Assassin's Creed: Displaced in Life and Death

Chapters

Chapter 1 - Discussing Truth and Lies
Chapter 2 - Dropping In
Chapter 3 - The Start Of Things To Come
Chapter 4 - Wolves With Just as Much Bark As Their Bite
Chapter 5 - The Arrival Of A Flame
Chapter 6 - Changing Priorities
Chapter 7 - The Great Escape
Chapter 8 - The Lost, Now Found
Chapter 9 - Forging Your Own Path
Side Story 1 - Eagle's Bond

Chapter 1 - Discussing Truth and Lies

“He’s late,” a strangely dressed young man muttered to himself as he stood in the parking lot of a convention center. His attire seemed to be a type of semi-mummified person, coupled with Bedouin style hood. He also had a myriad of weapons and bows, and had a rather large shield… all strapped to his back, with the exception of his sword. And he was waiting for his friend and fellow Assassin’s Creed and MLP fan.

Seconds later a motorbike skidded to a stop in front of him, the person on it almost covered in a black suit that had a hood covering his features completely whilst running down the back and out to the side was a myriad of faint red lines. The figure then turned to the young man before he said calmly, “Nothing is true.”

“Everything is permitted,” the younger man said. “Good to see you, Shadow Haze.”

“Same to you buddy, also, sorry for being a bit late. Had a bit of a hectic morning getting here.”

“Oh? What happened?” The young man asked.

“Chaos would be the simple way to describe it,” Shadow Haze responded, “besides you wouldn’t believe me if I told you what actually happened.”

“Whether I do or not, you’ve got my curiosity’s attention. What happened?”

“Well to make a long story short, I was on my way here when I was asked to deal with a hit and run incident. I was already in costume as I left, so I chased them down in my costume… they actually thought I was an Assassin when I caught them,” Shadow Haze chuckled.

“Sounds better than what nearly happened to me,” the young man said. “Islamic lady on the bus nearly started beating me because my costume made me look like an Egyptian Cursebringer thing or whatever she called me in her broken Arabic.”

“You know, I’m not supposed to sound racist with my job and all… but if people are going to live somewhere, they should learn the language of the country they are immigrating to and not complain when people don’t live by their own beliefs.”

“It wasn’t that bad. I just had to keep my shield between her and me,” the young man said. “All jokes aside, you ready to head in?”

“Depends do you want me to keep calling you WW2Brony for the day, or do you have an actual name to be called?” Shadow Haze asked as he reached under the seat of his motorbike pulling out what looked to be an almost exact replica of an assassins hidden blade as he began to attach it to his right arm as he pulled the sleeves of his jacket up before allowing it to cover the blade again as the sleeves obscured the blade from sight.

“Jackson,” he answered. “I’m more into the Egyptian Assassins or Hidden Ones. Seems less negative.”

“Well, sure I shouldn’t call you Percy before that name?” Shadow Haze asked with a smirk before adding, “and to be fair, yours is less on the nose than the term ‘assassin’.”

“Well, if in the realms of possibilities and chances we are Displaced like those fanfictions we read and sometimes write, better Hidden One than Assassin,” Jackson said. “Less jumping to conclusions.”

“I guess so,” Shadow Haze responded as he pulled a pistol from his side removing the magazine from inside the gun and replacing it with an empty one before placing the gun back against his side in its holster before putting the magazine full of bullets into the seat of his bike as he closed and locked the compartment under the seat.

“And I forgot to ask your name,” Jackson said out loud.

“You can simply call me John,” the man previously identified as Shadow Haze admitted.

“So what Assassin/Hidden One are you dressed as?” Jackson asked.

“Would you believe me if I told you I wasn’t a specific one, with so many versions of the characters, it was too open to select a single one, so I made my own costume. Heck, even my assassin’s blade is custom made, from the rest of the force as a birthday present,” John admitted revealing the Hidden Blade on his arm.

“Wow,” Jackson commented. “I’m pretty much Bayek from Origins, but more focused around the Curse of the Pharaohs, with an idea of him becoming an undead servant of Amun and an enemy/rival to Anubis.”

“I see, well at least you put more thought into your own than I did to mine,” John admitted before continuing to say, “so, do you want to head in, or is there anything else you want to ask me?”

“Nothing important to ask...yet, so let’s just go in,” Jackson said, moving towards the Convention center.

When the two entered, Jackson took a deep breath. “So where to first? Watch some hype or look around with a 0.00001% chance of Displacement?” He asked, joking with the second question.

“Do I need to make a claim on Murphy’s law?” John asked.

Jackson looked at John before raising his hands in defeat. “Alright, I admit wanting to go to Equestria if it is even possible. Until such is, I’m stuck with the sucky life I’m given.”

“You say that, but would you really want to be displaced as what you are dressed as now, I’d assume you’d want to turn into someone stronger.”

“In my mind's eye, strength isn’t everything,” Jackson said. “If I was wanting to get displaced as a Dragon Ball type character, then I would go with strength.”

“And yet you’d probably get destroyed by Frieza or Cell,” John admitted with a smirk.

“Why do you have to antagonize my thoughts and ideas?” Jackson mock-complained.

“Because, you are simply asking for trouble, and besides. Do you realise just how silly it sounds that those Displacer people even exist?”

“Just like how some people thought certain ideas were silly, until they happened. Light bulbs for example?” Jackson shot back. “For quite a lot of time, most people believed that candles and oil lamps were to be the only artificial lights, until Edison did his thing.”

“That much I know, but there was scientific evidence to prove it could work, while we have none to prove that Displacement is actually plausible.”

“The same can be said about the ‘proof’ of various deities in various religions,” Jackson countered. “No physical proof, but plenty of writings...although you make more sense than those who bash on religion.”

“Maybe we should move on to a conversation that won’t anger anyone here,” John suggested.

“I’m not angry at your conversation. I’m actually entertained.” A figure responded from a booth next to them.

“And you are?” Jackson asked, putting up his guard.

“I’m nothing more than a salesman like everyone else here,” the figure in the booth who was wearing the Isu Armour from Assassin’s creed origins along with the techno glowing mask that was covering the figures face and seemingly distorting his voice to the point neither Jackson or John could make out if the figure was a woman or a man.

“You seem to stand out more than they do,” Jackson commented while pointing to the various other booths. “And if I didn’t know that was Isu Armor, I would have mistaken you for Rinzler or some other Tron character person.”

“Heh, never really heard that before,” the figure chuckled. “Care to browse my wares?”

“Why does the fact he’s wearing a costume from the series we’re dressed as seem very… unnerving,” John asked.

“There are two possible answers,” Jackson answered back. “I’m not going to mention one of them, based on how steamed you got over it. The other is that his costume choice was purely coincidental. Both are possible, but they are also improbable.”

“I see you chose to agree with me on that point at least.”

“Still, to figure out whether one, the other, or both are either true or false, we need to do something that is certainly stupid beyond practical belief,” Jackson said.

“I know what you are suggesting and just so you know, if what you are aiming for happens, I will never let you live it down.”

“How much for that golden mask?” Jackson asked. He then elbowed John and gestured for him to choose something.

John sighed looking at the wares on the table while he thought, “If his wish comes true, I’ll begin to wish I kept the loaded magazine.” It was then that John gestured to a small ring that was on show before he said, “I guess that ring is simple enough to not look too out of place.”

“Of all the-” Jackson shook his head. “Why just the ring? Swords and Pieces of Eden replicas are available.”

John simply smirked before saying, “Because I knew it would piss you off.”

Jackson growled at him before turning back to the stall owner. “How much for both?”

“I don’t know, depends on if your ‘friend’ their just gonna continue with the joke or is he going to say what he really wants?” the salesman asked.

“I doubt he will,” Jackson answered. “He may be a big Assassin’s Creed fan, but when he “smells” something funny, he is overly cautious and he gets a big kick out of getting me riled up.”

“And who can blame me,” John added with a chuckle as he looked at one of the swords on show that looked to be a longsword that had a hilt that looked too closely resemble a dragon’s jaw with the blade piercing through its open mouth.

“Just chose something!” Jackson almost yelled. “I’ll pay for all of it if you just stop that!”

John then smirked at the salesman as he simple chuckled before saying, “I’m assuming you planned for him to react the way he did?”

“Oh, I definitely did. But you know what, I might as well get that sword with that ring.”

“Well if you do that, I may just throw in the Shroud, for you giving me a bit of entertainment. Honestly, you two are the most entertaining people I’ve seen all day.”

“Thank you Mr. Isu suit and #%$@ you John for winding me up,” Jackson said.

“You're welcome,” John responded with a smile.

“So how much for all of this stuff?” Jackson asked.

“$50 for the mask, sword, and ring, with a free Shroud.” Jackson handed over the cash and placed the mask on himself and John simply sighed as he took off his jacket as the salesman saw the Hidden Blade on his arm and the gun at his side.

It was then Jackson heard the salesman mutter to himself, “At least that one is prepared,” as John attached the sword to his side while putting the Shroud over his back before replacing his jacket to cover the rest of his purchases.

“Uh, what?” Jackson asked before he started to feel dizzy. “And now I’m questioning my sanity in wishing what I did.” He then fainted.

“Of course you did,” John responded not looking Jackson's way as he began to place the ring on before hearing him hit the ground and turning to see Jackson on the floor as he stopped quickly dropping to Jackson’s side as he shook him in an attempt to wake him up before he said, “Of course the moron gets…”

However, he was cut off as he quickly turned to see the salesman standing over him before quickly striking John on the side of his neck as he collapsed before the Salesman picked up the ring placing it on Johns' finger before both he and Jackson disappeared. Shortly after, a faint eagle call was heard.

Chapter 2 - Dropping In

“Ah! Itch! Itch! Itch!” John thought to himself as he struggled out of a pile of hay, trying to brush the hay off of him and shake it out of his clothes. As he was doing so, he took a look around where he was. The fields around the area had apple trees as far as the eye could see. Behind him and the hay pile was a bright red barn and something trickling down the side of said barn. Looking up he saw Jackson impaled on the barn’s weather vane, bleeding...sand?

John then shook his head at this before looking up as he shouted up to Jackson, “I’m taking this as a no. But are you okay up there?”

Jackson removed his mask and gave him the ‘Really?’ look. “I’m impaled on a barn. So stick with your earlier answer and see if you can either get me down, find help for that, or just @#%$ OFF!!!” He bellowed.

“Well if you don’t want help, I guess I’ll leave you be for now.”

“Help with what?” Jackson asked. “Dealing with that anthropomorphic pony thing that seems to be looking like you pissed in his territory?” He pointed towards a red, muscular earth pony with an orangish blonde mane and tail, and wearing overalls that was stomping towards him with the hair on the back of his neck standing on end and he seemed to have a growl on his face.

“Why does this always happen?” John asked himself pinching the bridge of his nose, “Alright, if I’ve stepped in at a bad time, I can only apologise.”

“Get off the the property! You’re trespassing!” The ponyman thing practically barked. “Off! Off! Off! Off!” As he “barked,” he started crouching down onto his hands and knees and looked ready to tear off John’s ankles with his teeth. Before anything could progress into further barking and possible physical conflict, a lasso looped around the pony’s torso and pulled him back.

“Down Mac! Heel! Heel!” A different pony thing yelled out, as she pulled and kept this “Mac” from attacking. The pony in question was an orange color with a blonde mane and tail, was wearing jean shorts, a flannel shirt, and a stetson hat. Once “Mac” was calmed down, she gave him a stern look and said, “Bad! No pie for you after dinner! And get your rear end off your hands and knees! You ain’t a dog, regardless of what Discord did and how much you may have liked it!”

As John watched this he just shook his head before he stated, “Is this a normal thing for you? Or should I be worried?”

“It only just started happening,” the pony girl said. “We just finished taking care of Discord and all of that silly over-the-top stuff in Canterlot a few days ago. I come home to find Mac her still acting like a dog and had to get one of those psycho-whats-it people to know what was wrong.” She then shook her head. “Turns out, he liked the time he was mentally a dog so much, that he started having moments of acting like a dog.”

“So… should I expect you to have a lead for him or something?” John admitted.

“I’d rather hogtie him than practically choke him,” she said to him. “I have a strong arm, and you saw how hard I pulled to keep him from attacking you. I would have either choked him out, or broke his neck with the pull I did.” She took a deep breath before speaking again. “By the way, my name’s Applejack.” She stuck her hand out for a handshake.

“It’s a pleasure to meet you Applejack, my names John.”

“The pleasure’s all mine. Now, what were you doing here that got Mac all riled up and going dog for?” She asked.

“I’m pretty sure you wouldn’t believe me if I told you,” John responded as he rubbed the back of his head.

“John! This is Equestria we’re talking about!” Jackson shouted from above the two. “Just tell her and she’ll decide if she’ll believe her or not!”

“What the...? What is he…? Who is…?” Applejack stuttered before turning to John. “Can you help me understand what’s going on?”

“And make it quick, the iron is starting to itch,” Jackson said, shifting a bit, causing a brief surge of sand to spurt out and hit the back of John’s head.

“Umm… I’m sorry to impose, but you wouldn’t happen to have some ladders I could use to get him down?” John asked.

“Won’t it hurt him?”

“Miss Applejack, I’m already in pain. A little more won’t ‘hurt.’” Jackson joked before accidentally spitting up some sand. “Urgh, that taste is gonna linger for a while.”

Shaking her head, she pointed to the barn. “There should be some to the right of that door as you go in. While you’re in there, grab the hacksaw. I don’t want to drag him through the weathervane and cause more damage than should be.” She turned to Mac. “Go get Twilight and bring her here. If you’re fast, but civil about it, I’ll let you have some pie for dessert.” Mac perked up, undid the rope around his torso and started towards town.”

“Okay, and thank you,” John responded as he walked to where Applejack had told him the ladders were before he grabbed them carrying them to the side of the barn and setting them up before walking back and grabbing a hacksaw as she had requested before going back to the ladder.

“Okay, now when you get up there, use that hacksaw and remove the part of the weathervane that’s sticking out. Then you can get your friend out without doing more damage,” Applejack instructed.

“Okay, and I’m sorry for any damage I cause to the building getting him free,” John responded as he began to climb the ladder before getting to the roof as he approached Jackson.

“Don’t worry, that barn’s getting old. We’re due to rebuild it sometime this weekend,” she shouted up to him.

“Okay,” John shouted back down before he said to Jackson, “Okay, time to get you free,” as he began to the section of the weathervane below where Jackson's body had skewered itself, freeing him in the process.

“Thank you,” Jackson said after he was pulled out of the weathervane. He then did a Leap of Faith into the pile of hay that John woke up in. Just as he got out of the pile, Twilight showed up with Mac following, more civil, thankfully.

“Applejack, are you sure that he’s okay?” Twilight asked curiously looking over Jackson’s form seeing no visible injuries on him from his impalement.

“I’m right here, you can ask me,” Jackson said, briefly miffed at her asking someone else about him while there.

“He’s got a point there, Twi,” Applejack agreed.

“What am I, chopped liver?” John asked from on the roof as he jumped off the edge of the roof into the haystack he had woke up in.

“Let’s just let the unicorn talk,” Jackson said, before turning towards Twilight.

Twilight then seemed to stutter momentarily before she asked Jackson, “How did you even survive that fall, it makes no sense that a haystack could stop you from hurting yourselves jumping from that height.”

“It’s called a Leap of Faith for a reason. And while I agree, I also disagree,” Jackson said.

“Would you mind explaining what you mean?” Twilight asked as she seemed to get a notepad out from seemingly nowhere.

“Why don’t you try it yourself and describe it from there?” Jackson said, pointing to the barn roof.
“Why would I do that? Do you know the number of calculations and planning I’d need to do, just to have a idea if it could do that?” Twilight asked.

“That’s where Faith comes in,” Jackson responded. “Sometimes, thinking as you do simply shows your lack of such and holds you back. You just jump.”

Twilight went to protest more, but Applejack stopped her. “Twi, remember what happened when you questioned what Pinkie asked of you to take on Faith?”

“Maybe it would be better if you didn’t do the jump. Besides, I can assure you two have a lot of questions not relating to that you want us to answer anyway,” John admitted with a kind smile.

“So how did you two get here?” Applejack asked. “Especially the fella who got himself stuck where he was.”

