“Whoa there,” Vix-Lei said as Wind Breaker started to move. “Take it easy, Wind, you’ve been out for a bit.”

“Excuse me?” the griffon asked, rubbing his head and his blue eye. “What are you talking about Vix-Lei?”

“You were out like a light after you blew up the whole place, buddy,” Vix-Lei walked over and patted him on the back, checking if he was okay like Rex taught her and the rest of them. “Lucky that Page was there to pull your butt out of there.”

“What?” Wind blinked with his eyes going, starting to push himself upright from the mattress he was on.

“Yes; the bolt you fired and the location on the capacitor you struck caused a chain reaction that destroyed the power station in a spectacular fiery fashion,” Rex said, walking in with the rest of the gang behind him and going straight to the griffon. He leaned his head in to check the griffon’s wings, holding a bottle of his healing salve and began placing some on the griffon’s back. “It was an incredible diversion; the Guards abandon their attention on us to saving as many as people as they could, although I must admit I do not feel comfortable with the cost of our freedom came at.”

There was a mutter of agreement from Night, Page and Xvital with Wind scoffing and rolling his eyes. He pushed himself upright fully, wincing a bit before looking at Rex. “Trust me, killing people is the last thing I want to do,” he then groaned, rubbing his eyes before letting his talon fall to his necklace. “Huh,” he said as he felt his Element. “So I guess that talk with Applejack did happen.”

“Who?” Night asked, tilting his head.

“She’s the Stallion of Dedication and she told me that my Ele-”

"Wait - the Stallion of Dedication is actually a mare?” Page asked, eyes wide.

"She is," Wind Breaker confirmed. "And - oh, drat." He snapped his talons.

"What?" Xvital asked.

"She said ponies mixed up she and her brother," Wind Breaker said. "In all the excitement, I forgot to ask her what his name was. Now it's going to drive me crazy, wondering about that."

"Hey, don't worry about it," Vix-Lei told him. "Maybe one of the other Elements knows. Night, Rex or Xvital, whichever one comes next, can you guys ask their predecessor about it when your turn." She shrugged at their faces. "Hey, at least it couldn't hurt to ask, right?"

“Right…” Xvital trailed off, before turning to face Wind Breaker, looking at his crossbow gem necklace Element. “You were saying what your Element was?”

“Yah,” Wind nodded his head. “We’re Honesty; she told me that we keep you guys honest by being honest… and,” Wind sighed and gripped his arm tightly while looking at the ground. “That means I need to admit I do have a drinking problem…”

“Finally,” Night grumbled under his breath, no doubt rolling his eyes. Vix-Lei was about to lecture him when Wind snapped back.

“Yeah, it’s hard to break when you were forced to start drinking when you’re nine,” Wind growled at Night who held his glare.

“If you expect me to apologize for insulting you on something that I had no idea on…” Night began before Xvital stepped in between them, holding her hands out.

“Okay, cool it you two,” she said, looking at Night. “Wind I… is this really the standard procedure of how your Hatcheries work?”

“Well kinda,” Wind scratched the back of his head. “I mean, the Upper Canterlot Hatcheries are better than the Lower Canterlot Hatcheries; I mean they never beat us or anything…”

“No doubt because in Upper Canterlot, such things would be noticed and reported,” Rex snorted in anger. “That would be bad for business.”

“And didn’t you tell me that you had to dye your feathers and coat into more pleasing, pony colours?” Xvital asked.

“Well, yes, but they never starved us or anything,” Wind Breaker said in a nervous tone. “They gave us big meals for breakfast and dinner, guys.”

“No doubt so you would have energy to do stuff for them,” Rex snapped again with Wind folding in response. Page simply walked over to him and stared him in the face.

“Why do you keep defending them Wind Breaker?” she asked, placing a hoof on his shoulder. “The Hatchery system is designed to break the griffon in you so why are you so protective of them?”

“I… I don’t know, maybe it’s because they were the ones that raised me?” Wind sighed, nuzzling against her, with tears going down his face. “Fuck, I don’t even know what my griffon name would have been if I’d been born a free griffon.”

“While all of this is no doubt very important to you,” Night said loudly. “We should keep on moving now that you are awake.”

Vix-Lei shook her head at Night’s delivery; he was right on the mark but he really needed to work on his pitch. Still, sometaur needed to make sure they didn’t kill each other and that fell to her.

“Well Nighty,” she said, wincing internally as she slipped into her nickname habit and Night wasn’t ready to be called Nighty yet. “We need to make sure that Wind Breaker here can walk around and stuff first.”

