Fallout: Equestria - Common Ground

Chapter Twenty-Five: Steel Crusade

The Steel Rangers. These power-armored, technology venerating ponies had been among my earliest enemies and allies in the Equestrian Wasteland. I’d spent the first weeks of my life outside of Stable 85 hunted by them, but the Steel Ranger who’d eventually captured me, Rare Sparks, had become one of my closest friends. Under Elder Manticore’s Fury, the Vanhoover Steel Rangers had become my allies, then after his death and the rise of Elder Sagebrush, they made an about-face and wanted nothing to do with an outsider like me, or Rare, who was banished from the order for her continued support for me. When I’d gone into my self-imposed exile, it had been mostly to escape the North Equestrian Alliance, but I’d also hoped to travel beyond the reach of the Vanhoover Steel Rangers and the Stalliongrad contingent they were beginning to get chummy with again.

The Grittish Isles were the worst place I could have gone to escape. The Vanhoover contingent of Steel Rangers had become more extreme after Elder Sagebrush took over, but even at the worst I’d seen them, they were nowhere near the Steel Rangers that ruled the Isles. Because of my PipBuck and the collection of advanced weaponry I’d assembled in my exploits, I was imprisoned immediately. They couldn’t remove my PipBuck without my consent or killing or mutilating me, and fortunately there were enough of them that drew the line before that. It was almost comical: I’d spent five years imprisoned under terrible conditions, refusing to give my PipBuck up, only to lose it in the Commonwealth shortly after being let free. In between the threats and harsh treatment, they’d made me plenty of offers, trying to convince me to give up my personal computer in exchange for riches or citizenship in the Grittish Isles, a privileged and difficult-to-obtain position in the society they’d built there, where most ponies were subjects with few rights. Foolish me, I’d held onto my PipBuck for the treasured memories stored as recordings on it and for the connection it allowed me to Sage through DJ Pon3’s radio broadcasts—only to immediately lose access to both after the Steel Rangers realized I wasn’t going to break and banished me to the Griffin Commonwealth.

Two features had dominated my view (and that of everypony in Trottingham) during my imprisonment. The first was the Tower, as the Steel Rangers and the locals referred to it. I reckoned it was a Single Pony Project tower, like the many that dotted Equestria: slender, white, and soaring higher than the impenetrable cloud cover. The Tower certainly fit some of the criteria, but failed at others. Instead of being constructed in the countryside like other SPP towers, the Tower had been built smack-dab in the middle of Trottingham. It was also not covered in the opalescent white shell of the typical SPP tower, but was instead clad in simple steel and glass. A prototype, perhaps, and after the War it had become the headquarters of the Grittish Isles’ lords and masters. It was an impressive piece of technology, and its dominance over the vision of everypony for miles around was a potent statement of the Steel Rangers’ authority. The second dominant sight had been the massive airship docked to the Tower. The Indefatigable hung in the air over Trottingham, its implausibly light steel bulk moored by lines that seemed insufficient from the distance they were viewed. In the War, it had been a flying fortress, meant to take on dragons, but degradation had left it incapable of flight other than maneuvering around the Tower. Or so I’d thought.

Whether or not the Indefatigable had been fully functional all along or the Steel Rangers had managed to restore it over the past year, the airship now cast its long and ominous shadow over a new city. I’d never thought the Steel Rangers would leave the Isles, content to rule over their little kingdom, but I was wrong. Something had compelled them to venture forth to the Griffin Commonwealth and plunder Pleasure Coast of its technology. If only that was all they’d come to do, for they could just as easily be here to conquer. As for the cleansing of taint they’d mentioned in their broadcast ... well, I knew just how broad the categorization was of things they considered unclean.

“Doc?” Rael said questioningly as he tried to follow me and look up at the approaching airship at the same time.

