"...into the fire."

Dashie and I armored up, put our helmets on and Dashie zipped up his Stable suit. I reloaded my pistols and the shotgun. We exited Haven shortly before noon, according to my Pipbuck.

"So, that's a nice piece ya got there." Dashie glanced to the shotgun I'd picked up.

I drew it from its sling, holding it up. "It's an Ironshod Firearms Model 9. Somepony removed the magazine well and replaced it with a trio of rotating underbarrel tubes. Probably a unicorn." I shrugged and returned it to my side. "Probably ought to name it. Firefly's Fury, whatcha think?"

Dashie sighed. "Sure thing, boss." He rolled his eyes. "So, did you notice the barding Frosty was wearing?"

"Who?"

"The security mare from the mayor's office."

Oh! Her.

I nodded.

"Yeah, her. Her barding looked like Stable barding."

"Wait, what?"

"You didn't notice?"

"No, I was too busy having a rifle put in my face."

Dashie shrugged. "Yeah, alright... Stable barding, and a Pipbuck."

I nodded. "I noticed the Pipbuck. Stable 30 isn't the only place you can get a Pipbuck, though."

Dashie shook his head. "It was in Security lockdown." I raised my eyebrow at him. "I got a glance at it and the screen was locked. She looks too young to be part of the last team, though..."

"Oh!" That triggered me remembering the gunstore mare's comments. "That's 'cause she isn't! They stopped here after exiting the Stable, asked some questions and left. Then, a few months later, one of them came back. She took over running defenses for the town and had a foal... then she died a couple years ago." I frowned. "...aaand that's all I know."

One end of Dashie's muzzle curled down. "Where'd you get that intel?"

"The mare that sold me Firefly's Fury told me." Dashie sighed. "Yes, I'm going to call it that."

"And you're sure that intel is reliable?"

I considered, then shrugged. "I can't confirm, but I think it's reliable."

"Alrighty then... When we get back to Haven, we ask Frosty about it?" I nodded. "So, Firefly... I gotta ask."

Whenever he uses my actual name, I get concerned. "Are you jealous?" He tossed me his usual, smug look.

"Pardon?"

"About the mare last night." I blinked. My first reaction was to burst out laughing and say I didn't care about who he slept with, but that sounded... insensitive.

"Ah... no. You're a big colt and you're free to sleep with whoever you want."

Dashie smirked at me. "You didn't answer my question." I imagined that, if he were a pegasus, he'd be rolling around in the sky above me with a grin the size of Manehatten.

No, I didn't.

I sighed. "No, Dashie, I'm not jealous. I care about you, but you're like the big brother I never had." Something in his cheek twitched at that. That's twice in two days. I wonder... but I don't have time for this. "You relationships are your life, I don't mind what you do as long as you do your job."

He sighed. "Understood, boss."

Did I just miss something?

After about an hour's trot through boggy terrain, we reached a hill overlooking Deathcon.

A huge military complex spanning several acres, I'm sure it had been impressive once upon a time. A large reinforced concrete wall surrounded the base, and infrequent patches of chainlink fence survived by the wall. In the northern corner of the base there sat one large balefire crater. A second lay in the south center of the base, just like Sky Chaser had said. I couldn't see inside the northern one from here, but, based on everything Sky had said, I was sure that would be where the alicorns were. The northern section of the base consisted of a docking yard adjacent to a river that snaked off east-west. A couple of partially sunk ships were visible. Ideas for restoring them crossed the back of my mind, but I pushed them aside. The western half of the base consisted of hardened buildings surrounding a large octagonal shaped building. The eastern half consisted of what I imagined were launch silos for balefire missiles.

We spent a moment plotting a course through the base from the hill before we set off. Just after we set off with a distinctive fwash sound, a pair of purple alicorns appeared in front of us. Dashie and I drew our weapons as we backtrotted, before lowering them as we realized they were friendly alicorns, or at least, as friendly as the Goddess ever is.

"GREETINGS, PONIES OF STABLE THIRTY." I thought I saw a sly smirk on their muzzles at our reactions.

"THE GODDESS REQUIRES YOUR ASSISTANCE," Drone One boomed.

"YOU WILL ASSIST US," Drone Two continued Drone One's thoughts.

I glanced to Dashie, who shrugged. "Assistance with what?"

"WE MUST OBSERVE SOMEPONY," Drone One spoke to us with an annoyingly haughty and superior look.

