The Second Chapter

Chapter Roman Numeral Two

Applejack grunted as she carried the large pack of bits strapped to her back while she followed the other girls through the woods, down what was obviously a well beaten path through the light woods and towards the town Twilight’s thingamabob told her about. Up ahead, she looked at the much smaller human mares…or women, as the translation magic in her head said they needed to be called now pressed on.

She didn’t want to make any accusations, but Sunset apparently knew the limits of human strength before she had volunteered to carry all Twilight’s research notes and all their portable lab equipment. The girl didn’t seem to be straining at all. Rainbow Dash seemed equally burdened as Applejack by the sack of gems on her back that Sunset insisted these human yahoos found even more valuable than bits, even though she insisted that they only trade them in limited quantities for ‘safety reasons’ that Applejack really didn’t understand. Of course being the princess, Twilight carried nothing. She had tried to but…with their magic apparently ack-cue-ma-tating, or some such thing, it would be awhile before they could fly or make things float. Which meant the much shorter human with the purple hair couldn’t steamroll everyone into getting her way when it came to helping the other girls.

From what she could feel beneath her feet, Applejack figured it wouldn’t take long to start sensing the land again. The grass and the earth felt…different than it did back in Equestria, but that didn’t mean it was a bad thing. It just took a bit getting used to was all. She just wished these human things didn’t have such noodly muscles. They had to leave half their supply of gems and more than three fours of their trading bits back at the cave Twilight’s mirror had appeared at, because neither she nor Rainbow could carry that much.

Thinking of the pegasus made Applejack chuckle, and she looked over to the girl with the messy rainbow hair that hung down to the middle of her back. Back on Equestria, they had practically been the same size, with Rainbow having a tiny bit more muscle in her forelegs while Applejack’s hindquarters were far more developed thanks to years of apple bucking. Now the little filly barely came up to her teats! If it wasn’t for the fact that the top of her head met Sunset and Twilight’s eyes, Applejack would have thought Rainbow had been reduced to the age of a foal!

Although, Sunset had said they had all undergone some kind of age reduction and were in the bodies of humans somewhere between seventeen and eighteen Celestial Sun Celebrations.

Plus, while Rainbow had turned scrawny, Applejack had become…cumbersome; a fact that she was reminded of when she stepped a bit too lively and her oversized human teats bounced up to slap against her skin inside the human poncho with a belt Sunset was calling a tunic. In that comparison, Rainbow had come out the winner, with a normal of ‘breasts’ that were barely noticeable and wouldn’t get in the way like an unmarried mare should have.

“Okay girls, here’s the town the uh…MALP told us about,” Twilight announced. “According to the sign post there’s another town to the west called Kalare, but I want to check this one out first and see how many books they have on magic and this world’s history, and an atlas…oh, and maybe something on their mythology too. I wonder if they have any tabletop RPGs, Shiny would love it if I brought something like that back a souvenir for him.”

Sunset let out a groan. “Let’s start with an inn, a meal, and maybe some samples to make sure we haven’t picked up a plague that’ll turn us into flesh eating zombies first, okay?”

Beside the once-again human, Rainbow laughed. “Uh, can we do the eating thing first though? All this carrying rocks around is making me hungry.”

Applejack walked over to the group and nodded. “Ah’ll be, Ah think Rainbow’s actually got a better plan than the eggheads for once. Wonder if they got anything as good as Granny’s apple pie.”

Sunset flashed her an evil smile. “Oh Applejack, you’re human. You eat cow now.”

Sunset stuck her head in their bedroom and smiled at the sight. Either Applejack had talked Rainbow into it, or the former pegasus had just decided Twilight was taking too long and used her magic to remove the stains from the night before, then she had cuddled up with their biggest lover. More than a little part of her wanted to just forget about the visitor and join them in bed, share a few kisses with Rainbow, and ask Applejack get them both off with those wonderful fingers of hers.

Instead, Sunset had to push down the ache in her body that cried out for the touch of the former ponies she loved and walked over to the girls. “Okay you two, I know you heard the knocking, time to wake up,” she said before bending over to kiss Applejack on the forehead. Trapped within their lover’s arms like she was some living teddy bear, Rainbow Dash was out of her reach.

The giantess moaned a wrapped her thick arms around the runt of the family that had rested her head in Applejack’s chest. “Just one of them door to door sales ponies,” she mumbled. “Run em off, wouldja?”

“Breakfast time already?” Rainbow mumbled as she smacked her lips.