“It’s simple, yet at the same time, it isn’t,” Jackson began. “We were at a convention and met a merchant who sold us some items before we got here. I don’t know about John, but shortly after I put on the mask I bought, I suddenly felt tired and blacked out. Then I wake up to find several inches of iron through my stomach and my blood replaced with sand.”

“And for me it was the same, but after he collapsed I went to check on him and got kicked in the back of the head, fell unconscious and woke up in the haystack and you know the rest.” John admitted.

Twilight then looked at the two of them before she said, “You realise that sounds like a half-baked lie right?”

“This coming from a mare of magic,” Jackson commented dryly. “The guy who forced us here could have been a being higher in power than anyone here and used a magic best left alone by most.”

“I doubt there is any type of magic strong enough to manage to accomplish what you claim happened to you.”

“How much do know about anything outside of this world?” Jackson asked. “I personally doubt you even know everything about this world to begin with.”

“Well, I don’t know what you’re talking about entirely, but I can’t argue either,” Applejack said.

“Kind of the point. The worlds outside this one have things that are completely different from what you know. There can and will be beings that have unimaginable power and magic, if any magic at all, and with how large the universe is, the possibilities are endless.”

“So you are referring to Multiverse theory? Correct.” Twilight asked.

“Universe, Multiverse, Omni-@#$%ing-verse, however you name it, it’s pretty much the point,” Jackson said. “What may be true here, may be false or half-true elsewhere in existence.”

“Okay, can I ask, how exactly you are alive after being impaled?” Twilight asked Jackson in a mix of curiosity, confusion and fear.

“I’m not sure, but I think that the magic or whatever that guy used to bring me and John here, it caused my costume to become real, which made me undead to some extent.”

At Jackson's admittance, Twilight looked at him with a look of disgust clear on her face as she muttered under her breath to herself, “Disgusting.”

“If I’m thinking correctly, I’m not a rotting corpse or a necromancy type of undead,” Jackson said. “I’m more of a Servant to a god kind of undead. Amun or something.”

“I’m pretty sure they have no idea who that is,” John pointed out as he looked at Applejack and Twilight a clear look of confusion on their faces.

“Amun is a “sun god” that mine and John's ancient ancestors worshipped,” Jackson simply said. “And if my new undead status, I'm thinking that somewhere in the cosmos, most, if not all, pantheons exist.”

“So pretty much you think we’re in the God of War universe… I’m pretty sure neither of us are Kratos,” John pointed out.

“Did that franchise come out of my mouth at all?” Jackson snapped at John. “As good as the gameplay is for that Nordic instalment of the series, I'm not a fan of the story. I mean, what mother deprives her son the ability to feel anything or die?”

“I get a feeling we shouldn’t ask what you mean by that,” Twilight started looking at the two of them.

“Best not...and in all of this Q&A session madness, I don't think I've introduced myself,” he said before briefly bowing. “I am Bayek, Servant of Amun.” Silence. “And why is everyone talking all at once?” He tried to joke. More Silence.

It was then that the group turned to see a young yellow Earth Pony with red mane and tail and wearing jeans and a flannel shirt like her sister. As she was approaching, Bayek noticed that she was holding a half brown, half yellow choker that had a burning heart symbol of some kind on it.

“Umm… you haven’t got a missing dog have you?” John asked Applejack curiously.

“We’ve got a dog, Winnona, but why did you ask if he was missing?” She counter questioned.

“Because the little lady that just arrived looks to be holding some sort of collar. I’m just making an assumption,” John responded.

“It’s a choker, not a collar,” Bayek said. “Think of a collar in jewelry form, meant for the neck. Looks tight enough to choke someone, hence the name.”

“Applebloom, where did you find that? It better not have been from mother’s old jewelry box that we tell you to keep your paws out of,” Applejack asked.

“I didn’t take it from there Applejack,” Applebloom responded seeming annoyed by the ideas she would have taken it from the jewelry box, “I found it inside the clubhouse as I was tidying it up.”

“Huh, well, a nice lucky find,” Applejack said, taking the choker and looking it over. “I’d have to take it to Rarity to see what it’s worth.”

“May I see it before you go ahead with getting it checked?” Bayek asked. Applejack held it out for him to take. When he did, a voice seemed to speaking into his and John’s mind.

“If you need me, preferably not for fighting, call me over. The phrase is: Come forth, calm flame.”

“What was that?” Bayek asked, looking at the choker more closely.

“I may not be as versed in the whole Displaced thing as you, but If If the ass who we brought from was that Merchant we can make a assumption from the stereotypes of those stories, what could that be?” John asked.

“A token with a passcode?” Bayek wondered out loud.

“What in tarnation are you to going on about?” Applejack asked.

“Trust me when I say, it’s something you are better off not knowing,” John admitted.

“Or if you do end up knowing, it’s best left for us to handle,” Bayek added. “So, want to confirm our theory and obtain a friend in this big multiverse?”

“I can’t see any harm it could do, but why should we even both with calling someone when we have no need of assistance, or know what we need to do ourselves?” John asked

“Fair enough,” Bayek said, slipping the choker into an invisible pouch. “So, now that we're introduced and a few things out of the way, what now?” He asked John.

“Well let me put it this way. We have nowhere to go, nothing to do, and a few people we need to pay back for admittingly unknowingly trespassing on their property and plenty of time on our hands. So, what do you think would be the right thing to do?”

“Farmhand work?” Bayek inquired.

“If the owners of this placing are willing that is,” John responding looking to Applejack.

“Sure thing,” she said. “I can give you a basic rundown of how to do what we do...mostly. No offense, but you both don't look like you could buck apples off a tree. Standard picking should work for you.”

“If you think that will be for the best, just tell us where we are needed,” John responded with a smile.

“Alright then, follow me,” Applejack said, walking towards the fields.

Chapter 3 - The Start Of Things To Come

“That was a good amount of work today,” Applejack complemented, as the group made their way to the farmhouse. “Did either of you do work on a farm or something like that where you’re from?”

“I can’t say anything for John, but my family was into vegetable gardening and food storage,” Bayek answered.

“Well, I wasn’t a farmer, but I did do a lot of work for the people where I was stationed,” John responded.

“Either way, good job you two,” Big Mac said.

“You're not barking up the wrong tree anymore I see,” John responded.

“Don’t push your luck, or I’ll have found my new chew toy,” Mac growled.

“Alright, settle down, you’re both pretty, okay,” Bayek joked. “Let’s just get some relaxation in. I may be undead, but after working in the fields, I found that exhaustion and hunger still apply.” He opened the door to the farmhouse, only for a loud bang to blow him back and obliterate most of his chest.

“Granny!” Applejack scolded as he brought herself out of the split second cover she and everyone else dove into shortly after the bang. “What did I tell you about shooting guests!?”

“I’m pretty sure an undead, ain’t no guest,” an old mare said from inside of the farmhouse.

“Only if said undead isn’t a servant of a God,” Bayek shouted from his almost dismembered body/pile of sand. “And for future reference, I’m not a rotting corpse type of undead.”

“See?” Applejack asked, pointing to him. “He ain’t here to cause trouble. Trouble usually finds him, if what happened earlier today is anything to go by.”

“I’m not going to comment on that fact,” John admitted, looking towards the old mare’s weapon.

“Maybe take a picture, it’ll likely last longer than I will,” the old mare responded.

“Can we just stop the hostilities!?” Bayek called out, his torso slowly reforming. “My name is Bayek, and I’m a servant of Amun.”

“Servant of who now?” the old mare asked in confusion.

“Amun is a sun god from the ancient times of mine and John’s people. Also considered a god king as well,” Bayek explained. “I’m not 100% sure, but I also think he might have a small investment into the afterlife, if what I am says anything about that.”

“Maybe we can talk more about this and anything else if we’re inside and fed,” Applejack said. “And despite the fact that you are against it, Bayek is a guest. No and’s, if’s, or but’s about it.”

“Eeyup!” Mac agreed.

“Fine,” the old mare responded seemingly in annoyance, “But I still don’t trust him.”

“I don’t blame you,” Bayek responded, now fully formed. “There was going to at least be someone with Kinemortophobia somewhere in this world, so I’ll just roll with the punches...or shotgun blasts?”

“Umm, looking at the gun she’s using, I’d say it seems to more likely be a Blunderbuss.”

“Potato, Potato,” Bayek said. “The blunderbuss was an early version of the shotgun before people use what firearms are now used in our world.”

“Anyway, what’s for dinner, Granny?” Applejack asked.

“Well, I was preparing some Chicken breast with sweet potatoes and a salad, but with the extra guests that may need changing.”

“Wait...chicken?” Bayek questioned. “I thought ponies were herbivores.”

“Ponies can digest meat,” Mac explained. “Most ponies avoid it, but those that can either afford it or raise non-sentient animal types can do so if they so wish.”

“So omnivores with a preference to herbivorous lifestyles. Got it,” Bayek said.

“So what changes do you mean?” Applejack asked Granny. “I don’t see what’s wrong with the usual amount of food.”

“I’m expecting she meant she hasn’t prepared enough to feed two extra bodies,” John clarified.

“There should be plenty,” Applejack said. “Mac just needs to eat less.”

“I could say the same for you,” Mac responded.

“What?!” She exclaimed. “Why you-”

“Just Shut It!” Bayek yelled, shutting up the quarrelling siblings. “Respect your Elder’s decision!”

“Like you are one to talk about showing people respect,” John responded with a smirk.

“While you make a point, I try to respect my parents and grandparents as much as I can,” Bayek said back. Before anyone could say anything further, all of a sudden, Granny had everyone’s ears in her grasp, holding and pulling harshly.

“Would you all just be quiet and stop acting like a bunch of foals,” the old mare ordered.

“Yes Mam! Sorry Mam!” Bayek quickly said.

“Sorry Granny!” Mac and Applejack said in pain.

“Okay then,” John responded seemingly not bothered by the old mare’s actions.

She then let go of everyone’s ears with a slight shove before she said, “Well then, I’d better sort something out for our guests,” as she slowly walked back into the farmhouse.

Silence reigned for a few moments before Applejack broke it. “So, I never got to asking, but why do you two have weapons?” She asked.

“Well, I am a policeman, so I am lightly armed to protect myself, also because I am dressed as an Assassin for a event I went to,” John admitted calmly. Mac visibly tensed at the word, “Assassin.’

“You dressed as a type of murderer?” Mac asked, a growl deeply hidden in the question.

“Well, there is a story to it. You see I went as a character from a gaming series I liked to play when I was able to. The Assassins were a group from the game,” John clarified.

“A group of murderers?” Mac asked his growl a bit more noticeable.

“These Assassin’s aren’t murderers. They aim to protect the freedom and rights of the general people,” Bayek explained. “They work in opposition to the Templars, who aim to subjugate the general people. Before they were known as such, they were known as the Hidden Ones, and the Order of Ancients, respectively.”

“Wouldn’t they still be murderers? If their name changed to Assassins, wouldn’t it say something about what they do, despite their intentions?” Mac asked again, with slight reluctance to ask ‘visible’ in his voice.

“Well considering one if the tenants they followed was Stay your blade from the flesh of an innocent. I think you can write that worry from your lists,” John replied still remaining somewhat calm.

“So, no problems will come from you two?” Mac asked.

“Knowing his luck, problems will find him without us looking,” John replied pointing to Bayek.

“Won’t agree, nor disagree with you,” Bayek said. “But to truly answer the question Mac asked, you are correct. Trouble won’t come from us specifically.”

“I wouldn’t hold my breath for other things causing it though,” John added.

“Seems fair enough,” Mac said. He turned to his sister. “I noticed that you didn’t react as I did. I’m a bit confused at that.”

“It has more to do with the fact that when he said Assassin, it struck me more with familiarity than with suspicion or fear,” Applejack answered. “And I have no clue why.”

“Well, if you don’t know how could we?” John admitted with a shrug of his shoulders.

“I don’t think she was implying that,” Bayek countered. “She’s mostly wondering out loud.”

“Bayek’s right,” Applejack confirmed. “By the way, has anyone seen Applebloom yet?”

“Not since she brought that Choker here, have you seen her Bayek?” John asked as he looked around for her.

“Part way through my tasks that were assigned to me, I saw her running off to the southern part of the orchard with two other fillies,” he said.

“Well I guess that should mean she’ll be fine for now,” John responded before he blinked and as soon as he opened his eyes the world around him looked almost completely white with everyone around being surrounded in a blue light. It was then he blinked again before shaking his head as his vision reverted to normal.

“You okay?” Applejack asked. “You looked a little off, and your eyes glowed a bit.”

“Were they?”

“Yeah.”

“Well, I guess I can do that. Lucky me,” John responded with a chuckle, “Now I just need to work out how to do it on a whim.”

“Are you talking about Eagle Vision?” Bayek asked. “Because I probably won’t be able to do the same, unless I have access to an eagle for a pet companion.”

“Bet you wish that you had something like that with you right about now.”

“Yeah, but it’s not like one is going to land on my head and become fast friends with me.”

“Maybe Fluttershy could help with that, when you meet her,” Applejack said.

“Just don’t hit on her,” Mac mumbled to himself.

“I am undead,” Bayek shot out, causing him to stumble back. “Unless she is a necrophile, I don’t see-” He was then interrupted by a set of girls/fillies screaming

“Umm… I’m guessing that wasn’t anyone here screaming?” John asked.

“No, that came from the south,” Applejack said, worry evident in her voice. “That’s where Bayek saw my sister and her friends go. But, why are they screaming?” A set of wolf howls seemed to answer her question.

“Timberwolves!” Mac shouted, before running to the barn and coming back with a fire axe and a camping hatchet. He tossed the hatchet to Applejack, and then turned to the two Assassins. “You gonna help. I’m not sure if this’ll be like Zap Apple season of two or three years back.”

“Considering, I have no idea what that is, I'll take your word on that,” John responded calmly.

“Something is off,” Bayek said in slight confusion. “I feel that it isn’t three lives we need to save, but four.”

“What do you mean?” Applejack asked.

“Not sure. We’ll find out when we get there,” he answered. The four then started running to the southern end of the Acres.

Shortly after they left, Granny opened the door to the farmhouse before she looked around before saying, “Where did you all go?” before sitting on a chair on the porch and waited.

Chapter 4 - Wolves With Just as Much Bark As Their Bite

The group of four had managed to reach the south of the Acres. Upon arrival, a group of roughly 8 Timberwolves greeted them. Bayek looked upon them and gave a slight chuckled as he drew his Spear of Tutankhamun. “I didn’t expect Timberwolves to be literal timber in the shape of wolves,” He commented to John.

“Honestly, you should have expected that would be the case… what did you think they would look like?” John asked back.

“Wolves covered in timber, not timber in wolf form,” Bayek said. “But let’s ignore the semantics for now. We’ve got some lives to save.” He then pulled out his shield and held it and his spear as one in a Phalanx would.

“I suppose we might as well, not like standing here talking is going to help, and I was just starting to feel like I was off duty,” John responded his hand against the sword at his waist.

“Eeyup!” Applejack and Mac said simultaneously. Applejack took a tense yet relaxed stance, her right hand holding the hatchet, and her left holding her lasso. Mac took a more crouched down stance, his body tense like a spring. Both of his hands held the fire axe, ready to swing it at whatever came his way.

“So, you couldn’t tell us why these things would venture out here could you?” John asked Applejack curiously.

“Later on that,” she snapped. “Fight now, explanation later!”

“Ladies first,” John responded as he drew his sword from his side quickly flicking it to his side before leaving it out so if faced towards the Timberwolves.

The opposing sides faced each other, not moving. A scream from the foursome’s objective worked as a cue for the fight to begin. Applejack was the one to strike first, rushing forward and slamming the hatchet into its head, collapsing it, then while the timberwolf was still in one piece, kicking another. She freed her hatchet from the downed timberwolf and ran a short distance away from the main group of them, drawing the two of the angered timberwolves away from them.

It was then John looked to Big Mac and Bayek before he calmly said reaching under his cloak, “If you can handle these I’ll get to where those screams came from,” as he pulled out his pistol before firing three times at the Timberwolves ahead of him the rounds blowing their bodies apart.