"Are you going to elaborate on who we're spying on?"

"WE WILL NOT." Drone Two boomed in the least helpful way possible.

Well, two can play at this game.

"No, we won't help you. Not until you tell us who we're spying on."

After a long and irritating discussion that reminded me uncomfortably of Stable council discussions, we ended up learning that they were also here to spy on the other alicorns/

The Goddess drones carefully danced around not admitting they were rogue alicorns, which all-but-confirmed they were, in fact, not a part of the Goddess.

Intriguing.

After perhaps a half hour of picking through the base, we arrived at the edge of the crater and ducked down by some concrete outcroppings. There were perhaps two dozen alicorns inside the crater. Frolicking, idling. There were no guards that I could see. A pair teleported off somewhere. A minute later, another pair teleported in and went over to a cluster of alicorns. The wind direction shifted and their voices came towards us, but too muted for us to pick out more than occasional words.

One voice came through over the babble of the rest, louder. "Sisters, we are being observed."

Oh crap.

One of them pointed in our direction and most of the alicorns turned to look at us.

...

And then the world in front of me changed.

I felt light.

Long-forgotten memories of when I was a foal crossed my mind.

I tasted purple.

Then... darkness.

Oh shit.

I watched Firefly collapse. For a mere second, I froze up. Then I rose to my hooves with a defiant growl and bit down on the trigger for my battle saddle, sending several clouds of steel pellets into the crater. None of them hit anything moving - not the point - but it made them panic. I smirked as I saw them running around. A few of them teleported off. A nearer double fwash suggested the Goddess had abandoned us, and a glance where they had been confirmed it.

Good, good. This day just keeps getting better.

I fired another burst to keep them scared before leaning down to bite Firefly's tail and dragging her off. A glance up revealed they were still running around and terrified.

It was pathetic.

Even unarmed, if they'd attacked us, I'm sure they could have stopped us... although considering Firefly had just collapsed, they were halfway there already. I glanced around, figuring where we were was far enough from the crater and paused, letting go of her tail and tossing her on my back for easier carrying. She's lighter than I expected. Has she lost weight? I hurried south towards the structures, looking for one to bunker down in while Firefly recovers. What the hay just happened? I found a locked door on one of the smaller buildings. Locked doors probably mean nopony's been in here. Good. I bucked the door open, carried Firefly inside and carefully set her down, digging through my saddlebag for a healing potion and carefully poured one down her throat, careful not to spill a drop. Healing potion fed to her, I carefully laid her down on her side in the off chance her body reacted poorly to the healing potion and rose to my hooves, pacing after closing the door to the outside.

I wanted to buck somepony in the face hard enough to make them explode, but there was nopony for me to buck. I glanced around the room I had ducked into. It looked like an office. I growled loudly and spun, bucking a desk over. The desk fell over, the terminal atop it smashing as it landed on the floor. Several sheets of papers slowly drifted to the ground in its wake. I glanced to Firefly, laying there. She looked so content and happy, free of the frown she almost always had. It would be peaceful if I didn't know she'd just collapsed. I sighed and curled up next to her, clearing my urge to go back and attempt to murder a bunch of alicorns.

An infuriatingly familiar double fwash told me tall, horned and winged had returned.

Wonderful! Somepony for me to buck.

I rose to my hooves and turned to face the two.

"THE GODDESS WISHES YOU TO KNOW SHE IS MOST DISAPPOINTED." A sheet of paper impaled itself on one drone's horn, and a pair of them landed amid the other's mane. "YOUR ASSISTANCE WAS MOST UNHELPFUL." The sight of papers amongst the drones' otherwise perfectly tamed manes made me snicker. "ARE THOU AMUSED BY OUR DISAPPOINTMENT?"

I shook my head. "Y'all got a, thing in your manes." The two of them turned and looked at each other simultaneously in their creepy way, the sheets of paper covered in a matching purple aura and tossed aside.

"YOU NEGLECTED TO MENTION THE SHEET OF PAPER ON OUR HORN, STABLE PONY."

I snickered. "Y'all noticed it fine enough on your own." Based on their expressions, they were clearly not amused.

Looking back on things, this is about where things went wrong. "Soo... y'all look great, y'really do, but y'know what would look better in you?"

The two drones stared at me blankly and I grinned. "Me!"

I'm unsure what precisely happened, but all I know I may have pushed the Goddess a little too far this time.

