The Accord

The festering sunken wound of Old Ponyville. A dark and starless night hands over the forsaken town, murky water pools around the dilapidated houses, ruined pieces casually drifting along, along with other aquatic wildlife lurking about the floods. It is a wonder anyone who wasn't desperate for some lost memories or treasures to live here. All but one light flickers in the distance north of Old Ponyville, this light reached out to any who brave the night's dangers, a safe haven for all ponies regardless of house. The Hornless Minotaur, a tavern strung together by parts of the township's buildings, how one would learn of this establishment was either by chance, or word of mouth. A place where one can forget their worries for the night, drink, eat and be merry without the horrid influences of the Cult looming. Inside the dark lit tavern there the sounds of a piano played upon by a robbed orange Unicorn, a merry ragtime echoed from the ivory keys, what looked like a widened grin was the only thing that peeked out of the robe's hood. A dark brown Earth Pony sat behind the bar cleaning out large mugs with a cloth, his mane a dark slick back red, a leather vest upon his chest. Sitting near the bar two ebony Earth Ponies, with brown manes, nearly identical to each other the only difference being one was a young colt, the other a foal. At their stools sat two swords, the older one's a broadsword, the colt's a scimitar. The two of them in conversation as they had their drinks, one cider, one a tall glass of orange juice, it didn't take a scientist to tell whose was whose drink.

The doors the tavern opened, revealing an older looking stallion that was either in his late thirties or early fourties with a tan coat and brown mane. He wore a tattered jacket that bore the symbol of House Stormwing, but on his head he wore a brown Fedora. He sat at the bar not to far away from the other two Earth Ponies, ordering a glass of cider himself

"A customer, well then, welcome to the Hornless Minotuar sir." The bartender spoke out still tending to his glass. "However before I pour you a drink I must insist you follow one simple rule while you are here. You are to conduct no fighting within my tavern. If you wouldn't mind, please place any and all weapons on your person upon the bartop."

The Stormwing would feel the eyes of the four ponies in the tavern stare at him awaiting his response.

The Stallion looked up for a moment, and then sighed. He followed the instructions; placing a survival knife on the bar, followed by short spear, a second knife, a bullwhip, and a small round sphere that looked like a cannonball with a fuse coming out of the top.

"That's all I've got," The Earth Pony said, sounding irritated. "Can I have my drink now?"

The barkeep calmly took all weapons up the bartop and placed them underneath. Turning around and fiddling with some nobs and a mug, a tall frothy mug of cider was placed before the Stormwing. "We haven't seen a Stormwing in a good long while, mostly it's been Earthborn troops lost in the Everfree who found themselves here." Everyone returned back to their actions before observing the Stormcloak. The barkeep continued. "What brings you here?"

"Hey Broadsword, when is Obelisk coming back anyway?" The little foal asked the colt next to him.

"It takes awhile for him to collect some valuable resources, you know that. Besides you don't need any more weapons, that scimitar he gave you is good enough. Besides, isn't that a weapon fit for a pirate lord?" The colt replied poking at the foal's stomach, the child let out a giggle trying to push away the colt's hoof.

"Just need some time out is all," The Stallion said. "You know how most Stormwing types are." He took a sip of the beverage, letting it slither down his throat. He spared a glace at the other two Earth ponies, but paid them no real heed.

"We get alot of different types, usually ones begging us to keep them safe for the night, or people who want to raid the town for supplies. Other times people come here looking for our services. By the by, that will be ten bits." The barkeep calmly spoke.

"Ya, well everypony always just looks at the uniform and makes assumptions anyway," The Earth pony said, handing over the money. "It gets even worse when they see I'm not a pegasus..."

"There are no houses here." The ebony colt said taking a squig of his drink, finishing his round of tickle fights with the smaller version of himself who took a swig of his orange juice.

The Stormwing soldier looked over at the Stallion.

"No matter where you go, you'll always be judged by your loyalties. Doesn't matter how 'neutral' an area is. Not that it's undeserved mind you."

"We have out ways of keeping things peaceful, if only just inside these walls, so never you mind that." The colt replied.

"Yeah, we can handle ourselves pretty damn well!" The foal chimed in proud as could be finishing up his round of orange juice.

"Hey why don't you go get things ready for Obelisk? I'm sure he may come back with something new for you to play with." The colt spoke to the child patting him on the shoulder. The boy's eyes beamed with the thought of this new toy to play with and ran off behind the counter and through the service door.

