"So you stole the mask to stop the spiders..." the Sultan said flatly, his expression slack with muted disbelief. "You never thought to simply inform us of the masks' purpose, and the connection between it, the spiders, and the disappearances?"

"Of course I thought about it," Daring Do replied, a slither of frustration sneaking into her words, "but who would have believed me? I barely wanted to believe it when I found out! Giant spiders? So few ponies know about their existence that they're not even a myth. This whole thing literally turned up out of the blue! Did you know what was contained behind that temple?"

"That temple has been there for millennia," the Vizier Hakim said. "None of us had any reason to believe an army of giant spiders was lurking behind its benign façade."

Daring pointed an accusing hoof at the Vizier, "So you're basically admitting that you wouldn't believe me!"

"Ahem." Twilight forced Daring's hoof back to the ground and smiled politely at the Vizier and Sultan. "You can't deny that what happened was unusual, but we're focussing on the wrong thing here. Thanks to Daring informing us of the threat, we were able to stop it before it spun out of control and return a large number of your ponies to you. Not all of them unfortunately, but more than you knew was missing. Perhaps in light of this you could afford to be lenient? Her intentions were good after all."

"She is still a thief!" the Vizier protested, looking at his Sultan for support.

"She helped to save your country from a terrible fate," Twilight retorted. "Frankly I'm wondering why you're treating her like a criminal."

The Vizier narrowed his eyes at Twilight, "Let us not forget you and your friends' part in all this. Not only did you assist this criminal in reclaiming stolen property, but you enabled her to by breaking her out of custody!"

"We're also the reason you're not currently getting eaten alive," Trixie pointed out from behind Twilight. "Maybe you should think about that."

"Or maybe we should think on your desire to kill our soldiers to escape your predicament!"

"I was joking!"

"Enough!" the Sultan shouted over all of them. "You Hakim, will remember your place, and you Princess, rein in your companions." Batal waited until all of them had gone quiet before speaking again. "Daring Do, your actions, while beneficial, weren't intended as such. By your own words you intended to take the mask away for safe keeping, leaving us with an army of giant spiders in our lands, and no means to return them to whence they came. You simply intended to steal it."

"She was trying to help!" Twilight started, only to get spoken over by the Sultan.

"However," he continued, "your actions past that prove you acted without malice, and aimed to help us, even if through underhooved means. You have my thanks Daring Do."

"Uh, you're welcome," Daring replied, a bit stunned by the turn of events.

"And Princess Twilight." Twilight looked up as the Sultan said her name. "You and your companions have our thanks as well, for doing what we likely could not have done our self. Unfortunately, that cannot be the end of it." Twilight's stomach sank at that. "The laws of Saddle Arabia are sacred and cannot be ignored, even by me."

"What do you intend then?" Twilight asked evenly, denying herself her desire to curse, or at least sound sarcastic.

"Even with her actions, Daring Do broke many of our laws, and for that she will be deported from our country. Your own transgressions are unfortunate, but can be perhaps overlooked in lieu of your service to Saddle Arabia, and that you never intended to break our laws, while Daring Do did."

"But she saved your country."

"I know," the Sultan said sadly. "You enabled her to. If she hadn't been caught and met you, she'd be on her way to prison."

Trixie rolled her eyes, "And you'd be swarmed with spiders."

"I realise that as well, which is why I will keep her detained in comfort here until you are ready to leave yourself, and she may accompany you on your own journey past here."

"But Sire! She stole my property! Property I won't be getting back because they destroyed it!"

"Silence Hakim." Batal gave Twilight a small smile, "I realise this may seem harsh seeing as how you saved us all, but I'm afraid the law remains the law. In spite of them though, I'm allowing Daring to leave with you and our thanks."

Twilight sighed and nodded, giving Daring a minimal shrug. "We understand, and thank you for your leniency." Twilight stood quietly as a pair of guards led Daring away. "What about us?"

-0-0-0-

All of them blinked in the fresh sun of the morning, freshly risen by whoever had done it, which was still too early by Sunset's reckoning. The rest of them ignored her though as they made their way down the marble stairs of the Sultan's palace, having been giving a token of thanks, and an unspoken desire to have them out of the Sultan's mane.

"What a pair of cunt-monkeys," Trixie remarked as they exited the palace grounds. "We save their Luna damned country for a pat on the back, and we're still no closer to locating the mirror, and are probably further from it now that Daring can't help us."

"We should count ourselves lucky to not be getting deported as well," said Twilight. "If we hadn't saved the day we still broke the law busting Daring out."

"But we did save the day!" Trixie whined. "And it was a lot harder work than the reward of not getting kicked out of Saddle Arabia required. They owe us big time."

"Which is why you should have brought up the mirror," Moondancer grumbled.

Twilight rolled her eyes, "Considering the lengths the Vizier was willing to go to get that mask back, and was furious we destroyed it, I very much doubt he'd even admit to having it, let alone give it to us."

"But he might have!"

"Or he'd deny it and step the security on his estate up even more than he must have after Daring broke in. The existence of whom you took very well by the way."

"At this point I wouldn't even be the slightest bit surprised if the Pony of Shadows turned out to be real," Moondancer said dismissively. "Anyway, that's all irrelevant in the face that we're back to not knowing what to do."

"I know exactly what we're going to do," Twilight said evenly. "We're going to-"

"Steal the mirror," Trixie, Mayfly, and Sunset all said together.

"And how do you intend on doing that without getting caught and causing a huge diplomatic problem?" Moondancer asked.

"We have four capable unicorns and a changeling," said Trixie. "I'm pretty sure we'll be fine."

"You're all insane," Moondancer said quietly. "You'll have to excuse me if I don't immediately think this is going to work out perfectly."

Twilight shrugged at Moondancer, "I'm not saying it will, but we need that mirror, so we have to do this."

"I'm still saying that we could just ask the Vizier again." Moondancer pouted a little at the looks the others gave her, "Or not, because that might actually be sensible, and we don't have time for that. I can't believe you agree with them Sunset."

Sunset smiled apologetically at Moondancer, "I hate to say it, but if we ask and he denies having it, we'll have just made it harder for us to get it. So yeah, I think doing this might actually be the best idea."

"As morally reprehensible as a certain purple princess might have once found that," Trixie said, teasing Twilight.

Twilight glanced back at her wings, then cast the spell to hide them. "That purple princess is currently living in a retirement home with a certain blue showpony, so I don't think we need to worry about what they might think. "Twilight frowned to herself, hunting for a trace of feeling on that, but it just wasn't there.

"And how are we doing this?" Sunset asked, pulling Twilight out of her thoughts.

