Northern Venture

Chapters

An Offer She Might Refuse
The Plot Thickens
Lessons Ventured
Which Sounds Better, Koldkri or Ice Kubkri?
Meetings and Reunions
Not According to Plan
Complications
A Lot More Complicated
The Showdown
Waking Up In the Hospital
The Breaking
Interlude: All that Glimmers
Consequences
Facing the Aftermath
Difficult Questions
A Terrible Plan
The Final Moves
The Turning Point of Destiny
Interlude: The Hunt for Bacon
My Chains Are Broken
Aftermath
Epilogue
Sunset Gathers Her Party and Ventures Forth
A Strictly Professional Meeting
Interlude: This One Meets the White Pony

An Offer She Might Refuse

I had not been having a good day.

I’d heard that Magi are supposed to be subtle and quick to anger. I was getting better about subtlety, but I definitely had the other half of it down. Fortunately, it was all justified anger. Politics is a pretty great way to get anyone in a bad mood, especially when I had to deal with a group as frustrating as the Freeport Council. Maybe it had been a bit optimistic to hope they’d immediately jump on board with my plan, but I’d expected better results than what I’d gotten.

I was in the process of pacing a groove into the floor of my tower when someone rapped on the front door. It was just a token knock, because a second later I felt my visitor pass through my wards and open the front door. My apprentice Kukri Doo grinned up at me, still wearing her mini-me disguise. “Hey Shimmer-mare!” She must have picked up on my mood, because she reverted to her natural changeling form and tried to look a bit more serious. “This one is here for its lessons.”

“I’m glad you’re here,” I grunted. “We’ve got an important lesson to cover today.” I’d actually been so distracted by the meeting with the Council that I didn’t have anything prepared, but I was sure I could improvise something.

Kukri’s ears perked and her eager grin showed off her fangs. “This one is ready for whatever you’ve got!”

“Glad to hear it.” I cobbled together a quick lesson to fill the time until I could come up with a proper one. “Tell me everything you know about Alpha Limits.”

“Alpha Limits?” Kukri blinked in surprise, then frowned as she wracked her brain for information. After a couple seconds of concentration she stuck her tongue out of the corner of her mouth, almost exactly the same way she did when focusing on her spellcasting. It was a habit I’d been trying to break her of, but I wasn’t in the mood to chide her over it again. “Don’t tell this one, it knows this...”

She spent several more seconds cycling through different expressions before her eyes lit up. “Oh right!” She took a deep breath, then dutifully recited. “The Alpha Limit is the theoretical maximum of any unicorn’s natural magical potential. The term was originally coined by Star Swirl the Bearded, though later theorists like Clover the Clever and Midnight Sparkle suggested that it was a flawed term because most unicorns have a natural limit far below the Alpha level.”

I nodded approvingly. “All of that was correct. However, it’s also worth remembering that the Alpha Limit isn’t a hard-and-fast line as Star Swirl originally posited. Rather, it’s more of a loose metaphorical barrier where diminishing marginal returns make further investment close to worthless.” Kukri’s confused frown prompted me to dumb it down a bit. “Magical development is a lot like any other field: you’ll eventually reach a point where there’s just not much more you can learn, and you don’t really gain all that much from practicing. It’s not so much that you hit a hard wall as it is that you’ll spend years of work to get a tiny bit of advancement.”

Kukri nodded thoughtfully. “Mom said something similar once when it asked why she practiced with many different weapons instead of just one.” She paused, then shot me a confused look. “So what’s that got to do with today's lesson?”

I chuckled at her impatience and ruffled her head-crest. “It’s something to always be mindful of. Your growth as a magus is not going to be infinite progression. Eventually, you’ll plateau and start to hit the limits of your potential, and from there you’ll stop learning at the explosive rate you’ve been growing at.”

“Oh.” Kukri shuffled on her hooves, her eyes dropping to the floor. “Well, yeah. This one knows it's never going to come close to the Shimmer-mare’s power and skill, but still...” She bit her lip, then glanced up at me out of the corner of her eye. “There’s gotta be more though, right? Like research and whatnot, or something? This one thought it recalled hearing something about ways to get past the Alpha Limit...”

I smiled and patted her back. “Considering how much magi obsess over getting better at magic, it’s one of the more heavily studied topics. Everyone wants to find a way to get around their limits and become something more, and of course there’ve been a few success stories. The simplest method is the one used by Star Swirl himself, using focuses or other magic or enchanted items to supplement your own spellcasting ability.” I briefly considered mentioning my biological mother’s studies with rune magic as another example, but I wasn’t eager to open up that can of worms. “It might not technically be a direct boost to your power, but it accomplishes the same thing for most purposes. You can still accomplish more, and everything’s still based on your own magic.”

Kukri nodded along. “This one might have to do that at some point. It believes that Puzzle uses similar tricks to enhance his own powers.”

I was tempted to point out that most of the items Puzzle used were trinkets compared to the sort of artifacts I was talking about, but that would’ve been a long and pointless tangent. “Secondly, there's the option of getting additional power from an outside source. Sentient artifacts, or really ancient and powerful beings who can spare the magic. Dragons, demons, and things like that.”

Kukri cocked her head to the side. “Could the White Pony do that too?”

I frowned for a moment and thought it over. “I’d assume Celestia could probably do it, too, but I haven’t heard of her ever sharing her magic like that.” I briefly considered the possibility that Cadenza had gotten her alicorn transformation that way, but it didn’t fit. “Anyway, the problem with getting a power boost from an external source is that nobody gives away that kind of power for free.”

Kukri nodded along, dutifully reciting another one the lessons she’d gotten. “Anything that’s being offered for free could be dangerous, because everything with real value has a price. Something free is just something with a cost you haven’t identified yet.”

“Exactly.” I was pretty sure she’d picked up that particular lesson from Puzzle or her parents, but it was true regardless. “Most of the artifacts that can boost someone’s magical power that much come with a massive downside. The Alicorn Amulet brings out all your worst impulses and gives you the power to act on them, the Eclipse Armor gradually enslaves your mind to Nightmare Moon, and the Reliquae of Draamound only works if you fuel it with regular blood sacrifices.” I chuckled humorlessly. “And if you’re getting that power boost from a living being ... well, enjoy being a really powerful lackey. If you don’t follow orders, you’ll be lucky if the worst you suffer is just losing all your power. Not to mention making an enemy out of a creature that’s vastly more experienced and stronger than you.”

Kukri grimaced. “This one just finished reading one of the history books you assigned it—the one about Magus Midnight Sparkle’s encounter with House Honeyfield in Equestria, and their Compact. Nooooooooo thank you.”

“And fey aren’t nearly as nasty as some of the other forces out there.” You could at least trust a fey to keep their bargains to the letter (even if they violated the spirit), and they usually weren’t outright evil the way something like a demon or dragon could be. “After that, the next option would be to bypass those limits by changing yourself. That’s where most of the false alicorns in Equestria’s history come from, and a lot of necromancers go down that route by turning themselves into liches. It’s also one of the rumors for the origin of the Old Mind—Chrysalis.” I’d probably been spending too much time with changelings if I was starting to pick up on their vocabulary. Let’s just hope I never accidently called Mom ‘The White Pony’.

“Transformation would be rather pointless for this one,” Kukri observed dryly. With a flash of green fire she turned herself into a miniature alicorn, then reverted back to her old self. “Though this one supposes there is a substantial difference between looking like something and actually being that thing.”

“That’s my understanding.” I liked to think I’d learned a fair bit about the mechanics of changeling transformation by having one as my apprentice. “Just because you can make yourself look like Celestia doesn’t make you an ancient immortal alicorn who controls the sun.”

“Dad mentioned something similar,” Kukri confirmed.

“The other thing to bear in mind when it comes to changing yourself, we’ll talking about something a lot more fundamental and permanent than changeling shapeshifting.” I thought back over the various false alicorns and other creatures that had popped up in Equestria’s history “It’s not just putting on a new disguise, you’re overwriting a huge part of your own identity. The changes that can cause won’t always just be physical, and you might not like what you become. Some of Equestria’s false alicorns started off with good intentions, but...”

Kukri frowned and cocked her head to the side. “Right, this one recalls the old saying about the road to Tartarus being paved with such intent. So ... transformations. This one has a question—it heard that the White Pony can turn other ponies into alicorns like it did with the Cadenza-mare. Would that count as an example of the second type of surpassing the limit since it came from the White Pony, or the third type since it’s a transformation?”

That was a topic I really didn’t want to touch. I might’ve gotten a slightly better perspective on the whole thing with Cadenza thanks to time and distance, but it would probably stay a sore point for a long time. I definitely didn’t want to come across as petty or bitter to Kukri. Instead, I moved to something a bit healthier. “Finally, there’s the option of addressing the Alpha Limit by just accepting it. Learn to live with the fact that your magical potential isn’t going to grow much more, and start focusing your energy into other fields.” Kukri frowned at me, and I did my best to explain it bit better. “It's why things like Knight-Magi exist—a lot of battle mages decide to combine their magic with physical training.” I’d been taking that a little bit more seriously ever since I’d gotten roped into a fighting a duel where I wasn’t allowed to use my magic. “It’s also why a lot of older magi go into pure theoretical research, dabble in politics, or just about anything else. It’s natural to find other outlets once you get to the point where focusing purely on magic isn’t rewarding anymore...” I trailed off with a grimace.

Kukri frowned at me. “Is everything alright, Shimmer-mare?”

“Fine,” I grunted. The last thing I needed to do was make myself look bad in my apprentice’s eyes. “So what will you do when you hit that point?”

Kukri blinked in surprise “This one?” She paused and frowned in thought. “Well, so far it’s focused on just learning new magic. Mom offered to teach it some more advanced self-defense skills, and it was thinking it could learn a bit of alchemy or runecraft at some point. Otherwise ... this one would obviously be very wary of transforming itself or taking power from an external source after the Shimmer-mare’s warning . Not unless it was very careful or very desperate, and even then...”

“Trying to make a deal with someone you know is out to take advantage of you is almost never a good idea,” I agreed. “No matter how careful you are, most of the beings that are going to make that sort of bargain have hundreds of years of experience with cutting dirty deals. And as for doing it when you’re desperate...”

Kukri nodded grimly. “Dad’s always told this one that one the most important aspects of effective haggling is the ability to walk away from a bad deal. If you wait until you’re desperate to make a deal, you probably won’t have that option.”

“Exactly.” I gave her a quick pat on the back to show my approval. “Just look at what happened when Archmagus M—”

Another knock on my front door interrupted me, this one far louder and much more annoying than Kukri’s. There was only one being in all of Freeport who would insist on pounding on my door to the beat of the latest really generic and annoying song that had gotten really popular for reasons I couldn’t begin to grasp. “Strumming.”

Kukri grimaced. “Speaking of beings to be approached carefully and only when we’re desperate for help...” I frowned at her, and her ears drooped. “This one knows that the Shimmer-mare doesn’t approve of its anger towards the Heartstrings-mare.”

“Being mad at her is fine,” I grumbled. “She has a real talent for annoying the hay out of me. What’s not okay is holding onto that anger until it turns toxic and hurts you way more than it does her.” I suppressed an internal groan as I realized I was paraphrasing one of the many lessons Celestia had tried to drill into my head what I was younger.

“Yes, Shimmer-mare,” Kukri answered dutifully.

Her tone left me with the distinct feeling that she was taking the lesson to heart about as well as I ever had. Considering the issues I’d run into on that front, that wasn’t good enough. “I mean it, Kukri. Let it go.”

My apprentice flinched, and I wondered if I’d been a bit too harsh. Nothing for it if I had been a little too firm—apologizing would just undermine the point I’d been trying to make. Besides, I might not have made as many mistakes if Celestia had taken a slightly firmer hoof with me. Lessons and past regrets aside, Strumming had already started a second round of knocking, and I knew she would just get more annoying if I left her waiting. I briefly lowered the wards and opened up the front door. “Come on in, Strumming.”

Strumming trotted in, grinning at both of us. She’d bounced back pretty well from her recent brush with death, and aside from the new white patch on her coat her attitude remained unchanged. “Hey there, Bacon-mane and Bugsy. How’s it going?”

“Fine,” I answered politely. “How about you?” I’d been trying to be a bit more tolerant of her since she’d gotten shot, and we’d come to something of an understanding. Plus I was pretty sure some of her shenanigans and general flippancy were just an attempt to get under my skin, and I wasn't going to give her the satisfaction.

Kukri turned to face her, keeping her expressing as carefully neutral as possible. “Hello, Heartstrings-mare.”

Strumming grinned at her, either completely oblivious to my apprentice’s antipathy or more likely quite aware of it and deliberately tweaking her. “Hey, kiddo. How’s the apprentice thing going? Your boss still got you doing all her chores and saying they’re lessons?”

“I do actually teach her useful things in between all the free chores,” I pointed out. “And I don’t charge her parents for all the lessons I’m giving her.”

“You’re a paragon of generosity,” Strumming remarked. “Anyway, just checking up on you. Plus bug-boy’s information network must’ve dropped the ball for once, because he thought it’d be a good idea to buy me some licorice.” She pulled out a package of it. “Either of you want it? I can’t stand the stuff, but it practically goes against my religion to let perfectly good food go to waste.” She looked over the box, then amended, “Or even theoretically edible food items.”

Kukri cautiously took a piece of it and tried a small nibble, then grimaced and dropped it. “No, thank you.”

“I’ll pass as well.” My horn lit up and opened up the snack cupboard, floating out a couple bags of chips. I passed one to Kukri, and kept the other for myself. Kukri opened it up and swallowed one, murmuring appreciatively.

Strumming’s eyes narrowed. “You know, Bacon-mane, you’ve got a nasty vindictive streak that comes out at the worst possible times.”

I smirked at her. “I might have one more bag left in my pantry.”

Strumming sighed. “Why do I have a sinking feeling you’re going to make me suffer horribly in order to get it?”

“Probably because you know me,” I concluded. “Though really, you just need to ask.”

Strumming frowned suspiciously. “Okay. Can I have that bag of crisps?”

Kukri grinned impishly. “This one doesn’t know. Can you?”

Strumming’s eyebrow twitched. “May I have that bag of crisps?”

Kukri rubbed her chin. “The Shimmer-mare’s tower is a place of magical learning. It seems only proper that you use the magic word.”

Strumming’s eyes narrowed, and a hint of a growl entered her voice. “May I please have that bag of crisps?”

Kukri smirked at her. “This one is less than wholly convinced of the Heartstrings-mare’s sincerity. Perhaps if she asked more nicely...”

“You’re starting to push your luck, Bugsy,” Strumming warned her.

“What will the Heartstrings-mare do?” Kukri asked archly. “Kidnap this one and illegally hold her within the embassy for several days until it surrenders the chips?”

Strumming scoffed and shook her head. “Nah, I try not to repeat massive mistakes I regret and only ever did that because my boss can be a real jerk sometimes.” She paused, frowning and tapping her chin. “Did I ever get around to apologizing for that? Thought I did, but just in case I didn’t, sorry and all that rot. Anyway, gimme those crisps, or I’ll unleash my most horrifying secret weapon, something I uncovered the other night with Puzzle: my hidden knowledge of a changeling’s ticklish spots.”

Kukri stared at her for several seconds, then turned to me. “This one’s very confused.”

“You’re not the only one,” I assured her.

Strumming smirked, then darted into my kitchen and snagged the last bag of chips. “Ha! Once more you have fallen prey to my master plan. Now the crisps are mine, all mine!” She trotted over to one of my chairs and flopped into it, tearing open the bag. “Mmm, so salty and greasy and unhealthy...” She got about halfway through her snack before she seemed to remember we were there. “Where was I? Oh yeah! Like I said, I wanted to check up on how everyone's favorite Freeport magus is doing.”

“I’m fine,” I assured her, sticking to my policy of just letting her quirks pass unremarked and unnoticed. “I was in the middle of one of Kukri’s lessons, actually.”

“Oooh.” She shifted around in her seat until she was upside down, her hind legs hanging off the back of the chair. “Sounds neat. Mind if I watch for a bit? Or maybe you could even teach me? There’s supposed to be ways for us poor hornless wretches to do magic, right?”

I decided to play along for once. “Sure, you can listen in if you want. Right now Kukri and I are mostly just covering some theory.”

“Sounds good to me.” She ate a couple chips while upside down, coughing a bit when one got caught in her throat. “As Puzzle would say, if you’re not learning, you’re dying. I’m way too young and beautiful to die yet, so....”

Kukri snorted. “Did Puzzle say that too?”

“Idioms get around.” She shrugged. “Kinda like that one great-aunt of mine nobody in the family likes to talk about. Or was it a distant cousin? Bah, can’t remember. Anyway, how long do you think it’ll be before I can start throwing around fireballs?”

I smirked and levitated out a dozen of my thickest books. “First, you’ll need to read all of these just to get the basics down. Then, if you decide to go for pyromancy, you’ll need to read all of these as well.” I levitated over several dozen more books. “Oh, and since you’re a pegasus instead of a unicorn, you’ll also need to learn to write out your spell matrices by hoof instead of casting them through your horn, so you’ll also need to read these books, and then do a whole bunch of practice to make sure you can get the whole thing right without a single error. Kukri, what happens when a spell matrice is improperly used?”

My apprentice had done her homework, and had the answer ready to go. “If you’re lucky, an improper spell matrix will only cause the spell to fizzle. Otherwise, it could either explode from the unstable magical energy, or the results could be even more ... interesting.”

“‘Interesting’ like I start sprouting purple tentacles?” Strumming looked over all the books warily. “So, ballpark figure, how long before I can cast spells?”

“Maybe a decade before you can master your first spell,” I answered. “It gets a bit easier once you’ve got the foundation down. Give it fifteen years of intense study and practice, and you could cast a modest selection of one subgroup of a single school of magic. Still way slower and probably not as well as a unicorn, but...”

Strumming shrugged as best she could while upside down. “Yeah, I think I’ll pass on that. Too much work. Fire gems are easier. Although if I do end up with the weird purple tentacle thing, that could be a fun surprise for bug-boy...”

I rolled my eyes and was briefly tempted to put my hooves over my apprentice’s ears. Despite a very good effort to be patient with her, Strumming was really pushing it. “Enough about you and your boyfriend, Strumming. Nobody wants to hear about that.”

“But I like talking about it.” Strumming pouted. “Speaking of, last night we tried out this crazy new position—not sure how kinky it is, wanted to get your take on it.”

I sighed softly and shook my head. “Kukri, could you go clean up my runecrafting bench? I think I need some time to throttle our guest before she traumatizes you too much.”

“Yes, Shimmer-mare,” Kukri answered, fleeing the room as quickly as she could.

Strumming waited a few seconds later, then righted herself in her seat. “There we go. Thought I’d never get rid of Bugsy.”

It took me a second to follow the sudden crazy shift of topic and behavior. “So all that was just to get Kukri out of the room?”

“Yup!” She grinned and ate another chip. “Well, that and it was funny. And before you say it, yes—I could’ve just asked you to send her off, but that would’ve been a no-go. Kukri would’ve known I wanted to talk to you about stuff she wasn’t supposed to hear, and kids just love listening in on those types of talks. This way she thinks you’re stuck putting up with me, and she lucked out by getting away.”

I blinked a couple times as my mind processed that. “I’m not sure if there’s a method to your madness, or if you just made all that up to try and justify you being ... you.”

“I like keeping the ponies around me baffled when it comes to my true intentions,” she conceded. “Anyway, caught some of what you two were talking about. So why do you have her studying Alpha Limits? I didn’t think changelings even had those. At least, not in the way unicorns do. From what bug boy told me, a lot of their raw power is dictated by how well they’re keeping fed—quantity and quality. I know Puzzle’s got a lot more pep right after a big meal.”

“It’s a factor,” I agreed. “But there’s more to Alpha Limit than raw magical power and potential. Things like skill, insight, and talent are also part of the equation, and those are a lot more universal. Even if the details differ, the basic lesson is still valid.”

“Yeah, the kid who’s only a year into her apprenticeship needs to get all that long-term planning locked down right away.” Strumming tried to shoot a serious look my way, though stopping to eat a chip spoiled the effect. “Now I’m just a silly spy who knows nothing of the ways of magic, but from what I can see the Alpha Limit’s something that’d be a much bigger worry for you than her. I think somepony’s projecting...”

I scowled at Strumming, but it bounced right off with no effect. She chuckled and rolled her eyes. “Come on, you think you’re the first unicorn to think about the Alpha Limit? And really, calling it the Alpha Limit is just unicorns trying to act like their magic is special and unique. It’s just like that whole stupid system you hornheads have for classifying how much magic you have. Never mind that there’ve been times when a pony took that magic test twice and got two different scores, even when all the equipment was working fine. Or all the debate about whether what all those fancy magic tests measure is actually an accurate gauge of magical potential.”

“Pretty sure I know a lot more about it than you do,” I grumbled. “And you’re right, most of the tests for magical potential aren’t perfect. But unless you’ve come up with a better one...”

Strumming shrugged. “You could just ... not. Seriously, the world isn’t going to explode if you can’t come up with a meaningless test that lets you shove every single unicorn’s magical potential into a bunch of arbitrary categories just so it’ll all be neat and organized.” She nodded to herself, seeming quite satisfied by her out-of-nowhere rant. “Anyway, back to you worrying about your nonexistent limits imposed by a group of arbitrary categories. Lots of ponies go through those little internal crises where they’re afraid they’ve gotten as good as they’ll ever get, or that their best days are behind them. You’re way too young for a mid-life crisis, buuut I think I’ve got a pretty good idea what’s going in your bacon-maned head.”

“Why do I have a feeling this is going to be both extremely annoying and completely off-base?” I grumbled to myself.

“Doesn’t take a genius to connect the dots.” Strumming draped herself over the chair’s foreleg-rests, flopping across them bonelessly. “You bailed from Canterlot because of a short temper and a bad case of alicorn envy. Now you’ve spent almost two years away, first ‘cause you were on the run and staying away out of sheer stubborn pride, and then because you were building things up over here. That’s enough time for even you to cool down and realize you might’ve overreacted.”

“Wasn’t there going to be a point to all this?” I groused.

“Yeah, we’re talking about you and Alpha Limits. Try to keep up, Bacon-mane.” She spread her wings and went up, attaching herself to the ceiling and hanging upside down from it. “Wow, word of advice. Next time you got Bugsy doing some chores, put her on the ceilings. You groundpounders always forget to check places you aren’t physically capable of reaching.” She spread her own wings, taking a moment to admire them. “And speaking of no wings, that’s kinda your problem: you spent those early years assuming you’d sprout a pair of wings just like CelestiMom, and that’d be your ticket to greatness. Gonna guess when you ran off you figured you’d just find your own way of getting those wings, but here you are almost two years later and still just as unicorn-y as you were when you started. If I were you, I’d be wondering if maybe I made the wrong call.”

I grunted and scowled at her. “Well I guess it’s a good thing I’m not you, isn’t it?”

“Gotta admit, you’d look weird with wings and no horn, and I don’t think you have my unique flavor of charm and sophistication.” She dropped down from the ceiling, landing upside-down in the chair once more. “Anyway, how’d the meeting with the Council go?”

I grunted and started putting away books. Strumming might not be the subtlest of ponies, but she wasn’t stupid. “Oooooh. That bad?”

“Why are you even asking?” I snipped. “Pretty sure you and Puzzle have the sources to know about what goes on in Council meetings five minutes after they’re done.”

“Bug-boy’s good, but he’s not that good.” Strumming got out of the chair entirely, trotting over to me. “And yeah, I could probably work out what happened. I mean, I asked you about it, and it made you grumpy. That’s already a pretty good answer. However ... the details matter, especially when I can get them straight from the horse’s mouth. Plus I figured maybe you’d want someone to vent to about it.”

Well, she wasn’t wrong about that last part. I sighed and slumped into one of the chairs she hadn’t flopped into. “Could’ve been worse. They didn’t completely shoot down my idea of starting up a magic school. They love the idea of getting their own magic academy and magus corps, in theory. They just aren’t wild about funding a school for someone with just about no real teaching experience. They said they’d revisit it in a few years, once Kukri’s training was further along and they could see what kinds of results I’m producing.”

“Hate to say it, but they’ve got a point,” Strumming answered neutrally. “You were asking them to drop a lot of money on you. Can’t blame them for wanting to make sure they get something worth the investment. I thought that was why you wanted to fund it yourself.”

“Yeah, soon as I get enough money to add two more zeroes onto the end of my bank account.” I grimaced down at the floor. “It’s not ... getting the Council to fund it wasn’t a perfect plan or even one I liked all that much, but it was something I could’ve done on a reasonable timescale.”

“Making a few compromises to get things done is part of the deal,” Strumming conceded with a thoughtful nod. “You know, there are ways to build up your résumé, if you really want that school of yours.”

I frowned at her. “What’s that supposed to mean, and why do I have a sneaking suspicion you’re setting me up for something?”

Strumming shot me a knowing smirk. “I might’ve been setting something up. Anyway, Princess Celestia wanted me to pass on a proposal to you, if you’re interested in hearing me out: a nice teaching position just opened up at her School for Gifted Unicorns. If you want some experience in the classroom and a chance to pad out your résumé, you could do worse than the best and most prestigious magic academy in the known world. I bet the pay’ll be pretty good, too.”

Well. That was—credit where it was due, Strumming had set that trap very effectively. Not to mention Celestia had given her some very effective bait. Hay, I knew exactly what their goal was. If I went back to Equestria and spent a year teaching at her school she’d have plenty of time to get her hooks into me. It was entirely possible if I left Freeport, I’d never come back. Sure, the city had been my home for the last year or so, but aside from a few friends I hadn’t set down deep roots in the place. Not to mention how little progress I’d made towards my really big goals.

Despite knowing the risks ... it was a tempting offer. I’d been getting nowhere with my vague plan of starting up a magic school, and Celestia had just offered me the exact thing I needed to pull it off. “I’ll think about it.”

“Great.” Strumming grinned and pulled a letter out of her bag. “Got all the details and a contract right there, just look ‘em over whenever you’re ready. Oh, and Her Highness also wanted me to mention that part of the deal would be a full scholarship for Kukri, since she’s your apprentice. She’s even got another especially brilliant student she’d like to have you take an interest in. And ... well, I’m probably not supposed to share this part, but I think she thinks it might help you earn those feathery appendages you want so much.”

More baiting, but once again it was frustratingly effective. No matter how many times I told myself (or Kukri) to be wary of an offer that looked way too good to be true, it was hard to ignore that she was throwing just about everything I wanted in life on the table. “Right. Thank her for the offer, and let her know I’ll get an answer to her in … wait, why am I hearing this from you instead of from the magical book she gave me?”

Strumming smirked at me. “Obviously she wanted to have the offer delivered with a bit more charm and charisma than the written page can really convey.”

I scoffed at her. “Okay, that makes sense. So who’s coming by later to deliver the offer?”

Strumming sighed melodramatically. “You wound me, Bacon-mane. Right in the heart. You’re practically cutting the strings. Worse than that, you’re...” She trailed off uncertainly. “Darn, can’t think of a good pun using the rest of my name. Had it right on the tip of my tongue, but then it ... hmm ... I was sure it ... gimme a minute, and I’ll get it back.”

I rolled my eyes and opened the door for her, then used a bit more magic to pick up a seat cushion and gently nudge her towards the exit. “Goodbye, Strumming. I’ll write Celestia once I have an answer for her.”

Now I just needed to figure out what that answer would be.

Author's Note

As always, thanks to my pre-reading and editing team for all their hard work. Also, I would like to thank all my dedicated Patreon supporters. You guys are awesome.

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Aidan Hall
Alt Grendel
Batbrony
Benjamin McLaren
Borg Lord
Brion Wauters
Charles M. Hagmaier
Chris Hall
ColdSilverD
Combine
Comma-Kazie
Creideiki
Cyanhyde
DaB.
Darkarma
Deep Cover
Dixie Daley
djthomp
Edmon Star
Emlyn Costilow
Errant
FallenAngelXy
Forderz
Guldane
Jade Walters
Jessica T
nfreak
Patrick
Ponibius
Shank
Singularity Dream
Sweet Gale
Sylvain Colinet
Trinary
waritah
Web of Hope
Zennyth

The Plot Thickens

My next move was obvious even if it wasn’t something I was especially eager about. I had no idea what I wanted to do about Celestia’s offer, and Puzzle was always a good sounding board and source of information.

The only problem was I already knew what he was going to say. The guy had a huge vested interest in keeping me in Freeport, and prospect of losing me as an asset was sure to get a reaction out of him. Going to him was a sure way to get a whole bunch of well-reasoned arguments for why I should stay in Freeport. Considering I was going to him for advice while I was fully aware of his biases ... well, maybe that was exactly what I wanted right now. Celestia’s offer was good enough that I couldn’t think of a single rational reason to turn it down, so I was going to the guy who would give me one.

Did that mean I didn’t want to take the deal? Why not? It was a prestigious post, it would give me plenty of relevant experience for accomplishing my larger life goals, and it was probably my best shot at becoming an alicorn. You’d think I would jump on an offer that good.

So why was I looking for a way out?

It couldn’t just be worries about Celestia’s influence. Sure, she’d probably try to entice me into staying in Canterlot for longer than I planned, but I wasn’t some weak-willed kid who had no control over her own life. Walking away the first time would’ve been a lot harder than doing it again, and Celestia knew me well enough to understand not to push too hard. And there was no denying that she could help me accomplish everything I dreamed of.

But ... I think that was the problem. She’d be helping me. A big part of why I’d left Canterlot in the first place was to do all these things on my own. Going back to her felt too much like I was giving up. I might be a teacher at the school, but I suspected I’d always be a student around her.

So now I was going to Puzzle in the hopes that he would give me what I needed to justify being too proud to go back to Mom for help.

I found Puzzle in his downstairs armory. Having any sort of basement in Freeport took a lot of work, between the water table and the fact that the islands were made out of solid volcanic rock. The fact that Puzzle could afford a large underground basement just to house his weapons collection said a lot. I looked over an impressively intimidating arsenal that was surprising just for how incredibly un-Puzzle it was: I really couldn’t see the subtle information broker parading around in full plate with a polearm and heavy shield. He usually liked his weapons concealable and subtle, albeit still deadly. Maybe he just believed in keeping a bit stockpile of any weapon he could possibly need, but knowing Puzzle I suspected that the big and obvious stuff was just there to distract from the real threats.

A second later, I realized that particular set of heavy armor looked very familiar. “Wait, is that the gear I borrowed for that duel with the stupid zebra?”

Puzzle glanced over at me and grinned. “It is. This one thought that the Shimmer-mare might want to make use of it again. And it serves as a pointed reminder to this one about just how dangerous and devious the mares in its life can be.”

“Never hurts to remember that.” I smirked and looked over the armor again. “Must have cost you a fair bit to buy that from the Doos.”

Puzzle smirked, showing his fangs. “This one prefers to see it as an investment. Forgetting the lessons it learned from that incident would cost this one quite a bit more than a single suit of armor.” He turned to me. “But this one doubts the Shimmer-mare came here to discuss old history. What brings you by? This one suspects it has to do with your meeting with the Council earlier today, but this one does have a rather pointed reminder of the dangers of making assumptions sitting on an armor stand.”

I grimaced. “Yeah, that was one of the things.”

Puzzle took one look at the scowl on my face and jumped to the obvious conclusion. “It went as poorly as this one feared, it sees. This one did warn you that the Council tends to be wary of both expense and acting quickly.”

“They didn’t jump on my offer,” I conceded. “But at least they didn’t completely shut me down, either. They just want proof I can actually do everything I’m talking about. A couple of them at least seemed interested in seeing what happens with Kukri once her education gets a bit further along, so that’s something. Maybe in three years I can sell them on it.”

“Perhaps, but this one doubts the Shimmer-mare wants to wait that long,” Puzzle observed with a wry grin. “Irksome as their refusal is, this one can somewhat understand their reasons. It is a large investment to make when there is no certainty of returns. Pity it’s hard to get experience building an entire school from the ground up.”

I frowned and got to the latest problem on my mind. “Yeah ... actually I might have something for that. I got a pretty interesting offer from Celestia by way of your girlfriend.” Puzzle met my announcement with a raised eyebrow, and I continued. “She needs new teachers at her school for gifted unicorns. You have to admit, teaching there for a year or two would do a lot to bulk up my resume when it comes to opening up my own school.”

“That is true,” Puzzle conceded, though I could already see the frown growing on his lips. “Were you thinking of accepting the job?”

I shrugged noncommittally. “It seems like a perfect solution to all my problems: I get teaching experience, and she’s implied she can help me out with a few other goals I haven’t made much progress with.”

Puzzle grimaced and nodded slowly. “That is also true. However, it would mean giving up a great deal of what you’ve built here. Reputations are fragile things, and a year or two away from Freeport is a long time for everyone to forget about you. At best, upon your return your current allies would be wary of renewing relations without some assurance that you’re here to stay. Not to mention what it would mean for your apprentice...”

“Actually, she included a full scholarship for Kukri as part of the offer.” I wasn’t sure if Kukri’s parents would actually be okay with her following me to Equestria, but Celestia had certainly done everything she could to make it happen. The prospect of a free high-quality education from one of the best schools in the world was hard to say no to.

“Of course she did,” Puzzle grumbled under his breath. He took a deep breath, then carefully said, “This one is sure you realize that the main goal of this proposal is to draw you back to Equestria, and keep you there long enough to make it easy for to convince you to make the stay a permanent one.”

“I’d be shocked if she didn’t try,” I conceded. Probably a little bit annoyed too. I mean, I didn’t want her to rope me into staying in Equestria for the rest of my life, but ... well, I’d lying if I said it wasn’t a bit flattering that she was going to so much trouble just to get me back.

Puzzle looked me over, frowning and nodding thoughtfully. “So it sounds like you already know what her intentions are. This one supposes you would know the White Pony better than it does, considering how long you were her student. However, it wonders what exactly the Shimmer-mare thinks about this situation.”

“I know she’s trying to play me,” I admitted. “But she chose very good bait. It sure looks like I get everything I could possibly ask for out of this deal. I don’t like the idea of leaving Freeport, but right now she’s giving me the clearest path to accomplishing everything I want.”

“As is her way,” Puzzle countered smoothly. “It is one of the most basic and effective means of manipulation: find out what someone wants, then offer it to them. Not only does it let you control your target, but often they will thank you for it.” He paused and tapped his chin thoughtfully. “Of course, there are other ways to achieve your goals than going through the White Pony...”

In other words, Puzzle wanted to be the one who knew what I wanted and helped me get it, instead of letting Mom take over the role. “Yeah, sure, someone else could help me out. But are they going to? I’ve spent the last couple months looking at options, and so far the Council’s ‘Maybe in a couple years’ is the closest I’ve gotten to a positive response.”

“So far,” Puzzle repeated with a grin. I knew that smile of his all too well—it was the one that always showed up when he knew something I didn’t, and was enjoying the advantage far more than he should. Sure enough, a minute later he announced, “Good thing this one has found a new possibility that should help you achieve your desires at far less of a price than that demanded by the White Pony.”

“Right.” I had to wonder if he’d really just discovered this, or if maybe he’d been holding onto this idea for a rainy day. “Well don’t spare the details.”

His grin widened. “Have you ever heard of Argentium the Runescaled?”

That got my attention. “You know I’ve heard of her. My birth mother trained with her before she left Northmarch. What does she have to do with...” I trailed off as I remembered that, like any really old and powerful dragon, Argentium had amassed a huge fortune over the years. And, as my own biological mother proved, she had a certain interest in educational matters...

Puzzle smirked knowingly, no doubt following my train of thought. With a flourish he produced a letter. “This one thought that might get your attention. Even better, she recently asked this one to pass along an invitation. It seems she is quite curious about you.”

“She wants to meet me?” I hadn’t been expecting that, though maybe I should’ve. “Did she say anything about why?” Between everything I’d gotten up to in Freeport and her connection to my biological mother I could make a few guesses, but assuming anything when it came to dragons was risky.

Puzzle shrugged. “She didn’t give this one any specifics—she merely asked it to pass along the message. However, if this one could speculate, it severely doubts she would ask you to travel such a long way to see her for nothing.”

“That’s true.” And by the same token, turning down a dragon’s invitation without a very good reason was a surefire way to offend them. Argentium might be one of the nicest dragons around, but she was still a massive fire-breathing dragon who loved her hoard of treasures and had a gigantic ego. Considering the potential rewards of the meeting and the risks of snubbing her... “No reason not to meet her.”

“This one thought so as well,” Puzzle agreed with a self-satisfied smile. “She’s quite wealthy and powerful, on the level of the White Pony. This one imagines it need not elaborate any further on what she could offer you. This could give you a chance to achieve all your goals without paying the White Pony’s price.”

“Yeah, just Argentium’s,” I countered.

Puzzle shrugged. “Everything comes at a price, Shimmer-mare—it’s just a matter of what you’re willing to pay to get what you want. What you really need to ask yourself is if you want to be a school teacher for the rest of your life, telling your students about your glory days decades ago, or do you want to take a chance to do something great?”

I snorted and rolled my eyes. “Not the most objective summary of my options, but you know which one of those I would pick.”

Puzzle grinned. “This one did not think the Shimmer-mare would ever be content with anything so safe and prosaic. It suspects she would quickly grow restless and seek out some new danger to challenge herself against. Perhaps it should not worry so much about the White Pony making a teacher of her after all. Within three months, you would abandon your job to go chasing after some horrible beast just to break up the monotony of classes.” He fixed me with a knowing look. “Do you really want to spend an entire year drawing up reading lists, class schedules, and giving the same lectures to your students several times a day, or are you just thinking of taking the White Pony’s offer because it’s the sensible-seeming thing to do?”

“If it’s what I need to do to make the magic school happen then—”

Puzzle cut me off before I could get any further. “So you don’t want to do it, you just feel like it’s your only option to get what you really want.” He stepped over to my side. “If this one might be blunt, it thinks the Shimmer-mare would make a poor classroom teacher. You can be somewhat irritable, and have little patience for slow learners or those who do not show you the respect you feel you deserve. It is no coincidence that your first and so far only student is a young lady who all but worships you. A classroom full of rambunctious, bored, and troublesome children is another matter entirely. The Shimmer-mare doesn’t want to teach at a school, she wants to build one. The only point of teaching is that it might look good on your résumé when convincing others you’re qualified for what you really want to do.”

“In other words, there’s no need for it if I can get the funding for my school some other way,” I concluded. “And you’re going to keep trying to find a way to get me funded, so I don’t have to go to Celestia for help. After all, I’m such a useful friend to have around.” I smirked and nudged him. “I hope you realize you’re in no position to call anyone manipulative.”

Puzzle answered me with a relaxed smirk. “Has this one ever claimed to not be manipulative? That is why it recognizes when others attempt to manipulate its friends. And, of course, this one is only using such means to help the Shimmer-mare accomplish her goals.”

“And your own,” I pointed out.

Puzzle met my gaze coolly, raising a single eyebrow. “Of course. As the Shimmer-mare helps it because her interests align with this one’s. So far the partnership has proven a mutually profitable one, and this one intends for that to remain the case for as long as possible. It has never moved against her interests, and has gone to considerable trouble to advance them.”

“Yeah, and I bet Celestia would tell me the exact same thing,” I grumbled under my breath. “And yet, the two of you are giving me completely different and mutually exclusive sets of advice. Funny how that works.”

“Yes,” Puzzle commented dryly. “Almost as if we were two separate individuals with our own opinions about what would be best for you. The White Pony sees herself as a surrogate mother to you, while this one regards you as a valued friend and ally. Like all mothers, she seeks to nurture, guide, and protect you, and wants to draw you back into the fold so that she might do so more easily. This one much prefers to treat the Shimmer-mare as an equal partner.”

“Way to lay it all out in the most biased way possible.” I grumbled good-naturedly. “But I suppose you’re right. As long as I’m in Freeport I’m with you, but if I went back to Equestria I’d be working for her.”

Puzzle smiled and nodded to himself. “It sounds like the Shimmer-mare has already made her decision then.”

“Not so fast,” I cautioned him. “You bring up a lot of good points, but I’m not going to go with your advice without taking a while to think things over and let Celestia have her say. It’s not like I can really do much one way or the other until after the meeting with Argentium, so I’ll sit on it for a while as long as she doesn’t need an answer right away. After all, you’ve been implying Argentium might bankroll my school idea. If she does, great; if she doesn’t, then perhaps I’ll need to weigh my options.”

Puzzle grimaced. “This one cannot fault that reasoning, even if it dislikes the Shimmer-mare’s conclusions.” He shifted gears, his frown turning to a grin. “Well, if we’re going to visit Argentium, this one had best start making preparations. It will certainly need to start packing its winter wardrobe, and would advise the Shimmer-mare to do the same.”

“Yeah, I guess.” The last time I’d been through Northmarch I’d been fine just using magic to stay warm, but that had been back when money was tighter and I was a bit fonder of showing off my magical prowess.

Wow. I was still way too young to be thinking about the days when I was a bit younger and stupider. I bet soon I’d be telling Kukri about how when I was her age, Celestia made me walk twenty miles uphill to reach class for my lessons.

Speaking of my apprentice... “Oh, I’m going to have to figure out what to do with Kukri. Do you think I should ask her parents about bringing her along, or should I just let them know I’ll be out of Freeport for however long that takes?”

Puzzle shrugged. “That would be the Shimmer-mare’s decision to make. This one could certainly not mind accommodating Kukri if she will join us, and it cannot imagine Argentium would object to meeting your apprentice. The journey should be safe enough—Northmarch has its dangers, but few of them would dare to approach Argentium’s domain, and those that do quickly regret their error.”

No surprise on that front. Dragons tend to be incredibly territorial. That did raise an obvious question. “So what's Argentium like? I never really heard much about her from my biological mother, and Mom ... well, you know how much Celestia loves her cryptic answers. I kind of got the feeling there was some history between them.”

Puzzle nodded. “Most of the immortal beings in this world have crossed paths at some point. They share a curious kinship within their community, even the ones who are enemies. Argentium forged her bonds with the White and Dark Ponies during their war against Sombra. He thought that allying himself with the dragon Blackfyre would counterbalance the advantage possessed by the sisters, but failed to account for Blackfyre’s own enemies.”

I nodded along with Puzzle’s explanation; I’d learned that much from the history books. I’d asked Celestia about it once or twice, but she hadn’t ever been eager to discuss the details. She’d never outright said so, but our talks left me with the distinct impression that the war wasn’t one of her favorite topics. Really, any of the wars she’d been involved with. The one or two times she’d talked at all, it had gotten kind of ... weird. Hearing her talk about ponies who’d been dead for hundreds of years and recalling conversations with historical figures like they’d just happened yesterday instead of centuries ago.

Puzzle continued on, oblivious to my musings. “As for Argentium herself, now there is a question.” He paused, stroking his chin thoughtfully as he tried to find the right words. “She is majestic, powerful, and fantastically intelligent. A being who can make you or me feel like something very small indeed. It’s like being in the presence of a demigod, in many ways. Perhaps it is simply the size of her that makes her so striking, or the fact that her size makes her power that much more obvious.”

“I heard she can shapeshift to smaller forms when she needs the sort of subtlety you can’t manage as a giant dragon,” I commented.

“She can,” Puzzle confirmed. “Though this one has never seen it in action.” With a hint of pride in his voice he added, “Though from the accounts this one has read, her skill is inferior to a Free Mind’s. It is not so much true shapeshifting as altering a few aspects of her size and shape. She might be able to take the form of a pony, but one would hardly mistake her for an ordinary one, and anyone who had experience with her would know her at once.”

“So it’s really just for fitting indoors without tearing hole in the roof?” I suggested.

“Essentially,” Puzzle agreed. “And even if she had the skill to take on a less magnificent form, this one doubts she has the desire to do so. Argentium is a dragon, and a very big, ancient, and powerful one at that. She’s substantially more benevolent than the average dragon, but she still shares many of their traits, being territorial, acquisitive, and immensely proud. Argentium firmly believes she’s a higher life form, and she expects everyone to act like it.”

I grimaced. “Sounds pleasant. So does she expect us to bow and scrape?”

“Nothing quite so severe as that,” Puzzle assured me. “This one is quite certain the White Pony educated the Shimmer-mare in older styles of conduct and etiquette. Argentium places great stock in such things. She can be good company so long as you observe all the proper courtesies and show the deference she believes is her due. This one has certainly met people harder to deal with over the years. If nothing else, she has never tried to kill this one.”

“So as long as I’m polite and don’t forget to stroke her ego every once in a while, I should be fine?” I thought it over, then shrugged. “Sounds easy enough.”

Puzzle chuckled and nodded. “A few compliments will certainly help. She is extremely proud, and compliments are very well received so long as she feels they are are genuine. However, she will not be impressed if she thinks you’re engaging in false or empty flattery, and if she thinks you’re secretly trying to insult her with backhanded compliments...” He paused, then shot me a pointed look. “Don’t do that, by the way. It can end very poorly.”

I scoffed and rolled my eyes. “Yeah, I’m not stupid enough to pick a fight with a dragon, especially when the whole point of going out there is to try and get her to help me.”

“Of course not,” Puzzle conceded. “This one merely thought it prudent to remind the Shimmer-mare of that fact. Argentium is not the only one with a measure of pride and a somewhat prickly attitude when her pride is wounded.”

My eyes narrowed. “Well if you know I can be a bit sensitive to insults, maybe you should try not insulting me. Just throwing that out there.”

Puzzle scowled in response. “Or perhaps the Shimmer-mare should grow a thicker skin. Others will take advantage of such a fragile ego.”

“Excuse me?!” I crossed my forelegs over my chest and glowered at him. “If you were trying to convince me to stick with Freeport, getting me pissed off with you is just about the worst way to do it.”

“If the Shimmer-mare is so quick to abandon her friends and allies, then perhaps this one was wrong to consider itself either,” Puzzle snapped back. “It does not enjoy being told it must find a way to convince a dragon to bankroll her latest grand plan, or risk losing everything it tried to build with her.”

“That’s not what I—” I cut myself off with a frustrated sigh. “I’m just trying to find the best way to accomplish what we both want. Maybe that means leaving Freeport for a while to talk to a dragon, and maybe it means leaving for a bit longer to work with Celestia. Even if I do have to relocate for a while, we’ll still be friends.”

“Friendship from thousands of miles away is far less helpful to this one that a friend close at hoof,” Puzzle groused.

I groaned and turned my back on him. “Well I’m sorry my life doesn’t revolve around always doing what’s most helpful to you, even if it means causing problems for myself. If going to Celestia for help is what it takes to get myself and Freeport in a better place, then that’s what I’ll do.” I whirled about, glaring at him. “The whole reason I came to you for advice was because I knew you’d make a good case against taking the deal, and I wanted to know every reason I shouldn’t do it. I don’t want to pull rug out from under you, that’s why you’ve got plenty of advance notice, and I’m not doing it unless I’m sure it’s the right decision.”

Puzzle opened his mouth, and I held up a hoof to cut off whatever he was about to say. “And that’s something I need to decide for myself. I don’t want you or Celestia or Strumming or anyone else bombarding me with arguments for or against it, or asking lots of loaded questions and providing unsolicited advice. And definitely don’t try to guilt trip me or get all passive-aggressive just because I want a while to think about a massive life-altering decision. Got it?”

Puzzle blinked and took half a step back, then slowly nodded. “This ... this one sees, Shimmer-mare. It was not this one’s intent to do such things, it merely sought to...” He grimaced, then shook his head. “No, this one had its intentions. It supposes that it let its concern for itself blind it to the Shimmer-mare’s own thoughts. This one apologizes. We all have our limits.”

Those words struck a nerve, considering my own recent concerns. “Yeah, I know all about running up against your limits.” I sighed and tried to put that out of my head—I had enough on my plate without adding that problem to the mix. “Anyway, how soon can you get everything ready for us to meet with Argentium? At least, I assume you’re coming too.”

Puzzle nodded along. “Argentium asked this one to arrange the introductions. It would be considered rude for the Shimmer-mare to arrive without the proper announcement and she is familiar enough with this one to accept its presence in her home. As for preparations, this one will need to arrange passage and clear its schedule. Not to mention we will need to see if the Heartstrings-mare and Kukri are coming. It presumes Strumming would like to participate, but it knows that assuming anything about a mare who delights in her own unpredictability is risky.”

“Yeah, point.” I frowned and rubbed my chin. “Any idea how long it will take for you to do all of that? I know you’ve got a lot of demands on your time.”

Puzzle shrugged. “Yes, but it also has lieutenants who can manage such things in its absence, and most of its clientele are used to it being unavailable when one of its more important clients makes demands on its time. Finding a ship of good reputation heading to Coldharbor should be simple enough. This is one of the greatest ports in the world, after all. If all else fails, this one could always just purchase some worthwhile cargo and make a proper merchant run of it.”

I smirked at him. “Handy when you’ve got those kinds of resources.”

Puzzle grinned right back. “The Shimmer-mare could help fund such a thing as well. Her bank account is not so meagre that she must refrain from investment.”

“But it is thin enough that one or two bad investments could hurt,” I countered. “And yes, I know you’d warn me off from any scams, but you’re not perfect and things happen. Investing in a merchant ship to haul cargo would mean I’m one bad storm or run-in with pirates away from losing everything.”

Puzzle grimaced and nodded. “That much is true. This one has a much easier time of things, as it can afford to diversify its portfolio to protect against such things. And it has the funds to spare for the occasional gamble, like helping an aspiring young magus get her start.”

“Never going to let me forget that one, are you?” I asked with a faint grin. “Pretty sure you’ve gained at least as much from our partnership as I have, if not more.”

“This one has done reasonably well for itself,” Puzzle agreed. “But it has earned every single ducat with all the hard work it does for the Shimmer-mare. Clearly you feel the partnership a worthwhile one, since you have never objected to granting this one its share.”

“Not yet, at least,” I shot back with a smirk. “Anyway, it sounds like we both have a lot of work to do. You need to get your plans for the trip together, and I better check in with Kukri’s parents and see what they want to do.”

Puzzle nodded along. “No sense making them mad by taking their daughter halfway across the world without their permission.”

“And if they want to keep her in Freeport, I should give them some advance notice I’ll be gone for a while.” I frowned thoughtfully. “About how long will that be anyway?”

Puzzle thought it over for a bit, then shrugged. “Between travel time to Coldharbor, and then to Argentium’s lair, and a bit of extra time for any incidental delays we might run into, this one would be surprised if it takes less than two months, and that is assuming Argentium wants nothing more than a simple meeting. If she has some task in mind for us...” He trailed off with a helpless shrug. “She has not told this one anything, but it would not be surprised if she wants more than a quick meet-and-greet.”

“On the other hoof, asking us to spend two months going back and forth just for a five minute meeting wouldn’t exactly be odd behavior for a dragon,” I pointed out. “From what Celestia’s told me about them, they don’t think much of inconveniencing others.”

Puzzle shrugged. “Argentium is more thoughtful than most. She would at least provide us with a proper meal and let us stay overnight before sending us on our way.”

“How generous of her,” I deadpanned. “Anyway, even if it’s a long journey for just a short visit, I’m pretty sure Kukri would love to meet an ancient super-powerful dragon. Whether Knives and Codex are alright with it...”

“That is the big question,” Puzzle agreed. “It would be longer than any of the trips she took on the Venture, and under substantially different circumstances. If you want to convince her parents to go along with this, you should pitch it as a unique experience she’s unlikely to ever get again.”

He was right about that. “I’ll keep it in mind. Any special preparations I need to make for the trip itself, beyond the obvious?” I did a quick mental inventory of everything I knew about dragons and old traditions. “Dragons usually like gifts, right? And it’s considered appropriate to bring something to thank your host for their hospitality.”

“Indeed so,” Puzzle confirmed. “This one was going to recommend you get her a gift before we left. She considers her tastes far more erudite and sophisticated than the average dragon, so traditional gold or jewels will have little impact. It suggest a piece of art, or a book.”

I smiled and nodded. “I’ll keep my eyes open for something nice.”

I stopped by Kukri’s house later that evening. One of Freeport’s evening showers had started up, and I’d conjured up an ice umbrella to keep myself dry. The streets were mostly empty when I got to the modest two-story structure that served as their family home. I felt a bit bad about dropping in on Kukri’s family in the middle of dinner, but I had to wait until her parents were off work. And really, the worst that would happen is that they’d invite me to stay for dinner.

I knocked on the front door, and a few seconds later a well-dressed pegasus stallion answered the door. I knew Codex well enough to recognize the disguise he used for most of his merchant business. He smiled when he saw me standing in the doorway. “Hello, Magus Sunset. What brings you around? And please, come in out of the rain” His eyes flicked up to the plane of ice shielding me from the rain. “Even though it doesn’t seem to be bothering you all that much.”

“Thanks.” I stepped in and dispelled my umbrella. “Hello, Codex. Hope this isn’t a bad time, but there are a couple things I wanted to discuss with you and Knives.”

“Oh?” Codex regarded me with a raised eyebrow, reverting back to his changeling form after he’d shut the door behind me. He looked just a touch thicker and less honed than Puzzle—not exactly out of shape, but he had the physique of an older merchant who hadn’t been forced into too much physical exertion for the last decade. “This is a fine time, we were just in the middle of making dinner. This one presumes you’re here regarding Kukri’s education?”

The kitchen door opened up just enough for me to hear the staccato tapping sound of knives hitting a cutting board. Actual knives, not Kukri’s mom, though Knives was presumably the one wielding them. That was confirmed when a second later she called out. “Who is it, dear?”

“The Shimmer-mare, Knives.” Codex shouted back. “She’s here to discuss Kukri’s lessons.”

“Okay,” Knives answered. “Did you invite her to stay for dinner?”

“Not yet.” Codex turned to me, then flatly asked, “Would you like to stay for dinner?”

“Sure.” My eyes flicked to the kitchen. “What are you having?”

Knives propped open the kitchen door so she wouldn’t need to keep shouting through it. I could see her knives flying across the cutting board with impressive precision as she sliced and diced several vegetables before impaling them on a metal skewer. Knives was a lean mare, but every inch of her body was packed with wiry muscle. Her coat being pink had probably made her years as a mercenary a bit more interesting, even if she was a darker shade of it than most. She kept her dark jade mane close-cropped just like most of the ponies from the Guard, even though she’d been retired for years.

Knives smiled politely, lifting up one of the completed kebabs. “I was just wrapping up. All the ones we’ve made so far have shrimp, but if you don’t mind waiting a few minutes I could whip up a few vegetarian ones for you.”

“Shrimp’s fine,” I assured her. I might have spent most of my childhood in Equestria with a meat-free diet, but I’d been in Freeport long enough to get used to adding the occasional bit of seafood to some of my meals. I wasn’t going to ask for it, but I also wasn’t going to demand she make extra vegetarian food just for me.

Knives nodded. “Right then. Let me just get these on the grill, and then we’ll have that talk.” She paused halfway out the door. “Which sort of talk is this about Kukri’s education? She’s upstairs doing her homework right now, so I don’t think it’s the bad sort.”

Codex frowned thoughtfully and took a seat at the kitchen table. “This one wasn’t aware of any problems in that regard. She’s only had good things to say about her lessons with you.” He smiled at his wife as she settled in next to him. “So what did you want to discuss?”

I cleared my throat and got straight to the point. “I’m going away to be out of Freeport for a while—at least the next two months. Argentium the Runescaled has requested a personal meeting with me.”

Both of them sank back into their chairs, evidently familiar enough with Argentium’s reputation to realize what a big deal that was. Codex managed to recover from his surprise first. “That’s certainly something. Does this mean you won’t be able to continue her apprenticeship while you're away?”

Knives frowned and shot a concerned look my way. “Or did you want to take her with you when you went to Northmarch?”

“That’s what I wanted to discuss with both of you,” I answered, trying to sound businesslike and professional. “As I see it, you two pretty much outlined what our options are. Either she remains in Freeport and our lessons go on hold until I return, or she comes with me as my apprentice.”

Codex grimaced and traded a look with his wife. “This one is not completely thrilled with either of those outcomes.” Knives nodded, tapping her kitchen knife on the table as she thought over her options.

I decided to make a soft push for what I would prefer. “I’d really hate to put her education on hold for so long, and meeting Argentium the Runescaled would be an incredibly unique opportunity. Of course, Puzzle and I would take every possible measure to ensure her safety, and just about nobody in Northmarch would dare to cause problems for one of Argentium’s guests.”

Codex slowly crossed his forelegs over his chest. “So Puzzle is going along on this trip? Anyone else we should know about?”

Knives scowled, her wings twitching. “Tell me you’re not bringing that EIS whore with you?”

Codex let out a pained sigh. “Knives, language please.”

I found myself frowning at her as well. “We don’t know for sure yet, but it’s quite possible Strumming will be coming along, yes.”

Knives scowled and muttered several less-than-courteous things under her breath. “I don’t want that mare anywhere near my daughter. She might have diplomatic immunity, but if I ever find her alone in a dark alley with no witnesses...”

“Then this one trusts you would not do anything that would cause a major international incident and cause a great deal of heartache and pain for your entire family,” Codex cut in. That said, he turned to me with a strained smile. “However, we do have some very good reasons to not want the Heartstrings-mare anywhere near our daughter.”

“I’m aware,” I answered tightly. “Don’t forget I was locked up along with Kukri. A lot’s changed since then, and Strumming was following orders from higher up.” I still wasn’t sure how true that was given the EIS’s nebulous chain of command and her massive prejudice against anyone who used dark magic, but bringing that up wouldn’t do my case any favors.

“I still don’t know why you put up with her,” Knives growled. “Between your influence with the Council and your connection to Celestia, getting her expelled or reassigned wouldn’t be that hard. So why haven’t you?”

I shrugged. “Knowing my luck, they’d just replace her with someone even worse. At least with Strumming I know what I’m dealing with.”

Codex grimaced and nodded. “The monster you know...” He tapped his chin thoughtfully. “Is Kukri even going to want to go if the Heartstrings-mare is going to be part of the expedition?”

Knives sighed and nodded. “More than likely, all things considered. She’d certainly hate the idea of not seeing Sunset or getting any lessons for months, and you’re right that meeting Argentium is the sort of once-in-a-lifetime opportunity that’s hard to pass up. Balancing that against having to put up with Agent Heartstrings while she’s on the trip...”

I spotted movement out the corner of my eye, and confirmed my suspicions with a quick detection spell. I turned to Kukri’s parents with a grin. “How about instead of speculating on what she would want, we just ask her? She’s been hiding in the stairwell and listening in on us instead of writing that essay I wanted her to finish by the end of the week.” I shot a look up at Kukri’s hiding place. “You still have to do that, by the way. And you can bet I’ll draw up some lesson plans for you if you have to stay behind.”

Kukri remained undeterred by the threat of homework, abandoning any pretence of subtlety and came rushing down the stairs, promptly latching onto her father’s leg. “Dad! Can this one please, please, please go north with the Shimmer-mare?! Pleeeeeeeeeeeease?”

Codex blinked in surprise, staring down at the energetic young girl clinging to his leg. “You really want to go that much?”

“Endless night, yes!” Kukri squealed. “This one doesn’t want to lose months of work with the Shimmer-mare, especially when it has a chance to go north and meet with Argentium the Runescaled! She’s the greatest authority on runic magic in the entire world—she might have even invented it! This one heard she even helped train Torch Charger!”

I’d heard those rumors, and personally considered them pretty dubious. Historical heroes always seemed to get half a dozen extra myths attached to them, even when those stories made no sense and didn’t fit in with any of the established history. It was no different than the Kickers insisting that Shadow and Celestia had been lovers despite there being no hard evidence to support that claim, and the fact that Shadow had other known paramours.

Still, if national mythology supported getting Kukri to come along on this trip, I would be happy to play into it. “It is a pretty amazing opportunity.”

Codex frowned. “You still want to go, even if the Heartstrings-mare might be part of the group?”

Kukri frowned to herself, then slowly nodded. “This one doesn’t like her very much, but it won’t let her presence stop her from missing out on everything else it wants. Besides, Puzzle and the Shimmer-mare will keep her under control.”

Codex sighed and nodded. “That is true.”

Knives scowled and crossed her forelegs over her chest. “Maybe, but that’s not good enough for me. If that EIS nag is part of it, then Kurki stays here.”

Kukri blinked in shock, and her jaw dropped. “Mooom!”

Knives remained unmoved by her daughter’s outrage. “This is not negotiable. Strumming stays away or Kukri stays here. Period.”

Kukri stomped on the floor and glowered up at her, seeds of proto-teenage rebellion brewing on her face. “But that’s not fair, Mom!”

“Knives...” Codex put a reassuring hoof on her shoulder. “This one is absolutely certain the Shimmer-mare wouldn’t put Kukri in danger. It does not like the Heartstrings-mare any more than you do, but letting her take this away from Kukri would just be compounding the damage.”

Knives didn’t budge an inch. “Kukri or Strumming. I’m not sending my daughter off for months with any group including that nag.”

I sighed and tried to resist the urge to argue against her. If her husband and daughter couldn’t win her over, I probably wouldn’t, and it really wasn’t my place to intrude in a family discussion. “I assure you, I would never allow Strumming or anyone else to threaten your daughter. If she comes with us, nobody lays a hoof on her without going through me first.”

Kukri nodded along emphatically. “The Shimmer-mare has always kept this one safe when it was in danger.” Kukri clutched her hoof, shaking it. “Please let this one please go with her! Please!”

Codex fixed his wife with a pointed look. “This could be a once in a lifetime opportunity to her, and this one would hate to interrupt her studies.” He leaned in and murmured something else I didn’t completely catch, but from what I caught it sounded like a warning about just how much Kukri would resent being left out of the trip.

Knives sighed softly, shaking her head. “I just want her to be safe.”

Kukri gave her hoof a reassuring squeeze. “This one will be, Mom. It promises.”

“The Shimmer-mare has done a good job of keeping her safe thus far,” Codex pointed out. “If she hadn’t been on the Venture when pirates attacked it...”

“Right, I know.” Knives took a deep breath, then slowly let it out. “Not to mention everything she did when Cold ... right.”

Kukri’s ears perked up hopefully, and a second later Codex confirmed it. “Looks like Kukri’s going with you. This one had best go shopping for cold-weather gear.”

“Glad to hear it.” I mentally braced myself for what I knew was coming next.

Kukri didn’t disappoint. Her gleeful squeal was so loud and high-pitched I was surprised the windows survived it. First she hugged Codex, then Knives, and finally me. I’d hoped that being last in line would’ve diminished her enthusiasm a bit, but the pained groan my ribs let out when she hit confirmed that it had not.

Author's Note

As always, thanks to my pre-reading and editing team for all their hard work. Also, I would like to thank all my dedicated Patreon supporters. You guys are awesome.

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Lessons Ventured

Spending a couple weeks on a boat meant finding ways to fill the time. The novelty of being out on the open water was good for a day or two, but it ran out pretty quickly. Fortunately, I had an eager young apprentice with a receptive mind just waiting for me to cram it full of knowledge. Kukri certainly wouldn’t complain about having more actual lessons, especially since it meant not being tied down with homework.

In my apprentice’s defense, from what I’d seen of the homework that went along with her usual schooling, a lot of it was the worst sort of busywork. It was almost enough to make me want to take over all her education just to make sure it was done right. If not for the fact that I was far from qualified to teach topics like Freeport history without a lot more studying myself and the fact that it would massively increase the amount of time and effort I needed to spend on her...

Oh well. Once she had the basics down she would be studying with me full-time for her advanced education in any case. And it wasn’t like her future career as a magus would be horribly crippled if she lacked in literary analysis skills or couldn’t perfectly regurgitate all the historical facts her teachers wanted to drill into her. Some of that might matter depending on what discipline she went into, but if that was the case I could always address it then.

For the moment, I had her going through some basic training in evocation and energy manipulation. From what I’d been able to tell so far, it probably wouldn’t be her primary discipline. Evocation was an energy-heavy discipline, and Kukri was in the same boat as most changelings when it came to raw power: unless she’d been eating heavily, she just didn’t have the magical muscle to sling hard-hitting spells around like I could.

Still, just because she would never be a great evoker was no reason to skimp on her training entirely. Celestia had never let me skip lessons in other magical disciplines just because I was better at evocation than I was at illusions or divination. A proper magus was supposed to be proficient at every branch of magic, even the ones they had a hard time with.

I wound up attracting a bit of an audience while setting up for the lesson . Well, mostly just Strumming, who seemed to be watching us while chowing down on a bag of nuts. She spotted my look at her snack and shrugged. “Crisps might be my favorites, but you know what they say about variety. Just because I’m a crisp-fueled super-spying machine doesn’t mean I can’t change it up every once in a while. If nothing else, eating other stuff helps me appreciate just how tasty my favorite crisps are.” She shrugged and added, “Plus, you know, they’re easier to fit lots of into the bag of snacks.”

Kukri shot a curious look her way. “How many snacks do you have anyway? This one would think you would’ve run out by now, given your rate of consumption.”

Strumming smirked and opened up her feed bag, showing a truly incredible variety and quantity of snacks stored within. “Bug boy got me a magic bag. S’bigger on the inside.”

I glanced over and Puzzle, who was relaxing on the deck and enjoying the sun while going over several reports. “Let me get this straight. You bought her an enchanted bag for her snacks?!”

Puzzle glanced up at me, then shrugged. “This one does not know what precisely would happen if the Heartstrings-mare was forced to go without her snacks for an extended period, but it suspects it would not enjoy the results. Especially when we’re all stuck on a relatively small ship with her, potentially several weeks away from port.”

Strumming smirked and stretched out her wings. “My vengeance would be both swift and terrible to behold. Sailors would speak of me in the same breath as krakens and leviathans: beware the Wild Strumming, for she is fierce and merciless when denied her crisps.”

When put like that, Puzzle had made a very wise investment. I had a feeling Strumming without her snacks would become substantially more annoying she already was, which was a frightening prospect to consider.

I put that nightmare scenario out of my mind to focus on training my apprentice. Kukri had been going through some basic exercises, and had so far managed to avoid falling into any of the annoying quirks I’d been trying to train out of her. I wasn’t super-picky about following every single aspect of classical spellcasting protocol, but I didn’t want my apprentice casting spells with her eyes closed and her tongue sticking out. It just wasn’t dignified.

Fortunately, Kukri was keeping her tongue in her mouth as she focused on carefully dispersing the heat radiating from a lit candle. While she was keeping her tongue form poking out, that seemed like it was actually taking effort on her part. Her spellwork wasn’t quite as smooth as it normally was, and her teeth were clenched as if that was the only way to keep her tongue where it belonged. That had the unintended side effect of making it look like she was baring her fangs, but all things considered that wasn’t the worst look for a battle-mage.

Finally, she succeeded in dispersing the heat enough to snuff the flame out. I smiled and nodded approvingly. “Alright, good work Kukri. Now...” I re-lit the candle with a casual mental flick, then set a glass of water down in front of her. She started to reach towards the glass. “Don’t drink it,” I warned her, “it’s salt water. No sense wasting drinkable stuff on exercises.” Not to mention salt water tended to be harder to do magic on than fresh. The extra challenge would be good for her. “Now, I want you to transfer the heat from the fire into the water.”

Kukri nodded along. “Got it.” Her horn lit up, and she started shifting the heat into the water, scowling at the extra resistance she encountered.

That was when Strumming made her move. I could tell she was doing it on purpose; there was a mischievous glint in her eye that gave it away. Right when Kukri was fully concentrating on the spell, she pulled out a fresh bag of crisps, crinkling it as much as possible before opening it with an unusually loud pop.

Kukri jumped at the loud noise, shooting a token glare at Strumming before getting back to her spellwork. However, the distraction had cost her badly in one critical area: her tongue was poking out the side of her mouth.

I let out an exasperated sigh, and repeated an instruction I’d already had to give her far too many times for my liking. “Kukri, tongue.”

Kukri groaned and rolled her eyes, tucking it back into her mouth. “This one knows, Shimmer-mare.”

Strumming let out a loud, bored yawn. “You told her why she’s not supposed to do that, right?”

Kukri let out a groan that reminded me she was right on the cusp of teenager-dom. “Because it looks silly and undignified.” Her voice shifted to a passable imitation of my own. “Unicorns cast spells with grace and dignity, for perfect casting can only come with perfect form. They don’t pull silly faces or make weird sounds, or do anything else like that.” She scowled at the glass of water as if her annoyed glower could make it boil.

“That’s what they say.” Strumming smirked and trotted over to her. “Of course, there’s also a very practical reason for it: if you got your tongue poking out between your teeth in a fight, what happens when someone socks you in the jaw?”

Kukri grimaced, more than capable of following the rest of the reasoning. “That makes sense. This one prefers not to bite off its own tongue.” She shot a faintly sassy grin my way. “Even if that would make the Shimmer-mare happy by keeping it from engaging in certain quirks she disapproves of.”

I rolled my eyes, while Strumming hammered the point home. “You don’t see ponies doing that on the Doo practice ground, right?”

Kukri sighed and shook her head. “No. The trainers break us of that pretty early on.”

“So do the same thing in your training with me,” I concluded. I was actually a bit annoyed she hadn’t worked it out already. Even if Strumming brought up a somewhat more practical reason behind the tongue thing, that didn’t mean my reasons were invalid. Kukri should’ve listened to me and taken care of it instead of needing Strumming to chime in.

Just to make things better, Strumming kept it up. “And having tells like that isn’t great either. If someone can tell whenever you’re concentrating on some really tough spell...”

Kukri sighed and grudgingly conceded the point. “That would make for a short career. Right, starting again...” Her horn lit up once more, and her lips pursed with concentration as she made a point of keeping her tongue exactly where it belonged. After several seconds the candle’s flame started flickering, and I noticed a few bubbles coming up from the bottom of the water glass.

Strumming grinned and nodded. “See, that's better. Of course, you can always go with the classic brow furrowing if that’s your thing. Way less danger of biting off your tongue, and more importantly, your Bacon-Boss won’t complain about you looking silly and undignified.”

I rolled my eyes, but refused to let Strumming get under my skin more than she already had. I was pretty sure she was just poking fun at me, and the worst thing I could do was let her know it was working. Instead, I kept to the lesson. “That’s a good start, Kukri.”

Kukri nodded and kept her attention on her work, exactly like I’d hoped she would. After a couple minutes the candle had dimmed to the point where it was barely staying lit while the glass of salt water was as close to boiling as she could get it with just a candle’s heat. I would’ve liked to give her a bit more to work with, but drawing in ambient background heat was a bit much for a beginner’s lesson, and I didn’t want to chance any fire bigger than a candle while we were on a wooden ship. Not that I couldn’t contain any mistakes Kukri made, but why take the chance in the first place?

Strumming watched my apprentice work, idly munching on her beloved crisps. “So how long before she can throw around fireballs? These exercises are neat and all, but I was expecting something big and flashy outta magic lessons.”

“It’ll be a while yet.” I decided to relate things back to my apprentice’s experience with her clan, since it worked so well when Strumming did it. “It’s just like how they don’t let recruits train with live weapons right away: they get the blunt ones first to be safe. Except that a live fireball is way more dangerous than a sword, especially on a floating tinderbox like this.” I turned my attention fully back to Kukri. “Good work. Now, could you try taking the heat out of the water?”

Kukri nodded confidently. “Right, that’s just an issue of reversing it. It should be easy enough.” She got back to her spellwork, and before long I noticed her tongue poking out the other side of her mouth. However, she quickly sucked it back in before I could call her out on it. That was progress, at least. I wasn’t expecting her to break the bad habit overnight, but at least now she seemed to actually be working on it.

Strumming wasn’t so inclined to give her a pass. “Don't think I didn’t see that.”

Kukri scowled, but tried to keep her attention on her work. However, that quickly lead to another issue I had to speak up about. “No closing your eyes either. I’m sure I don’t even need to explain why that’s a bad thing to do in the middle of a fight.”

Kukri’s eyes snapped open with a faintly annoyed grumble, but she didn’t argue or sass the way she had about her tongue. However, Strumming couldn’t resist getting involved. “Next time you do that I’m gonna do something. And then you won’t see it, and that will be awful. For you, anyways. For us it’ll be hilarious.”

Kukri tried to glare at her, but that just made it substantially harder to concentrate on her spell. “You’re ... not ... helping... Heartstrings...” she grunted as she tried to regain control.

Strumming shrugged. “If you think I’m not helping, wait until you’ve got some warlock trying to make your brain drip out of your ears. Now that is rude. And distracting.”

The world’s most irritating mare had a point, in her own weird indirect way: learning to spellcast under adverse circumstances was part of the standard magus curriculum. I’d needed to keep slinging spells while battered, bruised, exhausted, or dosed with a sleeping potion. I certainly hoped Kukri never wound up in a situation like that, but if she did I wanted her to have the skills to keep going. Learning to put up with an annoying pegasus was a small step along the path.

I gave Kukri a reassuring pat on the shoulder. “I know it's a bit annoying, but we’re trying to break these bad habits for a reason.”

“This one knows,” Kukri sighed. “It’s hard though, especially when these lessons are all new. It’s just trying to get the spell right, but now it also has to worry about what it’s doing with its tongue and eyes and...”

“The sooner you get used to doing it the right way, the easier it’ll get,” I told her. “That’s why we try to break those bad habits as soon as possible. Back when I was a couple years younger than you, I remember Celestia...” I trailed off wistfully, then quickly cancelled that trip down memory lane. Mind in the present, I could reminisce later. “You’re making good progress. I know the lesson is hard, but that’s the point. If it wasn’t hard, you wouldn’t be learning. Tell you what though, since you’re making so much progress, we’ll try something different once you finish up.”

Kukri’s ears perked up. “Ooh, nice! What’s next?”

I grinned at her. “You’ll find out as soon as you finish.” And as soon as I came up with a good special treat lesson for her. Something she’d have fun with that would still teach her something useful that I could come up with on the fly.

Strumming swooped in to fill the gap, finishing the last of her crisps and crumpling up the bag before shoving it into a compartment of her bag that was full of discarded snack wrappers. “Actually, how about I teach her a couple things? Magic lessons are neat and all, but I’m just bursting with knowledge and skills Facon could use.”

I was a bit intrigued to see how a pony as unique as Strumming would handle teaching Kukri, and it saved me the trouble of coming up with a new lesson on the fly. “What'd you have in mind?”

Kukri turned her attention to Strumming, the half-frozen glass of water she’d been working on temporarily forgotten. Her expression was halfway between curious about the lesson and wary of the one who’d be teaching it. “This one’d like to know as well.”

Strumming shrugged. “All kinds of fun things, I’m just gonna be making it up as we go. So, I was thinking it wouldn't hurt to learn how to throw knives and darts.” She smirked and ruffled my apprentice’s head-crest. “Or we could work on your disguises.

That last one got Kukri’s attention. “You want to teach a changeling ... how to disguise itself?”

Strumming grinned and puffed her chest out, looking quite pleased with herself. “I’m sure you’ve heard it before from your dad or sister or Puzzle, but there’s a lot more to a disguise than just looking like something. Just ‘cause I don’t have magic shapeshifting powers doesn’t mean I can’t whip up a good disguise. Just means I need some supplies and a few minutes in the ladies room to cook up something good.”

Puzzle idly glanced up from his paperwork. “Some of her disguises are good enough to fool this one, at least for a few minutes.” He smirked at her. “Mostly because she is quite fond of going to extremes. This one was quite stunned when what looked like an eighty-year-old earth pony stallion slapped it on the rump and made several lewd remarks.”

Strumming smirked, and all of a sudden her body language shifted to something completely different. When she spoke, it came out like the croaky rasp of an old sea dog. “I still say you must be made of jelly, young’un, ‘cuz jam don’t shake like that there rump!”

Kukri groaned and buried her face in her hooves, trying to find a way to cover her ears at the same time. “This one does not need to hear that.”

“I don’t need to hear that either,” I agreed. “In fact, I’m pretty sure nobody needs to hear that.”

“Bah, our love is a pure and beautiful thing,” Strumming shot back, sticking her nose up in the air like a snooty Canterlot noble. “Why do you hate beauty, truth, and love?” She cleared her throat, then pulled off one of the breakneck topic shifts I was getting just a bit too used to from her. “Anyway, back on topic: disguises. I’m good at them, ‘cause I get everything down.”

Kukri was evidently learning from me when it came to ignoring the more blather-y parts of Strumming’s topical whiplash, because she followed along easily enough. “Dad’s said as much. A good disguise is also about mannerisms, pronouns, and gender identification.” She scowled and grumbled. “He said this one still acts like a girl, even when it’s wearing a male disguise.”

Strumming snorted. “Yeppers! And if you screw up even one little detail, like having a really girly walk, it could give away the whole thing. The key to a good disguise is to make it work so nobody questions it, just like how the key to sneaking into a place is looking like you’re just another bored worker vaguely annoyed you have to be there. Once someone thinks you don’t belong and starts really digging, odds are they’ll eventually find a loose thread somewhere.” She reached over and gave her a pat on the head. “And even if the disguise is perfect everywhere else, suspicion is bad. Makes it a lot harder to get things done if everyone thinks you’re a weirdo they shouldn’t trust. Got me?”

Kukri shot her an annoyed glare and swatted her hoof away. “You would be an expert in what it’s like to be the weirdo nobody likes or trusts, wouldn’t you, Heartstrings-mare?”

“Yup,” Strumming agreed without a moment’s hesitation, taking a seat next to Kukri. “Fun story behind that, actually. See, I’m a crazy unpredictable ball of lunacy, and I’m so good at hiding what’s really going on upstairs that not even bug-boy has me completely figured out, though he’s closer than most. Thing is ... nobody likes unpredictable, except a fun guy like Puzzle. They wanna be able to read body language, tone, and everything else, and think they’ve got you reasonably figured out. Makes ‘em feel safe and comfortable, while we’re all hardwired to treat anything unknown as a potential threat. S’why any flaws in the disguise will screw things up: once you go from ‘safe comfortable thing they trust’ to ‘something’s not right’, you trigger all those instincts that put people on edge—and once someone gets their back up it’s very hard to get ‘em to relax and trust you again.”

Huh. Well, Strumming had just revealed one or two interesting things about herself, assuming it wasn’t all just lies or more of her classic empty blather. I had a feeling it wasn’t though. She wasn’t wrong about her unpredictability being part of why I didn’t like her. Big shock, I didn’t love having a mare around who might just go off and do things on her own while I was trying to present myself as a respectable, in-control magus.

Strumming grinned and moved back to in front of Kukri. “Alright, let’s move to a practical test. Transform into something. Amuse me.”

I spotted the sassy grin on Kukri’s lips and knew I was about to have something amusing to watch. Sure enough, when she was done transforming a miniaturized version of Strumming was standing on the deck. When Kukri opened her mouth, a massively overblown version of Strumming’s accent came out. “Oi there luv, fancy sparin’ a starvin’ mare some crisps?”

“Cheeky little bug,” Strumming muttered, though she couldn’t quite hide the grin on her lips. A moment later she was back in character, playing along. “Why should I give some crisps to a disreputable little scamp like you?”

Kukri’s eyes flicked over to me, and from the way her grin widened I had a pretty good idea what was coming. “‘Coz they’re crunchy, deep-fried, and a bit salty. Just like me boss, ‘cept she innint crunchy or deep-fried. So actually not all the much like ‘er at all.”

Strumming smirked and tossed her a bag. “They do say that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.” She cleared her throat, then got back to the farce. “I like your style, kid. What’s your name, and where’re you from?”

Kukri snagged the bag, but seemed to freeze a bit at the questions. “Um ... me name’s Minty Snacks, and I’m from uh.... Vanhoover, yeah!”

Strumming met that declaration with a raised eyebrow. “Never heard a kid from Vanhoover have an accent like that. What’re your parents names? Maybe I knew ‘em from back in Trottingham?”

“Um...” Kukri froze for a long awkward moment before finally answering. “Razor and Record Snacks.”

“Never heard of ‘em,” Strumming answered smoothly. “So what part of Vanhoover you from?”

“The east part,” Kukri answered vaguely. “Anyway, cheers for the crisps, but this one’s not supposed to talk to strangers.” It took her half a second to figure out what she’d just done, then she buried her face in her hooves as she dropped her disguise. “Ah, feathers.”

“Language, Kukri,” I half-heartedly chided. Sure, I wasn’t the world’s best role model, but I should at least try to be be a semi-responsible adult.

Strumming grinned and sauntered over to her. “And that’s why you gotta be careful about nailing down every single detail. Only takes one slip-up.” She grinned and poked Kukri’s forehead. “When you take a disguise you've gotta commit to it. You’ve gotta know your disguise inside and out. Their history, their likes, dislikes, fears, motivations. You gotta be who you're disguised as, not just pretending. Doesn’t matter if you get a hundred things right when you only need one mistake to blow your cover.”

Kukri grumbled another few things that probably should’ve earned her another rebuke from me, but eventually nodded her understanding. “It takes ‘Know thyself’ to a whole other level, huh?”

“Yep!” Strumming glanced into her snack bag as if she was trying to decide whether she wanted to open up a fresh bag of chips, or whatever else she had in there. “So what you wanna do is create a whole identity to fall back on if you need it. Helps if you have one for lower class, middle class, and upper class to be nice and flexible and get you in anywhere you wanna go. Not to mention that you’ve got a much easier time taking other races. I can cover up the wings to pass as an earth pony or stripe myself up if I wanna look like a zebra, but faking unicorndom falls apart when I have no spells, and something really different like a gryphon...”

Kukri slowly nodded along as she thought it over. “That makes sense. Have all those details figured out ahead of time, so this one doesn’t get tripped up when asked for them. Though getting the supporting facts in place for that...”

Strumming waved a hoof dismissively. “Unless you’re going in deep enough to need to pass a background check, all you have to do is pass a smell test. I mean, have you sat every member of the ship’s crew down and grilled them over their parent’s names and which neighborhood they grew up in?”

“This one did do a few routine checks,” Puzzle commented idly.

“Stop undermining my teaching authority, bug boy,” Strumming grumbled. “Anyway if someone starts trying to pull your birth certificates or whatever, you’ve either gotten mixed up with a super-paranoid changeling who loves prying into everyone’s secrets, or they already think there’s something fishy about you. Best way to keep a good disguise going is to never give them a reason to check you out in the first place.”

“That does make sense.” Kukri hesitated for a long moment, then hesitantly added. “Thanks for the lesson, Heartstrings-mare.”

“Don’t thank me yet.” Strumming shot a grin my way. “How about we have her do a little report, and write up a whole persona?” Her smile turned back to Kukri, making her look remarkably like a hungry shark that smelled blood (or crisps) in the water. “Which we’ll review. Thoroughly.”

“More homework?” Kukri whined.

I snickered at my apprentice’s continued suffering. “That does sound like a good assignment to keep her busy during the trip.”

Strumming showed her no more mercy than I did. “Being a spy takes a lot of hard work and training, just like anything else.” She pulled a dagger out of her snack bag, idly tossing it between her wings. “If you wanna have the skills Puzzle and I have, you gotta do the homework and practice. Especially since spying is harder to practice for and a lot less forgiving of failure than magus-ing. If you goof as a magus, Shimmer-mare can save your butt. If you blow another spy’s cover...”

“Right.” She paused, the frowned at Strumming. “But when’s the last time you ever used a disguise? You just go as ... well, you.”

Strumming stopped playing with her dagger to answer. “First off, I don’t have the advantage of a natural disguise like you. When a disguise is more effort, you usually only do it when there’s a specific reason to go to all the trouble. Second, if you know I’m going around in disguise, it kinda defeats the entire point of being in disguise. For all you know, I’ve been all over the place dressed up as someone you wouldn’t even recognize.”

“That is a most disturbing thought,” Kukri murmured.

“More disturbing or less than the idea of me dressing up like an old stallion and hitting on bug boy when he didn’t know it was me?” Strumming asked.

“This one doesn’t want to think about that,” Kukri deadpanned. She gave Strumming a quick once-over, then cautiously smiled at her. “You know, this one thought it’d be getting lessons in how to disguise itself from Dad or Kunai, but you’re not a bad stand-in.”

Strumming grinned and buffed a hoof on her chest. “It’s true, I am awesome in my own ways.” She smirked and gave Kukri another pat on the head, though this one didn’t seem to irritate my apprentice as much as the last one had. “Though seriously, buttering me up isn’t going to save you from homework. Nothing saves you from homework.

“It was worth a shot,” Kukri grumbled under her breath. She made one more try at distracting the mare who usually couldn’t stay on topic for five minutes. “How about a knife trick?”

Strumming smirked. “Pretty sure your mom knows way more of those than I do, given her name. But sure, we can work on throwing. And then once we’re done, homework.”

Kukri let out the melodramatic sigh of an oppressed proto-teenager. “Fiiiiiiine.”

As Strumming got to work showing Kukri the finer points of using a knife, I trotted over to have a chat with Puzzle. He was still feigning disinterest in the proceedings while going over his papers, but I noticed that he only had one eye on those while the other was fixed on Kukri and his girlfriend. I decided to break the ice. “Nice to see them getting along a bit better.”

Puzzle nodded along. “This one encouraged the Heartstrings-mare to reach out to her. Conflict within our group would only cause trouble. Not to mention Kukri was becoming a bit too bitter about the Heartstrings-mare for this one’s comfort.”

“You’re not the only one who noticed.” I looked Strumming’s way as she started carefully demonstrating the proper technique for using the throwing darts she kept hidden in her wings. “I noticed her making a bit of a push to get along better.”

“The effort is clear, even if the Heartstrings-mare sometimes expresses it in unique ways.” A faint grin tugged at his lips. “This one suspects she never quite learned how to play well with others.”

I shrugged helplessly. “I think I’ve just accepted that Strumming is always going to be herself. Getting mad at her over that doesn’t work, so now I’m trying to just figure out how to get along with her.”

“Probably the best way to handle it,” Puzzle agreed. “As this one’s father once advised it, trying to change or fix one’s romantic partners is likely to end in nothing but misery. It’s far wiser to deal with them as they are.” He smirked at me. “Though perhaps that is not quite the same advice the Shimmer-mare needs. In any case, when speaking with the Heartstrings-mare it’s best just to ignore the distracting parts of her conversations, and concentrate on what she’s really saying. If you get this one.”

“I get the theory, though in practice it can be a bit tricky to tell what’s important and what isn’t.” I sighed and settled down next to him. “Probably doesn’t help that despite my best efforts, I’m only just starting to figure out what’s going on in her head. It’s almost enough to make me slightly tempted to magic my way in there, if not for my theory about how part of her weirdness is designed to armor her against mental attacks. And, you know, that it’d be horribly wrong and massively immoral to invade her privacy just to satisfy my curiosity.”

“Both important factors,” Puzzle turned his attention fully on Strumming. “She intentionally obfuscates to a truly impressive degree. This one has been in a relationship with her for a considerable length of time, more than enough to constitute a proper courtship. This one’s parents have asked it when it intended to make an honest mare of her and provide them with grandchildren, though they tend to do that whenever this one has a female companion. And yet, it cannot say that it truly knows her.” He grinned and cocked his head in something like a conceding nod. “Admittedly, that element of mystery does make her more interesting to this one. If you'll forgive the horrible pun, this one is quite fond of solving puzzles. It is no coincidence that this one chose to become an information broker: it likes putting together different bits of information to figure out the truth. And the Heartstrings-mare is an extremely satisfying partner in that regard.”

“I know what you mean,” I’d been tempted to do some digging into Strumming’s background more than once. About the only reason I hadn’t was her reaction when Puzzle got a little too close. For all her talk about how she was unreadable, that had been one time when her feelings had been an open book. Puzzle digging into her past had pissed her off to a truly amazing degree, and she’d gotten equally testy when I pushed her for it.

There was something there. Probably something extremely dangerous, incredibly painful, or some mixture of the two. If I ever wanted to get along with Strumming, I probably needed to let her tell me on her own terms. Forcing the issue or going behind her back would poison the well, and probably leave me with no choice but to use my pull with Celestia or the Council to get her sent away.

Puzzle nudged me. “This one suspect that the Shimmer-mare shares its fondness for unraveling a good mystery. That, and she is understandably wary of who the White Pony might send to replace her.” He thought it over for a moment, then shrugged. “The fact that it can’t understand her isn’t the only reason this one likes her, but it does help keep things from getting boring. And this one does bore easily.”

“Yeah, I’ve noticed.” I was still pretty sure that aside from the obvious benefits of having a friendly magus on call, part of why Puzzle had taken an interest in my career in Freeport was just because being friends with me made his life much more interesting. “Just glad to know there might be one less fault line in our group. We’ll have enough trouble the next time things go crazy without my apprentice and our pet spy getting into a fight.”

Puzzle nodded along. “As the Heartstrings-mare said, many of her mannerisms make it difficult for others to trust her. This one would further elaborate that a pony does not develop the many quirks she exhibits unless they have a deep distrust of others. A group without trust is less of a group and more a collection of individuals.” He rubbed his chin thoughtfully. “Still, this is a sort of progress. However flawed it might be, she is at least attempting to get better at teamwork. The simple fact that she is making such an effort is a promising sign.”

I looked over at the two of them as Strumming coached Kukri. My apprentice had once more gone into pegasus form, though this one was much closer to her usual preferred alter-ego—a miniaturized version of me with the colors just different enough to make her look more like my little sister than my clone. Seeing a version of not-quite-me with wings and no horn was strange, but I’d seen odder things. She had a few of Strumming’s throwing darts in her wings and seemed to be trying to copy her method of hiding them between her feathers and flinging them out. And that damned tongue was sticking out again.

Strumming smirked at her. “You tasting the air, Facon? For the record, it’s kinda salty and fishy.”

“Huh?” A second later Kukri realized what she meant, pointedly pulling her tongue back in before resuming her practice.

I watched the two of them keep at it for a bit longer. Strumming actually seemed to be a halfway decent teacher when she actually focused on it. At the very least, she had the skills down and her unique demeanour made her pretty much unflappable. Kukri’s occasional sass and flashes of embryonic teenager-ness either seemed to just bounce right off her or were answered in kind. I found myself smiling at the scene. “I think we’ll be okay.”

“This one thinks so too,” Puzzle agreed, matching my smile with his own. “This one thinks we will have a most enjoyable trip.”

Author's Note

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Which Sounds Better, Koldkri or Ice Kubkri?

My second time arriving at Coldharbor gave the city a chance to really live up to its name. The harbor authorities actually had to send a pilot boat to help the Venture get around several chunks of ice floating in the water. Unsurprisingly, there weren’t very many trade ships compared to my last visit. While it was fairly rare for Coldharbor’s port to be completely disabled by ice, there was clearly enough to encourage most trade captains to go further south. Captain Weyland had been spending the whole trip to the docks bouncing between glowering at any chunk of ice too large to fit into a water glass, yelling at the dock pilots, and shooting rather pointed looks Puzzle’s way.

I knew an opportunity to help out when I saw one. I trotted up to the ship’s bow and used a few quick, carefully controlled bursts of fire to help clear our path. “Better?”

The captain grunted and nodded. “Hate coming into Coldharbor this late. Most of the trade dried up once winter sets in, and the trip in...” She scowled at another floating chunk of ice until I helpfully melted it. “I’d wonder why Puzzle wants to get here bad enough to pay a premium and offer to cover any ice damage, but I know better than to pry into his business.”

“Yeah, I’m pretty sure captains who ask too many questions about high-paying clients don’t get hired again.” Between the occasionally iffy nature of some of Puzzle’s business ventures and the fact that he probably knew exactly how dangerous loose lips could be...

Even with Weyland not asking too many questions, an information broker like Puzzle could certainly glean a few interesting facts. Puzzle had thrown enough money into this trip to make it clear that he had urgent business in Northmarch. Anyone who wasn’t in a hurry would’ve just paid a fraction of the price to go a bit further south where the harbors were ice-free and trade was far better.

Between my help and the harbor pilots, we got the Venture into dock without incident. I’m sure Puzzle’s bank account would appreciate not needing to pay for any repairs. Kukri trotted out of our cabin loaded down with bags, while Strumming and Puzzle drifted over once it was clear we’d reached dry land. Strumming immediately took off and flew into Coldharbor proper, muttering something about needing to see a pony about a dog. Most likely, she was just running low on snacks.

Puzzle shrugged at his girlfriend’s departure, then passed his bags over to Kukri as well. My apprentice groaned at the extra weight, but carried on gamely. “This one ... is ... helping.”

I trotted off the ship, taking a moment to appreciate being back on dry land. Not that I hated being on a ship, but after a couple weeks of that it was nice to not have the ground roll around underneath me every time the ocean got a bit choppy. Once Puzzle joined me, I turned to him. “So what’s our next move?” I glanced back at my overburdened apprentice. “Other than getting a cart or something before Kukri breaks her back.”

Puzzle grinned and passed a few coins to Kukri. “Get a cart, little one.” He turned back to me. “As for our larger plans, it seems that we are expected.”

I followed Puzzle’s gaze and spotted a large caribou waiting by the docks. There was something vaguely familiar about him, and the pouches and runic charms were enough for me to draw the connection after a few seconds: Gothi Sigil Forestson. I’d had a bit of a run-in with him last time I’d been in Coldharbor. He’d been an old friend of my biological mother from back when she lived up here, and she’d called in a favor with him to try and get him to send me back to Canterlot. As evidenced by my subsequent trip to Freeport, it hadn’t worked.

I wasn’t quite sure what to make of him being here, but I was pretty sure it wasn’t just a random coincidence. I walked up to the Gothi alongside Puzzle. “Huh. Small world.”

Sigil stepped over to us, politely extending a hoof to Puzzle. “Or a carefully orchestrated one. I would have thought the company you kept would teach you that there are no coincidences.”

“Maybe not,” I conceded. “But just because it’s not random doesn’t mean I know exactly what it means. I’ve got a few guesses, but I also learned lessons about assuming.”

Puzzle smiled and inclined his head. “This one presumes that Argentium wished to have us escorted to her cave as her invited guests?”

“Naturally,” Sigil answered. “One of the greatest and oldest dragons in the world would hardly ask you to show up on her doorstep like a group of paupers. Providing you with a proper escort to her home is basic courtesy.”

Oh right, old-world manners and hospitality. Thankfully, being trained by the immortal sun princess meant I got a solid schooling in all that—and if Sigil was here as her agent, that meant the rules applied to him too. Even setting that aside, there was no point in antagonizing him. “Well, I won’t complain about having a local guide. Especially a skilled runecaster.”

Sigil stared at me for several seconds, his expression carefully unreadable. When he finally answered, there was a slight shift in his tone. “Indeed so. And it will be an honor to escort the Magus of Freeport.”

“Thanks.” Guess I’d have to give credit to Celestia for another one of her lessons: all it took was showing a little bit of respect and courtesy to turn Sigil around.

Ugh. I had a terrible feeling that if I did end up going back to Canterlot for a year, it would involve a whole lot of admitting that maybe Celestia was right about some of the lessons I’d dismissed as stupid and pointless.

Sigil looked us over, then nodded to himself. “I hope you will all be ready to start moving soon. The days are short, and the nights long and cold this time of year. If we do not leave soon there will be no point in trying to depart until the morrow.”

“Right.” I looked over at Puzzle. “Any idea when Strumming will be back?”

Puzzle shrugged helplessly. “As you have no doubt noticed, it can be rather difficult to predict her actions. She will return when she returns.”

I probably should’ve seen that answer coming. “Well, we might as well get everything ready to go. If she hooks back up with us in the meantime, great. If she’s still not back, we’ll decide from there. I’m sure she’s more than capable of catching up with us.”

Puzzle nodded. “This one can leave a message for her, in the worst case.” His eyes flicked over to Sigil. “Though it might take some time to ensure that we are all ready to leave. This one has never been to visit Argentium this late in the year, and some of its companions have even less experience with cold weather.”

Sigil chuckled. “You’ll all have plenty of firsthoof experience soon enough. This winter’s been a mild one so far. I had stew last night, and it didn’t freeze before I finished eating it.”

“You didn’t have a spell to keep it warm?” I asked.

The caribou shot an unreadable look my way. “Unlike other magical disciplines, runecrafters do not use their powers for such frivolous things. Magic should only be used when other means are not suitable. If my food is cold, I heat it over a fire.”

“Probably is a bit easier for you to do things that way,” I conceded. “Sometimes I forget not everyone is a master-level pyromancer. And even then, if I’d rather not waste a bunch of power keeping myself and my food warm when there’s an easier way to handle it.”

“I hope you and your companions are ready,” Sigil murmured. “The North isn’t kind to the ill-prepared. Less so now than most days.” He scowled. “The wargs and trolls must not have prepared for this winter, because they’ve been more active than usual.”

Puzzle smirked, his eyes flicking over to me. “If that is the case, we should count ourselves lucky that we have an excellent pyromancer in our company. One thing both trolls and wargs are known for is a particular fear of, and vulnerability to, fire.”

“Just so.” Sigil’s gaze shifted to me. “Clearly, you have chosen your companions wisely, Puzzle Piece. Though I must wonder whether your companion has done the same. It is more than a little strange to see a magus, even a self-declared one, consorting with changelings.”

Well, two could play at that game. “Pretty strange to see an ancient and highly respected dragon like Argentium the Runescaled working with changelings too, but that doesn’t seem to have stopped her from doing so.”

Sigil took my response in stride. “She has her reasons for doing so.”

“Just like I have mine,” I countered.

Sigil looked me over for a second, then shrugged. “Don’t we all? Still, it is a curious path you walk. Just two years ago you came here as little more than a runaway child, now you return as a Magus in the company of changelings invited here by one of the oldest and most powerful beings in the world. What brings you here, I wonder?”

“Pretty sure you know that already,” I shot back. “She asked me to come.”

