The Brightest Light Casts the Longest Shadows

Chapters

Chapter I
Chapter II
Chapter III
Chapter IV
Chapter V
Chapter VI
Chapter VII
Chapter VIII

Chapter I

It was eight thirty-seven AM when I turned the corner onto ‘Merchant’s Way’ I saw that my family was waiting for me by the lower gate. Correction, most of my family was waiting for me at the lower gate; my mother was glaring and me and my brother was softly looking at me, sad disappointment clear in his eyes. As I expected my father wasn’t even there, not that I blame him, he has a reputation to uphold.

As I approached my Shiny stepped forward. With small tears in his eyes he wrapped a foreleg around my neck and stood beside me. When he spoke it was in a raspy voice, almost as if he hadn’t had anything to drink for hours. “Twily…”

I nodded. “I know. I’m sorry.”

He continued to hug me. “I know you are, I know.”

I smiled. “You know, I never meant for it to get as far as it did, I just got…”

“Curious?”

“Yeah, curious.”

He hugged me tighter. “You’re a terrible liar; you wanted it to get that far, you just didn’t want to get caught.”

I laughed, a grim chuckle. “It’s true. But still, I got caught… and for that I’m sorry.”

Shining got serious as he motioned with his head to mother. “They’ve already disowned you. I'm going to as well, but I want you to know that I love you.” He sighed. “Look, everypony is dangerous, don’t trust anyone, in the cities or on the road. No one, no pony, no gryphon, no one. Off the record, head for the Gryphon Kingdom, get them to accept you as a citizen. They have a military that will defend you to the death and a sense of honor that won’t be bought or swayed. That just makes the ones you meet on the road more dangerous; they have no honor left to lose, they have no mercy left to give. Keep your eyes on the lookout, keep your alarm spells up at night and be ready for anything. Just keep it in mind…” He hugged me. “…stay safe… good luck.”

I hugged him back. “Goodbye. I love you, big brother.”

He hugged me back. “Goodbye.” As he turned I could have sworn that I heard him whisper under his breath ‘I love you too… little sister.’

I faced my mother and gave her a crisp nod. “Good day mother.”

As I suspected she had already hardened herself. “I have no daughter. I know nothing of you.”

I nodded, putting forth a hardened exterior to keep my tears inside. I turned away from her and looked to the gate.

The two Platinum Guards flanked me and escorted me through the gate. Once outside the city’s gleaming marble walls they stopped.

The guard on my left lifted up three bags in his magic. “Contents of your bank accounts, personal effects and a standard survival kit.”

I turned and faced the city, as I did I chuckled grimly to myself; the entire contents of my life could fit into two saddle bags. Taking them I gently placed the bags inside my saddle bags. “Thank you.” I licked my lips, then turned around and faced South.

A tiny portion of the world opened up below me.

It was massive

___ ______ ___

I reached the end of the switchback I was currently on and turned to the east. When I saw it I groaned, this one was carved into the side of the mountain, barely wide enough for a single cart. On my right a steep, almost cliff, opened down, on my left the trees were so thick I couldn’t see more than ten feet in.

I sat down and took a break, there was a small creak somewhere behind me. Using my magic I undid the clasp on my bags and stood.

It only took me a minuet or so to find the creek. When I found it I leaned down and gulped up as much water as I could before rushing back to the road. My bags were still sitting exactly where I left them.

I groaned when I set them down on my back, my legs felt like jelly. I took a breath, then let it out. Gritting my teeth I continued my journey down the mountain.

___ ______ ___

It turns out that finding a flat place to set up a tent on a mountain is downright impossible. In the fourteen hours that I’d been walking, I hadn’t seen a single spot where camping could be considered appropriate.

I promised myself, if I didn’t find a place to sleep within thirty minuets I’d pitch my tent on an incline and sleep that way.

Fortunately I’d be facing east, away from the setting sun on the next length of the decline.

Still facing west I kept my eyes down. No need to blind myself, or fall and break a leg. I’m no doctor, but I know that a broken bone without either the ability to walk on clouds or hundreds of hours of magical treatment is death. After all a pony can’t support herself on three legs.

Considering the sudden shade I quickly concluded that a cloud must have passed over my head. Without warning I felt something slam into me and force me towards the mountain. I hit the ground hard.

The air flew out of my lungs.

Something pinned me to the ground. Four somethings.

I tried to suck air in.

My head was slammed into the ground. A sharp jolt of pain followed by a tingling passed through my horn.

They must have slammed it against something.

In a final act of desperation I managed to charge a spell. It flew at one of the ponies and sent it flying up the side of the mountain.

Then everything went black.

___ ______ ___

My head hurt. My body hurt. Most importantly; my horn hurt.

I groaned loudly as I woke. When I opened my eyes all I could see was trees passing by, interesting.

A moment later and I realized something more interesting; I was draped sideways across somepony’s barrel. More interestingly; said somepony was walking.

The pony suddenly stopped. “She’s awake.”

I lifted a leg to cover my eyes. “Wha’ happened?”

A female pony called out. “Keep moving, we're only ten minuets out.”

I don't think the sun had shifted, that was good, I hadn’t been out too long. “Where're my things?”

The pony started moving again, as he did he talked quietly. I assumed to me. “They’re safe, got them strapped to one. We’re just taking you back to camp and getting the doc to look you over. Took a bit of a beating didn’t ya?”

It was rhetorical, but I thought I should answer to assure him I was awake. “Yes… who are you?”

He nearly stumbled over something on the ground, but quickly regained his balance and kept walking as if nothing had happened.

“How long was I out?” It was important, longer than five minuets probably meant concussion.

“Three, maybe four minuets.”

“Good.”

“A concerned third party."

"Wha'?"

"That’s who I am.... a third party.”

___ ______ ___

The mare's guess was accurate; about ten minuets after I woke we were at the camp.

It wasn’t very large; just two tents set up side by side. The pony carrying me set me down on the side of the road opposite the camp. “Stay here, I’ll go get the doc.”

As he walked away I got my first look at him, he was a light grey pegasus, the color of a forming storm cloud.

When he returned I was questioning my every life choice. The doctor was a unicorn, yes, that was good, but he looked like he’d been in some fights and was far too young to actually be a doctor.

With a small grimace he approached me and set his bags next to me. “Hello. I’m Spine. I’m gonna take a look at you and see what I can do to patch you up.”

“You the doctor, Spine?”

“Used to be a doctor, medical examiner actually. They took away my PhD after I ran away.”

I was a little stunned. “Oh.”

I could almost hear him smile as he finished examining the wound on the side of his head and moved down to examine the cuts on my flank. “So what’re you out for? I'm assumin' that you took a deal and got banished 'stead of this being you tryin' to run away from the guard's mounting and justice.

I didn’t want to tell him, or anyone. They’d think poorly of a mare who did the things I did. With that thought in mind, I shook my head. “You’d think I’m a freak.”

He laughed. “Darlin’ the thing's I've done ain't considered forgivable, mah boss is a bat and the only reason mah cowerkers ‘avn’t thrown me in a jail for the bounty is ‘cause I’m more valuable here, with them, then the bounty on my head. I don’t judge and I don’t think there’s too much of you that could be considered freakish.”

“Well… I don’t… I don’t think I want to talk about it.”

He finished examining me and stood up. “That’s alright. Here, let’s get you back to the camp and get some food into your belly.” He looked at me for a moment. “You’ll need to take it easy for a few days, a pity there's some hard things I'd love to do with you. Keeping yerself from doing too much shouldn’t be too much of a problem, we’re probably turning around and heading back down the mountain so you can stay with us.”

I nodded. “Thank you.”

To the west the sun was a massive blaze. I slowly turned my head and surveyed the land, it sparkled under the sunset. A true work of art… and I was to live on it. I turned my head upwards, Canterlot was reflecting the sun just as much as the land below, but to me it appeared to be covered in dancing flames.

I only had one question; should I trust these ponies?

Chapter II

I realized rather quickly that there were three problems that had caused me to wake; the first was the cold wind that rushed across my body, the second was that the drapes were snapping in the wind, the third was my legs, they hurt worse than that time when Shiny had convinced me to go hiking with him and father found out. After three days of hiking around the Canterhorn we returned home and both of our hides had been so thoroughly tanned that I’m pretty sure mine had permanently changed color under my fur.

Fortunately the cold and pain was offset by the sun shining down on my back and the nice, warm body pressed against the front of my barrel. I smiled as I nuzzled the pony's slightly rough fur and basked in the warmth of their body.

