“Enchanted balloons?” I snorted.

“Yeah,” Synchro hence, still sore like the rest of us from our laughing fits. “Here, in the base of the balloon, you see this wire?” He pointed his hoof to just the faintest line of copper. “It was enchanted, probably keeping the laughter spell for if the balloon broke.”

“Huh,” It didn’t really matter to me, but I guess it’d be good to know if Sandy had any more of those balloons. “I wonder why they’d make them like that.” I turned to Caltrop, who looked like he was staring off up at Flint’s villa with a blank expression. “Where did you two even find these?” I asked him, watching as it seemed like none of my words even registered. “Caltrop?” Still, his gaze was unchanged. “Equis to Caltrop…?”

It took waving my hoof in front of his muzzle to snap him out of his trance.

“Ah!” He flailed his forehooves at me. “Da hell!” From the way he scrunched up his face, I think his brain was struggling to come back to the real world. “I thought I saw somethin’ weird in da window…”

“That’s nice, but I asked you a question.” Seriously, this is the stallion I fell in love with? “You know what, nevermind.” I sighed before looking back to Synchro. “How long until you can get my legs up and running again?”

“It won’t be tonight,” He spoke with a smile. For a moment, there was an awkward pause from him. “I mean, not because of me coming to your room.” He scrambled to recover and honestly it only made it seem more awkward. “Because that’s not what I’m all about, you know?” He cleared his throat. “The legs need a major overhaul. Best I can do for you is tomorrow morning.”

“Alright.” I sighed and scooted myself back toward Caltrop. “Mind heading up with me to see Flint? I need to discuss what happened with him.”

“Sure.” Caltrop’s expression turned to worry as he quickly got to his hooves. “Sandy, yah stay here an’ keep synchro company, alright?” Without a thought, he turned around and started to trot out.

“Okay!” Sandy gasped excitedly. “We’re going to have so much fun while you’re gone!” With a delighted squeal, she zipped over to one of the junk piles and immediately started to climb up it.

“Yeah, you go on ahead. I’ll meet you up there.” I sighed out and scooted myself along the floor. The metal caps on my hind legs scraped across the floor noisily.

“Shit!” Caltrop hissed and turned around, his cheeks blazing from embarrassment. “Sorry. Let me help yah out.” He trotted back, turned around, and quickly lined himself up in front me. Carefully, he lowered himself down to the floor. “Just climb on an’ I’ll take yah up there.”

Not exactly enjoying the prospect of riding Caltrop around all night, I thought about telling him to take me back home to get my wheelchair. No. If I went home, I’d probably flop onto the bed and not move again until tomorrow. Best to get this done now.

“Bet it’s not the first time you’ve been mounted from behind.” I muttered under my breath, pulling myself up onto his back.

“Yer damn right it ain’t!” He cast a sly look back at me. “How do yah think I got ta be so good with yah in bed?” That was something we didn’t need to share in public! Goddesses my cheeks felt like they were on fire. “Gotta learn from experience.”

“Wow.” Synchro grunted as he turned to get down to working on my legs. “Did not need to know that.”

“What? Don’t knock it till yah try it!” Caltrop called back as he started to walk us out of the old barn. “Besides, might get whatever it is yah got so far up yah ass...”

I smacked Caltrop in the side with my forehoof hard enough that he whimpered.

“You boys play nice.” I snapped at him. The last thing I needed was another argument to spark a duel between them again. “Besides, I’m still angry at you for that shit you pulled.”

“But…!” Caltrop whined as we walked.

“Don’t give me that.” With another, softer hit, I shut him up again. “We have enough shit going down that I don’t need you screwing around.” He let out a soft whimper. “Look, things are… in motion right now, and I’d really love it if you could just keep focused for me.” With those words, he stopped and sharply looked back with his worried gaze. “Not here, not now. Like I said, we’ll talk tonight.”

“Is dat why…?” He began to speak again. With a lurch forward, I pressed into a kiss. I didn’t really want to hit him to shut him up again, and his muzzle was close enough.

