Both colts started to back up, sticking close to one another. With nothing but sirens going off in the background, and a squad standing in their way of freedom, the two didn’t have all that many options…

“Any ideas?” Free muttered over to his friend.

In that moment, Iron brought up a shield in front of them. Shrouding themselves from the weapons starting to fire, as the shots rang through the narrow hallway. Filling both colt’s ears with ringing like they were at a firework display. Free didn’t even see Iron pull out a cobbled together device from the sack he had been carting around this entire trip. As the teacher
held it close to his horn for a moment, and threw it over the shield.

The device bounced across the ground, before it rolled in to the enemy ranks. Free only caught the wink from his friend, before whatever it was finally went off. Shrouds of glass, steel, bolts, and whatever else Iron could pack inside, blanketed the Gryphons with enough wounds to leave many of them bleeding out on the ground. Even the armor plating that they wore, did little to help those were closest to the blast, and had whole limbs torn off.

With the shield dropped, Free just looked at what his friend had created, as Iron calmly walked up to his side. “You see… over charge a gem with magic, and it’ll detonate,” he started off as the two walked amongst the remains and scattered limbs, “pack black powder around that gem and put some scrap with it… and you got a rather decent bomb…”

“Well…” Free paused for a moment to avoid stepping on a random sword, still clenched in the claw of a gryphon that laid separate from the body, “you certainly picked up a few new tricks… perks of being a teacher?”

“Damn straight…” Iron said calmly as he tapped the side of the sack, “though now we’ve seen what their little toys can do…” he looked over to where he threw up a shield, at the base rested dozens of metal rounds spent in the attempt on their lives.

“As well as your armor…” Free pointed out to him.

The colt looked down at his chest plate, and right there across his heart laid two new indents from where the gryphons found their mark. ‘That’s one hell of a field test,’ Iron noted to himself while admiring the craftsmanship of the gryphons’ tech, ‘nifty little gizmo…’ he pondered, hoisting himself up and out of the window, while subsequently giving Free a hoof to do the same.

Scurrying to the side of the building, Free popped a head over the edge, before almost immediately bringing it back in. The simple look of ‘Oh shit…’ plastered all over his face. “Well… they mobilized quickly…”

“How many?”

“About thirty…” Free glanced up once more for but a moment, “not in rank, but scratch that… make it forty…”

Iron took a peak, and just as his friend said, there were dozens of guard all keeping an eye out for the likes of them. All of them, armed with both the two and one clawed weapons they just encountered, though several seemed to have other sorts of gear strapped to their backs and side. Holstered away, ready to go in a moments…

“Open fire!” they heard, ducking down before it was too late. Metal rounds started to ricochet around the wall from where they hid as others wizzed by their heads.

Iron dug in to his bag and took out several of the homegrown contraptions he put together in his off time. “How many of those things do you have?” Free asked, as he saw one after the other bring brought out.

“Enough…” the tinkerer grinned back as ignored the suppressive fire heading their way, “I throw these, you grab me, and we take off… just get beyond the gate…” Free nodded to him as the unicorn did his thing.

Stringing the magic together, each strand that came from his horn connected to the various explosives. While the gem inside them started to glow brighter and brighter the more it filled with energy from the colt. Using all his concentration, Iron tuned out all that was going on around him. From the roar of the furnaces down below that still vibrated the building, to the sounds of the Gryphons fire digging away at their cover.

All the colt did was focus on the task at hoof…

With the final gem charged, Iron hoisted up the bombs in one aura and hurtled them over the side amongst the ranks of those down below. “You might want to cover your ears for this…” he told Free.

Moments after they drilled their hooves in to their ears, and the gryphons even realized that Iron was countering them. It was too late, the combined force from all of the devices going off at once leveled the playing field. Quite literally too… the building shook from around the two as the last thing to hit what remained of their cover was the shrapnel that Iron had packed away.

Looking over the side, there was nothing but bits and pieces of flesh, armor, and weapons that reminded them that moments ago a group of attackers once stood there. The only sound they could hear now was the occasional thud from a body part hitting the ground, as even the factory seemed to go silent.