"First we need to find the Vizier's private estate. Then we need to scout it out and find out what guards are there, what patrols they use, and all that. Then we need to locate the vault, before finally putting all that knowledge to use and breaking in and getting the mirror before running like hell."

Trixie nudged Twilight, "Fleur would be so proud."

"I could take that several ways, but I'll take it as the compliment it was probably intended as." Twilight looked up at the sky, trying to work the time out, but if the sun was rising early it was pretty hard to tell. At the very least she could hope that it was early enough to go scout out the Vizier's estate before ponies started waking up. "Okay, you guys head back to our room, I'm going to go find the estate and have a look around."

"Try not to get caught," said Trixie. "I think having to bust you out of jail will definitely get us into trouble."

-0-0-0-

The estate was to the east of the city, outside it by maybe half a mile. Or at least Twilight hoped it was, as she was looking completely at the wrong place if it wasn't. There weren't any other private estates that she could see, and the security presence at least made it seem like it might be the right place.

Twilight hovered in the air at a distance, hoping she wouldn't be spotted, or would at least be mistaken for a large bird if she was. In a country with no native pegasi she hoped that they would just assume she was a bird and move on. She figured she'd better not spend too much time in the air just in case.

Still, in what time she had she could tell that the Vizier had made himself a small fortress, albeit a fairly luxurious one. A large mansion sat at the rear of a large walled square with a small minaret at each corner that doubled as a guard tower, while the rest of it was made up of a garden, and an interesting one at that. The water gardens at the palace had been almost exclusively native with its flora and fauna, while the Vizier favoured a large number of non-native species. Likely because they were rare here, and therefore collectable. While not particularly important, it did at least mean there were a lot of plants to hide amongst.

Twilight turned her attention to the security detail, trying to figure out how large it might be before committing to working out their patrol routes and finding any exploitable holes. The garden alone sported ten guards, with another half a dozen on the wall and guard towers, and she had no way of working out how many guards there might be inside. Other than that there wasn't much to say, not without spending a lot more time watching, and the longer she did that, the less she liked what she saw.

Whoever had planned the patrol routes was clever enough to have them so that there was always at least two pairs patrolling the garden at all times, and even without those there were plenty more watching from a distance. Yes you could hide in the bushes, but how long you could do that for without getting spotted was debatable. Twilight was starting to think that if she wasn't trying to divert a serious diplomatic incident by being a princess, she'd simply do this the hard way and attack directly.

"Luna fucking damn it," she groaned. She wasn't mentally equipped for this kind of thing, and she knew it. Stealth and subtlety were things ponies better than her did, while she knew full well she could beat most things through sheer power and tenacity. You tended to ignore subtlety when you could do that.

"If only invisibility spells worked when you moved. Okay, so..." Twilight stopped as she saw something flit between bushes in the garden below, something purple. A moment later it moved again as a pair of guards turned and put their backs to whatever it was. "Huh, interesting."

She kept watching, hoping to see what it was, but the distance was too great, so, finding a reasonably empty spot she teleported down, hiding herself amongst some plants and keeping an eye out for whatever, or whoever, was sneaking around.

She got her chance a minute later as the intruder moved again, and Twilight was surprised to see it was an Equestrian pony, dark purple with a mohawk of bright magenta hair. She was also wearing dark coloured armour that seemed a bit on the thin side to Twilight, but was probably practical enough. It was also adorned with a blue Y-shaped symbol where her cutie mark should be, but Twilight didn't recognise it.

"I wonder what she's doing here? Oh shit, is she here to steal something too?" Twilight wasn't sure what to do if she was. Try to follow her in and get what she wanted? It risked issues if she got caught, but there was another issue where security got even tighter after a second theft from here, and Twilight was struggling as it was with how to get in here undetected.
There was the third option of asking the pony if she minded Twilight tagging along, but Twilight thought that would be highly unlikely as no decent thief would want to do that in her opinion.

Twilight was seriously considering that, when the pony pulled a notepad out of her armour and wrote something down using a pencil in her mouth. Twilight frowned, trying to work out what was happening, and unable to think of anything other than the pony was trying to do the same thing as herself and plan a route in. Twilight thought that if she wasn't breaking in right now, the pony might be more amenable to getting approached.

Twilight quickly scanned around, seeing nopony nearby watching where she was, and where the pony was, giving her a chance to do this without getting spotted. Twilight teleported, appearing right next to the pony, and had a split second to raise a shield as the pony turned to her, firing erratic bolts of lightning from the shattered stump of her horn, that squealed loudly over the surface of her shield.

"Stop!" Twilight shouted. "I'm not here to hurt you!" She blinked at the jagged stump of the horn, "How are you even doing that?"

The pony opened her mouth to shout, her teeth showing in a snarl, when shouts in saddlan started echoing around, their violent meeting having been heard. The pony's face quickly morphed from anger to worry, "You have got to be kidding me..."

"I'm sorry! I wasn't expecting you to attack me! Hold on." Before the other pony could object, Twilight teleported, taking the both of them away from the estate and towards the outskirts of the city where they wouldn't get caught. Before her magic had even properly settled Twilight found herself getting kicked sideways into the dirt and pinned down by the irate pony as her horn crackled and popped with energy.

"Do you have any idea what you've done? Who are you anyway? Why did you approach me in there?"

Twilight teleported herself out of the grapple, and brushed the dust off herself. "My name is Twilight, and I'm sorry that happened, but I wasn't expecting you to attack me. How did you attack me anyway? You shouldn't be able to do that!"

"Really? You're telling me what I can and can't do?"

"Uh..." Twilight cleared her throat with embarrassment, "Sorry. I was actually hoping to ask you if you were planning to break into that place, and if I could possibly come with you?"

The pony straightened up, seeming more confused than angry now. "You did that in the hopes I would help you? And you expected that to work?"

"Yes, I did," Twilight lied. "If we both want to get in there, we stand a better chance working together."

"Because so far you've made it so very clear that working with you would be beneficial..." The pony shook her head, "Look, even if I was tempted to consider it, I want to know what you're after, just so I know it doesn't conflict with my own interests."

"My friends and I are after a mirror that was part of a teleport network Starswirl the Bearded once used. If that's what you're after I would recommend us working together as having us help you with it would benefit you."

"Actually I'm looking for something else altogether, so no, I have no interest in helping you, or letting you hinder me further. Now if you'll excuse me, I have a scouting mission to start over with."

"Wait, look- What's your name? If you don't mind me asking?"

The pony stared down at Twilight, her nose raised imperiously in the air as she considered whether to share her name or not. "My name, is Tempest Shadow," she said after a moment.

