Three weeks of waking up, paying the rent, and working with Smith Smith later, Rose and Pyrelight gleefully get to watch as Moon’s outermost bandages are removed, the puffy flesh underneath pale from lack of sun. Receiving much snuggles from both Rose and Pyre evidently helped speed up his recovery, and he seemed happy just that Rose was there, and Pyrelight, too.

“Well, after weeks of recovery you can finally walk around without looking like a mummy.”

“A what?”

He seemed a little confused by the comment, but Rose helped him through it. He seemed very determined to be able to walk as soon as possible. Rose decided it would likely be best if they stayed an extra week or so (in spite of Wraps’ horribly sexist views) to let Moon recover more.

“Wraps is really starting to get on my last nerves with this females are better crap. It actually surprises me that this kinda thing even exists here, with it being all happy and all from what I remember.”

Pyrelight perks up at this, quirking an eyebrow.

“Remember it from what? Or where?”

Rose bit her lip and thought quickly of an excuse.

“Back home it’s ah, it’s different from here. Everypony is equal not matter the gender and last time I was here it was different. Or at least I remember it that way... I think.”

“You don’t sound too sure.”

Pyrelight spoke calmly, and Moon looked perplexed.

“I- I thought you’d said you’d never been here before.”

“That’s why I said I think, because I can’t remember. I was young and I can’t remember if it was this place or somewhere else that I went to. But either way, its terrible how unequal things are around here.”

Pyrelight looked at Rose suspiciously, not looking like she quite trusted her words, before nodding slowly.

“It is pretty awful how the world is, but it has always been this way, for as long as any alive can remember. Colts are repressed, entire races are enslaved, and life goes on.”

“I know but still, it’s just- it’s so unfair!”

Moon shrugged and looked at Rose, and he looked both sad and resigned.

“You’d have to do something pretty impressive, like take down one of the Living Gods to make a change like that, though.”

Rose put a hoof to her chin and thought for a few moments before slamming it down and shouting at the sky.

“If that’s the case then god damn it that’s what I’ll do!”

Moon and Pyre both just stared at Rose for a minute, like she was crazy, or had blue lobsters coming out of her ears.

“What?”

“You... Let me get this straight; you want to make things more equal, right?”

Pyre asked the question cautiously.

“Well yeah, don’t you?”

“And you wish to accomplish this the fastest way possible, right?”

“Yeah...?”

“And you want to survive that accomplishment to ensure it comes to fruition, yes?”

“Yeah? Why? What are you getting at?”

“... And you want to do this by challenging a Living God, presumably to a duel or trial?”

“Uhm... sure?”

Moon looks back and forth between the incredulous Pyrelight and the stoic Rose.

“I like it!”

“That’s my boy!”

Pyrelight sighs and facehoofs dramatically, her flaming mane burning orange.

“It’s a silly plan, but why not? I don’t have much of a life beyond you two at this point, anyways...”

“That’s the spirit!”

The three sat together, talking and joking about the course now set before them. Since they were in Queen Tenebrous’ realm, they’d go to her, and try to get her to do one of the follow: Side with them, abdicate her throne to them, be defeated by them, or die of apoplexy at being stood up to. any of those would work, but the group had no idea how to bring them about.

“So, now that we have our plan of action, what’s next?”

“Well... I suppose we get some supplies, wait the last week or so until Moon is better, and we get on the road. Maybe along the way, we can recruit some ponies with more combat-oriented skills, something like that.”

Pyrelight’s suggestion was sound, and made sense.

“Makes sense, but what are we gonna do in the meantime? I mean, Smith did give us the day off today...”

Moon Herald looked up from the bed, and spoke in a whisper.

“You... you could try getting some lessons, on how to use that sword you’ve got. It- it looks like Volcanic Steel, I read about that stuff while looking up some military-use metals from a long time ago, around the time of the Flutter Treaty.”

“The Flutter Treaty?”

“Nothing important. After the Flutterkin tried to defy the Living Gods, they fought back, and Eosos and Rubeum crafted thousands of Volcanic Steel weapons for their soldiers. It was a pretty big thing, and afterwards, they destroyed most of the weapons. It takes Earth and Fire elementalism to create real Volcanic Steel, so it’s hard to make without a good talent for it. I think a few of the families of the generals of the Living Gods got to keep their weapons, but I’m not sure.”