Oh, crap.

And then I found myself unclothed and unarmored, and tied up.

In a bondage harness, with a ball gag in my mouth.

In a highly compromising position. "Mmmf. Mmmmf!"

...

Crap.

Having quite literally nothing else to do, I spent the next few minutes reflecting on what I had done wrong. What I had done wrong was that I had made my pass too obvious. Our Pipbucks softly ticked in tandem in the awkward silence.

Finally, Firefly came to, groaning and coughing. "What just happened, Dashie?"

Mmmmf. Mmmmf!

She glanced to me and hurried to her hooves as she saw me. Her magic untied the ballgag and removed it, tossing it aside. "What did you do!"

"Well... I made a pass at the Goddess."

"You... what." She paused untying me and stared at me. I couldn't tell what she was thinking. "You hit on. The Goddess."

"Did I stutter?" She facehooved and resumed untying me. "So... that's better." I groaned as I pushed myself to my hooves. "That's the stuff..."

"They... tied you up and left us here?"

"Yes, but no. You collapsed] about..." I glanced at my Pipbuck. "An hour ago. The Goddess teleported off when you collapsed, and I dragged you here. Fed you a healing potion. Goddess came back, bitched about us being unhelpful."

"And then you hit on the Goddess."

"Then I hit on the Goddess." I grinned as I redressed. "So, tell me, Firefly. You collapsed. What happened? And where did you throw that ball gag?"

She shrugged and groaned as she stretched. "I... uhh. Tasted purple." The soft sound of her magic was the only sound as she gingerly levitated the ball gag out of somewhere and dropped it next to me. Gotta wash that before I use it again.

"What?" I watched the tall, slim red unicorn mare as she stretched.

"I don't know. That's all I remember." All that could be heard in the awkward silence was the sounds of me strapping my power hooves back on.

"Are you okay?" I glanced to her as I tucked the harness and gag into my bags. "Or, are you okay to continue the mission?"

She blinked and looked to me. "Yes, Dashie. I'm okay. I don't know what happened. I'm fine now." She glanced to my bags. "You're keeping that thing?"

"Are you kidding? A bondage harness that can keep me contained?" I sighed and leaned over to hug her. "Yea, I am sooo keeping it."

She froze up for just a second, confused, before leaning into the hug. "Thank you."

We stayed that way for some time before she stepped away from me. "Okay... time for us to go, I think." All good things must come to an end. I nodded and let her take the lead; she headed deeper into the building. "Didn't you search this place already?"

"Of course not. I was a bit tied up." She glanced to me curiously again. I wondered if she was picking up on something, then remembered how dense this mare was sometimes.

Of course not.

The mare snickered and rolled her head as she headed into the next room. Over the next hour, we searched the building and moved onto two more. Finally we found a sealed, reinforced door.

After I tried bucking it open with a surprising lack of success, we marked the door, took a break for radaway, and then searched the rest of the building. It had been sealed since the war ended, so I wasn't surprised we didn't find anything other than a few skeletons.

Poor bastards.

We stacked them in a corner out of the way and scavenged what there was to take of interest. Several spark batteries, a few standard issue 10mm pistols in varying states. A set of prewar combat armor and a helmet on one of the bodies. Finally we returned to the secured door.

Firefly studied the door, locating the points that kept it in place, and we wrapped some plastic explosives around it.

A few minutes later, a muffled explosion shook the building, shaking dust free from everywhere, and a much louder bang indicated the door had fallen free.

"We're in." Firefly snickered. "So much for earth pony engineering, huh?"

Shush Firefly.

"Earth pony explosives are better at breaching than earth pony engineering is at keeping us out." Firefly has some great traits, but her arrogance is not one of them. I lead the way over to the door and poked my head inside the room.

...

"Fancy Buck snack cakes?" I shook my head. Sealed boxes and boxes of Fancy Buck snack cakes. I shook my head. "Prewar ponies."

Firefly hopped over, levitating a case of them over as she grinned at me. "Earth ponies?"

"You can't seriously be thinking of eating those, are you?" As they passed me, my Pipbuck started ticking loudly. "Also, nope. Prewar unicorns are definitely to blame for this."

She looked to me. "Maybe I am," she glanced to the box of snack cakes. "Nope! Pegasi."

I nodded. "Yeah, pegasi." I wandered into the room, seeing if it was actually hiding something. A room full of snack cakes concealing a secret entrance to the command center sounds exactly like a thing prewar ponies would do.