Twilight shrugged internally at the name, which seemed a touch too villainous to her to be the pony's original name. Who really names their child like that? "Alright, Tempest, I'm serious about working together. This is a secure vault you're breaking into, and it's not something you can do easily on your own." Or it could be as Twilight was lying through her teeth, making it seem like she knew more than she did. Daring Do got in there without magic, so it couldn't really have been that hard. "This place has state of the art security, and you'll need help to get past all that."

"And what kind of help are you offering in that regard?" Tempest asked, sounding genuinely curious. "Hmm?"

"Myself, and two of my friends, are accomplished spell-casters, which will be useful to get through the security. Security that you can't brute force your way through. If you can get us into the building, we'll get you into the vault."

Tempest looked like she was about to refuse, but she didn't. Instead she just stayed quiet as she thought about it. "I want to meet these... friends of yours."

"You'll mean you'll help us?"

"I'm considering it. Honestly, I have no interest in helping you, but if you're right about the security in that place it might be worth it if you're as good as you claim to be. Of course, the fact that you can teleport so easily is all I have to base that on, so you better not be lying to me."

-0-0-0-

Tempest glared at Twilight's friends with unconcealed disdain as she was informed of their names, not very impressed with what she could see. Two of them were rather bookish, one more obviously than the other, two of them had occasional issues with pronouns, and one of those, the blue unicorn, met her glare for glare. Tempest would have objected to that, violently, but a little voice in the back of her head told her that she might not actually win that fight, so she let it slide.

"So these are your... friends?" she said, like the word was unworthy of being said by her.

"Friends might be a bit strong of a word for all of us," said Moondancer. "Perhaps acquaintances would be more apt."

"And here I thought you'd all be claiming to be 'b-f-f's.' Interesting, but not so much that I actually care." Tempest turned back to Twilight, maintaining her air of disdain, "So whom among these would be your accomplished spell-casters?"

"That'd be Sunset and Trixie," Twilight said, pointing at the ponies those names belonged to.

"Mmhmm," Tempest hummed, taking note of the way Moondancer narrowed her eyes as Twilight failed to say her. "I'm afraid you're going to have to pick one of them then, as I'm only going to bring two of you with me at most, and that's me taking it on massive faith that these ponies are actually as good as you claim they are."

Twilight raised an eyebrow at the little smirk Tempest gave her. Clearly the mare derived amusement from having to make her pick. Too bad for her she was going to be disappointed. "I'll leave it to you guys, depending on who wants to come or not."

"Nah, I'm good," Sunset said quickly. "I won't be as much use as Trixie if you get caught."

"And once again Trixie's talents shine through." Trixie grinned at Twilight, "Almost thought you were rid of me, didn't you?"

"And I was so close I could taste it." Twilight rolled her eyes at Trixie, then looked up at Tempest, "I guess we've decided."

"Good. Meet me just south of the Vizier's estate as soon as the sun sets, and we'll get started. Don't be late because I won't be waiting for you if you are."

Twilight held up a hoof to stop Tempest as she started to leave, "Aren't you going to tell us the plan?"

"I've had to change the plan a little, but don't worry, you'll know it when you see it. However, I will have to tell those of you not coming with us to stay here, just to be safe." Tempest left, leaving Twilight to grimace as she could feel the others staring at her.

"Who the fuck was that, and where the fuck did you find her?" Trixie asked as soon as she thought Tempest was out of hearing range.

"I found her in the Vizier's estate while I was doing my fly over, and when I tried to talk to her she attacked me and alerted the guards, so I had to teleport us out. Then I offered her our help getting into the Vizier's private collection if she could sneak us in."

"Even though we have no idea what's in there ourselves," Moondancer pointed out.

"So I might have embellished the truth about what's down there a little. I know it can't be that bad if Daring Do could do it on her own. Look, she was sneaking around, and doing it well, so if she can get us in without getting caught and causing a huge diplomatic incident, all the better for us."

"We have a changeling!" Moondancer shouted in exasperation, pointing a hoof sideways at Mayfly. "A literal master of infiltration! Why the hell are we relying on some mare that you found sneaking around the Vizier's back yard?"

"Because..." Twilight waved her hooves around as she tried to formulate an answer. "I don't know, alright? I thought that since we had common goals that maybe we could work together. I'm sorry if that was the wrong thing to do."

"So you ruined her attempt to sneak in, to offer help to sneak in," Trixie said unsurely. "Masterful plan there Twilight. Still, if it gets us the mirror and keeps us out of the papers, maybe this could be a good idea... once you tell me why we're relying on a magicless unicorn to do this?"

"She's not magicless," said Twilight.

"She has a broken horn."

"I know what she has, but when I found her she attacked me with magic, like she pretty much forced the raw magic out of her horn in a crude but powerful bolt of lightning."

"That's impossible," said Sunset, Moondancer nodding in agreement.

"I know it should be, but I also know what I saw. If I hadn't shielded myself I'd be wearing the evidence all over my horribly burned body. She can use magic, but not very well."

Trixie nodded thoughtfully, "So not in any way that actually helps us sneak in then."

Twilight growled under her breath at the interrogation she was getting over enlisting this unicorn for help. "Okay, I don't know what's going on here, but she is probably our best chance to get the mirror, and once we have it we can part ways as unlikely friends and all that. She's not after the mirror herself, doesn't work for Faust, and isn't directly connected to Equestria beyond probably coming from there, so if she gets caught without us, we should be okay. Can you please trust me when I say this is the best plan we have right now?"

"Sure," Trixie said easily, while the others nodded as well after a few seconds. "I will however, be reserving to the right to say I told you so when she suddenly betrays us."

"I don't think she will," Twilight said confidently. "Tempest might seem a little cold, but I have a good feeling about her."

"Yeah, well, let's just see this plan of hers before we decide what kind of pony she is."

-0-0-0-

A long and fairly productive day passed, having been spent preparing for the journey past Saddle Arabia, whether that was to Starswirl's retreat or elsewhere, depending on their luck tonight.

Night soon came though, and Twilight and Trixie made their way out to the Vizier's estate to wait where Tempest had indicated, watching the last vestiges of the sun as it slowly slipped below the horizon.

"So where is this pony we're waiting for?"

"I don't know, let me just check the tracking spell I put on her."

"You actually did that?"

"That was a joke Trixie."

"You didn't make it sound like a joke." Trixie grumbled to herself and looked away, noticing some clouds growing on the horizon. "Late to her own meeting. Quality help you've found us Twilight."

"You know you're just inviting her to sneak up on us when you say things like that?"

"Of course I do! How else would she possibly hear us bad-mouthing her?"

"Us? I'm pretty sure you mean you."

"Pfft, details. I still think you're making a mistake trusting this pony. You don't even know anything about her!"

