Valor watched as the six-tailed fox-woman’s eyes widened, appearing shocked by the qilin’s announcement.

“Debt?” sputtered the vixen. “What debt? My clan has no debts! We would never-”

She cut herself off abruptly, glancing around as if to remind herself that she wasn’t speaking in private, then looked back at the qilin in silence.

But the messenger shook his head a moment later. “Our discussion will be held verbally. I shall not allow anyone here to put forward a claim that I did not communicate all of the relevant information to you.”

The six-tail’s response was made in a tonal, flowing language that Valor didn’t understand, prompting a response in kind from the messenger.

“Psst! Valor! Over here!”

Looking over at where Spinner – with Shadow alongside her – was beckoning, Valor glanced back at the three-tails she’d been protecting, only to see that the younger vixen’s twin had already helped her to her feet.

“Thank you for helping my sister, little talking horse,” she murmured, giving Valor a bow.

Her sibling did likewise. “I’ll bring you many oats and cubes of sugar later to show my gratitude.”

Valor blinked, not sure if they were being serious or not. “Uh...”

But the twins were already scurrying away, heading toward the five-tails, who was also moving in their direction, albeit without lowering her short sword or taking her eyes off of the other beauties.

Deciding that they’d be okay, Valor sent a quick glance in the other direction just long enough to confirm that Woodheart was also moving to regroup with the other two earth mares, Littleknight perched on her back. Satisfied, she headed their way as well.

“What are you guys doing he-”

“Shh!” hissed Spinner before Valor could finish speaking. “Keep your voice down or they’ll hear us!”

“I think the jig is up, Spinner,” murmured Shadow, glancing at where the five beauties – the redhead with the glasses, the woman whose outfit was her own silver hair, the fiery tigress, the ebony she-elf with the draconic limbs, and the blue-skinned woman riding the giant water-crab – had fallen into a loose formation, talking amongst themselves. But even Valor could see that they were hardly unaware of their surroundings, making sure to keep the vixens and the qilin in view at all times...as well as Fail Forward.

“That doesn’t mean we shouldn’t be careful,” huffed the bard, still whispering. “Voices carry further than you’d think!”

“Spinner’s not wrong,” admitted Woodheart, glancing at where the six-tails was still talking to the qilin, the other foxes moving to join her. “That fox lady doesn’t seem to mind if everyone can hear what she’s saying to-”

“Hang on,” interrupted Shadow. “Woodsy, you can understand what they’re saying?!”

“Only a little bit,” admitted the druid, before scowling at the masked mare. “And don’t call me Woodsy.”

Valor exchanged a shocked glance with Spinner. “Since when can you speak...whatever that language is?”

“I wasn’t sure what the ponies outside of the forest spoke, so when the senior members of my order said I had to leave in order to figure out why I can’t change into animal form like the other druids, I asked them to teach me at least a little bit of every language they knew,” explained Woodheart. “I think this one’s called Tianyu, or something like that.”

“That’s great!” gushed Spinner. “So, what are they saying?!”

Woodheart grimaced a bit. “I’m not sure. That fox lady-”

“Yuyan,” interjected Shadow. “She told the adlets that’s what her name is.”

“I thought that guy said it was Pimao something or other,” added Valor.

“Let’s be less concerned with what her name is and more concerned with what she’s saying,” groaned Spinner. “If another fight breaks out, I’d like to have some idea who the bad guy is.”

Woodheart let out a slow breath. “Yuyan, if I’m understanding her correctly, is saying that her family doesn’t have any debts. But that messenger guy – he said his name just now; I think it’s...Guang? Or something similar – is telling her that, um...”

She trailed off, brow furrowing as she concentrated, ears pointing toward where the qilin and vixen were talking.

“...I think he’s saying that she, Yuyan I mean...submitted some kind of...application? And that there’s a fee that goes with it?”

Valor cocked her head. “What does that have to do with the Judge of the Ten Courts of Righteous Discipline or whoever that guy was talking about?”

Woodheart bit her lip, listening for several more seconds before shaking her head. “I’m not sure. They’re still arguing about the debt.”

