I went over towards the Everfree with John. The silence during the walk there, especially considering the situation, started getting to me pretty quickly. “So, John, how long have you been here?”

“As in this world… only two days,” John responded as he continued walking forwards, his hands in his pockets, seemingly gripping onto something inside it. “Why do you ask?”

I put a hand on the back of my head as I admitted my reason. “Well, it’s a bit of a walk, and I just want to talk a bit. Break the silence, you know?”

“I can understand that, but I’m just not that sure what to even ask. It’s not like I’ve got any experience as what we are as a group now.”

It took me a bit to understand that he was referring to being Displaced. “From my experience, you just have to roll with it. It was pretty rough for me starting out, with a whole new body. Thankfully, things didn’t get this interesting this quickly.”

“By interesting I take it you mean meeting others like us?” John clarified.

“No, I’m talking about having to help with a kidnapping case or something big like that only two days into the Displacement. It was at least a week or two before my first fight. I think.”

“To be honest with you, this kind of stuff isn’t that new to me, kinda had to sort problems like this every once in a while,” John admitted as he pulled out a small badge that had been in his pocket.

I noticed the badge almost immediately. “Police? Well, thanks for all you do.” I looked back forwards and saw the edge of the Everfree. “Alright, what’s the plan?”

“I guess the best thing is for us to scour the edge of the forest, maybe we’ll be able to pick up a trail that way, that could help give us some sort of clue.”

“Sounds like a plan. So, you that way, I’ll go this way?”

“If you are okay with that sure,” John responded as he placed his badge back in his pocket and walked into the woods away from me.

The area of the forest I was going to was thicker than John’s area, but I wasn’t about to let that stop me. As I started looking around the foliage and ground, a thought resurfaced. “I have no idea what I’m doing. Do I need a coffee mug and someone to stand around and talk with or something?”

After not noticing anything for a while, I noticed something: Some plants that looked like they had recently been walked through, going into the forest. I carefully made my way inside, looking around for any kind of trap that might have been set. Seeing none, I took a few more steps in, following the disturbed foliage further inwards.

At some point, I started feeling oddly drowsy, but I pressed on anyways. I stopped when I saw myself standing in front of me, but before I could say anything, someone came up from behind and put a cloth over my face. Before I knew it, I was out cold. The last thing I remembered seeing was a flash of green fire and someone looking a lot like me.

I slowly woke up on a barely padded cot of some kind. “What happened?” My vision was blurry, but I was able to make out some vertical bars and someone walking away from them. Or past them. I couldn’t tell.

After rolling out of bed and landing face first on the floor, I was definitely more awake, though still quite tired. As I got up and blinked the blurriness out of my eyes, I saw some kind of guard in red on the other side of the bars. “Hey, what happened to me?”

The guard said nothing.

After a bit, I took a look around and took stock of my situation, helped by waking up a bit more. I was in a cell of some kind with three solid stone walls and the one barred wall. There was the small cot I woke up on, a short wall, and a toilet on the other side of the short wall. There was also a bit of free space at the foot of the bed, but not much. I still had all my clothes on, and I still had the Ember Celica on. Before I made any attempts at escaping, two thoughts crossed my mind. “I don’t know where I am, and I only have smoke rounds that smell like barbecue.” My stomach chose that moment to speak up. “I can deal with being hungry. The other things wouldn’t help me.”

With escape pretty firmly crossed off the list of things to do, I was left only with waiting for something to happen. I walked around the cell and saw that the toilet, thankfully, had a roll of toilet paper with it. I didn’t see anywhere to wash my hands though. “That sucks. Things could be worse though.”

Some time after determining that the guard wasn’t going to speak, I lay back down on the bed, bored and hungry.

After a few minutes I heard a female voice say, “Well this one really is exotic, it’s such a shame to see it a cage.”

