One must always remember that a stranger is just another individual who may help us to better ourselves and for us to better them in turn.

—The Harmony Doctrine, written by the original founders of Equestria

“Look, it’s like you said. We need this, and as far as I can see, there’s no other way that we can get it.”

“I just can’t believe we’re actually doing this,” I whispered back nervously, my eyes and head darting to focus on every shady nook or cranny that came into view. Certainly, my paranoia was not helped by the lack of lighting anywhere around us, the pale sliver of moonlight seeming only offering enough illumination to prevent us from walking into a wall.

Honestly, one tends to forget how dark and cold the nights are without something artificial to help light it or clothing to help ward against the autumn air. It made me wish for the comforting reassurance of my dagger and also curse myself for leaving it behind. At the time it had seemed better to avoid the chance of someone recognising me by it at a later date.

As we walked further down the deserted street, I couldn’t help but wince every time my hooves contacted with the ground. The sound that they produced seemed to pierce the night air and left me fearing what they could attract to us that lurked in the shadows, Celestia affiliated or otherwise.

“Stop that,” Gilda hissed at me, casting annoyed eyes in my direction, the bags on her back rustling and clinking lightly. “You’re only making us look suspicious by jerking your head around like that. For ancestors’ sakes, just calm down and walk normal.”

Letting out a snort of annoyance, I nevertheless decided to try and follow her advice. Gilda had much more expertise in areas such as this and so I was more than willing to defer to her for the moment.

“It just doesn’t seem right is all I’m saying,” I continued defensively.

“Look, you said it yourself, we need a printing press and I don’t know what hunt you went on but mine didn’t turn up any leads except this.” She gave a fluid half shrug with a single shoulder, her arm raised. “What does it matter that we need to get one this way—.”

“You mean steal it,” I interrupted. “Don’t try to sugar coat it Gilda.”

“Yeah, steal it,” Gilda replied, seemingly blasé about the whole thing. Nevertheless, the change of phrasing seemed to give her pause for a moment. Raising up one of her claws, she ran it through her feather fringe, seeming to mull something over. When she spoke again, her voice had lost its hard tone and was much kinder, “If it helps, just think of it like this: The school is one of the richest in the country and is personally overlooked by Celestia. We’re probably doing the brats a favour more than anything else, gives them the excuse to buy a brand new one with the bitch’s money.”

Her words did help me feel a little better, though it did make me feel dirty for being comforted about my intention to steal. However, she was right. It was a necessity, and this was the only option.

“I suppose,” I admitted. “I guess you could even say that everyone wins in the end.”

“That’s the spirit,” Gilda encouraged, flashing me a proud smile whilst delivering a pat to my shoulder. “No one loses out and, as you keep telling me, it can only get us all a better future. Besides,” she continued with a dark chuckle, “it should give Celestia a good bloody nose when everyone hears about how her school was burgled so easily.”

I couldn’t help but smile at that. “Gilda, you always know how to—.”

“Shhhh!”

Without any warning, Gilda’s head jerked to the side, startling me in my nervous state. Motioning me to stop, she pressed a finger to her beak, to which I nodded in understanding. As she took a few cautious steps forward, I couldn’t help but be reminded of a lioness stalking her prey. It was funny, I mused to myself, the first time I had met her I had for all intents and purposes been struck dumb with a mix of fear and awe. However, now a short time later I was exchanging friendly banter and teasing.

Pressing herself against a corner, she peered around it, remaining so still as she did so that she could almost have been mistaken for a statue if not for the rhythmic movement of her chest as she breathed.

“Do you hear anything?” she asked, not even moving a single inch, so quiet that I almost missed it.

I shook my head, before I realised how stupid that was.

“No,” I whispered back, glad that she didn’t see me and so was safe from the inevitable joking that would have resulted.

She relaxed immediately, dropping her stance and making her way back over to my side.

“What was that?” I asked, more confused than nervous by that point.

“Nothing,” she replied, shrugging. “Thought I heard something down that that alleyway, though if you didn’t hear anything then it was probably just my imagination.

“You’re willing to take my senses over yours?” I asked, raising an eyebrow at her. I was somewhat confused, Gilda didn’t strike me as the sort of person to do that sort of thing.

“Do you see any ears on me?” She gestured to where I could only guess her ear holes were located beneath her feathers. “Ponies got the heads up in the ear department, griffons got the eyes.”

