Page turned her head to look at the door for the colts closing, hoping that Night would be okay. He was really struggling to keep it together and she knew that Night wasn’t the type to ask random people for help.

Walking with only candles for their light source as the false sun was quite bright even with the blinds drawn, Page looked at the ahuizotless and frowned.

“Xvital,” she began, only for the ahuizotless to hush her.

“Wait until we get into our room, okay?” she said, reaching into her pack to fish out a key. “I could really use a nice bed and a good night's sleep.”

“Ditto,” Vix-Lei yawned again, making Page feel tired as well. “I hope you don’t mind but I’m taking the bed.”

“Of course not,” Page said, shaking her head. “You’re much larger than me and you’d be completely uncomfortable on the cot.” She then turned her head to Xvital as she opened the door. “Same for you, Xvital,“ she said.

“Right,” Xvital said as she dropped her pack into the corner of the room before hopping onto a bed, curling up on it as a cat would do with her tail curling around her body. “So what is it?”

“Why did you make Night do the first shift? He was still a bit shaken about the fact he killed somepony tonight,” Page said, getting comfortable on the cot after she removed her bags.

“Well, first off, I didn’t know that about Night; he didn’t say anything about it,” Xvital said, flicking her left ear. “If he did, I’d have asked Rex to take first shift. And secondly… look, Wind just woke up from his Element nap thing after blowing up that power plant and Rex spent a lot of that time making sure Wind was okay and we knew how to treat each other in the future. I thought it’d be best to give them a break and Night is a bat pony; doesn’t he have great night vision and good hearing?”

“Well yes, but,” Page said only for Vix-Lei to speak up after she placed her hammers to the side.

“Night’s a big boy and he only has an hour to stay awake,” the minotaur said, rubbing her eye. “Once he’s got some sleep, he’ll be good. Now to the important question girls,” Vix-Lei leaned forwards, with Xvital making a mewing sound in confusion. “Who’s doing first watch for us? Rock, paper, scissors?”
“First off, I have hooves,” Page said with a chuckle, shaking her head at Vix-Lei. “And didn’t Xvital say she’ll take the first shift?”

“But I just got comfy,” she pouted, detangling herself and moving to stand by the door. “Page, you’ve got the Element of Kindness, right? So why don’t you be kind for me and take my shift?”

“That may be true, but I am not going to deny myself some goodnight sleep,” Page lied, sticking out her tongue while Vix-Lei giggled at Xvital’s pouting. While Page was certain the mare downstairs wasn’t a threat, she knew that Night wasn’t doing that well and there was nothing she could do about it. Rather than worry and fret for an hour while being unable to go help her coltfriend, she would take the chance to recharge herself and be ready to deal with a similarly refreshed Night Blade in the morning. It wasn’t the option she liked, but if she played her hoof too much, the others might get wise about her. She was already cautious of Rex being so smart and now that Wind Breaker had told them he had the Element of Honesty, she was going to make double sure that her secrets stayed secrets.

Still, it was quite late and before her stomach decided to grumble for supper, she tied off her magic and crawled onto the cot. Pulling the blanket over herself, she found herself taken away to Her Grace Luna’s realm of dreams in seconds, though it was not easy sleeping as her dreams were unsettling, though when Xvital woke her up for her shift Page could not remember any of them.

It was early in the morning when they all piled into the colts room, with Night drooping over his cot and yawning widely. It was Wind Breaker that told them what happened.

“Night here kept dozing off for his shift and he wasn’t sure what the time was so he kept at it,” Wind Breaker reached over to lightly punch Night in his foreleg, with Night just glaring at the griffon. “I finally caught on when he fell out of the cot and on his face and woke us up.”

“Thank you for sharing, Wind Breaker,” Night snarked through a yawn, his wings fluttering a bit before pulling them against his sides. “I also did not have a good night’s sleep.”

“Likewise Night Blade.” Rex said, shaking his head. “Although I cannot remember my dreams, they were unpleasant…”

“...same here,” Page said, with everyone else nodding their heads. “Does anyone remember them?”