I turned to look at the speaker and saw someone dressed like they were going to a beach in a sandstorm. She was clearly female, and she was showing it off, her mint green fur having a very glossy look to it. She was wearing what looked like a red monokini with black details, a pair of skirts coming off the sides, hiding where her cutie mark should have been. The skirts were held against the outer thigh by what looked like two thin tail wraps, threaded through like belts. The middle portion was shaped like a Y, going from her hips up to her chest, continuing up to her shoulders with a V neckline, revealing much more of her breasts than I would be comfortable showing myself. The whole piece was topped off with a hood, under which was a mask. The mask covered most of her face, leaving only her mouth and bright blue eyes visible. The whole thing looked like it was made of a tight rubber or latex, which I wouldn’t be comfortable wearing, but would certainly look good in.

“I’m a woman, thank you very much,” I pointed out to her. With her there, I felt like continuing. “By the way, does this place have any better room service? Or at least better toilet paper? The stuff in here’s really thin.”

The woman in front of me laughed before she said, “You're complaining about that? Look around. At least you have room to move.” The woman then gestured around her as I saw that around the room were multiple people in cages only just the size of them with nothing but what looked to two small dog bowls in the cage with them. “If you want to complain, I’m sure we can move you somewhere more. . . suitable, with how you are acting and how gracious we are.”

I finally looked around and saw others in cages, only able to lie down with any comfort. There were also a few others in cells like mine, though they were in the minority, and wearing armor that only looked like it was made for looks first and protection tenth. Their armor made my combat outfit look modest in comparison. “Gracious? Really? You have the gall to say that in this room?”

“Well, do you want those rooms?” the woman asked, gesturing to the small cages, “I’m sure we can find you one if you’d prefer those.”

“The only advantage I can see is being able to see all around, but that’s not much.” I also considered how I could weaken some of the piled cages with some heat and cause some chaos. “Why are you doing this?”

“What do you mean why am I doing this?” the woman asked as she walked to the side of my cell and placed her hand out as I saw what looked to be someone else seemly rubbing themselves against the woman's hand. “That much should be obvious, Afterall who cares if a bunch of other creatures are imprisoned or forced to fight or work for us. We ponies are all that matters in this world afterall." It was then one of the guards tapped the woman on the shoulder before to whispering something to her, causing the woman to sigh before continuing. “Well, it seems I may be overstepping my bounds,” the woman then looked to place three objects into my cell before I looked to see that it looked to be a large plate of some kind of food while the others looked to be a large jug of water and what looked to be dog bowl, “I’m sorry for the bowl, but we currently don’t have anything else for you to drink out of. We’ll try and get you something better in to drink from tomorrow.”

I looked at the food, water, and bowl. “Ew, grass.” I looked back at the rest of the captives, who seemed to be acting more like docile pets than ponies. “I’ll eat later.” I put the items aside before firmly grasping a bar with both hands to try and twist it while focusing a bit of heat into it.

“Umm, miss, I wouldn’t try that if I was you,” the woman said a clearly concerned tone in her voice. A moment later, I was knocked back by a shockwave, tripped over the bed, and hit the back wall head first.

The impact wasn’t nearly enough to knock me out, so I got back up. My aura had taken a hit, and my semblance was activated. “What was that?” I kept my power boost hidden from her, acting more dazed than I was.

“Ooh, you’re a tough one. I like that. In fact, I like you even more now.” As she continued, I went back up to the bars, not doing anything to them and not getting knocked back. “I’ll let you know this: those bars are enchanted to be unbreakable, and there’s knockback spells as well, but I’m sure you’ve figured that out already.”

I looked around and saw a few guards around the room, though most of them were with the woman, and all of them had red metal armor. I tried pulling on the bars again, and was sent back again. “Okay, it still works.”

“Of course. These are military grade enchantments, after all.” Once again, I went back to the bars. “Would you believe me if I said I found the enchantments in a book in the public library?”

“Military grade spells in a public library? I’m not sure.” I pulled on the bars and got knocked back again. “Almost there.” I had a plan, and the guards coming in to see the commotion I was making was helping.

“Yeah. Just right there on the shelf.” I got up and pulled on the bars again. “You know, that was amusing the first couple times, but at this point, it’s just getting sad.”

“What can I say? I’m a dumb blonde.” I pulled and got sent back again. After going to the bars and putting one hand on the bars, I quickly conjured a fireball with the other and launched it through the bars at the gathered pony people, made it explode, and knocked them all out.