Twilight raised an eyebrow at Trixie, "Who said anything about trusting her? Our goals are similar, so we're working together-"

"Which requires some trust on some level," Trixie pointed out. "Even if it's just enough to not screw each other over at some point."

Twilight said nothing, not wanting to validate or argue with Trixie's concerns. What she did do though, was grow a small but mischievous grin as she spotted Tempest calmly walking up behind Trixie. "Anything else you want to say?"

"Now you mention it, yes. How does she get her mane to do that? She must have so much product in there that her mane would probably echo if you smacked it."

"Actually, this is all natural," Tempest said, making Trixie squeal in surprise. "I didn't realise my mane was of such interest to you?"

Trixie eyed Tempest, then shrugged. "You were late, and we had to talk about something. Also, thank you Twilight, for letting her sneak up behind me."

"You're welcome, as always." Twilight grinned playfully as Trixie stuck her tongue out, then turned her attention back to Tempest. "I don't suppose you could tell us the plan now?"

"Wait a couple of minutes, and you'll see it for yourself."

"Why can't we ever meet a straight talking pony?" Trixie whined under her breath, but otherwise stayed quiet as they waited. She noticed Tempest was watching the clouds she'd spotted before, and couldn't hold back her derisive snort. "I'm sorry, is the plan to wait for it to rain?"

"Of sorts."

Trixie threw her hooves up, "Argh! Just tell us the fucking plan!"

"Is she normally this impatient?" Tempest asked Twilight.

"You have no idea."

Tempest shrugged at the answer. "So, I'm curious, what is it you need this mirror for?"

"It leads to a place that we hope will contain the knowledge we need to defeat Faust," said Twilight.

"Faust? Who's Faust?"

"Really?" Trixie snickered. "You have no idea who the ancient goddess of an alicorn who's currently attacking Equestria with an army of mind controlled fanatics is?"

"We don't get a lot of news from Equestria down south, so no, I have no idea who that is." Tempest went quiet from a moment, her expression changing as she thought. "Is Equestria actually fighting back?"

"As well as they can," said Twilight. "It's not a fight we can really win without stopping Faust, which is why getting this mirror is so important."

"How bad is it?"

"We don't know," Twilight admitted. "We only found out the war had begun yesterday after seeing it in the papers."

"I didn't even think Equestria had an army."

"Until a couple of months ago it didn't."

"But now," Trixie interrupted, "now we have a few thousand idiots to send charging at a few thousand of their idiots in a orgy of violence with all the blood, guts, and screaming you could possibly want. It's just a big ole murder party."

Tempest raised an eyebrow at Trixie, "You sound like you have experience with that."

"If only you knew. You're looking at two of the idiots that inadvertently gave Faust a ready made army to attack Equestria with."

Twilight was about to say something to stop Trixie, but shut her mouth with a click as the clouds started racing closer. Moments later a horn blared and a quartet of airships broke out of the clouds, each bearing the same symbol as the one on Tempest's armour. "What's this?"

"This is our distraction," Tempest replied as large bipedal creatures started dropping from the ships, covered in thick armour and carrying weapons.

"Are you insane?" Twilight gasped. "You're really attacking the city just to break into this place? Nopony needed to die for us to do this! Our friends are still in the city!"

"And nopony will die," Tempest stated. "The Storm King doesn't kill unless absolutely necessary. As for your friends, if they stay put they'll be fine. I marked the building so my troops will leave it alone."

"Why doesn't this 'Storm King' kill?" asked Trixie.

"Kill someone, and you can only rob them once. Spare them, and you can rob them again the next year." Tempest turned to look at the estate, where the guards were stood on the wall watching what was happening in the city. "Hmm... they were supposed to attack here as well. Damn it Grubber, you worthless slug."

"So now what?" Trixie asked, giving Twilight a long, cool stare.

"Now we do things the way I was originally going to do them. Come along ladies, let's go sneaking."

As they followed Tempest, Twilight didn't even need to see Trixie to know the way she was looking at her. "I'm so glad we're sticking with this plan. This is a good plan. You should be proud of yourself Twilight, because there's no topping this one."

-0-0-0-

Sunset peeked fearfully out of the window, watching the hulking bipeds down below as they trashed the city, taking whatever they wanted as the city guard failed to do anything meaningful to stop them. The creatures were simply too large and powerful, beating the guards senseless before they could even attempt to fight back.

"Does Twilight even know what she's done?" Moondancer snarled, pacing back and forth behind Sunset as Mayfly sat quietly nearby. "Those... beasts, are wearing the same symbol as that pony she brought here was!"

"There was no way she could have known about this," Sunset said, partly to reassure herself because she wasn't entirely sure whether Twilight knew or not. She really hoped Twilight didn't, because the alternative was far too messed up to want to consider.

"They're not killing ponies," said Mayfly. "Maybe it's not as bad as it looks."

"Hah!" Moondancer laughed nastily. "Right, and why do you think that is?"

"Why does it matter? Living ponies can rebuild. Dead ponies can't."

"Yep, and those living ponies get more stuff, then these guys come back and steal it all again! It's a beautiful cycle of... something!" Moondancer stopped as a mare started screaming from the street below. "That better not be what I think it is," she muttered, heading over to the window next to Sunset.

"They're capturing ponies," Sunset murmured as a trio of Saddle Arabians, two mares and a stallion, were forced into some kind of muzzle covering bridle and heavy iron collars by the hulking soldiers, before being dragged away, kicking and screaming.

"Oooooh, is that why they're not killing anypony? So they can enslave them instead? My goodness, why didn't I think of that?" Moondancer grabbed Sunset's shoulders, "Come on, we need to do something!"

"Like what?"

"I don't know! Something! Anything!"

While Sunset was surprised at Moondancer's willingness to do something, she knew there was nothing they could really do. "We wouldn't stand a chance against those things, and the two ponies that could, aren't here."

"And what if the Sultan comes begging for our help, what then? 'Sorry, Twilight and Trixie are out right now. Please don't connect that to the Vizier getting robbed again.'" Moondancer slammed her hooves on the windowsill and turned back into the room. "We could've just asked about the mirror. We didn't even need to keep it! This has all been so... so... fucking stupid it hurts!"

"Maybe we should count ourselves lucky they're leaving this place alone," said Mayfly. "I could hide, but you two might not do so well."

"And who's to say that they won't attack here eventually? We should- We should-" Moondancer sighed, finally admitting to how hopeless it would be to try and fight back. They were lucky the place they were staying was being left alone, and they all knew it.

"Oh shit!" Sunset cursed. "They're attacking the palace!"

Moondancer snorted at Sunset, "You mean where all the best stuff is?"

"Moondancer! If they kill or capture the Sultan, do you have any idea what that would do? Saddle Arabia would be in chaos!"