“Y-yes,” Night said before nuzzling her. “I don’t want to talk about it…” Page nuzzled back, before looking at everyone who was now silent.

“Look, I will go get some food and then we’ll plan out what we do today, okay?” she asked as she got up, causing Night to faceplant onto the cot.

“Be careful, there might be some Guards lurking around,” Xvital said, with Night forcing himself upright with concern on his face. Page simply shook her head, and covered Night with the blanket, using her magic.

“I will be fine and you get some rest, Night,” she said as she stepped out of the room and closed the door behind her.

Looking into a nearby mirror and taking the time to fix her appearance a bit, smiling as she liked what she saw and trotted down the stairs to see the owner looking straight at her. The room was empty which meant they could talk freely.

“I trust your rest was good,” she asked, bowing her head slightly.

“The rest was impeccable,” Page replied with the owner flashing her a smile and called out to her waitress to bring the food over for her and her entire group. “How much do I owe you,” she asked as the food platters piled up in front of Page, with her mouth watering a bit at the smell of it.

“Nothing at all,” the owner of the inn said, shaking her head as she placed a small bag of coins over to her. “This is your bat pony’s money from last night. Take it; I don’t need it and I feel you will.”

“Thank you,” she said, pushing the money into her saddlebag, wondering how she would spin this without raising suspicion from the rest of the group.

“If I may ask,” the old mare began before Page cut her off with a sharp No. The elder of the two tsked, shaking her head. “If you will have my opinion-”

“I thank you, but no,” Page repeated herself sternly before flashing a smile at her. “Don’t get me wrong, I have thought of it with Nighty in the past but no.” Reaching with her magic to grab the food, the door to the inn opened up and two Celestia Guards walked in. Page’s heart skipped a beat as they walked right up the counter and one of the stallions said, “Excuse me, ma’ams, but we need to ask if there was a group of individuals seeking to stay here last night.” The other Guard produced a wanted picture for each of them, with her and Night’s cutie mark and talent emblem on their posters, with a bounty of fifty Lunas for information for each of them and ten Celestias in aiding their capture. “Have you, or your other guests seen them?”

“No, not at all,” the inn owner said, shaking her head. “This dearie and her order are my only guests this week, despite yesterday being the Honour Festival,” she sighed, shaking her head. “I will keep these posters up so my workers can look out for them, dear sirs.”

“Thank you very much, ma’am,” the Guard said, turning to face the deactivated changeling detector light. With a tilt of his head, his horn glowed a light orange and the detector activated, flashing and removing all changeling magic in the inn. He then turned to Page and placed a copy of the wanted pictures into her saddlebag. “Just take some so you and your order can refer to it, ma’am.”

“Thank you,” Page said with a smile forced onto her face, picking up the food. “Have a good day, good sirs.” She then started to walk up the stairs when a Guard called out to her to stop where she was. Stifling a yelp of fear, Page turned her head to look at the unicorn Guard just below her. “Yes sir?”

“The Old Stallion would have our hides if he knew we let a mare carry all that food upstairs by herself,” he chuckled, his magic reaching out to take some of the plates from her.

“Damn right he would, Glasses,” the other Guard laughed, smiling up at Page. “Blazen Sun might be the Bane of Dragons and goes after rogue dragons for kicks at times but damn is he really ruthless for when it comes to us having proper manners. I mean, remember the time those cadets walked past those old mares when it rained the day before and everything was muddy?”

“He was furious, gave the whole Middle division the riot act and went on about what it meant to be a Celestia Guard?” Glasses chuckled a bit more. “And how he threatened to make Captain General Gentle Step, the Bane of Tartarus, seem like Full Moon Sweet Surprise in when it came to Guard protocol?”

Both of the Guards shuddered at that; Page understanding completely due to how brutal Captain General Gentle Step was reported to be when it came to how her Guards were to act. She then found the Guard looking at her, waiting for her permission to aid her.