After knocking out some other guards that came to respond with the same method, I planted my feet on the ground, tightened my grip, and pulled on the bars again. The knockback came, but I held firm. As I kept pulling, and kept getting hit with the shockwaves, the scale and type of operation that was going on really started getting me mad. I focused the fire magic on the bars again, but nothing happened. “If I can’t break the bars. . . I hope I can do this.” I attempted to channel the magic through my feet and into the stone floor around the bars. To my delight, it was working and I soon saw the stone begin to glow.

“What was tha-” The woman started asking before I cut her off, my eyes red and some dangerous music starting to play.

As the bars I was holding started to slide back, I answered her. “You angered a dragon.” I finally broke the bars out and tossed them aside before squeezing out and setting my arms and eyes ablaze.

She managed to rouse some guards up to try and fight me. Most of them backed away as I approached, adding fiery footfalls to my look. “Attack her!” One of them pulled out a flintlock pistol and fired it at me. The bullet hit the middle of my forehead, and some of my hair fell in front of my eyes as my aura tanked the shot. “Why isn’t she stopping?”

“For once, I welcome the anger.” As soon as the music picked up, I walked forward, throwing a flaming punch at the nearest guard with enough force to plant him in a wooden wall. The other guards charged at me as the music picked up another notch and the woman ran off. Powered by the rage, I welcomed their onslaught, landing high power punches on each one that got close to me. It didn’t take long for me to change tactics, going from punches to grapples, heating and tearing off the layered armor, leaving nasty burns.

I barely paid any attention to the alarm that went off as I finished with the guards, running off to chase down the woman. Some ponies that heard the music in the hallway got out of my way. One mare who was deeply engrossed in her book as she crossed my path wasn’t in my way for long before I punched her out of my way without missing a beat. “GET BACK HERE!” The longer the chase went on, the more of myself I set ablaze, and the more damage I did to the building, busting through doors and breaking corners.

I finally caught up with the mare as the music started dying down, and she was holding Apple Bloom in front of her like a shield. “You’re after her, right?” She picked up a knife from a nearby table and held the pointed end at Apple Bloom’s throat. “Well, if you don’t stop, she gets the blade.” I kept the fire going, but didn’t advance. I didn’t back down either, leaving us in a stalemate. “No answer? That’s fine.”

Her metaphorically cold gaze met my literal fiery gaze, and we just stood there, facing each other down, though I did have the height advantage. Even as a number of guards encircled us and pointed small, loaded crossbows at me, we kept staring.

Finally, three gunshots came from the left, and the woman fell down, dropping the knife. I barely noticed a guard collapse as I rushed forward under some flying crossbow bolts and grabbed Apple Bloom. There was another gunshot, different from the first three, and I charged past one guard, knocking him into the wall. On the other side, I saw John and Applejack. I suddenly felt a wave of mild exhaustion, and I said the first thing that came to mind. “One little sister, ready to go. Are you picking her up or do you want home delivery for three bits extra?”

Applejack gave me an incredulous look before saying, “Get her home in one piece, cleaned up, and I’ll double that.” In one fluid motion, she turned to an approaching guard, pulled out a hatchet, and began fighting him and another guard that was joining the first one.

John jumped forward into the fray, drawing his sword and stabbing it through one of the oncoming guards’ chest before whispering something to Applejack. Applejack picked up a musket, came over to me and Apple Bloom, helped me back to my feet, and started leading me out. Not once did I let go of Apple Bloom, and not once did she let go of me.

“You must be the visitor that Bayek mentioned while you and John were looking around some of the Everfree,” Applejack said. “I never got to introduce myself, I’m Applejack.”

I kept my introduction brief as we ran. “Yang Xiao Long. Glad to meet you, Applejack. If only it was under better circumstances. . .”

“Same here,” she answered. “Now, hopefully, Bayek isn’t too sore about what I did to him as I charged in.” She led us up a set of stairs, and opened a door to the outside, but when she did, a pony in bronze armor came sailing over us and down the stairs. Looking outside, I saw Bayek was fighting a few ponies who were wearing bronze armor and a few others with red armor.