Shockingly, it did not. Or at least, I didn't find anything.

Finally we moved onto the next building, and this one appeared to have had somepony living in it recently. We found a ghoul chewing on somepony. Firefly dispatched it with a pair of sharp, metallic cracks and it slumped over missing half of its head. "Not bad, I think I like this. Not too loud, recoil's not too bad, but it hits pretty hard."

"Yeah, you'd be surprised how light recoil is when you're not actually touching the weapon. I'd like to see you shooting that thing like me."

Firefly let out a cute little laugh. "Ah, ha ha, yeah right. As if I'd ever stoop to that level." She continued to snicker as she trotted past the ghoul's body, a pair of shotgun shells wreathed in her blue aura as she topped off her gun. "No offense intended." She turned to smirk back at me. I stopped to retrieve the weapon belt the ghoul had been wearing, tucking it into my saddlebag. The two shells she'd fired bounced off the concrete floor once before her magic picked them up.

"Yeah, none taken, boss." I let a hint of sarcasm creep into my tone.

Firefly is a great mare in a lot of ways, but she's kind of obnoxious sometimes. Mixed unicorn and pegasus blood is probably part of that.

"Well, I think we found some of the previous tenants." I looked up to see Firefly looking into the next room with a grim look.

"I don't want to know, do I?" Half of a pony leg held inside a familiar blue aura flew in my direction, and I jumped to the left to avoid it. "Ewww, Firefly!"

She giggled and carefully set it down in a corner. "Sorry. Couldn't resist."

"You couldn't resist throwing half a recently dead pony's leg at me. Wow, boss."

The fuck, Firefly.

Sometimes I wonder about my best friend... and my taste in mares.

I trotted past Firefly into the room. It looked like there had been a firefight here.

No, not a firefight. A seige. The room looked like it had been a barracks during the war, and there were a few dozen bunks inside. Most of them were scattered around the entrance, where it appeared the ponies here had made a last stand.

A bunch of ghouls and a half dozen ponies lay around the room, many in pieces. I closed my eyes, taking several slow, deep breaths. Finally I calmed myself and reopened my eyes, speaking up.

I frowned, then shrugged. "Well, we may as well see if they have anything useful. It's not like they're using it anymore." One of the bodies twitched and made a muffled sound, and I hurried over before I realized that it was another ghoul, which growled as it saw me. I spun and bucked it, sending it flying against the wall with a sickening crunch. It made a whistling sound, then went silent and stopped moving.

No.

Bad ghoul!

I am not delicious.

"Yeah..." I glanced to Firefly as she went over to a row of lockers and started opening them. I studied her face for a moment, and noticed that she looked slightly nauseous underneath her grim frown. I went back to browsing through the bodies with a sigh.

Poor bastards.

One of the limbs stood out, an olive coated fetlock with a Pipbuck on it. If I had to guess, it had probably belonged to a unicorn mare. A glance around revealed several other olive coated parts that seemed to suggest there had once been a unicorn mare here. The Pipbuck was in tough shape, but it was a Model 3000. Pressing one of the buttons caused the screen to light up.

It still worked!

...

Of course it still worked - it was a Pipbuck Model 3000. I recalled a rumor of somepony getting hit by lightning and only having their Pipbuck's UI fried.

"Hey boss, I found a Pipbuck over here." Firefly looked up and trotted over.

"Oh, how... sweet. You always get me the nicest of gifts, Dashie..." I smirked at her squicked expression.

That's what you get for throwing somepony's leg at me! She levitated the Pipbuck free of the fetlock and carefully set it aside, copying the data over to hers. "Apparently this belonged to a pony named 'Pole Dancer'."

"That's a strange name." I resumed nosing through the bodies.

Firefly snickered. "Helllo, I'm a unicorn mare with a traditional pegasus name. I'm toootally the queen of weird names here."

Queens are usually evil. How fitting, Firefly.

"Ah, lets see. Personal logs, here we go."

The voice of a quiet, ragged sounding mare emerged from Firefly's Pipbuck. "Okay, so.... something happened." The sound of hoofsteps were audible in the background, back and forth. "The alicorns approached me. They want me to help them. They said they could protect us. I don't know what to say." A brief pause, before the next log played. "They approached me again, when I was out of the base. Stable 60. They said they need me to get something off the computers of Stable 60. I guess I'll do it. They said they'd take me there, and all I need to do is copy the files, but... fuckin' Stables, mare! There's 30 to the south, but that's... the only one that didn't fuck up. Every other Stable... fuckin' Stables, mare! Fuck it." Her voice rose in pitch and intensity. "FUCK IT! I'LL DO IT!" The log ended there.