“I’m not a pony,” I sorely reminded her.

“You still have the ears of one,” she pointed out, giving one of mine a gentle flick for emphasis. I had to concede that point.

We lapsed into silence for a couple more blocks, though as we rounded a corner, Gilda once again spoke.

“So...” she trailed off and it also for a second seemed like she wasn’t going to continue. “Is there any particular reason why you haven’t bothered taking your bandages off yet?”

The question itself sounded innocent enough, just one friend trying to distract another with some harmless small talk. That being said, Gilda was hardly the type to do something like that, more likely she wanted it to come off as that in the hope that it would disguise the more pointed nature of her query.

“No reason.” I decided to shrug despite her head not being turned to face me. I could see her looking at me out of the corner of her eye. “I just thought that it would be better to keep them on for disguise’s sake. After all, bandages can be thrown away if I need to, a mass of scars where a cutie mark should be would undoubtedly stick out it anyone’s mind and alert them straight away.”

“Bullshit,” she shot back, her voice regaining its hard tone. “Don’t lie to me with stuff like that. I know your type, eager to cover up the truth by using logic to hide why you really do something.”

Her narrowed eyes seemed to bore directly into me, cutting deep into my core. I stubbornly tried to fight her glare with one of my own, but the piercing gaze she held on me seemed to touch upon a hidden fear. It dug up uncomfortable feelings, and I had to look away from her in defeat.

“It’s just that for as long as I keep these things on and don’t look, then I don’t need to worry about it. I don’t know, I mean...” I trailed off for a second, struggling to find some combination of words that I could use to explain myself. “My cutie mark is gone right now, but I’m scared that if I look at what’s left it might break the equilibrium that it’s under right now. With what we had to go through last time, I don’t want either of us to have to break those chains again.”

Gilda scoffed, rolling her eyes in such a way that I couldn’t help but glare at her. “That’s just stupid. It’s not coming back and no amount of seeing or doing is going to change that.”

“I know it’s irrational, Gilda,” I said with a heavy sigh. My voice suddenly sounded small and weak as I added, “but the power that little patch of fur held over me terrifies me. I can’t lie to myself about how scared I am.”

“Hey, don’t worry about it,” she said, trying to sound upbeat, though the strain in her voice ruined the effect somewhat. “Tomorrow we’ll go and take them off together.”

She delivered a punch to my shoulder that from anyone else I would have considered rough, though from Gilda I could tell she was trying to be gentle. She flashed me a cocky grin as we moved on.

“Ancestors, I’ll even hold your hoof and kiss your boo-boo better if it gets you to do it,” she said, mockingly.

“Thanks, mommy,” I dryly replied.

“Don’t pretend that you don’t love it,” she shot back.

Though I hid it with my tone of voice, I really was grateful for her devil-may-care attitude, it gave me a confidence about things that I had always been missing in my life. I supposed that it must have just been something about her, after all if someone like my mum could undermine confidence by being so nitpicky with the details it was only logical that someone could be the complete opposite.

It no longer hurt so much to think about my family, indeed I had been so busy that they had hardly crossed my thoughts. Though it made me guilty at almost forgetting about them, I forced the unbidden thought down nevertheless. Better to not tempt fate.

As we continued on our way, I spotted a dark figure near the end of the street. The doorway they stood in hid their features to such an extent that I couldn’t even tell what species they were. They were so well hidden that the only thing that gave them away was the wooden cart that was parked right next to them, it being so out of place on the otherwise deserted street that it drew the eyes towards it.

I was fairly certain that Gilda had also caught sight of the mysterious bystander, if her earlier comparisons between griffon and pony eyes were anything to go by.

As we drew closer, Gilda didn’t seem to make any outwards reaction to the figure, and so once again, I decided to follow her lead.

As we drew closer, I was able to pick out some rough details. Though that proved to be of little help, as all I was able to gain from that was that they were wearing a hooded black cloak that hid their features.

When we were only a couple of meters away from the figure, Gilda abruptly adjusted her path to directly intercept the stranger.

By then, I was incredibly nervous and slightly annoyed. I could feel sweat running down my sides and my breathing was slightly strained. Rationally, I was thinking that Gilda was playing me, though another, less logical part still couldn’t help but be nervous.