“Is it impulse in fanfictions for you guys to attack what isn’t pony?” Bayek asked out loud as his shield was knocked out of his grip. In response, he pulled out a dagger and stabbed a bronze guard in the neck.

I shifted Apple Bloom around so I was holding her with one hand as Applejack started fighting the armored ponies. I had an idea, and I quickly set it into motion. “Bayek, this might hurt a bit.” I stuck my hand into his sandy body and focused my fire magic through my fingertips into the shape of a sword. When I felt like the sword was shaped, I quickly cooled it down and pulled it out. The sword was ugly and misshapen, but it looked like it would work well enough.

“GAH!” Bayek shouted when the sword was formed. “Next time you decide to rip out someone’s kidney, make sure they are unconscious first,” he yelled out before drawing his other dagger and releasing a series of slashes and stabs on a red guard. “Now get your rear ends in gear and get out of here. I saw a red chariot circling overhead, and I don’t think it’s anyone you want to meet.”

“And leave you here?” I swung the sword at an oncoming red armored enemy. The blade embedded itself in his body before snapping near the hilt. With no idea what to do, I tossed the remainder of the sword at another armored enemy’s head before turning around and dealing a final punch to the first one as the glass started turning back into sand and flowing back to Bayek.

“Well, the fact that you ripped out my kidney without killing me,I can handle holding them off and not die in the process,” he shot back. “Besides, with Applebloom here, you’ll be more of a liability and Applejack probably won’t want her to leave her sight for a while.” He sliced the throat of a red guard before turning to me and Applejack. “Now, get going!”

I considered Bayek’s words for a moment before noticing someone in red armor sneaking through the foliage near Applejack. I reached into Bayek again, quickly made a glass ball, and threw it at the sneaky pony’s head. The ball shattered and he went down in an instant. “Alright.”

Applejack motioned in a direction with her head before rushing off, and I followed. As I ran with her, I could hear Bayek shout, “You really know how to break a guy’s heart, Yang!”

Soon, Applejack and I were out of the forest and back on the farm. We didn’t stop until we made it to the house, both of us breathing hard. “Hey, if you don’t mind, I’m going to crash here for a bit.” I made my way over to the couch, still holding Apple Bloom, and flopped down on it back first. I was out like a light a moment later, the last thing I was aware of being Apple Bloom’s breathing relaxing as mine did.

I felt someone softly shaking me, and I turned inwards towards the back of the couch a bit. In response, the gentle grip turned me back. “Wake up, dear.” The voice was Granny Smith’s.

“No,” was my response before turning back again. I noticed that there was no Apple Bloom on me, her presence replaced by a warm blanket.

“Time for the old fallback then.” I heard her walk away, and a couple minutes later, I heard her walk back and set something down. “I’ve got a warm slice of apple pie for you~”

I rolled off the couch, got up off the floor, and saw a perfect slice of undecorated apple pie on the coffee table. As soon as I caught a whiff of it, all thoughts of sleep and tiredness were gone, and I was soon digging into the delicious dessert.

“Heh. Works every time.” Granny chuckled. “Thank you for helping find Apple Bloom. Applejack may have thought she could hide her worry, but I could see it. It’s a fair amount of weight off her shoulders.”

“Yeah,” I said around a mouthful of pie.

Suddenly, loud thumps came from the stairs, leading to Big Mac charging down the stairs. When he got close to the kitchen, he “stopped” so suddenly, he began running on all fours before entering the kitchen. A few clanks and maybe a broken dinnerware or so later, he was exiting the kitchen with the pie Granny cut from and a fork. He then sat down at the kitchen table and began to dig in.

“Well, here’s Mac. He’s the gentle giant and the mutt of the family, and I say ‘mutt’ not in his family heritage, but from a slight mental defect that came a few weeks ago shortly after Discord did his goofy stuff,” Granny said.

“Huh.” I took another bite of the slice of pie and continued. “Where’s Applejack? And John and Bayek?”

“Applejack is busy in the orchard, and the other two are still unaccounted for,” Granny answered.

