Maple Bat

Festus looked at Jack's chest "That still looks really, really bad... Can't you get it out by yourself? I mean you've done it before. Right?" He was so worried, his expression, Tone, and face all read that. "Jack, please... Don't let it sit there... Is there something any of us can do? Anything?!" Maple sighed and sat down she couldn't make much sense of anything going on herself. Ember was being checked by Princess Celestia things where bleak... She could've been infested... Luna knelt near Jack "I can help you... Just let me know what to do."

"What I mean is... Whenever you go to strike... You need to be able to change the direction you're moving or just how you're hitting, Lets say I was you..." Maple positioned herself in front of him a ways back she lept landing to the side "And I went to bite you, but you avoided like how I did. Then what you'd need to do next is to either turn mid-jump or hit with the wing. The wing is a much faster option so I'd recommend it."

Maple moved inside, the gate fully closing behind her. "Ok... We're safe for now..." "Well... We don't exactly know how to get OUT of here Maple... Nor will that door hold forever." Luna said worriedly, watching the door. Celestia was quick to" We'll wait for now. Recover a bit then we'll get out of here if we absolutely have to but perhaps we could signal the others somehow?" Celestia was trying to plan something out but the situation was extremely complex ------------------------------------------------------------------- 'Jack? Dang I didn't think it would be that bad... Where are you in that town... Want to avoid burning that building.' She laughed through the mental link.

When Speechless attacked her she sidestepped him, swinging her weapon overhead bringing it down swiftly. Speechless would feel the leather hit his back it hurt a bit, but had the leather not been there it would've done much more damage. Maple relaxed the weapon. "That's what else I wanted to point out, You'll need to adjust yourself mid-strike otherwise when you attack it's nothing more than an opening for a foe."

Very well... If you keep your people in line I'll keep mine. There's no reason for senseless violence between us. Since we share a goal... I will soon I just need to find something first. Celestia used her magic to force the Librarian out of her mind "This has become increasingly difficult... But we can persevere..." --------------------------------------------------------------- Maple and Her squadron cautiously approached Gastly gorge looking out at all the pods that had crashed down into it. Maple started down into it, angered. "Hello? " She shouted into the gorge "I know people were in those... Reveal yourselves and I'll show mercy, otherwise we won't hesitate to engage you! " Maple unholstered her weapon and the other ponies followed her example. --------------------------------------------------------------- The veteran was still caught up in his own ego, He ordered some of the recruits to prep their equipment and he flew up to Staunch still barking orders. "... And you. I'll need to come with us as we hunt down the remaining enemy. If anyone gets hurt we'll need that." After saying that to him he called the other up. "We land at the next town. And will search for them from there."

@Capper Maple heard the earpiece come on and she listened carefully. "Yes, Ma'am." She said as she flew to the ground, she went over to a rougher terrain aiming down the scope of her rifle and seeing a few of the enemies, she aimed at one of the ones near the cannon, she loaded a single explosive shot into her rifle SO... What's your plan here? I can't make sense of it... That cannon isn't going to give way to only one of those shots. It'll make sense in a second... Just watch ok? Maple aimed her rifle and mover around the cannon until she could see it's barrel with her rifle she aimed down the Cannon's barrel waiting for it to be loaded again.

Luna nodded to her sister since Maple didn't have to head far, "Indeed, It would be an unwinnable battle, should we try it now, We'll need more strength. I know that for you and your father this is quite the toll... You're brother... Is he around? I know he's a lot like his father Maple looked at her for a second, sadly before saying. "Woodland left when Trixie took over, He wanted to protect the forest from her. As for his current wear about. I have no idea... All I know is that if we find him we'll need to tread lightly."

Maple looked at the stance itself seemed alright save... "Well your stance here implies you're going to attack me, Meaning I have enough time to raise my guard. Which will result in the next thing That I want to show you, Leap at me so I may show you rather than explain it." Maple readied the weapon making sure that the leather was secure on the blade before he lept.