"So tell me, how did you find out about this place?" That question aimed at the Stormcloak, while the colt watched the young one dart off.

"Heard a couple of Merchants talking about it," The Stormwing soldier said, taking another swig of his drink. "I heard that it allowed anyone, and Stormwing taverns are a little tightly strung, so I decided to give it a look."

"Well then, welcome to the last bastion of neutrality this side of the Emerald Coast, where no one's your enemy, theirs music, food, and drink, and discuss all sorts of things with your fellow pony. Be it shady or just idle chat." The earth pony took another swig.

"So I finally get a chance to speak freely?" The soldier let out a small chuckle. "That's a refreshing change of pace!"

"Don’t over think about this place. I can get why loyalty plays a huge part in today's world, and I might be considered a crazy idiot for saying this....so keep your trap shut because if you spread this around my credibility may be cut from this...." Broadsword turns his head over his shoulder once, only to turn back and mutter just loud enough so the Stormwing could understand. “...But I feel morally obliged to give ponies the benefit of the doubt." He sat up and smirked rubbing his shout showing off the scars across his nose. "It's sort of how I got these, but I don't regret it all too much. Everypony has a reason for the things they do, and I understand desperate times call for desperate measures, so I don't hold grudges too often...unless I'm paid to anyway."

"Over thinking... heh, that's funny." Storm chuckled, a humorless noise. "That's really all you can do when you're in Moon and Star Inquisition prison. I wasn't there long, of course, those Unicorns seriously underestimate what an Earth Pony can do." He looks down, casting deep in memory. "I've been around a while, I saw what Equestria was like before the madness. But I had more than one run-in with the underworld at that time. The truth is this kind of evil existed long before the Princesses disappeared; it's just boiled over now. I've lost almost everything from every faction in this war. My home, my fortune, my family, my friends, my partner...." Storm shakes his head. "The truth is kid, I'm all out of forgiveness. Whoever I was before the war is buried in that last tomb I explored before joining the fight. It's just like everything else in there, dead and dust."

"Is that so..."

Broadsword unsheathed his blade inspecting the hilt with a emotionless gaze, tapping the small gemstone encrusted within the hilt, the sword gave off a slight hum as the blade gave a low light shimmer. Dropping the blade back into its holster Broadsword nodded himself, agreeing with a cockamamie idea that just popped into that skull of his.

"Well, it looks like I'm going to need to go shopping again. Maybe stop by Canterlot, pick up some milk, some eggs, some magical mcguffins for my sword, and maybe even a certain somepony's head who locked away a certain somepony, who I bet would like some well placed revenge if he gave me a name." A dastardly grin smeared across the ebony pony's mouth, his eyes looking up to Storm, almost giving him a visual sentence of "Are you thinking what I'm thinking?" Was he actually going to raid the Moon and Star House? From the looks of his weapon, some faint amount of magic pumps through it, and why would he go out of his way to assist Storm in acting justice upon those who wronged him? Ya know, just the usual everyday junk."

Storm put on a dark smile.

"If you're crazy enough, I've still got some loyal contacts that can get us in to do your ' shopping' without drawing too much attention. The unicorn's name is Fact Finder, a former friend of mine. When Moon and Star began setting up shop in Canterlot, I trusted him to help get me and my family out. But he had already become one of Sparkle's fanatics. He betrayed us and turned us over to the Inquisitors. My father, brother, and one of my sisters were all executed as Pegasus Spies for Stormwing, which they weren't. They tried to convince my unicorn family members, my mother and second sister, to join them. They killed my mother when she refused, but my sister disappeared, along with my partner. But it would be safe to assume that they died in the dungeons just the same." Storm took his hat off, a deadly serious look in his eye. "Be warned now, Fact is an Inquisitor, and a powerful one. If we go after him, we're going to have all of Moon and Star after us."

Broadsword scoffed at the mention of being hounded by Twilight's flunkies. "Well looks like we'll have to carve his tongue out before he hollers for back up. For accompanying me on this little stop at the magic flea market, we split the profits on loot sixty, forty. I'd go fifty-fifty, but I figured helping you get a shot at your good pal the Inquisitor, and having the honor of landing the killing blow balances out in the long run. However our secondary objective is to collect as many gemstones as we can."