“But I wouldn’t worry too much,” Mac said through a mouthful of pie. “You weren’t here for it, but both of those two know how to handle themselves. After all, John seems to be a crack marksman with his weird pistol, and Bayek already has my respect for freeing Pa from his cursed state, allowing him to pass on. Not everyone I know is brave enough to stand up to a Alpha Timber and come out on top.”

“Like a timberwolf? I think I’ve seen those before. I haven’t tried it yet, but I think I could burn one down.” I snapped and let a small flame rest at the tip of my index finger. “Admittedly, I don’t have a reason to go out and try, but I think I could.”

“Yeah, sounds like a better idea to play it safe,” Mac said. “And I wouldn’t be surprised if they show up right-” A knocking from the front door interrupted him.

“Too much of a coincidence,” Granny muttered, grabbing a flintlock pistol from off the fireplace mantle. I stayed focused on my slice of pie right up until the door opened and I heard the pistol discharge. I abandoned the slice of pie and went up to the door, ready to punch anything threatening. Granny Smith’s pistol was held up by a bident, the gun pointing towards a freshly made hole in the ceiling over the porch. The bident was held by a humanoid dog-like creature, black furred and clad in gold and teal armor and robes.

“I admire your vigilance, Ms. Smith, but there is such a thing as being too vigilant,” the creature said, pulling his staff back and entering the house. “And Ms. Xiao Long, don’t overstress yourself. Ms. Smith clearly has almost everything under control.”

“If you were anyone else, that shot would have hit,” Granny said, still sounding displeased at the visit.

“So what are you here for?” I asked somewhat forcefully. “Who are you, anyways?”

“Commander Scarab is my code name, the only name I’m willing to disclose as of right now, and I am a Jackal” the creature said. “And if you are wondering why I’m here, I’m simply waiting for the group that just escaped the clutches of the Order. Their tunnel will be exiting underground in roughly an hour or less.”

I leveled a glare at Scarab for a moment before backing down. “Alright.” I went back to the couch and finished off the slice of pie.

“I must also say, Ms. Xiao Long, that you impressed Anubis quite a bit,” Scarab said as he followed me. “Using the sandy kidney of an undead to fight and kill an Order soldier, with the added effect of creating a Jackal right then and there.”

“All I did was make a sword out of Bayek’s body. It wasn’t very good.” I looked up at the Jackal before moving over on the couch so he could sit down if he wanted to. “Honestly, if I had something better than my smoke rounds, I could have helped even more.”

“You make these rounds yourself?” He asked.

I expanded one of the Ember Celica and pulled out the band of gray shells from it. “These were made by accident when I left them in the meat smoker at home. All they do is launch a smoke bomb that make smoke that smells like barbecue. Good for distractions and stealth, but not much else.”

With a contemplative hum, the Jackal pulled out a strange wooden cross that I soon recognized as an Egyptian character that I couldn’t recall the name of. “When you obtain the materials to make more rounds, place them around this and burn it. From there, Anubis shall bless the rounds to fire the sands of the desert. Any kill made with them and a Jackal shall be born from the one killed.”

I accepted the cross and looked it over. It looked like it was just carved out of quality wood. “And how will these Jackals behave? How long will they last?”

“Their behavior won’t be too unlike the one killed, just with some slight tweaks to their alignment if the one killed was evil or questionably moral,” Scarab explained. “As for duration, just as long as you need them. They will then be brought to the Duat for proper initiation into Anubis’ army. Ba won’t be any exception for the initiation.”

“Who?”

“The Jackal you created with Bayek’s kidney sword.”

I thought back on the fight and some things started coming together. “So my fire made Bayek’s kidney into a sword, I swung it at the soldier, then ran off and he turned into a Jackal?” Scarab nodded. “Well, I never thought that would happen.”

“Pretty good summary on simple acts having huge consequences,” Mac said from the table, having finished the rest of the pie. “Much like how my sister “simply” saved Equestria roughly twice, but if she hadn’t done so, things would have been much worse.”

“Very true, Macintosh.” Scarab said. “Anyway, your mother and her new friends and several refugees should arrive any second now.”