With a sigh, but remarkably little internal conflict, I decided that I needed to get up, check the time, get cleaned up and head out to face the day, especially before somepony discovered me in a bed with another. I opened my eyes and started to climb out of the pegasus’ grasp when I realized something rather important; I was in a tent, with an unknown pegasus, not good.

Realization of why I was in a tent dawned upon me as I remembered what had happened the previous day... and Shiny's warning about outsiders, now I just needed to find out why I was in this tent with another pony. I scrambled to stand up. That was a mistake, I had stepped on the blanket that was still on top of my back, my front legs slid out from under me until they hit the pegasus' body and I fell forward, I quickly found my face pressed into the crook of the pegasus’ neck.

It took me a few seconds to gather my wits and remove my face from the pegasus' neck, that's when I realized that my face was about half a foot from the pegasus’. He had an eyebrow raised. “Yes…?”

Blood rushed to my face as my cheeks flushed. “I. In bed. You.”

“Yes…?”

“Why?”

“Because preserving body heat is important, especially when its cold.”

I remembered more specifics of the previous night; I had gone to set up my tent when the pegasus proposed sharing a tent to keep warm and safe as a group. I had readily accepted, having no desire to freeze to death or lose sleep to the cold.

From what I could determine and recall there were no activities the previous night. There wasn't a musky smell, nor did I remember anything other than climbing under the blankets and going straight to sleep.

The pegasus slipped out from under the blankets and jabbed the center of the north-facing wall, where the two flaps of the tent overlapped. The straps holding the tent closed slipped out of the strips of cloth on the opposite flap that were holding them in place, allowing the tent to open. Without exiting the tent the pegasus turned to me. “Tell me, do you treat all your bedmates this way in the morning?”

I looked down and mumbled to myself. “Never been able to stay ‘till morning.”

He swung around and exited the tent backwards. “What was that?”

“I… I never could stay the night… too much to lose if either of us got caught…”

The smirk that he had been wearing since I woke him slipped off his face. “Right, civilized ponies.” One could almost hear the eye rolls and hoof-quotations when he said ‘civilized ponies’. In an instant the smile was right back on his face. “Come on. Let’s get some food I am star-ving.”

___ ______ ___

During breakfast I learned that there were four ponies in the group; ‘One’ or ‘Boss’ was an earth pony. ‘Three’ was the pegasus who had carried me to the camp and ‘Doc’ or ‘Four’ was Spine. ‘Two’ wasn’t there, presumably he or she was in Canterlot for business. The two pegasi who had attacked me the previous day were so tightly bound that they wouldn’t be able to walk, I assumed that their bindings would be loosened before we set off.

By the time the sun was fully above the horizon, around eight if my guess was correct, we had packed up the entire camp and started on the road. My assumption that the two pegasi would be less tightly bound then when we were in camp proved correct; they had their front and rear legs bound loosely enough that they could walk, but only in short, rapid steps, their wings were tied against their bodies and they had blinders fitted over their eyes to keep them facing forward and prevent them from getting any ideas.

One was in the front, guiding the group and helping the prisoners along. Three watched the prisoners from behind. Doc and myself trailed behind him so as to not get in the way.

___ ______ ___

The single most important lesson for any filly to learn is that they should learn from mistakes. I learned this lesson well; during my studies I had made many mistakes, but one that I never made was to make the same mistake twice.

Today I was applying that lesson to my every action; I was determined not be caught off guard by an attack from the skies again. To that end I was alternating between observing the road, the trees that lined it and the sky.

Two hours into the somewhat frustrating and very tiring exercise Doc sped up and trotted until his head was lined up with mine. “Keep your head high with your eyes level.”

“Huh?” I was caught off guard; Doc was a nice pony; but he seemed not to talk unless he was awkwardly flirting or had a good reason.

“Stop swinging your head around so much. Keep it level and pointed at the same place. Use your peripherals that way your eyes are moving instead of your head. Keep swinging your head and you’ll won’t have any baseline to compare changes to; you won’t be able to tell when something’s changed.” He ducked under a branch that was hanging over his part of the road.

I made a snap decision to follow Doc’s advice; he was more experienced and knowledgeable that I was, therefor I deferred to his expertise. I was already determined to break my habit of looking at the ground while walking, now I just needed to introduce the habit of keeping my head up and my eyes on the look out.

___ ______ ___

About twenty minuets after giving me his (extremely helpful) advice Doc passed me and trotted up closer to Three. He nearly had to yell to be heard over the wind. “Three.”

Three glanced over his shoulder. “Yeah, Doc?”

“You look a little bored and tired. Why don’t you let me take the prisoners and you go flap your wings for a few minuets. Maybe... I dunno... head over that way.” He motioned to the southeast on our right.

Three nodded. “Sure, sounds good. I’ll be back in less than a half hour. If you need me call quick ‘cause I’ll be out of range in-” he looked at the treetops swaying in the wind. “-maybe... three minuets tops.”

Three jumped into the air and sped off to the right and rear of us.

Boss called out to the two of us that remained. “Miss, a word please.”

I scurried up beside her and practically pressed our bodies together so that we could talk without yelling. “Yes?”

“You know any shield spells?”

I was a little confused and concerned now, and the incessant wind made conversation more difficult. “A few. Why?”

“Well, I don’t need a few, I just need one. In about two minuets I’m going to call Four ‘Mister Doctorate’. When that happens you cast that spell around yourself and those two chuckleheads to keep yourselves safe. Cast quickly and make sure the prisoners don’t get away. We’ll take care of anything that comes our way, don't you worry about that, you just focus on the shield and the prisoners. Understand?”

I nodded. “Two minuets, you call Doc ‘Mister Doctorate’, I cast shield spell on myself and the prisoners. Anything else.”

“Whatever happens, I’ll be over fast. Very fast. You confident?”

The wind was really trying to disrupt our conversation and I wasn't even sure if I'd be able to cast the spell with it giving me as much of a headache as it did. “No.”

“Good, confidence ‘ll get you killed. So long as you remember your part and your nerves don’t give us away before then we’ll be fine.”

I slowed down a little. “Thanks… I think…”

She chuckled. “That’s the spirit. Doc, a word.”

Doc and I traded places; me to the back of the group to watch the prisoners and him next to Boss. Despite only being ten or so paces behind them I couldn’t hear them.

Stupid, annoying wind. I supposed that I should have been thankful for it. It had, after all, allowed my conversation to go without detection by an outside party and gave Doc and Boss’ the same protection.

I started my mental countdown. One hundred seconds.

There was more rustling in the trees. Doc continued his conversation with Boss. They were both facing forward.

Eighty seconds left.

I had no idea where Three could possibly have gone, but it wasn’t good; the group was under a threat and we were missing a member.

Sixty seconds.

Doc began motioning towards me with his head. The discussion was getting a little heated. Most likely they were discussing if I could be trusted with my assigned duties, or trusted at all for that matter.

Forty-five seconds.

Doc stopped and waited until the prisoners and myself had walked past him. We continued in silence.

Ten seconds left.

Boss yelled over her shoulder. “Hey! Doc!”

“Yeah?”

“You ever have to deal with a body that had its limbs falling off?”

Doc bent his neck to each side, loudly cracking it as he did. “No, why?”

“Because mine feel like they’re about to, what with all the walking up and down this mountain that we’ve done? It feels like torture!”

Doc responded very quickly. “Well, it’s not actually possible to have your legs fall off from too much w-”

Boss cut him off. “We get it Mister Doctorate! You went through a few bio classes, where apparently they do not teach you how to take a joke.” She had butted in rather quickly and rudely, apparently not wanting that lecture to occur. That made me sad, I wanted to listen to it.

Wait, she just said ‘Mister Doctorate’.

So much for paying attention and acting when my cues came up.

I called magic to my horn and channeled the magic. As with all magic I had a few choices to make; I quickly made them, a particle-force duality for the barrier with an effective ployhedral, geodesic dome made of effective particles forming a partial sphere for the framework. For all intents and purposes I created billions and billions of tiny magical force-particles that together created a dome frame that would then have a magical field laid down on top of it.

Even most unicorns don’t know even the basics about what is truly happening when they use magic. It’s a pity for two reasons; the first is that understanding on a fundamental level what you’re doing instead of just casting on instinct reduces the chances of a misfire, backfire, unintended reaction or consequence. The other is that creating new spells or making old ones more efficient is much easier when you understand what’s happening as opposed to guessing and hoping or working off of very limited, and in all but empirical matters, wrong information.

