Freeport Venture: Breaker of Chains

Chapters

Breaker of Chains 2
Breaker of Chains 3
Breaker of Chains 4
Epilogue
Breaker of Chains 1

Breaker of Chains 2

Despite ample forewarning from Puzzle and Strumming, I really hadn’t been prepared for how long and tedious the investigation would be. I suppose I’d gotten used to Puzzle’s ability to seemingly conjure up information-gathering miracles out of thin air. But then, I usually had him investigating infamous criminals and public figures instead of obscure nobodies.

It was probably even worse for him and Strumming than it was for me. After all, I got to skip all the grunt work and just accompany them when we had an actual lead to follow up on. Though that was frustrating in its own way, since so far none of those leads had panned out.

I was almost tempted to just give it up as a lost cause. Sour Sweet was just another orphan with no connections, and what little trail she might have left behind when she vanished had long since gone cold. It was hard to avoid the conclusion that we’d probably never find anything.

However, it didn’t seem right to give up. Maybe if we really did chase down every single possible lead and came up with nothing I could tell myself there was nothing more I could do. As long as I could think of anything else I could try ... I wasn’t going to tell Sunny she’d never see her friend again because I’d gotten bored with looking for her.

Still, the long and fruitless search was getting to me. I stepped out of the cabin on Puzzle’s new yacht, groaning as I tried to massage away a budding headache and stretch all the kinks out of my joints. It felt terribly unfair that all four of my legs were sore, considering one of them was a prosthetic I’d just put on and it wasn’t even designed to feel things like that. Phantom pains suck.

Though I could probably also blame Puzzle. His new yacht didn’t have quite as many of the lived-in creature comforts as his old one. I still hadn’t gotten the full story on what happened to his old yacht, but judging by how it made him clam up and get grouchy every time I asked, it had to be something really bad.

I stumbled half-awake into the galley and flopped down near the table. “I hope someone at least made breakfast. I’m not in a cooking mood today.”

Strumming poked her head up over the counter and smiled. She looked entirely too happy for this early in the morning after a couple long and frustrating weeks. “How does hardtack and dried fruit sound to you? It’s a true sailor’s diet, with all the flavor of ... hard work and salt? Something like that. I don’t know where I’m going with this, except that if I don’t change the food up soon I’m gonna be going ‘Yarrr, matey!’ I get that Puzzle’s still setting the new yacht up, but the pantry is criminally understocked on the good stuff.”

I sighed and tried to make myself comfortable at the table. It was harder than it should’ve been, mostly because Puzzle hadn’t gotten around to properly furnishing the yacht. Not that the stock furniture was bad, it just wasn’t as good as what he’d had on the old yacht. I grimaced and settled on something that would have to be good enough. “You sound way too happy.”

Strumming shrugged. “Someone has to keep our spirits up, and it’s definitely not going to be broody bug over there.” She waved towards Puzzle, who was sitting out on the deck and staring out over the open water. “Well, it’s not so much brooding as he’s thinking. Thinking grumpy, negative and self-pitying thoughts. Totally different from brooding, even if that’s the literal dictionary definition of brooding.” She paused, then shrugged. “Well, that or sitting on a clutch of eggs. Pretty sure he’s not doing that, though.”

Great, Puzzle was in a mood again. “What was it this time?”

Strumming passed me the plate full of unappetizing ship food she’d promised. “He woke up with this big idea to grill some kebabs for us for breakfast. Then he remembered there’s no grillables in the yacht’s pantry and the grill won’t be installed until next Tuesday.” She snorted. “I swear, there’s times I think he loved that yacht more than me. I’m not saying he would’ve banged his old boat if it took equine form as an attractive young mare, but if that ever happened I would’ve gotten a little jealous and protective.”

I rolled my eyes and ignored the tangents. “Surprised you’re not giving him a hard time for it. You always did that when I was in a bad mood.”

Strumming finished chewing on some dried fruit before she answered. “Yes, but you and Puzzle work differently. When you start brooding you keep spiraling down, and I’ve found the best way to get you out of a funk is a sharp kick in the rump to get your temper up, as long as it’s the right kind of mad. Long as you don’t completely lose your cool, a bit of angry determination is great for getting you to clear your head and focus on what’s important.”

“And Puzzle works differently,” I pressed.

“Exactly,” Strumming agreed, shooting a proud grin my way. “You’re a fast learner. He’s brooding-thinking, which is completely different from your downer-brooding. He’s thinking deep thoughts about philosophy and how best to dispose of bodies philosophically in the most efficient way possible.” She leaned across the kitchen table. “Though Bug Boy has been doing some of your kinda brooding too. You know how it is, he gets a bit moody whenever anyone mentions a certain rival of his who took his old yacht. Not to mention being a pretty safe bet for the one pulling the strings behind the huge mess he’s still cleaning up with his organization. Let’s just say there are types of cold he hates more than Northmarch winter, if you catch my drift. Hint hint, nudge nudge, wink wink, conspiratorial whispering.”

“Right, that guy he's got a grudge against.” I frowned over at our brooding bug. “Kinda surprised his thing with Cold Comfort is still going on. So they were rivals back when they were both spies. You’d think one of them would’ve gotten over it by now.”

Strumming shot me a flat look. “Cadance.”

I opened my mouth to toss out some kind of snappy comeback, but nothing came to mind. I sighed and took a bite of hardtack instead. “Point.” I was grumpy enough without thinking about Cadenza, so I changed the topic. “The plantation we’re going to is owned by one of Cold Comfort’s buddies, right?”

“Yeah,” Strumming confirmed. “Probably why he’s giving that island the stink eye. If Puzzle were any less nice of a guy or didn’t keep such a tight lid on things ... well, you know what people with a mean streak who can’t control their tempers are prone to doing. And ... Bug Boy’s great, but you do constructive anger a lot better than he does.”

“‘Constructive anger’?” I repeated. “Is that even a thing?”

“Sure it is.” Strumming counted off her points on her wingtips. “You think Torch and all the others who got rid of slavery weren’t mad about it? You know Celestia and Argentium were furious with Blackfyre. And even with Ushabti, he would’ve stuck with being a researcher on his private little island if he hadn’t gotten pissed about how nasty the occupation forces from Zebrica started acting.” She poked me in the chest. “And like I said, with you it can make you clear out all the mental cobwebs and focus on what’s important. Well, as long as you don’t turn into a full-blown rage monster. It’s all about keeping it under control so you can use it.”

“Huh.” I frowned and took a moment to think that over. “You know, every once in a while you say something really insightful.”

Strumming scoffed. “I always say brilliant things, it’s just that sometimes it doesn’t make any sense to anyone but me. Or even myself. Words are complicated.”

“Yeah, sure.” Just because I was giving Strumming credit for getting one thing right didn’t mean I needed to go along with every crazy thing she said. “So all the different places we’ve been checking out have started blurring together. This plantation is the one where her father used to work at, right?”

“Yep,” Strumming confirmed. “Bug boy investigated daddy and found out that he was a contract worker on Sweetash Isle. New owners bought up a lot of new labor after the old owners got killed and a lot of the facilities burned down or exploded. Funny enough, all that destruction happened while a certain bacon-maned magus was on the island.”

I rolled my eyes. “Okay, I burned down the mansion, but it was Puzzle who blew up the sugar refinery and it’s Chrysalis’s fault the owners died and the whole thing happened.” I sighed and shook my head. “Anyway, when we say her father was a contract worker...”

“It sounds nicer than ‘indentured servant’,” Strumming finished for me. “From everything Puzzle and I dug up, Silver Cane is big on cutting costs everywhere she can. Buying the island and rebuilding half the facilities cost a lot of ducats, and she’s real eager to start getting a return on her investment.” She scoffed and scowled down at her half-eaten breakfast. “Nothing official in the reports, but I’ll bet you a bag of crisps that Sour’s dad died because the owner either skimped on safety gear or something went wrong on account of all the workers pulling twelve hours a day, seven days a week, in hot, humid weather without any breaks during harvest season.” She snorted. “Modern plantations aren’t as horrible as when they were run by necromancer slavers, but there’s a lot of room to be evil before you hit that level.”

“Greed brings out the worst in everyone,” I agreed. “I’d point out that the Health and Safety in Agriculture Commission is supposed to make sure that kind of thing doesn’t happen, but...”

“But pretty much all its funding goes into paying political appointees who just so happen to be someone’s niece or nephew.” Strumming finished for me. “And when they actually do inspections, it’s less because of health violations and more because they’re getting used to give someone a hard time. Heard lately they’ve been leaning on some of the smaller farms to try and get them to sell out to Silver. Burying them in bureaucratic headaches is way more civilized than sending thugs to beat them up, and just as effective.”

“I wish I could say I’m surprised.” I sighed and shook my head. “Even if one of them actually conducted a legitimate inspection by accident, there’s always good old bribery.”

Strumming snorted. “Just saying, a lot of the inspectors can afford much nicer houses and all kinds of luxuries that were way out of reach when I was on a government salary.”

I growled and finished off the last of my hardtack. Chewing it up at least gave me a safe way to vent for a bit. “There are times when I really hate Freeport.”

Strumming shrugged. “We can move back to Equestria if you really want. Just saying.”

I’d made my decision on that front a while ago. “Freeport’s my home. I just wish it was better.” I sighed and shook my head. “One problem at a time. Find Sour Sweet, then we can start worrying about how to address systemic corruption.”

“If you can’t fix everything, focus on what’s right in front of you,” Strumming agreed. “Maybe finding one kid is a pretty small victory in the grand scheme of things, but I doubt she’ll see it that way.”

“Right.” I took a deep breath and got my mind back on the job. “From what you said, he was working at the place for three years. He probably saw his daughter half a dozen times since he started contract work.” Those words stirred up a couple memories I preferred not to dwell on. At least he’d been working to give his daughter a better life instead of running off chasing personal obsessions. “Not to mention he died a month before she disappeared. How likely do you think we are to get anything useful?”

Strumming shrugged. “You never know. If nothing else, he probably left some paperwork behind saying what should happen to his daughter if he died. For all we know, she got taken in by an old family friend or cousin and left Freeport without saying goodbye to Sunny.”

“Without packing any of her things?” I shot back.

“From what her landlord said, there wasn’t that much worth taking,” Strumming answered. “Besides, it’d be a nice surprise if we actually had a completely benign happy explanation.”

“How likely do you think that is?” I countered.

“I like to be an optimist.” Strumming tossed her empty plate into the galley sink, somehow managing to not break it in the process. “Though we’ll be looking into some of the uglier answers while we’re here. Some plantation owners can get really dirty when it comes to contract workers.”

“Like passing on the contract,” I growled.

“Indentured servants, contract workers, or whatever you wanna call them are a big up-front cost,” Strumming agreed. “One of the few reforms that’s actually stuck is that the owners have to pay a huge chunk of the contract cost up front. Good chance it's how Sour could afford to go to that fancy private school, which he was probably hoping would make it so she would never have to do manual labor.” She grimaced. “Shame the school didn’t know anything on account of her vanishing during winter break. I was sure we had a good lead there.”

“Yeah.” The school officials had lost any interest in Sour when they didn’t get paid for her next semester of classes. “So you think it’s possible the owner had someone kidnap her to make her work out the rest of her father’s contract?”

“Just because it’s massively illegal doesn’t mean it doesn’t happen,” Strumming pointed out. “If Silver Cane is as big on cutting costs as her rep says, you know it’s gotta bug her that she paid the guy for five years of work and he died after three. Especially when breaking the law is a pretty low-risk proposition out on a plantation like this.”

“Right.” I scowled. “Once they're stuck out on one of the islands they don't exactly have access to any authorities or lawyers to help protect their legal rights.”

“As that one disreputable great-uncle my parents never liked me hanging out with always said, when there’s no cops around everything’s legal.” Strumming scoffed and shook her head. “Not to mention lots of plantation owners will have their own guards and overseers be of the thuggish variety. Might as well punch the minions into line once you’ve gone full evil.”

“I’m getting seriously tempted to arrest her once we get to the island,” I growled.

“Nice idea, if you could actually make the charges stick.” Strumming sighed. “Just saying, she’s got the money and connections to make the evidence go away and get off scot free. You wanna change that, you and Bug Boy are gonna have to start playing by a different set of rules.” She shot me a speculative look. “Though from what I’ve heard, Bug Boy’s got a couple plans on that front, and I know you’re not built to sit around complaining without doing something about it.”

“Right.” I ran a hoof through my mane, frowning when I realized I still had a bit of a bed-head. “I don’t really have a solid gameplan yet. Getting the school set up is kind of my next long-term project. Maybe once that’s taken care of...”

“Gotta put out one fire at a time,” Strumming agreed. “First we need to figure out what happened to our missing itty-bitty little changeling.”

“Yeah, at least that’s a problem we can fix.” I stepped out to check on Puzzle, interrupting his current round of brooding. “Got anything useful as far as our gameplan?”

Puzzle blinked and glanced over at me. “Right, the mission. This one was just thinking about the best approach for us to take once we get to the island. An Archmagus suddenly showing up unannounced and investigating a missing child would cause a lot of extra complications. The overseers wouldn’t appreciate you poking in their business or they’ll get in our way by trying to impress you. Not to mention if there is anything improper going on, they’ll try to cover it up. It would probably be better if we did something a bit more subtle.”

“Pretty easy to come up with a basic cover story,” Strumming chimed in. “Concerned family, perhaps. We could say we were overseas and only got back into port when we heard about her dad buying the farm.”

Puzzle shrugged. “Simple and uncomplicated, and explains why we’re asking all these questions about him and his daughter. With any luck the overseers shouldn’t give us too much trouble, and if they do ... well, overseers don’t have a reputation for incorruptibility. Especially when all of the cost-cutting Silver’s been up to probably includes reducing whatever pay and benefits they get.”

“Always nice when the corruption works in our favor for once.” I thought it over for a second. “Sounds like a plan, unless there’s any problems I haven’t thought of. I’ll need to hang back and let you two take the lead. Between being an Archmagus and killing Blackfyre, I’m a little famous, and I can’t shapeshift to hide my identity.”

Strumming shot a worried look my way. “Think you’re up for that, Bacon? You usually like to be big and obvious and setting things on fire, not sneaking around in the shadows. I guess you could use one of your new really subtle and low-key spells, like the annihilation blast.”

I rolled my eyes. “I can be subtle when I need to.”

“Of course you can,” Strumming conceded, though I knew better than to believe it would be that easy. “The thing is that you don’t like being subtle and hanging back while others take the lead. You wanna be out front and in the lead, not sitting back pretending to be the boring nobody while Bug Boy and I do all the work.”

“Yes, I do,” I growled, starting to get annoyed. “But I also know how to let you two do what you’re good at. I won't break our cover, okay?”

“Right!” Strumming grinned and slapped me on the back with a wing. “Just wanted to make sure. Plus I wanted to firmly establish my ‘I told you so’ credit for when this whole thing ends with us burning down half the island because you don’t do subtle.”

I sighed and tried to massage away my budding headache. “Why did I think it was a good idea to put you on my payroll again?”

Strumming smirked. “Obviously it’s because you can’t get enough of my charming personality.” She paused for a moment, then shrugged. “Or you’re just worried about how much trouble I’d get into if I wasn’t somewhere you and Bug Boy could keep a close eye on me. So, what kind of crazy costume should I throw together for this little infiltration mission...”

