Ruins of Trottingham (Neutral)

"I'm not just well-trained. I'm the best. The Unicorn Elite don't just choose anyone to be the leader of their Special Task Squad," Tornado Wing gave a smirk as she said this. While revealing such information was risky, she needed to throw him off guard in order to get another hit in.

Seeing the Earth Pony's shocked face was the signal for her to return to the offensive. Rather than do any fancy hoof-work, she instead decided for a straight-on approach. Bringing her scimitars down in rapid succession, she forced the surprised stallion to take a few steps backward as he blocked. Then a few steps more.

'1-2-1-2-1-2-1-2,' thought Tornado to herself, timing her strikes to correspond with each count. 'It won't be too long until he's backed against a wall,' she thought with a mental grin.

{In response to Comical}

Brawny... that name sounds familiar. I'll have to check on that at a later date. Onyx shifted his gaze from the fight below, which was apparently between the Earth Pony from before and a Pegasus wearing U.A.E. issued armor, and looked over once again at the Earth Pony that he had been chasing. The two rebels with him hid behind said pony, as, although Onyx didn't wear any armor that could depict him as a rebel-hunter, they quite easily gained the hint that he was not good news for their survival.

"Hello... Acquiescent..."

Onyx was about to reply to the Stallion, but, before he could, the dragon from earlier slammed into the rooftops on which the two ponies were on, letting out a loud roar as it did so. The Unicorn grunted. Ah, you must have slipped my mind. A shame for you, you are in my way.

Onyx's horn glowed for a second, and a bright cyan beam of light emerged from it and struck the dragon's torso, going straight through it and leaving a small hole through the area which it had punctured. The dragon roared from the sudden pain and flew away. Looking up, Onyx could see the large beast circling the ruins once again. He'll be back, and soon. This situation had better not drag on too long.

The Unicorn looks back at the escapees he had been recently chasing after this scene, and then teleports to land a few feet in front of the olive-coated earth pony, the one helping the other two escape.

"You. You have caused more trouble than I would like, and now my mission is dragging on and becoming more dangerous by the second. I am much more powerful than you and you have no hope of defeating me in a fight. Now allow me to ask you, will you come with me peacefully or will I be forced to dismember you and drag you back to base in a life-support vessel?"

As Rusty scrambled for his life across the cable that came out of Comical's watch to run from the dragon, he saw Comical detach the cable out of the corner of his eye.

Rusty hit the ground with a thud on top of what appeared to be a pegasus, and he took a brief look at his other surroundings as to where he landed. He hoped that the dragon had gone elsewhere.

Sadly, he was wrong as the ground shakes from the dragon's not-so-distant landing.

Rusty gets up, off the pegasus mare, a bit painfully since he just fell about four stories, and notices Brawny next to him.

"Aargh," Rusty tried to crack his backbone, "You think that gun of yours can penetrate scale?"

Brawny sees Rusty fall on top of the pegasus. "Huh, looks like you made yourself useful. But i could've handled it." But he clearly knew he wouldn't leave with all his limbs without Rusty dropping in.

"You think that gun of yours can penetrate scale?"

"You're welcome to try. Just bring it back. And don't hurt yourself lifting it." Brawny kicks the pegasus in the face to knock her out. and puts her on his shoulder. "I'm gonna see if I can get some info outta her." He takes her into a semi-intact house and ties her to a chair waiting for her to snap back awake

"Mmmhmmm whaaaa-?" Tornado Wing mumbled, stumbling out of her grogginess.

Ropes were the first thing she noticed. What was most likely a chair. Light was filtering through a semi-destroyed wall nearby. 'What happened?' she thought.

The last thing she remembered was a heavy weight dropping on top of her, and something about guns and scales. By her observations: she had been captured. A typical interrogation situation it seemed like. Nothing she hadn't been prepared for. No information would fall into rebel hands if she could help it.

"You're wasting your time," Tornado said to no one in particular.

Brawny walks around her, rubbing his machete against her. (Sorry about innuendos) "Hmm, I'm sure you won't talk easily. Reminds me of myself. Sooner have my leg chopped off than tell an enemy anything. But while you're here," he points the machete at her throat "would you mind giving me some details on some U.A.E plans? It'd be real unfortunate to hack a new 'friend'"

The first thing she was taught in interrogation training was to give just enough information for them to not hit you. Obviously it was time for some mind tactics. Or just to annoy him.

"Well, buddy, we're going to where the rebels are. If you tell me the location of your troops, I can give you a more accurate map of where mine would be headed," said Tornado, nudging her shoulder away from the machete's metal.

