“…and spell matrices are very important for enchanting objects, especially gemstone prisms that could be used to amplify or otherwise modify the effects of an arcane spell focused through one of the faces of the prism itself.” With a gentle tap, a ruby prism was set onto the desk in front of Diadem’s eyes. The light-green aura enveloping it disappeared as Clover turned back to her chalkboard and began touching up some of her many, many diagrams strewn across its surface.

The filly sitting at her desk groaned and leaned back in her seat. “Clover...” she whined, trying to keep her hooves still and not fidget, “I already know this stuff! This is, like, the third time this month we’ve talked about spell matrices!”

Clover sighed and turned to her apprentice, shaking her head. “Only because this ‘stuff’ is important, Diadem. One day you’re going to be Equestria’s Archmage, and you need to make sure you have all the basics under your horn.”

“Then let me try it!” Diadem exclaimed, nearly flipping her desk over as she pushed herself away from it. With four little clops, the filly sprung to her hooves and trotted up to her mentor. “All this book-talk stuff is so boring! There’s only so much that I can learn from reading about spells; I want to learn by doing!”

Equestria’s second-ranking archmage glanced forlornly at her notes. With a little sigh and a small smile, she put her chalk down and collected the gemstones from the desk. “Alright, alright. Come on,” she said, motioning towards the door with her horn. “Let’s get some hooves-on experience.”

“Woohoo!” Diadem exclaimed, rushing out of the door ahead of Clover. “Thaaaaaaannnnk yooooooooooooooooooouuuuuuuuu!”

“Hehe… you’re welcome,” Clover chuckled. Closing the study room behind her, she and Diadem made the short walk across the hall to the lab. Once inside, the archmage’s magic swept a clearing on the desk, pushing papers and other assorted magical supplies into a corner. Then, with a flourish of her Arcana, Clover neatly placed four objects on the desk in front of Diadem; a cut diamond, a small bar of gold, a white rectangle of cumulus skysteel set within a ring of normal iron, and the black and jagged shape of a small void crystal.

“Now, before we begin, we need to understand what each of these are used for,” Clover said, moving to the opposite side of the desk as Diadem. The little filly rocked back and forth on her hooves, eager to begin. Clover’s horn lit in a wash of light-green, and she picked up the diamond and held it between the two of them. “Now, Diadem, what is diamond used for?”

“Diamond is used primarily for storing excessive amounts of unicorn Arcana. While it lacks the rapid absorption properties of sapphires, the dissipation of emeralds, or the focusing effects of rubies, diamonds nevertheless can hold the largest amount of Arcana per unit size of all the gemstones, with minimal energy lost.” The filly opened her eyes after reciting the textbook definition, looking to Clover for approval. With a curt nod, Clover set the diamond back down on the table. “Right. And tell me, if sapphires absorb Arcana faster than diamonds, why didn’t the Diamond Guard wear armor plated with sapphires instead?”

“Well for one thing, they wouldn’t be called the Diamond Guard then,” Diadem gaily joked. At the little twinge of Clover’s lips, the filly relaxed and gave her actual answer. “Sapphires are easy to overload with excessive Arcana exposure. Fill ‘em with too much mana and they go… well, kersplodey.”

The archmage smiled. “Good! Also, don’t forget that the energy the diamonds collect can be accessed by the unicorn himself by drawing it from his armor directly to his horn, so that he can cast more spells at a greater power than if he weren’t wearing armor at all.” Pulling a shard of emerald from her pocket, she examined it closely. “Emeralds are actually the best at providing that boost of mana, or a Nova Surge as the soldiers like to call it. But again, they don’t absorb mana efficiently, making them next to useless in negated spells.”

Then her magic wrapped around the piece of gold, and she tilted it towards Diadem. “Now, gold, silver, copper, and steel. What are they good for?”

“Well, gold and the other metals are good at absorbing the different types of Empatha,” Diadem answered with confidence. “Gold absorbs fire, silver absorbs ice, copper absorbs air, and steel deadens earth.”

Again, Clover smiled, filling with pride that her student was actually learning from her lessons. “Correct! That’s why, for example, the pegasi in the Legion like to trim their armors with gold. We all know that fire Empatha is the most commonly weaponized of the pegasus magics, and such it only makes sense to add some sort of protection against it.” Then her hooves moved to the cumulus skysteel, and her magic carefully wrapped around the iron ring without touching the skysteel itself. “And skysteel? Specifically, cumulus.”

This one stumped Diadem for a few moments. “Isn’t it… isn’t it used to protect ponies against Empatha as well?”

“That’s right. While the earth metals are good at absorbing specific kinds of Empatha, and unicorn Arcana to an extent, cumulus skysteel can absorb nearly a hundred percent of the Empatha thrown at it in a short amount of time. That’s why modern legionary armor has an interior shell of the stuff; it makes it nearly impossible for a pegasus to use their Empatha on an Equestrian legionary.” Pulling out another stick of cumulus skysteel with a hoof, she set it down on the table. “Now, what will happen if I tried to pick this up with my magic?”

Diadem examined the cumulus skysteel, even going so far as to poke it with a hoof. “It’ll like, crumble and stuff?”

Clover’s horn sparked to life, and her Arcana wrapped around the piece of skysteel. Before she could even move it off of the desk, the metal released a hiss of steam and broke into tiny fragments. Turning off her horn, Clover leaned back and pointed to the pieces of skysteel, which were turning back into clouds as wispy trails of condensation bled off of them. “Yes. Nopony’s really sure why it is—not even the pegasi themselves know—but cumulus skysteel and unicorn magic do not mix well. That’s why the Legion puts the skysteel plates on the inside of their armor, not the outside. They’d break apart at the first touch of a unicorn’s Arcana.”

Brushing aside the withering pieces of skysteel with her hoof, Clover then grabbed a pair of forceps in her magic and lifted the last object into the air. “Now, void crystals. You’re more than familiar with these.”

Diadem vigorously nodded, then twitched and rubbed a phantom pain in her horn. “Ugh… yeah. Tell me about it.”

“At least you weren’t there long enough to suffer permanent damage to your horn,” Clover said, smiling supportively from across the table. “Now, void crystals absorb any and all mana. That’s why they’re so painful to simply touch; they’re actually ripping the mana that keeps your body alive from your skin. After a while, you lose the ability to do magic. In extreme cases, you’ll eventually be ‘bled dry’ as far as mana is concerned. The effects are not unlike the Scourge.”

The filly shuddered at the name, immediately recalling Queen Platinum’s lost foal. “Yeah, but they hardly bother me ‘cause I got so much mana.”

“Indeed, and as you demonstrated back in Onyx Ridge, void crystals do have an upper limit to the amount of mana they can consume at one time. Unlike Diamond Fyre, for instance, they cannot hold a nearly infinite sum of mana; but also unlike Diamond Fyre, they consume mana over time and can be refilled. They’re voracious mana sponges, and that’s why Commander Hurricane’s armor is so effective; it literally redirects spells away from the unarmored parts of his body and consumes the mana so that they never affect him.”

Diadem looked at the chunk of black stone and rubbed a hoof to her chin. “Void crystal isn’t strong, but could it be supported with skysteel?”

Clover blinked and gently set the hissing stone back onto the table. “I suppose a good smith would be able to work it into the steel. Theoretically, they would simply have to lay the crystals in a mold and pour the skysteel into it so that it hardens around them and the two substances bond to each other… why?”

“I mean, if a smith could do that, why not forge it into a sword?” Diadem asked. “Like, a normal skysteel sword, but the spine’s made out of void crystal?”

“I… suppose one could do that,” Clover began, her voice concerned. “Why a legionary would ever want a weapon like that is beyond me, though. It’s not only dangerous to the enemy, but to themselves as well.” She looked at the void crystal again and visibly winced, remembering the pain and exhaustion that accompanied even superficial contact with the void rings Warlord Halite used in Onyx Ridge five years ago. “Besides, it’d be incredibly painful and anything but humane.”

“Yeah, but just one slash and you put an enemy soldiers out of a fight!” Diadem exclaimed. Her horn wrapped itself in an aqua glow and she scooped up the void crystal with her magic. “Even if you hardly scratch them, it’d hurt so bad that they can’t do anything but fall over and cry! Then, like, the Legion wouldn’t have to kill them all the time! Plus, it’ll save Equestrian lives, and it’s nonlethal!”

Clover looked at the ringing crystal thoughtfully. “Hmm… well, I suppose you’re right. However, that has its own dangers too. For example, if a void crystal becomes lodged in a pony’s bone marrow, they lose the ability to perform any kind of magic, and the effects are permanent.” Then she cocked her head and pinned her student under her gaze. “And just what gave you this bright idea, anyway?”

Diadem fidgeted. “Well, I was just watching the legionaries train outside… and then the whole thing with Commander Typhoon happened… and you and Star Swirl gave me that void crystal project that I’m supposed to work on as soon as we get more crystals…” She looked at her mentor and sheepishly smiled. “So I guess things just kinda fell into place?”

“Right, right,” Clover muttered, shaking her head. “As… brilliant of an idea as that is, actually, you know that Equestria doesn’t have any void crystals of our own. Everything we get comes from Jade and the Crystal Union. But the way things have been going between our two nations lately, I doubt we’ll see any more of the stones for the next while. And besides,” she added, fixing Diadem with a motherly stare, “just who exactly was going to get the first one of these swords, again?”

Diadem blushed and shifted uncomfortably behind the desk.

Clover sighed, but the corners of her mouth twitched upwards. “Of course, of course. Now, Diadem, while there’s nothing wrong in wanting a sword, it’s a soldier’s or a noble’s weapon. And I emphasize weapon because it isn’t a toy.” The cone of her horn glowed in its green light, and she dropped a heavy and dusty tome on the table and carefully undid the buckle holding it shut. “Now, you’re going to be an archmage someday, and if you’ve noticed from observing Star Swirl and myself, we don’t carry swords. Sure, they can be incredibly useful to unicorns like us, but there simply isn’t an alternative for having the perfect spell at your disposal, no matter what the situation calls for.” Opening the book at random, she let it flop open in front of her student, and again her Arcana washed over the pages to spin it around.

The filly, at first intimidated by the massive tome, mustered enough courage to peek at its pages. Her magic gently grasped the pages by the corners, and she slowly sifted through it, squinting at the flowing, but oftentimes scratchy, writing within. Numerous diagrams decorated the pages, and these were often accompanied by crude illustrations etched out with a fine set of quills. Decorating the margins were notes in a half-dozen different hoofwritings, some with arrows pointing to underlined texts, others amending a previous author’s contributions and scratching out entire passages of writing.