In less than an eighth of a second I had established the necessary framework. It was at that point, hardly more than a levitation spell. Within a quarter of a second I had called the necessary magic to my horn and established the field around it to create a shield.

Boss and Doc, to the front and rear of me respectively, crouched down and faced the trees that had been rustling. They looked ready to do violence on whoever came out of the trees.

My first fight. This was happening now.

I was scared, but also a little… excited… huh, that’s interesting.

Chapter III

The shield that I had cast was perfect in every way. A work of art, created using science to maximize the force while minimizing the energy required to maintain it, perfected by thousands of hours of practice in the arcane arts and almost a decade of advanced magi-

“Come on out of there. No need to try fighting us.” Boss cut off my internal monologue.

The bushes were torn apart and more than a few branches fell out.

“Come on. Move it.”

“I’m coming, I’m coming.”

A moment later a pair of saddle bags were chucked out. They reached the apex of their arc at the tree line, then fell onto the path. Doc and Boss both quickly took a few steps back.

“Anything else?”

“Yeah.” The mare's voice called out before a sheathed knife joined the bags. “Alright. I’m coming out.” There was a short pause before the mare spoke again. “Curse it.” Torn leaves, needles and branches flew from the trees and landed on the path.

A gryphon, no- gryphoness, pulled herself from the woods and onto the path. As soon as she saw us she began speaking rapidly, like a filly hyped up on too much sugar. “Who-wee you have no idea how hard it is to get out of bushes. Way more than it takes to get in, let me tell you, I thought I’d never get free. Hey, I think it’s snack time, anyone, anypony I guess, want a snack?” She looked down at her bags and the smile fell off her face. “Oh, I guess I can’t get them with that knife there, I don’t even know why I have the knife, anypony want it, it keeps getting in my way.” She sighed, then perked up. “Oh well, guess we’ll just have to wait, come on new frien-”

“Shut up.” The gryphoness was cut off by Boss who she quickly and sharply saluted as she shut her beak. After a moment Boss spoke again. “What are you doing here and what do you want?”

The gryphoness remained silent.

“You can talk now.”

The smile returned to the gryphoness’ face. “Thanks for letting me-”

“To answer the questions.” This time it was Doc who looked more than a little annoyed as he tried to focus on his magic.

“Oh… okay… well... uh... I’m... here because… because… because, well, I don’t know… I just woke up here… with these things… bags… now I’m just trying to get back to my fam-" She hiccuped. "-to my family.”

Any hint of joy fell off my face, we were too similar. I knew that she was probably kicked out of her clan by her family. They were most likely the ones who took her and dumped her to get rid of the embarrassing and inconvenient child. My circumstances were different though; I knew why I had been exiled, I had a choice to either accept exile or not, and, most importantly I at least had some knowledge of the world. The gryphoness though, she was far too innocent, she didn’t even understand why she was here.

My anger began to boil over. Whomever this gryphoness’ parents- if I ever meet them they’re gonna need- I will make them ble- calm Twilight, calm.

Boss looked like she was ready to cry. Unless it was interference from the spell -which I highly doubted- I could see tears welling up in her eyes.

Doc stood up and looked to the sky. After almost a minuet and without any discernible sign he lowered his head and released the charge in his horn. “Boss.”

“Yeah?”

“The area’s clear. She the only one nearby, I’d say probably a scout, we can dispatch her or take her with. There is no immediate threat nearby, but I’d rather we not let run away.”

Boss nodded. “Good. But Doc.”

“Yea?”

“You are not in charge, you don’t get to make decisions. Not unless you want me to have a conversation about your behaviour with Two when she gets back.”

Doc nodded slowly. “Yes ma’am.”

“Good.” Boss turned to the gryphoness. “You, in the front. We’ll be watching, you try anything and I’ll drop you so fast your little wings’ll break when you try to spread them. Understand?”

The gryphoness nodded with a great big smile on her face. “Yes. Thank you so much.” The gryphoness rushed forward, front legs extended and wrapped Boss in a great big hug.

After getting over my shock at the gryphoness’ actions I dropped my shield and pulled the two pegasi to their hooves.

___ ______ ___

I stood next to Doc as we started out at the river. The dying sun’s light sparkled off its surface and formed little reflections and rainbows that danced around. The river’s close bank way maybe fifty body lengths away. Over our heads the mass of dark grey storm clouds continued to creep along. Perhaps a trick of the light, but they seemed to be moving faster now that the sun was along the horizon.

I sighed.

Doc looked away from the river. “You okay?”

I shrugged. “Just tired. Been a long day, haven’t had any rest since…”

“…”

“… you know…”

He nodded. “Yeah… I try to get used to it, but…”

“… you never do?”

“… eventually… it happens eventually… but even then it's…”

"Finicky."

“Yeah.”

I looked back to the river. Doc did too.

Its swirling waters and the gentle sound of water over the rocks was no longer as mesmerizing as it was just a moment ago. Without its sound actually changing the river's babbling changed, it was no longer the gentle whispering and gurgling of the water flowing over the rocks, but a harsh grinding of the water and rocks against each other.

I twitched, but kept looking.

I’m not sure what I was looking for; perhaps I was hoping to have my annoying and troubling thoughts washed away like the leaves floating in the river.

I blinked.

The river kept flowing past us.

Doc sneezed.

The river didn’t stop.

I blinked again.

The river kept-

“I’m gonna head back to the cabin.”

Doc nodded. “Sounds like a plan. I’ll head back in a minuet.”

I nodded in understanding. As I walked away I heard a splashing sound.

I smiled to myself; Doc was enough a gentlecolt to wait until I’d left, but practical enough to not have to hide himself when he was alone.

When I got back to the cabin One and Three were already setting up a fire outside. The gryphoness, whose name I still hadn’t learned, was watching them idly.

Her front legs were bound together loosely at the ankle joint, not enough that she could walk, but enough that she could move her legs a little. Her wings were bound to her side with a belt.

While still firm and tight the bindings looked like they had been placed on her with her consent and with a desire not to hurt her. Certainly, they were much looser and more comfortable that those on the brothers. The two pegasi were lying on the ground, tightly bound and tied together.

Boss looked up when I entered the clearing. “Hey. How are you?”

I put a small smile on my face. “I’m fine, and how are you?”

“Good. Almost got the fire started and we should be cooking in fifteen. Where’s Doc?”

“He’s gonna catch up in a moment.” I watched as Boss gently blew on the lit tinder. The flames sputtered for a moment, but the instant she stopped blowing they erupted into an even larger fire. “You need help with anything?”

Boss shook her head, then started nodding. “Ya’ know, I actually do have something that you can do.”

“Oh?”

“Yeah, if you wanna just pop into the cabin, there'll be a stove in there. I’ll have Doc bring in some wood when he gets back, but if you could just get the ash cleaned out we can actually be warm tonight.”

___ ______ ___

Three hours later and with the benefit of hindsight perhaps suggesting that I clean a part of the cabin was a bad idea. I had taken that to mean 'clean the entire cabin'.

“It looks like you killed somepony in here.” I looked around the room trying to find the mess and was both slightly offended and slightly concerned that her first choice for a simile was to compare me to a murderer. After a long, awkward moment she elaborated. “When you kill somepony you clean up the area; get rid of blood stains, hoof prints, the body, that sort of thing.”

While I was still in shock Three chuckled and jumped onto one of the six beds ringing the room. “This’ll probably be the cleanest room I’ve ever slept in and I had maids growing up.”

Doc flopped onto another bed. “Yes Three, thank you for reminding us that unlike us your parents were wealthy industrials and that you had maids to take care of your every need and desire. Every need and desire that is, until you decided to run away to ‘have an adventure’ because your life was boring; because they protected you, fed and watered you, gave you love and comfort, tried to make sure you could live a good life, made sure your dumb mistakes were covered up… ungrateful brat.”

I tried to intervene. “Uh. Hey, let’s not get host-”

“Oh you think I’m a brat?”

“Hey can we-”

“Yeah I do. You could go back any time you want, yet you’re down here making your parents worry about you with every breath they take.”

“Oh yeah, right, ‘cause I can just go to my parents and say ‘Hey I’m home. It’s the criminal son. How’s the business?’ What kind of dumb ped-”

“Oh sure, because we all know they won’t welcome you back in and just cover it-”

“SHUT. UP.” The two arguing ponies went quiet and even though it wasn’t directed at me my ears folded back, Boss had quite the set of lungs. After taking and releasing a deep breath she continued. “Alright. Let’s try to treat each other with a little decency, or at the least not argue with each other. You two opposite sides of the room. Either of you tries anything and I will drag you out to the river, shove your head into its bed and slowly drown you. Any objections?” Seeing none she turned to the door. “Good. Now let’s get to bed. I’m taking first watch, Three I want to talk to you.” They both stopped in front of my bed. “When’s Two gonna be back?”