“No more talk.” I sighed as I broke the kiss. “Not even when inside, alright?” I think my sudden switch from abuse to affection broke him so much that he simply nodded. “Good.”

After a few short steps, Caltrop seemed to have collected himself and continued. We walked along the dirt path toward Flint’s Villa, the gravel crunching under Caltrop’s hooves the only sound in the Valley. It was an odd thing. Normally there’s the sound of the slaves in the vineyards, but today it was oddly silent. The sensation left me on edge as we continued.

Getting up to the Villa’s courtyard yielded an even odder sight. The normally well staffed exterior was barren of both furniture and ponies. All except one at the entrance however.

As we approached, the first semblance of sound came back. A heavy thumping and delighted giggling came through the door of the Villa. Propped up against said door was Brushfire, seemingly relaxing as she smoked a cigarette. Seeing a cripple riding another pony must have been funny, because she failed to stifle a laugh as we approached her.

“Shit, you finally made it back.” Brushfire chuckled and shook her head. “Didn’t happen to grab anything off that pony I cooked, did you?” Her smile dropped as she spoke, and it took me a moment to realize that she was being completely serious. “No? Not even a rib or anything?”

“No. I’m here to talk to Flint.” I spoke flatly. “Can I just go in, or...?”

“Nah.” She grunted as she pushed herself up from the door. She curled her lip around the nubbin of her smoke and pulled it into her muzzle, chewing on the still burning smoke without a care. Then to my horrified amazement, she swallowed it. “He’s a bit busy at the moment.”

I kicked at Caltrop with one of my stumps. “Yeah, Null’s death is probably more important than whatever he’s doing.” He took a hesitant step forward. Oh please don’t tell me he’s intimidated by a mare like Brushfire.

“Your funeral.” She stepped out of the way. “Be my guest, but don’t say I didn’t warn you.” With her out of the way, Caltrop walked toward the doors.

I reached out with my magic and gripped the handles. The giggling inside had turned to a chorus of grunts and moans, making sure I’d become painfully aware of what Flint was doing in there. Knowing that I’d be interrupting somepony as loathsome as Flint actually made me a bit happy. With a flick of my magic, I opened the doors.

Both Caltrop and I sat staring at something we didn’t expect.

Stopping abruptly, Flint’s steely gaze shot over to us. “Do you mind?” He panted heavily, arched over the well used and pleasure-drunk form of Dykem. With the way that the furniture was displaced from the room, the endtable they were propped on wasn’t the first object they’d used. “Unless you intend to join us, I suggest you shut the damn door!” He finally roared out.

With as much haste as I could, I slammed the doors shut.

“I think I’m goin’ ta be sick.” Caltrop shuddered under me. He put a forehoof up to his eyes and started to rub them furiously. “Gah! I can’t unsee it!” For the first time since I’d met him, he let out a whimper that I actually thought was appropriate for the situation. “I knew I saw somethin’ weird goin’ on up here…”

“Well, Dykem told you she needed to earn her favors.” Brushfire sighed with a shrug. “Also, you might want to look into spending a night. It’s a good amount of favors if you can get him to enjoy it as much as you do.”

“Caltrop,” I closed my eyes and let out a deeply disappointed breath. “let’s go home.”

Seriously. Dykem may have had her cutie mark, but she is definitely too young to be doing that. In a turn that nopony didn’t see coming, I was even more wrong with my initial impressions of Flint. The house he lived in might’ve been exquisite, and the forces he commanded impressive. Underneath it all, he was just as deplorable and disgusting as any other asshole out there in the wastes.

As much as I didn’t want to work with them, Mom and Storm’s group couldn’t get here fast enough.

Sandy giggled as she splashed around in the tub. For being someone who’s born to dig, her coat surprisingly doesn’t ever get that dirty. Still, I scrubbed at her diligently with the old brush that I’d found in the cabinet. The more I cleaned her, the more I found myself getting angry. How could Flint have done that? How could he take advantage of a pony like that, even just a filly for Celestia’s sake!

