The Scroll of Exalted Ponies

It struck Speaker that he was actually sad to hear of this turn of events, even as Shimmer cheered and Cash shared Risotto’s malevolent smile.
He could understand why Risotto had wanted Morning Dew put to death – for arranging the kidnapping of a welcome guest from her house and trying to have him murdered; it was a grave insult to her hospitality and honor – but at the same time then the circle had determined through Morning Dew’s statements to Speaker during their fight, Cash’s revelations of the Sohei’s finances and Sullen Hoof’s evalutation of his character that Morning Dew had ultimately only tried to replace the general staff out of a zealous loyalty to Lookshy, even if it had become misguided through immaculate dogma.

It was to this end that Speaker came to the uncomfortable conclusion that death was pretty much the only sentence that could have worked. Anything else would simply have bred resentment and allowed any remaining coconspirators to regroup and form a new cabal around him.
“Shouldn’t the Teresu Matriarch be the one to tell us this?” Cash wondered, though his tone hinted of something else…

Taimyo Feldspar sighed: “Matriarch May Lily washed her hooves of Morning Dew the moment word got out of what he had done. Gens Teresu does in merchant shipping – import and export – they have nothing to do with him, the immaculate faith or the Sohei. That he was allowed to commit suicide in her house was pretty much the only thing May Lily was willing to give him…”
“…because?” Cash inquired, sensing something left unspoken.

“Because sailor-ponies who travel the high seas, like ones that do merchant shipping, can’t swim. No sense in learning it – you’re screwed if you go overboard out at sea – I’m guessing she really took the attempted drowning personal” Shimmer interjected, recounting a bit of western wisdom and common knowledge.

Risotto nodded: “Almost – May Lily is water aspected. She would have seen the rest of us drown around her. The very thought of it still haunts her”

“I might be able to help with that” Speaker noted quickly.

Risotto chuckled: “I’m not sure it would be politically expedient for you to ply your healing on another member of general staff just yet – we’re still trying to weed out the worst of Morning Dew’s supporters. Best you and your friends go sort this salt business out with the Bull”

Nodding, Speaker rose from his chair and bowed to the two Taimyo: “Very well. With your leave we’ll set out tomorrow at dawn”

“Sounds reasonable – but there is one other small matter before you all leave” Taimyo Feldspar noted.

The small matter was that of Speaker’s singing staff. It had become just a tad too obvious that Speaker had one – and the Seventh Legion had a standing policy of offering to buy any potentially useful artifacts that they became aware of. The offer Feldspar gave would, if tallied in jade, be enough jade to crush a pony to death under its weight. Still, it surprised no-one that Speaker politely declined the offer. He insisted that he could make better use of the device, though he had no doubt that Seventh Legion combat engineers would have loved to fiddle around with it.

Both Taimyo accepted this, though Risotto did request that once the campaign into the underworld started Speaker should agree that if he fell in battle that the staff be given to the Seventh Legion, at least until he reincarnates.

The next morning the circle set off on Nah to the north, with Shimmer having sent a sorcerous message in advance to notify the Bull of their arrival – along with a few curious Lookshyan representatives: Apparently the chance to meet with this already legendary Bull, the anathema warlord who broke the Vermillion legion, was just a tad too tempting, plus the circle had at least convinced parts of the Seventh Legion’s intelligence services that other anathema might be worth looking into.

Having left straight from Lookshy, without swinging by Sunhill first, the circle tracked down the Bull’s location. The massive army encampment looked a bit smaller than last, plus it had moved about three hundred miles east, just across the river of tears, but beyond that things looked more or less as they had been last the circle had visited, at least from a distance.

Approaching the encampment, the circle and their Lookshyan passangers quickly spotted the hot air balloon up in the sky the place. It appeared to have been made out of stitched-together animal hides, held aloft by… some kind of magical something. Speaker could only tell that it involved a mix of air and fire essence at the distance it was from them.

Landing the circle found itself – in a word – cold enough to crack coconuts with their rumps, for they had left in such a hurry from Lookshy that they had not remembered to bring any kind of winter-clothing with them. This was quickly remedied by the local quartermaster, though Cash found the barbarian pelt and animal-skin style of fashion somewhat not to his liking.

“Well of course you don’t like it – you look like puny pony” the gruff and muscular quartermaster pony chided in his native northern tribal dialect, standing among his fellow icewalker ponies, all of which looked like their morning training regiment involved tossing yeddim around and then likely eating them as well. Only Cash had really understood what the quartermaster had said, though it was clear to the rest of the circle that it hadn’t been kind words.