I’d put on speed, intending to make it back to the Hope Drive Clinic before the Indefatigable was near enough to cause real trouble. Radio PC played across the grand plaza as I galloped through, Rael tagging along in the air, the jazzy music completely at odds with the looming threat. The ghouls around the plaza stared up at the approaching airship, dumbfounded, many likely recalling when they’d last seen one centuries ago during the War.

“Whoa there, what’s th’ rush?” Summer Sunrise demanded as I barreled through the clinic’s door and skidded across the floor.

“We need to find somewhere to hide, or get out of the city if possible,” I said.

“Now, why’d I wanna do that?” Summer Sunrise asked skeptically.

“The Steel Rangers are here,” I explained quickly. “They’ve come in force from the Grittish Isles. These are the same Steel Rangers that imprisoned me for five years for my PipBuck, and I doubt they’d hesitate to do the same again for these.” I held up my prosthetic griffin arm and the PipBeak strapped to it to demonstrate. “Of course, they might be less squeamish about removing them from my body this time. Their position on ghouls is also rather … extreme. As far as they’re concerned, the world would be better if none of you existed.”

“An’ Pleasure Coast is what we woulda called a ‘target-rich environment’ back in th’ Army,” Summer Sunrise said solemnly; even as he joked, the gravity of the situation was dawning on him. “But surely they wouldn’t try t’ wipe out all th’ ghouls at once. Unless they brought th’ entire population of Trottingham, we’ll outnumber ‘em significantly.”

“Maybe,” I admitted. “They came with their airship, so they could be bringing an army of power-armored ponies. You’re right that it probably still wouldn’t be enough if every ghoul in Pleasure Coast fights back, but it could be close. Do you want to take that risk?”

“Point taken,” Summer Sunrise harrumphed. “Franz might be willin’ to shelter some o’ us in ‘is memory den, ‘specially after th’ help you’ve given ‘im.”

“Right, to Franz’s, then,” I said. “I’ll meet you there.”

Before Summer Sunrise could ask where I was going, I was out the door, Rael following. The Indefatigable had gotten closer during my exchange with the ghoul doctor, and as it continued to broadcast its message on repeat, some griffins flew up to investigate or confront the newcomers to the Commonwealth. Pops sounded in the air as the Steel Rangers aboard the airship fired warning shots to scare the griffins away if they flew too close. Beneath the bulk of the Indefatigable, I could see other, smaller airships preparing to launch, skiffs with non-rigid gas envelopes being inflated. As expansive as Pleasure Coast was, the Indefatigable itself would never be able to cover it entirely; but with a small fleet of airships, the Steel Rangers would soon have coverage.

“Hello, Pleasure Coast, I have some b-reaking news for those of you who may be inside on this fine winter day and haven’t noticed the airship approaching our city,” the Commonwealth Crooner cut in as I raced across the grand plaza in the direction of the Indefatigable. “At the moment, we know v-ery little about the strangers aboard, though they appear to be from Equestria and call themselves the Steel Rangers. Their broadcast claims they are here to ‘safeguard technology and cleanse the land of taint,’ and are warning NOT to interfere with their ‘holy mission.’ I’ll keep you all informed as the situation develops, but I must warn you now, these Steel Rangers may not come in peace.”

That was likely an understatement from the Crooner, as I knew just what “taint” the Steel Rangers intended to “cleanse.” I didn’t fancy my chances against the Steel Rangers alone, but if I had to fight, I wanted to have the best chance possible. By the time I made it to my home, the Indefatigable was practically overhead. I ducked inside to gather up the weapons I hadn’t brought with me during my day in the city and scooped whatever possessions I could into my saddlebags before heading back out. With the Steel Rangers so close, it might have been more prudent to simply hide and come back for my belongings later, if it weren’t for the hopper sitting on my roof that would make my home a target. I looked longingly at it for a moment as I left, contemplating taking off in it and flying out of the city, but I fancied my chances against the Steel Ranger airships even less than on the ground.

