//------------------------------//
// Great Escapes 
// Story: Winds of Change 
// by dreadbaron 
//------------------------------//

Chapter Four: Great Escapes
Galeforce threw himself through the open window into Ahuizotl’s office, where he found the Cutie Mark Crusaders tied up on the floor. He bit through the ropes without much difficulty, and the girls hugged him tightly. “Thanks, Mr. Wings,” Scootaloo said to him, as she kissed him on the cheek in gratitude.
“No problem at all,” Galeforce answered her, as he struggled to hold back the tears this raw emotion was bringing up. “Let’s go.”
“Hello, Galeforce,” a voice boomed from an unknown location. “I’ve been expecting you.”
“Ahuizotl,” Galeforce growled. “Show yourself!”
“I am not Ahuizotl,” the voice answered him. “I am merely the new mayor of this town, and I am quite eager to see a demonstration of your legendary skills.” A bell rang in the distance, and the voice gave a cruel chuckle. “That would be the emergency bell you are hearing, Monsieur Galeforce. I’d say you have five minutes to escape, before the entire building is overrun with my guards.”
Galeforce picked up Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom with his mouth, and placed them squarely on his shoulders. “Stick close to me, Scootaloo,” he told his young pegasus friend. “We’ve gotta fly.”
“But, Mr. Wings, I can’t fly!” Scootaloo protested, as fear washed over her face.
I forgot about that, Galeforce thought to himself. “Fine,” he told her. “Climb on my back, and hold on tight!”
Scootaloo climbed on his back, and grabbed his mane with her teeth. “Ready!” she shouted out, as she spat out strands of hair through the side of her mouth.
Galeforce spread his wings yet again, and galloped towards the window. He jumped through it, and was soon (awkwardly) flying across the sky. Talon watched this unfold from the clock tower on top of City Hall, and a smile washed over his face. “Flim, Flam,” he instructed his newfound lackeys. “Prepare the magic cannon!”
The Flim Flam brothers pulled the cover off of their latest invention, which was a gun that absorbed unicorn magic and fired it as energy blasts. Flim stuck his horn into the ammunition slot, and Flam manned the controls. “Ready when you are, sir!” he shouted over to Talon.
“Wait for my mark, gentlecolts,” Talon told them. “Let the fool think he’ll succeed.”
Galeforce flew past the scores of guard ponies on the ground, dodging the stones and bits of debris they threw at him. “Are you three okay?” he shouted out to his ‘passengers’.
“We’re fine, Mr. Wings!” Sweetie Belle answered, as she nervously looked at the chaos unfolding around her.
“Excellent,” was Galeforce’s snappy reply, “and call me Galeforce!”
Talon lifted his arm; for he knew the time to strike was now. “FIRE!” he shouted in rage, and the Flim Flam brothers did just that. A beam of magic sailed across the sky, and collided against Galeforce’s body with an audible thud. 
Galeforce felt his wings seize up, and he knew a crash landing was in his immediate future. “Girls,” he warned the fillies, “brace yourselves.” His body glided across the horizon of Las Pegasus, losing altitude with every meter. Finally, his body collided with the side wall of a bakery, and he flopped to the ground like a ragdoll afterward. Galeforce had suffered incredible damages, but miraculously the Cutie Mark Crusaders seemed okay.
“Galeforce, let’s go!” Scootaloo shouted with desperation, but it was too late. Galeforce was dead, and Talon had won.
“What do we do now?” Apple Bloom asked Scootaloo. 
“We run,” Scootaloo answered her with intensity. She gave both of her friends a small buck to get them going, and soon all three were on their way to freedom.
“Shall I fire on the fillies, sir?” Flam asked Talon, as he warmed up the gun yet again.
“No,” Talon ordered him, “power down the weapon and stand down. My footsoldiers will make more than short work of those blank flanks.” He then turned sharply around, and headed back into City Hall. “Besides, we have more pressing matters to attend to.”
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The CMCs darted from alley to alley, looking around for any sign of guard interference. The streets seemed oddly empty, and the reason was soon clear: the pony guards had been called back, for the new threat was coming from the sky. A squadron of griffons was closing in fast, with the one known to the Crusaders as Gilda leading the charge. 
“Griffons!” Sweetie Belle called out.
“Perfect,” Scootaloo uttered, feeling inspired by the spirit of the late Galeforce. “Cutie Mark Crusaders, let’s start crusading!”
The girls then let themselves be caught by three griffons, and then began to fight back. Apple Bloom struck her captor in the gut with a sharp kick, and then proceeded to grip him by the neck with her teeth. Sweetie Belle managed to summon enough magic to temporarily stun her enemy, and she followed that up with strikes from her front hooves.