Shadow rubbed her chin with her hoof. “Okay, keep listening in case they say something else we need to know. The rest of us can compare notes and try to figure out what’s going on.”

“I’ll go first,” volunteered Spinner. “I was following that little girl – which sounds kind of creepy when I say it out loud – and while she was giving diamonds to Water Witch-”

“Who?”

“Water Witch, Valor! The girl with the blue skin and giant crab made out of-, how is it not obvious who I meant?!”

“I didn’t know you knew her name!” protested Valor.

“It’s not her name, it’s...” Pressing a hoof to her face, Spinner squeezed her eyes shut before giving Shadow a plaintive look. “Please say something.”

“You’re both idiots,” replied Shadow without missing a beat.

Ignoring the snickering coming from Woodheart, Spinner moaned into her hooves. “Okay, look. Until we learn their real names, the five sex fantasies over there are Water Witch, Hairdo, Fire Crotch, Draco Bitch, and Jiggly Ginger. Everyone okay with that?”

Valor frowned. “Which one’s Fire Crotch?”

“...are you kidding me right now?”

“Oh come on! I know the tiger-lady is wearing fire between her legs, but I’ve heard ponies in Viljatown use that term to mean a redhead whose, er, carpet matches the shutters.”

“Drapes,” snorted Shadow, doing her best not to laugh. “The term is ‘the carpet matches the drapes.’”

Valor rolled her eyes. “My point being, the name could go for the lady in glasses just as easily as the tigress.”

“No, not just as easily,” sighed Spinner. “You’re not thinking it through-”

“I’m pretty sure this is the part where Mysty would normally break in and bring the conversation back on track,” announced Shadow, stepping between Valor and Spinner. “But since she’s not here, let’s just pretend she said what she normally would, and get back to the situation at hoof, okay girls?”

“Fine by me,” groused Spinner, taking a moment to collect herself before starting again.

“I was tailing the three-tails – no pun intended – while she gave some of those diamonds to Water Witch.”

She paused then, one eyebrow raised as she gave a sharp look at the other ponies. When no one said anything, she continued.

“I don’t know what happened, but Water Witch suddenly acted like something was happening in the direction of the lake. She said something to the fox-girl, and ran toward the water, while the kid ran to Yuyan, who I’m guessing is her mother?”

“We’ll ask later,” nodded Shadow, before turning to the shield-toting mare. “Valor, what about you and Woodheart?”

“It was a similar situation,” agreed Valor. “I was trailing the other three-tails, and she was in the process of giving her diamonds to, um, Fire Crotch-”

Woodheart snickered again.

“-when the kid started looking around, like she’d heard something. She started wandering toward the water’s edge, when Fire- – this is so dumb – when the tigress leaped forward and pulled her back.”

Shadow cocked her head. “So why did it look like you were defending the little vixen from her?”

“Well, about that...see, the kid screamed, and while in hindsight I think it was because one of her tails got a little too close to her flaming underwear, all I knew at the time was that she sounded like she was in trouble. And since I have a totem from Makwa, the spirit who protects children-”

“You got up a head of steam and charged in,” finished Spinner, smirking.

Valor had the decency to blush at that. “For what it’s worth, I would have stopped if the tigress had just explained things, but she seemed to be in a bad mood, so we started fighting.”

“And what about the five-tails and the elf lady?”

“Wait, so we’re not using the names?” huffed Spinner. “I know they weren’t all winners, but I thought some of them were pretty good.”

“I think the elf lady caught sight of me and the tigress going at it.” Valor kept her eyes on Shadow, ignoring Spinner’s comment. “She dive-bombed me – and seemed pretty happy about the entire thing – when the five-tails came running after her, and I’m pretty sure she saw me standing in front of her sister and thought the elf was attacking her. Woodheart came along a few moments later, trying to break them up, and that’s when everything went crazy.”

“I’m pretty sure that last part was everyone using their magic at once,” mumbled Woodheart, still focusing on Yuyan and Guang. “Like, the fire was from the tigress, and that big splash was the blue lady coming out of the lake with her crab elemental thingy-”

“Come on,” whimpered Spinner, her ears folding back, “none of those epithets were catchy? Not even one?”