Celestia screamed internally when Jack jumped but reacted quickly levitating him safely to the ground and changeling spells to repel the infected from him Festus noticed that he might not make it however and placed his shield down in by the door driving the bottom tip into the sand but staying there for it to have some hold with his arm still in the straps. It would keep the door open for long enough, Or until Festus' arm broke whichever might've come first. Maple saw what he was doing, worrying that he might break his arm and lose that shield... Plus then Jack couldn't make it as well, so she placed herself under the door and lifted it herself the mechanical body was holding it much better, "I've got it Festus. You could get really hurt doing it that way. If I bend or break... Well so be it. Hurry now Jack!"

So Epitius, Why are you here? I need to know whether or not I should allow you or anyone with you near my ponies. As long as you mean them no harm I will allow it but if you're going to harm them you will face consequences most dire. I hope you do not mean them harm, because I have to set my people first, as much as it pains me to do so. You... aren't those horrible things that we fought from before are you? Those things that killed some of the castle's servants... There was a lot of anger in her voice even in her head, She hadn't moved since the voice in her head had appeared she was standing still, with her eyes closed. ---------------------------------------------------- The other platoon of guards that were with staunch where talking about general things. Something, however, stood out to Staunch he heard a veteran talking with a newer recruit, both of them where night guards too "It bothers me that our Captain has the audacity to do something that stupid. She ran in alone to face the enemy without issuing us any orders." The veteran stated. "But sir, She handled herself well, Plus YOU stood up and started to give us a few orders when she did that and you handled it very well." The recruit replied, trying not to offend him "You're dang right I did! Perhaps I should ask the princess for the position of captain. I'm much better for it than that rough and tumble pony who thinks she's one of us. She's only the captain because Luna GAVE it to her she did nothing to prove herself as I have done." The Veteran seemed very adamant but the thing was, while in that fight he had given orders there were a lot of ponies that got hurt thanks to said orders, not that staunch would know since the day guard was separate from the night guard during that battle

After a few minutes of Maple internally examining the way she was attack she came up with some good improvement "Alright so go ahead and face me again and we'll start to improve you style and stance... Go ahead and act like you're going to start to attack me as you sid before but don't actually start to attack me I want to show you something regarding it." Maple had her naginata again and was in a battle stance for a more offensive stance, but she had leather placed over the blade so she wouldn't cut him with it.

Luna nodded to him Heading to Celestia to aid her for a while buying Jack some time. All the while Festus was knocking them all down in his rampage. After the gate was opened by Jack, Luna and Celestia moved together and charged a spell, The spell was aimed to knock as many infested as they could manage to hit away, it was going to require a small time to prep. After said prep, they used the spell it not only knocked them back but also seemed to have stunned them Both princesses shouted: "Let's go!" And headed to the open Mine area, Maple helped Ember up and supported her as the two princesses finished the spell They headed to the same area as quickly as they could. Meanwhile, Festus was reluctant to follow the others, he wanted to keep killing but he knew if he had stayed he would've died so he ran but wasn't above a few pot shots on them while leaving.

Maple blocked some Speechless attacks with her spear, however after a few seconds, one of the wings caught the naginata in a way that caused Maple to drop it. Without the weapon, Maple was forced to evade him which she was able to do but it was quite the workout for her after 4 minutes she held up a hoof for him to stop his assault "Alright give me a bit... Need to think about how we can improve that. It's very good which is why I'll need time on this." She was already thinking of several ways that he could've been bested had she been trying and a few came to mind but how to beat them is what she was thinking on