Sunset let out a groan, and reached under the bed to pull out one of the two foot steel poles she kept throughout the house for emergency defensive purposes. The object in her hand made the former unicorn sigh. Whereas the rest of her family had gotten an increase in abilities, Sunset’s loss of options had been a real blow to her everyday convenience. Although she had discovered a talent in metal crafting allowed her to manipulate various magnetic fields, something the humans of this backwater world had no clue about, to move only metal around...it was no substitute for a horn.

But, Sunset had learned during her first stint as a human not to dwell on such things. Her abilities in this world were far beyond what she had been stuck with the first time, even though the existence of magic had caused some problems when it came to human development of things like telephones, the internet, computers, television, and deodorant. The last one, she had to invent herself.

A combination of metal and fire magic weakened the bar at its center, and Sunset pulled the thing apart before she forced it to cool until frost formed on the ends that had been practically molten a second ago. Then, she put the rods between her girls’ legs.

The resulting screams and way their eyes just shot open made the redhead smile.

Five minutes later, Sunset was still smiling as she stood slightly off to the side of one of the two wash basins that their bathroom had, and spit out the peroxide that had been used to clean her teeth.

“So,” Rainbow Dash managed with her toothbrush still in her mouth. “What’s going on again?”

“A few minutes ago that little child you like to look after showed up at our door with an expression that said he was nervous enough to wet his pants and told me you and Twilight were summoned the Citadel,” Sunset explained before she took a nearby tin cup and placed it under the rain cloud Rainbow had her elemental ponies make so they could wash up. A few seconds later, a stream of water fell from the sky and Sunset used it to wash out her mouth. “Judging by the fact he wanted the two of you and all his panic…they want a healer because something bad has happened to the First Lord, and they can’t let anyone know about it.”

Applejack let out a groan. “Ugh, that fancy tower thing? Been near there a few times. Mac hates that place. Always makes him and Bloom jumpy.”

Sunset nodded in silent agreement. Her own friends had similar reactions.

“Why not?” Rainbow asked. “I mean, shouldn’t they be getting a…medicus, or something if the head princess guy is sick?”

A sigh from Sunset’s lips and a frown on her face apparently got Rainbow’s attention, as she stopped brushing. “Did you learn anything about how the political system of this word works in the past year?” she asked evenly.

Rainbow rolled her eyes. “The country is run by ten High Lords and one First Lord, who’s thought of as a first among equals rather than the absolute head of the government like Celestia back home, but it still means the same thing as the Princesses and the lesser royalty like Blueblood. Then they’ve got the citizens, that are like our nobles and junk, with everyone else on the bottom. Cept their nobles are determined by how fast they can fly, or how big a fire they can make, and stuff like that in one of those juju-jurray-”

“Juris macto honor duels,” Sunset supplied with a smile that had no animosity in it. She enjoyed humiliating humans, her family…not so much. “And I’m impressed you actually managed to remember all that with how Twilight and Applejack explained it.” Unable to stop herself, Sunset reached over to give Rainbow ass a squeeze.

Applejack let out a chuckle. “Her learnin’s freaky but it works,” she said before joining in on the groping.

“Yeah I’m awesome,” Rainbow declared as she stood up a little straighter. “Now hands off the ass, I know you guys aren’t really in the mood, and if you get any closer to my pussy, I might start to be.”

“Ah don’t need to be touchin ya to make ya wet Rainbow,” Applejack replied with a smirk.

The display made Sunset roll her eyes at the unintentional bragging of their hidden water and earth magic, with Rainbow’s casual mention of her empathy and Applejack’s ability to inspire lust in another person on command. Of course Sunset’s metallic abilities to suppresses her emotions as well as the powers Celestia gave her to inflame or quell passionate feelings like joy, anger, and fear were much more useful.

In fact, she used them at that very moment to banish the image of Applejack’s fingers invading her cervix while she drank from a screaming Rainbow’s overflowing sex with almost no difficulty at all. Later, she promised the sexual hunger that had come with being human.

“Yeah well, just don’t let the comparison fool you. The First Lord is no Celestia, and the High Lords are more like sharks in the water sniffing for a drop of blood, and the citizens are mostly papered idiots with magical muscle and no clue on how to use it that fall over each other trying to get into that overgrown council they call the Senate,” Sunset told them.

A pair of small, but fit and strong arms encircled Sunset from behind and she reached up to run her hands through Rainbow Dash’s hair as she rested her head on Sunset’s shoulder. “It’s okay.”

Wrapped in Luna’s power, Sunset didn’t feel the emotional flutter that would have come with the touch of her beloved pegasus. But she still lifted Dash’s hand to kiss it. Then a powerful palm completely covered her shoulder and gave it a gentle squeeze while Sunset looked over to Applejack. “I’m fine. Just because I blocked out my emotions doesn’t mean I’m sad…or angry,” she assured her lovers.

