"We must make haste!" Catalyst said urgently, "The amulet detected Blood Magic from the town! Gather around me! I will teleport us to the roof of Town Hall!"

The Humans, Ponies, and Zebra all gathered around the Arch Magister even while she opened her screfula and began her spell. In a brilliant flash of light they all disappeared from the forest and reappeared on the roof of Town Hall. The Arch Magister hid it well, but the teleport nearly knocked her out. She had used a great deal of her Thamaturgic Energy to pull off the teleport, "Captain, your eyes are sharper than ours and this is the highest point in town. Can you see anything? I'll enhance your vision." Catalyst charged her magic, fighting to stay conscious, and touched her horn to the Captain's leg.

Joyner's eyes took on an amethyst colored glow as he swept his gaze all around. Everything suddenly looked as if it were daylight to his eyes. He scanned everything as quickly as he could, slowly moving around the perimeter of the roof. Behind him, the Sorcerers had picked up on the idea and several were busy providing similar spells and looking out over the town from different points.

Suddenly his right hand shot out, pointing to a house, "There..." his eyes bulged as blood suddenly began thundering in his ears, "That's Tina and Kolo's house!" He turned to the rest as it suddenly made sense, "Merlin! They're after the baby!"

The Captain wasted no time and began speaking into his head set even as he headed toward the stairs, "Joyner to all officers. Code black. All officers hearing this transmission, gather at the home of Kolo Calvin and Tina Pho. Sergeant Eduardo Ortega, I am authorizing the issue of Gyrojet sidearms!"

Catalyst followed the Captain down to the third floor and dashed toward her saddlebags, tripping over her own legs as she entered the room. She stumbled and braced herself against the right wall in one of the rooms. She knew she would be useless against any prepared Bloodmage in her condition. In desperation she called out, "Flash Point, Star Shine, Corona Flare, Backlash, Note! Bloodmages are about in New Humansville! Gather your saddlebags and follow the Human officers right now!" She skidded to a halt just in front of her room and yelled to Joyner, "Captain, I'll meet you on the way!"

Joyner nodded as he, his officers, and the Sorcerers continued down the stairs at almost a dead run. Artex, Razor, and Oriana followed after them. Upon reaching the ground floor, Joyner stopped for a second and turned around, "Henderson, stay here and relay orders to the Arch Magister! The rest of you come with me!"

Artex made to follow the Captain when a hard tug against his shirt stopped him, "Huh?" He stopped and turned to see Oriana holding his shirt tail in her mouth.

The Zebra mare spit out the fabric and looked up at him seriously, "What do you think we could do that they cannot? We would only be in their way."

Artex shook his head and ran out the door, "Come on!" he shouted over his shoulder, "I doubt any Human here has an Earth Pony's strength and a Human's flexibility. These are my people damnit! I've sat back long enough and I'm not sitting this one out!" Razor and Oriana galloped along behind him.

Back inside Town Hall, Catalyst slung her saddlebags over her back and fastened them tightly with her magic. A sheet of paper floated out, followed by a quill as the Arch Magister scribbled out a quick note. She rolled it up and levitated a black ribbon out of her saddle bags. She tied the scroll up with the ribbon then sent it off to Canterlot in a flash of magic. She emerged from her room and met the eyes of five other Unicorns, "You know what to do!" She ordered, still panting for breath.

As the five of them reached the ground floor of Town Hall, a small green cloud of smoke came rushing in through the front doors and materialized into a scroll in front of Catalyst. The Arch Magister ripped the black ribbon off the paper and read the message. She rolled the scroll back up and sent it back then quickly threw her medallion onto the floor, "Get back!"

Within a few seconds a brilliant flash of light suddenly appeared directly over the medallion, leaving Princess Luna and a Human standing over it, "We're here." Luna said authoritatively, "Where are the Bloodmages?"

"Follow us!" She took off at a gallop, hoping she could force her body to remain conscious.

* * *

Full Spectrum followed the Captain's pointing finger and caught sight of a Pegasus mare leading what looked like living shadows away from a house. She felt a growl rumble up from her throat, ignoring the fact that everybody else has gone down the stairs... except the Changeling, Vaiawa. The Changeling wasted no time and took to the air, chasing after the Pegasus mare and leaving Full Spectrum behind.

Full Spectrum focused on the Pegasus and took a step back, opening her screfula as much as she could. With a hard huff and the quick casting of an impromptu spell, she took off at a run and leaped right off the roof and out into the open air.

She grunted in exertion as she felt gravity quick begin to pull her down. She strained and cast another spell, using her Noun: Energy. She had been theorizing how to use it and she finally had the chance. She pulled the energy all around herself like a cloak and pulled it into her own body providing direct energy to her. Her muscles and skin felt as if they were on fire. The burn was intense and painful enough to make her queasy, but she did slow down. She pulled the energy from her increasing speed, and velocity to strengthen her body and slow her descent at the same time. Stepping off the outer wall and onto the ground below was a painfully long and straining step as the pressure and forces of gravity, momentum, kinetic energy, mass, and velocity all violently shifted with Full Spectrum's orientation on the world.

She grunted in a near scream as she landed on her feet and took off toward the Pegasus like a bullet out of a gun. She had the speed to catch the Pegasus mare, but her speed was greater than her reflexes. She sped off down the street, striking her left shoulder against the corner of a house as she tried to turn a corner and almost tripped and fell. Ahead of her, she could see the Pegasus mare leading the shadows down the street and close to the edge of town. Her vision focused on the rear most shadow and within seconds she was within arm's reach of it's almost incorporeal tail.