“What… what is this?” Diadem asked with an almost reverent whisper. While she might have been a young and energetic filly, she knew that what she had in front of her was something truly fantastic and precious, and that importance was not lost on her.

“This is the Tourmaline Grimoire,” Clover began, flipping the pages back to the beginning cover. Blowing off a layer of dust from the first sheets, Diadem could see a faded signature set inside the front cover. On the opposite page were dozens of other, newer signatures, the ink darkening with each one in what she realized was a chronological order. “Every archmage of the Diamond Kingdom has protected and learned from this book, all the way back to the first archmage of the Kingdom, Grand Magus Tourmaline himself.”

“One of the Wise Five?” Diadem asked, somewhat incredulous. “Grand Magus Tourmaline wrote this book?”

Clover nodded. “Yes, he wrote the first hundred pages or so. He filled it with all sorts of spells that a lot of us mages simply take for granted these days. But that’s not all.” Paging through the book, Diadem could see the writing change in style and size every hundred pages or so. “Every archmage since the Grand Magus has contributed to the Grimoire. And, as new archmages try new things, sometimes old spells are modified and rewritten so they’re more efficient or more powerful. Of course, some archmages’ contributions to the book are short, but others…” her voice trailed off as she spanned a rather lengthy section filled with the familiar writing of Star Swirl the Bearded, “Others’ contributions can be quite extensive.”

“Wow…” Diadem whispered, her eyes growing larger and larger by the moment. “You mean one day, I’ll get to write in that?” At Clover’s nod, her eyes widened even more. “Awesome! Have you written in it?”

“A little,” Clover humbly acknowledged, yet a proud smile was on her face nonetheless. Her magic flipped through the last of Star Swirl’s notes—some hundred pages in all, Diadem figured—until it came to a fresh set of pages written in crisp, flowing writing, accompanied by neat sketches, graphs, diagrams, and ever shrinking footnotes littering the bottom of the page. “I’ve barely written two dozen pages in the past five years, covering all of my conclusions from my void crystal experiments to the advanced properties of gemstone matrices.”

“Cool!” Diadem exclaimed, welling with pride for her teacher. “I bet you’ll write a hundred pages before you give it to me!”

Clover chuckled. “Well, one can only hope.” Then she flipped to a page depicting the alchemical structures of various gemstones with prim annotations along the edges. “Now, let’s get to work, shall we?” she asked, picking up a ruby before Diadem could answer her question. “Now, we know rubies are the best gemstone for focusing spells. This is because the corundum that they’re comprised of is incredibly rigid and beautifully structured. It gives us an excellent frame for making a spell matrix.”

Her horn pulsated with an intense light, and the ruby in her telekinetic grasp began to glimmer. Before Diadem’s eyes, the gemstone seemed to vibrate and skew itself, narrowing its diameter and stretching towards either end. When the alignment was finished, Clover carefully set the gem on the table and took her magic away from it. Even then, the gemstone still glowed with a faint light.

“Awesome…” Diadem whispered, bending down to take a closer look at the stone. “Why’d it change like that? And why’s it still glowing?”

Clover placed a hoof on a diagram in the Grimoire. “Well, first off, I was optimizing the alignment of the gem’s natural matrix so I could fit my own spell matrix into it. It increases the efficiency of cast spells and amplifies their power. Basically, you can spend less mana to cast a more powerful spell. Second,” she said, her horn catching the gemstone and causing it to glow brighter, “the ruby is so optimized that it can pull ambient mana out of the air and funnel it from one end of the gem to the other. This is how we make manalights, although we tend to use diamonds for those because the light they provide is clearer than the red light of this ruby.”

Then she held out the ruby to Diadem. “Now, take this.” Wordlessly, the filly complied, and Clover gestured for her to follow to the window. “Okay, Diadem. What’s the heaviest thing you can lift in your telekinesis?”

Diadem frowned for a moment. “One of the wagons loaded with iron ingots that Echo Wing gets from time to time?”

Clover blinked, surprise momentarily flashing across her face. “Oh? Wow, that’s impressive.” She reached out and tousled Diadem’s mane with a hoof, eliciting a lighthearted giggle from the filly. “Okay, so that’s… what, about six, seven hundred pounds, fully loaded?”

“Yeah. It’s really heavy, but I can get it a few inches off the ground and make it stay there.”

“Another reason why I wished my mana pool was as large as yours,” Clover commented, changing Diadem’s cheeks to a crimson hue. “You may not be the strongest caster I know, but Sun and Stars do you have the mana to sustain, so much so that it doesn’t even matter.” Eyeing around the courtyard outside the window, Clover spotted two wagons sitting side by side. “Okay, Diadem, here’s your test. I want you to lift those and bring them across the courtyard.”

Diadem balked. “Uh… that’s way too heavy. It has to be like, a thousand pounds put together!”

A coy smile spread across Clover’s face, and she moved the ruby focus into Diadem’s vision. “Normally yes, but instead of casting the spell directly onto the carts, channel it through your matrix first.”

The aqua filly looked at the matrix, then the carts, then to Clover. “How?”

“Simple,” Clover said, momentarily taking the focus from Diadem. “Cast your levitation on the focus, but instead of trying to lift the focus itself, push your spell through it, from one end to the other. You make sure the other end is aimed towards what you’re trying to lift, and then you try to grab it as you normally would. Watch.”

Clover’s luminous horn shed a green glow on the stone walls around the window, and the interior of the gem also picked up a limey color. Across the courtyard, Diadem saw the two wagons begin to shimmer in the green aura of Clover’s Arcana, but the magic itself looked… different. Instead of a sparkling wash of solid green glow, the telekinesis field pulsated and flickered, and jagged white lines swirled and dashed across the aura in random patterns. With barely the slightest show of effort, Clover lifted both wagons off the ground, levitated them fifty feet into the air, and then just as gently set them back on the ground again. With a small smile, Clover passed the focus back to the incredulous filly at her side. “Now you try.”

Already Diadem’s heart was racing with anticipation. What she had seen exhilarated her. It was so cool! If she had foci like these all the time, the combination of the power they seemingly granted along with her bottomless mana pools could let her cast any spell, no matter how difficult, and sustain it for hours on end! All too eager, she grabbed the focus, aimed it at the wagons, and concentrated.

Trying to actually funnel her Arcana through a gemstone was tricky at first—it was like trying to thread a needle blindfolded—but soon enough she could feel the connections beginning to form. The tingle in her horn intensified, and suddenly she could reach clear across the courtyard and feel the wagons with her Arcana. Grinning triumphantly, she wrapped her magic around the wagons and pulled.

Both wagons rocketed skyward and disappeared through the cloud layer as Diadem gasped, startled by the surge of power. Not only that, but the ruby cracked in front of her, bleeding off a blinding glow of red light before it slowly became dull again.

The expression on Clover’s face was best described as ‘shocked’, but that hardly began to describe it. The archmage blinked several times, waiting for the wagons to come back down. After a few seconds, she turned to Diadem, eyes wide.

“Uh…” Diadem began, putting on as sweet a smile as she could manage. “A little too hard?”

“Maybe just a little,” Clover breathed. Shaking her head, she collected the pieces of the ruby. “It… takes a while getting used to, I admit. But that was good, regardless.” Holding up the shattered gemstone, she flashed it to Diadem briefly before discarding it. “But as you can see, a focus can only take so much mana flowing through it before it shatters. A classic overload if I’ve ever seen one, and that was telekinesis alone. The more powerful spells need a more… deft touch to prevent overloading the focus.”

Then, wrapping a hoof around Diadem’s neck, Clover ushered her towards the door. “Now, I think that’s enough magic lessons for one day. How about we get some lunch, then head towards the river?”

Diadem brightened immediately and gave little hops on her hooves. “Oh, that sounds great! And I’m starving!”

Clover chuckled. “I’m sure you are. Now let’s get going.”

As the two unicorns walked down the halls of the castle, two dull krrrackkks echoed across the courtyard, and all was silent again.

The fluttering of wings heralded Marigold’s descent onto the street across from the Choke. With the moon already past its zenith and beginning its long, slow journey back towards dawn, her thin shadow crept onto simple wooden walls washed in somber, blue hues. Tucking her wings against her sides, the mare pulled her hood farther over her face and paced in anxious little circles. Every tiny noise, from the crickets chirping in the summer night to the creak of a rusty lantern swaying in the breeze, caused her ears to flick under her hood.

A whistle from across the street caught her attention, and the skittish mare fluttered backwards in alarm. Squinting at the low shack roofs on the other side of the dirt road, she spotted the gleaming cuirasses of two Cirran legionaries huddled against the edge. She immediately spread her wings, ready to flee, before both of them waved at her and stood up. The smaller of the two pulled off his helmet, and she immediately recognized the stony grays of the ponies she’d spoken with earlier. Spreading their wings, the two pegasi silently glided off of the rooftop to join her.

“Glad you could make it,” Pathfinder said as he settled down next to Marigold. “We were starting to wonder if something’d happened.”

Marigold shook her head. “Gods, no. Nothing could stop me from getting here. I just had to be cautious, is all.”

Iron Rain landed on Marigold’s opposite side and stroked the mare’s chin with a feather. “It’s okay, Marigold. We had to be cautious ourselves, with everything that’s been going on lately. Your neighbors aren’t all that friendly to us Legion types.”

The canary mare managed a little smile. “It’s just the way things are. And for what it’s worth, most of us wouldn’t openly attack anypony in the Legion, especially the pegasi that live around here. That’d be sacrilege and treason. The unicorns and earth ponies, on the other hoof…” She shook her head. “They’re the ones being drawn to Steel Plow and this mistress of theirs. They’re the ones responsible for all the problems you’ve been having.”

Finder cocked his head. “Yeah,” he began, slowly pacing around Marigold with purposefully measured steps, “this ‘mistress’… who is she?”

Marigold’s wings twitched by her sides, and she opened her mouth only to close it and gulp. Turning to Rain, she fidgeted and asked in her meek voice, “Can we get this finished? I… I-I want to see my kids again.”

Rain nodded, then shot Finder a dirty look. “Of course,” she said, draping her wing over Marigold’s back and massaging her spine. “We’ll get your kids back to you safe and sound. Now, come on.”

She led Marigold down the street, with Finder following at a distance, sinking into his own thoughts. He vaguely heard Rain getting permission from the guards at the Choke to let the three of them pass, and before he knew it, they were standing in front of one of the Legion’s armories. Fishing out the key from the pockets of his armor, Finder trotted to the front of the group and slid the heavy skysteel key into the lock. He turned it over with his tongue and heard the heavy lock slide open with a satisfying click. Pressing his feathers into the gap between the door and the frame, he pulled the heavy door open with his wing, ushering Rain and Marigold inside.