Although logically, she had every right to be. The humans squabbled with their half-measures more than anything Sunset had ever seen in her life. They had a king that wasn’t really a king, and freemen that had next to no rights when stacked against the citizens of the Empire. At least Sunset had gone for total domination when she had wanted to conquer Equestria.

Then there was the complete idiocy of these Roman decedents! Back in high school, the teacher had gone on and on about how much of a marvel Roman engineering was, how they had built such monuments by working together and invented whole new kinds of engineering. But after gaining access to magic, which they insisted wasn’t magic, they became lazy and stupid.

As much as Sunset despised humans, they had an incredible ability to figure out how things work, rather than just how to work them. From that, whole new levels of understanding could be gleaned, and from that, a new way to figure out how to do things was usually invented. After her exile to Earth and decision to eventually return to Equestria, Sunset had taken every advanced class she could in mathematics, science, chemistry, and biology, as well as brought home all the college textbooks she could carry on multiple subjects to learn more after coming home. From all that came the one thing she admired about them.

These humans didn’t have that. If anything, they had become even less than what they were beforehand, forgetting basic science and medicine in favor of using water crafting to heal, or metal crafting to forge weapons. They barely worked together anymore, as even the magic users that were the second and third generation Romans would have had to in order to conquer Alera, and the society that had come about because of it was simply…rotting.

Sunset sighed at the foolishness of it all. “Come on girls, let’s go get dressed. Twilight is still with Tavi, and considering the way these monkeys react to a pair of teats, that little brat is probably ogling the hay out of our Sparkle.”

Tavi looked around the small estate’s sitting room nervously, doing is best to avoid looking at the slightly tanned girl sitting across from him. While he would have normally found it a bit more that difficult to do so, the decorations of the house actually made it quite easy. AlthoughTwilight had always said she was no one special, just the daughter of a writer and an astronomer from Forica, the way she decorated spoke otherwise.

A pair of statues that looked like smaller versions of the odd horse fury that Rainbow manifested from time to time flanked the doorway, although both were a little different from hers thanks to the addition of a horn. The one on the right was made of pure steel, obviously crafted the way it was with pieces of glass made to look like diamonds placed into its flanks. The other was made from dark iron, and had an oddly designed mane and tail that sparkled with more glass. Upon seeing the darker one, Tavi had thought that they were actually diamonds in the horse statues, but…no gem in the world was a big as any of the ones housed in the steel winged horse with its odd horn and stylized mane.

Still, the expensive clock above the mantel, the four expertly sewn banners that hung on each wall of the room with one of which depicting the colorful tattoo on Twilight’s butt Tavi couldn’t help but notice with her so naked in front of him, the expertly crafted furniture, it all spoke of a level of wealth that was too much for anyone outside the citizen’s quarter of the city; even if the house the girls were living in had been reportedly owned by an extremely well to do merchant that had retired to the countryside some years back.

“So…I can see why you didn’t want to live in the dorms,” he said nervously.

Twilight looked at him without much emotion. “My friends and I didn’t want to be broken up, so my uncle arranged this house for us,” she replied evenly.

Finally, Tavi asked the obvious question. “So um…why’re you…naked?”

“We sleep together. Clothes generally get in the way of that,” Twilight answered him simply. “And this is my house, you show up in the middle of the night asking for my help, which I’m glad to give but…don’t expect me to bend over to make you comfortable. Now, tell me about what’s going on please.”

Tavi sighed and shook his head to try and keep the emotions the memories caused from piling up. “I was attending the First Lord like I do nearly every night. There’ve been some bad storms along the western coast recently, and he was using his crafting to try and lessen their effects. I got him his spice wine, well...it really wasn’t wine,” he admitted. “Captain Miles, the um First Lord’s guard and Crown Legion commander said that Gaius had been taking a tonic to help deal with late nights and dull some pain. Then he just...collapsed.”

It was a long and extremely uncomfortable fifteen hours that the lying clock on the mantle called fifteen minutes as Tavi wanted for the other girls to show up so Twilight could go get dressed with help from Sunset. Then, when they came back carrying a large box made of an odd, black wood like substance between them.

Unlike at the academy, each one of them had on a long tunic of the finest silk, with varying colors or each girl. Rainbow’s was a sky blue, while Sunset had a drab tan, and Applejack dressed in orange of all colors. When Twilight came back with Sunset, she had a light purple tunic on.

“You’re bringing your whole lab?” Rainbow asked with an indecorous frown.

