Ducking behind a crate once more, Egyes felt the chunks of wood that made it up drape over his coat after narrowly missing the incoming shot from another dog. Rearing back his legs, his once cover transformed itself into a large wooden bullet, as it careened itself over the short space and smashed in to the unsuspecting pooch. While the mutts may have had the advantage here on their own turf, those of Seren gladly used the area to give them the upper claw whenever possible.

Loading up another clip, the expert trigger of the gryphon quickly dispatched a few more soldiers that turned the corner at the wrong place and time. Though those that fought with him weren’t as lucky in many cases. The other gryphons had learned quickly, and picked up the weapons of those they fell, using them to the utmost of advantages with the little knowledge they had on how they worked. However, the Pegisy that followed didn’t have the luxury of apposable appendages, and were left to mostly fight with the blades they had come with.

Something that was starting to mount their own body count… though not without a fight.

Using the short sword to his advantage, a colt in the tight space, sliced through the paw of a dog readying up his side arm. As it literally dropped it and his actual arm, while in another flick of the wrist the tip of the blade went neatly across the unarmored throat of his target and put the mutt out to pasture in a few seconds. Though in those seconds time, a few of the other mongrels steadied their aim, and placed three consecutive shots through the ponies’ chest plate. Leaving him to fall next to his own victim.

All the while, the strong hind hooves of a stallion reared up and struck a pooch in his gut. Forcing the enemy to drop his own weapon where he stood, as he crumbled down to the ground in pain. However, as the tip of his blade was brought up over his head to end the dog from where he laid. The quicker paw of his adversary drew out his pistol, leaving the Pegasus both baffled for a moment as his eyes grew wider, soon followed by the single shot that landed between his very eyes.

Another Pegasus fell as a round went clear through his chest, soon followed by several shots more to just ensure the job was done. Yet where he fell, another took his place and charged at the few attackers without a hint of fear in his eye. Whipping the short sword from his wings holster, the equine danced between his aggressors. Cutting and slicing neatly in to their soft tissue, while he dropped those that he could as they reloaded.

Until a pair of armored hooves snagged the stallion around the neck, and in one crunch, snuffed the life out of him.

“Our friend is back…” Egyes remarked over his shoulder to another gryphon, as he watched the one under his command fall.

The armored equine dropped the corpse still in his grasp, as his hidden eyes pierced darts through the very souls of those that opposed him. Breaking out its own blade, the pony slowly took each and every step closer to those which he fought, knowing full well that they couldn’t hurt him even if they tried. A gryphon whipped a stolen rifle over his side, and took a precision shot in to the equines torso that only caused him to stumble a bit, before his stride came back in to its own.

‘Whoever this is, they seem to take bullets rather well,’ Egyes remarked having witnessed the shot. Those amongst him all took several paces back as the pony started picking up speed towards them, all the while they attempted to hold off some of the dogs that still managed to sprout up here and there in the maze of containers and crates.

Deciding against his better judgement, Egyes leapt at the approaching pony. Tackling him to the ground in a simple attempt to keep him busy while his comrades dealt with the others present. Ripping the blade from his grasp, the strength of one so much smaller than he was something to marvel at still for the gryphon, as he felt the near death grip fight back against him every step of the way.

Twisting himself around him, Egyes managed to place one arm up and under the soft part of where leather mostly made up the armor on and around the neck. Bullets may do little to hurt him, but every living thing needs oxygen. Tightening his grip, the gryphon locked his arms with one another to prevent any sort of break. Though while what he may have thought was the ponies luck fading in his clutches, in fact was the surge of anger coming from the armored form.

Reaching up and over top of him, Egyes didn’t so much get out a yelp as he felt the hooves grab on to the base of his wings as leverage, and heave him over top of the equine. Drop kicking him as face met floor, the brawny soldier toppled like a bowling ball in to a few of the dogs that approached to take on the others. Leaving Egyes resting in a pile of rather annoyed mutts.

Though the fact that he basically just attacked some of those on his side, drew little to no reaction out of the steed, for all he did was go over and grab his sword from where it laid on the ground. Caring little for those in his way, the armored form galloped at full speed to those that he fought against, never breaking a sweat from the previous excursion of having lifted a full sized gryphon over his own body.