When the hood swung around revealing glittering green eyes and a yellow beak that immediately split into a wide grin, I let out a relieved sigh before I could even hope to stop myself. It was undoubtable at such a close distance that he was a griffon, though I could hardly be blamed for not being able to tell that soon. The griffon’s black cloak was matched by coal-colored feathers that smoothy ran into a coat that I could only describe as being gunmetal grey. The way the coloration and choice of attire melded into the night, the griffon seemed more to resemble a shadow than a living creature.

“Brute,” Gilda said with a wide grin, though I couldn’t be sure if it was one of welcoming to the griffon or one of glee at my reaction. “Good to see that you actually turned up.”

“Of course I was going to show up,” the evidently male griffon replied, sounding slightly hurt at the suggestion that he might not. “I owed you.”

“Now don’t be like that Brute,” Gilda replied, her voice still jovial despite the low volume. “I’m only playing.”

“Yeah yeah,” Brute grumbled, though I could see the humour in his eyes, “would it hurt you to just be grateful for once.”

As he pulling his hood off, his eyes flicked over to me, widened slightly in recognition. When he spoke again his voice was somewhere between surprise and worry.“Gilda, is this who I think it is?”

Gilda let out a chuckle. “Depends who you think it is. Brute, meet J—,” she started by saying my real name, sending a jolt of panic through me, before she seemed to realise her mistake in a split second and transitioned it as smoothly as she possibly could. “—Righteous Flame. Righteous Flame, meet Brutus, an old friend of mine.”

At his name I couldn’t help but grin slightly at the irony. Only I would somehow manage to meet someone in a totally alien world that held the name that belonged to the family whose members drove the king out of Rome and slew a tyrant on the senate floor.

“A pleasure,” I said, sticking my hoof out with the intent for him to shake it.

For a second he looked at it searchingly, as if he was trying to discover some hidden meaning or significance to the gesture. Thankfully, he accepted it just before things began to cross over to awkwardness, though even then it was done carefully and slowly. I noticed that his claws were also filled down in much the same manner as Gildas, though my newly acquired knowledge reduced it from the shock it had been a few days ago to dull comprehension.

“I saw your speech the other day,” he offered me by way of an explanation for his delay. It didn’t escape my notice that his posture seemed to have taken on an overall more guarded quality and that his words came out slower and more cautious than when he had been talking to Gilda. It also seemed to me that the griffoness was leaving herself carefully out of the conversation, standing off to the side from both of us, having taken up the unofficial task of sentry as she ran a slow gaze over the street and windows.

“I see,” I replied, retracting my hoof from his grasp as I felt it loosen. “How did you find it?”

I was almost reluctant to ask him that question and I was already half regretting it as Brutus seemed to mull things over, his claw drumming out a fast rhythm on the cobblestone that made an uncontrollable part of me flash with jealousy and bitterness.

“It was... interesting,” he finally said. “I admit that I was never expecting to see something like what you pulled off when you started spouting off to the crowd. You’ve caused quite the sensation, every griffon that I’ve talked to since then seems to bring you up.”

“Did you bring the stuff?” Gilda interjected before I got a chance to reply to Brutus’ elusive answer.

“Sure,” Brutus replied, jerking his thumb over his shoulder. “It’s in the cart.”

Swiftly, Gilda made her way over to the cart and peered in eagerly. From where she was standing I couldn’t see her expression but the way that she leaned forward eagerly made me curious.

Brushing my way past Brutus, who took a step back as I passed near him, I made my way over to the cart.

Once I was alongside Gilda I made to look myself, but before I could, something hit my face and wrapped around it, leaving nothing but black in my vision.

Jerking my head back, I let out a strangled cry and fell back on my haunches. Ignoring the stinging sensation in my backside, I whipped my freed forelegs up and scrambled to get a grip on whatever it was that had attacked me.

“Ancestors, calm down,” I heard Gilda say off to my side. “It’s just a joke.”

I felt something, a claw, wrap around my attacker, which seemed to be oddly soft, and pulled it off me with one sharp tug.

Taking in a deep breath, I turned to look at whatever it was that Gilda had saved me from. All that I saw was what looked like a dyed black cotton sheet, clutched tightly in Gilda’s right claw before she threw it back into the cart.

The smirk that I saw on Gilda face was enough for me to fix her with a withering glare.

“Very amusing,” I said coldly, “Good to see that you’re taking things so seriously.”