Sunset rolled her eyes. “Well it’s not like I can just ask someone what’s wrong,” she replied. “And unless all you want to hear for a diagnosis is sick, tired, gassy and old before the local physicians insist we put leeches on the old coot to suck the evil out of him, then Twilight and I need our proper tools.”

Beside the girl with the blazing hair, Twilight let out a tsk. “Sunset, please behave, we have a guest.”

“No, we have a intruder.”

Tavi frowned at the description, and there was an odd sound behind him, like a light screeching. However, when he turned to leave behind the other girls, nothing had fallen and the floor didn’t show any scrape marks. Although, he got the strange feeling that the horse statues were looking at him for some reason. Looking at him, and scowling.

“Let’s just go,” Twilight groaned.

Despite the fact she had been awoken abruptly and practically dragged out of the best pillows in the world, lost an opportunity to make out with Sunset, and had Twilight taken away before they could have all gotten in one good morning lay, Rainbow was glad for the early hours. It meant there was almost no one around on the streets where she could feel them.

Although the healing abilities that her water partner provided helped her in so many ways, the weird way she could tell what other people were feeling was just...weird. On the other hoof, she had a new respect for Fluttershy and how her oldest friend had always put herself in another pony’s horseshoes. The weight it brought was heavier than Rainbow could have ever imagined.

She looked ahead as they followed Twilight down the street, who was a little ways ahead, still getting the situation from that Tavi boy. Rainbow didn’t care to hear it, the panic he was in was good enough to know bad stuff was going on. So she had a wind screen put up to keep any humans from listening in to her and the girls.

“Ugh, first no racing in Winter Wrap-up, and now I gotta get up before dawn for this,” she bemoaned to Sunset and Applejack as she floated along under the half a dozen minor wind spirits.

Sunset shot her a little smirk. “We all know you’d win Rainbow. Besides, the race is for citizens, and Twilight wants us to keep a low profile. If were still here after we’re done at the Academy, then we challenge for titles like she said. And it’s Winter-send. Don’t make slips like that.”

After flipping through the air and around Applejack while the big girl carried Twilight and Sunset’s egghead stuff, Rainbow dropped alongside her friend and smiled. “Twilight wants, Twilight says…I didn’t know getting a slave ring put on would make you so whipped. You sure you’re the same girl that told Princess Celestia-”

“Just because I agree with her these days more often than not doesn’t mean I’m whipped!” Sunset exclaimed with a bright red face. “And besides, she and I talked about it. Right now the Empire is in a precarious position. So we need to…help out. Oh and you know how Twilight is, right thing to do, bla bla bla.”

“What’cha mean Sunset?” Applejack asked. “Ah thought you of all…people woulda just shrugged at the Empire’s problems. And just what is the problem anyway? Ah thought everyone was just waitin’ for the First Lord to keel over. So what if he kicks it now rather than in a few years?”

As Rainbow voiced her agreement with Applejack’s sentiment, Sunset looked at the two of them like they were total morons. “Well aside from that whole because Twilight cares thing,” she said with a shrug before turning completely serious. “The Lords and Ladies aren’t going to elect a new First Lord, they’re going to fight over it. The biggest problem with that is that there isn’t really a faction that is loyal to the First Lord Gaius, but there are two factions that are against him. The first of whom is Aquitaine, I don’t really know much about them other than they allegedly stirred up some trouble in Calderon Valley a year or so ago, and the Dianic League is behind them.”

That name, Rainbow recognized. While the males of the human species ran things (into the ground) and let the women have next to almost no say in things, that group spoke out for women to have an equal say in things. They were also extremely opposed to slavery. With those two things combined, Rainbow considered them the closest thing to Celestia in this Celestia-forsaken world. So if those Aqua-marine people had their support, the former pegasus figured she could root for them easily enough.

“The other is High Lord Kalarus,” Sunset said darkly. It was enough for all of them.

The city of Kalare, the city that High Lord ruled, had been the first real city that girls had come across in Alera. Since then, Rainbow had learned that it was also by far the worst and they weren’t all like that. But…the fact that such a place even existed in the first place made her sick.

Kalare was the center of the slave trade in Alera, and the whole city seemed to be the perfect place to raise a bully like Brencis. The whole place consisted of nothing but the few bullies, and the mass of people they bullied. It was muddy, caught in the shadow of a mountain that kept the place dark for most of the day, and had a stink to it that Rainbow could smell even with the a weak human’s nose. If it wasn’t for the fact Twilight had ordered her as a Princess not to start trouble, Rainbow would have made a tornado strong enough to wipe that place from the face of existence.