“Eeyup!/Fair enough!” They then charged into the now divided timberwolf pack, giving John a path for him to continue as he charged forwards towards the broken bodies of the Timberwolves he shot as they had begun to slowly reform as he passed them.

One of the Timberwolves went to intercept him, but Bayek intercepted it, causing it to accidentally impale itself on his spear. He pulled the spear out, and was about to charge back into the fray, but paused when it ended up dissolving into sand and ashes. Forming an idea, he shouted out to the Apple siblings. “Draw them towards me, and funnel them into fighting me one at a time!” He shouted, switching his spear for his Mace of Rameses II.

They heard him and ran towards Bayek, “lightly” hitting the Timberwolves as they passed them, as well as yelling. They then stopped in front of him and began fighting them. Every so often, Bayek would get one’s attention and manage to redirect it’s charge, disorienting it, and crushing it’s head with his mace. A short while of doing this, and there was only one left. The timberwolf fled, leaving the three fighters tired.

“Let’s rest as much as we can and then join John,” Bayek said. “Hopefully, he’ll have managed to get to the fillies.”

The group did such for a bit before continuing towards the fillies, at a slightly slower pace. Just as they had gotten to a decent jog, a whistling sound was heard before John landed in a heap from the sky, accidentally shooting Bayek in the process.

“NEK!! Keep your gun’s safety on when you’re not using it!” He shouted while trying to plug the bullet hole in his chest.

“What happened over there, John?” Applejack asked.

“Wish I could tell you. I reached the clubhouse then was attacked by a Timberwolf that was larger than the others of which I couldn’t even harm.”

“An Alpha,” Mac said. “While normally an Alpha means to run away, we just can’t. We’d be leaving those girls to the wolves, pretty much literally.”

“Then what will the game plan be?” Bayek asked. “Judging by John’s injuries and your words, we can’t fight, but neither can we flee. What can be……..” Bayek seemed to freeze as if he saw something that shocked him.

“Uh, Bayek? You okay?” Applejack asked. A howl was heard close by, stirring him from his frozen moment.

Bayek stepped forward just as the Alpha came into sight. Applejack and Mac carefully dragged John away to the base of one of the trees as the Medjay and Alpha approached each other. “Patriarch of Honesty, Remnant of Change, show your true form and face me,” Bayek said. The Alpha’s wooden body started to restructure itself into a pony form just barely taller than Big Mac. It then reached into it’s chest and pulled out a hatchet the design of which looked like the Imprint of an eagle’s skull and a standard greataxe (the second of which was handled as easily as the hatchet).

“I Bring You REST!” Bayek shouted, drawing his Khopesh of Akhenaten. The general area around the Medjay and the Timberpony was surrounded by a golden, transparent shield with an Eye of Horus appearing a disappearing every so often on it’s surface.

“That pony looks familiar, but I can’t put my finger on who it is,” Mac commented.

“Me neither,” Applejack agreed. She shuffled a bit, accidentally snapping a twig in the process.

The snapped twig triggered the two combatants to charge each other. Bayek swept his khopesh at the Timberpony, but the axes blocked and pushed the blade away. The Timberpony went to counter-attack, but Bayek quickly flipped his blade around and used it as a hook to pull it closer, leading to him headbutting it with his golden mask. As it was dazed, Bayek began hacking at it. The Timberpony recovered quickly and tripped him before the hacking got too far. It then went to chop his head off, but he rolled over, avoiding the axe and allowing him to recover. He then charged shield first, knocking it to the ground. He then calmly walked to it as it shakily stood up, and when it was standing tall, he sliced at its legs, forcing it to its knees.

“It’s over,” Bayek said. He then shoved the blade into its gut, causing it to light up brightly in a golden flash. When the flash died down, the golden shield was gone and the Timberpony’s barky exterior started crumbling off, revealing a yellow earth pony stallion with a red mane and tail in semi-armoured farming clothing.

The earth pony was breathing hard, showing his exhaustion. Through his breathing, he said, “Applejack, Big Macintosh...I’m sorry.” The voice of the earth pony seemed to spark a greater sense of familiarity within the Apple siblings, Big Mac more so than his sister.

“Pa? Is that you?” He moved from where he was and walked slowly towards the labored stallion. When he got close, he kneeled down and carefully looked him over before hugging him. Applejack followed shortly thereafter, but with slight hesitation until she better saw his face. The three kept in their hug, with the stallion whispering words of encouragement to them. As that was going on, Bayek started checking on John.

“Hey, you okay? You seemed to have taken a hard hit from that guy before I calmed him down,” he said.

“Yeah, I’m fine, I just fell from the clubhouse and had my ribs broken…. Wait how am I okay?”

“Maybe it’s the shroud that Isu Idiot gave you,” Bayek answered. “It seems logical for that to work like how I’m now undead...or your gun having ammo despite having no ammo when you came here?”

“Huh… wait I did have an empty magazine in the gun… how the hell did that even work, pretty sure I didn’t buy anything for my gun from the guy,” John admitted as he removed the magazine from the gun looking inside to find it was half full of unused rounds.

“Anyway, I think I found out who the fourth person who I felt would need rescuing,” Bayek said somewhat happily.

“Well, I’m happy for you,” John responded calmly as he sat up a faint golden glow fading from around his form as he said, “At least you had better luck than I did.”

“However, the form that he currently has will only last so long,” Bayek said. “Eventually, he needs to return to the Duat, the Realm of Osiris. So, if you have any questions for the guy, then you’ll need to take advantage of it.”

It was then John walked towards the figures weapons as he saw the hatchet he had been using before looking over the symbol before he said, “I have a feeling it’s a bad idea for me to ask this. But is this the same symbol as I think it is?”

The stallion broke away from his children and looked at John. “Yes, the mark of the Assassins,” he answered, slightly shocking the two Apple siblings. “When young Macintosh was born, I wanted him and any future siblings of his to grow up outside of the Assassin Brotherhood. A mistake on many parts.”

“What do you mean?” Applejack asked, tears in her eyes.

“For one thing, if Buttercup or I were to die on an assignment, you wouldn’t know how either of us died. That, and not having you trained as an Assassin, you would be an easier target for the Order of Ancients. They no doubt will have lied about my death, saying I was killed by Timberwolves. And they would have completely lied about Buttercup being dead to begin with. She was on assignment with me when I was killed. As my life ended up fading, I saw her getting dragged away. She is alive, no doubt about it.”

“Where is she?” Big Mac asked.

“Of that, I have no answer,” he sorrowfully. He then gave a light cough. “As much as I would love to catch up with all of you, my time is limited. My greataxe is yours, Macintosh, and the hatchet is yours, Applejack.” He turned to John and pulled out an amulet with an eagle skull. “When you next see Applebloom, give her this from me. I’m at peace.”

At this John nodded his head as the amulet was placed in his hand before he looked back to the figure in front of him before calmly saying, “I will make you a promise of my own. I will find your wife and bring her back to her children.”

The stallion nodded in thanks. Bayek then approached him with an eagle feather in hand. “May the Lord of the Duat bring you peace as I brought you rest, Bright Macintosh.” He then brushed the feather down his face and the stallion dissolved into golden sand before reforming into a mummified corpse in an open sarcophagus style grave. The lid of the sarcophagus had an apple tree engraving decorating it. Bayek then placed the feather in it and pushed the lid into place.

“What was all that?” Applejack asked. “Don’t get me wrong, giving him a good grave like that was nice, but I’m still confused.”

“With my connection to the Duat, or the Afterlife, and my probable servant status to Amun, I’d say that what I did could be considered much like how you ponies and cutie marks work,” Bayek said. “And the task my ‘mark’ gives me is to bring those forced from the grave, as your father was, rest. From there, Osiris does the rest.”

“Once again, I don’t think they even know who those gods are,” John pointed out shaking his head at Bayek.

“Sounds like some sort of god of death or something,” Mac said. Everyone suddenly stared at him in confusion. “What?! I’m not some dumb farmer with dog impulse issues, unlike Applejack,” he said back, whispering the last bit. He suddenly began sniffing furiously.

“Umm, is something a matter?” John asked Big Mac curiously.

“Something isn’t right,” he said simply. He then strapped his new axe to his back and took off on all fours towards where the screaming originally came from. The rest of the group followed as best as they could. Mac led them to a tree house in an apple tree, with him charging up the ladder and into the building. John was the first up and in after Mac. Looking around, he saw Mac looking over two fillies, checking for injuries. John then noticed something that was wrong.

“Where is Applebloom?”

Chapter 5 - The Arrival Of A Flame

Author's Note

This chapter is the start of a crossover with blazikenking and their story I Burn

Chapter 5 - The Arrival Of A Flame

The next morning after Applebloom had seemingly disappeared from the farm, nobody had been able to find anything to find out where she had gone with the two young fillies that had been in the clubhouse upon them getting their still being unconscious.

Both Bayek and John had stayed in the barn they had landed near (or on in Bayek’s case). Upon getting up after some food and a good night’s sleep, they exited the barn to find Applejack outside talking to Twilight with a pained look on her face.

As John walked towards them he heard Twilight say, “I’m sorry Applejack, I looked all over town and asked everyone I could if they’d seen her, even Rainbow spent most of yesterday looking everywhere for her and we didn’t find any trace of her.”

“That’s not surprising, considering that the ones who could have taken her wouldn’t have wanted to leave a trace,” Bayek said. Twilight jumped in slight fright, as he was behind her when he said that.

“And just who do you even think is responsible for this?” Twilight asked as she turned to look to Bayek who was standing before her as she regained her composure.

“The Order of Ancients,” Bayek said. “They are an enemy to freedom first, and the Assassins second.”

“The Order of Ancients?” Twilight asked in confusion, “I’ve never heard of any group under that name.”

“They take measures to prevent their plans from being interrupted, like keeping all knowledge of their organization from everyone but those who they want to know of it,” Bayek explained. “More often than not, the members tend to be people in high places, so to speak.”

“Like nobles?” Applejack asked.

“A decent example, but it can be government officials, business owners, military and media figures, the list can go on.”

“But even with those, I wouldn't put it past them to use even the homeless or orphans to further their goals,” John stated from the roof of the barn.

“Are you going to do the Leap of Faith just to annoy Miss No-Faith?” Bayek asked. John didn’t respond as he stood where he was as Bayek saw a faint golden glow in his eyes, even though he couldn’t be sure from the glare of the sun. A few minutes of silence and Bayek managed to understand. “Wait, nevermind. You’re doing your Eagle Vision stuff.”

“What do you mean by Eagle Vision stuff?” Twilight asked in confusion.

“Eagle Vision is a unique ability that all Assassins have in one form or another,” Bayek explains. “John’s is straightforward, giving him thermal-like vision that allows him to see targets, friendlies, and enemies. Mine requires an actual eagle, which I lack.”

“Is there a limit to this Eagle Vision?” Twilight asked as she seemed to write something down in a notepad.

“I think it mostly has range issues. His relies on a literal line of sight. Mine relies on a mental link of limited range with the eagle.”

“If it’s short range, why is he trying to use it from the barn?” Applejack asked.

“I think he’s partially clinging to the hope that she wasn’t taken far.”

It was then they saw John look down seemingly in annoyance before he seemed to jump off the roof of the barn into the haystack below him before climbing out and looking to the group with a shake of his head.

“No luck?”

“No, I tried looking from the barn and it looks like something my Vision can do is follow the trail of someone for as long as they are on the ground, but only to a single person, but she vanished around the forest to the East,” John admitted.

“So, my sister was taken to the Everfree?!” Applejack loudly asked with panic on her face, before she fell into a kneel and began to cry.

“That, or she was taken through it to throw off the trail,” Bayek added, hoping that it calmed her down. “Other than that, we lack any further leads. Unless we find or receive said leads, our best bet is to wait and see what happens.”

“I could go near to where the tracks ended and see if I could pick up any trail… but I don’t know if that would help,” John responded a sad look in his eye.

“Just do what you can,” Applejack said in sorrow. “I’m gonna do what I do to try and dull my emotional pain...work.” She walked off south into the orchard.

John then looked to Bayek before he said, “So, we have no leads on what happened, nobody to back us up when things go wrong and no idea who we could even look towards to get us started.”

“The only idea I can think of is seeing if the Displaced we heard about from the choker token thing can help us,” Bayek answered, pulling out the choker as he spoke. “She said she prefers not to fight, but if you think about it, she could only need help in the investigation, and we do the fighting.”

“I suppose an extra head to think everything through could be good, besides we know almost nothing about the area around us. If we are lucky she may have some knowledge that could help us work out what could be near.”

“Fair enough. Come forth, Calm Flame,” Bayek said. Nothing seemed to have happened, causing both him and John to slump a bit in disappointment. Bayek was about to say something when something landed hard in a nearby cart of hay, breaking the cart and scattering the hay. He quickly ran to the remnants of the hay and dug through until he found an arm, then gently pulled a golden haired young woman up to her feet. “You okay ma’am?”

“Yeah, yeah I’m fine,” she said while trying to catch her breath. She looked towards him and asked, “Who are you?”

“I am Bayek, Servant of Amun,” he told her, as he began to brush some of the hay off of her. “The other man is John. We both are Assassins, but we’ve come upon a slight problem here.”

She spent a teeny tiny fraction of a second thinking it over. “What kind of problem?”

“One that involves a missing person,” Bayek said. “We have unfortunately have no leads, other than the culprit took her to or through the Everfree.” He frowned a bit when he found a some hay in her hair. “Brace yourself, you’ve got a few stubborn pieces of hay up here.” He yanked as gently as he could, dislodging the hay, and a hair or two. He tossed the hay to the side, but the hair stuck. “Nek! I hate static attraction or whatever it’s called!” He shook his hand, trying to get the hair off.

“Hm?” She looked over to Bayek and saw him shaking his hand, trying to get something golden off. Her temper flared up, eyes turning red, and she promptly swung at his face, landing a solid blow on the ordinate shield Bayek pulled up on reflex. With a loud clang, Bayek was sent skidding backwards. Upon stopping, he pulled out his spear and pointed it towards her while holding his shield up.

She charged forward, her bracelets turning into brass gauntlets, grabbed the shaft of the spear with one hand, and threw another punch at the shield. As soon as her fist connected, a plume of smoke erupted from the gauntlet.

John then turned to Twilight before he said to her, “Should we stop them?”

“I’m pretty sure they’ll be fine,” Twilight responded seemingly looking forward to whatever Yang would end up doing to Bayek. “Something smells good.”

She kept punching the shield and sending him back until he was against the wall. He moved his head when a punch aimed for his head came for him. The punch sent her fist through the wall, allowing Bayek to shield bash her and reclaim his spear. He then swung the spear at her legs, sweeping her legs out from under her, stabbed the spear next to her neck, and then quickly drew his sword and stabbed the opposite side and crossed the two weapons, trapping her neck.

“I’m not sure what happened, but I wasn’t expecting that reaction,” Bayek muttered as he fell onto his back in exhaustion. “And why do I smell like I was at a barbecue?” He sniffed.

Without any warning, she grabbed the sword handle, and swung it right at Bayek, the blade going through his arm and spilling sand on the ground. She then rolled out from under the spear, got next to Bayek’s head, and slammed one last punch down on his masked face, sending out more sand and smoke.

A few seconds after that, Yang’s eyes reverting back to their normal colors, she looked at Bayek’s sandy remains with a mixture of horror and confusion. With considerable strain, he muttered out an “Ow…” from under his mask, before using his intact arm and pulling the mask off, revealing a barely functioning face, buried under a very light layer of sand. “Dead or alive, pain is the same,” He muttered in pain.

“Wait, you’re dead?” Yang asked. “That’s. . . different.”

“Well, technically, I’m undead, but that’s semantics,” he said, not overly bothered being called dead. “By the way, why can’t I feel my arm?” He looked over to where his arm was attached, only to see his severed arm...waving at him. “Oh.”

Yang helped him up and when he stood, the arm dissolved into sand and swirled up and around him in a whirlwind. After a moment, the sand settled and reformed his arm. “Remind me to not think or be arrogant like Deadpool,” he said in a serious voice.

“There’s nobody that can think like Deadpool,” Yang responded, but then added, “Except Pinkie Pie. Anyways, you called me here, so what do you need now that things have calmed down?”

“Honestly, in this situation, I’d replace things, with you having calmed down,” John responded walking towards Yang and Bayek.