Next to him, Iron stood with a calm and clean face, simply admiring his work. “So… shall we?” he asked Free, as the Pegasus wrapped his hooves around Iron’s chest and darted in to the air high enough to glide the rest of the way to the edge of the factory. Giving them more than a head start on their way back to the docks…

Bylining past the warehouse over top the hill, the two colts ran around the structure. Not stopping to think what kind of commotion they may have caused that would have awoken any guard on the inside. Right now they had one objective, get to the boat that would carry them down stream to their pick up point.

“Well it doesn’t sound like they’ve quite gotten their shit together after that last little stunt…” Free heaved out from his lungs, as the stallion’s heart thumped away in his chest.

“Suppose we’ll be meeting any at the dock?” Iron passed.

Just as Free was about to answer that question, the docks in question came in to view. The lamps set up along the side blanketed the wooden piers in cool dim light that lead right up to the river boat that brought them down here in the first place. Not a single creature stirred amongst the quiet setting, even the dock hands that were helping Sturgis moor his own were nowhere to be seen…

“To answer your question,” Free popped up as they walked along the pier, looking around to see if any of the fighters made it this far, “I don’t think so…”

“They haven’t gotten this far then,” Iron said as they got closer and closer to the boat, “Good to know.”

The wiz of something overhead beckoned the two colts to duck their heads from pure instinct, while what seemed like a ball of fire screeched towards the vessel in question. Only to detonate from the impact moments later. The blast alone from how close they were, was enough to pick both stallions up and hurtle them along the length of the dock, as it tore in to the hull of the ship and sent splinters of wood and chunks of smoldering pitch in every which direction.

Where there was once a ship, as Iron looked up from the wooden deck below, only rested a husk that already started to sink till it hit the bottom of the dock. Resting with its bow half way out of the water, as the fires below smothered under the quenching water, and sizzled till they died.

“A pity really…” they heard called from behind them, as the claws hitting the wood started to vibrate underneath their own hooves, “Sturgis was a good captain to his own, well liked, and even more respected…”

Iron and Free looked up at one another, each one knowing exactly what the other was thinking from the moment the voice started to speak. Though looking past his friend, Iron tilted his head to get Free’s attention. Just past some of the wreckage, the row boat that the two hoped to make their escape on seemed to be largely intact. Having been pushed by the blast, and below the edge of the ship protected it from whatever destroyed its larger cousin.

Looking at one another for a moment, a simple nod said all that was needed as the two rose to their hooves and turned to face their attacker. “I should have ended you two when I had the chance…” Bronze spoke out, as she stood their wrapped up in her cloak and hood with a dozen gryphons at her side.

Most were armed with traditional weapons like their ancestors before them, having been unable to arm up prior to being grabbed by the war maiden. A few swords were grasped firmly in claw, while a couple others took the range approach and broke out crossbows from the armory before it got an upgrade.

Iron grinned at the mare, taking a step closer as the guards clenched their weapons closer to their sides and raised them up, “generally speaking ma’am if you have a chance,” he paused while eyeing up his chances, “you should take it…”

“Well this is the second time I’ve encountered you, guard,” she scowled him. Staring daggers underneath the cloak at the colt who had semi bested her before, “though this time you seem far more coherent, not much at the bar today?”

Iron simply scoffed, while Free started to chuckle, “Wow… having only met you twice, and not under the best of circumstances, she already can see you’re a drunk…”

“Oh shut it…” Iron coughed off to the side.

“Enough!” the mare shouted out as she stomped a hoof in to the deck, causing some of the wood underneath to crack from the blow, “this is the second time you’ve been a thorn in my side, and I don’t like to leave loose ends…”

“So you like bondage?” Iron inquired as he went and cut off the fuming mare, passing as sly wink to her, “Go on…”

“What? No! I meant I… AGghh…!” Bronze fumbled from the derailed train of thought, and simply lifted a hoof up pointing to the two, “Just kill them!”

Each of the gryphons with close weapons lunged forward, using their wings to push them. Meanwhile, the two colts just looked at one another, “let’s go to work…” Free said. As he brought out his sword just as fast. Stopping one in their tracks, he slipped off to the side, and brought the blade up, severing a wing on the back.