A hand on her wrist snapped Rainbow out of her daydreams of tearing slave collars off dozens of humans, and she looked down to see Sunset had grabbed a hold of her. A slight tingle in the back of her head made the former pegasus realize Celestia was helping to cool her anger, and she let out a low sigh. “Thanks. I just…whenever I think about those…people.”

“Still don’t see what’s the big problem,” Applejack went on as Rainbow dropped to the ground and linked hands with sunset. “Everyone with half a brain gets behind Aquitaine, and it all ends just fine.”

Sunset shook her head. “The problem is there isn’t a faction loyal to Gaius, at least not one out in the open,” she mumbled before looking back and forth between the two girls. “Because of that, everyone might not even pick one of two sides. Crows, I know more than half the High Lords will stay out of the war until one side or the other can bribe them into it somehow, and it may not even just be two factions. With the way the political system here works we could end up seeing three, or maybe even four different sides trying to take power, and that’s not even considering the possibility of other countries like those wolf things across the sea to the west, or the Marat in the east, or the Ice Men of the north. Any one of them could take the opportunity to invade.”

“That don’t sound like something you’d be all worried about sugarcube. Ah mean, war and all that is bad sure, and Ah don’t much like the sound of things. Humans ain’t mah favorite bipeds, but still don’t like the idea of them getting hurt. But you…” Applejack left the rest unsaid.

It was a sentiment Rainbow had to agree with.

“You’re right of course, I don’t care one bit what would happen to every single man, woman, and child in Alera if things went badly,” Sunset replied with a snarky smile. “But war tends to make things more expensive, and certain foods will be next to impossible to find in the market. Even if you can grow things in the middle of winter Applejack, there’s only so much our back yard can produce.”

Rainbow Dash groaned. “You’re saying we should save this First Lord guy because if we don’t…our grocery bill will go up?”

“I knew you weren’t as stupid as you pretend to be Dashie!” Sunset said with a smile that made Rainbow rolled her eyes. A second later, it was gone, replaced by a scowl. “But in all seriousness, the funds we brought from Equestria aren’t going to last forever, and we still have no idea just when the mirror will be useable again. Just because it connected to the old human worth every thirty moons doesn’t mean it will be the same this time around.

“And food is just one problem we’ll have if a war breaks out,” Sunset went on. “Alera Imperia is the capital city. Whoever holds it, holds the realm. Everyone will be fighting for it. The best thing would be to move out. Maybe somewhere to the south like Parica or Rhodes, but that means buying a new house and the huge risk of moving the mirror. If it breaks, we’re stuck here. But if we stay, there’s going to be fires, looting, fighting in the streets, maybe even food shortages and…ugh, sanitation problems.”

Rainbow shuddered at the thought. “So best thing for everyone involved is to fix Gaius. Got it,” she said before looking around. “And where’re we going anyway? This isn’t a street that leads to the Citadel.”

“Okay, dunk him.”

Upon giving the order, Twilight sat on her box of lab equipment and watched as Applejack dunked Anthiller Maximus into the ice cold pool that her friends had crafted in the middle of the street, with Applejack making the impression, Rainbow filing it with water, and Sunset removing the heat. The man kicked and, judging by the bubbles, screamed for a little bit before Applejack lifted him out.

“Again.”

Twilight rubbed the bridge of her nose as she remembered just how they had gotten into this situation. After meeting up with the dark-haired human Tavi, he had explained the situation to Twilight. Like he said before, Gaius Sextus, the First Lord of Alera had apparently fallen unconscious and was in an unknown condition in regards to his health. Unfortunately, because of the humans mistrust of each other, the leader of the country couldn’t let anyone know he was…indisposed. That meant he needed healers, and someone to make sure no one knew that he was sick.

So while Rainbow, Twilight, and Sunset figured out what was wrong with the man, someone would have to use their water crafting talents to make sure no one knew that the First Lord was indisposed. Although Rainbow might have been able to double for the aging ruler by using her friends’ combined talents, Twilight didn’t like the idea of Rainbow walking around as the leader of a country on her own. There was just too much of a chance that she would go overboard or slip up.

Applejack lifted the muscular boy out of the pool again, made sure he was still breaking, then dunked him back in the freezing water while Twilight reminded herself she had no need to feel sympathy for the boy’s current status as a near-popsicle.

After all, they had found him at the house of a widow, where Max was clearly taking advantage of the woman’s loneliness and nearly consuming human desire for close contact…something Twilight was more than experienced with these days, to have cheap sex. While Twilight wasn’t above physical pleasure, something about not having the deeper bond of love behind it made the thing seem…cheap and wrong. Oh Cadence how you left your mark on me.

