It has been about an hour since Twilight exited the bar with her friends, and ever since, November is thinking more and more that they’ve just straight-up left Thieves’ Hold. However, her doubts are soon crushed by a gentle knocking on the door.

“I got this.” Jarvis proclaims as he exits the table where his rivals are playing their games and slowly walks towards the door. Opening the door, the green stallion’s eyes bulge open at what he sees on the balcony. “Uh…”

“What is it?” November asks from the counter.

“You might want to see this.” Slightly nervous, the blue mare walks out of her position and next to Jarvis, parting her short ice-blue mane from her eyes to get a clear look. To her surprise, she sees Twilight, Dash, Rarity, Applejack, Pinkie, Fluttershy, Spike, and their three fillies, all gathered around two massive crates, brimming over the top with fresh apples. “What the-”

“You said you wanted resources,” Applejack responds, “We got resources. Now where’s your kitchen?”

“Jarvis, get the wagons from the back.”

“Yes miss,” Jarvis answers in a stupor before backing inside.

“How did you-I mean-What?”

“Always come prepared,” Applejack pridefully replies, “These are the best apples in Equestria. We got two more crates back at our boat if this isn’t enough.”

“…”

“If this isn’t good enough for those pirates,” Rainbow Dash adds, “nothing is.”

“I don’t know what to say.”

“How about, ‘you’re hired.’?” Twilight replies.

“Yeah, yeah, you’re all hired. Thank you so much. You don’t know how much this means to me and my father.”

“Thank you for giving us this chance to remove the bounties.”

“Alright, let’s get started. Load as many apples as you can into the wagons when they arrive and I’ll take them to the kitchen.”

“Wagons November,” Jarvis calls out from behind November.

“Yes, thank you.” Promptly, the dark mare steps out of the doorway as three large rustic wheelbarrows squeeze through one by one by the stout Earth pony.

“Here you all go.”

“Jarvis!” Maurice yells from inside, “What’s going on?”

“You’ll see.”

“Thanks Jarvis.” Twilight exclaims as Jarvis walks back inside to his rivals with benefits. With the wagons now set, the ten cloaked ponies start transferring their cargo from the crates to the wagons, filling one of the carts in a minute.

“That’s enough.” November gleefully calls out as she grabs the filled cart with her cyan magic.

“Want me to help you with that? I could help your father make the cider even.”

“No thanks, he prefers that only I see him. You’re okay with that right?”

“Yeah,”

“Thanks.” With the filled wagon in tow, November goes back inside, leaving her now co-workers alone outside.

“So Pinkie, at the ship you said they were ex-crew members of Korsan?”

“That’s what Cecil told me.” Pinkie answers while balancing five apples on her nose. “Though he and his rivals with benefits told me that they don’t talk about Korsan that often for November’s dad safety or something like that,”

“Rivals with benefits?”

“Maurice and Jarvis,”

“Oh, Cecil’s Poker buddies.”

“What if November and her dad know Korsan’s weaknesses?” Applejack asks out loud.

“We could try to get some information out of them while we’re here, now that we’re working for them.”

“Wait,” Pinkie interrupts, “We can’t about Korsan with Nitin, November’s dad. He gets nervous for some reason. It could cause him to speak or doing something wrong when Korsan gets back.”

“Why?” Fluttershy asks.

“The two are enemies now or something. I don’t know, Jarvis caused a stir with Grivs before Cecil could get into any detail.”

“Okay,” Twilight replies as she finishes filling the second cart, “so we can’t ask her father than. Maybe November, Cecil, or one of his friends will if we get better associated with them. Pinkie, maybe you can sing some more shanties with Cecil and play with more pirates inside.”

“Okey-dokey-lokey,”

“Also, how good is your game?”

“I won forty bits from my last game with Cecil and his friends.”

“Good, that can serve as our second form of income.”

“And what are the rest of us going to do?” Dash asks.

“Dash, you and Applejack will supply the apples from our ship. Fluttershy and Rarity, you two help November with serving. Applebloom, Sweetie Belle, and Scootaloo,”

“Yes?!” The three fillies exclaim in excitement.