The gryphon tumbled across the dock from the loss of balance, as Iron dealt with his own. Raising up a shield, two swords were stopped at once from the enchantment. As the colt tapped a gem on his bracer whist drawing his own. As the shield dropped, an ice spike found its mark… right in the sternum of the enemy and put him out of commission in seconds.

As the second could only block slash after slash, as he backpedaled from every strike. Hiking up both legs, Iron planted his hind hooves in to the gryphon’s chest, hurtling him off the side of the dock and in to the water. With all the armor that he was wearing, even his wings, the gryphon sunk like a rock the moment their muscles gave out.

Looking down the dock, Iron and Free eyed the other gryphons raising up their crossbows and taking aim. The Pegasus tipped over a barrel before the bolts few, only feeling several lodge themselves in the thick wood of the base while he remained unharmed. As for Iron, one managed to find its way to his chest piece. The strongest part of the armor.

Bouncing harmlessly off, the only thing that was left was a small scratch. “And strike two!” the colt shouted triumphantly, as he looked at his one hoof work.

“Will you get down!” Free yelled at him, as another volley flew in. Diving behind the same barrel, both colts sat there before the bolts stopped while their enemy reloaded. With that moment, they took their chances.

Leaping from around the wooded cast, the pair bolted headlong in to the remaining gryphons, as well as whoever was leading them. Bronze only took a few steps back as the colt’s tore in to her small rank. Watching the two work together and their coordination, as opposed to the last time she met them.

While great at range, crossbows aren’t known for their up close and personal combat use. Holding them up for more coverage than anything, a gryphon managed to stop a few blows, as Iron hacked away at the hilt. Before it finally caved in, and with the final blow, the edge of the blade found itself buried down deep in to the shoulder of the one that wielded it.

Kicking the corpse from his blade, the iron worker snapped his attention to another there trying to load his weapon. While his friend dealt with a couple others on his own.

Iron wasn’t really the best of colt’s when it came to sword fighting, or even melee combat in general. He was always better when it came to spells and range attacks. All that said, he excelled particularly in one field… making it up as he went. He learned fast from past scuffles, and from that, improved his technique. What the stallion couldn’t stop himself, his armor would take care of… he hoped.

Locking blade for blade with the gryphon. They pressed their helmets to one another, trying anything to throw the other off and win the upper hoof. Though just like he designed it, Iron’s suit had a few tricks up its sleeve. Slapping one bracer to his side, a short blade extended past the edge of his hoof, and before the soldier even saw the glint of the steel from the dock lamp’s light… it was embedded in his neck.

Dropping to the ground with nothing more than a clank from the armor, Iron stepped over the gryphon. Just as Free finished up with his own adversary, ending him with a quick snap of the neck from his wings pressing against the side of his head and a twist. The two colts met up once more, side by side, at the end of the pier. Each one staring down the mare that stood before them.

Bronze didn’t say a word at first, she simply stood back and let them have their fun. ‘Fascinating as to what a unicorn can do with some old tech…’ Bronze pondered for a moment, looking over Iron’s suit, and the impressive amount of dedication he had to have to have it function as such, “you put a lot of time in to that thing I take it…”

“Just as you did in your own… designs…” Iron pushed, causing a brow to raise up from underneath the hood, “I didn’t put it together when I looked at them at first. The random holes in the blueprints for the hooves over the years… but sense seeing what you were capable of back in Boralus. Then it became clear,” he took a deep breath. As understanding finally came to his mind, and he realized he was right, “It was for charged gem stones, spells, wasn’t it?”

Bronze stood there, frozen in time for what felt like hours, before she started to put several yards between herself and them. The years she had spent tinkering with that tech, and no creature (not even unicorns) ever put it together of how she would do some of the things she did. Granted it’s somewhat of a lost art on many, one that was mostly practiced now a days as a home project for the up and coming unicorn youth, who have no idea of its real potential. Yet here out of the blue comes a colt, who knows exactly how she did some of the things he saw… and she doesn’t even know his name.