Max emerged from the drink again, and Rainbow gave him the once-over. “Okay he looks good, and there’s no desperate old lady smell anymore either.”

“She wasn’t old!” Max protested before Applejack tossed him onto the ground, and the hole their makeshift bath had been used for pushed itself up and refilled while the water inside flowed around everyone else and then down the street. Max got to his feet and started to take his soaked tunic off. “And would someone tell me what in the name of the furies you’re all doing here?”

Upon seeing the boy’s bare back, Twilight’s breath caught. As a pony, most scars quickly became covered by the coat, so seeing any blemishes in Equestria was something few and far in-between. However, bare human skin allowed the former unicorn turned alicorn made human to clearly make out every single major cut a human ever experienced.

Max’s back was covered with several scars that cross-crossed at several locations. Telling just what made them was impossible considering their age, but Twilight knew it hadn’t been done with a sword or some other kind of real weapon. If anything, it looked like someone had taken a harsh whip to her friend’s back…repeatedly. Although, the presence of the scars did puzzle her. She knew Maximus was the son of a High Lord, born out of love to a woman he didn’t marry. He had the ability to heal himself without leaving any scars, so their presence was an anomaly that Twilight couldn’t figure out.

From the looks of Rainbow and Applejack, they also didn’t like the sight. Sunset seemed a little less affected, and frowned at the things. “So who beat you when you were…what? Five or six? Maybe seven?”

Twilight’s eyes widened, and she looked over to her fiery lover. “Sunset!”

“…my father’s wife,” Max replied after a moment of silence. Then he looked around at the girl’s and Tavi. “Now would someone tell me why you all literally dragged me out of a nice, mature, woman’s bed to try and freeze my balls off? Or is this just a Wintersend tradition where you all come from?”

Tavi sighed. “There’s trouble Max.”

“What kind of trouble?”

Tavi told him what he had told Twilight.

“Bloody crows!” Max roared. Then he looked up at the sound dome Rainbow had constructed, and sighed before he looked back down at Tavi to glare. “Are you trying to get me killed?”

“You should know better than that,” Tavi replied. “If there was anyone else I thought could do this, I wouldn't have gotten you involved.”

“You wouldn't?” Max asked, his tone suddenly offended. “Why not?”

“Because you've known what's going on for ten seconds, and you're already complaining.”

“I like complaining. It's every soldier's sacred right,” Max growled.

“Okay,” Rainbow spoke to the girls. “You all heard him. There’s the proof. Next time it’s my turn to take out the garbage, I get to complain all I want.”

Applejack groaned. “Rainbow, would you please stuff it?”

The two young men apparently hadn’t heard. “You're not a legionare anymore, Max. You're a Cursor. Or a Cursor-in-Training, anyway.”

“I'm still offended,” Max declared. After a moment, he added, “Tavi, you're my friend. If you need help, just expect me to be there whether you want me there or not.”

Twilight brightened at the human’s words, and clapped her hands once. She knew there was a reason she like the boy beyond his brutish defense of the weak. “Good! I’m glad you agreed. Now let’s hurry and get to the Citadel. Rainbow’s got your dry clothes.”

A few seconds later, as the group made their way through the streets, Twilight sped up a bit and matched pace with the young man. “So, Cursor-in-training huh? I thought that was supposed to be a secret?”

“To non-Cursors, yes. But seeing as how you’re in the program too, I don’t see the problem,” Tavi replied evenly as if discussing the weather.

With Rarity’s help, Twilight managed to avoid wincing. Sunset was not going to like that she had let the boy figure that one out. She was already sore enough over the fact that Twilight had signed them up for the program in the first place, even if she begrudgingly admitted it was a good idea if the worst came to pass and gave them another option of what to do.

The way Twilight understood it, Cursors were like a kind of secret Royal Guard that the First Lord used to check up on the realm and make sure everyone was playing fairly. No one was supposed to know who they were, and they had access to a great deal of information about what was going on in Alera as well as the capital city, like the layout of the catacombs that ran underneath the city called the Deeps.

Although Twilight had tried to make them keep a low profile at the Academy while she and Sunset searched for any information on how to expedite their journey home, Rainbow Dash and Applejack were quite the showoffs, and Sunset didn’t really know how to back down while Twilight…well, she had found that not performing well in class made her feel as if she was developing an ulcer. Their actions had actually managed to attract the attention of a blind man, and without the status that came with being Citizens to scare him away, he had Twilight agreeing to help do what she could to ensure that Alera was a safer place before all the details were known…like just what a Cursor was like every human around apparently already knew.

She supposed citizenship was still a ways out of the program, but…that would cause its own little mess of problems.

