The corridors and rooms were filled in bullet holes and blood splatters in the walls and floor, along with fallen bodies slashed by a pair of chef knifes. By that point, trying to use the pistols was a risk and time waster, now relying on her melee and throwing skills, trusting her blades to not disappoint her.

Pinkamena reached the ground floor finally between intense fights against the Don's thugs and their lethal weapons, leaving Mane behind on the third floor with his new found power fighting Beryl, Don Topaz's mighty body guard.
Running around between rooms and avoiding getting surrounded, she noticed a grandfather clock telling It was almost six in the morning, and the Empire's Royal Guard could be alerted at any moment and they would come for sure, adding more to the confusion.

She passed by the kitchen avoiding a group of armed gangsters, and she took her time to choose her knifes in the luxurious kitchen. Stainless steel and silver were the materials, being silver the heaviest, good for a precise throw, and steel the lighter ones for quick throws and in good number, giving the fact there were more steel cutlery than silver.

The pink slasher finally found the front door being guarded by four goons, which quickly started firing their weapons at first sight.
Pinkamena quickly took cover behind a wall, grabbing one silver knife and threw It in one of them with deadly aim, right in his head ending him instantly. The other three took cover, one behind a wall and the other two behind a wall too.

She rolled to a table and kicked It forming a barrier, and a bullet almost got her neck, passing through the wood and failing by a matter of centimeters.

"Come out with hands in the air!" Ordered one of them.

"You can kiss my ass!!" Pinkamena answered in anger, preparing another silver knife.

She peeked by the bullet hole and none of them were showing. In the moment, the ceiling slightly trembled, probably Mane using his magic shock wave again.

"I hope he's winning..."

She felt her brain going crazy with a strange feeling, as if time slowed down. Her natural instinct made her stand up from her cover, and with her perception going slow motion, the gangster behind the sofa showed up and her reaction seemed to against her speed of things, throwing the knife right at his neck, turning him into a blood fountain.

She ran to the front door, and before barging outside, she turned to the other two and threw four steel knifes while running, one failing, one to one of their heads, and the other two to the last bandit's neck and chest.

Diane kicked the door open and her head went back to normal. Her assassin instinct had kicked in back there, thanks to Mane's transfusion of her evil self powers to her sane self.

The outside plaza along with It's gardens were quiet. Too quiet... Did they finished all of them?
The sun was still raising in the horizon with the moon still fading away at the morning's light.
Far away in the gate, a big group showed up running to the villa's entrance, and taking positions. Something was not right, the action was in the house, not outside the whole place.

They started firing in a pattern, giving time to the others reload before their turn would come. In a moment, a huge flash blinded her for some seconds, followed by an explosion. The gate was now open and half destroyed with some thugs still alive, trying to get up and fight the invasor.
And a medium sized group ran inside, jumping at the remaining bandits and hacking them with swords and axes, while the archers shoot their bows at a line of enemies on a roof. Pinkamena ran in their direction, and she recognized Sigil and Copper, coming to their rescue with weapons ready for the battle along with some troops.

"SIGIL! COPPER!" She called in the distance.

"Heeey!" Copper waved at her. "We are here tor rescue you!"

"You are a bit late! We managed to escape their prison and then the inevitable happened!" Pinkamena reached to their postion. "How did you know?"

"One of Copper's scouts heard the gun fight in the distance. We ordered one of them to follow you in the distance." Said Sigil glad to see her again.

"We know you both wanted to go alone, but It was for the best." Copper excused.

"Well, I'm glad you were smarter than us. What was that moments ago?!" Pinkamena asked, referring to the previous explosion.

"Oh, It was them." Sigil pointed at two unicorns under robes and light armor. "Inked Quill's battle mages. He presented them to us before we headed out."

"I must say, they were helpful in opening the door!" Copper admitted.

They stood there, catching their breath, and then they headed towards the house but didn't go outside, instead, they went to the backyard.
It sure was huge there. The location was fit for a king, but in this case, a crime king.
The first thing that caught their attention was the big pool next to the house, crystal clear water with a blue tile background. The trees were big too, and some bushes trimmed like sculptures.

The place was also empty, no bodies, no scattered weapons. With time, something came to Sigil's mind.

"Pinkamena?"

"What is It?" She replied ready to throw a knife at any sight of danger.

"Did you kill all of them?" She asked It with suspicion.

"Probably not. I saw their boss escaping with a group to somewhere. Also, his body guard is still around here somewhere, Mane stayed behind to face him."

"Yeah! Speaking of him... where is Mane?!" Copper shrugged.

Ironically, from the third floor, a cracking sound echoed in the place, and Mane came flying from a window screaming and waving his limbs in the air, falling right on the pool with a huge splash. They all looked up and Beryl showed up by the broken window with nothing but his suit torn in rags from the fight. The white stallion looked at them all with anger and headed back inside and screamed orders to the remaining bandits on the house.

They looked back to the pool and Mane wasn't showing up for some reason. Pinkamena approached and saw Mane struggling on the bottom trying to come up, and she realized the situation.

"Help him! Mane's made of rocks lately, he's too heavy to swim!"

Didn't take long to Copper and three of his soldiers to drop their swords and dive in the water, swimming down the pool and each one grabbing Mane's heavy gem limbs. They were having trouble in pulling him up, waving their legs the fastest they could, until the two battle mages helped raising Mane out of the water with their magic.

Once completely outside, Mane rolled on the floor on his back, spitting water and catching his breath. His new gem body amazed all of them except Pinkamena who saw It first. In seconds, his body returned to the normal smooth fur and flesh, and bones of course.

"There's no time to loose! There might be more coming!" Sigil shouted to the troops.

A pegasus soldier came by the corner of the house, flying at them in full speed, and stopped in time before he shocked with his comrades.

"Captain!" He called. "A part of the Crystal Army is coming towards the mansion! Somepony alerted them!"

"The backdoor!" Pinkamena referred. "We can escape through there!"

"You lead the way then! Boys, help Mane getting up or we are all gonna end in the Palace's catacombs!" Copper shouted giving back the weapons to the soldiers who dived.

They run all together inside the villa, and the pace speed up when Mane finally caught his breath from his previous fight and the throw through the window, back into his hooves running among them. Pinkamena led them downstairs into the big basement, where they faced a group which was took down pretty quick with knifes, magic and swords.

The mercenary group stormed out the backdoor leading to the high grass fields, where they kept running until they were far away. In the distance they saw the army coming but in a different itinerary to the villa, and they ducked to avoid being seen, until they were gone.

"Okay, we're clear..." Said Copper Spear.

"Stand up. Everypony." Ordered Sigil. "Directly to the hideout! Move!"