Taking a nervous look towards the broken cart and scattered hay, she said, “Yeeeah, that sounds good.”

“Anyway, I’m sorry for the less than great meeting, I can only hope that the crash landing isn’t a standard occurrence for you,” John admitted with a kind smile.

“Apology accepted. Crash landings aren’t new for me. And for some reason, the universe has it out for my face,” She said. “I couldn’t even begin to tell you how many times it’s gotten hit.”

“Sounds like a running gag,” Bayek said in slight monotone. “Much like me and how I’ve been impaled, shot with a shotgun, and just now punched to bits.”

“Yeah, sorry for that. I don’t like that reaction to my hair getting damaged,” she admitted. “I really need to work on that.”

“And I need to work on not being a target,” Bayek said. “Nobody’s perfect.”

With a nervous look between the two Assassins, she asked, “Right, what do you need me for?”

“We called to ask for your help in trying to find a missing pony, one we think may have been kidnapped,” John repeated before adding, “but I have a question for you. How did you land in that haystack safely? I know Bayek and I do it often, but it didn’t appear that you did a Leap of Faith.”

She looked over the wrecked hay cart before answering. “I don’t know what this Leap of Faith is, but I have this nifty thing called Aura. It’s really nice,” Yang said. “Not only does it act like armor, but It even does some really nice little things like working as goggles underwater.”

“You know, I bet that’s a pretty nice thing to have in your back pocket,” John responded, “Kinda wish I had it myself.”

“I can’t turn it off. And I wouldn’t want to anyways,” she said, with thankfulness in her voice. “But I don’t think I can. . . Wait, there was that one scene in Volume 1. I don’t know how it worked, but it can be done. Maybe.”

“Would you be willing to give it a try, honestly even if it doesn’t work it can’t cause any harm to try and see the results?” John asked.

Yang contemplated for a moment or so before she answered. “Alright, let’s do it.” She put a hand on John’s shoulder and turned him around so that she was facing his back. “This might tickle a bit.” She put a hand between his shoulder blades and seemed to try using her aura to find whatever might do the trick...despite seeming to not know what she was doing.

Something eventually happened, and a bit of fire magic leaked out, causing a small, forceful explosion between John and Yang. As she got back up, some music magic kicked in with an upbeat tune, which Yang started clapping along to.

“Help me!” John called out. He was doing the Russian kick dance in time with the music.

Bayek came over, chuckling a bit. “I don’t know about you, Yang, but I’m getting a kick out of this kazachok.”

“Don’t take my pun and only type of joke,” she said in mock insult.

“Traitors!” John accused as he kept dancing, though the amount of malice in the accusation was a very deep negative. “All two of you!”

In response to his accusation, Bayek pulled out his bow, and started shooting arrows around his feet, giving the impression that John was dancing as a means to dodge the arrows.

The song ended after a minute, as did John’s dancing and Bayek firing arrows at him. Yang had a smile, seemingly amused from the antics from the situation. “So, you might have aura now. I don’t actually know if it worked.”

“How do we tell if it did?” Bayek asked.

“You know, there have been times where I ruined a knife in the kitchen when I swung it at my fingers by accident. And I have survived really long falls before. So, yeah. Dangerous stuff,” Yang explained.

“Fair enough,” Bayek said, pulling out his mace and swinging it down at John’s foot like a sledgehammer.

“Maybe this isn’t the best…” John began to say but was stopped as the mace struck his foot before a wavy white glow began to cover his form, but being mostly centred around the foot where the mace had struck him.

John started hopping around, holding his foot in pain. Yang looked on questioningly. “Is that what my aura looks like when I’m hit?” She asked. “Wonder why nobody said anything…”

“While I don’t entirely regret what I did, is that what you’re paying attention to?” Bayek asked.

“Huh? Oh, sorry. But it looks like he does have aura now, so he should be fine,” she said bashfully.

After a few more moments, John stopped hopping around before he knelt down slightly to check the foot that had been hit to find that it wasn’t broken, only a bit sore before he looked to Bayek, stating, “You know, I’m going to get you back for that one some day.”

“So, someone was kidnapped and you need my help to unkidnap them or something?” Yang asked.

“Is ‘unkidnap’ even a word?” Bayek asked.

“You know what I mean. Who’s been kidnapped, and what do we know?” Yang shot back.

“Well from what we know, at least Applebloom’s gone missing and disappeared near the Everfree and apart from that… absolutely nothing,” John responded sadly with a shrug of his shoulders.

“Apple Bloom.” A corona of flames seemed to appear around her eyes, showing her anger. Aside from that, she didn’t seem to have any rage. “Continue.”

“If speculation is something, the only ideas we have on who could have taken her is the Order of Ancients,” Bayek said as he flinched away from Yang.

“Do we know where they are?” She asked.

“We don’t even know who they are,” John added. “Just that their trail vanished around the Everfree forest.”

Yang’s fire cut out and she took a breath. “Okay. So, are we going to investigate, or…”

“That can be a start,” Bayek said. “If we can find some clues or even a trail to work with...and now I’m wondering if me being made undead also made me more brainless.”

“I guess that makes me the brains here,” John snarked. “Bayek, you go tell Applejack and the rest of her family about Yang. We don’t want her to get shot by a blunderbuss.”

“Because that’s my job,” Bayek muttered.

“Yang, come with me and we can investigate the scene, see what’s around the trail. You might have some kind of insight we haven’t had yet.”

“Sounds like a plan to me,” she concurred.

“Well, if we search for about an hour or two them meet back here we should be able to see if we found any new information out about what happened,” John admitted as he looked between Yang and Bayek. With a consensus reached, the group split up and went their separate ways to do what they planned.

Chapter 6 - Changing Priorities

Bayek found Applejack at work, checking the health of the trees on the orchard. The only thing keeping him from immediately walking up to her was the cold focus she had on her work. Having been beaten up once already, he didn’t feel like risking it again, especially since he saw that one kick from her dislodged the apples in one tree.

“What are you doing?” Big Mac said from behind him. Bayek jumped and thrust his left arm towards him. His hidden blade came out of it’s hiding place, but thankfully, Bayek kept it from hitting Mac.

“Don’t scare me like that,” Bayek said in relief. “And to answer your question, I was contemplating how I explain to your sister about a visitor so that she or someone else doesn’t try to shoot said visitor.”

“And you’re reluctant to interrupt her in fear of something similar to what you almost did to me?” Mac asked. Bayek nodded, and he shook his head. “Well, I might as well help. Bear with me for a moment.” He got down on all fours and with a few slight sniffs of his nose, he then took off towards Applejack.

He circled her for a few rotations and barked as he did so. “Big Mac! Why of all times did you choose now to go mutt on me!?” Applejack yelled. With her attention grabbed, Mac galloped(?) back to Bayek and with a tumbling roll, was back upright.

“I only went ‘mutt’ because Bayek wanted to tell you something,” he shot to her as he walked off.

“Oh, for-” She tossed her hat on the ground in frustration. “Mac! How many times do I have to keep rejecting these “suitors” you and Granny keep sending my way!? Getting married isn’t on the top of my To Do list!”

“Who said I was going to propose?” Bayek said, catching Applejack off guard and got Mac bellowing in laughter.

Applejack looked between the two before blushing and stammering. “I, uh, I jumped the gun a little bit, didn’t I?”

“Just a tad,” Bayek answered.

“Well, what do you need to say?” She asked.

(Meanwhile, with Yang and John)

As both Yang and John made their ways towards the Everfree. They both remained silent during most of the walk there, which wasn’t surprising especially considering the situation, but it eventually started getting to Yang pretty quickly. “So, John, how long have you been here?”

“As in this world… only two days,” John responded as he continued walking forwards, his hands in his pockets, seemingly gripping onto something inside it. “Why do you ask?”

Yang then put a hand on the back of her head before she explained her reasoning to why she asked. “Well, it’s a bit of a walk, and I just want to talk a bit. Break the silence, you know?”

“I can understand that, but I’m just not that sure what to even ask. It’s not like I’ve got any experience as what we are as a group now.”

“From my experience, you just have to roll with it. It was pretty rough for me starting out, with a whole new body. Thankfully, things didn’t get this interesting this quickly,” Yang responded after realizing that John was referring to being a Displaced.

“By interesting I take it you mean meeting others like us?” John clarified.

“No, I’m talking about having to help with a kidnapping case or something big like that only two days into the Displacement. It was at least a week or two before my first fight. I think.”

“To be honest with you, this kind of stuff isn’t that new to me, kinda had to sort problems like this every once in a while,” John admitted as he pulled out a small badge that had been in his pocket.

As soon as Yang noticed the badge she recognised what it was almost immediately. “Police? Well, thanks for all you do.” She then looked back forwards and saw the edge of the Everfree. “Alright, what’s the plan?”

“I guess the best thing is for us to scour the edge of the forest, maybe we’ll be able to pick up a trail that way, that could help give us some sort of clue.”

“Sounds like a plan. So, you that way, I’ll go this way?”

“If you are okay with that sure,” John responded as he placed his badge back in his pocket and walked into the woods away from Yang.

After half an hour, Yang stumbled out in front of John, landing on her face. “Stupid rock,” She muttered from her spot on the ground.

“Are you okay down their Yang?” John asked as he looked down to her.

“Yeah, I’m fine.”

“Let me help you up.” As John helped Yang get to her feet, his hand briefly got caught in her hair, accidentally pulling a couple strands out.

Yang quickly turned on him with an angry glare, grabbing his collar with one hand to make sure John wouldn’t go anywhere. “Watch the hair, bud. I put a lot of effort into it, you know.”

“Oh, I know,” John responded as he quickly held up his hands, letting the gesture and silence calm her down. “Sorry about that. Did you find anything?”

Yang let go and gave him some breathing room. “Well, there were some plants that looked like they’d been walked through, and I followed them, but it only lead me back here, so that’s a dead end. In short, nothing.”

“And they didn’t lead anywhere else? You didn’t hear anything strange?” John asked sceptically. Something about how Yang was acting seeming off to how she’d been when they’d separated earlier.

“Took the trail slow, and I only heard the occasional bird. Sorry.”

“I see,” John responded looking upwards before saying, “well if that is the case we might as well head back to the farm for now, maybe try looking at this from a different angle.”

Yang gave it a moment of thought before nodding in agreement. “Yeah, that sounds like a good idea.”

”Okay, let’s get moving then,” John responded letting Yang walk ahead of him.

Yang, with only a nod in response, lead the way out of the forest and back to the farm. She decided not to talk during the walk, thinking about something that was on her mind.

As Yang and John got back to the farm, Bayek and Applejack were coming back from the orchard. Bayek noticed the former two and called out to them. “Hey, you two! Any luck?!”

“Sadly not,” John responded, “Yang thought she had something but it led her nowhere of any interest.”

“Gosh dang it,” Bayek muttered to himself. “Well, at least we tried. By the way, Yang, where are your boots?”

“Why are you asking about boots?” Applejack asked. “She’s fine with her hooves.”

“And now I need to explain human anatomy to you as compared to pony anatomy,” he responded. “But first…” He pulled out his bow and aimed it at Yang, causing her to stop. “John, do a bit of a look over and do your thing.”

“Oh I have no need,” John responded as he grabbed his gun from his side placing it behind Yang's head before he said, “I was already pretty suspicious but I couldn’t make a claim on my opinion alone, it wasn’t that hard to work it out after following behind her for a few minutes.”

“Lack of feet?” Bayek asked.

“Feet?” Applejack and ‘Yang’ asked in confusion.

“Look at the things sticking out of the bottom of my legs. Those are feet,” Bayek said. “This apparent shapeshifter or illusionist forgot that fine detail in his or her disguise.”

The Yang lookalike looked between his feet and ‘her’ lack thereof. “Horseapples,” ‘she’ said before the disguise melted away in a flash of green flames, leaving an insect like bipedal equine.

“I’d recommend if you don’t want a ton of bullets in you that you get on the floor with your hands on you're head,” John ordered as he pushed his gun against the creatures back to the point it could feel it against it.

“You’ll only get one bullet off, and I’m sure I can survive one shot and flee at the same time,” the changeling retorted, taking one step away.”

John then quickly brought the gun to the side of its wings before firing three times before putting another into its legs as it fell to the ground, “You really want to try again, or will you do as you are told?” John then stood above the Changeling as he placed the barrel of the gun against the Changelings head.

“Okay, you’re more advanced that what our initial intel told us,” the changeling said. “What do you want? Just want to torture the non-pony, eh?”

“Oh trust me, torture is the last thing you need to worry about,” John responded before looking to Applejack and asking, “Do you have a rope so we can move this thing somewhere out of the way? Would hate for someone to see what we have planned for him.”

“Like that matters,” the changeling said. “Everyone in this country is simply xenophobic to an extreme. They see you having me tied up and carried, they practically won’t bat an eye. Just two barbaric non-ponies settling a dispute.”

“Whoever said about anyone that matters seeing you, you see. I think you could very much benefit us and if you help us, let's just say you scratch my back I scratch yours.”

“And what, pray tell, are you gonna do?” The changeling asked. “My employers already guarantee that I’m well fed and ponies won’t persecute me for just being me.”

“Well, we won’t persecute you, and right now, I could ground you for the rest of your life.” John pointed out as he grabbed his sword that was resting against his side before placing it again the base of the Changelings wings.

“Wait a minute, that’s sounds a mite bit-” Applejack tried to interject.

“Fair enough, but aside from not taking my wings or life, what do you have to offer?” the changeling snarked. “Intel tells us that you’ve been here only two days...at most, so you don’t have much to offer.”

“Maybe not now, but given time, we can easily fulfill promises,” Bayek said.

“So it’s a matter of what you desire,” John added.

“And what could you offer that I want? You don’t know anything about me, after all.”

“That’s funny, considering you are a Changeling, a being that feeds off love and all that,” John said calmly before he added with a smirk, “Tell me, how is Chrysalis doing right now?”

The changeling shrugged as he chuckled a bit. “That dusty old moth? How should I know? I haven’t been in her hive for years.”

“Who’s Chrysalis?” Applejack asked.

“A Changeling Queen that thought she could get help from ponies for food, but a force of ponies dressed in Blood Iron attacked before she was barely a month in her rule,” the Changeling said. “I wouldn’t be surprised if she is planning some sort of revenge scheme or two as we speak.”

John then stopped taking a breath before he said calmly, “I see your life doesn’t hold much value for you… but what about this precious group you are protecting? I have no doubt that Applejack knows someone very much capable of using magic with the capabilities to make you tell us everything you know. In fact, I bet in a matter of minutes we could get you to sell out everyone you're protecting before we erase the entire group from history, and I’m sure you don’t want to be the one member who betrayed the trust of everyone who trusted you?”

“That ain’t gonna work,” the changeling said nonchalantly. “Twilight is Celestia’s puppet, and Celestia is my employer’s puppet. Give Twilight a task to break into the mind of another, she’ll ask for permission first. What goes around comes around, Bub’s your uncle, Fanny’s your aunt, and my employer’s would know who you are and when to cut their losses.”

“Then maybe it won’t be Twilight we need, but Pinkie instead,” Applejack said.

“Say what?” Bayek said before a pink party pony in a red cloak charged through him, reducing him to a head on a pile of sand.

“Nopony expects the Equish Inquisition!” Pinkie shouted as she posed with a cookbook full of cake recipes. After looking around for a bit, she chuckled in embarrassment. “Heh heh, sorry. I was supposed to save that for later.” After flinging off the red cloak, revealing more normal clothes underneath.

Bayek groaned as an arm slowly rose from the sand pile. “Is it too much to ask to not be reduced to a pile of sand?” He asked.

“Sorry, I didn’t know she would do that,” Applejack admitted. “If anything, I would have expected her to jump out of my hat.”

“Considering this is becoming normal for him, I’m not that surprised anymore,” John responded as he shook his head.

“Anyway, Pinkie,” Applejack said, getting the pink pony’s attention. “Grab three sets of earmuffs from whatever stash you have and get the bug-pony-thing to talk.”

As Pinke dove into a pile of hay, apparently searching for the earmuffs, the changeling scoffed. “That’s your idea to get me to talk? What will she do? Throw me a party?”