Brawny hears what she's saying. Not very specific, but laughable. He chuckles at her attempt for him to reveal their position.

"I know I didn't finish High School, but I'm not dumb enough to not notice that trick. You think I'd put all my comrades at risk?" He gets a little more tempted to slice something off. He looks into her eyes

"Those are some really pretty eyes. I'll give 'em back after I gouge them out!" He makes a sudden motion to cut her eyes out but stops right at her cheek.

Tornado Wing flinched slightly out of reflex, but the look in her eyes didn't change.

"Cute. The moment you seriously hurt me with that, is the moment you lose any chance of gaining information from me. For example, take my eyes? I would probably kill myself soon afterwards, so I would have nothing to lose from revealing no information. You're going to have to try harder than that," Tornado responded, raising her eyebrow skeptically.

"Just who are you, anyway? I'm assuming that other Earth Pony called your name, but I wasn't really paying attention."

Brawny grabs another chair and sits across from her. "My name.... is not important right now. What's important, is that you start talking, or pray for a miracle. But since you're so eager, I am Brawny Hooves." He knows he's not getting anywhere. He wasn't much for interrogations.

"Oh, one more thing. Since you don't think I'm serious...." Brawny makes a cut on his own arm, to show that he's ready to do the same to her. "Now, I'll ask." As blood starts to drip from his arm, he asks: "What's YOUR name?"

'This stallion is insane,' thought Tornado, watched the blood drip down his leg.

"A tit for a tat, I suppose. My name is Tornado Wing, not that is is important right now," Tornado said, mocking Brawny with the last statement. She didn't perceive herself to be in any real danger. Unless the pony in front of her was truly insane.

"And don't treat yourself so highly. I would have won our fight had your compatriot not...dropped in," added Tornado, saying the line with distaste.

Without prompt, a figure slipped in through the charred doorway.

The pony, a pegasus mare, presented herself with lips colored rose red and full-moon spectacles perched upon her snout. She was dressed in civilian garb which was of a deathly scent, intermingling horridly with her sweet perfume. Wrapped around one foreleg were two hastily woven bands; one which depicted the rebel insignia, and one which distinctly bore a red cross.

Two violet eyes, evidently fatigued, settled upon the stallion and his captive mare. In accompaniment came her disapproving sigh.

"I'm interrupting," observed the mare unapologetically. If this were not an adequate display of her rude indifference, she proceeded not to explain herself until she had produced a cigar and brought it to her lips.

"I was called to tend to a -" Her eyes rolled off as she half-heartedly endeavored to recall a witness's testimony. "- 'lunatic who was exchanging slashes in the street and would probably need bandages shortly'. 'S 'zat supposed to be you, shnookums?" the mare grunted in the direction of Brawny as she fished for a match. Without waiting for a reply, she continued. "Look, sir, I 'ain't one to be criticizing what fetishes have you -- but can you please tone it down? Rebel supplies are finite, and medical tape 'ain't no exception."

Rusty took the strange scimitars that the Pegasus had left behind, put them in his courier backsack, and hefted up Brawnys MG. It didn't seem to be as heavy as Brawny said it was earlier.

"You," the red dragon said, as it lowered its head to be close enough to be pressing on Rusty's nose, "You will pay for what you-"

While the dragon's mouth was open, accusing Rusty of a crime he knew nothing about, Rusty opened a spray of bullets to the dragon's throat.

"GAAAH!" the dragon clutched its mouth in pain and brought its neck upright again. The dragon tried to make a threat in anger and pain to Rusty, but his mouth and tongue were too injured to do so. In his moment of confusion, Rusty dropped a gas making potion and ran inside the building. Rusty had no idea how to kill a dragon, but he figured he should probably get on the roof.

When Rusty had gotten to the roof, the dragon had regained its focus and eyed Rusty. It went to spew flames on the dust-red earth pony, but it only got out a few small embers. Apparently, Rusty had shot the fireproof coating on the inside of the dragon, and the beast had burnt its throat in the process of trying to breath fire.

Rusty still had his x-ray vision from the potion that he drank earlier, and it had a very interesting effect on this dragon. It was picking up each individual layer of scale, and he was able to see which spots were more susceptible to damage. He was hoping on a whim that the dragon's wings had a weak point right at where they attached to the main body. He had to get behind the dragon to see if this was true or not.

He snapped out of his thoughts as he realized the dragon was coming at him with his humongous clawed hand. Rusty galloped as fast as he could, but the dragon's hand was faster. The claw slowly closed around Rusty....