“Clean the dishes, mugs, all that stuff.”

“Aww,”

“Deal with it.”

“What about me Twilight?” Spike asks as he gently tugs on her wing.

“Supervise the foals,”

“Drat. And what’ll you be doing?”

“I’ll be investigating around Thieves’ Hold for any information about Korsan.”

Meanwhile, behind the serving bar and inside the dimly lit kitchen, November is pushing the wagon towards the corner of the room where bags of various foods are already stockpiled.

An old rustic voice is heard as the wheelbarrow is set down, “What’s this November?”

“Fresh apples from Equestria,” November gently replies into the darkness. “We have some new workers.”

“Those bounty mares Korsan’s after, I know. I heard it all, Korsan, your chat with that one mare behind the counter. I’m not proud.”

“Dad, this could save our tavern. And I couldn’t let them risk being captured by him.”

“Foolish child, you don’t know the half of it. You were so young, so innocent back then. Letting them join us, is just putting us all at risk for an even worse fate.”

“I know you’re scared. I am as well. But we could only imagine how much fear they have.”

“I know. Equestria’s a kingdom where there isn’t much death, isn’t much suffering, only life and prosperity. We fear death naturally, being cutthroat pirates back then. They barely even understand it.”

“Please Dad, don’t feel so guilty for what happened. It wasn’t our fault.”

“We supported him. We fixed his cannons. We paved the path of time that lead to that day. If your mother was still alive, she’d think we’re monsters. No, I’m a monster, I dragged you into this instead of-…”

“We didn’t know. Please, you’ve sealed yourself in here for three years. It’s time you let yourself open to the outside world and stop beating yourself up. If you hang onto the past, you’ll never move forward to a better life. At least take your medicine. You’re lucky your illness isn’t contagious.”

“There is no better life. I’m just a selfish wreck that’ll never change for the short rest of my years, medicine will only make the guilt last longer. The only reason I’m still here is you, my sweet angel. I don’t want you to make the same mistakes I did and end up suffering in the claws of that monster.”

“Dad, times will change for us. I promise. We just need to take that first step.”

“…Fine. Let them work. I won’t be able to do anything to stop you or them in this state, so I might as well make it easy for you.”

“Daddy,”

“What?”

“I love you.”

“…I love you to.”

Minutes later, several patrons gather around the serving counter as November emerges from the kitchen with a large wooden barrel, filled with fresh apple cider.

“So,” Rarity asks to the guests on the other side of the counter as November sets the barrel in place, “Which one of you rogues wants to have the first cup? Cecil?”

“Uh… Jarvis?” the blue pegasus responds, turning towards his stout Earth pony friend.

“Uh… Maurice?” Jarvis responds as well, redirecting the attention to his small unicorn rival.

“Wait,” Maurice squeaks, “Why me?”

“You’ve drunk more of the old cider without throwing up.”

“My last mug of it was last month.”

“And Jarvis and I last did it at least two months ago.” Cecil retorts. “You have a better tolerance in case it’s not all that well as they brag.”

“Why doesn’t Jarvis take the first swig? He was the one flapping his gums about how fresh they looked.”

“Please,” Fluttershy interrupts, waving a cup already filled with the new liquid swishing inside in front of the finely dressed stallion, “just one sip?”

“Gah, fine,” Slowly, Maurice sets down five bits onto the polished table and takes the drink in his telekinetic hold. He then carefully holds the cup up to his mouth and takes a small sip, closing his eyes tightly. However, as the juice flows across his tongue, Maurice’s eyes bolt open as he starts to rabidly gulp the rest down.

“Is he choking?” A random stallion in the surrounding crowd asks.

“He could be just tricking us into throwing up.” Another customer calls out.

“Or he just really needs a drink,” a mare replies, “remember that one time when he became broke from his games with his buddies. He was so desperate for some water, he actually drank seawater.”

“Great glooming glops,” Maurice exclaims as he slams the now empty cup onto the counter. “You’re not going to believe me,”

“We’re not,” Cecil stonily replies.