Luna placed a hoof on his shoulder. "Look... We may not show what you think to care for your old friends but that's because a lot of what we're doing now... Is something we need to focus on. Look at Maple and Woodland. They're both very focused on helping you save your sister... Meanwhile, they could be more like you worried about their mother and upset that no one else is worried about her. Yet they both set that aside because they want to help out you. The impression you've left on them was the biggest on Woodland and second only to me on Maple. Take some pride in that." At Jack's second Comment she shook her head "She doesn't know of this she seemed busy when I went to tell her and I didn't wish to disturb her." Festus stood up at Jack's second statement holstering his pistol, "Don't worry Jack, I've got your back... I don't have my shield but I'll do what I..." Festus had been watching for Ember and when He saw her again that hurt, he felt his dragon blood boiling. He couldn't help himself he lept outside placing himself in front of a wall of infected and, in a blind rage, used the same blue fire from before creating an incredibly hot wall of fire setting several on fire as he sliced them, The flames jumped onto his blade as he hacked away. The bright blue of the flame on his sword was met only with the dark crimson trail left by his foes. His assault carried on for a while but he started to wear out quickly, he was well trained but he was still only a kid.

Maple grit her teeth, her fangs exposed themselves. She faced the guards that had saw it "Those who aren't injured and are willing we've got more to deal with... We can't rest here we must engage them before they get to somewhere populated. Minimize the damage..." A small platoon of Maple's forces divided themselves from the others who were heading back to Canterlot. She looked at them all and smiled as she waved a hoof for them to follow her. It would take the squadron a while to arrive there... --------------------------------------------------------------------- My name is Princess Celestia... I'm not a being of Chaos, in fact, I work to keep Chaos under control as best I can... You are not a pony I can only assume since you know not of me. I'm an alicorn, one of 5 that exists as far as we know. Now before I go on... who are you... And who is this emperor you speak of I find him to be almost... familiar... Woody watched Celestia's expression shift as the conversation carried out he felt the Chaos disturbance going away same with his headache "Princess Celestia?" He asked breaking the silence between them Celestia snapped back to reality from her trying to remember these things she thought familiar. " Woody... It might be best if you and your father avoid using magic for a few hours... Discord will need to do something magic every few hours to not disappear completely but you are half pony so don't worry about not using magic and just do it for me... Please? " Woody was needless to say confused but he nodded to her "Yes ma'am, I'll let dad know right away " Woody then left the room but despite not using his magic the large presence of Chaos energy was still something that could be felt same going for his father's energy.

Woody laughed loudly, something very akin to his father "Don't worry Midnight! No one's gonna make you sing, I doubt it's that bad, however... And Will, well... Yea he told me everything. I figured if you helped push them together then perhaps that changeling of yours would get caught up in the moment and reveal his own feelings for you Will. So it. But for the most part yea in the ballpark." Woody then brohoofed Moonshadow and the two locked eyes for a second both Happy it worked. "Plus even if it didn't work can't I just come to see my little sis get a stallion-friend... Now Moonshadow... You best treat her well otherwise me and you might not get along... I wouldn't want to be on the wrong end of 2 draconequus..." His tone had a joking tone but also a very serious one at that. "He wasn't able to predict my change but he certainly called it for you two, " Moonshadow said to the Wills before Woody had made his second Comment, After which he recoiled quickly putting a hoof up to his head and blurting out with a bit of a chuckle "Y... Yes, sir! Woodland" Maple then put her wing around him in response he placed his hoof around her, It worked out since Moonshadow was taller than most ponies, Closer to the size of Big Mac perhaps even a bit taller than him!

"Huh... Thanks." Maple whispered after witnessing the creature knock the sphinx away. She grinned at it having a bit of trust in it now. She turned away from the Sphinx, She needed to find others to face for now since her goal was to get others to want to beat her. She recalled what Storm said, her opponents wanted to be able to beat her in a duel but what if several fought her at once and she beat all of them? How to go about doing that she didn't know. After a bit of internal arguing, she agreed with herself that she should find a new opponent. Someone strong that could take a lot of hits for her and the group she was trying to assemble. Woody was starting to bore of fighting so he decided to make it more interesting he jumped up after he had to create the opening for himself and landed on top of the knight's shield he lept into the air off it, after that he used polarity magic to causing the rabbit's blade to adjust heavily mid-swing and get driven into the mages side, Woody saw that it might've done more damage than he thought, but to him it looked rather survivable. After Woody knew that the mage would survive he commented on the attack as he landed on the other side of the knight "Hurting your own friends now?" He said with a chuckle.