Twilight frowned. “And just how do you know that?” she asked with a raised eyebrow.

“On the way here you asked who else knew. Being the head of the Imperial Guard, Master Miles was kind of obvious, but you didn’t flinch when I mentioned Killian, a blind old man that has no healing fury craft and only gives a few lectures at the Academy,” Tavi replied. “Unless you’re learning under him to be a Cursor of course, then there’s every reason to simply accept his presence.”

Oh Sunset is not going to like this, Twilight told herself as she looked back at her ‘political advisor’ that had become quite the nag since they became humans. Then, she turned her attention back to the boy.

The First Lord’s meditation chamber where Gaius had collapsed was not actually in the Citadel, but beneath it, several flights of stairs beneath it. As soon as the entered the area, Tavi and the others were questioned at several guard checkpoints, and all of his female companions became quite nervous. Still, he made it through all the guard stations, explaining that the First Lord had requested the presence of the people with him, and they had brought him a gift for receiving them on very short notice.

But when he entered the room after giving a coded knock on the door, Sir Miles didn’t seem very pleased at the extra company. “I thought you said you were only bringing four, and none of them are a slave.”

Tavi attempted not to wince under Master Miles’s stare. “C-Circumstances changed sir,” he tried to explain before a rather irate grumble came from behind him.

“You own a slave?” Rainbow Dash growled.

In order to cool the situation down, Tavi turned around and held up his hands in defense. “It’s not what you think! Fade he…he was a legionnaire before he was injured in the head and became…addled. Because he couldn’t fight, they branded a deserter’s mark on his face and now…well, he really can’t take care of himself anymore. My aunt and uncle had him come with me when I left the stead hold, and now he works in the Academy’s kitchens.”

It was a total lie of course. The man known as Fade was just a cover, and although scarred with the traitor’s brand, the man wasn’t really an idiot. He was without a doubt the best swordsman Tavi knew, and could perhaps rightfully claim the title of best in the realm. Although he knew half of why the man had been hiding out in the middle of nowhere, what with him being the bodyguard of the First Lord’s son that had died under his watch, Tavi still had no idea why his aunt Issana had allowed such a thing when she knew his identity.

“Well I suppose a woman is better fit to take care of the First Lord than some mental deviant,” the soldier before turning his attention towards the girls, who all looked at the biggest person in the room.

Applejack caught wind of the attention and sighed. “Guess Ah make most sense, what with mah family and all,” she said before looking around. “Now, where is the old fella?”

After a bit of debate and explanations upon meeting Captain Miles, the limping leader of Gaius’s guard and legion, tasks were assigned and everyone divided up. Twilight had actually brought a miniature apothecary with her that she put together, while Max worked on crafting himself into a likeness of Gaius under Rainbow’s instructions, Applejack simply sat around, and Sunset…argued with Miles.

“Just what are you doing?” the old captain demanded harshly as Sunset jabbed a small, pointed blade attached to a glass tube into the First Lord’s arm.

“I’m drawing his blood to check for poisons,” she replied evenly before pulling out the device that now had a full vial of red liquid in it.

Miles pointed his finger at the girl. “That is why the water crafters are here girl!” he said before looking over to Twilight. “Now get over here and heal him!”

“Do you have any idea what’s actually involved with using water to heal injuries and cure disease?” she asked evenly. “It’s not some instant magical cure-all. Causing parts of the body to regenerate at that increased speed takes a lot out of the person being healed. It’s why people with major injuries suffer from exhaustion afterwards. Your helper monkey said Gaius has been overworking himself and collapsed after drinking a tonic that’s supposed to dull pain and keep him active, meaning that this could just all be a severe case of exhaustion. But hey, if you want us to just kill the old man by working his body to death, I guess we can indulge you.” Sunset turned around and looked to the other girl bent over a table that had been brought in for them as Twilight lit a small flame beneath an oddly shaped glass cup with a broad base and small opening at the top of an elongated neck. “Twilight, can you come here and murder the-”

“I am well aware of the…side effects of using crafting to heal,” Miles said before Sunset could finish. “And…I see your point, however badly delivered. How long will it take to test for the presence of poisons?”

The self satisfied smirk on Sunset’s face went ignored by the man. “One hour if we hurry, although a complete workup will take most of the night. I’ll do both to make sure we don’t miss anything.”

Miles sighed and hung his head. “Gaius has survived this long, as long as he doesn’t go into convulsions and his heart remains beating at the same pace, I can’t fault your caution. But if you find nothing in the first test, administer healing.”

Then he turned to Applejack and frowned. “You, the ox with the tits, I had some bedding and a cot brought down. Assemble it, and then place the First Lord on it. I trust you can handle that yourself.”