Until it retracted. Rusty looked up to see that the scimitars had been, luckily, pointed up, and the dragon grabbed his hand in pain.

This is going to be easier than I thought, Rusty thought to himself. He could tell that the scimitars had gone in as far as they could into the dragon's hand. Rusty couldn't see if the swords had hit any tenants, which meant that the scales were thick enough in that hand for Rusty to not be able to see through it.

Rusty grabbed the hilts of the swords as the dragon lifted its hand back up, and became very angry when he couldn't find Rusty on the roof. This dragon obviously wasn't the newest tool in the farm shed.

As the dragon bent down to look in the windows of the building for the earth pony that was actually on his hand, Rusty had an idea. If he could do the scimitar trick once, maybe he could do it again. He ripped the scimitars from the hand, but it turns out that he had only managed to break off the hilts.

The dragon felt this movement, and it looked at its left hand where Rusty was.

"Hehe," Rusty said nervously, "Sorry?"

The dragon replied with a fist coming down at him, and Rusty quickly barrel rolled out of its way...and off the hand.

Rusty's backsack hit the ground first, thus being saved from falling a second time. All of Rusty's potions had broken, and the liquids were seeping out of the bag.

Rusty's wet hooves and hurting back were barely able to hold up Rusty.
He looked back up at the dragon to find that its hands were stuck together. Apparently, the blades' hilt ends were also sharp and stabby.

Those were some high quality swords she had...

The dragon looked around for Rusty. Realizing that he needed to get moving, Rusty galloped for another building, but for some reason, it felt as if his hooves were sticking to the ground with each step...

The dragon had spotted Rusty, and it lifted its tremendous foot and brought it down to the ground to try to crush the pony.

Rusty quickly barrel rolled out of the way, and got caught under the arc of the dragon's foot. There wasn't exactly much room in there, so Rusty pushed on the bottom of the foot.

As the dragon lifted its foot up, Rusty embraced for another impact that wasnt so lucky, but, instead of losing contact with the foot, he lost contact with the ground! Rusty's hooves were sticking to the arc of the dragon's foot!

Amazed, Rusty tried to pry off one hoof. It came off easily. He then stuck it back on the foot, realizing his new ability. How did this happen. Did that potion mix of all the other potions affect his hooves somehow? That must have been the reasoning.

A very lucky Rusty climbed around the dragon to the top of the foot. His x-ray vision was beginning to fade, and he had to act fast. There were weak points around the neck, and the MG should be able to penetrate it.

He looked back on his shoulder to see if the gun was still there after all Rusty had just been through.

Content with what he saw, he looked back up at the dragon's head. It didn't seem to have noticed him yet.

Rusty continued climbing.

(Why is this getting so sexual?)

Brawny just looks at the new mare that came in and just laughs at what she says. "That's what you think this is? It's nothing like that. Just 'conversing' with a new friend of mine. And don't worry about the cut. It'll heal. Now, where was I?"

He turns his attention back to the pegasus that was stilled tied up. "There anything you can tell me about yourself? Like, you're importance of the U.A.E?" Brawny starts to chuckle about the evil things he starting to think of. The inner psycho's gonna come out sooner or later.....

'Victoria is one smart mare,' thought Tornado Wing, observing the situation. She'd just have to trust that Victoria would help her to escape, or find someone else to do so.

"There anything you can tell me about yourself? Like, you're importance of the U.A.E?"

'He has no idea... Not that i'll be the one to let him know.'

"I don't know, you tell me. If I was so important, you probably would know who I am just by hearing my name." Tornado offered, flicking her ears back and forth in boredom.

Brawny realizes this is going absolutely nowhere. Might as well been talking to himself. Although he probably will after this. "Now, now. No need to be rude. Is something wrong? Have I failed to entertain you? That's ok, that's fine. I kind of want to let you go anyways. You seem like a nice mare." He goes to cut the ropes loose, but stop as he reaches it. "Oh, but there's a price for freedom here." Brawny throws his machete to the ground, upright so the tip sticks into the floor.

"If I were to let you go...." Brawny hits her in the face with a right hook. "I have to make an example." Brawny throws a left hook. "It's a shame. You were a looker." He throws a straight punch. After a couple hits, he goes back for the machete and rests the blade on her jugular vein. Better hope somepony saves her....

((Hi everypony! This is a general reminder to just slow down your posting, just enough to allow others to post who are not on as often. I know you're all excited about it, but please show some consideration to your fellow RPers. This will also allow others a chance to jump into the RPs and topics. And don't leave anypony behind in the posting! Thank you!))

