The caravan rolled away from them, leaving them there in the middle of nowhere. If they had been average ponies, it would have been a cruel fate. Rockhoof sighed softly. "You would think getting fired would eventually stop stinging."

"Hey." Garou touched his nose to Rockhoof's seated haunches. "We didn't do anything wrong. They paid us and everything. The job ended early, we weren't fired, the way I see it."

Trixie inclined her head faintly. "That is an interesting way of looking at it. Well, where are we going next?" She turned to look at Celestia and Luna, the latter of which dotted with bandages from the fierce exchange. "We still have our choice of prisoners to question."

Celestia gestured with a wing at a few fallen forms that were just as bandaged. "It was a cruel measure in part that they did not transport them, but I understand it... At least they tended to the worst of the injuries. I think they are now as abandoned as we are, with less options. If we offer a hoof of help, they may yet realize it."

Luna nodded softly. "They do not fly, and we eliminated the ones with magic. The ones left are fighters and brigands, and there is nothing to waylay that will get them to safety faster. You--" She reached out and began prodding one of the forms on the ground. "Are you awake?"

"Mmmf." A paw went up to wave Luna away. "Come back tomorrow."

Luna scowled at that. "If you would rather we leave you here to stir tomorrow, that is a possibility."

Garou was suddenly between them, darting over on four fast paws. "Easy there. Hey, bud, wake up. We don't want to stay here, and we bet you don't want to either if you think about it."

"Hm?" He pushed up, rolling over so he was propped up facing them. "Wait... You ain't the boss."

Celestia smiled thinly. "We are not your employer, this is true. Can you tell us about them?"

"Ain't sayin' nothin'." The fallen cat looked around slowly at the field that had no merchants, just other miserable fellows he knew as peers, laying about. "Why are we even breathin'?"

Garou chuffed in a canine way. "Because that's not how we do things. What, you wanted us to go around cutting everyone's throat?"

The casual mention of such callous violence made the princesses blanch, Luna less so, but both shared hesitation at the idea. Trixie squinted instead. "You're not worth my time."

Rockhoof shook his head softly. "Not how I prefer to handle things. You're all stuck out here. We don't mind lending a hoof, if you want it?"

"What's the catch?" His tail lashed as he continued sitting up, moving from laying on his side to being perched on his rump, crossing his legs. "You have all the cards. And we were trying to murder you yesterday. What creature in their right mind just forgets that the next day?"

Garou gestured back to the ponies he traveled with. "Ponies." Celestia smiled at that while Luna rolled her eyes but didn't argue the point.

Rockhoof lifted his shoulders. "If we could get a few answers along the way, that'd be nice, hm? Your allies already left you for dead. The way it seems, you owe them nothing at all."

"Yer right there." He pulled out a dagger, causing everyone to tense, but he only raised it to his teeth to begin picking at something. "We're all fired."

Rockhoof suddenly burst into laughter. "Well, then we have a bond. We were also terminated. Seems that battle ended everyone's employment." He pointed at the brigand. "What say we go find better jobs. I think we're all done with this life anyway."

Luna nodded firmly. "There are better ways to spend one's life than throwing it recklessly at the behest of others. Banditry isn't something you can take much pride in besides."

"And you weren't?" He shrugged softly, tossing the dagger aside where it planted in the ground just a foot away. "Looked like you were all ready to throw yer lives away just fine for someone else."

Garou's canine smile grew. "Oh, sure, but we were protecting people. Not trying to nick all their stuff. The spin's important."

"Yeah sure..." He turned to one of the fallen forms. "Hey, Bright Spot. You dead or just lazy!"

"Hm?" came a moan similar to when the first brigand had been awakened. "What're you yellin' about?" A female form rolled over, belly up and heaving. "Yer twice as lazy as I am."

"Then get your ass up." The cat thumped the ground, but made no move to rise himself. "Our marks want to get us to a town."

"They do? Why?" The female rolled in place, rocking back and forth until enough momentum allowed them to roll right up to their feet, almost graceful if not for the severe wince and the clutching of her side. "Damn, they hit hard... Oh..." That was when she saw them just standing there. "Hiya..."

Trixie rolled a hoof slowly. "This is fascinating, but slow. Bright Spot was it? Go get everyone standing so we can get moving."

Luna snorted softly. "Yes, do that, but also gather those that can't stand so we can assist them. Be gentle with them. It would be a shame for them to lose their lives due to mishandling after the fact."

Garou bounced in place lightly. "I'll help." And he was gone, loping across the field to start nipping and harassing people.

Luna's eyes followed him a moment before falling to the cat. "Will you not help?"

"I can barely sit up." He shrugged softly. "I ain't gonna cry or nothin', but walkin' feels right out." His gaze wandered to Trixie's wagon, the only wagon remaining. "We ridin' that?"

Trixie scooted between the wagon and the bandit, looking ready to hiss at him like an agitated cat, but no words or noise was make, just a nasty glare.

Celestia set a hoof gently on Trixie's shoulder. "They are injured, have some sympathy."

