Ava glared hatefully at the murder weapon that Half handed her. It was indeed a Die Leucht Steel dagger, the same they left pinning Star Swirl’s hat several months ago. “Damn. Too late, again. Great, now what’s the plan?” Ava asked of the two officers.

“Well, with the death of the mayor, I’m afraid that means all of the city is now under full military lockdown. I’m stuck doing both my own work and the mayor’s work. Half here is taking most of my normal duties however, including handling any mercenary work. Colonel, pay the mare.” Full Sail idly dismissed, getting back to frantically dealing with his paperwork and shooing them out the door with a hand. “You go on and get some rest, I’ll have some more work for you in the morning.”

“Uh...what about me?” Fenelia asked in confusion.

“I’m afraid milady, that by now the gate is closed for the night, no exceptions save for bringing civilians in during a siege.” Colonel Half Sail informed the seapony.

“Damn, so I’m stuck foalsitting this bitch all night.” Ava grumbled, getting Fen to pout, not denying it as Ava put the dagger down on Full’s desk.

“Afraid so miss. Follow me, I’ll pay you for the job you did, then I’m afraid you’ll have to find an inn, with a guard escort. We are entering a full curfew-enforced lockdown.” Half informed as Ava scooped Fen back into a carry, and followed Half downstairs to a smaller office that she’d passed without thought a few times already. “Here you are, 500 bits for a job well done.”

“Wow, thanks! That can get me a week in a pricy inn, a month in a cheap one.” Ava beamed, taking the hefty sack of gold coins, which Fen grabbed and looked into with curiosity.

“You use metal disks for money? We use quartz-encrusted shells we call clams.” Fenelia stated with interest as she looked at a bit closely.

“Yes, well, I’d gladly escort you two ladies, but I’m afraid the Admiral wasn’t lying when he said I had to pick up most of his original work with these circumstances. You might catch a guard clocking out for the night if you head down around now.” Half helpfully informed, and Ava nodded thankfully as she continued to carry Fen and headed down the tower again.

“She’s nice, that blue one.” Fen commented, and Ava sighed.

“He, Fen. He’s a male.” Ava informed tiredly.

“Argh! You surfacers are so weird!” Fen complained while scratching her scalp in frustration.

“Again, shoe on the other hoof.” Ava blandly repeated from earlier.

“And again, what is a hoof?” Fen demanded.

“It’s these magical things on the ends of our extra limbs.” Ava stopped on the stairs and lifted a leg up into the air, demonstrating her unnatural flexibility.

“So that’s what you call the ends of your legs?” Fen asked before Ava started heading back down again.

“You know what legs are, but not hooves?” Ava asked skeptically.

“We have crabs in the ocean you know.” Fen huffed.

“Whoa...this is new.” The rolling deep voice perked Ava up faster than a double-shot espresso, and she looked over the ground floor/bridge of the twin towers to see Jet signing out of his shift at the work board next to the stairs.

“Whoa….” Fen cooed in awe as she looked up at Jet like he was a work of art. “Y-you’re a male?”

“Um...yes? Aren’t you?” Jet asked her, making her ears wilt in realization.

“Um...no.” Seeing Jet, a far-cry from any male or even female Fen could draw parallels to, threw her off and made her uncomfortable.

“Seaponies are weird. Their females are essentially males, their males are definitely females. But they’re also both basically females.” Ava shrugged, and Jet rubbed his helmet in befuddlement.

“That’s...hard to wrap the head around. Well, anyway...are our plans for the night canceled?” Jet asked, and Ava drew herself up just a bit taller.

“Not a chance. She can join in. Doesn’t have anywhere else to be.” Ava declared, and the stallion quirked his head at an angle, looking at Fen curiously, the petite and usually boisterous mare squirming nervously under his scrutiny.

“Hm...might be interesting. Alright, you need an escort anyhow. The Wretched Wreck is also an inn, so at least you won’t need to leave once there.” Jet informed as he moved towards the door, Ava and Fen following.

“You’re sure a room will be available?” Ava asked as they exited into the cold night. The Crystal Heart locking the Empire in perpetual spring or not, Ruby Ridge was by an arctic ocean and the Heart didn’t stop water in masses like rivers or ponds, so there was no hope of it preventing the ocean from chilling things a bit.

“Pfft, that dive? It’ll have a few rooms free, especially since it’s literally tucked into the south crescent of the city by the Southpoint Lighthouse.” Jet informed as he nodded to other passing guards.

“How can you dive on land? Do you surfacers swim through the ground?” Fenelia asked in perplexed amazement, getting Jet to chuckle and Ava to snicker.

“Only Diamond Dogs have that precious ability. Trust me, if we crystal ponies could do that, we’d never have bothered building cities above ground.” Jet claimed, and this caught Ava’s attention, she’d read up and heard about diamond dogs, but she’d never actually seen one she could remember, blast her faulty Recall.