“Come on – you can wrestle him later if you want revenge – we have more important things to do here” Sunrise admonished.

The Bull… wasn’t there, though the message Shimmer had sent in advance had been received by him. Something had apparently come up requiring the Bull to run off, but he had left an advisor to update the circle.

The faint stars in the advisor’s bright red eyes revealed instantly to Sullen Hoof that the pony was a sidereal…

“How observant – I see that the Bull’s high praise of you are not unwarranted” the Chosen of battles noted in rivertongue, bowing to the circle.

While she wouldn’t give the circle she name, she did explain the situation with the salt-spire league in her thick northern accent:
As the Bull had noted back when the circle had originally met him, then he had been having trouble maintaining the peace in a lot of the territories he had conquered – the Bull might be a brilliant and unparalleled warlord – but he was not a skilled organizer or lawmaker.

“The Bull’s main issue are his barbarian roots and his pride. In most civilized places up here it is considered a sign of wisdom to be able to criticize your ruler…”

Cash smirked, as the sidereal continued: “I know that where you are from, that warlords just cut out the tongues of ponies who mouth off at them, but up here resources are too scarce for foolish rulers to waste them – but the Bull and the Solars in his circle, they do not listen much when told that something cannot be done, or should not be done”

“…and this relates to the salt issue, how?” Shimmer interjected, feeling that the sidereal was just belly-aching at this point.

Giving Shimmer a disapproving look, the sidereal quickly said: “The Bull’s behavior reflects on the rest of his circle. In Plenilune you will find a pony by the name of Raneth of Ice Hearth, he is of the Twilight caste. The Bull gave him the city to rule for reasons he won’t tell, though I assume it has something to do weapons development or construction. Raneth is an even worse administrator than the Bull, but would never admit it. He’s making a mess of things. That’s why the salt trade has stopped…”

None in the circle looked happy to hear that – Shimmer in particular dreaded facing an actually cruel Solar.

“Any ideas on how to fix things there?” Speaker asked tentatively, figeting uncomfortably with his beard.

With a dismissive shrug, the sidereal mare said: “Sorry – no dice. The few divinations I’ve thrown Raneth’s way mainly hint that he’s the cause of his own misery, he’s just too much of a dick to admit it – though I’m sure that the bull will be very happy if you can fix things there”

With the briefing on Plenilune over, the circle quickly introduced the three unicorns from Lookshy: All three were from Gens Yushoto, and mainly seemed interested in setting up basic diplomatic and trade relations with the bull… perhaps to make a big order of salt to avoid the price-hike the guild usually puts on the cargo of their salt-barges. With the circle vouching for them they were allowed to stay, though the three did look a little nervous when the circle flew off to Plenilune, leaving them behind.

Enroute to Plenilune, which according to Cash’s information was placed at the origin of the river of tears, the region of the white sea known as malice bay, the circle briefly discussed what they knew of the place. Cash knew the most, since Plenilune was renowned for being the biggest producer and exporter of salt in Creation, with several smaller city states further up the bay and it having originally comprised the eponymous Saltspire league.

“Sounds like a fun place – how do they make that much salt?” Shimmer wondered.

Cash explained that, based on what little he knew, then the answer to that was in the name of the league: The saltspires – they were supposedly magical towers that drew in salt from the bay waters and rendered it into fresh water.

Approaching Plenilune around the afternoon, the truth of the matter turned out to be just that… with some modifications: The city of Plenilune looked like a massive slum that sprouted out of a mile long harbor on a jagged cliffy shoreline, all of it shrouded in a thick mist. Just beyond the harbor, connected by a rickety-looking bridge, was a small island with a tall tower on it. The tower was surrounded by fortifications and northern-style palatial structures – and above the tower a dense white haze pulsed with jagged lightning, the haze raining down over the city to supply it with its thick mist.

“Well this place looks fun” Sullen Hoof sighed.

As Cash made Nah descend, the circle observed a strange phenomena around the city: While the landscape around it was shrouded in snow, then for several hundred yards around the city there was no snow, though there were plenty of ponies milling about out on the ground, even though it wasn’t clear what kind of crops they were tending.

Over the harbor a few barges were moored, though it was quite evident that there were also over a dozen scuttled half-sunken barges along the piers. That… probably had something to do with the salt trade issue.