By the time Puzzle’s boat got to the plantation’s docks, the three of us had our disguises in place. Puzzle had shapeshifted into a passable resemblance of the old photo we’d found of Sour Sweet’s father: hardly a perfect duplicate, but with more than enough of a family resemblance to pass for a second cousin like our backstory claimed. Strumming would play as his wife, while I was a family friend. Hardly an ironclad story, but it would hold up to casual scrutiny.

As Strumming always liked to say, we’d have to screw up before someone got suspicious enough to start seriously digging into our background.

It also helped that by the time we got to the island there was a light morning rainshower. Nothing too intense, but enough that it gave me an excuse to wear my cloak and keep my hood up. It was always nice when the weather cooperated with our plans, not that it was all that hard to find a rainy day in the islands. Still, a hood would only go so far for hiding my identity. “You two should probably be up front.”

Puzzle nodded along. “Right, this one can do most of the talking.”

Strumming snorted. “Hey, why can’t I talk? I’m good at talking too. I’m a born talker.”

I rolled my eyes. “Yeah, but your version of talking isn’t ... normal.”

Puzzle found a more diplomatic way to explain it. “You’re very interesting to talk to, but we’re trying to avoid standing out or drawing too much attention to ourselves.”

Strumming shot an over-the-top pout at both of us. “Bah, ruin my fun.” She poked Puzzle. “For the record, you’re admitting you’re really good at being boring.”

Puzzle shrugged. “And you’re dating this one. Interpret that as you will.”

Strumming swooned and put a hoof over her heart. “Ow. Shots fired, Bug Boy.”

I rolled my eyes at both of them. “Can we focus more on the mission and less on the two of you doing your weird version of flirting?”

That got me a poke from Strumming. “Someone who’s never flirted with anyone can’t really criticize our version of flirting. I mean, how can you even call it weird when you have no frame of reference for normal?”

“Good taste and common sense,” I shot back.

Strumming was about to snap off a response, but cut herself off when she spotted someone approaching our boat. The hefty zebra stallion slowly waddled up to our boat, staring up at it and us as if we existed solely to make his life more inconvenient. Though considering he’d probably been sitting somewhere warm and out of the rain until we showed up... “We don't have anyone scheduled for today,” he grumbled as he gave Puzzle’s yacht a quick once-over. “And you’re obviously not here for a delivery or pick-up. Who are you and what do you want?”

“Family business,” Puzzle answered. “My cousin Sour Struggles worked here. I heard he died in an accident. I wanted a bit more information about what happened, as well as collecting his personal effects and taking care of wrapping up any business.”

The dockmaster shrugged. “Never heard of him, but I don’t know all our workers.” He scowled at us. “We don’t like random nobodies wandering all over the place.”

Puzzle put on his best relaxed, friendly smile. “It would probably speed things up if you escorted us to wherever it is we need to go, if you don't mind.”

The dockmaster started looking more annoyed as he pulled his cloak around himself. “I got more important things to do.”

Puzzle sighed and pulled out a couple ducats. “I know it’s an inconvenience, but we would be very grateful for any assistance you can provide.”

The zebra’s eyes lit up, and he quickly snatched up the coins. “Ah ... well why didn't you just say so?” He tucked the money away. “Not like watching the docks is all fun when there’s no ships coming. Sorry about your cousin, but I hope you weren’t coming here to collect any death benefits. The accident happened because he was drunk on the job.”

Puzzle turned to him with a faint frown. “I thought you said you had no idea who my cousin was, and weren’t even sure he worked here?”

He overseer snorted. “That’s the official cause for any accidents that happen. Funny how that always happens, considering the one shop on the island doesn’t sell booze.”

“Ah.” Puzzle did a much better job of hiding his reaction than I would’ve. I suppose I should’ve seen that coming. Of course someone as cheap as Silver Cane’s reputation said she was would make sure the accident reports said whatever they needed to in order to save her money. Blaming every single accident on the dead being drunk would look suspicious if anyone investigated, but bribing a few officials was no doubt cheaper than paying out benefits.

Puzzle managed to cover up whatever disgust he felt with a facade of cynicism. “The money would’ve gone to his kid anyway. What about personal effects, and any other final business we need to take care of?”

The dockmaster shrugged as he led us towards the central manor house. It was nowhere near as big and impressive as the one I’d burned down years ago. “I’ll have to check the books for that, but I wouldn’t hold your breath for much in the way of stuff. Might be a will and some letters, but once someone dies their bunk gets picked clean of anything worth ducats. As for final business ... well, we’ll find out soon enough.”

We headed into one of the smaller side-buildings. Inside was a single harried-looking gryphon surrounded by a chaotic mess of paperwork and ledgers. The dockmaster walked up to him. “Hey, you got anything on a worker named Sour Struggles?”

The bookkeeper groaned and ran a talon down his beak. “Silver has me doing a job that should take at least two accountants and paying me half the wages I deserve. I don’t have time to do you or anyone else any favors.” Puzzle sighed and dropped a few more ducats on the desk. The gryphon quickly scooped them up. “But it should only take a minute to check, and I could use something to break up the routine.”

“Gotta love the employee loyalty here,” Strumming murmured. “Though I suppose I should give Silver credit for underpaying and overworking everyone working for her, not just the drudges.”

“Who would’ve guessed that could lead to all the employees being willing to take bribes?” I whispered back.

“So that’s why you give me such a good paycheck.” Strumming looked around the room, then nudged me and pointed out some of the papers left out on the bookkeeper’s desk.

A quick look showed exactly why she wanted me to notice it. “The pay isn’t in ducats.”

“Huh.” Puzzle rubbed the back of his head and put on his best gullible idiot voice. “How does that even work? What do they do, pay in Equestrian Bits or Griffonian Talons?”

The dockmaster snorted. “Nah, nothing like that. We’ve got a shop on the plantation that sells all the necessities and a few luxuries. Outside of their contract pay, everything’s in credit at the company store. It’s how our oh-so-generous owner makes sure none of the employees accidentally spend their contract pay on anything they don’t need, like contract lawyers to go over the agreement they signed years back or trips to the mainland.”

“Sounds like an interesting system,” Puzzle answered neutrally.

He was doing a much better job of staying calm than I was. We’d definitely made the right call by having him take the lead, because I was starting to get seriously pissed off. Only giving them credit at a company store for pay other than what they got for signing and completion of the contract was an obvious power play. It meant all the employees were all but being held prisoner on the island. The workers here were slaves with longer job descriptions and a paper-thin pretense of legality. Even by Freeport’s standards, this was dire.

The bookkeeper continued paging through ledgers, oblivious to my mounting fury. “Ah, here we are, Sour Struggles. Died in an accident while drunk on the job three months back ... Looks like he had a five year contract with us. I’ve got some good news for you though: we’ve already got his daughter here taking care of the balance on his account, so you don’t need to worry about that. No personal possessions to speak of, and it looks like the will we had on file left everything to his daughter anyway.”

So Sour Sweet was here. While it was a relief to finally find her after a couple weeks of searching, knowing she’d been used as child slave labor for the last few months made it hard to be happy about the news. It also made me absolutely certain about one thing: I was taking this island and everyone involved in it down. All the way up to Silver Cane herself.

Puzzle did his best to continue playing the idiot. “Huh, what do you mean by saying Sour Sweet is taking care of the balance on the account?”

The bookkeeper shrugged. “Silver paid for five years of work, she’s getting five years of work. If he can’t fulfill his end of the contract, his next of kin has to take care of the debt. She didn’t have enough in her bank account to cover it, especially when it was set up as a trust she had very limited access to. Thus, she works it off.”

Puzzle put on a confused frown. “But Sour’s only a kid.”

The gryphon shrugged again. “Someone’s gotta finish the contract.”

Strumming cut in. “I thought contracts would only cover her father? Pretty sure I heard you can’t inherit that kind of thing, especially for a kid who can’t even enter into a real contract. Like, isn’t that a law or something?”

The dockmaster shrugged this time. “You’d have to ask the owner and her lawyers about that. All I know is that’s how she does business. Dunno how you are on ducats, but if you’ve got enough to burn I’m sure you could buy off the balance.”

The bookkeeper nodded along. “Most of our underage staff aren’t exactly great workers anyway. If you want we could probably arrange a bit of a discount.” He tallied up a few figures. “Call it even at thirty thousand ducats.”

Puzzle let out a low whistle. “That’s not exactly a small amount. I’ll need to think about it for a bit. Can we go see Sour while I’m doing the math?”

The dockmaster smiled. “Sure thing. Looks like she's working the east field today.”

The three of us headed back out into the light drizzle. Puzzle took the lead, keeping up some small talk with the dockmaster to keep him distracted. That gave Strumming a chance to drop back and put a hoof on my shoulder, shaking her head.

“What?” I whispered.

“You know what.” Strumming murmured. “You’ve got a look on your face that says you wanna carve your way through everyone on the island and then set all the bosses on fire.”

I snorted. “Like you’re not pissed too.”

“Oh, I’m internally seething,” Strumming growled. “But I’m hiding it all under my poker face instead of glaring at the guy’s back like I’m trying to decide between setting him on fire or lopping his head off with Chainbreaker.”

“Why not both?” I grunted.

“Remember how the plan was to be subtle?” Strumming shot back. “Thirty thousand ducats is a drop in the bucket for your bank account, and then we get out of here with Sour Sweet and a paper trail proving just how dirty this place is. If you and Bug Boy both kick up a big enough stink with some evidence to back it up, all the folks who’ve been looking the other way won’t have any choice but to do something.”

“I’m not leaving kids chained up when I leave here,” I snarled. “And I’m not going to let Silver take my money for enslaving children.”

“So we’re back to the bloodbath plan.” Strumming sighed. “Well, good thing I’ve been reading up on the most efficient ways to dispose of a corpse. Tossing them into the ocean is pretty obvious, or we could always burn them up, then toss whatever doesn’t burn into the ocean. Or we could do something more exotic like dissolve them in lye. Just figured I’d lay out all the options for if we wanna go on a murder spree. Though I gotta warn you, the smell is nasty.”

“Right, point taken.” As much as part of me liked the idea of carving a bloody swath through all the overseers on the island, I’d probably feel different once I’d calmed down and had a bunch of dead bodies in front of me. Not to mention ... well I had no idea how guilty everyone on the island was. Some of them were probably bad enough that I wouldn’t lose any sleep over killing them, but what about the likes of the accountant back in the records room? Doing the books for a dirty business like this was wrong, but it didn’t feel like something so evil that it merited summary execution.

That’s kind of the whole point of trials: to try and figure out who’s guilty, exactly how guilty they are, and try to come up with a somewhat fair punishment for them. Not that I trusted Freeport’s justice system to actually be fair, but taking the role of judge, jury, and executioner for myself was a pretty damn problematic solution.

I had to keep reminding myself of that as we passed by a group of workers out in the field. They all looked utterly exhausted, shuffling through the fields like half-dead zombies. Puzzle asked one of the many questions on my mind. “So, what are the working hours like here?”

The dockworker shrugged. “Sunup to sundown, with days off whenever a big storm hits. Last time the owner made us try to work in wild weather, we lost money. Too many damaged and lost tools and workers, not enough work getting done to make that worth it.”

“Right right, that's usually the way on farms.” He glanced at one of the nearby workers, chained in place as he slowly cleared an empty field.

“Disciplinary issue,” the dockmaster answered the unspoken question. “The one thing about contract workers, we can’t really fire them once they’re hired. Means some of the overseers get real creative about how they handle that kind of thing.” He snorted. “Then again, with how little Silver pays them, pretty sure most of the thugs she hires for that work enjoy coming up with ways to creatively punish anyone who misbehaves.”

He was not making it easier to talk myself out of killing these bastards.

It got a lot harder once we got to the eastern field. I didn’t spot Sour Sweet right away, because there were several kids working in the area. Their coats were matted by sweat and filth, making them all blend together, and their manes and tails looked like they hadn’t been brushed for a few days. Some of their hooves were overgrown and in need of trimming while others were haphazardly cracked, as if they’d tried to file them down themselves on whatever was available. The worst part of it was their eyes: they kept their gaze low, on the ground or else on their work to avoid any unwanted attention. They’d been told where their place was, and any spark of hope had long since left.

One child slave was bad enough, seeing that they had an entire corps of them...

My jaw hurt from how tightly I clenched it, my teeth grinding against each other. Strumming paused for a brief moment, and while Puzzle kept that same blandly friendly smile on his face it no longer reached his eyes. “Seems like you have quite a few children working here.”

The dockmaster shrugged. “Yeah, apparently being lower to the ground and with smaller hooves helps with some of the work. Seems to me like you’d get better work out of adults who wanted to be here, but I don’t make those calls.”

Puzzle grimaced. “Even during my brief stay here I can see where the owner’s priorities are.”

The zebra snorted and shook his. “Money, as quick and effortless as possible. From what I’ve heard she’s still working on recovering the cost of buying the place and fixing it back up after the old owners got killed and half the buildings burned down or blew up. Maybe once we’re in the black it’ll ease up.”

“The owners dead, several buildings gone ... sounds like there was quite an incident.” Considering I knew the context, it was hard not to detect just a little bit of smug satisfaction in Puzzle’s voice.

The dockmaster shrugged. “Yeah. It was before my time, but apparently Archmagus Shimmer burned out some bad guys after they killed the owners and took the place over. Crazy to think a single pony could do that damage without anyone backing her up.”

“Yes, it is.” Puzzle said with just the tiniest hint of irritation in his voice. Considering I’d spent a lot of that adventure poisoned and semi-conscious while Puzzle did all the hard work, I couldn’t exactly fault him for being grumpy that I got all the credit. He shot a quick look back at me, and I shrugged. It’s not like I’d been going out and publicly taking credit for his work.

Before I could think of a good response to that, one of the children collapsed. That would’ve been bad enough, but a second later one of the overseers started stomping towards the child, pulling out a club and giving it a few wind-up swings.

Puzzle stopped pretending to be nice, and there was a threatening edge to his voice. “Is that necessary?”

The dockworker snarled and averted his gaze. “Probably not. They say the hard rubber clubs they use don’t actually hurt that much, but considering the kind of guys they hire to smack the kids whenever they don’t work fast enough ... let’s just say some of those sickos wouldn’t use them if they didn’t hurt.”

I’d heard more than enough. Subtlety be damned, I wasn’t going to sit back and watch a kid get beaten just because we needed to preserve our cover. I teleported between the overseer and the child, then called up Chainbreaker. The sword easily sliced through the simple rubber club, and the thug staggered back in shock. “What the...” I hammered him down with a sledgehammer of raw kinetic force before he could say anything more. I probably broke several bones with that spell, but I was way past caring about that.

Puzzle and Strumming snapped into action backing me up, putting two blades at the throat of the dockmaster. “This one suggests you surrender before this becomes unpleasant for you.”

“No, no, let him struggle,” Strumming growled. “It'll be more fun that way.”

The dockmaster stumbled back and sat on his haunches, throwing his hooves up in surrender. “Oh, I do not get paid enough to try and stop a prison break! Go ahead, take the kids! Do you want your money back too?”

“Good.” I tossed my cloak to the side and flourished Chainbreaker. “I’m shutting this whole place down. If you want to survive, stay out of my way.”

If anything the dockmaster looked even more terrified once I unmasked. “Oh buck me sideways! There’s not enough money in the world to make me fight her!”

“Guess you have a working brain after all.” I quickly made my way through the field, chopping off chains wherever I saw them. Far too many of the kids were still bound in place. I probably should’ve stopped to try and identify Sour Sweet among the crowd, but things had gone way past just rescuing one child.

Puzzle cleared his throat. “Looks like we’ve got more of them incoming.”