“Ouch!” Sandy yipped as the brush caught in her fur. It was probably reflexive, but she turned and snatched the brush out of my magic. Even with as small as her claws were, she easily rended the old wooden handle in half. The two pieces floated in my magic, and we both became still.

“Sorry.” I sighed out as I looked down at her. Her bright pink eyes looked up at me weighed heavily with concern.

“I… I didn’t mean to.” Sandy spoke with a whine, drooping down into the water. She shut her eyes tightly and let out a whimper. “Daddy always told me that I should know better than to snap like that.” With a sniffle, tears started to stream down her cheeks.

“I don’t blame you, Sandy.” I reached my hoof up to pat her. “Reflexes like that will save your life out in the wasteland…”

“NO! Stay away from me!” She screamed and pushed herself away from me. Faster than I could even react, she’d scrambled out of the tub and gotten herself pressed up against the wall opposite me. From where she’d pulled herself out, long scouring gouges had been left in the porcelain tub. “Don’t you see? All I do is hurt and break things!”

“It was just a brush, Sandy.” I tried to offer a comforting smile. From the way she simply stared, I knew it had happened.

There comes a point when every wastelander breaks. When the reality of what this life is like finally gets inside and sets in. You couldn’t outrun it, or out drink it, or kill it. One day, every thing you’ve ever done to survive hits you at once. The good, the bad, all piled up as one big pile of regret that makes you wonder why you even carry on. Some ponies reach that point and work to change who they are, ponies like me just learn to live with it.

Then, there are the ones who break. The ones who realized that this life really wasn’t worth living in the old ways. For them, they see the wasteland not as a blight, but as something to be revered, even emulated. Ponies like that are where raiders come from.

The eyes that looked back at me weren’t the innocent eyes she’d had when I met her in that bank vault. Sandy had killed, both in the name of survival and at the command of her so called friends who more often than not have almost gotten her killed as well. She’d seen so much since leaving all she’d ever known, and almost none of it had been good.

“I can’t hurt anyone anymore.” She whined out again, shrinking down against the wall. “Why do I have to? Why does everyone out here in this stupid place want to hurt other ponies!?”

“Things… aren’t that simple, Sandy.” This wasn’t a conversation I was ready to have. This is something her parents should be talking to her about, like my mother did. Thanks to me, Sandy didn’t have a family to go back to. I may not have directly caused it, but if she’d just gone back down in her hole and not saved me, things might be better off for her.

“Liar! I don’t believe you!” She snapped at me. “You were nice to me! Caltrop was nice to me! Even Bluejay was nice!” She crossed her arms tightly across her chest and shook her head. “But all anypony else wants me to do is hurt others, saying that I did the right thing.” Opening her teary eyes, she cast a judgemental gaze at me. “Tell me why they have to be so mean all the time and why I have to be mean too.”

Sitting back against the tub, I looked down at my metal capped stumps. I tried my best to remember what mom had told me the day that my break happened to me. It’s hard to remember what the day was like, or what I’d done up to that point. But mom was there for me when it happened, and that’s what I remembered the most about it.

“When I was just a little filly,” I started off slowly, “the world was this vast and enormously big place to me.” Thinking about about how stupid it sounds years later made a small smile creep across my face. “And you know what it was?” I looked up to Sandy again. Slowly, she shook her head. “Scary, and dark, and full of monsters.”

“One night,” I grunted as I tried to get comfortable against the still warm tub. “my mother told me that it was every bit as bad as it looked out there.” Funny how even though I hadn’t thought about that conversation since then, I could remember how warm she felt as I held her tight. “But, she told me that there was a secret weapon, one which would protect me from all the scary things that I’d find out here.”

“W-what was it?” She sniffled as she relaxed a bit, lifting her paws up to wipe the tears from her eyes.

Looking back, I wanted to beat the shit out of myself for not listening for all those years. “It was love.” Even though it had helped to get me through my break, I’d never believed her. Her love hadn’t ever helped protect me from any bullets or blades that found me through the years. It wasn’t until now that I finally realize that I was looking at it all wrong.