A fortress set at the north of the city had the Bull’s colors and sunburt on its banners, to which end Cash decided that landing in its courtyard was a reasonable idea. The ice-walker soldiers guarding the walls of the fortress didn’t seem to agree, losing arrows at Nah as they approached – though they stopped the instant they saw Sunrise’s anima flare up majestically in the dimming afternoon light.

Having established that there was on – no, four Solars – and a strange silver Solar (Shimmer found this hilarious) – the icewalker barbarian ponies began to bow and scrape…

Despite all of the icewalkers being taller and more muscular than Speaker, looking like they ate lesser, weaker ponies for breakfast, lunch and dinner, they seemed thoroughly terrified at the presence of the circle.

Cash tried to calm them, getting the fortress commander to present himself. The gruff and scar-covered icewalker pony, clad in thick furs and piecemeal armor plates, eyed Cash suspiciously, but none the less introduced himself in very broken skytongue, Cash translating for the rest of the circle: “Me is Captain-Thane Spear Bucker of Grey Mammoth tribe, second to King Raneth – who are you?”

Nodding, Cash introduced the circle, saying that they had been sent from the Bull to help and restore the salt shipments. Speaker Bucker nodded: “That will be good – hay and grain stores are low, and the shiny merchants won’t send more until they get salt”

“Perhaps an audience with Raneth might shed some light on the situation? Can you set that up?” Shimmer wondered, smacking her mouth a lot.

Spear Bucker looked hesitant, bordering on panicky as he tensed up – which looked almost comical on the armored icewalker. Cash and Sully both quickly picked up on the true reason for this due to their charms.

“Fear not – we won’t mention you to him – just tell us where we can find him” Cash said in a calming tone.

The icewalker Captain-Thane dropped his shoulders relaxed noticeable, looking incredibly relieved: “He is on castle island, at his workshop, or holding court. Your light will open the gate there”

Nodding, Cash gestured for the circle to move towards the gate out of the fortress.

Outside the fortress, in the small no-pony land between the slummy city and the outer buttresses of the fortress, Speaker finally couldn’t help but ask: “Ok, what was that about? Are they all just terrified of this Raneth pony?”

“It’s more than that. The loyalty they have to the Bull and Raneth as a Solar is part of it too – it’s a bit like…” Cash began.

“…like when I went nuts and started to mess with everyone’s head back in Chung Do” Sunrise quickly stated in a stern and decidedly disapproving tone.

Sullen Hoof didn’t agree entirely with Sunrise’s observation: “Those icewalkers weren’t under any kind of mind control – it was fear – but beyond that you’re right. Let’s go see just how bad this pony is”

“Well, at least this place looks quite clean – there are ponies sweeping the streets everywhere” Cash noted cheerfully.

Shimmer was less impressed: “They’re also sweeping the dirt… it’s the salt… its everywhere, in the air, on the ground…”

“That haze over the saltspire – it’s not fog, its salt… it’s raining down over the city like snow” Speaker concluded incredulously.

It was a strange sight: salt crystals falling down like snowflakes, and ponies everywhere working to sweep up newfallen salt into small bags. Several times the circle observed fights in the streets, evidently between ponies fighting over ‘salt turf’ or something to that effect.

Between the icewalker patrols and the ponies everywhere scurrying around on the roofs, in the gutters, everywhere, the city gave off a distinctly pony-eat-pony vibe: There was little evidence of ponies working together.

The bridge to the castle isle turned out to be a tad sturdier than expected: A thick braided set of cables hung from saltspire, anchored to some house-sized boulders on the shore allowed for a half-mile long suspended bridge that wouldn’t obstruct barges passing underneath.

Crossing the bridge was a strange experience: Approaching the saltspire it became quite obvious to the circle that the saltspire was a manse… the air was thick with water essence, but at the same time it was all wrong. The saltspire wasn’t working right.

“Well, that might explain why all the salt is going up in the air and raining down over the city” Speaker noted, wondering how the saltspire was really meant to work.

The icewalkers guarding the gate looked on edge, but they stepped aside without a word as Cash flashed them his caste-mark.

Inside the castle walls it became quite evident that the palace built around the base of the saltspire had been built in iterations. It was a mishmash of architectural styles, one more opulent than the other – with a common motif being large silver, gold or even jade statues shaped like salt crystals. There were also a few paintings on the walls with regal-looking ponies that had some quite noticeable frog-like features.