The Legion armory was a reflection of the Cirran and Equestrian Legions under Commander Hurricane: neat, orderly, and efficient. Rows of armor and their different pieces were held on simple display stands lining one wall of the building, with each suit reflecting the moon’s pale glow from outside on their polished surfaces. Weapons, primarily gladii and wingblades, hung on weapon racks covering the entire opposite wall. In the back was a simple repair bench and the tools necessary to mend and improve broken or damaged equipment. Like the rest of the armory, these tools were carefully hung above the work bench, ready to be used at a moment’s notice.

As Pathfinder entered behind the two mares, he noticed Marigold eyeing the construction of the room with a surprisingly scrutinizing gaze. Shutting the door behind him, Finder walked up to her side. “So, how were you going to get in here on your lonesome?”

“I… uh… well…” Marigold sputtered, her yellow face slowly turning crimson, “I was gonna try and lift the key off of one of you if I got the chance. Otherwise, I’d have to knock out a guard and get the key off of their armor if that didn’t work, or don their armor and go asking around if it came down to it.”

Rain raised an eyebrow. “Really?” Her eyes flicked up and down the small mare’s body. “No offense, but I don’t really see you being able to do something like that.”

Marigold smiled, and Finder blinked at the confidence behind it. “You’d be surprised. There’s a reason why they came to me for this job rather than doing it themselves.” With that, she trotted away and began to gather the armaments Steel wanted her to deliver.

“Okay, before we get any farther, I want to know who ‘they’ are,” Finder asked, his voice stern.

The flower merchant blinked at him. “I told you who they are. Just rebels.”

“Ponies who are ‘just rebels’ aren’t this well organized,” Finder countered. Taking a step forward, he hardened his gaze. “You know more than you’re letting on.”

Marigold bit her lip. Even Rain was keeping a keen eye on the merchant. “I…” Her shoulder sagged, and she shook her head. “I’ve been in the game for too long, Pathfinder. My father was a thief. I am too. I have been my entire life.” She looked Finder in the eyes, and the centurion was shocked to see them glistening with unshed tears. “I’ve done things, Pathfinder, things I’m not proud of. Things nopony should be proud of. I did them just to survive.”

She stepped forward, reaching a hoof out to Finder as if looking for some lifeline to cling onto. “When Equestria was founded, I tried to put all that behind me. Tried to do good. I put away my tools and opened a simple merchant stall. But it wasn’t enough. It was never enough.” She shuddered, then looked towards the door. “My family was starving. My husband was gone, left me trying to support two kids by myself with a third on the way. And there was only one thing I was good at… one thing I was ever good at.”

She shifted her wings, and Finder got a good look at her cutie mark, an orange and yellow marigold reaching for the sun, only the sun was a golden bit. “I’ve stolen from ponies that couldn’t afford it. I’ve killed ponies that didn’t deserve it. Anything it took to keep my children safe and sound.” She sat down heavily, her wings shaking with each breath. “And now it’s finally caught up to me, I suppose. I just can’t take it anymore. When I get my kids back, I’m going to go to the north. Maybe I’ll find a home in the Crystal Union for all I know. Anything’s better than this hellhole of a city.”

Then she turned back to picking out the supplies she needed to deliver to Steel Plow. Finder and Rain simply stood at the back of the room, watching her as an awkward silence pervaded the armory.

In a few minutes, Marigold had everything she needed hanging off of her body. Giving one last look over her take, she made a quick count. “Ten swords, twelve daggers, three shields, and a few diamond gemstones from the unicorns. Right, that’s everything.” She began to shuffle forward, but the sheer weight of everything she was carrying slowed her to a crawl. That, and the racket the metal was making as it all clinked and clanged together would be heard by anypony within a few blocks.

“Here,” Finder said, taking some of the gear and shouldering it over his armor. “This should help a little. Rain, help her out.”

The larger of the two mares shouldered some of Marigold’s load, giving the flower merchant some room to move her wings and get airborne. “Thanks,” she said to the two legionaries, “I have a safe house near the river that we can store these things in. Just try to remain inconspicuous with all that armor of yours on.” Her flickering of a smile hinted at the serious warning hidden underneath.

“Righto,” Finder said, gesturing with his wing towards the door. “Lead the way.”

Marigold nodded and pushed open the door. Once outside, the three pegasi took wing and flew north towards the castle before wheeling around and crossing the Choke at a dark section. Marigold looked like she was going to panic and flee as they crossed, and even after nopony flew up in pursuit as they crossed, she was still panting when the trio touched down on the roof of a larger building in the slums.

“Whew!” Marigold exclaimed, dropping her gear and lying against the chimney in the center. “I thought for sure we were gonna get caught! How’d you know nopony was going to be there?”

“I’m the mare that works the Choke,” Rain said. An almost instinctual frown flickered across Marigold’s face before she was able to suppress it, and Rain raised her forelegs in a placating manner. “Yeah, I know, not the most popular soldier on the other side, I guess. But orders are orders.”

Marigold shook her head. “Yeah, I guess. Sorry, we’re just used to the guards on the wall being asses.”

Finder chuckled. “It’s easier to be mean than it is to be friendly, and when you’re a soldier, it helps with the job.” Bending over, the stallion passed one of Marigold’s swords back to her. “Now, where’s this safe house of yours?”

Marigold pointed her wing towards a burnt-out church near the edge of the city. “Right there. I tend to hide things in the bell tower so I can recover them later.” Her cheeks flushed red, and she twisted a hoof against the ground. “Erm… If you could just ignore whatever’s in there, that’d be really appreciated.”

The legionaries shared a glace, and then Rain placed a hoof on Marigold’s shoulder. “Marigold, unless we find a body stashed up there, we aren’t going to ask any questions. Just… try to avoid using the church in the future.”

The thief’s face flashed in understanding. “R-Right… I’ll keep that in mind.”

She stepped away from the group and gathered the rest of her things. Finder raised an eyebrow behind her. “So, just how exactly were you going to get all this stuff out of the armory and to your safe house without being caught?”

“I’d use the tunnels,” Marigold stated matter-of-factly. At her companions’ blank looks, she cocked her head. “Really? You’ve never heard of them?”

“First I’ve ever heard of them,” Rain muttered. Finder nodded in agreement.

“I’m not surprised. You official types don’t have much need of digging deep. But for smugglers, criminals, and your other nefarious ponies, something a little more ‘underworld’ is pretty nice.” She gave Finder that smile again, reminding him that he was dealing with a pony who knew much more than she let on. “There’s a whole network of natural tunnels and caves under Everfree that we use to get around. A few of the wealthier gangs in the slums had secret entrances built all over the city.” Then she turned to Rain, who seemed a little flustered by that bit of news. “I’m sorry, Legate, but your checkpoints aren’t keeping anypony really determined out of the rest of the city.”

“When we’re done with this, you’re going to show us the tunnels,” Finder said. “If my hunch is correct, that’ll be where they’re keeping Typhoon.”

Marigold furrowed her brow. “Hurricane’s daughter? That’s who they’ve got?”

Rain’s head immediately snapped to Marigold. “You know?” It wasn’t so much a question as a damning statement, and the merchant shuffled back, her wings spread wide in alarm.

“Hey! Calm down!” Marigold exclaimed, raising her hooves in front of her face. “I wasn’t the one that nabbed her! I already told you, I’ve been in this game for a long time, and as a result I pick up things here and there from Steel Plow and the others who contract me on occasion!” She began to nervously run a hoof through her mane and tried to shy away from Rain’s stare. “All I heard was a few of the rebels talking with each other that they’d captured a praetorian and were trying to convert her. That’s it.”

“Convert her?” Finder asked. “What do they mean by that?”

Marigold shrugged. “Beats me. But I have seen a few ponies who they’ve ‘converted’ before. They’re…” she shook her head. “They’re a little… off. Not themselves. I can only imagine what they do to them, or to what end.”

“Right.” Giving one last look around, the stallion made sure his things were gathered and walked towards the edge of the roof closest to the church. “Well, hopefully we won’t have to find out. The longer this takes, the more time they have to ‘convert’ Typhoon—whatever that implies.”

The two mares behind him nodded and took wing. Marigold slid to the front of the formation and led the trio towards the burnt-out church, flying low between buildings to mask their approach. Once they finally reached the church, she tilted her wings back and led a steep ascent directly towards a shattered window on the bell tower. With a small grunt, she tucked her wings against her sides and dove through the entrance at nearly full speed. The two armored pegasi behind her had to flare their wings and enter one at a time to avoid crashing into anything.

“Nice place you got here,” Rain remarked as she entered, Finder close behind. The interior of the bell tower had been cleaned up and redecorated into something suitable for a pony to live in, or at least hide away from the rest of Everfree whenever the heat was on. The floor had been swept clean so that there was almost no ash and soot left from the fire. The blackened walls had been scrubbed down, and tattered curtains had been drawn over the windows. A simple cot was nestled in one corner of the tower, complete with a set of old blankets. The bell itself had fallen from the yoke that had once supported it, and now it rested on its rim on the floor.

“Thanks,” Marigold said, tidying up her cot and brushing some ash away with her wings. “It’s good enough when I need to get away from ponies, and trust me, I have a lot of ponies I need to get away from sometimes.”

Finder noted the single cot in the room and frowned. “Marigold, what do your children do when you’re here?”

“My children?” Marigold asked. “Well, that’s simple enough. I tell them that if mommy isn’t home by dinnertime, they should go to Uncle Ward’s house and spend the night there.” She then reached underneath the cot and withdrew a curved plank of wood and two square blocks, which she set on the ground next to the bell. “Even after my husband left, his brother and I have remained close friends. He’s a nice stallion, and the kids love him. I owe him so much; he not only takes care of the kids for me when I’m ‘out’, but he doesn’t ask questions, either. I don’t know what I’d do without him.”

The green stallion smiled. “That’s family for you. Doesn’t have to be through blood; a real family’s the ponies who’ll take care of you and help you, no matter the cost.”

Marigold hummed her agreement. “I suppose you’re right.” Then, gripping the plank of wood between her teeth, she slid the tapered end underneath a chip in the bell’s lip and placed one of the wooden blocks just behind it. Testing the plank a few times to make sure it was secure, Marigold then jumped on top of the opposite end of the plank. Using the wooden block as a fulcrum, her weight was able to lever the bell several inches up off the ground. Reaching down with her wing, she slid the second, larger block into the gap between the bell and the floor, propping it up as she jumped off of her lever. The resulting space was a little more than half a foot high, but inside, Finder could see several shiny objects, including the golden glint of piles of bits.

“Clever,” Rain commented as she too took a peek inside. “How do you get anything out? With the plank?”

Marigold smiled. “For the stuff on the ground, sometimes. Otherwise I just have to go in and get it myself.”