“Before morning, prolly an hour or so after midnight. I know she likes to fly during the day when she can see better, but she’s still pretty good at night flying. She said she’d be back as soon as she took care of ‘er and the associated paperwork. Even with the added weight 'nd including breaks it’d be ten or so hours from the city.”

Boss nodded. “And did she deal with it?”

Three nodded. “Once you and feathers shook hooves I sent up a blue flare.”

“Her response?”

“Two hours later I got it, green, so all’s good. She’d’ve left about an hour later, otherwise I’d’ve she’d of sent another flare... by the way I'll need more blue flares soon.”

“We'll take care of it. Anyway, how long ago was that?”

“Nine hours, so she should be back in about two hours.”

Boss took a few steps away from my bed. “I'll wake you when she arrives. If she’s not here by three I'll wake you, and come morning if she's not back, we'll search for her.”

Three leapt into the air and spread his wings. He glided down onto his bed. “I’ll see you in less than four hours.” He raised his blanket with a wing. “Hey, Boss.”

“Yeah?”

“If she isn’t here by morning d’you wanna have me head up to the city and check it out? That way I can run an overflight and see if she crashed anywhere along the way, it'll also get me to the city faster so we can eliminate the most likely reason for her going missing."

Boss nodded. “Sure, if she's in the city at least we'll know what happened, maybe pay her bail, and if she crashed you should see some evidence.”

Three nodded. “That’s what I was thinking. Night.”

“G’d night. See you in a few hours.” Boss snuffed out the candle.

Chapter IV

Despite the sun having clearly risen several hours ago the cabin was surprisingly quiet when I woke. There was only the shallow breathing of the other ponies and the gryphoness to break the silence.

I gently levitated the blankets off my back and stepped off the bed.

My hooves clicked against the floor as I made my way to the fire on the opposite end of the room. Taking care not to wake the others I sat in front ot it and used my magic to pull the door open while bringing a log over.

I turned as I heard the clicking of another set of hooves against the wooden floor. A bat pony was standing there stretching like a cat would, with her hooves close together and her back up in an arch. “So you’re Twilight Sparkle?”

“Yes.” I turned back to the fire and set the log in it.

“And what are you doing now?”

“Just getting the fire started again.”

She watched me silently as I closed the grate, I turned back to her and saw that she was no longer stretching, but was watching the fire through the small slit. That or she was watching me. For some reason she looked dejected, sad even; her shoulders were slumped, her wings were almost falling away from her side, I even thought I’d seen a few tears welling up but I couldn’t be sure.

Then she yawned showing of her fangs. Nope, all sadness gone, no more sad face and no more tears. She just looked dejected… and had a vicious pair of fangs.

She let out a deep breath.

Seeking to break the awkward silence I spoke. “Hey. I’m uh… gonna go get some water to boil. You want some?”

“Nah… hey uh, you know, the others might want some when they wake up. I’ll come with you, might as well get enough that we don’t have to do another run after this.”

“Fair enough. Shall we?”

I motioned to the door with my front leg, the bat pony nodded. “We shall.”

A few moments later when we were outside our cabin and in the woods she spoke again. “I looked you up while I was in Canterlot.”

I almost fell to the ground in shock. “You what!?”

She rolled her eyes. “Relax miss Sparkle, I don’t care what you do in your free time.”

“You don’t? And also, how do you know my name?”

She shrugged. “You’re name’s easy, it’s written on everything in your bags. As for what you did, like I-”

“You looked through my things!” I was mad. Correction; I was beyond mad. This was a violation of my dignity as a pony. This was a complete breakdown of law. This was-

“Yeah, ‘course I did.”

“Why?”

“Just get over it. It happened, you were unconscious, until now you didn’t even know about it so it couldn’t have affected you. More importantly, as I said before, I don’t care about your… activities.” Faster than I could see she jumped at a bush. When she turned back she swallowed something. “Didn’t figure we needed a snake trying to bite one of us.”

I nodded carefully; I don’t like snakes and with good reason.

We returned to walking; it would take a few minuets to get back to the road. As we walked along I tried to restart the conversation, for the third time since I woke up five minuets previously. “I’m flexible, not-”

She chuckled, interrupting me. “Again, I don’t care.”

The rest of the walk was silent. Two seemed to be perfectly fine with just walking in peace and I was lost in my thoughts, namely that Two didn’t care what I’d done.

“Two.”

“Yeah?”

“Have you told the others about what I did?”

“No.”

“Are you going to?”

“No.”

“Thank you.”

“Don’t mention it.”

___ ______ ___

The river was freezing. Perhaps it was because the day was overcast and the sun wasn’t warming the water, perhaps it was because the river was formed from snow melts nearly three miles above Canterlot, perhaps it was because, as a rule, I avoided cold water and was thus sensitive to it, perhaps it was a combination of all three. Regardless of the reason the water was cold and frustrating.

I knew when Two pulled the hundred gallon water bag out of her saddlebags that I’d have to climb into the river to even have a chance at holding it in my magic. It didn’t help matters that as soon as I got in the river she was called away by Three.

I tired to respect their privacy, but even with me in the middle of the river I still caught snippets, they weren’t exactly keeping their voices down.  “...I’m done with this Three…”

“...can’t back out now…”

“...and you know it Three so you go right ahead and tell her…”

“...try me… ...won’t end well…”

Two laughed. “Right… ...think about what you just said…” A moment later Two stood up straight. “Look here, I am done with this. I’m gonna get my share of the bounty on all three, then I’m leaving. End. Of. Story.”

“It’s not the end of the story ‘cause you’re not leaving.”

“Do you really wanna fight me little colt?” Three shook his head. “Good, I just wanted to make sure we both understood the situation, because once I leave if I ever see your face or One’s again I will make sure it is the last time.”

“Boss won’t let you leave and she won't let you interrupt the transaction.”

“I assure you little pony that Boss is the least of my worries, because you and I both know that she’s smart enough not to fight me.”

“You’re going to get yourself killed if you go down this road.”

“I don’t care. I’m done. But you, you still have a chance at life. Go back home, beg forgiveness because our group is gonna vanish fast when we make the transfer.”

Three huffed. “Fine. Have a nice death.” He jumped into the air and zoomed off to parts unknown.

I pretended that I hadn’t heard the conversation, even if I wasn’t entirely sure what it meant.

“That’s way more than enough.”

I turned around. “Oh.” I looked at the bag, it was two thirds full and I doubted we’d even need thirty gallons before we hit the trail this morning. “Well I suppose we’ll have a little extra.”

Two laughed. “I suppose we will. Come on, let’s get this back to the cabin.”

___ ______ ___

It was nearly eleven in the morning when we got the water back to the cabin. I placed my estimate of when I woke up at around ten; nearly seventy gallons collected and moved in a hour, not bad.

In the two hours since I had boiled several gallons of water and kept the fire running while Two chopped wood to keep the pile from disappearing.

After flying away from Two, Three had been sent on a reconnaissance mission by Boss to find the best route to 'the hill'. At this point I wasn’t sure if I’d follow them, it probably wasn’t a terrible idea, they seemed to know what they were doing.

Now, while I sat next to Two with my hot cup of tea Boss and Three were discussing the results. “…all I’m saying is that we have maybe eight hours left of sunlight, tops. I don’t think we’ll make it too far, especially when we have to concern ourselves with dinner and prisoners.”

“The map says eleven miles to the bridge, then another twenty-four to the village.”

“And if we ford the river as you’re proposing?”

“Sixteen miles as the pegasus flies. I got about halfway in the time allotted. Including terrain it looks to be about twenty, maybe thirty.”

“Twenty miles gives us what on a hilly road, three, four hours, but no path so it’s six, seven?”

“Roughly. Include the prisoners and the ford.”

“Eight to ten hours.”

“More tea?” Two held the cooking pot between her hooves.

I quickly took it my magic. “Thank you. You burnt?”

She looked at her hooves. “I don’t think so, my hooves are just a little toasty now.”

The gryphoness, who was casually lounging on her bed on the opposite side of the cabin, chuckled. “Ya' know, I could have helped with that.”

Two was a little flustered. “Really, it’s fine, I’m fine.”