“And are you in the habit of coming running when others bid you to?” Sigil asked. “The journey from Freeport to Coldharbor and from here to her lair is not a short one. Surely there is more behind it than a mere social call. My mistress has her own plans for you, and I suspect you would not have come so far unless you had your own ambitions. You are far from the first to come here hoping Argentium held to key to making your dreams a reality.”

“Well of course I have plans.” I frowned at him, trying to figure out what he might be driving at. Probably fishing for what I might ask Argentium for. Puzzle told me more than once that one of the most useful thing to know about anyone was what they wanted, since it was one of the best ways to predict their actions in the future.

Sigil looked me over, them chuckled to himself. “You really are Scarlett's daughter.”

My eyes narrowed at the mention of my biological mother. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Your mother was an ambitious pony as well,” Sigil explained. “Few train under Argentium herself to learn the runic arts, and fewer still leave Northmarch to seek fortune and glory beyond our borders. Impressing Celestia and the mages of Canterlot enough to be elevated to the rank of Archmagus is no small thing, especially for one born outside of Equestria.”

I suppose that was one way to look at it. A somewhat more accurate description would be that she sacrificed everything else to get what she wanted. I’d practically been abandoned until Celestia unofficially adopted me, and given just enough parental attention to avoid anything blatantly scandalous. For that matter, I was probably just one of the unintended side effects of a political marriage. It was no coincidence that both my parents were archmagi—they’d helped each other climb the ranks.

Sure, I was ambitious too. I was trying to ascend and become an alicorn: that’s about as high as a pony can aim. But I wasn’t going to throw away or step over anyone else to get there. Well, not unless they were jerks who deserved to get stepped on, but that was different.

Sigil continued on, oblivious to my private thoughts. “Ambition runs in your family’s blood. If half the tales I’ve heard from Freeport are true...”

“They probably aren’t,” I cut in before he could get any further. “Rumors are notoriously unreliable in the first place, and rumors coming out of Freeport...”

Sigil nodded slowly. “True enough. Words are wind, except perhaps even emptier. I will judge from what I see with my own eyes.”

“Good policy,” I grunted.

“Indeed so.” His eyes flicked back to the Venture. “Though I must say, Freeport is hardly the best place for an aspiring young magus to establish herself. I’m sure you could find somewhere much better to hone your skills and build a reputation. Somewhere more respectable than the hive of scum and villainy that is Freeport.”

I scoffed and rolled my eyes. “The only magi who spend all day in respectable places are the ones with desk jobs. I’d rather do something useful than hang around in Canterlot schmoozing and ladder-climbing.”

“Quite so,” Sigil murmured. “You hardly need to go all the way back to Freeport to achieve that. There could be a place for you here in Northmarch. You could learn much about magic from the gothi, about the magic deep in the bones of the land. Argentium herself might even be willing to take you on as a pupil, if only out of affection for your mother. A magi of your skill could learn and grow a great deal here, and earn far more respect for her actions than you will ever find in Freeport.” He smirked. “And if you are worried about being bored, there are plenty of trolls, spirits, fey, and all manner of monsters that need to be dealt with.”

“The Shimmer-mare has found more than enough to keep herself busy in Freeport,” Puzzle countered. “And will doubtless continue to do so for the foreseeable future.”

I nodded along. “Thank you for the offer, but I’ll pass for now.”

Sigil grunted and nodded sharply. “Think it over. There’s not rush to say no.”

Puzzle chuckled. “This one is sure the Shimmer-mare appreciates the offer, but most of her stuff is back in Freeport. Moving her magus tower and its contents across an entire ocean would be no small task.”

Sigil was about to answer him when Kukri trudged up to us. Our supply packs were all loaded onto a freshly purchased cart, which the young changeling was pulling along without complaint. She did at least look a little less miserable now that she wasn’t trying to haul four supply packs and other assorted bits of miscellaneous luggage. I probably should’ve felt a bit bad about making the youngest and weakest member of the group carry everything, but that was just one of the joys of being apprentice. Carrying everything would help build her character.

Still, just because I was making her handle all the back-breaking manual labor didn’t mean she had to go completely unappreciated. “Good work, Kukri.”

“Thank you,” she grunted as she pulled the cart to a stop in front of us. “This one has learned many useful things from the Shimmer-mare. Today, it’s learning about carrying.”

Sigil turned to me with a raised eyebrow. “A changeling for an apprentice. I can’t imagine that’s what Celestia had in mind for her student.”

Kukri bit her lip and shot an uncertain look my way, but I wasn’t going to play Sigil’s game. “I’m sure Celestia has a lot of things in mind for me. Out of all the things I’ve done that didn’t line up with her plans, taking Kukri as an apprentice is one of the ones I’ve never had any doubt was the right call.”

Sigil stared at me for several seconds, then shrugged. “As you will, Magus.” His eyes flicked down to Kukri, noticing how she’d shifted into a particularly floofy pegasus whose wings were tucked in close around her. “I take it she's not used to the cold?”

“The closest Freeport comes to winter is when the temperature drops down to about as cool as summer in Northmarch, and it rains a lot,” I answered. “Last time she was here was in the summer, and even then she stayed on the ship.”

Kukri nodded, scooting closer until she was pressed against my side. “Haaah. How? Cold. How so cold? At least when this one was carrying everything it had something to distract itself and keep a little bit warmer...”

Sigil looked down at her with a smirk. “Last chance to change your mind about continuing inland, grub. It only gets colder from here.”

Kukri stared up at him incredulously. “It can get colder?!”

“This is a fairly mild day,” Sigil answered. “And it’s always much warmer near the coast. Up in the mountains, the cold can freeze even the toughest caribou to death if they’re caught out in the open on a rough night.” He pointedly ran a hoof over his much thicker, shaggier coat. “And my kind is much better adapted to the weather than ponies or changelings.”

Kukri made a couple attempts to say something that might have earned her a lecture about proper language from me, but her fangs started chattering hard enough to spoil her efforts. Eventually she managed to chatter out, “Tha, that c-c-c-an’t be possible, right?”

“It can.” I opened up one of Kukri’s bags and in short order put Puzzle’s necklace around her neck, followed by Strumming’s gambeson and my cloak before finishing it off with one of the scarves her mother had packed. “Now you know why we all insisted on including so much.”

Kukri pulled the cloak tighter around herself, shivering as she waited for the charms and her own body heat to take the edge off the cold. “Th-this one thinks it understands. Though it wonders why the others as cold as it.”

“We knew what we were getting into,” Puzzle answered. “And this one has heard the theory that cold weather is somewhat easier for a full grown adult to endure than a child. Though as long as we are on the topic and opening up bags...” Puzzle dug into his own suitcase, pulling out a jacket and knit cap. “This one is not as cold as Kukri, but it would be unwise to wait until it is half-frozen to dress warmly.”

“Good point.” I followed his lead, easing off the passive spells to regulate the air temperature around me as I did so. It had been a long time since I needed to worry about using that particular spell to stay warm. Usually it was there so I wouldn’t start sweating like crazy on a hot day back in Freeport. Sweaty pits are bad for the image of dignity a magus should project.

Sigil nodded approvingly as we started preparing for the cold. “At least you came prepared. And while it can be deadly to be caught outside shelter on a cold night, that is unlikely. I know the path to Argentium’s lair, and all the safe places we might go to escape winter’s wrath. A good cave with a bonfire and a warm meal should see us through the nights, and should it be required both the magus and I have magic as well.”

“Yay,” Kukri murmured dully. “At least it won’t freeze to death. How far away is it?”

“It is just short of two hundred kilometers to Argentium’s demesne,” Sigil answered. “Assuming the weather holds, we should be able to make the journey in a week’s time. If it turns on us...” He shrugged helplessly. “Then it will take as long as it takes.”

Kukri tried to let out one of her melodramatic proto-teen groans, only to have it turn into a coughing fit from how cold the air was. Puzzle chuckled and gave her a pat on the head. “Look at it this way: at least you’ll get to brag to your friends about how you’ve been to Northmarch and seen a dragon when this is all over.”

“Assuming this one doesn’t come back frozen inside a huge ice cube,” Kukri grumbled. She shivered again, trying to shrink beneath her cloak as much as possible while tugging up her scarf. “At least her lair should be warmer. Dragons like warmth, right? Not to mention they breathe fire. That has to be enough to stop this cold.”

Sigil chuckled and nodded. “I think you’ll find that Lady Argentium’s lair is the height of comfort. Among other things, her cave rests above a magnificent and quite large natural hot spring. It keeps the caves pleasantly warm even when a blizzard outside is dumping feet of snow at the cave entrance.

“Hot springs...” Kukri murmured in a tone she usually reserved for discussing dessert. “So how fast can we get there?”

I chuckled and used my magic to tuck her scarf in a bit, since Kukri hadn’t quite gotten it on right. “I think we know what she’s looking forward to.”

Puzzle grinned and put one of his spare caps on her head. “Sometimes you just have to remind them of the reward at the end of the road.”

Kukri shot a weak smile at us, despite the fact that she was still shivering. “W-well, let’s g-go then. The sooner we start, the s-sooner...”

“Best we get started then.” Sigil frowned and looked us over. “Right after I finish checking the rest of your gear. If one of you forgot to pack cold weather goggles, I’d rather not find out when one of you goes snowblind or when your eyes freeze in a whiteout blizzard.”

“Eyes can’t freeze.” Kukri shot a concerned look my way. “Can they?”

I was pretty sure they could if things got cold and windy enough, but I didn’t want to give my apprentice any more cold-related nightmares. “If we all keep our cold weather goggles on, we won’t have to find out.”

“Not to mention waiting for the Heartstrings-mare,” Puzzle pointed out. “Just because she can probably catch up with us eventually doesn’t mean we should leave her behind.”

I nodded along, sitting back and watching Sigil’s survey. I’d been hoping he might have a few extra bits of useful advice about why some of the things we’d packed were less than ideal, but Puzzle had been far too competent when it came to ensuring all of us were perfectly equipped for the journey. Doubtless because he’d made it several times before, and had already gotten everything we could possibly need.

He was just about done when I finally spotted Strumming. She’d evidently followed everyone else’s lead in dressing for the weather, judging by her bright orange jacket. She came in for a landing, giving us all a tired wave. “Chuffers didn’t even have any proper crisps for a poor starving mare. What kinda place is this?”

Kukri let out a relieved sigh that turned into a shiver halfway through. “Heartstrings-mare, this one’s never been happier to s-see you! Let’s get going, so we can get to the nice warm dragon caves before this one turns into an icicle.”

Puzzle chuckled. “It appears the cold does not agree with our poor Kukri.”

“We did try to warn her.” I took mercy on my poor apprentice, tossing out a quick warming spell to knock the temperature up by about ten degrees. She would have to get used to the cold sooner or later, but I hoped that maybe it wouldn’t be quite as bad if she eased into it.

“Ouch, best of luck with that Facon.” Strumming gave her an idle pat on the back, then turned to me. “Got a sec, Bacon and Bug?”

Kukri let out a sound halfway between a groan and a whine. “Can it wait? Or could you at least talk about whatever it is you need to discuss while we’re on the road?”

I shot a curious look Strumming’s way, and she shook her head. “Just give us a minute.” I bumped up the warming spell on her a bit more, if only so she’d complain less. Plus I didn’t wanted to see her being cold and miserable, even if she was being a bit over-dramatic about it. I had promised to keep her safe, after all.

Despite my efforts to ensure her comfort, Kukri let a huge sigh that made it clear she believed we were doing this solely to inconvenience her. “Right, right, fine.”

I ignored my apprentice’s continuing descent into borderline teenagerdom as I trotted off with Strumming, along with Puzzle. Once we were safely out of earshot I put up a quick privacy spell, then motioned for her to get on with it.

Strumming teek a deep breath. “So, you guys might wanna keep your eyes and ears open. I just ... got a feeling something’s going on.”

“What sort of feeling?” Puzzle asked. “What did you find out?”

She was silent for several seconds, then carefully answered. “I’m just saying, you might want to be a bit more wary.”

Puzzle frowned at her. “Details?”

She grimaced and shook her head. “Can’t say anything specific.”

I scowled at her, crossing my forelegs over my chest. “Can’t or won’t? It sure sounds like you know more than what you’re telling us.”

“Of course,” she answered, a bit of her usual snark coming back. “I know lots of different stuff. Can’t tell you all the things I know that you don’t. It’d take years.”

Puzzle looked her over, then slowly nodded to himself. “Is this a conflicting loyalties issue? That would explain why she seems to be so deliberately vague and hesitating to tell us even that vague bit of nothing.”

I nodded along. “Looks like it might be. So if she’s trying to give us a warning, but can’t tell us any details ... who would that be?”

“That is a very good question,” Puzzle agreed. “This one wasn’t aware anyone in Equestria was still looking to bag you up and drag you back to Canterlot. The White Pony has made it quite clear you are allowed to do as you please in Freeport, and after two years in Freeport it doubts anyone else from Equestria would care.”

I grunted my agreement. “I can’t imagine Celestia would make a move on me after two years, and while she has an open offer for me to come back willingly that I’m still considering.”

Puzzle frowned and rubbed his chin. “You didn’t happen to make any other enemies this one isn’t aware of in Equestria or in Northmarch last time you were here?”

“Nobody I can think of,” I murmured. “The closest I can consider would be Sigil, and he seems fine with helping us out as long as that’s what Argentium wants. I mean, maybe Cadenza could be out to get me, but I don’t think Celestia would let her do that. Any chance they could be after you instead?”

“It’s possible,” Puzzle admitted with a shrug. “But this one hasn’t heard of any threat to its interests from anyone in Equestria, nor can it imagine any reason the EIS would chose to move against it. It enjoys good relations with them thanks to its bond with the Heartstrings-mare. That said, this one has no shortage of enemies who would seek to harm it and undermine its efforts. Though it doubts that the Heartstrings-mare would hesitate to tell it that the Old Mind or a warlock coven is active in Northmarch. They are as much enemies of Equestria as this one.”

Strumming took a deep breath, then carefully answered. “I stopped by to make a courtesy call with the EIS station here. You know, just let them know I was in the area, and get a heads-up about whether anything’s going on in the area. There was enough going on to make me think things are a little weird.”

Puzzle regarded her with a raised eyebrow. “Weird? How so?”

Strumming shrugged. “Dunno for sure. Just ... weird. You know, that sixth sense kinda thing where you know something’s going on, but you can’t quite put your hoof on it?”

“Yeah, I think I know what you’re talking about,” I agreed. “Don’t suppose you have anything solid to build those suspicions off of?”

“A bit,” she admitted. “The usual monsters are a bit more active, and that weird stuff back in Freeport with the antique dealer and at the museum. And when I was at the station house ... you know that weird feeling where you’re talking to someone, and you’re pretty sure they’re holding out on you, but you have no idea what it could be?”

“Suspecting someone is lying to me in the middle of a conversation,” I commented dryly. “Yeah, I can’t imagine what that would be like.”

Strumming’s eyes narrowed, and I caught a tiny crack in her usual odd variant of the poker face. “Look, telling you about what happened when I was talking with the EIS is ... kind of not okay under normal circumstances. Someone would probably grump pretty hard at me if they knew about this. So gimme a break, okay?”

That took me back for a moment. Mostly because it was one of the few times I had a feeling Strumming was being honest with me. I really wasn’t sure what to make of that, especially given what she’d said to me. Strumming giving away even low-level EIS info was...

Puzzle cleared his throat. “Pity this one doesn't have more time to stick around town to gather information. Not unless we want to stick around Coldhabor for a few days.”

I sighed and shook my head. “I’d rather get moving. I think Argentium would probably get annoyed with us if we kept her waiting for a week while we did some chasing after ghosts and hunches.”

“You’re right,” Puzzle agreed. “Argentium is as proud as any dragon, and keeping her waiting without a very good reason would end badly.” He sighed and shrugged. “There’s nothing to be done about it. With any luck, whatever it is that has the Heartstrings-mare feeling wary is a problem that need not concern us.”

“In other words, it’s definitely going to bite us in the flanks,” I muttered.

“That has been this one’s experience,” Puzzle grumbled. “Hopefully we will beat the odds this time, but if we don’t ... at least it will be an interesting trip.”

Author's Note

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Meetings and Reunions

Marching through the mountains in the face of freezing winds and light but seemingly unending snow got old fast. Despite the faint grumbles it provoked from Sigil, I’d gotten in the habit of keeping up a low-level heat shield over the group whenever we were out in the open. Maybe the caribou thought I was being a bit soft or wasting my magic, but everyone else in the group shot grateful looks my way every time they saw me casting.

Of course, there were limits to how far I could take the spell. No matter how good I was with heat and fire, doing it for hours at a time was draining, not to mention taking the temperature above freezing would’ve caused a dozen new problems. Nopony would thank me if I turned all the ice and snow under our hooves into half-melted slush. Still, at least I could take the edge off the cold.

Sigil eventually showed his displeasure by taking the lead, moving far enough ahead that he would be out of my spell’s range. That suited me just fine; unlike the rest of us, he had a thick coat and all the other adaptations that made cold weather a lot easier to deal with. Kukri had done her best to imitate his thick, shaggy fur, but judging by how she still shivering and whimpered every time the wind picked up, it wasn’t good enough.

Puzzle glanced down at my poor apprentice as I put a bit more power into the warming spell. “A new form can only do so much, little one,” he advised. “Not every trait of the form we take carries over to us.”

“Is there a form this one can take that will stop it from freezing to death?” Kukri grumbled.

“You have survived the week,” Sigil commented from ahead of us. “And I would not keep us on the road if you were in any danger. If the cold bothers you so much, I suggest you grow stronger and overcome it.”

Kukri stuck her tongue out at the caribou once he turned his back on her, only to quickly pull it back in with a groan. “T-too cold to do that.” Her eyes flicked up to my horn, hoping I’d send another heat spell her way. I held off, considering she’d kind of brought her case of cold tongue on herself. My apprentice let out a put-upon sigh. “This one knows what spell it wants in its arsenal next.”

“This one would like to learn that as well,” Puzzle agreed. “Warm clothing and a heat talisman are enough to make this survivable, but a spell to help deal with the worst parts would be welcome.”

“I’ll keep that in mind,” I answered. “Though it’s not as easy as it looks. Energy manipulation is one of those fields that can find dozens of unpleasant ways to go horribly wrong if you make even a small mistake.”

“And such things are not needed regardless,” Sigil commented. “Ponies have lived here for centuries without needing a pyromancer to help them through the cold. All it takes is a bit of preparation and the right supplies.”

“Yeah, but I’m gonna bet most of them weren’t trying to climb a mountain in the middle of winter while it’s snowing,” Strumming pointed out. “And the ones crazy enough to try it didn’t make as good of time as us. Plus they’re a lot more used to these conditions than we are.”

Sigil grunted and refused to answer her, which was probably the closest he was willing to get to conceding that she raised a valid point.

Strumming wasn’t about to let his silence keep her from speaking her mind. “Just saying, survival in Northmarch isn’t that different from survival anywhere else, apart from being colder. I’d like to see how you do in a desert with all that heavy fur.”

“Not to mention the deep jungle beyond Zebrica,” Puzzle added. “This one would be quite happy to never have to deal with that much heat and humidity again. Not to mention the local wildlife was both large and unfriendly.”

“At least Northmarch has plenty of the last,” Strumming chimed in. “Sure, your good old wargs and trolls aren’t quite as exotic as thunder lizards, but they’re still massive beasts that can do all kinds of nasty things to unprepared ponies. Not to mention the Blightspawn.”

“Lady Argentium exterminated the last of those ages ago,” Sigil snapped. “There has not been a confirmed sighting in over a century.”

“Which would be a lot more reassuring if they weren’t in the habit of killing everything and leaving no survivors behind,” Strumming countered. “Not to mention how much of Northmarch is uninhabited. There’s plenty of wilderness for a few of them to hide out in.”

Kukri frowned and rubbed her chin. “This one heard something about them in her studies before the trip, but there wasn’t much information...”

“They’re monsters that the dragon Blackfyre made to supplement Sombra’s forces during the war between the Crystal Empire and Equestria,” I explained.

“Nasty things from what I’ve read,” Strumming agreed. “Take a normal creature, mix in some dark magic and a bit of dragon blood, and bam: instant abomination. They followed orders back when Blackie was around, but after Argentium and Celestia put him down for the count most of them turned feral.” She grimaced and shook her head. “Arguments aside, I sure hope Sigil’s right about all of them being gone, ‘cause knowing our luck we’re gonna end up running into them if any are left. It’s like Bacon has a huge sign over her head telling all the monsters and warlocks where she is.”

“You are mistaken in one regard, Heartstrings-mare,” Puzzle murmured. “If the Shimmer-mare knew of a Blightspawn, she would doubtless feel obligated to hunt it down herself.”

I sighed and rolled my eyes. “Why do you make that sound like a bad thing? If there was some sort of ancient abomination creature going around ripping up innocent creatures, it’d be my job as a magus to deal with it.” I thought it over a moment, then shrugged. “I mean yeah, I’m not strictly obligated since I’m technically a Freeport Magus, but do you really think I’d let that stop me from saving lives?”

“You can’t save the entire world,” Puzzle murmured darkly.

“No,” I agreed. “But that’s no excuse for not saving what I can.”

Kukri grinned up at me, only to duck her head back down and pull her hood tight. “How much further is it? This one feels like it’s about to freeze solid. Can we stop at the next cave and start a fire for a bit? Just until this one can feel its limbs again? And maybe have something warm to eat as well?”

“Just a little further,” Sigil rumbled. “Be happy that the runestones lining the path keep the road from becoming completely impassable. In older times the way was far harder, to dissuade any who lacked the necessary conviction from disturbing the great Argentium.”

“You’d think the fact that they’d be annoying a giant dragon that could swallow them in a single gulp would be incentive enough,” Strumming pointed out. “Then again, Celestia could probably do all kind of damage if she really wanted to and plenty of people still bug her about really stupid stuff. Maybe she needs to add a lava moat around Canterlot Castle?”

“Spoken like somepony who has not been around enough volcanoes,” Puzzle countered with a grin. “Perhaps the Heartstrings-mare is not aware, but active volcanoes with flowing lava do not tend to smell pleasant.”

“This one would be willing to endure any smell it needed to in exchange for some nice warm lava,” Kukri grumbled. “It would certainly prefer that to getting lost in a blizzard and freezing to death like a bugsicle.”

“You don’t have to worry about that.” I nudged her and pointed forward. “We’re almost there. See?”

The snow flurries parted for a few moments, giving us all a clear view of what lay ahead. A sheer cliff face lay before us, with a pair of massive doors sitting right in the middle of it. Flanking each side of the entrance were a pair of enormous statues of what was presumably Argentium herself. Normally I would’ve suspected that the statues were exaggerating her size, but the huge doors were sized for something as big as the statues themselves. Not to mention Puzzle had made a point of warning me that she really was that big.

As we drew a bit closer I realized the doors were actually made out of wood. Considering they belonged to a giant fire-breathing lizard, that came as a surprise. Wood and fire generally didn’t mix, especially not when these wooden doors had a ton of intricate decoration and detailing. They had to have taken thousands of hours of craftsmanship, and a single breath from her could completely ruin them. It seemed like a huge risk.

Or maybe that was the point? After all, I was a pyromancer and I’d never been shy about keeping flammable things in my tower. Maybe she had wooden doors to show the entire world just how much control she had. It would certainly fit with everything else I’d been told about her.

Kukri had far more immediate concerns on her mind. “Oh thank the endless night, we’ve made it! Please tell this one it’s warmer in there.”

Sigil opened up the doors, and blast of hot air that felt like an oven hit us. Kukri scampered past Sigil as soon as there was room for her. The rest of us tried to be a bit more dignified about it, but only a little. Normally decorum would’ve said we shouldn’t cross the threshold without a formal invitation, but even Sigil wasn’t stiff-necked enough to make us all wait outside for a point of ceremony. He waited until the doors were shut to say, “Be welcome as honored guests within the home of Argentium the Runescaled.”

“Thank you.” As everyone started shedding coats and scarves, I tried to remember the old manners Celestia had hammered into me back when I’d thought all those lessons were stupid and pointless. “We are honored Argentium would welcome us within her home, and will conduct ourselves as guests within it.”

Evidently that was close enough, since Sigil just nodded and carried on. “Between the hot springs below us and the enchantments Argentium laid for the comfort of her guests, I think you will find the caverns more to your liking. Save for her treasury, throne room, and private quarters, you are free to go where you wish within the caves. The staff would be happy to accomodate any reasonable request so long as they are not on an errand for the lady.” He shot a slight smirk Kukri’s way as he added, “Though they might consult the master if they think her apprentice is asking for things she should not have.”

“I’m sure she wouldn’t take advantage of Argentium’s hospitality,” I said, directing a rather pointed look Kukri’s way. My apprentice met me with a smile that radiated so much innocence I knew she had to have been plotting something. Probably asking the servants for a bunch of her favorite food and sweets. Not that I was averse to spoiling her a little after she’d spent an entire week freezing, but there were reasonable limits; Knives and Codex were basically trusting me to act in loco parentis, so I kind of had to be a responsible pseudo-parent.

Puzzle grimaced and massaged his limbs. “Remind this one to rethink ever visiting Northmarch during winter. Or at least humbly asking Argentium if she might prefer an alternative meeting location in a more hospitable climate.”

Kukri groaned and stretched, luxuriating in the warm cavern air. “Remind this one to rethink visiting Northmarch again even if it’s the height of summer.” Her eyes flicked over to Sigil. “Er, no offence. This one just prefers a Freeport winter to a Northmarch one.”

“We have a name for what Freeport calls winter,” Sigil answered dryly. “We call it summer.”

I cleared my throat and tried to get things back on track. “Hopefully if Argentium ever wishes to meet with us again we can arrange something with a slightly more convenient time and location for everyone involved.” Granted, Argentium probably didn’t feel the slightest bit inconvenienced by waiting in her cave while we climbed a mountain to reach her, but pointing that out might not start things off on the right foot.

Sigil still picked up on the implication, even if I was too nice to say it outright. “I’m sure Lady Argentium had reasons for the timing and for asking that you come to her rather than arrange another meeting place. She always does.”

Strumming frowned and very carefully muttered under her breath. “And us mere mortals must bend to the whims of Dragon Timing.”

“No kidding,” Kukri grumbled a bit less cautiously as she removed the last of her coats, leaving only the gambeson Strumming had given her. “This one’s curious what her reasons are. We’ve been travelling for almost a month to meet her, and a trip like this in the middle of winter is somewhere between inconvenient and dangerous.”

A faint frown creased Sigil’s lips, and Puzzle took action before I could. “This one would remind you how to behave while we’re in Argentium’s home.”

Judging by my apprentice’s baffled frown she didn’t quite get it. I stepped in to make sure she realized how serious this was. “Remember all that old fashioned hospitality stuff I told you about? Argentium takes it very seriously. That includes showing a host all the proper respect and deference they deserve while you’re a guest in their home.”

Kukri’s ears drooped as the lesson sank in. “Right, right, sorry—this one’s brain’s still thawing. It’s coming back to this one now.”

“Good.” I turned back to Sigil. “I apologize. I’m sure you’ll understand that my apprentice is tired and meant no offense with her words.” It irked me to have to ... well, I wasn’t exactly groveling, but it was definitely more than just a token apology. Especially since Kukri was really just saying what all of us were thinking. Argentium could’ve flown out to Freeport or Coldharbor to meet us without too much effort on her part, and saved us a lot of trouble.

“I accept your apology on behalf of Argentium,” Sigil answered magnanimously. “The journey has been a long one. If you will excuse me, I shall arrange for refreshment. Make yourselves comfortable.”

Once he’d left I took a bit to actually study the entryway. The scale of everything there was exactly as ridiculous as you’d expect for the home of a gigantic dragon: the chamber was so huge and the ceilings so high I wasn’t surprised to spot a few runes that kept and clouds or fog from forming. Naturally, Argentium’s entryway included all the usual displays of conspicuous wealth you’d expect from anyone with her resources.

However, Argentium’s tastes were a bit more refined than most dragons. Instead of huge piles of gold and gems, the walls of her caverns had a collection of the finest art in the world. Paintings by Roanbrandt and Happy Tree, sculptures by Marecoangelo and vases by Amphora Potter were just the first things I noticed. I’d seen museums with less impressive collections.

The centerpiece of her display was a massive tapestry that had to have been at least a thousand years old judging by who was in it, since any art portraying Luna and Celestia together had fallen out of fashion after Nightmare Moon. Judging by the armor they were both wearing along with Argentium, the whole thing had probably been made back during the war against Sombra and Blackfyre.

Celestia looked different. Not in any immediately obvious physical way, but there was just something about her eyes and the way she carried herself. She looked ... young. Or at least, however much that term could be said to apply to an ageless immortal. There just seemed to be a sort of energy and vitality around her instead of the usual reserved wisdom I was used to. Maybe it was because she actually was over a thousand years younger, or maybe it was because she still had Luna. Or maybe it was both those things together with everything else, like the Lunar Rebellion and the Morning Wars.

Strumming stepped up to my side, giving the tapestry a quick once-over. “Huh. So that’s what they looked like back in the day.” She picked up her half-eaten bag of chips and was halfway to eating another one when she grimaced and reluctantly closed the bag. “Okay, yeah. Hate to say it, but wacky funtime Strumming needs to go away and super-serious professional Strumming needs to come out.” She took a deep breath, then slowly straightened her stance. It was a strange sort of transformation as her lazy slouch shifted to stiff-backed attentive professionalism, and a quick flick of her wing brushed away a few crumbs from her previous snacks. When she spoke, even her voice sounded different. “I will follow your lead, Magus.”

Kukri blinked and let out a low whistle. “Wow, you are serious.”

“The situation is serious,” Puzzle explained. “Argentium is a being of considerable power, influence, and immense pride. As impressive as her hoard is, she values her image and reputation above any physical object. The slightest hint of rudeness or sarcasm could offend her and ruin this entire endeavour.”

Kukri nodded along. “Serious and polite as serious and polite can be, got it.”

Strumming fixed her with the sort of unamused glower that she was usually on the receiving end of. “This isn’t a joking matter, Kukri. Sunset is counting on you to conduct yourself like a proper apprentice. If you say something like you did earlier in front of Argentium herself, we will be out of here and walking home through the blizzard before you can blink.”

Kukri flinched. “This one was just ... it was cold, tired and frustrated. But it isn’t stupid enough to say something like that in front of Argentium.”

“You said it within her home, and in front of one of her servants,” Puzzle pointed out. “That’s almost as bad. Not to mention how keen a dragon’s senses are. Mind. Your. Words. You’re so small you wouldn’t even count as a snack to her.”

Kukri grimaced and shrank down. “It’s... This one’s being serious. Even if it didn’t take the prospect of a dragon seriously, it’s not going to make the Shimmer-mare look bad.”

“I know you won’t.” I gave her a quick pat on the back to reassure her after the mild lecture the other two had delivered. “They’re just playing it safe. Better to remind you a dozen times than have you slip up once.”

“Right.” She seemed to perk back up at my praise, and took a moment to shift out of her cold weather form and into her usual default disguise—a miniaturized version of me. I still wasn’t sure what to make of that. I mean, the hero-worship was flattering, but it was just a little odd to see her going that far with it.

However, this time her disguise left a bit to be desired. Her mane and tail were a bit of a mess. She frowned and tried to put them in order by shifting a few more times, but with no luck. “This one ... um, could I get a little help?”

Seeing a miniaturized version of me looking so messy got me thinking, and quickly conjured up a plane of ice to check my own reflection. What I saw ... wasn’t great. Not that it was horrible, but I looked like I’d been camping out and walking through arctic wilderness for a week, and that after a couple weeks of living on a ship with limited hygiene opportunities. Fitting, since that’s exactly what I’d been doing. I hadn’t enjoyed a proper bath since I’d left Freeport, and a month of nothing more than quick rinses and cleaning spells had left me less than fit to visit an incredibly proud and prickly dragon.

Strumming checked her own reflection, then sighed. “She just asked us to walk up here through a blizzard. If she would be that annoyed about us looking a little road weary, I imagine she intends to give us a bit to freshen up like a proper host.”

“Indeed so.” Sigil strode back in, accompanied by a few other ponies and caribou. “Her Ladyship anticipated as much and will see you in the morning. The staff are already preparing quarters for you, and have arranged for refreshments in the meantime. Hopefully the remainder of the afternoon and evening will be enough to restore body and spirit.”

Sigil led us into the next room, which was much more reasonably sized for non-dragons. Not that smaller rooms would lock Argentium out. From what Celestia and Puzzle had said, Argentium was quite capable of either reducing her size or taking on a relatively pony- or caribou-like form. She only really needed the full-size caverns for when she was sleeping or if she wanted to impress everyone with how huge she was.

The central feature of the room was a massive banquet table loaded down with just about every type of food imaginable. And I do mean every type—I was pretty sure Argentium was showing off just how much research she’d put into our group, because a few of my old favorites from when I’d lived in Canterlot Palace and had access to Celestia’s chefs were sitting right next to several bags of Strumming’s favorite brand of chips.

Kukri’s ears perked up and she trotted over to several large trays that seemed aimed at her. She started by grabbing a large mug of hot chocolate and a plate full of shrimp, then started to reach into her bag for her thymoplasm flask before Puzzle gently stopped her and pointed to a large decanter full of it.

Thankfully, Kukri took the hint and accepted the ‘plasm our host was offering. Naturally, ignoring the host’s food and eating your own would be a huge slight on Argentium’s hospitality, as it would effectively be saying that the food she’d offered us wasn’t good enough. That, or it would be implying we thought she’d poisoned it.

While it was unlikely to be an issue given the sheer quantity of food provided, we would also need to be careful not to completely clean out everything she’d offered as that might be seen as implying she hadn’t provided enough. Unless we were eating in West Zebrica or a rural earth pony community, where it was sometimes seen as an insult to not clean your plate since that implied the food wasn’t good...

I was starting to remember why I’d never been at my most patient when it came to Celestia’s etiquette lessons. Even leaving aside the fact that I’d been a bit less mature back then, it was hard to keep all the different rules straight. Especially when different societies and classes and races all had their own rules, some of which contradicted other rules. If I could’ve gone back a few years and thumped my younger self over the head to make her pay more attention...

I cleared my throat and turned to face Sigil. “Please let Argentium know that we thank her for her hospitality, and the excellent meal she has provided for us.”

Sigil nodded politely. “I will convey your words to her at once. I imagine the staff should be more than able to see to any further needs you have.”

“We will try not to be too much of a burden,” Strumming answered, securing a large plate of onion rings and sweet potato fries. She tried one of them and let out a low, appreciative murmur. “Oooh, my compliments to the chef.”

Puzzle grinned as he loaded his own plate with several kebabs, grinning. “There is one good thing about having Argentium as a patron: she is a very fine host. The rules of hospitality impose as many duties upon her as they do on us.”

One of the servants stepped up to Puzzle, carefully clearing his throat. “The Lady asked us to inquire as to whether you and Agent Heartsrings would wish to share quarters.”

Puzzle and Strumming both paused, sharing a look. She shrugged, and a second later he followed suit. “This one sees no reason to trouble the staff with the bother of preparing two separate rooms when a single will suffice.”

Strumming nudged him and whispered, “Makes it easier to keep warm at night too.”

“Quite,” Puzzle agree with a dry smile.

The servants either didn’t hear that byplay or chose to ignore it. “We will see to it, then.” One of them passed a single small runestone to each of us. “If you require assistance, merely activate this stone and one of us will be along to assist you shortly. As Sigil said, you are free to go anywhere other than Lady Argentium’s personal quarters, throne room and the treasury. We have already taken your coats for laundering, and Sigil said some of you would probably want to take advantage of the hot springs. Are there any other needs you anticipate?”

I took a moment to swallow a bite of my eggplant parmigiana before answering. “Nothing I can think of at the moment, though Sigil was right about us wanting to use the hot springs.”

Kukri nodded emphatically. “This one’s going to take full advantage of those as soon as it can. She frowned, looking back at the food. “Or as soon as it finishes eating. Or ... could it take some of the food down to the springs?”

“I like the way this kid thinks,” Strumming said with a grin. “Though asking the staff to move all this food down to the springs seems like a bit much.”

“I can just teleport it.” I started to cast the spell, only for it to fizzle. “...or I could if our host didn’t have her caverns dimensionally warded.” In hindsight, I probably should have seen that coming. Of course the ancient super-powerful dragon would have wards to prevent anyone from teleporting or opening a portal into her home. Especially given the size and value of her hoard.

I sighed, feeling just a bit silly now that my attempt to show off had failed so spectacularly. “Okay, we’ll hit the hot springs once we’re done eating.”

“That sounds like a fine plan to this one,” Puzzle agreed. “It can attest from past experience that the springs are most welcome way to relax and unwind after a long journey, especially one as cold as ours.”

I grinned and got back to my meal. “Well then ... let’s relax.”

A day of rest and a good night’s sleep in a proper bed had done wonders for everyone’s spirits and appearances. Not to mention a day of availing ourselves of Argentium’s hospitality had nicely dispelled or at least suppressed any resentment over the long and uncomfortable journey. Maybe that was part of why the staff seemed to be going all-out to accommodate us. Sigil almost certainly would’ve told his mistress that we were a bit resentful about climbing up a mountain in the middle of winter. It’s hard to stay mad at someone who’s treating you to gourmet meals before letting you relax in her hot springs.

We were just finished up a breakfast of fresh fruit and thin Northmarch-style pancakes when Sigil joined us. He quickly scanned the table to make sure he had our full attention before speaking up. “Magus Sunset, I trust you and your companions are feeling better?”

“Much better,” I answered. “Thank you. And if you don’t mind, convey our thanks Lady Argentium for her excellent hospitality.”

“You can tell Lady Argentium herself,” Sigil answered with a tight smile. “She would like to meet with you when you're ready.”

“I’m re...” I was about to say now, but I’d told Kukri to leave her nice robes in her bag so she didn’t get them dirty at breakfast, and Strumming still had a bit of bed-mane. “Give us just a minute to prepare and we’ll be ready.”

“Very well.” Sigil patiently stood by the door as we hustled off to our rooms to make sure we all looked presentable. Well, I mostly concerned myself with Kukri; Strumming was at least technically a responsible adult, and Puzzle could handle her regardless.

I managed to get Kukri dressed up in her nice robes with only a few token grumbles from her, but had to shake my head when she shifted into her usual mini-me form. “No disguises today.”

Kukri sighed and reverted to her natural state. “Let this one guess: wearing a different form than its natural one would be another violation of the rules of hospitality?”

“Yup,” I confirmed. “Showing up to a first meeting in disguise is a bit rude, even if you’re not actually trying to conceal your identity or nature.”

“That does make sense,” Kukri conceded reluctantly as she shifted back. “This one isn’t sure its robes look as good like this. Do the colors still match?”

“You’re fine.” I gave her head-crest a quick pat, then shuffled her out the door. Puzzle and Strumming were already waiting for us, with Strumming seeming to be back in her unusually serious mode. It was strange how much a change in posture and facial expression completely altered her image. If she went around like that more often and spent less time slouching and looking lazily insolent, someone might actually mistake her for a proper EIS agent.

Sigil looked us over, then nodded to himself. “If you’re all ready?” We nodded, and lead the way through the hallways until we exited into the massive open cavern once more. This time he took us through a huge sculpture garden, and then a second chamber where the titanic walls and ceilings had been turned into several presumably life-sized frescoes showing off Argentium’s various accomplishments. Many of them focused on her leadership during the war against the Crystal Empire, while others showed her helping the caribou construct their cities or training them in the art of runecasting. Kukri scanned through the various figures on the wall, trying to find one face in particular. “Do you see Torch among her students, Shimmer-mare?”

I quickly looked the various ponies learning from Argentium over, but didn’t spot anyone who matched the paintings and sculptures I’d seen of Torch Charger. I was about to tell her that the students were probably just an artists rendering rather than a perfect copy of her actual historical students when I spotted one uncomfortably familiar face. I’d only ever known one unicorn mare with a light blue coat, a crimson mane done in two thick braids, and a surprising amount of raw muscle for a magus. I could’ve done without the reminder.

Thankfully, there was something to distract me from that waiting in the next room. While the chamber Sigil led us to was by far the most finely decorated we’d seen so far, I don’t think any of us were looking at the paintings hanging up on the walls. The dragon sitting on a massive throne in the middle of the room demanded our attention.

Argentium was ... big. No, a word like ‘big’ doesn’t even begin to capture the scale of just how large she was. Puzzle hadn’t been kidding when he said she could swallow Kukri in a single gulp. She could probably eat any of us in a single bite, though the only thing the adults had going for them was she might need to chew.

The next thing I noticed were the scales that she named herself for. So far as I could tell, every single one of her shimmering silver scales had a rune inscribed in it. It must have taken her years to pull off, and she probably needed to constantly refresh the runes as she shed scales and continued to grow. That kind of dedication to detail took a lot of work.

Argentium turned her massive horned head down to face us, smiling. There was something odd about her smile, and it took me a second to figure out what it was: she was making a clear effort to hide her fangs. Given how large and sharp they doubtless were, a smile showing them off probably would have been less welcoming than intended.

Sigil stepped forward and bowed, obviously not phased by her sheer presence the way the rest of us were. “Lady Argentium the Runescaled, I bring before you your guests, Freeport Magus Sunset Shimmer, her apprentice Kukri Doo, and Mister Puzzle Piece of Freeport along with his paramour Strumming Heartstrings of the Equestrian Intelligence Service.”

Argentium glanced to Puzzle and nodded, then fixed her attention fully upon me. “Magus Sunset, you may approach.”

I stepped up, doing my best to hide any sign of being impressed or intimidated by her titanic size. It took a lot of work. If not for the fact that Kukri was blatantly gawking at her I probably would’ve had a harder time resisting the urge to do so myself. One of the benefits of having an apprentice, they could have all those little imperfections a proper magus was supposed to be too good for.

Argentium grinned and drew herself up to her full height, the light glittering off her scales. “I take it this is your first time seeing a greater dragon, Kukri Doo? I don’t blame you for being impressed.”

Kukri stared up at her and squeaked out. “You are kinda ... big.”

Argentium snorted softly, sending a small burst of white-blue flame out her nostrils. “I prefer the word ‘magnificent’.”

Kukri let out another nervous squeak, and I swooped in to keep her from being completely overawed by Argentium. “That too. And several dozen other words I could think. I’ve heard descriptions, but words fall far short of the reality.”

She answered me with a slight inclination of her head, as if to show that while the blatant flattery didn’t impress her, the effort was appreciated nonetheless. “Thank you for your kind words, and for answering my summons so swiftly. I trust that the journey was not too trying, and that my hospitality has sufficed?”

“We are honored to be your guests,” I answered deferentially. Puzzle nudged me and pointedly glanced down at the lump within my robes that contained her gift. I shot a faintly annoyed glare his way; I didn’t need the reminder. I pulled the wrapped package out and it to Argentium. “I bring you this small item as a token of my appreciation.”

Her eyes immediately focused on the item in my hooves. “Now what do we have here?” One of her massive claws reached over and plucked the present out of my grasp with surprising delicateness. She brought it up to eye level and carefully unwrapped it, somehow managing to get the paper off without tearing it a single time. Most ponies couldn’t even do that, let alone a creature as huge as she was. Once she had the book in her claws she looked it over and smiled. “Ah, a most rare tome indeed. My thanks, this is a fine gift.”

“It is only a small token of my esteem,” I answered, trying to remember if Celestia’s advice for giving gifts to dragons was to play up their value to make it seem better, or downplay it so you didn’t start getting into an ego contest.

Whichever of the two I was supposed to do, Argentium seemed to find my answer satisfactory. She smiled and nodded, carefully setting the tome down on one of her bookshelves. “The thought behind the gift is far more important than the thing itself. Though I do wonder how such a tome ended up in Freeport.”

“A dealer in rare books and other antiquities came into possession of it,” I answered. I decided not to mention the explosion at the book collector’s shop. No need to bring up macabre details that weren’t really relevant.

“I see.” She frowned thoughtfully, then nodded to herself. “A great many things seem to find their way into Freeport.”

“There’s a reason Freeport likes to call itself the crossroads of the world,” I pointed out. I wisely left out that it also had a reputation for being a good place to sell off anything whose provenance was somewhat dubious.

“That is one of many things I have heard said about it,” Argentium murmured. “In any event, when I have the time to spare I am sure I will read and enjoy your book. It has always been fascinating to see how historians analyze events I experienced first hand.” She turned away from the bookshelf, focusing her full attention on me. “For now, however, I have a story in front of me whose ending has yet to be written. I confess have been most curious to meet you. Tales of the Magus of Freeport have been heard even this far north, if a bit scattered.”

I decided to stick with modesty, since it had gone over well so far. “I had no idea my reputation was so widespread.”

“My ears do go far and wide.” She smirked at Puzzle. “Not to mention that your companion is one of several agents I compensate to aid with a few minor tasks and help me keep abreast of events in the wider world. And, of course, I continue to correspond regularly with your former teacher. Celestia retains a keen interest in you.”

“I noticed.” My eyes naturally flicked over to the EIS spy she’d sent to keep an eye on me. There were quite a few things I didn’t buy about Strumming’s tall tales when it came to her role in the EIS and its hierarchy, but the one thing I was ninety nine percent sure about was that she was serving as Celestia’s eyes and ears to keep an eye on me.

Argentium cleared her throat and flicked a claw through the air. “However, just as you said earlier, there is a great difference between seeing something for yourself and hearing it described to you by another.”

Kukri looked back and forth between the two of us, then slowly raised a hoof like a schoolfilly. Argentium cocked her head to the side curiously, then nodded. “Yes, Kukri? Did you have something you wanted to ask?”

My apprentice took a deep breath, then nervously squeaked out. “Pardon this one for speaking up, but it would like to say something: Magus Sunset has saved this one’s life more than once. She is a hero and the best mare this one has ever known. She even gave it the chance to study magic as her apprentice, and this one is proud to be her student. It, um ... this one just thought it needed to say that, so ... um ... it has.” She sat there, a hint of a blush slowly building up through her carapace.

Argentium chuckled, the sound surprisingly soft and gentle considering how massive she was. “It seems you have quite the proud apprentice, Magus.”

I smiled and gave Kukri a pat on the back. “And an apprentice I'm quite proud of.”

“Clearly.” Argentium leaned back in her throne, looking me over. “However, it is not your past acts that concern me. By all accounts you have established yourself in Freeport and done good work there, but I cannot imagine one of Celestia’s former students would content herself with such modest goals. Your mother is a mare of incredible ambition, and by all accounts that is one trait she passed on to you: the drive to do great things, and to make still more of yourself. The question, then, is what the fire in your belly and hunger in your soul will drive you towards.” With a smile that showed just a hint of fang, she concluded. “Beings with both high ambition and the power to make their dreams reality can achieve great things. Or terrible ones. I would know which you will be.”

Well that was a loaded question, and one I wanted to take a moment to make sure I answered correctly, considering a bad answer could have her looking at me like a nascent Sombra or Nightmare Moon. Instead of answering right away, I temporized. “I’m sure you’ve traded notes with Celestia about me at some point, and I’m also sure that included what she had in mind for me.”

“That she intended to set you down the path to becoming an alicorn?” Argentium asked. “Yes, I am aware. I also know that you made a point of leaving her several years ago to blaze your own trail rather than follow the one she set out for you.”

Kukri stared at me, her jaw just about hanging on the floor. I belatedly realized that I’d never actually mentioned that to my apprentice. I tended to not talk a lot about what I’d learned from Celestia when I was training her. Strumming already knew, and Puzzle didn’t seem the least bit shocked by the news, but Kukri ... well, that little revelation would probably just encourage her hero-worship even more.

However, I had a question to answer and a dragon who didn’t like waiting. After thinking it over a bit longer, I decided to just be honest with her. “I ... honestly don’t know where exactly I’m going. I’ve got goals, but the pathway to get to them isn’t as clear as I’d like and so far I haven’t had much luck with making progress towards them.

“A refreshingly self-aware answer,” Argentium noted. “Often the problem lies not in finding what we want in life, but rather identifying the best means of achieving it. Wanting to become an alicorn is simple enough, but actually obtaining ascension...” The dragon grinned down at me. “Fortunately for you, one thing Celestia and I have in common is a certain level of experience in guiding eager young minds.”

I was briefly tempted to argue the point about me being young, but I suppose everyone is young to a being whose age can be measured in millenia. Besides, advice from an ancient dragon was always worth listening to, and it could make a great way to shift the conversation towards my school-building plans. “Are you really now? Sounds interesting. I did have a few ideas I wouldn't mind running by you...”

“Certainly.” Argentium leaned back in her massive throne. “By all means, share your thoughts. Often simply discussing an idea makes it far stronger than brooding over it within the silence of your own mind.”

“Great.” I took a deep breath, then started my pitch. “So, I was thinking of starting up a school in Freeport. Magical education in the islands has a lot of room for improvement, not to mention we have some unique geographic advantages. Being the crossroads of the world means more than just trade in physical goods, since there’s also ideas. Imagine an academy where a dozen different magical traditions meet and mix together.”

Argentium nodded along. “Fostering new minds is always an admirable goal. I have found that ignorance and lack of guidance often causes far more damage than active malice.”

“Exactly,” I agreed. “But, getting back to what you said earlier, there’s a big gap between wanting to open a magic academy and actually making it happen. Building a school takes time, personnel, and considerable resources.

“Something I know all too well, yes.” Argentium ran a claw under her chin. “I have occasionally given thought to making a proper institution in Northmarch, but much as I enjoy fostering a few talented individuals I have never shared Celestia’s fondness for ... institutions. The old system of master and apprentice has sufficed for Northmarch.” Her massive shoulders rolled in an uncaring shrug. “But Equestria and Freeport might have different needs. You think you can build a suitable school in the islands?”

Kukri felt the need to jump in and support me. “She’s a fantastic teacher! This one’s learned more about magic in a year than it could otherwise hope to in a decade, and that’s even after all the complications from teaching a different species! The Shimmer-mare is ... um...” She trailed off as she slowly realized she’s just interrupted us. “Um ... really good? Sorry, this one will be quiet now.”

Argentium politely ignored Kukri’s outburst, keeping her attention on me. “I suppose the Council hasn’t been eager to help you, have they?” She snorted. “Pity. They began with such promise, but time seems to dull the focus of any mortal institution. Where once they sought to change they world for the better, now they seem to care only for preserving what they have.”

I grimaced and nodded. “They made some noises about how they weren’t sure I had enough proven experience, but I think a lot of it was that they just didn’t want to take a chance. Why invest in something without guaranteed returns?”

“A wise policy if you seek to preserve what you already have, but not one that lends itself to growth. Great things are rarely accomplished without risk.” Argentium’s eyes flicked over me. “If the Council will not help, then there only two options: either you gather the resources you need to build your school elsewhere, or you go someplace else that would be more welcoming to your proposal.”

I shrugged. “Pretty much how it looks to me. Getting the independent wealth to run my own school would be hard, and outside investors will want something in exchange for all that money.” The Council doubtlessly would too, but at least with them I could be reasonably sure their agenda and mine lined up. Freeport would reap obvious benefits from having a corps of trained magi, and making the islands a locus of magical learning would obviously attract new trade in magical items and crafting. Not to mention the prestige that would come with being a very large and successful magic academy. With private investors, agendas got a lot fuzzier.

“That does leave you in an unenviable position,” Argentium continued. “No money to obtain your goals in Freeport, and it sounds as if your plans would not be half so well served in any other location.”

“Not that it’s stopped the offers from coming in.” When I saw Argentium’s curious look I elaborated. “Celestia wants me to come back and teach at her school for a while.”

“Little surprise.” Argentium chuckled. “She would like to have you closer to home, and a bit more experience in education would make you seem far more qualified.”

“It’s perfectly logical,” I agreed. “Not sure if it’s what I want, though.”

“And why not?”

I hesitated, trying to find the best way to explain it. “Because I want to handle this on my own. If I have to go back to Celestia for help...”

“Of course, you wish to be independent.” The dragon fixed me with a piercing gaze. “That rather begs the question of which of your goals is more important. Is this about making a school, or about proving yourself?”

I thought about that for a second. “The two go hand-in-hand. Making the school is part of proving myself. There’d be no point if I was just parroting Celestia’s old lessons and doing it all only because she was helping me.” I sighed and ran a hoof through my mane. “But ... I do want to make it happen, and just taking a little help from her doesn’t mean I’m not accomplishing anything on my own.

Argentium nodded along. “Then it sounds like you want to take the harder path, so long as it isn’t so hard that you fail. You want Celestia’s help, but fear that accepting it might diminish your own achievements or temper your ambition.”

“I guess, yeah,” I grimaced and tried to think of the best way to explain it. “It’s ... I want this to be my magic academy, not Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns Mk. II, and oh yeah—her student Sunset Shimmer helped set it up.”

“No small distinction,” Argentium agreed, inclining her head to me. “It would be far too easy for her presence to overshadow yours. It is no small part of why I prefer a less direct role in my rule over Northmarch. You left for Freeport to establish yourself, and now you fear going back on that, even if I doubt Celestia intends to strip away all that you have achieved.”

“I don’t think she’d ever do that on purpose,” I agreed. “It’s not like she’s got some master plan to take away my independence. It’s just ... she just wants to help, but that’s the thing: I don’t want to spend the rest of my life having her help me out. I don’t mind the help when I really need it, or getting some good advice, but...”

“You want to fly free,” Argentium concluded. “Better a unicorn blazing her own trail than an alicorn who is just a lesser royal serving beneath her old teacher.”

“Yeah.” I frowned and shook my head. “Though really, I’d think you’d need to do more than follow lessons and be a good flunky to ascend. What’s the point of being an alicorn who’s just doing all the same things a unicorn could?”

“Just so.” Argentium nodded. “You wish to take your power out into the world, to remake it to your own desires rather than merely exist. That is the source of your frustration with the Council, and why you fear a return to Canterlot. Both restrain you from achieving your true goals in life.” She leaned forward. “Though I wonder how much of this is about improving Freeport, and how much is about becoming an alicorn.”

I thought it over, then shrugged. “Once again, the two goals are tied together. I don’t know all the details, but being a good pony doing good things is a pretty big part of making it to alicorndom.”

“True enough.” Argentium frowned thoughtfully. “Of course, many philosophers would say that if your good works stemmed from a selfish motive, they would never truly be good. Having an impure motive would taint your every action.”

“I’ve always been more of a consequentialist,” I answered. “If I make Freeport a better, happier, and more prosperous place, what does it matter if I hoped to get something out of it? It’s not like me becoming an alicorn would undo all the good I’d accomplished. If anything, it would make it even easier for me to do more.”

Strumming cleared her throat, then carefully spoke up. “In my experience, completely pure motivations are vanishingly rare. Even if you cut out all the people who do charity for the praise and adulation, most of them do it because they enjoy helping. Thinking about how righteous and self-sacrificing you are is incredibly satisfying.”

“That much is true.” Argentium looked over my entire group. “You have given me a great deal to think about. I wish to take some time to meditate on this before I decide if I shall take any action on the matter. Freeport has always been a rather complicated nation, and the type of changes you propose could radically alter its destiny. An alicorn in command of her own magic academy could change everything.”

“That’s the idea,” I pointed out.

“And an alicorn who is less than fully satisfied with the current government and has an army of loyal battle-mages supporting her could change even more,” Argentium concluded with a knowing grin. “At least you have ambition worthy of your legacy.”

“My legacy?” I asked.

“Your origins, specifically,” she not-quite explained.

“You mean the fact that I’m from Equestria?”

“More specifically, your teacher and parents,” Argentium clarified. “Even if Celestia is not quite so ambitious as she was when she still had her sister at her side, there are times when the old fires burn bright in her eyes.”

I nodded along. “Celestia’s been a huge influence. I know we butted heads at times, but she was a great teacher and a wonderful mother to me after...” I decided it might be better not to start complaining about my birth parents in front of Argentium. It wasn’t exactly dignified, and my birth mother had studied under her.

I’d evidently given away a bit too much already, because Argentium was staring down at me with a slight frown. “I see. That is indeed how it stands.”

“Meaning?”

“I am sure you aware that your mother was one of my students,” Argentium explained. “It is only natural I would be curious how things stood between you and your parents.”

“My parents.” I didn’t want to sound too argumentative, but there were some matters I had to take a stand on. “I assume you mean Scarlet Runeseeker and Solar Shimmer? I haven’t seen or heard from them in years, even before I left Canterlot.” I let that sit just long enough to make my point before concluding. “Things are fine with me and Celestia.”

Argentium’s frown deepened. “I see.”

I took a deep breath and made sure I didn’t sound terse after she’d touched on a few sensitive topics. “Was there anything else you wanted to know?”

She shook her massive head. “I think that is enough for right now. My apologies for touching on what appears to be a rather complicated personal issue. However, I hope that my reasons for doing so will be clear soon enough.”

“You have nothing to apologize for,” I answered diplomatically. “Though if you don’t mind my asking, what do you mean about your reasons?”

Argentium rose from her throne, and with a careful flick of her tail pulled open the door to one of her inner chambers. “We are ready for you, Scarlet.”

I tensed as a mare I hadn’t seen for years and would’ve been perfectly fine never seeing again strode into the room. She looked a bit older than the image I’d seen in the fresco on Argentium’s wall, but that was mostly just a few subtle age lines and her muscles not being quite as well defined. And the archmagus cloak she had on was unmistakable.

Scarlet Runeseeker, my birth mother, stared at me neutrally. “Hello, Sunset.”

Author's Note

Apologies for publishing a bit late, had some internet access issues.

As always, thanks to my pre-reading and editing team for all their hard work. Also, I would like to thank all my dedicated Patreon supporters. You guys are awesome.

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Not According to Plan

While everyone else stared at my biological mother with dumb gobsmacked looks on their faces, I got straight to the point. “What are you doing here?”

Scarlett looked down at me and sniffed like I was a particularly stinky sort of cheese. “Isn’t it obvious? I came here to bring you home.”

“‘Home’?” I scoffed. “Tell me, what exactly is that supposed to mean? Home’s been Freeport for the last couple years, and before that it was my tower in Celestia’s palace. Unless you’ve still got that old room you stuffed me in back when I was an unmarked foal, I don’t think you know much about what counts as home to me.”

“Canterlot,” Scarlett answered tersely. “I’m taking you back to Canterlot. I’m sure Celestia and I will sort out the exact details of your living arrangements once you’ve returned. That’s hardly important. I’m sure you had fun gallivanting around Freeport and pretending to be a magus, but it's past time we put a stop that.”

“Pretending to be a magus?” I repeated incredulously. I suppose it came as no shock that she didn’t have the first clue what I’d actually been doing for the last several years. Not like that was anything new. “I don’t know how you expected this to end, but we’re a long way from when you could tell me what to do.”

“You are my daughter,” Scarlett growled out. “And I am your mother. I know you’ve put considerable effort into pretending that’s not the case, but it is. And it doesn’t change just because you spent the last few years as a disreputable Freeport mercenary.”

Kukri cleared her throat and took a hesitant step forward, trying to play the peacemaker. “Um, the Shimmer-mare has actually done a lot of good. She’s destroyed monsters and saved this one’s life more than once.” She hesitated when Scarlett glowered her, but did her best to keep going forward. “Um, hi. This one should introduce itself. Kukri Doo. This one is, um, I’m the Shimmer-mare—Sunset’s apprentice.”

Scarlett let out a disdainful huff and turned her gaze away. “I know what you are, changeling.”

My teeth clenched at her tone. I could put up with her attitude towards me—well no, that actually really pissed me off too, but her taking that tone with Kukri made me a lot angrier. “There something wrong with my apprentice?”

Scarlett scoffed. “It’s hardly the sort of apprentice Celestia or I would have had in mind for you, is it? Doubtless that’s precisely why you’re going through the farce of taking a changeling in the first place—just another bit of childish rebellion to try and embarrass me.” She sighed and shook her head. “I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised, considering the company you keep.” She shot a rather pointed glare at Puzzle. “It did make it just about impossible to approach you in Freeport.”

Puzzle grinned in a way that rather prominently displayed his fangs. “If you wanted to have a meeting with your daughter, Archmagus Runeseeker, you only had to ask. This one could have made arrangements under the right circumstances.” He smirked and added, “Of course, this one isn’t surprised that it might be difficult to find bounty hunters willing to target one of its associates, especially for an archmagus who would want them to be both competent and reliable. Not to mention available at a reasonable price.”

“Hiring bounty hunters.” Strumming smirked and nodded. “Obviously the right way to reach out to your estranged daughter, rather than just talking to her.”

Scarlett scoffed and rolled her eyes. “I can’t afford to drop everything and leave my march unattended for more than a month just to have a single conversation with my runaway child. Even arranging this meeting was a waste of my time and resources.”

That was the story of my life with her: more important things to do. “Well if you had so many better and more important things to do, I’m surprised you bothered. I was perfectly fine on my own and didn’t need anything from you, so...”

“Hardly,” Scarlett sniffed. “It’s been an absolute scandal ever since you left, and judging by the company you’ve been keeping...”

“Um...” Kukri made one last effort to salvage things. “This one’s proud to call herself the Shimmer-mare's apprentice! She’s one of Freeport’s greatest heroes, and has saved its life at least twice. It’s learned a lot about magic from her.”

“Well of course you learned a lot,” Scarlett scoffed with a dismissive wave. “You were starting from nothing.”

Kukri’s head snapped back. “Th-this one wasn’t starting from...” She quickly ducked her head, rubbing at her eyes.

I wrapped a leg around my apprentice. “Don’t listen to that nag,” I whispered to her. “She’s not worth the effort.” I shifted my attention back to Scarlett, glaring at her. “So, what exactly was your plan? Come here, insult me, my friends and my apprentice, and then somehow that would make me want to go back to Equestria with you? Because even by your laughably horrible standards of parenting, that’s a new low. So, you don’t want to be here, I don’t want you here—I see an easy solution to this whole issue that would make both of us much happier.”

Scarlett grimaced and shook her head. “No, I’m not leaving here without you. It’s past time we reconciled this ... estrangement.”

If not for the fact that we were in front of Argentium, I would’ve used some very colorful language to make it clear exactly what I thought of that idea. However, under the circumstances it seemed like a better move to at least let her say her piece. After all, Argentium would probably be inclined to take Scarlett’s side of things considering she was a former student. There was no way Argentium would help fund or support my school plans if she thought I was nothing but an immature runaway kid, so best not to give her any reason to believe that.

So I took a deep breath. “Alright. I’m listening.”

Her teeth clenched, and she all but ground out the words as if it they were painful. “I am aware that I couldn’t make it to every single event you wanted me to attend. If you’re still mad that I missed your birthday because I needed to hunt down a sludge monster, I would expect a mare of your age to understand. If you were actually a magus, you would know just how many other far more important things I have to deal with on a daily basis.”

I scoffed and rolled my eyes. “Is that the best you can do? I’d say that’s a ‘I’m sorry you feel that way’ non-apology, but I don’t think you even did that.”

“More like ‘I’m sorry you’re not mature or intelligent enough to understand why I’m right and you’re wrong,’” Strumming commented from the sidelines.

“My work was important,” Scarlett snapped. “Let’s take that birthday I missed because of the sludge monster, since evidently it’s still such a sore point.”

I’d honestly forgotten about it until she brought it up, but whatever. “Fine. Let’s hear your latest excuse for being a deadbeat.”

“That sludge monster I was busy hunting down was a suspect in the disappearance of a seven-year-old colt,” Scarlett explained. “What should I have told his parents, that going to a party was more important than their son’s life?”

“Nice excuse.” Too bad for her I remembered the details of the case. “Didn’t it turn out that the kid had actually just snuck out and gone to a movie with some friends?”

“Magi don’t assume that sort of thing,” Scarlett snapped. “When a child is reported missing, we have to take it seriously.”

“Sure,” I agreed. “But there was always something. A report you had to follow up on right away, a meeting you couldn’t afford to miss—being a magus and moving up the ladder was the only thing you ever cared about. I don’t think you even noticed I existed until Celestia adopted me, and that was just because it gave you an in with the royal family, and maybe later because you realized that you’d screwed up so bad at raising me that I wouldn’t give you any leverage.”

Scarlett glared at me. “Did you expect me to put my entire life on hold every time you wanted a bit more attention?”

“That’s what mothers do,” Kukri cut in. “Mom never made excuses to this one about how she had more important things to do. She was just there for it.”

I followed up on that with the logical counterpoint. “Celestia was there every time I needed her, and she never missed a birthday. The couple times she had to leave early or something came up she let me know about it, apologized, and did something special for me later to make up for it. You want to say you were too busy and your work was too important? Well, the ruler of all of Equestria managed to find a way to clear her schedule. What’s your excuse?”

“I am not Celestia,” Scarlett snapped back. “And she isn’t your mother.”

“The hay she isn’t,” I growled at her. “She was way more of one than you ever were. Far as I’m concerned, you’re just a DNA donor.”

Scarlett blinked and took half a step back, several different expressions flashing over her face before it settled into a carefully blank mask. “I see.” She cleared her throat. “Agent Heartstrings, I have new orders for you: assist me in returning my daughter home and dealing with any potential outside interference.”

Oh horseapples.

Puzzle’s eyes flicked over to Strumming and he carefully shifted his stance. Not quite treating her like a threat just yet, but making himself ready for just in case she turned out to be one.

Kukri’s reaction was a lot less subtle as she whirled about the face the spy, her fangs bared. “This one knew it! It knew it couldn’t trust you, you backstabbing—”

“Wow, way to rush to judgment, everyone.” Strumming rolled her eyes and turn to Scarlett. “So, you’re ordering me. Well that’s a hay of a thing. You’re way outside my normal chain of command, so I’m gonna need orders from someone pretty high up. You know, just to verify this is all on the level, and not just you trying to conscript an agent of the Equestrian government into carrying out your personal agenda.”

I grimaced and pulled my apprentice back. “Kukri, go back to our quarters. Now.” I waved Puzzle over. “Make sure she gets back there safe.”

“I think not.” Scarlett murmured as she pulled out a scroll, levitating it over to Strumming. “I would rather not have the changeling come back five minutes later with whatever nasty bit of treachery he’s keeping in his pack.”

“This one’s not leaving!” Kukri snapped, pulling away from me. She stomped over to Strumming and snarled. “It should have known everything were doing was just you pretending to be nice so none us would expect it when you put a knife in our backs!”

Strumming took the scroll and opened it up. “Shush, Facon. The adults are talking.” She slowly went through the scroll, nodding along and mouthing the words as she read. “Dang. Who’d you have to sleep with to get this signed off on? Or kill? Or sleep with, then kill? Or hay, kill, then sleep with—I don’t judge.” She pulled the scroll a bit closer to her face, frowning at it. “Hey bug-boy, could you do me a favor and get a candle or a torch or something? Need a little extra light to confirm the seals are all valid.”

Puzzle trotted over to Argentium’s reading table and picked up a candle, carefully holding it towards her. He kept it extended a far as possible, so he’d have enough room to make it hard for Strumming to grab him.

Strumming sighed and shook her head. “Everyone's always gotta be so cagey. It’s like I’m a nigh-on pathological liar with a track record of attacking ponies when their guard is down.” She held the scroll as close to the candle’s flame as she dared. “Dangit. Stupid treated paper, why won’t you...” She shoved it directly into the fire, and after smoldering for several seconds it finally caught. “Oh no,” Strumming deadpanned. “What a tragedy. The scroll was destroyed before I could verify that these are fully legitimate orders. Such a shame. I guess now I have no choice to but operate on my best judgment.”

Scarlett stared at her incredulously. I was pretty stunned by what she’d just done, and I was used to dealing with her. It was Scarlett’s first time being on the receiving end of Strumming’s ... Strumming-ness. “What are you doing, Agent?”

Strumming shrugged. “Well ... the way I see it, you pulled Sunset here to where you had plenty of local support, even though you know the big white be-horned and be-winged boss-mare wants her staying in Freeport. Pretty sure if she was here, she’d put a hard veto on what you’re trying to pull, especially since she had her own plans to get Sunset back in Canterlot.” She shrugged and added. “And by the way, knowing Bacon as well as I do, you probably just ruined Celestia’s plan, ‘cause now Sunset’s not gonna go within a thousand miles of Canterlot willingly. All because you went and pissed her off. So ... yeah, well done. Really gotta wonder how you saw this whole thing playing out where you come out on top.”

“Doubtless she assumed the Shimmer-mare wouldn’t be so stubborn about maintaining her independence,” Puzzle commented dryly. “Which goes to show that she really doesn’t know anything about her child.”

“This one could have told you that,” Kukri stubbornly placed herself between me and Scarlett. “You should leave, Runeseeker-mare. You’re not wanted here.”

“Well,” Scarlett sighed and shook her head. “That’s irksome. I was hoping we could simply talk this out and you would see reason, but if that’s not an option ... is there any doubt in your mind that I’m fully capable of making you come home?”

I should’ve known it would come down to this sooner or later. She’d come too far and, judging by what Strumming said and the fact that she’d gotten Argentium involved, she’d obviously called in some favors. Walking away empty-hooved wasn’t an option. Not that I planned to give her any choice in the matter. “You’re welcome to try.”

Scarlett rolled her shoulders. “I suppose I should have known you would want to fight. Well, if it gives you the chance to work out a few of those issues of yours, so much the better. And there are worse ways to gauge your progress...”

“You keep thinking you mean a lot more to me than you actually do,” I grumbled. Though a fight wasn’t the worst outcome; after all, once I finished kicking her all the way back to Canterlot I’d be entirely within my rights to promote myself to Archmagus of Freeport. Beating another archmage in battle would be simple and undeniable proof that I was on that level. It might even be enough to make the Council reconsider their decision on my school.

Of course, beating her probably wouldn’t be easy. Scarlett shook open her archmagus cloak, revealing a set of silver ring mail underneath. I wasn’t close enough to get a good look, but it was a pretty safe bet that she had plenty of runic inscriptions on it. More concerning was the large battleaxe she drew from beneath her cloak with a flourish, spinning it a few times to make her point before settling into a ready stance.

Kukri stared at the massive axe, her eyes wide as dinner plates. “Holy feathers! Where did she pull that from?!”

“Dimensional pocket, just like Strumming’s snack bag,” I answered. I was a bit surprised considering that splitting my head open with an axe would obviously go against the plan of bringing me home in one piece, but odds were she could do a lot more with her axe than just chop things with the sharp edge. Especially since I could plainly see the runework on that weapon, and it was quite impressive.

I spared a brief glance for our host, wondering if Argentium would say anything about the fact that we were about to start a fight in the middle of her throne room. I noticed my gift and the rest of her treasures being quickly hauled out by her staff while the dragon herself reclined on her throne, her eyes fixed on both of us. Evidently she was content to sit back and see how this played out. She was probably curious to see how my skills compared to her former protégé’s.

I frowned and pointedly pushed Kukri back towards Puzzle and Strumming. “Stay back. This could get a little dangerous.”

“This one wants to help...” Kukri’s eyes flicked between myself and Scarlett. “But it would probably just get in the way, wouldn’t it?”

“Yup,” Strumming answered far too cheerfully as she took charge of my apprentice. “Besides, even if you could help her win it, Bacon wouldn’t want the help. This is pretty much a textbook case of ‘This is something she’s gotta do for herself.’”

“Not to mention Argentium might frown upon it,” Puzzle pointed out. “A magus duel is far more respectable than a four-on-one fight.”

Scarlett leveled her axe at me, pointing with the spiked top. “Your gallivanting about and pretending to be a magus in Freeport has been an embarrassment I’m putting to an end. I’d rather not fight you, but if making you see sense requires showing you what a real magus can do then so be it. Last chance: Back. Down.”

“Never.” I took a deep breath and fixed my attention on my opponent. “If you think I’m just pretending to be a full-fledged magus, you are in for a big surprise.”

She snorted and shook her head. “You’ve been fighting petty criminals, c-list warlocks, and the odd no-name monster. If you think that makes you capable of matching an archmagus with decades of experience, I’ll be doing you a favor by breaking you of that delusion.”

“Sounds like somebody didn’t read any of the reports I sent back,” Strumming mumbled under her breath. “Not that she was supposed to, but she could’ve stolen them or something. She didn’t even try. That’s hurtful.”

I did my best to shut out everyone else. I couldn’t afford any distractions. “You have no idea what I’m capable of.” I conjured up balls of fire and ice so I’d have them ready once we started.

“Yes, I do,” Scarlett growled. “Celestia took you on as a student. If you came back to Equestria and resumed your studies, you could become an archmagus in just a few years. I have had enough of seeing you squander your gifts and ignore your potential while pretending to be a magus in Freeport.”

“I’m. Not. Pretending,” I growled. “Now are you just gonna keep running your mouth, or will you actually do something?”

Scarlett smirked at me. “I already did.”

I was about to ask what that was supposed to mean when a flash of blinding light made it a moot question. For anyone else the attack probably would have blinded and disoriented them enough to render them easy prey for whatever followup Scarlett had in mind. Too bad for her I’d been trained by the Princess of the Sun.

I snatched up all that blinding light and concentrated it down a small tightly packed ball that looked almost like a miniature sun. “Was that supposed to be your knockout sucker punch?” I grinned and sent fire and ice hurling towards her.

“Just an opening gambit.” Scarlett swatted aside the ice with the flat of her axe, then let the fire just wash over her to no effect. I caught a brief flash of several runes underneath her armor and grimaced. Of course she would’ve prepared something to defend against fire. Back when I’d been in Canterlot I’d relied on it almost exclusively for combat magic.

That ... had some worrying implications. One of the general rules of magic was that there are few things more dangerous than a magus who’d had time to prepare for their opponent. Scarlett was obviously way more ready for a fight than I was.

Scarlett swiped her axe through the air, unleashing a wave of arctic ice. My first instinct was teleport clear of the spell, but a second after I winked out of existence I ran up against the wards hanging over Argentium’s caverns and popped right back into place. By now the ice was far too close for comfort, so I grabbed that light ball I’d been saving and focused it down to laser-like intensity to burn through her attack.

Scarlett must have caught my slip with the teleport spell, because she barked out like a drill instructor. “Amateur mistake! Failing to account for the battlefield!” She drew a pair of runestones from her robe and tossed them to the floor. A pair of rocky tentacles shot out, rushing in to try and entangle me.

I took what was left of the light I’d stolen from her and used it to bisect those tentacles, then fired it straight at her. I’d used up enough of it that I didn’t need to worry about inflicting serious injury. Well, unless I hit one of her eyes, and since I was aiming at her knees...

She caught my attack with her axe, the blade deflecting the beam away. “You thought I wouldn’t be ready for that? Another mistake! Not reading your opponent!” She stepped forward, swinging her axe and unleashing a wave of raw force.

I put up a partial shield to deflect the blast, letting it knock me back a bit rather than get into a raw power slugging match. Scarlett was using runes to supplement her natural magic, so if I tried to turn this into an endurance contest she’d win for sure. “Underestimating your opponent!” I snapped right back. “A mistake that’s gonna cost you this fight!”

“How could it?” Scarlett asked, smirking. “You’ve already lost.”

“What?” A second too late I spotted the runestones she set up at some point during our duel, and an all-too-familiar shield bubble snapped into place around me. “Oh please, this old spell? I broke this before I even set hoof on Freeport's shores.”

“Yes, Sigil told me all about how you escaped,” Scarlett answered with a disdainful sniff. “I can assure you, it will take a bit more than pretending to set yourself on fire to get out of one of my traps.” She pointedly set her axe down and made herself comfortable.

I sent a quick analysis spell at the shield. Sure enough, she’d added temperature regulation runes to keep me from overheating it. Not that I’d been eager to try the nigh-suicidal brinkmanship gambit a second time, especially against someone way more cold-hearted than Sigil. Besides, I had grown a lot since then.

I made my first move, blasting the floor with raw force. The stone cracked and the ground trembled, while Scarlett scoffed. “Did you really think I wouldn’t consider all three dimensions? You knew that didn’t work against Sigil’s shield, and you think I would forget it?”

I shrugged. “It’s worth a shot. Never know if you might have made an amateur mistake.” I’d actually been up to something a bit more sophisticated than she gave me credit for, but why give that away. I fired off a couple more blasts, making a decent-sized dent in the floor. Sure enough, I could feel the rune barrier continuing underneath it, blocking any progress.

More importantly, I could feel that the vibrations from those blasts had knocked the runestones out of alignment. Nowhere near enough to make the shield collapse, but there were weak points now that hadn’t been there a minute ago. I took a moment to find the best one, then rammed a spear of pure willpower into it, creating a crack that I could slowly wedge into a proper opening.

Scarlett scowled when she spotted her shield collapsing, then pulled another runestone and threw it down. A second later the stone let out an ear-piercing shriek that shattered my concentration, disrupting the spell I’d been using.

However, she’d miscalculated with that sonic scream. I’d lost my first opening, but the sound wave had vibrated the shield stones even further out of alignment. My second effort had an even better weak point to exploit, and this time I tore the shield open before she could do anything to stop me. “What was that about how I’d already lost?”

“You merely delay the inevitable,” Scarlett snapped. “Still using nothing but brute force to solve all your problems, I see.” Her axe swished through the air, leaving a bright green gas in its wake. “I had hoped you might learn a little subtlety.” A second swing sent the gas barreling towards me.

I quickly got a bubble of clean air around my whole body to protect against whatever she was trying. “Brute force? Fine! Let me show you just how much brute force I’ve got!” I snarled and cut loose with fire and ice, letting each one of my spells feed into the next as I did my best to hammer down her defenses.

Scarlett sat back and let my spells fly in, looking bored as the fireballs washed over her to no effect, while she dodged or blocked the blasts of ice with almost no effort. “Didn’t you learn anything about fighting other casters? Preparation is everything.” She stepped into the arc of one of my fireballs, then swept her axe in a wide arc that unleashed several lightning bolts.

I was so far into my offensive momentum that it was hard to shift gears to defense fast enough to keep up with her. I managed to block the worst of it, but I still got hit hard enough to make my entire body tingle and my mane stand on end. “Easy to talk about preparation when you’re the one pulling off an ambush in the middle of a diplomatic meeting!”

“A true magus is always prepared!” Scarlett snapped. “No excuses! If nothing else, you should know enough to stop using tactics that aren’t effective!”

“I do.” I took the remnants of all those fireballs that had gone through her with no effect and pulled them all back together, making every single one of them converge at a single point. Trying to brute force my way through her defensive runes was an obvious non-starter, but I had an equally useful target: that damned axe she was using for half her spells.

Scarlett’s eyes shot open when her axe went from cold steel to cherry red in the space of a second. For a moment I dared to hope I might have actually destroyed it, but then she clenched her teeth and lit her horn, cooling it down in an instant. “Hmph. Better, but still nowhere close to good enough.”

Damn. Taking away at least some of her offensive options would’ve made my life much easier. Oh well. “I’m just getting started!” I pulled every last scrap of light out of the room, plunging it into pitch black darkness.

Or at least, almost completely dark. The runes on Scarlett’s axe and armor lit up, casting the entire battlefield in an ethereal blue glow. “Trying to change the battlefield in your favor. That’s a step in the right direction.” She tossed down another stone, unleashing a new sonic attack. Where the last one had been a high-pitched shriek, this one was a low almost infrasonic thrum. I staggered on my hooves as the wave of sound hit me, and it was all I could do to hold onto the spell I’d been working on. The darkness was nice, but what I really wanted was to take all that stolen light and turn it into a cutting beam to go after Scarlett’s runes. If I could damage her weapon or armor enough to spoil her enchantments...

Scarlett wasn’t going to let me do that in peace. While I tried to bring my spell to bear she used another one of her stones. “Sleep.”

The command hit my distracted mind like a sledgehammer, the spell I’d been trying to build up fell apart as light returned to the room. I almost succumbed to the attack, but without my attention split between resisting and trying to keep my own spell going I was able to throw it off. “I’m not ... giving .. up!”

Scarlett scowled and shook her head. “You are being completely unreasonable. If you would just stop and think a moment, you would realize I’m trying to do what’s best for you.”

I’d had far too much of her thinking she knew anything about me, especially what was best for me. Maybe it was time to start taking this fight a bit more seriously. If she got hurt, it was on her for starting the fight. “Buck you!” I fired off a blast of pure black flame.

Scarlett’s eyes widened and she quickly threw up a shield to catch my attack. I poured it on to try and break through her defenses, the stones around her crumbling to dust as the dark flames ate away at them, breaking them down on a molecular level. Her shield still held when I was done, and she dropped it to glare at me. “Where did you learn a spell like that?!”

I shrugged. “I’ve been doing a lot of studying in between the magus work.” I’d actually learned about blightfire from Celestia, albeit her lessons had been a bit more focused on how to defend against it than casting it. Back when I’d just been a kid she hadn’t been too eager to teach me any of the high-grade combat spells, though she had recommended a few books for me since I’d gotten to Freeport.

Scarlett clenched her teeth. “I see. Now I have even more reason to bring you back home. I had hoped your brush with dark magic was just a one time thing, but clearly you’ve gone much further down the path of the warlock.”

I was tempted to point out that there was absolutely nothing dark or illegal about blightfire since it was just an entropic combat spell, but it wasn’t like she would listen. Really, if she wanted to argue about dark magic I could point to the mental compulsion she’d hit me with earlier in the fight, not to mention the fact that she was trying to kidnap me while I was defending myself. Equestrian law gives a lot of weight to the circumstances. If I’d actually gone back to Equestria for trial over the dark magic I’d used I almost certainly would’ve been acquitted, since it was all in defense of myself and others.

Scarlett clearly didn’t agree, as she leveled her axe at me. “Enough! I’m ending this before you do something you’ll regret.” Green flames shot up along the length of her weapon, and a second later she fired off a bright green beam.

I had no idea what it would do if she hit me, and I didn’t want to find out. I ducked down, but a bit of it managed to catch my mane, which was still frazzled from the lightning bolt. I grunted as my hair suddenly got three times heavier and pulled me off balance. A quick cutting spell removed it, and it fell to the ground with a heavy stone thunk.

Oh. A petrification spell. That would be bad.

I tried to hit back, but before I could prepare the spell she had another beam heading for me. I barely had enough time to conjure up a shield before it, and while I didn’t get turned into a statue the sheer force of it sent me sliding back.

I snarled and fired off a dozen blasts of raw kinetic force, trying to smack her around or at least knock her back and buy a little breathing room. Scarlett did a few quick sidesteps to avoid most of them, then smacked one aside with the flat of her axe, making it collide with and negate my last blast. Worse, it didn’t even look like she’d needed to try very hard to pull that off.

I started to prepare another attack, but she swiped her axe at me, unleashing a blast of compressed air that caught me in the chest like a punch, knocking the wind out of my lungs and leaving me gasping. “Too slow!” she barked out.

I let out a breathless snarl and fired off a blast of blinding light to try and buy a bit of recovery time. Scarlett brought her cloak up and shielded her eyes in time to avoid the worst of it, and in the same move threw several runestones at my feet. Each of them exploded with a deafening crack, the sound and force sending me staggering as I struggled to stay upright. She snapped out another one of her insults about my performance, but I couldn’t make anything out through the ringing in my ears.

I needed to do something to change this, now. I started to cast an earth spell that would soften the ground beneath her hooves, but Scarlett swiped her axe again and unleashed another lightning bolt while I was halfway through the spell. I tried to counter it, block it, or anything else but it was too strong and coming in way too fast.

I must’ve blanked out for a little bit after it hit, because the next thing I knew I was lying on the cavern floor with all my limbs twitching. I was pressed up against the wall of the throne room, and judging by the pain in my back I’d hit it pretty hard. I tried to stand back up, but my limbs refused to obey my commands. I was having a hard time remembering why exactly it was so important to get back up, but some part of my brain that didn’t feel as sluggish as the rest of me kept screaming that I needed to get up right away.

“Shimmer-mare!” Kukri started to rush over to me, but Puzzle quickly grabbed her and held her back. He exchanged a few words with Strumming, but even if I hadn’t been in the middle of recovering from a lightning bolt I wouldn’t have been able to make anything out.

“It’s over,” Scarlett announced, setting her axe down. “Are you ready to give up, or am I going to have to carry you back as a statue?”

I groaned and closed my eyes, focusing on trying to make each one of my limbs stop twitching and actually obey my commands. It took a couple seconds to get my first leg properly planted underneath my body, but once I’d managed that the rest slowly fell into place. “I’m ... I’m not done yet, nag.”

“Yes you are.” Scarlett sighed and shook her head. “Look at you, you can barely even stand up straight. You haven’t managed to land a single hit on me, and the only reason you’re not a statue or unconscious yet is that I’m giving you one last chance to see reason.”

There was really only one answer I could give. “Go to Tartarus.”

That last bit of bravado aside ... she wasn’t wrong. It was taking just about all my strength and concentration just to stay upright, never mind actually fighting back. She’d been ready for me and I’d been ambushed, not to mention ... yeah, I couldn’t exactly deny the experience gap. There was something terribly unfair about the fact that a mare thirty years older than me was so much faster.

Ugh. No time to think about how screwed I was, or else I’d lose whatever slim hope I had of turning this around. What was it Mom always said to do in situations like this ... ‘If you can’t win, change the rules.’ So how could I...?

My eyes flicked over the massive dragon who’d been content to sit back and watch the fight, and a desperate plan started coming together. “Is this the sort of hospitality the world can expect from Argentium the Runescaled?!”

Argentium’s serpentine neck swung around, and she turned to regard me with a raised eyebrow, a hint of a warning growl leaving her throat. “Excuse me?”

Oh. Having that much dragon focused entirely on me and looking just a bit peeved was ... well ‘intimidating’ wasn’t a strong enough word. I was committed to it now, though, and if nothing else my gambit had forced Scarlett to back off for a bit. I did my best to ignore her and keep my attention firmly on the dragon. “You led me here on false pretenses so that one of my enemies could ambush me! The world will not forget such perfidy, and you can be sure I will tell others of what passed here today.”

Argentium rose from her throne with a snarl. “You dare?!”

“Is anything I said untrue?” I challenged.

Argentium scowled down at me, showing off fangs that were long enough to go all the way through my body. “I arranged a reconciliation between mother and daughter. I only neglected to mention her presence because Scarlett feared you would not come if you knew.”

Considering the circumstances, I was inclined to say she had a point. I mean, maybe if she’d showed up at my tower and apologized I would’ve given her a chance to make her case, but now... “Does this look like a reconciliation to you? Because it sure feels like an ambush and abduction to me—one you helped arrange against your own invited guest.”

Argentium let out a sound halfway between a growl and a snarl, and Scarlett stepped forward. “Lady Argentium, she is just—”

“SILENCE.” Argentium didn’t raise her voice, but the amount of Power in it sent dust trickling down from the ceiling. She kept her attention firmly on me several long seconds, then grimaced and nodded. “Your ... assessment of the circumstances is not inaccurate. It seems I was unaware of the broader circumstances, and the full intent of my former protégé. As my guest, you are of course entitled to my protection. This fight ends, now.”

Scarlett took a deep breath and slowly stepped forward. “Lady Argentium, she is my daughter. I have the utmost respect for you, but in this matter—”

Argentium’s neck snapped around so she could stare Scarlett down. “You arranged this meeting under false pretenses and attacked one of my guests. I would be well within my rights to cut you down as assurance that I had no part in your perfidy. Take it as a sign of my immense fondness for a former student that I have not even considered doing so.”

Scarlett flinched back, but didn’t surrender. “But I—”

Argentium leaned in closer, until her snout was almost touching Scarlett’s. “Was anything about that statement unclear, Archmagus? Did I stutter? Stumble? Slur my words? No? Then you have nothing more to say on the matter. The North is mine. My word is law here. You did not ask me if you could arrest my guest; you did not say you wished to fight her. You deceived me, and your actions have cast aspersions upon my own honor.”

Scarlett still refused to back down. “She. Is. My. Daughter. You have no right—”

“I have every right!” Argentium snapped. “She is an adult under the laws of Equestria, the North, Freeport, and every other civilized nation, and capable of making her own choices.”

“And it’s been a decade since I was your daughter in any sense other than biology,” I added. “You can’t abandon me for another mare to raise, then just waltz in years later and pretend you’re still a proper parent.”

Scarlett looked back and forth between the two of us, her teeth clenched. She started to open her mouth, but Argentium didn’t even let her start. “As long as Sunset Shimmer is within Northmarch, you are not to touch her, nor use any proxy or ally to act against her. If I so much as suspect that you have acted against her, I will take this matter directlyto Celestia.” She showed her fangs. “There have been very few Archmagi of the Northern March who could retain their post in the face of my displeasure.”

Scarlett flinched back, her shoulders slumping and ears wilting in defeat. Big surprise, the threat of sinking her career ambitions was exactly what it took to make her down. “I understand.”

Argentium nodded sharply. “Good. Now go. In time, I will forgive this lapse. The burdens of parenthood can make fools of even the wisest mares.”

Scarlett nodded and slowly slunk out of the room, refusing to look at me as she left. I probably would’ve been a bit smugly satisfied to see her beaten so thoroughly if not for the fact that the adrenaline was starting to wear off enough for me to feel my impressive list of injuries.

I cleared my throat and did my best to block out the pain. “Thank you for your assistance, Lady Argentium. Considering the circumstances, I hope you’ll understand if I would like to return to Freeport sooner than I’d planned.”

Argentium sighed and inclined her head. “These events have cast a pall over your visit. I hope that perhaps you might return in the future.”

“Of course.” I winced as a particularly nasty twinge shot down my spine. “I hope you won’t mind if I take a few days to rest and recover before I depart?”

Argentium nodded. “You are my guests, and may avail yourselves of my hospitality for as long as you desire. It is the least I can offer in light of recent events.”

“Thank you.” I wanted to bow, but barely got past inclining my head before my back let me know that wasn’t happening. “I promise we won’t impose on your hospitality unduly. Though if it’s not too much trouble, would Sigil or someone else be able to escort us back to Coldharbor?”

“Of course,” Argentium agreed at once. “The winter roads are hazardous, especially to those who are unaccustomed to them. I would be a poor host indeed if I did nothing to ensure that my guests were safely returned to their homes.”

I smiled and nodded, ignoring the lance of pain that sent down my spine. “I assure you, I will have nothing but praise for your hospitality.”

Argentium smiled and nodded. “As I would hope. Now, unless there is anything else you would ask of me, I expect you have other matters to attend to. And I have a former student who is in need of one last lesson.”

“I believe that is all. Thank you once more for your hospitality.” I lead the way out of her throne room. As soon as the doors shut and we were out of her sight I stopped blocking out the pain, groaning and slumping down to the floor.

“Shimmer-mare!” Kukri rushed to my side. “Are you okay?!”

“Fine,” I lied, mostly so she wouldn’t panic. “Just a little sore.”

Strumming and Puzzle exchanged a look, and she spoke up. “I’ve got painkillers and some other medical stuff in my travel pack. Could you go grab my bag, Kukri?” My apprentice immediately rushed off to go get it, and Strumming gave me a quick once-over. “Doesn’t look like anything’s broken or cracked, or you wouldn’t be keeping up that brave face so well. You were coherent and on-the-ball enough that I’m not too worried about a concussion, so it’s probably just gonna be a ton of bruises. Better do a nerve check too, considering the lightning bolt.”

“Yay,” I groaned.

Puzzle sighed and nodded along. “This one apologizes for standing on the sidelines, but jumping into the fight would have been unwise. Archmagus Runeseeker is a formidable opponent. In a straight fight there was no way it could hope to challenge her unless it held absolutely nothing back, and even then...” He trailed off with a shrug.

“Yeah, I get it.” Considering how easily she’d handled me, I didn’t think the two of them would have been enough to swing the fight in my favor. Especially since if they went all-out on her, Scarlett wouldn’t hesitate to respond in kind. “Besides, Strumming was right about one thing: I wanted to do that fight for myself.”

“Gotta let Bacon keep her pride,” Strumming agreed. “For what it’s worth, if she did end up snagging you we were gonna jump her in her sleep and free you then. Way safer than trying to pick a fight with her when she’s awake and ready for us.” She shrugged. “Guess I could’ve tried out that special ace-in-the-hole anti-warlock throwing spike of mine, but I left that in my pack. Probably oughta start carrying that, just in case Scarlett tries something. I mean, yeah, she’d have to be pretty stupid to do it when Argentium is already pissed at her, but sometimes ponies do stupid things.”

Puzzle grimaced. “Yes, this one should make sure it’s ready for any possible threats as well. It should have known that the one time it left all its weapons behind, it would promptly get drawn into a battle between two powerful magi.”

“That’s what you get for not being paranoid enough,” Strumming chided.

I sighed and trudged up to the entrance to my quarters. “I’m ... gonna rest for a bit. Let me know if anything comes up.”

Puzzle nodded. “Rest as long as you need to. This one doubts the Archmagus would dare to try anything while we’re still in Argentium’s home, but we’ll keep watch just in case.”

“Let me know if you need anything for the pain,” Strumming chimed in. “I might ask around and see if our host has anything. Think I heard that runes are a bit better for deep tissue stuff than most of the traditional Equestrian medicine.”

“Thanks.” I flopped down on my bed and fell asleep within moments.

Author's Note

As always, thanks to my pre-reading and editing team for all their hard work. Also, I would like to thank all my dedicated Patreon supporters. You guys are awesome.

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Complications

I spent the rest of that day and most of the next resting. Strumming gave me a few pills that did a good job of taking away the pain, and later that evening Sigil came by my room and set some runestones around my bed. I didn’t quite grasp how they worked, but when I woke up in the morning I was nowhere near as sore as I would’ve expected for someone who took a lightning bolt to the chest and got slammed into a stone wall. Not that I had much reference for how sore that should make me feel, but my gut said that without the healing runes I would be significantly more miserable.

Too bad they didn’t have healing runes for all my other problems. Running into Scarlett again and getting into an all-out fight with her had dug up some things I thought I’d moved past—or at least, it had made me start questioning if I’d really moved past all that stuff as much as I thought.

The weird part about it all was how far she’d gone. My main memory of Scarlett’s style of mothering had always been the sort of low-level neglect that had come up during our confrontation. She made sure I had food in my belly and a roof over my head, but ... well, like she’d said, she had more important things to do than be there for me.

Solar had been better about that from what little I remembered, but those were all pretty vague memories. Between his Archmagus duties and the Steel Rose case, I’d seen him maybe half a dozen times in the last fifteen years, and the last time was five years ago. I doubt he’d even recognize me if we ran into each other on the street.

I’d made peace with the fact that my biological parents just weren’t going to be part of my life. Or at least, I thought I had. But then Scarlett showed up trying to force her way back in, and going to frankly insane lengths to pull it off. She’d very nearly burned her bridges with Argentium, and I had to agree with Strumming that Celestia wouldn’t be happy about this when she found out. I wouldn’t reject Celestia’s offer purely to spite Scarlett ... but it would be hard to completely ignore that as a factor. If nothing else, Celestia would need to give me some sort of assurance that Scarlett wouldn’t try anything again.

Which is why none of this made sense. She’d made a few token efforts to bring me back home when I first left, but those had probably been just for the sake of appearances. Now she’d gone all-out, and in an especially stupid way. Why do that after spending most of my childhood treating me like a barely tolerated distraction from more important things?

I could speculate all day, but the only way to get answers would be to talk to Scarlett herself, and I definitely wasn’t in any rush to do that. The whole experience had done a very good job of souring my whole visit to Northmarch, and all I really wanted at this point was to go home and try to put the whole experience behind me.

I was sure Puzzle would say I should try to push through and keep schmoozing with Argentium, but ... yeah. Not sure I could put the whole thing behind me that smoothly, and when it came to the diplomacy game there was plenty of advantages to letting the whole mess stand out a bit more. Being magnanimous and ignoring the huge breach of hospitality was an option, but letting it completely spoil the visit worked just as well for making a point.

Scarlett’s screw-up had put Argentium in my debt, and that was something I’d be a fool not to leverage. Sure, I could stick around and negotiate her into helping me set up my school right now, but maybe the smarter thing would be to hold onto that. An ancient dragon owing me a favor could be used for something far bigger than just getting some funding for a dream project. Not that the money wouldn’t be nice, but it was pretty much the least interesting thing Argentium could do to help me.

After another amazing dinner, one of Argentium’s servants let me know that the lady was waiting for me in her armory. For a moment I was almost tempted to leave her waiting for a bit as a power play, but I didn’t want to push my luck. After all, part of why I was leaving was to avoid rubbing Argentium’s snout in the fact that she was in my debt. If I wasn’t careful I’d end up wounding her pride, and that could only end badly for me.

I arrived outside her armory as promptly as possible, smiling politely as I stepped inside. “Lady Argentium, always a pleasure.”

The first thing I noticed upon entering was that Argentium had shrunk herself down to something almost pony-sized. She was still taller than me, but now it was more like me standing next to Celestia rather than a being whose teeth were about as big as me. It set a very different, much more personal and intimate mood, which was doubtlessly why she’d done that.

Granted, there were some practical reasons as well. While there was a titanic arming chamber with huge slabs of silvered steel that looked a lot like dragon-sized armor, a lot of the armory’s contents weren’t really sized for Argentium at her full scale. The multiple shelves of runestones would’ve been far too easy to accidentally knock over if she tried to move around the room, not to mention that sort of delicate runework had to be a lot easier for her when her claws were smaller and she could get a closer look at what she was doing.

Argentium gave me another one of those strange fang-less smiles. “Magus Shimmer. I do hope the rest of your stay has been agreeable.”

“Your staff continues to be exemplary,” I assured her. I trotted up to her, hiding a wince when one of my bruises decided to voice its disapproval of the movement.

Despite my best efforts Argentium must have spotted it, because she frowned and her tail lashed through the air. “My apologies for what happened in my throne room. Scarlett misrepresented her intentions to me.”

“I know, I don’t hold you at fault.” Might as well take Puzzle’s advice about magnanimously putting it aside while I was actually talking to Argentium. Brushing it off while still leaving should do a good job conveying that I didn’t blame her, but I was still very unhappy.