“Did lunars rule this place?” Shimmer casually asked as they were led to Raneth by a quite skittish servant. The servant didn’t answer, likely because he didn’t know riverspeak.

As the grand door, decorated with alabaster and richly painted carvings, swung open to the grand court-room, the circle was greeted by the loud rattle of shackles and sound of desperate struggle. Only Cash understood the skytongue being throw back and forth – though the sudden flash of light and very brief scream that was cut quite short was something the whole circle understood.

Stepping into the royal court, Raneth of Ice Hearth sat on a massive gem-encrusted throne. His crown looked a tad big on him, for the Solar appeared quite young. His mane was a few shades more red than Cash’s blond mane, but it was wild and curly – and while his coat was a plain shade of light brown, then the robes he wore were of exquisite white furs with small black dots on them, along with bright blue silk and velvet, obvious garbs of royalty.

Before the throne was a pile of steaming ashes, and to Raneth’s side, gripped in his golden essence, floated a small but highly decorated bronze tube, replete with red jade and orichalcum fittings and filigree – it was obviously some kind of weapon…
Seeing the circle enter his court, Raneth barked something angrily at the group.

“He’s wants to know who we are – just light up your caste marks when I gesture at you” Cash Charmer said as he stepped forth and threw aside his fur coat, revealing his heavenly silks underneath.

The introduction was brief, and just as they had been warned then Raneth didn’t really come off as a pony who liked having ponies sent to him to fix his problems. Indeed, Cash quietly noted to the rest of the circle that Raneth seemed quite insulted that the Bull or his advisor had sent anyone to meddle in his affairs.

“…so he doesn’t care about the scuttled barges along the harbor? Or that the city’s food supply is running low?” Shimmer wondered, confused as to how such a poor leader could stay in power.

Sullen Hoof, from somewhere unseen yet still in earshot, whispered in reply: “Obviously it’s the icewalkers… he controls them, and they can still control the city to some extent – though clearly not very well”

As Cash eventually signaled for the circle that they were done and were to leave, and circle soon after found itself in of the many halls of the castle chatting, Cash informed the circle of what the situation now was: “Ok, so… if we weren’t all exalts, he would have sent us right back to the Bull, so that’s one thing”

“Alive or in pieces?” Sullen Hoof wondered, briefly appearing next to Sunrise before fading from sight again.

Not able to answer the question, Cash could only shake his head: “No clue – but ok, so the city is going to shit. He apparently came to the city about three seasons ago, to enforce the surrender oath that the now late king of Plenilune had previously sworn to the Bull when his icewalker legions had swept through the league”

From what Cash had gathered, several years ago, when the Bull had first arisen and united the icewalkers, the saltspire league had been one of his first conquests as they had moved south along the white sea, but since the Bull at the time couldn’t spare any troops he hadn’t left a garrison to enforce his will – so the league city-states had all reneged on their oaths the moment the Bull was out of sight: “Raneth was sent to collect taxes and punish the league – but there was something else… something he wouldn’t tell me, but it’s what he’s spending all his time on instead of trying to govern the city”

“But will he let us try to help?” Shimmer asked, feeling that the situation was just getting worse with each new revelation.

Nodding, Cash said: “We can do whatever – He said that he’ll let it be known among his icewalkers that they’re to take orders from us, as long as we do not interfere with his work”

“Well that’s nice… but honestly: He doesn’t look a day older than me when I exalted. With so much power, and an unruly city and some kind of secret project he doesn’t want to be distracted from… I don’t think he’s particularly suited as a ruler of ponies, at least not yet” Sunrise mused quietly.

Sullen Hoof noted that he would poke around to get some more information about him, while the circle go poke around the city.

Cash suggested that the rest of them seek out some guild representatives – someone who knew the local salt trade and could tell them exactly what was happening with that, and maybe who was causing it.

Leaving the castle, with Cash as the only pony among them who could talk to the locals, Speaker, Sunrise and Shimmer all just tagged along as Cash asked for salt merchants. It was surprisingly easy to get this information, though quite a few of the ponies in the streets they asked also tried to sell them their salt – Cash looking very much like a wealthy merchant…

“They seemed desperate to sell that stuff” Speaker remarked.

Shimmer frowned: “They know that without the salt barges heading out, food won’t come in… this salt rain has probably poisoned the lands around the city”

“Maybe, but weren’t there ponies outside the city working the land?” Speaker noted.

“They were collected salt, just like everyone else here” Sunrise pointed out.

