Hope walked around the castle, looking for answers to what Marth said, when he suddenly appeared in front of him.
"There is no time to explain, but you must listen. Warriors from Valm have come to assassinate Emmeryn. You must prevent it." Marth said.
"And how would I do that?" Hope asked.
"Gather your heroes and the shepherds outside the castle. They need to know. I'll approach it through the rear. Also, if you know a good scapegoat, then now would be the time." Marth said.
"A scapegoat? Who would I be able to get to play the queen?" Hope thought. "Wait, I got it! Theres still one girl out there thats Royalty, and she happens to be our teammate." Hope said.
A few minutes later, Twilight was looking at herself in a princess dress. "Its nice, but why am I wearing this again?" she asked Hope.
"It's a long story.. but…" Hope said as he heard fighting.
"Hope, you were right! How in the heck did you know the Valmese were coming?" Chrom said.
"Valmese? What's going on here?" Twilight asked.
"We're under attack." Hope said as he bounded out into the fray.
"If we're under attack, why am I...wait, I'm the bait?!" she shouted as Hope disappeared from sight.
Pinke rushed down the corner with her Party Cannon Arm and ran straight into a new face. "Hey, mystery guy! Are you a thief? You look it." Pinkie said.
"Thief? Why on earth would you say that?" he asked her.
"Cause you're bag seems to have royal treasure inside of it." Pinkie pointed out.
"Okay, you got me. Name's Gaius, Pink. I came under the guise of an assassin so I could make a fortune by robbing the royal family blind." Gaius said.
"Well, that's not very nice. If you wanna steal things, how about working for us? Sir Robin says Thieves are the stealthiest stealers around. You'd fit in nicely with the shepherds." Pinkie said.
"Hmm. An enticing offer. I'll accept if you can convince the royal family to pardon me for past crimes. And you gotta sweeten the deal." Gaius said.
"I'll try. Okay, lets go, new- whoops!" Pinkie said slipping and spilling a ton of sweets out of her hair.
"Are those…" Gaius said licking his lips at the sweets. "Looks like I found a new treasure trove."
"Uh, Is this what you meant by sweetening the deal?"
"Yes. I happen to have a very large sweet tooth." Gaius said collecting the sweets.
"Nice to make people smile, even on accident!" Pinkie said glowing and ponying up. "Ooh, floaty!"
"Okay, we'll talk about that later." Gaius said staring at her. "But first, we gotta do something about that." he said pointing to a small lizard like creature with baggy yellow skin and holding it up.
"Looks like the jig is up." it said as it began running.
"Oh no you dont! No Scraggy's getting away from me!" Pinkie said, taking off.
"Well, better join the others in here." Gaius said running to the main battle. He drew his sword and cut down enemies close to Jexi. "Thanks. Don't know who you are, but it's much appreciated." Jexi said.
"Pink got me into this. Blame her and her sweets." Gaius said.
"Okay. No clue what any of that's suppose to mean." Jexi said.
Back in the castle, Pinkie kept chasing the Scraggy till she finally caught it. "Ha! Got ya little guy!" she shouted.
The Scraggy then began to laugh. "Sucker! I was just a distraction. Right now, Boss Scrafty and all my friends must have the queen by now." Scraggy said.
"Run! That queens a body double!" shouted a voice as they saw several Scraggy run by with a Scrafty following.
"Where are you morons going? We could probably still make a killing by selling her!" Scrafty said pointing to the bound and gagged Twilight.
"How did Twilight end up in that?" Pinkie asked. "Oh, wait, this was Hope's plan. Well, I'm not going to let him get away." Pinkie said running at Scrafty who then started running with Twilight. Pinkie fired her Party cannon arm, which was powered up with her magic, slamming the Scrafty against the wall.
"Urgh. Well, my guilds gonna be sad when we come home penniless." Scrafty said. "Fall back boys!" he shouted as he and the Scraggy ran.
"The next time Hope has a plan, remind me to ask him what it is first." Twilight said as she removed the gag while Pinkie untied her. Twilight then got a palm out, and with her magic, changed it into a staff.