"I wonder what the alicorns want with Stable 60." I mused quietly, pacing back and forth with a metallic clip clop as Firefly tucked the Pipbuck away.

"Interesting..." Firefly paused and I glanced over to see her, eyes closed and breathing carefully measured. "Oh for... Dashie, stop doing that." I looked to her with a curious look. "The pacing."

Oops.

I stopped and she resumed speaking. "The obvious solution is to go to Stable 60 and get a copy of the computer logs there, but we can't just go there. I'd say most of the ghouls are dealt with. Mission over?"

"Mission over, a'yep." I smirked to Firefly. "Hey boss, wanna bet the Library has a list of all the Stables in the area?"

"Really, Dashie? Not a chance," Firefly shook her head. "Five caps?"

"Five bits!" It was a long shot, of course. Both of us knew it, but I didn't care. "Lemme finish and we can head back to the Stable."

"Five minutes, then we're out of here, Dashie." Firefly went back to rummaging through the lockers. I resumed scavenging weapons, armor and ammo, even spent brass.

"Aye, boss." We finished scavenging the room and continued on, searching for a way out.

"Hold on, Dashie, I gotta take a leak." I glanced to Firefly and saw that she was pointing towards a door marked bathrooms.

I shrugged. "Sure thing, boss." I tossed my impish smirk at her. "Do you need toilet paper?"

She mock glared at me. "No." She turned and trotted into the bathroom, the door swinging to a standstill.

A few seconds later, she yelped and her shotgun called out in a quick twin burst, then a third shot.

"Firefly!?" I spun, bucked the door open and rushed into the bathroom.

"I'm okay." There were two ghouls and what appeared to be a dead pony scattered across the room. Most of the ghouls were splattered across the far wall.

Firefly was topping off her shotgun and policing her brass. "There were ghouls," she elaborated. "Emphasis on past tense."

Well said, Captain Obvious.

"Next time, bathroom checks?" I glanced around the room and carefully trotted over to the bodies, nosing through them for anything worth taking.

She sighed. "Next time, bathroom checks. You're right." She nodded as she went into one of the stalls. "Ew! When was the last time somepony flushed these toilets?"

"Probably two hundred years ago." She made a quiet sound of disgusted agreement.

One of the ghouls had a revolver tucked into their uniform, which I freed and wiped off. Opening the cylinder, I judged it was probably 10mm. Six shots, six spent.

I unloaded it, dumped the shells into my brass collection container and put the weapon into my saddlebag.

The other ghoul had a combat helmet marked "MP" on the front. I wiped it off and tucked it away in my saddlebags. The unfortunate pony, a brown and reddish pink maned unicorn mare, had some small armor plates that had survived her death, which I took.

Finished looting the bodies, I moved onto the rest of the room, finding a square, yellow case on it with the distinctive pink butterfly that indicated medical equipment. Even better, it was unopened! I trotted over to it, trying to open it. "Of course." I frowned, glaring at the offending yellow case, turning around to buck it open with... no success.

"Oh for... Dashie, can you keep it down out there? I'm trying to pee!" Firefly's peeved voice came from the stall.

"Right, sorry boss." I rolled my eyes and trotted outside, settling down outside.

She emerged a minute later with a content sigh. "Did you wash your hooves?"

She looked at me with a strange look, then shook her head.

"That's sooo grosssss, boss!" I grinned.

She sighed, shook her head and trotted off. "C'mon Dashie."

"Wait, wait wait. There's a medical box by the door in the bathroom." She blinked and turned around, heading back to the bathroom and leading with her shotgun as she poked her head inside. "To your right."

"Oh! ... How did I miss that?" She pulled back out of the room with the box held in her magic. "A Ministry of Peace box!" I looked to her, confusion apparently visible on my face, and she launched into lecture mode. "The Ministry of Peace was one of the ministries that ran the prewar military. They mostly worked on healing magic and attempted to find a peaceful solution to the war."

"Obviously, they failed." I smirked.

Apparently she picked up on my disinterest. "Alright, alright, I'll skip the history lesson."