Broadsword returned his weapon in view showing off the hilt and gemstone to his accomplice. "This is a dispel blade, I nicked it off a unicorn bandit years ago. Fun fact about this badboy, I can cut right through magic spells thrown at me like it was paper. The downside? It runs on gemstones. Gemstones only found in Canterlot, and my batteries are running on low, so if we run into any trouble with magic, we have an ace in the hole."

The blade returned back into its sheath with a rather skillful half circle motion performed by him. "So then, do we have an accord?" Extending a hoof with a genuine smile upon his face, a rather confident and reassure demeanor. "Way I see it, I get my sword kitted out, you get some closure, we get some extra loot, curbstomp some whispy wannabe wizard ass, call it a night and maybe even walk away friends?"

Storm smiled himself. "We have an agreement," He said, accepting the hoof-shake. "I'll need to ditch the Stormwing armor though, it could make things... interesting."

Moments passed at the two ponies prepared for the journey ahead of them, night fall would fade into dawn in within hours. Storm exited the restroom, now wearing a completely different outfit. His Stormwing armor had now been replaced with an old brown leather jacket. A fedora matching the jacket's color sat on his head.

"I haven't worn these since my Archaeologist days," he said. "The last time I wore them was the day I uped with Commander Dash in the battle of Silent ruins...."

Broadsword was off to the bar, speaking down to his foal brother, placing a hoof on his little brother's skull and ruffling his mane, the two wrestled for a brief moment, but before the playful romp went any farther, Broadsword poked the little foal in the stomach with the hilt of his blade breaking their distance. Shortsword's smile faded into a worried expression.

"Come back soon..." The foal weakly muttered.

"Don't sweat it Shortsword, just head up to bed and I'll be back within a day or two, you know what to do if I take any longer..."

The foal nodded and trotted himself to a stairway. Broadsword sighed shaking his head readjusting the hilt of his sword on the strap. With a turn of his head he noticed Storm in his civvies. "Oh, your ready huh?..."

Storm nodded, glancing in the direction the young colt had just departed.

"Is that your son? Nephew? Brother?"

"That's my little brother, he was only just born when I became a merc before the war started. He's a good kid, knows how to handle weapons, he learned from me pretty well..." Broadsword moved towards the door seeming to be in a haste to escape the conversation and exit the sanctuary of the Hornless Minotaur.

Storm followed suit, noting silently that his new comrade had somewhat dodged the question, but then remembered that there were plenty of things from his past that he didn't want brought up. He shifted himself up and then back down again, checking the weight of his saddlebags to make sure he had everything.

"Sneaking into Moon and Star Territory should be easy enough, but I'll need to contact a friend to get us into Canterlot. I doubt I need to warn you that we'll be watched for a good amount of time..."

Broadsword stared off into the distance, the water just peeking into his field of vision, the Hornless Minotaur sits just on the edge of the submerged streets of Old Ponyville. Even with the pitch vale of night one could see the castle of Canterlot nestled high upon its mountainside.

"How will we be able to do that?"

Broadsword begun his steps along the edge of the water, their trail leads them into the fields just to the east, they have to cover some good amount of distance before they can enter the realm of Canterlot...Though Broadsword felt like he had just answered his own question, turning his head back to Storm. "We're going to be entering Stormwing territory to do it aren’t we?"

"That's correct," Storm said, moving ahead. "But this isn't my first time sneaking in. I've led several skirmish units across the border to conduct small raids on Moon and Star Territory. We'll get through Stormwing no problem, and we should be able to get scout reports once I flash my Officer's identification. I'm more worried that the Inquisitors will realize something's up and pursue us before we get in range of Canterlot."

"So then you'll take the lead then, I'm counting on you to vouch for me on this. While I am ok with Stormwing's and I do some deals with them from time to time, I think some of them may be a tiny teeny bit mad at me. Let's just say it involved some money, a Whitegold siren, a very lonely general, and my lack of knowing how to be a wingman in an uncomfortable situation."

A grimace of the memory spread across Broadsword's face, the whole situation he spoke about sounded like an over exaggerated bar joke, but now by how sunken his face looked thinking about it.

"I'll, uh, take your word on that." Storm said, resisting a chuckle as he remembered the old days where he would find himself in similar wild times. "Even so, I would rather not get on a General's bad side myself, so we should probably conclude our business in friendly territory quickly." He could hardly believe what he just said, considering he would normally spend as much time as possible in friendly lands.

“But this is far from normal circumstances” Storm thought to himself.