves. Bruiser was seething mad as his blood trickled down and onto the snow. As Gilda and Bruiser stared down, she was unaware of the black pegasus speeding up behind her.
________________________________________________________________________________________

A brown burst of light appeared before Annie as Black Glass stood in front of her. As he charged his horn, Annie rolled off the edge of the cliff and shot her left hook at it. Black Glass tried to keep his aim, but his spell only managed to whiz over the edge as Annie retracted her wire and swung along the edge of the wall.

Doctor appeared on the other end of the wall in a blue burst, awaiting for Annie to come around to him. Annie, noticing his appearance, wound her right arm back and reeled herself to the top as her arc continued. Right as she was came up over the wall, she swung her sword out, going online with Doctor’s neck. Doctor quickly produced a small shield to block the blade. Being too weak to fully deflect, Doctor was hurled off the wall, teleporting quickly into his fall.

Annie landed back on the rock wall to see Black Glass firing another spell at her. As with the very first, Annie crossed her swords and blocked the spell away, only for the force of the spell to break Annie’s blades off near the base.

Without missing a beat, Annie threw her arms out and clicked the hammers at the back of her operational devices back, hurling the small blades out of the handles ant at Black Glass. With a glowing horn, Black Glass produced a shield, the swords bouncing harmlessly off and to both sides. As Black Glass was distracted, Annie slid the bases of two more blades into her handles, pulling them out of her sheaths and rearming herself.

Before Black Glass could launch another spell, Flash Sentry flew out from the crevice, flipped over, and kicked him in the side. Black Glass began to topple over, disappearing in a burst of light before he could fall.

“Flash!” called Annie.

Annie ran to Flash Sentry as he landed, panting exhaustedly. She then looked to see a line of blood run down Flash Sentry’s face from the side of his forehead, making her gasp slightly.

“Flash,” spoke Annie, “you’re…”

“It’s alright,” he chuckled. “Gotta’ take one for the team, right? At least I landed a hit on White Glass and Doctor.”

“We haven’t been attacked in a while,” Annie speculated. “They must be exhausting their magic from their teleportation.”

“Then we have this in the bag. Let’s do it, Annie.”

“Yeah,” she agreed. “Let’s do it.”

Flash Sentry leapt back into the crevice while Annie jumped back down on the outside of the rock wall, spotting a panting Black Glass in her sights.
________________________________________________________________________________________

Gilda leapt high into the air, arcing back to be face to face with Slicer as she barreled towards her. Realizing the danger of her approach, Slicer arced up and away from Gilda. With plenty of momentum to spare, Gilda completed her backflip and landed back on her fours, only for Bruiser to plow into her, hugging her arms down tight and pinning her into the snow.

Gilda struggled to break free as Bruiser squeezed tighter and tighter, grunting as she found difficulty breathing. Looking back up, she found that her face was very close to Bruiser’s. With a quick stretch in her neck, Gilda’s beak scooped into Bruiser’s eye socket, and with another quick jerk, plucked the eye right out, the optic nerve dangling from her mouth like a worm.

Bruiser let go with a loud yell, rolling onto his back as he put his hooves over his eye. Gilda, not taking another chance, rolled over onto Bruiser and sliced his throat with her talons. Gilda gasped for air as she watched Bruiser bleed out, his screams of anguish becoming sighs of mortality.

Gilda, despite her adrenaline and anxiety, could perfectly hear Slicer’s soaring as she came to fly up from above. Gilda hopped back just as Slicer’s blade whished over her head. Pulling up, Slicer landed and faced Gilda. Slicer looked at Bruisers lifeless, bleeding body, gasping at the macabre appearance.

“You want some too?” asked Gilda. “Then come on. I’m right here.”

Slicer, her breathing mirroring the likeness of a bull towards a matador, pushed off the ground and lunged at Gilda, who crouched down to ready her next move.
________________________________________________________________________________________

As Annie swung to the side of the rock wall, she saw White Glass standing and waiting. Annie could note that he was visibly tired, as told by his panting and lax stance. Annie readied her blades for a swing as White Glass noticed her. Just as she swung, White Glass teleported once more, escaping her blades.

Annie hissed as she reeled herself back to the top of the wall. Turning around, Annie saw White Glass standing on the back end, looking absolutely spent. With an angry huff, White Glass lifted his saddlebags off his back, opening the right one. Being pulled out from it was a series of six small blades, each connected by links, unfolding to create a long chain of blades. Tossing the bag to the side, the blade-chain began to orbit White Glass as he stood defensively, waiting for Annie to advance.

Annie walked slowly towards White Glass with her blades held down, unsure which of her steps would be the trigger for him to attack her. Annie was already half the distance to the end and White Glass was still as a statue. Annie then took a running step, but stopped herself. It was all she needed.