The mare continued in her passive observation of the stallion and his contemporary, exhaling thin gray wisps.Then, as swiftly as the situation escalated, she mobilized on the behalf of the mare whom she allegedly regarded as the victim of Brawny's fantasies.

She stepped between the two, demonstrating that she hasn't listened to Brawny's dismissive remarks. "Get real, darling. If you'll let me do my job, I'll be outta' here and you can do whatever it is you lovebirds do."

She kept a careful eye on the machete as she busied herself with her saddle bag. No sooner had she withdrawn the bandages than she began applying them to his nearest wound. At last, she produced a long blade which could be operated by the wing, and used it to sever any excess fabric.

This, she absent-mindedly placed within Tornado's reach.

"Want me to kiss it, sugar?" she offered sarcastically, remaining in his way.

"You. You have caused more trouble than I would like, and now my mission is dragging on and becoming more dangerous by the second. I am much more powerful than you and you have no hope of defeating me in a fight. Now allow me to ask you, will you come with me peacefully or will I be forced to dismember you and drag you back to base in a life-support vessel?"

Comical liked this pony, he seemed like a worthy opponent. That horn though...it really bothered him. Comical took the knife out of his mouth and spun it on his hoof, ignoring the chaos surrounding them. "Well I could say the same thing about you... I won't though, because I will probably be dismembered and dragged to a base in a life-support vessel." The stallion changed the time on his watch, and ejected a small disk. He slid it in front of him and is made a small explosion. It was powerful enough to make a hole in the roof though. Quickly, he swatted his two companions into the hole before entering himself.

After hitting the floor of the house, he adjusted the watch again, setting out a smoke screen. In the smoke was coughing, and spitting the three made it out of the house though. His objective, get to the others, fighting was not one of his professions. Comical galloped towards brawny, and shouted at the two ponies following him, sending them in a direction off trottingham. As they dashed away, the olive stallion pulled out his watch, scanned Brawny's combatant, to his surprise the two were just chatting, and one was being tended to. "Im sorry to interrupt brawny, and company. I have a Unicorn on my tail, and i'm not in the best situation." Comical looked over the pony he just scanned, who was currently being bandaged, and as he was transforming he looked surprised. "Oh, it seems you have Tornado wing in your presence, I'm surprised you have not tried to finish her yet." The pony said as he finished his transformation and ran in another direction.

"Well I could say the same thing about you... I won't though, because I will probably be dismembered and dragged to a base in a life-support vessel."

If one looked closely, one might have noticed Onyx form a shadow of a grin at the stallion's words, though anyone who knew him would know that this wouldn't be possible, because Onyx didn't smile. The Unicorn observed as the stallion in front of played with his watch for a second, and then stepped back into a defensive stance as a small disk popped out from the device. He cast a shield spell as a cautionary procedure, and sure enough the disk exploded soon after it was deployed. Onyx's shield flickered and died, and the Unicorn walked over to the edge of the hole that was made from said explosion as the rebel in front of him jumped through it into the building below, bringing the two escapees with him. Soon after the three landed, a smokescreen was deployed, and forced visibility down to zero.

Smokescreen. A primitive method of escape. Onyx cast a spell that granted him thermal vision, and then followed the group's path as the rebels made their way through the building and out a doorway to the street outside. The Unicorn trotted over to the edge of the roof he was on once the ponies left the room under him, dispelling his thermal seeking spell as he did and watching as they parted ways. The Earth Pony ran into a building on the other side of the street, while the other two once-captives ran a completely different direction through the streets of Trottingham.

Smart, but not smart enough. I'm sure those two will run into a patrol soon enough, but I wouldn't trust U.A.E. grunts to do anything right. Taking note of which building the Earth Pony had run into, Onyx teleported in front of the two other rebels as they attempted to run away. Effectively immobilizing them and leaving them in a perfectly safe place in under three minutes, the Unicorn then teleported back to the street next to which the building he had noted earlier was located. The stallion winced as he appeared.

Ow. There it was. Onyx had been expecting it, he had just hoped that the scenario would not have approached him as soon as it had. Although he was a very skilled mage, he still had limits, and casting high level spells one after another was taking its tole on him. No matter. There is still one more rebel to deal with. Two, if the other one is to present himself. Onyx looked around, but didn't see the Earth Pony, concluding that either he was still in the building or he had found a back entrance from said building. The Unicorn entered the building at a slow walk, somewhat surprised at what he found inside.