Argentium let out an annoyed huff, some smoke leaving her nostrils. “Diplomacy has never been my student's strong suit. She prefers direct solutions and straight lines—a trait that rumor has it you share with her, even if you also seem to have picked up a few of Celestia’s skills for finding an indirect approach.” Argentium smiled again. “I can see why you call her your mother; she has left her mark upon you.”

“That and she actually did all the things a mother is supposed to do.” I sighed and shook my head. “I don't suppose you know why Scarlett did all this?”

“Why she wanted to meet you, or why she went so far?”

“Both. It’s...” I shrugged helplessly. “You were there, you heard how it all played out. She was too busy being Archmagus to do much mothering, and she pretty much gave me up for adoption once Celestia entered the picture. She didn’t do anything for two years while I was in Freeport. I mean, she said something about how taking me back to Canterlot was for my own good and I was embarrassing her, but ... I dunno. Feels like there has to be something more behind all this.”

Argentium frowned and nodded. “Yes. I was less than pleased to hear that she was somewhat lacking as a mother, though I suppose I should have anticipated as much. She has the sort of single-minded determination that can drive a mare to achieve great things, but often at the cost of any other concerns. At the time, it seemed like admirable dedication to her studies, and later her duties as a protector of the realm. Now...”

“Yeah.” I guess I did understand that on some level: Scarlett really was doing important work. But at the same time, there needed to be a balance. It reminded me of a story Celestia had once told me about the early days after she’d lost Luna, when she’d tried out a spell that was supposed to let her go without sleep in order to make up for her sister’s absence. The end result had been a very pointed lesson about how even immortal alicorns with powers far beyond those of normal ponies could work themselves to exhaustion and end up neglecting their true duties.

Argentium sank down onto her haunches, her eyes fixed on me. “A mistake once made has been made forever, and no magic exists that can see it undone. All we can do is struggle to correct our errors and repair the damage they caused. Even that much can often be difficult, especially when we cannot truly grasp the scope of our actions.”

“I know.” I sighed and ran a hoof through my mane. “I’ve got a few mistakes I’d like to undo myself.” Mostly related to the whole Cadenza thing. It’s never fun to look back at something that happened years ago and realize you were completely out of line and acted like a complete jerk just because you were jealous. Sure, at the time I’d been convinced she was nothing but a nag who’d come out of nowhere and stolen what was rightfully mine, but...

I’d thought about apologizing, but there really wasn’t a good way to do that. Going there in person certainly wasn’t an option, and I rather doubt sending her a ‘Sorry I set you on fire’ card would be enough to make it right. Not like I would’ve instantly forgiven Scarlett or Solar if they’d showed up at my tower and apologized for all the years of being absentee parents. There are a lot of times when ‘I’m sorry’ isn’t even close to good enough.

Argentium seemed to be following my line of thought. “And so it is with your mother: she knows she has erred, and erred greatly, and she wishes to do what she can to correct her past mistakes. But her pride makes it difficult for her, and I think she knows far too little about how to be a mother. Small surprise she still tries to treat you like a child when she never saw you grow into an adult.”

I grunted and nodded. “That ... does explain a bit. She’s still thinking of me as a kid ‘cause that’s the only version of me she’s ever really known.” I had grown up a fair bit under Celestia’s tutelage, even if I’d still had a long way left to go when I ran away from Canterlot. A couple years in Freeport had done a lot to help round me out. Shockingly, taking on adult responsibilities like managing a budget and training an apprentice had been a big step on the path to getting a more mature perspective.

If I’d been half as much of a pain to Celestia as Kukri could be when she got sassy ... it was enough to make me suspect that at least part of why Celestia wanted me to teach at her school and bring Kukri along was so she could chuckle at the karmic retribution whenever I had to put up with troublesome students.

But Celestia wasn’t the mother I needed to worry about right now. “So that was Scarlett’s attempt to try and patch things up? Well, we can call that a massive failure. Actually, it made things worse. Before I’d pretty much put it behind me. Now ... I think even if she came up and gave a really good heartfelt apology, I wouldn’t want to hear it.”

Argentium grimaced and nodded. “I feared that might be the case, and though I wish it were otherwise I cannot blame you. Whatever your mother’s intention, her execution was profoundly flawed, and all she accomplished was to drive you further away. If you were a closer match to her I might have been forced to halt your fight before one of you killed the other.” She closed her eyes. “I brought the two of you together in the hopes of a reconciliation; instead, all I did was widen the rift.”

“Not your fault, that was all Scarlett,” I assured her.

“She was my student,” Argentium countered. “There are some who would say that her flaws are either a result of my instruction, or things that I should have corrected long ago.”

“As someone who was recently the student of an incredibly wise immortal, you’re wrong if you think that.” I kept going before Argentium had time to get offended. “Celestia spent a lot of time trying to teach me lessons that I didn’t appreciate until later. Not saying she was perfect, but I could’ve been a better student, and now I’m old enough to take responsibility for that.” I gave that a moment to sink in, then pointed out. “And if I’m old enough to take responsibility for my own screw-ups, she sure as hay is.”

“Well said ,” Argentium agreed. “Still, given the hypothetical scenario where I could revise past actions, I would be sure to lecture young Scarlett at length on family responsibilities.”

I certainly wasn’t going to argue the point any further. If I ever got the chance I would’ve gone back to my past self and bopped her on the head a few times when she wasn’t paying attention to some of Celestia’s lessons that I’d been sure were boring and pointless.

I let out a frustrated sigh, pacing back and forth along the shelves of runestones. “I was fine with us just ignoring each other. Sure, it wasn’t the sort of mother-daughter relationship anyone wanted, but at least we were used to it. I’d ... maybe not exactly made peace with it, but I’d accepted that’s how it was. I moved on, and Celestia filled the big mom-shaped void in my life. Scarlett barely making a token effort at being a parent for the last decade. Why change it now?”

“A question only she can answer for you,” Argentium answered.

Something about her tone made me a bit suspicious. “Does that mean you don’t know, or that you do know but won’t share?”

Argentium’s answer proved that Celestia wasn’t the only immortal who was frustratingly good at dodging questions. “The effect is rather the same either way, now isn’t it?”

Maybe that was her way of trying to get me to engage with Scarlett again? I’ll admit, it was pretty good bait. However, I wasn’t that curious to know why Scarlett was acting so weird. “Alright. Fine. So something’s going on with her, and you either can’t or won’t tell me. Fine.” I shook my head. “You know what, that’s enough talking about Scarlett for now. Is there anything else I can do for you, Lady Argentium?”

Argentium chuckled softly. “Actually, this is about what I can do for you.” She took a moment to look over several of the shelves, then started down one of them, her eyes carefully considering each of the stones before she moved on. “You are a very talented spellcaster, and I can see both your own potential and lessons Celestia imparted upon you, but there is room for improvement.”

I grimaced and rubbed my chest where the lightning bolt had hit. “Yeah, hard not to notice the gap between me and Scarlett. I could chalk some of that up to her being a lot more ready for a fight than I was, but...”

“By her very nature, she’s been doing magus work since before you were born,” Argentium pointed out. “A difference in experience that showed all too keenly in your fight. There are times when you hesitate before you cast your spells.”

That was news to me, though now that I thought about it I did recall Scarlett criticizing me for being slow during the fight. At the time I’d assumed it was just more of her trash talk, but if Argentium agreed... “I don’t think I’m hesitating. I mean, it’s not like I sit there thinking what spell to cast for half a minute or anything.”

“Indeed not, and against any lesser foe it doubtless would not matter. However...” She flicked my forehead with a claw. “Half a second. In battle, a moment lost to thought can be the difference between life and death.”

That made sense, but... “So what you’re saying is that I shouldn’t think in battle? That seems like it would end very badly.” I frowned as one of my old lessons at Celestia’s school popped to mind. “Isn’t magic supposed to be so much better than any other weapon because it moves at the speed of thought?”

Argentium chuckled and shook her head. “Ah, I see a few of the old myths persist. Surely you know by now that for some individuals the speed of thought can be ponderously slow indeed. Even for brilliant minds, every spell needs to triangulate between here, here, and here.” She poked my forehead, my heart, and the tip of my horn in turn. “You must think about the spell, decide on the right action to take and then execute it. Using a horn to cast magic is every bit a physical act as brandishing a weapon, in practice.”

I thought about it for a second, then nodded. Nothing she was saying was all that shocking, I just hadn’t quite connected the dots in that way before. Spellcasting was complicated enough that it could take ages if you worried about every little detail, and a whole lot of my early lessons had been all about learning to go through all those little steps and details without bogging my mind down worrying about them.

Argentium must have seen the gears turning in my head, because she nodded approvingly. “You begin to understand. The moment you spend considering your next spell or the best defense is what makes up the majority of the gap between you and your mother. She never stops to think, and yet she knows what to do in battle.” She brought a claw up to scratch the underside of her chin. “If I might guess, most of the time when you go on the offensive you use that combination of fire and ice?”

“It’s one of my favorites,” I agreed.

“And with good reason, for your experience with it shows.” Argentium smiled. “Had Scarlett not prepared a considerable number of high-strength runes specifically to counter fire, you might have been able to press the attack far more effectively. When using those elements you are far closer to matching her speed than when you have to step outside that. Much the same as a master archer who uses his favorite bow rather than another one; his skill is considerable regardless of the weapon, but the easy familiarity of it makes everything flow more smoothly.”

“Right.” I mulled it over for a bit. “I have been working on diversifying with things like light and darkness manipulation, kinetic force, and a few unique spells like Blightfire, but I just can’t use those as fast as my mainstay spells. So how do I get faster with those?”

Argentium pulled a Celestia and answered my question with one of her own. “Tell me, why do soldiers practice hundreds, perhaps thousands of hours with their weapons? Going through the same motions and exercises through countless repetitions?”

“Muscle memory,” I answered at once. “After thousands of repetitions the movements become second nature, to the point where you do them without even thinking about them.”

“Exactly,” Argentium responded. “Instinct is the key to battle. It’s what a good soldier has drilled into them, and it’s what let Scarlett defeat you: the ability to plan, strategize, strike, and defend without conscious thought.”

So muscle magic, except with combat magic? “Okay, so I need to ... learn to do combat magic by instinct? How does that happen?”

Argentium chuckled. “It’s not an easy skill to master, but that’s what I’m going to help you with.” She plucked out one of the runestones from her collection. “This is what I gave to Scarlett to help her master the skill. I expect it will serve you just as well.”

I took the runestone, holding it in a hoof as I looked it over. Pretty much all I knew about runes were a few things I’d picked up by osmosis, and a bit of studying I did back when I thought knowing more about runes might make Scarlett notice I existed. That was enough to tell me that this was by far the most advanced runestone I’d ever seen. Figures, considering Argentium had made it. “So how exactly would I use it?”

“It is a meditation aid,” she explained. “Using this runestone will help you to achieve the mental state you need in quieter circumstances, which is the first step to learning to fight that way in battle. It will still be a long and difficult path to hone your mental reflexes to be on par with your mother or another archmagus, but at least now you have the tools to do so.”

“So lots of practice,” I summarized.

Argentium grinned. “You didn’t think developing a skill only the greatest combat mages ever master would be easy, did you?”

When she put it like that... “Yeah, there aren’t any shortcuts to power.” I considered that for a moment, then revised my statement. “Well, there are, but those usually aren’t worth considering since they’re all insanely dangerous.”

Argentium snorted and nodded. “The risks aside, they make a poor path to take. Power unearned is power poorly wielded. The most powerful blade in the world is barely better than a sharpened hunk of beaten iron if the one wielding it can do nothing but flail about at random and pray for a lucky strike.”

“That’s what Celestia always said,” I agreed. “Spells are nothing without the magus who casts them. Not to mention that power always has a price.”

“Always, even—or perhaps especially—if it’s being offered for free.” She gave me another one of her fang-less smiles. “It seems that you paid more attention to Celestia’s lessons than she believed.” She held up a talon to forestall my objection. “Not that she ever said you were a poor student, merely that you could be stubborn at times and had a touch of the arrogance common to brilliant young minds.”

I was tempted to argue the point, but... “Yeah, a little bit.”

“Ah, one of the joys of reaching maturity: the ability to see the follies of our youth clearly.” Argentium chuckled softly. “We all had them, even if mine or Celestia’s lie in the distant past and forgotten by all but ourselves. Such mistakes are but another step along the pathway to achieving our full potential, and without the youthful arrogance to believe we can achieve things our elders never dared, old ideas would remain unchallenged. Certainly you seem to have done well for yourself.”

I grimaced and shook my head. “I thought I was pretty close to the top of the game, but Scarlett did a pretty good job of showing me I still have a long way to go.”

“Losing can be a humbling experience,” Argentium agreed. “Though considering the difference in age and experience I would say you performed well. From what I saw you have the potential to match or even exceed her. It is simply a matter of honing your skills to the same sharp edge that she has.”

“Yeah, I know. Just...”

“You thought you were much closer to her level than you were,” Argentium concluded with a knowing smile. “As I said, a humbling experience. To your credit, you are quick to examine yourself and find where there is room for improvement. The runestone you hold now should help, and there are other options.”

“Always,” I agreed. “Just a matter of figuring out which ones to follow. Any advice on where I should start?”

Argentium shrugged. “Celestia knows more regarding the specifics of unicorn magic, but I am hardly a novice. If you wish to learn more of runecraft, you can find no finer teacher in all the world. However, I doubt you want to spend a few years of your life under my tutelage.”

I tried to think of the politest way to word my refusal. “Thank you for the offer, but I have duties in Freeport and Equestria that I can’t really afford to leave unattended for years.”

“I thought as much,” Argentium answered with a knowing smile. “Like your mother, you have a keen sense of duty. Fortunately, I do keep a few copies of my books available for those who cannot spare the years to learn from me directly. Books far more advanced than the ones I made available to the public.”

“Yeah, I read the latest one a long time ago.” Every century or so Argentium put out an updated version of her book that served as the definitive beginner’s guide to runecraft. Naturally Scarlett had her book, and when I’d wanted to start my abortive study into runes that had been an obvious starting point. I’d been planning to re-read it on the trip over, but hadn’t quite gotten around to it.

Argentium nodded. “Well then, you should have a solid foundation to build on for the rest of my material. I would imagine one of Celestia’s students should be able to pick everything up reasonably quickly. Books might be a poor substitute for personal instruction, but you can take them back to Freeport to study in your spare time. All I ask is that you retain them for your own personal use. I would be most displeased if they wound up in another’s hands or on an auction block.”

“No problem.” I’d already assumed as much: if she wanted the books out in the public, she would’ve gotten them published like she did with her beginner’s guide. “Thanks for all the help, Lady Argentium.”

“You are most welcome.” She started towards the exit. “I shall have the books gathered and delivered to you prior to your departure. Have you decided when that will be?”

I thought about it for a second. “I’d have to talk it over with everyone, but probably in the morning unless something comes up.”

“Then I will make sure you have the books by tonight,” she concluded. “Is there anything else that I can do to help with the journey, or the remainder of your time as my guest?”

“If there is, I’ll let you know.” I smiled and bowed. “Thank you again for your hospitality, Lady Argentium. It has been a great honor to be your guest, despite certain actions by third parties which I know you in no way endorsed.”

“Indeed.” Argentium’s gaze settled onto me. “You have my thanks for your understanding. I will not forget this, nor will I fail to settle any debt that remains between us.”

Evidently content with having the last word, Argentium stepped out. I took a moment to secure the runestone within my robes, then headed back to the guest quarters.

Just as planned, we left the next morning. Morale wasn’t exactly great. Argentium’s hospitality might have been amazing, but the fight was still hanging over our heads, along with the fact that we were leaving pretty much empty-hooved other than a couple books and a runestone. A pretty poor showing for the month of travel it had taken us to get to her, especially when we had another month to get back to Freeport.

I’d tried to use the meditation rune on the first night out, but I hadn’t really gotten anywhere with it. Probably because trying to meditate on the road in cold and unfamiliar surroundings was a long way from ideal circumstances. At least the books were a lot easier to handle.

We were in the middle of our first day in the open tundra after leaving the mountains when Puzzle decided to finally touch on the subject we’d all been avoiding. “So, you seem to be in good enough spirits despite everything that happened.”

I grimaced and didn’t even make a token effort to pretend I wasn’t feeling a bit grumpy. “Yeah, I’m just peachy.”

Puzzle regarded me with a raised eyebrow. “That bad?”

Kukri cleared her throat. “Maybe we should talk about it later, Puzzle?”

Strumming nodded along. “Yeah, you know how they say you should never poke a grumpy bear? Well, bears can’t set you on fire with their brain.”

“On second thought, maybe he should bother her,” Kukri mumbled under her breath, pulling her cloak tighter. “If she sets him on fire, it would give the rest of us a chance to warm up.”

Strumming sighed and shook her head. “Tempting, but that really wasn’t what I had in mind when I said I wanted to have a hot boyfriend.”

Puzzle sighed and did his best to ignore their byplay. “It’s been days since we left the cave, and it’s a long road.” He frowned at me. “This one hopes the Shimmer-mare isn’t planning on brooding the entire way to Coldharbor.”

“I’m not brooding,” I grunted. “I’m thinking.”

“A really quiet, sullen, withdrawn, and grumpy kind of thinking,” Strumming pointed out. “We should come up with a special name for that sort of thinking. Call it something like .. brooding.”

Puzzle didn’t chuckle, but I did see the corner of his mouth twitch up a bit. He didn’t let any mirth slip into his tone, though. “Are you planning on letting one defeat affect you so?”

Ugh. I really wasn’t in the mood for a lecture right now. Maybe I was brooding a bit, but so what? I was allowed to brood. Not like I was neglecting any of my duties or anything. I was just ... dealing with stuff my own way. I rolled my eyes and turned away from him. “Oh shut up.”

Puzzle answered me with a flat look. “Or what?” he demanded. “You’ll run away? Fight this one? Those are your solutions to most problems: punch it in the face, or run away and avoid it. As well as that worked for you in Canterlot...”

Kukri frowned at him and pointedly stepped closer to me. “Or maybe we could just leave her alone for a bit? If she wants some time alone to think about things, this one doesn’t see why we shouldn’t just let her have it.”

I grunted and nodded. “What she said.”

Puzzle sighed and threw up his hooves. “Oh sure, let’s just put it off. Again, and again and again, like how the Shimmer-mare treats most of her problems. Because procrastination is how work gets done.”

What the hay was he talking about? “Are you trying to be as big of a jerk as possible just to piss me off?”

“Puzzle!” Kukri snapped. “Nightmare’s teats, what's wrong with giving this a little time?! Her mother just attacked her and tried to petrify her!”

“Yeah, the kid’s being smarter than you right now,” Strumming agreed. “You know how I’m the one who usually annoys Bacon and gets on her case to make her deal with stuff she’d rather not think about? Notice how I’m not doing that right now. S’probably a sign of something. Plus, you’re stealing my thing—don’t steal my thing.”

Puzzle sighed and waved their remarks away. “Yes, the fight happened. And the very fact that it did happen revealed several significant problems.”

“What sort of problems?” I asked.

Puzzle cleared his throat and launched in the lecture I’d been hoping to avoid. “You let your emotions suck you into a fight you didn’t need to even have. Tell this one: did you get tricked into a fight, or is the truth that you wanted to show the old mare who’s boss and get some payback for a bad childhood?”

I scoffed and shook my head. “What a load of horseapples. You were there, you saw how it played out. I was defending myself.”

“Is that so?” He frowned skeptically. “One word to Argentium and the fight wouldn’t even have happened. So why did you fight?”

Why was he making such a big deal over this? “I didn’t even think of asking her for help until things got desperate. After all, she seemed fine with letting it play out.”

Puzzle nodded to himself. “Because you were angry with your mom, and you wanted to fight her. You weren’t trying to avoid the fight, you were trying to win it.”

I groaned and rolled my eyes even harder. “Yeah, I wanted to win. What’s your point?”

Puzzle took a seat and crossed his forelegs over his chest, scowling at me. “There’s nothing wrong with being angry at your mother for a bad childhood, but you crossed the line into letting that anger control you. Your temper is one of your greatest weaknesses, and one that your enemies will exploit.”

“My temper?” I shot back, clenching my teeth. “The hay are you even talking about? I don’t have a temper!”

“Then why are you yelling?” Puzzle snapped. “You’re not using your inside voice.”

Was he really serious with this horseapples? “First, we’re outside. Second, I’m yelling because you’re pissing me off! And before you say anything, I’m pissed off because you’re being a completely unreasonable jerk, not because I have anger issues.”

“And what happens next time your mom shows up?” Puzzle demanded. “Or your dad? Or White Pony preserve us, Princess Cadenza?!”

I sighed and handled the questions one at a time. “Scarlett wouldn’t dare go against Argentium and Celestia again, she’d lose her title for sure. Solar hadn’t even been in Equestria for over two years before I left and is probably still going after Steel Rose—the only way I’ll probably ever see him is if he thinks I have a lead to help crack that case. If Cadenza shows up...” I grimaced and trailed off uncertainly. That was a difficult question. I wasn’t sure what I’d do if Cadenza just randomly showed up one day, but whatever it was, it certainly wouldn’t be me flying off the handle in a jealous rage. I try not to make the same mistake twice.

Puzzle closed his eyes and took a deep breath. “Very well then. Perhaps we should talk about what happened back at the cave?”

I followed his lead, taking a moment to center myself. “Alright. Fine. If you have something to say, say it.”

Puzzle nodded. “Very well. You’re upset that you were defeated. This one can understand that. Losing a fight is never easy. Especially when you’ve worked years to improve yourself, and be the best you can be. Not helped when the Archmagus was so... needlessly provocative.”

“And your point is?” I scoffed. “Yes, I’m unhappy about losing. Obviously. Nothing for it but to keep honing my skills. Argentium even gave me a few pointers.”

“And what else?” he asked.

“What do you mean what else?” I shot right back.

Puzzle sighed and spoke as if I were being exceptionally slow-witted. “What do you plan on doing once we get back to Freeport?”

“I’m going to study hard and close the gap,” I answered simply. “She’s better than me now, but that just gives me a new goal to work towards.”

“And your school?” Puzzle countered. “Wasn’t one of your goals to win Argentium’s support?”

“Yeah.” I sighed and ran a hoof through my mane. “I think I got it on some level, but I’m not sure how hard I want to push her. I have a feeling she wouldn’t be impressed if I just straight-up asked for the cash to make the school happen. I think she’d give me a painting worth twenty million ducats before she’d give me just five million in straight cash. And just selling the painting for money after she gives it to me would offend her.”

“Immensely,” Puzzle agreed.

“So yeah, I think she’s going to support it, but not with money.” I frowned to myself. “More like she’d be willing to endorse the school, and send me students and maybe even a few teachers.”

“Which still leaves the money issue unresolved,” Puzzle concluded. “Her endorsement might sway some who were on the fence, but this one doubts the Council would shift its position merely on her say-so. However, that doesn’t mean all is lost; presuming you do not accept the White Pony’s offer, this one has been looking into a few options for assembling the needed funds without doing anything distasteful.”

“Alright, I’m listening.” I hadn’t completely ruled out taking the position at the School for Gifted Unicorns, but the run-in with Scarlett probably had prejudiced me against taking it. At least until Celestia did something to make the offer more appealing, which she almost certainly would. I briefly regretted not bringing the book that would let me instantly communicate with her, but the whole reason I’d left it back in Freeport was so I wouldn’t feel pressured to give her an answer as soon as I wrapped up the meeting with Argentium. Still, it would’ve been handy to be able to write to her when Scarlett showed up so Mom could instantly smack her down.

In any case, if I was taking the time to think over my options, I might as well hear what they were. “So what crazy money-making schemes did you have in—”

The rest of the words died in my throat as a long, mournful howl drifted in off the wind. A dozen more joined it in a distant, eerie chorus. Sigil stopped in his tracks, holding up a hoof to signal the rest of us. “Wargs. Sounds like a big pack, too.”

Kukri let out a nervous little murmur and shifted closer to me. “Wargs? What’re wargs? Are they dangerous?”

“They’re kinda like big nasty wolves crossed with big nasty bears,” Strumming explained.

“That sounds dangerous.” Kukri scooted close enough that she was practically pressed up against my side.

“They can be,” Sigil agreed. “Though usually they stay deep in the wilderness hunting larger prey. It’s rare for them to come this close to civilization. Most of the wild animals know that hunting ponies or caribou is too dangerous to be worth the trouble.”

Puzzle nodded along. “Exactly. The Shimmer-mare should be able to easily handle a pack of wargs, especially when we know they’re coming and we’re on open ground.”

My eyes flicked over the wide open tundra, with barely a speck of cover to be found. “Yeah, shouldn’t be a problem. Especially since most wild animals have a built-in fear of fire. With any luck I’ll be able to scare them off without even needing to hurt any of them.”

“Right.” Kukri let out a slow breath and untensed. “Right. Over open ground like this, they should be easy to spot a long time before they get close to us, right?”

“Yup.” Strumming stepped up to cover her other side. “So no need to worry, Facon. Sounds like if they try anything we’ll be just —”

That’s when another sound cut through the cold winter air, and this one wasn’t anything close to a wolf’s howl. It sounded a lot more ... raw and angry. Like the high-pitched shriek of something that was so full of hate it was just spilling out its mouth. The sound was just wrong. It’s hard to explain it more precisely, but it just ... didn’t sound like something a natural creature could make.

Strumming winced at the scream. “I really need to learn not to jinx things.”

Sigil frowned, and I could swear I saw a flicker of fear in his eyes. “I do not know that creature.”

“It certainly wasn’t a warg,” Puzzle agreed. “Heartstrings-mare, go up and see what we’re dealing with and where they’re coming from.”

Kukri started shaking again and scooted back up against my side. I would’ve given her a quick hug to reassure her, but considering the circumstances I needed to be ready for battle at a moment’s notice. My apprentice managed to sort it out on her own, taking a deep breath and biting her lower lip before putting on a brave face.

Strumming headed up into the sky, pulling on her snow goggles to get a good look. “Oh ... oh damn. I don’t know what that is, but I don’t like it.”

“What does it look like?” I called up to her.

“Ugly!” She answered. Before I could bug her for details, she elaborated. “Kinda like if a wolf, a bear, a scorpion, and a giant lizard had sex and the baby came out really mutated.”

Kukir perfectly summarized my thoughts on that description. “Um ... what? How can something like that even exist?!”

I would’ve followed up with a few questions of my own, but then I got a good look at Sigil’s face. He was standing there with his jaw hanging halfway open as he slowly sank down onto his haunches. That wasn’t the reaction you got from some baffled and confused, it was... “What do you know?”

“They’re supposed to all be dead,” Sigil gasped out. “Lady Argentium killed the last one of them over a hundred years ago.”

It took a second to connect the dots. “Oh buck me sideways, it’s a Blightspawn?!”

Puzzle grimaced and scanned his surroundings. Suddenly that wide open tundra wasn’t nearly so advantageous. “Nowhere to hide. Is there any chance we can run from it?”

Sigil shook his head. “Lady Argenium said once they had the scent of their prey, they would chase it for days or even weeks until they ran it down. Not to mention they’re supposed to be faster than us anyway.”

Strumming called up from above. “There’s no kinda cover anywhere close, and they’re coming at you guys full tilt!”

“Looks like we’ve got no choice but to fight it out.” My eyes flicked to my apprentice. “One of you get Kukri up somewhere safe!”

“This one can fly, you know.” Kukri popped her wings out from under her cloak and shot up into the air. “Kick their flanks, Shimmer-mare!”

I grimaced as I watched the two of them head up, briefly wishing I was an alicorn for far more immediately practical reasons than I usually did. Wings would make the wargs and Blightspawn a lot less of an issue. Well, if not for the fact that we had Sigil to deal with as well. Though with three effective fliers we probably could’ve carried him...

No sense lamenting what we couldn’t have. “Strumming, stay up top to keep an eye on the field. Puzzle, Sigil, watch my flanks. Sigil, if you know anything useful about how to kill a Blightspawn, now would be a great time to share it.”

Sigil grimaced and shook his head. “From what Lady Argentium said, the corruption process turns each one of them into a unique horror. They can be killed, though. She personally undertook the hunt out of a sense of duty to wipe Blackfyre’s works off the face of Northmarch and because she could face them with far less risk, not because she was the only one capable of defeating them.”

“So we’re improvising. Fine.” I took a deep breath. “I’ll handle the big guy, you just keep me from getting ripped apart by wargs and help out if I’m in trouble.”

They both nodded, and none of us said anything more as the monsters came within view. The wargs themselves were about like Strumming described, them: extremely large and bulky wolves with long, shaggy coats and slightly shorter, bear-like snouts. The Blightspawn... Strumming’s description of it hadn’t been too far off. It was quadruped with wolf-like limbs but instead of the usual wolf-like snout it just had a huge gaping maw. There weren’t any visible eyes, and the top of its face was covered with plates of carapace. More plates covered its spine and vitals, while the rest of its body had almost reptilian scales. Its tail was unusually long and ended with a thick black stinger. I couldn’t tell if it had a poisoned sting, but even if it didn’t the barb on the end of its tail would punch an extremely unhealthy hole in whoever it hit.

“Hope we can make this quick.” If I could kill the thing before it got into melee range, my life would be a lot easier. I threw a lance of fire at the spawn, only for it to roll off the creature’s thick carapace. “Figures.” Ice darts were similarly ineffective, and after my initial attack the creature shifted from a straightforward charge to zig-zagging across the field as it closed in on us, making my next few spells land wildly off target. “It’s smart for a monster.”

Sigil nodded gravely. “Lady Argentium did say that some of them have a malign sort of cunning.” He pulled several runes out of his pouch, handling them carefully enough that I was pretty sure they’d do bad things whatever he used them against.

“Then we’ll just have to be smarter.” Puzzle pulled out one of the fire gems I’d made for him, hefting it a few times before lobbing it towards the approaching wargs. It landed a bit short of them, but that just meant there was a wall of fire between us and them. Which might well have been what Puzzle wanted in the first place.

If that was his plan, it didn’t work. The Blightspawn charging straight through the flames without a moment’s hesitation wasn’t a huge surprise, but the wargs all following suit was. So much for wild animals being scared of fire.

Sigil scowled and said what we were all thinking. “That isn’t normal. It must be the spawn’s influence, it’s driving them berserk.”

Puzzle and Strumming lashed out, hitting the wargs with another fire gem and several throwing darts. Backing up Sigil’s theory, the beasts barely even slowed down despite the wounds they suffered. That seemed to convince the caribou to shift tactics, and instead of using attack runes he threw down several barriers to split them up and cut off angles of attack. He also tried for his old barrier shield around the Blightspawn, bottling it up.

I was about to ask what the point of closing the creature up was when Sigil revealed that this was a particularly nasty twist on his usual shield. The runes slowly began to roll tighter and tighter around the spawn, tightening up the shield until it would crush the creature. Or at least, that was what he intended.

The Blightspawn slammed its clawed forepaws into the shield, pressing against it. For a second its carapace lit up, angry orange runes flashing into existence for an instant before fading away as the creature pushed through the barrier, erupting from the other side with a triumphant roar.

Well ... these things had certainly earned their reputation. I threw another volley of razor ice shards at the creature while it’s momentum was gone from breaking the shield, but even with a direct hit all I managed was a few small surface scratches. “That carapace is tough.”

“Then hit it harder!” Puzzle shouted before throwing a pair of thunderflash stones at the wargs. The bright flash and deafening roar normally would’ve sent the wargs away with their tail between their legs, but instead they just rushed forward blindly.

Sigil scowled. “That confirms it. The wargs are either under the beast’s control or so terrified of it they won’t dare break ranks.”

“Then fighting the wargs is pointless,” Puzzle concluded. “This won’t end until we take down the Blightspawn.” He pulled a pair of long curved daggers from beneath his cloak.

“Gotta at least keep ‘em off us so they don’t jump your back and hamstring you,” Strumming pointed out, throwing a few darts that thudded into one warg’s back. One of them must have hit something in the spine, because the warg went down like a puppet whose strings had been cut.

Sigil threw a rune at the spawn, but its carapace flashed again and instead of doing anything the stone just bounced off its carapace, completely inert. Sigil snarled and shook his head. “It must have some defense against runic magic.”

I decided to try something a bit less subtle than fire and ice, and lashed out with a blast of blunt kinetic force. The attack knocked the spawn sprawling, but it rolled with the attack and wound up back on its feet with almost liquid agility. Then it planted its feet and pounced forward, its tail lashing out over its head and coming straight for me.

I teleported a few feet to the side a second before it would have skewered me. Normally I would’ve moved a lot further away to buy myself more room to operate, but that would mean leaving Puzzle and Sigil completely exposed. If defense and evasion weren’t viable options, I’d just have to win with offense. “Let’s see how you like this!” I pulled in enough light to make an especially intense beam, then threw it right at the creature’s head. The attack cut a deep gouge into the carapace over it’s skull, but there wasn’t any blood and the spawn whirled about and roared, seemingly none the worse for the wear.

Puzzle shot into the air, using a quick bit of telekinesis to grab some of Strumming’s throwing darts and send them into a warg that had been closing in on my flank. “Still not hard enough!”

“I wouldn’t recommend trying blightfire!” Sigil chimed in. “It’s hard to say exactly what effect it might have on a Blightspawn.”

I was pretty sure the fact that the creature and the spell both had blight in their name was just a coincidence of naming, but if the closest thing we had to an expert on Blightspawn thought it was a bad idea I wasn’t going to argue. At least, not until things were a lot more desperate. “It’ll take all day to get through that thing’s carapace. I need to get a solid hit on its underside!” Easier said than done, since the creature was deceptively agile and had the brains to know to keep its armor facing me and its vitals protected.

Strumming threw a dart at one of the thing’s paws, only for it to shift position so that the weapon bounced off its carapace. She let out a frustrated groan. “We have to pin that thing down so Bacon can finish it off!”

Sigil nodded sharply. “I have one last set of barrier stones ready. They won’t hold it for very long but even slowing it down for a few seconds might be enough to give her an opening.”

“I’ll make it work!” I shot a beam of arctic cold at the ground, turning the half-frozen tundra dirt into a sheet of slick ice. To my irritation if not my surprise, the abomination that had spent its entire life in the frozen north dug in its claws and managed just fine.

The spawn planted its hind legs and I teleported away before it could pounce. A second too late, I realized I wasn’t the target as it leapt at Puzzle’s back. I quickly threw a kinetic shield in between the two of them, but it was barely enough to slow the creature down.

Fortunately, I bought enough time for Puzzle to jump clear, and for Strumming to dive down and slam her shoulder into the spawn’s side. It didn’t seem to cause much damage, but it did knock the spawn in the opposite direction from her boyfriend. As it went down the creature swiped at her, catching her wing and ripping out a ton of feathers. Strumming fell out of the air with a startled yelp, and the spawn closed in on her, its tail waving menacingly over its head.

The unnatural abomination was fast, but like I’d said to Argentium earlier few things are faster than thought. Before the tail could snap down to impale Strumming I teleported her away, and as an added bonus I replaced the mare with a huge block of solid ice. The Blightspawn let out a frustrated roar, thrashing its tail back and forth to try and either free itself or just shatter the ice entirely.

Puzzle and Kukri weren’t about to give it the chance, their throats bulging as they both spat globs of thick adhesive plasm at the Spawn’s paws. The loose tundra dirt didn’t give them anything to adhere him to, but just gumming his paws up would slow the monster down a bit. Between that and the chunk of ice it was dragging along on its tail Sigil had plenty of time to throw down his barrier runes, which slowed it down even more.

However, the angry orange-red runes were already starting to light up along its carapace. “It’s not gonna stay still for long!” Strumming called out, clutching her wounded wing. “Whatever you’re gonna do, do it fast!”

There wasn’t enough time to come up with a clever plan, so I just did the first thing I could think of: I charged up another one of my intense beams of cutting light, ignoring how the blightspawn shifted its bulk to put as much of its carapace as possible between itself and me. When I fired off the light beam it shot clear over the monster ... but not past the ice mirror I’d conjured up behind it. The beam of light bounced right off the mirror, cutting into the beast’s vulnerable underbelly. The creature’s defiant roar trailed off into a pained whimper, and a second later one of the most unbelievably foul smells I’d ever experienced assaulted my nostrils.

The remaining wargs froze for several seconds, their heads all whipping around to stare at their fallen leader. By the time my laser was done I’d all but sliced it in half, and Blightspawn had long since stopped twitching. Perhaps a bit of overkill, but the thing had been nasty enough that I wasn’t inclined to take any chances on not finishing it off.

The wargs stared at their fallen master, then slowly started to slink away. For a moment I was tempted to throw a few fireballs after them for encouragement, but... “Whew.” I slumped down a bit as the adrenaline started to wear off, and I realized just how much heavy-duty magic I’d just slung. Especially when I still hadn’t completely bounced back from the fight with Scarlett.

Puzzle rushed over to Strumming’s side, looking her over. “Heartstrings-mare, are you hurt?”

“I’ve had worse.” She opened and closed her wing a few times, frowning at how many of her feathers were missing. “Looks like I’m gonna be a groundpounder for a bit, but at least he didn’t hit bone.” She trotted over to the Blightspawn, gagging as she poked at it. “So, Sigil, didn’t you say that all these things were dead? I mean, sure, this one is dead, but that’s a lot more recent than the whole ‘They’ve been dead for a hundred years’ line we heard earlier.”

“Evidently one eluded milady Argentium,” Sigil answered, frowning at the beast. “She must be told of this at once, but it will be faster to send a message from Coldharbor than to turn around at this point. Besides which, we’ll need to warn the city as well.”

“But it’s just the one monster, right?” Kukri asked. “And it’s dead now.”

“Perhaps,” Sigil answered. “But if one of them was alive for over a hundred years without us knowing about it...”

“Exactly.” Strumming fully extended her wing and winced. “Yup. Grounded. But yeah, when I checked in with the local EIS station they did say there’d been more monster attacks than usual. Big and ugly over here is probably to blame for that, but it’s hard to say if just one of them would be enough to really push the statistics. If he has friends...” She grimaced, then turned to face me. “Oh, and thanks for saving my bacon, Bacon.”

“Yes,” Puzzle shot an unreadable look Strumming’s way. “We can discuss your reckless actions during the fight at a later date.”

Strumming frowned at him. “Considering I was saving your bacon...” She shook her head, then turned to me. “Anyway, nice moves. The ice block teleport and ice mirror were new ones.”

I shrugged. “Yeah, new for me too, but under the circumstances I kinda had to improvise.” I hadn’t even really thought about those variations on my spells, I’d just ... done them because I needed to. Without really thinking about it.

Almost like it was instinct.

I pulled out the rune Argentium gave me, looking it over. It didn’t seem like it was doing anything special, but from what she said it was just a bit of mental aid to focus my mind. Maybe it was doing its job when I was in the middle of a fight rather than quiet meditation?

Regardless, I wasn’t eager to test that theory by risking life and limb. “I was already eager to be out of here before the ancient murder beast showed up. Now...” I wanted to say that just made me all the more eager to leave, but I couldn’t. After all, if there really were more Blightspawn waking up or coming out of hiding, the people of Northmarch would need all the help they could get.

Author's Note

As always, thanks to my pre-reading and editing team for all their hard work. Also, I would like to thank all my dedicated Patreon supporters. You guys are awesome.

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A Lot More Complicated

The rest of the trip back to Coldharbor was even colder and more miserable. Sigil insisted on keeping our campfires a lot smaller just to be safe: apparently any Blightspawn around would be smart enough to recognize what a campfire signified. It meant more shivering and complaining from Kukri, especially since I had to hold off on the warming charms in order to save my strength in case any more Blightspawn showed up. Not to mention the fun awkwardness of everyone sleeping in a single pile of pony, changeling, and caribou to benefit from each other’s body heat. At least Kukri seemed to enjoy the excuse to snuggle.

By the time we got back to Coldharbor, morale was pretty much rock bottom. About the only good news to be had was that we’d made it back before the big winter storm Sigil predicted would be hitting soon.

Once we’d returned to civilization we’d gone straight to the warmest, nicest inn we could find. Kukri had promptly claimed the bathroom, and judging from the cloud of steam that was slowly leaking out from under the door she was doing her best to recreate a typical Freeport summer day inside. Not that I could blame her; after experiencing a few weeks of Northmarch winter, we were all eager to return to the tropical islands of eternal summer.

I was working my way through a nice big bowl of warm vegetable stew while I waited for the bathroom to clear. Puzzle wasn’t being especially companionable, grimacing as he looked through the last week’s worth of newspapers for anything that might point to the presence of more Blightspawn. That, or he was just finding something to keep his mind busy while he waited for Strumming to get back from the doctor. Not that she was in bad shape or anything, but none of us were experts in treating injuries to a pegasus’ wings. Getting an actual doctor to look it over just to be sure was prudent ... and meant her boyfriend was antsy.

He set his papers aside as soon as the door to our room opened and Strumming stepped in. When she took off her cloak we saw she had a fresh bandage on her wing that looked much crisper than the quick one we’d improvised out in the field. She sighed and set her cloak to the side. “Good news is that everything is supposed to heal up fine. Bad news is I’m grounded for three weeks.”

“It could have been much worse.” Puzzle trotted over and gave her bandaged wing a quick once-over. “Half a second slower and you would’ve lost the wing, or we’d be burying you. You should have been more careful.”

I caught the very briefest flicker of hurt outrage in Strumming’s eyes, so fast I wasn’t sure I wasn’t just imagining it or projecting my emotions onto her. Then she smirked and poked him in the side. “Considering I got hurt saving your cute, well-toned butt, I’m expecting a lot more gratitude than that, bug boy.”

Puzzle sighed and shook his head. “Right, thank you for that.”

Strumming cocked her head to the side, frowning at him. “So why do you sound more pissed off than actually grateful? Is it a pride thing? Like, you’re mad cause you were the damsel in distress and I was the brave hero who saved you? ‘Cause you’re not normally that much of a ‘I gotta be the manly man’ guy. Back me up here, Bacon. Doesn’t he sound mad to you?”

I thought back to the talk we’d had before the Blightspawn showed up, and the one before we even left Freeport. “Yeah. Now that you mention it, Puzzle has been really grumpy lately.”

Puzzle grunted and sat back down, pulling up his newspaper and using it as a shield to block both us out. Strumming turned to me and grinned. “Do you speak Grunty Grumpy Stallion Who Doesn’t Wanna Talk, Sunset? ‘Cause that’s one of those weird languages I never quite managed to figure out.” She rolled her eyes. “And they say we’re the ones who are hard to understand.”

“This one supposes there is no point in asking you to let the matter rest?” Puzzle grumbled.

Strumming flopped down onto the couch, making sure to lie on her uninjured side. “Bug boy, you should know me well enough to get that the one thing I never do is let an awkward subject go untouched. Remember how annoying people into dealing with stuff they don’t wanna talk about is my thing? Well, I’m doing my thing. Think of it as punishment for you trying to do my thing when I’m the only one allowed to do my thing.” She paused, then shrugged. “For what it’s worth, that didn’t sound nearly so dirty in my head. Or maybe it did, and I don’t care.”

Puzzle groaned and set his newspaper aside. “Very well then, let us discuss it. This one’s unhappy because this trip has been a huge waste of time and resources.”

“Things didn’t exactly go as planned,” I agreed. “But that’s not the first time that’s happened to us. Doesn’t usually make you start brooding and being a jerk to all of us.”

“This is an order of magnitude above our previous tribulations,” Puzzle answered. “This one had high hopes for this trip since we were going to see Lady Argentium, and by the time we get back we’ll have been gone for more than two months. Two months and a priceless opportunity, and in the end we have nothing to show for it.”

I tried to find a bit of good news. “Well, at least I got some good advice. And Argentium does owe me a favor. A marker from her is big.”

Puzzle nodded slightly, then fixed me with a pointed stare. “And what do you plan on using with that favor? What concrete gain does it offer to justify the expense and wasted time?”

That wasn’t the sort of response I normally would’ve expected from him. Especially when my answer was something that probably came right out of his metaphorical textbook. “Honestly, just having her owe me that favor is more useful than anything I could call in right now. Being able to say ‘Argentium the Runescaled owes me a favor’ gives me a lot of options. That’s not the sort of currency you trade in until you’ve got something worth spending it on.”

Puzzle grunted again. “Then it sounds like you’re the only one who got something out of this.”

Strumming snorted and rolled her eyes. “What, were you expecting Argentium to give you a giant bag of money just for schlepping out to her place in the middle of winter? Out of all of us, you’re the one who had to know that wasn’t happening.”

“Hardly.” He scowled and opened up his newspaper again, hard enough that he nearly tore it. “But this one was expecting a bit more than a nag who can’t figure out how to talk with her daughter like a normal pony.”

“We all were.” Still, Puzzle usually wasn’t the sort to brood over how things had gone wrong. He was always the one who immediately jumped onto making plans and adapting to whatever the new situation was. Not to mention... “That doesn’t explain why you were so grumpy before we even shipped out.”

“This one was hardly grumpy before we shipped out,” Puzzle grumbled, shifting his newspaper so he wouldn’t have to meet my eyes.

“Yeah you were.” I crossed my forelegs over my chest. “You got moody with me when I told you about Celestia offering me a teaching position at her school.”

Puzzle let out a fake, mocking gasp. “You mean this one doesn't like the idea of a good business partner moving away, and going into an occupation she won’t even enjoy? How utterly shocking that it might feel that way.”

“Not happy about it I can buy,” Strumming cut in, “but getting grumpy doesn’t sound like you. You’re usually all cold and logical when one of us does something you don’t like. Not to mention Bacon is still sitting on the fence with that job offer, so it’s way too early to get mad. Especially since you know pissing her off is a sure way to make her go whichever way you don’t want.”

“I’m not that contrary,” I murmured under my breath. “I do actually think things through rather than making all my choices purely to spite whoever pissed me off last.”

“Not the point right now, Bacon,” Strumming whispered back.

Puzzle growled and turned another page, this one sharply enough that it tore halfway down the middle. He glowered at the paper as if it had done that purely to make his day just a little bit worse. “Fine then. Maybe this one is turning into a grumpy old bug.”

“Yeah, sure.” Whatever was going on with him, I didn’t feel like beating my head against a wall trying to drag it out. If he wanted to talk to us, he would. Besides, I had other things I wanted to run by both of them, even if I doubted they would love the suggestion. I wasn’t exactly wild about it myself, and it was my idea. “So, long as we’re all together, I’ve been thinking: I know it’ll probably make Kukri think I’m crazy, but maybe we should stick around for a bit longer.”

Strumming grimaced, but after thinking it over for a second nodded along. “Yeah, I get it. You’re worried that the monsters that are supposed to have been dead for over a hundred years are still around? Especially since we just so happened to run into one, though with our luck I’d be more surprised if an ancient evil monster woke up and didn’t immediately come after us.”

“Pretty much that,” I agreed. “Monsters that were supposed to be extinct for a century popping back up is just odd enough that I think it merits investigation.”

“And it will be investigated,” Puzzle agreed from behind his newspaper. “By the authorities in Northmarch. In case the Shimmer-mare has forgotten, she is only a magus of Freeport. In Northmarch, you are nothing but a—actually, no, you don’t even qualify as a concerned citizen.” He set the paper down, meeting my eyes. “Northmarch has managed to stand this long without us, and survived much worse than a single Blightspawn. Argentium hunted them to near extinction before any of us were even born. The caribou will most likely send out some scouts to see if there’s a hidden nest of them somewhere, and if there are more of them then Argentium will dispose of them on general principle, if nothing else. This one struggles to see what we could accomplish that they are unable to do on their own.”

I sighed and shook my head. “Yeah, they can almost certainly manage fine on their own. But what would it hurt to stay around a few more days just to make sure?”

Puzzle scowled and shook his head. “We’ve already spent two weeks here, not to mention the travel time just getting to Northmarch. We aren’t likely to profit by sticking around. A week ago you couldn’t get out of here fast enough.”

“A week ago Blightspawn were extinct,” I countered. “It’s not about profit, Puzzle. If there are a lot of nasty murder-monsters roaming around, the people in Northmarch might need help. I can’t just get on a boat and leave like nothing’s going on.”

Puzzle sighed and slumped down in his seat, as if he was tired of dealing with me when I was being completely unreasonable. “And exactly how long were you thinking to stay?”

I shrugged. “Depends on how it all goes, I guess. I mean, if it turns out to be nothing it wouldn’t be much more than a day or two. If they need help...”

“What if they do need help?” Puzzle demanded, crossing his forelegs. “How long do you intend on staying then?”

I shrugged again. “As long as it takes.”

“That is entirely too open-ended,” Puzzle answered. “That could take weeks. Months. Years even, if this is only the tip of the iceberg.”

I scowled at him. “So what, I should just leave because helping them might take too long?”

“This one is merely pointing out certain realities,” Puzzle answered levelly. “First and foremost, be careful about what you get drawn into. This one would think that your parents serve as an all-too-keen reminder of the dangers in taking on unlimited duties. Northmarch is the same land your mother cared more about than you—and incidentally, staying around to help them would doubtless mean working with her. And on the subject of unlimited commitments, how many years has your father frittered away chasing after one warlock?”

Strumming cleared her throat. “Not to mention Kukri’s parents signed up for you bringing her on a quick in-and-out trip. Not an extended monster-hunting expedition.”

I wanted to argue, but they both had frustratingly valid points. “Okay, fair enough. But it's probably going to take a day or two for Captain Weyland to get her ship and crew ready to sail, and Sigil said there’s going to be a storm tomorrow anyway. At the very least, that gives us a day or two to get the lay of the land and see if we can find anything out. If things look bad, I’m sure the captain can get Kukri home in one piece.”

“She was a cabin filly on his ship back before she became Facon,” Strumming agreed. “We can trust him to bring her back in one piece.”

Puzzle grunted and nodded. “Though that’s a moot point if we’re waiting for information and the ship can’t even get out of port until after the storm.” His eyes flicked to the door. “The delay is especially irksome when this one hasn’t heard nearly as much as it would like from its contacts in Freeport.”

Strumming chuckled. “Yeah yeah, gotta have the kids send you a letter every day to make sure they’re drinking their veggies and eating plenty of milk.”

“This one does have a large organization it needs to keep an eye on,” Puzzle pointed out. “The information this one has received is not quite as up to date as it would like.”

“It is a pretty long way from Freeport to Westmarch,” Strumming pointed out. “A mail clipper might end up getting here a bit faster than a windjammer like the Venture, but travel time’s still going to be a factor.”

Puzzle frowned and nodded along. “Certainly, but this one is missing an entire week’s worth of updates. Last it heard things were proceeding relatively smoothly, but each of its lieutenants should have sent it a weekly report, and it’s missing one that should have arrived by now.”

“The mail might just be going a bit slow,” I pointed out. “Maybe there’s weather, or the mail clipper was a day or two late leaving port.”

“This one told its lieutenants to send a copy of their report on three different vessels precisely to avoid that issue,” Puzzle answered.

“Dang,” Strumming whistled. “Making them do the paperwork in triplicate. That’s just cruel and unusual punishment. Not to mention tripling your delivery costs. You really wanted to make sure you got your mail.”

Puzzle answered her with a flat, unamused look. “This one spent years of its life building its organization, and has invested considerable funds and other resources into it. Last time Argentium called it to her caverns, it had far less to lose with a two-month round trip. This is the first time this one’s left its lieutenants in charge of everything for such a long period of time.”

“So you don’t trust the kids to take care of things while you’re away,” I concluded. “Relax—Alya, Blackwing, and Gustav know what they’re doing. There are all kinds of reasons a letter might be a day or two late.”

“Yeah,” Strumming agreed. “There’s no reason to think your mail being a bit late is a warning sign of some huge looming threat that will shortly result in ... oh who am I kidding? Now that I jinxed it we’re probably gonna come back to find out that the entire island is on fire. Or one of the dormant volcanoes woke up. Maybe that’s why that one shopkeeper’s store blew up right before we left: it was sitting right under what’s about to be a brand-new volcano. Or the Council shut down the Liberation Museum because that’s where the volcano is starting. Or maybe it’s a double!”

“That seems extremely unlikely,” Puzzle answered dryly. “Though if there is some sort of trouble waiting for us when we get back to Freeport, it would advise the Heartstrings-mare to stay out of it. The trip back to Freeport might provide you with enough time to heal, but only barely. Best not to strain a freshly healed wing.”

Strumming snorted and gave him a pat on the head. “Aww, isn’t he cute, Bacon? He’s being such a protective boyfriend...”

Puzzle snorted and brushed her hoof off, turning to her with a smile that lacked any warmth. “Perhaps, though we both know where you’ll stay if this one goes back to Freeport while the Shimmer-mare remains here or goes to Equestria.”

Strumming blinked, then frowned at him. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

“This one thought it self-evident,” Puzzle answered coolly. “Your job is to watch over the Shimmer-mare. Ergo, where she goes, you go.”

“Well ... yeah,” Strumming conceded. “I do have a job.”

“Right.” Puzzle picked his much-abused newspaper up. “So it seems perfectly clear where your loyalties lie. Though this one cannot help but wonder what will come of you burning your orders from the EIS when you didn’t care for them. These superiors you go to such trouble to keep hidden from us will doubtless not approve of that. But by all means, join the Shimmer-mare in her pointless crusade to help those who don’t need it while neglecting Freeport.”

“Excuse you?” I yanked the paper out of his hooves, pretty much shredding it in the process. “So what, you think I should just leave them behind to die because that’s more profitable for you? First, buck your profits. Second, if money’s all you care about, I’m sure you can ask Argentium to pay us if she does need an extra set of hooves. It’s not like she’s hurting for cash or wouldn’t be willing to reward us for helping her in a time of need.”

Puzzle glared at me. “This one doesn’t only care about profit. You know that.” He tried to pick up the remnants of his paper, then sighed and put it to the side. “Or maybe you don't. Perhaps you know far less about this one than it thought.”

“Not really.” I glared right back at him. “The Puzzle I thought I knew was the one who never complained when I took a charity case or helped those in need. Like back during the whole Rising Fire thing, when those out-islanders needed help—you didn’t complain about whether or not you could make enough money then, you just helped me get it done.”

“So this one is only useful to you as long as it obeys your every whim?” Puzzle snapped.

“That is not what I meant, and you know it.” I groaned and rubbed my forehead. I then had to say something I’d never expected. “Strumming, somehow you’ve become the only other sane one in this conversation. Am I going nuts or being unreasonable?”

Strumming shrugged. “Not any more than you usually are when you’re annoyed.” She turned her attention to Puzzle. “Meanwhile ... you’re kinda putting your jerk hat and douche pants on right now, Bug Boy. What gives?”

Puzzle didn’t say anything for long enough that I was starting to suspect he just intended to stonewall us, until he finally answered. “Time.” He sighed and slumped back in his seat. “This one only has so much of it, and far too many things it hopes to see done. This one bears no ill will towards Northmarch, but its home is Freeport. Everything it hopes to accomplish with its life is there, and the longer it spends away, the harder that is to do. Not only the time wasted in Northmarch, but the opportunities missed and the relationships that will need to be restored after an extended absence. This one’s clients, allies, and subordinates expect it back on schedule. A much longer than expected absence will brew problems. There might already be problems, judging by the lack of letters.” He sighed and shook his head. “This one’s grand plans to change the face of Freeport have not seemed so fruitless for a long time.”

“It’s not that bad,” I assured him. “You can’t change an entire nation overnight. We’ve been working on it, haven’t we?”

“Yes, of course, it’s a work in progress.” Puzzle sighed impatiently. “However, this one could do with less work and more progress. Especially now that this one is faced with the distinct risk of losing several of its most important allies in that effort.”

Strumming’s eyes widened a bit. “Oh! I get it! You're getting so grouchy because you’re scared of losing me and Bacon.”

“Of course.” Puzzle dropped his gaze, refusing to meet our eyes. “Despite the occasional bit of inconvenience, our business relationship has been a mutually beneficial one. It is perfectly natural to dislike the possibility of losing such an arrangement.”

“Our business relationship?” I repeated skeptically. “Pretty sure it’s been a long time since any of us considered a balance sheet with this. We’re friends, not just business partners.”

“Our partnership has been an amicable one,” Puzzle evaded.

Strumming snorted and rolled her eyes. “I know this game: pretend we mean a lot less to you than we do and start pushing us away, so that if we do end up leaving it won’t hurt as much. ‘Course, the dumb thing about that is that pushing us away makes us a lot more likely to leave him in the first place. Not like I’d wanna keep dating a guy who’s a jerk to me.”

“That does kinda fit,” I agreed. “Kinda obvious, now that I think about it. Just didn’t see it because Puzzle’s usually not so ... emotional.”

Strumming shrugged. “You know what they say, still waters and all that rot. Just ‘cause bug boy tries to play things cool and not make emotion-driven decisions doesn’t mean he’s a heartless golem who feels nothing. And in my experience, the ones that try to hide all that stuff don’t handle it well when it finally all comes boiling over.” Strumming poked him in the chest. “So, why not just let it all out?”

Puzzle took a deep breath, then slowly let it out. “Very well. Yes, this one doesn’t want you to leave Freeport. Obviously.” He closed his eyes and took another few breaths. “Perhaps you are right. This one is being foolish because it is afraid. This one apologizes—it shouldn't be letting emotions control its behavior, especially when it’s acting so badly.”

Strumming grinned and wrapped her uninjured wing around him. “Aww, so you do care. See, works a lot better when you just come out and say it instead of being all weird and indirect and stuff. If you wanna keep Bacon around, ‘I don’t want you to go’ is a lot better than being all passive-aggressive or grumpy about it. Don’t know why you had to make something so easy into such a pain.”

“Challenge comes in many forms,” Puzzle groused. “This one is accustomed to maintaining a certain professional distance with those around it. Its chosen profession is not an especially safe one, and its subordinates are by necessity ultimately expendable assets. It is not accustomed to allowing itself the luxury of friendship, let alone...” His eyes drifted towards Strumming.

The EIS spy shrugged. “We’re surviving so far.”

“And we’re sticking around no matter what,” I assured him. “Even if we do something like go work outside of Freeport for a bit, it doesn’t mean I’ll stop being your friend.” I thought about adding in something for Strumming, but I didn’t want to put words in her mouth, and I really didn’t get how their relationship worked anyway. “Bottom line is we’re not leaving, so stop trying to push us away.”

Puzzle sighed and leaned back, resting in Strumming’s wing. “Right, sorry. This is just difficult. Most of this one’s long-term plans assumed the Shimmer-mare would remain in Freeport as a valuable ally for this one long into the future. It never considered the possibility that you might leave, and even if you do promise to return eventually ... nothing is certain. You’ve admitted that the White Pony almost certainly hopes to turn any temporary stay in Equestria into a permanent one, and she has over a thousand years of experience in getting what she wants.”

“Yeah,” I agreed. “But it’s hard to manipulate someone who knows it’s coming. You always said one of the most important pieces of information for manipulating someone or resisting their attempts at manipulation is knowing what they want. Well ... I know what Celestia wants. Freeport is my home. It’s where all my friends are, and where I keep my stuff. If I go to Celestia for a job at her school, it’ll just be a job. Teach there for a few months to get a bunch of practical info about how to run a magical school, then come home.”

“That is certainly your plan,” Puzzle agreed. “However, if this one is going to be honest, it would likely be far wiser for you to return to Canterlot properly. Your mother was not wrong to point out that you would benefit immensely from it. Celestia would doubtless offer you almost any reasonable position you asked for, or at least a close approximation to it. And even if you are not quite on the level of an Archmagus yet, a few more years of seasoning and lessons from Celestia would take you to that level, or even further beyond.”

“By definition, nobody’s more qualified to help you figure out how to become an alicorn,” Strumming pointed out. “Objectively speaking, your only connection to Freeport is that it’s where you wound up when you were running low on money and needed a quick job to fill your wallet back up. It’s nice that you settled down and stuff, but inertia’s pretty much the only thing keeping you there.”

I frowned and shook my head. “No it’s not. I don’t want Celestia to just give me whatever I want. One of the main reasons I left Canterlot was so I’d have enough space to find my own way and build something. Maybe I just wound up in Freeport by happenstance, but that doesn’t mean the last two years of me putting down roots didn’t happen. It’s hot, humid, and it smells like dead fish half the time, but it’s my home. You don’t give up on your home just because you’ve had a rough time or you aren’t making as much progress as you’d like.”

“You don't get bonus points in life for doing things the hard way, Shimmer-mare.” Puzzle gave me a quick pat on the shoulder. “This one understands that you value your independence, but you might be taking that too far. After all, the only beings in the world who live completely independent of others are hermits out in the wilderness.”

“It’s not just about keeping my independence at all costs,” I explained. “It’s also ... well getting to be an Archmagus wouldn’t mean anything if Celestia just gave it to me. I don’t want to spend more years cooped up in a tower studying, I want to go out and do something.” I sighed and ran a hoof through my mane. “Not to mention that when it comes to trying to build something in Freeport, politics kind of requires a little distance between me and Celestia. Not like I want to cut her out or anything, it’s just that ... well, I bet the Council’s already wondering if I’m there on some sort of long, elaborate plan of Celestia’s to take over the islands.”

“This one has certainly considered the possibility,” Puzzle admitted. He held up a hoof to forestall my reply. “Not that it is saying the Shimmer-mare is part of some elaborate conspiracy, but it is sure the White Pony has at least considered how she might use the Shimmer-mare’s presence in Freeport to advance her own interests.”

“Pretty sure she has,” I conceded. “But I made that decision years ago. I’ll always love and respect Celestia, but I’m my own mare. If she supports whatever I want to do, great. If she opposes it, I’ll learn to live with that. The thing is, she respects my...” I trailed off, one of my ears twitching. There was something that just felt a bit ... off. Nothing solid I could put my hoof on, but there was this uncomfortable squirming feeling on the back of my neck. Sort of like...

Strumming put it into words before I could. “Is it just me, or is it too quiet? Or not quiet enough? Or just, you know...”

Puzzle frowned and nodded. “Yes, this one—”

I felt the surge of magic just in time. I’d barely managed to put up a shield around all three of us when the inn’s outer wall exploded. The floor collapsed underneath us, and we all would’ve been cut to ribbons by all the flying glass and splinters if I’d been just a tiny bit slower.

“The hay?!” I groaned, pulling myself back up to my hooves. We’d gone from the second floor of the inn to the ground floor, and a huge chunk of the building was just ... gone. There was a gaping jagged-ended hole where the wall had been, cutting into most of the rooms next to ours as well. Thankfully the bathroom looked reasonably intact, so Kukri was probably—

“Hello, Sunset Shimmer.”

My head snapped towards the voice. Standing out in the middle of the street was a figure dressed head to hoof in blackened steel. It was a really old set of armor going by the style, old enough that I had to wonder if they’d gotten it out of a museum. The armor had all the stylistic flourishes that usually only showed up on decorative parade ground sets, including a pair of upswept wings reminiscent of a bat or a dragon’s. The helmet featured a pair of decorative horns on the sides, along with a hole for the unicorn’s horn to protrude from. The helmet had a much longer visor, making it almost look like the snout of a predator. There was a sword strapped on the attacker’s back, a single-edged sword with a ripple-patterned blade that seemed oddly familiar, but I had more important concerns than why the random pony who’d just blown up half a building to try and get to me was wearing a bunch of ancient armor and a sword I could swear I’d seen somewhere else. “Who the hay are you?”

“I’m surprised you didn’t recognize me.” The visor snapped open, and Starlight Glimmer smirked at me. “It hasn’t been that long.”

Author's Note

As always, thanks to my pre-reading and editing team for all their hard work. Also, I would like to thank all my dedicated Patreon supporters. You guys are awesome.

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The Showdown

I stared incredulously at a mare I hadn’t seen for over a year. Last time we’d crossed paths, she’d been pretty happily settled into her nice little out-island commune. I certainly hadn’t expected to run into her thousands of miles away from Freeport, and trying to kill me and my friends. “What the hay, Starlight?!”

Starlight smirked. “I’m taking you down. That’s what the hay.”

I’d figured out that much when she blew up an entire building just to get to me. “Okay, why are you doing this?! Last time I saw you, I was saving your life from that crazy lich!”

“What, and you think that means you own me now?” Starlight snapped. “Doing one nice thing for me doesn’t make me your slave. Besides, you didn’t come to save me—you came to save that village. I just happened to be there.” She snorted and tossed her mane. “Not that I asked you to help in the first place; you just showed up on your own. And we both know it’s only a matter of time before that lich comes back for round two.”

I remembered some of those details a bit differently, but no matter. “Still doesn’t explain why you just tried to kill me!”

Starlight’s smirk came back, twice as confident. “Surrender and maybe you’ll find out.”

“Yeah, that’s not happening.” I had no idea what was going on with Starlight, but beating some answers out of her sounded a lot more appealing than surrendering. “Puzzle, Strumming, one of you get Kukri out of here.”

“This one will do that,” Puzzle volunteered, flying up towards the mostly-intact bathroom door.

“I'll see what we can do about clearing the bystanders.” Strumming leaned in and whispered. “Not to mention trying to find that anti-warlock throwing spike of mine.”

Starlight snorted and waved them away. “Run off, I don’t care about either of you. Just don’t try anything or you’ll regret it.”

“You’re just after me, huh? I suppose I should be flattered.” I picked my way through the debris, heading out into the open town square. The inn’s explosion had started drawing a crowd of curious onlookers that Strumming was doing her best to disperse. “I don’t suppose you'd be okay with heading out to a nice unoccupied bit of wilderness for the rest of the fight?”

Starlight scoffed and shook her head. “Like your buddies wouldn’t take that opportunity to grab every guard they can find and set up an ambush while you take me there?”

I thought about offering to teleport her, but she’d probably just accuse me of planning to do something like teleport her to the middle of the ocean, or just leave her in the middle of nowhere while coming back to Coldharbor on my own. Which, to be fair, both sounded like really good ideas now that I thought about it. “I don’t know why you’re doing this Starlight, but if you don’t back off right now I’m taking you down. Hard.” I glowered at her as my eyes briefly flicked back to what was left of the inn we’d been staying at. “You’re not a stupid kid who impulsively robbed a bank anymore.”

“No, that’s why I'm going to win today.” She grinned and brushed a hoof on her armor. “I’m way better than I used to be.”

“Not hard to improve from where you started at,” I quipped.

Starlight glared at me. “You really are an arrogant nag, you know that? I’m going to enjoy wiping that smirk off your face when I’m rubbing it into the dirt.” Her horn lit up, and she drew a sword off her back. “Or maybe I’ll just cut your head off, and keep it around as a trophy.”

Kukri let out a loud gasp from her perch atop Puzzle’s back, staring at the sword. “That’s ... that’s Chainbreaker!”

“Torch Charger’s sword?” I stared at the weapon. Now that Kukri mentioned it ... I’d only seen the sword once at a museum, but it did look familiar.

“The museum,” Puzzle hissed. “No wonder the Council had the entire building under a security lockdown when we left. If it got out that someone stole Chainbreaker...”

“It would bring their whole corrupt regime crashing down around their ears,” Starlight concluded smugly. “It’s nothing less than they deserve: Chainbreaker is the sword of freedom, the bane of tyrants. The Council doesn’t deserve to have it.”

“Neither do you!” Kukri snarled, almost leaping down to charge her before Puzzle restrained her. “That sword belongs to Freeport and the clans, not some worthless spoiled brat with a trust fund and a god complex! You must have balls for brains connecting to that sputtering mess on your forehead if you think you can use Chainbreaker for compensation, because you don’t have the right to even be in its presence!”

Starlight snorted. “What would you know? You’re just a stupid kid blind to the realities of the world around you. Chainbreaker isn’t the sword of Freeport’s establishment, it belongs to whoever’s going to tear down the corrupt old order and replace it with something better.”

“And you think that’s you?” I asked, scarcely believing my ears.

“Why not?” Starlight shot back. “Revolutions have to start somewhere. Just having the sword proves they have to take me seriously!”

She wasn’t completely wrong. The sword might just be a really sharp piece of metal with mostly symbolic value, but symbols could be very potent things. Not that every single pony would instantly flock to Starlight’s banner just because she had Chainbreaker, but it would add a bit more legitimacy to her claims. People who’d normally just dismiss her as a malcontent with delusions of grandeur might take a closer look once they found out she was carrying around the symbol of the Freeport Revolution.

Not that I planned to let her keep it. “Nobody’s going to listen to you, you crazy nag. You can pretend to be a revolutionary all you want, but Torch and Ushabti never went around blowing up buildings full of innocent people!”

Starlight scoffed. “Like you can claim to be innocent.”

Maybe I wasn’t exactly innocent, but I’d mostly been on the good side of things, and certainly hadn’t done anything to deserve death. No point arguing about that with Starlight, though. Especially when there was a much easier point to make. “I wasn’t the only one in that inn. There were kids in there!” Well, at least Kukri. Probably more too.

“And they’re all fine,” Starlight answered cavalierly. “It’s not like I blew up the whole building, just the part of it you were in.”

Considering how that could’ve ended if Kukri wasn’t in the bathroom when the spell hit, that wasn’t even close to a good enough answer. I was about to point that out when I thought about another building that had blown up back in Freeport, right around the time Starlight was supposedly robbing the Liberation Museum. Maybe it was just a coincidence, but... “Did you go after Frozen Finds in Freeport?”

Starlight rolled her eyes. “Would you believe me if I said no?”

I shrugged. “Considering I didn’t know you were capable of blowing up buildings or committing cold-blooded murder until a few minutes ago...”

“Murder,” Starlight growled, “only applies to unjustified killings. Frozen wasn’t as innocent as you thought he was, he got what was coming to him.”

“So you did kill him?” I demanded. “What did he do? What made you decide that randomly murdering an antique bookseller was a good idea? Or me, for that matter?”

“I don’t have to explain myself to you,” Starlight shot back. “We’re not in Freeport, and even back there you’re not a cop, just a merc who works for the government sometimes.”

I didn’t give her the satisfaction of rising to the obvious bait. Arguing with her wouldn’t get me anything, and I was a lot better served trying to unravel the rest of this mystery. “So what’s with the armor? Looks like you stole it out the museum along with Chainbreaker.”

Starlight grinned and slapped the chestplate of her armor. “Oh no, this is a perk of my new job. After you ruined everything for me with the commune, I had to find something to do.”

“How did I ruin anything by saving your life and stopping a crazy lich from destroying your entire village?” About the only thing I could think of that I’d arguably ruined is that maybe if I’d let the crazy lich kill her, Frozen Finds would still be alive.

“Nothing was the same after that!” Starlight snapped. “When I finally got back to the island to help repair all the damage that crazy Rising Fire did, everyone kept looking at me. Like it was my fault the lunatic tried to kill me and smashed up their village, and it was only a matter of time before the guy came after me again and put them all in the firing line. And I bet some of them were wondering if Rising’s ramblings about how I’m going to destroy the world in the future were right, and maybe they should’ve let him take me. Ungrateful jerks.”

I decided to take advantage of the fact that she seemed to be in a ranty mood to try something sneaky while I kept her talking. “Okay, fine, so everyone was a bit weirded out after the fact. Still not clear on how that’s supposed to be my fault.”

“You should’ve kept things quiet!” Starlight shouted. “If none of them had known that the lich was after me, I could’ve gone back to my life! Instead you ruined everything, and I had to go on the run to find a way to be ready for him next time he comes after me!”

“Which evidently involves murder for hire,” I cut in.

Starlight shrugged. “We all have to adapt to our situations. It’s not like you did anything different when you first showed up in Freeport.”

“Not even close.” Not that I was especially proud of killing Metal Mome in all but the most technical sense, but the guy had been a murderous pirate and slaver with dreams of becoming a conqueror. There was a big difference between taking him down hard, especially when I’d made a good faith effort to bring the guy in alive, and Starlight killing ponies who as far as I knew didn’t deserve it by blowing up entire buildings.

If she didn’t see that... “Fine. I’m placing you under arrest for the murder of Frozen Finds of Freeport, the attempted murder of myself and my friends, and destruction of private property. I’ll work out the details on extradition with the Northmarch authorities once we’ve got you in a cell. I don’t suppose you’ll come quietly.”

Starlight snorted. “Considering I’m the one who came after you, what in the world makes you think I’d want to come quietly?

I shrugged. “It was worth a shot. And all the talking kept you distracted.” I let loose with the spell I’d sent the last couple minutes slowly building up. A thick sheet of ice sprang up from the ground, climbing up Starlight’s legs until it completely encased all four of her limbs all the way up to her barrel.

Starlight’s eyes flicked down to the ice, then she glared at me. “You think this is enough to hold me?! I’m insulted.” A quick pulse of energy from her horn shattered the ice and sent cracks rippling through the cobblestones. That seemed to be enough to accomplish what Strumming hadn’t been able to, as the crowd of curious onlookers started nervously scattering as their self-preservation instincts finally kicked in.

I also noticed that her magic had changed colors since the last time I’d seen. Instead of teal, it was a dark and ugly shade of orange. It was really rare for someone's magic to change colors; it took either a major personal transformation or a huge infusion of outside power. Considering she’d apparently graduated from misguided idealism to murder, she could qualify under either one.

I could get answers once I had her down. With how much pride she had on display, I decided to poke it a bit. “I didn’t know if you were still as weak and pathetic as I remembered from the last time we fought. If you were, that would explain why you attacked from ambush: you knew you couldn’t win a straight fight.”

“Don’t you look down on me!” Starlight snapped. “I’m a dozen times stronger than I was the last time you beat me, and you had to cheat to win then!”

“Twelve times zero is still zero,” I quipped.

Starlight snarled and unleashed a beam of raw destructive force. My first instinct was to teleport out of the way, but that wasn’t an option when we were in the middle of a town square; the beam would keep going until it hit something or someone. Instead I threw up a shield of solid ice, angling it so the beam would deflect up harmlessly into the air.

At least, that was the idea. What I hadn’t anticipated was just how much power there would be behind her attack. My shield didn’t break and did manage to send her blast safely away, but the impact was hard enough to make the inner layer of my shield shatter, sending shards of ice straight back at me. I managed to turn my head enough to keep my face and throat safe and none of the chunks were all that big, but I picked up a dozen shallow cuts along my chest and legs.

I snarled and threw a fireball at her, but Starlight countered with a spell I’d never been on the receiving end of before: Blightfire. The blast of entropic flame swallowed up my own attack and rolled straight on towards me. There was no way I could block it in time; I had no choice but to teleport clear, wincing as the flames hit a bakery. The good news was the building was empty. The bad news was it wasn’t a building anymore.

“When the hay did you learn that spell?!” I snapped.

“I told you I’ve gotten stronger,” Starlight answered with an arrogant smirk. “And that was just a taste of my power.” She threw out a quick spell I didn’t recognize, then snatched up several of the larger chunks of rubble and started hurling them at me

I tried to teleport clear again, but when I did I popped into the middle of the town square, not at all where I’d wanted to be. A second later several large black crystals emerged from between the cobblestones, encircling me. A teleport trap?! That had to be at least as obscure as Blightfire, though at least I could understand why she’d look for that spell when she knew I could teleport.

Still, something wasn’t adding up. She’d gotten kicked out of school before she even finished, and had spent the last couple years on an isolated farming commune. And now she showed up with a lot more power than I remembered, flinging way more advanced spells, and... “You didn’t just get a fancy set of armor, did you? That much magic in a new color, and your talk about a new job ... you made a deal with someone.”

“Took you long enough to figure it out,” Starlight shot back with a savage grin. “What’s the matter, worried I might have found a way to surpass you?”

Not that I would ever admit it to her, but ... yeah. Starlight had been a tough opponent back when I fought her two years ago, and while I’d gotten a lot better since then Starlight had grown even more. Whatever deal she’d made had given her a huge boost in raw power, and had evidently come with lessons to seriously beef up her spell repertoire. That didn’t say good things for where the balance between us was likely to be.

Not to mention the fact that if whoever she was working for sent her after me, that meant I had some seriously strong enemies. But who could it be? Rising Fire wanted Starlight dead. Chrysalis? She’d never been the sort to recruit ponies; she only trusted her own changelings. I could see a warlock coven trying to recruit her, but they’d just make her a member of the group, and they couldn’t give her that sort of power boost.

Maybe it was one of Celestia’s enemies? Plenty of them might try to get to her by going through me. Though if I needed to add Celestia’s enemies list to my own, that made things a lot more complicated, not to mention dangerous.

No time to think about that, though—I needed to survive the next five minutes. “You think selling out makes you stronger than me? Borrowed strength is nothing; you didn’t earn it, and you don’t know how to use it. Let me show you what real power is.” I shot an intense light beam through the crystal trap, bouncing it around and breaking the crystals themselves before it went for Starlight.

Starlight got a shield up in time to block the spell, though she grunted in effort when my attack connected. “Is that supposed to be real power? You must be getting tired already.”

I grabbed the shattered crystals and hurled the shards at her in a telekinetic razor wind. “Tired? I’m not even sweating.”

Starlight brushed the attack aside with a casual flick of her horn. “Only because Northmarch is too cold. But don’t worry, I’m just getting started.” She fired off another beam, and I got my shield in place to block. However, at the last second the beam swerved down, slamming into the ground instead. Dozens of cobblestones shattered, sending shrapnel flying towards me and anyone else in the area. My shield hadn’t been angled right to catch it, and while I did have my face and upper body protected I picked up several more cuts on my legs; by now, my winter cloak was barely staying in one piece.

“Fine,” I snarled. “Let’s get serious, then!” I fired off a beam of almost white-hot fire, followed up by a blast of sub-zero cold that crystalised the air behind it as it rushed in.

Starlight answered me with a bored yawn, conjuring up more blightfire and using it to simply absorb my attacks. How did she even ... I never even knew blightfire could do that! The main reason I’d never liked using it unless things were desperate is that entropic magic is by its very nature almost impossible to exercise fine control over. At least, for anyone who wasn’t a being of pure chaos like Discord was supposed to have been.

I must have let my surprise show, because Starlight smirked triumphantly. “New trick. I’ve been doing a lot of studying lately, and with a way better teacher than you ever had.” She flicked the blightfire at me.

I didn’t want to risk teleporting clear since the building behind me was still occupied, so I had no choice but to try and block it this time. I grabbed what was left of the last building Starlight had leveled with blightfire, throwing several chunks of rubble into the flames’ path. The one useful thing about defending against blightfire was that it didn’t act like natural flame. Give it something to destroy and it would cling to the target rather than continue on looking for more things to consume. That’s what made it such a nasty and effective combat spell: once it hit something, it didn’t stop until there was nothing left to destroy.

While I was busy keeping her blightfire under control, Starlight unleashed another spell, firing off half a dozen magic missiles. The attacks came in fast, and I couldn’t afford to take my attention off the far more dangerous spell in front of me. Each of the missiles slammed into my ribs like a punch from an especially large and angry stallion, but they wouldn’t kill me the way the blightfire would if I let it get out of control.

Starlight grinned as her spells connected. “Gotcha.”

I grimaced and did my best to shut out the dull pain radiating from my sides. It wasn’t sharp enough to mean anything had been broken, so there was nothing to worry about but a new collection of bruises. “If that’s the hardest you can hit, I’ve got nothing to worry about.”

“That was just a tickle,” Starlight shot back, lifting up one of her hooves and channeling power into it. “This is going to hurt a lot more.” She slammed her hoof down on the ground, sending a shockwave rippling towards me. I teleported past the shockwave, only to discover she’d set up a second shockwave right after the first. I did my best to stay on my hooves, but when that didn’t work I had no choice but to transform my fall into a combat roll, trying to make it look like that had been my plan the whole time. Starlight sent out another wave of her stinging missiles, the balls slamming into my back this time.

I snarled in pain as I got back to my hooves. I was done playing nice. If she liked playing with blightfire so much, I’d give her a taste of her own medicine. I lashed out with a huge burst of entropic flames, aiming to put an end to the fight once and for all.

Starlight just stood there and took it, standing right in the middle of the flames with a faint smirk on her lips as the runes in her armor let off a sickly orange glow. While the flames ate away at the cobblestones around her, they didn’t seem to touch the mare herself. She rolled her eyes and scoffed at the destruction around her. “Please, did you really think that was going to work? I’ve already proved I know the spell better than you do; did you really think I wouldn’t know how to defend against it?”

I scowled and shook my head, trying to get my head back in the game. “What are you even trying to get out of this?! You think selling your soul for power means you’re better than me now? It just makes you a useful idiot to whoever duped you.”

“The deal I made didn’t make me better than you,” Starlight smirked and started her next spell. “But beating you into the ground with all my new powers and skills kinda does. Look at this, I’m taking you apart and you can’t even touch me.” Her next spell started up, and the shadows leapt out to ensnare me.

My first instinct was to counter the spell, but when I tried to manipulate the light to rip apart her shadows it did nothing. Starlight had just poured too much raw power into it, and I couldn’t break what she’d conjured. I switched tactics, firing the beam of light at Starlight herself.

Starlight conjured up a crystal mirror to deflect my attack while her shadows wrapped around my legs, pinning me down. I tried a teleport spell, but evidently the tentacles had some sort of dimensional binding worked in that kept me locked in place. A second later more of those stinging missiles came in, one of them slamming into my solar plexus.

I went down gasping, struggling to manage anything more than remembering how to breathe. Starlight took advantage of the opening to walk up and backhoof me across the cheek, chuckling to herself when I couldn’t do anything to stop her.

“Not so arrogant now, are you?” Her tentacles hauled me back up. “What happened to all that trash talk about how you were gonna crush me?” She sat there waiting a few seconds for an answer, then scowled when I didn’t give her the satisfaction. “Whatever. If you can’t do anything but sit there whining while I hit you, I’m ending this.” Her horn lit up one more time, gathering a blast that would reduce me to nothing but a thin red mist if I let it connect.

I pulled together every last scrap of power I could, conjuring up a multi-layered ice shield. Starlight smirked when she saw. “Oh, looks like you still have a little fight left in you after all. But it won’t be enough.”

Her attack slammed into my shield, tearing straight through the first several layers. But then, stopping the attack had never been my goal; I knew I couldn’t match her raw power. Instead, the layers were there to disperse the force and spread her attack across a wider area. By the time it hit the last globe, her blast was so wide that instead of ripping through it slammed into me like an especially large and lethal tennis racket. With me as the ball.

I had a brief impression of wild out of control tumbling, followed by a very abrupt ending. I groaned and picked myself up, trying to take stock of my surroundings. Wooden floors, a thatch roof over my head, and four walls ... three and a half now. She’d knocked me all the way into a house. Good thing my ice globe held up long enough to get me through the wall instead of being splattered against it.

I groaned and hauled myself to my hooves, gasping when I felt a stabbing pain shoot down one of my legs. I looked back and groaned when I saw a much too large chunk of wood sticking out of my hip. That ... was bad.

I clenched my teeth and used my magic to yank it out, quickly icing over the wound to keep it from bleeding. I did a quick check for any other injuries, testing out all my limbs. I could still walk, if not particularly well or quickly. And considering how the fight had been going up to this point, I really needed to consider running.

Except that wasn’t an option. Even if I could get away from her with an injured leg and find somewhere to go to ground, she wouldn’t give up easily. She’d probably start tearing apart the town trying to find me, which would mean getting into a fight with the local authorities if they weren’t after her already. Maybe the town militia could eventually take her down through weight of numbers, but it wouldn’t be pretty.

“Hey Sunset!” Starlight called out. “I know you’re not dead, but I can’t tell if I knocked you out or not! If you’re conscious, come out and surrender. If you’re unconscious ... well, I guess it really doesn’t matter what I tell you to do, does it?”

I groaned and dusted myself off, trying to come up with something resembling a plan of action. As I rustled through what was left of my robes, the runestone Argentium gave me tumbled out. I picked it up and gave it a quick once-over. “Whatever it is you do, I’d need a whole lot more of it to stand up to her.”

My eyes flicked over the runestone, and a single part of it caught my attention. Mostly because it was the only thing I understood out of the entire complicated network or runes: a small cluster of symbols regulating how quickly energy would be released. Right now it was set to a very slow, almost unnoticeable trickle. If I just did a few quick tweaks...

No. Messing around with a rune whose function I barely understood was a phenomenally bad idea. And even worse, I’d be quickly hammering out something in the field instead of doing carefully precise changes. That was a recipe for disaster.

A beam of destructive force cut through the roof of the building, carving through the thatch roof and nearly caving it in. “Don’t tell me you’re already done!” Starlight taunted. “I wanted to have a bit more fun with you first!”

On the other hoof, I was dead if I didn’t try something to even the scales. Screwing around with the runes might make me explode from magical feedback or something, but there was no way I could win as things stood. When the alternative was certain death, risking an extremely likely death instead was the best move I had.

I scratched in my modifications to the rune and waited. I’m not sure what I was expecting, but there wasn’t any flash of light or dramatic surge of power or anything. There was just ... me. Sitting in the middle of a ruined house, with a crazy pony trying to kill me.

Starlight unleashed her next attack, tearing through the building and carving towards me. Normally I would’ve tried to block or deflect it, but before I could even think about doing either of those things my body just moved on its own, stepping to the side and letting the beam slip past by a hair’s breadth.

The house started collapsing around me, and I moved again, making a short hop to the side a second before one of the roof timbers would’ve squashed me, then slipping underneath it for cover from the rest of the collapsing home. Starlight followed that up with another blast to clear away the rubble. I remained in place, letting the splinters and bits of thatch flow around me while I sat safely in cover.

Starlight smirked triumphantly. “Found you. Wow, look at you, hiding behind a log like it’ll protect you. You must be really scared.”

“Not particularly.” I had been a bit scared and angry a minute ago, but now all that had just kind of ... fallen away. Fear and anger were just distractions, just like wondering about why she was trying to kill me or who she was working for. None of that mattered right now. All that mattered was myself and my opponent.

Starlight scowled at me, cracking her neck. “Do you still think you can win, you smug nag? I’m gonna wipe that look off your face.” Her horn lit up, and she fired off another beam of destructive energy, but once more I just let it flow past me rather than trying to counter it.

Starlight blinked in shock. “Did you just ... doesn’t matter, dodge this!” She fired off another barrage of her magic missiles, sending a dozen of them shrieking through the air towards me.

I dodged nine of them, and used a tiny magical nudge to make two more hit each other and detonate. The last I couldn’t dodge, but a quick flick of my horn conjured up a thin plane of ice that absorbed the attack and expended her spell’s energy.

Starlight snarled and said something about my parentage that probably would’ve pissed me off if it weren’t so laughably stupid, or if I had a better relationship with them. Even as she spat more insults, her voice seemed to fade away. I still heard every word, but it was like they didn’t really matter anymore. “I don’t know what the hay you just did, but let’s see you pull that kind of horseapples with this!” She unleashed a massive wave of roiling destructive force that blasted apart the rubble as it came rushing towards me.

I couldn’t dodge an attack with that wide of an area, but I really didn’t need to. There was only one tiny portion of that huge spell that mattered, and it was child’s play to open up a little hole in such a large and sloppily put together spell matrix. When Starlight’s attack ended I was standing on a tiny patch of intact ground in the middle of a debris field that included what had once been a house and a portion of the town square.

“The buck?!” Starlight’s jaw dropped, then she growled and shook her head. “Doesn’t matter, if magic doesn’t work I’ll just bury you!” She grabbed several of the largest chunks of rubble she could find and hurled them at me.

I saw my opening and teleported behind her while her attention was firmly fixed on the spell. By the time she recovered from that critical half-second of stunned surprise I already had my spell coming in, and the blast of raw kinetic force sent her flying, the defensive runes on her armor glowingly fiercely to shield her from any damage. A followup wave of ice shards tore chunks out of her mane before she managed to get a shield up, her teeth clenched from pain and exertion.

I saw the perfect opening to unbalance her even more than she already was. “What’s wrong? Don’t tell me that’s the best you’ve got.”

“Shut up!” she screamed, pouring more power into her shield. “How’re you doing that?! Those spells don’t make any sense! Don’t think just because you can pull some stupid new magic trick out of your plot means you’re going to win.”

“You’ve already lost.” As she overcharged her shield more and more, I took the obvious path and teleported inside of it. A swift kick to the back of the head sent her muzzle crashing into her own shield hard enough to produce the crack of broken cartilage, and I followed it up by snatching away Chainbreaker. Starlight might not have seen it as anything but a useful symbol, but it was also a very good sword.

Chainbreaker blurred in a lightning-fast series of cuts and thrusts, hammering away at her armor until the clash of steel on steel became a single long, high-pitched tone. Starlight screamed and dropped her shield, slamming her hoof into the ground and unleashing another shockwave. I teleported clear, sitting back and giving her a moment to realize just how badly she’d lost.

Starlight gingerly touched her nose, then quickly withdrew her hoof with a pained wince. Despite her wound adding a faintly nasal tone to her words, she tried to keep up her bravado. “What’s the point of stealing my sword if you can’t even figure out how to stab me where I’m not armored?”

“Who said I was trying to get past your armor?” I countered.

Starlight blinked and stared down at her armor, finally realizing what I’d been doing: ruining every single one of the defensive runes carved into her elaborate set of ancient armor. There wasn’t a single rune untouched, and while they weren’t completely broken most of them would only offer a fraction of the protection they were supposed to.

Starlight let loose with a frustrated scream. “How are you even doing that?! That’s impossible! Were you just bucking with me the whole time, letting me think I actually had a chance when you could’ve ended this whenever you wanted to?! Did you get some sort of sick thrill out of stringing me along?! Well buck you!”

Her horn lit up one last time, unleashing a virtual storm of blightfire and hurling it all towards me. The spell was raw and unrefined, nothing but pure hate, anger, and the reckless desire to inflict as much pain and destruction as she possibly could.

I held up a hoof and exerted a bit of willpower. All that hate and anger bled away, and the black flames obediently gathered together, concentrating down from a village-consuming blaze into a ball of pure black energy I could hold in a single hoof.

Starlight stared incredulously, one of her hooves unconsciously sliding back as sweat appeared on her brow. “That’s not ... no, it doesn’t matter! Blightfire won’t work on me, Sunset!” Despite the brave words, a second later she threw up a shield spell, pouring more and more energy into strengthening the barrier between us.

“I know.” I closed my eyes and concentrated on my other hoof, conjuring up a ball of pure light. No, not just light. Anima. The very essence of life and creation itself.

I slammed my hooves together, combining the two opposing forces in a brief union that could only end in mutual annihilation. I took every scrap of energy that produced, and hurled it all right at Starlight Glimmer. The fallen unicorn had just enough time to get halfway through shouting something particularly obscene before the attack hit, tearing through her shield and sending her flying into what was left of the inn. The ruined building promptly collapsed on top of her with groan of shattered timber and crumbling masonry.

For a moment I wondered if I’d killed the mare. Before I could go up to investigate, the pile of rubble exploded in a wave of sickly orange light, accompanied by an enraged scream. Starlight Glimmer staggered out of the ruins, battered and bloody. Her armor was nothing more than a few scraps of metal barely clinging to her, and one of her eyes seemed to have swollen completely shut. She staggered towards me with murder in her one visible eye, but she barely got halfway to me before her strength gave out and she fell to her knees.

“It’s over.” I closed the distance, until I towered over her. “Do yourself a favor and give up. Whoever it is you’re working for, they’re not worth dy—” The rest of my words vanished when I felt a sudden stabbing pain in the back of my skull, but I quickly put it out of my mind. I didn’t have time for a headache in the middle of a fight, and I was ignoring pain from just about everywhere else.

Starlight groaned and struggled to haul herself to her hooves, gasping in pain from the effort. “No, it’s not. I’m not going down. Not ever, and especially not to you.” Her horn flickered as she tried to manage a spell, but she didn’t get more than a few weak sparkles.

“It’s over,” I repeated. “Just stop this while you still can.” I drew Chainbreaker, ignoring the dull throb in my forehead when I used my magic to hold the sword. “Last time you crossed me, I put a tiny little hole in your horn that would heal up in a couple weeks. Considering it’ll take that long just to extradite you, maybe we need something a bit more lasting.”

Starlight’s eyes shot wide open in terror as I closed in on her.“No!” A half-formed spasm of wild magic shot out of her horn, heading straight for me.

Normally I would have brushed such a weak attack aside without any effort, but when I tried that the slight headache that had been brewing in the back of my cranium instantly went up to skull-splitting agony, like someone had jammed a red-hot dagger into the back of my head. Starlight’s spell hit and knocked me over, but I barely even noticed that. Hay, I could barely even think past all the pain shooting out of my head.

Eventually Starlight’s hooves settled down in front of my face, and her voice cut through the pain. “What’s the matter? You at the end of your rope?” She kicked me in the gut, then waited a few seconds to see if I would react. I wanted nothing more than to rip her apart, but I couldn’t even move. Honestly, the kick barely even registered compared to what was going on my head.

“I get it now,” Starlight punctuated her declaration with another kick. “You did something to try and power up enough to take me on, and it backfired.” Her eyes flicked over to Chainbreaker, lying on the ground where I’d dropped it. “Should’ve known, there was no way you could ever come close to me without cheating. So ... what was it you were saying about how you were gonna cut off my horn?” She hefted the blade in her hooves, as though testing its weight. “Really, you should ask me to aim a bit lower. I’d be doing you a favor, compared to—”

Whatever she was about to say next vanished when an iron spike shot over me and sank into her haunch. A second later it unleashed an electrical burst, and Starlight fell to the ground yowling in helpless agony, her limbs spasmodically twitching.

Strumming stepped over to her, grinning. “Found my anti-warlock throwing spike.”

Author's Note

As always, thanks to my pre-reading and editing team for all their hard work. Also, I would like to thank all my dedicated Patreon supporters. You guys are awesome.

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Waking Up In the Hospital

The next couple hours passed in a blur of all-consuming pain. I never quite passed out from it, but after a while things got so fuzzy I might as well have. About all I remembered was getting hauled to the hospital, and a few pony and caribou doctors looking me over and asking questions I couldn’t remember a second after I’d answered. I think they ended up going to Puzzle or Strumming for the rest of the info—both of them probably had a copy of my medical records anyway.

Eventually one of them did something, and after a bit the pain eased off. Judging by how fuzzy the rest of the world got after that, it was probably some sort of seriously heavy-duty painkiller. I was more than happy to drift off into semi-consciousness as soon as that happened.

I returned to the land of the living an indeterminate time later. I had a few vague impressions of what had happened since the fight, but it was all a huge pain-filled blur. What mattered now was that I was comfortably settled into a hospital bed. All the lights were off and the curtains were drawn. Judging by how the tiny sliver of light I could see peeking through the window covering stabbed at my eyes, I wanted to keep it that way.

I shifted around in my hospital bed and immediately regretted it as more or less my entire body flared up in dull aching pain. A second later I felt Kukri’s hoof on my chest. “Easy Shimmer-mare, don’t move too fast.”

I groaned and settled back into the bed. “Not gonna be a problem, kid.”

“Thirsty?” Puzzle asked, holding up a glass of water. He dropped a straw into the glass and moved it into my reach.

“Yeah, thanks.” I sipped the water, feeling a tiny bit more alive afterwards. Not quite normal, but a bit less weak and icky. “So how bad is it?” I reached up and rubbed my head, half-expecting to find some sort of bandage or gaping head wound. It would certainly explain why it felt like I’d been hit half a dozen times with a sledgehammer. There wasn’t anything like that, but I did discover something a touch unsettling. “Am I missing part of my mane?”

Puzzle grimaced and nodded. “They needed to partially shave your head for some of the scans.”

Kukri did her best to put on an optimistic smile. “It'll probably grow back before long. Or we could always find a stylist to try and fix it.”

“Yeah, sure.” I sighed and rubbed at the patch of bare scalp. “Well, at least I’m in good enough condition to care about things like having a giant ugly bald spot.” Considering how the fight with Starlight had gone, I could’ve easily wound up with much bigger problems.

Like being dead.

“Mom gave this one plenty of extra hats before it left,” Kukri pulled out a a bright orange knit hat a big puff on the top and a chin strap. “And really, it’s so cold out that there’s no reason not to just keep your hood up all the time anyway. Same for Freeport, if it’s really rainy when you go out. Or maybe you could try a spell or something to fix it?”

“I don’t know any mane-repair spells off the top of my head.” I could just try to muddle my way through it, but that sounded like a phenomenally bad idea. I’d probably just end up making the rest of my hair fall out, or have it grow insanely out of control. “Guess I’ll just have to wait for it to grow back on its own. If that's the worst problem I have to deal with, I'll be a very happy mare.” I sighed and turned to face Puzzle. “So how unhappy am I about to be? You said they needed to do brain scans?”

Puzzle took a deep breath. “Worse than you’re going to like, but not nearly as bad as it could have been. The simple fact that you seem coherent and more-or-less your usual self is a very good sign. According to the doctors, you suffered a brain aneurysm. The doctors presumed it was magically induced, given the circumstances.”

Ouch. I’d known there were risks to trying to jury-rig Argentium’s rune to do what I needed, but I hadn’t expected it to go that badly. “Okay, so there was bleeding in my brain. That’s...” I struggled to think of a word that captured just how bad that was. I could’ve wound up dead, or a vegetable like Metal Mome. I prepared myself for the worst. “How bad is the damage?”

Puzzle did his best to sound gentle and reassuring. “The doctors haven’t found any signs of permanent damage, but you can expect things like headaches, nausea, vision impairment, and a tendency to get a bit drowsy or confused. So long as none of them start to become more than minor inconveniences or persist too long, it should just be a normal part of the recovery.” He frowned at me. “You should consider yourself a lucky mare; most aneurysms end with the patient dead or disabled.”