Rain scoffed. “Really? Through that?” She shook her head. “Even a dog would have trouble getting through that.”

The goldenrod mare smirked and bent down. Pressing her stomach to the floor, she inched forward until she could slide her hooves under the bell. Then, rubbing her cheek against the ground, she peeked under the lip of the bell and began to shuffle further into it. With several shakes of her flanks and wings, the mare managed to contort her body through the gap in the bell until her tail disappeared underneath.

“Told you!” her voice echoed from within the instrument. Finder bent down and could see her hooves shuffling along the floorboards. “If any good thief is going to get out of tight spaces, they’ve got to be just as good at getting into them, if you catch my drift. And this isn’t the smallest thing I can get through.” A pause, and then, “Now let’s see here… aha! There they are!”

Finder’s ears twitched as he heard the sound of glass bottles clinking together, and then Marigold’s hoof flashed under the lip of the bell as she rolled two bottles filled with a clear liquid towards the legionaries. Each bottle had a rag stuffed in the end, and when Finder picked one up, he caught the definitive smell of oil.

“Cirran cocktails?” Rain asked, raising an eyebrow. “Primitive, but effective nonetheless. And you had a few?”

“Yup!” Marigold exclaimed as her head peeked back out from under the bell. Gritting her teeth, she wiggled back out from under the space. “My father showed me how to make them when I was old enough. He said they were used in Stratopolis to great effect.”

“Neither of us would know,” Finder said, gingerly placing the bottle back on the ground. His features darkened, causing Marigold to take a step back. “We were both in Altus awaiting the call for the Exodus. It was… painful to see my hometown like that.”

Iron Rain extended a wing over Finder’s shoulders, which seemed to take some of the edge out of his expression. “I wasn’t there by choice,” the mare said. “If it were up to me, I would’ve gladly fought and died for Stratopolis that day.”

Marigold cocked her head. “Then why couldn’t you?”

“I was the last heir of House Rain at the time,” Iron Rain grumbled. “My brother died fighting the griffons and my father was too worried about losing his lineage to let me die for something worthy, the bastard.”

Finder nudged her shoulder. “If you’d died in Stratopolis, we wouldn’t have gotten married and had foals of our own.”

The larger mare sighed. “Yeah, yeah. At least my father would be happy to see that I’ve made three more for our line—whatever that means anymore.”

Marigold’s eyebrows had been steadily creeping up the whole time. “Whoa,” she finally whispered, “I didn’t know that you were royalty or something, Legate.”

“Please, don’t,” Rain pleaded. “I always hated the bullshit respect I got from the senators simply because of my heritage. Hell, I tried to get myself killed in battle before, but…” she chuckled and shook her head. “My opponents were never good enough to actually kill me, though.”

“Right,” Finder said. Then, stepping forward, he picked up the cocktail again and handed it back to Marigold. “So, you’ve got a plan for how you want to handle this?”

Marigold nodded. “Don’t worry, I’ve thought this out. Here’s what I’m going to do.” She moved to the pile of weapons and withdrew one each of a sword, a dagger, a shield, and a diamond. Grabbing a simple leather worker’s belt, she affixed the weapons to her sides and strapped the shield across her back. “I’m going to go out and meet Steel Plow and whatever cooks he has by myself and show them these wares. Then I’m going to tell him that I’ve got the rest stored safely in this church. I’ll lead them back, and we’ll have all the weapons on display on the altar. Hopefully when he sees that I’ve kept up my end of the bargain, he’ll give me my children back and take the weapons.” Then she smiled, and the cunning behind it made Finder flinch. “While they’re all burdened down with their haul, I’ll take my kids to safety, and you two can do what you want with them.”

Rain smirked. “Oh, that’s marvelous. I can’t wait until Steel and I get to have a word with each other.” Her knife flashed in her hooves for a brief moment before she slid it back into its sheath.

“Do you know how many there’ll be?” Finder asked. “We might have the element of surprise with us, but we can only take on so many at once with it.”

“There’ll be maybe a half dozen at most,” Marigold said. Then she tapped the cocktails and the corner of her mouth rose. “And even if there are more, these should thin them out a bit. Just… please make sure my children aren’t anywhere nearby when you throw them.”

Finder smiled. “Don’t worry, Marigold. We’ll get your children back to you, safe and sound.”

Marigold’s shoulders relaxed, and she stepped forward to hug Finder. “Thank you,” she whispered, and Finder could feel her body shivering against his side. Then she let go and withdrew a few steps. Turning to Rain, she nodded. “It’s getting close to two o’clock, so I better be going. Get the rest of the haul to the altar, and keep an eye out for when I get back.”

Iron Rain saluted her. “Good luck, Marigold.”

Marigold paused at the edge of the bell tower, her wings outstretched. “I’ll do my best,” she murmured, but the fear wavering in her voice was all too present. With one last nod, she climbed on the windowsill and launched into the air. Her wings snapped open with the rattling of her gear, and soon she disappeared into the murkiness of the night.

“Mommy!”

Typhoon’s eyes snapped open right as she felt a tiny bundle of energy slam into her exposed gut. She fought down the urge to flail or cry out in pain, instead wincing and hissing through her teeth. When she opened her eyes, she was muzzle to muzzle with a tiny blue colt with a huge smile plastered across his face. “Get up, Mommy! We’re gonna go see the soldiers train today! You promised!”

The praetorian groaned and flopped her head back down against the pillow. “Ungh… five more minutes, Tempest.”

“Mooooooooooooooooooooooooommmmmmmmyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy!!!” Tempest whined, jumping up and down on Typhoon’s chest. “You promised! You promised you promised you promised! Come on!” And then he was climbing across her chest and trying to pull the sheets back, his tiny wings fluttering the entire time. Yawning, Typhoon stretched her forelegs to the shadowy ceiling of her bedroom, listening to her elbows pop. Then her forelimbs dropped back down around the colt scrabbling on top of her and she smooshed him into a tight hug. The colt squealed and tried to fight back, but it was all in vain. In a matter of seconds, Typhoon had the little pony’s forehead pressed to her muzzle and was smothering him in kisses.

“What’s the hurry, sweetie?” Typhoon asked between nuzzles. She twisted her neck around to take a glance at the dim light coming through the window and groaned. “The sun’s hardly up, and Mommy’s tired.”

Tempest continued to squirm in her grasp, giggling the entire time. Eventually, Typhoon loosened her grasp just enough for the little colt to worm his way out. She watched him with happy magenta eyes as he sloppily preened the little feathers on his wings back into place. With a final shuffle of his wings he turned around and sat on the bed. “I’m hungry.”

Typhoon sighed and arched her back, her spine cracking several times with the motion, and she tugged on each wing with a hoof to straighten them out and loosen the cramps. Once she was loosened up, the mare then rolled out from under the covers and landed on the stone floor of the castle with four solid clops of her hooves. She frowned at the gray floor and the gray walls. Once Tempest was old enough to fly, they were moving back to Cloudsdale. At least cloudstone was nicer than ground stone. Plus, it was in the air, and not on the ground in some stuffy castle. Nothing good ever came of castles; they simply bred problems, if the Diamond Kingdom had ever been a testament to that.

“Alright, sweetie,” Typhoon murmured, nudging Tempest along with a sweep of her wing. “Let’s make some breakfast.”

The little colt scampered across the floor into the kitchen, with Typhoon following him more wearily. She yawned again, jaws opening wide, and she tried to blink away the drowsiness. She’d had a really pathetic night’s sleep. At least she’d only woke panting once.

Tempest, his wings buzzing, practically leapt into his chair at the table. There he sat, his tail wagging impatiently, while Typhoon nosed a few cabinets open in the kitchen. “Let’s see…” she muttered, looking for something edible in the pantry. After pulling out two plates, she nabbed a loaf of bread in one wing and some leftover fish from the night before out of the larder. A little olive oil completed the meal, and she set Tempest’s plate down in front of him. The little colt immediately dove into his breakfast, tearing chunks of bread out from between the loaf he held in his hooves like some sort of feral predator.

Typhoon smiled and sat at her side of the table. Strands of her autumn mane fell in front of her eyes, and she brushed them away with a hoof. It was starting to get a little long for her liking—she’d have to give it a proper military cut before the week was out. For the time being, she’d just comb it down as best she could.

While Tempest thoroughly devoured his breakfast, Typhoon picked at hers. For whatever reason, her stomach just wasn’t that into food. It must’ve been the lack of sleep. Still, it’d hurt her much more to go sparring on an empty stomach, so she forced down what she could.

“Done!” Tempest happily exclaimed, slamming his hooves down on the cleaned wooden plate. Typhoon smiled at him as he wiggled in his chair, waiting to be dismissed.

“You want any more?” she asked, scooting her chair back in preparations for the colt’s obvious answer.

It came with an enthusiastic nod. Smiling, Typhoon stood up, took Tempest’s plate, and cantered back over to the larder. She dropped another piece of fish onto it and turned around to head back to the table.

“Typhoon.”

Kkrasshhh!!

The praetorian stood stock still, her hoof still outstretched. Tempest’s plate rattled on the floor for a few seconds longer before coming to a clattering stop. But Typhoon wasn’t paying attention to that. Her eyes were locked on the face of the blue unicorn sitting at the table next to her son.

Jewel smiled at Typhoon, flashing a set of teeth that were perhaps too white. His golden eyes seemed relaxed and distant, but Typhoon saw the spark hidden in them—that hateful spark that had driven him to do horrible things. To her. To Cirra. To the Diamond Kingdom. And here he was, sitting next to a happily rocking Tempest, who hummed a tune as he waited for his meal.

“What?” Jewel asked, his eyebrows waggling underneath a scarred horn. “Oh, don’t act so surprised to see me, Ty, darling.” He glanced over her shoulder towards the counter, and he pointed with a hoof. “Could you get me some bread, dear? I’m afraid my horn isn’t what it used to be.”

“You!” Typhoon hissed. “What are you doing here?!”

“Me?” Jewel asked, then looked around to make sure he was the one being addressed. “Me? I came to see our son, of course.”

Typhoon blinked, and then she stomped her hoof against the ground. “Get the hell out of my house! You’re a monster! Get away from my son!!”

The unicorn looked disappointed, and he gave a sad shake of his head. “Typhoon, darling, he’s as much my son as he is yours. And Sun and Stars know I hardly get to spend enough time with the boy as is.” He smiled and ruffled Tempest’s mane, and the colt giggled.

“You’re dead!” Typhoon exclaimed. “I killed you! I skinned your horn and slit your throat in River Rock! You’re dead!” She wailed and slumped against the larder. “You’re supposed to be dead!!”