Attempting to help their comrade, who still rested in the sights of a ticked off colt, those that fought with Egyes came to his rescue… or at least tried to.

A short sword from a Pegasus tossed like a spear, pinned the charging stallion as it pierced through his bracer and imbedded itself in the ground. Meeting the armored visor with his own hind hooves, the airborne pony nearly felt his calves crack under the impact, though thankfully it had the desired effect. The armored colt fell to the ground in an instant, though that’s about as long as it lasted.

Pulling the blade from his own bracer with a hoof, the colt drilled it in to the Pegasus as he tried to flee the clutches of the blood thirsty stallion. Though where he fell, another took his place, in the form of a gryphon armed to the beak.

Planting a well-placed kick to the chest, the equine fell over backwards on to his own rump, while the soldier of Seren cocked back twin pistols that he had acquired. With every squeeze of his talons, rounds flew from the barrel and imbedded itself in to the armored form, causing the pony to twitch and turn from the very impact alone. Finally, all that was heard between the two was an audible Click, as the empty clips fell from the handle to the floor.

Wasting no time at all, the bullet riddled pony wrapped both fore hooves around the waist of the gryphon. Crushing him with nothing more than brute strength alone, the tell tail sound of cracking ribs started to echo in the warehouse between the few pot shots that were heard. Dropping him to the ground in agony, the equine at least had the decency to finish him off quickly, with nothing more than a curb stomp to the throat to silence any more screams of pain.

Egyes stood up from where he fell, and instinctively grabbed on to a few of the fallen mutts around him as he pushed them in the way of the oncoming soldier. Though without even a second thought, they were cut down instantly from the expert hooves of the maddened stallion. As he kept the gryphon trained in his sights. It wasn’t until the final dog, a rather large one at that, was hurtled in to his wake. Did the equine finally meet his match.

Collapsing to the ground under the weight alone, it mattered not to the charger. Bringing up the blade through the chest of the mutt, the silent curses were the last thing to fall from his lips as the corpse that resided was pushed off to the side. Though as he rose to his hooves once more, through the visor he noticed only the ever growing smirk on the face of the one he had been trying to end.

Egyes tilted his head over to the few remaining of those that stood with him against the DDR, “Y’all might want to start backing up for this…”

Slowly but surely, from behind his back. The gryphon presented several pipes, all of which had a warhead of their own, as well as stabilizer fins on the ends for when it would fly through the air. The armored colt looked at him with curiosity, before its attention turned to that of the last dog it had slain in his way. Across the corpses back, was a single rocket launcher. Though the additional pouches on the waist that would hold extra rounds…

Remained empty.

Cocking back his arms, Egyes whipped the crude grenades at the target of his aggression with the precision of a surgeon with a rusty chainsaw. It didn’t have to hit him right on the money, after all, they were explosives. Though the pony wasn’t really even his primary target, no…

The kindling that still remained around them all was.

Caught in the crossfire from several rounds going off at once. The armor around the pony shredded itself to pieces from the concussive waves alone, and tore the equine down to all but nothing inside the fire ball. The thing that had stood up against both blade and bullet alike, was done in by good old fashioned black powder. Egyes never got to see the end of what he hoped to kill, he was hurtled by the blast, and used his wings to shield him from the wave as much as possible.

Collapsing where he landed, the gryphon looked up from where he rested at only the blank spot where the pony once stood. Now taken up by the ever growing inferno that started to run itself across the storage room floor. All the cotton, wood, straw and even hay took in the raw heat from the flames and returned it with a welcome level of destruction that only a demolitionist could appreciate.

“That’ll do…” Egyes said as he rested his head back against the crate that broke his impact, “…that’ll do.”

“Wondrous sight,” a gryphon said as he rounded up next to his comrade, “With any luck it will spread to some of the other factories here and hamper much of their storage…”

“Though we still have to live long enough to ensure we can tell of it…” Egyes remarked while he finally came too, and rose up to his own feet.

“I wonder though, what happened to the other pony that was with us… the unicorn?”