“Huh, well I guess now I know why Smith was so excited to hire us in the first place, right Pyrelight?”

“Indeed, it does make sense. Those tools we made him are likely going to pay for his expenses for the rest of the year, if not more.”

Pyrelight yawned broadly, then used a Servitor to scratch her back.

“Mmph, I’m tired tonight... I think I’ll turn in early. Rose, would you care to do the same?”

“What? You’re tired already! But it’s barely....”

The green mare paused to look out the window, realizing it was dark already.

“Oh... guess I didn’t realize how much time went past. Derp.”

Rose got to her hooves and cracked her back slightly.

“Well, I’m not one to turn in early but it’s not like we have much else to do so... might as well.”

Rose and Pyrelight slowly clambered into the second bed in the room, sitting up to drink their glasses of water, something of a ritual they’d fallen into while they were in the hospital-like building. Snuggling close to one another, Rose slowly felt her eyelids grow heavy, as she cuddles in, warm and safe.

Rose’s slumber was disturbed by squeaking noises, a soothing voice in her mind telling her to go back to sleep. And she would have, if a muffled grunt, sounding familiar and noteworthy hadn’t broken through her sleepy haze. Rose let out a huff and opened an eye, it adapting to the darkness.

“Wha...?”

She groaned slightly, not wanting to wake up.

“Go back to sleep...”

The insistent, muffled cry caught her attention again. Pyrelight was still asleep, but she looked to the other side, seeing something that stopped her blood cold. Moon Herald, his wings tightly bandaged to his sides, was tied spread-eagle to his bed, a maniacal-looking Wraps sitting astride him. In the pale moonlight and the flickering candlelight, the tears on his face were starkly visible as they ran down his cheeks, stopped by the gauzy tie around his muzzle.

Rose, for an eternal moment, couldn’t do a single thing. She just watched as Wraps ground herself against him, soft moans emanating from her between clenched teeth. Rose’s horror and fury began to boil within, driving off the specter of sleep. She watched, for just a moment more, as Wraps visibly climaxed as she slammed a strong, earth-pony hoof into Moon’s cheek, just under the bandages already in place.

“What... The... Fuck!?”

Rose voice cracked in fury as she leapt from her bed, and grabbed onto Wrap’s mane with her teeth and yanked her off with a hard tug, slamming her face into the ground, her knee digging into her spine, Moon’s erect member sliding out with a ‘pop’.

“You fucking bitch! What the fuck do you think you’re doing!?”

she gripped her mane tighter with every syllable, digging her knee deeper.

“I fucking treated him, so I get a piece of him! You and your fucking idiotic ‘equality’ horse-shit would try to think of his feelings! It’s a cock with legs, damnit!”

The white mare responded to the violence by slamming one of her back legs into the spot between Rose’s cutie-mark and the actual meat of her leg, and she went back as a crackling pop sounded through the room, her leg feeling like it was on fire.

Rose’s scream of pain was cut short by a hoof jabbed at her throat, and felt herself choking, tears forcing themselves from her eyes.

“You fucking bitch dared speak that shit in my store?! In my home?! Well, I’ll put you all in your places! That potion in your nightly drink may not have kept you out as long as I’d hoped, but you still can. Fight. Back.”

The white medical mare grinned as she raised a hoof above Rose’s head, evidently seeking to crush it.

“Fu...cking... Bitch!”

Rose swung a hoof as she choked out the bitter words, the strike landing precisely where she wanted it to, thanks to the weeks of blacksmithing, and struck Wraps square on the underside of her jaw, a crunching sound and a splattering cough of blood heralding the hit’s landing. Rose, still recovering from the throat jab, rolled away, looking around for something to hit Wraps with.

All she saw was Moon, not conscious after the blow to his face, still tied to the bed. With a feral cry, Rose, on instinct, planted both front legs facing away from Wraps, nearly did a handstands and...

And then she bucked Wraps in the mouth.

The white medical pony flew across the room with a sickening, yet oddly satisfying ‘crack!’, sliding down the wall with a small streak of blood. Rose, hurting and limping (bucking someone like that with what was probably a dislocated rear leg was probably not smart) hobbled over to Moon Herald, getting a better look at him.