"Oh good. I was hoping you would." I settled down on my hooves, looking to the box. "Can you open the box?"

She rolled her eyes. "Of course I can." She set it down and her aura shrank down to focus on the lock as she knelt beside it to put her horn against it.

After a few minutes of intense concentration, she grinned and rose. "Aha! Got it." She popped the box open, levitating the contents into view. A couple of healing potions, a gauze pad and roll of bandages. "It's something, I guess?" She shrugged and set the items back in the bag. "Here Dashie, carry this." She closed and levitated the box, opened the flap on my saddlebags and settled the box inside.

"I was planning to take it anyways." I gestured towards the other bathroom. "Wanna check the other bathroom?" She shrugged, sighed melodramatically, drew her shotgun and headed into the other bathroom.

I was pleased to see she could learn.

A moment later she returned with another medical box, which we consolidated with the first one. I took the second, empty box, sure I'd come up with some use for it at some point. If not I could just donate it to the Stable medical ponies or something.

We continued through the building, looting a trail of buildings to the west as we set off for the Stable. A few more ghouls tried to eat us. Several shots and a couple of bucks later taught them that their decisions were bad, and they should feel bad about it.

The trek back to Stable 30 was long and uneventful. We passed the time sharing what we'd scavenged from Deathcon. Firefly had grabbed some of the irradiated fancy buck cakes, a six pack of irradiated Sparkle-Cola Grape minus one, a couple weapons and some copies of Wingboner Magazine - Colt Edition.

She scowled at my snarky comment about her actually thinking about sex, then admitted she may have a thing for pegasus colts.

Ouch. Then she inquired what I had found.

I sighed and informed her that the most interesting thing I had found was... a bunch of guns. "In my defense, I dragged your flank out of the fire. I think I win. Also I found that Pipbuck." She shrugged in mild agreement.

Finally we arrived back at the Stable and were let inside. Firefly and I went directly to Hot Range's office. She was sitting in her office with pile of paperwork, which she cleared away when we arrived. Firefly explained what we'd learned and suggested that our next place to go is Stable 60. The Colonel called a meeting with the Overmare. The heads of the Arcane Sciences department and Amber Rhyme, the Chief of Justice Operations for the Stable, were also invited. Five minutes later, everyone gathered in the conference room in the Security station.

Astral Vision was Firefly's equivalent in the Arcane Sciences department and a timid dark blue unicorn mare a little younger than Firefly and I. Many Stable ponies, myself included, were unsure why Astral held such a high position - she never seemed to have any magic abilities... but the Council backed her position. Her boss, Uchawi, was a zony - a unicorn with zebra ancestry, with a pale green coat with dark green stripes and a pink and purple striped mane.

I had to admit, her 'unusual' palette was attractive, though her habit of speaking in rhymes was... not.

Amber Rhyme, who I referred to as 'Aristotwit', was the Chief of Justice Operations and handled various bureaucratic tasks within Security, making him equal in position to Firefly. He was one of the members of the Stable who argued for closing the door. This was often put him at odds with Overmare Book Keeper, who was all for helping the Wasteland. I questioned Amber Rhyme's invitation, since his role in Security has little to do with the topic at hand and his politics would probably make him more obstructive than usual.

Overmare Book Keeper was an attractive and intelligent unicorn mare a bit older than Firefly and I. I didn't know her very well, but she had done a decent job of running the Stable so far. Colonel Hot Range was the Head of Security and one of the last members of the 'last' generation of government. She is a clever unicorn, possibly even more so than Firefly. "I trust you will keep us from being disturbed and the contents of this meeting confidential?"

"Yes, ma'am." I saluted and settled down by the door. The Colonel nodded and headed into the conference room. I yawned and started sorting through my saddlebags while I watched the door. An indeterminate time later, the door opened and everypony exited the briefing room. The Arcane Sciences eggheads were discussing something about Stables and alicorns, levitating several stacks of files between them. Aristotwit looked disgruntled, to my amusement. The Colonel and the Overmare were deep in private conversation. Firefly left the room last with a yawn.

"So, Dashie. Do you want to go to Baltimare?" It was a rhetorical question, of course.

Anywhere Firefly went, I went, and she knew this.

"Lovely." I sighed quietly.

Author's Notes:

Gods I hope that POV switch worked, because that's going to become a 'thing'. Do people still say that? I'unno.

Revised on 04.14.17