“Thank you, dear sirs, but no, I am quite fine,” she said, flashing a smile at them. “Have a good day.” She bowed her head, walking up the stairs with the Guard walking out of the inn. She halted for a moment as she reached the door and looked into the mirror. Pausing to fix her appearance again, she opened the door to see that everyone was awake, with Night stirring and looking right at her. “I’ve good news and some bad news, everyone,” she said as she closed the door behind her and placed the food on the middle of the floor. Everyone more or less shrugged at this and joined her on the ground as there was no other place to eat all together. She smiled as she felt Night’s warmth as he cuddled up next to her, hungrily eyeing the pitcher of mango juice the inn had included with their breakfast of eggs, pancakes, fruits and gems.

“So what’s the good news?” Xvital asked as she took some of the pancakes with a fork and began to eat, with everyone grabbing some to eat or drink, Night practically latching onto the mango juice.

“The good news is that all of this food is free, the inn owner gave me a refund for some reason, and the bad news is that there is a large bounty on our heads with fifty Lunas apiece for information on us… so does anyone want some syrup?” she asked with a wide, worried grin on her face and hoping that they wouldn’t be too shocked.

“Wut,” Wind Breaker squeaked out, the eggs he was eating hanging out of his beak. “Fifty Lunas for information? Apiece‽”

“Ye… yes,” she said, pulling out the posters and gave them to Xvital to look at while taking some of the eggs for herself. “They do want us alive. So that is good, right?”

“If only for our foe to do away with us later on in private,” Rex said, taking some of the diamonds that the owner had provided for them, eating them as easily as Vix-Lei was eating her salad. “This is far from optimal… how do we know the owner will not turn us in?”

“How do we know this food isn’t tainted to knock us out?” Vix-Lei asked, looking at the food on her plate cautiously, Night pausing in his third glass of mango juice halfway to his lips.

“She gave me the posters,” Page said while looking at Wind Breaker. “Trust me, I know this food is good and we can trust her.”

“If you say you trust her, Page, I trust her,” Night said, nuzzling against her.

“I guess it wouldn’t make sense for her to warn us…” Xvital said, scratching her head with her tail hand. “Especially as it says we’re dangerous,” she said as she gave the posters to Rex. “Even says we killed a few Guards…”

Night blanched at this, with Page shooting a look at the ahuizotless. “Yes,” Rex said as he peered at Wind Breaker’s poster. “Night Blade is not the only one wanted for the murder of a Guard.”

“What?” Wind asked in a small voice, reaching for the poster.

“Yes, that explosion you caused did cause the death of a couple of Magi of Stars Guards, it seems,” Rex said softly, fiddling with his vest. “How are you handling this, Wind Breaker?”

“I.... what, I don’t know how to feel about this,” Wind said with everyone looking at him with concern, except for Night who was doing his utmost not to growl at the griffon. “I mean, I know that Night is okay with killing others, but I’m not!”

Page pushed her hoof down on Night’s back to keep him in place, and shooting a look at Xvital to say something.

“Didn’t Nighty say he was still messed up ‘bout the fact he killed some guy?” Vix-Lei asked, looking at Night.

“Yes,” Night said, face still red as he did his best to calm himself. “Well, kinda,” he stammered, looking off to the side. “What got to me was that I was okay with it; I never killed somepony before and-”

“Look,” Xvital cut in, leaning into the middle of them. “I don’t think any of us have killed anyone before but we can’t let ourselves crack up and get nabbed by the Guards.”

“Yeah,” Vix-Lei said, reaching over to pat Night on the back. “We can worry about the mind crap afterwards, right?”

“Ye-yeah,” Night lied, nuzzling into Page for comfort and assurance. “I’m good.”

“Same…” Wind said as well, looking nervous. “But Page, can I ask you something that’s been bugging me?”

Page felt her blood go cold but she calmed herself and said, “Of course.”