As Rael and I made our way to Franz’s Fish & Salvage, the Steel Rangers began to descend upon Pleasure Coast. The skiffs detached from the Indefatigable and spread out across the city, the Steel Rangers on the decks brandishing their miniguns and missile launchers threateningly. From the Indefatigable itself, Steel Rangers descended in squads, cables attached to their armor braking their falls until their armored hooves touched down. I kept a close eye on FITS as I wove through the streets of Pleasure Coast, avoiding the Steel Ranger patrols and hoping that I’d be lost on their EFSes amidst the other life and unlife of the city. It was a relief when Rael and I made it to Franz’s. Summer Sunrise had gotten here before us and managed to fill Franz in on the situation, and after passing him some caps, he gladly let us down into the basement I’d discovered on my first visit here. Once we were closed in, all we had to do was wait.

***

There was fighting the first couple of days as the Families tried to resist the Steel Rangers, but as I’d expected, they didn’t have any success against the power-armored soldiers. It certainly didn’t help that their efforts seemed to be disparate, with no unified strategy between the different factions that still didn’t trust each other, so the Steel Rangers were easily able to subdue them one by one. Mayor Gerald von Griff and Gloria Delgado seemed to vanish after the initial engagements, along with the rest of the leadership of the Family and the Sunset Strip Dragons, and I prayed they’d simply gone to ground and not been eradicated by the Steel Rangers. It was difficult to know exactly what was going on from our hideout. The Commonwealth Crooner tried to provide updates over the radio, his station not taken out by the Steel Rangers, but he had lost access to his informant network and his intel was patchy at best. The only other source of information for what was going on in Pleasure Coast came from Franz. According to the businessgriffin, Steel Rangers patrolled the streets and the skies, and sections of the city were on fire. So far, though, there didn’t seem to be any of the widespread ghoul eradication that I’d feared.

On the third day of the invasion, we were finally presented with some different news, albeit not from an impartial source. Another radio station emerged, something that the Steel Rangers were keen to inform everypony and everygriffin in the city about. It was broadcast from the Indefatigable and played a repeating broadcast promising news would come that evening. Along with Rael, Summer Sunrise, and some other ghouls and griffins who had taken shelter with Franz, I waited with nervous anticipation for the broadcast to begin, huddled around a radio set in the basement.

“Ponies and griffins of the Commonwealth,” the speech began, and I feared it was just a repeat of the speech that had blared continuously from the Indefatigable’s speakers. However, it was spoken with a different voice, one much older than before who I tried to place. “I’m sure you must have many questions for us, questions our knights have not been able to answer as they secured your city. I am here now to answer some of them. We are the Steel Rangers, and our holy mission is the safeguarding and preservation of advanced technology. We have devoted our lives to this quest, and so we know full well the danger that uninhibited technology can have in the hooves … or claws of those who do not understand. It is for this purpose that we scour Equestria, seeking to reclaim and contain dangerous technologies, but why should only Equestria benefit from our righteous protection? And so, we have come to the Griffin Commonwealth to perform the same duties, to see technology safeguarded and corrupting filth purged, to ensure a future not just for ponies, but now for griffins also. I am Elder Teakettle, leader of the Steel Ranger Airborne Crusade, and we are here to help you.”

I remembered Elder Teakettle from my time in Trottingham. He was a radical among radicals and was the only member of the Elder Council who had not only considered the possibility of removing my foreleg to claim my PipBuck, but had demanded it and been denied by the other Elders. It made me wonder why he was trying to act friendly now and hadn’t simply razed Pleasure Coast to the ground at the slightest sign of resistance. What was his game?

“I want to assure you that we are not here to conquer or permanently occupy,” Teakettle continued on the radio. “Once our crusade has accomplished its objectives, we will depart the Commonwealth, until the time comes that it is ready for the technology we safeguard for you. Pleasure Coast is to serve as our base of operations while in the Commonwealth, and so the crusade must begin here and this city must remain secure. I offer you my sincere apologies for any inconvenience this may cause you in the meantime, but over the next weeks our knights will need to inspect each building of your city to ensure no dangerous technology remains hidden. Comply and you will not be fired upon; resist, and the result will not be so sweet. All ghouls living in the city will need to undergo examination to determine how close they are to going feral that we may separate them from the … healthy ghoul population, for your protection. Otherwise, you should all go about your normal lives to prevent disruption. Thank you for your cooperation. Glory to the Steel Rangers! Glory to the Ministry of Wartime Technology!”

