“Damn it, where is he?” I asked myself. It was after the opening of the museum and everyone was waiting for the dinner to begin. And Hurricane hadn’t shown up to ruin the opening.

“Patience, Maxine. All good things to those who wait,” GIlgamesh replied quietly from the seat next to her. “Hastiness does not suit you.”

“Sorry, my nerves are getting to me.” I took a deep breath and slowly let it out, doing so several more times until I was calmed a bit. “I’ve waited too long for this day, but I can wait a few minutes more I think.”

“Indeed. Now enjoy the festivities, but don’t eat all the food and alcohol just yet. They’ll taste even better after his defeat.”

“Yeah, but by then there’s going to be bodies lying around, injured guards, hurt civilians.... It won’t be a party afterwards,” I said as I looked dejectedly at my basilisk eye soup.

“Good thing I’m here to keep that to an absolute minimum,” he replied, taking a sip of tea.

“Last minute change of plans though. I’m not going to rewind. I’m going to go after Hurricane as soon as he’s doing his evil laugh.”

“... Kinda wish you told me that, but I can still adjust. Also, is he even the evil laugh type? I would assume in order to do what he’s done so far he’d have to be more of a No Nonsense Nemesis.”

“Didn’t mean it literally,” I said as I took a bite of my soup.

“Ah,” he said simply before taking another sip of his soup. “So, Sol and Mun got the fillies covered?”

I looked down at Rainbow sitting in my lap, giving her a small taste of my dinner. “Light and Golden, yes. I am more than capable of protecting a foal and launching an assault at the same time.”

“Of course, but a good leader knows when to rely on others, even if they could do the job better than themselves. And speaking of others, what about the… turning we have planned?”

“Yes. we’ll give them a chance to help us. If they don’t take it, I don’t care how many survive but they will be given another chance before they are executed.”

“I suppose that’s as magnanimous as can be expected of you, all things considered.”

“I’d rather go back in time and kill him in that explosion that freed him than go through this, that way they wouldn’t have to die needlessly,” I said, letting Rainbow eat the rest of my soup.

“You can’t fix everything, Max. No matter how much you wish you could. Besides, I’m sure as one familiar with Time you’d be wary of butterfly effects. Just too many things to consider.”

“Yeah.... Great, now you have me depressed.” I gave him a playful pout and said, “I just wish it was like two days ago~.”

He smirked back for a moment. “Some things in life are bad. They can really make you mad. Other things just make you swear and curse. When you’re chewing on life’s gristle, don’t grumble, give a whistle, and this’ll help things turn out for the best. And…”

I sighed and shook my head at my innuendo going over his head. “Always look on the bright side of life, I know.”

“Just don’t forget it,” he said with a more genuine smile.

“I guess you're mind isn’t dirty enough for my innuendos.” I tried to say, a powerful explosion interrupting me, throwing ponies from their seat on the other side of the room near the door. I immediately stood up as I recognized the laughter that followed and my anger returned in force.

“HURRICANE!!!!!” I shouted, slowing time and jumping right in front of him, still cradling Rainbow in my arm. “You.... You’re not leaving here without chains!”

He laughed again and said, “You think mere chains will hold me?”

I glanced around at the pegasi that accompanied him and remembered the plan. “Followers of Hurricane, I have a deal that you might be interested in. Join me and you shall be given the chance to live peacefully. But stay with him and the only peace you will know will be death. I care not of your past transgressions, only Hurricane.” I gave the guards a signal and the ones with wings shed their disguises, eliciting a gasp from those not in the know. “Your brothers and sisters that didn’t join your murderous leader have stayed hidden this long, but no more. The third pony tribe will be recognized again.”

“TRAITORS!” Hurricane shouted. “YOU WOULD DARE JOIN THEM!? THOSE WHO HAVE KEPT US FROM WHAT IS RIGHTFULLY OURS FOR SO LONG!? YOU WOULD DISCARD YOUR PRIDE AS PEGASI FOR THE ACCEPTANCE OF THIS WITCH AND THESE LESSER BEINGS!?”

“Your pride is why we’ve been ostracized in the first place!” one of the guards shot back. “Your actions are why we’ve had to hide or die for so long!”

Hurricane replied by quickly grabbing a spear off one of his subordinates and hurling it the guard with almost inequine speed and accuracy, but the weapon stopped mere inches from his face, held by an invisible force. It then flew over to Gilgamesh, who effortlessly crushed it into a ball of metal with his bare hands.

“Kage bushin no justsu,” he said quietly. Several puffs of smoke later, the intruding pegasi were surrounded by Gilgamesh clones. “A ruler who can only command by fear is nothing more than a glorified playground bully. Those of you who obey him out of terror, do not let him intimidate you. Without you behind him, he is nothing more than a simple pony. Your safety will be ensured by the crown.”

I facepalmed and said, “Gilgy, he’s called a Commander for a reason. He bested both Celestia and Luna at the same time and won.”

“You could’ve mentioned that before,” he snapped back. “But still, I’ve done the same, so no big deal.”

I lowered my hand and fixed Hurricane with a death glare. “But he will not beat me.”

A black cat half the size of Hurricane with a white paw walked into view then with about thirty other, bigger cats following suit. All of the newcomers had collars studded with the teeth of dogs and cats, some even had them on their claws like their leader.

Hurricane turned his head to look at the cat and, smirking, said, “Ah, so you finally show up.”