"They are injured because they attacked us," hotly rebuked Trixie, stomping a hoof at the larger former-princess. "They would have been just fine murdering us all."

"And we are better than them." Celestia moved the hoof to Trixie's nose, booping her gently. "Prove how Great and Magnanimous you are. Surely they couldn't even hope to compare."

Trixie raised her fore hooves, shoving Celestia's hoof aside. "Hmmph. We are better than them." Her magic wrapped around the seated cat before he promptly vanished. Her wagon lurched with new weight. "There."

"Ow," came from within. "Be just a touch gentler."

"It works taking you out just as easily as putting you in," Trixie spat with a frown. "Let's get this going."

"They're getting up." Garou was headed towards them in the great form of his hulking bipedal guise, one bandit under each of his arms. "The ones who can anyway. Where should I put these?"

Luna scowled at the one to the right. "I remember you. You and your little crooked dagger."

Celestia extended a wing gently in front of Luna. "Now is not the time for revenge. We are all battered, bruised, some worse. The first priority is to get everyone somewhere safe."

The bandit being spoken of had no response to give, looking unconscious in Garou's hand. "Looks like you got him right back for it already." Garou followed Trixie's little hoof gestures and set his cargo down in her wagon. "It's going to get crowded in there."

Trixie rolled her eyes. "They're welcome to find some other wagon if mine isn't good enough for them. I'm sure there are so many other options around." She waved a hoof in a wide arc over the wide area where not a single other vehicle could be seen. "Speaking of which." She wriggled back out of her harness and pointed at it. "This is going to be heavier. You're for this idea, you help pull the wagon."

Garou looked to Celestia. Celestia looked to Luna, who was already looking back at her. She huffed softly and turned to Rockhoof, but he was already looking as well.

"Sorry, lass." He dipped his head. "You're the least battered of us all and you have the size to manage the job. Speakin' ah that, what were you doing for half the fight? You just weren't there that I could see at all."

Trixie seemed to take undue amounts of pleasure in setting the harness onto Celestia's royal back, ensuring it was a proper and snug fit to fit her increasingly smug smile. "It's a good look for you."

"Yes... I thought I caught a glimpse of who was watching the battle with interest. I went to question them." She angled her head, pointing her horn at where it happened.

"Did you catch them?!" blurted Rockhoof.

"I doubt it." Garou gently nudged his co-warrior with a paw. "Or we'd be talking to them right now instead of considering interrogating the rank and file."

"Precisely so," allowed Celestia. "They attacked me and vanished in the instant I defended myself. If they had been part of the attack, perhaps things would have turned out less well." She took a step, testing how the wagon pulled behind her. "Is everyone who can walk ready to do so?"

Luna looked over the lot. About twenty other bandits had been gathered in a ragtag bunch, some splinted, some with crutches, but they were gathered. "I still see bodies on the field. I gather those... will not be joining us?"

One of the bandits, a female lizard, stepped forward. "They won't be doing anything anymore. Let's get out of here before they start stinking the place."

Celestia's ears fell, eyes darting from form to form, silently counting them. Luna slid in beside her sister. "You did well, Sister. Equestria avoids scenes just like this one, due to your vigilant watch of so long. At your hooves even now, you spared a caravan of merchants from a miserable fate. This is not your fault."

Rockhoof nodded softly. "I could hardly recognize it when first I returned. You have delivered a golden age to our people, and should be proud of that. So the rest of the world hasn't quite caught up yet, that doesn't diminish your accomplishments." He turned to the bandits and pointed at one seemingly at random. "If you could live with the ponies, would you?"

The she-badger hiked a thumb at herself. "Me? Uh... They wouldn't want me."

Garou's tongue began to loll a bit longer. "If they did, would you?" he prompted, tail wagging behind him, back to his smaller wolf form.

"Uh... I mean, sure, I guess? Who wouldn't?" She shrugged softly. "They have holidays every other day right?"

"And ice cream is their national food," added another with a silly grin.

An argument broke out about how idyllic the life of the average pony was and how outlandishly perfect it was, and thus how weak and childish the ponies had to be. Rockhoof let them argue, looking to Celestia. "See, envy of the world. They can't even believe a country could have it so good."

"Mayhaps I should have done more to make it seem less like an outlandish tale to be told to young ones." She started forward, drawing the wagon along. "For now, we should get them all to town. We need to decide where we go after that. This caravan guarding life gave us an easy direction, and it's past. Where our hooves set down is our decision, and we should make it."

Luna hiked a brow. "Trixie, you travel often, do you not?"

"All the time," gloated Trixie, buffing a hoof on her chest.

"Where is the nearest town?" continued Luna. "We don't have need of the largest, just the closest."

"The very closest I would suggest against." She waved a hoof dismissively. "The second closest isn't bad." She thrust a hoof in a point. "About three days' hike."

Author's Note

Celestia has to face facts. They are not comfy at all.

Written early for patreons who got this ahead of everyone else. Want to get early chapters, or even your own story written? atreon!

Join my discord to chat!