Maple Bat

Maple nodded back she flew deeper into the forest. She'd never forget where the base was the first time and she guesses that it would still be in the same place. they didn't seem like the building type. It was going to take the two a while but Maple landed on her hoof bad and it hurt so she fell from the tree line, she fell but managed to catch herself as she fell with a small amount of flight. She skid along the forest floor silently as she landed.

Treasured was certainly gaining, the wings were positioned to help rid himself of most of his wind resistance plus he was self-trained to a point to face Celestia so catching up to a mere Unicorn was nothing to him the hall way was a bit narrow for him to fly but he could still run fast. "Well... I am practically skilled when it comes to stuff that most ponies wouldn't understand... Would you mind if I took a look at it? I mean I won't touch it unless you ask of course..." Graystone rose a hoof to his chest crossing over it. ------------------------------------------------------------------- Evelyn started to fly back to the others "I'm sure they'll have a number of questions I have a few myself. Just you wait" She smiled to him happily

Treasured was rushing after the corpse after a lot of running he managed to see them "Hey you! Stop! Or I'll make you!" Treasureds wings where pressed against his side as he ran, ready to spring out should they need to attack something... "Well... I could help you modify the weapon at hoof... If you so wish." Graystone offered "I mean I'm not even sure what you're talking about but again... here to help." ------------------------------------------------------ "Well... Maybe I should save the questions until the other can hear... Let's go chat with them now... What do you say?" Evelyn offered her wing to Jack "Or do you want to stay... I mean that's fine too. If the second one then I'll ask what I'm thinking."

Shining sighed "Yea you're right I should chase her... But she's gotten so far now... I'll never catch her now." Treasured, without a word realized something, he ran over to the window and jumped out of it, the metal wings started to make a lot of mechanical whirring and clanging, extending to full length, "I'll catch her! I can fly so it'll be easy! Take care of what needs to be done!" With that Treasured flapped the large wings powerfully and started to chase down once he got closer he'd execute a plan to catch up to her but for now he'd have to find her first. Shining jumped "H-Hey! I'm not letting you go alone!" Shining armor raced down towards where Treasured was going to land. After all that, Graystone wondered what he should do "So... Anything you're working on that you need a helping hoof with?" -------------------------------------------- "It would be amazing to hear about Cyril, So when we head there I know what to expect" Evelyn grinned widely making sure she was comfy as she was sitting. "Don't skimp out on any details. I wanna be blown away by this!"

Maple noticed that speechless was 'Asking' about her leg "O-Oh... don't worry, a bolt scraped my leg... It hurt, not going to lie... but I mean I'm ok. Not even bleeding... I think. For now, we need to escape the forest so we can find the DuskBreakers hideout... Then once we save your parents we can rid Equestria of them... Hopefully for the last time..." Maple said the last part with no enthusiasm... Her voice seemed dead... She couldn't even convince herself that it would disband them for good. Maple lept to a nearby branch and landed on it not using her hurt hoof "Ready to leave?"

Maple went to open the door, She pushed it open, seeing Swirling just outside. She trotted over to her. "Swirling... Listen, Don't say anything for a second... I'm Captain Maple... I don't care what you think of me. Nor do I care what you think of the rest of my kind. I do what I do to protect everypony... That said My reaction earlier was... Unprofessional and to be frank, uncalled for. Something like that makes me seem as if I'm not capable of doing what I do... So, I'm sorry that I took so much offeense to your 'Monster' Comment. I'd really like to show you that we bats aren't bad ponies." She offered a hoof to Swirling "What do you say? Wanna let me have a chance?"

Maple moved infront of speechless trying to cover him with her wings. "It's ok... WE did it... They heard the crack and thought that the hunters hurt a timber wolf the plan worked... Let's get out of here before they realize that we're ponies too and try to attack us." Maple smiled to Speechless and went into the tree branches again Letting the hurt hoof hang.

Graystone smiled happily, "Finally someone to talk to about this stuff! The wings draw kinetic power from Treasured blood flow, that powers the generator and the wings work! You have no idea how much tech is inside Treasured... He didn't care as long as he could become the king he wanted to be. We may be the bad guys... but you have to admire the dedication he has to his cause... No pony else would do what he did..." "And what id I don't like this arrangement... YOu say you want to kill alicorns and ye-" Shining was cut off. "And I would've if that was my goal... I'm here to help... This tech messes with my blood flow in fact... Most of said blood is synthetic... So I can't exactly turn. at least not easily. I don't know how I can help but Graystone is quite the marvel with machines... I really came to leave him here to help Caerson. Stone! Wing!" He shouted to Graystone who took the wing back and put it in the slot on Treasureds side "I'll be leaving if you don't need me..." "No... Stay... We need as much as we can get." Then the unicorn jumped out of the window "Someone catch her now! I need to watch him..."