***

I wasn’t fooled by Elder Teakettle’s words, and from what Franz told us, it seemed nobody else was either. Ghouls fled the city in droves rather than be “examined” and exterminated. Many of them didn’t make it as the Steel Rangers fell upon them as they fled by land or by sea, but they seemed to have no interest in pursuing them far beyond the city’s outskirts. The scavengers, already wary, vanished entirely into the wastes. The Immortals chose to fight rather than flee, and the Steel Rangers engaged in a protracted campaign to clear them out of their cruise ships. Still nothing was heard from the other Families, and they seemed to have stood down and complied with the Steel Rangers either at the orders of their still-vanished leaders or acting in their absence.

Steel Rangers patrolled the boardwalk now, watching for ghouls who might plunge into the bay and walk across the sea floor in order to escape. Franz came down to deliver us news less frequently now so as not to raise suspicion, and I began to worry. Sooner or later, the investigative Steel Rangers would come to Franz’s Fish & Salvage, and they’d be sure to find us underneath. Or, even worse, Franz might decide to turn us in to save his own fur and feathers before they ever came. We needed to find a way out of Pleasure Coast, but I had no idea how we were supposed to do that. Even without the radiation, I’d never be able to stay underwater all the way through the bay, if we were able to even get in without being spotted and shot. Passing through the entire length of Pleasure Coast and getting out by land didn’t seem much better of an option. Normally such a problem could be solved vertically, but with the Indefatigable and its skiffs patrolling the air over Pleasure Coast, for Rael to try to lift us out would be a death sentence.

The one-year anniversary of my arrival in the Commonwealth passed while we hid in the dark and contemplated the hopeless situation. Had my time in the Commonwealth been merely a stay of execution? That had become a theme in my life, and I didn’t like it. Perhaps if I turned myself in, Rael could walk free and the ghouls would have a chance to escape. I’d survived plenty of hopeless situations before during my time in the Equestrian Wasteland and the Commonwealth, so maybe I’d make it out of this one as well. As I considered this, a bright flash of light startled everypony in the basement (well, everypony who was still awake and hadn’t hooked themselves back up to the simulator when the situation became clear). Standing among the insensate ghouls was a mare with a cream coat and coiled red mane, a slight glow fading from around her body.

“Took long enough to find you,” she grumbled as her eyes turned on me.

“Lurk? What are you doing here? What’s happened to the mayor?” I asked, but she raised a hoof to forestall any further questions.

“I just spent the last few days teleporting from one hidey-hole to another,” Lurk panted. “I could really use a drink.”

Rael went to get her something, and I realized how exhausted the unicorn looked.

“Why were you trying to find me?” I asked as Rael provided Lurk with a half-empty bottle of whiskey.

“Mayor Von Griff sent me to find you,” she explained after taking a long draw on the bottle. “The Three Families—well, Two Families now—have decided to call on Grand Marshal Gideon to use the Air and Ground Corps to expel the Steel Rangers from the Commonwealth.”

“That’s a surprise,” I said. “I never thought Pleasure Coast of all places would submit to Commonwealth government.”

“Desperate times and all that,” Lurk said with a wave of her hoof before taking another long draw from the bottle. “The Families alone are incapable of victory against the Steel Rangers, so I’m to take you to Shearpoint to negotiate with the grand marshal for the most favorable terms we can get for his aid … even if that means Pleasure Coast must recognize his authority over the Commonwealth.”

“Why do you need me?” I asked.

“Assuming the Commonwealth Crooner wasn’t just blowing a load of hot air, you were the one who managed to secure Moonraze for Gideon, so we figured he owes you one.”