“What are diamond dogs?” Fen asked in curiosity, her eyes roaming over the dark city that was only illuminated by glowing crystal lamps at every street corner and patrolling guards with crystal lanterns, her seapony eyes letting her see everything as clear as day since they were meant to sea in the depths of the ocean. “Your architecture is astoundin’. I’ve not seen buildin’s this solid since I visited the capital city as a wee lass.”

“Don’t your people have architects?” Jet asked in curiosity, and Fen nodded.

“Oh sure, but they all stick to the capital, or other officially instated cities. Wee little outposts like my home get by on hand-crafted structures from what we can scav. Funny thing that, we frontier ponies gotta get by, but caravans still come out to buy our salvage for the cities.” Fen rolled her eyes. “I think the big cities forget all their rare comforts like wood or metals come from us. Leave us to scrounge for what we can get.”

“That’s terrible! What sort of dystopian society do your people have that entire towns are just left to rot?” Jet demanded out of an impressive amount of outrage, and Fen scoffed in agreeing annoyance.

“Only the well-off or rich ponies live in the cities. Your not livin’ in a city? Tough luck. Best grab everything of use or end up seafood. I know how to wield a harpoon like ya wouldn’t believe thanks to our way of life. My first kill was at the tender age of 15. Ran a blue shark through the eye. Ate well for days.” Fen reminisced oddly fondly, Jet just shook his head.

“Well, to hell with that. If it could work out, I think ponies here at least would be willing to see how we could get along. We’ve got a whole cove your town could move to.” Jet suggested, and Fen perked up quite a bit.

“That’s...a right neighborly thin’ of ya to say….” Fen sounded at a loss for words, and Jet shrugged.

“Ponies here are good folk. It’s why we guards are so adamant about protecting it, duty aside.” Jet shrugged off, and Ava, seeing an opening, interjected.

“Uh, Jet, we’ve been walking for a while. Where’s this place?” Ava asked, and Jet looked around and stopped, sheepishly rubbing his helmet.

“Ah, sorry. We’ve passed it, we’re almost to the lighthouse instead by this point.” Jet gestured up, and Ava looked up at the ruby lighthouse, a bright white beam sweeping over the water in a matched doppler with it’s sister lighthouse to the north.

“Um...is somepony supposed to be climbin’ the outside of it?” Fen asked, getting both Jet’s and Ava’s instant attention.

“What do they look like? Where on the lighthouse?” Jet demanded as the trio began moving quickly towards it.

“U-um...they have these weird...flippers, on their back and-they’re swimmin’ now! They’re swimmin’ in the air with their back flippers! That’s so amazin’!” Fen gushed, and Ava put a finger to her muzzle to shush her, and Ava changed her eyes to seapony eyes, which let her see to her fear an outline in the night sky.

“Griffin! Sound the alarm!” Ava shouted, and Jet grabbed a crystal horn from his waist, and blew into it, the loud drone echoed through the night. “Fen, stay here with Jet.” Ava set Fenelia on the ground, and she rapidly transformed into a pure dragoness, no time for fancy things. Up here though, once she got dragon eyes, making out the interloper was easier since she could also see their heat signature if she focused on her thermal vision.

When Jet sounded the alarm, the griffin decided to bugger off, but Ava flew after them in a rush. {W-wha? What’s going on?} Lyra grumbled, having fell asleep at some point, she seemed a more naturally lazy mare than the others Ava has had in her so far.

‘We’re chasing a Die Leucht operative who just did something to the lighthouse!’ Ava rapidly brought Lyra up to speed as she dove after the griffin, who was trying to dive down the cliff and out to sea, but Ava, with a less urgent need for self-preservation, dive-bombed the griffin so hard she heard something snap when she impacted, causing the target to screech in pain before they hit the ocean, which felt like smacking into solid concrete.

Ava quickly turned into her seapony form, grabbing the enemy in the process, and swam up to the surface, forcing the griffin to have their head above water. “What did you do?!”

“*cough, cough* Fick dich!” The male griffin replied, trying to claw her eyes out, and in response she dunked him under, forcing him to lose air and then let him back up.

“Let’s try this again! What did you do to the lighthouse!” Ava demanded, ignoring his claws scratching at her scales. Seaponies had tough scales for the depths, this was nothing.

“*cough, cough, hack* Sprengstoffe setzen….” Ava lunged and her maw of sharp teeth ripped the saboteur's trachea out, and she proceeded to viciously bite through his whole neck with jaw strength only a predator of the sea or dragon could muster, before rapidly absorbing his body into her mass.

{He said he set explosives! We’ve gotta tell the guards!} Lyra replied with shock, having learned some rudimentary Germane when in school, which was why Ava was so quick to execute him.

‘Hold on, gonna try some dynamic shifting!’ Ava dove down several feet, and then did a sharp U-turn and leapt up out of the water, turning into a dragoness during the ascent, and flapped her wings harshly against the water still clinging to her to rise up the cliff, seeing guards had already stormed the lighthouse, but having been told of the explosives, saw they were set around the center of the exterior, so those guards would all die in vain if she didn’t act quick.

