The Worshipers Of the Dark Crystal hideout

"So... you all regret kicking me out? That didn't last long." Mane crossed his arms with a serious expression. "Maybe next time don't point the muskets at me, after I wake up from a coma."

"I already said we're sorry." Sigil sighed.

"I accept It, but I won't forget." Mane pointed at her and stretched his arms in the air after a moment. "Oh well... my job is done here."

"Your? What about me?!" Pinkamena bumped his torso with her elbow. "I saved your life before, dummy."

"Sorry for reminding you, but there was a day you said It was MY job and you only came with me just because." Mane provoked her with a smirk.

"But then I took It all back." Pinkamena pouted.

"I remember, and I'm happy with that." Mane shook her gently with a hand in her shoulder.

"Can you love birds stop It, I have some stuff to tell him." Quill grumped.

"LOVE BIRDS?! With HIM?!" Pinkamena pointed at him with a jolt.

"WIth HER?!" Mane mimicked.

Sigil and Copper laughed loudly while those two kept arguing. Inked Quill charged his old voice and shouted all of them to stop, freezing all of those four around him. He cleared his throat with a gag reflex and calmed down.

"Mane. Just like everypony in the world, each one of us have a destiny to fulfill and It's up to us to choose. I, I was the master scribe of your uncle's court and now I'm here today. Sigil here, leads this place in search for Sombra's secrets for the sake of history. Copper, he was a drafted soldier in Sombra's army and managed to survive the war and now he protects this place." Quill looked at Pinkamena. "You there... I don't know a thing about you, but something tells me you still haven't found yours." Quill looked at Mane now. "I tell the same to you. You carry the Devil Blood, but your heart isn't all darkness."

"I'm aware of that, thank you..." Mane rolled his eyes.

"Don't interrupt me, dammit! Anyway, It seems you know your place in this world. Rejected by many, hunted by others, shamed by all of those, but accepted by some. You are a rogue in some ways but a pure warrior in the rest. But It's not up to me or us to tell you what to do, It's up to you to choose your life and destiny."

"I know that already, but thanks whatsoever Quill." Mane nodded.

"Consider yourself welcome again." Sigil smiled. "Are you staying with us?"

"I don't know... I don't really have a home anywhere." Mane scratched his head ashamed of his statement.

"Then how did you lived all these years?" Copper asked confused.

"Camping in abandoned buildings mostly. There's a place I know sometimes they let me stay there... sometimes making makeshift huts in the forest when I was hunting down a wanted guy." The grey unicorn blushed even more for admitting It.

"He has a home!" Pinkamena held his forearm, still with bandages from the previous fights. "He lives with me." She smiled at him. "We are like roommates."

Mane looked at the pink mare surprised by her defense, and decided to not ruin the moment.

"Where is It, if I may ask?" Said Sigil.

"It's in Ponyville. Near Canterlot and Everfree Forest, in the center of Equestria."

"Ah... I've heard of the place." Said Copper with a smile. "Big events happened there before and in an abandoned place inside Everfree Forest, but I don't know the name or location."

"We may check that place someday." Said Mane. "But like I said, my... I mean, our job is done here. Time to return home."

"How are you planning to go?" Copper asked. "Both the royal and crystal army are guarding the roads and the train station. Even the fields out of the road, sneaking through is hard even at night."

"We use the same way we got here." Pinkamena looked at them with an ingenious expression. "We get ourselves inside a box with provisions and send It to Ponyville through train."

"A bigger box this time, by preference!" Mane added with Pinka agreeing.

"Can do." Sigil grabbed a paper and a pencil. "We have a few contacts outside the cult, they can send the box for us. Where are we sending to?"

"I use a secret address when I order stuff. Feel free to send stuff to us too." Pinkamena approached the table and started talking with her apart with Copper joining them.

"Hey Mane, come with me." Quill invited. "I have something for you."

"What is It?" Mane asked.

"It's a surprise." Quill smiled.

They left the office and walked by the main complex with the cultists greeting Mane around and sometimes a young filly or foal tapping Mane in the back and then running away giggling, with him returning a smile at them. They entered the archives room with some of scholars organizing It and writing down texts. In a table, something hiding under a piece of cloth next to a scholar taking notes of whatever It was.

"Greetings, master." He greeted. "I just finished analyzing It, and they are indeed."

"Good, because they won't stay here with us." Quill turned to Mane and smirked. "Mane, this is for you."

Inked Quill grabbed the piece of cloth and took It out, revealing what was hiding. Two pieces of a big armor, forged in shiny polished black steel, menacing with two spikes small spikes decorated with a ruby in the middle of them and silver drawings of curves looking like tree branches in each one of them.
Mane Shaker stood there stunned by their beauty at the light of the candles and they seemed oddly familiar.

"Are these..." Mane baffled.

"King Sombra's gauntlets." Said Quill tapping his shoulder. "And they are yours."

"No no no... I can't have them. These are treasures worth too much to have in my possession." Mane denied.