“I doubt he’ll see it like that,” I admitted. “He never seemed very happy with my presence or my getting involved in griffin politics, at least not when he wasn’t the one pulling the strings.”

“You can’t make our chances worse than they already are,” Lurk said, though I thought that was a dubious assertion. “I have my marching orders. Now that I’ve found you, we need to get going.”

“You have a plan to get out of the city?” I asked hopefully as Lurk polished off the last of the whiskey.

“It would’ve been pretty pointless to go to all this work to find you if I didn’t know how to get you out of Pleasure Coast,” Lurk said with annoyance. “We’ll use Von Plume’s old emergency escape tunnel. It should take us far enough out that the Steel Rangers won’t be a problem.”

“You have a way to get us out?” one of the ghouls trapped down here with us asked.

“No, just him,” Lurk said, pointing to me.

“I can’t leave without Rael, or anyone else here. I won’t run away and let the Steel Rangers find them,” I said, putting my hoof down.

“They’re not my problem, you are,” Lurk said with a scowl. “I’ve used up enough magic as it is to find you; I’m not going to drain what little I have left to teleport every pony, griffin, and ghoul out of here. I can’t evacuate the whole Pleasure Coast for the sake of your savior complex.”

“Just this room is all I’m asking,” I said, and Lurk grumbled so ferociously she almost seemed to be growling.

“Fine,” she said at last, her voice dripping. “I can teleport them into the sewers, but it’s up to them to find their own way out after that.”

“The Steel Rangers are watching the sewer exits,” Rael pointed out, and got a scowl from Lurk that diminished only slightly as she saw he’d brought her another (quarter full) bottle of whiskey.

“They’re not watching the pipes that bring water into the city, I’d wager,” Lurk said as she took the bottle. “The ghouls don’t need to breathe; they can climb their way out through those.”

I didn’t know if she’d realized it, but as far as I was concerned, she had just conceded to taking Rael with me all the way. Given that she’d also provided a way for the ghouls to escape, that was good enough for me. The ghouls who frequented this place and hadn’t returned to the simulation set about waking up those who had, to inform them of the development and the chance of escape. Strangely, some of them seemed to prefer to return to their simulations and block out the outside world, waiting for the end when the Steel Rangers inevitably found them.

“Are the Family heads waiting for us outside the city?” I asked Lurk as word spread to the sleeping ghouls.

“No, they’re holed up in their private bunkers,” she said as she threw her second empty bottle aside.

“They should get out of Pleasure Coast,” I advised.

“These are the same bunkers that sheltered their ancestors from the megaspell that ghoulified the city,” Lurk scoffed. “I think they’ll be fine.”

“Maybe it’s more secure than an Equestrian Stable, but the Steel Rangers had no trouble breaking into the one I grew up in and slaughtering everypony inside,” I said, and Lurk raised an eyebrow. “Considering how the Steel Rangers got here, do you honestly think they don’t have the means to break into fallout shelters?”

“Hmmph, you have a point,” Lurk admitted. “I’ll let them know.”

Once everypony who was going to leave was ready, Lurk prepared to teleport us all out of Franz’s basement. Her horn glowed as she prepared to cast the spell, magical sparks jumping off of it, then a second layer of overglow appeared. A faint aura appeared around us all, and then in a flash of light, we were transported into darkness. I switched on my PipBeak’s lamp and Lurk lit her horn for illumination at the same time, revealing our group standing in a circular tunnel; part of Pleasure Coast’s sewer system.

Lurk led us through the maze of tunnels by hoof. It took longer than it would have had she teleported us around, but transporting all of us here had taken a lot out of her, and she still needed her magic for a few more jumps with Rael and me alone. We went our separate ways with the ghouls after about an hour of walking, Lurk directing them toward where they could access the water mains. We eventually reached tunnels where Family guards were posted, and Lurk gave them a message to bring to Mayor von Griff and Gloria Delgado, telling them to get out of the city before the Steel Rangers came for their bunkers. Then, we were off, trotting down endless dark tunnels.