“Oh, Typhoon, dead is such a term of… finality,” he said, and he flashed a mirthless grin at her. “I’m not truly dead. No, ma’am. As long as somepony remembers me, I’ll never really be dead.” And then Typhoon felt his words, laced with poison, pierce through her coat. “And as long as you live, I don’t think you’ll ever forget me.”

“Get out of my house!!” Typhoon screamed, and fast as lightning she snatched a knife from the counter. Her vision turned red with rage, and she hurled the blade at him. There was a flash, a scream, and a spray of blood. Typhoon blinked.

Tempest lay on the floor, his coat stained red.

You killed him, a little voice in the back of Typhoon’s head whispered. You killed your own son.

“No!!” Typhoon shrieked. Her wings snapped open and she sprinted across the kitchen to cradle Tempest. “Tempest!” she wailed, gently shaking her son’s body. “Tempest! Baby, wake up! Mommy didn’t mean to… Mommy didn’t… come back!! Please!!”

There was no movement from under the colt’s still eyelids. He almost looked like he was sleeping, but the bloodied knife slipped between his ribs begged to differ.

All this Jewel watched from a distance, his face unreadable. He said nothing as Typhoon’s tears patted down onto her son’s body. He said nothing as her wails filled the room. He simply watched.

How many more are you going to kill? the voices whispered in her head. Who’s next? Your father? Your aunt? You already tried to kill your brother once. Will you finish him?

“Get out of my head!” Typhoon screeched, buckling over. Her head slammed into the corner of the table, but the pain barely registered. “Get out of my head! Please!! I can’t take it anymore!”

Then Jewel shook his head and stepped closer. “Look at what you’ve done, Typhoon. Look at this mess.” And though Typhoon wanted to look away, she felt her eyes being drawn to Tempest’s corpse. “Our son… you killed our only son. How could you?”

“I didn’t mean to!” Typhoon wailed, curling into a tighter and tighter ball. “It was an accident! Tempest! Tempest! I’m sorry, baby!”

Jewel clucked his tongue and nudged Typhoon out into the open with a hoof. “There there, Typhoon. It’ll be okay. After all…” he said, and with a wave of his hoof the kitchen was replaced by chains and the dark, damp, stony interior of a dungeon cell. “After all, we can just make another.”

Typhoon took one look at her surroundings, at the chains holding her down, at the smell of blood and mildew and despair, and screamed, and screamed, and screamed.

Ding!

Pllinggg!

Paaannng!

“Rain, honey, sweetheart, love of my life? Could you please knock it off?” Pathfinder grumbled. His wings twitched against his back as he looked towards the river, his keen eyes scanning the darkness for any sort of movement. Behind him, Iron Rain lay slouched in the corner of the room, flicking tiny pebbles at the enormous bell in the center of the tower. Sighing, the mare stretched her legs and slowly came to her hooves, muttering to herself.

“See anything yet?” she asked, brushing against Finder’s side. Their armored bodies clinked together, steel touching steel. Finder could only answer her with a shake of his head and a worried glance at the positioning of the moon in the sky.

“She’s been out there for at least half an hour,” he muttered. He leaned farther out the window, as if getting a few inches closer would make a difference in his perception. “I wasn’t expecting this to take this long.”

Rain pursed her lips. “Do you think Steel decided she wasn’t worth it and just had her done away with?”

Finder shook his head. “That doesn’t make sense. He made it very clear he wanted this delivery for his ‘mistress’ or whoever this pony is. I don’t think he’d kill her if Marigold only showed up with samples of the order he was asking for.”

The gray mare shrugged and started to pace around the room. “I suppose. But then shouldn’t they have been back by now to get the rest?”

“That’s what I thought was going to happen,” he said, frowning. “Maybe they’re letting her see that her children are alright?”

Rain bared her teeth. “Like those heartless fucks would ever let her get close to her children until they had what they wanted. I’m telling you, we should’ve gone with her and simply ambushed the lot of them from above,” she said, pointing an accusing wing at Finder.

“All we’d do is get her kids killed if something went wrong,” Finder growled back. “There’s three kids and two of us. They’d kill at least one of them before we could get them out of there safely. And not to mention the danger that’d put Marigold in.”

The legate rolled her eyes. “Come on! Were you not listening to her life story back there? She’s a big girl and she can handle herself! Finder, she’s killed ponies before, and she’s obviously a good enough thief that she knows how to sneak away. She would’ve been fine on her own.”

“I don’t care how good she may be, I doubt she can take on a half dozen of those bastards by herself!” Finder hissed back.

“Which is why we should’ve come with her to even the odds! Besides, the three of us can fly, and how many pegasi you figure they have with them? One, two at the most?” She shook her head. “Pegasi aren’t siding with the rebels because they don’t have to. Are you the poorest, unluckiest pegasus in Everfree? Come and join the Legion, we’ll get you all patched up and give you an honorable job while we’re at it! Besides, it’s in our culture to support the military no matter the cost. You won’t see many pegasi turning from Equestria now.”

“But times are changing, Rain,” Finder countered, turning to face her. “Ponies are starting to interbreed now. It’s becoming much more common than it was twenty years ago. Hell, Marigold herself married a unicorn, and she’s got a unicorn kid to show for it.”

Rain shrugged. “I don’t see what that has to do with anything.”

“What I’m saying, Rain, is that Cirra’s blending more and more with the Diamond Kingdom and the Low Valleys. There’s an actual Equestrian culture being formed, and it’s shedding a lot of racial individuality. Trust me, if this rebel movement isn’t ended soon enough, we’re going to have entire cohorts turning sides on us.” And then he turned back to the outside and huffed, “And if that’s the case, Steel’s likely got pegasi watching the whole thing from above to make sure that nopony intervenes with what’s happening there. Which is why we could not fly with her and give Marigold support from up high.”

“Ugh. Fine, whatever.” Iron Rain flicked her tail at her husband before sitting back down in the corner and continuing to toss stones at the bell. “Maybe they were expecting her to bring everything with her? They might not believe that she has the entire stock.”

Finder shook his head. “I don’t see why they’d expect that of her. That’s a lot of gear for one pegasus to carry.” He tapped his hoof against the stone ledge, thinking.

Tap tap tap tap tap. Tap.

…Tap.

The stallion blinked once. His muscles tensed as if he was rooted in place. In the corner of the bell tower, Rain angled her head at him. “Finder?”

“By the gods, we’re idiots!” he exclaimed. Turning away from the balcony, he quickly snatched up his helmet and slammed it down over his head. Rain scrambled to her hooves, instinctually grabbing her own helmet and fluttering towards him.

“What is it?” she asked, her eyes hardening.

“We’re bucking idiots,” Finder muttered, making sure his gear was secured. “Marigold was never supposed to deliver all that gear to them! It’s way too much for a single pony to carry by herself!”

Rain’s eyes widened in realization. “Steel Plow never expected her to steal what he wanted from the armory without getting caught.”

“Not just without getting caught, he didn’t want her to live either.” With a small grunt, the stallion launched out the bell tower window and took to the skies, with Rain flying alongside him. “She wouldn’t end up getting arrested if she was caught, because she’d try to fight. His promise to kill her children if she wasn’t there on time made sure of that.”

“Fuck,” Rain swore, shaking her head.

Finder nodded between the strokes of his wings. “When Steel came to see her yesterday, he wasn’t trying to shake her down on her contract. He was setting her up to tie up a loose end.”

“Then why didn’t he just have her killed in her sleep or something?” asked Rain.

The stallion thought on that a moment. “Because he wanted to prove something to us. He wanted the Legion to know that the rebels were building an army by showing a need for our weapons. Whether or not they actually need the weapons or not, he’s sending threats to Parliament, and we know they’ll react… poorly to the whole ordeal.”

“Plus, having the Legion cut down a desperate mare and mother of three would have the slums calling for blood, and the rebels would be there promising to give it to them.” Rain concluded. She shook her head and spat angrily towards the ground below. “Fuck! These bastards know what they’re doing, I’ll give them that! I can’t believe we’re all getting played like this!”

“Hopefully we’re not too late,” Finder said, the corners of his mouth pulling back in a frown. Slicing his way through the darkness and low hanging clouds, he finally spotted a few murky lights set up along the river. Together, he and Rain climbed in altitude until they gently alighted on a thin cloud hovering over the river.

Rain slid closer to the edge of the cloud and peered towards the lights. “What do you see?” she asked Finder, who was doing likewise at her side. “Your night vision’s better than mine.”

Finder squinted into the darkness, and with the backlight of the river to light the area, his sharp eyes began to pick out shapes. “I see… Steel. He’s got seven others with him. They’re standing by the river doing…” he frowned and leaned a few inches closer. “Marigold’s down there.”

“I count two pegasi watching the whole thing from above,” Rain interjected, picking out the two figures on a lower level of clouds. “What are they doing to Marigold?”

“Bad things,” Finder muttered, unable to say more. The eight rebels had Marigold pinned against the shoreline and were taking turns dunking her head into the water. A pony on either side of her each had a wing glanced firmly in their jaws, and whenever she struggled and flailed they’d hold her head in the water and pull in opposite directions. Whenever they took the pressure off of her neck, she’d come up coughing and retching, sucking down just enough air for the rebels to repeat the process.

And in the midst of it all, three small ponies sat tied wooden stakes, forced to watch the entire thing.

“Her kids are alright,” Finder began, “but not for much longer. They’ll kill Marigold at this rate, and they won’t have a use for the kids anymore.”

“Then let’s get moving,” Rain whispered. She stood up and flexed her wingblades, listening to the oiled hiss of the scales as they glided over one another. “We’ll drop the two ponies on overwatch, then we move to the rest. I’ll get Marigold away from them; you cut the kids free and get them out of there.”

Finder nodded. “We take down the sentries quietly. Make a noise and Marigold’s dead.”

“Right. Kill on ten,” Rain said, and then the two of them stepped to opposite edges of the cloud. Both pegasi flexed their wings and nodded to each other. “Ready? And… mark!”

In one fluid motion, the two legionaries stepped off of the cloud and zeroed in on their targets from above. Finder simply fell with his wings extended to parachute his descent and slow his fall to the proper timing. “One, two, three…” he muttered to himself, keeping his eyes fixed on the unsuspecting pegasus below. When he reached seven seconds, he folded his wings against his sides and streamlined himself into a diving spear, plunging towards his stallion from behind.

“…eight, nine, ten!”

As soon as he reached ten seconds, he inched his left wingblade out from his body. Immediately the scales jerked as it hacked through the stallion’s neck from behind, and the scout twisted to lead himself and his kill into the surface of the cloud and away from the river. The sentry struggled with the wingblade stuck in his neck for a second before Finder tore it out, and with a shocked gasp the rebel went limp. The cloud around him immediately began to suck up his blood, and his body started to sag into the surface as the magic that had once let him stand on clouds began to bleed away.