“Well… you figured it out, congrats…” Bronze started to chuckle underneath her vale, “I guess you deserve something in return then…” Grabbing either side of her cloak, with a quick tear of her prosthetics, the fabric sheared off to either side of her with an odd thud from the cloth. Leaving the mare standing there in plain sight for the two to see.

Her bronze coat grew ever more metallic in the years that have past, becoming nearly as shiny as the polished metal she was named for, allowing the lamps that dotted the pier to reflect off both it and her eyes as they shimmered in the flickering light. Along with her cutiemark of a gem encrusted nut, as her whole form reverberated in the minds to those present. For but a second, Iron and Freefall were star struck at two things.

One, that they allowed a mare this stunning to beat them in their own capital.

And two, the appendages that trailed across her frame.

The horn Iron had expected, after all, she was shooting magic out from somewhere before. Looking further down her petite build though, the colt saw the avian like claws that had replaced her own hooves how every many years ago, fused to her very tissue. Following nearly to the letter what her designs had shown, each one improved over the years.

Hardened steel plates covered the larger parts of the outside to produce the most amount of protection, while reducing what weight she could. Just as the majority of the limbs had been crafted from what looked like brass, shined to a mirror finish, and well-kept given their extended use.

Dotting along the limbs, just as the teacher had guessed, lied gem stones. Everything from onyxes, amethysts, to even the occasional topaz found itself imbedded in to the frame work. Which spells they were probably packing, and to what strength, Iron couldn’t tell. Though no matter the case, he didn’t want to find out in a hurry either. Any which way you sliced it, it looked to be that the mare had put as much time in to her own body as he had to his own suit.

‘Just one more thing to answer…’ Iron trailed off in the back of his head, turning his eyes to her own back. Where he saw the folded up wings that lay stored, ready to be used in a moments notice if the time called for it. Even in the dull light, he could see the canvas that had been sewn to perfection across the frame that laid underneath, and how they were bonded to her very shoulder blades.

For all the silence that had drawn across the group in the sudden revile of the enemy, it wouldn’t last all that long, “HOT DAMN I WAS RIGHT!” Iron shouted at the top of his lungs, leaping nearly head height in to the air, even with full armor on, “It was a mare that we saw that night! With Magic! With wings! And with claws!” the prancing colt stopped all thought in the other two present as Free and Bronze just looked to one another.

“Is he normally like this?” she asked with simple curiosity in mind.

“Meh,” Free shrugged off, “Most of the time…”

“Suck it Gracie! I was right!” the colt proceeded to shout back to the direction of Seren.

“Iron!” Free shouted at him, grabbing his friend’s attention, “Now is not the time, nor the place…”

“Right…” Iron slapped the grin off his face, replacing it with the colt expression of a soldier, “Bad Mare present, dead bodies everywhere, impending war… bigger priorities.”

“Much…bigger…” Bronze muttered.

Reaching down in to the remnants of her cloak, the sound of the thud that it made was reviled, as the mare pulled out what seemed to be a hollow tube. A single box midway through, and a couple handles, didn’t give the mechanically inclined colt much to work off of from what it might do… though the result of her pulling the trigger gave far more in site.

The sound of a fuse lighting forced Irons’ hoof, as he called up the same shield spell he’s been using all night. Stopping what looked to be a firework in its tracks, the ensuing blast cracked what remained of his shield and sent the unicorn skipping across the wooden deck. Just as his friend started to get in to the fray.

Lunging at the mare with all he could before she could reload. Bronze brought the back of the barrel around her side, smacking it up against the side of the colt’s head as he rolled on the ground. Grabbing one of the handles on the side, Bronze slid the mechanism back as a spring took over on the inside and loaded a new round in to the barrel from the hopper. Taking aim along the crude sights rigged on the tube, she sighted down the barrel back at the emerald colt just getting to his feet.

Iron looked up with enough time to see the smirk of the mare behind the sights, as she pulled the trigger once more.

Lighting his horn while her expression died, he brought up another spell, not around him, but around the actual round. Freezing it in midflight, Iron held it there for a moment while he looked over the contraption to get an idea of how to work with it.