“Love?” Sandy quivered. “How can love protect me? It’s not real.”

“Sure it is.” I gave a small chuckle, drawing an even more perplexed look from her. “Let me ask you this, why are you hiding in the corner?”

“So I can’t hurt you!” She snapped sternly.

“But you don’t get up and hide in the corner of the room from everyone, do you?” I asked softly. “Love is a funny and surprising thing. I made the same mistake when my mother told me about it as a weapon.” I’ve just been too stubborn to sit down and think about it for once. “It’s not something she could use for me, but something I had to use through her.”

“Huh?” Sandy squeaked.

“Sometimes we can do extraordinarily great things for the ones we love...” I felt my voice leave me as I thought about everything I’d been through with Caltrop. Pulling a twisted shotgun barrel from his neck and using our only real medicine to save him rather than to heal me. Spending days in a solitary heatbath, just to wait for the right moment to fight my way to him. “to save them, you’re as invincible as a tank, and as powerful as a locomotive.” Agreeing to sell him and myself into glorified Slavery… “Not everything you do is good, or nice, and sometimes ponies get hurt. But because you love them, you can do anything to make sure they’re alright.”

“Do… do you love me?” Sandy spoke softly, leaning forward off the wall.

“Of course.” The cold tingle of water ran down my forehoof, prompting me to look down. “You and Caltrop? You’re all I’ve got in the world.” My own tears dripped down my muzzle as I did, surprising me.

“And… and I love you too!” Sandy sniffled and shot across the floor. In a blue blur, she’d slammed into me and embraced me in a wet, warm hug. “I’m sorry if I hurt you, PC.”

“You could never hurt me, Sandy.” Softly I curled my hoof around her and pulled her closer. “I’m no hellhound, but I’m not going to give up on you. Not for one moment.”

It had been a sharp turnaround to have come home from what I’d seen to this, but sitting here on the floor in her embrace? This was something that felt good. For all those years that Storm had tried to tell me, that mother had tried to teach me, I think I finally had a grasp on what love was in all of it’s forms.

A soft squeak of the floorboards outside the bathroom door perked my ears. A quick rasping knock followed. “Yah alright?” Caltrop’s worried voice waivered as he spoke through the door.

“Yeah, we’re fine.” Maybe for the first time in a while, I actually meant that, and that had me smiling wider than anything. Sure, I loved Caltrop, but this wasn’t the same. I loved Sandy like my mother, like I loved Storm, even if she got on my nerves. They were all my family, I got that now.

Slowly, that smile faded. While I now realized how love was an effective weapon, I did see a flaw in my mothers words. It didn’t make the wasteland any less scary to me. In fact, it was just as dark and scary as it had been all those years ago. I’m sure she simply told me to help me through everything, but I see now that fear is necessary for love to work. Without it, I’d slip back to being as cold and ruthless as Flint or any of his hunters.

I gave Sandy a few pats on the back as we sat there together. I’d made a lot of hard, and mostly bad choices to make sure that they were safe. Soon, I’d have to do it again in deciding how to deal with Flint. It scared me to death to think that I might have gone through everything just to lose them, but so long as they loved me like I loved them, we would be unstoppable.

Even so, it never hurts to have a few extra helping hooves…

With Sandy seeming a bit more stable for the moment, I’d gotten myself strapped back into my rusty old wheel chair. I had to say, the entire month that I’d struggled and worked at walking again had been worth it. Thirty seconds with this thing chafing me again and I was already regretting using it again. I couldn’t let it get to me though. Flint needed a convincing story, and I had to give him one.

“So, what are yah goin ta tell him?” Caltrop sighed, almost dragging his hooves through the gravel up toward Flint’s villa.

“Exactly what happened.” I didn’t exactly know why Caltrop had left with me, nor why he looked like he was being such a sad-sack. Seriously, he hadn’t even looked me in the eye since I came out of the bathroom with Sandy. “Is… everything alright?”