Eventually we reached a point where our hooves alone couldn’t take us where we needed to go, and Lurk had to teleport us again. From the sewers, we were transported into a private bunker, though not one belonging to the city’s griffin ruling elite. After asking Lurk, she informed us that this bunker had once belonged to Griselda von Plume. Naturally, when it had been discovered after the War, it had been turned inside-out searching for her mythical treasure. It had clearly been quite opulent once, but now was extraordinarily bare, everything of value that could be looted taken away. Scattered lights flickered on fitfully as we passed, Lurk leading us through the below-ground mansion until we reached a train platform.

The train stopped at the station was out of service, and we had to climb through the odd cars to get to the front, where there was no engine, and exit onto the tracks. These followed a tunnel to the northeast just wide enough to accommodate the train and a single griffin on either side. A train would be able to make the trip down this tunnel quickly; but on our hooves, claws, and paws, it took nearly a day of travelling in darkness before we reached the end of the tunnel, into another underground bunker-mansion. Emerging from it, we were well outside of (and out of sight of) Pleasure Coast. The north Griffin Commonwealth awaited.

***

From where we’d emerged to Shearpoint was a two-week journey. It would have taken longer (and it had the last time I’d made my way to the capital of the Commonwealth), if it weren’t for Rael. With his winged help, Lurk and I were able to make it up previously impassable sections of mountain and cut across to Shearpoint. Taking that shortcut also meant we didn’t have to go through Brittle Pass. Although the Dogs of War that had previously terrorized it were now busy imprisoning Orthros in the Castle, I didn’t know what nasty surprises might be left behind in the other automatons they’d reprogrammed. Someday I might need to return and take care of that problem.

The route wasn’t the only unfamiliar thing about this trip to Shearpoint. The coast had remained pleasant, but winter was in full swing in the Commonwealth’s north. Navigating the mountains was as much a matter of getting through deep snow as scaling near-impossible heights (and would’ve been impossible without the assistance of wings). I’d also left my winter clothes behind in my home, not considering I might need them if I escaped Pleasure Coast, and had to buy new ones from the griffins in Grand Imperial. Thanks to the Commonwealth Crooner and my work to spread the reach of Radio PC, the griffins there were up-to-date with what was going on in Pleasure Coast, and the thought of the Steel Rangers descending upon them from the Indefatigable had shaken them. I imagined it was much the same throughout the Commonwealth, especially with Elder Teakettle’s announcement that the Steel Rangers had a mission beyond just taking Pleasure Coast. He intended to use it as a staging area, but for what?

Other than being covered in a layer of snow, Shearpoint was just as I remembered it. The beating heart of the Griffin Commonwealth remained a hollow shell. The signs all remained that it had been a prosperous roost once, but those days were long gone. Still, it was the most likely place for Pleasure Coast to find aid against the Steel Rangers, or so the city’s leaders hoped.

Grand Marshal Gideon, of course, didn’t deign to see us immediately. Though we headed to Gideon’s residence right away upon arriving in the city and Lurk submitted her request to speak with the grand marshal on behalf of Pleasure Coast, we were turned away and told to wait. The three of us had to find temporary lodgings in the city, and Lurk repeatedly traveled up the mountain to Gideon’s residence to repeat her requests. While she continued to try to get Gideon to respond, Rael and I traveled the city. He’d never been here before, and I’d tried to keep to myself the last time I’d been in the roost, so there was plenty to see. There were no Rokkists in Shearpoint that I knew of, and I’m sure proselytizing here would be looked upon disparagingly by the grand marshal, so I persuaded Rael away from that course of action and tried to keep him busy instead.