“I am,” Gilda replied, sounding somewhat haughty herself, “I’m just trying to get you to relax. Being all wound up and stressed isn’t going to help you keep a cool head, they’re the types of things that have you making stupid mistakes and getting caught.”

“So what exactly about that was going—”

A short, low whistle interrupted us.

Turning to look where it emanated from, Brutus had return to leaning up against the side of the building, a half smile on his face. “Such a nice coltfriend you have there Gilda. Oohh, and handsome too.”

“Shut up Brute,” Gilda shot at him, turning her glare onto him. “Now’s not the time for your bull.”

“Hey,” Brutus replied, lifting his two claws up in a placating gesture, though the mischievous grin ruined its intention. “I call it like I see it. It’s not my fault that you’re embarrassed about it.”

The sheer ridiculous of the situation helped to relax the tension that was in the air and I couldn’t help but let out a short chuckle.

Unfortunately, this prompted Gilda to turn her angry gaze back at me, the outrage coming off it in such great waves that I had to suppress my first reaction to take a step backwards.

“Look I’m sorry Gilda,” I said, seizing the opportunity before Gilda started another, no doubt, venomous exchange.

Gently, I put a hoof on her shoulder, stretching forwards slightly so that I looked up at her. “I’m stressed. I admit that. I have no idea what I’m doing and I’m scared that we’re going to get caught before things even get off the ground. I get what you’re trying to do for me Gilda, but it just isn’t working. I need you with me on this but I also need you to go easy on me, just for tonight.”

At first Gilda seemed to look slightly taken aback, almost crestfallen that I had stepped down from the confrontation. In the silence that encapsulated the pause, she raised up one of her claws and balled it into a fist. I had no doubt that to anyone else it would have looked like she was going to strike me. However, I could see it trembling slightly, and it seemed to be clenched so tightly that, for once, it was lucky that her claws were blunt.

Shutting her eyes, she took a deep calming breath and gradually relaxed her stance, making it appear less and less like she was crouching in preparation to pounce.

“Yeah, yeah. I’m sorry too. I’ll ease off on the jokes.”

I thought that labelling them as jokes was a touch generous, though I decided to keep that to myself.

She raised up her right claw again, though this time even though it was clenched the knuckles were pointing towards me. “We’ve still got each other’s tails though, right?”

I did not realise straight away what she wanted me to do, though when I did I quickly tapped my hoof against her claw in what I assumed was an approximation of a fist bump.

Turning back to the cart, she quickly fished around it in for a few moments before seeming to lift up something with her two claws. Whipping it back over her head, the black cloth seemed to unfurl like a sail, coming to rest against her back whilst hanging down to rest a half dozen inches above the ground. After thrusting her head through a hole that seemed to exist in the fabric, she gave her body a brief shake, making the cloth settle around her in the unmistakable fashion of a cloak practically identical to the one Brutus wore.

Next she gathered up another bundle of black cloth and turned towards me. For a moment her muscles tensed as if she was going to throw it at me again, before she seemed to check herself and took a few steps forward.

“Here,” she said, thrusting the cloak towards me. “Should help us all to blend into the shadows a bit better.”

Sitting my rump down on the cold, wet stone ground, I took the cloak into my own arms. Holding it out before me, it unravelled itself easily. As it did, a few scraps of it seemed to detach itself from the overall mass and float down to the ground. Swiftly, before I could even get a clear look at them, Gilda swooped them up and threw them back into the cart.

I quirked a curious eyebrow at her.

“Later,” she said, to which I gave a shrug of acceptance. I needed to entrust her with just a portion of the faith that she had shown in me.

Mirroring as best I could the same motions that Gilda had demonstrated, I threw the cloak over my head and settled it around my shoulders. Surprisingly, as the fabric settled around me, which was far lighter than I was expecting, I felt a part of me relax. I had almost forgotten about my nudity—indeed I had forced myself in the fact of much greater trials—it still seemed that my taboo against it was still unconsciously ingrained. Even aside from that the warm fabric helped to insulate me against the chill in the air.

“Y’know,” Gilda said as I was experiment with moving with the cloak. “I hope this doesn’t mean that I need to wear the kid gloves for you all the time because I mean it when I say that I won’t be able to keep it up”

“Trust me Gilda,” I replied, giving her a rueful smirk. “After tonight I wouldn’t have it any other way.”