"And? You said it yourself Sunset, there's nothing we can do about this. We're just three litt- two little ponies and a changeling, and we're way out of our depth. All we can do is look after ourselves, and hope the Sultan hides somewhere."

-0-0-0-

Progress had been quick sneaking into the estate with the guards busy watching the events unfolding in the city. It got even quicker as half of them left when they saw the palace get attacked, even though Tempest insisted that wasn't supposed to happen. There were still plenty of guards left though, even if they were distracted.

"Like taking candy off a foal," Tempest remarked as they crept through the shadows to the side entrance of the mansion.

"Last time I checked," Trixie sneered, "taking candy off foals didn't require an army."

"Depends on the size of the foal," Tempest said back. "Now shush." Tempest pressed a hoof against the handle of the door and pushed down, but nothing happened, suggesting it was locked. "Alright accomplished spell-casters, time to show me what you got." A pink glow surrounded the lock for a moment, then it clicked open. "Okay then," Tempest said, trying to not sound very impressed, "not bad."

Trying the door again, it swung open with the barest hint of a creak, letting them into what seemed to be a kitchen. Tempest signalled for the others to stop, then entered on her own. A moment later there was a strangled squawk and a loud thump, before Tempest spoke. "Okay, it's clear."

"Oh my, the cook," Trixie deadpanned as she saw a mare unconscious on the floor. "Such a threat to us."

"You're the ones that don't want anypony to see you in here," Tempest snapped back, getting tired of Trixie's attitude towards her. "Excuse me for actually doing what you want when I could've done all this without you!"

Twilight stopped Trixie, knowing there was a retort coming. She wasn't exactly pleased with Tempest's method of distraction, but since they were all here it wouldn't kill them to actually do what they came to do first. "Lead on Tempest."

Tempest glared at Trixie for a moment, then pushed open the door at the other side of the kitchen, which led into a large dining room that was thankfully empty. "I don't suppose either of you has a spell that will lead us to where we need to go?"

"Only if I know where it is we're going," Twilight said apologetically. "I'd say it's probably downstairs though, if not underground."

"How could you possibly know how good the security is if you've never been here... before..." Tempest's eyes went half lidded as she worked it out, "You lied to me, didn't you?"

"Fortune favours the bold," Trixie said cheerfully as Twilight wilted under Tempest's gaze.

"In my defence, it might have some serious security, so you might still need us."

Tempest rolled her eyes and gestured with her head for them to keep following her. Beyond the dining room was several other doors that lead to various rooms that at the very least looked nice, even if they weren't what they were looking for, not until they came to the end of the hallway to a large staircase. Around it were various items and trinkets in display cases, but nothing like what they were looking for.

"This stuff would all be for the taking if Grubber hadn't messed up," Tempest grumbled, before spotting a door to each side of the stairs. She pushed it open, finding beyond it a small, white, well lit gallery of sorts, filled with empty display cases, heavier than the ones in the previous room. Most telling that they were in the right place was that one of them was broken.

"They're empty," Tempest said blankly. "Why are they empty?"

"This place was broken into a couple of nights ago," Twilight explained. "They probably moved everything here into somewhere a bit more secure.

"But they were meant to be here." Tempest's horn crackled with energy for a moment before settling back down. Twilight looked sideways at Trixie to see her gawping with surprise at Tempest. "They can't be too far away."

"If I were to guess, I'd say they were in some kind of vault," said Twilight. "Maybe through there," she added, pointing to a door at the far end of the room. She teleported over to it and peeked through, finding a set of stairs that went down below ground level. At the bottom it opened out into a small area, with a large steel vault occupying one end of the room. "Bingo. Now we just need to get in."

"And how do you intend to do that?" Tempest asked.

Twilight stared up at the large, circular steel door, with its big strong lock, and gave the only answer she could think of. "With science!"

"This should be good," Trixie snickered.

"There should pins inside the door... three of them judging by the mechanism. Two at the top and bottom, and one at the side. So, all we need to do is bust the lock and turn the wheel, and it should open."

"And how do you intend to do that?" Tempest enquired politely. "Last I checked, metal wasn't the easiest thing to bust with magic."

"As I said, science." Twilight summoned Swordy and inserted his tip into the lock. Using the least utilised of the runes she had engraved him with, she started channelling intense cold down the blade and into the lock.

"We're waiting," Trixie sang.

"And you can keep waiting," Twilight sang back. After a minute frost started forming around the lock, getting thicker and thicker the colder it got. Another minute after that Twilight withdrew Swordy and dismissed him, then planted a tiny crystal inside the lock before gesturing at the others to move back.

"Good job this vault door is pretty primitive," Twilight said, pumping her magic into the crystal, increasing it in size. She struggled as it reached the confines of the lock, but she kept going, and eventually the cold, brittle steel gave in to the pressure coming from within, popping the lock open in a spray of metal and crystal shards.

With the lock mostly gone, it was easy enough to pull the pin locking the wheel, and even easier to spin the wheel to open the door, although pulling it open was a good deal harder than it needed to be, even with alicorn strength.

"Tada!"

"Well done," Tempest purred, stepping into the vault and breathing deeply. "Now where are you?" she asked, finding everything was in its own protective drawer within the vault.

Trixie immediately ran over to the widest drawers, pulling them open one by one until she found the one she wanted. She pulled the mirror out and held it up for Twilight to see. "Pay dirt!"

"There it is! It's all there!" Twilight gasped. Apart from a large crack stretching from the top right of the mirror to the bottom left, all the mirror was whole. Wooden frame, the gems lining it, all of it was there and perfectly preserved. All they had to do was repair it. "I can't believe it."

"Faust better watch out now, because we've got us a mother-fucking mirror!"

"Hopefully now we can end this war before it gets too much worse." Twilight stroked a hoof down the mirror, a genuine smile creeping onto her face.

"Rrr! Where is it?" Tempest growled, searching through drawer after drawer. "It has to be here! I know it is!"

"What are you looking for?" asked Twilight, ready to offer her help. She was ignored though as an increasingly frantic Tempest kept tearing through the Vizier's collection. "Tempest?"

"Yes!" Tempest suddenly shouted, pulling a large blue coloured staff out of a drawer. It had a two pronged claw at the end, and a large gem set between them. "Finally!"

"What is that?" Twilight asked Tempest, not recognising the staff in the slightest.

Tempest turned to Twilight and grinned, "This... this is the Staff of Sacanas. With it I shall finally get my horn back, and show the world just what I'm really capable of."

"Uh, shouldn't your horn just grow back anyway?" said Trixie. "Without the help of a big magical stick?"

"Not mine," Tempest said darkly.