“Oh that comes later,” Pinkie said as she distributed the earmuffs to Applejack, John, and Bayek. “For now, well, it’ll be done before you know it.”

Applejack nodded for emphasis as she put on her earmuffs, John and Bayek following suit.

A few minutes and one talk later

“I’LL TALK! I’LL TALK! I’LL TELL YOU EVERYTHING, JUST GET HER AWAY FROM ME!” The changeling was quivering under Pinkie’s methods, fruitlessly trying to get away from her.

“Wow, I’m not hearing any of what is going on, but I’m starting to think this wasn’t the best idea,” Bayek said as well as he could to Applejack.

Applejack didn’t hear Bayek, as she was still watching. Only when Pinkie gave a hand signal did she take off her earmuffs. “You’re sure he’ll tell the truth, Pinkie?”

“Don’t worry, Applejack,” Pinkie assured her friend with a pat on the shoulder. “He won’t lead you wrong at all.”

“I don’t think anyone should go through that,” the changeling said as Pinkie readied to depart.

Elsewhere

“What was that!?” One voice said in pure fear.

“What one of my infiltrators warned about...and a rogue didn’t heed that warning,” a second answered. “He paid the price and we got a share of the fear.”

“Yikes!”

“So what did you talk to him about, Pinkie?” John asked.

“Baking secrets that are so secret, if you didn’t go mad hearing them, I would have to tie you up and hide you in my Party Planning Cave until you went mad there,” she answered with a giggle and happily bounced off.

The closest one to being unfazed by the revelation was Applejack, who still felt a small shiver go down her spine. “Well, thanks, Pinkie. I’ll bring you some apple tarts later.”

“Thanks, Applejack.” Pinkie left with a spring in her step. After she left, Bayek and John stepped towards the changeling.

“So are you ready to answer our questions?” John asked with a seemingly kind smile as he placed his sword back into its sheath and looked to the Changeling. The Changeling could only gulp in fear.

“I’ll take that as a yes.” John added as he grabbed a pair of handcuffs from his jacket before restraining the Changelings arm behind it before he said, “Applejack, anywhere we can take him to sort everything out without being interrupted?”

“Let’s just take him into the barn,” she said, grabbing the Changeling and hauling him onto her shoulder. “It’ll be private enough to get the job done.”

“Sounds like a plan to me,” John responded before walking towards the barn as he placed his pistol back into his holster before the group entered the barn.

Chapter 7 - The Great Escape

“I don’t exactly understand the point of this, since I’m already going to be cooperative to the questioning,” the Changeling said to Applejack as she was tying him to a support pole of the barn.

“While that may be true, and I believe you, I’m not taking any chances,” she said, tightening one of the knots a bit harder in additional response.

“Ease up, Applejack,” Bayek said as he examined his daggers. “You’re not the “Bad Cop” in this interrogation. John is going to do that.”

“I have a feeling I’m going to regret asking this, but why am I supposedly a ‘bad cop’?” John asked curiously, seeming a bit insulted by Bayek’s remark.

“Because as a cop, or former cop...whatever you are, you know how brutal you can be without breaking ethics laws, if those exist here,” Bayek answered. “Besides, I sometimes find it easier to be kind and sympathetic.”

“I’m sorry, but I fail to see how you can say that seriously,” John remarked as he grabbed his sword, resting it on his shoulders as he turned to the Changeling and said with an almost sadistic grin on his face, “But I think I will enjoy this.”

“Just make sure he stays alive,” Bayek added. “And keep him sane. He’s probably barely holding on after whatever Pinkie said to...him? Her?”

“It’s ‘him.’ You got that?” The changeling said.

“I’d have gone with it,” John responded, with a sigh before adding. “Besides ‘it’ never told us its name afterall.”

“My name is, and I’m serious, ‘Drone Designation: Rogue.’ However, you can call me Rogue. It’s easier that the full thing...and please refer to me a male,” the Changeling said. “We may be technically genderless or Bi...whatever. We also get to choose whether we are referred to as male or female.”

“You really think I’m going to bother calling you anything more than ‘it’? You are, for all intents and purposes, the suspect for the kidnapping of both Yang and Applebloom.”

“You are half right,” Rogue said. “I may have been mostly responsible for the kidnapping of this Yang, but Applebloom was taken by The Slaver. As for Yang, I was under orders from The Harlot.”

“And who are these two people you are referring too?” John asked.

“I don’t know their names, but they are two mares that run a slave business and gladiator arena, with a brothel on the side,” Rogue said. “Their aliases make it pretty obvious who runs what end of the business. The Slaver enslaves non-pony and pony alike, but takes delight in handling them differently. She gets non-ponies addicted to a drug that pretty much keeps them in line. Ie, ‘if you’re a good boy/girl, you’ll get your fix.’ With me so far?”

“Okay, and why exactly do they do that, and what’s the point in you telling me this?” John asked.

“Pony Supremacy, but my point has to do with Applebloom, who you want to find, if I’m not mistaken,” Rogue snapped. “The Slaver uses different manipulation tactics when dealing with pony slaves and gladiators. She uses the loved ones of the pony in question. And from what you got from that now fully dead stallion-tree thing, that pony is-”

“Ma?” Applejack finished.

“...I was going to say ‘Pear Butter,’ but that works too,” Rogue deadpanned.

“So she was kidnapped to keep Ma from attempting to escape or rebel?” She asked. Rogue nodded.

“Okay, so why take Yang, and what can you tell us about this Harlot character?” John asked, seemingly calm and non-threatening, being that Rogue wasn’t currently causing any trouble for them.

“Both go hand in hand,” Rogue said, before he shivered in disgust and fear. “Long story short, I personally call The Harlot “The Slut” when she isn’t around. She works alongside The Slaver and takes advantage of the drugged up non-ponies for her personal lust...male, female, or both. When I reported to The Harlot about you through a makeshift hive mind communication to her, she insisted on having one of you brought to her. I went with Yang because she was the only one I could capture fairly easily, as despite her strength, I could see that she lacked the desire to use said strength. Easy “prey” in any book.”

“And yet you chose to not take the easier targets with no powers?” John asked in confusion, “It doesn’t make any sense on your part.”

“You guys are more armed and armoured than she was, powers or not. That, and she was engrossed in her search, so she was distracted, making her quite easy to knock out and replace,” Rogue explained.

“Okay, next question where are they hiding?” John asked this time picking his sword off this shoulders and seeming to get into a stance as if he was going to swing the blade at Rogue if he didn’t answer quickly.

“They are in an abandoned Diamond Dog den East of Ponyville,” Rogue said quickly. “The ‘proper’ entrance is impossible to find, and even if you did, it’s heavily booby trapped. The secret entrance is hidden in a certain portion of the Everfree Forest. It is hidden under a lone birch tree just a few miles south of the gem fields.

“How long does it take for the Drug to fully affect its victims?”

Rogue gestured his head towards Bayek. “That guy mentioned that you’re a cop, so imagine the most addictive drug known to your kind and that’s practically what it is.” He answered.

John then walked over to Bayek before he said, “So, we’ll head off now to save them, but what should we do with him?”

“We can keep him here for now,” Bayek said. “After we take care of The Slaver and The Harlot, we can see if we can make him an Assassin...and I’m really thinking we need to come up with a less negative or intimidating name.”

John nodded his head in agreement before he looked towards Rogue, then asked Bayek with a smirk on his face,“One more bad cop moment before we go?”

“What is it?” Rogue asked in slight fear as Bayek nodded.

John walked back over towards Rogue before suddenly swinging his sword towards the Changeling's head, only stopping a few centimetres away from striking him before he said, “We are going to save everyone. If we come back, and you have tried to or have escaped, I will hunt you down, take your wings and horn, leave you chained to this post, and let you waste away, and if by some miracle you survive beyond a month, I will make your end the most agonising and drawn out death you can imagine.” He pulled his blade away before leaning in and whispering, “Do you understand what I am telling you?”

“Yes sir!” Rogue squeaked out.

“Good,” John responded, patting Rogue on the head before saying, “Now stay here and behave. We’ll be right back,” almost as if he was talking to a child.

Bayek, John, and Applejack left the barn. Just as the door was closed, Bayek asked, “We can pretty much assume that he was telling the truth. As for what he told us, what do you guys think?”

“I think these two, this Slaver and Harlot, are just sick, twisted ponies,” she answered. “With a few exceptions, I don’t think anypony, or anybody for that matter, would be able to do any of what he said they did without some form of guilt or feeling sick.”

“Trust me when I say this: many criminals commit acts that most would feel the same way you do, without a hint of shame or guilt for their own actions,” John admitted as he looked to the sky before he said to Applejack, “I can only imagine that you’ll be wanting to follow us when we go after them.”

“You bet your bottom bit I would,” she boasted. “And if anything happened to Applebloom, I’ll beat the living daylights outta them!”

“And I have no doubt that you could, but let me ask you this. Is that really the best course of action for you to take… we need someone to stay here incase someone comes back and besides if they see you, it could make it so you could be branded as a criminal if things go wrong. Just leave saving Applebloom and your mother to us, that way even if we get caught we can get your family back to you.”

Applejack could only growl in frustration. “I hate it when someone is right and it conflicts with me wanting to keep my land and family safe,” she complained. “You better get her home, you hear? One hair out of place, and good-bye to consciousness for both of you!”

“I’ve already said “Hello, Undeath” quite some time ago,” Bayek remarked. “Saying good-bye to consciousness won’t sound that bad.” Applejack pulled her fist back, causing him to flinch. “And said good-bye will be painful! I understand. Please walk away.” Satisfied, she walked away, ready to get more farm work done.

(Later that night)

“A lone birch a few miles south of the Gem Fields,” Bayek muttered to himself as he and John searched for the secret entrance to the Slaver and Harlot’s lair. “That’s what he says to us. But, as far as I can tell, he failed to mention the fact that there are birch trees every couple meters!”

“Well he did say a Lone birch tree, obviously none of these are by themselves, so they obviously aren’t the tree we’re looking for.”

“Well, we’ve gotten this far. What did we miss?” Bayek asked in annoyance. “Is the ‘Lone’ we’re looking for actually ‘Loan?’ Or am I just thinking too hard!?”

“For you… possibly,” John responded before knocking on a nearby tree, hearing a noise reverberate through it almost as if there was a void inside it, “Umm… What if the trees are fake?”

Bayek took a closer look at one of the birch trees, only to see that the black striped trees looked like shoddy paper mache colored over with crayons. “Then either my eyesight is poor or someone is very good with illusions,” he answered before he pulled out his sword and swung it at the fake, slicing through it easily. “Well, timber.”

Almost instantaneously after Bayek cut through the tree, it floated to the ground as a gentle breeze got inside the completely hollow paper mache tree. John looked to Bayek as he said in annoyance, “Are they serious about this?”

Bayek sliced through another fake tree and watched it fall apart as well. “It seems that that is the case. Get chopping,” he said. John shrugged and pulled out his sword and began “chopping” the birch trees.

The “chopping” went on for roughly half an hour before one of their swings hit more resistance than the rest. “Huh, I think I’ve actually hit birch,” Bayek said, getting John’s attention.

“Do you think you’ve found it?” John asked as he walked over towards Bayek.

“Only one way to find out,” he said as he put his sword away and pulled out his mace. With a grunt, he heaved the mace in the direction of the tree, smashing it against it. On impact, the tree shimmered, being replaced by a barely intact, shack-like building thing with a broken door. On the door, it said, ‘Lone Birch.’

“Maybe we should have asked him to be more specific after all,” John admitted as he sheathed his sword.

“True enough,” Bayek said, sheathing his sword and drawing his Daggers of Nefertiti. “Let’s see about getting in there and-” an explosion was heard from the entrance and briefly shook the ground like a small earthquake. “What was-”

“INCOMING!!!” The two heard from behind them. Bayek was the first to turn around and saw Applejack heading towards him at full sprint, all while armed with her new hatchet and a hunting musket. Without any time to react, she barreled through him, disintegrating his body into sand and leaving his head on it as she rushed into the entrance.

A few seconds after Applejack’s rush, Bayek could only sigh. “If Undeath has a concept of healthy, I don’t think this is it.”

“At least you’re able to pull yourself back together,” John pointed out. “And I swear we told her to stay back at the farm.”

“Oh, ha ha. Not that that fact makes it any less painful,” Bayek shot back. “And if you were in her situation, minus the fact that you’re a cop, would you do what she just did?”

“Well, replace her sister with my child or wife, and I most likely would,” John admitted.

“That counts,” Bayek said, managing to raise a half formed hand out of the sand for a thumbs up. “Why don’t you go on without me. I’ll stay here, and once I’m fully formed, I can catch any stragglers as they try to escape this way.”

“I’ll hold you to that, just pull yourself together as soon as you can. I’ll make sure Applejack doesn’t do something stupid and get herself branded a criminal,” John responded as he ran into the doorway after Applejack.

“Aye-aye, sir!” Bayek answered, managing to pull two arms out before John vanished.

As John ran down the corridors in pursuit of Applejack he constantly heard more and more explosions echoing through the maze of tunnels. He could also faintly hear dangerous music as well, and it was soon on the move.

After a minute he saw Applejack running in the distance as he shouted out, “Applejack slow down and listen to me!”

Without any warning, she pointed her hunting musket at him, almost getting it shoved up his nose, had he not stopped when she turned. “And why should I!? My sister is trapped down here and explosions are going off! I don’t care if I’m branded a criminal, I’d rather her safe and me jailed or dead over her being dead and me alive!” She yelled at him.

John then reached her before quickly slapping the musket from her grip as he shouted, “And you think it only affects you! What repercussions do you think it will have on everyone else? You're grandmother can barely move so she can’t help with the farm and that leaves your brother and do you really think he could handle the whole farm alone?” John then quickly slapped Applejack in the face before adding, “And you so caught up on one thing that you can’t see why I told you to stay, you end up getting killed or imprisoned your family’s livelihood would crumble faster that it would take me to blink.”

Confusion started to appear on Applejack’s face as she comprehended John’s words. “Bloom...but Granny and Mac...Gotta save Bloom though…”

“We can avoid both of those problems. Just slow down and-” John stopped and turned his head slightly. “Hide in here, quick!” John pulled Applejack into a decorative alcove, barely big enough for both of them, seconds before a squad of armed and armored ponies ran past. “If you had kept running and not thinking, they would have been on your tail and you’d have never gotten out safely.”

Applejack remained quiet, her thoughts racing with what could have happened if she had been caught. “Yeah.” After a couple seconds of silence, she asked, “Are we going to follow them?”

“Well considering if we don’t we will be trying to find our way through this maze with no clue where we are going, what do you think?” John asked Applejack as he looked out of the corridor they were in before adding, “Come on, we better catch them up before something bad happens.”

“Alright.” Applejack followed John out of the alcove and after the guards, who didn’t notice that they were being followed. After a few moments of following them, they stopped at a stalemate in a section of the hall. A hooded and masked mare wearing a rather revealing red and black monokini with side skirts hiding her cutie mark was holding Applebloom with a knife to her neck. In front of them was Yang with literally flaming hair and rage on her face. A series of armored guard ponies surrounded the two, all weapons (black powder and otherwise) pointed at the fiery woman. “That pony seems like the Harlot...and she’s…” Applejack began to growl in anger.

“Applejack, calm down. Don’t do something stupid, If your not careful you could get Applebloom killed,” John said carefully as he tried to decide what to do.

“Well, something’s gotta be done!” She whisper-shouted at him. “As much as you trust this Yang, I can’t just up and trust her!”

“Then don’t,” John responded as he started to walk forwards, “Just wait for my signal.”

“What signal?”

John didn’t respond as he walked up behind the guards that were ahead of him, crouched, and aimed his pistol between two of them. He fired three bullets, two of them going through The Harlot’s legs, making her fall to the ground, dropping the knife and releasing Applebloom in the process. The third shot went into a nearby guard’s knee, and he was soon down as well.

He then quickly spun around using his Hidden blade to spear the guard who had been next to him through the neck killing him. As he did so, Applejack pulled up her musket and shot another one that was turning around after hearing John’s shots and seeing his comrade getting “shanked.”

In the middle of it, shortly after the knife was dropped, Yang picked up Applebloom, looked around, and shoulder checked a guard into a wall, and stopped near John and Applejack. When she saw the two, she seemed to collapse a bit. “One little sister, ready to go. Are you picking her up or do you want home delivery for three bits extra?” Yang asked.