The gryphoness took a sip from her mug of hot chocolate and returned to her book. “Whatever you say.”

___ ______ ___

That night I glared at Three and the massive pile of wood chips in front of him.

Even though he’d started with fewer chips and joined in only part way though the game he had still managed to rob me blind.

In hindsight I should have known something was up when Boss sighed dramatically and Two left the game citing ‘no sense beating a dead ego’ the moment he asked to join. Until that point I had been winning, my pile was nearly three times the size of either Boss’s or Two’s. Three had cleanly removed Boss from the game and with apparent ease took half my pile.

“Raise. Three-fifty.”

I looked at my cards, I had a great hoof, roughly eighty precent odds of victory and it’s not like we were playing for anything more than bragging rights.

I called it. “All in.”

Three flipped up his cards. I dropped mine. “How!?”

Two leaned in and pressed her muzzle against the top of my head near my left ear. “Nooooo poooooony knooooows.”

“Cut it out Two.”

“Ugh… yes Boss.”

Three pushed his chips aside. “No hard feelings, right?”

I shook my head. “I just want to know you either won or folded every single round, perfectly. We’re you cheating.”

“I wasn’t cheating.”

“Then how?”

He shrugged. “Trade secret.”

I raised an eyebrow and he broke out laughing. “Back maybe four years ago when I stilled lived in the windy city there was this magician who came up to the clouds. She was quite the unicorn, of course because she was a unicorn none of us trusted her, me included, but I managed to convince my parents to go with me to her perfo-” His voice suddenly cut out as he had a small hiccup, there were tears in his eyes.

“You okay?’’

He nodded, then changed and shook his head. “No, not really. It was just… oh it doesn’t matter. Anyway, back to the story. We went to her performance. I was entralled by her, afterward I managed to corner her and ask a few questions. Before she left town she taught me a few things about magic; it’s about misdirection of the audience attention and reading what the audience wants.

“So…?”

“So I misdirected you attention, then read what you wanted.”

“I wanted to win.”

“You told me, I just knew when you thought you had a chance.”

I shook my head. “I’m not that bad of a player.”

He laughed again. “Not at all. You’re quite the player, you were beating Boss and that’s an accomplishment all on its own. No I’m just very good at reading ponies, these two don’t keep me around for my looks.” With a single motion that I only caught out of the corner of my eye he spread the cards evenly across the ground. “Pick a card.”

“If I chose one will you tell me about why you almost cried earlier.”

He nodded. “Sure.”

I pointed to a card with my hoof. “Very well.”

He pushed it out of the deck and motioned for me to take it in my magic. I gently picked it up.

“Now, memorize your cards, but don’t tell me what it is.”

I glanced between it and Three a few times. “I got it.”

“Good. Now give me back my card and I’ll give you your saddle bags.”

“What?”

I looked at Three and noticed that he had somehow managed to get my bags under his left wing. “That’s how you want to play it little birdie?” I grabbed his bags from across the room with my magic and held them near the roof in the middle of the cabin. “‘cause I can blow your bags into little bits and pieces.”

He laughed, then tackled me. A second later my back was lying on the ground. I dropped his bags by accident, but didn’t hear them hit the ground.

I pushed up on Three’s stomach and kept pushing until he was lifted off of me. In the head of the moment I directly used my magic to roll the two of us until I was the one on top, straddling Three.

I pinned him to the ground with my hooves and he relaxed his shoulder while laughing. Once I had a moment to breath I panted heavily and realized that I shouldn’t have tried to directly influence his body.

Boss and Doc were chuckling, the gryphoness had a small smirk on her face. On the opposite side of the cabin from the door the two pegasi had smiles on their faces. Two dropped from the rafters down on them. “Hey bros... WIPE THOSE GRINS OFF YOUR FACES!” In an instant their smiles were gone. “Much better.” Two spun around and reared up on her hind legs, then she fell backwards onto the two no longer smiling pegasi.

I stared a Two while Three and Boss turned away, clearly straining their facial muscles trying not to laugh.

Taking their hint I turned away as well. When I did I saw the Canterhorn through the window to the North. The sun was setting, casting a brilliant glow over the entire landscape, the west side sparkled brightly while the east side was almost completely dark. Canterlot sat on the boundary of the two; half ablaze in the sunset, half blacked out like charcoal.

I stepped off Three to get closer to the window. Who knew homesickness could strike so strongly. Three rolled over and stood. I turned around when I heard him yawn loudly.

“Well, that was fun but I think it’s time for me to get some sleep. I’ve got watch later, Two you gonna join the rotation?”

She nodded. “I can take the middle shift if you want, Boss, you?”

Boss pursed her lips. “I can take last watch, if you wanna wake me around for then I’ll get everypony up by eight and we can be on the road by nine.”

Three nodded in agreement. “I guess I’m on first then.”

Two nodded, then walked to the door and called over her shoulder. “I’ll be back in a few.”

I sighed and looked out the window. I still didn’t know anything more about the group that I was traveling with than I did the previous day. I had learned nothing other than that Two was a bat pony, Three had a few magic tricks and there were a few seams coming apart in the group's fabric. Simply put; nothing learned.

I felt terrible for knowing so little.

___ ______ ___

True to her word Boss had woken us up at about eight and we were on the road by nine.

Half an hour later and we were still trying to cross the river. I held my breath as I tried to hold up Boss’s bags from across the river. I slowly lowered them to the ground. Doc took them in his magic and lowered them the rest of the way. Boss, the two pegasi, the gryphoness and Doc had forded the river while I stayed behind with Two. Three had flown across the river to secure the bank.

Twelve sets of bags across, twelve more to go; halfway there. I picked up the next set.

I turned to Two. “How come you ponies have so many bags?”

She looked away from the road and turned towards me. “Huh?”

"After mine, the two pegasi's and the gryphoness' bags there are still sixteen left. Among the four of you that’s four sets each.”

She snorted, amusement clear in her eyes. “Occupational equipment.”

I nodded, not entirely sure what their occupation was… I knew it included, at least on occasion, bounties. If I was honest with myself I wasn’t sure I wanted to know. “Hey, uh-”

“Listen, I need to talk to you.” Two had cut me off, but her’s sounded more important. “Sorry, go ahead.”

I shook my head. “No, you go first.”

“Keep sending the bags over the river. Can you keep your focus if I tell you something that might shock you a little?”

“Sure. I’ll just need a moment when it gets closer to the other side.”

“Good. Let me know when and I’ll stop talking.” She took a deep breath. “I’m… look, I need you to run away before we get to the hill.”

I almost dropped the bags into the river. “Why?”

“Because I can’t do what I need to do if I have to worry about civilians.”

“What are you going to do?”

“Run away.”

I got the bags halfway across. “So you need me to run away so that you can run away?”

She looked down. “I tried to be a good pony, I really did, but then I got drawn into this, now it’s my mess to clean up, so I’m gonna clean it up.”

“And you need me out of the way to do that?”

“Yes.”

“Alright, I’ll do it.”

“Good, take the gryphoness with you. She might slow you down, but if you bring her back to their lands you’ll-”

I raised a hoof signaling to Two that I needed to focus.

For the next ten seconds I poured a not insignificant amount of magic into my levitation as I slowly lowered the bags. When Doc had them in his magic I moved to the next set and lowered my hoof. Two continued. “Take her with you and get her to the kingdom, or at least to one of their embassies. It’ll put you in their good graces and you’ll probably have no trouble applying for refugee status, or even citizenship if you want it.”

___ ______ ___

For what felt like the hundredth time I stepped off the road and around a mud filled puddle that occupied it. After crossing the river it had taken us seven hours to meet up with the road leading south from the bridge.

Far above me the tops of the trees were swaying in the slight wind. Unfortunately there was none where we were, a mixture of being a the bottom of the hill, having only a very light breeze at the time and having thousands of thick tree trunks blocking whatever little wind there was made sure of that. I was hot and sweaty to say the least.

A gust of wind swept across my back and I moaned in pleasure. I turned my head as a loud, but muted thump to my right signified the arrival of a pony.

Two tucked her wings to the side. “We’re coming up on the hill, maybe half an hour left.”

I nodded. “I know.” Boss was leading the group from fifty or so paces ahead. Doc was at the rear making sure the two pegasi didn’t escape and Three was high in the sky scouting ahead.

“You ready?”

I nodded again. “I think so.”

“Good, signal me when you’re ready, I'll immobilize-”

“Hey Two.” Boss had somehow snuck up on us, I froze in place.