A massive, purpley-black bruise was forming across his left cheek, a large split from Wraps’ hoof running from his eye to his chin. More bruises ran across his chest, and there were some painful-looking cuts, probably from the edge of a hoof, near his genital sheathe. Likely, those were the sites of nerve clusters or something Wraps was using to force Moon to be up, because there was no way this particular colt would be up when he wasn’t awake.

“Moon... I- I-”

The mare was lost for words, her hooves curling and her jaw clenching. She was so tempted to turn around and beat the life out of the white whore, but she couldn’t, not without getting Moon Herald out of the restraints, starting with that muzzle.

But still...

With a half full glass of water, Rose poured the contents onto Pyrelight, waking her up suddenly. The normally fire-maned pony was dull and barely coherent as she woke, trying to stay focused as she stared at Rose with bleary eyes. Whatever that bitch had put in their drinks, it was strong.

“Get up.”

Rose’s voice was cold and her eyes were even icier.

“Wraps drugged us a-”

Rose went down as something crashed across her back, and she saw wooden splinters go flying. Very suddenly, her back and head hurt all over, and she a wooden chair leg roll by. A scarce second later, Rose rolled, not entirely sure what was going on, until she saw the bleeding, broken-faced visage of Wraps, her face a ruined mess of bone and blood, her eyes almost glowing demonically as she shouted.

“Fuck. You. Stupid whore!”

Rose let out a heavy breath before spitting blood at Wraps face, a grin curling.

“You hit... like a boy.”

The mare then grabbed the wooden leg that lay broken next to her in her teeth and swung it, managing to throw it and cut the side of the mare’s cheek. Though it didn’t do much, it managed to give her enough time to get on her hind hooves, using a counter to keep her balance.

“Looks like I’m gonna have to relocate my leg back if I wanna kick your ass.”

“You stupid plot-faced mule, it’s you- and your stupid kind- that make this world... so much harder... than it needs to be.”

The mare was gasping as she monologues at Rose, grinning as she reached to a boot she was wearing and withdrew a wickedly-sharp looking scalpel. Holding it firmly in her teeth, the rest of her face mashed and gross. She lunged at Rose, the point of the blade flying at her eye.

A second resounding ‘crash!’ intterrupted the fight, a panting hippogriff, holding most of an operating table in her foreclaws, looked down at the now unconscious madmare.

“Consider that my divorce notice, you fucking sexist.”

“God damn it Triage, I was just about to kick her ass!”

“And did you see she was planning on giving you a jab to your trans-occipital nerve cluster, effectively rendering you paralyzed for the next hour? No, because you’re not a surgeon.”

The hippogriff dropped the remains of the operating table onto the prone pony, with a satisfied ‘hmph’.

“Psh, I still woulda kicked her ass...”

Rose crossed her hooves in a pout before letting out a yelp of pain.

“Agh! My leg!”

The hippogriff stepped closer, looking at the awkwardly placed joint. Reaching out with her claws, she grabbed Rose by flank and leg, jamming them together with a click. Rose gasped, the movement sudden and painful, but the pain went away quickly.

“Doesn’t seem she spent any time to rip anything in there, just a clean disconnect. Now if you don’t mind, I’m going to go get some guardmares to come in and clean this up. If you’d like, feel free to take one of the other rooms, for now. I’m going to go comfort my husband after that.”

“Go on ahead, I have unfinished business here...”

“Alright, I need to go get the guards, as I said. I guess this nullifies my Hippocratic Oath...”

The hippogriff turned and left the room, breathing heavily. Rose was stuck resting against the wall for a moment to catch her own breath.

“You okay, Moon?”

The green mare used her teeth to rip through the bandages to free the colt, his body shaking as his tears fell from swollen eyes. All he could give for a response was a pained moan, even as Rose carefully unwrapped the bandages tight across his jaws. A thin rivulet of blood joined one of his tears as it fell.

“I’m here now, okay? She can’t hurt you anymore, I promise.”

She put a hoof to his injured face, stroking it gently. He whimpered and winced, before leaning into her ministrations, tears flowing freely.

Man, it’s times like this that I wish I was a unicorn...

She sat next to him for a few more moments, before casting a worried glance to where Pyrelight lay limply half-off the bed, sleeping from the potion’s effects.

“She’ll be fine, from what I can tell it’s just a heavy sleeping potion. She’ll just feel hammered in the morning, thats all.”