I spotted a small crowd of goons converging on us. Apparently someone noticed the scuffle. Not that I was going to complain. “Good. If they all come to me, it saves me the trouble of hunting them down.”

“You got this?” Strumming asked. “I can watch your back, but Bug Boy should probably get started on escorting the kids back to the boat.” She paused. “Assuming we aren’t planning on purging and occupying the whole island.”

“I’m not stopping with freeing the kids,” I growled. “Keep them safe and get everyone else out of their chains. I’ll deal with the bad guys.”

Normally I might have blasted the incoming goon squad with some wide area evocation, but I didn’t want to risk unleashing anything too heavy in the middle of a sugarcane field. Any fires could burn out of control, and other magic still created a risk of collateral damage.

Good thing I had plenty of other options. I teleported straight into the middle of the group, lashing out with Chainbreaker and scoring a few quick hits. No killing blows, but a couple of them would probably be walking with a limp for a long time to come.

Once they got over the initial shock from my arrival and started forming up for defense, I switched tactics. A solid wall of ice crushed one of them into the ground, and two more got taken down by amethyst tendrils that wrapped around their bodies and slowly drained their life force. Not enough to kill them, just leave them in no condition to do much of anything for the next couple days.

That was enough to send most of them scattering. Something in my subconscious tickled the back of my mind, and I brought Chainbreaker around in a backward block to defend against one of them who thought he could take me if I wasn’t looking at him. Strumming dropped the goon before he would’ve hit me, but having the sword in place to block that attack still seemed like the smart thing to do.

With the goons in the field scattering, I made my way straight for the manor house. The overseers tried rallying in front of the entrance, but now that I could tell the civilians were all clear I didn’t need to worry about collateral damage. Aside from not wanting to completely level the building behind them, there was no reason to hold back.

I didn’t bother with anything fancy, I just unleashed a brief burst of gale-force wind. More than enough to knock them all sprawling, and at that point they all seemed to have enough sense to stay down. Especially since Strumming would be behind me playing clean-up for all the goons who surrendered.

With that taken care of, I blew the front doors off their hinges. I’d burned the manor house down the last time I was on this miserable island, and I was very tempted to do a repeat performance. Maybe after I’d taken care of whoever was in charge.

I slammed into the manor’s main office only to discover that whoever was running things had added a panic room during all the rebuilding. Probably a smart thing to do considering what happened to the last owners. Too bad nobody short of Celestia could build a panic room good enough to stand up to me. My annihilation blast tore through the thick steel door like a hot knife through butter.

A crossbow bolt shot out of the ruined doorway a second later, but I’d seen it coming and dodged out of the way with plenty of time to spare. The manager tried to dive for cover, but his next move was so obvious I’d fired off a silvery kinetic bolt at where he was diving towards before he’d even started moving. The blast caught him in mid air and slammed him back against the wall with a very meaty and satisfying crack.

The manager, a very weedy-looking hippogryph with a cracked pair of spectacles, slowly picked himself up off the floor and did his best to puff himself up with self-importance. “Y-you can’t just come in here and threaten me, I have rights! My boss has connections to the Council, and they’re going to come down on your head like a ton of bricks when they find out about this.”

I didn’t break stride, leveling Chainbreaker at his throat. “Do you have any idea who I am?”

The manager let out a nervous squeak as his eyes flicked down to the sword at his throat. “Y-yeah, and I'm going to tell everyone exactly what you pulled here.”

“Good,” I growled. “I want the whole world to know about it. You and all your employees are under arrest for slavery, false imprisonment, child exploitation, and a laundry list of other crimes. I’d ask if you want to come quietly, but I think I’ve shown by now that whether or not you resist really doesn’t matter.”

The manager tried one last bit of bluster. “You'll never make those charges stick! We've got lawyers, the best money can buy!”

“Your employer has good lawyers,” I snarled. “I doubt she gives a damn about you.” I pressed the blade a bit closer. “Then again, why take the risk? Maybe Freeport is dirty enough that all of you could get away with it. Maybe I should just kill you all right now, or just give all your victims some weapons and tell them to do whatever they want to you.”

The manager’s legs started trembling. “Y-you can’t do that!”

“Oh really?” I smirked. “Who’s going to stop me?”

A second later I felt a hoof on my shoulder. For a brief moment I thought about lashing out at whoever this new attacker was, but then my mind caught up with my instincts and I realized it was just Strumming.

I was expecting some big speech about how murder was wrong and these bastards all deserved a fair trial, but that’s not what I got. Instead she just asked a single question. “Are you sure this is what you want to do, Sunset?”

That was a very good question. I wanted him dead. I wanted every single corrupt monster on this child-exploiting island dead.

But ... did I want it right now, or did I really want it?

I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. I thought back to the conversation I’d had with Strumming a couple hours back, about the difference between using my anger and being used by it. It ... I didn’t think killing every last one of these bastards was wrong, but I also wasn’t sure that carving a bloody path through all of them was the right thing to do.

Besides, they were just the low-level thugs. The real enemy was Silver Cane. She was the owner of the plantation, and probably other ones like it on other islands. Bringing her to justice was way more important than venting my anger on a few thugs.

I slowly removed the blade from his throat and conjured up a set of ice shackles. As I tied the prisoner up, I felt like I needed to make a point. “Torch would've either killed you himself or given all your victims weapons and told them to do whatever they wanted to you. Ushabti probably would’ve killed you and made your corpse do the work all your slaves used to do. Consider yourself very lucky that I'm not either of them.”

Strumming nodded. “Good call, Bacon. Though if you had gone for the bloodbath plan, I would’ve helped get rid of the body. S’like they always say: a good friend will help you move a couch: a great friend will help you move a corpse. So what’s the game plan now? ‘Cause between us taking over an entire island and you calling up your good old anti-slavery sword, there’s gonna be a lot of fallout from this one.”

I took a deep breath. “Secure all the evidence you can find, and let’s get a message to the Doos, the Free Companions, or whoever else we can trust who can get out here to help hold the area. Then we head back to Freeport, and put all this evidence right in front of the Council. This doesn’t get buried, and if they don’t do the right thing...”

In all honesty, I wasn’t sure what would happen then, but it wouldn’t be pretty.

Author's Note

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

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Aidan Hall
Alt Grendel
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Borg Lord
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Trinary
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Zennyth

Breaker of Chains 3

A Council rep was waiting at the docks when we got back to the city. Considering how long the three of us had been on Sweetash Isle cleaning up from the aftermath of my liberation crusade, they’d doubtless heard all about what happened. Not to mention Chainbreaker vanishing from the museum no doubt got their attention. In hindsight, I probably shouldn’t have summoned the sword. It wasn’t like I’d needed it to deal with a couple petty thugs.

The sword had me thinking about a few things. It’s not like there was anything weird about me getting righteously furious at someone enslaving kids, but it was hard not to wonder if the sword might’ve had an impact. The best guess we had for what exactly happened between Chainbreaker and myself was that I’d somehow absorbed the lingering essence of Torch and Ushabti hanging around the sword. Considering I’d used another one of Torch’s spells on the island, it was hard not to suspect I’d gotten more out of that than just a straight power boost.

Celestia told me she could sense parts of Torch and Ushabti’s magic in me. Now I was also pulling out some of Torch’s spells. Maybe Ushabti’s too, though I didn’t know much about what he could do outside of necromancy. However ... if I had their magic and was starting to cast their spells, it begged the question of what else I’d picked up from them.

Last time I’d been to Sweetash Isle, I’d seen indentured servants. I hadn’t been happy about it, but I also hadn’t torn through the whole island and needed to get talked down from lopping off the overseer’s head. It was hard not to wonder if de facto slavery pissing me off so much might be related to the fact that I’d absorbed the essence of a really fanatical abolitionist.

Of course, that left me with a lot of really worrying unanswered questions. If I’d picked up Torch’s hatred of slavery, what else might have changed in my mind? Not to mention that if I’d gotten things from Torch, I’d probably picked up something from Ushabti too. Ushabti’s legacy was a lot more ... complicated. I certainly didn’t like the idea that I might suddenly have the urge to raise up legions of the undead.

If I couldn’t even trust my head to be my own ... well that was a scary thought.

The existential crisis would have to wait until after I was done with the Council. I didn’t know how much they’d heard about what happened on Sweetash Isle, but I knew Silver Cane had plenty of money and connections. It was a pretty safe bet that she’d been telling anyone she could make listen that she was the innocent victim of an out-of-control Archmagus.

Puzzle was pretty sure we could keep that from being an issue. After all, we had overwhelming evidence and tons of witness and victim testimony to support our side of the story—one of the things that had kept us on Sweetash Isle for a couple days was thoroughly cataloguing all of it. However, if things went badly with the Council, it could make the whole process of bringing Silver Cane to justice a lot harder. She might even be able to get away clean, or at least with nothing worse than a slap on the wrist.

Especially since from what Puzzle told me, she had connections with his nemesis Cold Comfort. Puzzle was as certain as anyone could ever be that Cold had one of the seats on the Council, so it was all but certain that at least one of the members of the Council would be trying very hard to poke holes in our evidence.

Nothing I could do with that but roll with it. After all, he couldn’t undermine solid evidence. It might even work to our advantage. If all the evidence and testimony survived Cold Comfort, it would come out looking that much stronger.

Two guards were waiting for us when we got to the Council’s headquarters. It was rare to see any of the Council’s private security out in the open; they usually preferred staying in the shadows, or just hiding in plain sight. From what Puzzle said, half the paper-pushers in the building would pull concealed weapons the instant trouble started. The big guys in black full plate armor and carrying around very unconcealable halberds only came out when the Council wanted to make a point. I suppose I should be flattered they were going to all that trouble for me.

One of the guards spoke up as we approached. “The Council is in session. They’ll call for you when they’re ready.” The lack of any title when he addressed me immediately got my attention. Not that I was normally the sort to bite someone’s head off for not calling me Archmagus, but under the circumstances it felt more like a deliberate, calculated slight. What he said next made that seem even more likely. “Just you. Your minions will have to wait outside.” We all ignored Strumming’s outraged look at being called a minion. “I suggest you get comfortable. They’re very busy with important matters.”

Great. So it was some stupid power play. Make me wait outside for a couple hours just to say how very important they were, and how very unimportant I was. Those sorts of games always pissed me off, and after everything I’d dealt with on Sweetash Isle, I was in no mood to put up with them. “I’m going in now. Get out of my way.”

The two guards immediately crossed their halberds over the door. “The Council will call for you when they’re ready. For now—”

“I said I’m going in.” It felt a bit weird to try to intimidate a couple guys who were significantly taller than me, but I gave it my best shot. “Do you really think you can stop me from walking through that door if I want to? I’m sure you’re both very good with those halberds you’re hauling around, but ... well, you know who I am.”

The guards shifted in place and traded a look. All things considered, they were doing a good job of not showing any fear, but they’d have to be stupid not to be a little worried. That hesitation was all I needed to make my move. A quick little burst of telekinesis swatted their halberds aside, and I moved through the doorway before they could gather their wits enough to stop me.

I stepped into the cool dark chamber, heading straight for the circle of light surrounded by the Council’s raised dais. There was a low buzz of conversation when I entered the room, but it cut off once they saw me. All thirteen of them stared down at me from behind their silver masks, and despite the lack of any facial expressions to read I could tell they weren’t happy. “If you think I’m going to stay outside waiting long enough for you to make whatever power play point you’re trying to make...”

One of them cut in before I could build up any more momentum. “We were working on the budget, Archmagus. Your matter can wait until its appointed time.”

One of the ones that I suspected was on my side cleared their throat. “We’ve been deadlocked for the last two hours repeating the same arguments we’ve all heard a dozen times before. We might as well break things up by changing the subject and taking care of something a bit clearer. Archmagus Shimmer’s matter shouldn’t be too difficult to resolve.”

The one in the middle, who I’d always gotten the sense was the closest thing the Council had to a chief executive, spoke up. “That is highly irregular.”

One of the others scoffed. “When is a crisis ever regular?”

“Even if that's true, we still don't want some upstart thinking she can barge in on the Council's meetings.” I got the sense that this member of the Council didn’t like me very much. The mask did a good job of muddying their voice enough to hide their identity, but it couldn’t hide the venom coming within that voice.

I scoffed and crossed my forelegs over my chest. “I don’t think I can barge in on you, I already have. If your time is so precious, save some of it by complaining less and getting down to business. Especially since what I’m here for is more important anyway.”

That didn’t make him any happier. “Your cavalier attitude is not appreciated. Just because you’ve manipulated your way into claiming the title of Archmagus doesn’t mean you get to just disrupt Council meetings whenever you desire. We rule Freeport, and so long as you remain here you are subject to our authority.”

I really wasn’t interested in getting into a prolonged horn-measuring contest, so I made a minor concession. “I have good reasons for being here. There’s a lot to cover, and by the time we’re done you might want to reassign some of the funds in your budget.” I conjured up a throne of solid ice for myself and got comfortable, setting Chainbreaker aside.

“The guards let her come in armed?” one of them groused.

My possible ally on the Council spoke up again. “It’s not as if taking the sword away from her would be anything more than a symbolic gesture. She summoned it all the way from Sweetash Isle, I doubt she’d have trouble getting it from a storage room. Not to mention she’s still an Archmagus without the sword.”

“Speaking of which,” the grumpy one cut in, “she pulled Chainbreaker from the museum, again. When we agreed to allow you to continue to have this connection to Chainbreaker, we did so with the understanding that it would only be used in an emergency. This marks the second time in as many months you’ve taken the sword from its rightful home—first to resolve a private family matter, and now for ... whatever madness you got up to on Sweetash Isle.”

There were so many things wrong with that I didn’t know where to start. The Council wasn’t allowing me to keep my bond with Chainbreaker, the sword was mine and they couldn’t do anything about it other than grin and bear it. As for the last time I’d called it, even if I had a big personal stake in the fight with Solar and Golden, they had been an Archmagus and a warlock who was pretty much on par with him. Freeport had a very legitimate interest in keeping that whole mess contained.

But there was no point going over all the old business. It would be far more productive to focus on the most recent problem. I reached into my saddlebag and pulled out a set of broken chains from the island. “I was putting it to good use this time. The sword was busy living up to its name.”

One of the Council members I hadn’t heard before spoke up. “By assasulting several Sweetash Isle employees and disrupting production? We’re almost to planting season, and it’ll be hard for them to get a new crop in the ground on time with all the damage you’ve done.” This new one sounded a lot angier than the members of the Council who didn’t like me on principle.

I scoffed. “You think those chains were cosmetic, or the only set? There are hundreds more from the island.”

The angry one scoffed. “Yes, sometimes owners and overseers have to enforce disciplinary measures against contract workers who won’t uphold the agreements they signed. What should they have done, allow the layabouts to not earn their keep?”

“Contract workers normally aren’t chained to their post,” one of the others pointed out.

“Normally,” the calmer one who still didn’t like me agreed. “But we’re not here to second-guess the managerial practices of individual plantation owners. For all we know, these bindings might only be used for unusual and extreme disciplinary matters. Do you have any evidence that these chains are anything more than—”

I didn’t let them finish whatever point they were about to make. I could’ve argued with my words, but sometimes a dramatic action is a lot more effective. I pulled out a second, child-sized set of chains and tossed them down next to the first. “Are you still okay with letting Silver Cane run her plantation however she wants?”

After an almost painfully awkward silence the calm grumpy one finally spoke up. “What does this prove? That one of the disobedient contract workers had an especially frame and thin limbs? Perhaps the worker suffered from dwarfism, or—”

“Oh, spare us those desperate rationalizations,” one of the others cut in. “Those are obviously made for a child.”