“Probably getting in some of his own trouble here and there,” the gryphon that could say he knew the colt well enough to know that attested, as he slung the rifle from over his shoulder in to his grasp should it be needed again. All the while, those that followed him made their way out of the building that was quickly being engulfed in flame, “although… if we can’t find him, I’m sure he’ll find us… we did just lite off one hell of a beacon.”

Scraping his visor against the ground, after being driven across it by a heavy paw from the back of his head. Iron started to wish more and more that he paid attention during the hoof to hoof combat fighting styles of boot camp, and not necessarily the plots of the few mares there were in training with him. After the third time trying to get the drop on the chief, the colt had only met with failure at his attempts. Though he can’t entirely blame himself for this one, Diamond dog hierarchy is usually determined by the one who is the most ruthless…

Which in this case is the mutt he’s dealing with now.

Rolling on to his back, Iron whipped out his fore hoof. Driving the pure energy of his ray in to the armored chest of his opponent, giving him the slight breathing room he needed to get back up on his four hooves. Panting heavily, the colt looked across the dining area to see Reinhart standing there with the smuggest grin on his face, as if he’s enjoying every second of this.

“The least you could do is look like I’ve given you a hard time…” Iron toyed with him, trying to buy himself some time so he can think of a different plan of attack.

“And why would I do that?” the chief played in to it, humoring the colt, “after all, I always enjoyed when I get to try and snuff the life out of one of your kind…”

Grabbing hold of the arm chair in front of him. Iron pulled it closer to him with his horn, before super charging the joints across his armor and bucked it back at the chief with as much force that he could hope to muster. Spanning the short distance, the projectile was caught by the paws of the chief as he continued to hold the grin on his face. Until a powered hoof broke through the seat, and struck him square in the jaw.

Iron never hoped to hit him with the chair, he was just hoping for a little distraction as he got in closer to his target, and that he did. The hoof knocked the oversized canine head over heels, as Reinhart toppled on to his back and in to a wall. Resting calmly against the brick, which even started to crumble from the impact. The chief looked up to see the colt readying another attack, as Iron clapped his hooves together and drew them apart to reveal the frosted surge of energy between them.

Casting his hooves forward, the chill in the air grew ever more as the DDR leader could feel his very skin and armor plating start to frost over. Breaking from the wall, Reinhart picked up what remained of the broken chair and used one half as a shield, as he hurtled the other at the colt.

Snapping his concentration, Iron rolled quickly to the side to avoid the incoming arm. As he watched the mutt shake off the frost from his coat. Normally the colt would have had some sort of snappy come back for something like this. Though after watching spell after spell fail against the dog, the teacher realized that he’s getting schooled all the same.

Looking across the armor plating that the dog wore. Iron looked for something, anything, to confirm what he can only imagine. That sign being given away the moment he saw the glimmer in the suit as it absorbs the last of the spell, and returned to normal from the energy being drained away.

‘So that’s what he’s been doing,’ Iron told himself in his mind. Making a note of the chiefs’ little trick he had up his sleeve the whole time.

Reinhart moved quickly, slashing his claws across where the colt once stood, only to turn and try the same attack whenever Iron would move and dodge. It wasn’t the best fall back plan, but it was one he was willing to make if it kept him alive long enough to figure out how to kill this pooch. The armor absorbed magic that was used against him. That explained why he had been getting his rump kicked for the last half hour… most of his attacks were magical.

Trying to get in a sword fight with one almost three times his size would be a losing battle in its own right. Reinhart would simply over power him without even needing to stop and yawn. The rockets on his back… that might work, but who knows how strong the enchantments on his armor really were?

“Only one way to find out,” Iron told himself as he ducked underneath another swipe from the massive paws that sought to end him.

Jumping up and over top of the chief with a little help from his joint gems, Iron landed square on the table with the precision of a ballerina, as he turned to face the chief head on. Throwing his shoulders forward, the barrels on his back pushed up enough so the colt wouldn’t be harmed from the blast as he used his whole body to take aim.

With the lighting of a single gem from his horn, the domino effect took over and trailed across the various different rounds. Iron didn’t even pay attention to what the chiefs’ last facial expression would be, he just wanted to wipe that smug grin off of it once and for all. With the final second passed them, the first of many rockets flew from their saddles on to their target.

