Steel Strong Adventuring Company.

(POV: Twilight)

“SHITE!”

I watch as Pinky startles the stocky pony, my friend towering above him, and even as he’s jumping in the air, the top of his head only reaches her midsection.

“WHO IN THE SEVEN HELL-” he starts to say as he turns around to get a look at the offender, cutting off just as suddenly as he started when he caught sight of us, though all I could make out of him was the shine of a pair of eyes, and the most voluminous beard I’d ever seen.

“OY’ YE ‘OSPITAL BERNIN’ NINNIES. YEH GOT GUESTS!” He yells, somehow louder than he was just a minute ago, literally throwing Pinkie out of the opening in the building, who was thankfully able to catch herself with a quick backflip, and going back to hammering on whatever he was working on, muttering under his breath as he seemed to work himself up to his previous rage.

I hear the sound of a large door opening and I turn to look at the keep of the fort. And out comes a green skinned giant that would tower over Celestia by a head. I can clearly see two large canines sticking out from the front of his mouth. More like tusks than actual teeth, but not quite long enough to qualify as tusks. It also has pitch black hair on the top of his head, tied back into a ponytail, and muscled arms that look like tree trunks, the veins clearly showing through his skin. All complimented by his battle damaged half-plate armor.

“WHY ARE THERE LITTLE CANDY HORSE PEOPLE?” The giant bellows, looking down at us as he crosses his meaty arms.

“Hey! We’re not horses ya’ meat head. We’re ponies, get it right!” Rainbow yells back, taking flight and getting in the giant’s face.

“STILL DOES NOT ANSWER QUESTION.” The giant states, looking her directly in the eyes as she’s blown back slightly by his voice.

“Please excuse my friend. We’re actually here to investigate what’s going on behind this fort and its appearance on Equestrian soil.” Twilight answers, motioning for rainbow to get further from the giant.

The giant jabs his thumb back at the keep and bellows out “TALK TO BELKAS. HE WILL BE OUT SOON. SHORT STACK IS LOUD.”

“WHO YA CALLIN’ SHORT YA’ FREAKIN’ MUTANT?!” The group heard from the forge to their back.

“You are short Gralon, now go back to your work before you have a heart attack.”

(POV: Belkas the Monk)

I stood there in the doorway to the keep for several seconds observing the group that somehow managed to get past all the enchantments and barriers guarding the fort itself. Kasula is going to throw a fit if she finds out she needs to redo all of those spells. There appears to be a small squad of guards following a group of what I can only assume are nobles. Our first clients.

I walk out right as Zurug and Gralon are about to get into a heated argument right in front of potential clients. “You are short Gralon, now go back to your work before you have a heart attack.” I tell him. Watching for a moment as he grumbles and sulks his way back into the forge.

“Now then,” I continue, turning to look at our visitors for the first time. I do a quick count of how many there are. eightteen people, ten of which are easily recognizable as guards. As for the other eight, there is a short, scaled humanoid that reminds me of the half-dragons, though not nearly as tall as he is most likely a child.

Two of them have crowns, a lavender colored figure and a navy blue figure, who is slightly taller than her counterpart. The lavender one’s crown, made of gold and set with some large purple starburst cut gem that radiated magic I could feel from a fair distance was by and far more intricate than her counterparts, a simple ridged headpiece of black metal, though with that simple crown she wore a petreyal of the same style, a white silhouette of a star at the center base sitting above her sternum.

There were five others, but I can only assume that they are advisors of some sort to these nobles, and as such, were largely unimportant. Though I did note one thing of interest. All of them were largely naked aside from the guards, nobles, and one of the advisors. They wore absolutely nothing while still managing to keep their decency due to extra fluff in their fur at key areas.

“I’m not sure how you managed to get past our defences, but you are here nonetheless. You do have some reason for being here, correct?” I ask them.

“HERE TO INVESTIGATE. FORT IS ON THEIR LAND.” Zurug supplied from the sidelines.

“Well, I can assure you that the lands under our feet was given to us by the king of the realm we were in. We do have the deed after all, if you would like proof of my claim.” I state, fully prepared to make Fredrich go get the deed.

“That will not be necessary, if appreciated. Though I do believe that introductions are in order. As we are the ones to come to your door, I will begin. I am Princess Selene Noctis of Equestria, the land your fortress finds itself in. Most, however, have taken to calling me by ‘Luna’ as it would seem my full name is an ‘inconvenience upon the royal tongue’ if my nephew were to be believed.” The tall navy blue one stated, giving a small bow before she continued.

“The one beside me is Princess Twilight Sparkle, Also of Equestria. Though new to her position, she is an element of harmony as well, putting her well above many of our other little ponies. The ones behind us are guards from me and my sisters royal guards, and the others that make up the elements of Harmony. Applejack, Rarity, Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie, and Fluttershy.” She finished, the guards being impassive, and the advisors giving their own greeting to go with their names. Aside from Fluttershy, she merely squeaked and hid behind her hair when my eyes found her.

“Well met your majesty. I am Master Belkas of the Order of the Long Death, beside me is Battle Master Zurug, and you already met our Paladin and resident smith Gralon, the surly little man in the forge.” I say, a smile tugging at my lips at the future prospects before me. To think, they were no mere nobles, but royalty.

“SHOVE IT YOU CORPSE LOVER!” Comes a shout from the forge, leaving one to wonder how Gralon could have heard him over the din of ringing metal.

“I apologize for him. He is usually much less abrasive, but our lack of funds has left him in a foul mood. There are three others here, but I will introduce them as they appear. Now, would you care to listen to a..” I start, but cut myself off as I see one of the advisors… Fluttershy, raise her hand from behind the orange one.