“Nice to know I beat the odds,” I grumbled. Lucky was about the last thing I felt right now. “Let me guess: I’m going to be going through a bunch of tests before they let me out? And I’ll probably need to follow up with a neurologist as soon as we get back to Freeport, assuming they’re okay with me spending a while on a ship far away from any full-fledged hospital anytime in the near future?”

Puzzle nodded along. “Pretty much. The current tests all look optimistic, but they’ll want to check all your motor and mental functions just to be sure. Magical tests as well, once you’re feeling up to it.” He shot a pointed frown my way. “And no, this one isn’t going to help you break out of the hospital to avoid being tested.”

“This one either,” Kukri agreed. “It’s willing to stay here as long as it needs to.” She nodded to the cot she’d had set up next to my bed, with her bags sitting next to it. Evidently she’d been working on some of her homework to keep herself distracted.

I started to roll my eyes at them, but the gesture made my headache flare up again. “I’m not stupid, Puzzle. I know not to screw around with brain damage.” I frowned at him as another thought sprang to mind. “For that matter, when have I ever tried to sneak out of the hospital to avoid treatment?” Sure, I wasn’t a huge fan of them either, but when a job ended with me making a trip to the hospital there was usually a very good reason for it.

Puzzle met my ire with a patient gaze. “You wouldn’t have been the first to ask this one to try and get them out of a hospital. Just saying.”

I snorted and almost shook my head before I realized that would probably be a very bad idea. “Well unless they were stuck in some sort of situation where their doctor was trying to kill them, whoever asked for that was an idiot.”

“Incredibly so,” Puzzle agreed, “but that doesn’t keep people from asking. And this one is glad to see that the Shimmer-mare’s personality is unchanged from her ordeal. That was one of the things the doctors asked us to check for.”

“We’re just making sure.” Kukri bit her lip, awkwardly shuffling her hooves. “You’re ... we were worried for a while.”

I wrapped a foreleg around my apprentice, pulling her into a half-hug. “I’m okay, kid.” I cleared my throat and shifted my attention to Puzzle. “So, looks like my mind’s in good working order. Is there anything else to worry about other than the risk of brain damage?”

“Quite a few cuts and bruises of varying levels of severity,” Puzzle answered. “There are also a large number of city officials eager to ask you some pointed questions about why several buildings in the town square are currently a smoking ruin.”

“Figures.” I took a deep breath, then nodded to myself. “Let’s deal with the injury list first, I’m not going to be talking to the mayor, militia captain, and/or whoever else has questions until I can get out of a hospital bed.”

“The caribou should be pretty easy to deal with,” Kukri pointed out. “We can just tell them that Starlight’s a warlock we’ve crossed paths with before and now she’s out for revenge. Even if we’re outside the Shimmer-mare’s jurisdiction, it’s textbook self-defense: all the witnesses will confirm that Starlight attacked first. Plus, warlocks are subject to universal jurisdiction anyway.”

The actual law was a bit more complicated than that, since not everyone would recognize me as a fully legitimate magus and warlock hunter. Granted, I was reasonably certain Argentium and Celestia would acknowledge me as such, which largely settled that issue; the bigger problem was that Starlight wasn’t a warlock so far as I knew. She’d used plenty of nasty spells in the fight, but nothing that qualified as dark magic. That meant she was just a normal criminal.

Then again, her normal crimes were still more than enough to put her away for the rest of her life.

Puzzle nodded to Kukri. “Given that the Glimmer-mare is in a high-security cell while the Shimmer-mare is not under guard, this one thinks the locals agree.” He shifted his attention back to me. “The rest of your wounds are far less worrying. Not that stitches for a few of the worst cuts are a laughing matter, but compared to brain damage...” He pointed to my right rear leg. “They did say it would best if you minimize stress on that leg until the wound healed, given the wound there was deeper than the rest.”

I grunted and nodded along. “The one I had to pull a chunk of building out of, right?”

“Right,” he confirmed. “You should have been more careful about yanking that out. This one would hope that you know about the dangers of bleeding out when you do something like that.”

I grunted and frowned at him. “That’s why I froze it over.”

Kukri hesitantly spoke up. “Yes, but freezing it isn’t the same as healing it. If you’d been alone when you had that aneurysm, it could’ve melted before we found you.”

I sighed and resisted the urge to start grinding my teeth. “Fighting Starlight with a chunk of building sticking out of me wasn’t a good option either, and if I passed out either the aneurysm or Starlight would’ve killed me before ice melted in a Northmarch winter.”

Puzzle held up a hoof to forestall my objections. “This one wasn’t saying that that was a bad call. Merely that it was a very dangerous one, and that you should be mindful of the risks involved. Especially when that wasn’t even the biggest risk you took in the course of that fight.” He shot a pointed look at my half-shaved scalp.

“Taking risks is part of fighting,” I snapped. “If I’d played it safe, Starlight would’ve either killed me or done ... whatever it was her master has in mind.”

“This one is well aware,” Puzzle answered calmly. “As it said, there was merit to your decision. It’s just that—”

“That you think I’m so dumb and reckless I’d refuse to get treatment for brain damage,” I scoffed. “What is even wrong with you?! Celestia above, I am so sick of everyone saying that I’m not good enough to cut it after what happened with Scarlett, and now Starlight!”

Kukri flinched, then gently put a hoof on my shoulder. “Nobody thinks that, Shimmer-mare.”

“Nor has anyone said it,” Puzzle continued, frowning thoughtfully as he stared at me. “Or at least, none of us have said that.” He took a deep breath, and when he spoke again there was a slow, careful deliberation to his words. “This one knows the last two fights ended badly, but they were both against extremely strong opponents. And ones who also had the advantage of surprise and preparation. It is not surprising that you struggled against them, but both times you found a path to victory despite the odds.”

I grunted and rolled over in bed, slipping out of the half-hug I’d been giving Kukri. The last thing I needed was both of them trying to do some sort of encouraging friendship thing. Like I was just down in the dumps over that fact that bucking Starlight Glimmer had apparently gotten so much stronger than me that I had to break out a crazy desperate gamble that nearly killed me just to stay on par with her.

“This one understands how losing can feel,” Puzzle continued, clearly not taking the hint that I didn’t want to listen. “It’s lost its fair share of fights over the years, and more than a few of them were quite embarrassing.” He chuckled to himself, wistfully shaking his head. “This one remembers a time when it had to help the Council by acquiring several ledgers detailing a large trafficking ring. It drew an elaborate twenty-stage plan for how to get past the guards by taking advantage of their habits and quirks or arranging carefully timed distractions to draw them out of position. It ... didn’t work out.”

“What happened?” I asked, mostly just to be polite.

“To start with, the guard at the front desk proved frustratingly difficult to draw away.” Puzzle let out a sound halfway between a sigh and a chuckle. “This one spent fifteen minutes chucking pebbles around to make a sound he’d want to go investigate, but he didn’t seem to care at all. It was tempted to try setting an empty building on fire as a distraction, but it suspects that even then he probably would’ve just looked up at it for a minute, then shrugged and sat back down.

“Fortunately this one had a backup plan: one of the guards always opened up one of the side doors for a bit of fresh air at exactly 19:45 every night, so this one could use that opening to slip unnoticed. Except he didn’t follow his routine that night. And when this one tried to sneak in through a window, it discovered two of the guards had stopped right next to it to discuss how their favorite hoofball teams were doing. It tried to wait for them to move on, but evidently bored night guards are capable of carrying on banal conversations about mundane things for hours.”

“So what’d you end up doing?” I asked, a bit curious despite myself.

He shrugged. “This one came back the next day with a good crossbow, walked in through the front door, and just shot the guard. It was much less trouble and far less embarrassing than weeks of planning and wasting an entire night.” He chuckled. “And a few years later, this one even tracked down that guard and put him in charge of this one’s warehouse security. A guard who’s that stubborn about refusing to be distracted from his post is worth keeping.”

“Okay.” I shrugged listlessly. “That was a story. Why’d you tell it?”

“The point,” Puzzle explained patiently, “is that we’ve all had our share of failures over the years. Sometimes, they help us realize what we were doing wrong, and how we can improve ourselves in the future.”

Kukri nodded along. “It’s not much different than getting a bad grade on homework. This one doesn’t like bad grades, but Mom and Dad always tell it that it has to know what it’s doing wrong in order to get things right. It’s not exactly the same, but...”

“I never got bad grades,” I grumbled.

Puzzle sighed patiently. “Right, you’re not used to failing.”

“It’s not exactly something you want to get used to,” I pointed out.

“No,” Puzzle agreed. “But as Kukri said, there’s a benefit to failing: you get to learn from your mistakes. No matter how gifted you are and how much you accomplish, nobody can go through life achieving only perfect success. The important thing is learning how to recover from failures and find a pathway to victory.”

“So what’s my pathway here?” I challenged. “I’m not going to pick up twenty years’ worth of experience overnight, and even if I had another one of Argentium’s runes to try that trick with again there’s no way I’d risk it.”

“Starlight found a way to get more power when she felt she desperately needed it,” Puzzle pointed out.

“Yeah, by making a bargain for it.” I figured that settled the issue, but instead of acknowledging that I was right Puzzle just kept looking at me. The implication was so crazy it took a while for me to work out what he must be thinking. “Are you saying I should—that’s crazy!”

“Making bargains with eldritch beings in the hopes of gaining power always ends badly,” Kukri agreed, dutifully repeating the lesson I’d drilled into her. “Nothing you could gain from a deal like that is worth giving another being power over you.”

“Not even your own life?” Puzzle challenged. “Or the lives of your friends and companions? This one fully understands that any such arrangement should only be entered into with the utmost care, but the last week has made it abundantly clear that there are threats the Shimmer-mare isn’t capable of facing unless she surpasses her current limits.”

“I’m not giving up my independence to be the lackey of some immortal being,” I countered.

“Sometimes sacrificing independence is part of life,” Puzzle countered. “If you want to be a fully independent being with no ties to or dependence on others, settle down on one of the out-islands as a subsistence farmer.” He grimaced and sank down onto the couch. “Take the job for the White Pony. She’s practically tripping over herself to offer you the strength you need to survive against threats like Starlight Glimmer or your own mother. This one would rather miss you for a few years than bury you because it pulled you into more than you could handle.”

“Oh.” I slumped down on the bed, rolling onto my back but not quite looking at him. Whatever I’d expected to hear Puzzle say, it certainly wasn’t that. But ... he had a point. I’d narrowly escaped death or imprisonment twice, and if a third time came up I probably wouldn’t be so lucky. And if I was going to sell out to someone, Celestia was just about the most benevolent being I could find. Not to mention if she taught me the secrets to becoming an alicorn I wouldn’t need to worry nearly so much about being overpowered by every random magus with a bit more experience or school dropout who made a bargain or picked up an evil artifact. “I’ll ... I’ll think about it, okay? It’s not a decision to make while I’m still in the hospital.”

Kukri stared at him for several seconds, her jaw hanging half-open. “Huh. This one’s ... huh.” She frowned, then slowly nodded to herself. “He’s right, Shimmer-mare. This one doesn’t want to see you get hurt again. If that means you have to go back to the White Pony for a bit, then that’s fine. This one would have to get Mom and Dad’s permission to come along, but it’s sure it could convince them.”

“I’ll think about it,” I repeated, mostly because I wanted to close the topic. I knew what they were saying made a lot of sense, but going back to Canterlot felt too much like giving up. Maybe I was just being stubborn about trying to do things on my own, in spite of the mounting evidence that I couldn’t. Maybe it was like Strumming said, and it was just a matter of pride and ego getting in the way of doing the smart and logical thing.

“We have more than enough to deal with in the meantime,” Puzzle agreed. “Starlight might be locked up for now, but we need answers for why she attacked us and who she’s working for. Not to mention working out what exactly we’re going to do with her.”

“And what she took,” Kukri nodded towards the dresser, where my armor had been freshly laid out along with a new cloak. And far more important than either of them, Chainbreaker was resting on the wall right next to them. “This one still can’t believe she had the nerve to steal away Chainbreaker! But...” She turned back to me, and in an instant she’d transformed back into the little kid who hero-worshipped me, a grin on her lips and eager glee in her voice. “Did you really use Chainbreaker in battle against the Glimmer-mare?! This one heard you did, but Puzzle wouldn't let it stay to watch the fight after the inn exploded.”

“Because this one was trying to keep you from getting hurt,” Puzzle pointed out. “And the Shimmer-mare specifically asked this one to see to your safety.”

Kukri let out an impatient sigh and waved his concerns away. “Yeah yeah, but this one’s fine, and it missed the chance to see her use Torch Charger’s sword in battle.” She paused, frowning and rubbing her chin thoughtfully. “Wait, she used his sword… Do you think that could mean…?” She turned back to me, her grin growing even wider and a hint of an ecstatic squeal slipping into her words. “We don’t have a full account of Torch's life, but there are rumors he went to Equestria once to ask the White Pony for help in the war against the Necrocrats! What if while he was there he had a secret love child, and now...”

Puzzle chuckled softly. “That seems like quite the leap of logic, little one.”

“She can use Torch's sword!” Kukri countered, stubbornly planting her hooves. “That means she might be related to Torch, right?”

“This one is pretty sure anyone can use Chainbreaker,” Puzzle answered. “The Glimmer-mare didn’t run into any problems when she drew the blade, and...” Puzzle went up to the sword and made a point of drawing it for himself, then carefully sliding it back into its scabbard. “Still, this one never expected to see this outside of a museum.”

I nodded along with Puzzle. “I didn’t see any sort of bloodline enchantment on it, so as far as I can tell anyone should be capable of wielding it.” Granted, I hadn’t really gotten a chance to do much studying of the sword. Though considering the fact that it had done plenty of damage to Starlight’s armor and the blade was still pristine, it obviously had some sort of magic on it.

Kukri frowned and slowly nodded. “Okay, fine, so anyone can use the sword. That doesn't prove she's not related to Torch, though.

“That’s ... technically true,” I allowed, mostly because it was impossible to prove a negative. “I'll let you check my family tree when we have time.” Not that I was expecting her to find anything, or that I thought Kukri would accept an answer other than the one she wanted, but if looking over my family tree would satisfy her curiosity why not let her? It would give her a project to work on if—no, I guess now it was when—I took the job in Canterlot.

Puzzle gave her a pat on the back. “The ponies of Canterlot tend to keep good records on that type of thing, so if there is any proof you’ll find it.”

Kukri nodded along eagerly, evidently satisfied with our solution. No doubt I could look forward to her spending hours endlessly pouring through family records in a desperate search to prove that her favorite historical hero was related to her currently-living hero. I cleared my throat and tried to get back to business. “So I guess Starlight stole Chainbreaker while she was killing Frozen Finds. I’m surprised she got away with it.”

Puzzle nodded along. “The security around Chainbreaker might be kept subtle enough to not get in the way of putting it on public display, but it is still considerable. Stealing it must have been very difficult, albeit not beyond the skills she displayed in her fight with you. Likely half of the Council’s agents are trying to track her.” He paused, tapping his chin thoughtfully. “For that matter, that was probably what the Council wanted to hire you for right before we left Freeport. Not that they wouldn’t care about Frozen Finds’ murder, but it’s an afterthought next to something like Chainbreaker’s theft.”

“No kidding.” I frowned thoughtfully down at the sword. “The only reason they wouldn’t put every single agent they’ve got after the sword is that they probably don’t want it getting out that they lost it in the first place.”

Puzzle nodded along. “Doubtless they shut down the museum not only for a thorough investigation of the crime scene, but so they could put a replica in place to keep the theft quiet for as long as possible. This one suspects they would much prefer to just replace the fake with the real sword once they recover it and leave the public none the wiser.”

“But we know,” Kukri concluded. She looked between the sword and me, a grin working its way onto her features once more. “Are you going to wield it now, Shimmer-mare?”

“This one thinks the museum would like to get its sword back,” Puzzle answered. “It’s a priceless historical relic and a symbol for all Freeport’s inhabitants. The Council would doubtless object to anyone carrying it into battle for themselves. Not to mention this one’s friend Daring would give it an earful if it allowed a piece of history to be used so recklessly.”

“Yeah, Chainbreaker belongs in a museum.” I shrugged and added. “Besides, I’m not much a sword-swinger anyway.” I had been taking a few off-and-on lessons in physical combat ever since that one time I’d been pulled into a duel where I wasn’t allowed to use magic, but I was under no illusions about being a master swordsmare.

Puzzle tapped his chin. “Of course, that does bring up whether we want to make us recovering the sword public or not.”

I shrugged. “Let’s keep it quiet for now. We can always go public later if that seems like the better move, but we can’t make things private again once the news is out there.”

“That makes sense,” Kukri agreed. “Once we tell everyone, we can’t take it back.” She walked up to the sword, extending a hoof towards it before pulling it back as if she was afraid to touch it. “Well, at the very least you’d use it if there’s any more trouble on the way back, right?”

I thought about that for a second. “I mean, if I really need a sword and we have one right there...” I shrugged. “I was alright with using it against Starlight, so why not?”

“No sense letting a perfectly good sword go to waste if that’s the tool we need to get the job done,” Puzzle agreed. “Especially since if we do get attacked again, it would quite likely be by someone who would use the sword for nefarious ends.” He sighed and rubbed the back of his headcrest. “Still, the complications mean we’ll be staying in Northmarch a bit longer. In addition to however long the Shimmer-mare’s recovery takes, the caribou have their own questions for us, and there is the matter of Starlight to deal with. Not to mention whoever might be holding her leash and sending her after us. The Heartstrings-mare has tried interrogating her, but she has been less than cooperative.”

“I guess I can give it a shot once I’m out.” I stretched out my limbs, trying to get a good feel for them. Everything was in working order so far as I could tell. “I suppose our next move would depend on what we can find out from her about what’s going on. However, unless something big comes up I do have a duty to Freeport right now. She needs to go back to face trial, and Chainbreaker needs to be returned. From there we’ll either come back to Northmarch if there are any loose ends that need to be tied up, or else ... I guess I’ll be going to Canterlot.”

Puzzle grimaced a bit, but nodded along. “Yes, evidently so. At least dealing with the local authorities has gone relatively smoothly. Sigil vouched for your credentials, so the only potential complication is if they’re opposed to extradition.”

“I can’t see any reason they would be,” I shrugged. “She’s not a citizen, and she outright confessed to the crimes while we were fighting. You’d think they’d be glad to be rid of her.”

“Very true,” Puzzle agreed. “Though of course she does have to answer for all those she hurt here, and all the property damage she caused.”

“Yeah, but the general rule when someone’s committed crimes in multiple jurisdictions is to let the biggest crime go first,” I quoted from one of those lessons on international law that Celestia drilled into my head years ago. “Unless anyone died or she stole a national treasure, Freeport gets first claim.” I thought back to the fight, with buildings getting wrecked and the fact that I’d had to block a couple of Starlight’s attacks instead of dodging to avoid collateral damage. “Um, did anyone…?”

Puzzle shook his head. “No, just some injuries from debris flying around.”

I let out a relieved sigh, while Kukri shot a proud smile up at me. “You did an amazing job protecting everyone, Shimmer-mare.” She paused, a thoughtful frown on her face. “So if the family tree research turns up promising, does that mean this one should start calling you Charger-mare instead? Because that would be ama—”

“No, Kukri,” I cut in as gently as I could. Odds were if she went back far enough she could find some way to tie a Charger into my family tree, but that hardly meant I deserved the name. Even if everything Kukri dreamed was true and Torch had gotten into some sort of affair with one of my ancestors, that was over four hundred years ago. I didn’t have any real claim to the name, and I wasn’t going to appropriate it. Besides, despite the rocky relationship with my birth parents I was kind of proud of being a Shimmer. Not that it was a huge deal or anything, but I wasn’t going to throw it away either.

Puzzle nodded approvingly. “The Chargers have been gone for a very long time. Best to let the dead have their rest. This one rather doubts the clans would approve of an outsider who wasn’t born into the clan and isn’t even a pegasus trying to claim the name.”

“It would come across as appropriation,” I agreed. “Considering Torch’s reputation in Freeport everyone would just assume I was trying to steal some of his glory.”

Kukri’s ears went flat. “This one supposes that makes sense.” Her ears perked up a moment later. “But what if we...” She trailed off, sighing and shaking her head. “No, even if we showed everyone the family tree that probably wouldn’t work, would it?”

“Anyone the least bit suspicious or hostile to us would say we just faked the records,” Puzzle agreed. He gave her a reassuring pat on the back. “But at least we would know. We’ll look into her family tree once we deal with some of the more immediate problems facing us.”

“Yeah, sounds good.” I took a deep breath, then tried a basic telekinesis spell to lift up my water glass. It seemed to work just fine, though it did make that dull throbbing pain in my head pick up a couple notches. “In the meantime, let’s get all the medical tests and paperwork sorted out.”

It took two days for me to get out of the hospital, mostly because of all the checks they needed to do and wanting to hold me overnight for observation. I think they probably would’ve wanted to keep me there for longer, but I had a whole lot of issues to deal with and since I didn’t have any of the warning signs of further problems there wasn’t much they could do other than keep me in the hospital just so I’d be right there if any complications sprang up.

In any case, it was past time for a chat with Starlight Glimmer. Coldharbor’s city jail was a squat ugly stone building that actually had an old-fashioned moat around it. Not a moat with water in it, just a really deep trench to make it hard for anyone to get to the windows or try digging their way out. The drawbridge would also do a good job of sealing everything up and limiting it to one entrance. It was almost like a very small, very ugly castle.

Strumming and Sigil met me at the entrance, the spy casually waving to me. “Hope you have more luck with her than any of us, she’s been stonewallling hard. If I had to guess, she figures whoever’s holding her leash is gonna come to get her back eventually.”

“She might only be a pawn, but a unicorn of her power and potential is a very useful one,” Sigil grimaced. “It’s part of why the extradition request went so smoothly; if she does have some powerful master planning to rescue her, nobody is especially eager for them to come here.”

“And finding her on a single moving ship in the middle of the ocean is a lot harder than a town where her attack is probably the number one piece of gossip on everyone’s lips,” I pointed out. “So she hasn’t said anything?”

“S’like talking to a brick wall,” Strumming grumbled. “But the working theory is that if anyone’s gonna get a rise out of her and make her open up a bit, it’s you.”

“Probably.” I didn’t entirely understand why she’d decided to launch some sort of vendetta against me, but it existed. If anything was going to make her start talking, it would be having me right there in front of her.

“How you holding up, Bacon?” Strumming asked, shoving some crisps into her mouth almost fast enough to hide the genuine concern in her tone.

“Better,” I answered simply. I was still sore and bruised on just about every part of my body and nursing a killer headache that flared up at the worst possible times, but it wasn’t quite as bad as it had been yesterday.

“Nice letter opener you got there.” Strumming nodded to Chainbreaker strapped across my back. “You bringing that in when you go to see Glim-Glam, or you gonna leave it with the guards?”

“Bringing it,” I answered. “If we’re trying to make her talk, seeing that I’ve got the sword she stole might be an extra little kick in the dock to make her open up. You’ve got her chained up and horn-ringed, right?”

“Yup,” Strumming shrugged. “I wanted to have them only feed her gruel, then I’d eat some nice tasty snacks right in front of her to see if that got anything out of her. Apparently the Northmarchers think that’s cruel and unusual. It’s not like I was suggesting we flay her alive, that can wait until we’re back on the ship.” She glanced over to Sigil, who was staring at her in open-mouthed horror. “What? It’s a joke!”

“Jokes are usually funny,” I pointed out. “Anyway, let’s get this done with.”

We marched into the jail, going past the low-security cells for drunks and pickpockets. As we moved deeper into the jail the walls and bars got a lot thicker and both the guards and the prisoners started looking a lot meaner.

Starlight’s cell sat at the very heart of the prison, surrounded by a thick layer of runic wards. Sigil nodded to them as we went past. “I wouldn’t advise using any magic while you’re in there. The wards should distinguish between you and the prisoner, but...”

“Yeah, I’ve had enough of being on the wrong end of runespells to last a lifetime,” I agreed.

“Mmm.” Sigil gave me a quick once-over. “I recovered the rune lady Argentium gave you. Altering one of her runes was reckless, but it produced impressive results for the time it lasted. And the change itself was inspired. If still reckless.”

“I knew the risks when I did it,” I grunted out.

“Always fun when life puts you into the position of saying ‘I know this is a horrible plan, but it’s the only one I have,’” Strumming agreed.

I grunted and waited for the guards to open up Starlight’s cell. The mare herself was chained to the wall, with a triple layer of bindings around her horn to keep her contained. I probably should’ve been happy about how many bandages she had on and how many visible bruises I could see if not for the fact that I had more. At least I had armor and robes to cover them up. Starlight turned her head to briefly look at me, then grunted and pointedly turned it away.

Guess they weren’t kidding about her stonewalling. Apparently it was up to me to get things started. “The local authorities have approved our request for extradition. You’ll be heading back to Freeport as soon as we finish a few modifications to the Venture for secure prisoner transport.” Captain Weyland hadn’t been happy to find out we were turning a chunk of the cargo bay into a magically warded cell for an extremely dangerous prisoner, but she came around once we’d explained the situation to her.

Starlight grunted. I waited a bit to see if she had anything more to say, but that was it.

I took another crack at getting her to open up. “If you’ve got anything to say that might convince them to show clemency, now would be a good time. Because as it stands, the facts look very bad for you.” I waited, and still got nothing. “You said Frozen deserved to die. If he did something to you or someone else, let us know. It might convince the Council to go easier on you during sentencing.” I didn’t think that particularly likely; stealing Chainbreaker was bad enough that she’d need one hay of a story to not end up in prison for the rest of her life.

Starlight kept giving me the silent treatment.

I gave it one last shot, shifting tactics to try and shake things up a bit. “So who’d you end up making a bargain with? It’d have to be someone who’s really desperate, if they’re scraping the bottom of the barrel to get you.”

Starlight scoffed and refused to take the bait.

Strumming swooped in. “Tell you what, I’ll give you a couple crisps if you say something.”

Starlight’s eyes flicked over to her, and after a couple seconds her shoulders heaved in the closest she could manage to a shrug while chained up. “How long before we leave?”

“We’re getting the ship ready as fast as we can without doing a bad job of it,” I answered, wary of giving her any specifics just in case she was planning something.

“Better hurry,” she murmured. “He’s coming for me, and if I’m still here when he shows up he’ll kill everyone in this miserable little rathole of a village.”

None of us were quite sure what to make of that, until Strumming broke the silence. “Well, that’s not ominous at all.”

“Who is ‘he’?” I demanded, getting as close to her as I dared.

Starlight snorted and turned away from me, evidently deciding she’d already said more than enough. As she turned, I spotted a thin line of scar tissue along the back of her neck. I was pretty sure it hadn’t been there last time I’d seen her.

We spent a couple more minutes trying to cajole the truth out of her, but nothing came of it. Short of trying to beat answers out of her, we were out of options. Eventually we gave up and left her alone. Once we were out of the cell Strumming sighed and shook her head. “Well, that was pretty much a bust. I say we shift tactics on her—just ignore and give her the silent treatment. Grilling her all the time gives away that we need the info, which puts her in control of things.”

“It’s worth a shot.” I shrugged. “We’ll have plenty of free time to give her the silent treatment while we’re sailing back to Freeport. Though that doesn’t mean we’re completely dropping the investigation; that armor of hers was weird enough to follow up on.”

“Already did,” Strumming answered with a smug grin. “It’s a real vintage set. The guy we took it to said the design went back to the Crystal Empire War. Or at least, that was the best he could tell from what you left of it. Guy was a bit miffed you wrecked such a valuable antique.”

“Her fault for wearing it in a fight,” I answered. “So it dates back to when the Crystal Empire was around? That kinda indicates her boss is local. And old.”

“Same thing with her saying the guy was coming for her,” Strumming agreed. “Lot easier for him to come bail her out if he’s not going halfway across the world the pull it off. Not to mention that lines up with the runes.”

“Yeah, there were runes on her armor,” I agreed.

Strumming and Sigil exchanged a look. “Nooot the runes I mean, Bacon.”

At my baffled look, Sigil explained. “There are runes carved into her back.”

Oh. That explained what those weird scar lines I saw on the back of her neck were. But getting a bunch of runes cut into her was... “Okay, that had to have hurt a lot. Who would do something like that?”

“A good question,” Sigil concurred. “I’ve done my best to study them, but I confess that they are somewhat beyond my expertise. There was another I could consult, but...” He trailed off uncertainly, which was a bit unusual.

“Yeah, Argentium’s probably still busy looking into the Blightspawn, isn’t she?” I concluded.

“Not who he had in mind, Bacon,” Strumming corrected. “Though her high dragon-ness is pretty busy doing exactly that, we’ve got another expert who just so happens to be in town. Of course, she’s been keeping a very long ways away from anything to do with you, precisely so she won’t piss off Argentium.”

It didn’t take long to connect the dots. “Oh. Right. Her.” I took a deep breath and thought it over. For a moment I was tempted to say no but... “The stakes are too high for personal grudges. I’ll be professional if she will.”

Sigil nodded gravely. “I will let Archmagus Runeseeker know, then.”

Author's Note

As always, thanks to my pre-reading and editing team for all their hard work. Also, I would like to thank all my dedicated Patreon supporters. You guys are awesome.

Click here if you want to join the list of awesome people who support my writing.

The Breaking

I woke up with a start halfway through the night. It was so sudden that it took me a couple seconds to shake off enough sleep fog to actually realize what it was that had woken me up in the first place. Once that processed, the adrenaline hit and burned away any lingering sleepiness.

Coldharbor was on fire.

I bolted out of my room. Puzzle and Strumming were already out in the hallway, both looking just as confused and half-awake as I probably did. Kukri stumbled out of her room a second later, groaning and rubbing her eyes. I got straight to the point. “Anyone have any idea what the hay is going on?!”

“The city’s on fire.” Strumming opened up a window, letting the smell of burning wood and straw waft into the building.

“That doesn’t answer anything,” Kukri grumbled, shaking away the last bits of grogginess. “That just raises more questions, like ‘Why is the city on fire?!’”

Puzzle looked out the window, scowling to himself. “It’s a big fire, too. Looks like it’s already spread to half the city, and the rest probably won’t be far behind.”

“But how could half the city be on fire?” Kukri demanded. “What in the name of the White Pony’s flying feathering farts is going on here?!”

“Language, Kukri,” I absently chided, stepping over next to Puzzle to take a look for myself.

“Really, Shimmer-mare?” Kukri groaned.

Strumming idly ruffled my apprentice’s headcrest. “For the record, this seems like the right type of situation to use some colorful language.”

Once I got a good look at Coldharbor I was inclined to agree. The entire city looked like something out of Tartarus, the sky lit up with a sickly red glow as the flames spread. Coldharbor was pretty likely to have fires, now that I thought about it; wood and thatch were some of the most flammable building materials around, and the cold weather would probably have everyone burning something in their fireplace. The snow that normally covered roofs and the street had already started melting from all the heat, turning the streets into muddy slush as the city burned. Really, it was a surprise the city didn’t have fires all the time during winter. All it would take is one citizen falling asleep with an unattended fire that got a bit too wild...

A second later, I realized the problem with that: fires would be a known risk that the local authorities would be on the lookout for. Any halfway competent fire department would’ve stopped a house fire long before it spread to cover half the city. They certainly wouldn't let it get this out of control. For that matter, all sort of emergency services should’ve been running around doing damage control and clearing people out the danger zones as soon as the fire started running wild. But all I saw was chaos and confusion. What the hay was going on? This only made sense if the fires had just star—

And then I felt it.

The world exploded around me. I didn’t ... hear it exactly, if only because something that powerful can't be heard so much as survived. My bones shook inside my body, my eardrums throbbed in agony, and my very connection to magic flickered as a guttural roar exploded across the city. The glass rattled inside the windowpanes, or maybe it was my eardrums. Or maybe both—I honestly couldn’t tell. I was just happy that I could hear anything in the ensuing chaos.

A massive shadow swooped over us, blotting out the moon for several seconds as it passed. A line of fire emerged from the creature’s mouth, lashing into the city and setting dozens of houses ablaze. The fire also let me get a fleeting glance of Coldharbor’s attacker before his wings carried him out of view. A dragon. A really, really big dragon.

Kukri stared up at the creature, her jaw hanging so far open that it was practically on the floor. “Is ... is Argentium burning the city?”

The dragon came around and landed in the center of the city, right next to the jail holding Starlight Glimmer. Now that he was staying still I could actually see him well enough to get a good look at him: the dragon was certainly on the same scale as Argentium, but instead of silver his scales were pitch black. He had runes in them just like she did, but where hers had just kind of passively rested on her scales, his glowed in a particularly nasty shade of orange. The same color Starlight Glimmer’s magic had changed to.

It wasn’t hard to connect the dots. “That’s not Argentium.”

Kukri stared at the titanic dragon in horror. “It’s—it’s the other one? Blackfyre?! What are we going to do?!”

“Only one thing we can do.” Puzzle’s eyes flicked over to me. “We need to get to cover. Once he frees Starlight, she’ll almost certainly point him towards us.”

Kukri blinked. “We’re just going to run away?”

Strumming nodded along, pointing to Blackfyre as the dragon tore the roof off the stone jail with a single swipe. “You see how he’s tearing into that place like it’s made of wet clay? Well, we’re a lot squishier than solid granite walls.”

“Guess that confirms Starlight’s working for him.” I winced as I saw the local caribou and ponies fleeing the scene. “We have to go help them.”

Puzzle nodded along. “Your talents should be helpful for containing and dispersing the fires to keep evacuation routes open.”

“Not what I had in mind.” I grimaced and shook my head. “No point in trying to put out fires while Blackfyre’s running around setting them ten times faster. Puzzle, go find Scarlett—I’m gonna need all the help I can get to take on that overgrown lizard. Strumming, get Kukri and anyone else you can to somewhere safe.”

Strumming stared at me for several seconds. “Okay, you know the world’s gone nuts when I’m the one who thinks other ponies are talking crazy. Did you seriously just say you were gonna try to take on that?!” She pointed to the huge dragon as he smashed a house to kindling with an idle flick of his tail.

I wasn’t a huge fan of the idea, but... “Look, I can slow him down some. Keep his attention on me instead of wrecking the city and delay him while you get everyone to safety. Maybe even stop him from getting away with Starlight.”

Puzzle shook his head. “Shimmer-mare, you can’t fight that thing! You barely survived fighting Starlight, and she was just a minion he gave a little bit of his power! You haven’t even completely recovered from the beating she gave you!”

Strumming nodded along emphatically. “Think about it this way: Argentium and Celestia would think twice about picking a fight with this guy, but you just wanna go up and try to deck him in the schnozz? I know you had some recent brain damage, but I didn’t think it was that bad!”

“Shimmer-mare...” Kukri bit her lip, visibly struggling to think of what she could say. Probably torn between wanting to support me and thinking Strumming and Puzzle had a point.

Puzzle shook his head. “Look, we need to find Scarlett and send a message to Argentium. Assuming your mother hasn’t already done so, which she almost certainly has. Scarlett is stronger, more experienced, and knows much more about elder dragons than you, and the fact that she doesn’t seem to be rushing out to fight a delaying action against the dragon should probably be another sign of what a phenomenally bad idea that is. “

“Well I have to do something!” I exploded. “I can’t just sit back or run away while he’s tearing up buildings and killing everyone who gets in his way! Not when there’s something I could do to stop him, or at least slow him down until Argentium gets here!”

Strumming grimaced and put a hoof on my shoulder. “The only way you’d slow him down is if he decides to play with you for a bit before he kills you. I don’t like it either, but this is one of those times when you’ve got to walk away and let someone else handle it. You’re out of your league, and trying to punch that far above your weight class is just gonna get you pounded.”

“If you want to do something, help everyone else survive this,” Puzzle agreed. “You can’t stop the dragon, but you can clear a path through the flames to get a lot of innocent ponies and caribou to safety. Not to mention the rest of us.”

I wanted to argue the point, or even just ignore them completely and go rushing off to take on the dragon despite what they said, but ... well, they were right. I couldn’t even touch Scarlett, and she seemed to think that this fight was something to stay far away from. I’d nearly killed myself trying to keep up with Starlight, and she was just a lackey with a tiny little taste of Blackfyre’s power. Trying to take on the big dragon himself ... Strumming was right. I didn’t stand a chance. Admitting that wasn’t cowardice, it was just realism. The right thing to do was focus on what I could accomplish, not go rushing into a fight I stood no chance of winning.

Still, admitting that felt far too much like giving up. “Right. Evacuation. Get as many people together as you can, and I’ll focus on clearing a path through the fire. We’ll have to move fast. The fire’s spreading out of control and I can’t put out the entire city.” Not to mention putting out too many of the fires he was spreading all over the place might attract the giant evil lizard’s attention, and that was the last thing we wanted.

Puzzle nodded and immediately flew out the window, calling out the fleeing civilians to try and catch their attention and instill some measure of order in all the chaos. Strumming watched him fly out, grimacing down at her bandaged wing. “Dumb overgrown fire lizard couldn’t have the decency to give me another week or two to heal up...” She turned and started running down the stairs, calling out at the top of her voice.

Kukri looked up at me uncertainly. “What should this one do?”

I thought about it for a second. She was a bit too obviously young to be much help when it came to organizing the evacuation—nobody would listen to a kid. She could probably help a bit with dispersing any fire, but I would have to do the vast majority of the heavy lifting for that. “Keep your eyes on the dragon,” I answered. “I’ll be busy concentrating on the fires, so if he’s getting anywhere near us I need to know right away.”

“Right.” Kukri nodded dutifully.

By the time we got out into the street, Puzzle and Strumming had managed to organize a few dozen of the locals into an impromptu refugee convoy. Guess that proved one of the old lessons Celestia gave me about how authority works: if you go around bellowing orders like you know what you’re talking about and expect to be obeyed, a lot of people will just instinctively fall in line. It certainly explained why anyone would listen to two strangers in the middle of all this chaos: they really wanted to believe someone had a plan and could get them out of this.

Well, that just meant I couldn’t let them down. “Alright, I’ll clear us a path through the fire. Everyone stay behind me. Don’t split up, don’t run, and don’t lag too far behind. I’ll keep the path open as long as I can, but I can’t hold the fire off forever.”

The heat was already intense out in the street, even well away from any of the active fires. Northmarch’s freezing winter weather had vanished completely, and it felt like I was walking into an especially large oven. I didn’t even want to think about what it would be like once we got to one of the hot zones. Sure, I’d gotten through hotter temperatures myself, but I’d never tried shielding a large group of civilians from this much heat.

Well, failure wasn’t an option, so I’d just have to make it work.

I headed up to the first crossroads where the flames blocked the way forward. Even from twenty meters back the heat was enough that it took a conscious effort of will not to back off from it.

Thankfully, I had plenty of spells to handle that kind of thing. I started off by taking advantage of one of the basic laws of thermodynamics: heat rises. Sure, I could just try to snuff the fires out, but considering how much of the city was on fire I’d wear myself out trying to extinguish every blaze we came across. It was a lot easier to just take advantage of fire’s natural properties and just encourage the flames to go up a bit more and not in any dangerous direction.

“It’s clear.” I lead the way down the street I’d cleared. It certainly wouldn’t look exactly safe to any casual observer, but the flames were all curving upward and generally turning as much of their force as possible away from street level. It still felt hot enough to bake a cake, but it was safe enough as long as nobody lingered long enough to worry about heat stroke.

We moved through the burning city, stopping a couple more times whenever I needed to clear another burning street. As we moved towards the edge of town we started to attract more and more followers as the only island of relative calm in this insane inferno. On the one hoof, that was great because it meant I was helping more ponies and caribou make it out of here. The downside was it meant I had a lot more people to protect. Every group of strays we picked up meant I had to keep the anti-fire spells covering a wider area, and for a longer time.

Kukri’s eyes flicked back to me. “Shimmer-mare, are you okay? Can this one help?”

“I’m fine.” The last thing I needed was to make Kukri worry. Besides, much as I appreciated her offer, what I was doing right now required a ton of magical muscle and a really delicate touch. Kukri would probably never have the first of those unless she’d gorged on a ton of love energy, and apprentices are by definition not good at precision and fine control. Much as I appreciated the offer, if Kukri tried to help she’d be wasting her strength at best and unintentionally making my job harder at worst.

Strumming stepped up next to me, murmuring. “Good news/bad new time. Bad news is the crowd’s starting to get a bit big for just me and bug boy to handle. Good news is this street we’re coming up on should be pretty much a straight shot out of town.”

“Good.” We rounded the corner, exiting onto a wide thoroughfare. The road was wide enough to make things a bit easier on me, since the road was wide enough to provide some insulation from the burning houses on the sides, and none of the piles of burning rubble were enough to completely block off the road. I dared to hope that the worst was past, and from here it was just a matter of walking everyone to safety.

Then I heard the screams.

It was one of the taller buildings I’d seen in Coldharbor. At first I thought it must be an office building or something, but judging by how the ponies and caribou taking refuge on the roof were dressed it was probably a nightclub of some sort. Would explain why there’d been so many people there at this late hour.

Obviously we needed to help them. Sending some of the pegasi in was the obvious solution, but the fires on the lower levels of the building made that a risky prospect at best. Not to mention a few of the patrons were large enough that getting them down without any proper equipment would be hard.

By the same token, I couldn’t use my preferred method of firefighting. Sending all the heat up into the air wasn’t an option when the people we were trying to rescue were all upwards of the fire.

Good thing I wasn’t a one-trick pony.

Once I made sure nobody was standing too close, I pulled all the heat of that burning building towards me, relying on my own personal defenses to keep from frying myself. After a minute of work the fires within the building started subsiding. Or at least, it felt that way to my magical senses. I couldn’t count on my eyes in this case, since the massive pillar of flame centered around myself blocked just about all my senses. At same time I sent all that fire up, I pulled cold air from higher up down the middle of that column, keeping enough of it around myself to avoid burning despite the temperature.

As the spell continued the fire got wilder and wilder, the mix of hot and cold air starting to kick up furious winds. I didn’t have any choice but to weather the storm I was creating. At this point trying to stop the spell would probably just get me killed, and maybe a lot of other people in the bargain. Besides, if I wound up accidentally causing a thunderstorm or something, the rain would help everyone.

Rather than try to fight against the rapidly building flame-driven winds as they whirled around me I stayed in the center of my firestorm, just giving it a few nudges to keep it under control. If the laws of physics and forces of nature wanted to make my job a bit easier, I saw no reason not to go along with them.

After what felt like hours but was probably only a minute or two, the fires within the nightclub faded away, and there was nothing more to fuel my firestorm. I slowly dispersed the spell, letting the wild forces I’d barely even tried to tame disperse. Once the flames cleared enough for me to finally see everyone again, I realized that instead of running for safety far too many of them were staring at me.

Kukri was the first to break the stunned silence. “That. Was. AWESOME!”

“Gotta agree with Facon,” Strumming agreed. “Not many ponies would solve a burning building by creating a tornado and then setting it on fire instead of the building.”

“I was improvising.” I shrugged. “I needed to get the heat up and away and needed to do it far enough away from the building to make it safe.

“Has to be the first time I’ve heard the word safe associated with a giant flaming tornado,” Strumming shot back with a smirk.

Puzzle came back from organizing the rescue of the survivors, looking much less happy than the others. “A very impressive piece of improvisation,” he conceded before frowning at me. “And extremely noticeable.”

Before I fully understood what he was driving at, Kukri let out a tiny, nervous little squeak. “Um, Sh-shimmer-mare? Remember how you asked this one to keep an eye on the dragon?” She gulped. “He’s, uh ... he’s coming this way.”

A second later a titanic shadow swooped over us, the small gale accompanying it snuffing out the few embers my spell hadn’t gotten.

While anyone with a functioning brain probably didn’t need me to say anything, I did anyway. “Everyone run and get to cover, now!”

That sent the refugees scrambling, but I already knew it was too late. Blackfyre was already coming around for another pass, and while I was a long way from an expert on dragons I knew an attack run when I saw one. With all of us funneled into a single straight street, he could just fly along breathing fire and frying everyone. Some of the refugees would get to cover in time, but not everyone.

There was only one choice. Not a very good one, but it’s not like I had a wealth of options. “Kukri, Strumming, get behind me!”

I waited until Blackfyre swung around and lined up for his attack run; no sense wasting energy on defenses before he committed to the attack. Having the extra time to prepare certainly wouldn’t hurt, because I needed every scrap of power I could get if I was going to pull this off.

Barring Celestia wielding the sun’s power, there was pretty much no fire on the planet hotter than dragonfire. Especially since there was more to it than just fire. A dragon’s breath had a kind of magical weight to it, for lack of a better term. So far I’d only been dealing with the secondary fires his breath touched off. Trying to handle it when it came straight from the source...

As Blackfyre let out another earth-shaking roar before he unleashed his fire, I screamed my defiance up at him and cut loose with a continuous beam of pure arctic cold. All the remaining fires on the street level instantly snuffed out just from being near my spell, and the muddy sludge covering the road from the melted snow briefly became a sheet of particularly dirty ice. It was quite possibly the most raw power I’d ever poured into a single spell; just channeling that much power through my body felt like something between being on fire, getting electrocuted, and a weird sort of relief. Like the feeling you get in that brief moment right after you’ve finished carrying something really heavy.

Blackfyre’s head snapped forward, and a torrent of fire erupted from his jaws. It met my ice beam halfway into the air, the impact immediately producing a huge cloud of steam. For a moment I was afraid he’d use the steam cloud to evade my attack and come at me from another angle, but I should’ve known better. I’d pretty much directly challenged him with my attack, and a dragon as old and proud as Blackfyre would never back down from a challenge like that.

Especially when he was almost sure to win it. Despite pouring everything I had into the spell it only took a few seconds for the clashing energies to emerge from the steam cloud formed by their initial impact, the dragonfire inexorably forcing back my ice beam. I clenched my teeth and tried to push it back, but all I managed to do was slow his progress down a tiny bit.

The ice that had sprung up along the streets and buildings when I cast my spell rapidly melted as Blackfyre’s flames forced their way closer and closer. I tried to keep a cool head, but it wasn’t easy in the face of such obvious signs that I was outmatched.

Kukri stepped out from behind me, standing next to me and firing off an ice beam of her own in support of mine. Compared to the amount of power I was throwing at Blackfyre it was barely a trickle of energy, especially since my apprentice didn’t have anywhere near as much focus as I did. Using the power you had efficiently was at least as important as actually having a lot of raw power to throw around, and pretty much by definition an apprentice never had all that much fine control.

As a straight contribution to the fight, I doubt Blackfyre even noticed the difference. However, Kukri jumping it served as a stark reminder of just how much was at stake. If I couldn’t hold off the fire it wouldn’t just be me dying—it would be Kukri too. And Strumming, though I hadn’t promised her parents I’d bring her home safe.

No. I couldn’t lose here. It just wasn’t an option.

I dug deep down and threw every last reserve of strength I had to into just holding him off. My eyes watered from the effort, and my was horn practically vibrating from all the power. I could feel a bone-deep headache starting which probably should’ve worried me a lot more when I’d only just recovered from having an aneurysm, though I suppose it didn’t really matter if my brain exploded. If I couldn’t hold the fire back, I was dead either way.

I don’t know how long I kept pushing. I really didn’t have any mental energy to spare to think about things like keeping track of the passage of time. Everything I had was going into just surviving for the next few seconds.

And it still wasn’t enough. Blackfyre’s breath pushed back, igniting the buildings around us. Soon my beam of ice was little better than a glorified shield spell, barely projecting more than a meter in front of me. I could already feel the heat coming off his attack, and I knew it was just a taste of what would come if my defenses failed. Not only had the intense heat melted away all the ice on the ground, but it had evaporated the water and was making pretty good progress on reducing the paving stones to molten slag.

I tried to find some last hidden reserve of strength, anything I could throw at him to buy a few more precious seconds of life, but there was nothing. Or rather, nothing except my own life force. Drawing on that would mean...

Yeah.

My eyes flicked down to Kukri.

I’d promised her parents. And I’d promised myself as well. No matter what it took, Kukri was coming home safe. No. Matter. What.

I took a deep breath and prepared to cast the last spell of my life.

Then, so suddenly the absence of it seemed almost impossible to comprehend, Blackfyre’s breath finally ended.

The firestorm had reduced almost everything around us to blackened ciders. The cobblestones were half-melted and glowing red hot, except for a thin v-shaped area behind us that had been shielded by my spell. The heat was stifling, and between that and the sudden wave of exhaustion from ending the spell battle I was feeling a bit light-headed. Strumming caught my shoulder before I could faint, and after a few seconds I started feeling almost normal. Or at least as close to normal as I was going to get without a big meal and a twelve hour nap.

Not that I was likely to get either anytime soon. The shadow passed overhead once more, and this time instead of strafing us Blackfyre came in for a landing. I probably would’ve been utterly terrified of him if I wasn’t too tired to care. He looked every bit as big as Argentium, maybe even bigger, but more importantly he carried the size differently. Where Argentium seemed to move with an odd sort of delicate grace for a creature of her size, Blackfyre was far less subtle. A casual flick of his tail tore through the bottom floor of the nightclub I’d saved, collapsing the entire building into a pile of charred rubble. I wasn’t sure if that had been a deliberate show of force or just an accident spawned by how little he cared about the damage he could inflict, and I also wasn’t sure which prospect was scarier.

When he spoke, his voice was such a deep subsonic grumble it took me a moment to recognize the actual words. “What an interesting little gnat you are, Sunset Shimmer. I never would have believed a mortal could survive my flames.”

“I’m just full of surprises.” I couldn’t help but be a bit proud of actually managing to pull off a bit of defiant banter when most of my brain was torn between terror and exhaustion. Maybe that was another one of those instincts I was developing.

“Magi.” Blackfyre snorted, emitting another gout of flame. “Such arrogant little creatures, thinking that the mere taste of true power you possess gives you the strength to oppose your betters.”

“A dragon calling someone else arrogant?” I gasped out. “That’s a new one.”

Blackfyre fixed me with his piercing orange gaze, then smiled. Unlike Argentium, his smile displayed every single one of his massive fangs. Then he chuckled at me. “I see now why Celestia trained you: spirit, and undeniable talent. However, your master feared to face me in open battle, and you lack even the palest reflection of her might.” He reached up with one of his massive talons, plucking something off of his back.

Kukri got a good look at it before I did, shivering in revulsion as her voice took on a high-pitched, almost panicked note. “Oh Endless Night, what is that?!”

Once I got a good look at the creature I silently echoed her question. The twisted, broken thing contained within the metal cage undulated under our gaze. It might have been a pony once, or a gryphon, or a diamond dog or … a quadruped … but now it was a hunched, hairless thing perched upon a pedestal of colorless limbs bent at unnatural angles. Its skin was pale and thin, like a sheet of of parchment had been stretched over its bones. At first I thought the lump on its back was a tumor, but on closer inspection the lump had three misshapen limbs and a single black eye. The thing cringed as Blackfyre held it in front of his face.

The dragon’s gaze shifted back to us. “I have not been idle these last thousand years. Argentium never truly grasped the wonders that can be created when runecraft is worked into the very flesh and blood of a creature. Now...” He rattled the cage. “Sing for me, little one.”

The creature opened its mouth and shrieked. No, a word like ‘shriek’ doesn’t even begin to do justice to the sound it was letting out. The high-pitched wail made me want to plug up my ears, or maybe just blow out my own eardrums so I wouldn’t have to listen to it anymore. Except a second later I realized not even deafening myself would work, because there was a lot more to the scream than the sound the broken creature was producing, and I wasn’t just hearing it with my ears. It was tearing into my mind.

Kukri yelped as she reverted back to her natural form, and I tried to come up with a spell to block out the creature’s cries. Except when I went to cast the spell, nothing happened.

I tried again. Still nothing.

Blackfyre sat back on his haunches, looking far too smug. “Magi. You possess great power, but it exists in such a limited scope. Though if it's any consolation I can’t cast spells either at the moment.” He leaned in, smirking in a way that displayed every single one of his massive fangs. “Of course, without magic you’re just a tiny little pony, and I’m still a dragon.”

I saw his tail come swinging around just in time to duck under it. It was only after it sailed over my head that I realized he wasn’t even aiming for me. Strumming managed to dodge the worst of it, but the attack still bowled her over. Her attempt to counter with some of her throwing spikes went nowhere, the weapons just bouncing off Blackfyre’s hide. Puzzle charged in a second later, trying to work a stiletto in between two of the dragon’s scales. He didn’t manage anything before Blackfyre casually buffeted him down with one of his wings.

Then the attack Blackfyre actually intended for me came. He set a talon down on the ground and then flicked me aside like I was an annoying piece of dirt. Normally getting flicked by a talon isn’t that big of a deal, but when the talon in question is the size and thickness of an especially large tree...

I went flying towards one of the few buildings still standing. I instinctively tried to shield myself, but Blackfyre’s pet was still screeching and I couldn’t conjure up even a shred of magic. Back during the fight with Starlight we’d knocked each other through buildings thanks to our armor and protection spells. Without any magic ... well, when I hit the wall it wasn’t the building that broke this time.

It took about a minute or so for me to push through the pain and recover enough awareness of the world to realize what was going on around me. Each breath came with a razor sharp stab of pain that could only mean cracked or broken ribs. I only hoped I hadn’t smacked my head again when I hit the building. I really didn’t want to risk any more brain damage.

Eventually it occurred to me that I should be dead by now. I’d been down and helpless for more than enough time for him to finish me off if that was what he wanted. Which meant...

A single unbelievably massive paw settled over me, not quite crushing me but making it clear it could at a moment’s notice. Blackfyre’s maw leered over me. “Finally coherent enough to hear me? Then I shall make this plain: your companions are still alive. Swear to serve me, and they’ll remain so. Otherwise...”

I needed a bit to wrap my head around what he was saying. “You want me to … what, get a bunch of runes carved into my back like Starlight has?”

“Just so,” Blackfyre agreed with a cruel smile.

I decided to play for time and answers. “What guarantee do I have you won’t kill them?”

Blackfyre chuckled. “Oh, you misunderstand me. I won’t kill them. You will serve me—the only choice in the matter is whether you do so willingly, as Starlight does, or by becoming one of my blessed children. When I create a Blightspawn I purge all remnants of their former life. It assures their loyalty, and helps keep things ... tidy.”

Oh. Oh horseapples. This was bad. This was really, really bad. Somehow, he’d actually managed to make me wish I’d gone through with tossing a death curse at him. Normally I wasn’t a big believer in the whole idea of there being fates worse than death, but being twisted into one of Blackfyre’s Blightspawn? Yeah, that qualified.

I spotted the only slim hope I had of turning my situation around. The only problem was, it was out of reach when I had to rely on hooves instead of magic. I needed more time, so I pulled out the only thing I could think of that might give him pause. “You think you’ll get away with this? Celestia and Argentium beat you a thousand years ago, and that was when you had Sombra backing you up!”

Blackfyre’s eyes flashed. “They didn’t beat me. I simply chose to make peace and bide my time. Time, you see, is an immortal’s greatest ally: I didn’t need to enact some grand thousand-year plan to bring about the downfall of my enemies. I merely needed to wait for an opportunity to present itself. Celestia? Without her magic, she’s as helpless as you are.”

I rather doubted he could beat Celestia with a single critter’s spell-disrupting scream, but ... when Blackfyre was already a match for her, it might give him an edge.

“Besides,” Blackfyre hissed, “that’s what I’ll have you for. Facing you in battle would destroy her. Either she will refuse to fight and you will cut her down or annihilate you and hate herself for it.” Blackfyre turned his head upwards, gazing proudly at the burning city. “She would weep to see what I have accomplished here. Her attachment to mere mortals has always been her greatest weakness.”

I took advantage of his distraction to stretch out as far as I could, desperately trying to reach Chainbreaker’s hilt. Every move sent fresh waves of agony up my barrel, but I had no choice. Without any of my magic that sword was the only thing I had that stood the slightest chance of hurting Blackfyre.

But it was no use. Even if I’d been uninjured the sword was too far away, and with several busted ribs it might as well have been on the moon.

I made one last desperate grab for it, and then ... well, it was almost like the sword itself moved. The hilt snapped straight into my hooves as if I’d levitated it over.

I didn’t quite understand it, but I wasn’t going to complain. “Celestia’s not weak!” I brought the blade to bear. “And neither am I!”

Blackfyre barely spared me a bored, contemptuous glance as I struck. He probably expected my sword to bounce off his scales like Puzzle and Strumming’s weapons had. Hay, I had pretty much expected that happen.

Instead, Chainbreaker cut straight through his thick hide and into the flesh beneath, slicing into one of his talons. A second later Blackfyre withdrew his foot with a startled yelp, hopping back and snarling in pain. I pulled myself up to my hooves, ignoring all the pain as a fresh bit of hope filled me. I’d made him bleed. He might be horrifyingly powerful, but if he bled, he could die.

Blackfyre stared at his wounded talon for several seconds, as if he couldn’t believe what had just happened. “You actually wounded me in some small way, I’m impressed. You really are worth turning.” He smiled and chuckled to himself. “Still, we can’t let that sort of defiance go unpunished. That’s going to cost you a leg.”

His words had barely even registered before his tail came swinging around. Before I’d even realized the danger was there it slammed into my right foreleg, just below the shoulder. The next minute or so after that was just a very confused, painful blur.

When I finally regained my senses, I was hanging upside down in the air. Apparently Blackfyre was holding me up by the tail. Normally that would really hurt, but right now I was having a hard time feeling anything other than the pain coming from where he’d hit my leg.

I risked a glance over at it. The pain and shock might have addled my brain, but I was pretty sure my leg wasn’t supposed to bend that way. Or that many times. And I definitely shouldn’t see any bone poking out through the skin.

Blackfyre took some of the blood from the tiny little scratch I’d made on him, using it to trace a few runes on the ground. “You have about thirty seconds of free will left. If you want to say any of the typical melodramatic last words, I suggest you do it quickly.”

I managed to focus enough to say one thing. “You’re going to lose.”

“Oh really?” He paused his runework. “Pray tell, why? Is it because I’m corrupt? Because my evil will naturally make others rise up against me? Or do you just have so much blind faith in Celestia that you believe she can defeat me no matter how great her disadvantage is?”

“No...” I barely managed to smile. “Because Argentium’s about to hit you.”

An instant later the massive silver dragon finished swooping down from the sky and plowed into Blackfyre. The two of them rolled through the burning city, snarling, clawing, and biting at each other as they went.

The impact sent me flying up into the air as Blackfyre lost his grip. While Blackfyre’s anti-magic abomination had left the area along with him, I was in no state to do anything to stop my fall.

That would just figure. I manage to escape from the most evil and powerful dragon in the world, only to die from the fall when he dropped me.

Puzzle and Kukri slammed into me in mid-air. The impact sent fresh waves of agony through every single bone in my body, especially my broken leg. I must have passed out from the pain or something, because the next thing I remember is all three of us being down at ground level.

Kukri stared at my broken leg, eyes wide and jaw hanging open. “That’s ... what do we do?!”

Scarlett stepped out of nowhere, grimacing down at me. “We get her to a doctor. After we take away the pain.” She shifted her attention to me, her horn lighting up. “Sleep.”

Even if I’d wanted to resist the urge to fall into a deep, pain-free sleep, I was in no condition to do so.

Author's Note

As always, thanks to my pre-reading and editing team for all their hard work. Also, I would like to thank all my dedicated Patreon supporters. You guys are awesome.

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Interlude: All that Glimmers

Coldharbor was a mess. Half the city had been burned to the ground, and most of the rest had been smashed up by two giant dragons duking it out in the middle of town. Not to mention the damage Sunset had caused.

It wasn’t my fault. I hadn’t asked Blackfyre to do any of this. I’d even tried to warn them he was coming, and that holding me was a bad idea. If they didn’t listen to me, well ... then they’d pretty much brought it on themselves.

None of this was my fault. I shouldn’t feel guilty about it. My conscience was clean.

Really, if anyone was to blame for all this it was Frozen Finds. He’d promised me that the dragon was either dead or in such a deep sleep that he’d never notice us sneaking into his lair and stealing a few of his treasures. I guess he’d been half right; Frozen did get away with a few books while Blackfyre was busy figuring out what to do with me. At least the first job the dragon had given me was to hunt down the jerk who left me behind.

The runes on my back twinged again. They always hurt a little bit, though sometimes it was like I’d almost gotten used to it. It was just another part of the job, and a small price to pay for finally having enough power to make a difference in the world. Now if only I could make the right sort of difference.

My horn lit up and several fallen timbers shifted out of the way, uncovering the basement door they’d been blocking. “Come on out! It’s safe now.”

After several seconds, the door slowly opened as a soot-stained caribou stepped out. I could see a couple more behind him, probably his family. “Are you sure?”

I nodded and did my best to give him a reassuring smile. “Completely sure. The dragon isn’t here anymore.” He was in a cave about twenty miles north of town. One of the ‘perks’ of the job was knowing where the master was at all times, and vice versa.

“H-how do you know that?” one of the children demanded from within his shelter. “It came out of nowhere! It could come back!”

I clenched my teeth and glowered at them. “Do you want me to put the damned building back on top of you so you’ll be stuck in there until you starve or freeze? I said it’s safe and he’s gone, and I’m trying to help you out here. The least you can do is work with me!”

“R-right.” The father slowly helped the rest of his family out of the basement shelter, directing through the rubble to safety. I couldn’t help but notice that the path he’d picked gave me an especially wide berth. Almost like he was as scared of me as he was of the dragon. Ungrateful jerk, I should give him something to be scared of—

“No.” I closed my eyes and took a few deep breaths, trying to regain control. Lately it seemed like everything pissed me off. Even getting angry about being angry all the time got my temper up. I’m not sure if that was another one of the side-effects of working for Blackfyre, or just normal anger at how much everything about this situation wasn’t fair. Here I was doing search and rescue work, and I didn’t get so much as a bucking thank you from these fools. Maybe next time Blackfyre decided to burn down a city I should join in on the fun instead of going around in the burned out remains pretending that—

I growled and shook my head, glaring at the stupid refugees. “Get moving! They’ve got a camp on the south side, near the harbor.”

The children cowered a bit closer to their father, and as he moved past me I noticed that he made a point of keeping himself between them and me. I growled and ran a hoof down my face. “Way to go, Starlight. You scare small children now.” I took a couple more deep breaths. “I’m my own pony. I can control this. He hasn’t taken everything from me yet...”

One of the kids tugged his father’s leg, whispering to him. “Who’s she talking to, Papa?”

“Just keep moving,” he whispered back, quickly ushering them away from me.

Great. So apparently the people I’d just rescued thought I was some sort of crazy pony. Though I guess that was better than them knowing the truth. Crazies just get avoided. If they knew I was working for the guy who had destroyed their homes, they’d probably form a lynch mob even though I’d spent the last half an hour trying to help some of them. Ungrateful jerks.

I snarled and unleashed a blast of raw kinetic force, reducing what was left of the burned-out husk of a home to kindling. Destroying things seemed to help a little. At least it let me vent in a reasonably safe way. I still wasn’t sure what to make of my magic being a completely different color. Burnt orange really didn’t look good, especially compared to my old teal.

It seemed like a kind of petty thing to care about compared to other stuff like having a ton of runes carved into my back or the loss of free will, but it bugged me. It was a pretty fundamental part of who I was, and now every time I cast a spell it was just another reminder that now everything I did had Blackfyre’s talons sunk in.

As if to remind me of that fact, the low-level twinging in my back flared up into a sudden stab, almost as bad as when he’d carved them in. I knew what that meant. The master wanted to see me right now. You’d think the guy who could fly a hundred times faster than I could walk would come find me rather than the other way around, but that’s dragons for you. For that matter, he could’ve come and actually gotten me out of town in the first place instead of just tearing the jail to bits and then running off after Sunset-bucking-Shimmer.

I was about to start the long and unpleasant walk to Blackfyre’s current hideout when someone tapped the back of my leg. I turned around to find another caribou calf, this one carrying the upper half of a badly charred teddy bear. “Miss? Have you seen my mama? I hid ‘cuz of the noise and now I can’t find her.”

Probably because her mother was just a clump of ash on the ground. “Go to the harbor!”

The child squeaked and jumped back from me, fresh tears carving tracks through the soot stains on her face. “B-but I can’t cross the street without her! It’s the rules, she says I have to be with her, but I can’t find her! I’m not supposed to talk to strangers either, but...”

I groaned as my back twinged again. Blackfyre did not like to be kept waiting. If he found out I didn’t promptly answer his summons because I was busy playing hero to a kid, he’d probably make me bring the kid to him so he could do something horrible to it. “Just go! Find another adult!” I spotted the caribou family I’d rescued earlier and fired off a blast, collapsing some rubble in front of them so they couldn’t get away. “Hey, you! Take this kid with you!”

The family stared at me in baffled confusion, probably expecting me to attack them or something. After a couple seconds the father seemed to get it, nodding and waving to her. “Over here, little one. We’ll help you find your mother.”

I let out a relieved sigh. “Right, go with him. You’ll be better off.”

The calf seemed to agree, bolting over to the family as fast as she could. I was just glad she wasn’t my problem anymore. As the runes Blackfyre had carved into my back were all too happy to remind me, I had more than enough trouble to deal with already.

Blackfyre had set up a temporary hideout in one of the caverns about twenty miles outside of town. Normally it would’ve taken me a day or two to get that far, but with his summons driving me onward I didn’t really need to stop to rest. I could catch up on all the sleep I was missing out on after he had whatever he wanted from me.

I smelled his lair before I got there. Apparently the cave he’d chosen for his hideout had been occupied when arrived. Too bad for the local ice trolls; Blackfyre wasn’t a big believer in sharing his living space.

The first thing to greet me when I entered the cavern, other than the smell of blood and burnt troll, were half a dozen of his Blightspawn. The things had horrified me the first time I saw one, but by now I was almost used to them. Or at least, that’s what I told myself. Usually right before they found some new way to horrify me.

A great example of that was waiting for me when I got past the spawn and into the main cavern. Blackfyre’s latest creation, the Warpmouth. Blackfyre must have let the twisted little abomination out of its cage for a bit, probably to laugh at the thing as it pitifully tried to pull itself along the cavern floor on its three misshapen limbs. I was tempted to put the thing out of its misery, but if I did that Blackfyre would probably make me the next Warpmouth.

No. That wouldn’t be horrifying enough for a sadistic jerk like him, he’d probably punish me by using someone I cared about instead. Like Dad, or someone from the commune.

Then I arrived before the master himself. He wasn’t looking as good as he usually did, sporting several large rents in his scales from his fight against Argentium. I probably should’ve felt good about seeing him wounded, but from what little I’d seen of the fight he’d given as good as he got.

Besides, it’s not like my prospects were great if he wound up dead. His runes probably had some sort of built-in kill switch for me if he died just to give me a little extra incentive to serve him well. He hadn’t said anything about that, but it sounded like the sort of thing he would do.

Even if he hadn’t, and even if I somehow survived his downfall, my prospects weren’t exactly great. If Freeport got hold of me the best I had to hope for would be a short rope and a long drop for killing Frozen Finds, and that had been before they even knew about Blackfyre. Now ... well, the only thing likely to keep me alive for more than a couple days would be everyone who wanted to kill me arguing over who got to do the deed.

As I stepped up and knelt before him, I realized he was sitting next to a a hole in the cavern floor where he’d dumped all the troll corpses. One of his talons sat in the middle of the charnel pit, idly mincing the bodies.

Yup. Wonderful new horrors to find every day.

I added a little more deference to my bow, just to be safe. “You wanted me, Master?”

“Yes.” He picked up a gobbet of flesh, and I saw some of his dark orange magic flowing into it as he worked it between his talons. “I burned down an entire city to free you, as well as correct your failings. It is past time you made an account of yourself.” He placed the dead troll flesh into one of his wounds like it was some sort of healing poultice. Judging by how it started fusing into his wound, maybe it was one. Blackfyre’s fleshcrafting magic did some very creepy and disgusting but undeniably useful things.

Against my better judgment, I felt my temper flaring up. “You sent me into a city the size of Coldharbor without any support. How did you expect that to end?”

Blackfyre barely spared me a contemptuous glance. “I told you to capture Sunset Shimmer after you provided me with news that she had received one of the stolen books.” He tapped a bloody talon against his teeth. “A wonderful bit of serendipity, that. Though really, is it any surprise that an item stolen from a dragon’s lair might appeal to another dragon? When you told me about her I saw her value as a pawn, and then she just so happened to provide me the perfect excuse to target her within the law. Dragon Law might be worthless to most of my kind, but only a fool discards an advantage when it falls into his lap. I almost wish I’d planned that. When we write the history of my victory, we’ll have to say I did.”

His eyes narrowed as his gaze shifted to me. “As to your failure, it is entirely on your own shoulders. Do not seek to blame me for your inadequacies; I tasked you with capturing the mare. How you did so was none of my concern. You were the one who chose to attack her in an urban area, level buildings, and announce yourself. Perhaps I was mistaken as to your value, and you would be more useful with further ... gifts.” He nodded to a few crystalline cocoons in the corner, where fresh Blightspawn were in the process of mutating. “But you might be able to convince me otherwise.” He lounged back, a faintly mocking grin on his lips.

I grimaced at the cocoons and tried to come up with something good. The prospect of having my free will stripped away completely and being reduced to nothing more than a feral beast was ... well, I wasn’t kidding when I said killing Sunset would be kinder than letting Blackfyre have her.

That very thought gave me the angle I needed to win Blackfyre over. “You want Sunset alive. Blightspawn aren’t great for capturing targets alive. They’re too violent and they don’t have much in the way of options to disable a target that resists. Sunset would never let you take her without a fight, and if she knows what you have planned for her she’d probably break out a death curse before she let herself be captured. You need someone who can disable her.”

He didn’t look convinced, so I broke out another line of attack. “Back when you first bound me into your service, you said you needed an agent who could go out into the world, reach the places you couldn’t and blend into the crowd. I can’t do that if I’m a Blightspawn. I wouldn’t have the intelligence or free will to manage it, and everyone would attack me on sight for being a monster. And you already have plenty of those.” I took a deep breath, then fell to my knees. I hated to look like I was groveling, but he’d probably like seeing it. “I won’t fail you again.”

Blackfyre finally responded to that. “Oh really? You failed me before. What makes you so sure you could win given a second chance?”

Thankfully, I had a good answer for that. “She only beat me last time because her friends got involved. I had her on the ground and at my mercy before that happened.” No need to mention the part where she kicked my plot and broke my armor with that one trick she used, especially since that wound up backfiring on her anyway. It was probably just a fluke.

Sure, she might still have Chainbreaker after she stole it from me, but that didn’t matter either. It was just a sharp hunk of metal that only really mattered because of its historical and symbolic value. Okay, there’d been a couple stories about it having some sort of extra magical powers that could do things like free slaves from bondage, but I’d held the sword in my hooves and I still had Blackfyre’s leash tight around my throat. Should’ve just left it to rot in the museum.

Blackfyre stared down at me, nodding slowly to himself. “I see. Numbers will tell. Very well then, that imbalance can be corrected.” He punched a hole in the rock with a single talon, then dipped that into one of his open wounds. After he dripped some of his blood into the hole he crooked a claw, and three of his spawn came over. He repeated the process with each of them, mixing all the blood together in his improvised bowl. His talons danced over the hole in the stone, carving out runes I probably didn’t want to study too closely. I was attached to my sanity. After a couple more minutes he was done, and the entire thing was glowing a particularly nasty shade of blood orange. I had a sinking feeling I knew what he would want me to do even before he gave the order. “Drink.”

Ugh. Drinking blood was gross enough, but twisted mutant Blightspawn blood? And who knows what the dark magic he was working into would cause? “What’ll it do to me?”

Blackfyre glowered, probably annoyed I was asking questions instead of immediately obeying. “You said you failed because of her companions. If that is so, then I will provide you with some of your own. These Blightspawn will be bound to your will and obey your commands.”

“Oh. I see.” I suppose that ... was one option for how to give me an edge in the rematch. Kind of an obvious one, considering I’d been complaining about being outnumbered. Blightspawn might be murderous brutes who couldn’t take much more direction that being pointed in a general direction and told to kill everything they came across, but three of them would be more than enough to counter the spy nag and her two bugs. One probably would’ve done the job, but I wouldn’t complain about overkill.

That just left the really nasty part. Though compared to some of the other things I’d done since I joined up with Blackfyre drinking some blood wasn’t the worst. I took a deep breath and got to it. It’s not like I had any choice. If I didn’t do it voluntarily, he’d just force me to obey.

For the record, mutant blood mixed with dark magic tastes horrible. Though really, the flavor of it wasn’t the worst part of it. The real problem was that it was way too warm and thick, like the world’s most disgusting milkshake. Between that and the fact that I had to lean down to drink it, there wasn’t any way to just get it done quickly. It took way too long, and before I was even close to done I wanted to vomit.

I resisted the urge, mostly because I knew Blackfyre would not be happy about that. I’d be lucky if all he did was make me start all over again.

When I was finally done I fell to the cavern floor with a gasp of relief. I felt sick to my stomach, but before long the nausea faded away, replaced by wracking pain. I think I did eventually throw up, but either it was too late to make a difference or Blackfyre just forced me to drink again while I was in too much pain to even realize what was going on.

I’m not sure how long it took, but eventually the pain started to fade away, replaced with something new. It started with a strange sense of ... dissociation. Almost like I could feel an entire second body on top of my own.

No. Not just one other body. Three of them. All with different limbs and proportions than anything I’d ever had. The Blightspawn.

I groaned and coughed a couple times, trying to focus on the real me. It took a bit, but I managed to push the new presences in my mind back. I could still feel them, though. I closed my eyes and concentrated on them, trying to ... it’s hard to describe exactly what I did. It was kind of like making one of my legs move, except it was a leg I’d only had for about two minutes and shaped completely different from a normal. It was the same sort of half-conscious mental effort, just going out to an entire other creature detached from my body.

The Blightspawn approached, a bit clumsily at first but they evened out their gait after the first few steps. A few more mental efforts got them to back up, turn side to side, and few other simple commands. I turned to Blackfyre. “Are there any limits to my control?”

“Distance makes it harder,” he answered. “Especially if you want fine control. It is much easier to control them if you allow them to revert to their instincts and simply give them a target.” He smirked. “And, of course it would most unwise to try to turn them against me. Not that you need to know that.”

I grunted and nodded. Tempting as the thought might have been, even without his control runes on my back he had dozens of Blightspawn to my three. No point in even discussing it, so I focused on more realistic concerns. “What will you be doing while I go after Sunset? I can handle Sunset and maybe even Archmagus Runeseeker, but if Argentium shows up...”

Blackfyre waved my concerns away. “Argentium and her herald are my concern. I will see to their destruction.”

“Right.” I frowned up at him. “But if you can destroy her that easily, why didn’t you when you fought in Coldharbor?”

Blackfyre shrugged, dipping his claws into the charnel pit again for more raw material. “Had I attempted to bring my battle to a conclusion with Argentium in Coldharbor, the outcome would be uncertain. She is not a foe to be taken lightly.”

“Isn’t that true of every fight?” I pointed out.

Blackfyre scoffed and applied more of his bloody poultice to another wound. “Such a mortal perspective. You can afford to take chances and risks in the hope that your own limited lifespan will expire before the odds catch up with you. Those of us who live forever do not have that luxury. Given sufficient time, even the slightest chance of failure becomes an absolute certainty. I have waited over a thousand years for the chance to defeat Argentium and Celestia; I will not squander the opportunity you presented me by rushing now.”

He pointed to the cavern wall, where he’d scratched a crude map of Northmarch. “Argentium’s weaknesses are twofold in nature: first, she cares for her mortal playthings. I shall send my spawn far and wide to ravage the land. Predictably, she will send Runeseeker to one front and attempt to contain the worse attack herself. My children cannot defeat her, but every battle will require more of her strength, and she will not find rest while the mortals perish. In time, she will exhaust herself. Especially when I will be waiting for her, sapping her strength with each battle.” He pointed to the first wound I’d seen him cover, which already had fresh scales growing in. “We may each suffer wounds, but all I need to recover is a quiet cave and a few tons of biomass. She limits herself to much less effective means. I will destroy her by inches, with the slow grind of inevitability. She could only avert her defeat by abandoning the mortals to their doom, and she is too weak to make that choice.”

“Or she could get help,” I pointed out. “Celestia fought against you a thousand years ago, and you can bet she’ll come back once she finds out you’re active again.”

“Of course,” Blackfyre agreed. “Which is why you must capture Sunset Shimmer. She is one of the keys to my plan to destroy Celestia: the Warpmouth is a potent tool, but I would be a fool to depend solely upon it to deliver my victory.”

I frowned at him. “What do you mean? Sunset can’t beat her.”

“Of course not,” Blackfyre agreed. “At least, not in pure a contest of power. But Celestia cares for her student, and that is her weakness. Perhaps when she faces the Blightspawn that was once Sunset Shimmer she will hesitate and allow herself to be wounded or even killed. More likely, after the battle I will face a Celestia emotionally compromised by being forced to destroy her own corrupted student. Either outcome is to my advantage. And even if the inhabitants of Northmarch are not her subjects, Celestia still cares for them as well. Righteous anger is such a predictable emotion.”

“Right.” I grimaced and quickly put aside my first half dozen reactions. I ... didn’t exactly love the idea of all that happening to Sunset, or even Celestia. Sure, both of them were part of the repressive system that created inequality, but they weren’t evil so much as misguided. Even if they were villains, nobody deserved what Blackfyre had planned for them. Besides, if Blackfyre did end up taking over Equestria and Northmarch, it wasn’t like he’d make things better. The only equality he would bring in would be that everyone else would be equally beneath him.

Blackfyre seemed to be in a good mood, probably because he loved talking about how certain he was of his victory. He grinned down at me. “Serve me well in this, and if the Sunset Blightspawn survives I will bind it to your service. I am sure you would enjoy that.”

No. No I wouldn’t. Especially when it would be a constant reminder of what would happen to me as soon as Blackfyre decided letting me keep my free will was too much of a bother. Or he just got bored of me. “I’ll keep that in mind.”

Blackfyre nodded, probably assuming I was trying to contain my excitement. “Do you need anything else to succeed?”

I shook my head. “I think this will be enough.”

“Then go.” I’d gotten halfway to the door when he casually added, “Oh, and finish off as many of the surviving refugees as you can. A few are good for spreading terror, but too many and it starts to look untidy. Especially the children. Orphans can inspire righteous fury with their sad stories and sweet tears. Dead children are just depressing and soul-crushing.”

I smiled because the alternative was screaming. “As you say, my lord. I really should get going with all due haste. Sunset might escape if I take too much time.” I started throwing together a plan as I talked. “If I was her, I'd be getting onto a ship and running back to Freeport as soon as I could. After what you did to her she has to be absolutely terrified of you. Plus her mother and Argentium are probably going to try to get her out of Northmarch, and if Celestia does care that much about her she’ll probably make getting her to safety a priority.”

Blackfyre nodded. “True. Much as I would love to see you sowing chaos and spreading terror, we can’t afford distractions from the true matter. Capture Sunset Shimmer and bring her to me. All other concerns are secondary.”

I almost let out a relieved sigh, dropping down in another deep bow to hide my face in case anything gave away what I was thinking. “I will see to it at once, my lord.”

Author's Note

As always, thanks to my pre-reading and editing team for all their hard work. Also, I would like to thank all my dedicated Patreon supporters. You guys are awesome.

Click here if you want to join the list of awesome people who support my writing.

Consequences

I didn’t know where I was, at first. Everything was all weird and blurry, and as far as I could tell I was in some sort of strange white room. I groaned and rubbed my eyes, looking around to try and find someone. “Hello? Anyone there?”

An instant later two ponies seemed to all but pop out of thin air. One of them was a male pegasus with an off-white coat, a long black mane and a roguish air about him, while the other stallion was an earth pony with a light blue coat, a deep purple slicked-back mane with a short strip of a beard like something a hipster or someone out of old Selerika would wear.

There was something oddly familiar about both of them, but I couldn’t quite place my hoof on it. The pegasus opened his mouth and started to say something, but before I could make out any words the world dissolved a mish-mash blur of chaos.

Consciousness returned slowly, and not very pleasantly. My head felt fuzzy, sort of like the one time I’d snuck a glass of wine at one of Celestia’s banquets. At first I thought I’d just had a rough night and tried to roll out of bed and get started with another day. When I tried to do that my right front leg refused to move, like it was caught on something.

I blearily opened my eyes to figure out what the problem was. Where my leg should have been there was a mass of cloth and wires, keeping it immobilized and suspended in the air.

A second later Scarlett’s face loomed over me, staring into my eyes. “I think she’s waking up. Sunset? Can you hear me?”

I groaned and rubbed at my eyes, slowly piecing the mental fog as all the memories came flooding back. The attack on Coldharbor. Me rescuing everyone I could. The fight with Blackfyre. And ... my eyes flicked to my leg again. No wonder it was in traction.

“There you are. I was...” She sighed and ran a hoof through her mane, managing a very tired smile. “Welcome back, Sunset.”

“Right.” My throat felt parched and the word came out hoarse. A second later Scarlett held a glass of water to my lips, and I drank it down. That at least got my voice sounding a bit closer to normal. I was getting way too used to waking up in a hospital bed. “Is everyone else...?”

“Your companions are alive and well.” Argentium’s voice confirmed. A second later the dragon herself appeared in her miniature form. She was sporting a few bandages as well, though nothing nearly as bad as my leg. “And quite concerned for your wellbeing. Sigil has had to stop three attempts by your apprentice to sneak in.”

“Sounds like Kukri.” I took a look around the room, taking in all the sterile white tile. “Guess we’re in the hospital?”

“In a manner of speaking.” Argentium scowled. “The actual hospital was one of the first buildings Blackfyre targeted. However, a few private clinics survived his wrath. It’s nowhere near enough, but it’s better than nothing.”

“Yeah.” Burning down a hospital sounded like exactly the sort of jerk move Blackfyre would pull. It’d certainly make things a lot harder for the survivors. “What about the rest of the city? Did we get everyone out?”

Scarlett nodded. “We’ve gathered as many survivors as we can, and every hoof we can spare is doing search and rescue work. I’ve sent word to Celestia. If aid from Equestria isn’t already on the way, I imagine it will be soon.”

Argentium snarled, showing her fangs. “More died to that monster than should have. He will pay for every single one of the lives he took.”

“That’s the way of monster attacks,” Scarlett answered grimly. “We should count ourselves lucky that there are survivors.”

“Thanks in no small part to your efforts.” Argentium shifted her attention back to me. “You saved many lives, both by making a safe path for the survivors and by ... occupying Blackfyre’s attention at considerable personal cost.”

“No kidding.” I looked up at my suspended limb. The bandages were so thick I had no idea what sort of shape it was in. “So how bad is it?”

Scarlett grimaced. “Blackfyre broke your leg in half a dozen places, and the bone pierced the skin in three of them.” She took a deep breath and then continued on in a painfully dry tone, like she was trying to go through some sort of medical report about a complete stranger. “We managed to save most of the major bones, but you’ll need an artificial knee. You also lost a lot of blood, but thankfully Agent Heartstrings has a compatible blood type.”

Normally I would’ve called that a happy coincidence, but I wouldn’t put it past Celestia and the EIS to think about that sort of detail when picking my minder. Beside, the blood loss was the least of my worries. “Looks like you have my leg fixed though, right? Or at least on the way to getting fixed?”

“No.” Scarlett’s shoulders slumped. “What we’ve done is contain the damage so you don’t bleed out or die of infection. Actually fixing that much damage is beyond what we can do, especially with most of our medical infrastructure in ruins.”

Argentium nodded grimly. “All our treatment did was make you stable enough to manage the journey to an actual hospital. We’ve splinted your leg, bandaged it, kept it from going septic, and taken measures to ensure the rest of your flesh won’t go necrotic. In addition to the actual bandages, there’s a stasis spell on it to keep any decay from setting in. You will need extensive reconstructive surgery to actually begin recovering from your wounds, and it will be a very long and painful process.”

That wasn’t what I wanted to hear. “So there’s no healing spell that can fix it?”

Argentium grimaced. “That is beyond even my skills given the circumstances. Not without spending a great deal of time and energy on you, and those are both in short supply with Blackfyre’s return. Heartless as it may sound to say it, I cannot afford to spend a week researching and testing possible spells in the hopes of finding one that can restore your leg. Thousands will die if Blackfyre is allowed to rampage unchecked, and there is only a slim hope I could even find a solution.”

Scarlett nodded. “Brute-forcing any kind of healing spell works by accelerating the natural healing process. That works for some things, but on a fracture this bad it wouldn’t give your bones time to line up before knitting them. Not to mention you’d still need replacements for the ones that were beyond saving.” She let that sink in for a moment, then continued. “And even if our spells could do that, neither of us are doctors.” She nodded to Argentium. “Not to doubt your skills, old friend, but we all have our limits.”

I snorted. “So get a doctor to help with it.”

“You think we didn’t consult one?” Scarlett shot back. “Three, actually. The third one helped us with the spells and bandages to get you to a proper hospital.”

“What’d the first two say?” I asked.

Scarlett snorted and scowled at the floor. “They were idiots. If they think for one moment I’d actually consider letting some mouth-breathing quack take off your leg...”

That got my attention. “They wanted to amputate it?!”

“Yes.” Scarlett grunted and shook her head. “I suppose I can’t blame a caribou for not knowing the specifics of pony anatomy or grasping how much magic we could use, but I’m sure you understand why I opted for a second and third opinion.”

“No kidding...”

“He had his reasons,” Argentium chided. “If not for the stasis cast the odds that she could get to a hospital without her leg going septic, necrotic, or getting infected are slim, and at that point she’d be in danger of dying outright. And even if she made it without any of that, the stress of the journey and passage time wouldn’t help when it came to getting the leg to heal properly.”

“No point saving the leg if it heals so messed up I can’t walk on it.” I agreed. “So I guess the plan is to get me to the nearest hospital that’s still standing, they'll patch it up properly, and then I’m back in the fight.”

Scarlett sighed and shook her head. “Sunset, I don’t think you realize how bad this is. You couldn’t hold off your apprentice with all four hooves tied behind her back right now, let alone get involved with the war.”

Argentium nodded with a grim look on her face. “It’s going to be a very long time before you're ready for a fight again.”

I didn’t like where this was going. “How long?”

Scarlett and Argentium exchanged a look, and Scarlett delivered the news. “At least a year for recovery and physical therapy, assuming everything goes well. If there are complications...”

I could scarcely believe my ears. “A year?! That’s not ... everything’s going to be over by then.”

“If we are fortunate,” Argentium agreed.

Scarlett nodded along. “I should certainly hope all this business with Blackfyre is resolved by then. And with the best doctors available, you’ll be able to walk again. And, much as I would prefer otherwise, your leg will probably heal well enough that you’ll still be able to throw yourself head-first into dangerous situations rather than being confined to a desk job or academic career. At least you’ll have to do something more settled for a year or so while you recover.”

A year of being stuck doing nothing while Blackfyre went around burning more towns, with Starlight helping him do it. No. I couldn’t just sit on the sidelines while all of that was going on. “There’s gotta be another way. I’m not just gonna give up, go home, and leave the hard work up to everyone else.”

“That’s exactly what you’re going to do.” Scarlett reached over and gave my uninjured shoulder an awkward sort of pat—like she’d seen other ponies do it and knew it was the appropriate thing to do but didn’t have any actual experience at it. Which certainly fit when it came to expressing any form of maternal affection. “Time is the only thing that can heal your leg. If you’re worried about Blackfyre, don’t be. Celestia and Argentium beat him a thousand years ago, and that was when he had Sombra supporting him. They’ll do it again.”

“Indeed we will,” Argentium confirmed. “And this time will finish it properly. A thousand years ago he was in a position to negotiate for peace. Not this time.”

“I’m sure you’ll beat him,” I conceded. “But I doubt he’ll make it easy for you. I can take on his Blightspawn at least, and maybe even Starlight. If I was involved, I could help. Am I supposed to just sit out the rest of the war in a hospital while ponies and caribou are fighting and dying?”

“Yes,” Argentium answered. “Your part in this war is over, and you have done wonderfully. You saved hundreds of lives last night, and were injured fighting Blackfyre himself. You can hold your head high after everything you’ve accomplished, and I could not possibly ask any more of you than you’ve already done. You should concentrate on recovering from your injuries.”

Scarlett nodded along. “If there was some kind of magic fix, don’t you think every hospital friendly to Equestria would have it by now? I know it's not what you want to hear, but there is no way to heal this outside of time, surgery, and physical therapy.”

“I can assure you, we have already discussed this at length before you returned to us,” Argentium finished. “If there were any easy solution to quickly restore you to full health, we already would have found and executed it.”

That wasn’t what I wanted to hear. I desperately tried to come up with something an archmagus with decades more experience than me and an ancient dragon wouldn’t have thought of. “Didn’t Sunbeam Sparkle have a spell that could fix broken bones? I swear I read about that...”

Scarlett sighed and shook her head. “That spell tied in to Sunbeam’s special talent, and last I checked neither of us has a phoenix on our flanks. And aside from that, it was never meant for an injury this severe.”

Argentium nodded. “I know the spell she used, and it was quite sufficient to repair a cracked rib. Your injury is several orders of magnitude greater. If we attempted to use her spell on your leg in its current state, it likely would either fail completely or result in a limb so malformed it would be beyond saving.”

Right. Of course they thought of that. Argentium probably knew Sunbeam back in the day. Perks of being an ageless immortal. “Okay, so that’s a bust.” I grimaced, and suggested something that normally would’ve been out of the question. “What if I make a deal? I’m sure there’s a demon or something that’d be willing to—”

“Not at any reasonable price,” Scarlett answered. “And very few beings could heal your leg at an unreasonable one. Daggoth the Destroyer would likely demand your soul in eternal servitude, and wouldn’t so much heal your leg as replace it with a twisted demon limb that needs to be fueled with the blood of innocents. Or something like that.”

“I also briefly consulted with several high-ranking fey,” Argentium continued. “Most of them wanted boons that would entrap you for the rest of your life. Several of them also demanded boons of myself or your mother as well.” The dragon grimaced. “I am sure Celestia told you to never negotiate with such beings from a position of desperation and urgency.”

“Yeah, though she didn’t recommend doing it even when you had time to think things through.” I groaned and slumped into the sheets. “I’ll pass on that. A year of recovery and therapy beats getting enslaved for the rest of my life.” After all, I’d seen how well that was working out for Starlight. I’d have to be stupid to subject myself to the same thing. “So that’s it then? No other options at all?”

“I’m afraid not,” Scarlett confirmed.

“Why are you so desperate to return to the fray?” Argentium inquired. “In the last week you’ve had two brushes with death and are currently on the verge of being crippled for the rest of your life, and even with all that we have done there is no guarantee you will make a full recovery. You could yet be rendered lame for the rest of your life and will likely need a cane as you grow older. Most would decide at this point that they have done more than enough. Or are you simply so impatient that you can’t abide the thought of a year of inactivity?”

I thought very carefully about my answer. Sure, I didn’t love the idea of being stuck on sick leave for a year without being able to get out and do anything, but that wasn’t the big issue. “It’s ... how many people did I save from Blackfyre last night?”

“Several hundred among the refugees you directly escorted.” Argentium answered. “And likely many more were indirectly saved by you occupying his attention for long enough for me to arrive and confront him.”

I took a deep breath. “And how many more do you think I could save if I wasn’t stuck sitting the rest of this mess out?”

Argentium closed her eyes for several seconds, then nodded. “I see. There is one way to return you to active duty, though you will not like it.”

“I already don’t like the idea of letting thousands die and losing my entire life while I spend years recovering,” I shot back. “Let’s hear it.”

She told me. She was right; I didn’t like it.

Scarlett’s eyes widened, and she whirled on the dragon with a furious snarl. “Have you gone completely mad?! That is not an option!”

“It is,” Argentium answered, calmly weathering Scarlett’s rage. “No matter how distasteful it is, it would put her in a position to aid us for the remainder of this conflict.”

“I don’t care!” Scarlett snapped. “I can’t believe we’re even discussing this! It’s not happening, and that’s final!”

Argentium’s eyes narrowed, and a hint of a warning growl entered her voice. “It is not your decision to make, Scarlett. It is hers.”

“Not right now it isn’t!” she shot back. “The only reason she’s coherent enough to hold a conversation is all the painkillers we’ve pumped into her. Sunset’s in no condition to make life-altering decisions right now, and you know that as well as I do.”

I took a deep breath, and found to my utter shock that I was actually considering it. “How fast would I recover?”

Argentium frowned and tapped the floor. “We’re sending most of the Coldharbor survivors to Manehattan. We’ve loaded as many as we could onto ships, but there weren’t many in port at this time of year and fewer still after Blackfyre’s attack. The rest will be going overland as soon as we can organize a convoy. It should leave as soon as we can get everything organized. Three days, I should think. With a lot of magic and a little luck, you should be mobile by then.”

“It doesn’t matter because it’s not happening,” Scarlett snarled “If we’re that desperate for someone to guard the convoy, I’ll do it myself.”

“I need you elsewhere,” Argentium countered. “In the last war, Blackfyre sent his Blightspawn to ravage as many outlying settlements as he could. We need to spread the word as fast as possible, and concentrate everyone into defensible positions. I need you to oversee those preparations and stand ready to repel any attacks on our remaining villages.” She held up a talon to forestall the next objection. “And I must stand ready to counter Blackfyre himself. Until Celestia arrives, I am the only one who can stop him if he takes the field, and if he knows I have committed myself to a single location he will attack elsewhere.”

“Equestria’s mobilizing, which means there will be dozens of magi in Northmarch before long,” Scarlett argued. “We don’t need to do something that extreme just to get one more.”

“Yes,” Argentium acknowledged. “They will be here soon. There is a substantial difference between being here soon and being here now. We can’t afford to wait until Equestria finishes mobilizing to get the survivors to safety. It’s already going to take far too long, but sending out a convoy without supplies or wagons for the wounded would be suicide. And sending them without a magus for protection will let Blackfyre’s spawn pick away at their ranks for the entire journey, and perhaps even kill them all.”

Scarlett groaned and shook her head. “But ... no, you can’t ask her to do this. It’s too much.”

“I am not.” Argentium turned to me. “As I have said before, you have already done more than enough to place me and all of Northmarch in your debt. I cannot ask you to go this far just to continue helping us.” She shifted her attention back to Scarlett. “But our need is great, and many lives are at stake. If she offers me her aid willingly, even at such a terrible price, I am in no position to refuse it.”

“No.” Scarlett planted her hooves and glared at her. “We are not having this discussion because there is nothing to discuss. It’s not happening. There is nothing you can say or do that could convince me to consent to this.”

“Your consent is not required.”

Scarlett snarled and shook her head. “I can’t believe you would ... if you do this, then you’re no better than Blackfyre.”

Argentium’s eyes narrowed and she showed her fangs. “Because you are an old friend and clearly distraught, I will forgive that remark. If not for that, I would kill you where you stand. Do not presume to insult me just because your daughter is making a decision you disapprove of.”

“A decision you’re enabling and practically guilt-tripping her into!” Scarlett shot back. “This has gone too far. We're going south and we’re going to find the best doctors available. It’s not going to be a fun time, I won’t lie, but my daughter’s going to have the best treatment available. Once she’s in good hooves, you have my word I’ll come back to help Northmarch.”

It was past time I got involved in the discussion. It was my fate they were talking about, after all. “If I sit out the war, how many people die? From what Argentium said, it could be hundreds more just in that one convoy, let alone the rest of it.”

“Perhaps,” Scarlett conceded. “But people die in war, and you can’t save everyone.” She sighed and ran a hoof through her mane. “I understand what you want, I really do. If there’s one thing your father and I definitely passed on to you, it’s an excessive sense of duty. But this is going too far, and if Solar was here he’d agree with me. Besides, you’re so high on painkillers right now I’m amazed you can speak coherently. Letting you make a decision like this right now wouldn’t be ethical.”

“I’m not that out of it,” I grumbled. Sure, my head felt fuzzy, but I was reasonably capable of forming coherent, logical trains of thought. “And from what you’ve said, without the painkillers I’d be hurting so much I wouldn’t be thinking straight anyway. My head’s not gonna get any clearer for this decision, and I’ve made it.”

Scarlett shook her head. “I’m sorry, Sunset, but that’s not how it works. If you’re in no position to make a rational decision then authority defaults to me so long as you haven’t selected someone else. I am your mother, after all.”

I scowled at her. “I don’t recall giving you any legal power over me, so actually it’s not your call.

In fact, didn’t Argentium specifically decree that as long as we’re both in Northmarch you can’t boss me around?”

Argentium shot her a faintly annoyed look. “Yes, I did.”

Scarlett blinked and took half a step back, then shook her head. “That was different. You weren’t hopped up on painkillers, and the stakes were a lot lower.”

“I think Sunset would disagree that the stakes are low on a kidnapping attempt,” Argentium growled. “And nothing has changed. You have no authority and you can’t make this decision for her. I will consult a doctor to make sure she is of sound mind before we act, naturally.”

Scarlett’s teeth clenched, and for a second I thought she was going to actually try attacking Argentium. “Last time, you said you’d take the matter to Her Highness directly if I acted against Sunset. Well, you can be quite certain she will hear of this. Sunset seems to think she’s more of a mother to her than I was, and if that’s the case you can be damned sure she won’t let you do this any more than I would. She might even decide to turn her entire army around and just let Northmarch burn. I certainly wouldn’t blame her.”

“She would not,” Argentium scowled at her. “Unlike you, Celestia respects Sunset’s judgment and allows her to make her own decisions. Nor is she so myopic she would let Blackfyre run wild just because she disliked one event.” She turned her back on Scarlett, with all the dismissal that implied. “I have made my decision, as has Sunset. I will waste no more time discussing it with you.”