White Glass broke his chain’s orbit and hurled an end at Annie’s chest. Annie swung both blades up, crossing to catch the end blade in the middle, following through with her swing to toss the chain up. White glass huffed as his magic grasped the bottom end of his chain. Following the top end of the chain’s momentum, the bottom end of the chain swung and shot out at Annie’s exposed abdomen.

Annie used her front foot to leap back, but the blade managed to slice into her hoodie and cut her. Annie winced at the sting as she watched White Glass return his blades to orbit him. Placing her hand over her stomach, she looked at the blood that she had grabbed. It was a thick line, but nothing to suggest a deep cut.

Regardless, Annie could see her predicament. While it seemed he was too tired to use teleportation, his telekinesis was still more than handy, and his weapon also made for an excellent shield. Annie knew that approaching him was the only chance she had, as his weapon’s range would only serve to keep her further back.

As she took a step forwards, White Glass kept the front end of his chain with him while the other five blades uncoiled and swung out, creating a long blade that Annie knew she couldn’t block without the blades getting her. Jumping to the right, Annie leapt off the rock wall and into the crevice, the blades managing to only cut a few hairs on the top of her head.

As Annie swung to the back end of the rock wall, coming face to face with the side of the cliff, she fired another hook at a wall of rock above the top of the cliff, reeling herself high up to it. Running up the cliff face, Annie pushed off while detaching her hook, flipping high over White Glass, keeping her blades held over and behind her head.

As White Glass prepared to swing his blades up to Annie’s level, she hurled her arms down and pulled the hammers of her operational devices back causing the blades to fling out from the handles and down towards White Glass. By the time White Glass noticed the glimmer of the blades coming at his face, it was too late to provide a shield.

The first of Annie’s blades slid into his body through his shoulder, the second going through his head, right between the eyes and breaking his glasses apart at the bridge. Annie landed back on top of the rock wall with a bounce in her knees to soften the landing. Annie just managed to look up as White Glass leaned towards the outer edge of the wall, falling limply to the ground below.

A burst of brown light came onto the top of the cliff across from the back end of the rock wall. Annie seeing his likewise tired appearance, inserted new blades into her operational devices and unsheathed them, preparing to take him down as well.
________________________________________________________________________________________

Gilda juked to the left right as Slicer came towards her. As she reached out with her talon, Slicer managed to cut the side Gilda’s wrist with her bladed cestus. Gilda ignored the wound, managing to grab hold of Slicer’s wing. With Slicer’s speed and Gilda’s grip and footing, Gilda could hear the pop of Slicer’s wing as it dislocated from the socket.

With Slicer’s flight stopped, Gilda swung her arm up and over her head with Slicer still in her grasp, arcing her up as Gilda’s arm came own towards the ground. The back of Slicer’s head and neck slammed into the ground, where her body violently contorted to the pain and massive stress to her spine.

Slicer, finding herself on her stomach, tried to crawl away, using her cestuses to anchor her to the ground. Gilda walked beside Slicer and leaned her head down towards the back of her neck. Enveloping the back of her neck with her beak, Gilda bit down and jerked her head to the side, hearing the satisfying crack of Slicer’s neck as her body went motionless.

Gilda stood over Slicer, chuckling triumphantly as she looked at her and Bruiser’s bodies. Gilda spat another wad of blood from her mouth as she took a moment to breath.

“Don’t worry, Dash,” she whispered to herself. “I’m com–”

The feeling of a painful prick in her neck stopped her musing, making her arch her neck out in reflex. Reaching to the spot, she felt a dart stuck in the side of her neck, pulling it out and observing it. Turning behind her, she found Doctor with a small riffle with a wide barrel in his magical grasp.

Gilda, realizing what had happened, began to run towards Doctor, who merely smirked and stayed perfectly still. Before Gilda could reach him, her legs began to wobble as the buckled underneath her, making her trip and slide headfirst into the snow. She tried moving her arms, only for them to feel like weights.

“Don’t worry,” Doctor tauntingly cooed, “we aren’t going to kill you… can’t say the same about Com…”

Gilda’s vision and consciousness faded as she failed to fight the sleep, succumbing to Doctor’s poison and closing her eyes peacefully.
________________________________________________________________________________________

Annie lunged towards Black Glass on the cliff, ready to fire her hooks and leap across to him. Just as she neared the edge, she spotted an orange pegasus flying towards her out of the left corner of her eye. Annie noticed that his speed wouldn’t let up.

“Flash?” she silently wondered.

Flipping his back hooves up, Flash Sentry put his right leg out, aiming towards Annie’s face. Annie, overcome by shock, didn’t react as Flash Sentry’s hoof collided into her face, knocking her off the rock wall and towards the cliff. Annie, disoriented, crashed the other side of her head into the cliff and continued to fall down into crevice.