Twilight nodded "Y-Yea sure I can do that... Be right back brother" Twilight teleported out of the room. "Well... a stallion comes pleading for help and you get defensive but... whatever... I came to apologize... This disease I didn't take it seriously... I have... had my own army... one of my soldiers attacked 4 and he was disposed of proper... Then those 4 attacked 16... Well... I noticed and me, My engineer, Graystone, Scarlet, My right hoof mare, and about 17 other ponies escaped MY OWN BASE. We need to eradicate the problem and I want to help in any way I can to do that... Graystone... Could you come here..." A healthy, around 24 of age, Earth pony stallion approached the group. His mane was short tail matching, The azure eyes offset the gray coat and darker gray mane. Treasured lifted his wing showing all the mechanisms in it it was rather complex... Almost like one of Maple's... yet it came from a rather young pony. "Well tell them about it... Don't be shy." For someone who wanted to take over... that was a really calm thing to say... Treasured may hate alicorns... but he still had his own desire to make other feel nice. "W-Well... The wings... I knew I had to make them capable of withstanding Equestria's strongest... SO it had to be blade and arrow proof... It was so he could approach the castle without getting hurt... T-The ends of the feathers are as sharp as knives... so they could be weaponized if Crystal was to lose his magic, They're very strong wings too able to easily carry not only Treasured but about... 400 pounds of weight with ease not that he could lift it. The thing I have to be most proud of is that they can be taken off at a moment's notice for repairs or upgrades." The earth pony took off the wings and it revealed half a dozen mechanisms all embed into Treasures sides. "The body... Enhancements... where to make the wings feel natural... Like they'd been there his whole life... but also to assist in lifting them." Graystone presented one of the wings to Cameron "You are... an engineer yes? If so tell me what you think of my design. Not really for improvement just wondering what you think." Upon closer examination, the design was sleek and could be easily compact a marvel... for a creature with no fingers.

@nx9100 Maple bowed to Force off as she left turning to face Nova, The pony she served. "I'm sure this pony's plans will prove worth the wait my liege. I'm sure they are not playing us." Maple spoke lightly trying to show respect to Nova. She knew he could be a bit... explosive since he's being forced to wait. "Is there any way I could possibly help you pass time? If not then I will dismiss myself, sir."

Maple emerged from the forest into the small clearing when she did one of the hunter shot at her, the shot had caused the loud crack that it normally did. Said shot drew the attention of the already very angry Timberwolves. She shot grazed Maple's leg, it hurt but didn't draw blood. She descended near speechless and landed not landing on the hurt one. She looked just as scared as he did. The Hunter Fired a shot aimed right at Speechless spine the bolt hit a wolf, on the side and it yelped but then approached the hunter who fired the pack of 7 timber wolves slowly started to surround them... It was about to get ugly...

Maple growled silently watching what they were doing. "No way... I want to fight them. Look at what they're doing... It's just wrong... In every sense of the word. There's 6 of us. So we can take them. I mean I'd be saying otherwise if the armor they used actually protected them from hits." She drew her knife checking the edge. "Any objections to a fight?" She looked more at Quartz and Storm not paying much mind to the 3 sphinxes Woody was about to shout at Salacious but before he could he was taken aback by Shadows' suggestion that he stay, He didn't waste any time thinking about it "Yes. I'd love to stay here if it keeps you 4 from fighting more. Plus I'm just getting to know you all! I'd love to stay here with you 4. If I'm needed I'll do my best to stay impartial if I need to settle something but I think it's not just our own but the best interest of all of tartarus. Plus like Slug and Shadow's both said... I've got a lot to learn!" Woody said happily and optimistically

Twilight had listened more to careson not really caring about what the pony was saying Shining, however, heard every last word. The day guard captain was a refined stallion he'd been through the ringer more than once and knew how to keep his cool... Under normal circumstances. Shining armor lifted the pony into the air bringing them close to him "SO... You think I'm selfish? That the guards are selfish? You're the most blatantly ignorant pony I've ever spoken to. We have dozens of cites worth of ponies here... All the towns that got destroyed... all the families broken... Home's abandon... The day guard can barely take it and now the night guard has lost their captain. The 2 princesses are missing and now the dragon's thing we killed Ember. Everything has gone downhill. I have a job to do and I'm not going to be told how to do it. Especially not by somepony like you." Shining dropped the mare. There was a knock at the open door, Treasured Crystal was there. His metal wings scratched and dented even his body had some bruises "A moment... Captain Shining. I need to talk about something. I think you're suffering the same problem as I am. I know you don't trust me but I want to put aside my will to the throne... and my will to harm alicorns. If I don't help you out there won't BE a kingdom to control.