The fact that the two hadn’t been joined in on from any passing DDR guard had perked the colts’ curiosity. Though the fires that he saw just out the dining halls window told him that the other members of his team were likely having their own fun. That said though, the very ground shaking from beneath his hooves from his salvo, that likely rocked the rest of the stronghold, should have alerted every guard in the building to come take a look at least.

Happy to finally see the smoke settling from around him, Iron looked in the hopes of seeing nothing more than maybe a single paw on the ground flicking him off, as it rested in a pile of mush from its’ once body. Though what he got in return was something far more painful for the eyes of a colt that was ready to call it a day and take a nap…

Reinhart stood up from where he locked his bracers together across his face. The armor that covered him glowed ever brighter as it raped all the energy that was being thrown at it, leaving the user completely unharmed, as it dissipated the energy off. Looking up from his spot on the ground, the only area in the room really without some sort of soot built up on it now from the blast. He smiled back at the colt, baring his yellowed teeth proudly for Iron to see.

“I see that it’s finally clicked to you… has it not?” Reinhart said as he stood up fully, wiping what little debris that had landed on his shoulder off.

Looking over the stallion, through the fight he saw many different gestures that the hidden colt tried to keep under wraps. However, the chief was one for reading others like an open book, and he saw straight through the colt’s visor as if it wasn’t even there.

Peeling back the mask, Iron flipped up his blind to look the chief straight in the eye. “That suit was a gift from her… wasn’t it?” he asked, if only to fulfill his curiosity.

Reinhart slowly started to walk around the room, not closer to the stallion, but towards the end of the table where he once sat down for his meal. All the while he kept a keen eye on his opponent, “Ah… I see you’ve met my little partner?” he waited for the tell tail twitch of an eye brow from the colt to tell him all he needed to know, “she does have that aggravating effect on you, doesn’t she? Can be quite frustrating trying to read that one…”

“You’re stalling…”

“And you could be dead by now…” the chief pointed out as he reached for a goblet of wine still sitting on the table, “you interrupted my meal. So now I’m just taking the time to play with my food, of a different kind.”

“Didn’t you mother teach you better?” Iron took a stance, ready for whatever the chief might try to throw at him.

“My mother taught me to treat a lady with respect, especially when she comes bearing gifts…” he held out the glass before downing the rest all in one go. Turning it upside down, he set it neatly back on the table, “yes this suit was a gift from her, and yes it’s been enchanted, as you’ve figured out by now…” one paw went from the empty glass to just under the table, “though it wasn’t the only thing she gave me…”

Bringing up a contraption the likes Iron had never seen before. The large crank on the side that the chief grasped, hooked itself up to a box that held several barrels sticking out of it all in a circle, all with what the colt could only imagine was an ammunition box on the side of it all. As Reinhart took hold of the forward grip, he pressed the edge of the main housing against his hip for support, and left Iron to swallow the growing lump in his throat.

“Whelp…” he muttered out under his breath, “I’m boned…”

“Come now, let me test my new toy,” with those last words, the powerful body of the chief started to turn the crank like butter and spin up the barrels. Leaving Iron to drop his visor with a nod of his head as he took off through the room. He may have not known what it was built to do, though judging by the ammo box on the side.

It was going to fire a lot of bullets, really, really fast.

Like a garden hose, the bullets started to fly, riddling the air with projectiles as Iron weaved in and out of the firing line. Using his strong, but nimble form, to slide in and out of behind cover. There was no place he could stick to for very long, he dived behind a chair, the rounds ate through it in seconds. Tried using a silver tray as a shield, if only to slow the rounds down, it was turned in to a colander instantly.

It wasn’t until he rolled under the heavy oak table end that he managed to catch a breath, already hearing the rounds digging their way in to the top just above him. The colt needed a moment to think, making it up as he went wouldn’t get him very far, as he heard the words of a mare pass through his mind…

He needed a plan.