"Really?" Twilight twisted her head to study the remains of Tempest's horn, ignoring the scar over Tempest's right eye that creased as she narrowed her eyes at Twilight. "Y'know, I've invented a h-" Twilight twitched her ears as she was interrupted by shouts from upstairs, "Shit! Guards! They can't tell anypony we were here!"

"Can't you just amnesia them?" said Trixie.

"Not when they can fight back." Twilight summoned Swordy again, "I guess there's nothing for it."

"No need for that," Tempest said smoothly, pushing Swordy aside with an armoured hoof, missing the nick that was cut into the shoe just by touching the blade. "I don't care if they see me, so I'll take care of it. Hold this," she added passing the staff to Twilight.

Twilight took the staff in her magic, but dropped it into her hooves after a moment because it felt like the staff was trying to suck the magic out of her. "What is this thing?" she asked out loud as she turned it in her hooves. Whatever it really was, she was getting a bad feeling about it. Still, it wasn't her problem, so she decided to not worry about it.

"I wonder what she's doing up there?" Trixie said as she looked up the stairs. There were still shouts coming from the ponies up there, but they seemed rather more frantic and pained compared to the ones from before. "Screw it, I'm going to have a look."

"Wait!" Twilight propped the staff next to the mirror and scurried up the stairs after Trixie, who had stopped to peek around the edge of the door. Twilight did the same, and was amazed by what she saw.

Tempest was surrounded by a dozen guards, although four of them were already down, slumped unconscious on the ground or against the walls. The rest of them seemed reluctant to attack now, even armed with the large scimitars they had. One ran in from behind her, bringing his sword down in a slice that would have come straight down on Tempest's back if she hadn't dodged it. She stepped to the side and twisted, punching him between the eyes, leaving him to drop to the floor as another guard ran at her. Tempest back flipped, kicking the guard on the back of his head as he passed beneath her, then brought her rear hooves down on the head of yet another guard, using him as a springboard to flip forwards and kick the first guard again.

"Holy shit!" Trixie whispered. "Is she like some kind of ninja?" Both of them cringed as Tempest ducked below a swinging blade, losing a few hairs from her mohawk, and bucked the stallion wielding it into the wall. "I wouldn't like my odds in a fight against her."

"Oh please," Twilight scoffed, "she'd be dead before she could even get close to you."

"There's no need to say it like that. I like to think I'd give her a fighting chance." They winced as a guard slammed into the wall nearby. "Yeah, maybe I wouldn't. Give that mare an inch, and she'll take a mile."

"Exact- Ooh!" Twilight squeezed her legs together in sympathy as Tempest potentially ruined one of the stallions chances to procreate. Mercifully she punched him in the head a second later, sparing him from the immediate agony.

"It does make you wonder though," Trixie continued. "We're both thinking that she's the bad guy here, but we would've killed these guards just to hide our identities. Tempest on the other hoof, is sparing every single one of them. Makes you wonder who the real bad guys in the room are."

"Thanks Trixie, I really needed that reminder of the kind of ponies we are now."

"If you were that worried, why didn't you teleport us out of here the moment we got what we wanted?"

"Three of us through an underground vault with two magical artifacts? One of which is a portal, which tends to get upset by being teleported itself? Admittedly it's not active now, so it likely wouldn't have made a difference, but it would still be hard."

"Okay, sheesh, miss magic pants. I can't even begin to fathom teleporting... or shields... or many other things, so excuse me for not knowing."

Twilight patted Trixie on the shoulder, "You'll get there. You just need to stop saying the spell you want to cast, followed by the word go, and you'll start to improve."

"It's my process!" Trixie shoved Twilight aside as Tempest took out the last guard with a shoulder toss and a quick hoof to the back of the head, and trotted up to her as she took a moment to make sure none of the guards woke up too soon. "Nicely done."

"My goodness, a compliment, from you of all ponies." Tempest brushed past Trixie towards the vault, letting Twilight lead the way back down. "I really do suggest we get out of here sooner rather than later. My soldiers will hold their attention for a while, but we want to be out of here before the army comes."

"Then let's get mov- Hey!" Twilight shouted as she saw a blue glow around the mirror that was getting drawn into the Staff of Sacanas. She ran down and snatched the staff away, breaking the connection. "What the hell?" She probed the mirror with her magic, finding that although the portal spell was mostly intact, the gems powering it were completely drained. "No! No-no-no! Without the gems this mirror is useless!" Twilight turned and pointed the staff up under Tempest's nose, "Fix it. Now."

"Do I look like I know how?" Tempest said back, pushing the staff aside. "I'm sorry that happened, but if you don't know to fix it, I certainly don't. Can't you just charge them with your own magic?"

"Not from a completely drained state using different magic than what they're used to. It ruins their stability." Twilight probed the gems again, finding that half of them retained some magic, so they could be recharged, but that was it. "For fuck sake! We were so close!"

"What about the gems we found with the other fragments?" said Trixie. "Could you replace the broken gems with them?"

"I'm not sure we have that many, or the right ones." Twilight squeezed her eyes shut and exhaled a long drawn out sigh, "Forget it. Let's focus on getting out of here first. Maybe I can create new gems if comes down to it."

"That's the spirit!" Trixie cheered. "Now let's go before those goons back upstairs wake up."

-0-0-0-

"Don't drop the mirror Trixie."

"I'm not going to drop the mirror."

"I'm being serious Trixie!"

"Trixie is too!" There was a brief pause as Trixie felt embarrassed, "I realise that talking in the third person isn't the most stunning endorsement of how serious I'm being, but I can assure you that Trixie is being... Hmm."

"Just take the fucking mirror Trixie!" Twilight let go of the mirror as Trixie's magic took hold of it, then teleported to the other side of the wall before Trixie had even brought it halfway to the ground. A moment later Tempest jumped onto the wall, then down the other side, the Staff of Sacanas grinned firmly in her teeth until she took it in her hooves instead.

"And there we go, we both got what we wanted, so our business is concluded."

"Not until you get us back to out hotel," said Twilight. "Without you with us I don't trust your goons to not consider us fair game."

"Actually, my Storm Guard, or 'goons' as you so eloquently put it, should be falling back to the airships to exit the city. They shouldn't have any interest in you."

"I'm not buying it," said Trixie. "They're here to loot the place, and we have loot."

"Alright, fine," Tempest growled. "I'll get you as far as your hotel, then we are parting ways. Although, if you want you could come with me instead? The Storm King is always interested in talent like yours Twilight."

"No thank you. As interested as he might be in my talents, I'm not interested in what he has to offer me."

Tempest shrugged, "Suit yourself, although the offer will still stand for the next five minutes if you change your mind."