"We should be alright... after all the ponies here want to try to stay here. I was told no pony was killed, however, they could've lied..." Maple told Staunch, it's what she knew after all. "I'm not sure how we're going to keep this up.. Those creatures are strong... It took a lot of us to kill that group of them... It worries me about the other parts of equestria... Perhaps they're only around here however and I'm just paranoid. If you need something to do There are a few of our own that are hurt. Go ask if anyone needs help getting back, those are your orders." Maple told him with a nod, another soldier approched her and handed her some field reports, She rolled her eyes knowing that it was a formality but she was hear so she knew what happened. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Celestia heard the voice in her head she froze and shook her head looked at Woody "That's not funny. Stop with your magic." Woody flinched and looked confused " With due respect Princess, I'm not doing anything... I'm not singing... and my headache's breaking my concentration." Woody suddenly realized that this could be a lot worse than it would seem. Celestia frowned at his response "Then we might have a problem..." She then tried to think to whatever it was Do we... Have a probelm

"It's not your fault..." Festus said still laying on the ground. "I came too. I didn't know and you had no way of knowing. It's fine that it turned out... Luna put a hoof around Jack "You're, you... You want to help and the only way you know to do that is by fighting. Like Maple. However, I have failed to show you both other ways of being strong. And not putting yourself in danger... Maple exhibits this now, perhaps she can't fight as well but her confidence spreads to others. My sister seems to have it the most profound. You. You inspired me and Celestia both to do everything we can to fight. Hero's aren't always the one who saves everyone, but they are the ones who give that strength to others that need it. You've helped this group in more ways than you could possibly think. Look at it for a second..." Luna motion first to Celestia as she was killing infested keeping them at bay, Then to Festus. "Him especially. He was very scared that battle you both met. Now he's grown quite the backbone so he can be your shield. He used to always run away like he did when he first actually saved you." Luna knew this was a lot so she let it all sink in -------------------------------------------------- Celestia was hacking at the nearby infested with the axe blade of the halberd it was effective enough to keep them back as long as she combined her magic with it too, Her reserves would run low eventually however but for now, she had plenty to go off of. Ember, who was ahead of Celestia refused to retreat as her bloodlust grew from a protectors will to more of a brute instinct not long after she got stampeded by the overwhelming amount of infested she got knocked to the ground and the infected tried to tear her apart. Maple noticed that happen and she revved up her chaingun emptying the ammunition in the weapon managing to get ember out of there, Maple noticed a large number of scratches on the armor and some cuts where she wasn't armored, The face, hands, parts of the arms and wings. "That... Hurt... I'll admit. It's up to you ponies now..." Ember looked at the injuries, some of them drew blood but she didn't have anything like what Jack had so she wasn't worried.

Maple rose her naginata defensively "Alright. I need to evaluate how you fight. Come at me full force. I can take it... Then After that, I can show you weak spots in your attacks and areas you can improve on." Maple braced herself for speechless to attack her, her face showed determination and she was ready for whatever Speechless tried.

Maple had spotted the person a bit too late. "Dang... W... Why... I just wanted him to calm down a bit... And now..." Maple's rage started to brew again. She had lost her determination but now it was coming back "I can't get infested... So you stay back and I'll take the hits." "No, it's time you relied on me for once Maple. Use that gun of yours on your back I'll take point." Celestia drew her halberd it had been a while since she did. She stabbed a close infested. It died instantly from the weapon's strike. ----------------------------------------------- Luna blasted back the infected allowing Jack and Festus to slip into the house safely. Luna then teleported inside it. "You both are here right? Jack? Festus?" Festus, who was laying on the ground put a thumb up. "I'm good... Though I cant say the same about my spirit..." He said going Limp but still breathing.

Maple smiled and finally moved away from Speechless, Already feeling less warm inside. She got up and grabbed her weapons taking them into the living room, moving the furniture out of the way so they could have room. Since there could still be someone waiting for them outside she went back to speechless to make sure he was ready to actually train with her or if she should just show him techniques "How bad is the leg? Think you can stand on it?"