Perking his ears up at the sound of silence, the slight clicking of machinery told him what he could have guessed. Peering over top the table, the chief had begun reloading the weapon. Pulling another belt of rounds off a satchel on his back, the colt had wondered what those were for up to this point. Though to kill this dog of war, he was going to need to strip him of his armor, though how to do it?

Thinking back to all that he’s taught over the years, Iron mentally went over every lesion he could conjure up. Before finally resting on one crucial fact that any B grade unicorn wizard knew by heart… anything that can absorb magic, or energy in general, needed to be able to let go of it.

Rolling out from under the table, the final hinge was turned on the weapon as Reinhart brought it back up to his hip and started turning the handle once more. Spraying a wall of lead at the colt, Iron quickly brought up his own ward, holding all the rounds in one go. It wasn’t a perfect defense, though it would buy him the time he needed to get closer to the chief.

Holding the spell, Iron took one step at a time, and made his way closer and closer to the chief as he poured rounds in to the stallion. With every passing step, the ward he held up filled more and more with rounds that the chief was all too willing to throw at him. It wasn’t until Iron was merely a few feet from him, that Reinhart broke his grasp from the handle, and finally let the unrelenting wave of projectiles stop. Just as Iron had hoped.

Throwing the wall of rounds back at the dog, the still hot lead fused around the chiefs’ armor, soldering on to it with the help of Irons’ own magic doing its thing. Diamond dogs may be strong, but they weren’t gods. The weight of the armor, in addition to the weight of several hundred rounds fused on to it, slowed Reinharts’ swings down to a crawl. As he tried to push back the stallion.

Looking over his once proud suit, it looked back at him with nothing more than a dull grey to it from the sheen being taken away as a result from the spells electroplating. “What did you do to me?!” Reinhart shouted back at the colt, as he tried to bash him with his own weapon, though fell short the moment he felt the joints lock up slightly from the intrusive metal running in to them.

“Kinda locked you in your armor…” Iron explained as he ducked under another clumsy swing from the chieftain, “Lead has an interesting effect to it actually… it’s one of the densest metals we have, and also one of the heaviest…” another hefty swing missed its mark by the hooves of the skilled colt, as the stallion lined up a shot with his own horn and sent it in to the chest of the dog.

The blast was enough to lift Reinhart clear off his own paws, as he lost his grasp on his weapon, and was sent sprawling across the ground in a pain he hadn’t known for a long time. With him shuffling up to his plot, he watched as Iron slowly took a step forward towards him, “though as any unicorn can tell you, magic and lead don’t really mix that well…” Iron started to grin sinisterly, while Reinharts’ own eyes bulged out of his head, “it tends to trap it inside, and never gives it a point to release from…”

Hiking up his fore hooves, the gems on either one powered up to their fullest as ray spells from shot from each of them and buried themselves in to the chest plating of the chief. The mutt could feel his suit absorbing the energies in to its enchantments just as it was designed to do. Though what he didn’t see, was the tell tail glow it would give off as it burned the excess away. The plating on his chest, and soon the rest of him started to burn in to his skin, being pumped full of more magic than it could have hoped to contain.

Though even with the demise of his enemy in sight, Iron didn’t let up. Powering up his horn, a third charge leapt from it, as all three rays were sent in to the single point of their mark. Fueling the ever growing fire of revenge, Iron pumped what little he had left in his energy reserves after the fight with the chief, in to this single attack. Holding nothing back, and giving no faith for Reinhart to grasp.

With a final snicker, the last of what Iron had to offer drained in to the chiefs’ armor as it soaked in it all like a sponge. With the lead shell on the outside, the only place all the pent up power had to go was one place, as it took the path of least resistance like a lightning strike.

The chiefs’ body.

Dumping in to the dog, the very nerve endings of his body were singed to pieces while the rest of him didn’t fare much better. Hair burned off, blood boiled, and bones cracked under the immense heat radiated off from the suit that trapped him like a pressure cooker as it ruptured the marrow deep inside. Finally, when it was all said and done with, smoke started to rise up and out of the silent open mouth of Reinhart, as he tried to scream out in a terror he didn’t know existed.

Though his words would fall silent in this case, for his lungs were long burned away by now.