Rose then looked over to where Wraps’ body lay, she was still, but not deathly so, a raspy breath rattling into her lungs every second or so. Thankfully, it sounded like it was really painful.

“I swear, if I didn’t have a conscious I would go over there and beat her senseless... if she wasn’t already there, I mean. But still, that bitch deserves some sort of punishment besides getting a table broken over her head... hmmm...”

Rose’s train of thought was disrupted, however, by a group of mare in chain and leather armor stepping into the doorway and looking down at Wraps. The one in the lead, with a steel helm reminiscent of cooking pot, minus the handles, spoke first.

“Ms. Blackhoof, ma’am? Are you alright?”

The voice was scratchy, like the voice of someone with either a smoking problem or who had asthma issues when they were younger.

“Also, is this the mare that assaulted you and your herd this evening?”

The guardmare gestured at the mess of pony and table, a surprisingly small amount of blood on the floor for the amount of violence inflicted during the short brawl.

“I’m fine, and yeah, that’s her. Just get her out of here before I decide to do something stupid...”

“Alright, ma’am, just calm down. I’m sheriff Brighthooves, the other guardmares will be taking her down to the holding cells. This isn’t her first infraction of the town laws, but it is her most severe.”

“What!? You’re telling me she’s been let off the hook before!? Listen you! If you don’t get this bitch locked up for good this time I’ll make sure she’ll never see the light of day again! You got that!”

The guardmare stomped her hoof, a bright flash of tangerine sparks sputtering from them in the process. She snorted angrily at Rose, taking a step closer.

“Ms Blackhoof, calm yourself down, or I’ll take you in too! After this... disgusting breach of conduct and decency, I can pretty much guarantee she’ll likely only see two more sunrises. We don’t let this kind of thing happen in this town.”

Rose prepared an angry retort, until the words ‘she’ll only see two more sunrises sank in. Her brows creased in confusion for a moment before realizing what he meant.

“Death penalty?”

“In case you’re from a more lenient region, then I’ll explain it simply; rape carries the death penalty here in the Nightrealm. Doesn’t matter who rapes whom, they’ll hang for it. The assault, destruction of property, and attempted murder is just icing on the cake. Now, I have one more question, were you or your colt injured during or before the incident or the resulting assault and attempted murder? It’s rather important.”

“Yes. She dislocated my leg while we brawled. She also slugged Moon during the-”

She paused, her teeth clenching, before letting out a breath.

“She also poisoned us with a sleeping potion.”

Brighthooves nodded. Turning the the shattered remnants of the chair on the ground, she cocked an eyebrow at the pieces and splinters of wood in Rose’s mane.

“Was that all, or did you forget something?”

Rose shook her head a bit, splinters falling from her mane.

“Oh yeah, and the chair. Must have forgot since she broke it on my head.”

The guardmare gave a harsh laugh at the joke, before turning to the doorway, the downed mare already taken away. She looked over the room, before departing, calling back over her shoulder as she did.

“I don’t mean to impose, but you should probably make yourself scarce, and soon. A lot of townsfolk looked up to Wraps for the same ideals that got her in trouble, and a couple will try taking revenge on you, stupid as their reasons are. Also... good luck, Blackhoof, you’ll need it.”

The guardmare was most of the way down the stairs by the time she finished her speech, and Pyrelight was just beginning to moan into awakeness.

Rose only huffed.

“I’d like to see them try.”

Stepping back to take care of Moon once more, Rose waited for Pyrelight, who wobbled over to the bed.

“R-Rose... what happened here? Why are you injured?”

“I’ll tell you later, just go back to sleep. We’re leaving in the morning...”

With that, Rose closed the door to the room and curled up next to Moon Herald, watching him sleep the entire time to make sure that nothing else creeped up on him during the night. slowly succumbing to sleep, she finally fell into a slumber of her own as the dawn’s light just began to peek in through the filtered windows...

Rose was looking up at Brighthooves, a black eye making it hard to see the guardmare on the left.

“Ms Blackhoof, we need to stop meeting like this. this is the fourth ‘Public Disturbance’ you’ve supposedly started, with numerous witnesses corroborating. I understand you want to keep Mr Herald in a bed he can heal from, but I doubt hearing you be stuck in the jail again is going to make him feel any better.”