Two took a few steps forward until her shoulders were even with my muzzle, then she stopped, turned and faced Boss. “So he told you.” It wasn’t a question.

“Yeah.”

Two looked to the ground. “You sent him ahead, had him change the location.” She shook her head. “That’s a pity, I didn’t want to have to kill him, he still could have had a life, still could have gone home.” She sighed and shook her head again. “His death is on you. So they’re here?”

Boss nodded. “Just around that curve in the road.”

Two raised her head and looked Boss in the eyes. “I won’t go down without a fight.”

“If you run we won’t go after you. It isn’t worth it for any of us to fight you and it isn't worth if for you to fight us, just run.”

“And our guests?”

“They stay, you get paid, you get to go your own way and we don’t follow.”

“Twilight, when I tell you to run you run. Understand?”

“Y-yes. Now, what’s going on?”

“Good.”

Four hundred body lengths to the south two wagons rounded the bend. There were a dozen pegasi flying either directly around it or higher up in circles almost half a mile wide. The blocky wagons were being pulled by two earth ponies each and despite the cloth coverings I could tell that it was a solid mass underneath, not a frame like a proper covered wagon. On the ground, surrounding the wagons there were at least two dozen ponies.

“Time to make your decision Two. What’s it gonna be?”

“I made my decision about leaving a week ago and I made peace with myself and my decisions a long time ago. I just hope that you have as well.” Two reached under her left shoulder with her right front leg. When she drew it back there was a steel gauntlet around her foreleg. It had a very jagged knife running the length of the front.

Chapter V

“Two... don’t do it.” Boss shook her head as she drew a gauntlet of her own with an even larger knife on it. “We will kill you if you-”

“What’s the first rule of fighting?”

“What?”

Two flicked her head tossing her curly mane out of her face. “You’re a half-decent fighter and I know I taught you this. What’s the first rule of fighting?”

“Don’t lose the fight.”

“No, that’s the second rule.” Two sighed. “The first is; always cover your vulnerabilities.”

“Come on Two, just give this up. You’re not going to find any ‘justice...' or whatever it is you want.” Boss was starting to get annoyed and frustrated. She fidgeted and her ears were on the swivel; was she scared?

Two motioned to the gryphoness. “Those two, they’re my vulnerabilities, and this, this is me covering them.”

Doc lowered his head as a blue magical aura covered his horn. His head was aligned with the back of Two’s barrel, half a pace to the left of her flank. He was almost touching her.

Boss continued to try to talk her down. “Two…”

Two lowered her head. “One... I want you to know that no matter what happens next. I’m not sorry for it.”

The wagons were two hundred body lengths out.

Two began. “Twilight…”

Boss tried to interrupt. “No. Twilight, stay or we’ll hurt you and that gryphon. Two... Moonlit Road, you listen to me. You stand-”

“Twilight run!”

One reared up on her hind legs getting out of the way just as Two put her weight on her left front leg and lifted her right front to slash at One’s neck with the blade.

While One returned to her four feet and half-crouched as she pranced to her left -my right- Two stood up straight and rotated her body so that she was facing Boss the whole time.

When Doc’s withers were lined up with her tail I noticed that his head was dropped. I tried to call out to Two. “Two! Watch your-”

But she beat me to reacting, with a swift movement she drew up her rear leg and kicked Doc in his foreleg.

He fell to the ground screaming.

Though Two barely glanced back at Doc, One took the opportunity and charged forward a few steps towards Two. Two sidestepped, nearly hitting me with her tail.

One turned to the side and was next to Doc for a moment before he rolled and thrashed his way away from the fight.

I took a few steps to the side and lit my horn gathering together and compressing a not-insignificant amount of air inside a magical field.

As I did Doc managed to get his legs under his barrel and stand.

He lit his horn. “LIttle rich foal doesn’t know her place.”

I was beginning to think that Doc had something against rich ponies. “And what place would that be?”

He fully stood up and scowled at me. “Below ponies like me. Ponies that deserve to be in charge. Ponies who can take what they-”

I slammed the ball of compressed air into him and he fell to the ground. It may have fractured a few ribs, but it was better than the alternative of him killing or knocking me unconscious.

I looked around and found a rock about half a stride in diameter. With my magic I picked it up and moved it over Doc’s head. “Stay down.”

He lit his horn. “You drop that and we both go up.”

Behind me I was aware that One and Two were still fighting. The convoy was still a hundred body lengths out.

I took a few steps back until I was about four or five body lengths out.

“Agh.” It was a familiar feeling, being slammed into the ground by hooves.

There was a roar, like lightning striking a rod only a few body lengths from your ears and a blast of heat rushed across my face.

When my face hit the ground there was a little gravel, but overall more forgiving than the hard rock of the Canterhorn… that and my horn didn’t get slammed into the ground

The weight pressing down on me left just as quickly as it came, followed almost instantly by a stallion shrieking.

I rolled so that my legs were underneath me and stood. In front of me was a massive fire, reaching almost six body lengths into the sky and stretching to either side. I turned around, directly to my right a pegasus -he had to have been the one who tackled me- was rolling around on the ground trying desperately to put out the fire that engulfed his body. Though I had a few scratches from the fall it appeared that I was unhurt and wasn't on fire, I scrambled to my hooves and galloped away from the fire until I ran into a group of pegasi from the convoy. I locked my legs and managed to slide to a stop.

I turned around. Two was standing over One's body, Doc was nowhere to be seen, the gryphoness and the two prisoners were lying on the ground under the watch of four pegasi from the convoy. The rest of the pegasi from the convoy had formed a semi-circle around us with a radius of about ten body lengths.

My attention was called to Two as she yelled over the screams of the wounded, the movement of the pegasi’s wings and the roar of the fire. “My business here is done! I have no quarrel with you!” She crouched and spread her wings, then jumped into the sky.

“I have a quarrel with you!” Three flew towards her.

Two shook her head sadly and only flapped her wings to maintain her altitude and position. “Think things through little colt. I’m trained to do this, you’re not. It’s why your 'friends' are letting me go; they’re smart enough to realize that I could kill more of them than I’m worth.”

Three looked around and his face seemed to confirm what I already knew; the pegasi were staying well away from Two.

She continued. “That’s right. None of them are willing to help you fight me. So back. Off.”

Three looked around once more, then fell back, did a backwards somersault, extended his wings and glided down to the ground.

Two rotated to the northwest and flew directly into the sun.

Before I could implement my escape plan somepony wrapped their front leg around my neck and dragged me towards the wagons. The ponies pulling them had somehow managed to get them within fifty body lengths in the short time between the explosion and when Two fled.

As we ran away I could feel the heat of the fire on my back.

We ran past the closest wagon and scrambled to turn around when we reached the back of the second one.

There was a small door open at the back of the cart. The stallion and an earth pony mare shoved me in. I fell to the floor and lay on my side, my magic fading away from my grasp instantly. A moment later a shadow filled the door and the gryphoness fell on top of me.

I tried to grasp my magic, but was about as incapable of doing so as an earth pony foal. They must have had a unicorn induce an interference in the iron as they were casting it; it’s not difficult, even a unicorn who failed magical kindergarten could probably do it.

The gryphoness managed to pull herself off me. She dragged me across the floor so that I could rest against the wall.

I nodded in thanks, then turned around when I noticed a few small shafts of light dimly illuminating the interior. I pressed my front hooves and the side of my muzzle against the wall. With my right eye closed all I could see though my left was that the other cart had turned around before us and was now leading the convoy. Behind us the fire raged and continued to grow every second.

Massive pillars of flames and dark grey smoke rose up from the scene.

Chapter VI

“...my fault.”

“No, Twilight, it’s not. These things happen, you just have to-”

“It is my fault!”

“Shut up.” A stallion close directly opposite me called out, louder than I had. “None of us care about what you did.”

“You shut up.” It was another stallion closer to the front of the wagon. “She needs to figure out exactly what she did. Let her have that ya’ cloud brain.”

The pegasus stood up. “Oh, now I’m a cloud brain, at least my horn hasn’t been stuffed up-”

“Hey.” It was the first time since I’d met the gryphon that I had seen her react with anger... or anything anything that wasn't an innocent giggle or a confused ‘huh?’. The two ponies stopped and turned to her. “Cut it out. We have bigger issues than insulting each other.”

Despite the almost complete darkness that only displayed vague shapes I could tell that the gryphoness was staring the two ponies down, daring one of them to make a move. After a moment she relaxed and leaned back against the cart’s side. “Twilight. It was an accident. It’s not your fault. It’s not anypony’s, these things just happen sometimes.”