Applejack gave her an incredulous look before saying, “Get her home in one piece, cleaned up, and I’ll double that.” Applejack didn’t miss a beat before she turned to the guards, pulled out her hatchet, and began dueling with some of them. Any that got particularly close got extra attention from the hatchet.

It was then John quickly jumped forwards as he drew his own sword stabbing it forwards through one of the oncoming guards chest before getting next to Applejack before whispering, “You focus on getting the others out the way we came. Bayek’s out that way and can get everyone clear, I’m going to go through them all and free everyone I can.” Applejack nodded, collected her musket, and began to leave the way the two entered, with Yang and Applebloom following.

John then turned back the the guards in front of him before asking, “So… who’s first?” as he placed one hand out gesturing for them to attack him as all the guards charged towards him with their own weapons bared.

After a few minutes of fighting all of the guards were on the ground groaning in pain and unable to stand or dead, it was then he walked over to The Harlot before kneeling down in front of her before he said, “So what is a pretty woman like you doing in a place like this?”

She gave him a coughing laugh. “Well, you know, dying, but at least I won’t die a virgin,” She answered. “What about you, handsome hunk? Came to sample any of this?” She gestured to herself while speaking with lust.

“Well, I may consider your option, if you wanted something more exotic, but I don’t do things for free. I’m sure someone like you could accept that fact,” John responded with a kind smile.

“I can probably guess what you want. However, you won’t get it directly,” she said, coughing up a little blood and then licking it off of her lips. “The little foal you saved from my associate's machinations is the daughter of one Pear Butter. Inside a hidden compartment behind her cage is a handful of documents, mostly the Slaver’s manifest records and some of my letters to some exotic friends I have. Will that be enough?” She asked with a hopeful smile.

“Depends, do you want saving so you could live to ‘enjoy’ yourself another day or do you want to enjoy yourself after I save your life?” John asked as he rubbed The Harlot below her chin.

“As good as those options sound, I’m gonna have to pass. If you end up saving me, I’ll be a target for both the Order, and those who may be related to the people enslaved here. No, better to die here in relative peace than to be killed violently.”

“You do realise those wounds won’t kill you,” John pointed out.

“Yes, but it won’t matter,” she said. “A little extra info to have you kill me as you kiss me?” She removed her mask and hood and scooted her skirts to the side, revealing her identity. “What do you say?”

“Do I get some ‘real’ accurate information first?” John asked as he pulled her closer.

“Some before and some after the kiss,” she said.

“If that's case can I make a request?” John asked as he backed away slightly

“And what is that, sweet cheeks?”

“I want to know about any special ‘medicine’ you give people here,” John requested.

“The ‘medicine’ is made from an extract of cockatrice venom, refined love from changelings, and soy milk. The best way to counteract the effects of the medicine is apple juice mixed with refined love and coconut milk. Additional information on ingredient sources and mixing proportions are included in the manifest records, so obtaining and brewing them will be easy.”

“I see, and I wouldn’t suppose you would throw in the secret to how to help ‘fix’ people who are on this can you, Lyra,” John whispered into her ear.

“I just did,” Lyra answered, as she traced his jawline with a finger. “So, you want the other bit of info, kiss first.”

“I see no harm in it my little Lyra,” John responded as he leaned in to kiss her.

After a few minutes of kissing, Lyra pulled herself away gently and breathed in with a lustful shiver. “And my last bit of information: don’t trust Celestia. She has believed the lie, ‘All is well’ for so long, she cannot see it any other way. Even and especially when true proof and evidence of the contrary is presented. Such a mentality has allowed the Order to operate without hindrance from Nightmare Moon’s banishment, until now.” She then laid down on the ground. “And a minor request, make sure whatever weapon you use to end me hits the heart.”

John then leaned down before he said, “of course” before standing up bringing his sword over her before he added as he pulled the blade away from her, “but I never said I would kill you my little Lyra.”

“You really know how to stroke a girl’s heartstrings, don’t you,” she said, before grabbing the blade and pulled it into her chest, easily impaling herself. “Enjoy your life while you can, killer.”

“You really think I’m letting you out of this that easily?” John asked before wrapping the Shroud of Eden around her before placing her over his shoulders as he added, “you're going to lead me to the others, if you do I may kill you as you wanted me too”

“Killjoy,” she muttered angrily at him.

“Don’t worry if you do as I ask from here on out I promise you that i’ll kill you the exact way you wanted me too, okay Lyra,” John offered with a kind smile.

“If it’s gonna be like that, at least let me grip your butt,” she said with a lustful smile on her face.

“How about no, I’m only going to allow that if you decide to serve me for the rest of your life and don’t ask me to kill you.”

Her response to that was to slap a hand on his butt, squeeze it a bit, and peck him on the cheek. “When you put it that way, I might as well. However, if I’m killed by the Order or other peoples, you take the blame for that. No if’s, and’s, or butts about it.”

“I’m a cop, I’m always blamed for everything,” John responded as he said whilst scratching Lyra behind one of her ears, “So where were you keeping everyone you had captured?”

“Most of the prisoners were kept in a few rooms in the right halls. All the other halls lead into staff rooms and Gladiator arena viewing rooms. The tunnel we’re in will eventually lead to the Slaver’s office and Pear Butter’s cell.

“And is your friend the Slaver here right now? You can’t tell me more about her can you?” John asked as he began to walk where Lyra had just directed him.

“I don’t look too far into the details of what she does. I do know who she is though,” Lyra said. “Her name is Bon Bon. Most common ponies think she’s a candymare. Most nobles think she’s a secret agent. But her “name” easily gives away her ‘job’.”

“I see, thank you for telling me that Lyra,” John responded while rubbing the back of her neck. “You’re being a great help.”

“Why thank you, handsome hunk,” she purred, squeezing his butt again.

“Lyra, please stop that for a bit,” John requested as he saw that she had healed completely and took the Shroud of Eden off her before having her walk beside him.

Lyra whistled as she and John continued to the cells, the pathway covered in scorch marks. “That girl really had some fire in her.”

“Are we sure she didn’t rub off on you a bit?” John responded with a smile.

“She does hit like a train, I will admit, but the rubbing didn’t happen,” she answered, cuddling close to him. After reaching the end of the main tunnel, they arrived at the main office. One cell near the door was severely damaged, a pair of bars pulled into it and the area in front littered with a number of scorch marks.

A cell in the opposite corner held an earth pony inside it, the pony had what looked to have pale peach coloured coat that was covered in dirt, a curly orange mane and bright blue eyes with a look that almost made it look like she had no hope left in her.

“And now I remember why I didn’t like Bonnie’s method of working with other ponies...and sometimes other species,” Lyra said with a slight shiver.

John then walked up to the cage before he said, “Miss, is your name Pear Butter, also known to others as Buttercup?”

The pony looked up, only to focus her sight on Lyra. “So, keeping up with your family business, Lyra?”

“Okay, for the record, I handed that to Bonnie. I hate enslavement. However, I couldn’t just leave the Order, and so I just simply “tread water” while here, faking the idea that I was still working with them...not sure if they bought it. Bonnie didn’t, at the least.”

The pony sneered at her before turning to John. “And who wants to know? A disguised agent of the Order? A Cultist, hoping to recruit me into their cause against Equestria?”

“Let's just say a friend of the family and I can safely deny both of those statements,” John responded as he blinked activating his Eagle Vision and looking at her, “let's just say, you're not the last of us anymore.”

“Huh, it’s been a while since a member of the Sicarius Fratrum,” she said. “Nihil est verum. Omnia licent.”

“I take it that would mean, Nothing is true. Everything is permitted?” John asked as he said, “Anyway, I’ve come to get you home to your family.”

“Really?” John nodded. “Oh, thank the stars. I almost lost hope of getting out.” She got up, but faltered slightly. “What about the other prisoners?”

“I plan to free everyone,” John admitted as he looked to Lyra as if to tell her to open the cage. Without saying a word, Lyra pulsed magic from her horn, opening the cage and the secret compartment just behind the cage.

“Yes, well, unless the drugged people here are good fighters, we aren’t gonna be leaving anytime soon,” Pear Butter said as she walked over to a weapon rack and grabbed an odd looking scythe-spear combo.

Lyra got wide eyes at that statement and banged her head on the stone wall. “I knew I forgot something!” She shouted. “Disturbing the illusionary trees at the entrance, damaging the entrance, and/or entering the entrance without proper approval or Order Membership, triggers an alarm at the nearby outpost, causing a virtual army to come to attack or root out intruders. Celestia and Luna DAMIT!!!”

“I’ll have to beat some sense into that damn Rogue for not telling us about that one,” John groaned in annoyance before adding, “Lyra, I have no doubt you have other hidden entrances or exits. Are any of them usable?”

“The only entrances or exits are the one you entered, and the ‘false,’ booby-trapped one,” she said with a sheepish smile. “Our only other option is to get the Diamond Dog prisoners to tunnel us a way out that is far away from the Order. I’ll see about getting that going while you gather the documents and free any prisoners I may miss.” She ran off, heading towards the other cell blocks.

As Lyra left, Pear Butter gave John a little bit of a glare. “You sure we can trust her?”

“Well considering the fact that I left a guard alive, who heard her betray the Order, I don’t see her having much of a choice but to follow my orders,” John pointed out smugly.

“Smart ass,” she muttered before pointing to the compartment. “You get those documents, I’ll keep an eye on the horny mare...and she’s horny in both senses of the word.”

“Agreed, if you keep an eye on her, I’ll secure all the documents,” John offered

“Just do it,” Pear Butter said, before leaving the room.

A good half hour or so later, Lyra was standing behind two Diamond Dogs as they were starting their tunnelling. Behind her were all of the prisoners, John, and Pear Butter, the latter two seemingly impatient.

“Can’t you get those mutts to dig faster!?” Pear Butter asked in agitation.

“Hey, digging through 6 inches of magically reinforced bedrock is not a quick process,” Lyra shot back. “Once they get past that, the digging will go quicker.”

John, for the most part, remained calm pointing his pistol down the corridor that led to the hidden exit before saying, “Well, keep moving as fast as you can. I can hear the fighting getting closer, and it sounds like a lot more than I would have expected.”

Just as he said that, a nearby door was knocked down, with Bayek and an Egyptian looking Jackal being pushed through. The two got back up and did a mock phalanx, poking their spears through the door, and blocking entrance with their shields.

“I have a feeling I don’t want to ask,” John responded looking at Bayek.

“You don’t have to,” Bayek said. “I’ll just tell. Yang ripped out my kidney, turned it into a shoddy sword and killed one of the Order soldiers, making this guy. Say hello, Ba.”

“Not now, milord! We’ve got to keep these Order fools away!” The jackal, Ba, aggressively shot back.

“I see,” John responded looking back to Lyra as he asked, “How far off are we?”

“3 out of 6 inches complete!” She answered.

“We need to buy them more time,” John responded before seeing a large mask on the ground before he picked it up placing it over his face before saying, “This will do,” as he walked towards the door.

“Please don’t tell me you’re hoping they’re stupid and will follow what you say,” Pear Butter said, with an accompanying facepalm.

“No, I’m hoping this will hide my face from them while I buy us more time,” John responded.

“What are you planning?” Bayek asked.

“Probably something stupid,” John responded as he walked towards the door, Ba and Bayek giving him room to go through without giving an inch to the Guards.

John then walking towards the oncoming guards without saying a word his hand on the hilt of his sword before looking towards the guards gesturing for them to attack him.

“Fire muskets!” The commander shouted at the marksmen. They obeyed, firing a volley of crossbow bolts and musket shots at John and the mock phalanx. John simply didn’t responded as he placed his hand towards the oncoming bullets as they all seemed to slow down to a halt by the time they reached him dropping to the floor harmlessly.

“A Tainted One,” the commander said, disdain clear in his voice. “Back away! I’ll deal with this abomination myself!” The commander stepped forward and drew his sword.

“A tainted one? What the heck of you on about?” John asked as he slowly drew his own sword.

“You wield weapons used by the cursed precursors. To be able to do that, your bloodline must have their blood. With very few exceptions, Tainted Ones are a blight to this world and must be destroyed,” the commander said. “Nothing against you, it’s just my job.” He then rushed forward and made an attempt to stab John.

John once again did not responded quickly turning sideways, narrowly avoiding the blade, before grabbing his pistol as quickly firing once into the commanders head before saying, it's nothing personal it's just good business,” The commander’s forward momentum carried him forward and down, dead from the bullet wound.

The guards looked between their dead commander and John for a few seconds before they backed away, as if in fear.

John then walked forwards stepping on the commanders dead body before he said, “if you don’t want to join him, turn away and leave now. Otherwise,” he then paused pointing his gun towards towards the terrified guards. “You get the picture.”

The guards stopped and suddenly their fear were replaced with determined rage. “Oh, we get the picture, but let’s count the numbers,” one of the guards said. “One of you with one gun and one sword, against roughly 100 of the Order’s finest. Even if your gun is more advanced that what we use, that is really tough odds to work with.”

“Maybe it is, but are you willing to take that risk?” John asked somehow remaining calm throughout. The guards’ response was a unified yell (which oddly sounded like a train whistle), and a sudden charge that literally took John off of his feet and he landed at Bayek’s and Ba’s feet, with stab wound up and down his torso.

“Great plan, idiot,” Ba said in a snarky tone. “You bought us a full minute of time with maybe 15 minutes of what we already had!”

“Maybe I did,” John responded standing back up, “but it’s a minute more than holding the door would have given us. Which I can keep extending,” John responded unsheathing his sword.

“Good luck with that,” Ba said. “I’ll just be here and hopefully not die again.”

“...Not going to ask. Let's leave that till after we get out of this mess,” John responded as he flicked his sword out is a horizontal arc as the blade suddenly shone in a blue glow before what almost looked to be lightning jumped from the blade jumping between all the guards, their armour working as a conductor moving the lightning through the group of in quick succession.

The guards were electrocuted and were tossed back, all unconscious with some of them twitching. “I was going to say ‘if,’ but what you just did changed my mind,” Ba said.

“What the hell was that?” John asked himself looking at his blade in confusion the lighting still sparking through the blade, but not moving through the hilt of the sword.

“Isn’t that sword supposed to be a Sword of Eden?” Bayek asked, lowering his shield and spear.

“I have no idea, I thought it was just a very ornate sword,” John admitted flicking the blade to the side as the remaining sparks jumped towards one of the nearest guards, electrocuting said guard again, causing him to soil himself.

“If you guys are done stroking each other’s egos, the diamond dogs goootttt what the heck happened in here?” Pear Butter said, confusion reigning the last bit. “And did that guard shit himself?”

“Yes, and it’s better you don’t ask because I have no idea myself.” John admitted as he sheathed his sword.

“That sounds fair,” Ba said. “Now let’s get going. Ms. Butter here seems to have failed to say something about the Diamond Dogs, which means that we’re probably a good ways behind them and we need to catch up.” He then slung his shield onto his back and walked off to the newly dug tunnel, with Bayek and Pear behind him.

John nodded his head, kneeling down to pick up his gun before he looked to the Commander he had killed, reaching down and closing his eyes before whispering, “Rest in peace,” before standing up and running off after the others.

Lyra lagged behind the former slaves a little, waiting for the group to catch up. Once they did, her horn glowed a turquoise color and the room they started in collapsed. Soon, they were free.

Chapter 8 - The Lost, Now Found

It was now morning and a small section of ground just inside the Everfree forest collapsed in on itself. A Jackal head peek out of the newly formed hole for a brief moment. “All clear,” the Jackal said, pulling himself out of the hole before reaching in and pulling out Bayek.

“Thanks,” Bayek said, as he got his footing and began to keep a lookout as the hole enlarged. The next out of the hole was John as he carried a sleeping Lyra in his arms, bridal style. “How’s she doing, Romeo?” He joked to John.

“Depends on how your partner is doing,” John responded with a smirk as he stood up straight shielding his eyes as his eyes adjusted to the sunlight.

“That is none of your concern!” Ba snapped as he helped Pear out of the hole before helping the freed prisoners out of the hole.