Scarlett bit her lip and shrank back. “At least write to Celestia. If you don’t respect my rights as a mother, then at least concede to Sunset’s own belief and let her decide.”

“And how long should I wait for a response?” Argentium shot back. “We cannot afford days of delay sending messages back and forth. Sunset’s injuries will worsen if not treated immediately. She has made her decision, and she will face the consequences of that choice. I would welcome your assistance, but I will not brook your interference.”

Scarlett turned back to me, looking almost desperate. “Sunset, this isn’t something you can undo. Celestia won’t be able to magically fix it once we have a little down time. If you—”

“I know,” I answered, trying to keep my voice calm and level. “But if I don’t do this, then I’m stuck doing nothing on the sidelines while innocent ponies die. I can’t do that.”

Scarlett groaned and buried her face in her hooves. For a moment I could swear I almost saw tears in her eyes. “Dammit Sunset, this isn’t—you’ve already done more than you needed to! You don’t have to go this far just to do a bit more!” She turned to Argentium. “Talk some damned sense into her!”

Argentium sighed. “And what could I say that you have not? She knows what this will cost her, and chooses to do it regardless.”

“Exactly.” I took a deep breath, my eyes lingering on my broken leg underneath the mass of bandages. “So ... let’s get it over with.”

Three days later, the convoy was ready to go, and so was I. I staggered to my hooves, wobbling a bit as I worked out the balance. I still wasn’t all that steady, but the doctors all said that was just a matter of getting used to it. I wouldn’t be running, skipping, and jumping anytime soon, but I had at least started getting the hang of walking again.

I hadn’t seen Scarlett since the big decision. Probably just busy with all the frantic prep-work to secure Northmarch before Blackfyre’s next attack. Or just using that as an excuse to avoid me. Not like her avoiding me while citing her duty to Northmarch was anything new.

I hadn’t seen any of the others since my injury. I’d asked about visitors, but with all the medical stuff going on Argentium wanted to avoid any complications. The last thing I needed was any added stress. Especially since it almost certainly would’ve meant more arguments like the one we’d had with Scarlett. Strumming and Puzzle would’ve objected vehemently, and there was no way in Tartarus Kukri would’ve understood.

Oh well. They would probably find out soon enough.

All three of them were waiting outside what was left of the hospital when I walked out. I liked to think I’d managed to get myself looking halfway decent. I’d gotten new robes, thanks to Argentium. Nice fur-lined ones with a lot of subtle rune-work worked into them. Nothing that would make spells or claws bounce off me, but I wouldn’t turn down any help I could get. A couple more layers of protection over my leg could’ve mitigated the damage Blackfyre did, and then maybe...

Ugh. No point reflecting about what could have been.

All three of them were waiting for me outside, and as soon as they saw me walking under my own power the tension left their shoulders and there were all smiling. I thought about waving, but I probably had a ways to go before I could test my balance with something like that. “Hey everyone. Good news, I’m alive.”

“Shimmer-mare!” Kukri beamed at me, and probably would’ve rushed in for a hug if not for Puzzle gently holding her back

Puzzle smiled as well, if not quite as widely as Kukri. “Feeling better?”

“I’m up and moving,” I answered. “That’s a lot better than we thought I’d be few a days ago.”

“No kidding. Welcome back, Bacon.” Strumming tossed one of her bags of chips at me. “No spooking us like that, my snacks give my heart enough of a workout. Also, you’ve got enough of my blood in you that it needs to be fueled with crisps.”

“I’ll keep that in mind,” I answered dryly, tucking the bag away. I wasn’t as much of a snack hound as Strumming, but I might want them at some point. “Anyway, much as I’d love to spend some time catching up, we’ve got work to do. Don’t know if you've heard the news, but there’s a refugee convoy leaving soon and they need escorts to deal with any attack by Blackfyre.”

Puzzle frowned at me. “You sure you’re up for that? You only just got in the hospital, and while your robes do a good job of hiding it you’re clearly walking with a limp. And that’s on top of the fact that you hadn't even recovered from your fight with Starlight when all of this happened.”

“Not to mention that we can’t really hold our own against Blackfyre if he comes back,” Strumming chimed in. “Pretty sure I don’t need to tell you that if he comes after us, we wouldn’t really be escorts as much as speedbumps.”

I sighed and nodded along. “Yeah, if it’s Blackfyre himself we scatter and hide, but Argentium thinks he’s more likely to be up to other things personally. Him delegating a few minions to harassing the convoy seems a lot more likely. I know I’m not a hundred percent, but I’m up and moving around and they need all the help they can get.”

Puzzle frowned, rubbing his chin. “I would hope she doesn’t expect the three of us to guard a convoy all by ourselves.”

“Of course not,” I agreed. “Sigil’s coming too, and there are plenty of militia mixed in with the column. A couple hundred caribou armed with spears and bows should do a decent job of holding them off if they can all work together, but...”

“They’ll probably be spread all over the place, protecting their families.” Strumming concluded. “And having a few certified flank-kickers backing them up could be the difference between a solid defense and them only seeing off the baddies after half of them are dead.”

“Especially when militia is usually just a nice word for ‘scared civilians armed with farm tools and whatever used weapons they can scrounge up’,” Kukri added. “Or at least, that’s what Mom always said.”

Puzzle shrugged. “This one supposes we can go with them as we head south. Even if this one isn’t wild about us presenting that big of a target, at the same time there is safety in numbers. If Argentium sent out the refugees in small groups the Blightspawn could pick them all off one by one.”

“Never divide your forces in the face of a superior enemy,” Kukri dutifully supplied. “We’ll be fine. Between Argentium’s backup and us, we’ve got this. We beat Starlight, and Shimmer-mare is fine after taking on Blackfyre himself. If you can make this one some fire gems, it could even fly up and drop them on the Blightspawn if they try to attack.”

The thought of keeping Kukri around in a warzone didn’t appeal, no matter how eager she might be. “Puzzle, is the Venture—”

“Gone,” Puzzle confirmed. “Argentium pressed everything still floating into service for evacuation and emergency aid. Though this one is sure that once we get to Equestria we’ll be able to arrange passage for her.”

“Yeah, I’m sure we’ll find something.”

Kukri’s eyes widened. “You’re ... you’re sending this one away?”

I sighed. “Yeah, we have to. This has gotten way too dangerous. As it is your parents are probably going to be terrified once they learn about what’s happened in Coldharbor.”

Kukri bit her lip. “But, but this one can—”

“No.” I tried to sound firm without crossing the line into harsh. “You’re going home, Kukri. This isn’t up for debate, and no amount of begging or pleading is changing my mind. You’re going home as soon as we can find a way to make it happen.”

Kukri looked to the other two adults for support, but Puzzle and Strumming just nodded their agreement. A warzone was no place for a kid. When she saw no support would come from either of them, she slipped out of Puzzle’s grasp and rushed over to me, latching onto my leg.

My wounded leg. Or rather, what used to be my wounded leg. Kukri blinked and let go, staring down at it. “Shimmer-mare, what’s up with your leg? It’s...”

Damn. I was hoping I could get Kukri back to Freeport before this came out. Probably a foolish hope, but it would’ve been a lot easier to handle everything else if I could’ve put off letting her know about this.

I reluctantly pulled open my cloak, letting them get a good look at my leg. Or rather, what was left of it. The stump ended about halfway down my thigh, and below that was a basic metal prosthetic. Considering the limited resources and time we had to work with, she’d done a really good job of it. After all, I’d gotten to the point where I could more-or-less walk on it in just a couple days. I’d still probably be spending the vast majority of the trip riding in a cart instead of walking for miles at a time, but it was enough to keep me up and mobile.

Not that anyone else was likely to see it that way. Puzzle grimaced and couldn’t bring himself to look at it, while Strumming sank down on her haunches and stared at it, her jaw hanging open. Kukri ... she was just staring at it, like her brain couldn’t even begin to process what she was seeing. “Y-your leg, it’s...”

“Yes.” Puzzle sighed and shook his head. “This one should have guessed when your mother left so abruptly. It wasn’t trying to pry, but it did learn a few things—primarily that she dismissed several doctors when she didn’t care for their suggested treatment.” He nodded to my the prosthetic covering what was left of my leg.

“Oh feathers,” Strumming groaned, running a hoof down her face.

All three of them were staring at me, like they’d just found out someone died. It was just a leg that was too broken to fix. It wasn’t a big ... okay, it was a big deal, but whining about it would do any good. I knew I should say something to them, but I couldn’t think of anything. I mean, what do you even say to your friends who are devastated to learn you just became an amputee? I did the only thing I could: I covered the leg back up and focused on the only problem I could solve. “The convoy leaves in a few hours. We need to be ready for it.”

Puzzle frowned and shook his head. “You sure you’re up for that? The convoy is going to need to move to get to safety.”

“I’ll manage,” I grunted. “We’re going to have some of the fighters riding in the wagons anyway to make sure they’re still fresh if trouble comes. I’ll just be one of them. Besides, all the walking will give me a chance to get used to it.”

Kukri let out a ragged gasp, and I could see tears starting to form in her eyes. “It’s ... it’s just a temporary thing, right? The White Pony or Argentium will fix it later, right?!”

Strumming sighed and shook her head. “I don’t think it works that way, kid.”

“But ... but ... but...” Kukri shook her head, then buried her face into my surviving foreleg. “It can’t ... this can’t ... no!”

I tried to wrap my other leg around her for a hug, but the prosthetic couldn’t manage that range of motion. And even if it could, I doubt that would’ve done anything to comfort her. I leaned down and nuzzled her instead. “It’s gonna be okay, Kukri.”

“How?!” Her grip on my remaining leg turned painfully tight. “How is this okay?!” She started rocking back and forth, letting out a sad, broken little whining sound. “It’s not okay, it’s not okay, it’s not okay...”

I knew I needed to say something to her, but when I opened my mouth nothing came out. I mean, what could I even say? It’s not like there were any magic words that could solve the problem. I could try to tell her everything was going to be okay as much as I wanted, but the fact that I was missing a leg made it pretty hard to support that claim.

So I said the only thing I could. “Argentium said she’d help with replacing any gear we lost. The plan is to get the convoy moving as soon as possible, so let her know right away if you need anything.” I tried to come up with something inspiring to say to my three visibly depressed and upset friends, but nothing came out. “We’ve got a lot of work to do if we’re gonna get these refugees to safety, so let’s not waste any time.”

I walked past them, towards the improvised refugee camp. I did my best to ignore the phantom pains coming from where my right foreleg used to be. There just wasn’t time to deal with that right now.

Author's Note

As always, thanks to my pre-reading and editing team for all their hard work. Also, I would like to thank all my dedicated Patreon supporters. You guys are awesome.

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Facing the Aftermath

Getting a convoy of thousands of refugees moving was a lot of work. Back when I’d first heard about it, part of me was worried that Argentium might be delaying their departure to give me time to recover. Now that I’d seen all the chaos involved in trying to organize the evacuation of an entire city with no prep time and most of the infrastructure in ruins, I was amazed she’d managed to get the job done so fast.

Of course, it wasn’t a total evacuation. Blackfyre might have ravaged the city, but thanks in part to my firefighting and distracting him there was still enough of the city standing to hold some of the populace. Argentium wanted to keep the port open for as long as possible, and between that and the various inhabitants who didn’t want to leave their homes or couldn’t risk a long overland journey in winter the city wouldn’t be completely abandoned.

Still, there were a whole lot of ponies and caribou in this convoy. And every last one of them was counting on me to keep them safe. So, you know, no pressure.

I went looking for Puzzle to do some pre-departure coordination. We wouldn’t have much time to plan on the fly if Blightspawn showed up, so the smart thing to do was to hammer out as many of the details as we could ahead of time.

I found Puzzle in the wagon-sled that had been set aside for us and our gear. Our position in the convoy aside, I was pretty sure the main reason we had our own sled was for me. My prosthetic was working fine so far and therapy had gone fairly well, but there was no denying it was a bit of a rush job and nobody was eager to test how it held up after several days of walking through rough terrain.

At the moment Puzzle had taken over most of the wagon’s space with several blankets covered with a collection of weapons and other more esoteric gear. I had to wonder how he planned to carry all of that around, even if he had a dimensional bag like the one Strumming used for her snacks. At least, I sure hoped he was using one of those for his important gear. It was hard not to be impressed by the sheer breadth of his collection. “Wow, I guess you had plenty of things to ask Argentium for.”

Puzzle glanced up at me and shrugged. “As the old saying goes, it’s better to have it and not need it than need it and not have it. As it is this one would prefer to have more, but we had to make do with what she had available.”

“Yeah, not like we can wait for things to get shipped over.” I looked over the collection of stilettos with different blade profiles. “Considering what we could be up against, I’m not sure there's any such thing as being too heavily armed.”

“This one most emphatically agrees.” Puzzle picked up several of the knives, testing the balance on each before setting it back down. “Blightspawn are a bit bigger than anything this one is used to fighting, and our options for subterfuge are considerably more limited. This one dislikes being forced to defend a relatively fixed target. By the very nature of our mission we cede the initiative to the enemy and sacrifice any realistic hope of stealth or surprise. The enemy will choose when battle begins, and a threat to the convoy can force us to fight even if it would be unwise.”

He was right, assuming we weren’t willing to be really cold-blooded about sacrificing some of the refugees to save the rest of the convoy. Which ... okay, giving up a hundred to save a thousand was the logical thing to do, but only after exhausting every other alternative I could find. I tried to focus on something a bit more positive than the grim mathematics of death. “We got the one Blightspawn, and that was when we had no idea what we were dealing with. Now we’re in much better shape to take the fight to them.”

Puzzle set aside the weapons, frowning at me. “Are we now?”

“Of course we are.” I did my best to smile confidently. “For starters, we know what we’re up against. You’re the one who always says that knowledge is power. Not to mention that, well...” I waved at his huge collection of gear. “Better equipment. Having the right tools for the job makes a huge difference. Speaking of which.” I rolled my shoulder so Chainbreaker’s hilt showed more prominently. “If this sword could get through Blackfyre’s scales, it’ll probably cut through a Blightspawn’s chitin too.”

“Quite likely,” Puzzle conceded. “However, this one doesn’t know how familiar the Shimmer-mare is with the principles of blade combat, beyond basics like ‘smack them with the sharp part.’ One of the most important parts of any form of melee combat is hoofwork and maneuvering for position.” His eyes pointedly fell to the prosthetic strapped to what was left of my right foreleg. “How quick and maneuverable do you think you’ll be?”

I sighed and shook my head. “I’ve always teleported around more than running and jumping in the middle of a fight.”

“And the Glimmer-mare has a spell that can neutralize that,” Puzzle pointed out. “And considering she almost certainly learned that spell from Blackfyre, this one doubts that you can rely on that for combat maneuverability.”

“Then I’ll come up with something else,” I grunted. “I know the situation isn't great, but we’ll manage. We’ve got to, considering how many people are counting on us.”

Puzzle stared at me for several seconds, then sighed and turned his attention back to the new collection of runestones he’d picked up. “You do remember that you’re injured, right?”

My eyes narrowed, and I pointedly raised my maimed leg. “Trust me, I remember every time I take a step. But it doesn't change anything.”

“Yes it does,” Puzzle countered stubbornly. “You’re getting very dangerously invested in this, and this one is afraid of how it might end.”

I scowled at him and tried to cross my forelegs over my chest, only for the prosthetic to not cooperate. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

Puzzle shifted his full attention to me, his face unreadably blank. “You’ve already suffered a brain aneurysm and lost a leg in this war, and it’s only just begun in earnest. How far do you plan to go with this?”

I grimaced. “Yeah, I’ve gotten pretty banged up. I’ve also saved a whole lot of lives.”

“So you have,” Puzzle conceded. “But that’s come at a significant cost. Both to yourself, and to our plans.”

My temper flared and I rounded on him. “So what was I supposed to do? Do you think I should have left everyone in Coldharbor to die because that’s not part of your long-term plan?”

“Sometimes we must look at the big picture,” Puzzle answered calmly. He took a deep breath. “As your friend, I think it best to speak plainly. If you continue on your current course you’re unlikely to survive this conflict. You might not even make it through our current mission. You've already given so much to the people of Northmarch, and this one fears you won’t stop until you have nothing left. Don’t make a martyr of yourself.”

I scoffed. “I’m not planning on dying here.”

“This one doubts you planned on being permanently maimed here either,” Puzzle shot back. “Already this one is having to reconsider how much we can do thanks to your injuries. We can hardly go around plunging ourselves headfirst into mortal peril now that you’re crippled. It is entirely possible that your planned foray into teaching at the White Pony’s school will become a permanent position as a matter of necessity. This one certainly expects that when we meet the White Pony at the border, she will do everything in her power to remove you from the front lines.”

“She probably will,” I agreed. “But she’s never had much luck when it comes to making me do things I don’t want to. So I’m going to escort this refugee convoy to safety, and from there I'll do whatever else I have to.”

“And how long do you plan to do this?” Puzzle demanded. “Until the war is over?”

I shrugged. “Yeah, pretty much.”

“And if that takes years?” he pressed.

“Then that’s what it takes.” I sighed and took a seat opposite him. “I’m not going to cut and run while everyone here needs help.”

“And what about our plans in Freeport?” Puzzle frowned and shook his head. “Are you willing to throw all of those away? This one certainly can’t abandon everything it spent years building to help you on some doomed crusade to right every single evil you come across. While this one sympathizes with the people of Northmarch and their plight, it still has its own duties and responsibilities and can’t neglect them indefinitely.”

I glowered at him. “Sure, we have plans. Do those plans matter more than all the people here who are going to die if we don’t help?”

“Considering we were planning on reforming an entire nation?” Puzzle frowned down at my prosthetic. “Sunset, this one is more than happy to help Northmarch as much as it reasonably can, but it has a question for you. What helps them more: this one serving as an above average but by no means remarkable convoy guard, or this one using all its power, resources, and vast network of contacts in Freeport to aid them?” He steepled his hooves, keeping his eyes fixed on me. “And perhaps Magus Shimmer of Freeport can help more than Sunset Shimmer, volunteer spellslinger. If Argentium and Blackfyre use their considerable wealth to seek out some Freeport mercenaries to bolster their forces, your influence could be considerable. You could doubtless help when it comes to persuading the Council that Blackfyre would make for a much worse neighbor and trade partner.”

I groaned and tried to run a hoof down my face, but instead I just smacked myself in the snout with my new metal leg. “Okay, fine, so maybe we could do a lot of good just using our influence, but right now on the ground they need fighters.”

“That is so,” Puzzle agreed. “And that is why we are going to help these refugees arrive safely. By the time that is done Argentium will have roused the north, and the White Pony will be well into the process of mobilizing Equestria. There will be far less need need for one wounded magus and two capable but hardly extraordinary fighters.”

I sighed and reluctantly found myself nodding along with him. “It’s ... I don't know. I guess we’ll just have to play it by ear. I don’t want to neglect Freeport, and you’ve got a point about using our influence, but I can’t just walk away when they’re asking me to help.”

“And this one can understand that.” Puzzle reached over and gave my shoulder a quick pat. “But we need to think about the situation objectively. If we continue on our current course and you insist on personally jumping into every single battle, this one can only hope that making a martyr of yourself is a swift path to ascension.”

I clenched my teeth as my temper flared. “You think that's what I’m doing?! That this is all just some effort to make myself an alicorn?!”

Puzzle shook his head. “This one suspects it might be part of why you’re pushing yourself so hard, but it didn’t mean to imply your motives were selfish. This one knows you want to help, and it sympathizes with that. But you are killing yourself here. Every time you have a choice between backing down or ruining yourself to push a little bit harder, you choose the latter. You nearly destroyed your own brain trying to keep up with Starlight, and now you’ve lost a leg rather than back away from Blackfyre. If you keep this up...” He sighed, his gaze dropping down to the bottom of the wagon. “What happens if there are a bunch of Blightspawn, and someone needs to do a valiant rearguard action to buy the refugees time to escape? As noble as that would be, this one doesn’t want to see you go down that path, and right now that’s what you’re setting yourself up for.”

I opened my mouth to refute his argument, but I couldn’t actually come up with anything. Mostly because, while I didn’t want to admit it, he was probably right. If it came down to me dying to save a couple thousand refugees, that sounded like a pretty fair trade. I shrugged helplessly. “I don't know what else to do. They need my help.”

Puzzle didn’t say anything for a long time, looking over his gear in silence. Finally he settled on a silver-edged dagger, holding it in his hooves. “This one supposes it should have realized the truth. We must be who we are, no matter the circumstances. If it persuaded you to walk away from Northmarch you would doubtless be guilt-ridden, and blame yourself for every single casualty for the rest of the war. Still...” He took a deep breath. “Don’t make this one bury you, Shimmer-mare.”

“Not planning on it.” And if things went bad, I doubted Blackfyre would leave a corpse behind. “I’m not trying to get myself killed, but I guess I can’t help ... wanting to help.” I finished lamely.

“Not when that’s who you are,” Puzzle agreed with an almost mournful smile “If you will forgive this one for saying so, you can be extremely stubborn once you set your mind on some noble cause. But then, this one has no one else but itself to blame for helping you get into this.”

I shook my head and gave him a pat with my good leg. “It’s not your fault, Puzzle. These are my choices. I’m not a kid like Kukri, I knew what I was getting into.”

Puzzle grimaced and shook his head, his eyes drifting back down to my leg. “This one would argue that point. None of us knew what we were getting into at the start of this. Even if you are making these decisions, this one is enabling you. And it will certainly be blamed by those seeking a scapegoat for your injuries. At least the ones within Freeport: the Equestrians will likely blame the Heartstrings-mare.” He sighed, then shook his head. “But wallowing in self pity isn't productive. Let’s focus on the immediate problems in front of us and let the future tend to itself. There is little point worrying about long-term damage to our reputations if we end up in a Blightspawn’s stomach before the week is out.”

“Exactly.” I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. “Which is why I’m saving the breakdown over my leg until the war is over. Once that’s done, I’ll lock myself in my room and listen to loud music or whatever it is I’m supposed to do.”

Puzzle frowned and cocked his head to the side. “This one is surprised to hear you speak of it all so ... flippantly.”

I shrugged. “It’s ... I dunno. I think I’m still in shock or something. There’s just so much else to worry about right now that there’s not really time to think about this.” I tapped the prosthetic.

“Displacement.” Puzzle nodded sagely. “Under the circumstances, this one can’t fault you for putting off dealing with it to focus on our immediate survival. Very well then, this one shall follow your example and not concern itself with the broader issues until after we’ve seen our charges to safety.” His eyes narrowed slightly. “Though do not think this will be the last you hear of its opinion on what our current course of action should be.”

“I know.” I took a seat next to him. “We’ll talk about what to do after the convoy once we’ve got them taken care of. Who knows where the war will be by that point?”

Puzzle nodded sharply. “Very well then. For now, this one thinks we should make plans for what to do when we’re attacked by Blightspawn. There will doubtless be a great deal of panic and chaos, and coordinating our response on the fly will be difficult. Far easier if everyone has some idea of what to do ahead of time.”

I grimaced. “Yeah. So, here’s what I was thinking...”

We managed to get the convoy up and moving more-or-less on time. How we managed that, I’ll never know. I think a lot of it was just that all the refugees understood exactly how important it was to get out of the ruined city and into safety.

It didn’t take long for the first obvious problem to crop up: this far north in the middle of winter, daylight didn’t last very long. Keeping things moving after the sun went down wasn’t an option. The cold and rough terrain were more than enough to make that a bad idea, and once you added in the risk of a Blightspawn attack it got twenty times worse. Fortunately, between the refugees and the militia we had enough skilled outdoorsmen to get a decent perimeter set up around camp before full night fell.

The militia put the leftover daylight to good use, running through a bunch of basic weapon drills. It seemed like a good idea to observe all that and see how good they looked. After all, the plan I’d hammered out with Puzzle depended on them being able to pull their weight. Not that we were expecting a bunch of dyed-in-the-wool monster slayers, but it would make our job a lot easier if they could hold the spawn off with their spears and wear them down with arrow fire. Hard to pull off the classic hammer and anvil tactics we’d worked out if the militia couldn’t hold the line and soften them up enough for us to finish them off.

They looked good as far as I could tell. The spearmen were producing a passable wall of sharp pointy sticks, and the archers were hitting their targets more often than not. However, there was a big difference between doing well at drills and handling the real thing. Blightspawn were fast, big, and a lot scarier than the snow mounds they were practicing on. Everything I’d read and heard said that the big issue with militia was how well they’d hold ranks in a real fight. If half the spearmen panicked and ran for the hills at the first sign of blightspawn, our spear wall wouldn’t even slow them down.

Unfortunately, there was no way to train them for real battle. After all, the whole point of training was that it wasn’t the real thing. All I could do was hope they would pass their trial by fire. The fact that they were fighting for their families back in the main body of the refugee column should keep them motivated, but fear was never rational.

The crinkle of a chip bag announced Strumming’s arrival before she spoke up. “So what’re you looking at? ‘Cause I don’t think you’re just using this as an excuse to stare at all the cute militia guys get all sweaty. Or the gals.” She took a seat next to me. “Actually, come to think of it I don’t think I’ve seen you ever really getting into anyone, male or female. And considering you’re on the tail end of those teenage hormones and your biological clock firing up, that’s a bit unusual.”

“I’ve got more important things to worry about,” I answered with a dismissive hoofwave. “Right now, it’s checking out how the militia looks.”

“Yeah, fair enough.” Strumming’s eyes flicked over to a group of kids watching the militia workout, and she opened up her snack bag to toss some of her chips their way. “So are you actually worried about how well these farmers can hold a spear, or are you looking for reasons to not think about the things that are really bothering you?”

I shrugged. “Little bit of both. I’ve only got a million things to worry about.”

“No kidding.” Strumming shook her head. “At this rate you’re gonna get a bunch of premature wrinkles and grey hairs before you’re thirty.”

“At the moment, I’ll be happy just to make it to thirty.” I grimaced and shook my head. “Last thing I need right now is more stress.”

“You need a hobby,” Strumming announced.

Typical Strumming, randomly changing the subject with no warning. “Now’s hardly the time to pick up one of those.”

“Sure it is!” She finished off her own bag of chips, then tossed a couple more to the kids. “To toss out a crazy idea, how about we work on learning how to use that priceless relic you’re carrying around on your back?”

That caught me flat-hooved. “Uh, what?”

“Chainbreaker,” she explained. “The sword. That you’re carrying. Right now. Remember the part where you beat up Starlight and stole it from her? I know you got brain damage right after that, but I was pretty sure you still remembered everything.”

I glowered at her over the tone, though at least now I knew what she was talking about. “Right, that’s...” I took a deep breath and clamped down on my temper. “That’s ... actually not a bad idea.” Back when I’d been planning things out with Puzzle I had brought up that Chainbreaker would be useful for cutting through the thick hides of Blightspawn, after all. Much as I didn’t love the idea of swinging an artifact around, I might need it.

Strumming nodded and grinned. “Yeah, long as you’re hauling it around it’s probably a good idea to train with a bit before something big and ugly tries to eat you.”

“Something that’s entirely too likely to happen in the foreseeable future,” I agreed, slowly drawing out the blade. “And, well, I’m not completely clueless, but when it comes to swords I haven’t really trained with them.” The couple lessons in melee combat I’d had with Knives had stuck to staves and polearms since those were usually the preferred weapons for a magus: a longer weapon to keep the enemy at bay while I did the real damage with my spells. “When it comes to swords, I don’t know much beyond ‘stick them with the pointy end.’”

Strumming shook her head. “Actually, not even that applies here. Pull it out.” I drew the blade for her. “See how it’s got a single edge, and there’s a little bit of a curve to the blade? Means this weapon’s optimized for slashing and cutting, not making with the stabby-stabby. Sure, it’s got a pointy end, but the curve will diminish your thrusting force a bit and makes it a little harder to put the point exactly where you want it. Not to mention single-edged swords just don’t penetrate as deep as double-edgers.” She shrugged. “I mean, the magic on it will probably make up a lot of the difference when it comes to penetration, and there’s a big difference between ‘not optimized for stabbing’ and ‘can’t stab,’ but it’s still gonna make a difference. Can’t count on magic to make up for it, since odds are you’ll run into someone with enchanted armor or super-tough scales to counterbalance what’s in the sword.”

“So more ‘slice them with the sharp edge,’” I concluded. I was a bit surprised she knew so much about swords, though maybe I should’ve anticipated that. She’d obviously had weapon training, after all. “I suppose this is the part where you offer to train me?”

“You do pick up on things pretty quick.” Strumming reached into her bag and pulled out a long, thin blade. “Now if you want a ‘stick them with the pointy end’ sword, go with something like an estoc.” She smirked and flourished the blade.

That was unexpected. “Where did you get that from?!” Though in hindsight I probably should’ve guessed her magic bag had more in it that just a seemingly endless supply of junk food.

Strumming chuckled. “I got it from the Coldharbor armory, Argentium, the EIS, a blacksmith, or a soldier napping. Take your pick.”

Typical Strumming answer. “I suppose we could try a spar, then. I know a spell to make our blades safe.”

“Sounds good to me.” She gave that answer just enough time to sink before continuing. “If you want to skip the part where I teach you how to actually hold the blade, how to strike, footing, and the hundred other basics of swordsmareship. Not to mention that considering how magically potent that sword of yours is, I’d rather do some extra safety testing before we play around with it like that. I’m sure your safety spells are good and all, but I’d rather not find out the hard way that it’s sharp enough that your spell just makes it go from lopping my head clean off to merely slicing my throat open.”

I sighed and nodded along. “Right. Guess we’ll start from the foundation and work our way up.”

“That is the smart way to build things.” She grinned, looking just a touch too eager. “So let’s get started. First, we need a good stance to minimize how much of you they can hit while maxing out your own striking options. I mean, it’s a bit different when you’re using magic instead of holding it in your hooves, but things like covering yourself defensively still apply.” She walked up to me and started correcting my stance, doing her best to nudge my hooves into place. “And this goes here, and this here, and this here...”

I grimaced when she got to my prosthetic. It was difficult to get it lined up exactly how she wanted it, and once she finally had it in position I stumbled as one of the straps holding it to what was left of my leg came a little loose.

Strumming quickly caught me before I landed face-first in the dirt, re-tightening the strap. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath, then nodded to herself. “We’ll get back to your hoofwork and stance later. For now, let’s focus on holding your sword right. Now there’s a lot of different schools of thought, but for now let’s stick to the basics. Hold it like so.” She brought her own estoc up in a classic ready stance.

I did my best to imitate her, and she carefully nudged the hilt and flat of my blade a few times to get it right. “Don’t worry, takes a bit to get the hang of it. Besides, I figure you’ll probably end up wanting a different stance anyway. The classic holding it in front of you at a forty-five degree angle is more of a longsword thing, and your magic changes a lot of rules. So, how about I show you the rest of the stances and then we do some experimenting from there?”

“Sounds good.” I ran through a couple more positions, letting her guide me through each one. “So which is the best?”

Strumming shrugged. “If there was one that was universally agreed to be the best, I’d just teach you that one and not bother with any others. Considering the circumstances, the best one is the one you feel good about using. Not like I have time to train you in any methods that don’t come pretty quickly. Breaking outta your comfort zone to master a new style takes a whole lot of practice, and right now we don’t have years for you to practice until you’re sick of it. For the moment I’ll settle for establishing baseline competence, and maybe if we’re lucky I’ll get you up to mediocre or even average.”

I snorted and rolled my eyes. “Wow, way to inspire confidence in the student.”

Strumming shrugged. “Just setting some realistic goals for you, Bacon-Mane. Unless you're some kind of one in a million genius at swinging sharp pieces of metal, you’re gonna have to train your way through it the long, ugly, and slow way. I guess it’s possible you’ll be really good with a sword, but considering you’re already as super-genius when it comes to throwing magic around I wouldn’t bet on it. Wouldn’t be fair if you turned out to be a natural expert at everything.”

“Life isn’t always fair.” My eyes flicked down to my missing leg. “And I think I’m due for a bit of a lucky break.”

“Good luck never comes to the people who deserve it,” Strumming answered.

“Yeah, sounds about right.” I sighed and tried out a high side stance. “I guess I just have to hope that the basics will be enough when I’m up against a Blightspawn.”

Strumming grimaced and shook her head. “I wouldn’t use the sword unless you’re running low on options. Magic’s still gonna be your weapon of choice, especially now that close-in nimble dodging’s gonna be a lot harder for you. And really, swords aren’t a good choice for taking on a big nasty monster. If Ushabti was thinking ahead, he would’ve made himself a big nasty enchanted halberd instead. Really, why is it always swords? I’d say it’s a compensating thing for the stallions, but that wouldn’t explain why there isn’t a single enchanted six meter long pike. Now that’s how you compensate.”

“Yeah, but pikes are more of a mass combat weapon.” I tried out a side stance with the blade held behind my head. “Having one super-enchanted pike in the middle of a huge wall of pikes wouldn’t make a huge difference. All the magic tends to go into weapons meant for one-on-one combat. Ergo, swords.”

Strumming thought it over, then slowly nodded along. “Makes sense. You liking that back stance? Leaves you a bit more open, but it does give you a lotta options to hit hard. And while it is a bit more vulnerable than having the sword front and center, it’s not near as open as most folks think it is.”

“Yeah, what I’m noticing.” I took it through a few more practice swings. “Thanks, by the way.”

Strumming shrugged. “Hey, it’s my job.”

I frowned and sheathed Chainbreaker. “That’s not the only reason you’re helping me.”

She pulled out another bag of chips. “Nah, I like you well enough. It’s why I keep hanging around instead of asking for a new job.”

I sighed and closed my eyes. “Strumming, I’ve been beaten up, traumatized, and permanently maimed. Could you be a little honest with me just this once? If you were only hanging around with me because it was your job, you wouldn’t be mouthing off to Scarlett and burning your orders from the EIS.”

“Oh, right, that.” She tossed another bag of chips to me, then cleared off a patch of snow before taking a seat. “I wasn’t wrong when I said the whole thing smelled fishy, and I was making what seemed like the right call. She was trying to beat you up to drag you back home. That's a liiiitle bit too kidnappy for my liking, and I didn't think The Boss would like it either if I let it happen. But, since you asked for me to be all honest and stuff—which is really hard for me to do by the way—then ... there might’ve been a bit more to it than that. Like ... well back when I started this job I wouldn’t have hesitated to take you down if you went bad, or bug boy if I thought he was being a bad influence. Now ... well I did burn my orders when they said to go against you. Unique context and all, but it does raise the question of what context it would take for me to go along with orders like that. Kinda suspect that unless you went around eating babies or something, it’d play out the same way.”

“Oh.” That was a bit of a surprise. “So it wasn’t just because of the situation or what your boss would want, but because we’re ... I don’t know if I'd call us friends, but we’re a team.”

“Yeah, that.” She let out a breath in a soft huff. “I mean, you went all vengeful to take down that one guy who shot me, even though you had no reason to even like me. That counts for a lot. It’d be pretty cool if we managed to actually become friends somehow. I know I can be ... difficult at times, but ... yeah.”

I took a deep breath to organize my thoughts. “It’s ... you’ve been working hard to earn it lately. I mean, I’ve still got some of your blood from that transfusion and you’ve been trying to get along better with Kukri. Don’t think I haven't noticed or don’t appreciate the effort. You still annoy the hay outta me sometimes, but it feels like you’re at least trying not to.”

“Thanks.” She smiled, and unlike most of her grins this smaller one looked genuine. “Been a pretty crazy trip. Scared me half to death when I saw how banged up you were.”

“Yeah, no kidding.” My eyes flicked back down to my missing leg. “Puzzle was scared too. He didn’t admit it out loud, but you could tell from how he started talking about plans and stuff.” I winced and shook my head. “And Kukri ... I probably gave her some new nightmares.”

Strumming grimaced and nodded. “Yeah, she’s pretty broken up. It was all we could do to settle her down after Scarlett and Argentium hauled you off for treatment, and once you came back from that minus a leg...” She sighed and ran a hoof through her mane. “She’s a tough kid, but that’s a hay of a lot to put on someone her age.”

No kidding. I hadn’t had a perfect childhood by any means, but I’d been incredibly sheltered compared to Kukri. “I better talk to her.”

“She needs someone to give her a hug and tell her everything’s gonna be okay, and it’s not really something Puzzle and I can do.” Her eyes flicked over to the militia doing their workout. “Even if it’s a bit of a polite lie, the kid needs it.”

“Yeah.” With any luck, it would wind up being one of those lies I could make come true. “I'll get it done as soon as we’re done here.” I pulled Chainbreaker back out. “So, I think I remember reading something about how important edge alignment is.”

Strumming grinned. “It’s only the most important part of cutting and slicing. If the edge isn’t lined up right you’ll just slice off skin instead of carving into them. So let’s do a little practice...”

By the time I was done training with Chainbreaker I was feeling a bit more confident about my ability to swing it and way sorer for my trouble. Most of it was just the usual twinging from a long workout, but the really unfair part of it all was how my leg was hurting more than anything else. The leg that wasn’t even there any more. “Stupid phantom pains.”

I got to our wagon-sled to find Kukri inside, her bags upended and her possessions scattered over half the floor. Between Puzzle doing that earlier and now her, I was starting to wonder if this was just a habit of changelings. Though where Puzzle’s stuff had all been weapons, Kukri’s collection of gear included half a dozen scarves, her cloak, gambeson, and charm necklace, a couple bags of chips she must’ve ‘borrowed’ from Strumming, a first aid kit, and a large flask of thymoplasm.

I started to climb up into the wagon, but by instinct I tried to lead with my right foreleg. The one that wasn’t there anymore. The prosthetic seemed to be good enough for basic mobility, but climbing up into a wagon was asking a bit too much of. I grimaced and shifted over to my remaining leg. “Hey, Kukri. Everything going good?”

Kukri’s ears perked up. “Yeah, yeah, this one’s just ... packing.” She scampered over to help me up, but didn’t really do much good. Probably because she avoided my injured side like it had the plague, and I didn’t need any help on the side with two working legs.

“I got it, but thanks.” I found a reasonably open bit of floor space and made myself comfortable. “So you’re packing?”

“Yes.” Her shoulders slumped. “This one is getting ready to ... to go home.” Her eyes flicked to my missing leg. “This one can’t...” She swallowed and averted her gaze. “This one got your bags first, though. It figured it could do that at least while it’s still here.”

“Thanks, Kukri.” I shifted over to take a seat next to her. “You know why I have to send you home, right?”

“Yeah,” she answered, the word coming out so listlessly it sounded like a balloon deflating. “It's too dangerous for a kid, even a magus’ apprentice.” A tremble shot down her spine, and a faint whimper escaped between her lips. “S-since it’s too dangerous for the magus, t-too.”

“Yeah, that.” I gently rubbed her back with my good hoof. “If anything happened to you it’d kill me.” I tried to grin and go for a wry tone. “Or your parents would kill me.”

Kukri did her best to match me, but the smile didn’t reach her end and her chuckle sounded more like a choked-off sob.

I upgraded the backrub to a full-on hug. “Hey, it’s okay Kukri. I’m not gonna let anything happen to you. Like I promised your parents, I’ll do whatever it takes to protect you.”

Kukri hugged me back, only to flinch away after one of her hooves brushed against my wounded leg. “This one isn’t worried about itself, Shimmer-mare. Y-you’re—you got...” She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. “Look, this one knows it can’t do more than spit goo and cheer you on, but it’s still your apprentice. It’s place is at your side. Especially now that you’re—since you’re going to need—um, that is to say that...” She trailed off uncertainly.

“That I’m missing a leg now,” I finished for her. It might’ve been a bit blunt, but the sooner she got used to it, the faster she’d bounce back.

“Yes. That.” Her eyes slowly settled on my amputated leg, and after an almost painful silence she burst out. “This one can help you get around! It could pack and unpack your things for you, help you with carrying, and ... and um ... oil your joint?”

I sighed and shook my head. “Kukri, I really appreciate the offer, but I don’t think all of that is worth the risk of keeping you in a warzone.”

Her shoulders slumped. “This one knows, it’s just trying to find an excuse to stay.” She bit her lip. “Are you oka—feeling better, at least?”

“I’m managing,” I answered carefully. “Less than a week ago I was stuck in traction, and now I’m up and walking around.” No need to mention all the less pleasant aspects of it, or the fact that I was still in shock and denial about the whole thing. Maybe if I tried hard enough to pretend that I was okay, I could fake it ‘til I made it.

Kukri grunted skeptically. I must be in really bad shape if I couldn’t even fool her. “Not like normal, though. You’re hurt and ... and this one feels like it should be there to help. It knows why it has to go, but it still wants to be here.”

I leaned down and gave her a quick nuzzle. “Thanks, Kukri. I really appreciate it.”

“Of course, Shimmer-mare.” She gave me one last squeeze, then let go and turned her attention back to her things. “Anything this one can do while it's still here?”

It took a bit for me to come up a good errand to throw her way. “I’ve had nothing but hospital food for three days, and then all the convoy prep meant I was eating on the run.”

Kukri grinned and started nodding so hard I feared she’d hurt her neck. “Of course! This one’s on it! Give it twenty minutes and it’ll get a bowl of stew ready for you!”

She rushed out, and returned well before her self-imposed deadline. “Here you go!” She started to pass it over, then quickly pulled it back. “Wait! It’s probably cold!” She did a quick taste test. “Yeah, way too cold. But this one’ll fix it!”

Her horn lit up, and soon the stew was steaming. She tried it again, and her eyes bugged out. “Haaaaaaahahaaat, haaaht, hooot...” She started fanning her mouth. “Uh ... well this one got it hot enough.”

Typical overachieving desperate-to-please apprentice. “Thanks, Kukri.” I gave her a quick pat on the back. “Anything you need from me?”

She was already halfway out the wagon before she stopped to think about that. “Um, there is one thing. This one left most of its things back at the inn when Blackfyre attacked, and...” She trailed off, a faint blush on her cheeks. “Um, this one’s teachers probably won’t believe it when it says a dragon burned its homework.”

I chuckled and pulled her in for another hug. It wasn’t really that funny, but even something a little funny felt like a gift from Celestia herself after the last few days.

Author's Note

As always, thanks to my pre-reading and editing team for all their hard work. Also, I would like to thank all my dedicated Patreon supporters. You guys are awesome.

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Difficult Questions

One of the least glamorous but most important parts of running a refugee convoy was making sure everyone stayed properly fed. We had a bunch of hungry people, but only so much in the way of supplies to go around. We weren’t in danger of running out of food before we got to safety, but that estimate assumed we used everything somewhat responsibly. Without some supervision we’d probably have people gorging, hoarding, and wasting food, not to mention someone would get lost in the shuffle and miss a meal. We did have a lot of kids, and not all of them had parents looking out for them.

I was in the middle of applying a bit of magic to make sure all the cookpots were at the right temperature when Puzzle came over, putting his hooves as close to the fire as he could without burning his coat. “So what can we expect for breakfast today? Or is this technically lunch?”

“Does kinda fall into that weird middle area between the two,” Strumming agreed, joining him. “Kinda figures, considering how long it takes the sun to come up at this time of year. Plus we wanna use as much daylight as we can, so this is it for food stops until we settle down for the night. Guess the meal classification is gonna depend on what the food is.”

“As long as it's warm this one doesn’t care what meal it counts as.” He scooted a bit closer to the fire. “This one puts up a brave face, but it doesn’t like the cold any more than Kukri. Come to think of it, the Old Mind has never shown much interest in operating in the north. It cannot recall her ever moving against Northmarch or Yakistan, and does not recall any records of her going against the Crystal Empire either.”

“Probably no coincidence the Free Minds decided to set up shop on a bunch of tropical islands,” Strumming agreed. “Though some of it’s probably just the kind of weather you’re used to. Ponies are a lot better at handling the cold, and after a couple years of Freeport weather I was not ready for this.”

“You and me both.” The only reason I’d managed so well was my personal repertoire of spells “Anyway, food. We’ve got stew. Gives everyone something warm to eat, and it’s easy to make in bulk.”

Strumming nodded. “Just toss a bunch of stuff in a pot, then add snow for the water and put it all on a fire. Sounds tasty, as long as nobody goofs and uses yellow snow. Anyway, I want food buddies to eat with, so when are you eating?”

Food buddies. More likely she just wanted dibs on any leftovers. I waved her away. “I’ll get something once everyone else is fed.”

Puzzle frowned at me. “It’s not a big deal for you to get a bowl. This one is quite sure you can manage the campfires underneath the stewpots and eat at the same time.”

“Sure.” I shrugged. “But it’s also not a big deal for me to wait until everyone else has been taken care of. Not like I’m half-starved and in a huge rush to eat right away.”

Puzzle filled his own bowl. “So you’re just not hungry? Or is there some other reason?”

Strumming leaned over and whispered so loudly it hardly counted as one. “I think she’s doing the martyr thing again. You know, ‘I shall go hungry for the sake of the children.’” She filled her own bowl, topping it off until it seemed likely overflow if she so much as breathed on it.

As if to show why that was a bad idea, Puzzle blew on his own soup to cool it off. “That does seem to be a disturbing trend,” he agreed.

I scowled at both of them. “You know I’m right here, don’t you?”

“You’re kinda hard to miss,” Strumming agreed. “See, we were doing this thing where we kinda indirectly discuss what you’re doing wrong instead of getting all up in your face about. Bit less confrontational that way. At least in theory. But if we wanna blunt and direct ... look, helping out the kids is noble and all, but it kinda doesn’t matter if they’re a bit hungry and low-energy ‘cause they missed a meal. Well, I mean, it does, but it matters a lot more if that happens to our one and only battle magus.”

Puzzle nodded. “And in any case, we’re not that short on food yet.”

I groaned and grabbed bowl. “Okay, okay, fine.” I filled it up, though not quite as much as Strumming had. How she’d managed to not spill anything was a mystery. “Happy now? I’m not starving myself, I was just trying to be nice about helping everyone else out.”

“Not so much happy as we’re less unhappy,” Strumming answered unhelpfully.

Puzzle frowned and nodded along. “Mmm, true. There is an ongoing issue it is past time we had a serious discussion about.”

I groaned and ran a hoof through my mane. “Yeah, let me guess, more issues with the convoy? Seems like I can’t go five minutes without something coming up.”

“Not exactly.” Puzzle took a deep breath. “The problem has to do with you.”

“Oh.” I took a big mouth of stew to buy myself some time to think of a good answer. “Why do I have a feeling I'm not going to like this conversation?”

“Probably ‘cause you know it’ll turn into one of those times when we make you face up to a bunch of facts you’ve been trying to avoid and take a critical look back at your past decisions.” Strumming smirked, delivering one last line before diving into her overstuffed food bowl. “You always hate those talks.”

Puzzle followed up on her point. “To put it plainly, we're concerned with some of your actions since coming to Northmarch.” He sighed and frowned down at his food. “No, some of this has been going on well before now, but what happened here has brought it into focus.”

I scowled at both of them, that early suspicion they were going to piss me off now a full-blown certainty. “Care to get more specific?”

“Hard not to notice you’ve been jumping head-first into the noble hero thing.” She frowned and glanced down at my prosthetic. “Or should I say throwing yourself in leg-first? Most folks would’ve taken losing a limb as a good reason to not go rushing back onto the front lines right away. From the way you’ve been acting, I wouldn’t be shocked if you hacked the thing off because it would take too long to heal.”

I didn’t say anything, but something on my face must have given it away. Strumming dropped her stew, the contents rapidly melting a hole into the snow. “Oh. My. Celestia. Are you completely insane?!”

Puzzle’s jaw clenched, and he glared at me. “Explain.”

I groaned. Of course they wouldn’t understand. “Look, it would’ve been a year or more for my leg to heal, and that’s assuming nothing went wrong with it. I could’ve been stuck with something that only technically counted as a leg, and wouldn’t be good for much more than slowly hobbling around. Weigh that against what’s at stake: how many people are in just this one refugee convoy? Not to mention all the other people who would end up dead because I was stuck on the sidelines instead of helping.”

Puzzle groaned. “That explains a great deal. No wonder the Runeseeker-mare left so suddenly—this one can’t imagine she approved of your decision. Not to mention Argentium going along with it.” He frowned. “Actually, this one is surprised by that as well.”

“Needs of the many,” Strumming cut in. “Sure, maybe Bacon’s not quite right in the head, but she’s not wrong about how useful she is in a fight. Far as Argy’s concerned, if she saves even one life by lopping off a leg, that’s worth it. Kinda cold-blooded to let Bacon throw herself on the fire like that, but sometimes leaders have to be pragmatic like that. Only reason we’re so mad about it is because we’re pals with Bacon.”

“Quite.” Puzzle scowled down at his soup. “It’s all well and good to say that it is logical to sacrifice the one for the many, but much less clear-cut when the one being sacrificed is someone we care about.”

I snorted and rolled my eyes. “As the one in question, I have no intention of being sacrificed.”

“And yet you clearly have been.” Puzzle’s eyes settled onto my missing leg. “There were other measures you might have taken to restore the limb.”

“You mean by trying to find some creature to cut a deal with?” I asked. “Because conjuring up a demon and selling my soul to get my leg back sounds like it’d lead to a classic case of the cure being worse than the disease.”

“There were less egregious masters you could have chosen,” Puzzle countered. “This one does not see how losing a leg is an improvement over doing however many favors one of the other beings might require from you at a later date.”

“I’d still be selling my soul, just to someone slightly less bad,” I shot right back. “We all see how well a ball and chain is working out for Starlight, are you really that surprised I don’t want the same thing for myself?”

“As opposed to your current course of action?” Puzzle pointed to my prosthetic. “That is the price of maintaining total independence while refusing to back down from challenges that are beyond you. No, that is just the start of it. We both know that if Blackfyre shows up again, you’ll try to fight him even in your current state.”

Strumming grimaced. “Bug boy’s right.” She fixed her gaze on me. “Bacon, killing yourself won’t get you wings. Just a hero’s funeral. ‘Cause the way you’ve been running around lately has me thinking that’s the only way this ends. What’s with the death wish?”

“Oh please.” I snorted and turned my attention back to my soup.

Puzzle crossed his forelegs over his chest. “Shall this one start by listing off the injuries you’ve suffered recently, or all the self-destructive actions you’ve engaged in? You’ve gone to the point of permanently maiming yourself when every single thinking being in the universe would have said you could withdraw from the war an honored hero. This isn’t just accepting the risks that come from war—this is something, much, much worse. You know you’re out of your depth, you are horribly injured, and despite that you refuse to back down even long enough to let your wound heal. How exactly do you see this ending?”

“Like I said, death wish.” Strumming sighed and shook her head. “Self-sacrifice is noble and all, but this is starting to feel like something we should have you in therapy for.”

Puzzle grimaced. “The most hopeful explanation this one can find is that you’re hoping that getting yourself heroically killed is what it will take to achieve apotheosis.”

“It is the least crazy way to look at things,” Strumming agreed. “The problem is, we’ve got plenty of historical examples of ponies dying nobly and heroically. They don’t spring right back up after sprouting wings and a horn. They’re just dead. I mean, I guess maybe Sunset could be the exception, but that doesn’t sound like a very smart gamble to me. Especially when we don’t want you dead.”

Puzzle nodded. “Exactly. That’s why we’re talking about this now before this gets any worse. Perhaps you think we are just being irritating or judgemental, but we are genuinely concerned for your wellbeing. Shimmer-mare, we are scared for you right now, because unless you rethink your actions right now you are going to die. Not because of some horrible unstoppable evil, but because your refusal to accept reality can only end one way.”

I finished off the last of my stew, and for a moment I was tempted to just teleport away rather than continue the conversation. They’d probably think I was just running away from uncomfortable truths and chase me down, though. Better to just face them head-on. “So what, you think I’m just throwing myself head first into every bit of heroic mortal peril to try and find something big enough to ascend on?”

“More or less,” Puzzle shot back. “Do you want this one to list off every big monster you’ve thrown yourself at?” He held up a hoof to cut off my response. “And yes, most of the time this one is sure you put yourself at risk to help others, but this one wonders if deep down you always hoped that you would be rewarded with wings for all your good works. In the past that was not a major problem, but now you’re taking it to the point of self-destructive madness. It’s as if you hope that in your most desperate hour when all seems lost you’ll suddenly transform into an alicorn and gain the strength to triumph over Blackfyre.”

“Too bad real life doesn’t work like that,” Strumming murmured. “You don’t get a sudden massive power boost for free just because you really need it. You want to beat Glim-Glam and Blackfyre, you either need to find another way to fake a couple decades of experience or you need to make a dirty deal like Starlight did. Which sucks, but life’s not fair.”

I could feel my patience fraying. “So, what? I’m supposed to just make myself a slave, or give up completely on ever accomplishing anything?”

“Didn’t say that,” Strumming answered calmly. “Just your whole holding out for wings plan has a big flaw in it, especially when you’re trying to play in big leagues right now. Blackfyre can trade punches with Celestia and Argentium, and Starlight’s a lot closer to your mom’s weight class than yours. I mean, I get the idea behind trying to accomplish great things to earn your prize, but right now you’re aiming way too high.”

“It’s not just about becoming an alicorn,” I grumbled. “I do actually give a damn about helping everyone in Northmarch.”

“But if you finally earn the wings you covet, so much the better.” Puzzle frowned at me. “Actually, this one has a question for you. It has known that you wish to become an alicorn for almost as long as it has known you, but there is an equally important matter it is wholly ignorant of. Perhaps because it never thought to ask the question.” He fixed a piercing gaze upon me. “Why do you want to become an alicorn?”

“What?” It took me a minute to actually process the question. It was like asking someone why they liked their favorite food, or their friends. It was as senseless as asking why I kept breathing. “Celestia’s been preparing me for that for half my life. It’s been my big life goal since before my age had two numbers in it. It’s my destiny.”

Puzzle frowned at me. “It’s well established that the White Pony plans for you to ascend. We all know that you have invested considerable time and effort into it, and likely feel you deserve wings after all your trials and tribulations. But why do you want to ascend?”

“Because...” I struggled to find a good way to put it into words. It had just been something I’d taken for granted for so long that it was kind of hard to articulate it.

“Don’t even try to say ‘Because it’s my destiny,’” Strumming cut me off. “If your destiny was something you thought was stupid or not worth it, you’d say 'Screw destiny' and do what you wanted to do. Even if you liked your destiny, that super-stubborn independent streak of yours really doesn’t gel with passively accepting that some nebulous mystic force is moving you towards some fate you have no part in determining.”

“Nor would you care about fulfilling an arbitrary goal you had no part in determining,” Puzzle agreed. “So the question remains: why do you want to be an alicorn? For that matter, what would you even do with yourself after you achieved that goal? Go back to Equestria and reign at the White Pony’s side? You would always be under her shadow, which is no small part of why you left in the first place. Remain in Freeport? An intriguing possibility, but this one cannot even begin to calculate how the world would react.”

“Can’t be just about the power boost,” Strumming continued. “Sure, you know you need it now, but you were chasing after wings long before you realized you weren’t second only to Celestia in magical prowess. I can buy that back when you started off it was all some sort of vague plan to prove yourself to Princess Sun-Mom and make her love you, but I’m sure you've figured out how off that was by now.”

Puzzle smiled and nodded. “Anyone with eyes can tell that you already have that, and likely had it all along. Getting a new set of feathery appendages won’t change anything. You also don’t seem interested in pursuing any sort of rivalry with Princess Cadenza. The few times you’ve mentioned her at all, it seems more like regret than hostility.”

“So seriously, why do you want to be an alicorn?” Strumming demanded. “Not that it’s your destiny, or Celestia’s plan, or because you busted your flank for years trying to earn those wings and now you think you deserve them. Not even because you think it might get you a refund on the leg you just lost. Why is it what you want?”

I sat there and tried to come up with a good answer that would get both of them off my back. It was ... a lot harder than it should’ve been. I guess it wasn’t really something I’d sat down and thought about recently. Why would I? I’d made up my mind years ago, and I’d had plenty of bigger issues to deal with. Like finding a way to get those wings. Not to mention establishing myself in Freeport.

So why did I want wings? I mean, sure, being an alicorn was the kind of thing anyone would like on general principle, but most ponies didn’t devote years of effort to it. Like Strumming said, I’d settled on the goal back when I was a kid who knew it was her special destiny, mixed with some vague notions about how becoming an alicorn would make Celestia officially adopt me and be my new mom. Classic kid logic.

I’d grown up a lot since those days, but the alicorn dream hadn’t gone away. I mean, there were bigger reasons behind it than just the childish fantasies about Celestia. Everything I’d been trying to accomplish would be a lot easier to pull off if I had a set of wings. Nobody would ask Alicorn Sunset Shimmer if she was really up to the task of running a magical academy, and stopping the likes of Blackfyre would be a lot easier if I had more raw power to work with.

Of course, if you listened to Puzzle and Strumming the whole reason I was doing those things was to try and become an alicorn in the first place. Which ... well I wouldn’t say it was all just about that, but I’d be lying if I said I’d never considered that angle. It’s not like I checked my back every time I did a good deed to see if I’d finally earned wings, but if anything was going to earn apotheosis, it ought to be saving countless lives and taking down one of Celestia and Argentium’s oldest enemies.

Then there was my leg. Which ... well, Strumming wasn’t wrong about that. Compared to making me sprout two new limbs, change species, and altering dozens of other things about my magical and biological makeup, restoring my leg to its natural state ought to be a fairly simple thing to pull off. There wasn’t any precedent for it, but I could hope.

Ugh. All this thinking was starting to make me wonder if maybe they actually had a point about me and my so-called issues, which was the last thing I needed right now. I had enough on my mind without adding a ton of self-doubt and hard questions. Too bad there was no helping that at this point; just not having an easy, immediate answer was already enough to have me twisting myself into knots.

It was almost a relief when the Blightspawn showed up. At least that saved me from needing to think about all anything other than surviving the next five minutes.

The battle started with almost no warning. One minute we were all walking along, someone spotted a bit of snow dust getting kicked up behind a large drift, and then the next thing we knew there were a dozen blightspawn barreling down the drift towards us.

The first thing I noticed about them was that none of them were like the first one we’d gone up against. I guess that figured. If Blackfyre liked to twist and mutate his minions there was no reason any two of them had to look the same. Most of the creatures coming at us looked a lot less ... complicated. Just four legs and a spherical body dominated by a huge maw filled with razor sharp teeth. While I was no expert on making twisted monsters, I would bet that those things took a lot less time and effort to make than the big guys.

I’d been worried that when the monsters showed up everyone would go into panic mode and we’d have a mass rout on our hands. Thankfully, all the training and drills we’d been putting them through seemed to pay off. Sure, the civilians were scared out of their wits, but instead of running all over the place they ran behind the militia, who were hastily circling our wagons around to make a wall for spears and archers to hide behind.

As the militia took their positions I moved to mine as well. Inside one of the wagons that wasn’t part of the wall, safe and hidden away. Needless to say, I wasn’t a fan of this part of the plan.

That wasn’t to say I didn’t understand why it was the plan. Between my prosthetic and Starlight knowing a spell that could shut down my ability to teleport I probably wouldn’t be very mobile. If I went and jumped head-first into the battle I could end up tied down on the opposite side of the field from where I needed to be. It made a lot more sense to sit back, observe for a bit, and make sure that when I jumped in it would be somewhere I could make maximum impact. I wasn’t sitting the fight out, I was remaining in tactical reserve.

No matter how many times I told myself that, it still felt wrong to just sit back and watch as archers put their first arrows into the monsters, or the spearmen took the charge. The wall of wagons wasn’t much of a barrier, but it did slow the charging spawn down for a critical few seconds. That was enough to break the momentum of their charge, and it bought the spears a few more seconds to stab them.

It was hard to resist the urge to go rushing in when the first of the spawn broke through our line. I thought about at least contributing a long range spell or two, but before I could several of the spearmen from the second line quickly surrounded the thing, blocking any shot I might’ve had as they contained it in a rapidly closing ring of spearpoints.

I hated this. Hated being stuck on the sidelines, forced to watch as others did all the fighting. Nobody would’ve talked about keeping me away from the fighting as a tactical reserve if I hadn’t lost my damned leg. I had a prosthetic, I wasn’t crippled.

Despite that, I held my position. After all, if I jumped into the fight right now I’d probably earn another stupid lecture about pushing myself too hard to become an alicorn, or how I shouldn’t be jumping into the middle of a battle just to prove that I could still fight despite the missing leg. As if I had any chance of achieving ascension without pushing myself. And who could blame me for wanting to prove myself when I could tell they were all thinking that I was less capable now.

But fine. Whatever. Even if their plan had a ton of stupid assumptions about how much I could do in a fight, the rest of it was still a good plan, and I’d play my part. Not like I was so desperate for glory and a chance to earn my wings I’d screw things up and get everyone killed.

I sat back and watched as Strumming rammed her estoc down the maw of one of those Blightspawn, poking it out the back of the monster’s head. She withdrew the blade, then frowned down at it. “Okay, so right now it’s just expendable shock troops. Any idea where their boss is, Bug Boy?”

Puzzle flicked a knife into one of the spawn’s eyes, then tossed a tanglehoof bag down the creature’s throat to gum its huge fang-filled mouth shut. His opponent dispatched, he pointed towards the hill with his other dagger. “We’re being watched.”

Sure enough, on top of the hill were three blightspawn that were every bit as big and nasty as the one we’d fought outside of Coldharbor. However, the figure that caught my attention was the pony-sized one that was almost certainly Starlight Glimmer. It was hard to tell for sure when she’d picked up a new set of armor to replace the one I’d wrecked the last time we fought, but unless there was another unicorn working for Blackfyre...

She was sitting on top of the hill, watching the battle unfold. Guess that confirmed the little spawn were just cannon fodder. She was testing our defenses and wearing us down with the little guys before she came in with her heavies to finish the job. Those big monsters could probably smash straight through our improvised wagon wall, and while the militia was doing a good job holding so far I wasn’t optimistic about them keeping it together once we lost our strong defensive position.

Evidently Strumming must have reached the same conclusion, since she decided to try and taunt Starlight into playing her hand early. “Hey, Glim-Glam! You gonna actually do any fighting, or are you just gonna hang back and watch since you know Sunset would kick your plot again?!

Even from this distance and with the armor covering her, I could see Starlight stiffen up at the taunt. Strumming always did have a knack for getting under people’s skin. I was just glad to see her doing it to someone else instead of me.

Strumming shot a quick grin Puzzle’s way, then loudly called out to him. “Yup. Told you she’d be too scared to risk it. You know how it is with her type, they talk a good game but as soon as they lose a fight they’ll go off to sulk and whine about it. I bet she drove Blackfyre batty locking herself up in her room and listening to music about how nobody understands her.”

Puzzle winked at Strumming and slipped into cover, while Starlight threw up a spell to amplify her voice. “I think you forgot how things played out. I won the last fight, and now she’s a broken cripple while I’m stronger than ever!”

“And yet, you’re hiding way up there where she can’t get you.” Strumming smirked, and it turned into a full-blown grin when Starlight snarled and started stomping towards the wagon wall. “Oooh, looks like I touched a nerve.”

“If she’s so strong, then where is she?” Starlight unleashed a wave of telekinetic power, smacking two of the wagons aside and scattering the defenders as she made a hole for herself. “She’s the one who’s hiding, not me! I could crush her with a single spell!”

Strumming smirked and threw a few spikes at her. “Sunset’s got more important things to do than bother with weaklings like you.”

“Weak?!” Starlight caught the spikes on a magical shield. “I had her at my mercy last time! And that was after she had to cheat and use some crazy rune magic to boost herself up enough to stand a chance against me!”

“And yet, I took you down.” She threw a second volley, which Starlight deflected just as easily. “Gotta admit, it was kinda funny watching you scream and thrash around like a fish out of water. There’s just something special about taking someone who thinks they’re the big bad destroyer of worlds and breaking them down.”

Starlight snarled lashed out at her with raw physical force. “ Do you have any idea how much that thing hurt? Actually, you will soon, because before I kill you I’m gonna shove that thing so far up your—”

“Someone’s got a vindictive streak,” Strumming chuckled. “I’d warn you about the long-term mental health effects of toxic anger, but in the grand scheme of horrible decisions you’ve made that one’s gotta be close to the bottom.” Strumming flicked a few more throwing spikes at her, and waited until Starlight threw up another shield before she followed up with her special enchanted spike.

Starlight smirked and snagged one of her lesser blightspawn, tossing it right into the path of the incoming attack. The creature let out a shriek when the weapon struck it and sent electricity crackling into its body, and when Starlight set it down it went running away from the battlefield as fast as it could. “You didn’t really think I’d fall for the same trick twice, did you? Shame you’ve only got the one spike.”

“Darn, was hoping mixing it in with normal ones would throw you off.” Strumming shifted to her estoc, coming in with a feinted high slash before doing her best to skewer Starlight.

Starlight snorted and fired off a lightning bolt at Strumming. The pegasus managed to dodge the attack, but that left her off-balance for the following spell that turned the snow beneath her into a slick sheet of ice. Normally she could’ve taken to the air to dodge that, but the wing she’d gotten hurt back in the first blightspawn fight still wasn’t fully healed. “Not so cocky now, are you?”

“Nah,” Strumming agreed, carefully picking herself up. “I’m just being a really good distraction to let Sunset hit you in the back.”

Starlight blinked and whirled around, throwing up a defensive shield. “Where is she?” She lashed out with a broad force blast, probably intending to catch me if I’d been hiding under an invisibility spell, then followed up by conjuring more of those black crystals that shut down my teleport spell last time we fought.

Strumming smirked and pulled out her second spike, the one she’d given me as a gesture of trust a while back. Considering the circumstances, I’d been fine with letting her have it back. “Wow. You actually fell for ‘look out behind you!’ That’s just sad.” She sank the weapon into Starlight’s unprotected back.

Or at least, that had been the idea. But instead of dropping Starlight into helpless writhing, the energy within the spike just cascaded over and around her armor. Starlight turned around, smirking. “Did you really think I wouldn’t be ready for that?” She tapped her breastplate. “Chitin this time, not metal. Not only was it easier for Blackfyre to make in a hurry, it’s organic enough to trigger all those nasty little spells that don’t go off until it hits living tissue.” She grinned and advanced on Strumming. “Go ahead, stab me. I wanna see if the electricity goes back up the sword and gives you a taste of your own medicine.”

Strumming grimaced. “Think I’ll pass.”

“Okay then!” Starlight’s horn lit up, and sent some of those same magic missiles she’d used against me in our duel. Strumming turned and ran, taking advantage of the icy ground to go into a long slide that ended with her burying herself into a nearby snow drift. The snow at least did a good job of absorbing all the spells that had been fast on her tail.

“Running away already?” Starlight crowed. “Just tell me where Sunset is, and you can buy yourself a few more minutes of life! She’s the one I’m actually here for—killing you is just a pleasant little bonus.”

Strumming didn’t budge from behind her cover. “Well gee, since you’re offering me so much in exchange for betraying one of my friends, I’ll definitely tell you.”

“Do you want to die?” She hurled a fireball at the snow drift, turning it into a massive fog bank. “Because unless you start talking you’ll need a stopwatch to measure your life expectancy!”

Strumming came rushing out of fog bank, leading the way with a spear she must have picked up while she was out of sight. She slammed the tip into Starlight’s chest, and while the lightning from her throwing spike arced onto the spear itself the weapon’s wooden haft was long enough to keep her safe. Too bad the spear didn’t seem to have bitten deep enough to get all the way through the armor. “You want me to talk? Make me.”

The helmet made it impossible to see her facial expression, but I could hear the evil smirk in her voice. “Do you really think I can’t?”

There was a flash of light, and the two of them locked eyes. I could recognize the spell even from this distance, if only because I’d used it once a couple years ago to break into a pirate’s mind and steal the plans for his golems.

However, there was one critical difference between then and now. I’d caught Metal Mome completely off-guard with the mental attack, and he didn’t have slightest idea how to defend himself. When I hit Metal Mome, I’d stolen all the information I needed and broken his mind so badly I’d left him as little more than a vegetable.

When Starlight hit Strumming, she was the one who broke.

Starlight staggered back with a scream, and a second later I saw blood dripping down out of her helmet. At least she had the good sense to end the spell before she did any more damage to herself than she already had. She coughed and wiped more blood away from her mouth. “What the buck have you done to your mind?!”

Strumming smirked at her. “Looks like someone forgot the first rule of mental combat. My mind, my rules.”

Starlight grunted and tried to throw a spell at her, only for it to fizzle on the tip of her horn. The only good news for her was that while Strumming had definitely come out ahead in the psychic battle, she didn’t seem to quite be up for charging in to hit Starlight while she was shaky.

The bad news for Starlight was that Puzzle had been waiting for an opening like that to make his move. His invisibility spell dropped as he rushed in, his dagger headed straight for her throat. Starlight didn’t have anywhere near enough time or focus to put up a shield, but her instinctive flinch back put Puzzle’s knife out of line enough for her armor to deflect the stab.

Puzzle didn’t waste any time lamenting the failure of his first strike, reversing his grip and plunging the blade straight down. That strike found a weak spot where two of her chitinous plates joined together, and Starlight shrieked as the blade dug in.

Before Puzzle could twist the knife she lashed out with a burst of wild magic, sending Strumming and Puzzle flying. The attack was far too unfocused to do any damage, but it knocked them both back and bought Starlight a few precious seconds to catch her breath.

Strumming and Puzzle got back to their hooves, but before they could close in on her one of the large spawns that seemed to be her escorts jumped in, placing itself between them and her. Its three heads snapped forward as one, breathing out fire, ice, and acid. Puzzle and Strumming scrambled to get clear of the breath, far too busy surviving to think of going after Starlight again.

However, that left Starlight wounded, still shaken up by the mental battle, bereft of her escort, and now completely focused on her current opponents. If not for those damned black crystals restricting my teleportation I could’ve finished her off before she even knew I was coming. As it was, I had to settle for the other big spawn watching her back, a massive bipedal brute with massive scythe-like talons that could probably cleave me in half with a single hit.

He never got the chance to try. I teleported in right behind him, with Chainbreaker already behind my head and ready to swing down. The sword cut through the monster’s chitin with barely more resistance than a pair of scissors going through paper, and the monster’s head flopped off while the body fell limply into the snow.

I’d hoped to keep the advantage of surprise long enough to hit Starlight herself, but the instant I took down her big ugly monster her head snapped around, and I could hear the hate in her voice. “There you are. I was afraid you wouldn’t be here to see it when my pets ripped those stupid friends of yours into a million pieces.” She lashed out at me with one of her beams of raw destructive force. Evidently she’d already bounced back enough from the psychic clash with Strumming to be able to manage proper spells again.

Or perhaps she hadn’t. Unlike our last battle, this time my ice shield actually survived blocking one of her beams. I guess the new design for my ice shields with sandwiched layers and a bit of space between each one worked. If nothing else, I wasn’t getting cut to bits by shards of my own defensive spell.

Just getting that minor victory made me feel a bit better about the whole fight. “What’s wrong? Is that all you’ve got?” I threw the broken layers of my shield at her as a horde of razor-sharp cutting shards.

Starlight snarled and threw up another of her dome-shaped shields to block the attack, then sent it hurtling toward me like an especially large battering ram. I rolled to the side to get out of the attack’s way, but while I did a good job of dodging it took me an extra secord to find my balance on account of my prosthetic. Starlight was about to take advantage of my moment of weakness with another one of her sledgehammer spells, but I tossed a quick fireball at her face. She blocked it without too much trouble, but all I’d really been trying to do was disrupt her attack spell and buy a moment to regain my hooves.

Starlight snarled and shook her head as I threw a few light spells her way, testing her defenses. “Not quite as strong as you were last time, are you?” I taunted.

“At least I still have all my limbs!” She conjured up half a dozen black crystal spears and sent them hurtling towards me from as many angles.

The was no way I could dodge all of those, so I opted for something a bit less sophisticated and threw a up quick wave of blightfire to intercept them all. “Well, we both know I could beat you with one hoof tied behind my back.” I started to redirect the blightfire towards her, waiting until she started to prepare the same spell she’d used to shut down my efforts at using it in our last fight. Then I pulled a switch, letting the entropic flames disperse while I fired off a quick light blast. Her armor and defensive spells were enough to absorb the hit, but it left a charred circle on the chitin and sent her flying back.

Starlight pulled herself up with a frustrated snarl. “Lucky shot, and not even a hard enough one to matter.”

I smirked and tossed my head. “What was that about how you’d beat me in five minutes?”

Starlight’s horn lit up with the nasty orange glow of Blackfyre’s magic. “You are such an arrogant, self-righteous nag. I would’ve thought Blackfyre ripping off one of your legs would’ve been a lesson in how you’re not half as great as you think you are. We both know you don’t stand a chance against me. I’m three times stronger than you!”

“Maybe you are.” I fired off a concentrated fire beam she ducked underneath. “But raw power isn’t everything. You’re sure as hay not three times smarter. When I beat you back in Coldharbor, it wasn’t because I had a power boost from someone else. All that runestone did was help me unlock my natural potential and come up with a few new ideas.” I followed the fire beam up up with a blast of ice that she leapt over. “I don’t need anything special to beat you, I already have everything I need. But even if I didn’t, it doesn’t matter that you can beat me. Because you’re not just fighting me.”

Starlight’s eyes shot open as Strumming’s spear slammed into her back. The spells I’d tossed Starlight’s way might not have done anything to stop her, but they’d done a great job of clearing out the blightspawn enough to make an opening for Strumming. The spear wasn’t dramatically skewering Starlight all the way through or anything, but the head had gone in deep enough that unless that armor was way thicker than it looked she’d done some damage. The fact that Starlight had gone stiff as a board and wasn’t even trying to fight back seemed to confirm that.

“What pisses you off more?” I asked. “That you betrayed everything you used to believe in by joining up with Blackfyre, or that even after you sold your soul to get more power you still can’t beat me?”

Starlight let out an ear-piercing shriek as her horn lit up, firing energy beams off seemingly at random as she gave into blind rage. It might not have been a very effective attack, but it did make all of us back way off. I wasn’t about to risk getting into a raw power slugging match with Starlight while she had the huge boost she’d gotten by cutting a deal with Blackfyre. The only reason we’d done as well as we had so far was sneakiness, teamwork, and tactics. Not that my pride wanted to admit it, but Strumming and Puzzle had a bigger role in this win than I had. Not that it mattered as long as we beat Starlight.

Starlight erupted in a wave of orange fire that melted a huge patch of snow and scorched the ground beneath her. I could see her eyes glowing within her helmet, and it was the same nasty orange color her magic changed to after she signed up with Blackfyre.

“Oh horseapples!” I threw up another ice shield just in time to intercept the wave of orange-black fire she hurled at me. Strumming and Puzzle tried to go for Starlight’s back while she focused on me, but a second flash of her horn resulted in a towering wall of flames that cut the two of us off from any outside interference.

Starlight snarled and hurled out more black crystals, each of which exploded when it hit the ground. They were landing all around me, and I had no choice but to completely cover myself with an ice dome and try to ride out the attack. It was an absolutely terrible plan. The number one thing we’d all agreed on when discussing tactics for the fight was that I absolutely couldn’t get into a straight slugging match with Starlight. And that was exactly what this was. I was stuck in a fixed position, letting her pound away at me with her superior strength.

Starlight snarled out, her voice taking on a slightly deeper, almost feral tone. “Oh, you are going to pay for this. Maybe I can’t kill you, but it’s open season on every one of these mewling weaklings you’ve been trying to protect. I’m gonna make you watch as I feed every last one of them to the blightspawn! It’s all your fault! I was gonna let them all live, but now ... buck it! Everyone dies!”

I dropped the shield and shot a blast chunk of ice her way to break up her offensive momentum again, but Starlight was too far gone to even care at this point. The ice slammed into her chest hard enough that it had to have left behind nasty bruises if not cracking bones, but she just snarled and kept going despite the pain.

I couldn’t get my shield up in time to completely block her next attack, but I did at least keep the fires from burning me to a crisp. It still knocked me down and singed away a chunk of my mane, but that was the least of my problems. Starlight snatched up one of the fallen spears and stormed over to me. My first instinct was to block her with Chainbreaker, but the blast had knocked the sword out of my hooves.

I’d no more thought that than the sword shot across the ground towards me, seemingly of its own accord. I tried to grab it with magic, but then Starlight slammed the butt of her spear into my horn.

I saw stars, and the spell fell apart completely. She planted a hoof on my one remaining foreleg, just keep me from picking it up that way either. She raised the spear up, preparing to plunge it down into my chest. “You know what? Screw Blackfyre, you’re a dead ma—”

The runes on her back flared up, orange and furious. Starlight froze in place, unable to finish the attack as her master’s geas kept her from following through.

I still couldn’t cast any spells, and she had my one good leg pinned down. So I did the only thing I could: I punched her with the leg I had left. Or rather, the prosthetic.

It wound up working better than I’d dreamed. The metallic framework of my replacement leg broke apart on impact with her heavy chitinous helmet, but one of the steel structural rods remained more or less intact, skittering along Starlight’s helmet until it found an opening to slide into.

One of the helmet’s eye holes.

Starlight fell back with an agonized yowl, clutching at her eye and screaming like a banshee. The wall of fire dropped away, but a second later the remaining blightspawn swarmed around her. Her two remaining heavies immediately placed themselves between her and everyone else, one of them carefully picking her up in its massive clawed talons. Before any of us could even react they started hauling her off.

Despite her injuries, she wasn’t about to leave without getting in the last word. “This isn’t over! I’ll be back!”

I grimaced and watched her withdraw. For a moment I was tempted to go after her to try and finish it, but that wouldn’t end well. We’d be leaving the convoy exposed, and while we’d certainly hurt Starlight she was a long way from helpless. Not to mention that I’d thoroughly wrecked my prosthetic with that punch, so chasing after anyone was the next best thing to physically impossible.

Still, at least we’d survived. That wasn’t much, especially when we’d used most of our best tactics during the first battle with Starlight, and she wouldn’t fall for the same trick twice. And she would be back. Between her natural tendencies and having Blackfyre in her head she’d probably still be in crazy revenge mode too. And we’d have to come up with a way to stop her.

I only had one idea for how to do that, and it was terrible.

Author's Note

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A Terrible Plan

I had to leave in the middle of the night, mostly because if any of the others knew what I was up to they would’ve tried to stop me. As the first round of combat had amply demonstrated, Strumming and Puzzle weren’t exactly slouches at finding sneaky ways to stop a magus. Even Kukri would’ve done something, even if it boiled down to just making enough noise to get everyone else’s attention.

It wasn’t like I was just pulling a stupid self-sacrificing stunt. I had a plan. One with several backups and contingencies. Yes, it involved a horrifying amount of personal risk, but that’s just part of the package. It’s hard to win a war and save thousands of lives without throwing yourself head-first into mortal peril in the process. At least I wasn’t being stupid about it; I just didn’t have the time and energy to explain that to everyone else.

Or maybe I was just scared they’d find a way to talk me out of this. And it was probably a warning sign about how bad this plan was that I felt like talking it over with someone else would end with me deciding not to go ahead with it.

Oh well. Hopefully nobody would wake up early and find the notes I’d left behind in time to stop me. I had a pretty good head start, but even leaving aside the fact that Puzzle and Kukri could fly, I was moving at a pretty pathetic pace right now. I’d wrecked my old prosthetic by smacking Starlight with it, and the new one we’d quickly whipped up was only better than a peg leg because we’d added an extra-wide base so that it wouldn’t sink into the snow.

If I made it out of this in one piece, I was definitely going to sit down and put some serious work into getting a better leg. Well, assuming I didn’t manage to become an alicorn and part of that process included getting back my leg. That was definitely still Plan A, but having backup plans seemed like a good idea. Plus it gave me something to think about other than the dull pain radiating from my stump and my latest collection of injuries from yesterday’s fight with Starlight. Or the only mostly-healed injuries from all the fights before that. Or the nasty, bitter cold of a Northmarch winter night.

This was a terrible idea. Really, the whole trip had been nothing but a string of disasters.

Ugh, no sense moping. Focus. So, leg ideas. Maybe some sort of magically active crystal? I could use it for channeling spells, both offensive and defensive. Of course, crystal could be really brittle, and I needed something that would stand up to wear and tear. Leaving behind little chunks of magical crystal every time I walked around would just be silly.

Metal would probably work a lot better. It opened the door to conducting temperature and electricity, but a little insulation would fix that. And I could always pick something reasonably lightweight and durable, like aluminium, titanium, or mithril. I’d probably need to bring in a couple experts to design the thing, but that wouldn’t be an issue. I had a fair amount saved up in my bank account back in Freeport, and that was assuming Argentium wasn’t willing to foot the bill for it. Not that I was already thinking about how she’d reward me for all this, but I would think providing me with a good prosthetic for the limb I’d lost helping save her people was the least she could do. Granted, she’d already done that once, but that had been a temporary rush job.

I crested the last drift of snow, and found the thing I’d simultaneously been looking for and kind of hoping I didn’t find: Starlight Glimmer’s camp. Her horde of Blightspawn had left a pretty obvious trail when they withdrew from the convoy, to the point that even I had an easy time following them. Now it was just a matter of getting to the mare herself.

I ran into the first challenge pretty quickly when one of her ugly little beasts came rushing towards me with a feral roar. I wasn’t sure how much control Starlight had over the things, and I wasn’t inclined to take a chance. Rather than waste any magic on it I just swung Chainbreaker straight into its mouth, slicing its oversized head-body clean in half. For the record, the smell was awful enough it nearly made me stop to vomit.

It accomplished my main goal, though. It sure as hay got some attention. Not from Starlight herself, but one of her big uglies came rushing over. Judging by the nasty line of charred flesh and chitin on its back, it had been one of the ones I hit with a spell during the fight. I prepped up a teleportation spell, but before we got to the fight I made an attempt at diplomacy. “I’m here to talk, not fight. Take me to your mistress.”

The thing paused in mid-stride. Guess that answered one question for sure—they either had enough brains to recognize what I’d said, or a mental connection to Starlight who’d reined it in. Hopefully the second one, since that opened up a lot more options for me.

That left me following behind the Blightspawn, feeling just a little awkward about having a huge evil monster leading the way. Calling the place a Blightspawn ‘camp’ would be overstating the level of infrastructure and organization they’d managed. It was mostly just a relatively flat valley where all the monsters gathered together. I was probably happier not knowing exactly what the hunk of raw meat Starlight’s other big ugly thing was eating consisted of. I was a bit surprised none of the other, smaller creatures were eating too. Considering they were basically just a huge mouth and teeth on legs...

Maybe I should’ve done a quick dissection of one of the corpses to see if I could learn anything useful. Then again, my biology expertise boiled down to having read a couple books years ago, and rooting around in a dead monster’s corpse sounded gross. And knowing these things, there’d probably be something poisonous somewhere in their body.

It wasn’t too hard to figure out where Starlight was, since she was the only one with a campfire and a tent. Seeing how utterly miserable she looked immediately made me feel a bit better. Considering everything she’d been up to over the last few weeks, she deserved a little misery. She still had that chitinous armor on, but she’d taken her helmet off and wound a bandana around the eye I’d hit. She looked up as the Blightspawn approached, and her single eye narrowed when she spotted me. “What do you want, tripod?”

Charming. I decided to respond in kind. “Just came here to do some diplomatic negotiating, cyclops.” Judging by the way her teeth clenched up, she didn’t like the taste of her own medicine. “Nice to see your guard dogs can take a message.”

Starlight snorted and pointedly turned back towards the fire. “You’re lucky they can, otherwise they would have torn you apart. Probably should’ve let them anyway. Would’ve been doing you and the entire world a favor.”

I settled in across the fire from her, and pointedly flicked the gore off Chainbreaker. “I wasn’t that worried. After all, we both know Blackfyre wants me alive. He seemed quick enough to yank your chain when you went against that.”

Starlight shot a one-eyed glare at me. “Do you just spend your entire life posturing? I mean, is there a single conversation where you don’t feel like you need to go out of your way to come out on top?”

I sighed and poked at the fire, getting it to flare up a bit warmer. “I came here to talk, not for you to whine at me.”

“Yeah, sure, talk,” she growled at me. “You must think I’m stupid to fall for something that obvious. I know you’re up to something. So what is it? Is it just an excuse to get close enough to blast me? Are your friends sneaking around and getting ready to stab me in the back? Are you just being a big distraction while that stupid group of refugees you’re using as a meat shield try to get away? What are you up to?”

“If I was up to a dirty trick, what makes you think I would tell you?” I wisely refrained from commenting on whether or not I thought she was stupid. Tempting, but not why I was there. “Actually, I want you to escort me to your master.”

“What?” She stared at me for several seconds then snorted and shook her head. “Even you’re not arrogant enough to think you can talk him down.”

“Yeah, not likely,” I agreed. “I trained under an immortal. I know how set in their ways they can be. However, I’m going to guess his orders to bring me back alive and intact override everything else Blackfyre wants you to do, not to mention any impulses of your own.”

Starlight glowered at me. “What impulses?”

I didn’t even try to hide my contempt. “Remember when you were ranting insanely about how you were going to murder every last one of the refugees just to spite me for daring to fight back against you?”

Starlight snarled at me. “Oh please. Don’t try to turn this into some self-righteous sacrifice to protect a bunch of innocent refugees from the Big Bad Starlight. Where the buck do you get off acting like you’re some kind of hero and I’m the villain?!”

“Which one of us is trying to help a horde of refugees to safety after their homes were destroyed?” I countered. “And which one of us is leading a horde of twisted mutant monsters attacking the refugee column in the service of the guy who burned down their homes in the first place? How do you think this situation makes you the good guy?”

Starlight scoffed. “Well when you put it like that...”

“You mean stating the objective facts?”

“Shut up!” Starlight bolted to her hooves, and for a moment I thought she might attack me. Thankfully, she backed down before it got to that point. “Listen to you, going on and on about how good and righteous you are, how you’re so much better than me...” He remaining eye flashed an ugly orange color. “I should go back and kill those stupid fools one by one, right in front of you, just to teach you a lesson.”

“Yup, really holding onto the moral high ground.” For a moment I wondered if maybe taunting the murderous psycho was a bad idea, but then I remembered I had a plan to keep her from doing anything like that in the first place. “Of course, doing that would cost you resources and delay your return with me, and I can’t imagine your master wants that. Not to mention you’ll be vulnerable without all your Blightspawn.” I smirked at her. “There are plenty of people who are going to be coming after us, and plenty of them you can’t beat alone. Not to mention you’ll need to sleep at some point, and if things were reversed I’d want some very good guard dogs on you before I closed my eyes for eight hours.”

Starlight scoffed, getting up and pacing. “Being inefficient or dangerous doesn’t matter if that’s what he wants. Thankfully it isn't. And even if he did, I don’t—” She flinched, and I could swear I saw some orange light leaking through her armor. When she spoke again, her voice was just a touch ragged. “What my master wants is what he gets.”

I decided to push her a bit more to see what she’d let slip. One of the tricks I’d picked up from Strumming, I guess. “Nice to know he can keep you on a short enough leash to stop you from going around randomly murdering innocent people.”

Evidently her methods worked better than I gave her credit for, or Starlight was so wound it only took a little push to make her explode. “That’s not what I was—I don't want to do that! I’m not a complete psycho! He’s making me do this, you arrogant nag! What in Tartarus makes you think I’d ever want to do this?!”

If I still had both legs left I would’ve crossed them over my chest. “Maybe the part where two minutes ago you were ranting about murdering hundreds of people just to teach me a lesson?”

“Oh for the love of—” Starlight groaned and rubbed her face. “You’re taking what I said out context!”

“Leaving aside the fact that I’m not, I’m very curious to hear you try to explain what an appropriate context for mass murder out of petty spite would be.”

“That’s not—you’re—argh!” She closed her one remaining eye and took several deep breaths. “Okay, maybe I said that, but I’d never actually do it. I was just ... I was pissed off and venting. You think I like any of this?!”

“Maybe,” I shot back. “If you don’t want to do it, then why are you doing it?”

Starlight’s horn lit up and she all but charged across the fire to reach me, getting so far into my personal space that I had to consciously restrain the urge to force her back. “You think I have a choice?! If I don’t follow orders I’d be better off dead than what Blackfyre would end up doing to me, not that this is any better. I don’t even have full control over my own head anymore!”

I weathered the storm, doing my best to keep calm in the face of her rage. After all, if I didn’t keep a cool head it would turn into a fight, and that probably wouldn’t go my way. “Right, he’s not exactly the kind of boss you can give your two weeks’ notice to. Pretty sure his idea of a severance package involves severing your head from your body.”

Starlight scoffed. “I should be so lucky.” She pointed out one of the spawn. “He told me that the next time I failed him I’d become one of those. Or like the Warpmouth, that thing in the cage he likes to keep around. And that’s just for insufficiently zealous and successful service; if I outright defied him...”

“Right.” She was clearly fishing for pity, but I wasn’t about to indulge her. “Better a collaborator than a victim, right?

“A collab—” She snarled and for a second I thought she was about to attack me. “This isn’t my fault! All I wanted to do was find some magic that would protect me when Rising Fire returned. Something to give me an edge over that maniac. And Blackfyre was supposed to be dead. No one had seen him in a thousand years. How was I supposed to know he was still crawling around in his lair? Even then we would’ve gotten away with it if Frozen Finds hadn’t triggered Blackfyre’s alarm runes!”

She turned away from me, furiously pacing back and forth. “I’d almost gotten out when one of Blackfyre’s rune traps came down, and Finds left me to burn while he got away with all the loot. So there I was, facing one of the biggest and scariest dragons in the world. My choices were to become some monstrous thing, or work for him. Not that this is all that much better.” She reached back to rub at her runes. “You think I can’t tell he’s playing with my head? Not to mention the just about constant pain from the damn things. About the only upside to this is that at least I’m still alive and a pony, and we’ll see how long those two last.” Her single eye narrowed in a hateful glare. “What would have you done, if you’re so bucking perfect?”

Considering Blackfyre was planning to turn me into one of his spawn, I already had a good answer for that. “I would’ve hit him with a death curse.”

She stared at me a moment, then let out a mocking, joyless laugh. “Oh that's easy for you to say after the fact.” Her voice shifted to something high-pitched and sickeningly sweet. “But Starlight, why didn’t you just kill yourself to power one last spell in a vain effort to kill a dragon who’s as strong as Celestia and can heal from almost anything instead of becoming a slave?”

She spat on the ground. “Maybe I don’t want to die. Maybe I was bucking scared! Why didn’t every slave that ever was take their life? Because that’s not how we’re made. We want to live. You want to live, I want to live. Self-preservation is the strongest instinct we have, because as long as you’re alive there’s a chance. Maybe a really awful chance, but it’s still a better chance than when you’re wormfood.”

“Nice speech.” I glared at her. “So how many ponies and caribou are dead because you decided your life was worth more than theirs?”

“Shut up!” she roared. “You think I wanted any of this?! You’re such a sanctimonious nag. You’ve always had everything go your way, always had the stars align, always gotten everything you wanted. All I’ve gotten is being kicked out of Freeport, losing the village I finally found a decent home in because of a damned crazy lich with a vendetta against me, and now the evilest dragon in the world as my boss!”

I scoffed and rolled my eyes. “If you think I've had it all easy, you're delusional.” She looked like she was about to start arguing, so I didn’t let her. “Yes, I had some advantages. Being trained and practically raised by Princess Celestia is pretty huge. But your dad’s rich, and you got to be an exchange student at Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns. You’re not exactly a woe-is-me charity case.”

“Are you kidding?!” Starlight shouted, jabbing me in the chest. “Look at everything that’s gone wrong in my life! You know it’s not as simple as where I started out! Who cares about whether my dad has money, look at where I am now! I’m basically Blackfyre’s slave! So shut up with all your lectures and your self-righteousness, I’m a victim too, a victim of circumstance! None of this is my fault!”

“Horseapples,” I snapped. “Sure, you’re in a bad spot right now, but who put you there in the first place? Have you ever stopped to think that maybe the one thing all the problems in your life have in common is you?”

Starlight’s eyes snapped open, and a second later they flashed that same ugly orange color her magic had changed to. With that warning, I wasn’t all that surprised when half a second later she leapt at me, hooves outstretched like she planned to strangle me. “You nag! I’ll kill you! I’ll rip your eyes out!”

Fortunately, I’d seen it coming a mile away. When she charged in I was ready for her, and before she could lay a hoof on me I slammed Chainbreaker’s crossguard into her muzzle. She reeled back in surprise, and I wasn’t going to give her a chance to recover—there was no way I could win a straight fight, especially when I was alone and surrounded by her Blightspawn. I smacked the side of her head with the flat of my blade, sending her tumbling to the ground. Then I put the edge to her neck, which seemed to be enough to make my point.

Starlight glared up at me. “What are you waiting for? Trying to come up with a stupid one-liner to say before you kill me?”

“If I wanted to kill you, I would’ve.” I moved the blade away from her throat. “Just snapping you out of the crazy. I still need you alive to get me to Blackfyre.” Not to mention that if I killed her, the rest of her Blightspawn would go feral and start rampaging.

She grimaced and rubbed at the shallow cut I’d left on her neck as she gingerly picked herself up. “Right.” She frowned and gave me a quick once-over. “I don’t get it. Did you cut a deal with Argentium or something?”

My curiosity got the better of me. “What do you mean?”

She snorted. “You just laid me out and had me dead to rights in two moves. It wasn’t all that long ago you couldn’t touch me when you were going all out. That just doesn’t happen.”

I sighed and shook my head. “Like I told you earlier today, there’s more to winning a fight than throwing raw power around. Blind rage makes you stupid, and easy to manipulate. Pumping you full of it is part of how Blackfyre keeps you under control. You can have all the power in the world, but right now you don’t have the sense to use it properly.”

Starlight twitched, and for a second I was afraid I’d need to smack her again. She must have seen my reaction because instead of coming after me she closed her eyes and took several deep breaths “Buck you. You don’t know what this is like. Having him constantly in my head. Always messing with ... with everything.”

“No, I don’t,” I admitted. “But I know what it’s made you into. Not that I liked you all that much the way you were before, but you had principles. We even managed to do a passable job of working together during the whole Rising Fire thing. You were at least trying to make progress into being a better pony.” I sighed and shook my head. “Now look at you: a mad dog slaving away for a dragon. You could’ve been so much more, and you threw it all away. Even if I’m not all that fond of you, I hate seeing that happen to anyone. If you make it out of this in one piece with those control runes gone, I suggest some serious introspection. Because believe it or not, I’d be a lot happier if you managed to straighten yourself out before you end up dead or in jail for the rest of your life.”

She scoffed and turned away from me. “Shame it’s too late for me. Blackfyre’s got me, and now he’s going to have you too. From there he’s probably won. You’re the key to his plans to beat Celestia, and in a one-on-one fight he can wear Argentium down. He’s had a millenium to plan his revenge and we’re all just expendable pawns.”

“We’ll see.” I smirked. “I’m sure he’s got a bunch of elaborate plans that end in his inevitable triumph, but he’s not the only one playing the game. The thing about bad guys and their elaborate master plans for inevitable victory, something always goes wrong and they lose.”

Starlight frowned at me. “Oh. I get it now. You’re not just surrendering to keep me off the civilians, you’re up to something.”

I shrugged. “Contrary to what some of my friends think, I’m not so stupidly heroic I’ve graduated to needlessly martyring myself.”

“We’ll see.” Starlight scoffed and shook her head. “Maybe you have a plan, but Blackfyre’s got a lot more experience at this than you do. Not to mention way more power, and none of the weaknesses he gave me.”

“I didn’t say it was a risk-free plan,” I conceded.

“Guess we’ll see how it works out.” Starlight shrugged. “Doesn’t really matter to me. Even if by some miracle you do take him out, he’d probably trigger my kill rune just out of pure spite. And if you somehow stop that...” She scoffed and shook her head. “You had a nice little speech about me straightening my life out before it was too late, but I think we both know I’m way past that point. If Blackfyre goes down and I’m still alive, I’ll only stay that way for as long as it takes the locals to get some rope and find a tall enough tree.”

“I’m sure some of them would want that,” I agreed. “But seems to me like if that’s what you’re worried about, you should start working very hard to convince them that you don’t deserve that.”

“I’m not holding my breath,” Starlight muttered. “And even if I wanted to change sides, I’m not going to commit suicide by betraying Blackfyre. Maybe you’re willing to throw yourself into certain death for a doomed cause, but I like being alive.”

“Guess we’ll see how doomed it is soon enough,” I shot back.

“Yeah, we will.” She stood up once more. “Hope you’re ready for a long hike. Blackfyre doesn’t like waiting.”

“Yeah, about that...” I looked down at my crude peg leg. “This thing isn’t exactly great for cross-country hiking. It’d probably be a lot faster if you had a sled or something. Or just let me ride on the back of one of your creatures.”

Starlight snorted. “You can walk like me. Those things aren’t made for riding.”

I looked over of the bigger ones that had several bony spikes sticking out of its back. “Yeah, I noticed.” I shrugged. “Still, if you make me walk ... well, the group goes at the speed of the slowest person in it, and I’m not a very fast walker these days. Pretty sure Blackfyre wouldn’t want you to keep him waiting for a couple extra days. After all, once that convoy gets to the border and Celestia finds out I’m not with it...”

Seeing the look on Starlight’s face when she realized she was up against a ticking clock before Celestia came swooping in was a lot more fun than it should’ve been.

Once she got over the initial shock she shot a death glare at me, but a second later one of the bigger spawn walked over and dropped down onto its knees. For a moment I was tempted to rub it in, but being gracious in victory was probably the smarter move. I managed to climb onto the monster with only a little trouble, though I could’ve done without snagging my tail on one of its spikes and pulling a couple hairs loose. “Thanks.”

Starlight snorted. “Don’t thank me. All this is going to do is get you killed faster. I’d think you’d want to drag this out as long as possible ... or is getting there before help arrives part of this cunning plan of yours? Because right now, it seems like all I have to look forward to is watching you turn into the newest Blightspawn.”