“Dem some big ass cats,” Gilgamesh muttered before he and all his clones unclipped his naginata. “Always was more of a dog person. Which reminds me,” he began before sticking two fingers into his mouth and whistling. From behind the group of felines popped out a lion sized green canine, hunched over and ready to pounce. “I wonder how well you’ll do against Enkidu?”

Hurricane chuckled and said, “BloodClan! Kill them all.”

I tried to hide my giggling behind my hand as none of the cats moved a muscle, causing Hurricane to turn around and snarl, “I said attack! Can’t you imbeciles understand me!?”

“Oh yeah, insult your allies. Great strategy there, Sun Tzu,” Gilgamesh snarked.

“You think you’re in control?” the black cat meowed quietly, looking calmly at the pony beside him. “You agreed we would be partners, just like Tigerstar.”

The cat tilted his head to the side. “But you are the bigger fool,” he meowed right before he shoved Hurricane over, exposing his underside.

Scourge lifted his right paw and extended his claws, holding Hurricane down with his left as he sunk his claws into the pony’s privates. He slowly dragged his claws through flesh and bone, ripping Hurricane’s throat out from the bottom in a gory finish.

“Whoa. Didn’t see that coming,” Gilgamesh muttered, surprisingly calm for what he just witnessed.

I sighed in disappointment and said, “I should’ve. He did it in the books, so why would he be any different here?” I looked to the Pegasi again. “You have nothing that is forcing you to fight now. Please, surrender peacefully.”

“Oh, but they do,” Scourge meowed, turning to me. “I am.”

“You control your cats, not us!” a pegasus said before they all ran over to Gilgamesh and hid behind his clones.

“I guess prey is always just prey and not worth fighti-”

The next instant Scourge was a feline pincushion, the multiple Gilgamesh’s having all stabbed him simultaneously. “I’m sorry, I’m sure you were saying something, but all I could hear was ‘I’m a pompous prick! Someone please kill me! God I can’t stop talking, won’t someone please shut me up?’”

“Y-you....” Scourge meowed before his head slumped.

“Scourge is dead!” A huge black and white tom yowled before turning and running away, the rest of BloodClan following him.

“Well, can’t say that was entirely unexpected,” Gilgamesh replied calmly, withdrawing his weapons and dispersing his clones. “Want Enkidu and I to hunt them down?”

“No, there’s a chance they’ll join the other Clans in the Everfree. I won’t go after them unless they force my hand,” I said as I walked over to Hurricane’s body and nudged him with a foot. “Damn it, I had a good punishment all laid out for him too. Oh well.”

“Considering you were going all ‘if you want to kill him, you have to kill me first,’ you’re taking this surprisingly well.”

“He was killed by his own stupidity. I am a bit peeved that he took his own life, but I told myself that I wouldn’t interfere when he hurt himself.” I snapped my fingers and a guard approached hesitantly.

“Dump these two bodies somewhere outside of the city, I don’t care where as long as it isn’t near a road or trail,” I told him, walking toward the pegasi once I was finished.

“Normally I’d have a problem with you disrespecting the dead, even your enemies, but I think I’ll make an exception for these two pricks,” Gilgamesh quipped before following me and whistling for Enkidu to come to his side.

“If you want to bury them, go ahead. I’m not responsible for their deaths, so I don’t feel the need to give them a grave.” I then said to the pegasi, “I’m not so naive as to think that all of you were against Hurricane’s ideals. That being said, with your Commander dead, you have little in the way of choice. Come with me and you will all be given a place in Equestria. If you wish for peace, I promise you will have it.”

“How can we believe you? You don’t really expect us to believe you don’t hold any grudges against us for what we did?” one of them asked suspiciously.

“Then leave. No one’s holding you here, you can go back to hiding if you want. But if you attack or harm even a single pony, you’ll be hunted down and killed like animals.”

The pegasus flinched, but held her ground. “...You can promise us safety from persecution? You will protect us like any of your other subjects?”

“I will do my best to protect you, but I can do next to nothing about persecution. It isn’t my place to force someone to accept something,” I said, trying my best to stay standing in front of the crowd. Dammit, why is this coming back now of all times?

The mare turned to look at her kinsponies, as she had just unexpectedly become the leader of the group. Some looked expectantly to her, like foals ready to be told that they could go to the candy store. Others looked at her with a mixed expression of anger and resignation. The mare finally sighed and turned back to me. “At least you aren’t making promises you can’t keep. We accept.”

“Then you’ll be coming with me to pick up the necessary paperwork to integrate all of the pegasi here and you’ll act as their representative, miss...”

“Frostfall. I’ll accept the responsibility.”

With that, I nodded and motioned for her to follow.

“So, finally ready to start moving on?” Gilgamesh asked. “After all, you’ve got someone waiting for you. Just don’t be surprised if it’s been longer for him than it was for you.”

“Yeah. You know, I’m not as opposed to the idea as I would’ve thought before Lance showed up,” I said. “Maybe I could give him one of the immortalities I have. That way we don’t have to worry about him dying from old age.”

“Wait, you can do that?”

“Yeah, I can move Time from one thing to another or from myself to someone else.”

“I think that’s something you want to keep a lid on. For the moment, let’s just get this legal stuff out of they and figure out how you’re going to tell everyone about the situation.”

Hours later, a body washed up onto the bank of the river, cold and unmoving. Suddenly, it gasped and coughed up blood and water. Once its lungs were clear it meowed, “How? Nevermind, that piece of rat dung will pay!”

The body picked itself up, only to fall, curse, and try again. It tried until it was standing, and then started to walk into the forest in front of it. “I’ll kill that piece of carrion, or my name isn’t Scourge, leader of BloodClan!”