“I mean, I’ve seen you do some pretty crazy stuff, and you’re a librarian,” Wind said, causing everyone to look at her with Page’s heart thundering in her ears. “I’m just curious; are you a flare?”

Page felt a wave of relief flow through her; of all the things he could have asked her, it was this. “Oh no,” she giggled, shaking her head. “I’m not a flare pony, just a bit more talented than most; I mean, you wouldn’t believe how well you developed your telekinesis when you need to put books away on shelves three times your height and your personal flying machine isn’t around.” Page nuzzled Night’s face with him putting on a playful pout, causing everyone to laugh.

“Excuse me,” Vix-Lei said through her giggles, looking at her. “But what’s a flare?”

“Well, that’s just a pony who’s really magically talented,” Page said, remembering the medical books she had read a while back. “Basically, there are about three types of magic levels; hollow, normal and flare. Hollow ponies - heh, the term is actually Thaumatic Viduatus - are ponies who are born with no magic whatsoever, although a number of them actually have Scootaloo disorder, or Thaumatic Moratus, and just didn’t develop their magic until they were into their adulthood. There are two types of flare, Brevis Soluti Flares and Dum Soluti Flares. The first are ponies that peak really early before burning out their magic ability and the other...” Page trailed off, remembering exactly what they were up against.

“The other are ponies who do not burn out and only continue to get stronger over time,” Rex said with a worried sigh. “All of the Captains are Dum Soluti Flares, with the Captain General being the strongest one to date; only a few of the past Magi Supremes have ever come close to eclipsing her in the records.”

“Aren’t you guys overblowing this Gentle Trot?” Vix-Lei asked, looking around the room. “I mean, those stories of her breaking out of Tartarus is just horn bragging, right?”

“No,” Night said, shaking his head. “My brother and nephew are both in the Royal Guards, and due to how close my family is to the military due to our mines, I can attest that the stories about her are true.”

“So you mean the story about how she was just a Guard for five days before she went into Tartarus, spent five days in there, then came out of γαμημένος Τάρταρος ζωντανός είναι αλήθεια‽”

Page found herself turning to face Rex for translations as she did not speak Greco.

“Yes and the others cannot understand you right now,” Rex said before looking at Night. “Is it not also true that she was promoted to the position of Captain General because of this incident?”

“It is,” Night bobbed his head after taking another sip from his glass of mango juice. “From what I’ve heard, they figure that anypony that can deal with all the crap that comes with Tartarus and walk out with just a scar on her face and two of her fellow Guards deserves to be the new Captain General.”

Vix-Lei’s eyes bulged a bit, before she began to swear in Greco, walking around the room while Xvital turned to face Night Blade. “What about the rest of them? I know about Gentle Step due to stories those like me like to share and scare each other with.”

“They are all Dum Soluti Flares to start. Magi Supreme Violet Lulamoon is an expert thaumatic artificer and revolutionized the Guard’s armour protection spells. Captain Standing Wall is not only the Bane of Minotaurs, she’s also the strongest Earth pony mage known to have ever lived and is constantly redefining that field of magic. Holy Corona Blazen Sun is the Bane of Dragons after setting one on fire and causing it to explode when he was our age, is able to create a miniature sun and he has held his position the longest than any Captain. Full Moon Sweet Surprise has been recorded to being able to hold back a demon incursion on her own, a master tactician due to her reportedly unpredictable nature and high intelligence level and is adept at approved transformation magic - she may be a unicorn, but when she grows her wings, I’ve heard that she flies better than most nox or pegasus ponies,” Night said, taking a forkful of the pancakes into his mouth before speaking again. “And of course, Captain General Gentle Step is stronger than them, so there’s that. I’ve heard that she’s been pushing for approval to let her Guards train in Tartarus to give them proper experience in dealing with demons.”

"Violet Lulamoon is also a published author," Page added. "She wrote a book called A Free Inquiry into the Properties of Magic Amulets when she was younger, before she became a Captain." She blushed. "I read the Grand Library's copy when I was still a filly and thought it was quite fascinating. Especially that one amulet she mentioned that shone a light that could pierce through magical mists or shadows when used properly - she mentioned how it was once used to get through a mist barrier sealing off an entire town when she was just a lieutenant."