I shook my head. “It shouldn’t have.”

Outside the cart somepony shouted something, what exactly I couldn’t make out, but a moment later the cart stopped.

After a short pause we rotated, then proceeded forward. Several ponies, myself included, were thrown into the air by the bumps.

We continued for a few minuets before the voice called out again and we stopped.

Under her breath the gryphoness whispered. “Four hours is ten miles, still twelve miles from staging. At that distance reconnaissance runs need four hours back, so we’re out of range for tonight. Sometime tomorrow then… so long as I live through the night.” She quietly chuckled.

I didn’t want to get in trouble for eavesdropping, so I pretended that I hadn’t heard. “So, what happens now?”

The gryphoness shrugged. “Dunno. Try to survive I suppose.”

Somehow I hadn’t noticed it when I was talking with her earlier, but the gryphoness’ entire demeanor had changed.

___ ______ ___

It was unbearably warm in the cart. That tends to happen when you put ten ponies in a tiny cage. Unfortunately while I wasn’t going to freeze to death the horrid smell and oven-like temperatures ensured that I wasn’t going to get any sleep either.

About an hour after the caravan stopped the door was forced open with a squeal and a pony poked his or her muzzle inside. A small basket about the size of my head was forced inside, then the door was shut again.

The ponies in the cart rushed it and nearly trampled each other trying to get their muzzles inside. I only managed to get a few scraps that were tossed aside. To be honest with myself I didn’t even want to know what we were being fed.

Only a minuet or so after the food was thrust in the door was opened again. A pony, a unicorn mare, set a lantern down on the edge and looked in. She wrinkled her nose at the smell, I couldn’t blame her. She looked around for a moment before pointing to the gryphoness and the pegasus stallion who had almost gotten into the fight with the unicorn earlier. “Both of you, out.”

The gryphoness sighed. “Wish me luck. Hopefully they’ll be cheep and decide to keep me until we hit market... otherwise my boss's gonna have some awkward questions for me to answer.”

“What’s going on?”

“Keep your head down. I should be back in a few hours at most… if I’m not assume the worst. Wait two days, then when they open the door charge them. Get out and teleport... or something... whatever it is you unicorns do.”

“You still haven’t answered-”

“I said out! Move it!”

The gryphoness shrugged. “Guess I'm not gonna. Sorry.” She walked to the door and stepped out into the night. The stallion had already exited.

The door slammed shut. I settled in to wait.

The pegasus mare the stallion was with began to wail.

___ ______ ___

My ears twitched. It had been almost five minuets since either the gryphoness or the stallion had screamed, cried out or moaned. The party seemed to have settled down as well.

I shifted into a slightly more comfortable position and pressed my head into my front legs.

The door was pulled open with its characteristic squeal, it’s hinges really needed to be oiled. The gryphoness’ form occupied the doorway for a moment before she was shoved in. She hit the cart’s floor, the stallion followed her and landed on top of her body.

With what seemed to be considerable effort the gryphoness stood up and dumped the pony off her back and onto the ground so he was laying of his back. “Rude. Buy a gall a drink and bed her at least once before you get to that.”

“Shut up.” The mare shoved the door shut and affixed the locking mechanism.

The gryphoness placed two talons on the stallions throat before motioning for his mare to come over. “How loyal is he?”

“Very.”

“Well… that’s good and bad. I need you to assure him that nothing that happened out there was his fault, ‘cause he’s gonna blame himself. He needs to know that that’s not true, you need to assure him that that’s not true and you need to make him believe it.”

“Okay. Wha- what do I do?”

The stallion looked up, then averted his eyes. “I’m so-”

The mare pulled him close. “Hush you.”

The mare continued to calm the stallion who was presumably her husband. I nudged the gryphoness aside. “You’re very calm about this?”

“As horrible as it is to say, I’ve been been through worse.”

“Okay, but why you two? Why not me, or somepony else?”

“Survivors guilt? Really?”

“I’m just wondering.”

“It’s economics.”

“Economics?”

“Sure. Why not? They need something to keep themselves entertained, some of us are worth less than it costs to feed us. They get entertainment without losing anything valuable. Win-win. Well… except for us I suppose, that’s more of a loss all across the board, but... you know... a win for them.”

“So what happens when we make it to their market?”

“Be sold. The two of us though, eek, I wouldn’t want to be us. In fact the only reason we’re still alive is ‘cause they need entertainment and don’t wanna hurt any of the rest of you. Lost profit I suppose. Anyhow, we should get some sleep.”

I nodded. “Alright. Good night.” I pressed my face into my legs and pretended to fall asleep.

Chapter VII

I leapt on Shiny and tackled his giant flank to the ground. He rolled onto his back and laughed as I scrambled to my hooves. Unbecoming of a PhD and lord’s daughter? Yes. Did I care? No. After a moment Shiny managed to get his legs back underneath his barrel and stand, we stared at each other.

A blue grouse zipped between us, then up and over the railing. After hovering for a moment the bird dove down. I turned and ran to the sidewalk that ran along the side of the park. Shiny followed me. We looked down from the railing into the tier below us; the Lower East Rocord.

In an instant the bird was gone; disappeared into the streets of the lower middle class.

I turned to Shiny and smiled. He smiled-

The crash came without warning. It sounded like metal against metal.

No, it couldn’t be.

“Rockslide!” I screamed out the warning as I ran for safety.

Most of the ponies didn’t move, they just stood in position, frozen by fear. Shiny was still too close-

I groaned as I raised my head. “Wha’ is it.”

Metal crashed against metal.

A few streams of light poured in through the few holes in the side of the cart. That horrid crashing sound that had brought me from my dreamless sleep continued.

I rubbed my eyes with my hooves and tried to stand. “What’s happening.”

The pegasus mare on the other side of the gryphoness shook her head. “I dunno, nopony does, but… I think there was a fight a few minuets ago.”

The metal crashed again, then after a pause and somepony shouting something there were three rapid, less hollow bangs.

Somewhere outside the cart a pony shouted. “Push! Push! Push!”

With a horrid squeal the door buckled at its midpoint. Something snapped and chains clattered to the ground. The door was forced open.

A pony with a helmet stuck his or her head inside and looked around. It was almost imperceptible, but I could have sworn he or she made eye contact with the gryphoness the moment before they pulled their head back out.

“Ma’am. I’ve got them in here.” Definitely a male.

A female called back something, but I couldn't make out any of the words.

I felt movement to my right as the gryphoness stood up.

I reached forward and wrapped my leg around hers. “Where are you going?”

“I need to deal with something. They’ll take care of you.”

“Who are they?” It was the stallion who had been taken with the gryphoness the previous night.

The gryphoness sighed. “That’s not mine to reveal. They will, but only when they’re ready.” She crossed to the door and stepped out. “Petty officer. Who’s the commander on scene?”

“Oh. Ma’am. Uh, Commodore Breeze ma’am.”

“Ooh. I warrant a commodore coming out herself? Or is it just that I owe her on a bet?” She giggled, then turned serious once again. “Keep them secure, they’ll give you all the testimony you need.”

“Yes ma’am.”

The soldier closed the door and his calls were muffled.

I settled in to wait. Rescue had come, somehow, from somewhere, rescue had come.

___ ______ ___

After what felt like hours the door was forced open again.

The same pony stuck his head in and yelled to those of us inside. “The area’s secure. Everypony out. Let’s go.” He withdrew his head and turned it over his shoulder. “Somepony get me a raincloud, these ponies need to be washed and fed.”

“Yes sir.”

“Don’t call me sir. I-”

“-‘work for a living.’ We all know.”

I was the fourth pony out after the two pegasi and another unicorn. An earth pony followed after me followed by six more ponies.

When we were organized into a small cluster another pony spoke, yelling loudly enough to be heard by all of us. “We are going to move in a defensive box around you and escort you to the road. We’ll get you a shower, some food and start interviewing each of you. With luck we’ll be headed home tonight and I’ll get to see my wife tomorrow.” He waved his right hoof above his head in a small circle. “Let’s move out.”

___ ______ ___

It took less than a minuet for the soldiers to organize themselves into a cube with pegasi flying at the four vertices and walking at the corners and midpoints on the ground.

Once they were organized we moved quickly through the forest until we reached the road.

At some point it must have rained because the road was little more than a stretch of mud that was especially deep at the ruts. We were directed to stand off to the side.