Woodheart sighed, but the corners of her lips were turned upwards. “And I think that weird sound was actually some sort of mental attack spell to make us all dizzy – Mysty said that our ears are how we judge balance – cast by Jiggly Ginger.”

“Hah!” cheered Spinner. “I knew someone had to like at least one of those nicknames!”

“I’m pretty sure that Yuyan and her other daughter must have used some magic to make us lose sight of them too,” added Shadow, also ignoring the bard. “I don’t know if it was invisibility, or-”

“Hang on,” interrupted Woodheart suddenly, the mirth gone from her voice. “Something’s happening.”

The others quieted down as they looked at Guang, now shaking his head at Yuyan and pointing back at the lake, still speaking Tianyu.

“Um, I think he’s saying that if she wants to argue the debt, the people she needs to talk to are on the other side of the water,” murmured Woodheart after a few moments.

Valor raised a brow at that. “What, that Great Judge of the Righteous Courts or whatever just so happens to live across the lake?”

“I think it’s more likely that Guang guy’s boss was nervous about getting too close to this place – remember how when she was taking us to our rooms, that Nisha lady mentioned that Lex had warded the whole village, and not just that mansion he made? – so they sent him to test the edges of whatever magic he laid down,” mused Shadow. “That’s probably what everyone kept detecting: that qilin or whatever he is skulking around, testing how well this place is defended.”

“Which sounds pretty sinister to me,” added Spinner. “You think Yuyan’s going to go off on her own like that?”

“I don’t know how she’s related to Mei Li,” murmured Woodheart, “but if she is, then Lex will probably get involved one way or the...hang on...”

No one needed to ask why the druid had said that, as Yuyan said something to Guang that made her five-tailed daughter look at her sharply, saying something that didn’t sound happy. Yuyan, in turn, glanced at the younger vixen and made a sharp statement of her own, causing the five-tails to flinch and look down.

Satisfied, Yuyan turned to Guang and straightened her robes as she spoke again-

“That’s not going to happen,” announced Jiggly Ginger, walking forward, the other four staying behind. “His Highness asked me to coordinate this place’s defense. I can’t very well tell him that I protected everyone here if one of his subjects wanders off on her own.”

Yuyan gave the redhead a polite nod. “Lady Carnelia, I understand your position, but your concern is misplaced. This is a simple misunderstanding, one that will be easily reconciled once I speak to our esteemed envoy’s supervising officer.”

Carnelia adjusted her glasses. “And does a concubine such as yourself have permission to deal with an officer in service to a pantheon to which your lord’s goddess does not belong?”

Guang cocked his head at that, but Yuyan made a dismissive gesture. “This is a matter which the Pimao Jingzhi dealt with before we were taken into our lord’s household, and I would never burden him with such a minor problem. To insist that he personally oversee every happenstance, no matter how small or irrelevant, is the mark of an incompetent servant...as I’m sure you know.”

Giving the vixen a smile that was utterly devoid of warmth, Carnelia drew in a slow breath. “I see. Well then, I insist on accompanying you on your errand.”

“That is not-”

“Since my initial inclination was indeed to inform His Highness about what’s happening, I think it best that I watch how a more competent servant handles these minor problems. Don’t you agree?”

This time it was Yuyan’s turn to give the redhead a mirthless smile. “Such a heartfelt plea cannot be refused in good conscience.”

“Carnelia, I question the wisdom of this,” murmured the woman Spinner had labeled Hardo, due to her outfit being composed of her own silvery tresses. “If some sort of trap is sprung, and either of you are captured or killed, Lex-”

“In that case, we’ll go too!”

Spinner’s announcement caught everyone off-guard, drawing all eyes to her as her friends’ eyes widened.

“Spinner!”

“What are you doing?!”

“Are you crazy?!”

But the filidh wasn’t listening, plastering an easy grin on her face as she stepped toward Yuyan and Carnelia. “Hi, we haven’t actually met yet. I’m Spinner Talltail, and these are my friends Shadow Star, Valor Stronghoof, and Woodheart. Oh, and her familiar, Littleknight.”

The almiraj, recognizing his name, meeped loudly.

