"So what do you think?" I ask my wife with her and Twilight sitting beside me under a tree. "Will she stay here or come with us?"

"Hmmm, that depends. We'll just have to wait and see, I think she'll come with us. She's taking a liking to Shining as he has with her," she replies and giggles.

I glance at Shining to see him with a worried expression while looking at the town.

"I suppose so, but if she does, she'll most likely end up as a harpy due to the energy permeating Tartarus," I say and scratch my cheek.

I then look around the camp; to my left I see Twilight reading an old book about night magic that Luna gave her leaning against me. I wave my hand just behind the book, but she's so into it that she doesn't notice, which makes me and Desire laugh a little.

The others are setting up camp for the night and starting a fire pit where three of the pony demons begin making a stew and cooked fish.

The four lycans are patrolling the camp's perimeter while two harpies fly above as sentries to warn us of any danger, the third one taking a break from her last shift on the way here.

Pinkie looks even more depressed at the uselessness of her arms to the point her fur is now a darker shade and her mane and tail are straight flat. Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash are trying to cheer her up but its not working, if anything it seems to make her even more upset.

I yawn as I'm starting to get tired, I pull Desire and Twilight closer to me and close my eyes. Twilight yelps slightly from the sudden pull but quickly settles in beside me while Desire giggles and snuggles into my neck.

About thirty minutes later, the food is ready and everyone digs in. Pinkie has to be fed by someone else which again upsets her. Desire gets frisky and takes a large mouthful of stew before kissing me and sharing her meal. Twilight blushes deeply but can't stop looking while I see a few others wince with various expressions.

The moon is now in the sky and the tents all set up. Desire, Twilight, and I get into ours and promptly fall asleep.

---

---

We all get up, have breakfast, and pack up camp. Fortunately none of the townsfolk from Eaglesberg found us nearby. It's now eight-seventeen in the morning, but there's no sign of Gilda yet.

"Do you think she forgot about us already?" Desire wonders while I have a frown on my face.

"I don't think so... I think something must have happened to her, she wouldn't just leave her bag of coins here after we gave it to her. Desire; you, Luna, Selene, and Shining will go into town disguised as visiting unicorns and try to find Gilda, ask around town saying you're her friends and are looking for her," I tell my wife. I then look at Twilight. "Can you cast the illusion spell on others?" I ask her.

"Yes, but I'll need to stay near them for it to work," she replies with confusion.

"Then I want you to cast it on yourself, along with Rainbow and Fluttershy. You three will go into town and buy new supplies while the others are looking for Gilda."

"Erm... okay. What do we need exactly?" Twilight asks me.

I quickly find a piece of paper and a quill and write down a list of food and supplies we'll need.

She looks at the list and nodded. "Alright, shouldn't take too long to find all this," she says and casts her illusion spell, making herself look like a unicorn again.

"Why am I going with her and not the others!? I wanna to make sure G's alright!" Rainbow tells me angrily.

I frown and cross my arms at her. "Because if she is in trouble, you'll cause a commotion and reveal us trying to help her."

She growls at me and huffs aggressively. "Fine! But if she's in trouble I'm saving her, got it!?" she tells me and walks over to Twilight,

I scowl and walk over to her before grabbing the back of her neck and forcing her to look me in the eyes. "You will do as you're told or I will ORDER you to do as you're told! And if you keep being hostile with me, I'll have Luna and Selene teleport you back to Equestria as far as they can, even if it's above an ocean!" I threaten her.

She goes wide eyed and vigorously nodded. "Yes, sir..." she replies and the moment I let go she hides behind Twilight.

"Make sure she stays out of trouble, Twilight. Or I will take away her free will, I will not have her putting us in danger just because of her attitude," I tell the purple mare sternly.

"I will," she replies with a slightly worried expression. She casts the spell on Rainbow and then Fluttershy who kept her distance during my outburst. They both now look like random pegasi.

Rainbow is now quiet but looking both angry and upset, but I don't give a shit what she thinks right now. I meant what I said, she disobeys me and causes trouble, I'll make her like an obedient zombie.

Desire hugs me from behind and giggles. "I love it when you're so dominant," she tells me and licks my left cheek.

A smile spreads on my face and I turn my head to look at her. She wastes no time in kissing me before letting go.

"We'll find Gilda and report back once we know what's going on," she tells me as shining and the two black alicorn twins now looking like random unicorns are ready to go it seems.

"Alright, I'll stay here and keep an eye on the others until you come back," I reply.

With everything settled, they all head towards town in their disguises.

---

---

As we approach the town, it reminds me of what Damien used to tell me about a people on his world called Vikings, the buildings are made mainly from logs and stone with curved roofs and figureheads at the tips. The gryphons walking around look rather unhappy with life and just trudge to their destination.

Shining then looks to the left side of the town. He can probably sense where Gilda is just like I can with Damien.

"You feel she's over there?" I ask him.

He nodded with a frown on his face. "Yes, and I don't know how to describe it... but she feels upset," he replies as his frown deepens.

"Then let's go, I'd rather find her and make sure she's okay before something bad happens. I get the feeling we're being watched," I say quietly to the others.

They nodded and we follow Shining to a building that looks more like a prison or holding area. The walls are lined with barbed wire and a single guard tower watching over the entrance to the barracks looking building.

"She's in there," Shining says unhappily.

I hum in thought and walk up to one of the gryphon guards. "Excuse me, but we're looking for our friend, a gryphoness named Gilda?" I ask him with a flutter of my eyes while Luna and Selene look around the town keeping an eye out.

He looks me over and snorts. "She's been placed under arrest for failure to pay her rent over the last two months, she'll be sent to the mines to pay off her debt tomorrow," he replies and frowns. "I suggest you leave and go back to Equestria, Miss Gilda will be unavailable for quite some time."