"It's neither safe having them here. Listen here, young man. None os us can use them and they are heavy for us. Just like your vest for what I heard, It belonged to Sombra too..." Quill lifted his hair in the back hiding the tyrant's name stitched in the leather vest. "Just like these gauntlets, It's cursed and only those in his bloodline can use these items. You are the last one of them, so we thought in giving them to you."

"If you say so." Mane shrugged.

"Come on, try them." Quill invited.

Mane positioned them side by side and shoved his hands inside at the same time. They were too big, but after some moments they started to shrink slowly making metallic noises of the pieces of black steel rustling on each other. They stopped fitting Mane's hand size, and he tried to lift but they were too heavy. He tried again and this time he lifted them like they were feathers.
Not precisely because he still could feel the weight of an armor but they got more adapted to him again.

"Interesting." Quill scratched his chin and looked at the scholar. "Take note of this. Anypony of Sombra's bloodline is allowed to use the armor denying the curse's effect. It tends to adapt Itself according to the user's body and physical capabilities."

"...capabilities... Done." Said the scholar finishing taking the note.

Mane took them out and putted them in the table, and moments after they returned to their original size and weight.

"I don't think I can take them with me like that." Said Mane raising an eyebrow.

"You could wear them all the way." Suggested Quill.

"I'm not a knight, much less an armor user. Besides, I have this!" Mane changed to his crystal form and then returned to normal.

"A fair point, I guess. So... what are you planning to do with them?" Quill asked.

"I'm not using them. They are too beautiful to be dented and scratched. I guess I'll talk with Pinkamena in making a new room in our place to display things." Said Mane.

"A museum in your house? That's something!" Quill laughed. "I'll ask Sigil to send them too in a different time then, in a box with a secret compartment."

"Thank you. And this begs a question. Where are the other parts?" Mane looked at Quill.

"We found these in a secret room in King Sombra's mausoleum in the royal graveyard." Said the scholar. "The rest wasn't there so It suggested the armor is scattered in different regions of the Crystal Empire. We are still decoding the maps, letters and all we have for any clues. As soon we find them, we study them, scrap some pictures, take notes."

"Then we send them to you." Quill finished the sentence.

"Thank you. This... really means a lot for me." Mane smiled at the dark gauntlets. "I wonder how big the armor is."

"Bigger than you, I can tell." Quill answered. "He was a big guy with a beastly strength so this armor was no problem for him."

"So... what now?" Mane shrugged.

"We go back to Sigil's office. I guess the plans are concluded."

They walked out the archives and headed back to Sigil's office, where those three remained talking and planning. They had finished most of the stuff and a list of things.

"Hey there. We are not done yet." Said Pinkamena. "We were waiting for you to say what do you want to take with you. I've done my part about the foods and other items."

"Same thing you will eat pretty much, just double the values for me too. For an extra, get there a supply of Crystal Vodka bottles, I could use a sip from time to time of the real stuff."

"Alright..." Sigil took the request to the list. "About items, Pinkamena is taking the sniper she adopted but in a different box going along the big one."

"Quill here is taking responsibility of a certain set of things of my interest." Said Mane. "And the Crystal Empire is known for It's masterful blacksmiths. I have a request but must be fulfilled by pieces."

"And what is It?" Copper asked.

"A small blacksmith forge. You know, anvil, hammers and other tools. But skip the furnace!"

"Why the fuck you want a forge for? There's no room in my basement for that!" Pinkamena complained.

"You live in a basement?" Sigil questioned in confusion.

"Don't ask me but It's underground. Means we can dig some rooms and I have my magic to help." Mane answered.

"I'm not cleaning the mess after the job is done!" Pinka stated. "But again, why you want a forge there?"

"If you're gonna start using these guns in the future, do you think you can walk freely to the army's barracks and ask them for ammo? No! You have to do yourself, or in this case, me." Said Mane with a thumb against his chest while facing the pink mare.

"Skip the furnace, you said. How are you gonna melt the metals?" Pinka retaliated.

"Magic." Mane laughed.

"Fuckin' unicorns..." She grumbled.

"Also, I've seen some interesting stuff I want to experiment and craft." Mane grabbed a piece of paper and a pencil and stood by the table. "On my way to Don Topaz's safe house, I found a guy trying to snipe me and his musket had something like this..." He draw a cylinder with a hole in the middle and additional ones by the sides. "This thing was screwed to the barrel's end and It completely muffled the noise of every shot, and I couldn't see where It was coming from so It also hides the flash."

"A silencer?" Pinkamena opened her eyes in surprise. "That's damn helpful."

"Amazing. I guess our blacksmith could try making one of these for our soldiers." Said Sigil.

"But you don't even fight for anything or any reason, you are all scholars like you said before." Mane pointed out.

"I think we have now." Said Copper. "Your actions inspired us to become the watchers of this city. Consider us now allies from the north to your cause."

"That's touching." Mane smiled. "Well, how much time this will take to prepare, our ticket back home?"

"Not much really." Sigil looked over the plans again. "But just to be sure, I'll say three days."

"Sounds good to me." Pinkamena agreed along with Mane.

"Oh wait! I have a final request!" Mane interrupted.

"What is It?" Asked Sigil.

"I'll tell in the day we go, just giving an ahead warning."