“Where are we, by the way?” Wind asked, leaning on Page to push himself upright.

“We’re near the East side and a lot lower,” Xvital said, handing over Wind’s bag and crossbow. “We’ve got a lot of cover now that you took out the lights and the city is still in a bit of a panic. It will be a long time until they fix the generators and clear up the mess and get everything fixed up.”

Wind made a little squeaking noise at hearing that, eyes bulging a bit. “Yeah,” Vix-Lei said, running a hand through her hair. “We’ve got quite the bounty put on our heads because of that stunt.”

“Just wonderful,” Wind muttered as he reached for the quiver full of bolts, and put it around his back, then reached for his pack. “Huh, it seems like none of my bottles broke…”

“A true shame,” Night said, causing everyone to look at him. He then shot a look at everytaur and said, “He said he was an alcoholic; wouldn’t it be good for Wind Breaker if he did not have access to his bottles?”

“There are better ways of saying that, Night,” Page said, looking at Night sternly and causing the bat pony to fold.

“Besides, I bet we could get some good money out of some of these now, since I’m not going to need them anymore,” Wind Breaker added.

“Perhaps, but let us sell them once we are out of Canterlot,” Rex said as he walked over to the door. “For now, let us move on; I am familiar with this location and we should be able to reach a safer place to rest before we move onwards to Xvital’s doctor in the East-South Quarter.”

With that, everytaur began to head out with Vix-Lei last to leave the room.

It was pitch black when his makeshift pack left the storage room, and Rex had to rely on his nose to sniff out any approaching individuals due his eyes not yet adapting to the darkness. He knew these streets a bit better than he had admitted to them; he’d spent some time wandering around to find a place to work after he left the Under before settling in the lower parts of the Middle East of Canterlot. It was not his exact preferred location to settle himself in for his livelihood as Equestrians had the notion that the higher one was, the more one was privileged.

Casting his eyes to the left, he could see the lip of the Middle Wall, telling him that they were closing on the halfway mark of the Middle district which meant they were making excellent time. Looking down, he still saw that the tiles were that of the North-decorated with the holy symbol of the Magi of Stars. It would be some time before they became mixed with that of Celestia’s symbol, the sun. Once they encountered that, they would be marginally safer.

“Say Rex,” Vix-Lei called out to him, causing him to flick an ear. “You came from the Under, right?”

“That is correct,” he answered the minotaur, continuously surprised by the depth she possessed and ashamed of his earlier dismissal of her. “Why do you ask?”

“Well, if you got here from there, can’t we use the same pathways to get out?” Her question caused him to pause and think about it, with the rest of them to pull around them.

“If I were still part of my pack, I would say we could but not now,” Rex shook his head. “They would bar us entrance and no doubt kick up such a fuss that the Guards would notice and that would defeat the purpose of us moving as silently as possible.”

“Can’t you just slap one on?” Vix-Lei asked, with actual confusion on her face so he did not blame her ignorance.

“No I cannot; they would be aware of it being a fake as a collar is a very intricately designed item for each pack and I could not in good conscious wear one belonging to another pack; it would be the same if you were to wear a symbol of Ashur instead of one of your own culture’s deities, Vix-Lei.”

She gasped as she placed a paw on her skirt, and swore in her native language of Greco. She then shook her head and said, “Okay, I got it.”

“Okay, with that idea useless, shall we move on as I don’t want to-” Night began only to stop as he tilted his head towards the summit with everyone else turning their heads upwards as they felt a great buildup of magic.

“My dear citizens, I Blazen Sun, the Holy Cornea of Her Grace Celestia, have been given permission of Full Moon Sweet Surprise of Her Grace Luna to turn this unplanned night into day,” a voice boomed out from everywhere before a massive fireball flew into the sky and a miniature sun was created. “Know that we, the Captains of Equestria, will not abandon you our citizens and those responsible, the traitorous six, shall be found and held accountable for their heinous crimes!”

Rex shared a look with everyone, no doubt feeling terrified at this declaration. Save for Xvital who seemed delighted for some reason.

“This is great,” she said to everyone. “Look, it’s still the middle of the night and he has to be at the top of this mountain to keep that mini sun up there so he can’t be down here.”

“She’s right,” Rex snapped his fingers. “We need to pick up the pace if we are to get into the East without too much attention.”