A knock sounded at the door, and Granny Smith opened it. “Butter, John, step inside,” she said to them. She turned to Bayek and the mare. “You stay right there.” She came back in a bit, grabbed a nearby blunderbus, went back up, and shot Bayek, knocking his head off his body and his body back. “That will be you if you step one hoof out of line, got it, Miss Lyra?” The mare nodded with wide eyes and entered, immediately hiding behind John.

“It’s a good thing I stayed back,” a Jackal said as he walked in, holding Bayek’s head as he did so.

Putting my attention back to Granny, I saw her hugging and crying alongside Big Mac and the Butter mare. “Eleven years. For eleven years, we thought you were dead.”

The new mare started crying a bit more as she seemed to relax a bit more. “There were times I wished I was, Granny. But now, I’m glad I lived.”

I let the group hug and cry go on and turned back to the entrance, where Lyra was having a mild quiet freak out as the Jackal picked up and put Bayek’s head back on his body, which was standing there with his arms crossed and foot tapping impatiently. “I don’t know why you left my body outside and only brought my head inside,” Bayek said.

“It’s easier to keep you from being too annoying that way,” the Jackal said. The Jackal then turned to Scarab and saluted. “Private Ba, reporting in!”

“I’m not going to get involved in this if I can help it,” I thought as the events started unfolding.

“At ease, soldier,” Scarab said, tapping his staff on the ground. “Report to the Duat, on the double.” The ground just under Ba seemed to collapse into sand, sucking him up. When the Jackal was gone, the ground reformed back into the hardwood floor it was. “Now, Bayek, John, I have a few words I need to say to you after you send Miss Xiao Long back to her world.”

“Alright then,” Bayek said as he produced the choker. “Yang, you may return home. Our contract is complete.”

I was about to stand up and give a simple salute, but the portal opened up under me and I fell into it very quickly. “Well, that was a quick exit.” For a minute or so, I fell through the portal. I made a note to take a shower as soon as I could, as I felt very nasty after everything that had happened. Finally, it spat me out and I broke a cart of hay on impact. “Deja Vu, here I am again.”

As I got out of the hay and broken cart, I saw an upset Carrot Top looking at me. “Yang. . .”

“I can pay for repairs or a replacement cart,” I assured, which calmed her down a bit. I got out and started cleaning myself off. “Just come by the Carne Den tomorrow.”

“I’m making a delivery to you tomorrow already.”

“Ah, that works. I’ll see you then.” I jumped up onto a roof to get my bearings and soon saw the Carne Den, a mass of ponies and a few other species in front of it. “Huh. So that’s what it looks like out front.”

“Run away! Run away!” I looked down and saw Carrot Top running from something. Looking in the other direction, I saw a trio of diamond dogs, clad in tough looking golden armor and armed with swords, running down the street.

I sighed before jumping back down, set a corona of flames up around my eyes by the time I landed. “Hold it right there!”

The dogs stopped in front of me. Two of them pointed their swords at me while the third one let out a howl before turning back to me. “We get you, rich pony give gems!”

“Well, that answers that.” Since I saw no way out of the fight, I shifted to a fighting stance and expanded the Ember Celica. As the three dogs and I circled each other, a thought occurred to me, and I checked the ammo pouch on the belt. I felt some shells in there, much to my delight. “Okay, I have options.”

In my moment of distraction, the dogs charged at me. I looked up and raised the gauntlets to deflect the swords, soon going in close and delivering a punch and making a cloud of smoke around me.

I quickly realized a problem with the smoke rounds: I couldn’t see anything around me. “Thermal vision would be really nice right about now.” Deciding to get a better view, I backed up, and was soon clear of the smoke. As soon as I turned around, I saw more diamond dogs with armor and swords, all facing me. “Okay, I think they’re after me.”

“Get the gold maned dragon lady!” one of them shouted.

“Yep.” I fired a few smoke rounds at the oncoming group and a couple more at the first ones before jumping back up to the rooftop.

“Fido getting hungry,” I heard one dog say as I looked around and saw more dogs coming towards me through town. I looked back to the Carne Den and saw a plume of smoke coming up from the back.