“Ba, he’s a former cop,” Bayek said, facepalming. “The word doesn’t mean lover or whatever you were thinking.” Ba only shrugged in response.

“However we decide to interpret words, I just want to know who you two Assassins are, and how you knew I was down there?” Pear Butter asked.

“Well concerning me, I’m a person who was forced into an undead form, and I’m sure that Anubis and maybe Amun might have a hand in it,” Bayek answered for his ‘side’ of things.

“And in my case, just a normal person, nothing special about me about from being a policeman before this,” John added.

“Former Order soldier converted to Anubis’ Army,” Ba said. “Given some time, a Commander should eventually pick me up for orientation in the Duat.”

“You should realize that some of what you two desert dwellers said isn’t making sense to me,” Pear said in a deadpan tone.

“In simple terms, they are both beings that shouldn’t theoretically exist,” John admitted. “That and Anubis is a god of death.”

“Okay, but that aside, how did you know where to find me?” She asked.

“We captured a changeling SOB that gave us some surface information that helped us get to where you were being held,” Bayek said. “His information, coupled with the information we got from your husband when I helped bring his soul rest gave us what we needed to find you.”

“But my husband was killed when I was captured,” Pear said with some confusion on her face.

“I think it’s better you explain that one, Bayek,” John admitted.

“I’m going to propose a theory that Timberwolves are restless and vengeful souls possessing wood to form them,” Bayek said. “After revealing his soul and releasing it from the wooden husk, he was able to give a final goodbye to his children, give information about you’re capture and his mental enslavement, and was given a grave fit for a Pharaoh.”

“Mental enslavement?”

“We cannot confirm this last bit, but it may have been caused by one of the Pieces of Eden,” John suggested.

“Pieces of Eden?” Pear asked. “What does one normally look like?”

“You really can’t claim a normal look for them,” John admitted. “Heck, I’m wearing at least two on me this second.”

“And I’m suspicious of my hidden blade being one, as I thought I saw it glowing as I was fighting the Order,” Bayek said.

“They could be anything from a ring to a building and everything in between,” John admitted.

“That complicates things...what can they do?” She asked.

“It varies from item to item,” Bayek said. “John’s Shroud is an article of clothing or something like that that heals the wearer. Another piece that I’ve heard of, called the Broken Spear of Leonidas, enhances the skills, strengths, and abilities of the user.”

“Then there's the ‘Apple’ of Eden which can forcibly bend the will of the living to do whatever the holder wants and a staff that works with it to boost its power,” John added.

“So, after we get back to the farm and get properly rested, we should probably see about getting the Brotherhood jump-started back up and making sure said Pieces don’t get into the hands of the Order or the Cult,” Pear summarized.

“Maybe for the best, we also need to see what we can learn about them, from the documents we found and put everything we know together and plan or next move out,” John agreed.

“And with what John was able to do concerning “converting” Lyra, we don’t kill unless they are stubborn about their ideals and won’t “convert” to the Assassins,” Bayek said.

“Honestly, I don’t think she really needed any, convincing per say, I think she wanted to be near something ‘exotic’ as she put it, and I’ll admit I sort of played on that a lot to find things out.”

“Just admit that you like me at least,” Lyra said, opening her eyes. “I may like being near exotics, but that doesn’t mean I’m completely lusty.”

“If you behave, maybe I will. Eventually,” John admitted.

“I will, just so long as we share a bed at night. No sex required,” Lyra said with a purr.

“And yet that’s the first thing you said, mentioning sex,” John admitted as he rolled his eyes. “Not lusty my ass.”

“I was talking about legitimate sleep, not nightly sex sessions,” she said with a pout.

“Keep it in your pants and let’s get moving,” Ba said in annoyance. “Everyone’s out of the tunnel.”

John just rolled his eyes before he asked Lyra, “Think you can walk or do you still need me to carry you?”

“Since you’re offering,” She said, before displaying an impressive amount of flexibility and moved herself from his arms to his back. “I can walk, but I like the view from here.” She rested her arms and head on his head, while wrapping her legs around his torso.

John just rolled his eyes at her antics even though Bayek seemed to catch a small smile that only lasted a moment. “I’ll tease you later,” Bayek whispered to him.

“Just great,” John muttered back with a roll of his eyes.

“And it might be best if you try to limit your eye rolls,” Bayek added. “The frequency and reasons of your rolling reminds me of my mother’s ‘smile,’ which is basically just eye rolls.”

“Males,” Pear muttered, before switching her attention from them to getting home. After roughly 11 years, she would finally be home.

As the group returned to the farm they looked around finding that everyone they had saved had collapsed onto the ground before John looked to everyone before saying, “Maybe we should check on everyone before we head in.”

“Sounds fair. Save for two of us, these people aren’t worth anything to us dead,” Bayek said, attempting to joke. Ba, Lyra, and Pear simply facepalmed while John pinched the bridge of his nose while shaking his head.

“You just had to do that,” Lyra said, as she and John checked over the Diamond Dogs in the group, while Pear checked on some of the Griffins. Bayek was given disapproving looks from Ba as they checked on the Dragons.

After about five minutes later the group had checked over everyone the group joined back up before they made their way towards the door as John looked to Pear before he said, “Are you ready?”

With a deep breath and a nod, she answered, “Yes.” And knocked on the door.

After a few moments, the door slowly opened as Granny Smith stood on the other side before she almost calmly said, “Butter, John, step inside.” She turned to Bayek and Lyra. “You stay right there.”

She then stepped back in a bit, before she grabbed a nearby blunderbuss, before she stood up straight, and shot Bayek, knocking his head off his body and his body backwards. “That will be you if you step one hoof out of line, got it, Miss Lyra?”

At this Lyra simply nodded her head with wide eyes before entering the house and immediately hiding behind John as she trembled in fear.

“It’s a good thing I stayed back,” Ba said as he walked in, holding Bayek’s head as he did so.

It was then everyone in the room looked back over to Granny Smith, as the group saw her hugging and crying alongside Big Mac and the Pear Butter. “Eleven years. For eleven years, we thought you were dead.”

It was then that Pear Butter started crying a bit more while at the same time seeming to relax a bit. “There were times I wished I was, Granny. But now, I’m glad I lived.”

The group just watched as everyone continued hugging and crying as Yang turned back to the entrance, where Lyra was having a mild quiet freak out behind John as the Ba picked up and put Bayek’s head back on his body, which was standing there with his arms crossed and foot tapping impatiently. “I don’t know why you left my body outside and only brought my head inside,” Bayek said.

“It’s easier to keep you from being too annoying that way,” Ba said before he turned to another Jackel that was black furred and clad in gold and teal armor and robes who was standing in the room close to where Yang was sitting as Ba looked towards him and saluted. “Private Ba, reporting in!”

“At ease, soldier,” the new Jackel said, tapping his staff on the ground. “Report to the Duat, on the double.” The ground just under Ba seemed to collapse into sand, sucking him up. When the Jackal was gone, the ground reformed back into the hardwood floor it was. “Now, Bayek, John, I have a few words I need to say to you after you send Miss Xiao Long back to her world.”

“Alright then,” Bayek said as he produced the choker. “Yang, you may return home. Our contract is complete.”

Yang then attempted to stand up, but before she could a portal opened up under her feet as she fell into as it instantly closed behind her.

“So… that's how that works,” John remarked looking at where Yang had been moments before.

“What did you expect? A magic carpet and a Genie flight attendant?” Bayek asked as he walked up to the Jackal Commander.

“Oh I don’t know, maybe to turn into sand and fall into a portal,” John retorted.

“Gentlemen, let’s take this outside,” the Jackal said, opening the door. “The Apples need to catch back up after roughly 11 years of separation.” Just as he said that, Applebloom came down the stairs and saw the group of Apples hugging. She moved forward towards them before joining the group hug.

John then looked to the group before walking towards the door as Lyra followed closely behind him.

“Now, we have a few things to go over, like the Isu relics that are currently in your possessions,” the Jackal said.

“You mean his shroud?” Bayek asked.

“And the sword and your barely functional hidden blade,” the Jackal added. When he mentioned the hidden blade, Bayek’s blade sprung out, a few mechanism pieces falling off. “I take that back, non-functional hidden blade.”

“I can’t believe you didn’t maintain that properly Bayek,” John responded with a smirk.

“It was just a decorational prop back at the convention,” Bayek shot back. “Heck, I haven’t even used it at all when I got here.”

“Wait, are you talking about Relics of Harmony and Chaos?” Lyra asked.

“Wait, what are you on about? Aren’t they called Pieces of Eden?” John responded.

“According to your world and history, yes they are,” the Jackal said. “However, different world, different names. Care to explain the naming system your former Order has for these relics, Miss Lyra?”

“Well, any relics used to the general benefit of the Order are called Relics of Harmony,” she explained. “Those used against the order are considered Relics of Chaos and are generally hunted down to repurpose them into Relics of Harmony.”

“Interesting, making them seem like they have a side and to be on one side is to not be on the other…” Bayek muttered before shaking his head. “Anyway, what about the Isu relics we have?”

“Well, the hidden blade needs reforging into the relic it should be, and the sword needs a little fixing,” The Jackal said. “There is a forge where that can be accomplished.”

“And can you tell us both where it is and how we can get into it. I very much doubt it’s in plain sight for anyone to access.” John asked.

“Pretty much,” the Jackal agreed. “Head to the Castle of the Two Sisters.. I’ll meet you there.” The Jackal then turned into a small sandstorm that blew towards the Everfree.

“Are you sure we can trust him?” Lyra asked. “I mean, while the Order does use the Everfree at times, they generally avoid it. And I’m pretty sure you might know why.”

“No idea,” John responded.

“Maybe animals and certain things that are literally uncontrollable?” Bayek asked. Lyra nodded. “Okay then, so off we go into the dark, creepy forest?”

“May I come along?” Lyra asked out of nowhere. “I don’t feel safe around trigger happy Granny Smith.”

John then looked to Bayek before he said, “Do you think we should take her?”

“She probably is safer with us,” Bayek answered. “Yes, we may be going into the dark and creepy forest, but the two of the Apples saw or witnessed her threatening Applebloom. If given the chance, what happened to me on the porch a few minutes ago would happen to her...and sadly, she can’t reform.”

“You may be right on that, right now if she as much as sneezed in their general direction she may kill her anyway.”

“Okay then, so off we go… after we tell the Apples that we’ll be gone for a bit?” Bayek asked.

“I’ll let you do the honours, I don’t want to risk getting shot,” John stated. Bayek slumped in defeat and went back inside. A few seconds after he entered, the door opened and another gunshot rang out, sending Bayek flying out. He landed, with a huge hole in his chest, at John’s feet and Lyra’s hooves.

“I’ll have to ask permission from Pear, but if Miss Smith does that one more time, I’ll kill her,” Bayek said with a bland frown on his face. “Once was okay. Twice can be overlooked. Three times, she’s asking for it. When the fourth time comes, I’ll show no mercy.”

“Umm, are you sure that’s a good idea, considering the fact without them we’d have nowhere to live, it may be a stupid idea to kill one of them and get thrown out,” John admitted.

“Two things wrong with that statement,” Bayek said while standing up. “First off, I said I would ask permission, meaning that I would only kill her if I’m granted permission. Second off, I’m pretty sure some of the Apples have a chance of wanting her punished in some way for doing that unnecessarily and too much.”

“I very much doubt that,” John responded clearly doubting Bayek.

“How about you just agree to disagree and wait for the next time Miss Smith shoots him?” Lyra interjected. “Now let’s get going. And may I ride on your back, Johnny Boy?”

“What is it with you and wanting me to carry you?”

“You’re so good at carrying me,” she said with a slight pout. “But I never said you can’t say no.”

“Okay, well just incase something happens it may be best if you walk so I can defend myself easier if necessary,” John responded, “I’m guessing you don’t use weapons yourself?”

“Not really,” she said. She then looked contemplative. “Maybe I could ride your back until we get to the forest edge?”

“Okay, but only till we get to the edge of the Everfree, after that you’ll need to walk.”

“Gotcha!” She quickly jumped onto his back and rested her head and arms on his head. “Tally Ho!” She said with an obnoxious British-like accent.

Chapter 9 - Forging Your Own Path

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Side Story 1 - Eagle's Bond

After the trial was over and Carrot Top paid, both for her produce and cart reparations, I changed to the caution stripe athletic outfit and went out for a run to get some stress out. “First, I get called out because of an attack in town. Then I get summoned, abducted, break out of a cell, chase down an evil lust happy Lyra, and meet a death god or something like that. Then I get back here, get dropped in the middle of the attack, kill nearly two dozen diamond dogs in self defense, break four of a dragon’s limbs. . . Three limbs and his tail, find out it really was an assassination attempt, and see what’s probably the start of some big political reform. God, this nuts.”

I stopped during my fifth lap through Sweet Apple Acres when an object that looked like part of a spear flew in front of me and stuck itself in a tree trunk. After staring at it for a bit, I pulled it out and heard, “I am Bayek, Servant of Anubis. Should you need the aid of the Assassin Brotherhood, the Armies of Anubis, or just need someone to talk to, summon me. Call for Anubis’s Servant. And if I come with a passenger, it means that fate requires him to come.”

“Ah, the sandman.” I thought for a bit about heading back home before trying anything. “Nah, I’m doing it now.” I held the spear upwards and dramatically said, “Oh servant of Anubis! Hear my call, so that you may come forth to visit me!”

The wind slowly began to pick up, with sand particles flowing to a central spot. When the sand started swirling about a meter or two away, the wind suddenly became fast and the sand swirled in a tornado fashion. The spear then suddenly flew out of my hands into the sand storm. A few seconds later, the wind slowed down, dissipating the sandstorm, revealing Bayek with a hole in his chest and the spear pinning a hooded pony to a tree trunk.

“Breathe, Bayek,” he muttered loud enough for me to hear. “It wasn’t Granny shooting you with a blunderbuss, it was just a minor issue with the token.”

“Hello again,” I greeted Bayek. “By the way, there’s a pony stuck to a tree behind you.”

“Is there?” He asked as he turned around to see. “I’ll get him...or her...unstuck then.” He walked to the pony and grabbed the spear, but he seemed to freeze for a moment, before he pulled a similar spear from his back and stabbed the pony through his mouth, killing him instantly. “Requiescet in pace,” he said as he removed both spears.

“Woah, woah, woah, what was that for? He didn’t do anything!” As I approached, I saw a knife with a glowing blade on the ground. “Wait a minute. . .”

“Yes, he was hired by someone to kill you,” Bayek said. “Greed was his motivation, and he was truly diehard about not revealing his employer.” He reached into the pony’s cloak and pulled out a bag of bits and a small scroll. “You get the rest upon job completion. -DI” Bayek read.

Even though I tried to keep my cool, some fire started leaking out from my hair and eyes. “And I just got through with a trial on another attempt on my life,” I said through gritted teeth. “I swear, if there’s another one today, I’m going to get those nobles in a room with me and burn all of them. Starting with their horns as candles!”

“Whoa, whoa, calm down!” Bayek said, attempting to smother the flames with his hands, to no effect. “Just breathe and-” The sound of a spell discharging came from somewhere nearby and Bayek suddenly pushed me aside. Then, I heard an eagle cry and felt two somethings hitting my back, causing me to fall face first into the dirt.

I activated the empty Ember Celica as I got up, my eyes turning red and the fire spreading along my arms, thankfully avoiding the athletic clothes. “Wrong. Move.” I saw a cloaked bright pink unicorn with a neon green and blue mane trying to hide herself amongst the foliage. I did not hesitate to rush in and start pummeling her, fury fueling my fire. After a number of punches, I dealt one final uppercut, I sent her flying up through the trees.

“Pixies, unicorns, and eagle feathers,” Bayek drunkenly said when I turned around. He was laying on the ground beside a stunned eagle with brown and white feathers.

I managed to collect myself and turn off the flames as I approached him. “Well, you’ve got two out of three, so I guess that’s not bad.” The mare crash landed next to him a moment later, small flames licking at her cloak. “Excuse me.” I extinguished the flames and approached her. “So, who hired you to try and kill me?”

“Sir. . . Denaro. . . Insanguinato,” the mare croaked out. “So many bits. . . Enough for a lifetime, and he called it pocket money. How could I have refused?”