Our revered squad leader is tied to a chair, our designated diplomat is treating a rebel's wounds, and there's the Earth Pony from earlier, bleeding and looking quite ready to kill at least one of the mares. I suppose there's not many non-magic based situations stranger than this one... Onyx paused a second at the doorway of the building as he processed this, but then fully entered and looked around. No second rebel.

With a subtly undetectable blade of magic, he cut his squad leader's ropes from where he was, and then directed a question to nopony in particular.

"The Earth Pony. Where has he gone?"

This is a predicament. The soldier from before is here, apparently he has the U.A.E's leader tied up, well, not anymore, being healed mid interrogation, and being accused of "sexual fantasies." What a day, huh?

"Well, isn't this interesting? I got a sarcastic medic, the enemy's leader, and the stallion who was chasing my people down, all in the same room. Must be my lucky day." Brawny walks up to Onyx, not being bothered that he could easily be captured and/or murdered. "And who might you be?" He starts to hold up his machete to him.

When the dragon started flying, it didn't get much easier to climb the beast. Rusty grunted with each climb, surprised that the dragon hadn't noticed him.

Rusty eventually went up to the dragon's cheek bone, and was able to stand, mid flight, on the nose of the dragon.

He shot a blast into its face. The dragon, blind, went in for a crash landing, and Rusty had to act fast. He noticed that the wings had folded in, and inside said wings would provide substantial cover for the impact.

Nuzzled in place of the falling dead carcass, Rusty felt a huge THUMP and bricks falling. He crawled out, and rejoiced in his epic victory.

Then he noticed that, when the dragon's body landed, its arms (the hands were still stuck together, remember) swung and hit the side of a building, thus knocking out a wall. Rusty waved to Brawny and the other two ponies on the inside. There was some sort of interrogation going on, emphasis on sort of, but before Rusty got involved with that, he did a victory dance on top of his humongous dead foe.

"Well, isn't this interesting? I got a sarcastic medic, the enemy's leader, and the stallion who was chasing my people down, all in the same room. Must be my lucky day." The Earth Pony from before walked up to Onyx as he spoke. "And who might you be?"

His people? Hmm... Now I remember. Brawny Hooves, leader of the Rebellion. It seems that it may be permissible to allow the other pony to escape, as this new scenario has revealed a more important target. Onyx didn't react at all when the pony held a machete up to him. It did annoy him, but he didn't want to waste the energy required to move it away. "My name is Onyx, and before you decide to assault me with that blade I would just like you to keep in mind that by the time you are halfway through your first lunge or swing, I will have already disarmed you and launched you through that wall behind you. However, know that I would rather not have to create such a situation, as I'm sure a captured and healthy rebel leader is much more useful to my faction than a dead one."

CRASH!

Onyx turned his head to face the loud sound, seeing quite quickly that, apparently, a slain dragon had just so happened to completely destroy the wall through which he had entered through. He could also see a pony dancing on the carcass of said dragon. ...I'm not sure if I should consider this new pony a threat or a nuisance... The Rebellion seems to have more than a few strange ponies under their authority in any case. Onyx looks back to Brawny Hooves after a moment of onlooking.

"So what is your choice? Death or imprisonment?"

Death or imprisonment? Probably gonna die either way. Should he show his bravery and choose to fight, or take the smart way and be arrested. But he's too distracted by Rusty being an idiot and dancing on a dragon carcass while all the important stuff is going on here.

Brawny sheathes his machete and extends his hooves. "Might as well take me away." He figured it'd be better to annoy them while taken captive than for him to be killed right where he stood. Besides, their place might be a lot more cozy than this almost collapsed house. Feel sorry for the pony who owned this place

Rusty realized that Brawny was in trouble.

And that he still had Brawny's MG.

Rusty strolled up to the three ponies, and bluntly stated, "Hello, Unicorn Elite Army units. I am Rusty, and I just killed a dragon. If you don't explain your presence in this vicinity, and by 'vicinity' I mean Trottingham in general, and by 'your' I mean you," he pointed the MG at the pegasus (Tornado), "and you," he pointed the MG at the pony in the cap (Vicky), "and you," he pointed the MG at the unicorn (Onyx), "and by 'dragon' I mean the giant bucking carcass behind you. Any of you that speaks out of turn will be shot. Yes, if I kill you, you will not be able to give me answers, but that doesn't mean I can't shoot you in painful places, and the blood loss will do the murder for me."

Rusty cocked the MG.
"All right, start talking."