On the opposite end of the clearing, Rain finished her kill at exactly the same time. The two legionaries locked eyes and waited for five seconds to make sure that they hadn’t been noticed. When they heard nothing other than Marigold’s panicked shrieking and choking, Rain nodded to Finder and stepped off the edge of the cloud. Finder gave himself three seconds to let Rain get the attention before he kicked a hole underneath where he was standing and dropped down directly behind Marigold’s kids.

“Hey, shitstains!” Iron Rain squawked as she dropped from the sky. “Ever wondered what Cirran skysteel tastes like?”

Eight ponies jumped and tried to locate the source of the voice. Only seven ever saw her. With a slash of her wingblades, Rain took the head off of the stallion who was holding Marigold’s face into the river. Before his body even hit the ground, the legate reached over her shoulder and tore her enormous sword out of the groove in the back of her armor and swung it in a wild circle, forcing the two ponies holding onto the flower merchant’s wings to dive away just to avoid the tip of the weapon. With her enemies momentarily stunned and at bay, Rain wrapped a hoof under Marigold’s shoulder and rather roughly flung her out of the river. The goldenrod mare landed with a wet thud, coughing and sputtering for air and vomiting up river water.

“Well today’s your lucky day!” Rain exclaimed, forcing the rebels away from Marigold. “Who wants some?!” And with that her eyes zeroed in on Steel Plow and she spring forward, snarling and crying for blood.

While Rain transformed herself into a maelstrom of death, Finder quickly drew a knife and approached what looked like the oldest of the three, a purple pegasus filly with a brushed and groomed mane of pink and white streaks. Working the knife, Finder slid it under the ropes tying her to her stake and began to slice them apart. The filly squeaked as he worked and began to thrash, her pinned wings desperately trying to break free of their bindings.

“Shush!” Finder hissed, placing a hoof to her lips. The filly stared at him, wide-eyed and panicked. “I’m going to cut you free, but you can’t make a noise, else they’ll be all over me.” He cast a wary glance at the river, where Rain had taken wing and was hovering just out of reach of her grounded opponents. A pair of unicorns had split off and was circling wide to try and flank her with arcane bolts, but Rain kept one eye on them and flew low enough that they couldn’t fire without risking hitting their companions.

Further down the river, two more unicorns widened their stance, their horns charging with energy. Without the other rebels between her and then, Rain twirled backwards and around their arcane bolts. Reaching into her saddlebags, she snatched a clear bottle between her forehooves and lit the rag sticking out of the end with a spark from the tip of her wing. Shouting, the legate hurled the Cirran cocktail directly at the hooves of the two unicorns, where it exploded in flames. The unicorns began to scream and flailed about, trying to reach the river, but even then the oil fire refused to be put out by the water.

Taking his hoof away from the filly’s lips, Finder went back to working the knife. The rebels had used much more rope than necessary to bind three kids, and it was making his life difficult. The filly watched him work, but Finder could see the panic slowly draining from her eyes. “What about momma?”

“Your momma’s safe and sound,” Finder grunted. With one last surge, he slashed through the remaining ropes. They dropped at either of the filly’s sides, and he quickly snatched her with one leg before she could fall to the ground. Setting her back on her hooves, he bent down to stare eye to eye with her. “You okay?”

The filly nodded. “Yeah, I’ll be good.” Then her attention immediately went to her two siblings, and she scurried past Finder and over to them. “Aspen! Lili! I’m gonna get you out!” She bit down on the ropes tying up the little unicorn colt and pulled, her wings fluttering uselessly at her sides. She turned to Finder, her eyes pleading. “Help, mister! Help!”

Aspen managed to get a hoof free, and he used it in conjunction with his horn to pull at his bindings. Finder brushed his hoof away and fixed him in his stare. “Stop, you’re making it difficult for me to work.” He went back to twisting and turning his neck to get leverage on the ropes, and with a dull thwack he split another cord free.

Then Aspen placed his hoof on Finder’s brow. “Behind you!” he shouted, and his horn came to life to shoot dozens of tiny sparks in the immediate vicinity. Finder knew better than to disregard a colt’s warnings, and he quickly threw a wing up over his head to shield himself and the white colt. It was just in time too, as a heavy war axe came crashing down on the skysteel wingblades and shoved Finder back.

The purple filly shrieked and ran off to the side, cowering behind the stake, while Finder quickly regained his footing and charged the unicorn that had swung the axe at him, trying to force his opponent back and away from the foals. The unicorn backtrotted easily, and his telekinetic grip on the war axe allowed him to deftly keep out of Finder’s effective range. Growling, Finder tried several times to swat the weapon aside long enough to close the distance, but each time the unicorn withdrew his axe and struck at an opening in the centurion’s defenses. Finder gasped and grunted as the axe managed to cleave into a joint on his armor, and only a quick roll away prevented the unicorn from cutting deeper. Still, as he rolled back onto his hooves, he saw red beginning to drip out of the gash in his armor.

Snarling, Finder redoubled his grip on his gladius, Ensis, and lunged at his attacker, but the wound in his side slowed his movements more than he would’ve liked. The unicorn responded with ease, blocking each of Finder’s strikes at his weapon with a quick twirl and a step to the side. As much as Finder felt he was pushing his opponent back, he realized he was being shepherded towards the river and away from Marigold’s children.

“Urrrgh! Come on, you sack of shit!” Finder growled, using his wings to help propel him close to his opponent. He swung wildly towards the unicorn, putting all his leverage behind the sword. When the unicorn moved to block and parry, Finder twisted the tips of his wings and readjusted his momentum so that his sword passed wildly in front of the unicorn’s face and collided directly with the axe. The stronger skysteel sundered the axe, and it was launched into the darkness with the piercing cry of metal. Shouting, Finder twirled out of the strike to cleave into the unicorn’s body…

…only to receive three quick flashes from the unicorn’s horn that put three smoking holes in his armor. The arcane bolts punched clean through the thin scoutmaster’s plating and seared his body, causing Finder to lose his grip on Ensis as he went tumbling towards the ground. A well-timed buck by the unicorn knocked the gladius into the river, where it sunk with a quiet sploosh, and before Finder could recover, the unicorn was crushing his throat against the ground with impressively powerful telekinesis.

“Stupid pegasus!” the unicorn barked, and as he trotted closer his telekinetic grip only intensified. Tears squeezed out of Finder’s eyes as he felt his windpipe totter on the verge of collapsing. Gritting his teeth, he drew on his earth Empatha and felt his neck harden into a stony texture, but all it could really do was buy him some time. Desperately, he struck out with his bladed wings at the unicorn’s hooves, but he was still too far away. The edges of Finder’s vision blurred to gray right as he heard a scream and a thud somewhere off by the river. He managed to catch a glimpse of Rain flailing through the water as the river flowed through a scorched hole in her wing.

Just as Finder’s vision faded to black and the tingling in his hooves started to drift away, the unicorn strangling him yelped and collapsed to the ground. A feral war cry echoed in his ears, and suddenly the pressure on his throat disappeared. Finder immediately shot up and gasped. Coughing, he put distance between himself and his assailant as he recovered his breath and noticed the purple filly from before beating her hooves against the unicorn’s horn. The rebel’s rear legs also shimmered in a pale green aura as they were yanked from under him. Looking towards the stakes, Finder could see a matching shimmer of Arcana coming from the little colt still tied up.

Before the larger unicorn could tear the filly off of his neck, Finder quickly drew a dagger and hammered it into the unicorn’s skull like a second horn. The pony spasmed and screamed for half a second until Finder twisted the knife and tore it back out. The rebel’s body went limp, and the pegasus filly fluttered away, her eyes widening at the sight of blood and brains.

“Thanks,” Finder croaked, stumbling forward and away from the water. He turned around after regaining his breath, only to see Steel Plow himself drowning Iron Rain in the river. His enormous hooves kept her head submerged, and judging by how he hardly flinched when Rain’s wingblades glanced across his fetlocks, he wasn’t going to be moving anytime soon. There were still three more ponies between Finder and his wife, but he bit down on his dagger and prepared to leap at Steel’s back. His body screamed in agony with every step, but Finder shut it out. He twisted the weapon in his mouth with his tongue as he spread his wings; it wasn’t Ensis, but it would have to do.

And then, suddenly, Ensis leapt out of the water and nearly severed Steel’s leg from his shoulder. It took Finder a second to realize that there was another pony attached to the hilt of the weapon as it tore free from Steel’s shoulder and wedged another pony’s skull open. Marigold twirled and flipped around the battlefield like a dancer, her mane and tail shedding droplets of water with each acrobatic spin and nimble dodge over the other ponies’ clumsy strikes.

While Steel Plow limped away, cradling his leg and the single tendon that kept it attached to his shoulder, Iron Rain coughed and fought to get her head above the water. Finder hobbled over to her and wrapped his forelegs around her shoulders while Marigold’s twirling form kept the rest of the rebels occupied. “Rain!” Finder croaked, smacking her hard on the back while she retched and vomited water. She sucked down a breath, and Finder wrapped his hooves around her in a hug. The contact sent Rain reeling in pain, and she choked down a strangled scream. Finder immediately backed away, and Rain clutched at her wing. There was a hoof-sized hole burnt clean out of the center.

“Rain…” Finder breathed. “Your wing…”

“Flesh…wound…” she hissed through gritted teeth. She looked over her shoulder to where Marigold was kiting the rebels, keeping just close enough to flick Ensis across their noses but dancing out of the reach of their swords. Still, for all her efforts, she hadn’t landed any blows other than the one killing strike on the stallion when she returned to the fray. She was slowing down already; it wouldn’t be long before she finally did get caught.

Groaning, Rain cantered to the riverbank and pulled her huge sword out of the dirt and mud by the water’s edge. “Come on,” she croaked around the handle of the weapon. “Let’s finish this!”

And then it was as if all her fatigue and wounds faded away. With a few steps, her pained canter had turned to a trot, and then a gallop. Screaming, she flung herself at the closest rebel, although she led with her left shoulder and kept her right protected. Regardless, her sudden reemergence onto the battlefield caught the pony by surprise, and her enormous sword sliced clean through the pony’s midsection. He fell apart in two halves as Rain recovered from her swing and pounced towards the next target.

The single pony chasing Marigold looked over his shoulder in time to see Iron Rain charging towards him and the rest of his companions cut to pieces. With no reason left to keep fighting, the rebel flung his weapon over his shoulder in Rain’s general direction and took off at full gallop. Marigold let him go as he rushed past her—she was panting too much to pursue him anyway—but Iron Rain leaned forward to try and close the gap. Instinctually she spread her wings to overtake him, but all that brought her was a sharp cry of pain that sent her toppling face-first into the mud. She hissed and writhed, clutching at the wing, before carefully folding the faintly bleeding hole in it back against her side. The legate looked back up just in time to see the last rebel disappear into the shadows of the night.