Next was the one who seemed to be on my side. “I trust you wouldn’t be making such accusations without substantial evidence to back that claim?”

The angry one cut in before I could actually take advantage of the opening. “Yes, there are children working that plantation. Sweetash Isle is giving those children room, board, and three square meals a day, not to mention practical work experience. The alternative for most of them would be to live on the streets. Is that what you want?”

I glowered at that masked face. “Funny, most people wouldn’t be so eager to defend child slavery, especially when the Council got its start as an organization dedicated to the abolition of slavery in Freeport.”

“You’re mischaracterizing what happened,” the angry one snapped at me.

“Last I checked, we didn’t put free children in chains,” my ally shot back.

“We should consider this matter privately,” the one in the middle declared.

“It’s far more trouble to exclude the Archmagus from the conversation then catch her up whenever we have a new question,” one of the others countered. “And it’s not as if it’s any secret to her that we have our own individual thoughts and opinions.”

“And it’s not like I couldn’t break into your private link if I really wanted to,” I pointed out. Granted, that was a bit of a bluff; while I was good, mental magic wasn’t my forte, and I’d never really tried breaking into a secure telepathic link before. No reason to let them know I wasn’t completely sure I could pull it off, though.

“That would be very unwise,” one of them warned me.

There was a bit of an awkward silence, and then the one who didn’t like me said something that surprised me. “I’m curious to hear what she has to say as well. We can always expel her from the room once we’ve heard everything we need from her.”

That seemed to settle the debate, at least for the moment. One of the others got back to the matter at hoof. “One has to wonder what Torch would think of these ... employment practices.”

“This is a farce.” The angry one looked around the room. “How long will we sit here and listen while she’s slandering the owner of Sweetash Isle? It’s not as though the other plantation owners are all that different in their practices. Sometimes contract workers are unable to fulfill their terms of service, and the obligation passes on to the next of kin.”

“They don’t use chains,” one of the others shot back, and it was hard to miss the angry edge in their voice. “At least, they’re not supposed to. And they definitely aren’t supposed to be using child labor and putting them in chains. Our laws are quite clear on that matter, as well as the whole concept of debts transferring to the next of kin—especially children! That was something I thought we were all well aware of and agreed upon.”

A suspicion that had been brewing in the back of my mind for the last couple minutes came into focus, and I decided to act on it. “You’re right, the Council doesn’t endorse that kind of thing.” I fixed my eyes on the angry one. “But you do, don't you, Silver Cane?”

I sent Chainbreaker slicing for her mask with a simple telekinesis spell. It was a bit risky to use the sword, but I wanted something dramatic enough to make an impression, especially since those masks almost certainly had some kind of spell to keep them from getting tugged off with a simple telekinesis spell. Besides, I knew the blade well enough to take out the mask without slicing through half her face in the process.

Right after the sword hit I teleported without even stopping to consciously think about it. About half a second later I realized why I’d done it, as two crossbow bolts that were practically crackling with energy hammered into the icy throne I’d prepared for myself. The impacts shattered the ice completely, and I could feel the magic radiating off the crossbow bolts. Mage-killers, probably something the Council’s hidden bodyguards loaded up specifically for my visit. That was a bit of a problem, considering they probably had more than one bolt apiece, and I had no idea where the snipers were.

My ally on the Council bolted up. “Hold fire! She’s not hostile!”

“‘Not hostile’?!” Silver repeated incredulously, trying to hold the shattered remnants of her mask in place. “She attacked me! Kill her!”

“Belay that order!” the one the middle commanded. “Stand down!”

One of the others turned to Silver. “If she’d wanted you dead, all she needed to do was extend her swing by a few centimeters. She only damaged your mask and your pride, that’s not worth starting a fight over.”

“Though that was very unwise,” another member of the Council growled. “If you’d misjudged your swing or dodged a bit slower we would be having a very different conversation.”

Nobody else shot at me, so I suppose the ones who didn’t want me dead were winning the argument. It was hard to say for sure, since after that they started communicating over their private magical connection. Judging by the faint wheeze of sound coming from Silver’s damaged mask, I’d been right about the enchantment being tied to the mask. It made me wonder what the range on those was, and whether the Council could actually meet and discuss things without all being in the same room. Maybe some of the Council members in the room right now were actually just proxies or body doubles.

Thankfully Silver Cane herself was here in the flesh. She didn’t look all that impressive with her mask in pieces; she was an older earth pony mare, with her wrinkled face seemingly stuck in a perpetual scowl as if all the world had gone out of its way to offend her. Granted, she had a lot of good reasons to be unhappy right now, not to mention directing just all that anger straight at me. “You’re going to pay for that,” she snarled. Without the mask, her voice had a faint rasp to it that spoke to many years of hard living, and bitter anger in her tone came with a natural ease that made me think it was pretty much her default voice.

“Am I?” I pulled out the last piece of evidence I’d brought into the chamber. “I have sworn statements from several of your victims. Puzzle and Strumming collected hundreds more, and if need be we can bring all the witnesses here to have them testify.”

“Lies!” Silver snapped. “She must have bribed those people to say whatever she wanted them to say. She has more than enough money to pull that off.”

“A quick check of my financials and theirs will disprove that,” I pointed out. “Though if you don’t trust the witnesses, we've also got quite a bit of paperwork with your signature and seal on it.” I shot a cold smile her way. “Word of advice: don't make your accountant feel unappreciated and underpaid. He was more than happy to turn over all the records out of pure spite, instead of doing something foolish like trying to destroy all the evidence that could implicate you. Employee loyalty is a valuable resource.”

“Forgeries,” she shot back. “Made up by disgruntled and disloyal employees trying to shift the blame to me to save their own necks.”

The Council member I thought was on my side spoke up. “I think our experts are more than capable of reviewing the evidence and determining its authenticity. From the sound of it, Archmagus Shimmer has an impressive amount of it.”

“Impressive that she managed to assemble so much proof so quickly,” the one that didn’t like me shot back. “Legitimate investigations of that scale normally take quite a bit longer. But the Archmagus no doubt knows just how severely we would punish her for fabricating evidence against a member of the Council.” That last remark barely avoided being an outright threat, but the meaning behind it was clear enough.

One of the others shrugged. “Her track record has been vexing but reliable. Launching an unprovoked attack on a plantation and fabricating vast amounts of evidence against a member of the Council would be unusual, especially when there would be no clear motive to go to such extreme lengths. So far as all of us are aware, there was no prior enmity or even notable interaction between the Archmagus and Silver.”

“Not on her part,” my adversary agreed, “but the Archmagus is not a one-mare operation. One of her associates like Puzzle Piece could have a hidden agenda that requires Silver’s removal from the Council. It would not be the first time he told a few lies to set events in motion, and fabricating evidence is certainly within his capabilities.”

I snorted. “Puzzle’s good, but he couldn’t whip up hundreds of witnesses and mountains of paperwork without any evidence of foul play. The only way that much evidence comes to light is if it’s the truth.”

Silver snorted. “Or Puzzle and rest of your minions came up with all of this obviously fake evidence ahead of time. I don’t know what game you think you’re playing, but it’s not going to work this time.”

“If it was all fake, then that should be obvious after a cursory investigation,” my ally on the Council pointed out. “Though personally, I don’t think the Archmagus would be so sloppy, and I doubt Puzzle would take that kind of risk. He’s very good about giving us reliable information, isn’t he?” Their masked face turned towards the Council member who’d been trying to poke holes in my story. After a couple seconds, the skeptic just grunted and nodded.

“And we could always send investigators to a few of her other plantations,” one of the others suggested. “It’s only prudent to inspect the rest of her holdings after such a damning accusation, if only to clear Silver’s good name.” That remark hung in the air for a few seconds before they rather pointedly asked, “The investigation would clear your name, wouldn’t it?”

Silver Cane didn’t say anything, but her perpetual scowl got a bit deeper.

I let that silence last long enough to make it clear she didn’t have an answer before moving on. “I’m sure the Council and Silver’s legal counsel will have plenty of time to review the evidence before the trial. We’ll be more than happy to turn everything over to the prosecutor.”

“What?!” Silver scoffed and shook her head. “A member of the Council going on trial?! That’s utterly absurd!”

“Not as absurd as a member of the Council engaging in slavery,” my ally shot back. “I think we can all agree that something must be done about this. In the past this Council has overlooked the ... personal foibles of its members, but if we allow this to stand then we have no standards at all.”

The one in the middle tried to take control of the situation again. “These charges will need to be fully investigated, after which time we will hold a formal proceeding laying out the evidence, during which Silver will have the opportunity to defend herself and face her accusers. Though the actual details might vary, that sounds very much like a trial.”

“Have you all gone mad?!” Silver shouted, slamming her hooves down on the dais. “Putting a member of the Council on trial ... what will that do for our image of unity and incorruptibility? No, we’ll do what we’ve always done when one of our members has a personal failure exposed: bury it and buy the silence of those involved.”

My eyes narrowed. “My silence isn’t for sale, and the same goes for a lot of your victims. You're going down.” I smirked at her. “You see, while I wasn't sure if you were actually on the Council or not until I got here, I knew you had connections. I knew you might try to find some way to bury this. It’s why Puzzle, Strumming, and I came up with a backup plan. If I’m not happy with how this ends, all my evidence goes straight to the press.”

“Are you trying to threaten the Council?” the one that didn’t like me demanded.

I shrugged. “If that’s what it takes to make sure Silver’s victims get justice? Yes.” I took a deep breath and made sure to keep any anger out of my tone. “I’d rather work with you. It makes the process smoother for everyone and saves us all a lot of headaches. But I’m not letting Silver just cover this up and walk away clean.”

“Preposterous!” Silver shouted. “We’re the Council! Freeport is ours, and nobody can come into our city—our very chambers—and make demands!” She shot me an especially venomous glare. “You think you’re so smart, but you have no idea who you’re dealing with. If the press tries to publish this we’ll shut them down! We’ve done it before, and we can do it again.”

That didn’t go over so well with the rest of the group. “We’ve shut the papers down for national security and to keep the peace, not to cover up the crimes of one of our own, especially since it would be blindingly obvious to all the newspaper publishers that we were trying to cover up a scandal. Maybe some of the papers would go along with it, but all of them? You know half the journalists would start salivating at the chance to reveal a government coverup of a major scandal like this.”

I shrugged. “I’m sure you also know that even if the Freeport newspapers don’t run the story, the Equestrian ones will. I have just a few connections that could make sure that happens.” Not that I loved the idea of asking Mom for help on top of asking her to meddle with Freeport’s internal politics, but it was in the name of a very good cause.

“Perhaps we can’t bury the story, but we could always get out ahead of it,” one of them pointed out. “Part of why the membership of the Council is secret is precisely so we can handle situations like this. Silver Cane, prominent landowner and businessmare, can go on trial for her crimes without a single soul outside this room ever knowing that she once wore one of our masks.”

“While some degree of secrecy might be for the best, we run the risk of diminishing Torch's legacy by not taking action,” my ally pointed out. “Freeport has a long history of regimes built upon good intentions collapsing into corruption and ruin. The Council will not fall prey to the same cycle. Perhaps it is time we all accepted slightly more transparency, if only to ensure that none of our members can become so corrupt again.”

“That seems like a matter for future discussions,” the one in the middle declared. “For now, let us settle the matter of Silver Cane.” There was a brief buzz in the air as they presumably voted on her fate. Then the center one announced the decision. “Guards, arrest Silver Cane. Her Council rank and status are hereby formally suspended, and she’s to be held in one of our cells until such time as we finish a preliminary review of the evidence.”

Silver blinked in shock, the shattered remnants of her Council mask tumbling from her hooves. “You ... you backstabbing treacherous bastards! You can’t do this to me! You think you can just sacrifice me?! I’ll drag you all down with me! Don’t try to pretend you’re so much better than me! You think I don’t know all your dirty little secrets? None of your hooves are clean!” She leveled an accusing hoof at me. “Even if I don’t take you down, this sanctimonious nag will come for you next!”

My ally shrugged. “I haven’t enslaved anyone. I’ll take my chances.”

One of the others shrugged as well. “You wouldn’t be the first criminal in Freeport to throw out wild accusations and claim to know the identities of members of the Council. Whatever you say will just get lost in all the noise.”

Silver turned to her last hope, the one member of the Council who really didn’t like me. “Tell them to stop. We have to show them that Sunset can’t get away with this. They can’t beat us if we stand together, you’ve got leverage against them. Damn you, Cold, help me!”

The member of the Council who had just been confirmed as Cold Comfort didn’t say anything for several seconds, just slowly leaning back in his seat. When he finally spoke, it was without the benefit of his mask’s voice-altering spells. Probably because he wanted to make sure Silver could hear the contempt in his voice. “You say you have evidence you could use against other members of the Council. Quite a bold claim. Let this one guess: you did something terribly gauche like a little safe in your bedroom, hidden behind a painting of the Battle of Two Magnuses. The combination for the lock would be something sadly predictable, like 6-46-32? Perhaps you think you have something in there that gives you leverage. Who can really say what you might have in this hypothetical safe? For all we know, it could be completely empty. It’s not like you check it all that often.”

Silver flinched and opened her mouth a few more times, trying to come up with some way out. Nothing happened, and eventually she slumped down into her seat. She didn’t even try to resist as the guards took her into custody.

Once she was gone, I cleared my throat. “I’ll have Puzzle provide you with a copy of everything we have. Is there anything else the Council needs from me?”

“That will be all for now,” the Council’s unofficial leader announced. “We have a great deal to discuss about Silver’s upcoming trial, not to mention filling a new opening in our ranks if she’s found to be unfit for her office. As well as all the usual matters involved in actually running Freeport.”

“Thank you for bringing this matter to our attention,” Cold Comfort added, though he hardly sounded grateful. “We won’t forget this.”

My ally cleared their throat. “One final matter: we trust you’ll return Chainbreaker to its proper place until the next time circumstances demand its use? And that you will continue to exercise the proper degree of discretion in using it?”

“Of course.” I took a deep breath. “Well, then I will leave you to your work. And ... I would like to thank the Council for doing the right thing.”

Author's Note

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

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Breaker of Chains 4

Now that everything with the Council was over, the only thing left to take care of was making sure all Silver Cane’s victims would be alright. Which started with the one who’d indirectly brought me into the whole mess: Sour Sweet.

Sour was a Free Mind right around Kukri’s age, though she was a lot thinner and had a lot of wiry muscles from long plantation shifts. She currently was disguising herself as a pegasus, but I’d also seen her as a unicorn, gryphon, zebra, and a couple of hybrids. The only shape I hadn’t seen her in yet was her natural one. She didn’t seem anywhere near as comfortable in her changeling shape as Kukri was.

That wasn’t the only difference between her and my apprentice, either. “So why’re you shelling out to get me a new apartment?” I probably should’ve been offended by the cynical suspicion in her voice, but considering everything she’d been through in the past couple months I couldn’t really blame her. Maybe that was why she was avoiding any of the weird verbal quirks that gave away Free Minds too.

I gave her a straight answer. “I helped set the place up, but the money for it’s coming from Silver Cane.” The Council seized all her assets once their investigation confirmed everything I’d accused her of, and a lot more. How exactly all her money and property would get split up was still being argued over by just about everyone, but there was general agreement that everyone she’d enslaved on the plantation deserved some kind of compensation. If whatever share Sour got didn’t quite cover the rent, school, and monthly stipend I’d set up for her ... well, it wasn’t like I couldn’t afford to make up the difference.