"I need a name for this…. how about the Twilight Staff? Sounds good." Twilight said.
The two joined up with Gaius as he fended off more assassins with the others and Marth.
"Hey, Gaius! Get acquainted with the others yet?" Pinkie called out.
"Yeah. Did you run off those thieves who you were chasing after?" Gaius asked.
"Yep! And wait, that Marth's a girl?" Pinkie asked pointing to the girl with Marth's mask.
"Yeah, I dont really get it either, but she predicted this would happen." Hope said before getting smacked by Twilight.
"Next time, keep your bright ideas to yourself." Twilight said. "I almost got kidnapped by Scrafty and some Scraggy."
"Sorry. But she told me too. Besides, It was the only way Emmeryn could get away from this whole thing." Hope said. "You did get rid of all of them right?"
"They're still coming!" A guard said.
"Oh great, any other surprises?" Hope said before some beast leaped over the castle walls. The monster appeared rabbit like in appearance.
"A giant rabbit?!" Jexi said before the beast took on a humanoid form. It was now a girl with floppy ears.
"Not a rabbit. A Taguel." Chrom said.
"Her name is Panne, and she's not your enemy." Marth said.
"Well this just keeps getting weirder. You here to help?" Natsu asked.
"While I have no obligation to help your kingdom, I don't think these assassins will let me live now that they've seen me." Panne said.
"Yeah, look at them. They look like they've seen a ghost." Zoro said as the assassins began to back away.
"Probably familiar with the carnage my people have been known to do." Panne said changing into her beast form.
"I uh… dont suppose you'd let one of us ride you to the commander? That would actually feel pretty awkward." Pit said.
Panne just growled as she chased down the assassins.
"I guess that's a no. But I can see him." Hope said as the commander was beginning to panic over losing many of his assassins.
"No, this was supposed to be easy! I, Validar, never make mistakes!" he said as the heroes began to surround him. "Stay back! I can still fight!" he threatened.
"I think surrender would be your only option." Sir Robin said.
"You? Well, well... Ha ha ha! Oh, I know you... Submit to me, and perhaps I might honor you with the truth!" Validar said.
"Truth? What are you talking about?" Sir Robin asked.
"He's just spewing nonsense. I got him." Vaike said as he rushed toward him with his axe in hand. One clean blow, and Validar was out before he could even react.
"No... This is...all...wrong... How could...you have known the plan.."Validar said. He then lost consciousness.
At another part of the castle, Emmeryn was safe, and Gaius and Panne were in tow with the others.
"I must thank you, thief, for fighting with us. You too, Taguel." Emmeryn said.
"Well, it was no problem. I just happened to be in the area and thought you all could use the help." Gaius lied.
"You say that because Pinkie is a walking candy store."
"What? I have absolutely no idea what you are talking about." Gaius said, digging through Pinkie's hair.
"Youre a worse Liar than me, and before I met you, I was the world's worst liar." Usopp said.
"Alright. Listen, I'll keep with you guys as long as I'm supplied. As long as that a fact, my services are yours." Gaius said.
"And I suppose I can stay around with you for a little while." Panne said. "I dont trust man-spawn for hunting my kind, but the one with the yellow skin has a heart of pure gold and respects what my species has gone through. It is because of her I shall stay."
'Score one for the Element of Kindness. We got one more for the shepherds." Rainbow said.
"Make that two, Blue." Gaius said. "Youre forgetting me."
"What are you talking about? I got you to join." Pinkie said.
"Oh, and uh, Sparkle? Pink here did some sorta shape shifting act when she...paid me for my services." Gaius said.
"She ponied up because she made you happy." Twilight said. "It's been happening more often now."
"Yeah." Hope said.
"Good work on your strategy, Blue Lantern, but now this place isn't safe. We'll need to move out first thing tomorrow morning." Chrom said.
"I recommend the East Palace before we move back to Regna Ferox." Lon'qu said. "Its the least likely place to be targeted right now."
"For a man with few words, he is surprisingly full of ideas." Pit said.