Iron straightened up his legs the best he could from the amount of energy he put in to casting the spells and powering his own gems all at the same time. Now moving mostly under the stored power still in the emeralds on his joints, he walked up to the target of his retribution, as the colt stared long in to the hollow eye sockets of the one that fell from his own hooves.

Using what little energy he had left, Iron pulled out a cigarette from its case, as he used the tinder box before him to light the end, “That… was for hurting my friend.”

With little to no reason to stick around any longer, Iron trotted up to one of the windows as he puffed away, and took in the sight once again of a few of the factories and warehouses that the DDR had built, now burned down to the ground. Along with their own goods that they would have needed to supply a war effort. Cracking his neck, the colt was satisfied with what he had managed to do, even if he only played a small part in it.

Hearing a slight creak from the door opening, Iron whipped his head around at the sight of a possible intruder, though quickly regretted it sense the only thing he saw first was the stars dancing in his vision. Though the next thing he heard was like music to his ears, or the soft hush of a mother, after a day like this.

“Whelp, I think it’s safe to say Reinhart’s taken care of,” Egyes mused as himself and those that followed him, entered the room and saw the still charred remains of the chief in his lead casket, “had yourself a nice showdown I assume?”

“One for the record books…” Iron groaned in response, before shaking his head to get his thoughts in order, “Is everything nice and burny for marshmallows later?”

“If you mean that we shouldn’t have to worry about the DDR putting up much of a fight on our way out…?” another gryphon stepped in to say his piece, “then yes, they kinda have a burning city to deal with.”

“Excellent…” Iron starts to stumble out of the room, as the others quickly follow behind.

“So how do we get back exactly?” Egyes tried to figure that question out sense they had gotten here, though he never really got an answer when he asked on the train ride.

“Same way we came in…” one of the few Pegisy that remained answered, “after all, I doubt they’d be guarding any of the trains at this time…”

“Capture a train, high tail it out of here, get back, take a much needed nap, and then…” Iron said as he continued to stumble down the hall and onwards to the reward he set for himself at the end of the tunnel, “I need a drink.”

A shower, a bed, and a glass… though maybe not in that order.

Peering through the slit in his visor, Iron cursed the fact that the second train they took after getting out of the republic didn’t take longer to reach Boralus. Though through the groggy eyes of the stallion, the one drive he had at the moment was simply to forgo the bed and drink waiting for him and hit the shower instead (having already weighed his options out like a chart in his head on their way back).

Though stepping off the train, something instantly turned in his stomach, as the colt saw the guards there at the station keeping their head down more so than usual. Having been a guard before, he knew when something was up amongst them, and knew when they had been ordered to keep things on the down low.

Then again, Iron wasn’t known for keeping things subtle.

Walking past the others that had come on the little trip with him, Iron trudged over to one of the guards that he had run in to more than once. While Egyes followed closely, already knowing something was up in the colts’ head, “What are you thinking” he asked.

“The guards’ are acting strangely…” Iron said flatly, “they normally avoid eye contact anyway, but to do so with fellow guards that just got out of a fight… that’s usually reserved when there’s news that none of them want to share…”

Walking up to one of the guards there on duty, the single tap to his shoulder caused the young colt to jump where he once stood, as he clenched his spear, “Who goes there?” the pony turned around to see the face of another stallion that annoyed him, “Oh… it’s you.”

“Don’t scoff at me, Argo,” Iron peered daggers in to the colts very soul, “I’m not here to bust your chops, I just want to know what’s happened sense we’ve been gone.”

Argo went silent for a moment, questioning how the colt before him could have figured out something already, “but… you just got here? How did you-?” Iron cut him off with a simple raise of a hoof.

“I’m an ex guard, I know how we function, I know when things aren’t right… blah, blah, blah,” Iron said as he waved his hoof around in the air, “look I already explained this to Egyes here, and I’m sure the reader doesn’t want to hear it every time somepony asks… so spill,” just then his eyes changed to that of one Argo had never seen in the colt. Genuine concern, “what… happened?”

Swallowing his heart from where it sank when he heard the news himself, the still young guard held back the silent tear he wished to shed, “It’s… It’s about Princess Grace…”