“Yeah.” He lied. “Actually…” here it comes, “I’m thinkin’ you aren’t.”

“What?” That wasn’t something I’d expected him to say. “What makes you say that?” I was a double amputee bounty hunter trying to set her employer up for death so she could live a life of peace with those she called family. Yeah, I’m so very far from alright.

“Yah go off ta talk with Synchro, and next thin’ I knew, yah were gone an I was supposed ta go with dat filly and Sandy somewhere.” He grumbled. “And den we don’t hear from yah fer days, only tah have yah come back lookin like hell.” Clamping his eyes shut, he stopped walking. “Worst of all, is yah haven’t even said a word about it. Yah been actin like nothin was even wrong with dat!”

“Caltrop,” I didn’t want to do this now. “I wanted to explain, but…”

“No.” He grunted and ground his forehooves into the gravel. “I thought yah were dead again, PC.” Looking at me, he raised his voice. “Yah can’t just be fine with dis! I can’t sit around wonderin’ if the mare I love is ever gonna come home again!”

It hurt for me to have to do, but I wheeled myself right up to him and gave him a hard smack across the muzzle. He gasped and looked like I’d just told him to get lost, slowly raising his hoof to his cheek.

“You fucking asshole.” I muttered. “I trusted you to hold yourself together in the prison until I could get there. I trusted you to move on when you thought I was dead.” I pointed my hoof up to the Villa. “I trusted you to keep Sandy safe when I was gone on that job.”

“And I did, didn’t I?” He snapped back at me, rousing another smack to his muzzle.

“So why don’t you fucking trust me?” I get why he’s upset, and I would and have done everything in my power to make sure Sandy and him are alright. “It’s alright to be angry with me for the shit that I’ve pulled, but don’t you ever assume that I’d just leave you two behind.” He shifted his gaze to the dirt, so I gave him another smack. “Look at me, Caltrop.”

“PC…” His voice had fallen down to almost a whisper.

I leaned up to his head and grunted. “Do you trust me?”

“I love...” He began to speak.

Interrupting him, I use my magic to force his muzzle and eyes up to me. “It’s a yes or no question, Caltrop.” Even though he’d dropped the anger in his voice, I could see the pain of it burning in his eyes. “Do. You. Trust. Me?”

For once, he simply answered something with, “Yes.”

“Good.” I muttered as I pulled myself back around. “Then keep quiet when I’m talking to Flint. Not a word. Do you understand me?”

“Yes.” Was all I got again.

It was good enough for me as we walked up and back toward the front of the Villa. The whole place was still oddly unstaffed on the outside, and it made me feel even more uneasy than I had before. Thankfully, Brushfire was absent, as were the degrading noises coming through the walls. Figuring that we’d just let ourselves in, I used my magic to grab the door handles and twist them.

The foyer that had been excessively ‘used’ earlier, was once again spotless. Not a single piece of furniture was out of place. Evidently, the staff had been around, but even inside were now completely out of sight. Without anypony to tell us where to go, the two of us wandered in.

I thought I’d start with checking the dining room first. Upon entering, it too had been cleaned spotless. All of the fancy cutlery and silverware were kept away somewhere, and only the pristine tablecloth covered the exorbitant table. I guess the next place to check would have been Flint’s ‘study’ room. Somewhere in the back of my mind, I thought about other rooms in the house I’d been in and cringed at the thought of finding him in his bedroom.

With an arcane snap, Spectre flashed in front of the study’s door. She grunted as she lifted a hoof and started to undo the snow covered wrap on her head. Caltrop took a step forward, and cleared his throat. She gave a soft gasp as she realized we were here, before using her own magic to open the door and walk in.

“Ah, there you are!” Flint’s voice resonated out from the room. “Did you take care of…”

“Master Flint, you have guests.” She spoke quickly, interrupting him. “It is Miss Cap and her Stallion friend.”