"Again, no thank you." Twilight hefted the mirror in her magic, holding it along her right side with the glass held towards her to protect it. "Let's get moving. I have the feeling that leaving the city sooner rather than later would be beneficial to all of us."

Much to Twilight's surprise, the city was much as Tempest had said, with her Storm Guard now absent in the outskirts of the city. They had definitely left their mark though as anything weaker than concrete seemed to have been smashed, and that was because it wasn't worth stealing.

It also occurred to Twilight that being seen running through the city with a pony wearing the mark of the ones responsible for this wasn't the best idea she'd ever had. Thankfully most of the ponies around were either too distracted, or weren't looking too closely, seeing just three ponies running through the city with a mirror and a fancy stick.

Nearer the city centre, where they were staying, was a different story though. The sounds of fighting were everywhere as the Saddle Arabians attempted to force the invaders from their city. Again they were too distracted to pay attention to three little ponies. It was becoming pretty obvious that they shouldn't be seen around Tempest any longer though.

"I think we need to split u-"

"Look out!" Trixie shouted as a member of the city guard that was fighting the Storm Guards was picked up and flung towards them. Twilight eyes widened with horror as the guard came right towards her, colliding with the mirror before smacking into her, sending them both flying into a wall.

Twilight's vision blacked out for a moment, and when she came to she was slumped next to a wall, covered in blood from a dozen different cuts, half of which still had glass in. Trixie was staring at her with her mouth open, and Tempest was fighting some guards, her shattered horn spitting arcs of lightning. Twilight shifted painfully, and picked the glass out of a cut on her leg. It was reflective.

"No!" Twilight shouted, suddenly feeling a lot more aware as she saw the mirror shattered all around her. "No..."

"Twilight!" Trixie ran up to Twilight, having come back to her senses. "Twilight! Are you alright? Can you get up?"

"The mirror."

"What?"

"The mirror. Get the mirror."

"The mirror's fucked Twilight!"

Twilight forced herself to her hooves, hissing from the pain of doing so. It felt like there was more of the mirror inside her than at that moment than outside. "We still need it," she grunted. "Find as much as you can, and bring it before more guards show up."

"But-"

"Now!" Twilight stared Trixie down until the mare gave in, and stood there concentrating on her breathing until Tempest caught her eye, staring at her a little blankly. "What?"

"That shouldn't have happened."

"Well it did," Twilight growled, the pain focussing her anger wonderfully.

"We have a medic on the ship if you come with me."

"I'll be fine."

"You really don't look like you'll be fine."

Twilight yanked some shards of mirror out of her side and tossed them in a pile, and ignored the blood running down her side. "I said I'll be fine, and I meant it. You have your prize Tempest, so just go."

Tempest appeared as though she was going to argue for a moment, but then her face returned to its usual aloof expression. "As you wish. The Storm King thanks you for your assistance," she said before turning and trotting away.

"I bet he fucking does," Twilight grunted.

"I got as much as I could find," Trixie said as Twilight watched Tempest go out of sight. "It's not the whole mirror though."

"Then we can work out how much we have once we find the others and get out of the city."

"Out of the city? Twilight, you are in no condition to travel anywhere."

"Give me ten minutes and I will be. Besides, I'm not joking about getting out of the city. If the army arrives they'll lock this place down hard, and we might end up trapped here." Twilight sighed as Trixie eyed her, "I'm not joking Trixie."

"Fine, but if you bleed out on us, one of the others can drag your corpse until you come back."

-0-0-0-

"Ooh, hey, you got the thtaff you wanted!"

"No thanks to you," Tempest said as she reached the top of the ramp into her airship. "You were supposed to attack the estate over there Grubber, not the palace!"

The short, grey, chubby hedgehog backed away and chuckled nervously, expecting lightning and pain at any moment. "In my defenth," he lisped, "I am not known for my senthe of directhon. Thtill, you got it tho it all worked out, am I right?"

"Grubber, do me a favour and remind me to punish you later."

Grubber nodded sadly, "Yeth Tempetht. Are we thetting courthe for Equethtria after we take all thefe thlaves back to the Thtorm Isleth?"

Tempest didn't answer immediately, weighing up their options in her head before making a decision. "Not yet. If what I've learnt is true, Equestria is currently at war with another nation, and I very much doubt the Storm King wishes to throw himself into the middle of it. Until the war is over and we know more, Equestria will have to wait. The Storm King will understand."

Grubber nodded slowly, "Okay, tho, what now?"

"Now?" Tempest sighed to herself, "Now we go back to the Storm Isles and hope the Storm King is feeling forgiving." She braced herself as her airship lurched, taking off into the air. Then she turned to regard the pile of riches in the middle of the cargo bay that was pilfered from the palace, and the captured Saddle Arabians chained to the walls. "Perhaps we should find a few more places to raid to find an apology gift or two."

-0-0-0-

"What the hell happened to you?" Sunset asked as a blood soaked Twilight slouched in through the door to their room. "Are you alright?" she asked, having taken in the extent of Twilight's injuries.

"I'll be fine," Twilight said mechanically, more annoyed at getting asked than anything her injuries were doing to her. She wasn't lying though, as the bleeding had stopped on the way to their room, and the wounds were already spitting out fragments of mirror as they healed. "Are you guys alright?" she asked.

"Oh we're fine," Moondancer said, a sarcastic edge to her words. "I can't say the same for all the Saddle Arabians they attacked, stole from, and captured."

"Captured?"

"That's right, captured. Those things chained them up and dragged them into their airships to be carried off to a bright future as slave labourers, or maybe food judging by the look of those things."

"But... what?" Twilight looked to Sunset and Mayfly, seeing the same look in their eyes as she could see in Moondancer's. "You're kidding, right?" she asked hopefully.

"I wish she was," said Sunset. "You really had no idea about this?"

"Of course not! If I'd known that I would have stopped this before it even began! It was bad enough knowing they were attacking the city, but Tempest never said anything about capturing ponies!"

"And how can we be sure you're not lying to us?" Moondancer narrowed her eyes at Twilight, "For all we know you could be putting on an act, while not actually caring in the slightest."

"I did not lead a rebellion and fight a war to liberate a country and its slaves just to suddenly be okay with slavery!" Twilight roared, stunning them all. "If I could fly right now I'd be chasing after those airships and getting those ponies back! And you can be damned sure that once this thing with Faust is all over, assuming we win, I will be doing something about this!"

"She's not lying," said Mayfly. "I can usually tell when a pony is lying."

Moondancer stepped back, her mouth hanging open. "Okay, I believe you."

Twilight nodded and sat hard, her head spinning a little. "Thank you. How much mirror do we have?" She waited as Trixie laid out the mirror pieces she'd picked up in front of her. It was barely a half of the entire mirror. "This is this really all you found?"