“Greed. Why are they still after me? WHY?”

“Beats me. Hurk! Blegh.” And like that, she died.

I closed her eyes and said, “Rest in peace,” before sitting down next to Bayek and the bird, who was standing on his chest. “Well, I guess I need to get an official over here somehow.” An idea quickly came to mind and I lay down on the grass, pointed a finger to the sky, and made a tall geyser of flames appear, keeping it up for nearly a minute before I got tired and cut the flames, dropping my arm once it was done. “That should do it. How are you holding up?” A surprised squak came from the eagle, it hopping onto my arm as Bayek was muttering something about chapped lips. “Hey, don’t fall apart on me, okay? In fact, if you’re going to fall apart, just. . . stay right there.”

Twilight teleported over a moment later. “Yang, what. . . not again. What happened?”

“Two ponies sent to kill me. Sandman here got one, I got the other. They were hired by Sir Dena. . . Denarosa. . .”

“Sir Denaro Insanguinato?”

“Yeah, him. The crispy one gave the name, skewered one has a note, both were paid by him.” I sighed before continuing. “Twilight, am I going to have to hire full time bodyguards like Celestia and Luna?”

“I hope not. This is probably just a coincidence on the timing. So, who’s your friend?”

“His name’s Bayek.”

“Error 404: Data not found,” Bayek said drunkenly. “Restarting simulation.” He then somehow got his shield off of his back and slammed it on his own face, leaving it there for a few seconds before pulling it off and straightening his nose with a spurt of sand. “Why do my lips feel like I just kissed a bird’s beak?” The eagle hid its head under a wing and turned away from me.

“Let’s just say I glassed you for a bit by accident.” I turned back to Twilight as I stood up. “He’s made of sand. Anyways, what can you do about these two?” I pointed to the bodies of the ponies sent after me.

Two flashes of magic later, and the bodies were gone. “They’re in the morgue now. I’ll take a look at them later. Just go on with your day.”

“Thanks.”

“What about me?” Bayek said, as he stood up. “It was night...unless...wibbly wobbly, timey wimey?” He looked at me with a questioning look.

“That’s at the post office. I think.”

“You’re good to go, too, Bayek,” Twilight said. “I’m going to go talk with Applejack now. See you around.”

“Alright.” I got up as Twilight teleported off. “Bayek, I have one question for you now,” I said in a serious tone of voice.

“Shoot...not a bullet, but...you get what I mean,” he said.

“I left my ammo at home.” I retracted the Ember Celica as I got to the question. “You hungry?”

“Yeah, I’m up for something to eat,” he answered. He then picked up one of the spears and offered it to me handle first. “And I believe this belongs to you.”

I accepted the spear and started walking back towards home. “Yep. So, what do you want?”

As soon as we entered, I recited the order to Bayek. “A bacon wrapped steak and a salad, right?”

“Yep,” he confirmed while handing me the bit pouch he got from the assassin. “And maybe consider having fish added to the menu.”

“I’ve asked my provider about that, but it would be extremely expensive. The way things are now, it looks like chicken, beef, and pork are the only meats I’ll be able to get reliably. Anyways, you’re not the only special guest of mine today.” I lead Bayek to a table. “Bayek, this is Garble.” I turned to the bandaged dragon with a double take. “I didn’t expect you here this early. . . How did you even get in here? We’re not even open yet.”

“The bear let me in,” Garble answered. “And some weird. . . thing named Discord teleported me to the front door.”

“Ah. So, any specific tastes, Garble?”

“Just get me something with gems in it.”

“We. . . don’t have anything like that.”

Garble grumbled at my answer. “Just something, then.”

“Alright.” I left Garble, Bayek, and the bird that was stuck with him to go to the kitchen and prepare some food for them.

A few minutes later, I came out with two bacon wrapped steaks, well done, two salads with burnt ends on them, and another small bowl of burnt ends, seasoned with a bit of bacon grease. Just before I reached the table, I saw Bayek and Garble arm wrestling while the bird stood on another chair, watching the match. “Winner gets their food first.” A few seconds after I started watching, Bayek lost the match. He also lost his whole arm, and some of the sand landed on one of the salads and one of the steaks. “Those are his.”

“Ha! Five in a row!” Garble pronounced as Bayek pulled his arm away from Garble’s grip and placed it back in its place.

“And here’s to the winner,” I said, placing the clean steak and salad in front of Garble. “Here’s to the bird.” I placed the bowl of burnt ends in front of the bird, who smelled it and gave a happy trill. “And here’s to a good effort.” I placed Bayek’s food down in front of him, then distributed the silverware. He sighed at his sandy food and placed his hand over it, sucking up most of, if not all of the sand.

“Serves me right for being so fragile,” Bayek muttered. “Being made of sand isn’t exactly something I like, but I have to deal with it.”

“Such is life,” I added.

Garble skipped on the silverware and just picked up his steak before taking a bite out of it. “Hmmm. . . It’s not sapphire, but it’s alright.”

Bayek, despite using the provided silverware, ate just as messily as Garble. “Fish is my thing, but I’ll admit that this was cooked to perfection. It’s hard to find someone who can cook certain meats and not get it dry.”

“Well, I have had lots of experience cooking here,” I admitted. “It also helps that some of my griffon employees gave me some tips on cooking it.”

The bird pecked and ate up some of the burnt ends I had served it. When it squawked in appreciation, Bayek looked at the bird in slight confusion. “Well, the bird’s happy, I think. I swear it sounded like it said, ‘Delicious.’”

“It did sound happy. I mean, I did use bacon grease with her burnt ends. . . Is the bird a girl?” The eagle nodded at my question. “Okay.”

“So, just wanting to know, why were you being targeted earlier?” Bayek asked.

I put the tray down and got another chair from a nearby table, sitting down at the end of the table. “So, over a year ago, I was put in charge of a legislative meeting and I shot down 28 of the 30 nobles’ bills, partly on the grounds of cost, partly on impracticality, partly on other grounds as well. Ever since then, and after a similar event that happened here, they’ve been coming after me in some form or another. The attack that Garble lead and the attempts today are the most direct efforts they’ve tried. The closest they actually got was when they made my shower water freezing cold. I came really close to getting a bad case of hypothermia from the shock.”

“So, a bunch of spoiled brats that aren’t getting what they want,” Bayek summarized. “And from what evidence we obtained today, the proverbial pot has reached its boiling point. All it takes is one wrong word for it to explode.”

“Yeah. Hopefully, yesterday’s trial and today’s events will send them scurrying back to the drawing board. As long as they stay there, things are good.” I sighed before continuing. “Why they haven’t just gotten over it and tried their legislative stuff again, I don’t know. At least Fancy and Fleur are good nobles.”

“Maybe because they feel like they lost their power from your interference and want to get rid of you so that it doesn’t happen from you and teaches others to not get involved,” Bayek thought out loud.

Garble finished off his steak before picking up the salad bowl, looking at it, then opening his mouth and tossing the whole thing in.

“No, I think it’s just straight up revenge,” I said. “Otherwise, they would have stopped after the cold shower incident flopped against one of them.”

“Well, either way, they don’t want threats to their ‘power,’ of which you are one of them,” Bayek said. “I’m sure those brats would be willing to target any of the Element Bearers if they became a threat to their power.”

“Let them start and end with Pinkie, then.”

Garble stood up and started walking off, a distinctive limp in his gait thanks to the cast. “The food was good.” Soon, he was out of the building.

“He’s not one for politics, is he?” Bayek asked.

“Probably not. Honestly, I don’t blame him either. Revenge over politics he had no part of got him hurt, so it makes sense he’d want to avoid it. I just hope he tells the dragons good things about me.”

“I’m not sure what dragons would think about ponies though,” Bayek said. “One bad apple can spoil the whole bunch.” He then looked to the door. “And I’m not sure, but either you have early customers or a VIP guest concerning today’s events so far.”

“Hm?” I looked over to the door and saw Celestia standing there. I was already up and on my way over to her when she started knocking on the door. “Coming, coming.” I opened the door and let Celestia in. “Hi, Celestia. Mind if I guess why you’re here?”

“I’d rather get straight to the matter,” Celestia said as she and a small group of guards filed in. As I lead them back towards the table Bayek was at, she continued. “Based on what Twilight told me, you and an acquaintance were at Sweet Apple Acres and two ponies, apparently assassins, were out to get you.”

“Yeah, they were.” I gestured to Bayek as we approached. “This is Bayek. He got the first one, partly by accident. I got the second one. The second one gave us the name, Denaro Insanguinato.” Bayek presented the scroll and I put the bag of bits on the table. “These were on the first one.”

Celestia didn’t have to look long at them before coming to a conclusion. “Those are definitely from him. All I need is the scroll, the bag, and a note of how much is in it. You may keep the bits, Yang.” As I emptied the bag to start counting the bits, she turned to Bayek. “Mister, Bayek, was it?” At Bayek’s nod, she continued. “You have saved a national hero today. What can I do to thank you?”

“No offence, but what you can do is never believe the lie that says, ‘all is well,’ because all will never be well,” Bayek responded. “And I’m sorry if I sound harsh, I was told by a former member of a secret organization in my world that the Celestia there believes that lie to the point of not believing anything else, even if evidence points the other direction.”

“Don’t believe it when someone says all is well. . . Truthfully, I already do that. That being said, I had no idea either of these attacks on Yang were planned. I will have to start being more proactive with the nobles going forward. I have no doubt they will keep trying to get Yang one way or another.”

“Maybe pulling the titles of ⅔ of the Nobles and giving those titles to certain Pegasi and Earth ponies will teach them something,” Bayek suggested.

“I suppose you’re imagining an even spread of the three types of ponies on the council?”

“Yes,” Bayek said simply. “There is a phrase that I like. ‘No taxation without representation.’ Why should the many Pegasi and Earth ponies abide by the laws and taxation of this land if they have no representatives in the government?”

Celestia softly chuckled at his idea. “Oh, dear Bayek, you’ve got it wrong. It’s not a matter of species that’s the problem, but a matter of policy. I’ve seen unicorns craft excellent farming laws, pegasi with magic laws, and earth ponies with weather laws. If there are ten spots for pegasi, but only seven that meet the requirements, what do you do then?”

“Thestrals? Jackals? Sheep? Hyenas?” Bayek said, adding a little joking to his answer.

Celestia continued, a brief smile on her face from the jest. “Promoting somepony to a position of power because of their species is a very risky gamble. The nobles that are after Yang all had their positions given to them by previous members, who were also unicorns. The two that aren’t after her worked their way up, and even though they too are unicorns, they are shunned by their peers on the council.”

“I stand corrected then. It’s less an over and under representation thing and more of a power thing,” Bayek said. “With the recent incidents, it would require harsh punishments, loss of titles and/or power and enstating someone who is worthy, not necessarily someone who isn’t a unicorn.”

“And now you understand. That being said, the transition will not be smooth. I started looking into ways to find new ponies to put on the council last night, without using a royal decree.” The princess turned to me. “Do you have any ideas, Yang?”

I looked up from the bits, all 555 worth of them. “Honestly, I don’t right now. Can I just stay out of this?”

“As long as the nobles are after you, I’m afraid it’s not likely to go that way. You can limit your involvement, though, but don’t be surprised if I come to you for assistance on occasion.”

“Or a twelve ounce steak.”

“I’m sure you would prefer I came for one of those again.”

Bayek chose that moment to chime in. “Scientifically speaking, equines can eat and digest meat...they just don’t need it to live. It’s more of a survival trait. Just random trivia.”

“All of that is true, though it seems that the ones that eat meat more often have a bit more muscle mass. Or so a study I read last week about Ponyville said.” Celestia turned to leave. “I’m afraid I must take my leave now. I need to start sorting out the noble issue more thoroughly. Farewell.” Celestia and her guards left on that note, taking the bit pouch and note, leaving me, Bayek, and the bird.

“Well, that was a thing that happened,” I idly noted before turning to my guests. “So, lack of fish aside, what do you think of the Carne Den?”

“Interesting place, I’ll admit,” he said. The bird then let out a few happy squawks, causing Bayek to look at the bird with confusion again. “Okay, I think we need to talk to Miss Magic and see if I’m either hallucinating hearing a professional critique from an eagle or I actually am hearing it.”

“Alright, I’m curious: what did the eagle say?”

“Five and one quarter stars, and the burnt ends should come in different meats, as it could give customers some variety with the appetizer,” Bayek ‘translated.’

“Hmm. . . Duly noted. I’ll see what I can do.”

After Bayek and the eagle finished their meal and I quickly washed all the dishes, we left to go see Twilight. The walk was a quiet one, and the wait to see Twilight was non-existent. I spoke first, deciding to make it simple. “Twilight, Bayek thinks he might be hallucinating hearing the eagle that seems to have adopted him talking.”

“Really?” Twilight looked at Bayek and the eagle on his shoulder. “Not that I don’t appreciate this break in the lull, but why did you come to me?”

“Primarily because you could have a better chance at knowing why I can understand her and not Yang,” Bayek explained, “I mean, I couldn’t have come up with that review on your burnt ends. I can’t make up stuff on the fly like that to save my life...not that I have life in me to save.”

“Hmm. . . Do you have any idea what might have caused this?”

“Either I’m still a little loopy from getting hit by that spell that was aimed at Yang, or when the spell pierced me, it changed a little, and some of the sand of my body fused with her when she did the same, connecting us in some way?” Bayek said. “Those are my guesses.”

Twilight came down to Bayek, lit up her horn, and started looking at Bayek and the Eagle. “No sign of any kind of magical fusion, and no sign of any mental impediments, though I admittedly don’t have a baseline for you. . . Ah, here’s something. There’s a very strong empathic connection there, magically reinforced. That’s probably how you can understand the eagle.”

Bayek had a brief contemplative look before he transferred the eagle to his arm and walked over to one of the windows. “If what you say is true, then what I’m going to do should work.” He then opened the window and beckoned for the eagle to fly out. When he turned back to Twilight and I, his eyes were glowing white and his face seemed blank. “Huh, this is interesting. Never thought that I would get a literal bird’s eye view of the world.”

“That is a very strong connection if you can see through the eagle.”

“Senu, her name is Senu,” Bayek said. “And out of curiosity, why does your castle have a lack of guards or soldiers?”

“I haven’t gotten around to it,” Twilight admitted. “That being said, it’s a low priority. It wouldn’t be much of a castle that embodies friendship if you see guards everywhere. Plus, with the kinds of things I’ve had to face, they would get in the way more than anything.”

“Then maybe you could have them be the kind of guards to try to protect and/or evacuate those under your rule, rather than as a means of keeping them from you or vice versa,” Bayek suggested. “And the castle would have the least number of guards, and their barracks or whatever would be elsewhere.”

“Your phrasing suggests a heavier guard presence elsewhere, likely throughout town. What effect do you think armed ponies patrolling the town would have on the populace? Aside from that, Ponyville was prone to many weird things happening, even before I came here. The citizens here can handle themselves quite well against things that would send bigger cities into a panic. Analyzing the cost and effects of 24/7 guard presence, at least here, it would be an overall negative effect.”

“Alright, fine,” Bayek said. “I won’t complain, but I’ll make two points. One, if the citizens of this town are used to danger like what is experienced, what would happen if a bigger threat than what they’ve faced shows up and you and your friends aren’t there to keep it at bay? Point two, ‘it’s better to have it and not need it, rather than need it and not have it.’”

“We’re done here.” I walked up to Bayek, glassed him solid, and picked him up. “Thank you, Twilight.”

As I walked back home, Senu gently perched herself on my shoulder. With Bayek quiet, I didn’t make any conversation. “Two arguments with royalty in one day. I hope that doesn’t become a habit of his.” After I got home, I dropped Bayek and found the spear, which I had left in the kitchen.

With a slight crackling, Bayek somehow shattered himself. After his head reformed, he looked up at me and Senu. “I overstepped in my conversation with Twilight. For that, I apologize.”

“Apology accepted. But for now, we’re done.” I pointed the spear at Bayek. “You’re done here. Go back to whence you came.”

The pile of sand and his head suddenly started to funnel into a silent portal under him until all the sand and the head was gone, leaving the floor without sand.

Author's Note

This entire chapter is another crossover with blazikenking and their story I Burn, also this whole chapter is written in Yangs POV.