Ava flew straight for them, heedless of caution as she flew around in a circle, ripping the disturbingly advanced shaped charges from the ruby with the distinctive sound of ripping off adhesive. The ticking sound of an egg-timer coming from each of them telling her she had only minutes to seconds to get this done. After doing a last sweep with her eyes, Ava flung the demolitions explosives out into the sea, and went blind when they exploded in a chain detonation that smacked her so hard with a wave of heat that she tumbled head over tail until she crashed in an unnatural heap on the cobblestone street below.

“Ava!” She heard through the ringing in her ears, and groaned as she melted into a puddle, and reformed into her preferred crystal pony body, rubbing her neck as Jet, carrying Fen, rushed up to her and he helped her up. “That was quick thinking and acting miss. You’ve just saved several guards and the lighthouse.” Jet informed, only for a second series of explosions to ring out, this time coupled with the crunching of failing superstructure, and everypony looked north in horror to see Northpoint Lighthouse crumble and fall into the cove, facing Southpoint.

It hit the water with a further deafening impact, and being large enough, blocked half of the entrance to the cove, revealing the full purpose of Die Leucht’s sabotage. Had Ava not succeeded just now, Ruby Ridge’s cove would’ve been blocked, leaving any allied ships unable to leave, or enter the natural protective barrier of the massive cove. Not to mention without the lighthouses, the city would’ve been impossible to find at night for said allies currently all out on patrol.

“Oh no….” Ava groaned, and several of the guards in the area began belting out patterned horn calls, which other horns across the city replied with their own horn calls in differing patterns. Soon, at least a whole squad of new guards showed up, all wielding crossbows and entering the lighthouse.

“C’mon, let’s get to the Wreck...I need a drink.” Jet sighed as he held Fen with his right arm, cradling her as she wrapped her arms around his neck, making her blush despite all the frantic excitement, and looped his left arm under Ava’s right arm, pulling her away from the important structure she’d just saved. “And I figure you do too.”

[$]

The Wretched Wreck, was an apt name. It seemed some inspired idiot tried to build a small schooner up on top of the cliff, only to realize far too late there was no way to get it down to the water. It was propped up on permanent struts with the starboard side facing the wall and the port side facing the street, two buildings of the usual construction were built as close as possible to it, but the bow was left with plenty of clearance for the admittedly beautiful bowsprit of, ironically, a seapony. Funnier was that it was of a male seapony, which was obviously then thought as the female.

At some point since it’s unfortunate construction, someone had the enterprising idea to turn it into a tavern and inn, which was clearly a success since despite all the action, it was full of off-duty guards, who were all looking towards Northpoint from the railings and windows in a mixture of anger and worry. Only possible since the Wreck was at the very edge of Southpoint and buildings were scarce closer to the lighthouse.

“Can’t believe this….”

“Those bastards!”

“It’ll take years to replace that and dredge the cove….”

Ava overheard several guards all mumble and grumble as her group arrived up the gangplank, idly noting an utterly ancient sign hanging on the left side of the gangplank on the railing.

*The Wretched Wreck. Est.*

For some reason, the year the establishment opened was broken off by some sort of impact. Considering how weathered the landlocked schooner was despite clearly being well cared for, it might be well over a couple hundred years old, especially since it likely predated the very walls and buildings around it.

Considering the direction they came from and both her and Fen’s presence in the group, several guards approached, but Ava was not in the mood to mingle for once, and Jet warded them all off with apologies and an insistence that the two ladies get a room for the night before they decide if they want any company.

Ava approached the stallion running the bar surrounding the entrance to the captain’s cabin, weaving around patrons and tables. “Biggest room you have.” Ava requested, fishing for the fresh bag of bits she’d earned today.

“Biggest eh?” The grizzled old sailor who owned the establishment mumbled as he looked between her and Jet, as well as Fen in his arms, who was relaxing against his shoulder, her eyes closed as she dozed. “Hmph, been awhile since I’ve seen a seapony. I’ll give ya a room with a bath so she don’t dry up.” He turned around to a pegboard with several keys, and he picked on towards the top. “16 bits a night.”

“Nice price.” Ava perked up slightly at such a cheap price for a room with a bath, and paid him before taking the key.

“Just remember the key won’t leave the Wreck, if you forget, might tear a hole in your pocket.” The owner warned. Clearly some ponies had forgotten and got damaged clothes or bags for their trouble.

“Got it.” Ava held onto the key, and guided Jet and Fen down the stairs into the midship, looking at the divided rooms all along the large hall to find her room, #3. “You two get in here, wake up Fen, for all the trouble you’ve caused, you’re gonna make this fun.” Ava demanded, making Jet realize this wasn’t going to involve any foreplay, and Fen blinked in confusion as she woke up as Jet entered the door.

“Wha?” The door closed.

Author's Notes:

So, be level with me here.

Next chapter, do you want kinky, unusual, fetishy clop?

Or do you want to gloss it over for substance?