Shining growls aggressively making the other guard tense up.

I just smile and nodded to the guard. "Alright, thank you for letting us know," I say to him and turn to the others. "Come on, there's nothing we can do but go home," I tell them.

Shining scowls at me but I slap his head and glare at him. He settles down but still has a frown on his face. We then leave the town making sure we weren't followed and meet back up with Damien.

"So how'd it go? Did you find her?" he asks us.

"Yes, she's been arrested for not paying her rent and is going to be sent to some mines to pay off her debt tomorrow," I reply as Shining flexes his fingers in anger.

My husband frowns and places his right hand on his chin. "I see, then we have two choices. One; we leave her here and continue on," he says getting a growl out of Shining. "Or two; we break her out and possibly make us and Gilda an enemy of the gryphons in the process," he then finishes.

"Well I vote to break her out, I've come to like her and wouldn't mind her coming along with us, she said so herself she wouldn't mind going with us as well," I tell him with a smile.

Selene, Luna, Shining, and a few others agree as well.

"Then it's settled, when Twilight and the others get back with the supplies, we'll wait till nightfall to break her out. I think the best way would be Luna and Shining to go and teleport her out. Shining will locate her and Luna will teleport in to get her and then teleport her back to us. The rest of us will wait outside in the Shadow Realm near the prison just in case they discover you," he tells us.

We wait for an hour as Twilight, Rainbow Dash, and Fluttershy return with bags of food and some more utensils. We let them know what has happened to Gilda where Twilight had to pin down Rainbow Dash before she could zip off into town to bust her out herself.

We spend the day getting ready for the break out, as much as I hate it, I'll be hiding in the Shadow Realm with Damien and Twilight while Selene will be taking Ironhoof and Scarlet into the Shadow Realm. The lesser demons will watch over the camp while we are gone.

We're now sitting behind the Prison in the Shadow Realm where a wraith floats by. I keep my eyes on it as they always make me feel uneasy. The guards are rarely patrolling back here, we've been watching for hours and we have a five minute window every time the guards pass. Speaking of the guards, they now just leave our sight.

---

---

I hold Shining Armour's hand and look back to Sir Damien. He nods at me and I let Shining know it's time to start. We exit the Shadow Realm and he walks forward and follows the wall to the right and after a few seconds taps on the wall.

“She’s here behind this wall,” he tells me.

I quickly cast a life detection spell. I can see the outlines of four gryphons behind the wall, one is alone and seems to be lying down, the other three are further ahead and seem to be keeping watch on the first. It would appear we can't teleport in without revealing ourselves to the guards.

I take us back into the Shadow Realm and hold up three fingers indicating the number of guards. Sir Damien appears to sigh and frowns nodding to me again.

We exit again and I tell Shining Armour to put up a shield between us and the guards before casting an illusion spell on us to make us look like a couple of random unicorns. I then teleport us into the room where I see Gilda looking miserable on a straw bed.

"Hey! Who are you!? You're not allowed in here!" one of the guards yells after rubbing his eyes from the light my teleport created.

We don't say a word as Shining Armour places a barrier between them and us which blocks their spears. I quickly place my hand on Gilda's back and teleport us back outside and into the Shadow Realm.

Gilda is looking terrified and clings onto my left arm for dear life while trying to scream which sounds more like a whisper here. Sir Damien nodded and we head back out to the campsite.

---

---

That went better than I thought, I look back and see gryphons flying about the prison, no doubt searching for us. We make it to the camp without drawing attention to ourselves and exit the Shadow Realm.

"Wow, first time we did something like that without killing anyone!" Desire comments and giggles.

"Y-You came back f-for me?" Gilda asks still trembling slightly.

"Sure, you're our friend aren't you?" Desire replies and hugs the gryphon.

"G!" I hear Rainbow yell and tackle both Gilda and Desire. "Are you alright? You're not hurt are you?" she asks the now confused Gilda.

"I-I'm fine now... but I've lost everything," she says and frowns sadly.

"What did you lose?" I ask her.

She looks at me and sniffles slightly. "My mother's wedding band... they sold it weeks ago when they cleared out my home to pay off the rent I owed. I tried telling them I have the money, but they just didn't care and tossed me in jail before telling me I'll be sent to the mines..." she replies and closes her eyes, she looks like she's trying not to cry.

"What the hell kind of laws has your King made? That's harsh, even compared to Damien's new laws," Desire says with a raised brow.

True, I punish killers and thieves harshly, but missing a payment on your rent? At most you'll be kicked out of your home with some decans for the furniture so you could still eat and look for a new home or find help. But to take everything and then send them to slave away in a mine to pay it off? I would never do that.

"Well don't worry about it. We need to get going and away from here, I don't want the guards to find us and get themselves killed," I say and start packing up my stuff.

The others don't argue and in just thirty minutes we're ready to go.

"Alright listen up! We're taking the long way around the town so they don't spot us. Once we're clear, we shall head straight for the Plaguelands and only go into any town to buy supplies when really needed. We're going to limit our exposure to the gryphons as I recall Celestia warning them about us. So they'll most likely be armed with silver weapons," I tell them and then turn to the harpies.

"I want you all to keep an eye out for any gryphons near us. If you spot one, let us know immediately!" I tell them getting nods in return.

Next I look at the lycans. "I want one of each of you to be at the front, back, left, and right sides to use your sense of smell in case something is hiding or watching us. And to find any wildlife we could hunt for meat."

"Yes, Master," one of the females replies.

"Alright then, let's get moving!" I tell everyone and we start heading off.

Next Chapter: Chapter 34: Ambushed Estimated time remaining: 6 Hours, 3 Minutes