‘Regular rocket, with an explosive charge on the head, and impact explosive on the nose to set it off…’ he glared at Bronze while she sent him a scowl, “you shouldn’t play with fire, my dear.” Iron waited just long enough for the engine to run out, before hurtling it back at her.

Forcing her roll, Bronze dodged the back fire of her own weapon, though landed right where Free was hoping. Before she knew it, a pair of sturdy hooves landed square in to her side. Collapsing the mare, the guard made her drop the launcher, only to have a metal claw uppercut him in the lower jaw. Grabbing Free from midair, Bronze whipped him around and tossed him at his friend.

“That doesn’t work twice!” Iron shouted, as he caught his friend in his enchantment, and placed him gingerly on the ground. Though it gave Bronze all the time she needed.

“I wasn’t planning on it to!” she screamed back at him. Cracking open the box on the launcher, several rockets spilled about the deck.

Each one primed and ready to go. Grabbing everyone in her own magic, she took aim, and pointed them all at the pair.

With a single flicker of the gems on her metal horn, the fuses on the end were lit, and like a swarm of hornets. The engines buzzed across the space between them.

Hitting the dock around and amongst the colts, splinters of wood and debris were sent cascading around the area, virtually destroying the end of the pier in one sweep. As the dust settled, Bronze looked at where they landed. Hoping to see some sort of remains, she only saw a circular burn mark from where a spell was cast.

“Heads up!” she heard from above.

Iron had teleported the two of them up and off the ground above her, and while Freefall may be able to hover in place for a bit as he addressed other matters. Iron decided to let gravity take over. Landing head long on top of the mare, the weight alone of the colt should have crushed her, had it not been for her strengthened frame.

Barely lifting the stunned colt off her back, Bronze flopped him on to the ground and laid a heavy hoof in to him, pushing Iron off to the side. Hobbling up to his hooves, the colt stood there for a moment, catching his breath. As the mare did the same. Although no words were said at first, the sarcastic grins on both of their faces spoke volumes.

“How is it you put so much of my tech together with how they work,” Bronze huffed between gasps, “with so little time?”

“What can I say?” he did the same, “I’m a tinkerer.”

“Well then I must ask really...” Bronze looked him over once more, noting the many gems that dotted his own armor. Just as her limbs did the same, clearly the stallion before her was a very skilled artist in his own median, just as she was herself. Though one thing bugged her that she wished to know, “what’s your name?”

“The names Knight, Iron Knight…” he said proudly with all the etiquette of a spy.

“Well, Iron Knight… not bad for a regular run of the mill guard…” Bronze snickered back at him while she got in to her fighting stance.

“Not bad for a chamber maid…” he drove the knife deeper, both metaphorically…

And literally…

With a whip of his hoof and the telekinesis spell under his control. The knife that held itself close to her back, that he drew out while on top of her, did its job to the letter… Tearing a gash in her canvas wings. Bronze snapped her head to her side as she heard the fabric cutting against the blade, and without the time to stop it. She only felt the haymaker land on the side of her face.

Knocking the mare out of his way, Iron galloped down what remained of the pier. Jumping over several large gaps in its base left over from her attack. Before leaping off the side, only giving Bronze a salute as he went over the edge and her glare started to come back up to meet his own.

Jumping to her feet, Bronze ran to the edge hoping to see the colt drowning in the waters below. Though to her demise, she saw him in a boat, heading back down stream at a rather impressive speed for its size. Given the Pegasus beating his wings on the back of it as he pushed. In a few moments, with the fog still rolling in from down river, the boat was lost from her sight.

The mare stood there for minutes, staring off in to the distance where the two had slipped from her. In her silence, Bronze thought of what she could have done differently, to simply turn the odds in her favor. Though with a subtle shake of her head, she looked back to the large slash in her prosthetic, ‘clever colt, I’ll give him that much…’ Bronze told herself as she calmly started to walk back up the pier. Passing by the bodies of those gryphons that followed her, she took in the setting, noting all the damage that had been done in her attempt to kill these two colts. More so seeing how overkill, wasn’t quite enough to get the job done.

“One thing’s for certain…” she said to herself while stepping over the bodies and destroyed sections of dock, “That probably won’t be the last of them…”