“This, stuff, is liquid gold. I can already feel my insides become flesh and blood again.”

“Ridiculous. Only the finest of cities have those types of drinks.”

“Try me.”

“Fine,” Swiftly, Cecil places five of his bits on top of Maurice’s and is immediately given a fresh cup by Rarity. As the skeptical stallion takes his drink, his body inadvertently repeats the exact same things Maurice did, finishing by slamming the cup onto the counter as well. “What the-”

“See?”

“Maurice isn’t lying!” Immediately, the entire crowd on onlookers breaks out in a mob of loud chatter, with bits being flung left and right across the mob and onto the serving counter, pelting Fluttershy, Rarity, and November.

“Take it easy!” November exclaims with a grin, “You’ll all get some in time.”

“I gotta tell me crew!” A middle-aged mare yells out before charging out of the tavern, soon followed by several other ponies, all off to tell their friends about the cider.

“You know,” Rarity loudly speaks to Fluttershy among the roars of thirst in front of them, “despite the fact that we’re serving ferocious criminals in a rundown bar that reeks, this is kind of nice.”

“At least our only threat is the noise. Ow!” Fluttershy replies. “And bits,”

“I believe this calls for a shanty!” Cecil declares.

“Cue the music!” Pinkie screams as she joins her tall partner in the center of the room. Outside the tavern, rapidly stacking apples into wheel barrows, Applejack and Rainbow Dash soon hear music playing from inside amongst the roars.

“Sounds like quite a party.” Applejack speaks to her partner.

“It is Pinkie Pie.” Dash casually replies.

“Hey, Rainbow Dash,”

“Yeah?”

“I’ve been thinking-”

“A dangerous pastime-”

“Whatever. Remember when Twilight talked about the attack during the gala a few days ago?”

“After she shot me down when I started talking about Daring Do? Yeah…”

“Well, remember Twilight telling us about how Korsan was insulting Celestia for having Earth ponies and pegasi for soldiers, later using his unicorn-only goons to hold them in place while they fought whatever was left of Celestia’s guards?”

“What are you getting to? Korsan wasn’t fighting fair and he’s a hypocrite.”

“What if he does have a point? Maybe it’s not unfair fighting, rather it’s that you and I are at a natural disability.”

“Don’t be ridiculous. Korsan’s just some nutcase with a big vocabulary. I’m pretty sure whatever he’s saying is just crazy-talk.”

“Dash, you can’t simply be oblivious to whatever he’s saying because he’s a villain. He did prove something during the gala-”

“Are we sure that you’re the stubborn one and that I’m the not-so stubborn one?”

“What does that mean? Aren’t you the ignorant one and I’m the one with awareness of what’s going on?”

“Excuse me? You take that back.”

“Hey, how about you take what you said back?”

“You know what? …”

“…”

“…Gah. I’m sorry for fighting. I’m probably just a little tired.”

“Same here, maybe I’m missing some piece of logic in my head and Korsan’s making sense for that reason or another.”

“After this first crate, how about we hit the hay?”

“What about the other one?”

“It’s a heavy crate. It took Twilight a moment to focus her magic enough to even lift it an inch from the floor. I don’t think anypony would be able to take it.”

“I guess, unless it was either a bunch of unicorns or a single powerful one.”

“Grivs probably won’t mess with it.”

“Yeah,”

“Almost done,”

I just can’t shake it. Applejack thinks to herself, I know that somewhere inside me, Korsan’s making a lick of sense.

Would you look at that? An entire mob hurling themselves around just for some apple cider, what a sight to behold. I haven’t seen such a thing in a few years. And look at my little November, that beautiful smile on her face. I can already feel myself feeling better, seeing her childlike grin. Her mother always said it could cause miracles. Maybe November was right. Maybe we just needed to take that first step. Those workers of hers, those mares and dragon, they don’t even look like their struggling to stay alive, though the foals don’t look too entertained under the counter. But their just children, it’s natural for them. This is what I wanted for her future when we left Korsan, a bright new start, filled with smiling faces, music, adventures, and happiness, every day. Perhaps I will take my medications today.