“Ah, excellent!” He spoke up in excitement. “Don’t keep them waiting, tell them to come in.”

“As you wish.” She sighed before reappearing back in the hallway.

“Thanks, I got it.” I sneered at her, rolling myself over and in. The glare she gave me was like every other one before it, and to be honest, I just didn’t care anymore.

Flint was reclining in his plush chair, an open book laid across his chest. He wore a satin red robe around himself, and the softest of smiles for us as we entered, hiding behind the thin veneer of it. It may have been good enough to fool me the day he recruited me, but I could see his wretchedness all too clearly now. Still, I wore a smile to match his as I came in.

“I was hoping to speak with you about what happened.” I started, playing it as politely as I could. “I…”

He held a hoof up. “I gathered that your, shall we say, solo return means that we won’t be seeing dear Null again.” Even though he was still smiling, I could hear the frustration in his voice. “A pitty. He was one of my best hunters.” Readjusting, he let out a soft sigh. “But please, do regale me with the tale of how it all went so very wrong.”

I cringed at his emphasis, but I couldn’t break now. “We arrived at the point where you had specified and got ourselves set up for lookout. Null was adamant that we set up watching across the river, where he said they would come fr…”

“Again,” He interjected as he sat up. “Sorry, but am I to understand that you did not share his view on that matter?”

“I suggested that we watch the slopes behind us, to watch all possible directions they could approach us from.” At least I didn’t have to lie about that. “During our argument, I spotted somepony watching us from the far ridge. I was about to call it out when we were both rendered unconscious.”

“I see.” Flint nodded and held his forehoof up to his chin. For only a moment, his eyes swept over Caltrop and I. Thankfully, Caltrop had been keeping quiet like I’d asked. “Tell me, these ponies who took you… why did they take both of you in?” He chuckled. “I would assume that they would only need one of you alive.”

“I would assume that were one of us uncooperative, they could kill them and extract the information from the other.” I mean, that’s what I’d do if I were in their situation. “But they didn’t want information.”

Flint cringed and recoiled slightly at that. “I don’t...” he paused and scratched at the side of his head. His smile had dropped, and his muzzle twitched slightly as he spoke. “I don’t believe that.” Slowly, he pulled himself off his seat and got to his hooves. “My hunters are very carefully selected as you know, and I’m sure that they have been similarly informed. They must have known that you would rather die than give up anything about me.”

He froze stiff for a moment and twitched again. “Unless…” Turning slowly, his eyes locked onto my own. “unless they knew who you were.” Shit. Without breaking his gaze, he walked over towards one of the few walls that wasn’t completely lined with books. “Tell me, would this be the case? Could that be why you pleaded for me to spare the lives of your family?” It was an unlit fireplace, with a pair of old polished sabers hanging above the mantle. Sitting here like I was, I was defenseless if he decided to have me brought down. “You wouldn’t be so foolish to assume you could go behind my back, would you?”

“How dare yah say dat!” Caltrop spat at Flint loud enough that it threw him off his hoofing slightly.

“You…” Flint wore a horrified expression that quickly turned to rage. “You would accuse me of insolence?” His seething tone didn’t bode well for us, but it did halt his advance towards the wall. “You are mine, welp. I could have you killed just for insinuating that I could be at fault for anything.” Because that didn’t make him sound every bit the entitled asshole he was.

“Ain’t my words dat’s sayin’ it.” Caltrop really needed to shut his damn muzzle! “Yah said dat yah chose yah hunters carefully. At any time, did yah ever suspect she’d cross yah?” He walked towards Flint with even, steady hoofsteps. “She’s done all yah asked so far, sure she’s screwed it up a couple a times, but she’d done it all without question.”

As he stopped speaking, I took notice just how close he’d gotten to Flint. The realization hitting Flint was one like a ton of bricks, and he nearly tripped over himself to get away from Caltrop. If he’d had a knife, Flint wouldn’t even be alive right now.

“Y-you may be correct,” Flint stammered and tried to regain his composure, “however, that then begs the question of why they let you live.”