It had been two weeks since Wraps had been hung, the sunrise after Rose had fallen asleep watching Moon protectively. Almost every few days after that, mares had been starting brawls with her, and then blaming her for them.

This wouldn’t normally be a problem, if a bunch of the supposed bystanders hadn’t started pointing hooves at the green mare. The first time, just Rose had been sent to jail, and only for two hours to ‘cool off’. but then the second brawl happened, and she and four others had been put in separate cells, each of her cellmates jeering at her the moment the guards weren’t near enough to hear it.

The third had drawn in Smith Smith, who had stood up for Rose and even stated that the others were lying about who started it. The liars had been thrown in the clink for perjury.

But this most recent one... she hadn’t even seen who’d started it, just a blue-gray hoof outta nowhere, and suddenly she had a cut over one eye and a shiner impressive enough to seal it shut and turn half her face blue and purple through her coat.

“I’ve already told you chief! I didn’t start it! I-”

Brighthooves had cut her off with a wave, but her expression was grim and serious as she spoke.

“I know, I actually saw this one start. Hence why I haven’t thrown you in one of the cells. Frankly, I think you should skip town. You’re just getting more and more beat up, and I doubt anypony in your herd wants to see you die from all this. I know I don’t and I barely know you.”

“I’m not gonna run out of town with my tail between my legs, chief. These people need to learn that this isn’t right, and if I have to go through hell to do it then so be it. Besides, at this point I don’t even feel anything!”

She stomped a hoof down and then winced, letting out a slight ‘ow’. Brighthooves sighed and shook her head, looking away from the mare with the black eye, sadness etched across her face.

“Listen, ma’am, you’re going to get yourself killed, and I won’t be able to do anything about that. And how long do you think it’ll be ‘till they go after Pyrelight, or Moon himself? What’ll you do if you get thrown in jail and come back out to find they’re dead, and you have no idea who killed them? Could you live with that on your conscious?”

The guardmare sounded like she was speaking from experience, and a wetness and sadness in her eyes gave Rose pause for a moment. Rose just looked down in anger, knowing the mare was right.

“Th-then what do you want me to do? Just forget this place and let it run amuck with it’s fucked up morals?”

“Leave, before it gets worse. I hear the smith is leavign too, because of issues he’s started having with some of these mares.”

She sighed again.

“Rose Blackhoof, don’t make me force you to leave town. Please. Try the capital, or something, try to change things from someplace it’ll happen in. Not here. Not where this kind of hate is damned near universal.”

“You know, back where I’m from it was the same thing, only it wasn’t because of gender, it was because of the color of one’s skin. They were no different from everyone else other than their skin, and they were hated all the same because of it. They couldn’t control it but they still fought against it because it was wrong. They were beat senseless and killed, hung by their necks in their front yards for all to see, but they never gave up and in the end they ended up getting their equality and freedom from the hate!”

She stomped a hoof down, ignoring the sharp stab of pain.

“A famous man once said ‘I have a dream.’ He dreamed that every man and woman, not matter what color, race, or gender they were, should be treated equally and respectfully, no matter what.”

She stared up at the officer.

“He died for his dream and was killed in cold blood because he believed in something so strong and powerful. But even then, his voice and beliefs went on and he became an idol, his name an icon to everyone who suffered. If I have to leave this town to protect my friends then so be it, but don’t expect me to leave and never hear from me again. I’m going Queen Tenebrous.”

The officer looked at Rose for a moment, hope flaring in her eyes. But that hope rapidly faded back into the dull pit of sadness. she looked at Rose with a wry smile.

“Jeez, Blackhoof, I wish I had lived where you used to. Maybe I’d still have a brother and sister then.”

Brighthooves sighed and turned away once more.

“I’m going to announce today that you’ve been locked up for a week this time. You’d better use tonight to get out, before you get any more injured.”

“Hey chief, I’ll take you there one day, I promise.”

The mare shuffled her hooves for a moment, naught but a short chuckle escaping her lips for a moment.

“Open Roads and Fair Weather to you, Rose Blackhoof. And may the earth bear you when you fall.”

Brighthooves gave a weary salute and a tired smile. Rose gave a salute back, nodding before running off to her friends.

Author's Note

Because Society! Yeah, this ain't Kansas... or Equestria. Too bad Rose doesn't know that.