Two days after our arrival, we were finally summoned to speak to Gideon. Like the last time I was summoned to the grand marshal’s residence, it was Master Sergeant Strake who came to fetch us and bring us up to the top of the city. Just Lurk and I entered the mountain fortress, Rael staying outside, as he hadn’t been invited and Strake made it clear he would not be welcome. The two previous times I’d spoken with Gideon had been held in two separate places, and this day we were led to a third. Gideon’s residence was technically the seat of the Council of Marshals, the governing body of the Commonwealth composed of marshals elected by each roost, who selected the grand marshal from their number. However, since the War, the marshal of Griffonstone had consistently held the position of grand marshal and expanded his powers so that the council was more a relic of the past at worst and an advisory body at best. I’d doubted the council even met anymore, but they seemed to in at least some capacity, since we were led to the council chamber and it hadn’t been converted over to the grand marshal’s personal use.

The chamber was circular, with eleven seats forming a horseshoe raised half a level up from the room’s center and the path to the entryway where the twelfth seat would have been. Gideon was accompanied by two other griffins, and was shaking claws to bid them farewell as we arrived. All three griffins wore suits with sashes over them, two in Gideon’s case: one solid green for Shearpoint, the other composed of eleven stripes like the Commonwealth flag. The griffin on the left wore a yellow sash and the one on the right wore one in white. I had no idea who the first was, but I thought I recognized the second from the revolution in Moonraze. I also noticed that he was wearing a symbol of Rok around his neck: even if Rael had left the roost soon after its change in governorship, it seemed his preaching had taken root.

“You again,” Gideon addressed me once the other griffins had departed and he took a seat in the center chair of the chamber, looking down on us. “I thought I told you to stay away from griffin politics.”

“It wasn’t by choice,” I replied, acutely aware of Strake still standing behind us in the chamber, ready to do his master’s bidding and take us away to the dungeons if ordered. “The leaders of Pleasure Coast wanted me to be part of this, even knowing you don’t have any sympathy for me.”

“Grand Marshal,” Lurk addressed Gideon, trying to reclaim control of her mission. “Mayor Gerald von Griff has sent us to request that you expel the Steel Rangers from the Commonwealth.”

“I know why you’re here,” Gideon said. “You don’t need to remind me. But, since when has Pleasure Coast been part of the Griffin Commonwealth?”

“Since Griselda von Plume established it—” Lurk began to argue, but Gideon was in no mood to be challenged.

“You know what I mean!” Gideon said cruelly as he placed his claws atop the podium before him and loomed forward menacingly. “Since the megaspells fell, you’ve heeded not a single word from Shearpoint or from Underpeak; but now that you want help, you come crawling here to demand aid. Your mayor even refuses to come himself or send a griffin representative, instead sending a pair of ponies!”

“The Families have agreed to reintegrate Pleasure Coast into the Griffin Commonwealth if that is what is required of us in exchange for aid,” Lurk continued, undeterred. “I am authorized to negotiate terms.”

“Too. Late,” Gideon said as he sat back in his chair. “Pleasure Coast has spent too long thumbing its beak at me. You haven’t paid in, so why should I pay out? So long as the Steel Rangers occupy Pleasure Coast, you haven’t any means to pay with anyway, and even if you did, it would take the entire wealth of Von Plume to buy the aid of the Air Corps. No, as far as I’m concerned, it’s time for Pleasure Coast to be taught a harsh lesson. All the better if I don’t have to expend any resources to teach it.”

“But—” Lurk protested.

“Good. Day,” Gideon said definitively, and I heard Strake shifting behind us.

I knew better than to push our luck with the grand marshal, and though Lurk hesitated and seemed to consider pressing on, she too admitted defeat. We let Strake lead us back out to Shearpoint, fortunately not to the dungeons. Grand Marshal Gideon has just surrendered Pleasure Coast to the Steel Rangers. If the city was to be liberated, we’d have to find some other way to do it. Pleasure Coast was on its own.

[Max Level Reached]
New Quest: All the Ministry Mare’s Horses – Find a way to liberate Pleasure Coast from the Steel Rangers.
Alchemistry +1 (64)
Athletics +3 (46)
Small Guns +2 (149)
Speech +1 (124)
Survival +4 (107)