Applejack grumbled a little, but didn’t argue ass he got to work.

The night passed quickly enough, with Tavi having to deliver messages in order to make everything look normal, one of which was to Master Killian to inform him of the situation. By the time he was back with the old blind man who trained the First Lord’s spy network, Sunset had apparently completed her tests and was leaning up against the wall alongside Twilight and Rainbow was putting away the portable apothecary.

Miles explained what was going on to Killian, who examined Gaius himself before he looked back to the two girls. “So, did you find anything?”

“Do you want the good news, the bad news first?” Sunset asked.

“Let’s go with the good,” Miles said.

Twilight cleared her throat and took up a stance that she did whenever she was called to give an oral response to test questions. “From what we can tell, The First Lord Gaius is currently suffering from an extreme case of exhaustion. He’ll recover, but it’s going to take time. Probably two or three days. Four would be better though.”

Both Miles and Killian let out a relieved sigh. “Well there’s that,” the captain grumbled.

“We’ll still need the boy to provide a double while he’s unconscious,” Killian went on. “If the First Lord isn’t seen at the pre-Wintersend festivities, the other Lords will become suspicious at best. At worst, it will be seen as a sign of weakness.”

Tavi looked over to the girls next to the wall. “Wait a minute, if that is the good news. Then what’s the bad?”

“Oh, he’s being poisoned,” Sunset replied with a shrug, as if she was announcing the weather half a continent away.

“WHAT?” Miles roared. “But you said-”

Tavi self his body go numb at the news, and the captain’s roars faded in the background. If the First Lord was being poisoned, if he died then…it could very well mean the end of Alera. Civil war would break out, and the enemies that surrounded them would invade. Although, he wasn’t sure about the intentions of the Marrat, after meeting the gaint canine that walked on two legs who was the Canin ambassador, he knew that those monsters would come across the Mare Nostrum and invade the western lands. They were the fiercest enemies the Alerans had ever faced in all their years.

“I SAID BEING POISONED YOU IDIOTS!” Sunset roared, snapping Tavi out of thoughts of thousands of ten foot tall wolves that walked like men, tearing through the villages and towns around Kalare, eating people in the middle of the street while they were still alive, and roasting children on a spit as if they were pigs.

Twilight put her hand on Sunset’s shoulder, and the redhead stood down while the girl with the strange purple hair stepped forward. “You misunderstand, when we examined First Lord’s blood, we found a toxic compound that slowly works to break down the bone and muscles. It’s not like…hemlock or anything that kills outright. So a taste tester wouldn’t notice it, and since they’re switched out every few months, they would never show any side effects. To work the way it has been, the poison would have had to of been fed to him for at least a year, but probably more.”

“I know of something with the effects of what you describe,” Killian mumbled as he ran his hand through his wispy hair before he looked up in the direction of the girls. “But how did you find it?”

“The substance is somewhat metallic in nature,” Sunset explained. “We detected it with our crafting after breaking down the components in Gaius’s blood.”

Miles gave the redhead a thoughtful frown. “I didn’t know we could do that with metal crafting.”

“Well you’re an idiot, so it’s understandable,” she said, getting a scowl from the guard captain.

Killian sighed again. “How long does he have?”

Twilight looked over to Sunset, who shrugged with an annoyed scowl on her face. Tavi knew the expression was from running into a question she couldn’t answer rather than any worry. “Five, maybe seven years if you can find who’s slipping him the drug.”

“I’m sorry,” Twilight told them with a genuine look of concern in her eyes. “But there’s nothing we can do. Lord Gaius is probably already feeling the effects and might have been for some time. In fact, it could have very well been what led to this whole situation in the first place. He…overestimated his abilities because he should have been stronger. Instead…”

Killian nodded. “We understand the situation girl,” he said as he held up his hand. “Still, there are some things to be thankful for. Now, the five of you need to get back to the Academy. Finals start today and some of the best crafters turning up missing will make people wonder. I will remain here with the First Lord. Madam Apple, after your tests are completed, you are to return here to give me a respite, understood?”

The girls said their goodbyes, Tavi watched the big one gather Twilight’s lab and waited for them all to walk out of the room. As he started to close the door behind him, he caught the two old men talking to each other.

“Crows…you know what this all means?” the military man asked.

“Gaius is dying faster than we thought, and has no living male heirs or daughters to marry off. So in less than a decade, we’re going to have a war of succession on our hands. And that’s only if we’re lucky.”

Author's Note

Forgot to state it in my first AN or disclaimer, but this takes place during book two of the Codex Alera, Academ's Fury.