At a very nice-looking tavern, replete with very old-looking wooden carvings, the circle found a gaggle of guild merchants who weren’t exactly looking happy. They were happy to tell the circle of their woes: To no-one’s surprise it was all Raneth’s fault, in the sense that their salt-barges had been sunk by saboteurs from the other league cities. Before that, the other league cities had sent assassins to try to kill Raneth, but he had proven quite resilient and very vindictive – of the ‘kidnapping your family and putting their tortured corpses up on stakes outside the city’
The circle hadn’t noticed anything like that when they had arrived, but the merchants noted that that had stopped about five months ago – that had been when the city officials of the old regime started leaving – like rats from a sinking ship – leaving barely no-one left to work under Raneth’s rule. This had thoroughly messed up the city’s ability to collect taxes and run its courts, as now all but one judge had either left the city… and the remaining judge was recently attacked as well, grievously wounded, so he was out of action entirely.

“What do they do for judging criminals here then?” Speaker wondered.

Cash noted that they had already seen that – just as they arrived at Raneth’s court. Apparently Raneth subscribed to a very strict “If you break the law enough to be brought before me, I kill you” logic. This obviously hadn’t improved the mood in the city, nor the local’s willingness to cooperate with Raneth.

Of course, the merchant’s suggestions on how to fix the situation mostly revolved around getting rid of Raneth – but they did note that the saboteurs and assassins were likely still in the city, picking off anyone who dared to publicly support Raneth, so getting rid of them would be a good start. Salvaging the barges would also be nice.

“Ok, I know what we can do - hell, if we combine them we’ll be done here all the faster” Shimmer noted.

Heading to the harbor, Shimmer instantly leapt into the water to inspect the barges and the extent of the damage done to them. Once she resurfaced, she could report that the extreme salinity of the water had preserved the wooden barge structure – it had apparently been sunk via something having withered away large holes in the hull.

“Ok, Cash – I’m sure there are dry-docks here, go book us one – Shimmer, do you know any shapes that would let you yank the scuttled barges out of the water? I think we can wrap this up by evening if we do this right” Speaker confidently stated, looking at the half-sunken barges lining the piers of the harbor.

“You three manage the barges. I want to check on the remaining judge – being the last law-pony in a city like this cannot be a pleasant experience” Sunrise noted, trotting off.

Cash returned moments later, having booked an empty shipwright’s dry-dock. The owner of the shipwright had also tagged along, though he quickly ran off screaming as Shimmer turned into her emperor-ox sized beast-pony form, allowing her to grab a half-sunken barge with all four taloned limbs, then basking her wings wildly to slowly rise the barge out of the water.

Setting the first barge down gently, though the force of the winds that her wings were throwing about was whirling up clouds of salty powder, Speaker quickly inspected the hull and used his repair charm to fix the hull with a few extra hull-planks from the shipwright. At Speaker’s signal Shimmer returned the patched up barge to where it had been moored.

A sizable crowd of locals quickly assembled as Shimmer and Speaker repeated their barge-fixing trick, cheering on as more and more barges were returned to working over – though many of the barges were still in need of being drained of water and cleaned of sea-weed, work that began just as quickly: The merchants who owned the barges seemed quite eager to resume their business.

As business seemed to resume, so did trouble start – or that at least seemed to be the plan: Cash knew well enough that the ponies who had scuttled the barges would likely try again, so from a vantage point atop a nearby provisions shop he kept a watchful eye for trouble… and in short order a group of otherwise inconspicuous ponies in matted fur clothing appeared, Cash instantly recognizing their behavior for what it really was: They were scoping out the barges to find a way to sneak on board.

Now, Speaker and Shimmer were busy with the barge repairs, Sully was back at the saltspire castle, and Sunrise was off doing whatever as far as Cash knew… so he would have to stop the saboteurs himself.

“Time to be the hero!” Cash said to himself as he shot a claw from his magic shoes into the wooden tower holding up a cargo crane that loomed above the barges and tossed aside his barbarian furs – a hero should look good at all times.

Swinging himself down and sticking the landing perfectly – Speaker not being the only pony in the circle who had learned a thing or two from Sullen Hoof – Cash found himself down right amidst the suspicious ponies.

“So… sink any barges recently?” Cash quipped in skytongue, as the ponies around him turned to look at him in shock and confusion.
The cold northern air bit at Cash’s ears and hooves, but there was no doubt that he striking an imposing figure in his impossibly beautiful silks, casually smirking at the group of ponies.