I smirked at her. “Don't get your hopes up. With the way your decisions have been working out lately, I’ll probably become the immortal goddess-empress of Northmarch by the time this is all over.”

Author's Note

As always, thanks to my pre-reading and editing team for all their hard work. Also, I would like to thank all my dedicated Patreon supporters. You guys are awesome.

Click here if you want to join the list of awesome people who support my writing.

The Final Moves

The next couple hours passed in relative silence. Starlight seemed to split most of her travel time between brooding and glaring resentfully up at me on my Blightspawn mount. I guess a couple hours of trudging through snow drifts while I didn’t have to deal with any of that was enough to put her in a bad mood.

She finally hit her breaking point when a misplaced hoof wound up making her sink into the snow all the way up to her knee. She let out a frustrated snarl, and a second later an orange beam carved a path through the snow.

Starlight smirked and strode into the channel she’d carved through the snow. She got about five steps before discovering the flaw in her plan: melted snow turns back into water. Instead of sinking up to her knees in loose snow, she wound up ankle-deep in mud. Judging by her frustrated scream, she didn’t consider that much of an improvement.

I didn’t laugh at her out loud, but judging by the glower she shot my way she suspected I was amused by her continuing failure. She wasn’t wrong. For a second I wondered if she was about to order me off the Blightspawn and make me walk through the mud out of petty spite, but evidently she had something else in mind. The other one of her larger spawn stomped over and dropped to its knees in front of her, letting her climb onto its back.

While I had to commend her for recognizing a good idea when it was sitting right in front of her, I couldn’t resist the opportunity to rub it in just a little. “Told you this was faster.”

“Oh shut up,” she growled. A couple seconds later she sighed and shook her head. “Don’t forget you’re my prisoner. You shouldn’t be so damned smug about it.”

“Let me guess, Blackfyre hates the competition?” I groaned and stretched out as best I could while staying perched on the Blightspawn’s back. It was a long way away from a comfortable ride, especially without any sort of harness to help keep me in place, but it beat trying to walk through the snow and mud. “Speaking of your boss, any idea why he stuck his base way out in the middle of nowhere?”

“He doesn’t like to be bothered,” Starlight grumbled. “Maybe you haven’t heard, but most dragons aren’t exactly social creatures. Most of them can barely tolerate each other outside of migrations and other big events. Interacting with other races or even hosting them inside their own lair is pretty much unheard of. At best, you get someone who likes to keep a couple servants around for convenience’s sake. Why do you think there aren’t any other dragons willing to help Argentium out? They all think she’s a weirdo.” She snorted. “You know that filly at school who’s super social, knows and talks to everyone, and must be a part of every social event? That's Argentium to the dragons.”

“Right, guess that makes sense.” I did a few quick calculations assisted by a spell. They confirmed what I’d suspected about where we were. “So he’s not hanging out where his base was back during the first war. I guess I shouldn’t be surprised.”

“Considering Frozen and I could find it with just a little bit of research, moving made sense,” Starlight agreed. She let out a soft snort. “Funny story, one of the first things he did after he enslaved me was make me help him move out. Moving an entire dragon’s hoard was a lot of work. He wanted a secure and secret base of operations before he started making a move against his enemies. No sense starting a fight when Celestia and Argentium would show up on his doorstep five minutes later.”

“Hard to fault the logic,” I agreed. “Celestia and Argentium pinning him down and teaming up against him has to be the number one thing he wants to avoid. A thousand years ago he picked surrender over fighting both of them at the same time.”

“Luna as well,” Starlight pointed out. “So it would’ve been three against one. The master is powerful, but that’s a huge disadvantage. Even two against one isn’t ideal, but that’s where you—” She abruptly cut herself off with a hiss of pain. Judging by her careful change of tone, she’d probably been on the verge of giving away a little too much. “The master plans to deal with each of them in turn.”

“I'm sure he does.” And I was just as sure those plans would get derailed at some point. It’s why big elaborate master plans that depend on thousands of things going exactly right never work out. Which should probably worry me a bit more considering I was in the middle of my own plan to take down Blackfyre, but I’d done my best to keep things simple. Not to mention I was under no illusions about the risks involved.

I spared a look for Starlight, who was doing her best to gingerly rub her back. Not hard to guess what was bothering her. “They’re getting worse, aren’t they?”

Starlight immediately stopped rubbing her back and did her best to look like nothing was bothering her. It failed, mostly because she was trying way too hard to do something that only looked natural when you weren’t trying to do it. She tossed her head and tried make her voice sound as bored as possible. “What do you mean?”

“The runes,” I shot back without missing a beat. “He’s tightening the noose on you, isn’t he? Maybe he’s letting you keep your free will for now, but you have to know by now that you only get as much freedom as he thinks will be useful to him.”

“I’m the one dealing with it every day!” Starlight snapped. “You don’t have to tell me what’s going on and how bad it is!” She glared at me, then shifted her gaze to the ground beneath us, her shoulders slumping as the rage leaked out of her. She swallowed and quietly confessed. “I’m not sure how much longer I’m still going to be me.”

“Considering he only wants the parts of you that make you a useful tool...” I grimaced, trying to think of the best way to word it. “I’m not sure how much wiggle room you have anymore, but I’d suggest using as much of it as you can. Best case, I can take Blackfyre down, get those runes off your back, and when it comes to the war crimes trial I’ll recommend clemency. Worst case ... at least you’ll die as yourself.”

“You seem real comfortable casually recommending I kill myself just to help you and your cause,” Starlight sniped. “If you think I’m going to do some sort of heroic suicide pact with you, you’re delusional. I don’t love working for Blackfyre, but I like dying pointlessly even less.” She snorted and shook her head, resignedly mutterly. “Besides, how much wiggle room do you think a thousand year old dragon would even give me?”

“Yeah, I know.” I was pretty sure that if she openly turned against Blackfyre, I had about five seconds to take the dragon down before he used his runes to force her back to his side. And that was an optimistic assessment that assumed she wouldn’t just keel over dead as soon as she tried something. “I’m not telling you to go against him in a way that gets you killed. Just ... I don’t know, don’t try all that hard to keep him alive and yourself enslaved to him.”

She frowned and thought it over for a moment. “I suppose I could—” She cut herself off with a hiss, biting her lip to keep it from turning into a full fledged scream. After a couple seconds she gasped out, “I will ... do what ... I must ... to serve my master!”

Not exactly an ironclad commitment, but all things considered I would be a fool to expect that out of her with the runes still on her back. I’d already had more success than I’d hoped at planting a few seeds of doubt.

Starlight shot a resentful glare my way. “You think I don’t see what you’re trying to do? Bet you figure it’d be a lot easier to kill Blackfyre if he gets me out of the way.” She snorted and pointed at the crude bandage over her eye. “Don’t try to pretend you’re my friend after you did this to me. Yesterday you and your friends were trying to kill me.”

“Yeah, we were,” I shot back. “That’s what happens when you attack people with an army of monsters: they defend themselves. Remember how you were trying to kill me two seconds before I put out your eye? And if we could’ve killed you then, we would’ve.” I met her gaze unflinchingly. “I don’t like seeing what Blackfyre’s done to you. I sympathize with your plight. But as long as you’re a danger to everyone else around you I’ll do whatever it takes to stop you. You were ranting about killing thousands of innocent people. Be glad it only cost you an eye, because the three of us were doing our best to kill you.”

“I noticed,” she growled, her one remaining eye narrowing.

That did a pretty good job of killing the conversation, so the two of us carried on in silence, riding along on our improvised mounts. The Blightspawn weren’t much for conversation, but I couldn’t fault their speed, and more importantly their durability. They just kept moving along at a steady pace, regardless of how long Starlight kept them going or what kind of terrain they ran into. I had to wonder how they could keep up the pace, and how much of it was due to Blackfyre enhancing them versus them being so mindless they’d run themselves to death before stopping.

Eventually we got to the mountains. Part of the same chain Argentium’s lair was in, though several hundred miles to the south of her cavern. However, instead of the grandly constructed near-palatial entrance of Argentium’s home, complete with expensive carved wooden doors, this just looked like an especially big hole in the side of the mountain. If not for the spawn guarding the entrance it would’ve looked like any other cave. Small surprise, considering he was trying to keep a low profile.

As we got a bit closer I did notice one thing about the place that stood out: the smell. The whole place had a faint stench of burned, rotting meat. Not a big surprise, considering who lived here. I had a sinking feeling the smell would be a lot worse once I actually got into the cavern itself.

Our Blightspawn mounts halted in front of the entrance, and the two of us gingerly slid off their backs. It took a bit for me to get my hooves back under me after spending so long off them. Just because life seemed to enjoy being horribly unfair to me, my missing leg was the one that felt the numbest. Stupid phantom pains.

Starlight was still stretching out when one of the nasty little Spawns came running out of the cave with a scroll tied to its back. Starlight took the message and quickly read it over, then turned to me. “Before we go in there, you’re putting this on.” She pulled out a suppression ring. “Master’s orders.”

I grimaced and took it from her. “Figures.” I probably would’ve been more surprised if he didn’t insist on putting one on me. He might be arrogant enough to believe there was nothing I could possibly do to actually hurt him, but he was still canny enough to play it safe regardless. “I guess you’ll want this as well?” I used my magic to undo the straps securing Chainbreaker and passed it over to her, then put the ring on.

Starlight took the sword, frowning at it. “Yeah. As well as anything else on you.” Her eyes flicked down to my prosthetic. “I’ll give you back your leg and cloak once I’m done checking them over. Wouldn’t put it past you to try and hide a weapon there or something.”

“Wish I’d thought of that,” I shot back as I carefully removed my prosthetic. Unsurprisingly, the peg leg we’d whipped together from a bunch of scrap wood didn’t have any nasty tricks hidden in it. Even if I’d wanted to include something like that, I hadn’t had the resources to pull it off on short notice or anyone skilled enough to make a fake leg while also concealing a weapon inside of it. Maybe I could look into that if I survived the next few hours.

Starlight gave my leg a quick once over, then passed it back with an awkward cough. “So, right, um, it’s just a leg.”

“Or at least something that’s close enough to one,” I shook the snow and a couple loose hairs off my cloak, then passed it over to her for inspection. “Anything else?”

She finished checking it, scowling suspiciously at me when she didn’t find anything. “Okay, what’s the deal? I expected you to pull something before I got around to putting a suppression ring on your horn. I know you’re up to something, you all but admitted as much. Now I’ve got you here completely unarmed, surrounded by Blightspawn, unarmed and with your magic bound. And you still seem to think you can win this.”

“Don’t tell me I’ve got you scared,” I shot out with a smirk.

“More like convinced you’re completely insane,” she scoffed. “What you’re doing doesn’t make any sense, especially for someone who just talked about how she’d rather die than be a slave. Or was it all talk and you chickened out when it came to actually following through?”

I shrugged. “It’s almost like I have a plan.”

Starlight glared at me for several more seconds. “You know, I am seriously tempted to slap a blindfold and gag on you, then put you in shackles.

I couldn’t resist needling her just a bit more. “Unless that's part of my plan too.” I stepped in front of her, taking the lead as we headed into Blackfyre’s cave.

Starlight pointedly jogged ahead of me. “Or maybe you’re in way over your head, and you’re just trying to make up enough horseapples to stay alive for the next five minutes.”

I didn’t have an answer for that, mostly because her assessment was a bit too close to accurate. I liked to think my plan had come together pretty well, but considering the risks involved it was hard to shake the fear that I’d made a mistake somewhere along the line. There were a whole lot of innocent lives riding on me getting this right.

I’d been right about one thing; the deeper we went into the caves the worse the smell got. Starlight must have noticed me wrinkling my nose, because she felt the need to comment. “You get used to the smell eventually.”

“I’d rather not be here long enough for that to happen.”

“You won’t have a choice in the matter,” Starlight murmured. “I didn’t.”

Eventually we emerged into the cavern’s massive central chamber, most of which was taken up by Blackfyre himself. I could see his disgusting little anti-magic critter hanging in a cage off to the side, twitching and mewling feebly. Some of his spawn were lurking in the corner as well, and along the back of one wall were dozens of dark shapes trapped within crystal prisons. The cavern itself looked pretty rough, though it was no surprise he hadn’t done much to fancy the place up if he’d just moved.

Or maybe not. Blackfyre didn’t strike me as the type to waste a lot of time to pretty up his environs. Or perhaps his tastes just naturally leaned towards ruined caverns filled with twisted mutants and stinking of dead, burned flesh. He’d spent the last thousand years living that way, by now he was probably just used to it. Immortals do have a lot of time to become set in their ways.

Blackfyre reached down into the massive pit in the center of the room, scooping out a handful of raw meaty sludge. He held it between his talons, shaping it almost like a potter making a clay vase, except in this case he was making some sort of twisted mutant. Once he’d gotten it into a shape roughly resembling one of the small lesser Blightspawn he set it aside, and a with a flick of his talons encased the thing in crystal. Then he put it right next to the dozens of other crystal prisons which held what must be other Blightspawn in the process of forming.

Ugh. If not for all the reasons doing so would be incredibly undignified, I probably would’ve vomited then and there.

Starlight stepped in front of Blackfyre and bowed so low her muzzle was scraping the cavern floor. “I moved as fast as I could, master. But I’ve got her.”

Blackfyre turned to face her, his talons still dripping with gore. “So I see. But you’ve damaged yourself in the process. How very ... disappointing. That makes it twice you’ve been less than successful despite all the gifts I’ve given you.”

Starlight’s remaining eye shot wide open, and she pressed herself even lower to the ground, all but groveling. “It’s not my fault, master! I wasn’t fighting just her! There was the caribou militia, and Sunset’s fri—”

Blackfyre crooked a talon and she dropped to the floor, gasping in pain. “What did I say that made you think I was interested in hearing excuses?” He stared down at her, looking almost bored. “I know she had allies, and you had my Blightspawn to counter them.” He let out a long-suffering sigh as he carefully reached down to pick up his spasming slave. “Now what am I going to do with you? Tempting as it is to come up with some suitably creative punishment, I will have need of you again soon enough.”

He tore off her bandage, then casually plucked out her damaged eye, ignoring Starlight’s agonized scream. Then he scooped a bit more of the sludge out of his pit, slapping it into place. He settled his talon over her head, and I could see that nasty orange light seeping out from between his talons. While Starlight thrashed in his grip, he turned his attention to me. “I see you lost the leg I damaged for your insolence. Argentium remains a fool. If she had learned the art of fleshcrafting she could have repaired the damage easily enough. A few dead peasants is a small price to pay to restore a battle mage to full strength, yet she leaves you crippled and thinks herself noble for doing so.”

I wasn’t interested in hearing him stroke his own ego, even though I knew that was most dragons’ favorite pastime. “I did my best to return the favor on your pet.”

Blackfyre snorted, his eyes flicking down to Starlight as she writhed within his grip. “A minor inconvenience.” He removed her armor and scratched a fresh rune into her back. “A few minutes’ effort on my part and her eye will be restored. Had she served me better, I could even make it better than what she had before.”

It didn’t take a genius to see where this conversation was going. “Let me guess, this is the part where you offer to fix my leg if I join you?”

Blackfyre shrugged. “It is a rather obvious point of attack, isn’t it? But I suspect merely restoring your leg won’t be enough to entice you.”

“I did pretty much cut it off just to keep fighting you,” I agreed. “Wouldn’t make much sense to join you just to get it back.”

“Ah, so you chose a quick amputation over the long and torturous process of conventional healing.” Blackfyre snorted and shook his head. “Such a short-sighted decision, typical of the delusions of morality held by mortal beings. What difference did you really think you would make in this battle? To save a few hundred insignificant lives? They will all die eventually, regardless of your actions. Mortal lives are so ... fleeting. No more lasting or valuable than dust in the wind.”

I rolled my eyes and tried to keep myself from sounding so bored and contemptuous he’d kill me on the spot. “So why should I join you anyway?”

Blackfyre shrugged. “What do you want?”

I tossed out the first thing that came to mind. “Well I’m going to guess talking you into killing yourself is out.”

Blackfyre chuckled. “Such a spiteful little creature, though I do at least understand wanting to destroy one’s enemies.” He set Starlight down, shifting his attention fully to me. “Of course, we are only enemies due to a quirk of fate. Join me. I can give you the power to dominate anyone under my name. You could rule Equestria, or Freeport, or even the North itself. Or all three, if such is your desire. I have little desire to rule over a kingdom like Argentium does, much less imitate Celestia’s constant attempts to guide her subjects to enlightenment. You could be an empress—the greatest ruler the world has ever known.”

Well, I hadn’t been expecting that. “So wait, this isn’t about conquering the world for you?”

“Conquest does hold a certain interest,” Blackfyre answered. “It is rulership I object to. The mere thought of tending the petty concerns of myriad subjects bores me. All I desire is to reshape the world order to one that better suits me. After that, all I desire is independence. I wish the freedom to continue my research and do as I will, when I wish it. Such as this.” He picked Starlight up and shifted her mane aside, revealing a whole and healthy eye. “Look upon the fruit my research has borne. Yet the likes of Celestia and Argentium would declare my work profane, my methods evil.” He scoffed. “As if they have the right to judge me. Did I ever consent to be ruled over by the likes of them? I think not.”

I took a step closer to the huge charnel pit he seemed to be getting all that biomass from. It was hard to get a good idea of how big it was or how much he’d killed to fill it up, but it was enough to make me sick to my stomach. “So whose eye was that before you gave it to her?”

Blackfyre shrugged. “Doubtless some small, insignificant being living an unimportant life. Are you so worried about where your new leg would come from? What does it matter if a life of no account belonging to a being you have never even met should end? Countless mortals die every single day. Think instead of how much you could gain. You could be made whole, or even improved. I see no reason to limit you to your current potential.”

He grinned, showing off his fangs. “Do you want to be an alicorn? Most of those who fall within Celestia’s orbit long for it at least once, to stand as her equal in power and magnificence. It is one of the many things she fails to grasp, that those who stand below her will always hate and envy her in the secret parts of their hearts. I am sure you know exactly what I mean: the student always longs to surpass the master.”

Not really. Well okay, maybe a little. I mean, I guess part of why I wanted to be an alicorn was so I could stand side by side Celestia as an equal. And I’d be lying if I said I didn’t like the idea of getting so strong that I could maybe even beat her in a friendly practice spar, or at least make her have to take it seriously. But hating and envying her? No, never that.

Blackfyre seemed to think he was on the right track though. “Ah, yes, there we have it. Adding wings is a relatively simple change, but we both know there’s far more to an alicorn than wings and a horn. However, if we work together those intangibles are easily seen to, and I can take you far beyond the limits of equine anatomy.” He slowly dragged a talon down Starlight’s back. “I could even show you what the final product would be if you’re worried about being tricked. Starlight could serve as excellent proof of all that I could achieve. I’d even be willing to give her to you to do with as you wish.”

Starlight’s eyes shot wide open. “W-what? That’s not ... you never said anything about me becoming Sunset’s slave!”

Blackfyre snorted and didn’t even acknowledge her outburst. “You will serve me as I desire, whether it’s by my side or Sunset’s. So far I am less than impressed with your performance in my service.” He crooked a talon, and she dropped to the ground writhing in pain once more. “I crippled the mare and gave you new gifts, and you come back to me broken and in need of healing. I had hoped for better, but it seems this is all your are capable of. I suggest you start finding more ways to make yourself useful, or I shall have to come up with something.”

Starlight slowly picked herself up off the floor, trembling in pain. For a second I thought she’d snap and attack him, but instead she weakly gasped out, “Y-yes master.”

I gave Starlight a quick once-over as she feebly picked herself back up. “And would I end up like that? A bunch of control runes on my back and you send me down to the ground screaming my head off every time I look at you funny or don’t succeed as much as you’d like?”

“Only if you make it necessary,” Blackfyre answered with an especially fang-filled smile. “As you have no doubt noticed, Starlight has been a ... less than ideal servant. One makes the most of the tools one has available, but her use to me is rapidly diminishing.”

“So you’re trading her out for me,” I concluded. “And I guess that means as soon as you get someone better, I’m on the same chopping block she is?”

“I have little need for weak minions who fail me,” Blackfyre conceded. “But also no reason to betray capable ones who serve me well. Only a fool fails to reward loyalty, and there are so many gifts I can give you. A world of possibilities I could open up to you. In time, I could make you such a wondrous being that even Celestia would be nothing before your power.” He smirked. “And if we succeed in capturing Celestia alive, I would be happy to break her power and leave her as another of your servants. You will find I am not a harsh master. So long as you follow my commands and execute my desires, you will be free to do as you wish.”

“Hmm.” I gave the room a quick once-over, making sure I knew exactly where that nasty little anti-magic critter of his was. Chainbreaker lay off to the side, dropped by Starlight at some point while Blackfyre was torturing her. “I assume stopping Argentium and Celestia is part of the package? Along with anyone else who might object to your new status quo.”

“Of course,” Blackfyre agreed. “Their designs and my own are incompatible. They will not stop until I am once again imprisoned or slain. Likely others as well, though I suspect I will have far less trouble persuading you to lead a campaign against Chrysalis or her ilk. Not to mention the various evils Celestia has sealed away who will doubtless try to escape after her downfall. Should Sombra regain his freedom, I am sure he will be saddened to learn he was only ever an ally of convenience.”

If most of what I’d read about Sombra was true, he wouldn’t be shocked and he probably felt the exact same way about Blackfyre. However, that did beg one question. “So what exactly are your designs? Because so far all you’ve said is that you want to reset the world order, and don’t really care about anything past that. So what is it you want to do?”

Blackfyre shrugged. “All I desire is my personal freedom. So that I can conduct my research, and act as a dragon should.”

Starlight risked a look up at him. “And if that means burning down a village or attacking a refugee column...”

“What of it?” Blackfyre shot back with a smirk. “I will need fresh materials for my research from time to time. And it is so liberating to express your power over other beings, to show them your might, and make them know that they are such tiny and insignificant creatures. Do you mourn for mayflies when their lives are snuffed out?”

Wow. I’d known he was an evil bastard, but I hadn’t realized what a profoundly petty evil bastard he was. It wasn’t about world domination or reshaping reality in his image, he just wanted the right to be a jerk without facing any consequences for it. “So basically, your definition of freedom is the right to be horrible to everyone else around you?”

Blackfyre spread his wings, showing off his sheer size. “I am a terrible being to behold, as it should be. And I would not be denied the right to express my power and majesty.”

I scoffed. “‘Majesty’? Oh please, you're just a petty, self-centered jerk who happens to be a lot bigger than every other one out there.”

Blackfyre’s eyes shot open, and a second later he bared his fangs at me. “I see you’ve chosen defiance over service, then. You forget yourself. You are nothing but a useful pawn for the destruction of your former teacher. Your willing cooperation would have been an asset, but breaking you and hurling the remnants in front of Celestia’s hooves will serve my purposes well enough. Bow, and I will forget your outburst.”

“Yeah, I don't think so.” I extended a hoof towards my sword. “Chainbreaker!”

The blade leapt off ground, flying straight for me. If I had two working forelegs I probably could’ve caught it cleanly, and naturally magic would’ve worked if I wasn’t ringed. With both of those factors, I had to improvise a bit. I leaned to the side, praying I had it right and I wasn’t about to kill myself in an especially embarrassing way.

Thankfully, I got it right. Or maybe the sword just compensated for anything I had wrong. The blade sliced clean through my horn ring, and I didn’t get anything worse out of it than a shallow cut on my forehead.

I didn’t have any time to celebrate. My magic might be free for the moment, but as soon as I lost the element of surprise Blackfyre would set that horrible little monster of his to singing. I had time to cast one spell, and I knew which one it had to be.

The shriek the creature let out when I set it on fire was so horrible I could swear it made my ears bleed, but at least it didn’t last very long.

Blackfyre let out a deep-throated growl as he realized what I’d done. “You insolent little—” An instant later the fury in his eyes shifted to something colder and far more calculating. “A futile move. Even with your magic you are but a pony, and I am dragon. The loss of the Warpmouth is inconvenient, but it is easily replaced. A poor trade for your life.”

“I wasn’t planning on dying here.” I tried to teleport clear of his cave, but a second later after I winked out of existence I popped back right where I was. Guess I shouldn’t have been surprised Blackfyre had some sort of teleportation wards set up, but it had been worth a shot. Pity he’d ringed my horn before I had any time to study them, and right now I had far bigger issues to deal with. Like going to Plan B for my escape.

Blackfyre scoffed at me. “You short-sighted fool. I spent centuries carefully preparing this fastness while Celestia and Argentium watched over my old lair. The wards here are so powerful that even they wouldn’t dare to launch a direct attack, and you are nothing compared to them.”

He flicked a talon, and runes lit up along the floor beneath me. Suddenly it felt like I was being stabbed with a dozen red hot hooks that all started trying to rip me apart in different directions. He was probably hoping that would be enough to drop me, but I wasn’t going down that easily. Runic wards were easy to break with the right tools. I scratched Chainbreaker’s tip along the floor, cutting through the rune’s lines and disrupting the energy enough to break his spell. I let out a gasp as the pain vanished, and briefly had to plant the tip of my sword into the ground to keep from falling flat on my face.

Despite all the lingering pain I wasn’t going to give Blackfyre the satisfaction of seeing how much that hurt. “What’s the matter? Is that all you’ve got?”

Blackfyre snorted. “Oh that is just precious. You actually think you can beat me. Let me show you the futility of your struggles. Starlight—capture her, and do make it painful.”

A second later Starlight hit me from behind, not even bothering with subtlety. I’d been ready for a magical attack, but she caught me off guard when instead she charged in and shoulder slammed my rib cage. My already tenuous balance vanished completely, and I went tumbling to the ground. Before I could even start to recover another pain spell hit.

It wasn’t fun, but compared to the one Blackfyre had used on me a few seconds ago it ... well okay it was still pretty bad, but I’d had worse. I clenched my teeth and tried to fight through it, sending an ice spear at Blackfyre that bounced off his scales as if I’d flicked a pebble at him. He didn’t even bother to respond, just sitting back and watching.

My odds of making it out of here alive were already pretty bad, but I knew I didn’t stand a chance as long as it was two-on-one. “F-fight him ... Starlight...”

Starlight froze, and the power behind the spell weakened enough for me to shake it off. Starlight stood there for a second longer, chewing her lip indecisively, before the runes on her back activated and she fell to the floor.

Blackfyre scowled down at her. “Again you disappoint me. Not loyal enough to be a good servant, but not quite brave enough to openly betray me. I’m almost tempted to make you the next Warpmouth, but I do despise wasting raw materials.”

I certainly wasn’t going to stick around to see what exactly he had in mind for her. If teleporting out had been an option I would’ve tried to take her with me, but Blackfyre had already shut that down. Carrying her out ... yeah, not likely when I only had three legs to work with. I didn’t like it, but there was really only one thing I could do. “Sorry, I’ll come back for you.”

I threw a thunderflash spell at Blackfyre’s face, then bolted for the cavern exit. Hopefully the bright light and loud noise would disorient him for long enough to allow me a decent head start on getting out of here. If I could get outside of his wards and teleport clear I actually stood a decent chance of—

A blast of orange magic shot over my head, and a crystalline wall shot up in front of me, blocking off the exit. I spun around to find Starlight back on her hooves, tears leaking out of her eyes as she glared at me. “I knew you’d stab me in the back!”

“I wasn’t—” I groaned and shook my head. “What am I supposed to do, carry you out of here when I can barely even walk on my own?!”

“We should really do something about that.” I barely saw Blackfyre’s tail come flicking towards me in time, and my best shield spell couldn’t do much more than buy me just enough time to make sure he hit my prosthetic instead of one of the legs I had left. The impact still turned my wooden leg into kindling, and left several dozen cut and splinters over the rest of my body.

Blackfyre smirked down at me chuckling. “Oops, did I do that again? I do so hate repeating myself, but I suppose it does save me the effort of fixing a second leg.” He tsked under his breath. “You really can’t seem to keep four legs under yourself.”

I tried to get back to my hooves and find some way to keep balanced, but a second later Starlight let out a scream of raw pain and fury, and I felt several blasts hit me in the back. Each one felt like getting punched by an especially large and angry stallion, and probably left behind bruises that equaled the experience.

Blackfyre sat back on his haunches, seemingly content to let Starlight pound me until I finally managed to get a shield spell back up. “Still a little fight left in you, then?”

“Plenty,” I bluffed, slowly managing to work out something that at least me stay balanced enough to remain more-or-less upright. “Starlight, you know your best shot of getting out of this is to let me go, even if I can’t save you right now.”

“I know that’s what you’re saying,” she snapped. “But maybe you’re just using me, and you’re fine with leaving me behind to get killed as long as you get what you want. Besides, it ... it hurts too much to fight him.”

She fired off a blast of raw concussive force. I had my shield up, but a second before her spell would’ve connected Blackfyre flicked a talon and my defensive spell shattered. Whatever he did also must have weakened Starlight’s attack, because instead of ripping my head clean off it just bounced me off the wall. Not that I was especially grateful for hitting a solid stone wall at a very unhealthy speed. The only consolation was that I’d smacked the back of my head hard enough to dull the pain from the rest of my body.

“That’s enough, for now,” Blackfyre rumbled. “Though feel free to knock her around a bit more if she tries anything.” He stomped over, looming over me like a huge shadow. “Really now, Sunset. How did you expect this to end? I crushed you without even trying in our last encounter, and that was before I broke you. What possible scenario is there where challenging myself and Starlight to a two-on-one battle ends well? Were you expecting her to side with you? I did not think you so foolish. Even a moment’s hesitation cost her dearly, and she lacks the strength to resist me beyond that. You had to know that any aid you might receive from her would be fleeting at best.”

“I got what I came for,” I groaned, nodding at the charred remnants of his nasty little anti-magic pet, the Warpmouth.

He scoffed. “Yes, that is something of an inconvenience. It will take some time to craft a new one, and I suppose until that time I am very slightly diminished. Did you think that just because creating the first Warpmouth took centuries I could not easily replace it once it was lost? Even without my perfect memory, I kept extensive notes. Once you know how to make one, repeating the process is child’s play.”

Damn. Guess it was too much to hope that making one of those things required a lot of really rare materials. Or maybe it did, and Blackfyre just had the foresight to stock up beforehand. Still... “Better hope you get it done before Celestia and Argentium find you.”

“I will,” he answered with a confident smirk. “I have had over a thousand years to plan my return out in exacting detail, and I assure you I’ve accounted for every variable. The loss of the Warpmouth is but a temporary setback, and I knew not everything would got according to plan. I have already crafted plans for every possible outcome, accounted for every conceivable contingency.” He snatched me up by the mane, hauling me up to in front of his face. “Surely by now you must have realized there is nothing you can do to stop me. Whatever plan you hoped to hatch, it was doomed from the start. All you’ve done is walk willingly to your doom.”

I groaned as he lifted me into the air, leaving me dangling by the scalp. “So how’d you plan for me a thousand years before I was born?”

“Not for you specifically,” he conceded. “But Celestia has always been far too fond of mortals. I simply needed to find the right one to use against her. If you were wise, you would have run and hid as far away from me as you can, to let Celestia fight unimpeded. All you accomplished by trying to face me yourself is to usher in her annihilation. You are nothing, and there is nothing you could do that would make the slightest difference.”

I groaned as he gave me a shake to emphasize his point, or perhaps just to be a jerk. “Yeah ... maybe you’re right. Maybe it was stupid to think I could take you on.” I closed my eyes, took a deep breath, and prepared myself. “But I’m not done yet.”

Starlight seemed to figure out what I had in mind. “No! Don’t!”

I reached down deep into myself, deeper than I’d ever gone before. I didn’t just tap into the energy I normally used for my spells, I took everything.

All the magic I had in my body.

The strength that kept my lungs breathing.

The power that kept my heart beating.

The energy firing between the neurons in my brain.

My very soul, the essence of who I was.

Everything.

I guess that’s why they call it a death curse.

I took all that power and hurled it in a single blast of pure destruction, aimed straight at Blackfyre’s heart. My only regret as the darkness claimed me was that I’d never get to see the look on his face when he realized he’d lost.

Darkness claimed me.

...

Black, ugly power pushed its way into my body. An oily flame that left me feeling like I’d spent a week immersing myself in dirty kitchen grease, then set myself on fire.

I gasped as it forced my lungs to take in air once more, and compelled the muscles in my heart to keep beating.

Slowly, the world came back into focus.

Blackfyre stood towering over me, pinning me to the floor with a single massive claw, orange light pouring from between his talons. On his chest, where I’d hit him, there was a smoking, bleeding, damaged patch of scales, but it didn’t look like nearly enough to kill him. “Fool!” he snarled. “Do you think you’re the first to throw a death curse at me?! I have born the brunt of a hundred and more death curses, and here I stand!” Smoke curled from his lips as he bared his fangs. “I am Blackfyre, greatest of all dragons, and you do not die until I will it. You. Are. Mine. Body, mind, and soul.”

“D ... damn ... you...” I tried to come up with enough power to throw another death curse, but I was ... empty. There wasn’t anything left at all. After all, the only thing keeping me breathing was Blackfyre’s power, and I could hardly tap into that. His claw might be pinning me to the floor, but I wouldn’t have been able to move even if there’d been nothing holding me down but air pressure.

“I’ve only started to give you reasons to damn my name.” He dipped his free foreclaw into the wound I’d put on his chest, gathering some of his blood. “Such a waste. You could have ruled the world as one of my most valuable and rewarded agents, but if you will not be my knight then I shall content myself with a mere pawn.”

He worked some sort of magic over his own blood, slowly changing it into something else. “Do you want to say your last words now? Oh wait, you already died. I’m sure you imagined some grand, heroic death with a funeral where you would be honored for your sacrifice. The noble heroine who gave her life to strike down Blackfyre, remembered and celebrated for centuries to come. Pity that if anyone remembers you at all, it will only be as the tool with which I will destroy Celestia. Once she is dead Argentium will quickly follow, and I will be free to remake the world in whatever manner pleases me. Or just burn it all once I grow bored.”

He opened my mouth and tipped the vile potion he’d come up with down my throat. There was nothing I could do to stop him. I couldn’t even try to stop myself from swallowing—he had full control over every muscle in my body, including my throat. At least my senses were so dull I couldn’t taste it. I guess he didn’t think it was worth the extra bit of power to add that tiny bit more spite to the whole experience.

I could feel something else, though. A nasty, black, twisted mass settling into the pit of my stomach. Like something inside there was growing. Or maybe it was just changing the rest of my body around it. Probably a bit of both.

“Seal her.” Blackfyre removed his talon, and a second later Starlight blasted me, sealing my body away within a crystalline prison. Then Blackfyre picked it up and set it next to all the other Blightspawn going through various stages of transformation.

Blightspawn ... like what I’d be soon enough.

I’d like to say this is when the world recognized my heroism. When destiny noticed that seconds ago I’d sacrificed my life to try and stop Blackfyre, and I finally received the reward I’d earned with all my sufferings. A nice new set of feathery wings, and new alicorn magic I used to break free of my prison and finally destroy Blackfyre.

But that’s not what happened.

Author's Note

As always, thanks to my pre-reading and editing team for all their hard work. Also, I would like to thank all my dedicated Patreon supporters. You guys are awesome.

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The Turning Point of Destiny

When I opened my eyes, all I could see was darkness.

For a moment I wondered if Starlight had decided to get some revenge for me taking out one of her eyes by blinding me. Or if somewhere in the transformation process I’d lost my eyes—not all of Blackfyre’s creations had them. I guess that made sense—eyes are a big and obvious weak point for most living creatures.

However, it wasn’t that kind of darkness. When I felt around myself, there weren’t prison bars or crystal encasing me or a cold cavern floor beneath me. In fact, I didn’t even feel solid ground under my hooves. I was just floating in an empty void.

I looked around, trying to find anything other than the empty darkness. “Where am I? Is anyone out there?”

I spun around and spotted something in the distance, right behind me. The figure slowly approached, lazily flapping towards me on a pair of dragon-like wings. It looked kind of like a pony, though I’d never seen a pony with bright red scales before. The black armor looked almost exactly like the set Starlight had been wearing back in our first fight in Coldharbor, and her eyes were almost completely black other than her teal irises. Her red and yellow mane rippled through the air like an open flame.

I lit up my horn and made sure all my defensive spells were firmly in place. I had no idea who or what this thing was, but it sure looked like some sort of demon I might have to fight. “Who are you supposed to be?”

The monster snorted and rolled its eyes. “Oh please. Don’t tell me you haven’t already figured it out.” She conjured up a ghostly image of me, placing it side by side with herself. There was enough of a resemblance to make it obvious. “I’m what you could be.”

I glared at the monstrous parody of myself. “I’m nothing like you.”

“Well, you certainly don’t have my good looks or my power,” my demonic self shot back. “Not to mention you only have half the limbs I do. As for the rest of it ... well, let’s take a little trip, shall we?”

She waved one of her hooves through the air, and darkness fell away, to be replaced with a vista of Canterlot and the royal palace. Except it wasn’t the palace I remembered; instead of looking warm and welcoming it was dark and foreboding, and all the banners bearing Celestia’s symbol had been replaced with...

Oh joy, alternate demon me was going with this.

We shifted down into the throne room, where I sat upon a massive seat that would’ve been ridiculously oversized even for Celestia. Speaking of whom, Celestia herself was standing before the throne, bowed so low her muzzle was practically scraping the floor. She wasn’t the only one; Cadenza was there, and the Council, Argentium, Scarlett Runseeker, Solar Shimmer, and dozens of other familiar faces. Every last one of them, bowing to their glorious queen. Me.

I grimaced and shook my head. “No, this isn’t... This is just an illusion. Or in my head. Something like that.”

My evil double scoffed. “No, really? I was sure that the weird visions in a mystical black void where you talk to your evil subconscious was physically happening. But yes, this is all in your head. After all, it’s your dream we’re seeing.”

I stared at the impossible scene before me, of the entire world’s submission. “No it isn’t. I’d never ... it’s just a power fantasy. Who hasn’t dreamed of being supreme ruler of the world at least once? Doesn’t mean I want to actually make it happen. It’s no more real than that time I dreamed about being baked into a giant quesadilla and having to eat my way out of it.”

“And the next day you went out and ate a quesadilla,” my double pointed out. “Just like you made that fantasy into a reality, we can do the same with this one. It would be so easy. All we need to do is unlock the potential hidden within you and make you as powerful as you were meant to be.” She spread those draconic wings with a proud smirk.

“This isn’t what I want,” I snarled, waving at the preposterous scene before me. “I don’t want to be some sort of evil tyrant forcing everyone to worship the ground I walk on.”

“You say that,” my double murmured, “but don’t forget who you’re talking to. You can’t deny you like the idea of making all those short-sighted fools bow down before you. To make even Celestia herself acknowledge you as her equal ... or superior. This is our chance to finally make it happen, and all you have to do is reach out and seize the power being offered to you..”

“But this isn’t what I want!” I snapped at her. “I like the idea of standing side by side with Celestia, but I never wanted to crush her or steal Equestria.”

“Oh really?” My double smirked and shifted the scene back to my childhood, when I’d sat on Celestia’s throne and pretended to be Princess—then a decade later, when I’d lashed out at her in the middle of my breakdown. “We both know there’s a part of you that would love to beat her. To take everything she’s ever achieved and do better.”

I clenched my teeth as the scene shifted back to the throne room. “First scene, I was a kid being silly. Second was in the middle of me having a breakdown. And finally ... yeah, I do want to do better than her. Not because I’m trying to show the world I’m superior, but so she’ll be proud of how much I’ve accomplished.”

“And for your own pride,” my evil twin countered.

“Yeah, sure,” I admitted. “I want to achieve great things with my life. When I get old, I want to be able to look back at everything and say ‘yeah, I did a good job.’ I want the history books a hundred years from now to talk about all the great things I did with my life. I want a big statue in the middle of Freeport, celebrating how much I helped them and everything I achieved. What’s wrong with any of that? Doesn’t mean I’m evil, just that I want to live a good life.” I took a deep breath. “And yes, maybe that means trying to outdo Celestia, but there’s nothing malicious about that. She’s my mom, and the most wonderful pony I’ve ever know. Of course I want her to be proud of me.”

“Fine, then.” My double shifted the scene again, and we moved from Canterlot to Freeport. The city itself looked far more prosperous than I remembered, with none of the slums or run-down sections. Happy citizens of all races mingled in the streets, or in beautiful open plaza where statues of me towered over everyone.

My evil twin smirked. “Is that more to your liking?”

“Maybe,” I admitted. “So what's the catch?

“No catch,” the demonic version of me lied. “You just need to finally become what you meant to be. Me.”

I frowned at her, and would’ve crossed my legs over my chest if I could’ve. “Somehow, I don’t think it was destiny to turn into a freaky dragon-horse crossbreed with an appearance that just screams ‘Look at me, I’m evil!’”

“Destiny is flexible,” Demon-me answered. “Why limit yourself to the equine form when you can transcend it? Blackfyre can help you do that. Just imagine how much stronger you can be if you combine his gifts with your transformation into an alicorn.”

I glared at the creature. “So this is all just another pitch to make me try to join up with Blackfyre. If you really are part of me, you’d know that’s not happening.” I waved at the idyllic vista before me. “I wouldn’t really be ruling Freeport, I'd just be his proxy because he's too lazy to do the job himself. Not to mention Blackfyre would probably come smash the city at some point just for the sick thrill of watching it all burn.”

“You’d only be working with him for a time,” my double shot back with a nasty grin. “His laziness makes him all too easy to destroy from within. Play your cards right and he won’t even know you’re plotting against him until it’s too late.”

“Plot betrayal against the guy who’ll carve a bunch of control runes into my back as the first part of hiring me on as a minion?” I scoffed. “Yeah, we can see how well that’s been working out for Starlight. How can I stab him in the back when all he has to do is look at me and I’m down on the floor writing in pain?”

“For starters, you could destroy him in a way that doesn’t require you to be present when the hammer falls,” she pointed out. “That’s how Puzzle would do it, and I’m sure you’ll want his advice for all this skullduggery.” My evil twin shrugged. “And you’re Chainbreaker’s wielder. It didn’t do Starlight any good, but the equation’s way different for you. He’d never be able to make a slave out of you the way he has with her.”

“Assuming Chainbreaker still lets me touch it after I join up with Blackfyre,” I countered. I still didn’t completely understand how the sword worked, but I was pretty sure a sword that was all about freedom and liberation wouldn’t like me joining up with a petty tyrant. It clearly hadn’t done anything for Starlight when she stole it.

“And even if Chainbreaker kept me from getting put fully under his control, don’t you think Blackfyre would object?” I pointed out. “It’s a pretty safe bet he’d test out his control over me before he let me do anything, and if I had any freedom left he wouldn’t trust me to breathe on my own, let alone rule over chunks of the planet.”

“Then you just have to fake it well enough to satisfy him,” Evil-me answered. “Bow and scrape a little bit whenever he comes around, and plant the knife in his back as soon as you can get away with it. It wouldn’t be that hard. Sure, it’s a risk, but nothing ventured...”

“Pass,” I growled. “That plan means years of needing everything to go perfectly right, and I’m dead if it doesn’t. I’m not averse to taking a calculated risk to get a big reward, but you’re talking about the equivalent of playing with matches in a room full of fireworks and hoping nothing goes wrong. And that’s not even getting into all the horrible things I’d have to do to play along at being Blackfyre’s loyal minion for however long it would take to set up a backstab.”

My evil twin rolled her eyes. ”So what do you want then? Freedom?”

“Not being enslaved to an evil dragon who’d kill or torture me the first time I displease him would be a nice start,” I agreed.

“If that’s what you want, I’ll need a costume change.” The skin slowly sloughed off the demonic version of me, and its hair changed color from red and yellow to green.

Rising Fire stared down at me. Guess I should’ve known she would show up as long as I was facing off against evil versions of myself—or at least crazy liches who claimed to be from an alternate timeline and were suspiciously familiar with some of my best spells. “There is no greater freedom than mine.” She shifted the scene before us to a broken, ruined world. “All is dust, but that means there is nothing to restrict me from doing as I please. I could spend a century reading books, walking across the world, or even lying in bed demanding my servants feed me. Even the chains of mortality are long gone. I am no tyrant, but those who wrong me or my world will face my wrath.”

“Horseapples,” I snarled. “If I’m not turning into a freaky demon, I’m also not turning into some sort of lich. Whatever you’re selling, I’m not interested. What’s the point of having absolute freedom if I’m left in a desolate wasteland with nobody else to enjoy it with?” I held up a hoof to cut off the response. “Let me guess, this is one of those ‘No mare is an island’ things. The only way to have absolute freedom is to live in a world where there’s nothing that can restrict me. Just like how Blackfyre wants to do things.” I scoffed and shook my head. “Yeah, that’s not my idea of freedom. Sure, I want the right to do as I please, but I don’t need the freedom to be horrible to everyone around me. I have responsibilities, and I think trying to do a good job with all of that makes me a better pony. Look where I am now compared to what I was like three years ago, when I was just a student.”

Rising Fire shifted back to the demon-dragon form, baring her fangs at me. “So you say you want freedom, but at the same time you say that having your freedom chained down has made you grow and develop, and you need those restrictions? Do you even know what it is you want, or are you just a living contradiction?”

I groaned and buried my face in my hooves. “You wouldn’t understand.”

My evil self conjured up a big comfy armchair and flopped back into it. “So explain it, then. I can’t help you get what you want if I can’t even tell me what that is.”

“Well I never asked for your help in the first place,” I growled. I took a breath, and tried to figure out the best way to explain it. “I want to be important. I want to make the world a better place by my actions. I want Celestia to be proud of me and what I'm doing. I want to prove I deserve my wings, and get them.”

“And what would you do with an alicorn’s power?” Demon-me challenged. “Because right now you seem like a dog chasing a carriage who wouldn’t know what to do with the thing if she ever managed to catch it.”

I sighed and started massaging my forehead. “Not this stupid question again. Okay, yes, I don’t have everything perfectly planned out for what to do after I become an alicorn. It’s such a huge hurdle to get over that I didn’t think it was a good idea to count my chickens before they hatched. I’d probably just stick to doing what I’ve been doing, except better.”

“Will you overthrow the Council?” Evil-me challenged. “Because I’m sure you realize that if you come back to Freeport as an alicorn and Chainbreaker’s wielder, they’ll see you as a threat. It’s a combination that’s practically tailor-made to destroy their legitimacy and make everyone think you should be running the show. Is that your plan, then?”

I frowned and shook my head. “No. I mean, I have plenty of issues with how the Council’s been running Freeport, but I’m not planning on touching off a civil war or trying to pull a coup. I’ve been trying to fix problems and help people without burning down half the city in the process.”

“That’s not how Ushabti or Torch did things,” my double pointed out.

“Well I’m not them,” I countered. “And while the Council has a lot of issues, they’re nowhere near as bad as a bunch of crazy necromancers lead by an ancient vampire, or the zebras back when they tried to annex the islands. Maybe it’ll come down to a fight eventually, but I’m not in a hurry to start one if there’s another option.”

My evil twin scoffed. “Why do you even want power if you’re not going to use it? Don’t tell me this quest to become an alicorn is nothing more than looking for validation.”

“It’s my destiny,” I answered. “What more do I need?”

“So it really is.” My double scoffed. “You’re pathetic.”

The demonic version of myself slowly faded away, leaving me all alone in the darkness. I sure as hay didn’t miss her. “Yeah, well you look like you’re trying way too hard to be some big bad evil mare. Sure you don’t want a big cape with spikes and skulls on it?!”

My evil twin didn’t answer. As the minutes dragged onward I almost wished she would come back. Not that I wanted to have some stupid evil version of me trying to tempt me to become an evil tyrant or whatever, but the alternative was just hanging here in the middle of a black empty void. I’d take just about anything over utter, complete boredom.

For a moment, I could swear I heard Celestia’s voice. “Sunset? Where are you?”

I looked, trying to figure out where she was. “Celestia?! I’m right here!” I went running off to where I thought I’d heard her. “I need your help! Please, where are you?!”

I heard her voice again, but it sounded even further away, like she was trying to talk to me through half a dozen closed windows. I couldn’t even make out the words, but I recognized her voice. That was all I needed to start running again.

I kept trying to find her, but no matter how far I ran or how fast I moved, she just seemed to be getting further and further away. I ran and ran for as long as I could, until I tripped over my non-existent leg and fell flat on my face. Somehow. You’d think that couldn’t even happen when I was trapped in a dark, ethereal void with no solid surfaces.

With nothing better to do I just sat there, weak and helpless. Forget gaining a set of wings, I hadn’t even kept all the limbs I’d been born with. Blackfyre had just been toying with me, not even my death curse had phased him. Not to mention it had utterly failed at keeping me out of his clutches.

I was nothing. Just the sad, broken remnants of a pony whose body would soon get repurposed into another one of Blackfyre’s beasts. Just one more pawn in his grand plan to destroy Celestia and become the most powerful petty jerk on the planet.

My death wouldn’t even mean anything. It all seemed like a good plan at the time: give Celestia all the information she needed to find Blackfyre’s secret stronghold, kill off the nasty anti-magic critter Blackfyre had whipped up to have an advantage against her, then get away. Too bad the ‘get away’ part of the plan hadn’t worked out and Blackfyre could easily replace his Warpmouth. And now he had me, and could use me against Celestia. Guess that changed the plan to me stupidly getting myself killed for nothing, and maybe even dooming everyone else in the process.

I wasn’t going to cry. I was not going to cry.

...

Dammit.

I’m not sure how long I sat there with the hot, bitter tears rolling down my cheeks before I heard another voice. “She can't reach you here.”

“What?!” I bolted up to my hooves, hastily wiping my eyes dry. “Who’s there?! Show yourself!”

The new pony stepped forward. It took me a second to place him; it was the same earth pony I’d had a dream about after Blackfyre broke my leg. Light blue coat, dark purple hair, and a long, thin, carefully braided beard hanging off his chin. There was something oddly familiar about him, but I couldn’t place it. When he spoke I noticed a strange accent, drawing out his words just a bit too much. “We are beyond Celestia’s light in this place. But there are others who can help you. Us.”

Oh joy. More creeps trying to tempt me into making a deal to get out of the mess I was in. “So who the buck are you supposed to be?”

The strange guy chuckled. “You may not know me by sight, but then your teacher would be one of the only ones who would. However, you would know me by my works.”

“Cryptic and useless,” I grumbled.

“Perhaps a more familiar face then?” The other guy from my dream, a white-coated pegasus with a black mane, stepped out the shadows. “I should hope you would know me, considering how much your apprentice admires me.” He smirked. “Not to mention her desperate hope that the two of us might be related.”

With hints that blatant it wasn’t hard to connect the dots. “Torch Charger?”

He smirked and nodded, turning it into a grandiose bow. “The one and only.”

“Which means...” I took another look at the earth pony, noticing that he seemed to be styling himself after old Selerika. “Let me guess, Ushabti?”

“Indeed.” He frowned, giving me a quick once-over. “I see you have been putting my sword to good use.”

I shrugged. “Kinda needed to. I would’ve liked to put it back in a museum, but there wasn’t time to go back to Freeport and it’s really good at slicing up monsters. Hope you don’t mind.”

“Not at all.” Ushabti shrugged. “Chainbreaker was meant to be used. I passed it on to a warrior clan when my time on the mortal coil was done for a reason, rather than leaving it to rot useless in a dusty tomb. Taking it to Blackfyre’s abominations was the best use it’s seen in the centuries since Torch wielded it.”

“It’s a symbol.” Torch crossed his forelegs over his chest. “It serves as an inspiration to all within Freeport that they will never be slaves again. It was hardly useless. If it hadn’t spent centuries being Chainbreaker, it wouldn’t be what it is now.”

Ushabti shrugged. “I suppose you have a point. My sword has grown to be quite a bit more than it once was.” He turned back to me. “Your shadow wasn’t wrong to suggest that it could keep you free from Blackfyre’s domination.”

That certainly caught my attention. “What do you mean?” After a moment’s thought I had a pretty good idea where this was heading. “Fine. How about you throw me your pitch. Everyone else has been. Will Chainbreaker turn me into a dark queen who rules over all she sees for the next ten thousand years.”

“Nothing quite so grand as that,” Ushabti answered dryly. “But Chainbreaker is not just an especially sharp piece of steel. As Torch said, it’s been a powerful symbol displayed in a public place for centuries, venerated by generations of Freeport’s inhabitants. That gives a certain degree of power. And, as you have doubtless surmised by now, its former wielders have also left a certain mark upon it.”

“Or at least, its most famous ones,” Torch cut in. “Otherwise there would be a dozen of my ancestors crowding around us.”

Ushabti frowned at him. “Well, I suppose not everyone has the capacity and opportunity to achieve great things.” His gaze shifted back to me. “Naturally, that does not apply to you. Oh, you have quite the impressive destiny ahead of you.”

I groaned and tried to bury my face in my hooves, though that was a lot harder to pull off when I only had one full foreleg. “Not destiny again. I think I’ve already got more than enough of that to deal with just becoming an alicorn.”

“Not the sort of destiny we had in mind,” Torch answered. “In my experience, people who think they know exactly what their destiny is going to be and how it will come to be usually have no idea what they’re talking about. They just decide they want something, and then try to get it while feeling a massive sense of entitlement. Destiny isn’t so much a defined and laid out path as it is a sort of potential. Being the right pony in the right place at the right time, and being able to change the course of the world with your actions. But what form that ends up taking ... we can’t say that until it happens.”

Ushabti chuckled. “I certainly never planned to become a revolutionary or throw a Zebrican occupation force out of Freeport and construct a new regime. I just wanted a quiet place to do a few harmless experiments. But ... well I suppose some of us are driven to greatness, and others had it thrust upon them.” He cleared his throat. “ But to get back to the matter at hoof, there is a means by which you could free yourself from your current predicament.”

“Oh yeah? What's the catch?” I glared at both of them. “Because I know how it goes from here. I’m dead if I don’t do something, so everyone’s going to ask me to sell my soul to get out of this mess.” I took a deep breath. “I cut off my leg before I gave in. I threw a death curse at Blackfyre rather than become his slave. Same applies to anyone else.”

Torch chuckled and shook his head. “I would think you would know that I have no interest in keeping slaves. That said, the price isn’t going to be cheap; there is power in Chainbreaker, both from the fragments of spirits it has collected and as a symbol of a nation and freedom. And it could be used to free you from your prison. But to do so we need to bind its power to you, and given the circumstances that will require a sacrifice.”

It wasn’t hard to guess what he was building up to. “Let me guess: you can give me the power to beat Blackfyre, but it’ll burn out the last of my life energy or something?” I shrugged. “I already threw a death curse at Blackfyre, I think at this point it’s safe to say I’m willing to die if that’s what it takes to stop him.”Ushabti frowned, slowly circling around me. “You seem eager to die for a pony with so much to live for. I know it seems a strange thing for a necromancer to say, but life is too precious to throw away so readily.”

I groaned and rolled my eyes. “I knew dying was a possibility as soon as I committed to my plan to take down Blackfyre. I was going into his cavern all by myself, I’d have to be pretty stupid to not realize this was a high-risk mission.”

Torch scowled at me. “There’s a difference between accepting death is possible and embracing it. I knew that every time I went into battle I might die, but I never went on a suicide mission. You did. Maybe you told yourself you stood a chance of getting away, but I don’t think you can really lie while we’re in your consciousness now. Admit it. You knew this was a one-way trip.”

I took a deep breath and closed my eyes. “Yeah, okay, I knew making it out of this mission was always a longshot. Nothing short of a miracle would let me survive, and I was okay with that if it meant beating Blackfyre.”

“Somehow I doubt it’s that simple.” Torch tapped my head. “We’re not the first to comment on your seemingly self-destructive drive. Your friends tried to warn you, and even Starlight Glimmer seemed ill at ease. When even your mortal enemies show concern for your mental wellbeing, perhaps you should reconsider your actions.”

“Is there supposed to be a point to this?” I growled. “Or did you just want to give me the same old tired lecture I’ve already heard before?”

Ushabti took a seat in front of me, keeping his tone carefully neutral. “Would I be wrong if I said that you would rather die attempting to become an alicorn than live out the rest of your life as a ‘mere’ unicorn?”

I shrugged. “Don’t they always say that it’s better to strive for greatness and fail than aim for mediocrity and succeed?”

Ushabti frowned at me. “Considering the vast majority of people in the world live in what you would doubtless consider mediocrity and lead happy, successful lives, I think you are selling the idea short. There is nothing contemptible about leading what most would consider an ordinary life, yet it seems you consider anything less than perfection in achieving your goals to be an absolute failure.”

Torch shifted the background again, back to when I’d first passed through Coldharbor and gotten into a skirmish with Sigil. “You’ve always hurled yourself head-first into mortal peril to get what you want. You were willing to die just to stop someone from bringing you home to a mother who was worried for you, even if she did a terrible job of showing it. That determination that borders on madness has been one of the secrets to your success; your willingness to escalate a battle past the point of reason.” He moved the scenario to Rising Fire. “Often, your foes chose to yield rather than continue a battle that could only be won by destroying you.”

“That’s how fights go sometimes,” I shot back. “Sometimes the way to win is to take it to a point where they can’t or won’t follow you.”

“That is often true,” Ushabti agreed. “But everyone around you seems to think you’re just a touch too cavalier about putting yourself in mortal peril. Where once your drive was admirable, now it seems you won’t stop until you’ve destroyed yourself utterly.”

“Well considering you guys want me to kill myself as part of whatever power-up I get to escape from Blackfyre’s clutches, that should be fine,” I shot back. “So let’s get on with it.”

“You misunderstand,” Ushabti murmured. “The price was never going to be your life. With how little value you seem to place upon it, that hardly seems to be a sacrifice. Alas, the price for this will be something far more precious: you must give up your potential to become an alicorn. By using that power, we can unlock everything you need to escape confinement and perhaps even survive the coming battle.”

If there had been a floor in this weird void, my jaw would’ve hit it. “I—buh—you want me to do what?! No!”

“So eager to sacrifice your own life, yet you balk at the idea of giving up something far less valuable,” Ushabti murmured. “But that potential energy is the only true power available to us. Your unicorn magic and life energy have already been depleted by your death curse. You barely have enough to keep yourself alive, and even that required Blackfyre’s intervention. The only strength left within you is that kernel of untapped potential—power we can help you draw upon to become what you need to be to defeat Blackfyre, but once spent it cannot be restored. I assure you, if there were a less costly alternative we would have suggested it.”

“You will still be alive,” Torch added. “Where there is life, there is hope.”

“No, I won’t...” I shook my head. “I don’t have to do this. Celestia’s coming. She got my message, she’ll be here along with Argentium to take Blackfyre down and free me.”

Ushabti shrugged. “Perhaps, or perhaps not. There is no guarantee that your message got through, or that she will be able to find you in time. Perhaps Blackfyre’s wards are too powerful, or his spawn backtracked and eliminated Puzzle and Strumming. There is no guarantee help is coming, and even if it is coming we cannot be certain it will arrive in time.”

I shrugged. “I’ll take my chances.”

Torch sighed. “You do realize that if help doesn’t arrive in time, Blackfyre might well succeed in transforming you into a Blightspawn he could use against Celestia once she does arrive, which can only end badly.”

“That kind of transformation will take days, or even weeks,” I countered. “We’ve only been talking for five minutes. I think I’ve got plenty of time to spare.”

Ushabti shook his head. “Surely you do not think the passage of time here perfectly correlates to time in the waking world. It took you three days to recover enough from your suicide attempt masquerading as a heroic sacrifice for us to reach you. If we do not act soon the changes Blackfyre is working upon your flesh might be irreversible, and you will be the beast you saw not long ago.”

Oh. That wasn’t great news. Still... “Then she has to be close by now.”

“A rather thin hope to place your life and soul upon,” Torch murmured. “Especially when you have a clear path to escape sitting right in front of you. And there is price those you care for will pay if you’re wrong.”

I scoffed. “Well I’m not giving up on the thing I’ve spent my whole life building towards just because she might not get here in time.”

“Why does it matter so much to you?” Torch probed. “You didn’t hesitate to throw a death curse at Blackfyre, but now...”

I groaned and ran my hoof down my face. These two were supposed to be smart, so why didn’t they get it? “Because it’s my destiny!”

“Remember what we just said about the dangers of such hubris that you think you know what your destiny is?” Ushabti countered. “Let us consider the facts: your ‘destiny’ has done nothing but bring you misery and pain every time you pursued it. You have destroyed relationships, ravaged your body, tried to kill yourself, and are now on the verge of being turned into a monster to be used against Celestia because of this quest to become an alicorn.”

I scowled at them. “I have no idea what you’re going on about.”

“Then let us go back to the beginning.” Torch fixed me with an unyielding gaze. “Why did you attack Cadenza?”

I sighed at the reminder of something I’d really like to forget. “Because I was a stupid angry kid.”

“Yes, but let us consider what exactly you were angry about,” Torch countered. “You were mad at her because she was an alicorn, and you weren’t. You thought she’d stolen your destiny, or maybe just achieved without trying the thing you’d spent your whole life striving towards. In either case, if you’d never lusted for an alicorn’s wings there would be little reason for the two of you to ever come into conflict.”

I didn’t especially like the way he laid it out, but there was no way I could argue against him. I doubt I would’ve had any issues with Cadenza if not for her having wings when I wanted them. “Yeah, I guess. But that was years ago, and I’ve changed.”

“Yes, you have,” Ushabti agreed. “And while in many ways that is for the better, you have not stopped driving yourself like a madmare towards the goal that in your own words has defined your life.” He shifted the scene to several of the battles I’d fought since coming to Freeport, and every single questionable decision or crazy risk I’d taken during them. “At the rate you were going it was only a matter of time until you faced a foe you couldn’t defeat, or just got unlucky. Rising Fire was your first taste of that, and then Scarlett, Starlight, and Blackfyre. Not to mention escapades like agreeing to duel a trained warrior without using magic.”

“Yeah, I was taking chances,” I agreed. “You don’t become an alicorn by playing it safe.”

“And if you were taking carefully calculated risks, that might be a valid argument,” Torch shot back. “But that’s not what you did. You threw yourself head-first into mortal peril time and again with barely even a thought to your own survival.”

Ushabti nodded along. “You could have stuck with the convoy and kept protecting the refugees, or strung Starlight along by leading her away from them. With your abilities it would have been difficult for her to catch you if you had tried. Your missing leg is a disadvantage, but one that’s easy enough to compensate for with a little forethought. Not to mention simply staying the course was a perfectly valid choice. You did force her to withdraw after wounding her badly enough that she needed Blackfyre’s healing.”

“And she had me dead to rights before her runes kicked in,” I pointed out.

Torch shrugged. “That’s the fortunes of battle for you. You can never say for certain how a fight will turn out. However, your situation certainly wasn’t anywhere near so dire that turning yourself in to her was the only possible way to keep her from destroying the convoy. You chose to go into certain death when there were no shortage of perfectly viable alternatives.”

“It worked, didn’t it?” I snapped. “I got her away from the convoy, gave Celestia directions to find Blackfyre, and then did critical damage to him by getting rid of his Warpmouth. That’s way better than a stalemate. As long as they get here before I get turned into a Blightspawn, I’d say this whole thing worked out pretty well. Sure, a lot of the damage I did was temporary, but that just means Celestia and Argentium need to finish him off before he fixes it.”

“Ah, so you think it was all a noble sacrifice?” Torch probed. “Were you perhaps hoping that if you gave your life in the service of a good cause that would finally be enough to earn the reward you so desperately crave? I sacrificed myself to free slaves and take down the Necrocrats, as did hundreds of others who joined the Council’s uprising. I think you know your history well enough to realize that we didn’t have dozens of alicorns running about.”

“Not to mention intentionally sacrificing yourself in order to get a reward is no sacrifice at all,” Ushabti added in. “You wouldn’t be giving up your life if a minute after your death you pop right back up, and with a new set of wings as your reward.”

I clenched my teeth and tried to keep all the boiling rage and frustration in. I didn’t quite pull it off. “So what am I supposed to do?! I’ve spent years busting my butt trying every single thing I could think of to become an alicorn! And you’re right, it does just make me miserable, because I’ve never pulled it off or even gotten anything that made me think I was getting closer! But I can't just give up on it after all these years! What does that say about me if I just abandon my destiny because it’s too hard?!”

“That you’ve changed your priorities.” Ushabti was infuriatingly calm in the face of my anger. “Many ponies do that over the course of their lives. I went from wanting to be a magus, to a forbidden researcher, to an exiled researcher, a revolutionary, and then the ruler of a nation. Was my time spent becoming a magus a waste?”

“And you’re sacrificing so much of yourself to become an alicorn that I have to ask if it’s worth it.” Torch sighed and shook his head. “You’re like a merchant who lost money because the price of grain dropped, and responded by sinking more and more money into it to try and justify the original loss. You just said that trying to become an alicorn has made you miserable and everyone around you keeps telling you that you’re destroying yourself with this quest. Where does it stop? Do you have to destroy the lives of others before it ends? I’m sure you know that if Blackfyre succeeds in transforming you, the ones you care for most will suffer for it.”

“No, I just... “ I struggled to think of a way to explain it. But ... I couldn’t. Not logically.

They were right.

Trying to be an alicorn was just making me miserable.

Why was I even doing it anymore?

To make Celestia proud, and earn her love? She was already proud, and she already loved me. She always had.

Because it was my destiny? Strumming had been right, I didn’t give a flying feather about destiny in any other context.

Because I deserved it after all my efforts? Feeling entitled wasn’t how you got wings.

I slumped down, defeated. “I guess it was all just a waste then.”

I felt Ushabti’s hoof on my shoulder. “Admitting that you have made a mistake is the first step towards fixing the problem. Now that you know what you’ve done wrong, you can start to make it right. Sometimes the most powerful chains that bind us are the ones we make for ourselves. Of course, since we’re the ones who forge those chains we can also break them.”

“And I would hardly call the last two years of your life since coming to Freeport a waste.” Torch waved a hoof, and the background shifted one last time, letting me see dozens of scenes playing out. Stopping Metal Mome, quelling the riot Starlight started before anyone died, keeping the Black Codex from falling into the wrong hooves, rescuing Kukri from the Primal Changeling, keeping Zebrica’s court struggles from turning into a bloodbath in Freeport’s streets, stopping Rising Fire, and then making sure nobody died in the blood feud Strumming wound up starting. All the good times, like celebrating my birthday or training Kukri.

It ... wasn’t a bad life at all. And I didn’t need to be an alicorn for any of it.

I took a deep breath.

“Okay. Fine. Let’s do it.”

“Are you sure?” Ushabti asked. “Once you do, this there is no going back.”

“How many ponies die if I don’t?” I shot back. “My friends could die, and if I was willing to sacrifice them just to hold onto my dream of getting wings I wouldn’t deserve either one. Yeah, I’m sure. I gave up a leg to stop Blackfyre, I can give up my pride and pointless quest that only ever made me miserable.”

Torch nodded. “Good answer.”

The black void started fading away, a blinding white light replacing it. There was a strange sort of tugging sensation in my chest, and I saw an orb of energy fly out of me, hoving in the air in front of my face. Then it shot back towards me, whirling around faster and faster, and I could feel something within me ... changing.

As everything around me faded away, a random thought sprang to mind. “Wait, was this all some sort of test where I have to prove I’m willing to give up the thing I’ve been obsessing over in order to earn it?”

Everything around me vanished before I got an answer.

Author's Note

As always, thanks to my pre-reading and editing team for all their hard work. Also, I would like to thank all my dedicated Patreon supporters. You guys are awesome.

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Aidan Hall
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Interlude: The Hunt for Bacon

Most of the time Bacon’s pretty cool to be around, but every once in a while she really finds a way to be an enormous pain in the posterior. Like when she gets it into her head that she should go running off to fight the big evil superdragon on her own. It’s like she took our talk about how we were all worried she was making a martyr of herself and said, ‘Oh yeah, killing myself is a totally great idea! Let’s double down on that!’

I groaned and trudged along through the snow, following the very obvious trail left behind by the small army of abominations against nature. When I sank up to my knees in a loose patch of snow, I felt the need to comment to Bug Boy. “For the record, did you tell Bacon anything to make her think this was a good idea? ‘Cause I’d love to be able to blame you for everything about our current situation. You could even shapeshift into a goat to make the scapegoating a bit easier.”

Bug Boy sighed and rolled his eyes, pulling his jacket a bit tighter around himself. “This one can’t imagine what it could have done to cause this. Unless you were thinking about how it told her to do the exact opposite of something this stupid?”

“Knew it was your fault.” I scoffed and shook my head. “You should’ve known that telling her not to do something would set her off. So it’s absolutely one hundred percent your fault we’re stuck following her trail, trudging through the snow.”

Bug Boy sighed and rolled his eyes. “Yes, how thoughtless of this one to give the Shimmer-mare good advice. Next time it will be sure to give her bad advice instead. It could hardly have made things worse.” He followed in my hoofsteps and wound up sinking into the same loose patch I had. “Has this one mentioned that it hates snow? It’s cold and damp.” He smirked at me. “Unlike you, who is warm and dry.”

I scoffed. “I wish I was warm and dry right now.” I sighed and tried to shake some of the snow off my back. “You know, I really miss Freeport. Sure, it’s a crime-ridden pit that usually smells like dead fish, but it’s in the tropics. I got way too used to taking it for granted that the weather would be warm and pleasant all year.”

“This one would like to stay there for the next several years as well,” Bug Boy muttered. “Especially in light of how badly things have gone since we left.”

I groaned and stretched out my one wing that wasn’t bandaged up. “Next time we try to give Bacon advice, I vote we tell her to go running off on her own as part of a crazy stupid plan to be a hero. That way she’ll do the opposite just to spite us.”

“That sounds like a infinitely better plan than whatever the Shimmer-mare is up to. At least it has logic to it.” Bug Boy groaned and tapped some snow out one of his leg holes. “We should have pushed her harder during the talk about how self-destructive she’s acting. Instead we backed off so it wouldn’t turn into a big ugly argument, and look how that turned out. This one would ask what the Shimmer-mare was thinking, but it’s rather certain she wasn’t.”

“Oh she was thinking, just not very well.” I pulled out the letter she’d left behind, going over it again. “We need to get her a boyfriend. Or girlfriend. Or both—just, you know, someone who stays with her 24/7 so she can’t make any more dumb calls after we go to sleep. You’ve got a lot of info broker skills, I’m sure you can come up with something.”

Puzzle groaned and rubbed some snow off his snout. “This one is hardly an ideal matchmaker, but under the circumstances we should perhaps look into that once we get back to Freeport. Up to now this one assumed her lack of interest in any romantic entanglements would make it easier for us, not harder.”

“Yeah, let’s be glad we didn’t have to put up with her getting involved in messy teenage romance on top of everything else.”

“Indeed.” He chuckled and wrapped one of his wings around me. “Though often a life partner can help provide a degree of guidance and moderation in difficult times, and she would certainly benefit from that. Though that’s assuming there is an individual in the world who she’ll listen to once she gets into a stubborn mood.”

“Point.” Once Bacon set her mind on something, she tended to keep going for it unless it was physically impossible not to. I poked around in the snow a bit and eventually dug out a long strand of red hair. “Least she gave us a good trail to follow.”

“You say that as if it makes up for all the other things she’s done wrong..” Puzzle sighed. “Let’s see, that’s one point in favor of her plan and...” He trailed off, frowning to himself. “This one can’t think of a ridiculous enough number to encapsulate the sheer absurdity of her plan. Do you have any suggestions?”

“Eleventy-bajillion,” I tossed out. I loosened the bandages a bit and gave my damaged wing a careful flex. It seemed safe, but the docs had been pretty clear about how I shouldn’t be flying on it yet, and there was a big difference between it seeming okay when I tried moving it around a bit and actually going airborne on it. I’d rather not find out my wing wasn’t healed up while I was a hundred feet in the air. “Shame we’re stuck trudging along, though I suppose it helps us keep our eyes close on the trail.”

“At least that,” Puzzle agreed. “Especially since it’s not like getting there faster is going to make that much of a difference. The Blightspawn have a considerable lead over us, and given how long it’s been they’ve probably already gotten to wherever Blackfyre is hiding. There is little point in rushing into the lair of the beast without some idea of what we’ll do once we get there.”

I frowned and scraped some snow out of my mane. “Yeah, is the thing. I mean, we stand a decent chance of out-clevering Glim-Glam if she’s still hopped up on angry-enough-to-be-dumb, but that’s a fight without much room for error. And her big boss ... well do you have any good plans for how to take him down?”

Bug Boy sighed. “Outside of getting the White Pony and Argentium to fight him for us? None that have any realistic chance of success. Our best hope is to sneak in, find where he’s holding the Shimmer-mare, and get out before he knows we’re there.”

“Yeah, unless Facon managed to get us some backup. Think she’s made it to the Equestrians by now?” Something about how I’d said that struck me as odd. “When did I start calling my own ponies Equestrians?”

Bug Boy ignored my low-level existential crisis to focus on more immediate matters. “That depends on how close the Equestrians are to us. Getting an army into Northmarch in the middle of winter is a tricky proposition at best. The White Pony will move quickly once she learns the Shimmer-mare is in danger, but she has to know about it first.”

“Yup, she knows a lot but she’s not omniscient.” I glanced over my shoulder at him, then took a seat to stretch out for a bit. “So ... how likely do you think it is we’d get an entire company of mobile forces backing us up before we get to Blackfyre’s hidey-hole?”

Bug Boy frowned in that deeply thoughtful way of his that looked kinda cute. Almost nerdy, except he was way too suave to actually pull off nerdy contemplation. “Assuming Kukri was quick in getting to the White Pony, she had a quick reaction force at hoof, and then immediately sent it? About fifteen percent.”

I nodded along, doing a quick bit of math in my head. “So ... if I were to bet you two hundred ducats that it would happen, you’d pay out over a thousand, right?”

Puzzle put his attention fully on me. “If this one took that bet, yes.”

I grinned. “You wanna?”

Bug Boy shot me a flat look. “You’ve been looking over your shoulder at something behind this one and just challenged it to an oddly specific wager. Couldn’t you have just said that we had help incoming?”

“S’more fun to do it my way,” I answered with a cheeky grin. “Besides, it gave me a shot at picking up some free money.” I waved at the group of pegasi off in the distance. They seemed to have a pretty good idea where we were already, but why take chances?

Puzzle chuckled and nudged me in the ribs. “If we both survive, this one will buy you something suitably grand to celebrate. That way we have something to look forward to if we get out of this madness in one piece.”

“Works for me.” Bug Boy seemed to like buying me nice and expensive things I could never afford on a government salary, and I hadn’t seen any reason to try too hard to stop him. I would’ve made a few suggestions, but the incoming Guard Officers probably took precedence over flirting with Bug Boy. “Hey guys. ‘Sup?”

A stallion built like a brick house landed in front of us, accompanied by a mare in red armor with captain’s bars. Probably his second in command. “You would be Agent Heartstrings and Puzzle Piece, then? Major Shield Breaker. My second, Captain Gust.”

Bug Boy looked them both over. “A pleasure. This one is going to guess our meeting isn’t a coincidence, though it has to wonder how you found us.”

Captain Gust pulled out a weird little magical bubble that had a couple strands of my hair in it. Guess Bacon must’ve snagged those off me at some point. Cheeky little ... well, couldn’t really blame her. Really, considering the kind of stuff we got up to semi-regularly, she should be keeping some tracking spell components for all her pals stashed away for life’s just-in-cases.

The Major evidently felt showing off his tracking thingie was answer enough for Puzzle’s questions. “Machwing Company. Princess Celestia sent us here to assist you. If you wouldn’t mind briefing Captain Gust while I see to the troops...” He did a quick about face, taking back to the air to organize the company’s worth of pegasi he’d brought along.

Puzzle turned to the captain, not wasting any time. “So do you want all the little details, or should we just cover the bare essentials?”

“Her Highness already told us the basics,” Captain Gust answered. “We’re trying to either recover Sunset Shimmer or confirm her location if we can’t rescue her on our own.”

Bug Boy nodded. “Hopefully before she reaches Blackfyre, since while this one is sure your troops are very good they’d still have a hard time taking him on in a straight fight. She’s been captured by a dangerous warlock known as Starlight Glimmer, who has an escort of three large and a dozen smaller Blightspawn.”

“We got one of the big guys, so it should only be two.” I reminded him. “Or at least, I think we got him. Hard to say for sure with how they are.”

Puzzle shrugged. “Probably, but this one would rather be ready for three and only find two, especially since he might have sent more forces to back the Glimmer-mare up. The good news is that the Spawn left a very clear trail, and the Shimmer-mare has dropped a few hairs to help us confirm we’re on the right track.”

“Though we’ve been following her for three days, and judging by how cold the trail’s getting, they have a ton of lead time on us.” I put a hoof over Puzzle’s mouth. “No jokes about cold trails, bad puns are my thing. One of my things. I’m allowed to have multiple things.”

Bug Boy brushed my hoof away. “They’re making good progress. They’ve barely stopped for rest and food the entire time we've followed them. They aren’t making any effort to cover their tracks, so we do at least have a very clear trail to follow. Though with how far ahead of us they are, it might be too late to stop them before they reach Blackfyre.”

“Then we should hurry,” Captain Gust concluded. She gave us both a quick once-over, taking note of my bandaged wing. “Can you fly?”

“This one can, but the Heartstrings-mare’s wing is still recovering from an injury.”

“Tried to tell Bug Boy to go ahead without me, but he figured there wasn’t much point when it’d take both of us to do a rescue,” I filled in. “And carrying me the whole way wasn’t an option ‘cause of the weight.” I glowered at him. “Not. One. Word.”

“This one didn’t say anything,” he assured me.

“You were thinking it.”

“This one was not.”

“Well you could’ve been,” I grumbled. “That’s basically the same thing.”

Puzzle sighed. “This one will do it’s best to refrain from having the potential to think anything mocking about you in the future, Heartstrings-mare.”

“Damn well better.” I smirked and nudged him.

Captain Gust shot both of us a flat, unamused look, then waved down a stallion who looked like he enjoyed bench-pressing actual benches. While ponies were sitting in them. “We’ll see to your transportation, Agent Heartstrings.” I squeaked just a bit when the guy picked me up and set me on his back like I was a little filly instead of a full-grown mare.

Puzzle took just a moment to grin at me before getting all serious and business-y with Captain Gust and her stoney, stoic face. “Very well, then. Will you be leading the way?”

Captain Gust nodded. “Our trackers shouldn’t have too much trouble following the trail from the air as long as it stays this clear. Let’s move, we can finish the rest of the briefing in the air.”

I grinned and tossed my mane as we went airborne, struggling to repress the instinct to spread my wings. Wouldn’t be a good idea even if I had two working ones. Still, I’d missed flying. Normally I didn’t think of myself as much of a cloud-hugger; comes with most of the family being unicorns. Guess I didn’t appreciate casual flying until I couldn’t do it for a bit.

I settled in on my mount, making sure I had a very secure grip. I couldn’t resist the opportunity to needle Puzzle a bit. Well okay, I totally could’ve resisted it, I just didn’t want to. “Don’t get jealous, Bug Boy.”

Puzzle shot a dry look my way, though I spotted the mischievous twinkle in his eyes. “Is this the part where this one is supposed to make some sort of quip about how you can ride on it later? Perhaps once we are done. It would prefer to maintain at least some level of professionalism in front of the soldiers.”

“If we make it out of this alive, I’ll hold you to that.” I shot back. “I expect jokes so cheesy they’ll make me lactose intolerant.”

“This one will make that its top priority then.” He smirked at me. “This one and the Heartstrings-mare will have to survive if there are bad jokes on the line.”

“Never hurts to give a mare something to fight for,” I agreed.

Captain Gust flew up in between us, frowning. “If the two of you are quite done…?” I was tempted to keep it up just to mess with her, but this wasn’t the best time to push a pony’s buttons just to find out how they’d handle it. Focus, me.

When neither of us did anything to earn more of her disapproval, Captain Gust got to business. “What can you tell us about these Blightspawn? All our briefing material was from centuries-old archival information or Her Highness’ memories, both of which are a poor substitute for someone who’s seen the most recent generation in the flesh.”

“They’re dangerous,” Bug Boy said, because sometimes he likes to start off by stating the blindingly obvious. “Each of them is made to kill and nothing else. They’re magic resistant, feel no pain, and attack without reservation. They also seem to possess some level of intelligence, at least enough to be capable of pack tactics.”

“And a lot more if they’ve got someone controlling them,” I added in. “So far as we know only Blackfyre and Glimmer can actually give them orders, but considering we’re chasing Glimmer while she’s on her way to Blackfyre’s hideout...”

“In which case they’ll be as smart as the ones controlling them,” Captain Gust concluded. “How hard are they to kill? What natural weapons do the posses? Do they have any weak points?”

“Only fatal damage seems to put them down,” Bug Boy answered. “If they have chitin, then the only weak points this one has been able to spot is places along the joints.”

“And when it comes to weapons, each one seems kinda unique.” I frowned, then amended. “I mean, the little chaff ones seem to mostly just be a huge mouth full of sharp teeth on legs, but the ones he’s not mass producing tend to get a lot more weird and unique.”

“Well that’s bothersome,” the Captain grumbled. “Any other suggestions or advice, or will we just have to improvise?”

“Spears and crossbows,” I suggested. “Haven’t seen any of them with wings yet. I’d be surprised if a dragon doesn’t know the value of flight, but if we can play aerial hit-and-run with the guys stuck on the ground it’ll give us an edge.”

“The Glimmer-mare is also dangerous,” Bug Boy pointed out “If she’s not loyal to Blackfyre, he’s got her on a tight enough leash to make her pretend to be, and with all the raw power he’s given her she was able to beat the Shimmer-mare in a straight fight.”

Captain Gust grimaced and nodded. “We have a warlock hunter team. Machwing is a rapid reaction force. We have specialists for most threats we’re likely to run into. Our Long Patrol members are curious to see Blightspawn in action.”

“It always pays to be prepared.” Bug Boy nodded, and probably would’ve smiled if not for his follow-up question. “So what do you have for if we run into Blackfyre?”

Captain Gust grimaced. “If he gets involved, we fall back until Celestia or Argentium can support us. We tried to come up with a good plan to take him on, but all of them involved horrible risks and massive casualties with nothing more than a fool’s hope for success.”

“Slaying a dragon is no small task,” Bug Boy agreed. “Especially one as old and powerful as Blackfyre. So this would be one of your Code Gold situations?”

“Exactly.” For a moment I thought she was gonna elaborate on that, but then Major Shield waved her over. The two of them talked military stuff for a bit along with one of the scouts, and then Captain Gust came back to us. “We’ve found a cave that our trail leads more-or-less directly towards.”

Bug Boy frowned. “Then it seems likely they’ve reached their destination. Which means that in all likelihood Blackfyre is inside.”

I shrugged. “Well, we didn’t come all this way just to fall back without confirming anything. Guess we could always knock on the front door and pretend to be traveling salesponies. Cave that big, you better believe he’ll need a good vacuum cleaner.”

“We’ll fall back if we confirm Blackfyre’s there,” Captain Gust agreed. “But confirming his presence is one of our secondary objectives. Right now it could just be a false trail. There aren’t any visible guards or defenses.”

“Which probably means they’re very well hidden,” Bug Boy pointed out. “So what’s the plan? Are we going to try and sneak in to get the drop on them?”

Captain Gust nodded. “No reason to give up the advantage of stealth needlessly. One of our scouts will check the area first, then we’ll make our move. Her Highness suggested we let the two of you handle extracting Sunset Shimmer, given your skills and relationship with her.”

“Yeah, we’re plenty sneaksy and she’ll trust us a lot faster than some random guardpony she’s never seen before.” Sure, Bacon probably wouldn’t go super-paranoid if one of her Sun-Mom’s troops showed up to pull her out of the fire, but she might stop to ask questions or something. Like try to argue with the rescuers because that would be the most stupidly short-sighted thing she could do, and why buck that trend now? Not great when time and stealth were both critical. Not to mention that if Blackfyre had gotten his talons into her, friends stood a way better chance of snapping her out of it.

Everyone sat back and watched as the scout went in. Talk about drawing the short straw; the guy had to go in all by himself to poke around and see if he could find any monsters. Preferably without making like the canary in the coal mine and dying to prove the situation was serious. Guess that was why we didn’t put scouts in red armor. Well, maybe we did if they were in a place where red made for good camouflage. Or if they were Kickers, but those usually had the sense to put pragmatism over clan pride. Or that one colorblind scout I’d known back in the day.

The scout started walking towards the cave entrance, moving one carefully measured step at a time. He got about halfway there before he tensed up, then shot straight into the air. A second after a claw swiped up from beneath the snow, just barely missing the chance to gut him from below.

The scout reacted on instinct, pulling out a fire gem and chucking it straight down at the patch of snow. The explosion didn’t do much damage against the monster’s magically hardened chitin, but it did do a very good job of blasting away all the snow covering it.

And its friends. The Blightspawn must’ve been a real social butterfly, because he had a lot of friends. Even more than we’d gone up against when Glim-Glam attacked the convoy. “So much for surprise! What’s the gameplan?”

“Get past the Blightspawn, they’re just a distraction. Shimmer-mare’s our objective!” Puzzle chucked some tanglehoof at one of the spawn that was only halfway out of the snow, tangling up its legs. “We didn’t think it would be easy!”

“But it will be fun!” I vaulted off my ride’s back, pulling out the epee I’d been holding onto. Shame I couldn’t bring the spear along, but those were a bit too big and obvious for my tastes anyway. What’s the point of having a weapon the other guy can see coming? Besides, when I landed on the Blightspawn’s head with the point of my epee leading the way it did the job just fine. Too bad the monster didn’t have the decency to die right away.

Bug Boy snap-threw a couple darts into the Spawn’s beady little eyes to help it die a bit faster. Well, I mean, it was already dead on account of having a sword in the brain. Just that its body was taking a bit to catch up and admit as much. Thankfully that didn’t take long enough for it to rip us to pieces. Bug Boy stared at me as I pulled the sword out of the ravening monster’s head, wiping a few bits of brain gunk and ichor off in the snow. “Heartstrings-mare, you have a very strange definition of fun.”

“‘Exciting’, then?” I smirked at him. “Really, you should know by now what you’re getting into with me. Anyway that’s one down, infinite numbers to go.”

“Hopefully not,” Puzzle murmured, pulling a pair a thrusting knives. “At least we know we’ve found the right place.”

“The horde of ravening mutated murder-beasts kinda gives it away,” I agreed. “So, guess we gotta hammer through them and head for the entrance?”

“Just so,” Bug Boy agreed.

“Super.” I charged for the entrance, and got about ten steps before another one of those giant mouths on legs intercepted me, doing its best to swallow me whole I shoved my blade down its throat by way of response, but it seemed to get stuck on something in there. The creature yowled in pain, but didn’t seem to be going down. Thankfully I could use the length of my blade to keep it at bay. Evidently it couldn’t ram itself down the epee’s length to get into biting range.

Good thing I wasn’t fighting him alone. While I had the spawn tied up, Bug Boy came in behind it with his knives. The Blightspawn has a lot of tough chitin, but most of it was focused on attacks from the front, and joints could only have so much protection. A couple stabs in the back of the knee did a pretty good job of disabling the spawn, which bought me enough breathing room to free my blade and finish it off properly.

“Go team,” I deadpanned. “Now let’s get past all the nasty little distractions and go find Bacon before Blackfyre bails.”

Bug Boy and I pressed forward, dealing with one or two more of the little guys as we headed for the huge dragon-sized entrance. Really, someone should be keeping track of how many caves were big enough to hold a dragon Blackfyre’s size and his horde of twisted abominations. Finding the place would’ve gone a lot smoother if we had a comprehensive list of those to work through by good old process of elimination. Plus, if we had a good gameplan Bacon might not have run off half-cocked.

Oh who am I kidding, of course she still would’ve done that. I’m sure Bacon is capable of not doing insanely dangerous things on pure impulse, but the way she’s been acting lately, I wouldn’t put it past her to just modify the plan to be even stupider and dangerous-er.

Right as Bug Boy and I were about to head in, something let out a massive roar that knocked snow and ice off the lip of the cavern in a miniature avalanche. For a moment I wondered if Blackfyre was about to join the fray himself, but instead all we got was a massive brute of a Blightspawn that just about blocked the entire entrance with a solid wall of chitinous flesh. And big scythe-shaped talons that looked like they could chop a pony in half with one hit. “Well, nice to know we’re only mostly screwed. Bug Boy, if you’ve got some secret weapon that can take out a really huge nasty monster in one shot, this’d be a great time to use it!”

“If this one had such a thing, it would have used it already!” Puzzle shot back.

Before we could come up with a clever plan, Captain Gust shot over our heads, her wing blades flashing as she sliced at the beast. “Go! I’ll keep it busy.”

Before I could get any silly Bacon-esque notions about helping her go one-on-one with a monster ten times her size, Bug Boy grabbed me and flew the two of us up and over the huge Spawn’s head while it was focused on Captain Gust. There wasn’t anything behind the big guy, so I guess Blackfyre had bet everything on BulkSpawn McLargeHuge keeping us out. Normally not the worst thing to gamble on. “Yay, onward into the evil creepy cave.”

“This one can’t wait.” Bug Boy took the lead, heading in fast but quiet. I followed right behind him, trying to match where he placed his hooves just to be a little extra sneaksy. After a couple minutes of walking the already massive tunnel opened up into the sort of huge cavern a dragon like Blackfyre could settle into. There was no sign of his big black evil-ness, but there were dozens of huge crystals all along the wall. I looked into one of them, and saw something that looked like a huge lump of misshapen flesh. Must’ve been one of the Blightspawn-in-progress.

“Heartstrings-mare,” Puzzle hissed, waving me over. “Found her.”

I scooted over to him as quiet-like as I could. Sure enough, trapped inside one of the crystals was our Bacon. It was probably a very good sign that she was still our Bacon, rather than some sort of horrifying mutant monster that had just enough Bacon-ness left for us to know it was her. Maybe Blackfyre had just gotten started on her. I could certainly see Sunset holding off being transformed into a monster out of pure bloody-minded stubbornness.

Still, she was stuck in a big crystal. Breaking it would probably make a lot of noise, and the two of us trying to haul it out on our own didn’t seem like it’d be much better in terms of stealth. “So how do we play this? Maybe we could—”

I never got around to saying what exactly we could do, because all of a sudden every single muscle in my body locked up at the same time. For the record, that is not fun. From the way Bug Boy went stiff as a board before slowly toppling onto his side, the same thing had happened to him too. Probably not a good sign.

The tremble passing through the cavern floor a second later confirmed it, as Big Bad Blackfyre finally graced us with his enormous self. Glimmer was there along with him, trailing after her master like an especially loyal and affection-starved dog. The dragon smirked down at the two of us and chuckled. “Well well well, I see we have some guests. I would offer you my hospitality, but I’m afraid I don’t recall inviting either of you in. You really should have known better than try sneaking into a dragon’s lair.”

Ugh. Evil big bad dragon gloating. No way I was letting him get away with that. Thankfully, whatever he did to us wasn’t stopping us from talking. Probably because he wanted us to beg for mercy or something. S’how bad guys usually do it. Too bad I wasn’t interested in playing his sick little game. “You really oughta put up a sign or something. We didn’t know this was a dragon’s lair. I mean, I bet you had to zap two or three random nobodies who just wandered in looking for shelter from the winter weather. Bet that was just embarrassing—you come in to do the whole ‘tremble and despair’ villain spiel only to find out you just nabbed a shepherd looking for one of his lost sheep.”

“Do you ever shut up?” Glimmer growled at me. She turned back to Blackfyre, shifting back into loyal little lapdog mode. Those runes on her back must’ve done a real number on her. “What should we do with them, master?”

The dragon leaned over, looking us both over. I was tempted to make a remark about his breath, but he’d probably just kill me then and there. Which just goes to show Glimmer was wrong, I can shut up when I really want to. I just don’t care most of the time. Besides, the point of poking at people was to throw them off balance or figure out how they ticked. I knew what Blackfyre’s deal was, and right now pushing him hard enough to make him snap would just get me and Bug Boy dead. Granted, that might be a foregone conclusion.

Blackfyre chuckled softly, giving me a good whiff of his carrion-laced breath. “Tempting as it would be to make them into Spawn, we’ll need to move as soon as Sunset's transformation is finished and my new Warpmouth fully matures. Celestia’s troops have found us, so we must assume the mare herself will not be far behind. If Argentium joins her, even my wards will struggle to hold them off.”

Glimmer shrugged. “Just gonna kill them, then?”

That’s when Bug Boy came up with a clever idea. “That would be incredibly short-sighted.”

“Oh really?” Blackfyre sank back onto his haunches, grinning in a way that seemed to show off every single one of his massive fangs. “Do tell.”

“Don’t you want to test your latest abomination out before the big game?” Puzzle’s eyes flicked over at the crystal holding Sunset. “You don’t want to suddenly find out it has some spark of free will that’s going to show itself at the worst possible moment. Especially since you know the first thing The White Pony will do is try to break your control over the Shimmer-mare. Far better to test it under controlled conditions first.”

“So you want us to keep you alive so she can kill you?” Starlight scowled. “They’re just trying to play you, master.”

“Well duh.” I tried to roll my eyes, but evidently Blackfyre’s spell wouldn’t let me do that. “Of course we’re coming up with some horseapples to try and stay alive for a few more hours. But that doesn’t mean we’re wrong.”

“Exactly,” Bug Boy chimed in. “If you need a bit more control over her, better to find out about it before you send her against the White Pony. If she refuses to kill us you can always add more runes and put her back in the crystal to cook a bit longer. You can’t get a do-over against The White Pony. Besides, you know it would be fun to have her kill her former friends. Live a little. You know we’re not a threat to you.”

“Tempting.” Blackfyre smirked down at us. “Very tempting. Almost enough to win me over. But that very cleverness will be your downfall. Clever enemies with good ideas are the sort you should never leave alive. Too much of a risk. A small one, but I haven’t lived for centuries by taking needless risks. Perhaps—”

A single crystalline tone sang through the cavern, cutting off whatever Blackfyre was going to say next. I managed to fight against the spell enough to turn my head and get a good look at the crystal holding Sunset.

There was a crack in it. That had to be a good sign for us.

Glimmer frowned at it, then uncertainly stared up at her master. “What’s going on? Is her transformation already finished? She doesn’t look any different!”

“No.” Blackfyre started to lean in closer, then abruptly took several steps back. “This is not ... It should be several more hours before—”

Another tremble shot through the cavern floor, and for a moment I thought we were in the middle of an earthquake. Several cracks did show up in the cavern floor, and every single one of them seemed to start beneath the crystal holding Bacon. Speaking of which, that crystal was showing more and more cracks as well, with painfully bright light leaking out of them.

I bolted up to my hooves. I guess Blackfyre didn’t care about keeping us locked down anymore. All things considered, he had bigger problems on his plate right now.

Bug Boy grabbed my shoulder. “Strumming, we need to find cover. Now.”

I wasn’t gonna argue. I had no idea what Bacon was up to, but I didn’t want to be at ground zero when it went down. The fact that feathering Blackfyre thought it was a good idea to not be this close said a lot.

Puzzle and I got behind a solid stone wall just time. The crystal holding Sunset shattered completely, sending shards of razor-sharp crystal flying everywhere. Dozens more crystals holding half-formed Blightspawn shattered from the force of Bacon’s breakout, and I wound up clamping my hooves over my ears to try and block out the cacophony.

If only the noise was the worst of it. There was something ... like ... it was kind of hard to explain. Just this kind of ... force, I guess. It kind of reminded me of the time I saw Celestia at the Summer Sun Celebration. Not exactly the same, but ... I dunno. Kinda like it, except not. “This is ... Puzzle, you have a horn. I don't, and even I can feel this. What’s going on?”

Puzzle grimaced. “Ever felt like a vice’s been clumped to your head? It’s like that, only over this one’s entire body. The closest this one can imagine was when it ran across the Old Mind while she was fully fed and very angry with it.”

Considering our two closest reference points to what was going on were an alicorn and an alicorn-like being, it kind of begged the question ... “You think she did it?”

Puzzle closed his eyes, and his horn lit up. “It’s definitely her magic. But ... no, not just her magic. Or if it is hers, it’s changed somehow. It’s not Blackfyre’s magic though, this one would recognize that. Whatever’s going on, it’s something completely different. It’s ... maybe she really did pull it off.”

I took a deep breath, then did something a bit stupid and insanely dangerous. I poked my head from our nice safe stone wall to get a better look at her. It was like looking into a raging tornado, except instead of wind and debris it was a wild, swirling mass of magic. A lot of it was Bacon’s usual teal, but there were other colors mixed in there too. A fair bit of red and gold that reminded me of the colors on her mark, and some silver and amethyst that ... well I had no clue where those came from. I couldn’t see much more of Sunset than a vague silhouette, standing out within the maelstrom of raw power.

It was hard to tell with everything going on, but... “I think I see wings.”

“What?!” Puzzle reluctantly poked his head up to get a look alongside me. “Do you think she ... this one was honestly never sure if she would actually pull it off, especially not after everything ... all this madness.”

We both stared for what felt like an eternity, but couldn’t have been more than a few seconds. The wild hurricane of power slowly started to fade. No, fading away wasn’t the right word for it, but I guess it sort of cleared up. I wouldn’t say it was gone, though. More like we were just in the eye of the storm.

I guess that meant Sunset Shimmer was the storm.

When it finally cleared up enough for me to get a good look at her, I realized I’d been wrong. There weren’t wings. She hadn’t even gotten the missing leg back. Just by pure appearance, she was the same old Sunset Shimmer who’d run out of our camp a couple days back.