Finder, meanwhile, had cornered a rebel of his own. Steel Plow stood just outside of Finder’s reach, his eyes burning with hatred and pain as he cradled his left leg, which was hanging on by skin and bloody muscle. With his back to the river and blood rapidly pouring down his leg, the stallion still stood tall and defiant. Finder’s own breathing was haggard as the scorch marks continued to flicker in pain across his chest, but that was the least of his worries. He was more worried about the axe wound he had taken early in the fight; it was so close to the deep scar from the spear he’d taken twenty-five years ago that it could easily have torn it open. He figured he’d find out when he took his armor off and saw whether or not his guts spilled out the side.

“You fucking Legion types came for her?” Steel spat, his voice tainted with hatred and rage. “Came to bail out your little rat before we drowned her? I knew she was bad news the moment I laid eyes on her, but I thought she could’ve been useful at the time. Now I see she’s a traitor to her own kind—to the ponies that need ponies like us.”

“You set her up to do this,” Finder began, his voice low and even. “You wanted to get her killed trying to steal from us.”

The hulking earth pony snorted. “So what? Would’ve done me a huge favor. Just another dead, dumb, four legged scum from the other side of town snuffed out.” He coughed, and the shudders nearly dropped him into the river. He was losing blood fast, and he was already knee deep in the water. If he fell, Finder doubted he would’ve been able to drag the body back out. The river was pulling with a strong current anyway.

“If we killed her, you’d have a rallying cry for the ponies in the slums. Killing a single mother of three doesn’t look very good on our part,” Finder growled.

Steel shrugged with one shoulder; the other was barely in any state to move, lest his leg simply fall off. “Well you saved the bitch and her little brats, and killed most of my own. But at what cost?” He raised an eyebrow, and his eyes flicked towards Iron Rain, who was slowly approaching Pathfinder. “I saw the shot Surefire made in her wing—think she’ll ever fly again?”

“Enough,” the centurion growled, taking shallow steps into the water. “You’re coming with us; you’re going to tell us exactly where you’re hiding Commander Typhoon and what you want with her, and who this ‘mistress’ of yours is. Then maybe, just maybe, we’ll let you live.”

The earth pony laughed and waded further into the river. “You threaten a dying pony with death? You’re pathetic. Work on your methods, centurion, otherwise you’ll never get anypony to talk.”

“I can make you talk,” Iron Rain threatened, and she began to splash into the water after Steel. “Why don’t you be a good boy and make this easy?”

Steel’s response was to simply raise a hoof out of the water and place it against his throat. Finder’s eyes widened as he recognized the familiar spiked horseshoe digging into the flesh. “You won’t get anything out of me, legate.” Then his eyes turned to Finder. “I’m going to tell you right now: if you do see your praetorian again, you might want to put her down. The conversion is not kind to ponies like her.”

“Conversion?” Finder asked. “What does that mean?!”

But Steel only smiled cruelly. “Figure it out yourself, you feathery bastard.” Then he drove his hoof straight into his neck. With a splash, the hulking earth pony disappeared into the water, just a few feet away from Rain’s vengeful grasp.

Rain blinked as his body slipped away, with one hoof resting on Mary’s hilt. Then she screamed in frustrated rage and splashed through the water in a fit. “Coward!” she shouted after Steel, even though his corpse was already somewhere downstream. “You shit stain of a coward! Fight with honor! Fight with dignity! Not… not… GAAHH!!” With a dull kaploosh, her hoof stomped through the water angrily.

The rattling of armor and heavy breathing immediately caused Rain to flip her head back over her shoulder. By the shore, not even halfway out of the river’s shallow bank, Finder lay on his right side and clutched at the gash in the left of his armor. “Finder!” Rain shouted, and she immediately splashed after him, taking extra care to make sure her wing didn’t move much at her side.

Reaching his side, she bent down and placed her hooves on his shoulder. “Finder, shush, be still. It’s alright, I’m here.” She poked his foreleg with a hoof. “Let me see.”

“It’s… nothing…” Finder muttered, a faint wheeze in his words.

“Bullshit it’s nothing,” Rain said, frowning. “Lie still.”

Still, Finder struggled. “Ungh... what about your wing?”

“It’s... it’s nothing,” Rain argued, returning her husband’s excuse. “Now friggin’ hold still.”

Then she gently worked her hooves on the straps holding the armor to his side and pulled them loose. Biting her lip, she began to peel the crimson skysteel off of his sides. With a sick suctioning sound, she finally exposed the wound—and all the drying blood that had been gluing it to his hide.

The armor clattered to the ground, and Finder turned a half-conscious eye towards Rain. “Rain? Honey? It’s… not that bad. Don’t… worry about it.”

But Iron Rain started to shake her head. “No. No no no no no,” she muttered, her voice growing louder and louder with each successive denial. “No, this is not good. Not good at all!”

“Rain,” Finder murmured, but the mare didn’t respond. She only stared at the wound in shock. “Rain!” he snapped, but all he succeeded in doing was forcing himself to cough more. His vision was glowing blurry, and his throat and chest burned. He actually didn’t feel anything on his left side. “Rain, deep breaths. Keep calm.”

The mare was anything but calm. All she could do was stare at the wound. When she actually did move, it was hardly through her own volition. Marigold landed by Finder’s side and shoved her back. “It’s okay, Pathfinder. Just lie still and I’ll take care of this for you.” Her head perked up and scanned the immediate area, and with a flutter of her wings she suddenly sprinted off into the darkness. She returned hardly a minute later with some rags, two flat stones, and an assortment of plants and weeds between her teeth. She spat those onto the ground next to Finder and immediately went to work.

“How… bad?” Finder asked. His hooves were feeling cold; he guessed it was the river. He was also pretty tired. It might just be easier to take a nap while Marigold did… whatever she was doing. He opened his mouth to yawn, and Marigold immediately struck him across the chin with a hoof. “Ack—what was that for?!”

“Don’t go to sleep,” Marigold ordered, “or else you will not wake up.” Laying one stone in the grass, she dropped the load of plants onto its surface and spat into the middle of them. With the second stone, she began to grind them up into a poultice.

“Why?” Finder asked, straining to keep his eyes open. Looking for something to focus on, he turned to watch Marigold work. “What are you making?”

“Antitoxin,” Marigold replied, speaking around the stone in her mouth. Spitting it out, she took the rag and dipped it into the cool, clear river. Wringing the fabric out, she quickly pressed it into the poultice and then placed both poultice and rag against the wound in Finder’s side. While she kept pressure on the wound, she nevertheless breathed a sigh of relief as Finder hissed in pain. His side felt like it was being filled with thousands of tiny shards of ice, but… it felt soothing.

“Antitoxin… for what?” he asked, his cheek twitching as he winced in pain that bled over into blissful relief.

“Judging by how the wound was all puckered and red, even underneath all the blood, the axe that cut through your armor probably had starfall essence on it.” She smiled at him. “Luckily, starfall essence is quickly neutralized by dandelions and thistle. A little purslane helps keep most of the sting away while the antitoxin does its job.”

Finder chuckled to himself, earning a confused look from Marigold. “I’ve fought in more battles than I can rightly recall. I got gored by a spear when I was fourteen and was wearing half my guts on the outside. And to think I almost got killed by some damn poison.”

Marigold took a quick peek under the bandage. “Two inches closer to your flanks and you wouldn’t even have needed my antitoxin. The axe struck one of your ribs square.” She frowned at the wound. “I can’t say that it’s a good thing that he split your rib down to the marrow, but it’s better than it sliding between your ribs and clean into your heart.”

“Eh… could’ve been worse.”

Marigold simply gave him a look. “Yeah, that’s for damn sure.” Taking her hooves off of the bandage, she leaned back. “You’ll be fine. Just lie still for a bit and let the antitoxin do its work.”

“Believe me,” Finder muttered, “I’m not going anywhere.” After a brief moment of silence, he flicked his ears. “What about your children? Are they alright?”

Marigold positively beamed at him. “Yes they are! Lavender said that you cut her out and then stopped that unicorn from cutting Aspen apart.” She looked over her shoulder, her mane tumbling down her neck, and happily smiled. “They’re sitting by Lili… Lilac… and taking it easy for now. They’ve…” she paused, and the happiness fled her face. “They’ve had a long night.”

“I can imagine,” Finder murmured.

They remained there, silent, simply listening and waiting as the crickets chirped their sad songs into the night. Eventually, Marigold shuffled a little closer to Finder and lowered her head to his ear. “What’s up with your wife? I would’ve thought she’d have better control over herself. I’m sure she’s seen plenty of ponies lie before her with wounds worse than yours.”

Finder pursed his lips for a moment. He could see Rain’s silhouette against the backlight of Everfree, simply sitting next to the river and staring out across its expanse. “I think she had a flashback.” At Marigold’s raised eyebrow, he continued. “See, twenty-five years ago, Rain broke me out of a griffon prisoner of war camp. She was shepherding me away personally, because I was only fourteen and the youngest Cirran there, when a griffon snuck up on us. He tried to put a spear right through her neck from behind, but…” he paused, and Marigold looked at the long, white scar running the length of his left side, with its sickly flesh that refused to grow any fur. Finder simply shrugged. “But I was faster.”

“Why didn’t you just fly out?” the mare asked, cocking her head.

“You really don’t know how griffons treat their prisoners, do you?” he asked. There was a comforting smile on his lips, but it was hollow and empty. “You were lucky if you lasted two days.”

The merchant blinked. “Gods... how long were you there for?”

Finder shrugged. “Eight, nine days. It was mostly a blur of pain and agony punctuated by... by quick moments of painful alertness.” He shuddered against the ground and closed his eyes. It took him a second before he opened them again. “Regardless, I was in no condition to fly by the end of it all. None of us were.”

“Wow.” Marigold looked back over her shoulder at Iron Rain. “Will she be alright?”

“She’ll get over it in a few minutes,” Finder assured her. Placing a hoof against his side, he noted he wasn’t feeling much pain anymore. Now he was just sore. Even his exhaustion was gone; Marigold’s poultice must’ve taken most of the starfall out of his system. “How bad is her wound?”

Marigold took a quick glance at it and shrugged. “Doesn’t look like it hit bone. It should heal in time, but I think it’s too big to really heal completely. There’ll still be a small hole through it for the rest of her life. Will it affect her flying?” She shrugged again. “For now, yes. Later, probably not. She’ll get used to it.”