The ponies around Cash shot each other nervous glances – and that was all Cash needed, for even without speaking they had basically confessed, thanks to Cash’s charms subtle social-cue detection charms: “Yes, I do know – now, are you going to do this the easy way or the fun way?”

The ponies instantly turned to run for it, but as many demons and changelings had learned so painfully in the first age, then Hoof of the Daystar style is a very direct style that incorporates a lot of very efficient grapples and tosses, which became only more potent when combined with a shoe that let on pull foes into one’s reach.

“Get over here!” Cash shouted, firing a claw into the back of one of the ponies as they ran off down the pier towards the harbor-street. The pony barely had time to yelp in pain as he was yanked back, Cash taking hold of him, swinging him around and tossing him like a curled up pony ball into the rest of the saboteurs. Likely due to some errant error in fate this produced the sound of a ceramic ball striking a dozen or so wooden pins, but nobody seemed to notice that.

Casually striding up to the downed ponies, Cash rested an extended shoe-claw against the nose of sole pony who still seemed to be just barely conscious: “Now, talk – who’s paying you to scuttle the barges... or I will make you talk”

Back at the shipwright, Speaker and Shimmer were making good time on the barges. Some of the the carpenters and other workers there spoke a little bit of riverspeak, as it was a common language for merchants across Creation thanks to the Guild – this allowed Speaker to direct ponies around to bring in materials so the repairs could proceed a little faster.

About an hour’s worth of work later they had restored enough barges that there wasn’t really room for more along the harbor and its many piers – apparently some barges had arrived after the first ones had been sunk. Either way there certainly seemed to be enough barges available for the salt trade to resume, and the owners of the barges had also arrived and had quickly started hiring workers to clean the things up, so there wouldn’t be silt or mud when salt would be loaded on them.

Cash arrived shortly looking a tad disappointed: “Ok, so the ponies sinking the barges? Turns out they’re sailor ponies who’s families are being held hostage in some of the other saltspire cities by their rulers – they’re less mercenaries and more… patsies”

“Perfect – now we have an excuse to go punish them!” Shimmer said eagerly, having reduced herself to pony size and shape once more.

The look on Cash’s face wasn’t one of agreement – that much Speaker could tell – plus he figured that going to war in Raneth’s name wouldn’t really help make peace for the salt trade to blossom again. Cash certainly seemed to share this sentiment: “Shimmer dear, why don’t you and Sully – once he’s done – go and rescue these ponies instead? Bring them here. The icewalkers brought my captives to the south-port blockhouse, go talk about where their families are being held, they have a translator there – in fact, Speaker, you might want to go to them as well, one of them got hurt a bit when I caught them. I’ll stay here and ensure that nobody claims a barge that isn’t theirs. We’ll meet up back at the castle this evening”

Later that day, at the saltspire castle, circle reconvened. Before being called to dinner, Sully briefed the circle on what he had discovered: “Raneth is producing some kind of new bow… I’ve never seen one like it”

“A new bow? What’s so special about it?” Cash wondered.

Sullen Hoof made a strange gesture, as if holding a bow but doing it all wrong: “No, it’s on a stick, and you don’t draw the bow – they arrows’re in a box on the stick, you just yank the box back with a lever to load it and pull a lever under the stick to fire it. It’s like a small stumpy ballista you can carry, load and fire yourself”

“Impressive… what kind of materials are he using? Jade, orichalcum?” Speaker asked, very curious as to how such a thing might be made.

The night caste Solar shook his head: “Different kinds of wood… good steel, string…. He’s not making magical artifacts: He’s making these for mortal use”

“What’s the advantage of the thing over regular bows?” Shimmer wondered.

Thinking for a moment, Sullen shrugged: “No clue”

“Nah that’s obvious – if Raneth has figured out a way to load a bow without having to draw the string, instead using a lever like you say… if that’s easier than drawing a bow then it would let the Bull train up archers much faster” Speaker pointed out, noting that ponies trained to be professional archers would usually have to train from a young age to properly bite down on drawstrings with an arrow in their mouth, then get on their back and buck back the bow, with the arrow properly notched. It was no small feat.

At dinner the circle inquired into the nature of these devices – but Raneth seemed more offended than anything else, completely dismissing any possibility of him explaining what the ‘cho ko nu’ were for. Indeed, after Cash had tricked Raneth into revealing the name of the devices, Raneth stormed off furiously.