But appearances can be deceiving. And while Sunset had never exactly been a lightweight when it came to magic, she’d never been this. I’ve seen her throw down and go all-out before. It was pretty impressive, but now ... just looking at her made my throat go dry, and the hairs on the back of my neck stand up.

I was very glad she was on our side.

As the last flickers of wild magic slowly faded away, she turned to where Blackfyre had fallen back to, a nice safe distance away from all the crazy magical goings-on. Then, with a rather disturbing level of calm considering all the crazy that had just gone down, she said. “Alright, Blackfyre. Let’s finish this.”

Author's Note

As always, thanks to my pre-reading and editing team for all their hard work. Also, I would like to thank all my dedicated Patreon supporters. You guys are awesome.

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Aidan Hall
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Zennyth

My Chains Are Broken

I felt ... I’m not sure how I felt. Good, I guess.

Really good.

It felt like the time I’d snuck into Celestia’s room and tried to use her enchanted broom to clean up my tower before she came over. The whole thing ended with me in over my head and dealing with forces beyond my control, and instead of cleaning up my bedroom I wound up wrecking hers. Naturally she came back just in time to see the mess I’d made, which left me terrified I was going to get in trouble and sent back to Scarlett and Solar. Fortunately, the worst she did was bring it up any time she needed to tell a funny and embarrassing story about me.

But it was different now. I had the same feeling of incredible power that should’ve been way beyond anything I could manage, except this time I knew exactly what I was doing. I guess that was the best way to put it: I felt like I’d gotten a berserker wild magic power boost, except I was still completely calm, and I could control it.

I closed my eyes and took a deep breath, slowly bringing all the power raging around me into focus. I couldn’t believe how easy it was. It felt like I should be full to bursting and on the verge of exploding into an eruption of wild magic, but everything still responded exactly like I was doing ordinary spellcasting.

Now was no time to revel in my newfound power, though. “Strumming, Puzzle, get clear.”

Puzzle shook his head, still staring at me. “Um, should we take cover or did you want us to—”

“Exit’s that way, Bug Boy,” Strumming pointed it out to him. “Dunno about you, but I’d rather not be in the middle of this.”

“Point,” he murmured.

Blackfyre frowned. “Oh no, I think it’s more interesting if we keep your friends in the firing line. Starlight, stop them.”

Starlight hesitated, her eyes fixed on me. “But what about—did you see what she just—”

Blackfyre’s eyes narrowed. “Go!”

Starlight gasped, and I could see the runes flaring up along her back. Whatever doubts she might have been harboring quickly became irrelevant as Blackfyre forced her into action. She rushed for the entrance, her horn lighting up with its new ugly orange color as she fired off a blast of blightfire to block off the exit before Strumming and Puzzle could get away.

I knew I needed to stop her, but something else had to take top priority. There was plenty of broken crystal lying around—more than enough to forge a new temporary leg. I did that while Starlight was busy blocking off the exit. Maybe I should’ve dealt with her first, but once that fight started I wouldn’t have a few quiet seconds to replace my missing leg, and I would almost certainly need it before the fight was done.

Starlight used the opening to turn her blightfire on me, sending out a massive wave that I couldn’t hope to dodge, especially since Blackfyre’s wards blocked teleportation. However, I didn’t need to dodge it, and covering such a wide area meant the spell’s power wasn’t focused. A small burst of energy was enough to punch a hole in it that I could easily walk through. If it had been real fire, being that close to it would’ve still baked me by proximity, but blightfire doesn’t give off any heat. Really, the spell just looks like fire because it’s a consuming, entropic force.

Starlight stared incredulously as one of the most destructive spells she knew just seemed to wash over me with no effect. “What?! That can’t...”

She tried another spell, this time making black crystals erupt from the ground to try and cage me in. While Blackfyre had given her a lot more power and a wider spell selection, he hadn’t done much to improve her subtlety, especially with his runes slowly turning her into a pain-fueled berserker. I saw the spell coming with enough time to make a magically-assisted jump straight up, and instead of the cage closing around me, I landed on top of it. “It’s over, Starlight.”

“No.” She snarled and shook her head. “It’s just the same stunt you pulled last time. You think it is going to go any better than it did in Coldharbor?! All I need to do is outlast you until you fall over from whatever it is you’ve done to yourself.” She threw up a wall of black crystals to block my line of attack.

“This is different.” I fired off a low-level kinetic blast at the crystals. Not enough to do any actual damage, just enough to make them start ringing. Once I heard the tone, all I needed to do was match that frequence with a loud enough sonic spell. It took a couple seconds to get a perfect match, but once I did all I needed to do was hold it and slowly increase the volume until the entire wall of crystal shattered. I guess she made all her crystals with the same spell, since all the crystal cages holding half-formed Blightspawn shattered as well, sending the twisted half-formed bodies flopping out onto the floor.

Starlight’s eyes shot wide open, and she threw up a dome-shaped shield spell. “No! Stay away from me!” I think if not for the runes on her back, she would’ve tried to make a run for it. Though really, even without them there wasn’t anywhere for her to go.

She did have a very nice shield spell, but like a lot of her spells it spread its power out a bit too widely. It made sense for a spell that was supposed to protect her from all angles, but it had the same weakness as her attack spells.

I could’ve just fired off another shield-piercing spell, but instead I decided to try out a trick I’d read about Torch using with Chainbreaker. A quick spell infused the blade with Blightfire, making it crackle with entropic energy. Then I sliced it along her shield spell. Chainbreaker tore the initial hole in the shield, and the Blightfire easily slipped through the gap and consumed the rest of her shield spell.

“Impossible...” Starlight took half a step back, then snarled and shook her head. With a scream she unleashed a massive blast of raw destructive force, pouring all her fear and anger into the spell. It was probably the strongest spell I’d ever seen her cast, desperation pushing her to new heights of power.

But all that power was just too unfocused. Like a lot of things, her spell followed the path of least resistance. All it took was a single defensive spell from me and all that destructive power flowed right around me, like I was a rock in the middle of a river. I slowly advanced, making sure my defensive spell held up under Starlight sustained attack. Once I was sure it would, I charged in to close the distance until I was right in front of her. At the last second I did another magically boosted jump, emerging from the middle of her spell and vaulting over her head.

Starlight slowly started to lift her head, trying to follow me. There wasn’t enough time for her to perform any sort of counter or put up another shield. All she had time to do was gasp.

Chainbreaker sliced straight down, carving into her back. I did three quick strikes, just to make sure I got it right. I didn’t have time for more before I was past her, landing on three hooves while keeping Chainbreaker in my prosthetic.

Starlight screamed as her shock turned into pain, collapsing to the floor. A second later her back erupted into black-orange fire as the runes Blackfyre had carved into her back broke, and all the power he’d poured into them spilled out of her.

I waited until the explosion ended, then threw a quick status spell her way. She was in a ton of pain and bleeding pretty badly from three sword slices, but she was still alive and Blackfyre’s control over her was gone. Good enough for me.

That just left Blackfyre himself.

Blackfyre scowled down at Starlight, then sighed and shook his head. “Even with all the power I've given her she still proves to be so inept. Do you know how frustratingly hard it is to get good help?” He rolled his massive shoulders and snorted, sending out a plume of black smoke. “Then again, I sent my pawn in first for a reason. Whatever transformation you’ve wrought upon yourself is impressive, but not enough to make you my equal.”

“We’ll see about that.” I made sure all of my defensive enchantments were in place. “Maybe you were watching, but I know a lot more about what you’re capable of than you know about me. Not after how much has changed.”

Blackfyre scoffed, letting out a chuckle that sounded more like a rockslide. “Do you think you’re the first pony to push herself beyond her limits to fight me? You have no idea how many I’ve forced to the very limits of their capabilities and beyond in a vain attempt to match my power. Every last one has fallen before me, much like all those who have tried to strike me down with their death curses. Do you think you can beat me with just a little bit of heroic willpower and determination? I’ve faced hundreds of would-be heroes who thought the same. Go back to my old cavern sometime, their bones litter the floors.”

“You must really enjoy those ‘Nobody could possibly beat me’ speeches,” I sniped. “How about you stop talking and prove it!”

He opened his mouth, almost certainly to do a bit more gloating, and I took advantage of the opening. There was plenty of broken crystal to use, and most of it had broken with some sharp edges. I grabbed several of the best-looking chunks and hurled them straight at his eyes.

Blackfyre saw the attack coming and quickly snapped his head to the side. I didn’t manage to blind him, but I did get a pretty good hit in on one of his scales. His eyes widened when he saw the dent I’d put in it. Crystal might not be anywhere near as hard as dragonscale, but if you make it move fast enough, just about anything will do some damage.

The dragon snarled when he felt the damage. “You impudent little—!” He took a deep breath, then snapped his head forward and unleashed a massive gout of bright orange fire.

Last time, I’d tried to match dragonfire with raw power. I had a lot more strength to work with now, but not enough that I could waste it with brute-force slugouts. I tried using the same trick I’d used to disperse Starlight’s spells, but dragonfire was a lot harder to shift than her blasts. Not to mention it was so hot I needed to get it a lot further away from me to be safe.

It was hard—really hard. But not impossible. And when he’d finished hurling dragonfire at me I was still standing, and ready to keep the fight going.

Blackfyre snarled when he saw me. “I feel I should congratulate you. You might not be capable of actually being a threat to me, but you have most certainly succeeded in being one of the most annoying ponies to ever cross my path.”

“Spend five minutes near Strumming with her filter off,” I shot back.

“Please don’t bring me into this.” Strumming muttered from the sidelines. I risked a quick glance her way, and saw that she and Puzzle had taken charge of Starlight. Not sure if they were trying to keep her from bleeding out or just making sure she was out of the fight for good, but either way I needed to keep focused on Blackfyre.

“Ah yes, your precious little friends.” Blackfyre smiled in an especially nasty way that showed off his fangs. “I’m sure Celestia bored you to tears with all her lectures about the magic of harmony and friendship. Foolishness. Even if they do have power, it is a source of power with one crippling flaw: it is all too easily erased.”

His talon swept out, gathering up several massive chunks and hurling them all at Puzzle and Strumming. Starlight too, so I guess he didn’t really care if she became collateral damage.

I threw out another quick sonic blast that intercepted most of the crystals, but some of them must have been at a different frequency on account of all the damage they’d taken. I varied the pitch as much as I could, but I wouldn’t be able to get all of them.

Thankfully Puzzle stepped in to fill the gap, his horn lighting up as he mimicked my spell. It wasn’t anywhere near as well-cast or powerful, but it was enough to catch the pieces I’d missed. I let out a breath I hadn’t realized I’d taken.

Blackfyre smirked at me. “Impressive. Well, shall we raise the stakes? I’m curious to see how long you’ll last trying to protect yourself and your defenseless little friends.”

Damn, should’ve known he’d be a total bastard about it. Well, I wasn’t going to play that game. If he wanted to distract me by attacking my friends, I just needed to make sure he didn’t have enough time to pull any dirty stunts like that. I charged straight in Chainbreaker held high and screaming out my defiance.

That did do a good job of keeping his attention focused squarely on me. His tail whipped out, aimed low at my legs. He probably wanted to sweep me off my hooves, or maybe just shatter my prosthetic.

Either way, I saw it coming in time to counter. A quick flick put Chainbreaker in line to intercept his tail well before it would hit me.

The sword sliced straight into him, the force of his own attack driving the sword in deeper than I ever could have on my own. Blackfyre tried to pull the blow, but he still wound up with a pretty nasty-looking cut.

The bad news was that the rest of his tail still whipped around Chainbreaker and smacked into my side. The impact knocked me off my hooves, but thankfully between him pulling the attack at the last second and the awkward angle, he didn’t shatter any bones. It felt like it would leave one hay of a massive bruise though.

Blackfyre pulled his tail back, hissing in pain and quickly checking the damage. Evidently it wasn’t enough to impress him. “You think that’s enough to stop me? You are nothing to me—an annoying bug nipping at the back of my neck. Irritating and unpleasant, but not capable of inflicting real damage.”

I growled and got back up, blocking out the pain. I’d been through worse. “I'm just getting started. And you’re already bleeding a lot more than last time.”

Blackfyre snorted. “I have blood to spare. You haven’t done anything I couldn’t repair with two minutes and my charnel pit. Though I suppose I should congratulate you: hundreds of mortals who tried to challenge me never accomplished that much. Now, let’s put an end to this farce.”

Blackfyre snapped off another blast of fire, this one a lot tighter and hotter than his first. Just trying to deflect it would’ve taken a lot out of me, but I wasn’t stupid enough to try the same trick twice, especially when I had a really nasty idea for how to counter him.

Instead of trying to block his fire blast, I conjured up a big ice spear. I mixed in some cave and crystal dust as I worked to make it just a bit more heat-resistant, and threw in some magic as well. Then I hurled my ice spear straight up that column of fire. Most of it melted away before reaching Blackfyre, but I’d made it large enough to account for that.

Blackfyre must have seen the attack coming, because he snapped his jaws shut on the spear before it could get into his mouth. The ice spear shattered between his teeth, but at least I got the consolation of bloodying his gums a bit. Not to mention closing his mouth shut down all the dragonfire he’d been throwing my way.

The dragon scoffed. “Clever, but you’ll have do better than that.”

“Don’t worry, I’ve got plenty of tricks left.” Considering who I was up against, I definitely needed to hit him with my best shot. I conjured up some more Blightfire, keeping it close to hoof for now. I’d only pulled this trick once before, and that had been when I was in an altered mental state. Still, the principle was basic enough...

Blackfyre wasn’t going to let me have it all my way, and he closed in on me with a huge swipe of his claw. I ducked under the attack before it could tear my head off, and threw a little Blightfire at his claw as it passed by, mostly just to test it out.

Blackfyre scoffed and flicked the Blightfire out with no visible effort. “Surely you didn’t expect that to work. I mastered the manipulation of Blightfire to a degree you can scarcely comprehend over a thousand years before you were even born!”

He swung his tail around, this time dropping it in a vertical line that would’ve splattered me flatter than a pancake if it connected. I dove to the side, barely rolling clear before it hit. “I should’ve known you’d be immune to blightfire. You taught Starlight how to use it, after all.”

“She has only begun to grasp what I could teach her.” He snarled and took a single step towards me, making the cavern floor tremble. “I could have done the same for you, but you foolishly rejected my gifts. And now, you will reap the price for your insolent defiance of your betters!” He sprang forward with a surprising amount of speed for something so huge, closing in on me with several more claw swipes.

If even one of those attacks connected, that would’ve been it for me. Maybe my defensive spells would be enough to let me survive a single hit, but even then it’d probably leave me a stunned, easy target for a follow-up strike. I wasn’t eager to put that to the test. I might have gotten a lot more raw magical power to work with, but physically I was still just a normal pony, which made me very small and fragile compared to Blackfyre.

I had to keep dodging and falling back to avoid getting crushed beneath a small mountain of angry evil dragon. It was a bit hard to focus on conjuring up anima in my other hoof while also keeping the Blightfire under control and the constant frantic scramble to survive the next five seconds. Especially with the added complication of needing to hold one of the spells on an improvised prosthetic cobbled together out of magically active crystal. I’m not sure if that actually made it harder, but it sure felt that way.

I dodged past another claw strike, but felt my leg bump up against the cavern wall. A quick check of my surroundings confirmed it—Blackfyre had me boxed in. He smirked. “Whatever spell you’re trying to pull off, I’d suggest doing it quickly.”

Turns out, desperation and fear for my impending messy demise was exactly what I needed to make the spell come together. “Well, you did ask for this.”

I unleashed the blast, the Blightfire and anima rippling towards him in a slowly spiralling beam of energy, becoming narrower and tighter as they closed in on the dragon. The attack hit his chest, almost directly over his heart, where my failed death curse had hit him.

The hit sent Blackfyre staggering backwards, roaring in pain. The entire cave shook, and if not for the sound-dampening spell I quickly tossed up he might have deafened me. One of his claws instinctively flew up to his chest, and I saw quite a bit of blood slipping between his talons. I’d hurt him, and pretty badly judging by his reaction.

I wasn’t going to squander my advantage. It was time to go on the offensive and hammer him down before he could recover. I conjured up a thick block of ice and smacked him across the face with it. The ice shattered, and I sent all those shards straight at the talons covering his wounded chest. I followed it up with a beam of fire I concentrated down until it was more like a laser. It certainly did a good job of cutting a deep line into several of his scales, and judging by the new roar, my spells were having an impact.

Blackfyre snarled and lashed out with his tail. It was a blind strike that wouldn’t have hit me even if I hadn’t dodged, but it did break my offensive momentum for a bit. Blackfyre tried to reclaim the initiative by breathing more fire at me, but he’d barely started before he cut himself off, coughing a couple times and clutching his chest once more.

I smirked and wiped some sweat out of my eyes. “That sounded like it hurt. Tell you what, if you want to surrender I’ll accept it. From what I’ve heard you have plenty of experience at giving up once you realize you can’t win.”

“Do you actually think you’re winning?” Blackfyre scoffed. “You’ve hit me dozens of times to no effect while I have to hit you but once to crush you like a gnat.”

“Maybe,” I shot back. “But so far that’s just a lot of hot air. Guess it figures you’d only be good at blowing that—you are a dragon.”

Blackfyre smirked. “Ah, so very arrogant. Perhaps it is time I showed you the error of your ways and taught you to respect your betters.”

“I do. You’re just not one of them.”

“I’m going to enjoy breaking you, insolent whelp.” Blackfyre snarled and slashed out with one his talons, while the one covered in his own blood from the chest wound I’d given him started tracing runes into the cavern floor. I knew which one was more dangerous.

I used a bit of telekinesis to flick Chainbreaker out to parry his claw away at range. There was no way the sword could actually stop his claw, but as I’d hoped he pulled away from the strike rather than risk another cut on his talon. After all, the real attack was coming from the blood runes.

A moment later cracking bolts of bloody orange power erupted from the symbols Blackfyre had carved into the cavern floor. I threw all my power into a shield spell, focusing it forward to intercept the magical attack before it could flay the flesh from my bones or whatever it was the spell would do. The bolts hammered into my shield...

And bounced off with almost no effect. I knew I’d gotten stronger thanks to whatever it was I’d done with Torch and Ushabti, but it couldn’t be enough to swat aside a serious magical attack from Blackfyre like it was nothing. Which meant...

While I was focused on his feint, Blackfyre’s real attack came in. His tail snaked around my shield, and he flicked one of the larger chunks of broken crystal at me. I didn’t see the attack coming in time to stop it, but I definitely felt when it connected.

The piece of debris slammed into my ribs like an especially sparkly sledgehammer. The blow knocked me clean off my hooves and I went down with a strangled gasp. I tried to take a deep breath, but my side spasmed in pain and it felt like one of my lungs had completely forgotten how to work.

Blackfyre smirked down at me. “Oh, what was that? It sounded like you were going to make another one of your little snide remarks, but I couldn’t make it out over all the gasping and crying. Still, you’ve done better than any other mortal I’ve faced in over a thousand years. As a token of respect to you...” He flicked another rock at me.

I managed to throw up a shield spell, but the pain in my side made it hard to focus. Instead of blocking the attack completely it skipped off the top of the shield. That kept it from hitting anything vital, but it still cut a long, nasty, painful gash in my cheek.

“Still fighting back?” He scoffed and shook his head. “You really are persistent.” He traced some more blood runes, and this time it wasn’t a feint. Instead of the massive bolts of power he’d used last time, there were dozens of little ones. None of them hurt all that much, but there were a lot of them. Blackfyre laughed as the attacks pounded in, as if this was all the just the punchline to some huge joke only he understood.

Eventually the magical assault ceased. Blackfyre chuckled softly. “Look at you. What happened to all that strength and defiance?” He scoffed. “Ponies. Your power is so fragile, and all too easily broken.” He glowered down at me, reaching up and slowly stroking his chin with a bloody talon. “I’m already bored of playing with you. Still, before we finish this, there are a few more things to see to.” His eyes settled on my remaining foreleg, and prosthetic on my other limb. “Do you know what truly offends my aesthetic sensibilities? Asymmetry.”

Those words cut through the mental fog all those hits had left behind. As his tail whipped down towards my one remaining foreleg I rolled to the side, calling Chainbreaker to my hooves and swinging the sword upwards through the space I’d occupied moments ago. The blade cut into Blackfyre’s descending tail, carried through flesh and bone with the momentum provided by his own attack. Eventually the blade came free, breaking through the resistance.

Blackfyre let out another roar that made the entire cavern shudder, knocking dust loose from the ceiling. He pulled his tail back. Most of it. The last meter or so got left behind.

I pulled myself to my hooves, grinning at the chunk of the dragon I’d just lopped off. “Don’t worry, it’s a clean cut. You won’t be asymmetrical.”

Blackfyre let out a snarl that sounded more like something you’d expect from a feral animal than the supposedly sophisticated dragon. “When I am done with you, bards will sing of your suffering for centuries to come! Mothers will warn their children not to be so foolish as to repeat the follies of Sunset Shimmer!”

“Or maybe they’ll tell the legend of Sunset the Dragonslayer!” I shot back.

Blackfyre answered with a wordless roar of pure rage, snatching up several chunks of broken crystal that were bigger than me and hurling them all towards me. I countered with a thin plane of Blightfire, breaking those crystals up into harmless dust before they could crush me.

“Looks like I pissed you off!” That was good though. If there was one thing I’d figured out while fighting Starlight, it was that blind rage was exploitable. What worked against the slave might work against the master too. I conjured up dozens of small shards of razor-sharp ice and hurled them at Blackfyre with gale-force wind.

Blackfyre did the smart thing and quickly covered his chest wound and eyes. For everything else, his scales were more than thick enough to fend off the ice shards. Well, almost everything. I knew sharp bits of ice weren’t going to do anything to dragon scales that could turn away any sword that wasn’t as magically charged as Chainbreaker.

However, the thin membrane of a dragon’s wings was a lot easier to hurt.

Blackfyre snarled when he realized what I was doing and quickly tucked his wings back to try and protect them, but it was a bit late for that. I’d already done enough damage to ground him, or at least make flying a lot harder and incredibly painful.

That was only damage to the body, though. I knew I needed to hit him where it really hurt: his pride. “How does it feel to be crippled by a mere mortal, Blackfyre?!”

“Crippled?!” Blackfyre scoffed. “Once you’re broken, I can fix this in a matter of minutes. Your leg is gone forever. Pity you won’t have the chance to appreciate the depth of your loss. I suppose I should congratulate you on how far you’ve come. You’ve convinced me that you’re too much trouble to be worth turning. When it comes to unbalancing Celestia, I suppose your corpse will have to suffice.”

Blackfyre followed through on that, charging straight at me instead of trying any of the old subtle tricks. Guess he really had given up on trying to take me alive and warp me into a pet monster. My shield spells were pretty good, especially now, but trading punches with a dragon who was a couple hundred times heavier than I was wouldn’t end well.

As the massive dragon closed in, I picked the only route I had open to get past him: going straight under. Blackfyre snapped down at me as I rushed in, but his timing was off and he got nothing but a mouthful of air. I was underneath him before he could bring his talons to bear. Once I was underneath him I realized he might just drop down and crush me underneath his bulk. I quickly swung Chainbreaker up at his vulnerable underbelly. The strike didn’t do much more than the equivalent of a small papercut, but it did make him instinctively flinch. That bought me a second’s grace to get clear before he tried to belly-flop on me.

Blackfyre snarled and flicked his tail at me as I emerged. Or rather, he tried to. Instead of connecting, he wound up waving the bloody stump a couple centimeters away from my face. Guess he hadn’t quite adjusted to losing the last meter or so off his tail.

The look on Blackfyre’s face when he realized what had just happened made me far happier than I should’ve been considering the circumstances. The glare he sent my way probably should’ve terrified me, but I think I was way past the point of caring. “Don’t delude yourself into thinking you’ve done any lasting harm. Argentium did far worse when I fought her, and I healed every last wound in a day’s time.”

I rolled my eyes. “You must not have much faith in your own abilities if the best you can come up with is ‘I’ll heal no matter how hard you kick my ass.’ I guess that just means I’ll need to make sure you’re dead or captured before you get a chance to run away and patch up.”

“You make it sound so easy,” Blackfyre scoffed. “As if all it would take to destroy me is the will to do so. It’s past time you stopped deluding yourself. You cannot hope to match my power. I’ve seen the limits of your strength, and they will not be enough. I have existed since the first ponies clubbed one another over the head with wood and stone, and I shall endure long after your pathetic race ends.”

He grinned and chuckled softly. “Oh you rudimentary creature. I won’t deny that you’ll stand out to me in the centuries after this. You’re an irritation worth remembering. You’ll have earned my respect in a curious way, even if I’ll eventually forget your name. You should be proud of how far you’ve come, but for all that you’ve achieved and all the power you’ve gained, you will always be mortal. And I will always be so much more.”

Celestia, what an ego. “Alright then! If you really are that great, let’s see how you stand up against all the power this pitiful little mortal can conjure up!”

I dug deep, but not the same way I had with my attempt at a death curse a while back. Back then I’d been burning everything out, destroying myself to get what I thought would be the most powerful spell I would ever cast. What I was doing just hammered home how wrong I’d been. Don’t get me wrong: a properly done death curse can be incredibly powerful, but mine hadn’t been done right. I’d all but burned out my life out of pure, stubborn pride and refusal to accept that I wouldn’t get the obsession I’d clung to for years. In a lot of ways, I’d just been giving up on life.

This time I was fighting for it. I had so much to live for, and I’d let the quest for an alicorn’s wings blind me to all of it.

Celestia. My mother in all but biology who’d never stopped loving and believing in me, no matter what. Kukri, the eager young student who always saw the best in me, and had so much faith that it helped me believe in myself as well. Puzzle and Strumming, the friends I’d needed, even if not always the ones I’d wanted. They weren’t perfect—in fact, they all had some pretty huge flaws. But they were important, and they were worth fighting for. Worth living for.

As I pulled in all that energy, I felt an undercurrent flowing through the cavern. It took me a second to realize what it was. All the residual magic from my failed death curse. Now that I got an outside look at it I realized how sloppy the spell had been. I hadn’t been in the best of mental states, and a lot of the power had leaked out. Or maybe when the spell bounced off Blackfyre all that magic had just sort of ... stuck around for a bit, before it all slowly leaked away into the background aura of the world. But for right now, it was all still here.

Determination and despair. Life and death.

I always had been good at combining opposing forces.

I gathered all the power together and hurled it straight at Blackfyre. The attack made every last hair on my body stand on end, and I felt like I was in the middle of a roaring river, unimaginable power coursing in and out of me. Like I was just a conduit for forces I barely understood and could only control in the loosest sense of the word.

Blackfyre’s eyes widened a bit, and he brought his blood-soaked talon into the air, quickly tracing runes with droplets of blood that hung in the air. My attack slammed into an orange shield that sprang into being from those runes, breaking apart into a dozen beams that all shot past Blackfyre, hammering into the ceiling above him.

The dragon smirked when he saw that he’d deflected my attack. “Such a pity. All that power, everything you gained by pushing yourself past your limits again and again, and you didn’t even manage to hit the target.”

I smirked. “Oh really?”

Blackfyre had just enough time to let out a surprised roar before the entire ceiling collapsed on top of him. He’d been one hay of a durable bastard so far, but I would bet that even he would have a hard time surviving getting half a mountain dropped on his head.

Of course, that did raise the slight problem that all of us were underneath the collapsing mountain too. I scrambled over to where Puzzle and Strumming had taken cover, trying to catch my breath and throw up a shield spell before we all got crushed beneath countless tons of falling rubble. Right as I was about to put the barrier up, a teal dome covered all three of us.

Starlight Glimmer grunted as several large rocks bounced off the shield. “I hope you have a plan to get out of here, because I can’t hold up a shield forever! Did you forget that all of us are also stuck under the mountain you decided to bring down!”

Strumming slowly put away the knife she’d had halfway to Starlight’s throat. “Good thing I figured out what you were doing before I decided to kill you just to be safe.”

Starlight groaned. “Killing me right now would kill us all, so could you not?”

Strumming shrugged. “Wasn’t planning to, but you can’t blame me for being wary given recent history. Though if I did kill you Bacon could just take over.”

I shrugged. “I’m fine with saving my strength. After all, I need to get the four of us out of here in one piece.” Starlight did a double-take at me including her. “I aimed for the runes instead of your head for a reason. Besides, you are helping out right now. Leaving you behind to get crushed would just be a jerk move.”

“Yay, you’re saving my life so I can be hanged by the war crimes tribunal, or whatever ends up happening.” She grimaced as more and more rubble settled on top of her shield. “Well whatever brilliant plan you’ve got, could you do it quick?”

“Just waiting for Blackfyre’s wards to come down, then I’ll teleport us all out.”

Puzzle frowned at me. “This one always thought you could only teleport yourself, not others. Or at least, that was what you told it.”

“Well, that was when I had less experience, before I got a lot stronger, and when we weren’t in a ‘I have to pull this off or we’re all dead’ situation,” I shot back. “If you’ve got a better idea, I’d love to hear it.”

Puzzle didn’t say anything, so I guess that answered that. I closed my eyes and concentrated, trying to pull together the spell while also waiting for Blackfyre’s wards to collapse completely. They were already in shambles with the mountain collapsing all around us, but considering the spell I was trying to pull off, even really weak and tattered ones might be enough to make something go horribly wrong. I couldn’t help but recall when Celestia had first started teaching me the teleportation spell and we wound up with several dozen stuffed animals that came out of the spell missing limbs, eyes, or heads.

Starlight groaned as more rocks hammered into her dome, and cracks started spreading through it. “Whatever you’re gonna do, do it fast or you won’t get to do it at all!”

I took a deep breath and cast the spell.

An instant later the cold hit me like a slap in the face. For a moment I worried that I’d somehow horribly messed it up and wound up teleporting off my own head or something. Then I opened my eyes, and realized we were all outside, in the middle of a Northmarch winter. I’d lost all my robes and armor when I’d been shoved into that crystal cocoon, and going out naked in sub-zero temperatures was not fun. Good thing I had a couple good spells for that kind of thing.

A quick check over the others confirmed that they’d all come out of the teleportation more-or-less intact. Strumming’s mane looked a bit singed, Puzzle was blinking and staring at the snow-covered landscape like he was disoriented, and Starlight staggered off to the side and emptied the contents of her stomach. Still, none of them were missing limbs or screaming in agony, so I could probably call this one a win.

Blackfyre had been buried underneath an entire mountain, and we were all still alive.

I slumped down on the ground, utterly exhausted.

Puzzle shook his head, then rushed to my side. “Are you okay, Shimmer-mare?”

I groaned and pulled myself back up, carefully stretching out each of my three remaining limbs. “Yeah, I think so. Or at least, everything’s still where it’s supposed to be.”

“Maybe,” Strumming frowned and looked me. “You still look like you need a doc. Not to mention we should have someone look you over to make sure Blackfyre didn’t mess with anything while he was trying to mutate you into one of his Spawn. I mean, you did get a big unexplained power boost.”

“For what it’s worth, she doesn’t feel like one.” Starlight gave me a quick once-over. “I can kind of sense them. Though as long as we’re getting doctors, somepony sliced my back halfway open. I should probably get that looked at, past the quick bandage to keep me from bleeding out.”

“You’re welcome for that.” Strumming looked over the bandages with a faint smirk. “Though really, I blame Bacon’s influence. If it wasn’t for her, the nicest you would’ve gotten from me is a slit throat before you could bleed out. Buuut I figured that since she went to a lot of trouble to slice up those runes without taking off your head or severing your spine or anything else, it’d be a real downer if I let you slowly bleed to death right after she saved you from your own stupidity and bad choices.”

“Convincing you to show mercy to your enemies,” Puzzle murmured. “Truly, she has been a most horrible, corrupting influence.”

“The worst,” Strumming agreed. “Now c’mon, let’s get Bacon patched up.”

Puzzle nodded. “This one is sure Machwing company will have some sort of medic. They shouldn’t be too far, probably just over that ridge.”

“At least we...” I trailed off as the ground trembled, and the massive pile of rubble shifted. A second later I could swear I heard a rumble deep within the earth. Like a very massive and extremely angry volcano that was on the verge of erupting. “You gotta be bucking kidding me, I dropped a mountain on him!”

Starlight flinched, her legs giving out as she collapsed to the ground. “No ... no ... there’s no way he could be—”

What was left of Blackfyre’s lair exploded outwards as the dragon emerged with a roar that seemed to shake the very heavens. “Fools! I am Blackfyre the Fleshcarver, the Bane of the North! The greatest dragon who ever has or will live! You think you can kill me?! What arrogance! What hubris! You are nothing! Temporary creatures with fleeting lives, who will fall to the side in an eyeblink while I continue to roam the earth! You can no more strike me down than you could drink the oceans dry or scour the desert clean of sand! I am beyond you in every conceivable way!”

I scowled at him and stepped forward, refusing to be intimidated by his show of force. “I guess I should’ve known it would take more than dropping a couple thousand tons of rocks on you to kill you. Doesn’t matter anyway, I’ve won. Gloat all you want, but there’s one thing you overlooked.”

Blackfyre scoffed. “Nothing I might have overlooked could possibly be so grand as to allow a creature as insignificant as you to triumph over me. Spend your last moments reveling in your minor victory and the temporary inconvenience you’ve inflicted upon me. However, the war will still be mine. But please, do share whatever small fact you think might have given you enough to overcome a creature vastly superior to you in every way.”

I smirked and let him know exactly how he’d just been beaten by a lowly little mortal. “When I collapsed your cave, I also took out your wards. All of your wards.”

“What are you blathering on abou—” Judging by the way Blackfyre’s eyes shot open, he had actually figured it out before the beam of golden fire hammered straight into him and knocked him sprawling.

With a bright flash of golden light, Mom appeared at my side. “Blackfyre.” The look on her face was ... well she wasn’t snarling in rage or anything. Actually she looked completely calm. And yet I could feel the waves of barely restraining righteous anger radiating off of her. Or maybe it was just heat.

I’m a pyromancer. I’m used to dealing with high temperatures. But right now I felt like I was standing next to the sun itself. She was already melting away a rapidly growing circle in the snow around us.

“Celestia,” Blackfyre snarled. I saw a flicker of something in his eyes. I like to think it was fear.

“This ends, now.” Celestia’s horn lit up, and several beams of golden fire lashed out at him. Each one knocked scales off of Blackfyre when it connected, and the dragon howled in pain.

I didn’t waste any time putting in my own contribution, preparing another blightfire and anima annihilation blast. I fired it off at one of the patches where Celestia had already torn a gap in Blackfyre’s scales for maximum damage. When it hit, Blackfyre screamed and went sprawling again.

I was almost shocked to see how much damage I’d done. It was ... maybe not quite on par with what Celestia was doing, but a hay of a lot closer to it than I ever would’ve believed I could pull off. Sure, I’d dreamed of being on par with Celestia, but just the prospect of being somewhere in the same league as her was ... well if not for being focused on the huge evil dragon in front of us, I probably would’ve sat there in shock for a bit.

Blackfyre fell back under our combined assault, scrambling behind some of the rubble of his old lair for a bit of cover and moment’s respite. He used the time and space he’d bought to unleash a massive torrent of dragonfire.

Celestia shifted from offense to defense at a moment’s notice, easily intercepting the flames before they could come close to us. However, the break in her offensive momentum was exactly what Blackfyre had been waiting for. He bolted out of cover, running surprisingly fast for a such a huge and battered dragon, his tattered wings pumping furiously. “I haven’t lived this long without knowing when to withdraw! This is but the beginning of my rampage! Northmarch will drown in oceans of blood!”

“No! We can’t let him get away!” If Blackfyre escaped, he would just find a new hiding place and start the whole thing all over again. That was why Celestia and Argentium let him surrender rather than spend years and thousands of lives trying to hunt him down in the first war. If we let him get away now, everything would be...

Celestia caught my eye, and did the last thing I expected.

She winked.

“Wha—”

Blackfyre was about a thirty meters into the air when Argentium came barreling out of the clouds, diving straight down at him. Even if he’d been whole and uninjured, Blackfyre wouldn’t have had time to dodge before she hit him.

Blackfyre and Argentium slammed into the ground hard enough to set off what felt like a localized earthquake, and the sheer force of it would’ve knocked me over if not for Celestia steadying me with a single hoof. When the dust cleared, Argentium was on top of Blackfyre, pinning him down. He tried to fight back, but he was battered and in a bad position, while Argentium was fresh and had all the leverage over him.

As Celestia and I closed in, Blackfyre played the only card he had left. “I yield!”

“No false surrender this time.” Argentium snarled. “A thousand years ago we gave you the chance to live and learn the error of your ways. I will not fight a new war in the North a thousand years hence when you think the time to rise up has come again.” She clamped her jaws on the back of his neck.

Blackfyre yowled. “Celestia! I yield! You can’t kill me, I surrender! Under the ancient laws that bind all dragonkind, I surrender!”

Mom paused, frowning at him. “The laws of dragons have no power here. You will not escape punishment for all the damage you’ve done by paying out a portion of your hoard as blood money. You will be put on trial for your crimes against Northmarch and sentenced by judge and jury, under our laws.”

Blackfyre snarled and thrashed beneath Argentium, vainly trying to free himself. “Never! I will not consent to be bound by your foolish laws! I am not some lowly mortal criminal to be executed like a dog! I! Am! A! Dragon!”

“Fine! Then die like one!” I prepared an anima blast, and on pure impulse channeled the whole thing into Chainbreaker. It must have been a good idea, because a second later Celestia joined in on the spell. The sword lit up like a beacon, practically throbbing with energy.

I teleported in and sliced the sword straight into his chest. With something like a thunderclap, all the power unleashed itself straight into his heart.

Blackfyre’s eyes shot wide open, and his head snapped around to face me. His mouth silently opened and closed a few times, though it was hard to tell whether it was just shock or if he was trying to come up with some sort of famous last words.

And then he died.

Argentium wrenched her jaws, and bones in his neck shattered. I couldn’t exactly blame her for wanting to make sure.

I stared at the huge mass of dead dragon, trying to wrap my head around it all. Blackfyre was dead. The monster who’d ravaged the North, unleashed hordes of twisted spawn, and fought against the likes of Celestia and Argentium was gone. And I’d been the one to strike the finishing blow. It was ... I couldn’t ... it was just too...

Celestia stepped up to my side and wrapped a gentle wing around me. “It’s over, Sunset.”

Chainbreaker tumbled out of my hooves, and I wordlessly collapsed against her. I wasn’t sure what I ... I mean, I suppose I should feel elated and triumphant. I’d taken down Blackfyre. The monster was dead, and Northmarch was safe once more. Safer, probably. They’d never need to worry about Blackfyre again.

But instead of feeling like celebrating, I was just ... tired. Everything I’d been through, it was all just too much. I couldn’t even ...

At least it was over.

Celestia gently picked me up, cradling me against her chest. “Let’s go home, Sunset.”

Author's Note

As always, thanks to my pre-reading and editing team for all their hard work. Also, I would like to thank all my dedicated Patreon supporters. You guys are awesome.

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Aftermath

The immediate aftermath of the battle consisted of me lying on a cot while the Machwing medics and Celestia looked me over. After a couple hours they came to pretty much the same conclusion I’d had within the first five minutes: I was really beaten up, but I’d survive. Not that I could blame them for wanting to check and make sure. It would really suck to make it all the way through a fight with Blackfyre only to keel over a day later because I had internal bleeding and didn’t bother to get it fixed.

Once I’d been given a tentatively clean-ish bill of health, I went over to the other pony the medics had been working on. It seemed proper to at least quickly look in on Starlight considering I was the reason she was getting a bunch of stitches in her back, not to mention get some idea of how they were going to deal with her.

When I got to the tent, I wasn’t exactly shocked by the guards outside it or by the fact that she was chained to the bed with a suppression ring on her horn. It’s almost like we didn’t trust her after everything she’d done.

What did surprise me was that Argentium was there in her shrunk-down form, examining Starlight’s back. I guess it shouldn’t have been a huge surprise seeing as those runes would be a huge factor in deciding exactly what we would end up doing to her.

The dragon gave me another one of her fangless smiles when I came in. “Sunset, the North owes you a debt I cannot begin to imagine how I will repay. Thank you.”

I wasn’t sure what to say to that, so I kind of stood there in awkward silence. I mean, what do you say to an ancient, powerful, and fabulously wealthy dragon declaring they’re in your debt? I wound up settling on something really lame and trite. “Um, you’re welcome. I was just trying to do the right thing.” I cleared my throat, and tried to get my mind back on track. “Forgive me, but I actually wanted to speak to you about Starlight Glimmer.”

“Yay,” Starlight groused, “I get to find out how I’ll be executed.”

Argentium ignored that remark, regarding me with a raised eyebrow. “I see. We’ve yet to decide her fate. Naturally, your opinion would carry considerable weight.”

“Right.” I took a deep breath. “I’d say execution would be a bit too much. She wasn’t a saint before Blackfyre got his claws into her, but she wasn’t a monster either. And I’m sure you can tell from those runes that she wasn’t exactly in control of her own actions.”

“She was under considerable duress,” Argentium agreed, “but she was no puppet. She willingly pledged herself to Blackfyre and chose to obey him rather than suffer the consequences of his displeasure.”

Starlight felt the need to speak up. “It’s not like I wanted any of this to happen! You do realize that when he recruited me, it was pretty much ‘Serve me or die.’”

“Then perhaps you should have died,” Argentium snapped. “How many have perished because you put your own self-preservation above the greater good?”

“You make it sound like Blackfyre wouldn’t have gone on a massive war and murder spree without me,” Starlight grumbled. “I was just a useful pawn to him. If not me, he would’ve grabbed someone else to do his dirty work. And I’m the one who talked him out of stuff like massacring the entire refugee convoy to ‘send a message.’ I even tried to warn everyone in Coldharbor before Blackfyre showed up, at least as much as I could with those runes in my back. If you think about it, I saved lives.”

“Starlight, shut up before you manage to talk yourself into an execution,” I growled under my breath. I suppose I should’ve known she’d start trying to rationalize and reframe all her actions to make herself look less horrible, but now was not the time to do it.

Argentium cocked her head to the side. “I take it by that remark that you don’t think she should die, then?”

“Yeah.” I took a deep breath and tried to decide on the best way to explain it. “I know she’s not innocent in all this, but I don’t think she’s completely guilty either. She did some horrible things, but all of it was under constant threat of death and torture. And her past ... yeah, she has a criminal record, but it was for stupid stunts like robbing a bank and giving the money to the poor, not this. It seems like some level of clemency is warranted.”

“I see.” Argentium settled back on her haunches. “So what would you propose?”

“Maybe something like probation and a suspended sentence?” I suggested. “There’s going to be a lot of rebuilding to do, and I’m sure Starlight could help with that. That’d give plenty of time to keep an eye on her and see how she’s doing. If it looks like she’s learned her lesson, maybe she can get released once all the work is done. If she backslides, we can always just activate the suspended sentence.”

Argentium frowned, scratching her chin. “A few of the changes Blackfyre has wrought upon her were not undone by Chainbreaker. Most notably, she still retains the power to sense his spawn. Many of them are already dead from the battles and more will likely follow in the coming days, but hunting down the last of them could be a long and difficult process. One made easier if we had a pony who could detect their lairs at a distance.”

Starlight’s eyes lit up in desperate hope. “Yeah, I can do that. And when I worked on the commune I learned some stuff about construction and farming...”

“It seems we are agreed, then,” Argentium murmured. “She will serve Northmarch as penance until such time as her debt is repaid, or she shows herself unworthy of the trust we have offered her.” She frowned at me. “Though as I recall, Freeport also has an interest in her for theft and murder. Will you want her extradited once I finish with her?”

I thought about it for a bit. “That’s ultimately going to be the Council’s call, but I think they’ll be a lot happier if they just never have to deal with her again.” That was certainly how I felt about Starlight Glimmer. Especially since if she did come back, odds were that someone in Freeport’s seedy underbelly would decide that a unicorn with lots of magic and a poor moral compass would be useful. “I imagine we’ll at least keep that suspended sentence in our pocket, just in case she does come back or cause more trouble.”

Starlight’s eyes shot open. “So wait, you’re saying that I’m basically exiled from Freeport?! You’ll toss me in jail if I ever come back?!”

I shrugged. “Not necessarily, but I think the Council would like to keep that option open.” That would certainly be what I would suggest to them, and like Argentium said, my suggestions carried a lot of weight right now. I hoped Starlight could use this second chance to sort herself out and stop making horrible mistakes that hurt herself and everyone around her, but I wanted a backup plan after everything that had happened in the last…

Celestia, had all this really happened in just a couple weeks?

The only potential complication was if they needed someone to publicly take down for the theft, but even if that was the case they’d probably be satisfied with me dealing with Blackfyre. It wouldn’t be hard to cobble together a story about how he was the one behind the theft and the Council had sent me to deal with him.

Starlight slumped down on the cot, her chains rattling. “Okay, I guess I get it. I bet once I finish up all this community service I probably won’t be all that welcome in the North either.”

Argentium frowned at her. “Assuming we reach that point, I would prefer if you settled elsewhere once your debts are paid.”

“Great.” She sighed and tried to run a hoof down her face, but couldn’t quite pull it off. “I guess there’s no point in saying I’m sorry for all of ... everything.”

“We are well past the point where a mere apology can mend anything,” Argentium rumbled. “Though the sentiment is appreciated, if it is genuine.”

I added in my own two ducats. “Don’t be sorry—be better.” I frowned and pointedly put a hoof on Chainbreaker’s hilt. “Because if you screw this up, I won’t be telling anyone you deserve another chance. I’d like to see you turn your life around and do something good with all your power, but if I have to fight you a third time I won’t be disabling your horn or slicing the control runes off your back. We clear?”

Starlight grimaced. “Crystal.”

Despite getting a tentative clean bill of health from the medics in Machwing Company, I still spent a few days in the hospital once we got to Canterlot. I guess there’s a big difference between a field medic saying I probably wouldn’t immediately keel over and getting properly fixed up. The Machwing medics probably hadn’t even worried about anything past whether I was in good enough shape to actually get to a hospital and making sure it was safe for me to walk around on my own.

The hospital stay took up most of a week. On top of the latest round of injuries from my fight with Blackfyre, they wanted to re-check everything from all the previous fights. Considering I had a worryingly long list of major injuries including brain damage and a full-on amputation, I couldn’t exactly fault them for wanting to be thorough.

They eventually let me go with several fresh bandages and a new prosthetic. I was supposed to come back in a bit to get a more permanent one made and start physical therapy. Not to mention they’d scheduled me for psychological therapy too, just in case I was traumatized. I wasn’t exactly looking forward to that, but I guess that was just going to be part of my life from now on. I’d deal with it. Somehow.

Once I was out, I headed back to the palace and my old tower. Celestia already told me I could stay there for as long as I wanted. I’m sure part of her hoped I would end up moving back in permanently. I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t tempted to spend a while just relaxing and decompressing after ... everything.

The old tower was pretty much exactly like I remembered, with the only thing out of place being Chainbreaker resting in a nice freshly installed sword rack. Unsurprisingly, the hospital hadn’t wanted me carrying a sword around while I was a patient.

As I started settling in, I couldn’t help but feel like something was out of place. I took a quick look around, trying to figure out what it might be. I didn’t exactly remember every last detail of how my old room looked, but it wasn’t quite what I remembered. Then again, maybe it wasn’t the room that had changed. Maybe I was the one who was out of place here. One hay of a lot had changed since I’d run off a couple years ago.

I pulled out one of my old notebooks, idly flipping through the pages. I recognized my own writing, but some of the comments were ... I dunno. It was weird. I mean, it was almost like looking at a stranger’s words, even though they were mine from just three years ago.

I frowned and shook my head. No point dwelling on the past, I had more than enough to deal with in the present and future. For starters, a new prosthetic. The doctors just wanted to fit me with something standard and traditional, and that wouldn’t work. Those might not be all that great for an active lifestyle, not to mention I had a few resources available that would be just a bit out of reach for the average pony. I pulled out one of my old quills and some parchment, then got to work sketching out a few concepts.

Kukri staggered in through the front door, carrying a trunk that was nearly as big as she was. I took the baggage off of her with a quick spell and set it to the side. Kukri let out a relieved sigh, wiping some sweat out of her eyes. “Thank you. This one wanted to get everything you would need for the stay. Can this one get you anything else, Shimmer-mare? Are you hungry? Thirsty? Did you need any books? What about—”

“I’m fine,” I assured her, “just thinking.” I sketched out a couple ideas, but none of them seemed all that great. After all, the standard design for a prosthetic leg didn’t have any obvious room for improvement. Probably because doctors and engineers had already spent years working on how to make the best replacement limbs. I might be smart, but I wasn’t going to outthink trained professionals in their chosen field of study. If I wanted to improve on the design, I needed to get a bit more outside the box.

An idea was just starting to come together in my head when someone knocked on the door. I had a pretty good idea who it was, considering the subtle aura of power I could feel from the other side of the door. “Come on in, Celestia.”

The supreme ruler of Equestria stepped through the front door, smiling at me. “Hello Sunset, Kukri. I hope this isn’t a bad time for a visit.”

I smiled back, setting the work aside. “Not at all. I was expecting you to come by.”

Kukri smiled nervously up at her. “Hi! Again! Hi, um, come on in?” She shuffled over a bit closer to me. “Um, this should be fine. Now that we’re out of the hospital there aren’t any sort of visiting hours or anything, so you can come whenever you want and stay as long as you like. Especially since this is your castle, after all. Though this one supposes that if you had wanted to visit the Shimmer-mare outside of normal visiting hours at the hospital nobody would tell you that you couldn’t...”

“Being a reigning monarch does come with a few perks,” Celestia agreed, stepping over and wrapping a wing around me. “I imagine you’re quite happy to be out of the hospital.”

“You have no idea.” I sighed and hugged her back with my good leg. “I know I needed the stay, but by the end of it I was getting a bit stir-crazy. Hope you don’t mind if I use my old room while we’re in Canterlot.”

“Not at all.” She gave me another squeeze. “In fact, when I sent out that job offer a few months ago I asked the staff to come in and freshen the place up a bit just in case you wanted to stay here. It’s ... good to have you back, though I wish the circumstances were better.”

“Yeah, same here.” I shrugged. “You know, for it being my old hometown I didn’t really have many places to go. I know Puzzle’s staying with Strumming, but otherwise ... I mean, it was here or the Shimmer Estate, and I haven’t been back there in even longer. Not to mention it’s empty right now.”

“Ah. Yes.” Celestia sighed. “I tried to get word to Solar, but I’m sure I don’t need to tell you how hard it can be to get in touch with him while he’s in the field. As for Scarlett ... I cannot disagree when she says that the situation in Northmarch is still very delicate, and we need an Equestrian Archmagus on the ground. Blackfyre might be defeated, but that doesn’t undo all the damage he caused or the refugee crisis in Coldharbor. I’m sure we’ll be dealing with new blightspawn nests for years to come as well.”

I sighed and nodded. “Yeah, I know. There’s a ton of really important work to do up north. If not for everything I’ve gone through I’d still be up there helping out. It’s just...” I shook my head. “Never mind. I’ve got plenty of stuff to deal with too.”

Celestia gently put a hoof on my shoulder. “I could always recall her to Canterlot if you want.” She hesitated for a moment. “I’m sure you know I’ve always wanted the two of you to be on better terms. It’s no small part of why I hesitated to take as active of a role in your life as I should have. As much as you needed a mother and I wished to be one...” She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. “But nothing good will come of dwelling on past mistakes we have already learned from.”

“Yeah, I know what you mean.” I grimaced. “But that’s kinda the problem, isn’t it? We’ve both tried to learn and grow, but I’m not sure she has.”

“Perhaps not yet,” Celestia agreed. “But there is always the potential for it, and she has been through a great deal these last few weeks. I know she wasn’t the mother you deserved, but just like Starlight Glimmer deserved the chance to atone for her own crimes, I think Scarlett should also have the chance to make amends.”

“I’m fine with giving her a chance,” I answered, “but it’s on her to actually follow through and do something with it. I’m not going to go out of my way to reach out to a pony who spent years ignoring and neglecting me. And if you have to order her to do it, it doesn’t really count.” I sighed and ran my good hoof through my mane. “Plus ... I mean, there is a lot of really important stuff going on in Northmarch right now. It’s ... I don’t know. I guess it just depends on what she does next. If it’s nothing, I’m fine with that. If she does something ... I guess we’ll see.”

Kukri latched onto my remaining foreleg. “Right. And in any case, the Shimmer-mare already has a real family.” Her eyes flicked over to Celestia. “Um, that is, this one meant the White Pony. Not that it wouldn’t like to see itself as...”

“I know.” I gave her a quick hug, though she winced when my prosthetic brushed against her back. “Anyway, I've got plenty to deal with right now without adding Scarlett and Solar to the mix. The good news is that I had a lot of time to think while I was in the hospital, and I think I have one or two solutions coming together.”

“Oh really?” Celestia looked quite intrigued. “What sort of solutions? Or perhaps I should take a step back and ask what problem it is you plan to address.”

I reached down and tapped my prosthetic. “This is a bit basic, don’t you think?”

“I believe the doctors were planning to get you something a bit more permanent.” She glanced over my shoulder, spotting the papers on my desk. “Assuming you didn’t have something entirely different in mind.”

I shrugged. “If I’m using it for the rest of my life, I might as well make the best I can manage. Not that I doubt what your doctors would come up with, but I’ve got a few options that they probably couldn’t pull off.”

“Alpha-Plus unicorns do have a few advantages,” Celestia conceded.

Kukri’s eyes flicked over my missing leg. “But you’re sure you can’t fix it, right? This one doesn’t understand why. If Blackfyre could do it, surely you could too.”

I grimaced and shook my head. “I think I’m fine with not trying to figure out all the ugly secrets to Blackfyre’s fleshcrafting.” Maybe there was some sort of legitimate medical use for some of his techniques, but after seeing how gleefully and horrifyingly Blackfyre had abused them I wasn’t eager to see anyone try building on his work.

“And I am sure Sunset is more than capable of coming up with a truly impressive prosthetic,” Celestia agreed. “Especially since Argentium and I would be more than happy to help with that. I daresay money isn’t going to be an issue either.”

That remark was intriguing enough to make me curious. “What do you mean?”

Celestia chuckled softly. “Ah, I suppose nobody would have mentioned it to you yet. We’ve discovered where Blackfyre hid his hoard. Naturally, there was a great deal of curiosity about where all his treasure was after he was slain. The exact percentages for how we’ll split it up haven’t been entirely settled on, but everyone agrees that since you led us to his lair, conducted most of the fight with him on your own, and struck the killing blow, you’re entitled to a large portion.

“Oh.” After everything that had happened, money had just about the last thing on my mind, but I guess I should have seen that coming. All the stories said that dragons were supposed to be fabulously wealthy, and whoever killed them got to keep that treasure for themselves.

Not that I cared about that kind of thing. I mean, I did care about money in terms of being able to pay bills and buy things I needed, and a couple little luxuries that I didn’t strictly need, but I didn’t care about being fabulously, extravagantly wealthy. “I guess just use my share to help all the people in Coldharbor and everywhere else. Blackfyre did a lot of damage, and I’m sure there are a lot of people who need help.”

Kukri stared up at me, her jaw hanging open. “That’s ... you’re giving away an entire dragon’s ... that’s ... wow. That’s really kind of you, Shimmer-mare!”

“It is,” Celestia agreed with a faint smile. “Though I think you underestimate both the generosity of others and how large your share of Blackfyre’s hoard is. Argentium and I both intend to donate to the relief efforts as well, and by our estimates there should still be a substantial sum left behind once all expenses are met.”

“Oh.” I guess I should’ve known Celestia and Argentium would be doing the same thing. Still ... “So, um, how much treasure does he have?”

Celestia chuckled softly. “There’s only a rough estimate for exactly how much the total hoard is worth, but suffice to say that after accounting for it being divided up between the relevant parties and all the relief aid to Northmarch, you're still going to be quite rich.”

I swallowed. “How rich?”

“I believe you got some measure of Argentium’s wealth?” Celestia smiled. “Blackfyre hasn’t been particularly active over the last thousand years, but back when he was younger he was quite the scourge on the land and gathered an immense horde. While we did take a portion of his hoard in the last war he still had quite the fortune, and quite a bit of it is considerably more valuable now that it’s been perfectly preserved for over a thousand years.” Her smile turned a bit wry. “Though I fear the antique coin market might be in danger of collapsing on account of the incoming flood of new coinage dating back to the Crystal empire. And the gold and gem speculators are also a bit nervous...”

While Kukri’s jaw hit the floor, I tried to keep my cool. “Okay. Enough money to actually shake up the market. That’s ... well ... um...” My eyes flicked over the rough sketches I’d hammered out for my new prosthetic. “Okay, so I guess I don’t need to worry about material costs anymore. Hay, his hoard probably has a lot of what I’d need anyway.”

“He certainly has no shortage of precious metals and high-quality gemstones,” Celestia agreed. “I would say that as long as you wisely invest your new fortune money won’t be a problem for you ever again, but I know you have some rather ambitious plans.”

“Like creating my own magic academy in Freeport.” An academy I’d been spending months trying to find the startup money for. “So would Blackfyre’s hoard be enough to...”

“Easily,” Celestia answered with a smile. “At least, as long as you don’t plan on immediately making something ten times larger and twenty times grander than my own school.”

“Right.” I wouldn’t deny that I liked the idea of eventually eclipsing her school, but I didn’t think I was likely to do it by that much. Especially not at first. “I was planning to start it off pretty small anyway, just to build up infrastructure and reputation, not to mention iron out all the kinks. Even with the funding taken care of, I can’t make the whole thing spring up overnight.”

“Building a school takes considerable time and effort,” Celestia agreed. “And while I’m sure you’ll want to handle it all on your own, if you ever need any help...” She smiled and gently put a hoof on my back. “Not to mention you could always build your school in Equestria. It would give us quite a few options for exchanging students and faculty, coordinating plans...”

I smiled and slowly shook my head. “Thanks for the offer, but Freeport is my home. Besides, I need to bring back Chainbreaker.”

Celestia smiled, though it didn’t quite reach her eyes. “Yes, I expected that would be your answer. Still, you cannot blame me for trying. And even if you want to set your academy up a few thousand miles away, I would still be happy to help in whatever way I can.”

Kukri grinned and nudged me. “So the Shimmer-mare will be taking on new students? If nothing else, she'll have the cleanest school in all of Freeport.” She glanced over at Celestia, and I had a feeling I knew what she was about to do. “Out of curiosity, did you ever have the Shimmer-mare clean your lab when she was your student? She always tells this one that doing so is an important part of learning the magical arts, but this one remains unconvinced.”

“I asked her to clean up after herself whenever she used anything of mine,” Celestia answered. “She was usually very careful about that.”

Kukri frowned. “But she only had to clean up after herself? Not take care of the rest of the lab or your tower or anything else?”

“No.” Before Kukri could follow that up, Celestia continued. “But then, I had a full castle staff to take care of things like cleaning up any messes. Sunset had her share of chores and lessons, they just took different forms. She did have a bad habit of trying to skip past all the basic foundation work and get straight into using the most advanced spells in the book.”

“Usually because I knew what I was doing,” I countered with a faint grin.

“Usually,” Celestia agreed, matching my smile. “But on the occasions when you were wrong, the results were quite ... memorable. I certainly don’t think anyone is likely to forget about the Broom Incident for at least another decade.”

Kurki snickered. “Okay, anything that gets called an ‘Incident’ has to have a good story behind it. This one needs to hear it.”

“No you don’t,” I grumbled. “Nobody needs to hear that story. Ever.”

“That just makes this one want to hear it even more,” Kukri answered with an entirely too sassy grin. This is what I get for having an almost-teenage apprentice. Come to think of it, she was only a month away from being an actual teenager. Might need to do something for her birthday.

Celestia chuckled. “Well, I do always say that it’s wise to learn from the mistakes from others. It’s much less painful than making them yourself.” She grinned and poked my side with a wingtip. “I did warn you about touching some of my personal magic items, didn’t I? And promised that I would teach you what they did later? But somepony just couldn’t wait to try her hoof, and was so certain she knew what she was doing. Who could have guessed that would end with a huge mess and a bunch of very grumpy castle staff?”

“This one wants to hear everything!” Kukri whined. “Getting just a couple little details makes this one even more curious!”

“Just remember I have material on both of you.” I smirked at Kukri. “I’m sure Celestia would love to hear all about what happened with the birdhouse.”

Kukri’s eyes widened and she shrank down a bit. “But you promised you wouldn’t tell...”

I shrugged. “Turnabout is fair play. If you want someone else to share my minorly embarrassing secrets, I’m going to share yours.”

Celestia grinned, mischief twinkling in her eyes. “So you’re saying that after I share the story of the Broom Incident I’ll also get to hear all about something involving Kukri and a birdhouse? This sounds quite delightful.”

“Maybe.” I moved in to secure my victory. “But of course I’d also have to tell her about a certain incident involving the Grand Galloping Gala and some pudding cake.”

Celestia’s eyes shot open. “How did you...?”

“Um.” I cleared my throat. “Just a quick heads up, but you might want to put a better locking spell on your personal diary.”

Celestia frowned down at me, crossing her forelegs over her chest. “Sunset...”

“I was thirteen and you told me not to do it!” I pointed out in my own defense. “Really, who could resist the chance to learn your deepest, darkest secrets?”

“Evidently not you,” Celestia murmured. “Though I think I’ll have to remember to tell my next apprentice that it’s not my private diary, but just a very uninteresting collection of charts and records about utterly boring minutia. Clearly not even a millennia of experience is enough to keep out a nosy teenage genius. How did you even…?”

I smirked. “Sorry, a magus never reveals her tricks.”

Celestia’s frown deepened, thought it didn’t quite reach her eyes. “I suppose I should have known that giving you tantalizing secrets behind an advanced locking spell would encourage you to practice ways to get past it.”

“Honestly, for a while I wondered if it was one of those weird unconventional lessons of yours,” I answered. “Like how you hid cake on the top shelf so I would practice my levitation spells and get really good at fine control.”

“That’s wasn’t—” Celestia let out a sigh that turned into a chuckle. “I guess I finally solved the mystery of who kept raiding my secret cake stash.” She shot a look my way that was just a touch too amused to really be annoyed. “Now I have a new reason to wish you would consider staying here to teach at my school. I clearly owe you a bit of retribution for all the things you somehow managed to get away with.”

“Kukri, get us on the next ship out of here.”

My apprentice blinked. “Um, this one—”

“I was kidding,” I cut her off.

Celestia chuckled. “I’m sure you realize that if I really wanted to I could stop you from leaving. Besides, I can’t imagine you’d want to leave before the rest of your business here is concluded.” She nodded at the rough sketch I’d been working on. “I imagine you’ll want to finish your new prosthetic before returning.”

I sighed and nodded. “Yeah, might not be a bad idea.” Celestia would certainly have a ton of resources I’d have a hard time getting in Freeport, not the least of which was Celestia herself. Not to mention that showing up in Freeport without a good leg might go badly. The last thing I needed was for someone to think I was a weak cripple and try to steal all that new wealth I’d just come into.

Kukri’s eyes flicked down to my missing leg. “Uh, right. This one would like to stay for that, and to get to see more of Equestria. It’s already very happy it had the chance to meet the White Pony, and it would like to finish up its genealogy research...”

Celestia raised an eyebrow. “Genealogy?”

“She’s trying to find out if I’m secretly related to Torch Charger,” I explained.

“Ah.” Celestia looked between the two of us, then her eyes flicked over to Chainbreaker. “Well, I suppose it’s only natural to try and find a connection between the two of you.”

Kukri stared up at her hopefully. “Wait, you were there! You met Torch once! You would know if they were related, wouldn’t you White Pony?”

“Well, I can’t perfectly recall every single family tree over the course of hundreds of years.” Celestia took a seat. “Though from what I recall of Torch’s visit to my court ... well, he was a dashing young freedom fighter, the last survivor of his clan, and most of the ladies of the court seemed to approve of his looks. It’s certainly possible he had a liaison of some sort in his time here. As I recall one of Sunset’s ancestors did have a child about a year after his visit. She was married, and quite happily so, but I suppose it is possible—”

Whatever she was about to say next got swallowed up by my apprentice’s delighted squeal.

I groaned as Kukri started all but bouncing off the walls. “Why did you have to encourage her?”

“Because young children and apprentices should always be encouraged to follow their dreams and believe in them,” Celestia answered with a playful grin. “Really, Sunset, I would have thought you would know that already.”

I rolled my eyes. “It’s different when those dreams involve me.” I lowered my voice a bit. “And I’m probably going to have enough trouble from being set up as Torch’s heir without someone going around saying I’ve got his bloodline on top of his sword.”

“True.” She frowned and gave me a quick once-over. “Of course, that’s not the only thing of his you have. I’m sure you remember that the medical tests said your own magic seems to have been altered to some degree.”

“Yeah.” I sighed and shook my head. “They didn’t really have a lot of details about what happened, but I guess it’s not really a surprise considering ... everything that happened.”

Kukri must’ve heard that, because she winced. “This one ... um, that is, this one thought that lose ... that what happ—” She paused and took a deep breath, and her voice shifted to something that tried to sound academic and detached. She still couldn’t hide the tremble in her words, though. “Major traumatic events have been known to substantially alter a unicorn’s natural magical aura, including spellcasting color, alteration of spell manifestation, and other phenomena.”

“Right, that.” I glanced down at my plans for a new prosthetic. “At least the leg is something I can fix.”

“Yes, it is.” Celestia wrapped one of her wings around me. “I want you to know that you are every bit the wonderful pony I made my apprentice all those years ago. Whatever has happened, that hasn't changed. I am incredibly proud of you and everything you’ve accomplished.”

“Thanks.” I took a deep breath and leaned in a bit closer to her. “But ... well, I’m not gonna say it doesn’t help to hear that, but it’s not a magical cure-all. I just—it’s not like I regret the choices I made or think it was a bad call. I get that it’s probably for the best. I don’t need to follow the family tradition of latching onto an obsession that ruins my life. But still it’s not going to be easy to adjust to the fact that I’m never gonna be an alicorn.”

“Yes you are,” Kukri immediately cut in. “It’s your destiny.”

I suppose I should’ve known she wouldn’t take it well. “Destinies can change.”

Kukri scowled and stubbornly planted her hooves. “You’re the wielder of Chainbreaker, the savior of Coldharbor, the Magus of Freeport, the slayer of Blackfyre, and a ton more past that. You’re going to make it. There’s no way you couldn’t.”

Celestia sighed and shook her head. “I’m sorry, Kukri, but she won’t. Fate and destiny are not immutable absolutes. Quite the opposite, in fact.”

I used my remaining foreleg to pull her in for a half-hug. “I had to give it up to beat Blackfyre.”

Kukri shook her head. “It’s just a setback. You’ll get it eventually.”

“No, I won’t.” I took a deep breath and tried to come up with the best way to explain it. “I had to make a choice about what really mattered to me. I thought about it a lot, and I decided that ascension wasn’t something I needed. No, more than that—chasing after it would make me lose sight of more important things.”

“But ... that’s not...” Kukri latched onto me, sniffling as she buried her face into my chest. “That’s not fair! After everything you did...”

“Life isn’t always fair.” I sighed and gently rubbed her back. “But it’s always worth living. Like I said, I made a choice. It wasn’t an easy one, but I’m pretty sure it was the right one.”

“How can that be right?” Kukri whimpered. “You shouldn’t have to choose between getting what you deserve and...”

“But I did.” I gave her another reassuring squeeze.

Celestia shifted her wing to cover both of us. “Many ponies have achieved great things without ever ascending. Starswirl, Shadow, Sunbeam, Ushabti, Torch ... and now Sunset. You marched into Blackfyre’s lair and brought about his ruin. Even I wouldn’t have dared to try that unless I had exhausted every other option.”

“That’s true...” Kukri rubbed her eyes against my chest, then pulled back a bit. “You didn't need to be an alicorn to beat Metal Mome, or the Glimmer-mare, or save this one from the Proto-Mind. You’ve—” She sniffled one last time, trying to quickly wipe it away before I could see. “You’ve done so much for this one, and for all of Freeport. And you did all those amazing things without being an alicorn.”

“I’ve got things more important than wings to worry about,” I agreed. “Especially since if the fight with Blackfyre is anything to go by, I can do just fine without them.”

“Indeed.” Celestia smiled down approvingly. “You’ve accomplished amazing things, and I am quite impressed and very proud. While you might not be an alicorn, you do have a unique connection to Torch and Ushabti thanks to Chainbreaker.”

Kukri grinned. “Well yeah, she has their sword, and she’s Torch’s heir.” She cleared her throat. “Um, this one still thinks you should change your name. After all, now we have proof that you’re a direct descendant from Torch. And ... well there’s not really any reason to keep your old name considering all the—”

“I’ll think about it,” I muttered, mostly just so I wouldn’t have to debate it with her. I was pretty sure that only Kukri would think ‘Sunset’s happily married ancestor had a kid a year after Torch was in the same city’ was ironclad proof that I was descended from him.

“Ah.” Celestia looked me over. “I think perhaps there are a few more things to cover. I could try to explain it all, but I think perhaps it would be faster and more effective to show you.” She conjured up a pair of blindfolds. “If the two of you wouldn’t mind putting these on, this should only take a minute.”

I groaned and rolled my eyes. “Really? Blindfolds?”

“It’s a necessary part of the demonstration,” Celestia explained. “If you could see everything this wouldn’t work.”

“Uh-huh.” I frowned at her. “You know, you could just admit that it’s because you’ll enjoy springing a big surprise on me.”

“A happy coincidence,” Celestia shot back with an impish grin. “Nothing more. It really wouldn’t work as well if you could see what’s going on.”

Kukri hesitantly raised a hoof. “So why does this one need to wear a blindfold too?”

Celestia frowned, then chuckled and shook her head. “Oh very well, it’s because you might spoil the surprise for Sunset. It’s been a very stressful few weeks for all of us, and I was hoping you would all stay here for much longer. Let me have my fun.”

When she put it like that... “Okay, okay.” I used my magic to lift the blindfold into place. Once my eyes were covered up I realized she’d woven a bit of extra magic into it, shutting down any scrying or detection spells I might have tried.

“No spoilers,” she whispered into my ear. I felt her work a few more spells, though with my eyes covered and my magical senses dampened I couldn’t tell what they were. That probably should’ve bugged me a lot more than it did, but I trusted her.

I felt the entire world shift around me, and I didn’t need my eyes or my horn to recognize a teleportation spell. Just because I couldn’t see didn’t mean I wasn’t paying attention to the rest of my senses to try and work out where we were. It was a bit chillier than my room in the tower, and I felt a breeze. So we were somewhere outside. No obvious smells or sounds to give away that she’d taken us the gardens or somewhere else in Canterlot. And the ground...

The ground felt really weird. Kinda spongy and ... well not exactly damp, but it kind of reminded me of how Freeport’s streets would feel after several really humid days. I felt around with my hooves a bit more, trying to get the lay of the land, but I didn’t get much. Everything was just the same sort of soft, spongy, damp-ish ground.

Celestia spoke up, and I could hear the amusement in her voice. “Do you want to take your blindfold off, or would you rather spend a few minutes trying to solve the mystery?”

I was tempted to make some appropriately snappy comeback, but I couldn’t think of any. After a couple seconds of awkward silence, I just gave up and pulled off the blindfold.

I was ... on a cloud. I was standing on a cloud, along with Celestia. Kukri had already taken off her own blindfold, and was staring at me from her perch atop Celestia’s back. “Shimmer-mare, you’re—how are you?”

I sighed and shook my head. “It’s just a cloud walking spell, don’t get too excited.”

“Is it now?” Celestia asked with a faint smile. “I don’t recall casting one of those on you.”

“What?” I threw out a quick analysis spell, and sure enough there wasn’t one of me. Kukri had a cloudwalking spell—which I wasn’t even sure she needed—but I didn’t have one. Which begged the question... “If you didn’t put a cloud-walking spell on me, then how am I standing on the clouds? Shouldn’t I just drop straight through them?”

“You would,” Celestia confirmed. “If you didn’t have pegasus magic.” She chuckled softly. “I have a minor confession to make: I know the doctors were a bit confused and concerned about the changes to your magical aura. This little experiment confirmed my own theory as to what happened.” She winked at me. “Though I suppose I can’t fault them for not recognizing that there are now traces of Torch and Ushabti’s magic mingling with your own. I am one of the only living ponies to have ever met them.”

Kukri flitted off Celestia’s back, squealing as she flitted over to hug me. “You’re not just Torch’s descendant, you have his magic too!” She latched on, doing her best to squeeze the life out of me. “You really are amazing! Nobody could deny you’re his heir now!” She gasped and tried to pinch my torso in half. “Wait! You’re a unicorn and Torch was a pegasus and Ushabti was an earth pony, so wouldn’t that mean that you’re...”

“Not precisely,” Celestia took a seat. “An alicorn has the magic of all three pony kinds in equal balance. Sunset’s magic is still overwhelmingly that of a unicorn.” She shrugged. “Though in all honesty this is unexplored territory. I’ve never seen a unicorn inherit magical powers from an earth pony and a pegasus, especially not from the likes of Ushabti and Torch Charger. All I can say for the moment is that she’s grown considerably stronger.” She grinned at me. “And you’ll probably have a much easier time learning the spells Ushabti and Torch were known for.”

“So just being able to walk on clouds without a spell is kinda just the tip of the iceberg?” I sighed and ran a hoof through my mane. “I guess I should’ve known it would be complicated.”

“Life often is.” Celestia watched as I took a seat next to her. “I know you’re eager to return to your home in Freeport, but I do hope I can prevail upon you to remain at least a few weeks longer. I would like the chance to study exactly how your magic has changed, and it would give you a chance to test out that new prosthetic you’ve been designing.”

“Seems like a good idea,” I agreed. “Although ... well, I know Puzzle needs to get back and take care of his business, and I’d bet Kukri’s parents are going to want her back as soon as possible.” I couldn’t even imagine how terrified Knives and Codex would be once they heard about what happened to Coldharbor. Getting Kukri back to them as fast as possible was the only decent thing to do. I really should’ve done it as soon as Blackfyre had been dealt with, but being in the hospital was a pretty good excuse for not dealing with that right away.

“Oh.” Kukri’s ears wilted. “Right ... this one does need to go home. But it doesn’t want to leave you behind in Canterlot. This one is your apprentice.”

“It’ll only be a couple weeks,” I promised her. “And as much as I’d like to have you around, I’m not going to make your parents wait that long when they’re already worried sick.”

Kukri hesitated, worrying at her lower lip. “You’re sure you’ll be okay? And you won’t need this one for anything?”

“Sunset will be fine,” Celestia assured her. “I haven’t noticed any instabilities, and the doctors were quite sure all her injuries are stable and either healed or healing well. I want to keep an eye on her for a bit longer just in case, but there’s no reason to think she’s in danger.”

“Just that if something comes up, it’d be better if it didn’t happen in the middle of an ocean, a week away from the nearest hospital,” I finished for her. “Getting the new leg finished up will go a lot faster in Canterlot, and Celestia’s pretty much the best source of information I have for all the other changes.”

“And I think my castle staff will be more than sufficient to see to any of Sunset’s other needs,” Celestia shot Kukri a wry grin. “Including cleaning her tower.”

Kukri sighed and reluctantly nodded. “Okay.” She latched onto me for another hug. “You promise you’ll be okay?”

I hugged her back. “Yeah, I will be.” I glanced down at the clouds I was sitting on top of as easily as if they were solid ground. “Never better.”

Author's Note

As always, thanks to my pre-reading and editing team for all their hard work. Also, I would like to thank all my dedicated Patreon supporters. You guys are awesome.

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Epilogue

It was probably a good thing I sent Kukri home early since I wound up staying in Canterlot for another two months. Between medical tests, catching up, some therapy sessions Celestia insisted I play along with, and all the work I was doing on my new prosthetic, I had plenty to do. I probably could’ve stayed even longer, but I was sure the Council wanted to have Chainbreaker returned and get my report. Maybe I should’ve let Puzzle take the sword back ahead of me, but one of my other side projects was studying the sword and my connection to it a bit more.

At least it wasn’t the most irksome project I’d picked up. Celestia had dug up a thousand years worth of family history for Kukri to pore over to try and find anything more to tie me to Torch and insisted on sending it back with me. I think she just enjoyed getting Kukri worked up and excited, and didn’t care if that got on my nerves. No, if anything she considered my mild annoyance a bonus. Celestia could be a real trickster when she set her mind to it.

Celestia had made one last token effort to get me to stay in Canterlot and teach at her school, but she knew I wouldn’t go for it. More interesting had been when she showed me a few files on the filly she was keeping an eye on as a possible new student. I suppose I should’ve been a bit disappointed she was moving on from me, but all things considered I’d pretty decisively graduated. Twilight Sparkle looked like a cute little kid with a lot of talent, but Celestia was waiting until her mark came in before she made a decision. It would be pretty embarrassing if it turned out Celestia’s student was destined to become a gutter repairpony, or another one of those child prodigies that either burned out or turned out to not be all that great in the first place.

Eventually, it was time to head back to Freeport. Since Puzzle and Kukri had gone back ahead of us, that meant I only had Strumming for company on the way back. At least she’d restocked her huge enchanted bag of snacks before we left, so she’d have that taken care of. Like Puzzle had said at the start of this, being trapped on a ship with her when she ran out of snacks would probably get way too interesting. Especially since the two of us were sharing a cabin.

“Shame the Venture’s still busy helping out in Coldharbor,” Strumming commented as she tossed her suitcase onto her bed. “Otherwise we could to this whole full circle thing, heading back out to Freeport on the ship we first went there on. We could even try to bunk up in the same cabin we used back then. Would’ve been all poetical and such.” She checked her snack bag. “Anyway, why’re we bunking together? Pretty sure you could afford private cabins with how many zeroes you got on the end of your bank balance.” She waved around the relatively small, spartan cabin the two of us were sharing. “Just saying.”

“I’m only rich until I spend it all,” I pointed out. “It would be a bad idea to start spending money when I don’t have to just because I can afford it. I’d rather live within my means and use the fortune to accomplish something big than whittle it away on a bunch of little stuff that won’t change anything or have a long-term impact.”

“Good plan.” Strumming nodded approvingly. “Especially since once we get back to Freeport and word gets out about your newly expanded bank balance, everyone’s gonna want a piece of you. Merchants and bankers with investment opportunities, all sorts of poors and unfortunates whose parents are extra-dead and haven’t had a good meal in months, exiled Zebrican princes who promise to pay you back ten times over once they regain their throne—the works.” She grinned and poked me with a wingtip “Oh, and don’t forget that you’re still single. You were already one of Freeport’s most eligible, but now ... well if me and Bug Boy didn’t have a good thing going, I'd take a run at you. Sure I’m straight, but for half your money I can fake it.”

“There’s a spell to punch somepony’s soul out of their body,” I pointed out. “I haven’t learned it yet, but if you want to volunteer to be my practice partner...”

“Noted.” She stowed her suitcase under her bed, then flopped down onto it. “Do not tempt the wrath of Bacon, for she knows many scary spells and can be provoked into using them.” She opened up her snack bag. “Want some crisps?”

“Sure.” I caught the bag she tossed my way and opened it up. I might not be a massive consumer of junk food like she was, but I still liked it every once in a while.

Strumming watched as I tore the bag open with my forehooves. “So, how’s the new leg? Clearly good enough to open up a bag of crisps, which takes a lot more fine control than most ponies would guess.” She opened up her own bag to demonstrate. “Too much and the crisps go flying all over the place; too little and you end up spending a couple minutes struggling. Looks like you got it just right.”

I shrugged and used my new leg to toss a few chips in my mouth. “I’ve been pretty happy with how it’s done so far.”

“Yeah, looks like it’s back good as new.” Strumming leaned in, trying to get a better look at it. “Been itching to bug you with all kinds of questions since I saw it, but figured that should wait until I could do it private-like. For a bit I was wondering if Celestia’d gone and healed your stump back into a proper leg. So how does it work? Or are you going to pull some magus mumbo jumbo secret I’m not gonna tell you because I’m a big mysterious tease thing?”

I thought about it for a second, then tossed up a privacy spell. “So we’re clear, anything I tell you stays between the two of us.”

Strumming grinned and snapped off a cheeky salute. “Got it. Don’t worry, keeping secrets is one of my things. The only thing people trust less than a sneaky spy is a spy that can’t keep her mouth shut. You know, the whole ‘Loose lips sink ships’ thing. Well I’m on a ship right now, so I really don’t want it sinking.”

“Right.” It probably said something about how long I’d been putting up with Strumming that I was pretty much used to her weird tangents. I brought my remaining foreleg up to the prosthetic, finding the almost invisible seam between the synthetic skin and my actual leg. Once I had it, I carefully peeled it back, revealing the new prosthetic.

Strumming let out a low, impressed whistle. “You really did go all out on it. Mithril, adamantine, orichalcum, the works. Just the raw materials would cost more than I make in a year, not to mention getting that quality of craftsmanship couldn’t have been cheap. And I’m betting what I see on the outside is just the beginning.”

I shrugged. “Blackfyre had plenty of precious metals in his hoard. Seemed like a good idea to put some of them to use. As for the rest, I had the money to spare, so why not use it?”

Strumming nodded. “In the grand scheme of expensive things you could sink your fortune into, a high-grade prosthetic for your missing leg is pretty reasonable. So how do you control it? ‘Cause if you can move it precisely enough to cleanly open up a bag of crisps, it’s obviously more responsive than a plain old peg leg.”

“Magic.” I could tell she wanted a bit more of explanation, but I wasn’t going to open up the leg to show off all the internals. “And I mostly just held the bag with this leg and let the living one do the work. We spent pretty much all of last week trying to get it tuned to the right amount of strength and get precise control. I think Celestia must have had some secret reason to want to get rid of so many crystal glass goblets.”

“Wouldn’t be the strangest thing she’s done,” Strumming agreed. “So if you can adjust the strength of it, does that mean you can super-power punch through buildings and stuff?”

I rolled my eyes. “It’s still attached to a flesh and blood leg and shoulder. If I overtuned it like that I’d probably hurt myself more than whatever I was trying to hit. The first time I tried walking on it the strength was still set a bit too high and it felt like I nearly dislocated my shoulder just trying to walk around.”

“Ouch.” She leaned in closer. “Still, you’ve got some pretty tough materials there. Just saying, if someone swings a sword at you and you block with that leg, it’ll bounce right off.”

“That is an advantage.” I pointed down at the peeled back synthetic skin. “Though it would cut right through that.”

“Right, the fake skin covering it.” Strumming poked at it. “Doesn’t feel like the real thing, but you matched the color pretty well. Any fancy features to it?”

“No, it’s just a rubber covering to keep dirt and dust from getting into the joints.” I frowned down at it. “Would’ve been nice to get something that felt more like actual skin, but that’s a long way down the priority list.”

“Yeah, compared to being able to walk on it and not mess yourself up even worse in the process, making it feel nice is an afterthought.” She carefully poked my leg in a couple spots. “It’s probably going to require semi-regular maintenance. Got a mechanic lined up?”

“I was hoping to be able to do all of that myself.” I flexed it, testing the range of motion. “Part of why I used such expensive materials is because they’re also pretty low-maintenance. Mithril, orichalcum, and adamantine don’t rust, rot, or corrode, and they’re all pretty tough.”

Strumming grinned. “It’s like there’s a reason everyone thinks those metals are really valuable and they wanna make things outta them. Though I’ll take your word for whether or not that makes them good picks for a really low-maintenance leg. Never been into engineering, I’m more of an interpersonal pony myself.”

I shrugged. “I’m not really an engineer either. Good thing Celestia knew a bunch of them who were happy to come in and consult with me. Plus we corresponded with Argentium on the design—she did say she’d come have a look at it personally once things settle down in the North.”

“You actually consulted someone and listened to what they had to say instead of barreling ahead all by yourself?” Strumming smirked and poked my side. “You really have matured, Bacon.”

I rolled my eyes. “I always listen to you and Puzzle. I just don’t always agree.”

“Well that’s just silly.” Strumming smirked and brushed some chip crumbs off her chest with a wing. “Everyone knows I’m always right and never make horrible lapses in judgement that get you in a bunch of trouble trying to bail me out. Anyways, I bet Facon’s gonna be over the moon when she sees you’re up and mobile.”

Thinking about that couldn’t help but bring a smile to my face. “I’m sure she'll be pretty surprised when she sees it. Puzzle, too. Especially if the covering makes them think I actually got my old leg back for a second or two.”

Strumming rolled the synthetic skin back up so it covered the exposed metal, letting it almost seamlessly blend back against my leg. “Sure it wouldn’t hurt your feelings if some folks went around thinking you’d never lost a leg. Must’ve taken some work to get it to perfectly match the color of the rest of your coat.”

She wasn’t entirely wrong, but I didn’t want to give her that. “Making it any other color would’ve just looked weird and out of place.”

“Good point.” Strumming rubbed her chin thoughtfully. “If you went around with one leg covered in black rubber and the other three natural it’d just raise a ton of questions. Guess you could try a clear covering, but knowing Freeport it’d just get all gungy. Better to just make it match and just live with surprising people. Well, Bug Boy might pretend to be surprised. You can never quite tell with him. Plus I might tell him to ruin the surprise. I’m a big unpredictable ball of crazy that way.”

I frowned at her. “You said this was going to stay between the two of us.”

Strumming groaned. “Bah, you caught me on that one.” She pulled the last chip out of her bag, then frowned at the bag as if it had done her a grave personal wrong by allowing itself to be empty. “Good job. You’ve gotten really sharp about spotting that kind of thing. Keep at it and I bet the EIS will wanna see about hiring you.” I thought I saw something in her eyes when she said that last bit, but Strumming was hard to read.

I knew better than to try directly pushing her, if Strumming didn’t want to talk about it she’d just lie or take the conversation off on a weird tangent. Better to play along and let her give away anything she wanted to on her own time. “I like to think I’ve been learning.”

“If you’re not learning, you’re dying.” Strumming tapped my prosthetic a couple more times. “Might pass a casual glance test, but anyone who touches that is gonna know it’s not normal. Still pretty cool though. Think your new leg design could catch on? Plenty of ponies would like a leg that could move just about as good as the one they lost.”

“I’m sure they would, but like you noticed the materials aren’t exactly cheap.” I frowned down at it. “And that’s not even getting into the magical angle and all the testing we had to do to get it just right. Not to mention I am technically controlling it with some magic. It’d be great if there was some way everyone could get these, but this is at best an extremely expensive prototype that needs a ton more research and development to be viable for mass production.”

Strumming nodded. “Yeah, figures it wouldn’t be as simple as downgrading to some good old steel and wood to make it cheaper. Especially since I’m guessing the bits on the inside and all the magical whatsits aren’t something you can cheap out on.”

“Not really,” I agreed. “Though I’m sure I’ll spend the rest of my life tinkering with the design off and on. Maybe that’ll include some kind of breakthrough that cuts costs and makes them viable for someone who isn’t a highly trained very wealthy alpha-plus unicorn.”

“Yeah, the amputee magical prodigy superpowered unicorn market is a pretty narrow niche.” Strumming chuckled and shook her head. “Gotta wonder where you came up with such a crazy design. Smarts are nice and all, but this is way outside your usual bailiwick.”

I thought about it for a second, then decided to let her in on the secret. “I used a bit of the golemancy I picked up from Metal Mome. Seemed like a good way to apply the knowledge, but I kept it secret from the Council for a reason.”

“Right, that stuff you broke into his head and reduced him to a vegetable to get.” Strumming scowled for a second, then shook her head. “Guess that would be useful. So it’s kinda like a miniaturized golem?”

“Not exactly,” I explained. “After all, it doesn’t need to operate on its own or anything, but it shares some of the same creative building blocks.”

“Gotcha.” She frowned down at my leg for a bit. “So yeah, wanna keep exactly how you made that thing quiet until things settle down a bit. Don’t want someone reverse-engineering the design and figuring out how to make their own private army of murder-bots. Still a nice little long-term project to poke at, and maybe you can figure out a safer way to make ‘em eventually. Assuming there aren’t a thousand and one things to catch up on once we get to Freeport.”

“I’m sure there will be, knowing my luck.” I sighed and flopped down on the rather spartan bunk. After two months in Celestia’s palace, a ship’s cabin felt incredibly dreary by comparison. “No rest for the weary. But I’ll find time.”

“Gotta find something to keep busy in between our semi-regular episodes of life-threatening madness,” Strumming quipped. “Anyway, sounds like things are working out pretty good for you right now. Glad to see you bouncing back so fast. I was afraid you were gonna fall apart on us as soon as we were out of the fire.”

“Too much to deal with,” I answered. “I guess I just kept so busy with the fight against Blackfyre and then getting my new leg squared away that there wasn’t time for that.” Or I was just putting it off. Not a thought I wanted to linger on, so I changed the subject. “How did you like going back to Canterlot?”

Strumming shrugged. “It was nice to get to see some of the family. My cousin Lyra is still a little goof, even if she’s not quite as little as I remember her being, and my aunt and uncle are doing alright for themselves. It’s a bit weird going back after all this time. Seeing how much has changed or stayed the same. That and feeling old about complaining about the kids and how they’re doing things differently than they used to. Guess that’s one advantage you get with Celestia: immortals pretty much stay the same no matter what.”

“I wouldn’t say she’s completely stagnant, but I know what you mean.” At first I’d thought she had changed a bit when I’d started working with her on my leg, but eventually I realized that wasn’t the case at all. I was the one who’d changed, and that included how I looked at her.

“Speaking of set in their ways, shame Scarlett never came around.” Strumming dug into her snack bag, shuffling through it to try and find something. “No matter how many times you say ‘I get it, she’s needed up north right now’, it’s gotta sting she didn’t even stop by to say bye. And speaking of unresolved issues, did you ever get around to having a chat with the other alicorn hanging around in Canterlot?”

I grimaced. “No, I think Cadenza was avoiding me.” Not that I’d been making any effort to cross her path either; you’d think getting over my alicorn-related issues would’ve helped clear that up, but that just left all our interpersonal baggage. I was a bit surprised Celestia hadn’t tried to push us together and force some kind of resolution. Maybe she just figured I already had enough to deal with.

“Fair enough,” Strumming shrugged, though it was a bit hard to tell when most of her face was in the snack bag. “Not like I’ve got any room to lecture you about having unresolved issues. I mean, after all the non-family things that happened I’m glad to be out of Canterlot before the EIS tossed me out. Guess I’ll have to wait and see if they sent my walking papers ahead to the embassy, or if I’m not officially burned yet.”

“Wait, what?”

Strumming pulled out of her snack bag with an annoyed grumble. “Feather it, I’m not hungry anyway.” She turned her attention back to me. “I’m getting fired, canned, downsized, rightsized, dismissed, tossed out, restructured, escorted out of the building, promoted to customer, and other words and phrases for losing your job.”

“I got that part,” I grumbled. “When did this happen? Why did they fire you?”

She snorted and tossed her snack bag into the corner of our cabin. “It’s pretty obvious, don’t you think? Sleeping with the enemy is generally a no-no, for one. Well, it can be okay for a spy, but I’m not exactly that kind of spy, and even if I was, you aren’t supposed to care about who you’re sleeping with. Then there’s the whole fact I stuck by you instead of following Scarlett’s orders. Kinda important when she’s got plenty of influence all over the place.” She held up a hoof to forestall my response. “No, she’s not actively trying to get me fired, but she doesn’t have to. I went against orders, and no matter how much I point out that the whole setup with her was fishy and wrong, it doesn’t change the fact that I didn’t do what I was told to. When the folks giving the orders tell you to do a thing, they want you to do the thing. Not ask a bunch of questions about policy, permission, and whether it’s morally acceptable to do the thing.”

“Hardly seems fair,” I grumbled.

“Probably depends which end of the orders you’re on,” Strumming countered. “Bet when you tell Facon to do an apprenticely thing, you expect her to do the thing. I mean, you’ll probably explain more often considering you’re her teacher and all, but if you tell her to do a thing like not stick her tongue out while doing a tricky spell you expect her to do it, right?”

“Okay, point taken.”

“So yeah, far as the powers that be are concerned, I’m looking pretty compromised.” She waved a hoof towards me. “Haven’t exactly made it a secret that one of my orders was to make sure you didn’t go bad, and bring you in or take you down if you did. Well when an Archmage ordered me to bring you in, I pretty much told her to get stuffed.” She scowled and flopped listlessy onto her bunk. “The real hooker was when the boss laid out some juicy files I wasn’t allowed to see, then left the room. Well, it was probably just a couple blank sheets of paper in a folder with your name on it and a bunch of classified stamps on it. Left out bait to see if I’d take it. Pretty good sign I’m on the way out.”

I frowned as she put it all out there. “So they're baiting traps to see if you’ll do something to justify firing you?”

“Yep.” She shrugged. “That or it’s just some good old entrapment to see if they can get some leverage to keep me loyal. Either way, the writing’s on the wall. Rumor mill isn’t looking great either. I’ve always been a bit of an oddball, so it’s not that strange for there to be talk about how maybe I’m not reliable. But lately the talk has changed to ‘Ponies who matter think Strumming might be compromised and a bit too weird.’”

I winced. “Yeah, that’s not good. So, uh, what are you going to do?”

Strumming shrugged. “Sticking with the EIS seems like a bad move. They’ll either fire me, mess with me, or officially keep me on payroll while freezing me out. Seems like a sign to move on to greener pastures.” She sighed. “Employment options are kinda limited. Not like I can offer much in the way of a résumé for most jobs, and the only folks who’d be interested in an ex-spy who lost her job ‘cause her bosses aren’t sure about her loyalty aren’t people I wanna work for. I suppose I could help Puzzle out, but ... yeah, having my boyfriend also be my boss is just asking for trouble. Don’t suppose you’ve got a job opening for a somewhat compromised spy who might be a touch too close to you for the EIS’s comfort?”

Huh. Well that wasn’t how I expected this conversation to go. “You want a job? What would you even do for me?”

Strumming shrugged. “Spying, skullduggery, sneaking, and other things starting with S. I can pretend to be your secretary if you’re into the secret spy secretary sulking stealthily. Basically the same thing I’ve been doing, just with you as the new boss.”

“Right.” I frowned and crossed my forelegs over my chest. “So why should I trust you? I mean, you don’t exactly have the best track record of honesty with me.”

“Well, I did lose my job because I decided to go against orders for you.” Strumming frowned and tapped her chin. “No wait, let me rephrase that: I lost my job ‘cause I did what I thought was right, and that meant backing you despite orders. Yeah, that sounds better. I could have screwed you when Scarlett asked me to help you, but I didn’t. Not to mention all the other help I’ve given you since we hooked up. I know I haven’t always been the best pal, but ... well, work in progress, try to move beyond the screw-ups in the past. Right?”

“Right.” I wasn’t going to give her a complete pass on stuff like locking me up as a warlock, but that had been years ago. Ignoring everything that had happened since then wouldn’t be fair.

Strumming continued on. “Plus you might not want to completely depend on bug boy for all your intel. He might miss something, or just not want to tell you something because sometimes he likes to keep his secrets all to himself. Annoying habit of his. Kept me guessing for months what his favorite food was just to mess with me.”

She had a point. Puzzle was very good at what he did, but he wasn’t perfect. Everyone has their blind spots, and sometimes even the best info broker makes mistakes. Not to mention that while he was a pretty good friend, he did have his own goals and agenda. One thing the whole mess with that zebra trying to kill Strumming had put into focus; if I couldn’t be sure Puzzle would back me up, things got a lot more complicated. Having someone else might not be a bad idea.

Of course, Strumming came with plenty of her own baggage. “Let’s make one things clear up front: if you work for me, then you work for me. I don't want this to be you still doing your own thing while I foot the bill, and no more incidents where you lie to me or do something you know I wouldn’t be okay with.”

“Bah, take away all my fun.” Strumming sighed melodramatically. “But yeah, I get it. Like I said, bosses expect to be the boss. Don’t worry, I’ll change my ways and be a nice respectable employee for the bossmare. Do I have to start wearing a suit and a tie to work every day? Because while I do look pretty darn good dressed up, that’s not gonna be fun when we get back to the hot and humid of Freeport.”

I rolled my eyes. “I’m not expecting you to stop being you. After all, there’s often a method to your madness. I am setting three conditions to this. First, don’t ever stab me in the back or lie about something important. Second, remember that I give the orders and you follow them. I’m fine with discussing or explaining things, but like you said, I’m the boss. Third, don't do anything that would make me look bad or go against my principles.”

Strumming raised a hoof like a schoolchild. “What if you ask me to lie to you in a way that will make you look bad and make me look like I’m not following orders? Or if it’s a situation where I need to lie or appear to stab you in the back to keep you safe? Or there could be something like you need to pull off some sort of black ops stuff where you need to maintain plausible deniability about what I’m doing.”

I should’ve known she’d come up with weird scenarios like that. “If something like that ever comes up, let me know and we'll figure it out as we go.”

“Play it by ear. Can do, bossmare.” She frowned and shook her head. “Boss bacon? Bacon boss? Bosscon? Meh, I’ll figure it out later. Nicknaming is hard work sometimes. Especially when you’re trying to perfect perfection.”

I shot her a dry look. “I'm sure you'll come up with something eventually.”

Strumming grinned. “Thanks for the vote of confidence. See, this is why I wanted you for a boss. Already showing all the good boss-employee team building skills and leadership stuff. I knew this would work out.” She gave me a pat on the back with one of her wings.

In hindsight, perhaps I should have asked her to tone down the eccentricity as one of the conditions of her employment. Though I suppose that probably would’ve been a pointless endeavour. “Glad to know this is going to work out.”