On the other side of the road the another group of pegasi was standing over their prisoners. Each pony had their legs bound at the lower part of their radii and fibulas and a black bag tied over their head. The wings of the pegasi and bat ponies were bound and the unicorns had wires running from their heads to the ground to prevent them from casting magic.

From above us a mare called out. “Lieutenant Shine!”

The pony who had spoken earlier looked up. “Cloud Light. What’d you want?”

“This all of ‘em?”

He nodded. “Go ahead and start ‘er up.”

“Yes sir.”

The mare tensed up and jumped. Just as she did the lieutenant shouted. “No! Wai-” She fell down onto the black cloud.

The cloud dumped water down on us in a huge volume. In an instant all the mud, food and other substances that I didn’t want to think about were washed off me and onto the dirt.

After half a minuet the water stopped and the mare poked her head over the edge of the cloud. She gave the lieutenant a cheeky grin as he glared up at her. “I hate you.”

“I know.” She jumped off the cloud and pushed it away.

The lieutenant continued to glare at the mare as she disappeared into the distance. “I will get her one day.”

The petty officer from earlier put a hoof on the lieutenant’s withers. “You’ve been at this for two weeks and haven’t even come close. You have three options; order her to stop, give it up or ask her out.”

“Petty officer! I will not 'ask out' a subord-”

“Trying a new look? I like it.” It was the gryphoness, she was somehow less soaked than any of us, but just as clean.

I turned around more slowly, but the lieutenant reared up and whirled around. “Who are you?”

She smiled. “The reason you’re here I suppose… but I wasn’t talking you. While I am though, I should tell you that we have a pool at the embassy on when you’re going to ask her out, or if she’s going ask you out first. Please ask her out soon, my bet’s on two days from now and I’d be the closest if it were today... it's a decent amount of money and you could have a little bit of it and a beautiful mare too, win-win.” She sidestepped him. “Twilight. How are you?”

“I’m fine. Thanks for asking.”

“Officer on deck!” Most of the soldiers immediately stopped whatever they were doing and saluted the approaching pegasus.

She quickly returned the salute. “As you were.”

The gryphoness leaned down and whispered in my ear with a tiny giggle. “Would you do her?”

I glared at her, then looked at the pegasus for a moment and reconsidered. Muscular body, but not disgusting levels of muscle, not too much fat, but not too little, fuchsia coat, wheat coloured tail and mane that didn't clash with her coat, clean, but not prim and perfect, high ranking, cute black armour with inlaid silver lines running in elaborate patterns, a black chess pawn -I assumed it was either her family's sigil or her cutie mark- was on the brooch holding it all together. I looked back to the gryphoness. “Now that I think about it, probably.”

“She’s supposed to be extremely good in bed, though extremely hard to get there. You might have a chance though, she likes the ones that are like her.”

“Like her how?”

“Social outcasts. Commodore Breeze commands what’s essentially a penal squadron. They send their degenerates, petty criminals and generally terrible ponies to her. She trains them until they’re outstanding soldiers and shares in their pain the entire time. Ends up with an almost undying loyalty from around a thousand soldiers, under fifty or so officers who are transferred in and out every month as punishment for minor infractions. Usually she only has a dozen or so officers that she can actually trust because she never has time to train them. Because of that they're essentially disposable, so the city’s Ascended Council sends her squadron to do their dirty work, the jobs that are too dangerous or would cause morale problems among regular soldiers. Breeze takes them and does them with minimal losses and probably half the time she doesn't lose anypony. That’s not what makes her unpopular though, she knows each soldier under her command and associates with these ‘criminals’ to make sure they leave her command with good training and good morals.”

The commodore stepped into the mud very gently. “Hello.”

The gryphoness smiled. “How are you commodore?”

“I’m fine. I just wanted to say, don’t think for a second that your troubles preclude you from making good on that bet.”

The gryphoness scratched the back of her head. “Well… uh… let me get my bags and I’ll deal with it.”

“We’ll deal with it on the cloud back.”

The gryphoness nodded. “Fair enough, I won’t try to slip away-”

“No you won’t.”

“Uh… you got my report right.”

“The jot-notes, yes.”

“No need to be so growly about it, I’ll be doing a better version for my boss anyway and I’ll make sure I send you a copy.” Despite her words both the gryphoness and the commodore had smiles on their faces.

The commodore dropped her just as she began speaking again. “The prisoners you wanted are headed for the tent once it’s set up. A few enemy combat casualties don’t tend to be noticed on these types of raids.”

“Thanks.”

“No problem.”

A mare ran up to the commodore and panted as she tried to salute. “We- go- the one- esca- escaped- ma- ma’am.”

“Thank you Private Cupcake, convey my thanks to the rest of your team. Dead or alive?”

“Subj- subject is de- dead. Ma’a- ma’am. Took h- hosta- hostages.”

"How are the hostages?"

"Sa-"

“Wounded?”

“Priv- Private Star. Ma’am.”

“Damn.” She looked down for a moment. “How-" She sighed. "Never mind for now. Breathe private.”

“Yes- yes ma’am.”

“And lose the ma’ams, at least after the first one.”

“Yes ma’am.”

“Do I have to order you private?”

“No ma-” The private looked down at the ground. “No.”

“Good. Now breathe.”

The private took several deep breaths. When her breathing had returned to normal the commodore started. “Look at me, you're not in trouble. Now, about Private Star?”

“He’s wounded, dead maybe. I don’t know they were trying to hold him together when I was sent.”

“How’d he get hurt?”

We were pursuing the subject when he took hostages from a small campsite, I think it was that group the recce guys noted yesterday. Star ordered a perimeter be set up, then dove into the woods. The subject had a young colt with a knife to his throat. The two parents, at least I assume they were, and another filly were in easy reach. Star tackled the subject and shoved the colt out of the way. But the subject managed to push Star to the ground and he stomped on his chest. I heard something crack and Star was bleeding, he was cut up pretty bad, but… Star stood up and shoved the subject to the ground while shouting for us to stay back and secure the hostages. He was trying to restrain the subject while the four of us got the hostages out of there.”

“How’s the subject dead then?”

“He kept fighting. Managed to hit Star’s leg and get in a few more slashes while Star kept trying to hold him down. Then the subject got up. He charged at us, Star tried to tackle him, but he kept going. Then Star jumped onto the subject's back and slit his throat.”

“Why’d Star keep trying to hold him?”

The mare shrugged. “You’d have to ask him to be sure, but you did tell us to capture the subject if possible.”

“Alright, does he have a status?”

“I don’t know.”

“Alright then. We don’t have any medics, as usual. If he can walk, bring him back, if not, bivouac in place and we’ll take the scenic route to pick you up. If he needs emergency treatment try get him to that village and see if they’ll be able to treat him or see if they'll come out to you. If you need funds to pay for his treatment send me a message and I can get them. If he’s dead, bring him home. Make sure the hostages are detained, I want a statement from them and to check them against our wanted lists.”

“Of course, anything else?”

I jumped in. “Excuse me commodore.”

She turned to me with a scowl. “What?”

“You said you don’t have any medics, correct?”

“Correct. Why? You one?”

“I have a few PhDs in a variety of topics including two in Corporis Magics, which means I had to have a masters in biology before starting my work. I’ve dissected my share of bodies, if you’d let me, I could see what I can do.”

She stood still for a moment.

“It’s better than nothing.” I offered.

“True.” She rubbed her muzzle with her hoof. “Alright. Cupcake… did that get you that a lot in basic?”

“Yes ma- Yes.”

“I don’t doubt it. Stay here.” The commodore looked around the area. “Petty Officer Swing!”

A stallion galloped over and saluted. “Ma’am.”

“Swing, Cupcake's going to give you directions to an area I need secured. I’m assembling a squad and you’re in charge. You’re going to escort this mare to a downed soldier and provide additional security.” She gestured to me. “Cupcake, Swing, go to my command tent and start plotting a route and keep this quiet.”

They both saluted and in sync shouted. “Yes ma’am.”

“Lieutenant-commander Star.”

A stallion with sunset orange pegasus rushed over from the far side of the line of prisoners and saluted. “Yes ma’am.”

“Lieutenant-commander. I need you to prep an escort squad; find me a dozen soldiers that aren’t busy and get them outside my command tent in two minuets. Make sure they’re not doing anything important I don’t want any lapses in security. Once that’s done report to me and resume your duties. You’re staying here.”

“Yes ma’am.” The stallion jumped into the sky and flew off.

The commodore looked down. “Let’s hope he’s alive.”

I nodded. “Indeed, I’ll do my best... I promise I'll do my best.”

Chapter VIII

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