With a final burst of magic and a scream of aggression, she took a flying leap and grabbed a handful of the shadow's tail. The young Sorcerer kept running for a brief moment, before channeling a spell directly into the shadow, reversing the direction of it's momentum. The shadow yelped a dog-like scream and staggered as it's equilibrium was turned completely around. It dropped the limp form of Kolo Calvin from its jaws, but the angry Sorceress was not yet finished, 'I can't fight this thing, I'm nowhere near strong enough. Kolo is bit he's out of it... wait, Catalyst once said that excess Thamaturgic Energy in the body is invigorating... somebody shouldn't be able to be invigorated and asleep at the same time...' She pulled all of the magic she could from her Screfula and focused it into her right hand. She knelt down and placed her hand on Kolo's head, directly transferring her Thamaturgic Energy to the hulking man and Kolo's eyes snapped open as Full Spectrum passed out on top of him.

"Ugh man, what happ..." he trailed off as he noticed, fist that Full Spectrum was lying on him passed out, and second that there was a big, black wolf looking thing standing over them growling. Kolo's eyes bulged as the wolf lunged and he instinctively reached for its jaws. As he expected, the wolf-thing's jaws were stopped only for a second and it began plying its full strength to bite down. Kolo reached for his magic and in his frustrated state, used his most powerful Noun and Verb combination: Create and Water.

His fingers curled instinctively into the proper positions and he let the water flow just underneath the creature's skin. The former Timberwolf felt it's skin bloating with water and desperately shook its head from side to side, trying to dislodge the large man, but Kolo held on gamely, pouring more and more water into the layers between its skin.

* * *

Joyner turned the corner with six of his officers and two dozen Sorcerers and the Emissarial staff at his back and nearly came to a stop when he spotted Kolo Calvin.

With Full Spectrum's limp form hefted over his shoulder, dragging a hugely bloated and loudly whimpering wolf-like creature by the tail behind him, Kolo was loudly muttering, "Stupid, fuzzy, half-witted, stinking..." the wolf-thing's eyes met the Captain's as he ran past. Those eyes begged for mercy in the most pathetic manner imaginable.

The officers continued on to where the other shadows and the Pegasus mare had stopped just beyond the edge of New Humansville. The loud flap of wings above, made the Captain and his officers look upward as Princess Luna soared overhead. The Arch Magister and five other Unicorns all teleported in a wide circle around the Pegasus mare and the shadows, and finally a portal opened up on the far side of the Pegasus mare and Chris Vacca stepped out of it clad in a new type of armor similar to what the C.W.G. officers wore.

The Pegasus mare was standing still with her eyes closed muttering something under her breath and had baby Merlin's head poking out of her saddlebags. The officers made to dash into the midst of the wolf-shadows, but Princess Luna's outstretched wings blocked them, "No! She's secured herself inside a closed circle! It could kill you if you touch it!" the Alicorn Princess turned and yelled to the Arch Magister, "What is it Catalyst!? Quickly!"

Captain Joyner looked to the Arch Magister and saw her with her left forehoof held up with blood running down her leg. She had her eyes closed and was also muttering. After a few seconds she opened her eyes, "Don't touch the closed circle! It will take your body and pull you apart at a molecular level!" she sighed and angrily scuffed her hoof, eyes filled with frustrated tears, "I... I can't dispell it!" She cried, "Normal magic won't affect it... there's nothing... there's NOTHING I CAN DO!" She tried in vain to blink away the tears but only ended up smearing them.

"Young mare!," Princess Luna addressed the Pegasus Bloodmage loudly, "Young mare, please listen to me! You don't have to do this! Whatever you've been promised, whatever power has seduced your mind, please, it cannot be worth what you are doing! You don't have to do this!"

The Pegasus mare continued her muttering as Captain Joyner stepped up next to Luna and said in a hushed whisper, "There has to be SOMETHING we can do!"

"It can't stop ME!" came a loud cry from above. The cry was accompanied by the buzzing sound of insectoid wings. All eyes turned toward the voice as Vaiawa swooped in from above and scraped her right forehoof across the closed circle as she flew by, dispelling it.

The Pegasus mare's eyes shot open then quickly narrowed as a sickening grin spread over her features, "Perfect!" she opened her wings and yelled, "NOW!"

A yell sounded out of the darkness and a pair of bright red lights suddenly sprang to life all around the entire group freezing every Kavim and Human in place. Half a second later a trio of wooden shafts lanced out of the darkness and embedded themselves deeply into Vaiawa's right side. The Changeling spun from the force of the bolts, plummeting from the air and crashing into the ground with an agonized scream. She thrashed, screaming on the ground for a few seconds before going still.

From out of the darkness strode almost a dozen more figures, all of them covered in hooded cloaks. Some stood on two legs and some stood on four, but the identities of all were concealed by the cloaks. Three of the shorter bipedal figures were in the process of reloading crossbows. One particular figure strode forward, right to the edge of the much larger circle that had been hidden in the field, "Well done," the figure spoke with a masculine voice, his muzzle tip peeking out from under the hood, "Oh very well done!" He turned his eyes to the frozen form of Princess Luna, "We've never used Alicorn blood before." his grin, barely visible beneath his hood, was a thing to fear, "This will be quite the treat. Yes, quite the treat indeed."

Ambush the typos!