“Me too.” She shivered. “I was worried I might have to work a stint in retail and customer service just to pay the bills. And with Hearthswarming just a couple weeks off, too. Had to do that for a bit as part of my training, the blend-into-a-crowd stuff. Really inventively sadistic. They stuck my name on the front page of the Canterlot Herald the day before as part of a winning sports team, and then I had to try and not be noticed while working a full day of retail. At one point they even stuck me right next to the newspaper rack. Anyway, the point is I had enough retail stuff to figure out I never wanted to do it for real.”

I knew better than to respond to any of the long digression. “Well, good thing you won’t have to do that. I’m willing to hire you on.”

“Goody gumdrops.” She grinned, only for it to slowly slip off her face. “Well feathers, just realized that if you’re my boss, that means I don’t get to keep so many secrets anymore.” She flopped onto her back, staring up at the bare wood of the cabin’s ceiling. “Suppose that means I better give away why I really hate warlocks.”

Huh. I hadn’t expected her to hand out that particular secret, and I wasn’t inclined to push as long as she kept those feelings under control, but if she was offering... “As long as this doesn't turn into another story about a ‘friend’ whose name is actually your middle name.”

“Never gonna let me live that one down, are you? Good news, this one is about my cousin named Humming Heartthrob.” She groaned and ran a hoof down her face. “Kidding. Nah, this story sucks. Why I like to tell just about any other story instead of it. S’like ... you know, as long as I don’t tell anyone, it’s not real. Plus it gets everyone all mopey and sad and miserable, and it lets them figure out some things about how I tick. Pretty sure you figured out I really don’t like that.”

“Yeah, I’d guessed.” Admittedly, all that mental weirdness had done a pretty good job of messing up Starlight when she tried to break into Strumming’s head, so I couldn’t fault the results. “You know you don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to.” Even if I really wanted to know...

She waved my assurance away. “Nah, feels right to clear the air. Besides, we both know you’re just being nice while you’re really on the edge of your seat to finally get the truth. So...” She took a deep breath. “My dad used to work for the EIS. Lifetime ago. Reason he’s an ex-spy is because one day while he was doing his job he got caught by some nasty warlock. The guy wanted to know what Dad knew and he wasn’t shy about whipping out the mind magic to start shifting around in his head. He wasn’t gentle about it, either. You know how that goes.”

I flinched. Last time I’d seen Metal Mome after I’d broken into his head, he’d been a drooling vegetable who couldn’t feed himself. I tried to tell myself it was what he deserved after all the death and destruction he’d caused as a pirate. Maybe someday that would make me not feel guilty and sick every time I thought about what I did to him. “So he got burned out?”

Strumming’s ears wilted and she slowly nodded. “Yeah. Might’ve been better if they just killed him. I know it sounds bad, but...” She groaned and shook her head. “On a good day, one or two neurons might fire the right way and for just a second he’d almost be back. Then he’d be gone again. There was just enough of him left that we could never let go and move on.”

She curled her wings around herself. “Mom didn’t take it well. They’d been together since forever, and she took seeing him turned into the next best thing to a vegetable was as hard as you’d expect her to. Not to mention raising little old me all by herself and trying to help me through it all. It started off with just one or two drinks to calm her nerves, and then she tried harder stuff until she had so much she passed out and never woke back up. So I lost my mom in a two-for-one ‘life isn’t fair’ deal.

“My aunt and uncle ended up taking over raising me. They did their best, honestly pretty damn good on an objective scale, but all I wanted was Mom and Dad back. Thought about doing medicine for a bit, but it didn’t work out. So instead I settled on getting some payback on some warlocks someday. The guy who got Dad was already dead, he was one of the ones who got mixed up in the Manehattan Warlock Massacre. Guess it figures, baddies kill each other off all the time. He wasn’t even some big evil baddie, just a dumb kid hanging with the wrong crowd with horrible judgement and a bit too much magic.

“Since actual revenge was out, I figured the next best thing would be to hunt down any warlocks I ran across. After all, they all deserved to be done in. Tried to get into the proper warlock hunters, but turns out they don’t like to hire on anyone with a big personal grudge. The EIS was fine with taking me on, though. Considering Dad got done in while in the line of duty, guess they couldn’t really say no. Well, not until I went from a little odd to outright unreliable.”

I took a deep breath. “That does explain a lot.” If it was true. Strumming certainly looked and sounded sincere, but she was a really good liar.

“Big shock, it’s not something I like talking about. Actually dumped bug boy for a bit when he dug it up, though we eventually worked it out.” She pulled out her anti-warlock spike. “I went to see Dad again when we went to Canterlot. Docs say he’s probably a short-timer. No surprise, he had no clue who I was.” She idly twirled the spike on her hoof. “Not like I was expecting a happy ending. Still, y’know, you can’t ever completely give up while he’s still alive and kicking. No matter how much you know you should.”

I moved over next to her and put a hoof on her shoulder. “Thanks for telling me.” I managed to resist any urge to add in any following remark about how those thanks only applied if she was telling the truth.

Strumming must have guessed what I was thinking. “Yeah, maybe it’s all a lie. Still, I did spill all that out to clear the air, if you caught me out it’d be bad. Especially now that you’re my paycheck instead of somepony you just have to tolerate. Then again, I lie a lot and very convincingly. That’s the thing, you can never know for sure with me.” A sad little smile tugged at her lips. “Just how I like it.”

“I’m sure if I did enough digging I could find evidence one way or the other,” I pointed out. Puzzle had found it, and a story like Strumming had just told me would leave plenty of evidence and records behind. However... “I think I'd rather just believe in a friend.”

Strumming grinned. “Nice answer. For what it’s worth, I didn’t spill the beans thinking it’d make you instantly trust me. It was ... well, kinda for me. Wanted it off my chest, and the air clear between us. If I lied to you, it wouldn’t do that.” She offered her hoof to me. “So ... pals?”

I took her hoof. “Yeah, we are.” I smirked at her. “As much as you can be with the boss.”

Strumming let out an obviously fake groan. “Killing all my fun here, Bacon.”

The Council had a rep waiting at the docks when our ship arrived. Considering the ship arrived a day early thanks to some luck with winds and weather, they’d obviously had someone staking the place out. Not much of a surprise, considering the circumstances. As soon as they confirmed who I was, they whistled up a nice escort of clan mercs to take me to their big obsidian palace in the center of the city. I was a bit surprised they opted for Doos, but if Kukri had blabbed about the fact that I had Chainbreaker they might not have had a choice. While Chainbreaker belonged to Freeport as a whole, the fact that Torch was a Charger made the clans even more attached to his sword.

The Council didn’t bother with any of the usual power plays of making me wait before they let me in to see them. Or even the practical need to make me wait while they got everyone together. Which meant they’d all been sticking around close enough to get together as soon as I got back. Hardly surprising considering the circumstances, but it still gave away how desperate they were.

In light of that, I decided to shift the power dynamics. If they were that desperate to see me then I could make them wait. Maybe it was a bit silly and petty, but it also set the tone for the meeting. Telling the Council I had the power and they didn’t would have an impact.

That’s why the first thing I said when they brought me into the Council chamber was, “Could I get some food and a glass of water? I’ve been eating ship rations for way too long.”

The Council were all there, in their usual black robes and silver masks, sitting up on a raised podium that let them all tower over me. Even after facing them enough times to be pretty used to all the bits of theatre they used to make themselves look big, scary, and mysterious it was hard not to be a bit impressed.

One of the central members of the Council spoke up. “I’m sure you can make arrangements for that once we finish our business.”

I shrugged. “And how long is that going to take? I could be here for hours. It’ll go a lot smoother if I don’t have to spend the whole time with an empty stomach and a parched throat.”

“Let her have something,” one of the other members spoke up. “We’ve waited months to have Chainbreaker back, we can afford a few minutes for common courtesy and basic hospitality.”

They called in a servant, and a few minutes later they brought in a grilled fish fillet along with some seaweed and garlic bread. It probably said something about how acclimatized my palette was to Freeport food that I’d actually missed stuff like this after a couple months in Northmarch and Equestria. I quickly conjured up a chair and table out of ice to give them somewhere to put the food while I ate.

I was about to start letting them know what happened when one of the Councilors cut in with a snide remark. “Will you want dessert as well?”

I decided to fight fire with fire. “Now that you mention it, some ice cream does sound nice.”

A couple of the other Council members shot a look at the one who’d decided to mouth off, and despite the fact that they were wearing full robes and face-covering masks I was pretty sure they were all sending dirty looks his way.

The Councillor in the center, who I’d always kind of figured was their unofficial leader, spoke up. “If we could perhaps move on from culinary debate and back to the matters at hand, we have a great many questions about what happened in Northmarch. There have been all manner of wild rumors circulating about, and clearly not all of them were true.”

None of them said anything, but I could swear I felt some eyes resting on my legs. No surprise; considering how many Northmarchers and Equestrians had seen me missing a leg, reports of it had to have gotten back to the Council. I’m sure they were all very curious about it, but I saw no reason to give them answers about any of the personal stuff I’d gone through.

I did give them the rest of the story. I started off with Starlight’s theft of Chainbreaker and murder of Frozen Finds, considering that was the part most immediately relevant to the Council’s interests. Having full signed confessions from Starlight helped a lot on that front: getting a full account of everything she’d done while in Blackfyre’s service had been one of the conditions of her suspended sentence.

The Council was less than wild when they heard about that. “Who authorized you to bargain on our behalf and decide the final fate of a criminal?”

I shrugged. “Nobody. For what it’s worth, I didn’t presume to speak for you and only acted within my authority as a Freeport Magus. If you want to reject the plea bargain I worked out and put her on a full criminal trial, go for it. Though the fact that she was under some heavy-duty control and compulsion spells from Blackfyre is going to make any trial a real mess. She’s guilty of way worse in Northmarch, and Argentium and Celestia still felt like a suspended sentence was the right move.”

“We will take your opinion under advisement,” one of the other councilors spoke up. “Along with any other information you can provide about Starlight Glimmer’s crimes and these compulsion spells binding her. It would be foolish to discount your opinion, especially when it aligns with both Celestia and Argentium. However, we would like the review the facts ourselves before reaching a final conclusion in the matter.”

“Fair enough.” If I was in their place I’d probably want to look over all the facts too. It was a pretty safe bet that once they looked everything over they’d agree with my conclusion, so there was no harm in letting them see all the evidence.

With that settled, I moved on to the next phase of Northmarch: Blackfyre himself. I left out the nasty blow-by-blow of my fights with the dragon, not to mention stuff like me losing a leg or giving up on chasing after alicorndom. After all, that stuff was really none of the Council’s business, not to mention they probably would try to find some way to use that information against me if they had it.

By the time I got to the end of it they had a ton of questions, starting with the most obvious one. “So not only is Blackfyre dead, but you struck the killing blow with Chainbreaker?”

“Yup,” I confirmed. “Plenty of witnesses to that, if you need verification.”

“What you told us does align with Puzzle Piece’s debriefing,” one of them answered. “Though it does raise a question about what precisely we should do with this information. For the moment we have a replica of Chainbreaker in the museum to keep the theft quiet. However, these events could substantially add to the blade’s legend...”

“And Magus Shimmer’s,” one of the other Councilors cut in. I think it was the same one who’d made the snarky remark about dessert, but it was hard to tell. The masks and robes did work well at hiding identity and making them all blend together.

I shrugged. “Is that a problem? And let’s be real, those facts are gonna come out no matter what. Everyone in Northmarch and plenty of Equestrians know what happened. We’re past the point where a cover-up would work, but you can still get ahead of this and make sure the news comes out in a way that makes you look good. ‘The Council acknowledged Magus Shimmer’s claim to the blade and magnanimously let her use Chainbreaker to help save Northmarch from tyranny and devastation’ should work.”

“Acknowledged your claim to Chainbreaker?” Despite the masks I could practically feel eyebrows raising across the room. “Would this perhaps be related to the fact that your apprentice has been feverishly pouring over family records ever since her return from Northmarch?”

“Even if you somehow manage to find or fabricate some distant bloodline tie to Torch Charger or Ushabti, that hardly makes you the rightful owner of the sword,” one of the others cut in. “The blade has been the property of Freeport ever since Torch’s death, and it will remain so long after everyone in this room is dust.”

“Where is Chainbreaker?” one of the others demanded.

“In my tower,” I answered. “I didn’t think you’d like me bringing a weapon into the chamber, and I figured we should make arrangements for how to get it back to the museum first.” Not to mention Strumming would be pretty good at getting it there quietly and without drawing as much attention as I would. I was a lot more likely to attract an audience walking down Freeport’s streets with Chainbreaker on my back.

“How thoughtful of you,” one of them remarked dryly. “Perhaps you could have the sword delivered to us as soon as possible?”

“Sure thing.” I saw no reason not to take the opportunity to show off just a bit.

I held out a hoof and put forth a little bit of mental effort. A moment later I felt Chainbreaker’s hilt. There had to be a maximum range for summoning the sword, but I hadn’t found it yet. Granted, I hadn’t done too much testing; I’d had a lot to deal with.

I’d expected the trick to cause a bit of a stir, but nothing like what I actually set off. “Did she just—”

“Chainbreaker answers her call!”

“Maybe she is Torch’s heir!”

“A magus performing a magic trick, nothing more!”

“That was no magic trick, it was—”

“SILENCE!” the one in the center roared. The rest of the Council went completely still, though judging by the buzz I felt in the air a moment later they were all furiously talking through whatever magical back channel they used. For a moment I was tempted to try breaking into it. I almost certainly could. However, I couldn’t be sure it would be subtle. The last thing I needed to do was get them stirred up even more than I already had.

They kept me waiting for long enough to get seriously bored before one of them spoke up again. “As you’ve doubtless guessed by now, Magus Shimmer, the ability to call Chainbreaker as you just did is rather unique. If you did so by any means other than utilizing a connection to the blade and its legacy, I would suggest you explain as much immediately. Failure to disclose that would end very badly for you once the truth came out.”

“No tricks involved.” I assured them.

The only answer I got to that was a lot more silence. Eventually they must have hit an impasse, because the one in the center spoke up again. “We will revisit this matter at a later date. In the meantime, I trust you will have no issue returning Chainbreaker to the museum?”

“Of course not,” I agreed. “Though I’m sure you’ll understand if I also go over all the security. Considering this whole mess started with it being stolen...”

“We already have a contract written up for you to consult on their new security upgrades,” One of the others answered. “All it needs is your signature.”

“Assuming there’s no issues with it, that’ll be fine.” I frowned to myself. “Might be a good idea to keep the replica close to hand, though. It’s always possible I’ll need the sword again.”

“Chainbreaker is not yours to take whenever you please,” the one who I was starting to think didn’t like me very much cut in.

“She can call it with a thought and a wave of her hoof,” one of the others countered.

The one in the center held up a hoof again to stop them from debating any more. There was a bit more buzzing secret conversation, then the leader spoke up. “We can’t dispute that you have the ability to call Chainbreaker should you wish to. However, we would advise utmost caution in exercising that capacity. Chainbreaker is a priceless artifact and a symbol of our culture and history. It should not be used on a whim.”

“I know.” Considering my little meeting with the spirits of Torch and Ushabti, I probably knew it better than they did. “I won’t call the sword without a very good reason, and if at all possible I’ll try to give you advance notice.”

There was a lot more silent conversation before they gave me an answer. “That will perhaps have to suffice as a compromise for the moment, but the matter is far from closed. You have given us a great deal to think about, Magus.”

“It’s been a busy couple of months.” I got up and stretched. “Is there anything else we need to cover right now?”

“That should be all,” the center one declared.

“Thank you very much for your time, Magus,” one of the ones who seemed to like me added in.

“We know where to find you if we need anything else,” the last announced.

By the time I got back to my tower, I was ready to sleep for a week. Even with two months to recover and bounce back in Canterlot there was no substitute for being home.

Home...

Yeah, I guess it was. Funny how that happens. Somewhere along the line Freeport had gone from just the place I stopped when I needed a bit more spending money to something that mattered a whole lot more than that. Hay, now I was even tied in with some of their big historical figures.

When I opened up the door to my tower I saw Strumming, Kukri, and Puzzle all waiting inside. My apprentice immediately bolted up when she saw me and came rushing in for a hug. She spent a moment staring at my new leg in awe, but her expression slipped a bit when she pulled it in and realized it was just a really good prosthetic. She’d probably been thinking I’d somehow managed to get it completely restored.

I pulled her in for a tighter hug, just to take her mind off that. She took a deep breath, then smiled up at me. “Welcome home, Shimmer-mare.”

Author's Note

As always, thanks to my pre-reading and editing team for all their hard work. Also, I would like to thank all my dedicated Patreon supporters. You guys are awesome.

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Sunset Gathers Her Party and Ventures Forth

The next couple weeks passed in a frantic blur of pre-trip preparation and quickly closing out as much of my open business as possible. Considering how long I was likely to be gone, I wanted to make sure I had everything in order before I left. I’m sure Puzzle was doing much the same, though if all the fast-paced scrambling back and forth to get things sorted out bothered him he didn’t let it show. Jerk.

However, when the time came I had everything squared away, my bags packed, and I’d arrived at the docks two hours before our ship was scheduled to head out. In a fitting twist of fate, Puzzle had commissioned the Venture to carry us—the same ship that had originally brought me to Freeport. Though maybe it shouldn’t have been such a surprise, considering I’d sailed out of Coldharbor when coming here, and now we were headed back to Coldharbor to meet Argentium.

I wasn’t an expert in trade routes, but from what I knew the one between Freeport and Coldharbor was pretty steady. Northmarch had plenty of timber, stone, iron, and a few more exotic goods like mead and ceramics. Freeport, as one would expect of a trade hub, almost always had something the various societies in Northmarch wanted.

Northmarch and Freeport did have one thing in common: they were both pretty mixed societies. However, where Freeport was the meeting point of three major empires, the races of Northmarch were ones that never really achieved greatness. The caribou had never set up a proper centralized government, while the isolationist yaks further inland had a basic tribal monarchy. There was also a significant pony populace in Northmarch—a mix of various merchants and adventurers, plus the survivors of the lost Crystal Empire who’d gradually reverted to ordinary ponies in the centuries after Celestia sealed the Crystal Empire away. I’m not sure which category my birth mother’s family had belonged to, though judging by the course my life had taken I would bet they were adventurers.

However, there were more immediate concerns for me than figuring out the exact details of my family tree. Kukri was being a dutiful apprentice, keeping an eye on our bags—or rather, keeping a careful eye on most of them. One suitcase which I was quite certain contained all the schoolwork she needed to do during our trip seemed to be mysteriously drifting towards the water. As I watched, it hit the edge of the docks and tumbled over.

Kukri did her very best to seem genuinely dismayed by this development. “Oh no, this one lost all its homework. What a tragedy.”

I smirked, and lifted the quite dry and safe suitcase back over the edge. “Well, it’s a good thing I spotted it in time, isn’t it?”

Kukri wasn’t a good enough actor to keep the grimace off her face. “Yes. That is ... good. Thank you, Shimmer-mare.”

I snickered and ruffled her head-crest. “You’ll have to do a bit better than that, kid. Though really, it’d probably be easier to just do the work than to keep trying to come up with elaborate plans to try and sneak something past me.”

Kukri crossed her forelegs over her chest and pouted. “Could this one at least tragically lose its algebra homework?”

“No,” I answered quite firmly. “You need that for working out spell formulae. Besides, why would you want to lose the easy homework?”

Kukri stared at me as if I’d spouted that sentence in Old Unicornian. Which, come to think of it, was another subject I needed to make sure she got at least a basic education in. It’s just one of the fundamental parts of a well-rounded education. At least the Doos seemed to be doing a pretty good job with her general schooling, judging by the progress she’d made as my apprentice. Though perhaps there was something going on I wasn’t aware of... “You’re not having trouble with your homework, are you?”

Kukri blinked in surprise, then quickly held up her hooves. “No, this one’s got it!”

“Then why were you trying to get rid of it?” I probed.

“Um...” Kukri shuffled in place, her eyes dropping down and to the side as her cheeks flushed slightly. “This one ... just doesn’t like it.”

“Right. Well get it done anyway.” I couldn’t really fault her for not loving her schoolwork, considering some of the stupid homework assignments I’d had to suffer through in my time at school. Thankfully, none of them had come from Celestia herself. I’d still suffered through them, mostly because I wasn’t going to let anyone think Celestia’s personal student was a slacker. Of course, once I was a bit older and did more than just passively accept whatever schoolwork I was told to do, I had also let the princess know exactly why the rote memorization and regurgitation assignments some of the teachers at the school for gifted unicorns were so fond of were a waste of my time.

If I wound up taking the job at Celestia’s school, I’d definitely be teaching the classes my way. If nothing else, it would be a good way to test out a few of my own ideas about how education ought to be done before opening up my Freeport academy. Plus it would mean I’d have more time to deal with Kukri’s education directly, so I could spare her the horrors of traditional schooling, like algebra homework.

However, all that was a concern for the distant future. Right now I had more immediate concerns to deal with. “You have everything packed up and ready to go?”

Kukri smiled and nodded along, doubtless glad to be off the subject of schoolwork. “Yeah, this one’s got everything. Pencils, paper, textbooks, ‘plasm, and its travelling charm for good luck.” She pulled out a small whalebone statue that looked like the old hammercuda ice sculpture I’d made for her back when we first met. “This one also has a few pieces of metal for enchantment practice, and a few other things you and Mom and Dad told this one to pack. Though it’s not sure it’ll need as many scarves as Mom insisted it pack.”

“Better to have and not need,” I pointed out. Privately, I suspected that Kukri was vastly underestimating exactly how cold Northmarch was going to be. Her time on the Venture had been during summer, and despite its name Coldharbor was actually one of the warmer parts of Northmarch thanks to being next to the ocean. We were heading over later in the year this time, and Argentium’s lair was much further inland.

Speaking of the cold weather... “That reminds me, I got you a little something.” I opened up one of my bags and pulled out a heavy cloak made of alpaca wool, dyed light sky blue. “Probably a bit too warm for you to wear before we get to Northmarch, but it’ll keep you from freezing once we actually get there.”

“Ooooh.” Kukri’s eyes lit up and she trotted over to give it a quick once over, then carefully took it from me and draped it over her back. “This is gorgeous! And the wool is so soft and warm! And the color’s perfect, and it feels almost like this one is wearing a big fuzzy blanket.” She very carefully set the cloak aside, then enthusiastically latched onto me. “Thank you!”

I chuckled and returned the hug. “You’re welcome. It only seemed responsible to get you something warm when I’m dragging you off to the frozen north.”

Kukri smiled and nodded. “Yeah, thanks for that. This one hasn’t mastered how to shift into something like a yak or caribou that can handle cold weather, though Dad did give it a few lessons. Not to mention this is beautiful!” She bit her lip, and I had the distinct impression she was trying not to start squealing.

I grinned and gave her a quick pat on the head. “Glad you like it.” I would’ve been quite miffed if she wasn’t impressed with the cloak after I dropped over a hundred ducats on it.

Kukri opened up her bags, hastily rearranging things to make room for her new cloak. “It seems a shame to put it away right after this one gets it, but it’s a bit too warm. Besides, this one doesn’t want it getting dirty before it gets a chance to wear it.”

“Gotta dress for the weather.” Both of us looked up as Strumming announced herself, trotting over with a pair of extra large saddlebags. “Hey Bacon-mane and pseudo-bacon-mane.” She paused and frowned, rubbing her chin thoughtfully. “Hmm, better nickname, but a bit too long. Needs to be snappier. What’s a good type of fake haybacon to name you after? ‘Facon’ has that whole nice snappy rhyming thing going for it. So that’d make you facon-mane. Can I get a yea or nay on that?”

“I don’t recall getting any feedback on what my childish nickname would be,” I countered, doing my best to sound reasonably polite.

“That’s ‘cause you’re a big tough adult who can handle a little teasing,” Strumming shot back with a grin. “Anyway, good to see you guys.”

I decided to match her ... well, I was pretty sure this was Strumming’s version of trying to be friendly, even if it came off as a bit weird and annoying. “Likewise, Strumming.”

Kukri seemed to take her cue from me, her expression almost perfectly matching my polite but not exactly smile. “Greetings, Heartstrings-mare.”

“Yo.” She waved to both of us with a wing. “You oughta be more careful about giving the kid too many presents, Sunset. You’re gonna end up spoiling her rotten at this rate. Then again, I’m not the one who has to put up with her and be a semi-responsible adult, so I might as well get in on the act. If nothing else, it’ll be amusing to watch her try to shake Bug-Boy down for more presents whenever he shows up.” She grinned and produced a thick linen gambeson in Kukri’s size. “Not quite as flashy as a cloak, but it’s halfway decent armor that’s way more reasonable than getting anything metal made for a kid who’ll outgrow it in six months. Plus unlike certain bacon-maned magi who shall remain nameless, the present I got you will work just as well in Freeport as it will in Northmarch.”

I scoffed and rolled my eyes, refusing to give Strumming the satisfaction of reacting to her teasing. Meanwhile Kukri hesitantly trotted over and took the gambeson, giving it a careful inspection. When she couldn’t find anything wrong with it, she slowly set it on top of her suitcase. “Thank you.”

Strumming grinned and lifted up her traveling cloak, showing off that she was wearing a similar gambeson. “Got it from my usual armor guy. Mine’s a bit fancier, but if you want silk layers and strike plates you can buy them yourself.”

“This one probably won’t buy it,” Kukri answered. “Uncle Glaive always said you should make some of your own armor so you better appreciate the armorsmiths and know the ins and out of your own equipment.” She paused, grimacing. “Not to mention Mom would kill this one if it actually wound up in the middle of a fight.”

Strumming snickered and shook her head. “Pretty sure she’d kill me first. So ... guess that means I better keep you safe.”

Kukri blinked and stared at her, clearly taken aback by what she’d just said. I was pretty surprised by it too. “This one’s not sure how to feel about that.”

Strumming smirked. “I’ve done a halfway decent job of keeping bacon-mane in one piece so far. I’m sure I can keep you safe too, facon. Anyway, we’re all gonna be stuck together on a boat for a few weeks. Gives us lots of time to pass.”

I smirked and pointedly put a hoof on top of the suitcase full of schoolwork. “So plenty of time for Kukri to get all that homework done so she won’t fall behind on her lessons.”

Kukri groaned and buried her head in her hooves. “This one’s beginning to wonder if it made the right call becoming an apprentice magus. If it had known there would so much algebra involved ... maybe it should ask Captain Weyland if there are any opening for cabin fillies? It quite misses swabbing the deck by comparison.”

I scoffed and rolled my eyes. “I’m halfway tempted to see this dreaded algebra homework of yours just so I’ll know exactly how much you’re blowing it out of proportion.” When I was her age, I was already getting started on calculus—probably my favorite branch of mathematics because of how important it was for spell formulae.

“Algebra,” Strumming snorted. “Always hated that stuff. Tell you what, kid. If your boss lets you away from homework for a bit, I’ll teach you how to use my throwing knives.”

Kukri blinked in surprise, staring at Strumming like she wasn’t quite sure what to make of that offer. Which made two of us. “This one will think about it. Thanks.”

I stared at her, trying to figure out what Strumming could possibly be planning. She certainly seemed to be making a serious push to win Kukri over. The question was why; did she think it would get her into my good books, or was she just trying to patch things up with Kukri so there wouldn’t be a grudge? Or maybe a little bit of both? Or most worrying, maybe whatever she was up to was something I hadn’t figured out yet.

Strumming trotted onto the Venture, looking over the ship with a faint grin. “Well this is nostalgic. Think I can still see the bloodstains from where Sunset killed that guy after frying the brain of his pirate captain.”

I rolled my eyes and did my best to ignore her needling. “You weren’t even there, you have no idea what to look for. Plus it was on the other side of the ship from where you’re looking.” The run-in with Metal Mome wasn’t one of my favorite memories, considering some of the things I’d done to survive and protect everyone on the Venture, but a lot had happened in the two years since then. Enough that I was ... well I wouldn’t exactly say I was fine with what had happened, but I did what I had to do, and I’d dealt with it.

Kukri trotted onto the deck while carrying my bags, taking a deep breath. “It is good to be back. This one’s missed the Venture, even if it has not missed worrying about things like pirates, seasickness, and doing menial tasks for annoying passengers.”

Strumming smirked at her. “Yeah, now you just get to do menial tasks for Sunset instead. You’re moving up in the world, Facon.”

I trotted back onto the ship, pulling the rest of our baggage aboard, including all the schoolwork that Kukri ‘accidently’ left behind on the docks. “It is kind of nice to see this ship again. Though also a pretty huge coincidence. I can’t help but suspect that Puzzle set things up this way as part of some grand elaborate scheme.” Maybe he was hoping being on the Venture again would remind me of why I’d come to Freeport in the first place? It wouldn’t be the strangest thing he’d ever done to try and nudge me into going whatever direction he had in mind.

“Which grand elaborate scheme is this one up to now?” Puzzle asked mildly as he trotted over to us, loaded down with his own travel bags. “It has so very many going on at any given point that it can be difficult for this one to keep track of them all.”

“Speak of the Nightmare,” Kukri murmured under her breath.

Strumming smirked at my apprentice. “Now now, Bug-boy’s much nicer than a Nightmare. At least, I’m pretty sure that Nightmare Moon doesn’t have such a cute little butt.”

Kukri groaned. “It’s just a turn of phrase, and this one doesn’t need to hear anything about Puzzle’s posterior.”

“When did this one become so famous that it could be spoken of in the same sentence as Nightmare Moon?” Puzzle asked.

“When you hooked up with Strumming,” Kukri shot back teasingly.

“My reputation is widespread and infamous,” Strumming agreed. “The only reason I’m still free is that Celestia hasn’t decided which celestial body to seal me away in. I hope I get something cool, like a comet. Get to travel all around the solar system, check out all the other planets and meet the Maretians and Plutrotians.”

“This one would prefer not to have its mate sealed away in a comet,” Puzzle remarked dryly. “Its bed is not large enough for that. In any case, this one hopes we can all get along. It’s going to be a very long trip if we can’t.”

“Pretty sure she’s just being sassy,” I assured him. “I’ve been trying to get her out of that habit, but I think at this point she’s just careful to avoid doing it directly to me, and going so far that she picks up extra chores.”

“This one has learned a great deal about cleaning the Shimmer-mare’s tower,” Kukri conceded. “And yes, this one's kidding, Puzzle. Though speaking of the Heartstrings-mare, check out what she got this one!” She proudly lifted up the gambeson Strumming had give her. “Ooh, and this, too! This is from the Shimmer-mare!” She opened up her bag to pull out the cloak I’d given her, showing it off to Puzzle.

Puzzle smiled and chuckled. “Very nice, Kukri. Though as this one recalls your birthday is still several months away.”

Kukri answered him with a sassy grin. “Well, don’t let that stop you from getting this one something. It would hate to think that Puzzle was the least generous of its friends...”

I stepped up to Puzzle’s side and murmured, “I just thought she’d need a warm cloak, and I think Strumming's trying to make peace. Didn’t know she’d get spoiled and sassy this fast.”

“In this one’s experience, it doesn’t take much,” Puzzle answered with a grin. “And she certainly needs the extra warm clothing. Take it from another native of Freeport, Northmarch is going to be a shock.” He turned to face Kukri with a teasing smirk. “Now what makes you think this one got you anything?”

Kukri put on her most innocently impish grin, which made her look far too cute for her age. “Precedent, generosity, and this one’s charming personality?”

Puzzle chuckled softly. “Well you are a charming young lady. And while this one did not know it would have be shaken down for presents as soon as it stepped aboard the Venture, it does believe in being prepared.” He opened up one of his bags and pulled out a necklace. I could feel the magic coming off of it, and a quick scan confirmed that it had several low-level protective and comfort charms on it. “Here you go then. This one could think of no more fitting gift than charms for a charming young lady and future magus.”

Kukri eagerly accepted it, hugging him. “Thanks Puzzle!” She carefully put the necklace over her neck, grinning down at it.

I sighed, but I couldn’t keep a smile off my face. “We’re gonna end up spoiling her at this rate. No more presents until she finishes all her algebra.”

“No doubt we’re pampering her a little,” Puzzle agreed. “Though we really only gave her practical things. Armor and warm clothing are only prudent to have before going on an adventure in the wilds of Northmarch. She will certainly appreciate a charm to protect against cold weather once we get into the highlands.”

“Definitely. Though speaking of gifts...” I opened up one of my bags and pulled out a secondary bag I’d layered with multiple protection spells, carefully removing an ancient book from within it. “I got this for Argentium: A Lineage of the Kings and Queens of the Crystal Empire. First edition, published back when there was still a Crystal Empire around and publishing books.”

Puzzle let out a low, impressed whistle. “Very nice. Anything from the Crystal Empire is a rare find, and books even moreso. Argentium will definitely be pleased with this. Where did you get it from, Goldtalon's collection?”

“I figured something tied to the Crystal Empire would be a good pick,” I answered modestly. “Goldtalon recommended someone who specializes in antiques and artifacts from Northmarch, and he’d just gotten back from what was apparently a very fruitful scouting and buying trip. You know Frozen Finds, right?”

Puzzle blinked at the name, then grimaced. “This one does, yes. Did you buy this from him?”

Kukri picked up on just how unhappy he was to hear the name and jumped to a conclusion. “Is the book a fake? It would have to be over a thousand years old. It’s incredibly rare for any book to last that long, especially in such good condition.”

I frowned and shook my head. “I got this verified as carefully as I could before I bought it: if it’s a fake it’s a good enough one to fool my spells and two experts on ancient books. Besides, Frozen has a good reputation, and Goldtalon wouldn't recommend a guy who sells fakes. It’d ruin both of them if that ever came out.” Another possibility sprang to mind. “Although ... well, there was some pretty serious protective rune magic on the book. That’s why it’s still in good shape despite the age. I didn’t remove them since they’re doing their job, but I suppose it’s just barely possible I missed something.”

“Runework...” Kukri’s eyes widened. “What if this Frozen stole it from Argentium?! She could definitely make runes that could preserve a book for thousands of years!”

I immediately shook my head. “It’s not that. Stealing treasure from a dragon as old and powerful as Argentium is pretty close to impossible. I mean, maybe you could get away with it while they’re hibernating, but it’s been almost a century since Argentium did that. If anyone had taken anything from her back then, we would’ve heard about it.”

Puzzle nodded along. “She almost certainly would’ve told this one at some point in her dealings with it. Almost nothing enrages a dragon more than stealing from their hoard, and she would have moved heaven and earth to get such a book back. She certainly would have informed this one at some point if part of her hoard was missing; given its resources and skills it would be a logical choice to find the culprit. Freeport certainly sees more than its share of stolen goods for sale. Goldtalon may be very careful to verify the authenticity and legitimacy of what he sells, but there are those in his line of work who are less scrupulous.

“And is this Frozen Finds one of the ones who does such things?” Kukri probed.

Puzzle frowned and shook his head. “Nothing of the sort. In fact, he was more of an explorer, who sold some of his finds to private collectors that finance his expeditions. What concerns this one is that Frozen was found dead this morning.”

That hadn’t been what I was expecting to hear. “What?! How? I was in his shop just two days ago to finalize the purchase!”

Puzzle grimaced. “The condeterri are trying to figure that out. According to witnesses, his shop and the loft he lives in above it suddenly exploded in the middle of the night. There was so little left of the building and his remains that they’re assuming it was him in the ruins until they can confirm the body’s identity by other means.”

“Wow.” I wasn’t sure what to make of it. It was just so strange to think that the shop I’d been in a few days ago was rubble and the guy who’d sold me the book was dead. “I can’t believe it.”

“It’s got a lot of people stirred up,” Puzzle continued. “Last this one heard, they’re trying to figure out if it was some sort of freak accident or something much more intentional.”

I grimaced and shook my head. “If we weren’t leaving in a couple hours...”

“Quite,” Puzzle agreed. “The Council actually asked this one to look into the matter and inquired about retaining your services. It would have accepted if not for the trip.” He scowled down at the deck. “Whether it was an accident or a deliberate act, the Council is going to come down hard on whoever was responsible. They definitely don’t like seeing a respectable storefront in the middle of the merchant quarter in ruins and its owner dead. As for what happened ... near as this one knows, Frozen didn’t have any enemies. At least not the type that would likely kill him, much less knock over a whole building to do it.”

“It’s a lot more extreme than the usual Freeport Special,” Strumming agreed. “I mean, if he turned up floating in the harbor with a knife wound in his back, that’d be one thing. This...” She frowned, tapping her chin. “If it was a murder, then the real odd part out is smashing the building. It’s way outside Freeport’s usual style. Buuut the usual rule is that if the killer destroys the scene of the crime, it’s because they want to cover something up. This guy’s clearly moving some high-value goods, and if his store’s rubble it’s gonna take a long time to figure out if anything’s missing. Assuming they can even find find his ledger...”

“It could be an accident,” I argued. “I’m pretty sure guys like Goldtalon don’t want to set a precedent that it’s okay to kill them for their merchandise. I’d bet they’re all going to be incredibly suspicious of anyone who turns up trying to sell Crystal Empire artifacts. Why steal it if you can’t sell it for anything?”

“And any private collector who wanted it that bad would’ve just bought it,” Puzzle pointed out. “Frozen was a merchant.”

“So maybe he got some magical artifact that went boom?” Strumming suggested.

“I didn’t notice anything like that when I was in his shop,” I murmured with a frown. “Though I wasn’t specifically looking for it either. His shop’s wards were the usual mix of several different casters upgrading and modifying things over many years, not to mention all the various preservation spells on all his artifacts, and lingering stuff from previous owners, like the rune spells on my book. That’s enough different magic floating around that you could maybe get some sort of catastrophically bad reaction.”

“Aren’t those incredibly rare?” Kukri asked. A second later, she realized the flaw in her own question. “But just because it’s doesn’t mean it could never happen...”

Strumming raised a hoof. “Am I the only one who’s just a little bit concerned that all this went down just two days after Bacon-mane bought something from the guy? I mean, maybe it’s just a coincidence, but...” She shrugged. “Insert clichéd stock phrase about how there’s no such thing as coincidences here.”

I shrugged. “I really don’t see any way it could possibly be connected to me. I just bought something from him. I’m sure I’m not the only client he's had recently. We don’t even know if there was a crime, though if it was a murder I hope they catch whoever did it.”

“That is all true,” Puzzle agreed. “Still, this one dislikes it. Especially when its meeting with the Council left it ill at ease. They seemed ... this one has a certain instinct for knowing when others are hiding something important from it. It suspects the Council knows something about this incident they have not revealed. And something this one is unaware of, which is equally concerning. If you will forgive the expression, it feels like we’re missing an important piece of the puzzle here.”

“Cute.” Strumming frowned, then nodded to herself. “Blowing up a building sounds an awful lot like something that’d take dark magic to me. And we all know that makes me kill bad guys in ways that provoke vengeful relatives and lots of debating about morals and ethics. I’d love to stick around and dig into this some, but we’ve got a couple thousand miles to go and a big old dragon to meet. I’m sure your guys can handle the investigation.”

“This one’s subordinates are quite capable,” Puzzle agreed. “It trusts them to manage things well enough in its absence, including a few routine investigations.”

“Exactly.” Strumming grinned and wrapped a wing around them. “Gotta let the kids grow up and do their own thing eventually. They can have their own little side quest while we go off and do our epic journey of dragon-meeting.”

A very awkward silence fell over all of us, until Kukri pointedly cleared her throat. “Well ... um. On that happy note, maybe we should get ready to cast off?”

“Sounds good to me,” I quickly agreed, if only to avoid lingering on the issue. The last thing we needed was for things to get awkward while we were stuck together on a ship for the next couple weeks of our several months long journey.

Author's Note

As always, thanks to my pre-reading and editing team for all their hard work. Also, I would like to thank all my dedicated Patreon supporters. You guys are awesome.

Click here if you want to join the list of awesome people who support my writing.

A Strictly Professional Meeting

Puzzle tagged along when I went to go meet with Scarlett. He didn’t say anything, but I had a feeling he was a lot more prepared if she tried anything this time. Not that it was likely when I was under Argentium’s protection, but just because it was stupid didn’t mean she wouldn’t do it. Considering I was still less than a hundred percent after the fight with Starlight, I didn’t mind having a little backup. Strumming had vanished a few hours ago, and I was about seventy five percent sure she was ghosting Scarlett. Considering what Strumming was like, that was about as close to certain as I was likely to get.

Puzzle’s eyes lingered on me, a faint frown tugging at his lips. “You okay with meeting with your mom?”

I shrugged. “I’m not wild about it, but we need an expert in runes.” I frowned at him and gently corrected, “And Scarlett isn't my mom.”

Puzzle’s eyes narrowed. “Last time you said that to her, it ended with you getting blasted halfway across the room.”

I could’ve done without being reminded of that. “There some point you're trying to make?”

Puzzle cleared his throat. “Merely that it would be best if we avoided another fight because someone lost their temper.”

I glared at him. “Puzzle, I’m really not in a mood for a lecture about getting along with Scarlett. Especially when you’ve already made the point before, and it was just as stupid and wrong then. There are damned good reasons I don’t want anything to do with her.”

Puzzle stoically weathered my irritation and continued on as soon as I was done. “This one knows. You have history with this mare, and it would be stupid to ignore that. She might try and provoke you again, intentionally or otherwise. Argentium’s prohibition on interfering with you would still allow her to defend herself if you attacked first.”

“I’m aware.” Though I thought Puzzle probably wasn’t giving Argentium quite enough credit; she wouldn’t be fooled by Scarlett pulling off an end-run around the rules with a fig-leaf excuse. Then again, she probably wouldn’t be too happy with me either if I fell for an obvious attempt to bait me into starting a fight. I had a lot less to lose from Argentium’s displeasure than Scarlett did, but that was no excuse to piss her off unnecessarily. Besides, not letting Scarlett get under my skin was just a good idea in general.

Puzzle nodded along. “Then there is nothing more this one needs to say on the matter. Put the personal baggage aside and focus on the mission. Our goal is to find out what’s going on with the Glimmer-mare. Just try to act as if this is any other magus you’re consulting.”

“What’s the point of being an information broker if you only ever tell people things they already know?” I groused. “This is just two magi meeting to exchange notes. Nothing more.”

“Are you sure about that?” Puzzle pushed. “In this one’s experience, it’s far easier to talk about keeping things strictly professional than it is to actually manage it.”

“Yeah, I know.” I sighed and ran a hoof through my mane. “Well, it’s not gonna get any easier if I sit around procrastinating.” I took a deep breath, then headed through the front door of the inn.

Scarlett was sitting at a table, half of which was covered by dozens of runestones and most of the rest covered with runecrafting tools. Puzzle headed over to the bar, setting himself up in a position where he wasn’t intruding but would be able to help if things turned sour. As I walked over to Scarlett’s table an old earth pony mare caught my eye, winking and grinning. It took me a moment, but once I was suspicious and curious I eventually recognized Strumming underneath the disguise.

Nice to know I had backup, though hopefully I wouldn’t need it. I took a seat across from Scarlett and cleared my throat, trying to keep my voice nice and professional. “Archmagus Runeseeker. I trust Sigil brought you up to speed on recent developments?”

Scarlett grimaced and looked up, not quite meeting my eyes. “Yes. I came to investigate after he reported your fight with the Blightspawn, and now apparently there’s a warlock as well?”

I nodded. “We captured a criminal who’s wanted for theft and murder in Freeport. More importantly, she has a lot of runes inscribed directly into her back. Sigil couldn’t figure out what they meant and suggested we consult someone a bit more knowledgeable.”

Scarlett frowned and nodded. “Well, unless you have Argentium herself look them over, I’m the top expert in the field.” I was tempted to call her out on the pure ego of that remark, but I let it slide for the sake of diplomacy and professionalism. Besides, she was probably right about that.

She grimaced and set her tools aside. “Though fleshcrafted runes are ... well, Argentium would treat anyone using those about as kindly as Equestria treats warlocks. That murderer of yours might just be a mind-controlled thrall.”

“It seemed like she still had some free will left,” I grumbled. At the very least, she hadn’t been a completely burnt-out mind slave. “Obviously, we’d want to know exactly what these runes are and what they do. Best to know if she committed these crimes of her own volition before we put her on trial.”

“Not to mention any information we can find about who put the runes on her in the first place,” Scarlett pointed out. “What do you have for me?”

I pulled a sheet of parchment out of my bag and passed it over to her. “I recreated them as closely as I could. If you need to see them personally I’m sure the local guards would be happy to let you inspect the prisoner.”

“I should do that anyway just to be safe.” She took the parchment, frowning as she read it over. “Not to mention doing a bit of research. Argentium keeps a tight hold on any information regarding fleshcrafting, so I might have to...” She trailed off, frowning to herself. “You said these were carved along her back?”

“That’s right.” I took a deep breath. “How bad is it?”

“Potentially very bad,” she answered simply. “How much do you know about her?”

“Back when I first ran into her in Freeport, she was a wannabe revolutionary playing at being Robin Hoof. She kept her head down after our first encounter, though I saved her from a warlock that was trying to kill her a while back. It seemed like she’d turned over a new leaf until she showed up in Coldharbor and tried to kill me.” I grimaced and rubbed my forehead as I thought back to the fight. “From what little we’ve gotten out of her we’re pretty sure she's pacted to someone, probably whoever put those on her back. They weren’t there the last time I saw her.”

“That would be the logical conclusion,” Scarlett agreed. “I don’t suppose she gave you any clues as to who that might be?”

“Those runes are the best clue we have so far,” I admitted. “Otherwise, all I have is that she thinks he’s really strong, and judging by the power boost she got from pacting to him, she’s right about that.”

“Right, I saw the mess the two of you made of the town square.” She scowled and pulled out a bottle of mead. “How much do you know about Blackfyre?”

I probably should’ve said something about her drinking alcohol, especially when she was an Archmagus. Celestia had been pretty strict with me about intoxicants; hard to blame her when I was so good at setting things on fire. But ... this wasn’t the time or place to try and lecture Scarlett. “Blackfyre,” I answered. “He’s an ancient evil dragon who allied with Sombra back during the Crystal Empire War. He was also the one responsible for making Blightspawn like the one I fought.”

Scarlett grimaced and cracked the bottle open, taking a long pull on it. “You’re not the only one to have had an encounter. Granted, there are always a few reports of them from farmers and traders who see something in the dark and get spooked, but there’ve been more than usual. Not to mention things are different now that we’ve got a confirmed sighting and an actual body as proof. Obviously we don’t want to set off a panic, especially since the uptick in sightings could just be a result of rumors about the one you killed leaking out, but...”

“If there’s one, there might be more,” I concluded simply.

“Exactly,” she agreed. “We have to investigate every single report right now. Especially after I’ve seen this.” She swatted down at the sheet of parchment.

“So that’s tied into the Blightspawn?” I asked.

“When you fought the Blightspawn, I’m sure you noticed there were runes carved into its flesh,” she pointed out. “It’s the same with this Starlight Glimmer, except we can be absolutely sure that she isn’t a leftover from the war. Fleshcrafting this advanced can only mean one of two things: Either Blackfyre himself has returned, or someone’s uncovered a trove of his books.” She paused, then frowned and shook her head. “Or possibly Sombra coming back, though the fact that the Crystal Empire is still sealed away makes that unlikely. Only Blackfyre could be the source of this level of fleshcrafting. Do you understand what these runes do?”

“Not really,” I admitted. “Mind explaining it?”

“It’s a nasty piece of work.” She pointed to a cluster of runes. “Here’s the part she signed on for, a straight infusion of raw magical energy from her patron. Quite a bit of it too, so whoever she’s serving has power to spare. And here’s the catch.” She pointed out another set of runes. “Nobody hands out that much power without adding a leash. If she doesn’t follow orders, talks back, or does just about anything else that offends her master he can cause crippling pain, try to take control of her body, or a whole host of other nasty things up to making her heart stop or killing her in a number of other, slower ways. It also looks like there’s a bit of foundation work for transforming her into a Spawn. No actual changes yet, but it’ll be easier to turn her if her master wants to.”

I winced, almost feeling sorry for Starlight. Almost. “So she’s under a pretty heavy compulsion. That’s going to make it pretty hard to put her on trial for anything.” A halfway competent attorney would say that all her crimes were performed under duress and she wasn’t responsible for her own actions, seeing that she had the magical equivalent of a knife to her throat.

“It’s even messier than that.” Scarlett pointed to another cluster. “He’s got a subtle leash along with the overt one. A nasty cocktail of emotional manipulators pumping up all of her worst impulses. She’s going to be a lot angrier, crueler, and less rational.” She shook her head. “If I got called in for expert testimony at her trial, I couldn’t in good conscience say she’s fully responsible for or in control of her own actions.”

“So she’s just a puppet.” I scowled down at the parchment. “That begs the question of who’s the puppeteer. What do you think’s more likely—that it’s Blackfyre himself, or just someone who dug up his old works?” I frowned and thought back over my history lessons. “Isn’t Blackfyre supposed to be dead or sealed away?” In hindsight, I probably should’ve bugged Celestia for more details about that thousand-year-old war, but I hadn’t anticipated it becoming so relevant.

“Yes. After Sombra and the Crystal Empire were sealed away, Blackfyre requested terms of surrender under dragon law.” Scarlett took a sip of her mead. “The war against Sombra had been long and painful for all involved, and the terms he offered were reasonable enough that everyone thought it best to accept it and put an end to the conflict. Especially since he could use his fleshcrafting to heal anything short of a lethal injury and make a new army of Blightspawn so long as he had the biomass to work with.”

“So as long as he got away, he could just patch up and make a new army out of nothing?” I crossed my forelegs over my chest. “That could’ve gotten nasty. What were the surrender terms?”

“Blackfyre gave up every single copy of his works on fleshcrafting, a portion of his hoard and agreed to be confined to his cavern in perpetuity,” Scarlett answered. “In exchange, we let him do whatever he wants so long as it doesn’t leave his cave.”

“So basically he gets to live and removes most of the threat he posed, and the war ends without what could’ve been a long, ugly fight to pin him down. Makes sense.” I frowned and tapped the table. “But if you think he could be responsible, I guess that means he might break those terms?”

“It’s certainly possible.” Scarlett frowned down at her drink. “Though violating dragon law would be unwise in the extreme. Not only would it bring Celestia and Argentium down on his head, but potentially other dragons as well.” She snorted. “Though it’s hard to say if that last would actually apply. A few of them might do it out of actual reverence for the law, but there are plenty who would be happy to take part in bringing down Blackfyre for the chance to take a portion of his hoard. Even after the tribute he paid out in the last war, it’s substantial.”

“Figures.” You could always trust a dragon to get a little greedy. Or a lot. “So blatantly breaking the rules is probably out. At least, not unless he thinks he can take Argentium, Celestia, and whoever else decides to get involved. Still, I’m gonna guess he wouldn’t be above exploiting a loophole if he finds one.”

“Naturally.” Scarlett frowned down at the parchment. “The only question is whether he’s acting on his own or through a catspaw. I could certainly see him arranging for some of his old books to fall into the wrong hooves, or he could write a new one that just somehow happens to get outside his cave through means that can’t be blamed on him.”

“So he could have a useful idiot working for him.” I frowned and amended, “Well, a second useful idiot. There’s already Starlight. Even if it’s not clear how willing she was.”

“She was willing enough,” Scarlett growled. “Fleshcrafting is just like any other runic art: it requires an incredible degree of precision. Maybe she’s not fully in control of herself now, but she was when she consented to whatever bargain ended with this.” She slapped a hoof down on the parchment.

“Okay, that’s true.” I frowned down at the symbols. “Still, there’s a lot of missing pieces to the puzzle. We don’t even why she made this deal in the first place. Maybe—”

“She nearly killed you!” Scarlett snapped. “Don’t think I don’t know about the bruises and bandages just because you’ve got a cloak covering them.”

“Some of them are left over from you,” I growled under my breath.

Scarlett flinched, her eyes dropping down to the table. She didn’t say anything for long enough to make it awkward, so I decided to try and get things back on topic. “Okay, fine, we agree Starlight did plenty of bad things. But she’s locked up, and I’m fine.”

“You very nearly weren’t,” Scarlett murmured. She sighed and shook her head. “If Blackfyre’s using her this could be the prelude to him becoming fully active again. Do you have any idea how many people are in danger if that happens?”

“It took Argentium, Celestia, and Luna to beat him last time,” I answered. “Sombra and the Crystal Empire aren’t around to support him anymore, but Luna isn’t here either. So ... yeah, he could do a lot of damage.”

“Especially since I doubt he would break a thousand years of quiescence without some reason,” Scarlett murmured. “He surrendered rather than face Celestia, Luna, and Argentium on his own, and if he’s active again you can be sure that Celestia and Argentium would work together against him. The last time Celestia suspected he might be growing active she actually left the throne in the hooves of a regent to see to the matter personally.”

“Right, when the whole Shining Path thing happened after the Lunar Rebellion.” I nodded along. “So he has to know that he’d be getting double-teamed. Beating Celestia and Argentium at the same time is a pretty tall order. Either one of them is supposed to be more-or-less an even match for him, and both of them working together...” I frowned and shook my head. “Can’t imagine he’d be trying anything unless he thought he could win. Maybe he’s found a way to bring back Sombra and the Crystal Empire? They were his old allies, after all.”

“Argentium is actually investigating the possibility right now.” Scarlett sighed and shook her head. “We tried going by Blackfyre’s old lair as well. No signs of activity, but we only checked it from a distance. Getting closer would involve placing our agents at considerable risk, not to mention that intruding on his territory could provide him with an excuse to claim we’re breaking our agreement with him. It’s even possible that he’s hoping that’s exactly what we’ll do so he can claim that he’s the wronged party.”

“So he somehow arranged for bunch of stuff to make you suspicious of him, so that if you investigated he could call you out for trespassing?” I frowned, thinking it over. “That’s a pretty convoluted scheme, but not the craziest one I’ve ever heard of.” He’d been locked up for over a thousand years. That was plenty of time to come up with a few overly-elaborate plans to bring doom upon all his enemies.

Scarlett nodded. “It’s a possibility we can’t ignore. Whatever’s going on here, whether it’s some master plan of Blackfyre’s or just a warlock who stumbled onto forbidden knowledge, it’s got the potential to be extremely dangerous.” She frowned at me. “And that’s why I want you on the Ventureand out of here. Don’t get involved.”

“You know that’s not your call to make,” I shot back. While a part of me was tempted to push the issue, there really wasn’t any point to it. “I’m already leaving anyway. I’ve got to get Glimmer back to Freeport to stand trial, and there are other matters.”

“Starlight Glimmer won’t be leaving Northmarch just yet,” Scarlett cut in. “She’s tied up in all this, and until we know just how deep it all goes I want to keep her close at hoof. I understand her current crimes in Freeport are more severe than anything we know for a fact she’s involved in, but she’s still the subject of an active investigation and could potentially be tied into far worse than killing a single antique dealer. Once our investigation is done, we’ll be happy to extradite her to Freeport if needed.”

Tempting as it was to argue with her about it, she was right. If Starlight had potentially gotten herself mixed up with someone as apocalyptic as Blackfyre, that took precedence over what should be a pretty open-and-shut case. Especially since putting her on trial for killing Frozen Finds would be pretty hard when there were obvious gaping holes in how and why she did it. There were too many questions and not enough answers.

So I did the sensible, mature thing. One of us had to. “Yeah, might be best if you keep her for now. I still need to get back to Freeport regardless. As I said, she’s only part of why I need to get back.” My eyes flicked over to Chainbreaker, which still felt a bit uncomfortable resting on my back.

Scarlett must have caught it, because she was frowning at the sword. “I was rather curious why you were carrying that around. May I?”

I hesitated a moment, but when I was trying to get along with her and be a professional it would probably be a good idea to go along with a relatively harmless request. Besides, maybe she could tell me something more about the sword. I slowly drew the blade, then carefully set it down on the table.

“Interesting.” Scarlett looked it over, a faint frown tugging at her lips. “I know you never used a sword when Celestia was training you, and I hadn’t heard about you picking one up elsewhere...” Her horn lit up as she tried a quick analysis spell. “I thought it might have been a gift from Argentium, but this isn’t her work. Where did you get this?”

I didn’t want to outright lie to her, but we did want to avoid the news of Chainbreaker’s theft getting out. No need to mention the sword’s cultural significance or ties to Freeport unless I had to. “Glimmer was using it.”

“I doubt that.” She set a couple runestones along the flat of the blade, then nodded to herself. “Swinging it around as a sharp piece of metal, maybe. Actually using it?” She snorted and shook her head, tapping the parchment once more. “Somepony with that carved onto her back would never be able to use this sword.” She picked up her runestones, then dropped them to the ground, carefully studying how they fell. “Chainbreaker. A nice name, very evocative, and I’m sure you know that names have a certain power to them. A servant of darkness and tyranny could never use this. It takes a certain ... free spirit. Curious that she would have a sword she can’t use.” Her eyes flicked back up to me. “You wear it well.”

“Thanks,” I grunted, not quite sure what to make of all that. “Why’re you so interested?”

Scarlett smirked. “Celestia might have the best foresight, but I’m no slouch at divination. There is a touch of wyrd here, between you and the sword. Perhaps the reason Starlight Glimmer had that sword was not so she could wield it herself, but so that you could claim it from her.”

I stared at her, trying to make heads or tails of the words coming out of her mouth. “Um, I’m not sure destiny or fate or whatever you’re talking about works that way.”

Scarlett snorted and shook her head. “If you think you know how it works, you’re wrong. Not even Celestia grasps all the intricacies of fate and destiny, and she knows more than either of us.” She picked the sword up and carefully passed it back to me. “Have you used it yet?”

“In the fight with Starlight.” Most of my memories of the fight were a bit hazy, probably thanks to the brain damage, but I remembered that. “She had the sword, and I took it from her.”

“Right after you used Argentium’s rune to push your combat instincts into overdrive,” Scarlett pointed out. “It would hardly be an extreme leap to say that you felt an intuitively drawn to the blade, and an almost instinctive drive to wield it. As I said, wyrd.” She smirked at me. “I think in a hundred years, when they discuss the history of Chainbreaker your name will be mentioned alongside Ushabti and Torch Charger.”

“Oh.” I grimaced and sheathed the blade. “So you know what it is.”

“Magical weapons are something of a hobby of mine,” Scarlett shot back with a knowing grin. “I would be a poor Archmagus if I didn’t recognize it. I know the proper thing to do is to return it to a museum, but that sword came to you for a reason. It might be a good idea to keep it close at hoof until things settle down.”

“Right.” I sighed and ran a hoof through my mane. “Just because I’m done with Northmarch doesn’t mean trouble won’t follow me home.” I shook my head and secured Chainbreaker. “Well, thank you for your help, Archmagus Runeseeker. If there’s nothing else...”

Scarlett took a deep breath. “Two more things, Sunset. First, I handled our last meeting poorly. I’m sorry.”

“Right.” I didn’t say anything more, and there was a long, awkward silence. She was probably waiting for me to forgive her or tell her everything was okay and we could move on. That wasn’t likely to happen anytime soon. I didn’t want to make a big ugly production of it or carry a grudge, but we were way past the point where all she needed to do was apologize and everything would magically be fixed.

After the silence had gotten downright painful, she took a deep breath. “Second ... perhaps by way of explaining if not justifying my behavior, there’s something you need to hear from me.” She didn’t say anything for several seconds, long enough that I was wondering if she was going to say anything at all. Finally, she got the words out. “Your father and I are getting a divorce.”

I sat there, trying to process what she’d just said. “What?

Another long silence hung the in the air. “No, seriously, what?!”

She sighed, slumping down in her seat and pulling out another bottle of mead. “I’m sure I don’t need to explain why. I’ve seen him five times in as many years, and even when we can spend time together his mind is always on that damned Steel Rose. Honestly, we should’ve admitted it wasn’t working a long time ago.”

“Oh.” I tried to make sense of what she was saying. I mean, it all made sense in that the words logically fit together and whatnot. Of course a married couple that barely even saw each other would eventually decide to call it quits.

But at the same time, it just ... didn’t make sense. “It’s ... I mean ... is it really that bad?”

Scarlett grimaced and nodded. “I’m sure you know our marriage was as much a political partnership as a matter of romance. It’s not like we never liked one another, it’s just ... I never see him.” Her eyes flicked over to me. “And the old reasons why we stayed together aren’t there anymore. There’s nothing really holding us together but inertia, and now even that’s gone.”

Nothing holding them together. I guess that was one of the things couples that would otherwise break up always said. ‘We’re staying together for the children.’ Something that pretty obviously no longer applied when I was long gone. “Um ... wow. I’m sorry.”

Scarlett’s ears went flat against her skull. “So am I. This ... it isn’t how I wanted things to go. Your father isn’t a bad stallion, it’s just that...”

“He’s off chasing Steel Rose,” I finished for her. “It’s all he’s been doing for years.”

“Right.” She sighed and ran a hoof down her face. “Solar’s always swearing he’s right on the verge of finally catching her, that he’s nearly broken the case. I know Gingersnap and Golden Aster were his best friends, and when he said he need to catch their killer I understood and supported him completely, but ... he’s given up everything else in his life to focus on that. You’d think at some point he would’ve realized...” She trailed off weakly, shaking her head. “I suppose there’s no point going over what might have been. I’m sorry you had to hear this. I know it can’t be easy. It’s ... I suppose maybe I thought if I could bring you home he would...” She snorted and let out a bitter sigh. “A fool’s hope. He left long before you did, and I doubt bringing you back would’ve snapped him out of his obsession.”

I grimaced, struggling to think of what I could say. It was just so much to deal with. I settled on something safe and easy. “Thanks for telling me yourself.”

She nodded glumly. “You deserved to hear this from one of us. It’s ... I know things aren’t right between us, but I can at least do that much for you. And I know you’ve got plenty of reasons to want nothing more to do with me, but...” She sighed and slumped back into her chair. “I lost both of you. It’s too late to save things with Solar, but I’d like a chance to try and make things right with you.”

I thought about it for a second. Sure, I had plenty of reasons to be mad at her, and nothing she said changed any of that. Just because she was getting divorced and that was sad didn’t make anything else she’d done okay. Still... “Celestia offered me a guest teaching position at her school for gifted unicorns. Unless something comes up, I’ll be taking it once I get Chainbreaker back and all the other fallout from this mess sorted out. That’ll mean at least a year back in Canterlot. If you’re serious about wanting a second chance, that’s enough time for you to make an effort.” I held up a hoof to cut off whatever she might say next. “I’m not saying you can fix this, just that if you want to have a calm, civil discussion a few months from now, I won’t slam the door in your face.”

Scarlett took a deep breath. “Thank you. It’s probably more than I deserve.”

“Probably.” I groaned and got out of my chair. “So ... um ... I’m gonna go now.”

“Of course.” Scarlett sighed and started putting up her runes. “I suppose I’ll see you in Canterlot, once your business in Freeport is settled, and I have this situation taken care of.”

“Yeah, I guess.” I trotted out of the inn, still trying process everything that had just happened.

The new inn we were staying at wasn’t quite as nice as the one Starlight had blown apart. It was also more expensive, probably because nobody was too eager to take us in after the last place we stayed at got leveled, even though that was mostly not my fault. Not that I really cared about how much our room and board cost. I had bigger things on my mind.

I was still trying to sort everything out when Puzzle rapped on my door, then stepped in a moment later. The trencher full of soup he had smelled good enough that I didn’t complain about him not waiting for permission to enter. He set the food down, then took a seat. “You’re going to wear a groove into the floor or just stomp your way straight through it if you don’t stop pacing so much, Shimmer-mare.”

“Yeah, no trashing the inn,” Strumming chimed in as she entered behind her boyfriend. “We had to promise the owner this place wouldn’t get completely wrecked if he let us stay here. You level one building and suddenly you have a reputation...” She cleared her throat. “Anyway, you’re brooding again. We figured we’d help with that.”

I grunted and picked up the food, listlessly trying the soup. It was good and I’d been pretty hungry, but after a couple spoonfuls I realized I wasn’t in the mood to eat anything. “Well if I’m brooding, I’ve got a good reason. You were there, you heard the news.”

“So we did.” Puzzle took a seat and waved for Strumming to join him. “Sorry about that, this one didn’t intend to intrude on such personal matters. Though perhaps it was inevitable, given you wanted backup in case matters escalated.” He closed his eyes and shook his head. “In any event, this one doesn’t blame you for being upset. It’s a natural reaction to such news. If you want to talk about it, we’re willing to listen.”

“What’s there to say?” I snapped. “They’re getting divorced, and that sucks.”

“Oh really?” Strumming leaned back in her chair, staring at me. “Why’s that matter to you? I thought you said they were nothing but a couple DNA donors to you.”

I groaned and ran a hoof down my face. In hindsight, maybe I’d let my bitterness make me say a few things I regretted. Hindsight sucks that way. “Look, just because we’re estranged for very good reasons doesn’t mean I’m happy about their marriage falling apart.”

“So talk to us about it,” Puzzle prompted. “Getting it all out in the open is probably better than stewing over it.”

“Yeah, we’re your buddies,” Strumming chimed in. “Your number one pals. Boon companions. Whatever you wanna call it, we’re here to help you out.”

“That’s the problem!” I groaned, setting the food aside. “I don’t even know what I’m supposed to think about this! It’s just ... it makes perfect sense and has an entirely reasonable explanation, and yet at the same time it doesn’t make any sense at all.”

“It’s only natural,” Puzzle assured me. “Children tend to assume their parents will always be there, and you weren’t even present to see their marriage falling apart.” He sighed and shook his head. “Not every marriage lasts forever. Considering how long it’s been since they’ve spent any real time together, perhaps it’s for the best that they go their separate ways.”

“Easy to say that when it’s not your parents,” I grumbled.

Strumming snorted and shook her head. “Trust me, speaking from experience here, sometimes it’s better to let go. Holding onto things way past the sell-by date just makes them get all nasty and moldy, until the smell spreads and you end up having to clean out your whole icebox with bleach to get rid of it. And then you gotta scrub it all out and stuff to get the bleach smell out, but then you stock it up with fresh veggies and...” She trailed off, then shrugged. “Might’ve let that metaphor get away from me. Point is, sometimes giving up something that’s just not working and is never gonna work is the smart move.”

Well, that was about as helpful as anything Strumming usually said. So not at all. “What am I supposed to do? How do I fix this?”

“‘Fix this’?” Puzzle repeated incredulously. “You mean the divorce?”

“Well yeah.” I shrugged. “I mean, they’ve got a problem, and it needs to get fixed.”

Strumming sighed and put a hoof on my shoulder. “Sorry, but this isn’t something you just fix. From the sounds of things, your parents have already decided on this, and they’ve probably been thinking about it for a long time.”

“What could you even do to fix it?” Puzzle asked. “Even if your father caught Steel Rose tomorrow, that wouldn’t undo the years he spent away from his family because of his obsession. Just like you won’t immediately forgive your mother for neglecting you and leaving Celestia to raise you just because now she has regrets and wants to reconnect. Even if you do eventually reconcile, the two of you will never have anything close to a traditional mother-daughter relationship. The damage has already been done, and it can’t be erased. Only dealt with.”

“And divorcing probably is their way of dealing with it,” Strumming pointed out. “I mean, it doesn’t sound like it’s really bitter or acrimonious or anything. Just like they’ve both kind of accepted that what they’ve been doing isn’t working, and they need to change.”

“But what if I...” I trailed off helplessly, trying to come up with some sort of solution to the problem. Nothing came to mind, but I couldn’t just ... not do anything.

Puzzle sighed patiently. “This is just a decision you have to let them make on their own.”

I slumped down helplessly. “Yeah, I guess it is. I mean, there’s nothing I can do, and it sounds like there’s nothing I should do. It’s just ... it sucks. Especially since...”

“You think it might be your fault,” Strumming finished for me. “I mean, you running off and abandoning them couldn’t have been great for the family cohesion, and I’m pretty sure they had a couple fights over whose fault it is that you don’t want much to do with them.”

“Strumming,” Puzzle groaned.

“However,” she continued on heedlessly, “let’s not kid ourselves here. Your birth parents dropped the ball in a huge way. Sure, they weren’t outright abusive monsters or anything, but they hit you with so much neglect you latched onto the first pony to show you an ounce of positive attention. Sometimes parents are bad. Not evil or horrible or monsters, but just really objectively terrible at some of the big things that go into raising a kid.”

She frowned, looking out the window at the snowy night. “Their flaws and obsessions that made them bad parents are also what’s breaking them up. Everyone says your dad’s been off chasing Steel Rose for years, way before you left Canterlot. Just like your mother always put her career over you. I’ll bet you all my snacks she put the job over him, too. S’pretty obvious that’s the number one reason your parents are going splitsville.” Strumming shrugged “Really, it’s just making the de facto separation official. Beats pretending everything is fine when anyone with a working brain knows it’s not, or acting like one day he’ll finally catch the bad guy and it’ll all go back to normal like nothing ever happened. Just gotta be realistic about these things. Sure, it sucks, but that’s just the way things are sometimes. Deal with it.”

I groaned and flopped back on the bed. “I’m working on it.” I sighed and looked up at the two of them. “Thanks for the talk. It helped, but I think I’d like to be alone for a while.”

“No prob.” Strumming got up and opened the door. “You heard her, bug boy. March your cute little butt outta here.” She paused, glancing back at me. “Let us know if you need anything, okay? You know where to find us.”

The two of them headed out, leaving me alone in a dark room, with only my own confused and unhappy thoughts for company.

Author's Note

As always, thanks to my pre-reading and editing team for all their hard work. Also, I would like to thank all my dedicated Patreon supporters. You guys are awesome.

Click here if you want to join the list of awesome people who support my writing.

Interlude: This One Meets the White Pony

By the time the refugees finally met up with the Equestrians, this one was on the verge of a nervous breakdown. The Shimmer-mare had vanished in the middle of the night after the Glimmer-nag attacked us, and then Puzzle and the Heartstrings-mare went chasing off after her. This one was left alone with the column, all by itself. They told this one that it needed to make sure the Shimmer-mare’s letter made it to The White Pony, but it suspected that was really just an excuse to leave it behind while they all ran off into another situation that was too dangerous for a little kid.

Not that this one could blame them. It was not looking forward to getting home and telling Mom and Dad about everything that had happened in Northmarch. This one would be lucky if they even let it leave the house again before its eighteenth birthday.

This one didn’t know what to do with itself. Shimmer-mare had gone off to try and fight the dragon who had ... who had...

And now she was all by herself. Not that this one could’ve done anything to help her, but it wanted to be there. It was her apprentice—it should be there to help her whenever she needed it. But it couldn’t do anything. It was just a stupid little grub who couldn’t do anything more than carry a letter to someone older and more important.

At least once we met up with the Equestrians this one could do the one thing it was capable of. The army waiting for us was the biggest this one had ever seen, far larger than the last clan muster. Evidently the White Pony took Blackfyre’s return very seriously. This one had always known Equestria was a massive nation, but there had to be tens of thousands of soldiers here, and this was just one army. It made this one feel very, very small.

A detachment of soldiers met up with the refugee column, accompanied by carts full of fresh food and loaded down with medical supplies and ponies who knew how to use them. This one was glad to see the civilians getting the help they needed, but hundreds of soldiers and thousands of refugees scrambling about added an extra layer of chaos that made it that much harder for this one to get anywhere.

This one had spent the last half hour trying to find someone to help it, but they’d all been too busy to pay attention to it. Thankfully its education in the clan had included lessons on Equestrian military rank insignia, so it eventually managed to spot an officer who didn’t seem to be too busy at the moment. It rushed over to him. “This o—” I caught myself and quickly corrected. “Sorry, I need to talk to someone in charge! It can’t wait, please!”

The officer, a second lieutenant, blinked and looked down at me. “What do you need? Trying to find your parents?”

“No, I have a letter from the front line for the White Pony!” I closed my eyes and took a deep breath, trying to remember that I was supposed to be acting like a pony, not a Free Mind. Most of the Equestrians didn’t have anywhere near enough experience with Free Minds to recognize our names. “For Princess Celestia, from Sunset Shimmer. This one needs to see her at once!”

The soldier sighed and gave this one an infuriatingly patient and just a touch condescending look this one had become all too familiar with over the last half hour. “I’m sorry, but Princess Celestia is very busy talking to a lot of very important ponies and caribou about really important things. But if there’s anything I can help you with, like finding your parents, I’d be happy to—”

“This one’s parents are thousand of miles—” This one groaned and turned its back on him, stomping off to find someone more useful. Trying to argue with an adult once they’ve decided you’re just a stupid kid who doesn’t need to be taken seriously was pointless. He wouldn’t really listen no matter what this one said.

Clearly this one needed to alter its approach. Find someone who would take it seriously, and had enough rank to make others do so as well. And figure out what to say that would immediately get their attention before their ‘It’s a kid, don’t take it seriously’ instincts kicked in.

This one spent a few minutes wandering the camp until it spotted a likely pony: a pegasus mare with captain’s bars who carried herself like Mom; a soldier who’d been in a lot of fights and knew how to handle herself. Even more interesting, she had a red insignia on her armor this one had only ever seen in books—she was a Kicker.

Sure, our clans might have fought once in the ancient past, but that was a long time ago and a fellow clanpony would still be way more reasonable than the average soldier. Not to mention it gave this one an obvious way in. It rushed over to her, slipping past a couple soldiers who had been busy around her. “Captain Kicker, ma’am—hi, sorry! This can't wait! This one’s Kukri Doo and it has a really important message!”

As this one had hoped it would, dropping the clan name was enough to get her attention. She turned to face this one, and her face staying serious and businesslike instead of shifting to the one adults always use when they think they’re indulging a stupid little grub acting childish. “What message?”

Now that this one finally had someone paying attention to it, it realized that it had never really considered what to do after that. It tried to get everything out at once. “This one is Kukri Doo, and it is the Shimmer-mare’s apprentice and she gave it a really important letter that it was to deliver to the White Pony as soon as possible because she went off to go fight the evil dragon so now this one has to go to the White Pony with the letter to tell her what happened and it doesn’t know what to do and if it gets this wrong it could ruin everything!” This one took a deep breath. “And then the Heartstrings-mare and Puzzle Piece went off after her and—”

The captain held up a hoof to cut this one off. “You said your name was Kukri Doo, right? Sunset Shimmer’s apprentice?”

“Yes! Thank the night, that’s me.” A moment later, this one realized that she’d followed all that surprisingly well considering how fast it said everything. Did that mean... “Wait, you know who this one is?”

The Kicker nodded. “We were briefed about Sunset Shimmer and her companions. The Princess wants to see your master as soon as possible. From what you said, it sounds like she’s not here.”

This one nodded along. “She’s still in the north, but she told this one to bring the White Pony a letter.” This one quickly retrieved the letter from its bag, waving it about. “She said it’s ... what was the phra—right, a Code Gold!”

Captain Kicker gave the envelope a quick once-over, then nodded to herself. “Right, come with me.” She marched off without another word, leaving this one scampering to keep up with her.

“Finally.” After a bit of jogging this one managed to pull up alongside, and thankfully she slowed down a bit to let this one keep up. “Um, thank you. For listening. This one couldn’t get any of the normal soldiers to pay attention to it. This one really appreciates all the help you’re giving it, Captain Kicker.”

“Gust.” A second later she clarified. “Nimbus Gust. I married into the clan.”

“Oh.” A second later this one realized it should properly introduce itself. “Kukri Doo.” Moments after speaking its mind caught up with its manners. “But you know that. Sorry. Thanks, Captain Nimbus. It’s been a long trip...”

She nodded, her attention fixed on a very large pavillion we seemed to headed straight for. Doubtless the White Pony’s; leaders always got the biggest, fanciest tents. “Almost to the end of it now.”

Some guards in especially fancy golden armor shifted aside as Captain Gust approached, and this one could finally see into the pavillion itself. As this one should have expected of an army headquarters there were dozens of ponies, most of them in some sort of military uniform. Judging by the quick and very faint smile and nod Nimbus shot at one of the ponies on the general staff, her husband was evidently among them.

Normally this one might have been intrigued by all the high-ranking soldiers, but the pony at the center of the group overshadowed all of them. Quite literally, in fact. This one had read the books and heard the stories, but had never realized just how big the White Pony was. It’s one thing to read about it in stories, and quite another to see her towering over full-grown ponies the way this one’s parents towered over it. And unlike this one, all the ponies smaller than her could never hope to grow up enough to stand as her equal.

The White Pony turned to face us, her eyes settling on this one. It uncertainly waved at her, trying to get her attention while privately dreading it. How did ponies talk to someone so big and powerful without constantly being terrified?

Captain Gust strode up to her, snapping off a salute. “Princess, I found Kukri Doo. She says she has a message from Sunset Shimmer.”

The White Pony focused her attention entirely on this one, along with most of the other ponies there. That just made this one feel even smaller than it already did. After all, this was The White Pony! The one who’d trained the Shimmer-mare, and a thousand other things. In a way she was even scarier than Argentium, even though her power wasn’t as obvious. Or maybe because she still looked almost like a normal pony, while still carrying all the obvious signs that she was so much more than that.

Captain Gust cleared her throat, and this one realized it had been standing there staring at the White Pony while everyone was waiting for it to pass along the message. “Right, yes! Sorry, hi, Kukri Doo! The Shimmer-mare’s still in the north.” I quickly passed the letter over to the captain, who gave it to the White Pony. “She said something about Code Gold, and that you need to read this as soon as you got it.”

“I see.” The White Pony took the letter from her, quickly opening it up and reading through it. As she read a lock of the Shimmer-mare’s mane also drifted up from within the envelope, hovering in the White Pony’s grasp.

This one gasped as it connected the dots. “It’s for a tracking spell!”

“Yes,” the White Pony murmured absently, not even looking up from the letter. Judging by the way her initial welcoming smile slowly turned into a pained grimace, she didn’t like what she was reading. Her response when she finally reached the end of it confirmed as much. “Sunset, what were you thinking?”

One of her advisors spoke up, this one couldn’t tell which one, though she sounded remarkably young to be a general. “What did she do now?”

“Something incredibly brave and extremely foolish.” Celestia sighed and shook her head. “She went off to face Blackfyre alone.”

“Let’s just hope she went there to fight him and not to join him.” The crowd parted around the speaker, letting this one get a good look at her. The first thing this one couldn’t help but notice about her was that she was a bright pink alicorn. Normally that would’ve been enough to stun this one, but even that fact paled in significance to the other thing about her. She smelled like ... food. All the most delicious food in the world, all in a single place.

Thankfully this one had kept itself adequately supplies with plasm, because if it wasn’t well fed it probably would’ve had a hard time maintaining its composure. She was just so...

“Sunset would never willingly join forces with a creature like Blackfyre, Cadance.” Celestia’s voice snapped this one back to reality.

“It doesn’t have to be willing,” the other alicorn pointed out. “From what you said, Blackfyre’s very good at coercion and magical compulsion.”

This one felt compelled to say something in defense of its teacher. “The Shimmer-mare would never give in to a monster like him!”

The ... Cadance-mare? Cadenza-mare? The Food Pony? Whatever this one was supposed to call her, she frowned and shook her head. “He’s supposed to be a master of corruption. All he needs is a little bit of darkness to turn someone into a full blown monster, and...” She trailed off, rubbing on her her legs as her eyes flicked down to the ground.

The White Pony spoke up, putting the matter to rest. “Whatever the case, we need to stop him as fast as possible. Sunset might have thrown herself head-first into mortal peril, but at least she had enough foresight to let us know how to find and rescue her.” She pulled out a second lock of hair, which had to belong to the Heartstrings-mare judging by the color. “Captain Gust, get Machwing Company ready to move out at once.” She worked a bit of a magic, and the hair floated over to her encased in a golden bubble. “That should help you rendezvous with Agent Heartstrings. She and her associate have been following Sunset's trail using non-magical tracking.” A faint hint of a cold grin tugged at her lips. “Blackfyre might be able to block a tracking spell, but I doubt he can hide the trail dozens of his spawn leave behind.”

Captain Gust snapped off a salute and took the enchanted lock of the Heartstrings-mare’s mane. “Yes, Your Highness.” She promptly headed off at a fast trot.

This one watched her go, struggling against the urge to yell at her to go faster. It knew that galloping about as fast as possible would likely to be counterproductive compared to moving swiftly but taking the time to plan things out. There was no point in getting there fast if the Equestrians arrived so poorly prepared that Blackfyre stomped on them.

But ... the Shimmer-mare was all alone. And up against the monster who’d taken away her leg the last time she fought him. If they didn’t get there to rescue her soon, there might not be a Shimmer-mare left to...

This one sighed and shook its head. This one should be there with the Shimmer-mare. Even if there was nothing it could really do, at least she wouldn’t be alone. But this one couldn’t even manage that much. Its shoulders slumped as it accepted its helplessness. “Um ... I know you’ve got a lot to do, but ... thanks. And it was good to meet you.”

The White Pony held up a hoof before this one could depart. “We’re not done yet. I might need your help, Kukri.” She turned to the Food Pony. “I might be leaving the army soon. If that happens, you’ll need to take command, Cadance.”

The Food Pony frowned at her. “You’re going to go after her, aren’t you?”

“How could I not?” The White Pony answered, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. “I won’t leave Sunset in that monster’s clutches.”

The Food Pony’s frown turned into a full-blown scowl. “You know he’s setting a trap for you. It has to be why he’s gone to so much trouble capturing Sunset. It’s the perfect bait to draw you in.” She took a deep breath. “Aunt Celestia, I know you probably don’t want to hear it and you’ll think I’m biased—I probably am—but you’re the ruler of Equestria. You can’t just drop everything and go running off by yourself to go rescue Sunset, especially when we know that’s exactly what Blackfyre wants you to do.”

This one was tempted to pounce on the Food Pony and do its best to pummel her senseless. How dare she try to leave the Shimmer-mare in danger?! All because of some stupid childhood grudge between the two of them—one the Food Pony must have started in the first place. If not for the fact that the Food Pony was much bigger than this one and could probably swat it like a fly...

The White Pony stared at the Food Pony for long enough that the Food Pony shuffled in place, refusing to meet her gaze. Finally, the White Pony spoke. “I know it’s a risk, but if I was willing to abandon the ones I love simply because that might be the safer course of action, I wouldn’t be who I am. Blackfyre may have his plans, but that doesn’t mean we’re walking in blind, or that he’s the only player in the game. Through her sacrifice Sunset has given us everything I need to pinpoint his location at a time when he cannot afford an open battle.” A mournful yet slightly wry smile tugged at The White Pony’s lips. “And Sunset has never been one to fit neatly into anyone’s plans but her own.”

The Food Pony sighed and nodded. “Okay, just ... just be careful. Equestria needs you.”

The White Pony stepped to her side, resting a hoof on her shoulder. “Equestria existed before I was born, and it shall endure long after my death. Not that I have any intention of letting that happen today.”

The Food Pony took a deep breath. “How can I help? I don’t know the first thing about leading an army into Northmarch.”

“Neither did I, when I was your age.” The White Pony chuckled softly. “Don’t worry Cadance, I know you’re a very wise young lady with a good head on her shoulders. And we do have military advisors for a reason.”

The Food Pony took a deep breath, then nodded sharply. “Okay. Let’s hope it doesn’t come to that, but if it does I’ll be ready.”

The White Pony smiled approvingly. “I know you will.” She turned her back on the Food Pony, heading for an impressively massive tent. “Come along, Kukri. We have much work to do and little time.”

“Oh, okay.” This one quickly followed after her, giving The Food Pony as wide of a berth as it could without seeming obvious or rude about it. The Food Pony shot a curious look this one’s way that made it think she’d realized what it was doing, but a second later she shrugged and walked off. She probably just assumed this one hated her because of the grudge between her and the Shimmer-mare. Which ... well this one didn’t exactly know her well enough to hate her, but it knew whose side it was on.

Once this one joined the White Pony in her tent, it felt the familiar tingle of a privacy ward. Then the White Pony got straight to business. “Cadance was right that Blackfyre will try to put Sunset under his control. If that happens, the two of us are the best hope for snapping her out of whatever spell she’s under.”

This one nodded along. “She loves you very much ... and this one would like to think it is special to her as well.”

The White Pony smiled down at this one. “If how much she’s talked about you whenever we correspond is anything to go by, you most certainly are.” A second later her smile faded away into a resigned grimace. “Speaking of personal connections, that is also why it would probably be best if Cadance was not present.”

This one frowned down at the floor. “Yeah ... this one doesn’t know the whole story, but it knows something happened between the Shimmer-mare and The Food Pony.” A second after the words left its mouth, this one realized what it had said and clapped it’s hooves over its lips as if that could somehow take the words back.

The White Pony turned to this one, a single eyebrow raised. “The ... Food Pony? My Free Mind nickname always seemed rather self-explanatory, but...” She frowned a moment, then it abruptly shifted to a smile and a soft chuckle. “Oh, of course. I suppose from a changeling’s perspective she would be the Princess of Food, wouldn’t she?”

This one coughed and wished it could shapeshift its way into the floor. “It, uh, she makes this one think of food. It’s just a silly nickname.”

“One I must share with her when I get the chance.” The White Pony chuckled softly, but the mirth slowly faded from her eyes as the moment passed. “But yes, their first meeting was ... less than ideal. There is no shortage of blame to go around for what happened, but I think I must take the largest share. I failed to realize what a volatile situation I created. Pity we cannot undo our past mistakes.”

This one nodded along. “This one’s mom says that the only way to never make a mistake is to never try, and dad says that we learn more from our mistakes than our successes.” This one frowned, it’s tongue starting to poke out of its mouth as it thought, only to wish that the Shimmer-mare was here to fuss at it about that. It would endure dozens of lectures about how that was not dignified if it meant the Shimmer-mare was back and safe. “Even if she never planned to come to Freeport, she’s done a lot of good. Perhaps Freeport might not be her destiny, but what she did still matters.”

“Yes, it does.” The White Pony lifted up the lock of Shimmer-mare’s hair, pouring magic into it with several spells well beyond this one’s comprehension. “And I’ve found that destiny is one of the most misunderstood forces in the universe. Or at least one of the most debated. I remember an old companion who despised the concept of some mystical force determining her fate, but I think Sunbeam always viewed it a touch too ... deterministically. One of the great questions debated by philosophers over the ages is whether a pony can change their destiny. But the very question includes a dangerous assumption. Have you spotted it?”

This one sat down and thought it over while the White Pony worked her magic on the Shimmer-mare’s hair. It took several minutes and a few false starts for this one to finally hit on what seemed like a good answer. “That we know what our destiny is.”

The White Pony nodded, though she didn’t take her eyes off the spell. “Indeed. A bit of hubris even I have fallen prey to at times. I have been convinced I knew how destiny would play out, only to have my expectations violently shattered. Our destinies are not always what we expect them to be, and perhaps it would be wiser if we never sought to know them at all. Or at least exercised our best judgement, until our destiny revealed itself.”

“Right...” This one frowned, trying to wrap its head around all this talk of fate and destiny. Then it realized that the White Pony was probably just keeping it distracted from the matter at hoof. “Have you found out anything about the Shimmer-mare?! Is she okay? Where is she?” This one latched onto one of her legs. “What’s going on?”

The White Pony frowned, trying to focus on her spell. “I can’t pin down her exact location, so she’s almost certainly within Blackfyre’s lair.”

“She’s...” This one swallowed and tightened its grip on The White Pony’s leg. “She’s still alive though, right? She could be fighting him right now, right?”

The White Pony hesitated just long enough that this one knew she was trying to think of a way to avoid giving this one bad news. Adults always do that, like this one was too young to be able to handle the truth. “She might be. As far as finding her, I think we'll need to try the spell from a few more locations to triangulate her location.”

Before this one could ask how she planned to do that, The White Pony wrapped a wing around this one and there was a bright flash of light. This one stumbled as its feet landed in wet snow, and a second later it gasped in shock as the cold wind cut into it. “Wh-what?!” This one instinctively latched onto the White Pony again, mostly out of surprise and because she was by far the warmest thing present.

This one blinked several times, its eyes slowly adjusting to the much brighter light. We were no longer in the White Pony’s camp at all. In fact, so far as this one could tell we were in the middle of a frozen wasteland, with nothing in sight other than empty snowfields.

This one stared up at the White Pony as it realized what had just happened. She’d teleported both of us, and far enough for it to get this much colder. It must have been hundreds of miles. The Shimmer-mare had never teleported along with this one, and while it had never asked her exactly how far she could teleport, it had never seen her go beyond line of sight jumps.

This one swallowed and stared up at the White Pony. How far could she go?

The White Pony tried a few more spells, frowning to herself at the results. “We’ll need to travel again. I hope it wasn’t too disorienting, but we need to move swiftly. Let me know when you’re ready for the next translocation.”

This one took a deep breath, then nodded. Compared to the summer storms this one had suffered through on the Venture, teleportation wasn’t so bad. “Okay. This one is ready.”

There was another flash of light, and this time we wound up somewhere that wasn’t quite as cold but a lot windier. When it looked around this time, it saw the ocean off in the distance.

The White Pony went back to her spellcasting. This one tried to follow along with what she was doing. Maybe it could learn something by watching its teacher’s teacher?

After a couple minutes of trying to silently observe, all it had learned was that whatever the White Pony was doing was way over its head. Maybe this one shouldn’t be surprised. It cleared its throat. “Um, can this one ask what you’re doing?”

The White Pony spared a brief glance for this one. “Blackfyre's wards make it impossible to directly track Sunset, but by attempting the spell from three different locations I might be able to glean enough information to triangulate her location.”

This one’s ears perked up at the explanation. “Oh, that makes a lot of sense. The Shimmer-mare had this one practice something like that.” This one frowned and looked over its surroundings. “Though this one was only finding things inside her tower, not...”

The White Pony chuckled softly. “The basic principle is much the same, even if we’re operating on a much larger scale than you’re used to. I could even get you to help me with the math, if you feel up to some trigonometry.”

This one grimaced at the thought of having to do advanced math. It was quite convinced that whoever invented trigonometry was in league with Blackfyre and the Old Mind, like some sort of triangle of evil. Which he then used trigonometry to calculate.

This one did its best to put such thoughts out of its mind, focusing on the present, and the White Pony’s spells. “This is incredible. Every time it thinks it knows something, it finds out that it’s just been wading in a tide pool when there’s an entire ocean out there. It’s a bit terrifying sometimes ... but also fascinating.”

The White Pony smiled down at this one. “Yes, magic is one of the most incredible forces in our world, capable of producing wonderous things in the right hooves—or unleashing terrible evils in the wrong ones. Blackfyre himself is a testament to the dangers of unchecked power. With his fleshcrafting he could heal the sick, mend the crippled, and help create new treatments for countless diseases. Instead, he chose to find the absolute limit he could take his powers to, and created hordes of ravening beasts, not to enforce his will or advance some grand agenda, but just to see how much further he could go.”

“He’s evil,” this one declared, shivering as it remembered the destruction of Coldharbor.

“Yes,” Celestia agreed, “though I’ve personally never cared for that term. It is somewhat too broad in attempting to capture the complexities of morals and ethics. Blackfyre, Nightmare Moon, Chrysalis, and Sombra have all been called evil, yet each of them is very different in personality, methods, and goals.”

This one bit its lip and asked a question it feared it already knew the answer to. “Do you think the Shimmer-mare can beat Blackfyre?”

“In a conventional battle of strength against strength?” The White Pony asked. “No. But there are other paths to victory. One of the many lessons I tried to teach her: if you can’t win a contest, change the rules.”

This one did vaguely recall hearing the Shimmer-mare offer similar wisdom. “Right, like how she beat the Glimmer-mare. She couldn’t win a duel, so she got Puzzle and the Heartstrings-mare to team up with her.” This one sighed, its eyes flicking to the north. “This one’s really learned a lot from her. It was just a cabin filly when it met her, and now it’s doing so much more than it ever thought it could. It’s talking to The White Pony right now. How many cabin fillies get to do something like that?”

“Not many,” The White Pony agreed. “Though it’s a pleasure to meet you properly. Agent Heartstrings' reports were quite thorough, but reading letters is a poor substitute for a proper introduction. Pity I couldn’t visit Freeport more often.”

“You are very busy,” this one allowed. Too bad this one had been with its family out in the clan islands the one time she’d been in Freeport.

“Yes, but I still try to make time for Sunset when I can,” The White Pony answered. “I would have visited again, but I think Sunset wanted a bit more time to find her own path. Once we see to Blackfyre we should have a bit more leisure time.”

“Especially since you want the Shimmer-mare to come back and teach at your school,” this one said, wondering if perhaps it was speaking out of turn.

“It would be nice to have her back,” The White Pony murmured. “It ... can be a difficult balance sometimes. Trusting her to make her own decisions, while always being there to offer guidance and help if she needs it. If I’d gotten here sooner...”

This one took a deep breath. “The Shimmer-mare chose to go after Blackfyre herself, not because you were taking too long to get here. And you’re still the best parental figure in her life by far.” This one scowled as it thought back to everything the Runeseeker-magus had done. Even if she helped in the later fight against Blackfyre, it had not forgotten what came before that.

The White Pony sighed. “For a time, I blamed myself for Sunset’s poor relationship with her parents. I can rather easily be something of an overwhelming presence in a pony’s life. However, I cannot bear responsibility for Scarlett’s choices, or Solar’s obsession. I might not have planned to find myself as a de facto surrogate mother for Sunset, but fate has cast me in the role and I have no intention of failing. Fortunately, Sunset made my job a bit easier.”

“She did?” This one stared up at her. “How?”

She tapped this one’s shoulder, and the world shifted again. Now we were in the middle of a heavily trampled snowy depression. This one gagged when it spotted a pile of half-eaten frozen meat off to the side. “What’s...”

The White Pony’s horn lit up, and a second later several hairs floated up from the snow. This one recognized them immediately. “Shimmer-mare.”

“She’s been here,” The White Pony confirmed.

We repeated the process two more times, with each jump being accompanied with finding a couple more hairs.

This one frowned and tapped its chin. “So we have a trail. Can we follow it all the way to Blackfyre’s cave?”

The White Pony sighed and shook her head. “No such luck, I’m afraid. I’m sure she tried to leave us something closer to the entrance, but it must have been close enough to fall within his wards. Or he had the foresight to collect or destroy it. Still, between this and the results of my spells, I think we have enough.”

“Enough to what?” this one asked, before the world blurred away once more.

This one groaned and stretched out on the cushions within The White Pony’s tent. A moment later it realized where it was. “What happened? When did we get back?”

“We’ve been here the whole time,” The White Pony responded with an enigmatic smile. “Or at least, our bodies were here. Our consciousness ventured far and wide.”

This one blinked as her words sank in. “That was a ... um...”

“A sending,” The White Pony supplied. “Our minds and spirits covered the distances needed far faster and more easily than our bodies could.” She rose to her hooves, walking over to a large map and marking several positions on it. Presumably recording the information from our journey. “Physically moving both us over such vast distances would tax even my strength, and if we will face Blackfyre in battle soon I intend to save as much of it as I can.”

This one nodded along, watching as she worked along the map, eventually circling a section of the mountains “Well ... that is both incredibly helpful, and nowhere near enough. I’ve managed to pin down Sunset’s location to within twenty-five kilometers of this point.” She tapped on the map. “Considerably more than we had to go on before, it still leaves us with nearly two thousand square kilometers of territory to search.”

“That’s ... a lot.” This one frowned at the map. “But there has to be more you can do to narrow it down, right?”

“Once we start searching the area directly, yes,” The White Pony confirmed, pulling out a quill and ink. “Argentium and I will start searching as soon as we can get there, and there will be quite a few places that are obviously unsuited to a dragon’s lair. Not to mention Agent Heartstrings and Machwing company will be following her trail by less magical means, and might have even found his cavern already. They do have several hours head start on us. I’ll need to move swiftly. Especially since if I’ve calculated all the distances correctly, it’s been two or three days since Sunset reached Blackfyre’s lair.”

This one hesitated to ask the question on its mind, considering it knew what the answer was likely to be. “Is this one going to be coming along too?”

The White Pony frowned, staring at the map for several seconds. “I should leave you here, safe behind the lines. Although if Sunset is under Blackfyre’s control, I might need your help to free her from it. But that would mean endangering someone else’s daughter to save my own. That ... does not sit well with me.”

This one sighed. “But this one wants to help! This will be its only chance! Mom and Dad probably aren't going to let this one off the clanhold for years after this! Not after what was supposed to be a field trip with the Shimmer-mare turned into ... this.”

“I know.” She closed her eyes. “But I’m afraid it just wouldn’t be responsible for me to bring you along. It’s too dangerous.”

“This one knows it’s dangerous!” it groaned. “It knows it’s just a kid, but it’s not stupid. And if the Shimmer-mare gets hurt because this one isn’t there to help her, or if she ... if she...” This one tried to swallow the lump in its throat, but it couldn’t bring itself to say what else could happen to her. “Please. She’s not just this one’s teacher, or just a friend. She’s ... she’s family. Like another big sister.”

The White Pony sighed and gently wrapped a wing around this one. “I know. She’s very precious to me too. Don’t worry, Kukri. I won't let anything—”

The White Pony abruptly cut herself off with a gasp. This one was about to ask what had happened when it felt ... something. What exactly it was ... it couldn’t say. It was an odd sort of ripple in the air, almost like ... like someone had just dropped a huge rock into a still pond, and we were all feeling the ripples it set off.

“What was that?!” this one yelped.

The White Pony closed her eyes for a couple seconds, then gasped softly. “Sunset...”

This one’s eyes shot open, and it latched onto her foreleg. “What happened?! What just happened to the Shimmer-mare?!”

Author's Note

As always, thanks to my pre-reading and editing team for all their hard work. Also, I would like to thank all my dedicated Patreon supporters. You guys are awesome.

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