“Great, just great,” Vix-Lei groaned as she sat down and drank straight from the pitcher of mango juice, much to Night’s displeasure. “We have what amounts to freaking Heracles with the power of all the gods into five ponies with something that is tricking them into thinking we're the bad guys!” She took another gulp from the pitcher and finished it off, giving Night’s glass a hungry look. Her coltfriend simply took his glass and drank it down in one shot, coughing as it went down the wrong pipe.

“But we have half of what Balance said we need to beat whoever is controlling them,” Xvital said while taking another pancake. “So again guys, we just need to make a plan to get out of Canterlot and we should be good.”

“We start by getting the tracker out of me,” Wind Breaker reminded them. “That’s why we’re heading to the East-South Quarter, after all.”

“To find this doctor of yours,” Rex added, pouring some sapphires he’d crushed into his coffee and taking a long sip from it. “That operates in a temple towards the goddess Luna,” he said with a bit of distaste.

“You don’t believe in the goddesses, Rex?” Page Turner asked, the question slipping out of her mouth.

“No offense to you, Night Blade and Wind Breaker, but no I do not believe in such mythologies. They might have existed at one point, no doubt now with the existence of the Virtuous Six being proven without doubt, but as their stories were exaggerated, such fabrications occurred to the original Celestia and Luna,” Rex said, leaning inwards with his tail wagging as he was enjoying himself that he could speak his views. “Everything that they were credited as being able to do can be explained by science. There are telescopes being crafted in northern Bitaly now that will be able to see the orbit of the moon and prove that there is no thaumatic manipulation moving the celestial body,” Rex tilted his head upright. “Everything can be explained with logic; magic is just the excuse word that the masses use when they are unable to properly understand something. Thaumatology may seem like magic due to its wide reaching capabilities but it can be taught and understood; that’s why there is the Academy, to teach young minds about the science of thaumatology!” Rex barked, showing more passion than any of them had ever heard from the diamond dog before.

Vix-Lei blinked before shaking her head, and leaning forwards with her head propped up by her fist. “So what’s your beef with them, Rex?”

“Nothing… save for the fact that they have rejected my application to be their alchemy professor based on the fact I am not a true Equestrian and thus could not have the proper understanding in how to make alchemic potions or teach others in how do alchemy,” Rex grumbled.

“Eh, screw them Rex,” Xvital shrugged her shoulders while picking up an apple with her tail hand before pausing to look at it and wrinkle her nose, no doubt an Apple Clan product. Dropping the apple onto the tray, she picked up a papaya and held it to her mouth. “You know you’re good, that should be good enough.”

“While self acknowledgement is good and all, it does help the soul to know you are recognized for your deeds and I do wish to teach others what I know.” Rex let out a sigh, shaking his head. “And while it is not your library, Page Turner, the Academy's library has a wealth of knowledge that can truly help me expand on my knowledge.”

“Then perhaps you need to try elsewhere, Rex,” Xvital said as she took a bite of her papaya. “Back home in Tenochtitlan, there’s always room for another alchemist in the royal palace and they will take whatever they can get.”

“Do you think you could get me an appointment once this is all done?”

“No!” Xvital shouted before coughing and looking off to the side with her cheeks darkening with embarrassment. “Sorry but no, I cannot go there - too many people know me and I am not ready to deal with all that mess.” She then sighed with sadness and looked at her left hand, flicking her fingers.

“Don’t worry,” Page said with a smile, doing her best to ease the tension in the room. “I don’t think we’ll head there unless things get really bad.” She then turned her attention to everyone in the room. “I think our plans, whatever they are, should begin with finishing our breakfast.”

With everyone grinning in agreement, they began to finish off the hearty breakfast with gusto, all well aware that things were only going to get more dangerous as time went on.