“That’s good,” Finder said. “She’s tough; she’ll be fine.” Reaching out with his legs, he tested his strength and shifted a little. “Am I good to get up?”

The flower merchant nodded and extended a hoof, helping to haul the centurion to his hooves. “Just keep it easy,” she warned him, checking to make sure that the bandage was still on tight. “That means no flying and no running for at least a full day’s rest. Trust me, you don’t want to reopen this thing, and you’ve lost a lot of blood as is.”

Finder nodded. “I’ll try to keep it easy. Thanks,” he said. Then he looked over Marigold’s shoulder to her children. “What are you going to do now?”

The flower merchant shrugged. “Gods only know. Probably go north like I said I was going to. At least there I won’t be hunted by these rebels for surviving.”

The centurion frowned. “You’ll never make it very far. One of the rebels got away, and I’m sure he’s telling his ‘mistress’ about what happened tonight. They’ll be looking for you, and your children can’t fly to speed things up. Besides, the north’s closed. There’s too many legions between here and the Union to get far.”

Marigold bit her lip. “Then what do I do?” she asked quietly. Finder could hear the desperation in her voice.

An idea came to him. “Come with us,” he said, smiling. Marigold actually backed up a step and held a hoof protectively in front of her chest. Finder matched her step and placed a hoof on her shoulder. “Take your children and come with us. We’ve got a house close to the castle, and Commander Hurricane’s only a stone’s throw away. You’ll be in the heart of the Legion and the most secure place in the world. Nothing can hurt you there.”

Marigold looked at her children and tried to steady her breathing. “I don’t know…”

But Finder knew exactly what she wanted to hear. “Your children will be safe, safer than they would be moving through the frontier. Besides,” Finder added with a smile, “this can’t be the end of our acquaintanceship, can it? You’re proven that you’re more than capable of handling yourself in dangerous situations. I know dozens of soldiers who’d kill to be able to move like you do around the battlefield.”

The flower merchant blushed and rubbed her opposite foreleg with a hoof. “Well, I’m hardly a fighter like you two. I can only keep them at a distance; I don’t know enough about proper swordfighting to actually go hoof to hoof with them. And sooner or later, I always get tired and slow down.” But she looked at Finder and smiled. “Regardless… I t-think I’ll take you up on that offer.”

Finder returned her smile. “I’m glad to hear it.” He looked back at her kids and nodded. “Take your children back home and get whatever you need ready. My wife and I will get you across the Choke tomorrow and get you moved into our house.”

Marigold laughed, and tears rolled down her cheeks. Extending her wings, she wrapped herself around Pathfinder in a hug. “Thank you, Finder. You’ve been so good to me… to us…” She sniffled back a tear. “I can’t remember the last time I saw a legionary and felt anything other than fear or hatred, but looking at you, I at least know that there are a few of you trying to make the slums a better place rather than quarantining us like we’re plague-ridden.”

Then they parted, and Marigold offered one last smile before moving to her children. The three kids went squealing towards her and happily bounded into her embrace. A soft grin on his lips, Finder turned back to his wife, who was still sitting by the river, and plodded over to her. His hooves made a soft swishing sound through the water as he moved to her side, where he sat next to her and draped a wing across her back.

“Better?” he asked, after letting the water murmur to them for a few seconds.

Rain gave a shaky nod of her head. “Yeah. Better now.” She turned to look at Finder, and her eyes were filled with disappointment. “I’m sorry. I… I can’t believe I broke on you like that. It’s just…” she sucked down a breath, and her shoulders trembled. “I saw you lying there, and there was so much blood, it… it looked like we were back at the camp, and I just froze. I… I don’t want to lose you.”

Finder nodded. “I know what you mean. Just relax. Marigold got me all patched up and I’m good as new. I even got her to come live with us.” Rain’s lips twitched into a smile, and Finder smiled right along with her. “Looks like Tempest’ll finally have somepony else his age to play with. Should be fun.”

“Should be fun,” Rain agreed. “So… what next?”

Finder sighed and rubbed a hoof through his mane. “Well, next I figure we should try the tunnels under Everfree. I have a feeling that if the rebels were going to hide Typhoon anywhere, they’d do it there. Once we’re rested up, and my wound’s all scarred over, I’ll have Marigold take us down that way.”

That seemed to make Rain smile even wider, and she gently nudged Pathfinder’s shoulder. “Stop getting scars, damn it. You’re already sexy enough.”

Finder shrugged. “One can never be too sexy for his wife.”

The two ponies grinned at each other, and their quiet laughter carried out over the gentle river and into the early morning twilight.

The four ponies—or rather, three ponies and one thestral—sat at the table underneath the Mountain of Dawn. Celestia and Luna hadn’t said a word apart from insisting that the four of them move to the table to discuss matters further, and the thestral by the name of Seventh Brother seemed to be more interested in trying to stare down Hurricane than paying attention to either alicorn in the room. Hurricane for his part refused to budge, and he met the thestral unicorn’s stare with his own harsh and steely glare.

Eventually, it was Luna who broke the silence. “Seventh Brother,” she began, and the thestral’s attention immediately shifted to her. “Our guest claims that you took something from Everfree a few days ago. Perhaps you would like to explain your actions to me?”

Seventh Brother shrugged. “I was acting on behalf of your best interests, Mistress.”

“So you did take it,” Hurricane said, leaning forward.

“Yes, yes I did,” the thestral answered, and Hurricane swore the creature flashed him a smug smile through his fanged teeth. “And it just proves that not even Star Swirl could keep something as powerful as the Orb safe from those who really wanted to take it.”

“While I understand your concerns regarding Electrum’s Orb, I don’t see what they have to do with us,” Celestia said. “Nopony knows where we live, apart from Hurricane, who tracked you down personally.”

Seventh Brother turned bored eyes to Celestia. “And why do you think I took the Orb? You know what it does. Simply say a pony’s name, and you’ll see where they are and what they’re doing. No wards have ever been able to silence its magic; it always finds some way to show the user what they want to know. King Electrum was… crafty like that.” He turned back to Luna and bowed his head, his smooth and curved horn almost touching the table. “You can see why I didn’t want the Equestrians to have it in their care, Mistress.”

“Because one day they might’ve gone looking for us.” It wasn’t so much a question as it was Luna deducing her thestral’s motives. She shrugged her wings and turned back to Hurricane. “And you would have, wouldn’t you?”

Hurricane shook his head. “I had no reason to; I didn’t even know the thing existed until a few days ago.”

“But perhaps someday, somepony else would,” Luna insisted. She turned to Seventh Brother and nodded. “I commend you for your actions, but next time you will inform me of your intentions before meddling in the affairs of Equestria on your own.”

“Of course, Mistress,” Seventh Brother said, bowing. Luna waved her wing in dismissal, and Seventh Brother stood up and disappeared out the door. Hurricane watched him go, frowning and rubbing his chin. To say that something about the thestral rubbed him the wrong way was an understatement.

They sat in silence for a moment, before Hurricane placed his hooves on the table and turned to Luna. “So, my Lady, will you return the Orb to me so I can return to my family and duties?”

Luna and Celestia looked at each other, and Luna frowned. “I’m afraid Seventh Brother may have had a point,” the younger alicorn said. “While I trust that Star Swirl wouldn’t dream of searching for us, there may come a day when others that follow in his hoofsteps will. We cannot allow others to find us; our duties here are much too important, and we have no desire to meddle in your affairs.”

“Others may have searched for us in the past as well,” Celestia added, “but they could never reach us, for we were too far away from the Diamond Kingdom, and no unicorn had ever set eyes on the Mountain of Dawn before. It’s much better for us to remain here, with the Orb safely held in our possession.”

Hurricane took a breath and stared at his hooves. “My Ladies… do you think that Equestria won’t discover you sooner or later?”

The sisters shared a look, and Luna opened her mouth to speak. “We—”

“Equestria is growing and expanding,” Hurricane insisted, cutting her off. “I know for a fact that you know about the colonia about two dozen miles south of here. Once we securing our footing, settlers are going to expand in every direction from Everfree and Platinum’s Landing. Everypony knows about the Mountain of Dawn, and I know I’ve heard unicorn priests and ministers claiming that the gods live here.” He shrugged and leaned back. “It only makes sense, considering it is the tallest mountain anypony has ever seen.”

“What are you saying?” Celestia asked, her voice gentle but not without caution.

Hurricane sighed and tapped his hoof against the table. “What I’m saying is that it’s only a matter of time before somepony else finds you here. And when they do, I can’t guarantee that they’ll keep their lips shut about what they saw like I will.” He looked into the distance, remembering the chasm he crossed to reach the room he was in. “You stay here because you want to protect ponies from the literal gates of Hell. What are you going to do when others start going here? Imprison them so they won’t tell others? Kill them?”

“I…” Celestia began, but she found she had no answer for Hurricane. She looked to Luna to help, but Luna was only glowering at Hurricane.

“And just what would you have us do, Commander?” Luna asked, her eyes narrowing at the pegasus soldier.

“Come with me,” Hurricane said, tapping his hooves together. Luna looked appalled, but he raised a hoof before her. “My Ladies, like I said, you won’t be able to keep ponies away from this place forever. But what you can do is come back with me and make yourselves known to all of Equestria so they won’t come looking for you. Live with us in Everfree, and you can seal these tunnels to everypony forever. Besides,” he added with a slight smile, “you can simply dismiss any ideas that you two lived here, and Equestrians won’t go digging through the Mountain of Dawn for proof.”

Luna looked to Celestia, her face shrouded in skepticism. “I don’t know, Tia…”

“If that’s not enough for you, then here’s this,” Hurricane said, leaning forward and placing his elbows on the table. “We’re falling apart out there. Equestria? Our dreams of cooperation and interracial unity? It’s all coming to pieces. We’ve lasted for five years, but I don’t think we’ll make it five more.” He grunted and leaned back, shaking his head. “Queen Platinum’s husband was assassinated early this year, around the time of our Hearth’s Warming celebration, and there’ve been numerous riots ever since. They’ve only been getting worse and worse, and I’ve heard reports of rebel elements popping up in the slums. We’re going to have a civil war on our hooves soon enough, and even if we win, Equestria’s still going to fracture back into its separate races.”

Then the praetorian commander placed his hooves on the table and bowed his head towards Celestia. “Please, Celeste. You’ve said that you and Lūn once tried to unite our three races together, but you failed. Well, we’re together now… and we need your help if we’re going to stay that way.” He raised his head and looked her in the eyes, and Celestia couldn’t help but notice the desperation in them. “We struggled for five years and came as far as we could, but we can’t finish the job ourselves. We need your help. Please... the fate of Equestria... it’s in your hooves.”