"What do you want from me?" Trixie replied defensively. "That mirror went fucking everywhere, and we didn't exactly have time to hunt for it all. I at least got most of the functioning gems."

Twilight canted her head back and groaned, then picked up the bag containing the rest of the fragments they had found, and placed them on the ground with the rest. Altogether it came up to almost an entire mirror. Almost, but not quite. "For fuck sake! We had an entire mirror, and this is all we're left with? Five sixths of a mirror? Argh!"

"I guess this means we're going to the Circen desert then," said Sunset. "At least our odds of doing this are better with only a small amount of fragments to find."

Twilight wanted to concede the logic of that, but she was far too annoyed after the fact that they could have fixed the mirror by now and be where they needed to be, assuming that the Staff of Sacanas hadn't broken it completely.

"Yeah, we're going to the Circen desert," she said instead, a bit flatly. "And we're going now before the army gets here and shuts this place down in case of another attack."

"But the palace was attacked," said Sunset. "Shouldn't we go check if the Sultan is okay?"

"Ideally yes, and I'm going to, but if we get too involved now it might be ages before he lets us leave, and ponies in Equestria are counting on us to get this done. I'm sorry Sunset, but we need to go."

Sunset nodded unenthusiastically, "Yeah alright, I get it." She hefted her bags onto her back as Twilight swept the fragments back into their bag. "What if we don't find enough fragments in the desert?"

Twilight shrugged, "That's always been a possibility since we started this. All we can do is hope."

"Which is a pretty feeble thing to have to count on," said Trixie.

"I know." Twilight sighed and tossed her bags at Trixie, "You guys get on out of here, I'm going to go get Daring."

-0-0-0-

Twilight had expected the palace to be in worse condition than it was, but while the gardens were destroyed, the palace itself didn't seem particularly worse for wear. At least not if you didn't look to closely.

Twilight made her way up the steps unopposed by the guards, who were looking at her with wide-eyed horror upon seeing her injuries. Twilight ignored them, just as she ignored her injuries, and entered the palace to find the interior in ruins. Anything shiny had been stolen, and what hadn't been stolen was destroyed.

Twilight wandered through the middle of it all, taking in what she felt she had allowed to happen. She knew that wasn't really true, as it would have happened anyway, but no matter how much she told herself otherwise, she still felt complicit. She would have done her best to stop it if she wasn't.

The throne room was heavily guarded, and somepony finally challenged Twilight as she made her way through the palace. The guard said something to her in saddlan, which Twilight failed to understand.

"Tell the Sultan, Princess Twilight wants to see him," Twilight said in carefully pronounced Equestrian, falling into the same trap as so many others of talking slowly to foreigners. She was vindicated in a way as the guard grunted and gestured for her to follow.

She was led to the throne where the Sultan was sat, looking every inch a broken stallion. He glanced up as she stopped in front of him, and gasped at the state Twilight was in. "Are you alright Princess? Do you require medical assistance?"

"I'm fine," Twilight assured him. "Alicorns heal quick. I'm more concerned about you."

"My guards protected me, but they could not protect everything."

"It does look like some stuff has gone missing," Twilight agreed.

"Stuff? I'm not concerned about stuff! Stuff can be replaced! Those beasts hurt my people! Took their belongings, and took fit ponies as slaves. They took some of my wives, and they took Hakim."

Twilight's ears perked up, and she instantly felt ashamed for being even slightly pleased that the Vizier had been taken. As big a threat as he might have been to her current and future plans, he didn't deserve to be made a slave. Nopony did.

"I'm sorry," Twilight said, meaning it.

"You have nothing to apologise for," the Sultan sighed. "I though, have everything to apologise for. My name means warrior in my tongue, but I am no such thing. My people were in danger, and I did nothing to protect them. Even an all-powerful alicorn princess like yourself wasn't safe in my country."

"I'm not all... never mind. Look, I am sorry for what happened, and I wish I could have done more to stop it."

"Why is it your concern to stop what happened?"

"Because I don't like to see people suffer, and knowing some of your ponies are being forced into slavery... hurts me more than you know. I wish I could do more to help you."

The Sultan snorted a bitter laugh, "And we could use the help, but the only country I could reliably ask for help was Equestria, and I turned my back on you. Now we both need help, and cannot give it to each other."

"I didn't think the damage to your country was that bad. I thought only the city was attacked?

"Nagdad south of here is being attacked as we speak. Apparently Ammare wasn't enough for them. After that I shall have to use my army to protect from further incursions. Even if I didn't have to protect my lands, I have no means with which to reclaim our taken ponies. As I said, I wish I could have Equestria's help."

"I'm not sure we could help you right now anyway," Twilight said, more bluntly than she meant to. "If anything it's better for your people that your army is here to protect them."

"Even supplies would help your cause, and I didn't even give you that. If even the few things we have left would be enough to gain your aid if rescuing my people, I would gladly give it."

Twilight sighed unhappily, "I wish I could accept that, but I've had no contact with Celestia for some time. If you wish to give us aid, I'm sure we'll appreciate it, but we can't do anything until the war has ended, and even then, Equestria might be in no fit state to help you for a while."

"I... understand."

"However," Twilight continued, "I will do everything I can to get you that help, even if it means me doing it alone. That much is a promise. You will get your ponies back some day."

The Sultan smiled at Twilight, "The promise of a Princess is a certain thing indeed. I only wish I could have a certain time frame in which to work. I worry for those taken." Twilight said nothing, knowing full well that the time frame she was speaking of was in years rather than days, weeks, or months. "Is there anything I could do to aid you now, if I can?"

"I know this seems like bad timing, but with everything that's happened my hunt for the mirror seems... unlikely to get very far. I was coming to tell you that I'm leaving to look elsewhere, and to collect Daring Do." Twilight smiled sympathetically as the Sultan slumped, "Sorry, but the war in Equestria takes precedent for me, even now."

"No, I understand. I only hope that distance doesn't make you forget your promises."

"No," Twilight stated firmly. "I meant that when I said it, and I will keep on meaning it."

"You almost make it sound personal."

"It is a bit. After what I saw in Mareitania, I despise slavery, which is why I intend to put an end to it where I can." What Twilight didn't say, since it was the lesser point by a long way, was that she felt a bit used and now had a serious score to settle with Tempest Shadow. She intended to settle it.

Author's Note

I know I said I wasn't going to bring Tempest into the story, and I wasn't, but then I had this idea and ran with it, so... surprise! Never trust anything I say. As for after this, we won't be seeing Twilight for a while because I have screwed up my pacing between them and the rest of the story. Go me.

There may or may not be a chapter next week because I'm going somewhere next week and may not get back particularly soon, but it'll be up Monday or Tuesday instead.