“Oh. Well, thanks anyway.” Sour paced around the room, slowly taking in her new surroundings. I wasn’t springing for a ridiculous luxury apartment, but it was a pretty nice space, especially for a young mare all on her own. “So what’s the catch? Do I do your chores, clean your tower, or are you some kind of filly-fiddler?”

“No catch,” I assured her, doing my best to ignore the last accusation. “You said you didn’t have any family left, and I didn’t go to all the trouble of rescuing you from slavery just to put you out on the street.” A homeless child with no family in Freeport would probably end up stumbling into some new form of trouble just as bad as what I’d rescued her from.

“Oh.” Her eyes narrowed. “I get it. Playing up the big heroine image, right? Not only did you free the slaves, but you also helped them with a safe house and setting up a new life. That’s the sort of good press you can’t buy.”

I shrugged. “That’s not the reason I’m helping you, but I’d be lying if I said it never occurred to me.” Celestia had taught me that going out and publicly performing good deeds was the best way to earn a good reputation. Plus I had a feeling Sour would trust my charity a lot more if she could find a slight hint of the cynical motivation behind it.

“Right.” She paced the room a bit longer, then flopped down onto a cheap but comfortable couch. “So ... what happens now?”

“You’ll be restarting school next week,” I explained. “Puzzle will have someone come by and check on you every few days. He’ll also be keeping an ear to the ground for any families that might be interested in adoption.”

“I’ll pass on that.” Sour scoffed and shook her head. I saw no reason to argue the point with her: at thirteen she was old enough to make an adoption hard to pull off if she wasn’t on board with it. I had plenty of experience with bad family situations, after all. As long as she wasn’t having trouble managing on her own, I wasn’t going to push the issue.

Instead, I moved on to a happier topic. “I’m sure your friends will be happy to know you’re back safe and sound. I know Sunny Flare was worried.”

That was when Sour said just about the last thing I’d expected to hear. “Who’s Sunny Flare?”

A couple of follow-up questions confirmed it: Sour Sweet had no idea who Sunny Flare was, and it wasn’t a case of Sunny using an alias or something like that. Sunny Flare had lied to me about knowing her.

Maybe it should’ve been obvious in hindsight: Sunny’s family was comfortably upper class while Sour had been living in Sandy Shores. At the time I hadn’t questioned it. Sour went to an expensive school, and what reason would Sunny have to lie to me?

My first instinct had been to confront Sunny about it, but I quickly realized that would probably be pointless. There weren’t any good reasons I could think of for her to lie to me of her own volition, and considering the huge amount of political fallout that lie produced, it smelled like a setup. Considering her father was a high-ranking member of one of Freeport’s oldest, largest, and most connected mercenary groups...

The Freeport front office for the Free Companions looked like a mad mixture of a dozen different styles and influences. Except ... unlike a lot of the mansions of Freeport’s nouveau riche, the Free Companions made it work. Underneath the facade of chaos, there’d obviously been a very good architect putting everything together in a way where all the disparate parts complemented each other. It only looked like chaos if you weren’t paying attention.

Though several guards in fancy uniforms with big floppy hats noticed me, none of them got in my way or challenged me. Most of them probably assumed the Archmagus of Freeport was here on important business, or else they just saw how pissed off I looked and made sure they stayed out of my way. It wasn’t too hard to find General Platinum’s office since it was right off the main hall displaying all the Companions’ trophies.

That was when I finally hit a roadblock, in the form of a sharply dressed young hippogryph secretary with a not-quite concealed crossbow hidden under his desk. He didn’t point the weapon in my direction or anything stupid like that, but it was a pretty safe bet that if he felt the need he could bring it to bear quickly. Or have some other nasty surprise waiting. If the crossbow wasn’t perfectly concealed it might be a distraction meant to take my attention off the real threat.

The secretary looked up at me with the same blankly polite look every administrative assistant seemed to master at some point. “Archmagus Shimmer, how can I—”

I wasn’t in the mood to waste any time with pleasantries. “Is General Platinum in?”

“Yes, but—”

I didn’t wait for him to finish the sentence before I stomped up to the door. Maybe I should’ve been polite about it and waited for her—I knew from past experience that secretaries did not like it when someone bulled past them—but I’d been lied to and manipulated, and if it wasn’t Platinum’s direct fault one of her employees was still responsible. The social niceties had gone out the window a while ago.

General Platinum Peacock was at her desk going over paperwork when I barged in. She was a hippogryph maybe a couple of years younger than my parents, with a coat and feathers that matched her name. She’d set her hat to the side and taken off her elaborate uniform coat in favor of something more comfortable, but she still wore her basket-hilted broadsword at her side. She immediately looked up from her papers when I smacked open the door, but despite the subtle tension in her shoulders her golden eyes remained calm. “Archmagus. Welcome to my private office. How can I—”

I got straight to the point. “Why did you tell Sunny Flare to lie to me?”

Her eyes immediately flicked to her assistant. “Arrow, close the door and put up the privacy wards.” She didn’t say anything until he’d shut and locked the door, and I felt a ripple of magic settle over the room. “So you did work it out. I suppose it was inevitable, especially when you’re such close friends with Puzzle. If you don’t mind my asking, what gave it away?”

I took a seat, though I kept my eyes on Platinum the whole time. “Sunny told me she was friends with Sour Sweet, but when I mentioned her name to Sour she’d never heard of her before. It was a bit of an obvious lie in hindsight, but nobody expects to get played by a thirteen year old, and kids being in danger is the sort of thing that’d make me act before I dug too deep. Considering everything that spiraled out of that lie, I didn't believe for a second it was something Sunny came up with on her own. Someone told her to do it.”

Platinum spread her forelimbs open. “And the most obvious suspects for who would put her up to the job are either her parents or me. A largely academic difference, considering if her parents did it they would be acting on my orders. You’re right—I told her to lie to you. When I told her it would be her first real job as an aspiring member of the Companions, she buried any doubts and followed orders. I assure you, it was for a good cause.”

I scowled at her and crossed my forelegs over my chest. “This better be good. If you think I’m going to overlook all the dirty business you’ve gotten up to just because you claim it’s for some nebulous greater good...”

Platinum closed her eyes and took a deep breath. “Simply put, I wanted to pin Silver to the wall for what she was doing, but I couldn't do it myself or act through any obvious proxies. I needed a third party to discover what she was up to and bring it to the Council. You’re one of the few in Freeport with the power to take Silver down and the passion to push the issue.”

That wasn’t the worst answer, but it still left me with a lot of questions. “Why couldn’t you do it yourself? Or at least just sit down and have an honest conversation with me? Way more honest than telling a kid to lie to me, and a lot more reliable than indirectly pointing me in that general direction in the hopes that I would end up doing what you wanted.”

“I don’t like all the subterfuge any more than you do.” Platinum sighed and slowly opened one of the drawers on her desk. “But I’ve had to do a lot of things I’m not wild about since I started wearing one of these.” She slowly pulled out a very familiar silver mask, then set it down on the desk in front of me.

Platinum was on the Council. That ... did explain a few things. “Let me guess, you were the one in the room who seemed to be backing me up?”

She nodded, a hint of a smile on her beak. “For what it’s worth, you played your part brilliantly. Shattering Silver’s mask was a nice dramatic touch, even if the Council is a bit annoyed they’ll have to replace it.”

It wasn’t hard to connect all the dots now that I had the missing pieces of the puzzle. “So you had me dig up all the information on Silver Cane's slave plantations because if you revealed it yourself it would look too much like a political power play. And let me guess: you lied to me about it so there wouldn't be any risk of me mentioning who hired me or figuring out the political angle? The best way to make sure I come across as authentic is to keep me in the dark about the big picture.”

“Exactly,” Platinum confirmed. “I needed you to come charging into the Council full of moral indignation and righteous anger, not calm and politically calculating. Otherwise Silver's allies would have caught onto what we were up to and she might’ve gotten away with everything. I regret lying to you, but if things hadn’t gone to plan I and all of Silver’s victims would regret that a lot more.”

The more I thought about it, the more aspects of her plan I figured out. “The Council was working on next year's budget when I showed up. I have a feeling that wasn’t a coincidence.”

Platinum nodded. “It wasn’t. The annual budget meetings are always contentious. We can set laws and policies as much as we want, but how well they’re enforced depends a lot on where the ducats go. Everything Silver did was wildly illegal, but she got away with it because the Council is very comfortable not funding any internal investigations of its own members. In better times the Masks would keep tabs on all of us to make sure we weren’t blatantly corrupt, but now that Cold controls them...” She sighed and shook her head. “Between the ones who didn’t want their dirty secrets found and the ones who feared Cold would use them to blackmail other members of the Council, is it any surprise we defunded that particular organization? The same has been the case for many other laws and reforms.”

I grimaced. “He can’t repeal all the laws that get in his way, but if he eliminates the budget for whoever’s in charge enforcing those laws they basically stop existing. I’m guessing he can get a majority on the Council for those sorts of budget cuts?”

Platinum sighed. “Between the likes of Silver who see an opportunity for profit when the law isn’t enforced and other members of the Council who benefit from those budget cuts, he succeeds more than he should. Whenever he slashes the budget for a regulatory agency, the money gets split up into pet projects of half the Council.”

I almost smiled as it all came into focus. “But now Silver’s out of the Council, which takes away one of Cold’s main allies. And after the scandal, I’m going to bet that whoever replaces her will be someone with a squeaky clean reputation. You’ll have a much easier time arguing for more funding for all those agencies now that you’ve replaced Cold’s ally with one of your own. Not to mention all the fence-sitters will see that the Council needs to put their own house in order.”

“Exactly.” Platinum counted off her points on her talons. “As for the replacement, we would need someone with quite a few special qualities. Incorruptibility is a must, so ideally we want someone with both a strong reputation and the rare combination of independent wealth without a hint of greed. Ideally someone young and passionate, because this could be a long and difficult fight. And, of course, they need to occupy a place of substantial enough power and accomplishment to actually deserve a place on the Council.” She turned to me and smiled. “Someone like you.”

“Me?!” Well. Huh. I hadn’t been expecting that.

“Of course.” From the way she said it, you’d think it was the most obvious thing in the world. “You’re powerful, wealthy, and have consistently shown dedication towards helping everyone in Freeport, even the poorest citizens. It’s hard to think of someone better qualified to help us restore Freeport to Torch’s vision for it. Considering Chainbreaker chose you, you’re the closest thing he has to a living heir.”

I opened my mouth, but she lifted up a talon to cut me off. “And yes, if you want the position, you’re sure to get it. Your star’s been climbing high for the last few years, and quite frankly, even the ones who don’t like you have been so scared since you got Chainbreaker that they’ll probably vote for you just to feel safer. Given the sword’s history, most of the Council will feel a lot better if Chainbreaker’s wielder is part of the regime. Right now half of them are scared you’ll go from removing one corrupt member of the Council to purging the whole thing. The best way to stop you from conducting a coup is to bring you in.”

I scoffed at that. “Does anyone seriously think I’m planning a coup?”

“It doesn’t matter if you’re actively planning it. You have Chainbreaker, money, and some powerful connections. Not to mention you beat Blackfyre, and while you’re not the youngest Archmagus in history you’re pretty close to it. If you and Puzzle started seriously planning to overthrow the Council and you leveraged your relationship with Celestia...” Platinum shrugged. “I’d give you a decent chance of succeeding if you get backing from the Clans and the Free Companions. Your apprentice is a Doo, so you have an in there. As for the Companions ... well, I wouldn’t support a coup at this time, but if it came down to a civil war where I had to pick either you or Cold...”

“I’m not interested,” I growled. “Northmarch was enough war for me.”

“Do you think it matters whether you’re interested?” Platinum shot back. “The mere fact that the potential exists is enough to make the Council nervous. Hopefully enough that we can work together to make peaceful reform happen within the Council.”

That ... was a lot to think about. I’d had a few childish fantasies of setting myself up as the Princess of Freeport early on, but I’d left those behind once I grew up a bit. I’d never been all that wild about the Council, but I’d been focused on dealing with smaller problems I could handle on my own. This would mean operating on a completely different level. Not to mention being one member of a thirteen-person council instead of making my own decisions.

I had a lot of questions, but there was one really important one. “There’s something I’ve been wondering about, Platinum. The timing on all of this was just a little too perfect for me to believe you didn’t plan it that way from the start. The Council doesn't want to vote for a new budget without full membership, and this way there's not enough time for Cold and anyone else on his side to recover from the scandal. You get to hand-pick someone on your side of things and use that push through the budget you want. Am I right?”

She nodded. “That was the general idea. If Puzzle’s investigation hadn’t pointed you towards Silver in time, I would’ve dropped a few more hints.”

“About that...” I fixed her with a withering glare. “How long did you leave Sour Sweet and everyone else locked up in slavery and suffering just to get the timing right?”

She flinched, her ears wilting against her skull. “A couple of months.” She got up from her seat. “I don’t like it, but I had to do it that way. Everything had to be timed just right, or it would’ve ended with Silver sweeping the whole thing under the rug, or Cold just replacing her with someone else every bit as corrupt as she was. Without the budget forcing the matter, he could’ve delayed things long enough for the scandal to blow over. We needed to hit them and hit them hard before they regained their balance. I only had one chance to shift the balance of the Council, and I couldn't blow it.”

“Even if that meant letting children be enslaved for months?” I shot back. “Give me a good reason to not remove two members of the Council instead of just one.”

She sighed and started rubbing her beak. “I didn’t like it. I mean...” Her wings flicked a couple times. “You have no idea how hard it was to sit next to Silver at every Council meeting, when all I wanted to do was throttle her. But ... one lesson I learned as a general and carried into my Council career, you have to look at the big picture. Sometimes that means sitting back and waiting for the right time, even if your instincts are screaming at you to do something as soon as possible. If I screwed this up because I got impatient, then Silver would’ve gotten away with everything. The Council would sweep the scandal under the rug, and she’d make a few token reforms while still keeping all her workers in virtual slavery.”

“Okay, so you had your reasons.” My eyes narrowed. “Not saying I don’t appreciate your motives and goals, but I can’t help thinking there had to be a solution that didn’t involve leaving children enslaved for months.”

“I won’t say it’s impossible,” Platinum conceded, “but there’s a big gap between platitudes that there has to be a better way and a concrete plan of action. I spent a lot of time considering different plans and scenarios before I decided on my course of action. I don’t like that I left children under Silver Cane’s control, and I was sorely tempted to just order the Free Companions to attack her holding and free everyone. However, then this story would’ve ended with the Council ordering me to pay reparations to Silver Cane and debating whether I still deserved my seat.”

“And your seat on the Council is more important than doing the right thing?” I snarled.

She scoffed. “Do you honestly think Freeport would be better off with another of Cold’s corrupt flunkies on the Council instead of me? Yes, Sour and the others would’ve been freed, but Silver would just replace them with new slaves, and probably re-enslave as many of them as she could find. Instead of debating about how we need to hold ourselves accountable, the Council would double down on cronyism. We wouldn’t see any reforms like increased funding for a lot of our regulatory agencies or shifting the condottieri contracts in Sandy Shores to mercenary companies that aren’t hopelessly corrupt. I know you probably think I’m heartless when you want to save everyone, but every general knows you have to decide on what constitutes acceptable losses and collateral damage on the road to victory.”

“Children being enslaved is not an acceptable loss,” I growled.

“Even if a few months of suffering for them ensures that we can not only destroy Silver’s operation, but all the other plantation owners doing the same?” Platinum shot back. “Not to mention all the other dirty business we’ll put an end to by actually enforcing all the regulations we have on the books. And with the Free Companions managing Sandy Shores now, we’ll cut the crime rate in half inside six months and clean out all the worst gangs and cabals.”