“Wait a minute. . .”

Rainbow came down next to me from the sky, shadowboxing when she arrived. “Don’t worry, Yang. I’m here to help you beat these dogs!”

I managed to grab the pegasus’ tail before she flew down into the smoke. “Rainbow, I need you to go to the smoker and tell me there’s a pack of diamond dogs attacking.”

“What?”

“Please, just do it. I think it’s time bendy stuff that’s going on. You can come right back to fight here.” Rainbow looked between me and the smoke plume back home. “Less than a minute.”

Rainbow gave an agitated sigh. “Fine, I’ll do it.” I let go and Rainbow flew off. I heard her start to shout my name as she got close and took that as my cue to turn back to the dogs. As I kept an eye on the smoke, I switched from the smoke rounds to the slugs. As much as I didn’t want to take their lives, I really wanted to keep mine intact even more.

As soon as one of them broke through the smoke, I leapt down in front of him and delivered an uppercut to his armored head, sending him flying back. Much to my disgust, I saw red coming out of the hole in the armor.

A few dogs came out of the clearing smoke, saw the body, and started circling me. “Leave Ponyville now, and I won’t have to chase you down,” I offered as I got back into a fighting stance.

Some of the dogs looked between me and the dead dog. “Don’t listen to her!” A deeper voice called out. Moments later, a huge dog that I vaguely recognized came up behind one group. Each limb of his armor was a different color and style, like it was cobbled together. “We get her to pony, we get huge pile of gems!”

“. . .Brutus, right?”

“Name. Is. Bruticus! Break her now!”

Seeing no way out except by fighting, I let out a frustrated sigh and charged in, setting my hair on fire before punching the nearest dog in the chest, sending him stumbling back a short distance. The slug was embedded in the armor, and the dog was still standing.

Before I could advance on the dog, I had to jump up over a number of swinging swords, kicking off of a few faces in the process. After a combination of head and roof hopping, I landed in the middle of the street, turning to face all the dogs. Bruticus was in the back, towering over the rest of the pack.

Right as the pack began rushing towards me, a rainbow streak slammed into the side of Bruticus’ helmet with a kick strong enough to break part of it off and daze him. Rainbow soon spun out of control before crashing into something out of sight. “I’m fine!” A pained cry came a moment later. “I’m not fine!”

Since the dogs were all focused on me, I didn’t worry about Rainbow, just going straight to weaving and punching my way through the pack. As soon as I managed to disarm one of them, I took his sword and focused my fire magic into it, setting the edge ablaze. “Okay, I can work with this.”

I soon managed to acquire a second sword after I ran the first one through a charging dog, killing him. After setting the second sword’s edge on fire, I started swinging the weapons around more wildly, leaving flaming arcs in their wake, hoping to just scare the dogs off with the display.

“Get in there!” Bruticus ordered as he ran at me with his own sword, which was bigger than me. He swung it down at me and I barely managed to block it in time with my swords. Instead of letting him keep pressing down on me, I pushed the sword aside and ran at him.

“Don’t you remember what happened to you last time?” I swung a sword at his side, embedding it in his armor and letting go if it. He staggered back and I took the chance to turn back to the other dogs, throwing the remaining sword at them. It didn’t connect with any of them, but it did break their pace, allowing me to dash in and deliver a punch to one of their heads. A second later, the dog was dead, the slug having gone right through. “Can’t you just stop this?”

“Not with. . . so many gems. . . for dogs!” Bruticus’ proclamation, gasp filled though it was, spurred the other dogs on, and I knew there would be no talking it out.

With my reluctant acceptance of the situation, I pressed on with the fight, killing the dogs as I let my skills and instincts take over for me. One after another, I slew the dogs. Some simply got a slug through their skull, others took a number of bodyshots, and one got impaled on a sword I picked up. Bruticus joined in the fight again after the last dog was slain, his extra tough armor letting him take the slugs with no problems.

I heard something land behind me as I deflected Bruticus’ sword with a gauntlet. “You can’t beat her?” The male voice asked. “Even with twenty dogs? You disappoint me, Bruticus.”