“This is getting really dangerous,” Page muttered to herself, with Night nuzzling her and standing by her side. No doubt it would be Wind Breaker and Vix-Lei as the tie-breakers as if Page Turner was against this, Night Blade would follow her regardless of whether or not it was the wrong decision. “But I don’t see how else we can get out of Canterlot safely.”

“Are you sure, Page?” Night asked, tilting his head, looking at her with concern. Rex felt his ears flicker at this; Night seemed to be unconcerned about the rest of them, something that in a proper pack would be discouraged. Still, he found himself as the beta to Xvital’s alpha status in their group and thus it should be her that should say something.

“Well, if Xvital and Rex say we should go now, I believe we should do what they tell us,” Page said, nuzzling him.

“Well then,” Night said turning to them. “Let’s move on.”

Xvital let out a snort at Night’s turn around. She found herself trusting him less and less with each passing moment; how she could use him if kept acting like a love blinded idiot? “Whatever,” she said, tilting her head at Rex to go on. He had really proved himself to be a good number two; he was someone that she could trust to do what was needed and lead the rest of them if she wasn’t there. “Go on Rex,” she said, rubbing her arms before looking at Wind Breaker. “Wait, Wind, your Element.”

He blinked before widening his eyes and removed his Element and placed it in his pack. He then nodded at them to move on, with Xvital reevaluating her opinion on Wind Breaker; he could do some damage with that crossbow if he spent some time training and when she got him sober, he would no doubt be an even better shot. He’d also proved he was somewhat reasonable by admitting he had an addiction and made promises to work on it.

He would just need to actually do it but still it was a major step up from before with him denying his problem. If only she could get that stupid noble to shape up.

“Are you okay?” Page asked her, making Xvital realize that she was grinding her teeth.

“Yeah, just thinking about stuff,” she said, brushing off Page. The unicorn was a lot more handy in fights than she first thought a librarian could do, but she could really fire up shields and blast away ponies. She smirked to herself; these girls she found really knew how to handle themselves and that was always good in her books. Fuck, looking at Vix-Lei and her damn warhammer, and most people would have to think twice. “You know, for the most part, we did pretty good back there.” She let her gaze linger on Night who saw it and snorted.

“What is that suppose to mean, Xvital,” he glared at her, fixing his slitted eyes at her. “Out of everypony here, save for Vix-Lei, I am the only one with actual training in how to fight.”

“Yeah, with a sword,” she rolled her eyes. “Which is good and all but unless you are willing to kill, you’re going to be pulling your punches and hesitating which could get the rest of us in real trouble. So unless you’re ready to kill, I-”

“I did kill somepony tonight,” Night snapped at her, causing the ahuizotless to do a double take. “When they were chasing Page and I, I brought the waster-”

“The what?” Wind Breaker asked, getting an exasperated look from Night.

“The wooden sword they were using against us,” he said in a very annoyed tone, rolling his eyes. “As I was saying, when they were chasing us, I brought the edge of the weapon against a Guard’s neck hard enough to hear the bone break. I…” he stopped all of a sudden, licking his lips and began to pant. “I… I killed somepony.”

Wow, she felt like a complete dick now… Still, they didn’t need Night to freak out now, they needed to move o-

“Are you okay Night?” Page asked him, placing a hoof on his back.

“I don’t think it’s the fact I killed somepony that’s bothering me, but the fact I am okay with it that’s getting to me,” he paused and looked at his talent emblem, as if he was seeing it for the first time. Xvital didn’t quite understand the ponies’ butt destiny thing but this was clearly something that only ponies could deal with. Still, he could deal with his freakout later, once they were all safe and sound.

“Look, I was wrong but we need to get indoors before we get a lot of Guards after our tails,” this got her dirty looks from both Night and Page but she wasn’t that phased by it as she’d seen worse when she was younger. “I think I see an inn sign up ahead so once Night pays the innkeeper off heavily to stay quiet, we can plan our next steps in relative peace. Unless you’ve got a problem with that Night?”

Night just glared at her, baring his fangs for a moment before shaking his head and saying, “No.”

“Good,” she reached over and patted him on the head before tilting her head at the rest of the crew to move on. “I for one, am looking to a nice bed for once; been stuck in jail last night and man do those benches leave a lot to be desired, eh?”

That got her a few chuckles from Wind Breaker and Vix-Lei, with Rex nodding his head and Page smiling. Only Night was still frowning but four out of five wasn’t bad and he seemed to be the stick in the mud type of guy. She might ask Page what his deal was later on but first things first, they needed to see if that inn was actually an inn.