Shining looked at the Mare confused "What? Purple void... Marked ones?..." Shining shook his head "I have absolutely no idea what you're talking about... So how am I ALLOWING it when I don't even know what it is... and Twily would've stopped it for sure should she have known." He was acting rather rashly... trying to reason with a corpse... Twilight put a good on her brother "Calm down... She's just lashing out at anypony she can I mean we should probably look into all this more... Careson? Do you know what she's talking about?" Twilight assumed the answer to be yes since Caerson had met a lot more people "What all do you know?"

Maple kept moving as she knew Speechless was probably already executing his part of the Plan she felt a vine catch her wing but it was weaker than most and she yanked it off the trees it was on. She unfolded her wings. That made her harder to follow but the hunter kept up. Nearby, older timberwolves started to be heard, Barking, snarling and growling. Speechless couldn't see them yet but once they saw anything that could be a threat there was no doubt they would attack it.

@nx9100 Maple carefully watched Nova from where she was, with him, She was his noble servant. Doing whatever was asked of her in the name of bringing Nightmare moon back. Ever since joining She'd kept her mane back in a warrior's ponytail, the scar she got from her fight with tantabus clearly seen. She wore much lighter armor and not the night guard kind she was used to wearing either... for that would make her too recognizable. She looked to Nova before speaking to Force"The sympathiser said to lay low." Maple told her calmly also assuring that Nova knew as. "It's best we listen to him... At least for now." ------------------------------------------------------------- @WiiGuy2014 Woody took a drink of the tea he'd made. "Well... tomorrow the guard declares her dead... but that's not important. I know she's Alive." Woody took a deep breath and set the cup he was drinking down. " You two have been doing your best... You've kept your eyes open for her and I'm not prepared to ask you to leave ponyville to look for her. I know she'll turn up... When? I have no idea." Woody then added some sugar to his tea and drank it again. "Ahh... Better. "

Shining looked back at the 2 guards... Well? What are you waiting for! Get a Magic inhibitor! And hurry with that. We can keep it down until you get back..." Shining knew that those Inhibitors where there because Maple would bring in changelings they'd use those to keep them from just teleporting out, they'd use them on unicorns too. Punishment, of course, didn't last very long normally ponies where held for about a day then let go... more if it was a really bad offence.

"I like the sound of this... great Cabal. Let's not waste any time. Because like storm said, "Sooner we get this done, the sooner we can get to the blood team leader" It was something like that. Maple noticed the skirmish going on outside. She showed an apparent distaste for it, She wanted to stop it... It was her world now but she couldn't. "So... Where are we heading now?" Maple checked her armor making sure it was still on tightly since she was going to travel a lot. "Well, when I got here in Tartarus it was rather apparent from the start. The place is split. It's suffering because of that. This whole world..." Woody moved a paw out to the horizon. "It's fighting... Killing itself. That said at this point it's very fixable. When I got here Shadows told me there was a lot of opposition to you 4s control on Tartarus and it was too much for each of you to handle apart. Grim was the reason I found one of the opposing forces. That said, you don't have to wait to handle it. I just dealt with the problem myself as you saw. All it takes is you being fed up with something and bam, You've got all the reason to attack your lessers. I mean you four are GODS you shouldn't have to listen to anyone!" Woody grinned at them. I mean Tartarus might not've been as bad as he was leading them to believe but it was something they could work on.