“Help me then, Garble,” Bruticus said as I landed a punch to his knee armor, which did nothing.

I spared a glance at the newcomer and saw a red dragon with wings, unarmored and looking like he had just finished his teenage years. “Great. Just great.” In my moment of distraction, Bruticus grabbed my arm and tossed me up into the air. A moment later, a fireball hit me. It didn’t do anything to me, my combat outfit, or the Ember Celica. “I’m immune to dragon fire. That’s good.” On the way down, I pulled off a few slam fire rounds at Garble. All the rounds fell off his scales without any visible damage.

“Ha! That almost tickled!” Garble taunted as I landed between him and Bruticus. A couple of free swords were on the ground next to me, and I picked them up as I rolled out of the way of a punch from Bruticus. “Hey, watch how close you get to me, Dog.”

A glance back showed them not to be fighting each other, but rather focused on me. I decided it was time to get away from the bodies and ran past Garble, going a ways down the street to a more open and clean area to fight. It also gave me a chance to catch my breath and collect myself a bit. “Gotta end this soon.” I lit a corona of flames around my eyes and set the whole blade of each sword on fire as the two made their approach, trying to intimidate them one last time. “Get out of Ponyville, and I won’t pursue. Last. Offer.”

“We’re not leaving without you!” Garble sprinted towards me before he leapt up into the air with a flap of his wings, allowing Bruticus to charge at me without obstruction. A moment later, Garble started diving towards me from the sky.

“Please work.” I held both swords to one side and tried to focus the fire magic into the blades as tightly as I could. As I felt it working, I also felt myself getting more tired. “One shot.” Just as Bruticus jumped to pounce on me, I cut the flow and swung both blades upwards like golf clubs. As soon as the weapons made contact with Bruticus’ chest armor, an explosion sent him flying upwards into Garble, the sword out of his body, and me backwards into a large, yet shallow fountain, where I cut off all the fire magic, caught my breath, and drank a bit of water.

As I got out of the water, not even bothering to dry myself off with some heat, I saw Garble manage to get Bruticus off of him. Bruticus didn’t react at all, and the growing pool of red suggested he wouldn’t react to anything again.

“Clever move there, Yang Xiao Long,” Garble said with a slow clap. “Too bad for you, I’m still here, and I will get that hoard.”

“Oh shut up, already!” I shouted at Garble, surprising him. “I don’t know which noble it was that sent you after me, but are really going to try and kill me after all that?” I gestured towards Bruticus and the bodies down the street. “I am not in a good mood right now, and I promise you this: If you don’t leave, I will break you. Tail, legs, wings, and arms. But if you run away, only your pride will be wounded.”

“What about my neck?”

“Oh, I’ll leave that for last so you can feel everything. Now, are you staying or leaving?”

Garble stopped to think for a bit before making his decision. “For the hoard!” With that shout, he leapt at me.

“I warned you.” I ran under him, grabbed the end of his tail, and swung him around and into the ground so his back was up.

“Heh, you think that hurt me?”

“It did the job.” I picked a spot in the middle of his tail, firmly grasped the appendage, and began to bend it.

“Dragons are the toughest creatures that exist. You really think you can-” I felt more than heard the crack in the tail. “AAAAAAHHHHHHHH!!!!!!”

I tossed the tail down and deliberately stepped on the broken section as I went over to his right side. “I warned you.” A kick to his side and I quickly grabbed his leg. “And you didn’t listen.” I put a foot on his side and used my leg as a brace to force his knee into an unnatural direction, eliciting another scream of pain.

“Please. . . Stop. . .” Garble whimpered after I turned him back onto his stomach, deciding to go for the wings.

“Not yet.” I grabbed the base of each wing and tried to snap them, but the joint was too flexible. After breaking his left wing in the middle of the base bone, I felt an adrenaline crash coming on, and soon, I fell onto the ground, exhaustion catching up, along with the dawning realization of what I’d done as my eyes closed.

Author's Notes:

Part two of the crossover with Assassin's Creed: Displaced in Life and Death.

Thanks to the crossover, I've been watching Assassin's Creed game movies. They tell a very interesting story.