It was hard to miss one really important fact underneath all that blustering. “So in the middle of all your talk about anti-corruption reforms, you made sure to give yourself a nice little kickback by ensuring the Free Companions got that contract? You’re not doing a great job of convincing me you’re better than the rest.”

Platinum slammed her talons down on her desk, leaving shallow scratches in the hardwood. “Stop acting like I’m just as bad as Cold! I’m not looking to make money or set myself up as the head of a corrupt oligarchy! I put the Companions in charge because they’re all accountable to me and I’ll make sure they do the job properly. Do you have any idea how bad things have gotten thanks to Cold, all the things I’m fighting against?! Safety inspection budgets being stripped down to nothing, posts being filled by the rich and powerful's nieces and nephews, hideously over-budget public works projects Cold keeps funded to buy votes—I could go on and on.” She clenched her talons. “And need I mention what Cold pulled against your friend Puzzle and the people that got hurt by that? I assure you, that’s not the first time he’s abused his office to settle a personal grudge.”

I wasn’t going to back down. “So what’s your solution to all that nastiness, to play just as dirty as he does? Is it okay to be corrupt as long as you win?”

Platinum sighed and shook her head. “If you want to win a political conflict, you have to play politics. Who should we have given the Sandy Shores contract to? The Doos have too many mercantile interests to be objective, and the clans have always turned their noses up at grunt work with no glory or honor. The same goes for the True Heirs, and the Blood Stripes would address the crime problem by slaughtering a few gangs to serve as an example. Sometimes there are no perfect solutions. Who do you think should run Sandy Shores if not the Companions?”

That ... was a question I didn’t really have a good answer to. I had a good working relationship with the clans, but I’d never heard of them doing law enforcement before. I tried to come up with a good answer, but the only thing I could come up with was overhauling Freeport completely to remove mercenaries from the equation. Eventually I went with the best answer I had. “I don't know. I don’t have all the answers, but I don’t think it’s right for you to profit off of this.”

Platinum shrugged. “If the Companions do the job, my troops deserve to get paid. Would it make you feel better if I gave my share of the signing bonus and contract pay to charity?”

I shook my head. “It’d be a nice gesture, but it doesn’t really fix the problem. I don’t like the way the Council operates, even the better members of it like you. I won’t be part of it, and I won’t endorse the things it does because let’s be real: that’s what happens if I join. I know how much the Council hates open dissent within the ranks. If I join, you’ll expect me to back the Council’s party line in public.”

Platinum sighed and shook her head. “Sunset, please reconsider. The Council needs you. Freeport needs you.” She walked over to her window, staring out over the city. “The list of people who qualify for a spot on the Council is small, and the list of people I would be proud to sit by is even smaller. The only one besides you that I can think of is Puzzle, and Cold will use up all the political capital he can muster to keep that from happening. That was going to be a key part of my strategy for getting you in, actually: have Cold burn out all his old favors and call in debts stopping Puzzle so he doesn’t have anything left to fight me.”

I wasn’t buying it. “I’m not interested in hiding behind a mask and working in the shadows, not to mention putting my stamp of approval on everything the Council does. Honestly, all this political skullduggery sounds like something Puzzle would be a lot better at than I ever would. Why not just get him in?”

Platinum snorted. “You say that as if it would be so easy. Don’t get me wrong, I agree that he would be a wonderful asset to the Council and probably scarily good at playing all the dirty political games, but Cold and his faction will never let it happen. He’s too dangerous to them, and Cold hates him besides. Really, if I could get both you and him on the Council someday I would be thrilled.” She took a seat and set her talons on her desk. “And I understand how much you hate all the dirty games we have to play for political reasons. That’s why I want you on the Council in the first place: we need someone who’s not afraid to call us out on that kind of thing.”

“Yes, you do.” I stood up. “But if I want that job, it’s only one I can do by being part of the Council. Once I’m part of the process, I’ll be just as tainted by politics as the rest of you. Like, just to bring up a totally random example, I might not risk exposing your corruption if it cost me a political ally.”

“How much do you expect to accomplish by standing outside of the process?” Platinum shot back. “Yes, you’ll have to play politics and make a few compromises to get things done, but the part you seem to be overlooking is that you’ll get things done. Yes, not all the changes you want will happen overnight, but they’ll happen a lot faster with you in the Council than they will with you sitting on the sidelines doing nothing.”

“I’ve accomplished plenty as the Archmagus of Freeport.” I countered. “How much time would I have to take away from that work to sit around in a dark room, hiding behind a mask and playing cloak-and-dagger political games?”

“You fix the little problems,” Platinum answered. “Shutting down one corrupt plantation, where the Council can change laws and policies to end corruption entirely. And if you need to spend a few days as the Archmagus, have a proxy stand in and vote for you. It’s what I do if the Companions need their general.”

“And just how many principles will I have to compromise to get things done? If you compromise too many of them, eventually you’ll have nothing left to stand for.”

Platinum sighed and shook her head, letting a bit of scorn slip into her voice. “In that case, I hope that your principles make you happy while you’re sitting on the sidelines watching Freeport and the Council slide into decadence and decay. The next time children get enslaved because a reform bill didn’t make it through the Council, you can tell all those children that your own pride and sense of integrity was more important than keeping them free.”

“It’s not about pride!” I snapped at her, rising to my hooves. “I think we’re done here.”

I was about to head out the door when Platinum called out after me. “Wait!” Against my better judgment, I did. “Just ... think about it for a couple days. Talk it over with Puzzle, and everyone else close to you. This is a big decision. You don’t want to do something you’ll end up regretting later. Think it over.”

Tempting as it was to tell her to take that offer and shove it straight up her own rump, she wasn’t exactly wrong. Even if I knew she was hoping Puzzle, Celestia, Strumming, Kukri, or someone else would talk me into helping her ... well if all of them thought I was making a mistake, maybe I should take a second look at my decision. I was still righteously pissed at Silver, Platinum, and the Council in general. I had good reasons to be mad at them, but anger wasn’t the best emotional state to be in for making rational decisions.

Still, I didn’t want to let Platinum think she’d won. “I’ll think about it.”

Puzzle’s new house was a lot nicer than the pretty simple one he’d had before the trip to Northmarch. Between his old residence getting burned down while his lieutenants were fighting over who got to run his organization and Strumming moving in with him, he had good reasons to upgrade. He’d also asked me to set up the wards for his new place.

Puzzle’s new house wasn’t huge, but there was more than enough room for him, Strumming, and any potential expansion. It did beg the question of whether they would get married, but I really didn’t care one way or the other. Their relationship was their business. I didn’t even understand why they were a couple in the first place, so how could I say they were doing something wrong with their relationship? They both seemed happy, and that was good enough for me.

Strumming answered the door, an open bag of chips tucked under one wing. “Hey, Bacon. How's things?”

I sighed and stepped inside. The new house was still mostly unfurnished, but Puzzle had at least gotten a few comfortable couches. The one I flopped onto certainly felt nice after everything I’d gone through. “It’s been a day.”

“The whole week has been rather exhausting,” Puzzle agreed as he stepped into what I assumed was going to eventually be the living room. “What’s happened now? Did Silver find some way to escape the noose despite all the proof we had for the Council? Did Cold or one of the other members of the Council try to retaliate against you?”

“Nothing like that.” I snorted and shook my head. “Besides, isn’t it your job to know about those kinds of things and warn me about them ahead of time?”

“Normally,” Puzzle agreed. “However, this one has spent the last couple hours locked in a debate whose acrimony is matched only by it’s utter pettiness.”

Strumming snorted. “Sorry, bug boy, but I’m exercising a veto on that recliner. Don’t you know anything about color coordination? It’s gonna look completely out of place. What was wrong with the teal one anyway?”

“The teal one looks less comfortable,” Puzzle shot back. “This one is going to sit in that chair every single evening it’s home. It wants to enjoy where it sits. Also, it suspects that you’re biased towards teal.”

“It’s not biased when it’s objectively the best color ever,” Strumming countered. She turned to me. “See what I have to deal with? Trust me, backstabbing political drama is gonna be a nice break from the Great Sofa Wars.”

“Right.” On top of wanting to resolve the whole problem with Platinum, now I wanted to move on before one of them got the bright idea of asking me to make a decision about which chair Puzzle should get. “So, it’s not a problem with Cold or Silver, but it does tie back into everything going on with the Council.” I quickly caught them up with everything that had happened, from when I’d learned about Sunny lying to me to leaving Platinum’s office.

Puzzle took a seat on one of the couches he’d arguing with Strumming about, and by the time he finished I could tell he wasn’t happy with me. The first words out of his mouth confirmed it. “Shimmer-mare, you need to reconsider this.”

I’d been expecting him to not agree with me, but it still annoyed me. “If you can think of one good reason for me to take the offer, go for it.”

“How about the fact that you could change Freeport for the better?” he immediately answered.

Not this again... “I think I’ve been very thorough when it comes to explaining my reasons for wanting nothing to do with the Council, especially not being a member of it.”

Puzzle closed his eyes and took a deep breath. I knew it bothered him when I just outright ignored what he thought was perfectly logical advice. “Alright then, let's take this another route. What’s your long-term plan for fixing Freeport?

I could already guess where he was going with this and let out a frustrated sigh. “I don’t have all the answers. I just know getting involved in a corrupt system and compromising my principles isn’t the best way to do it.”

Puzzle pressed the attack. “So you don’t like the current obvious plan that’s presented itself to you and would be incredibly simple to implement. Very well then, what do you want to do? Do you have any plans? Any ideas? Do you even have a plan for how to make a plan? A basic starting concept to begin building off of?”

I had a few ideas, but nothing close to the sort of detailed plan he would want. “I figured we would work together on that.”

“Isn’t part of working together on a plan listening to this one?” Puzzle countered. “Because if you want this one’s input on how to fix Freeport, then it thinks getting on the Council is a very good first step. Does this one even need to go through the list of very good reasons for you to be on the Council? On top of the changes you’d be able to spearhead and policies you could shape, it would also let you keep an eye on what they're doing.” He frowned at me. “Not to mention that if working with the Council is entirely off the table, then we need to seriously talk about what our plan is going to be. Removing the Council from power is an entirely different proposition from reforming them.”

I sighed and tried to keep a hold on my fraying patience. I really wasn’t in the mood for one of Puzzle’s ‘Listen to this one because it is smarter than you and knows better’ lectures. “Look, I am listening to you. If I didn’t want your opinion, I wouldn’t have asked for it.”

“Did you want to hear this one’s opinion before making a decision, or did you just want it to validate the choice you’d already made?”

That probably hit a bit closer to the truth than I would’ve liked. “Maybe. It’s ... I just don’t like how the Council operates. Even the good guys on it are way too used to playing dirty.”

“Of course you don’t.” Puzzle shifted a bit closer to me. “This one doesn’t either. Anything that most everyone agrees about gets done quickly. The stuff we don’t agree about... Well, that’s where the politics come in. It becomes necessary to make deals, politically maneuver your opponents, set traps—whatever it takes to push through the politics you think are best. And at the end of the day, you can either try and push through what you think will help people or you can surrender the game to the likes of Silver and Cold. Because this one can assure you they will love it if you stay out of the game and give them unfettered access to the levers of power.”

He made it all sound so easy... “And if I play the game just as dirty as they do, what makes me better than them?”

Strumming scoffed. “Last time I checked, you weren’t starting street wars just to get a little petty revenge against an old rival or enslaving children just to help your farm’s bottom line. I don’t think you should be worried about being as bad as they are.”

Puzzle nodded. “If you have doubts about whether you’re doing good, this one can easily show you a couple dozen children who have a future thanks to you.”

“That’s true,” I conceded. “But what has me worried is that if I join the Council, how long will it take me to start acting like Platinum and saying I need to leave those kids locked up for the greater good and my political interests?”

Puzzle sighed and shook his head. “You keep coming back to that. This one knows you don’t want to hear it, but maybe she’s not completely wrong. We all make compromises. How long have you been affiliated with an information broker who has, let’s be very clear, a mixed history at best? In the past this one has worked for some very unpleasant individuals. The Ephemera-mare was an outright monster.”

“There’s a difference between what you did in the past and what Platinum’s doing right now,” I answered. “The thing with Ephemera was years before I ever met you. You know what you did back then was a bad call, and you nearly got yourself killed making it right. Platinum ... I won’t say she has no regrets, but if she could do it all over again she wouldn’t change a thing.”

Puzzle frowned. “This one thinks that might be an unfair assumption. That said, every situation is different. If you were given the same problem as Platinum, this one suspects you would have come up with a different solution. This one can think of a couple. Perhaps that would have ended better than what Platinum did, perhaps not. It’s easy to second-guess a general’s decisions with the benefit of hindsight, or to say that there had to be a better way when you weren’t making the decision and can’t even say for sure what that better way is.”

“She called it ‘acceptable losses’,” I snapped. “Children being enslaved is never an acceptable loss. See, what really bugs me is that she didn’t try to find a better solution, and from what you’ve said she’s probably one of the best members of the Council.”

“This one thinks that perhaps you’re making the perfect the enemy of the good,” Puzzle answered, almost infuriatingly calm. “This one is less than happy with Platinum’s decision, but our ideals and goals align. Yes, the Council is corrupt, but that means someone needs to set an example of what it should be. Not to mention be the backer for future councilors who can uphold a higher standard.” A scowl briefly tugged at his lips. “This one knows it would have fought for better people if it could have gotten onto the Council.”

Something clicked into place for me. “That’s what this is really about, isn’t it? You want a seat on the Council, but since Cold will make sure that never happens ... well we both know I’d ask you for advice all the time. Is it really about me being a good pick for the Council, or do you just want to use me as a mouthpiece?”

Puzzle groaned and ran a hoof down his face. “This one would be lying if it said it didn’t think it could get you to pursue some of its goals on the Council. After all, we both want many of the same things. However, this is about more than either of us, or our personal desires. The Council needs new voices, ones that stand for everything we’ve fought for. The unfortunate truth is that as long as Cold is on the Council, this one will never get a seat. You can.”

I crossed my forelegs over my chest. “Well I don't want a seat at the table.”

Puzzle let out a very loud, resigned sigh. “You’re about to make a huge mistake. We’ll all regret it if you turn down Platinum's offer.”

I snorted and shook my head. “I won’t.”

Strumming set her bag of chips aside and planted herself in between us. “Okay, hold on you two, lemme see if I got this figured out: Bug Boy wants a seat at the table where all the important decisions get made, and Bacon doesn't want to compromise her personal integrity to get that seat. Is that right?”

I shrugged. “Sounds right to me.”

Puzzle nodded. “That is the irony life has thrown at us, yes.”

That’s when Strumming started doing something that ... well for anyone else it would’ve been weird, but for Strumming it wasn’t all that odd. She started giggling like someone had just told her the funniest joke in the world.

Puzzle stared at his cackling girlfriend for several seconds. “Now this one is just a little scared. You don’t want to know what she was thinking last time this one heard that giggle.”

I braced myself for something crazy. “This is gonna be interesting.”

Strumming finally stopped laughing, though she was still grinning like a madmare. “Oh yeah. While you two were busy arguing, I figured out how to solve it. Makes you both happy, and I guarantee you Cold is gonna be pissed.”

Strumming laid out her plan.

By the time she was done, I was grinning almost as much as she was. “That’s simple, but really devious. I like it.”

Puzzle looked every bit as happy as I felt. “This one can’t wait to see Cold’s face. This one will kiss you if it gives him an aneurysm.”