It would be harder to sell with him off balance like this, but I needed to sell the lies. “They tried to make a deal with me.” I kept my gaze pinned on him. “Red Eye is liquidating everypony he has working for him, starting with ponies like you.” Flipping him against Red Eye might buy us some time, but the lie won’t last long once he sends Spectre to check it out.

Flint growled and leaned toward me. “You lie.”

“I’m here, aren’t I?” I leaned toward him as well, standing as aggressively as this stupid fucking wheelchair would let me. “I agreed to the deal and shot my way out of there the second I got my hooves on a gun.” I let a small smile crawl across my lips. “But they’re coming for you, Flint. Red Eye is hiring everypony out there to come after you, and you know he has the capital to fund that.” I still didn’t get how he could even afford to run an operation like Filly, but I couldn’t give two shits so long as Flint believed that I knew what I was talking about.

“Why?” Flint simply asked, his assholeish smirk gracing his muzzle once again.

“I didn’t ask, I was too busy ripping their throats out.” Okay, I’d gotten my lie out there, and it was time to kill this conversation before he could poke any more holes in it. “For being so ‘well informed’, you’re too busy accusing the wrong ponies of going behind your back to notice what’s really going on.”

He snorted and stood up straight. Without another word, he stomped around past Caltrop and flopped back into his plush chair. I shot a glance over to Caltrop, who flashed me a worried look before walking back over to me. With a few squeaks from the seat, Flint seemed to get comfortable again. Carefully, he reached over and picked up the book he’d had and opened it, flipping through the pages with his forehoof.

“The tale you’ve spun is quite the story.” Flint muttered as he looked down at one of the pages. “But, if it is at all based in truth, I will see you rewarded for your steadfastness in the face of what will most certainly prove to be a difficult adversary to overcome.” He nodded to himself and lazily waved a hoof at us. “Take your leave of me for the evening, so that I might reflect on our conversation.” He looked up at the two of us for only a moment. “You both shall return to me in the morning for your next task.”

“Yes, Master Flint.” I grunted and gave a halfassed salute with my forehoof. Both Caltrop and I turned and left his room, walking silently down the halls back toward the foyer we entered through. Waiting inside, were the judgemental eyes of Spectre, simply watching as we walked by again.

Leaving the Villa, my heart was racing at a million beats per minute. As soon as the ornate doors behind us shut with a click, I felt like my forelegs were about to give out from under me. Caltrop must have taken notice, because he was warmly holding me up in a flash.

“Come on, lets get back home.” He whispered softly in my ear as he lead us back down the gravel walkway. For most of the walk home, I pressed myself against him and took comfort in the fact that he was here with me. We were now dug in deeper than he’d ever have wanted to be, yet he stayed by my side like nopony else I’d ever known.

Entering into the hallway of our building, the short purple form of Synchro stood in front of our door. As we approached, his dumb smile was replaced with one of concern.

“Is everything alright?” He spoke up in a tone that made him sound genuinely concerned. With how I’d seen him the whole time I’ve been here, this side of him was going to take some getting used too.

I’d pulled myself off of Caltrop and took to walking myself to the door. Reaching out with my magic, I swung it open, receiving a happy gasp from Sandy inside. Without saying anything, I wrapped my magic around Synchro and pushed him inside.

“Hey! What the hell!” He squirmed and flailed his legs. “I can walk, you know?”

Caltrop and I followed him in, and I shut the door behind us. “Synchro, take a seat.” I turned my attention to Sandy and Caltrop. “You two as well. We need to have a talk about what really happened with Null.” The mere mention of it made Synchro turn white, Caltrop smirk, and Sandy cant her head to the side in confusion.

“Did… you lie to Flint?” Synchro gasped, seemingly horrified at the comment. “Y-you can’t do that!”

“I can do more than just lie to him. We, can do more.” I sighed and closed my eyes. “Speaking of that, let’s talk about how we’re going to help my family kill Flint.”

With that, Synchro sighed and fainted with a heavy thud.