When Will got to the cottage it was locked, As expected. Woody could be seen moving inside so the wills knew he was in the house. There was only the light of Woody's magic and a candle. Soft singing could be heard too. Woody had felt the Wills approach since he was focusing on a new detection spell hoping to help find Maple. He opened the door for the Wills before they knocked "Ah! Will and Will! It's good to see you two!" Woody's eyes looked like they were searching around, looking behind will and his mane looked more messy than usual. "Come in, Come in." He moved the door aside. Inside the cottage, there was a well-lit wall covered with papers and a lot of them with underlining and red circles. On the wall was mostly cases of missing ponies, strange sighting and stuff of the like. "Don't mind my work as you saw it last time... Nothing new up there today. I'm sad to say... Tea?" At this point it was hard for Woody to convince Ponies he was still sane... He sat on the sofa and poured himself some tea "Officially Maple's still MiA but I think She's somewhere near rainbow falls... That's close to where her last engagement was... I mean it was below canterlot... but it's been long enough for her to make it there."

Maple wasn't flying anymore, more of leaping from tree limb to tree limb, She'd spent a whole year int he forest she knew what she was doing was risky but at least nothing on the ground would be able to halt Maple's progress. Now she had fewer threats but she had to be very careful to not hit any vines or it would only go downhill for her. She had the training, however. "Wow... Equestria's best hunters... Can't even keep up with a pony clad in armor." Maple taunter which one of the hunters shot at her but the shot thud against a tree limb.

Shining Armor looked at Twi, who was struggling to keep her shield up and at Caerson and lastly, to the terrified guards. He made a choice... An arguably bad one but it was a choice he felt he had to make. He summoned a spear of pure magic and drove it into the corpse broke the table and impaled the corpse on the ground, it was still alive... since it didn't have vitals anymore. "There... It can't touch the spear or it'll hurt itself... Problem solved, right?" Twilight had moved her shield down to contain the magic storm "You... Are so Lucky..." Twilight managed to say as she put more energy into the shield. "Can you help with the bubble too?" Shining nodded and added his remaining energy to the shield keeping the spear in place simultaneously.

"D-Did you say resurrected? I... I don't believe it but I'm coming to make sure Twily's ok!" Shining bound after the guard "Lead me to her... and make haste!" Shining was obviously upset by this new development. He was still wearing his armour, even during downtime Twilight was too focused on the shield her horn glowing brought as an indication of such she dropped a bit of it only for half a second and put it back... "Careson... Please... hurry..." Twilight said quietly and desperately

"Well, me and Maple made a vow to each other... That no matter how tough times got we'd never give up on each other. As you know our parents where gone a lot so me and Maple grew up with each other more so than with the whole family. We took great care of each other... We both aren't going to let each other down. It's hard to make me angry but..." Woody used magic and spoke in a deeper more intimidating tone giving the Wills a glare "I best not catch you hurting my sister."

Woody had known his mother, Fluttershy, Was going to head to Saddle Arabia. He figured he'd have one last chat before she left. "Make sure you search for Maple while you're there... I know you have to do diplomatic stuff but she's just... been gone for far too long. I... I know you said she's going to be ok. But... I'm starting to fear the worst for her..." Woody was trying to be strong but it was slipping from him. "I'll... Keep an eye out for her here." With that, Woody waved Fluttershy off and he took to the skies, heading home for now. His father was probably sneaking along with Fluttershy to keep her safe... that or he was much too busy with... whatever he does in canterlot. So the young draconequus was home alone...

"So... This story began on my birthday... I was in Equestria since at that time everyone thought I was wearing my costume early... Well, I'd become something short of a legend around Ponyville... And legends... They bring attention. There was this pony... Proud and aggressive... I'd tell you his name if I knew it... He was clocked in a blood red, hood over him, He came in and-. " Maple was going to continue but Woody interrupted to add something " Let me tell you something... This pony, even looking at him made you feel scared I mean it was like he was a living bad dream." Woody spoke with emotion behind his tone. "It was like I saw myself turning into a statue while looking at him... He asked me if I knew where Maple was. I lied and said I don't know." "Eventually this pony found me in the town... since I was there and he drew this heave crossbow and shot at me. He reloaded in mere seconds to fire another bolt at me... He even drew a sword with magic. So I knew he was a unicorn then... At that time I had no training so I ran back here and got the 2 arrows I still had for "The Guardian" and decided to fight... Well... It uhh..." Maple brushed her mane awkwardly she didn't want to tell more Woody again was able to add in " When I got here after Maple ran... The bow was broken and the string snapped, she was cut in places and the hunter was about to finish her off... I shouted at him for him to not kill her... When I shouted, "STOP!" I had a magic overload and... Well, you won't believe what happened next" Woody's eyes shimmered the bright silver color they took when he froze time. "Long story short the hunter hasn't been seen since the event, I hope he likes the Chaos realm." Woody laughed loudly