“I couldn’t help but overhear what you were saying before, and it occurs to me that if you brought along me and my friends to this little tête-à-tête, we could be a huge help,” she continued. “You see, my friends and I are adventurers extraordinaire. We’ve done everything from dungeon-delving to crime-solving to monster-hunting to bodyguarding. And it’s that last one that I think you’re going to be interested in.”

Yuyan frowned at Spinner. “Forgive me for speaking so plainly, but I do not believe that I am in need of any sort of protectors.”

Carnelia regarded the bard with a matching look of disapproval. “And if I thought I needed help, I’d bring one of them” – she waved a hand at the other four ladies – “with me.”

But Spinner was undeterred. “Ah, but can you bring them with you? After all, you said Lex wanted you to guard this place? If you bring backup with you, then the village will have that many fewer defenders.”

Carnelia scowled, but Spinner addressed Yuyan before she could make a reply. “And you don’t want to go into a meeting with someone working for His Exalted Magnificence Yen-Wang-Yeh, Judge of the Dead, Administrator of the Ten Lawful Courts, and Overseer of the Eighteen Authorities for Righteous Discipline, all on your own do you?”

“...I can’t believe she got all those titles right,” muttered Shadow.

“I’m just saying, coming in with an honor guard makes everyone look impressive, especially if they’re exotic creatures like little talking horses.” Spinner threw a wink at the twin three-tails then, the two of them cocking their heads in perfect unison.

“...I didn’t think she heard that part,” sighed Valor.

“Plus, we work for cheap!” continued Spinner. “I mean, I don’t know how much your debt is, but I promise you what we charge will be nowhere near as expensive! Just think of it, hiring us is like a guarantee of reducing your financial burden! There’s no downside!”

“...I was wondering why she was doing this,” groaned Woodheart. “She’s hoping to be paid with those diamonds they were handing out.”

She didn't mention the other reason, even though she and the rest of her friends were aware of it, despite their ribbing the bard.

Yuyan and Carnelia had already agreed that it was best that Lex not be told what was happening. Which meant that if Spinner hadn’t jumped in and offered to participate, the pair might have decided that the earth ponies needed to be kept quiet some other way.

Not waiting for the six-tails to reply, Spinner turned to the qilin, her grin growing larger as she tried to glance at his undercarriage without being obvious about it.

“Your name’s Guang, right? I’m Spinner, and before anything else, I have to say that you’re absolutely rocking the ‘naked and unashamed’ look. You make it work a lot better than my friend Woodsy here.”

“Don’t call me-”

“But niceties aside, you don’t mind if the fox brings some foxy mares with her to this meeting, right? Think of it as a show of good faith.”

“The number of retainers that Pimao Biyu Hai Yuyan chooses to employ is none of my concern,” answered Guang disinterestedly. “Only that she resolve the matter of her clan’s debt immediately.”

“Great! Problem solved,” cheered Spinner, before looking back at Yuyan and Carnelia. “You absolutely won’t regret letting us tag along. Plus, we were just looking for some action too; if we’d stayed behind, there’d be nothing for us to do but go back and hang out with Lex some more. We’re old adventuring buddies of his, you know; we’re always swapping stories whenever we’re together.”

Both women’s faces darkened at that, recognizing the not-so-subtle threat of telling Lex what they were doing if they turned down the bard’s request.

A moment later, however, both sighed, glancing at their respective groups as they silently used their telepathy. Neither of their comrades seemed happy – there were several irritated expressions among Carnelia’s peers, while the five-tails looked nervously at her mother, the twins’ tails puffing up again in agitation – but a minute later they turned and headed back toward the village.

Once they were gone, Yuyan gave Carnelia a hard look, doing the same to Fail Forward a moment later.

Finally, she turned back to Guang, offering him a polite bow.

“Honored envoy, please take us to your supervising officer.”

Author's Note

Yuyan, Carnelia, and Fail Forward agree to have a meeting with Guang's boss about her clan’s debt to Yen-Wang-Yeh, the Celestial Bureaucracy’s Judge of the Dead!

Are they headed into disaster, or can they resolve this without bringing Lex into it? And what exactly is the debt that the Pimai Jingzhi supposedly owe?