Strumming bowed. “Thank you, thank you, I’m here all week.”

Author's Note

Apologies for the late release, the world went a bit mad right around the time I was planning to publish. Catching COVID-19 was something I could’ve done without.

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

Click here if you want to join the list of awesome people who support my writing.

Epilogue

I would’ve preferred to wait a lot longer before going back to the Council’s chambers, but I had to be here for Strumming’s plan to work. Besides, even if he’d be wearing a mask, I could at least imagine the look on Cold’s face when we pulled the rug out from underneath him.

It felt a bit weird walking into the chamber with only twelve of them standing on the raised dais instead of the usual thirteen, especially when there was a rather conspicuous open spot just waiting for someone to come in and fill it. However, a moment after I stepped into the chamber the first problem came up. The ceremonial door guards crossed their halberds behind me, blocking the door before Puzzle could follow me in.

I’d expected they wouldn’t want him tagging along. The Council liked their secrets, and inducting a new member was about as secret as it could get. “Let him in,” I told the guards. “He’s with me.”

“No outsiders,” one of them grunted.

“He’s with me,” I repeated. “You know who I am?” The guard nodded. “You know why I’m here today?” He nodded again. “Then let him in.”

The two guards traded a look and slowly took a step back. Hard to blame them for not wanting to annoy the newest member of the Council on their first day. Plus the rest of the Council could always overrule me, at which point I couldn’t blame them for keeping Puzzle out.

Sure enough, the one I was reasonably certain was Cold Comfort objected as soon as Puzzle came in. “Why are you bringing an outsider to an induction ceremony? Have you no respect for our traditions?!”

I did the most infuriating thing I could think of to Cold. I ignored him, addressing my remarks to the center of the table. “I invited Puzzle to accompany me for reasons that will become clear shortly. As for secrecy ... did anyone honestly expect me to never speak with Puzzle about this?”

Platinum chuckled behind her mask. “As I recall, during the debate about inviting you to join our ranks certain parties made a point of your close friendship with Puzzle and how it would likely influence your decisions on the Council. Who you chose to entrust with your own identity as a member of our ranks is of course your decision.”

“Though if you reveal the identity of any other member, we would take a dim view of it,” one of the others warned.

“Naturally,” I agreed. “So, how exactly does this work? Is there a ceremony, oaths, anything like that?”

“If you were expecting pageantry, you’ll be disappointed,” Cold answered, the mask’s enchantments unable to completely hide the contempt in his voice. “Our traditions come from simpler times when we could ill afford to make such a production of replenishing our numbers. Take your robes and mask, and join our ranks. We have much business to attend to, and we’ve wasted enough time on this matter as it is. At least Silver Cane saved us the trouble of putting her on trial for her crimes.”

“How thoughtful of her.” I had my doubts about Silver Cane’s supposed suicide while in Council custody, considering everyone on the Council had good reason to want her dead before she could talk. Even if Cold had destroyed most of her blackmail material, nobody wanted to take the risk that she had backups. I would’ve preferred to have her put on trial for her crimes, but I wasn’t going to shed any tears over her death.

“The proceeds of her estate will at least provide some compensation to her victims,” Platinum pointed out. “However, let’s not focus on such grim business. We have a new member to welcome to our ranks and quite a bit of business to finish before the day is out. We do need to approve next year’s budget as soon as possible.”

One of the guards stepped forward and placed a set of robes in front of me with a silver mask on top. I picked up the mask, and I could almost hear the whispering voices coming from it as the other Council members communicated amongst themselves.

I cleared my throat. “I am honored to join your ranks. However, there is something I feel is important to discuss in the interests of transparency—an urgent matter regarding a child recently came to my attention, and as Archmagus of Freeport I must attend to the problem at once. As such, I have asked Puzzle to serve as my proxy on the Council until such time as I’ve resolved the issue and am free to rejoin you.”

It was hard not to smirk at the stunned silence in the chamber as I passed my mask and robes over the Puzzle.

Unsurprisingly, Cold was the first to break the silence. “You can’t step aside from your duties on the Council on your very first day! Our condottieri can see to a single missing child”

“Perhaps they can,” I agreed with a shrug. “But considering what happened the last time someone came to me about a missing child I’m not inclined to take any chances. I thought it best to be clear with the Council that I will need to call upon on my proxy at times: my duties as Archmagus of Freeport will make it hard to attend every Council meeting. However, I believe that Puzzle should be more than capable of representing Freeport’s best interests in my absence.”

“Unacceptable!” Cold snarled.

“The use of proxies is a long-standing tradition,” Platinum pointed out. “Not every member of the Council can attend every meeting. We all have our personal affairs, not to mention those times when the business of government takes us away from the capital. Archmagus Shimmer has frequently operated both within and outside of our borders, and we all knew she would likely continue to do so after taking up her post. I certainly feel much safer with her confronting and eliminating threats like Chrysalis and Blackfyre, even if it means leaving her vote to a proxy.”

One of the others joined in. “As a matter of fact, one of the objections certain parties raised to adding her to our ranks was that her duties would take her away from us at times, and Puzzle was likely to serve as her proxy when she was absent. The matter’s already been discussed, and I don’t see any point in revisiting it now.”

Cold said nothing more, but I could practically feel him seething as Puzzle took my robes and mask, and my place on the Council. The one in the middle turned to me. “How long do you anticipate this particular matter taking?”

I shrugged again. “It’s hard to say for sure with these cases. I might figure it out in an hour, or it could take weeks like Sour Sweet’s disappearance, not to mention whatever else might come up while I’m resolving that matter. I wanted to be transparent about who my proxy was because he will likely be here quite often.” In fact, I had no intention of ever taking a seat on the Council.

“This is preposterous!” Cold snapped. “She’s obviously abusing the rules to effectively appoint Puzzle to the Council! We voted for her to take the post, not him! I demand a vote to put an end to this farce, revoke her membership and replace her with someone who will not flagrantly disregard this Council’s procedures!”

There was a brief silence before Puzzle turned to me, his voice concealed by his mask. “For the Shimmer-mare’s benefit, that motion failed quite decisively. The Council has no wish to seek out a new member moments after settling on you, especially when certain individuals are merely sour over being outmaneuvered. Do not worry, this one will keep your seat warm until you are ready to reclaim it.”

“Thank you.” I walked out of the chamber before any of the Council could say anything more.

While I wasn’t actually looking into any missing pony cases, there was a matter regarding a young lady I needed to resolve. Sunny Flare looked very nervous when I called her into my office, especially since Kukri and Indigo weren’t here. I’d half-expected Strumming to come back empty-hooved, either because her parents refused to let her leave or Sunny wanted to avoid the consequences of her actions. I guess neither of those things happening spoke well of her; not many girls her age would be willing to walk to their own sentencing.

Still, being brave didn’t change what she’d done or what I would have to do. I waved towards the empty seat in front of my desk. “Take a seat.”

She settled in, doing her best to fake confidence and determination despite the fact that nervous sweat was already beading on her forehead. I let her stew for a bit before I broke the silence. “You know why you’re here.”

Sunny nodded, and swallowed her fear for long enough to answer. “I lied to you. It was all my own idea, nobody—”

I didn’t let her finish. “You already lied to me once, don’t make it worse for yourself. I know it’s either your father or General Platinum you’re trying to protect. It really makes no difference to me which of them it was.” Especially since if her father was the one who told her to do it, he was almost certainly acting on Platinum’s orders. “This conversation is only about the two of us, and the future.”

Sunny shrank into her chair but a second later her ears perked up hopefully. “Just the two of us? So you won’t tell Kukri what I did?”

“I won’t.” A second later I crushed her hopes. “But you will.”

“Oh.” She slumped down like a puppet with cut strings.

“I expect you to tell her the full truth.” I waited for her to nod her understanding before I continued. “I’m sure you also understand that I won’t tolerate anything like this ever happening again.”

“M’sorry,” she mumbled miserably.

“Don’t be sorry, be better. Speaking of...” I passed a bit of parchment over to her. “The girl you lied about being friends with lives at that address. She’s been through a lot in the last several months and she could use some good friends. Maybe you’re not the right pony to be her friend, but I think you at least ought to try.”

Sunny sighed and nodded once more. I was starting to feel a bit guilty about laying down the law so firmly. Sure, she’d lied to me, but only because adults she’d trusted told her to. If Celestia told me to lie to someone when I was Sunny’s age, I would’ve. At the very least, I wanted to end the conversation on a good note. “Why did you come to my tower when I sent Strumming?”

Sunny took a deep breath. “Because ... because it was wrong to lie to you.”

I stepped out from behind my desk and put a reassuring hoof on her shoulder. “And you wanted to make things right?”

“Yeah.”

“That’s a good answer.” I did my best to give her a reassuring smile. “Everyone makes mistakes, Sunny. Not everyone owns up to them and tries to do better in the future. That’s a rare quality in adults, let alone a girl your age. I know it’s hard to tell what the right thing is to do sometimes, especially when people tell you different things. If you care about doing the right thing, and try to fix it when you do the wrong thing ... that’s a very good start. I’m proud of you.”

She turned up to me with a cautiously hopeful grin. “So ... does that mean Kukri and I can still be friends?”

I shrugged. “That’s Kukri’s decision, but I won’t object to it.” And even if I would let Kukri make her own call on that, I knew my opinion and advice carried a lot of weight with her.

I felt pretty good about how the conversation went as Sunny walked out of my office. Then Strumming came in. She got to the point a lot faster than she usually did. “So that’s the kid sorted, but she was the easy one to handle. What’re you gonna do about Platinum for putting her up to it?”

I sighed. “I don’t know. I don’t like what she did, but it seems like her goal was to take down Silver and hurt Cold in the process. Right now she’s the lesser of two evils. And really, the problems in Freeport go a lot deeper than any individual members of the Council. They’ve gotten way too comfortable with cronyism and a system that enables zero accountability.”

“So what’re you gonna do about it? Strumming pressed. “Overthrow them all and declare yourself Princess of Freeport?”

“I don’t know,” I admitted. “Hopefully with Puzzle on the Council he can start cleaning things up without extreme measures. If not, we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it. For now...” I sighed and ran a hoof down my face. Figuring out how to fix the problems of an entire nation was a huge job, and one I honestly wasn’t sure I was up to. “For now, Silver’s been dealt with, Puzzle took over her seat on Council, and a whole bunch of kids who were enslaved are free. That’s still a pretty big win.”

Strumming grinned. “Yeah, it is. Sure, we didn’t solve every single problem overnight, but Sour Sweet went from being in chains to free, happy, and with a good future in front of her. The little wins count for a lot too, and if you rack up enough of them...”

“Exactly.” I sighed and flopped back into my chair. “But I think for now, I’m gonna enjoy a couple days off. Unless the Council needs me for anything, I have urgent business that I can’t get away from.”

Strumming shot me a cheeky salute. “So noted, boss-mare. Urgent conference with Ambassador Pillow, can’t get away.”

I was tempted to joke about how there had probably been an Ambassador Pillow at some point in Equestria’s history, but that would’ve meant dragging out the conversation. Getting some rest sounded like a great idea; despite feeling like I’d earned some rest, with the complications from the Council and all the other problems of Freeport it was a pretty safe bet that there’d be a new crisis sooner than I’d like. All I could do now was make sure I’d be ready for it.

Author's Note

Hopefully things are finally going to start settling down and let me get some more progress on my stories. I don’t love leaving things on hiatus, but ... 2020 seems to be the craziest year.

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

Click here if you want to join the list of awesome people who support my writing.

Breaker of Chains 1

A lot of things had changed since my trip up to Northmarch. Some of those changes were good, some of them bad, and others were just ... complicated. However, the one I was dealing with right now was good and endearing, but also just a tiny bit annoying.

It’s not that I didn’t like Kukri bringing her friends to my tower. Sunny Flare and Indigo Zap were nice enough kids. It was kind of flattering that she wanted to show me off to her friends, and I had encouraged her to have a bit of a social life. It probably wouldn’t hurt me to build more connections either. Sunny was the daughter of a high ranker in the Free Companions, and Indigo’s parents owned a big book importing business.

Even if the clans were my best friends among Freeport’s mercenaries, they’d always been more of a quality over quantity organization. The Free Companions were one of the biggest merc groups in Freeport. Maybe the biggest one, though it was hard to say for sure when mercenaries had a lot of turnover. Regardless, the Companions were one of the biggest companies because they’d take anyone who fit in with the group. Most other merc groups were a lot pickier; the only way an outsider could join one of the clans was by marrying in or adoption, and a lot of other merc groups were similarly picky about only taking people from the right background. It was all about preserving their identity.

Maybe that was the big advantage the Free Companions had: since they’d started out as a ragtag group of adventurers, their identity had always been about taking anyone with the right skills and personality. Well, they were also a bit picky about criminal records, but that was probably for the best. Anyone with a long and ugly criminal record would probably end up causing problems or damaging their reputation.

When it came to Indigo’s parents, the advantages were a lot more obvious. I might not be as fond of sticking my nose in dusty old tomes as a lot of magi, but I still did a fair bit of research in obscure old books. Having a connection with a book dealer could be very useful. In the past, Puzzle had been pretty good about helping me with any books I’d needed, but his organization had taken a big hit. Developing some of my own contacts was just common sense.

Still, there was a big downside to all these very sensible arrangements and connections: it meant having three curious and over-excited teenagers in my tower. Kukri usually wasn’t too bad, especially since she’d spent enough time here to have gotten used to it all. Two more teenagers who’d never been here before made things a bit more hectic, especially since the three of them inevitably started winding each other up. Kukri could get excitable enough without two other girls encouraging her.

Once she’d finished giving the girls a tour of all the tower, or at least the parts I was comfortable letting her friends see, the questions started. Indigo opened it up. “Is it really true that you’re bonded to Chainbreaker?”

At least they were starting with something simple. “Yes, it’s true.”

“And can Chainbreaker’s wielder really call up the sword from anywhere?” Sunny asked.

“Also true.” Celestia and I hadn’t found any limits when we’d tested the sword, but we didn’t get too crazy with our tests on the priceless historical treasure. I couldn’t rule out the possibility that we’d missed something or just didn’t know about it. Maybe Ushabti or Torch knew more, but I hadn’t seen any trace of either of them since that one weird vision. Considering I apparently knew some of Torch’s spells now, I had a sneaking suspicion I might’ve consumed whatever traces of their spirits remained tied to Chainbreaker when I’d become ... whatever I was now. Not an alicorn, but certainly more than just a unicorn, considering I had access to pegasus and earth pony magic.

I realized all three of them were looking up at me expectantly. It wasn’t hard to guess why. “No, I can’t call the sword up right now. People get really upset when it randomly vanishes from the museum with no warning.”

The Council had been grumpy enough about me calling the sword when I was dealing with a rogue Equestrian Archmagus and an infamous warlock. Though that probably had more to do with the fact that the rogue archmagus was my father, and the warlock my godmother. I liked to think I hadn’t let my personal baggage cloud my judgement too badly, but I’d be lying to myself if I said it hadn’t been a factor.

Not to mention that as far as I’d been able to tell, the sword needed to spend time in the museum for reasons beyond keeping the public happy. Or maybe it would be more accurate to say that public sentiment was a bit more complicated than just happy feelings. Going by the historical accounts, Chainbreaker hadn’t had quite as many powers back when Torch wielded it, and all those new powers seemed to be themed around freedom in some way. Those changes happened while the sword was sitting untouched in a museum, practically an object of veneration.