“Keep it up, girls!” Scootaloo encouraged them, as she blinded her captor with a flurry of wing-flapping.
The other griffons paused briefly, and Gilda looked over the scene with disgust. I really don’t get paid enough for this nonsense, she thought as she attacked. Her attack didn’t go as planned, as the CMCs had escaped the other griffons and were now leaping towards her…
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Galeforce opened his eyes, and found himself standing next to a lake made out of what appeared to be lava. He could see other ponies shuffling around him half-heartedly; some looking fairly healthy, and some in various stages of decomposition. None of them seemed aware of his presence, nor did they seem aware of each other. They just wandered to and fro, in their own realities.
Suddenly, a boat pulled up to the shore of the lava lake, and a pair of pony skeletons stepped off. “Galeforce,” one announced, “your time of judgment has come.”
“Where am I?” Galeforce asked.
“You are standing on the shore of the river Styx, just outside the realm of Hades,” the skeleton informed him. 
This must be where bad ponies go when they die, Galeforce thought to himself. “What is to become of me?” he further questioned the skeleton.
“You are to be brought before Hades, and he will sentence you to your proper punishment in Tartarus,” was the skeleton’s answer. “Now come along, Hades has been waiting to meet you for such a long time.”
Galeforce climbed on the boat, and it soon casted off towards the land that Hades called home. “Why must I be condemned?” he asked the helmspony. “I’ve changed my ways!”
“Ponies like you can never change,” the helmspony snarled with a sneer. “Once a Thief, always a Thief.”
“That’s not true!” Galeforce protested. “I was given a second chance at life, and I made the best of it!”
“Once a Thief, always a Thief,” the helmspony repeated, as he steered an even course. Soon enough, the palace of Hades appeared on the horizon, and the boat pulled up alongside it’s shore. “Everypony off,” the helmspony snarled.
The two skeleton guards then led Galeforce in through the palace gates, and past the snarling Cerberus to the throne room. There, Hades sat upon a throne made of brimstone; stroking his beard thoughtfully.
“Hello, Galeforce,” he greeted his visitor heartily. “I’ve been expecting you.”
Galeforce didn’t know what to say, for he had not seen a creature like Hades before. He had two legs and two arms, with no hair whatsoever on any part of his body buy his head. “Hades,” he finally said, bowing to his new master.
“Look upon me, Galeforce!” Hades commanded. “You have never seen a human god before!”
Galeforce looked over Hades thoroughly, and stopped at the god’s steel gaze. “How is this possible?” he asked.
“My realm spans more realities then you can possibly imagine, Galeforce,” Hades told him. “There are other worlds beyond Equestria, and all the sinners from there end up here… just like you.”
“Please have mercy, my Lord,” Galeforce begged him. “I swear to you, I’ve changed!”
“I know,” Hades informed his prisoner. “I know all about your redemption in Ponyville, and how you gave the gold you needed to save yourself back to its proper owner.”
“Then why condemn me to the pits of Tartarus?” Galeforce demanded to know.
“Your debt goes far beyond a bag of gold and some lies, Galeforce,” Hades answered him, with some contempt in his voice. “Have you forgotten the colts and fillies you abandoned in Ahuizotl’s dungeon? Have you forgotten the untold thousands of lives you ruined in your career as the Thief Lord of Equestria?”
“I will never forget,” Galeforce snapped back. “I regret each one with all my heart.”
“Then I will allow you a second chance,” Hades told him, as he stood up from his throne. He flicked his right wrist slightly, and a blood-red portal opened next to him. “If you enter this portal and complete your mission, I will grant you a reprieve.”
“What is the mission?” Galeforce asked.
“You must complete the Ten Fatal Tasks, and learn the true nature of Heroism,” Hades challenged his prisoner. “Only then will I provide you with passage back to the land of the living.”
Galeforce peered into the portal, and was certain he saw a brief glimpse of Applejack’s face for a minute. “Why is Applejack there?” he demanded to know. “Is she your prisoner as well?”
“I cannot say,” Hades told him. “The portal is made up of your deepest desires, and your darkest memories. Every monster you face will be a face of your past, and every triumph you enjoy will be a lost dream come true. Do you still desire freedom?”
“Yes,” Galeforce agreed, as he spread his stance. He then galloped into the portal, and it shut tightly behind him.
“Good luck, Galeforce,” Hades mumbled under his breath, though he knew the truth: no-one in recorded history had ever completed the Ten Fatal Tasks, and Galeforce was as good as damned already.

TO BE CONTINUED………