“Err... I do hate to interrupt the love-in,” Brutus suddenly said, for the first time speaking to me in what wasn’t a carefully picked monotone.

“You’re right, you’re right,” I quickly conceded, halting things before they could spark Gilda’s tempter or embarrass me. ”Time’s moving and we still have things to get done.”

“Agreed,” Gilda said, taking a step towards Brutus so that she was an equal distance from both of us.

“Okay then,” Brutus said, pushing himself off from the wall to stand closer to me. “How do you want to take this?”

That was certainly an interesting question. I had left most of the planning up to Gilda in this regard, she having far greater experience than me in shady dealings. I myself was kept busy with checking around the city for any other, less dangerous, means that we could acquire what we needed that we both may have missed in our initial search. The only real area where I had contributed to the plan was general reconnaissance.

“I’ll stay ahead of the cart by about half a block and keep an eye out for anyone coming our way,” Gilda replied. “Brute, you stay next to the cart and keep an eye out for anything that I may of missed. Righteous, you’re going to pull the cart.”

I felt a flair of annoyance within me at being a glorified pack horse, but I forced it down. For the night I would need to make sacrifices to be a team player in much the same way Gilda had.

“Fine, help me to hitch up,” I quickly said, wanting to get it over and done with before I could reflect on it too much.

With a bit of finessing, the griffons managed to get the harness around my stomach. It was tight, almost painfully so, but I couldn’t risk it pulling down my bandages so I bore it without complaint.

“Thanks,” Gilda softly said to me as she checked for one last time that the buckle was secure. I didn’t know whether it was the way she said it or the look that she gave me but I knew that she understood the gravity of what she had asked of me. Her eyes captivated me in such a way that I couldn’t help but be drawn into them, losing myself in them as we shared an understanding.

“Alright, let’s get moving,” Gilda suddenly spoke, addressing both Brutus and myself, breaking her eyes away from mine. For a second I was left floundering, a fish out of water, but nevertheless I recovered quickly and dismissed that strange moment.

Striding ahead, Gilda took an easy lead. I myself was left waiting behind with Brutus at my side.

“That should be a good enough distance,” Brutus said to me.

Giving him a nod, I bunched up my muscles and gathered all of my strength in preparation of moving the cart forward. Unfortunately, I had misjudged the weight of what I was pulling, it being far lighter than I had originally anticipated. I lurched forward in a single burst of movement, though that left me as the readily followed me, causing me to overbalance and stumble forward, only managing to regain my footing at the last second, just as the ground was lurching up to greet me.

Seeking to maintain what was left of my dignity I pressed forward with my head held high. Thankfully Brutus held his tongue and silence reigned between us for a while before I decided to break the ice.

“Thanks for what you did back there,” I whispered quietly to Brutus, hopeful that our distance from Gilda would allow for what I was going to say to remain between us.

“What do you mean?” he replied, his tone of voice carefully neutral and his eyes straight ahead. However, he did seem to pick up on my desire for privacy as he made to lessen the distance between us as well as shifting his head so that it was inclined towards me.

“Taking the heat off me and giving me the chance to sort things out.”

“What makes you think I did that?” he asked, his tone still not betraying anything on what he was thinking or even if what I was saying was true.

I scoffed slightly. “I’ve only known Gilda for a short time but I do know that if you can avoid being the focal point of her temper then you do it. Anyway, thanks. Without you, then the whole night could have ended in disaster before its really begun.”

We walked in silence for the remainder of the way.

Brutus worried me slightly. It was painfully obvious to me that Gilda and I had hardly portrayed the most professional of operations so far that night. Indeed, if I was in his position I wouldn’t have hung around. However, the griffon had not expressed even a hint of doubt, and that meant one of two things. The first was that he was an idiot, though after the way that he had manipulated my argument with Gilda, that did not seem likely. The other made for a far more interesting prospect, that he was fiercely loyal. If that was indeed the case, then the potential for him to a great boon to the revolution was present. However, the one issue with his loyalty was that it masked from me his true opinions on what I was preaching.

“Take it slow from here,” I heard Gilda’s voice drift over to both of us, breaking me away from my thoughts. “The square in front of the school is just around the corner.”

“Damn it,” Gilda cursed, ducking back from the corner.

“What’s the problem?” Brutus asked calmly, not betraying a hint of nervousness or worry at the unknown turn of events.

“The Lunar Guard are on duty.”