"Because I can't fly due to me saving your people from a war machine!" Maple roared before calming down "I know we've messed up... I... Luna, Celestia... We've all been trying to fix that. Believe me... It's hard to go from one culture to another without thinking things are strange. You need to realize that we follow our own and we've never known anything aside from our own culture and that doesn't involve forcing it onto others. But go on... If it helps shoot me... It really only proves you're worse than me since my kind doesn't physically harm anyone. Oh. And I'm sorry for doing everything I can to keep the Eldrich safe... I have failed at that pretty miserably." Maple said looking down humiliated and disappointed in herself ----------------------------------------- Festus smiled to Jack before realizing that there where still Infested there one of which lept at him, he was gonna shoot it but a bright white beam hit it before he did. Luna run up to the two and killed a number of the infest with several blast of magic. "Are you both ok? I figured that there was something wrong when Festus signal went up but I didnt expect to be this bad. Celestia saw Maple standing alone in the open she went over to her "What are you doing Maple? The others might-" She was cut off by Maple. "Celestia?! Get away from here before they fire again..." Maple said quickly

At Canterlot Woodland was taking a break, he had been helping so many ponies and there were still more to help, His mother was working tirelessly aided by his father. Woody was outside in a hallway, He had been taking 5 for 4 minutes when suddenly he felt... something... It started light but it then hit him all at once and he developed a huge headache. He didn't know what the feeling was but it felt disturbing like a shift in chaos energies overwhelming an amount of order... He hurried to the throne room since he thought his father would already know. " Princess... Celestia... We've got a... Problem... I think..." Celestia happened to be in the room when Woody came in "I know... Things have been particularly bad recently" She was working tirelessly searching for... Something She felt she'd heard of these enemies before but she couldn't place it exactly. Woody shook his head weakly "No... It's chaos... A lot of it... more than I've ever... GAH!" Woody placed his paws on his horns trying to drown out the energy he felt. Celestia jumped when he cried out suddenly "What are you..." When she had started that sentence she started to focus and when she did she felt it. "Strange... I feel it but... It feels familiar... I need to find what I'm looking for I know I it'll explain it all!" Little did Celestia know the book she was looking for wasn't around. ----------------------------------------------------------- For the most part, the town was empty. Aside from several groups of Stallion who had tried to fight, they were all wounded. "It's a good thing you all came along. Got those monsters away from us before they killed most of us." One of the stallions said to Maple after she had issued orders to hand out their first-aid. "Not a problem sir." Maple said to him, handing the pony some water in a canteen. "Wish I could explain why they're here. We haven't figured that out yet we only know that they're mindless violence seekers... No chance of peace with them... we've got a war on our hooves... I'd get somewhere safer if you can, Manehatten, Or Canterlot but here isn't safe. Good luck." Maple said as she called up her troops to head back to canterlot "To you too Captain. Good luck and get these things off our home!" The stallion said before turning to the others asking them to return to their families

"Wait, slow down there." Maple stated loud enough for the kid to hear, completely unaffected by the bullets "I wouldn't hurt anyone innocent... Please put your weapon down I don't want to harm you either..." Maple debated saying this, not sure if the person would even know what she was talking about here but took a gamble "I'm her aiding the last Eldrich... Which happens to be the other one you shot... Calm down... I'm going to stay right here... I want to prove I'm not here to hurt you." -------------------------------------------- Festus Saw that Jack was going to get overrun and he flew at some of the infected placing his shield on his feet, drop-kicking one of them his shield flew into a group of them with the force of his kick, He had his sword and the revolver now. "You're not alone Jack!" He fired 3 shots at the infected combining this with some sword-play hitting the closer ones. One of the infected hit him right in the chest, but his armor took it yet he still felt hurt by the blunt force of it. --------------------------------------------- Luna, who had been laying down sprang up "They've been gone for far too long... We need to move sister." She stated hurrying off to where she'd been staring at for a while. Celestia nodded and started to head towards it with Luna "I think we waited too long. Lets hope they're ok."