Annie was out before she even hit the ground.
________________________________________________________________________________________

Annie’s eyes fluttered open to see Gilda lying beside her, unconscious, but breathing. Shifting her body up, she gripped her head as pain and pressure filled her skull. Annie, although groggy, could also feel that her Maneuver Gear was removed from her body, devices, sheaths, and all.

“Careful there,” called Flash Sentry’s voice.

Annie looked up to see Flash Sentry and Dark Glass standing along the outer face of the rock wall. The streak of blood on Flash Sentry's face looked to be wiped clean. Annie looked around further, seeing Gilda to her left and three bloody sacks laid off next to each other, each one looking to have a body inside. Next to the line of bodies was Annie’s Maneuver Gear, completely destroyed and broken with Doctor standing beside the wreckage.

“Yeah,” Flash Sentry apologized insincerely, “sorry about that. Letting you have that thing on you anymore was only going to make our job more difficult. I might have faked that little... injury I just got,” he said, tapping his forehead, “courtesy of Doctor...”

Doctor nodded to Flash Sentry in response.

“...but I'm certainly not going to get a real one.”

“Flash,” panted Annie, “what is going on? What are you–”

“What, you still haven’t figured it out? Boy, you’re dense.”

“You… you’re working with the Fates?”

“There we go!” he cheered, clopping his front hooves together. “I knew you’d figure it out!”

“Flash… why? How?”

Flash scoffed with a smug smile, as if he still found her lack of understanding amusing.

“Why?” he asked. “Easy. Pays a lot better. How? Well, you remember that little sob story I told you when we were eating dinner together?”

“Huh?”

“Well, guess what? I. Lied! Total liar-liar-pants-on-fire story. I wasn’t getting my flank beat by the neighborhood colts. I was the one doing the beating! Haha!”

Annie felt a pang of nausea hit her stomach, devastated by Flash’s change.

“Eventually,” Flash Sentry continued, “I got so good, that my good ol’ buddy Black Glass,” he said, wrapping his arm around Black Glass’s neck, “let me join the Fates. However, Commander had different plans for me. You see, I was a big top-classified secret disclosed only to both White Glass and Black Glass. They falsified my records and shipped me off to Canterlot to become part of the Royal Guard, where I would send them all the sweet, juicy secrets that the Royal Guard held.

“And like the morons they are, my first couple of months were spent managing the shipments that came from your world to ours. They might as well have just shipped their steel to the Fates themselves and presented it to us with a pretty little bow on top!”

“You skimmed our steel?” Annie hissed.

“Uh, yeah! How else do you think we get the metal for our weapons? By melting down soda cans?”

Flash Sentry laughed again, causing Annie’s fists and scowl to go taut.

“And then there was you two,” Flash Sentry said, his voice changing into one of vindication. “To think, if you had just continued playing dumb and just let that dumb griffon get locked up in the Canterlot dungeons for the rest of her life, we wouldn’t even be here. You’d be back in Canterlot, drowning your sorrows in crystal for the rest of your life.”

“So that’s why you wanted to come,” Annie muttered. “It wasn’t so you could earn your own Maneuver Gear. You wanted to be sure that I didn’t find out the truth.”

Flash Sentry pursed his lips and widened his eyes open in genuine surprise, nodding slightly.

“Check out the big brain on Annie!” he said to Black Glass, who responded with a confirming nod.

“Then why?” she asked. “Why didn’t you just try and kill us earlier.”

“Well, think about it, Annie. It’s you, me, and that griffon on the train, right? Who am I going to blame? The conductor? Yeah, that lie would hold up for long. And then once we were in the forest, I wasn’t going to be able to attack you with both of you around. Either one of you would have tried to kill me if I attacked the other. But, like I was going to let you just waltz into Canterlot and let Gilda spill the beans.”

“Then… that boulder.”

“That’s right! I flew aaaaall the way over to those falls and blew the boulder that destroyed the bridge, with some sticks of dynamite that I found in the storage car, no less. By the time you noticed the bridge was out, it’s not like we had enough time to see that they were missing.

“Of course, I was hoping some of us were going to kill you, but you and Gilda… AH!” he screamed, throwing his head up. “So annoying! But, whatever. We managed to take both of you down, and you’re ours to do as we please.”

“So,” Annie asked, “this is where you kill us?”

“Pfft. I wish. No, Commander would actually like to have a word with you and Gilda before then. However, we should be leaving now. It’s going to get dark soon… and Commander does not like to be kept waiting.”

Annie fought every urge to attack Flash Sentry as he chuckled. Before she could even think again about trying, Black Glass charged his horn and cast a burst of magic at Annie’s head, knocking her back into the snow where she was rendered unconscious immediately.