Did centuries of everyone in Freeport believing things about the sword change what it was? I wasn’t sure, and until I knew more about it, I didn’t want to risk rocking the boat. Even if I usually preferred spells to swords, it was hard to deny that Chainbreaker was incredibly useful. Not to mention how bad it would look if I somehow broke the priceless historical treasure and symbol of freedom.

Indigo had another question ready for me. “So I heard the Council promoted you to Archmagus. Is that true?”

“I promoted myself,” I corrected. “The Council just acknowledged it.” It might seem like a petty distinction, but it was actually really important. My authority as an Archmagus didn’t come from the Council, or from Equestria for that matter. Which meant neither of them could take that rank away from me.

The distinction certainly hadn’t been lost on the Council. They’d gone along with the promotion, but I suspect that was mostly just because they couldn’t find a graceful way to say no. Things had been tense ever since I came back from Northmarch with Chainbreaker, but the Council didn’t seem to be eager to push it to open conflict. I didn’t want to start a fight with the Council either. The battle with Blackfyre was enough war to last me a lifetime.

That didn’t mean I would bend over backwards or ignore injustice to stay on their good side, just that I wasn’t looking for a fight. Now I just had to hope one wouldn’t find me anyway.

Sunny frowned at me. “Are you allowed to just promote yourself like that?”

I shrugged. “According to the Council, Equestrian Magi, and Princess Celestia ... yes. All of them agreed with my new rank, so in the eyes of the world it’s legitimate.”

“Cool.” Indigo’s eyes darted around my tower. “Lotta books here. Don’t suppose I could come read some of ‘em when you’re not using them? I promise I’ll be really careful with them.”

I took a moment to think it over. “You can read anything from the training section I set up for Kukri, but no taking books out of the tower.”

“That’s fair,” Indigo agreed. “S’not like you’re living in a public library.”

“Do you have any books on Umbramancy?” Sunny asked.

I briefly considered pointing out that the correct name for it was Erebomancy, but nobody really cared about the intricacies of Old Unicornian dialects. I knew what she meant when she called it Umbramancy, even if it was a bit of a linguistic mish-mash. “I think I might have something on it, but it’s not a topic I’ve really studied in depth.” Though most of my current studies involved books I didn’t want the girls having access too. Death magic and golemancy weren’t things kids should mess around with.

“Oh yeah, just remembered!” Indigo cut in. “Kukri said you had some sort of cute little weird walking thing. She couldn’t really describe it, so I kinda wanted to see it for myself.”

Oh, so Kukri’d been talking about my test golem? Looks like I’d need to have a talk with her about secrecy. Considering I’d told the Council I’d destroyed all of Metal Mome’s golem tech, I really didn’t need it getting out that I was doing anything golem-related. Not to mention that particular golem was a testbed for new artificial legs, and I was trying to keep the fact that I had a prosthetic relatively quiet. The Council had almost certainly heard about me losing the leg in Northmarch, but I liked to keep them guessing about how I was walking on four legs now.

After that the girls had dozens more questions, most of them about relatively mundane things. I answered everything from explaining that my tower wasn’t actually made out of solid obsidian but just had an outside layer of it for looks to several pointless questions about whether I had or wanted to have a boyfriend or girlfriend and what qualities I wanted in said hypothetical partner if I did have one. I really never understood why teenagers were so obsessed with that particular topic.

Then again, when I was that age I’d been busy studying with Celestia, and afterwards there’d been far too many other things going on. It just ... never really mattered.

I mean, I guess it would’ve been nice to have someone else around. After telling Kukri she needed to spend more time with kids her own age, it was hard to miss that I didn’t really have any friends my own age. Strumming wasn’t that much older than me but there was still a bit of an age gap, and Puzzle was older than her. Though any sort of friendship was a lot more complicated now that I had enough rank, status, and money to really encourage people to try and cozy up to me in the hopes of getting something out of it.

Eventually the small talk died down. I was about to ask them if they wanted to go home when Sunny said something I hadn’t been expecting. “Um, actually, there is one other thing I kind of wanted to talk to you about. It’s ... kinda private though.”

Oh. Well that sounded like a lot of trouble I might not want to get involved with. I swear, if she wanted to have some kind of awkward unicorn puberty talk with me I would send her back to her parents so fast...

Despite my concerns, I took her to my office and shut the door behind us. Kukri could keep an eye on Indigo long enough for me to handle ... whatever this was. “What’s going on, Sunny?” It probably wasn’t anything as crazy as I was worried about. She’d just met me.

Sunny took a deep breath and slowly settled into one of my chairs. “It’s ... I know you don’t really do freelance work for hire stuff anymore, but I was hoping you could help me with something. There’s this other girl I know, Sour Sweet. I haven’t seen her around for a while, and I’m kinda worried about her...”

“Oh.” Well that was a lot less awkward and a lot more serious than I’d been expecting. Still, it would be smart to rule out the obvious solutions. “Have you tried going to her house and asking her parents?”

Sunny shook her head. “She’s an orphan. When I went by her place all her stuff had been thrown out on the street for not paying rent, and nobody’s seen her for a while.” She grimaced and shook her head. “Though it’s hard to say for sure that nobody saw anything. She lives in Sandy Shores, and most of the people there have a lot of selective blindness and deafness when trouble starts. If one of the gangs went after her or something...”

I grimaced and nodded. Sandy Shores was one of Freeport’s rougher neighborhoods, and most of the locals preferred to keep their heads down and not to get involved whenever trouble started. Not many of the locals would risk sticking their necks out and making dangerous enemies for the sake of an orphan.

However, just because the locals had abandoned her didn’t mean I would. One of the advantages of being independently wealthy thanks to my share of Blackfyre’s hoard, I could afford to sink time and resources into personal projects. I couldn’t just sit back and do nothing now that I knew there was a kid no older than Kukri in trouble.

I pulled out a notebook and got a quill ready. “Tell me everything.”

Once I had all the information I could get from Sunny, the next logical step was to bring in Puzzle and Strumming. I could’ve done some magical searching for Sour Sweet if I had anything to use as the base of a tracking spell, but Sunny didn’t have any blood samples or hair clippings. I’d honestly have been very worried about Kukri’s new friend if she did have any of that, especially since samples for tracking spells needed to be fresh to be any good. Though since Sour Sweet was a changeling, a hair sample wouldn’t work anyway. I suspect that was a design feature on Chrysalis’s part: if tracking spells were easy to cast on changelings, it would be easier to uncover them.

With magical tracking out of the picture, we’d have to go with old-fashioned investigation work. Good thing I had Puzzle and Strumming as friends.

The three of us met up at one of Freeport’s pizza places. I was a bit surprised Puzzle picked somewhere a bit less classy than usual, but one look at the menu confirmed that Strumming probably picked it. Apparently the owners of this restaurant believed in the old student wisdom that you could put anything on pizza and it would be good—though judging by how packed the place was, maybe they were right.

It didn’t take long to spot Puzzle occupying one of the few open tables, and judging by the look on his face as he read over the menu, he regretted letting Strumming pick where we ate. I flopped down in one of the open seats next to him. “Please tell me the menu has things that anyone other than Strumming would consider edible.”

Puzzle shrugged. “The amount of business they do would seem to indicate so. And even if the selection is a bit odd, there’s nothing wrong with trying something new.”

Strumming came out of the crowd to occupy the third seat. “Exactly! Live a little, Bacon. I mean, they do have a couple really safe boring options just in case, but who gets a plain cheese pizza at a place that specializes in making crazy pizzas? Someone really boring, that’s who. Oh, and speaking of Bacon, they do have one that goes all in on haybacon. They even bake it right into the crust!”

“Huh.” I took a closer look at the menu to see just what I was getting myself into. “So are we going to split one big one or get personal-sized ones?”

Puzzle grimaced. “This one was would strongly recommend getting your own, considering what the Heartstring-mare has in mind. It was thinking of getting sweet chili sauce with shrimp, onions, and peppers. If nothing else, it will be unique.”

Puzzle’s warning got me curious, even if I had a feeling I would regret learning the answer. “Okay, what crime against cuisine are you getting now?”

Strumming sighed and shook her head. “Everyone’s so judge-y. Why can’t a mare just get the pizza she wants without everyone making a fuss?” She rolled her eyes at both of us. “Anyway, what I had in mind that so offended Bug Boy was a nice and simple custom pizza. I was gonna go for the olive oil and garlic sauce, seasoned garlic cheese with roasted garlic on top, and garlic seasoning on the crust.”

Puzzle sighed and deadpanned. “Did you want garlic butter to dip the crust in too?”

“Great idea!” Strumming grinned and slapped him on the back. “See, this is why I like Bug Boy so much: he gets me.”

Puzzle groaned and buried his face in his hooves. “Some day this one will learn that sarcasm can backfire with the Heartstrings-mare. Just make sure there’s some pizza under all that garlic.”

Strumming shrugged. “I make no promises. Also, the more you complain, the more likely I am to try and make out with you while I’ve still got full-bore garlic breath.”

“Why are you trying to make this one suffer?” Puzzle whined.

“Because it amuses her,” I answered for Strumming.

“What Bacon said,” Strumming agreed. “So what’re you getting?”

I finished looking over the menu and made a decision. “I think I'll try one of the pre-mades. What do you guys think of the one with potatoes, cheddar cheese, haybacon, and tzatziki sauce?”

Puzzle shrugged. “Certainly not the sort of pizza you could find anywhere else, but this one thinks it could work. The flavors aren’t too overwhelming, at least.”

“The only way to know for sure is to try it.” I flagged down a waiter, and the three of us put in our order. Once that was done, I got down to business, or at least tried to. “So moving on to what I needed your help for—”

Strumming cut me off. “Did that cute pegasus you had your eye on finally make a move? When’s the wedding? Are the foals gonna be born scandalously close to it?”

It took my brain a couple seconds to process that. “What?”

Strumming grinned. “Sometimes I like to make up completely random lies just for the fun of it.” She poked Puzzle. “Also, just gonna point out that Sunset’s fake boyfriend I just made up popped the question, so now you’re running behind him. You need to up your game if you want to not be outcompeted by figments of my imagination.”

Puzzle rolled his eyes and ignored her. “What’s going on, Shimmer-mare?”

I decided to do my best to just ignore Strumming being herself, even if a part of me was wondering if this latest bit of random nonsense was her idea of trying to subtly nudge Puzzle into proposing. Or at least, subtle by Strumming’s usual standards. “We’ve got another job to do. Well, not exactly a job, but one of Kukri’s new friends has a friend missing.” I gave them a quick rundown of everything I’d learned from Sunny.

By the end of it I’d pretty much killed the good mood at the table. Puzzle grimaced and shook his head. “Troublesome. That’s not a lot to go on.”

I sighed. “If I had a lot to go on, I wouldn’t need your help.”

Strumming reached over and put a hoof on my shoulder. “Hey, look, Bacon, think I better prep you for some stuff. Just saying, I’m all for trying to find a kid who’s gone missing, but we might not get a happy ending on this story. When it comes to disappearances and kidnappings, you want jump on that as fast as possible. Our best shot at finding her would’ve been if we started looking within twenty-four hours, and from what you said we’re closer to twenty-four days. If she got grabbed by traffickers, she could be in Equestria, Gryphonia, or Zebrica by now.”

She gave my shoulder a quick squeeze. “Speaking of which, since the kid’s an orphan she’s exactly the kind of target the bad guys like: someone who won’t be missed. It’s no coincidence they picked someone who didn’t get reported missing until weeks after the fact.”

I slumped down in my seat. “Yeah, I know it could get bad, and there’s no guarantee we’ll even be able to find a trail, but I have to try.” I scowled and did my best to shake off the melancholy mood at the table. “If ... if it doesn't have a happy ending, we can at least make sure whoever's responsible pays for it and won’t be able to hurt any more kids.”

“Damn right we will,” Strumming agreed. “Just making sure you know what we could be getting into ahead of time.”

Puzzle nodded along. “This one hates to open the investigation by mentioning the worst case scenario, but it’s better to prepare for the worst while hoping for the best. The good news is that even if the trail’s gone cold, we have options. Most of them are going to take time, and we’re going to need to get lucky, but it’s better than nothing. The problem is that most people have leads you can follow to find them. Friends, family, a home, workplace, places they frequent. By the sounds of things, we’re going to be short on all those things.”

I couldn’t argue that point. “Yeah, as far as I know Sunny's just about the only lead we have on her, and they were pretty much just casual acquaintances. I’m sure we could ask her more questions, but I already asked every question I could think of. We’d probably be better off asking her neighbors and everyone else in the area.”

“Good old canvassing the neighborhood,” Strumming groaned. “Always hated that.”

“It’s dull and time-consuming, but it often works,” Puzzle countered. “It’s just a matter of walking around and talking with everyone until we find someone who might know enough to give us a lead, or just gather enough random little facts to get some idea of what the big picture looks like. Or at least narrow our search window.”

“Never said it didn’t work, just that I hated it,” Strumming grumbled. “Like you said, we’re probably gonna be out there for days just going around asking questions. And since the kid’s a changeling, we can’t even go around showing off a photo or something. How many folks do you think we’re gonna have to ask? Especially when nobody in Sandy Shores likes to talk.”

I sighed. “Shame we can’t do something to fix that place. Gotta wonder how many other kids vanished that we never heard about.”

“Too many,” Puzzle grunted.

I’d been tempted to try and sink some of the money I’d gotten from Blackfyre into cleaning the neighborhood up, but when I asked Puzzle about it he pointed out all the practical problems of trying any sort of big urban renewal project. Even if I succeeded in cleaning up Sandy Shores, it would result in property values going up and landlords raising their prices and driving out the poor. Give it another decade and one of the poorer middle class neighborhoods would become the new Sandy Shores. The problems in Sandy Shores couldn’t be fixed with money and good intentions—we’d have to look at the systemic issues that caused poverty in Freeport.

Though come to think of it, Sunny didn’t seem like the type to go slumming in Freeport’s poor district. She was from a wealthy family, and as far as I knew the Companions didn’t have any business interests in Sandy Shores. Though kids made weird friends: Sunny herself wasn’t that surprising considering she was from a mercenary family like Kukri, but I wouldn’t have expected Kukri to make friends with the daughter of book dealers.

I scowled and shook my head. “Look, I know I’m asking a lot, but we need to find this kid.”

Puzzle nodded. “It won’t be quick or easy, but this one has found people with no more information than you gave it.”

“Hmm, idea,” Strumming grinned. “Bug Boy does all the boring canvassing work while Bacon and I go around and give the usual suspects a hard time. Worst case, we don’t find anything but still arrest and beat up some bad guys who’re still guilty of something. Though I imagine most of them would start talking when they’re on the receiving end of a very pissed Archmagus.”

“We can always turn them over to the local condottieri once we’re done,” I agreed.

“And they’ll probably bribe their way to freedom within hours.” Strumming sighed and shook her head. “Everyone knows the condottieri in charge of Sandy Shores are the most corrupt of the lot. Maybe they’ll straighten up a bit with an Archmagus watching them and expecting results. If nothing else, the gangers will have to pay bigger bribes.” She scowled. “Sucks we can’t do more to put ‘em down for good, but I have a feeling that’d involve crossing the line into being mass-murdering vigilantes. Probably not a good move.”

“One problem at a time,” Puzzle added in. “Maybe we can’t fix all the systemic problems in Sandy Shores overnight, but we can find one missing child and make sure she’s safe.”

I grunted. “You’re damn right we will. I know you said we can’t be sure there’s a happy ending on this one, but I’m gonna do everything I can to make it happen.”

Author's Note

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

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