“E-excuse me, but. W-what did Gralon m-m-mean by c-corpse lover?” The yellow woman barely got out. Quickly ducking behind her wall of fur when I turn to address her.

“Do not put too much stock in Gralon’s words, he is agitated and lashing out. But, there is truth there to be sure. I, and the rest of my order, take it upon ourselves to delve where others dare not, in the realms related to death. Be it causing it, preventing it, or easing it along, my brothers and I take this duty upon ourselves to relieve others of the burden, as the other orders often find our duties and doctrines just short of despicable, but necessary to our shared existence.” I state, addressing all of them, as the one who asked hid herself from me.

Everyone there seemed to be in some form of shock or intrigue, Princess Selene seemed to look at me with curiosity, while the other Princess seemed to be slightly afraid, the half-dragon seemed to back off just a step. While the guards, collectively, seemed to raise their ‘guard’ subconsciously the orange one named ‘Applejack’ seemed to steel her resolve with a slight movement hiding Fluttershy from my view completely as she seemed to be shivering in fear.

The white one referred to as ‘Rarity’ looks at me with unhidden disgust, while Pinkie Pie seems to lose a slight coloration in her fur and hair. Then there is Rainbow Dash, who seems to hold her ground but when I look into her eyes, I can see a slight fear in them.

“Now, if you would so kindly follow me we can talk about this at further length inside.” I motion for them to follow me into the keep as I turn to make my way through the doors myself. Reluctantly they follow, the guards are a bit more on edge now that I’ve revealed a part of my history to them.

As we all walk through the keep, there’s only the sound of footsteps and shifting armor. It would seem my little story killed the mood rather thoroughly. A few minutes of near silence later we’d made our way to the dining room to where we all enter and I take my place at the head of the table where one of our banners is behind me right above a fireplace. The dining room is meant to impress potential clients so no expense is spared since it also doubles as our meeting room. The guards seem to stand around the room at attention while the others take places around the table, Princess Selene sitting at the other end across from me.

“Now that we’re away from Gralon’s ears, I have a proposition for you.” I say, getting straight to the point, remembering the hammer that clipped my ear the last time I thought I was out of the dwarfs hearing while he was angry with me, A mistake I nearly made earlier in my excitement.

“I would like to offer you the services of the Steel Strong Adventuring guild. Now, my guild and I recently came across a scroll that detailed your problems with, and I quote ‘Mad fish people who worship a tortoise and snail as if they were gods.’ And hearing that, I can’t help but think you don’t have other similar problems elsewhere. And, as it so happens, my compatriots and I specialize in the nullification of threats such as these. So, Princesses Selene Noctis and Twilight Sparkle, How does, say, 5 gold pieces per head sound?” They seemed to mull over my offer for a few moments before one of them spoke up.

“I'm sorry, we do not have ‘gold pieces’ here, the currency we use is called ‘bits” Twilight explained.

“Hmmm… Fredrich, go grab the scale would you?” After calling his name, Fredrich jumps down from the rafters and startles everyone in the room as he suddenly lands on the center of the table where he simply slides off and heads out the kitchen door.

“W-WHAT THE BUCK WAS THAT!?” Cries Rainbow, taken a bit more off guard than the others as she was the one Fredrich had landed in front of.

“That was our master thief Fredrich, if he wanted your coin purse, he would have it right now. Though I think he was merely testing to see if any of you would notice him this time.” I tell her, deliberately hiding that he was equally skilled at stealing people’s’ lives from the group he’d just gotten the ‘drop’ on.

A couple minutes of tense silence later, Friedrich returned, placing the scale set in front of me before throwing a smoke bomb and disappearing into a shadowed corner of the rafters once more.

“... Thank you Fredrich. But you know how I feel about you using those infernal things indoors. You’re going to be dusting the carpets now once you’re done with your other task. Now, if any of you have some of these ‘bits’ I could borrow, we can get started.” I say, addressing our guests after I finished with Fredrich, a few ‘bits’ coming from the orange advisor, that she’d kept in her hat somehow. “Here, catch.” She says and tosses the bits across the table to me.

“Thank you.” I simply reply as she tossed them to me where I make a show of my quick reflexes to catch all of them even though they were spread out in the air. “Fredrich if you would please…” After a few seconds a golden octagon shaped coin drops out of the rafters and lands perfectly onto one of the scales.

“So, that’s one… two… three… four… Five……. Yep, five bits to one Gold piece.”I say picking up the unused bits and tossing them back to her. Pausing a moment to watch her scoop them out of the air with her hat.

“How do we know that this is correct?” I hear Twilight say with some concern.

“Simple, Princess. We’ve had the scales enchanted so that they measure common value rather than weight. It’s really more useful for appraising small objects and situations such as this than anything though, so we hardly ever use it.” I explain to her.

“I see. Would you mind if I verified that?” The princess responds.

“Of course not.” I tell her, sliding the scale across to her, but not before grabbing the coin still on it and flicking it into the air, hearing a swoosh, and the distinct lack of the sound of a coin hitting anything.

I notice that the horn at the top of her head lights up in a purple hue and covers the scale in the same aura. Interesting, I’ll file that information away for later use.

“Fascinating.” I hear the princess mutter under her breath, the scale place back onto the table a moment later.

“Does this confirm your suspicions Princess?” I ask her.

“Um. Yes, it does.” She responds simply, still lost in thought.

“So, your majesties, how does 25 of these bits per head sound?” I say, getting the conversation back on track.

After a few moments, Princess Selene Noctis speaks up. “That sounds like a reasonable price to pay for the well being of our little ponies.” She states.

I smile with satisfaction. “Then we have a deal.”