After they had finished the meal and Page stacked the plates in preparedness to bring them back downstairs, Xvital had turned to face him and asked, “So you live in this area, right?”

“Almost,” he replied. “I actually live a far distance away but I do know this area somewhat well as there is the entrance to the Under.” He took another drink from his coffee, sighing in delight, before facing her properly again. “As I mentioned before, I know of a few locations down the way that we could use as a means to passing into the Lower.”

“I’m sensing a but coming along,” Wind Breaker said, being very astute to the situation.

“Correct,” Rex replied. “There are a number of ways we could enter the Lower; either the passageways from the Under as well as a few less than wholesome means of entrances via weaknesses of the Wall.”

“You know some smuggler tunnels, Rex?” Xvital’s grin grew as she giggled at his flustering and attempts to correct himself. “I didn’t expect you to know of them; you strike me as a real goodie guy despite-” she froze, her face darkening with a blush.

“Despite what; that I am a Diamond Dog?” Rex flicked his ears, frowning at her. He thought her better than this and he was deeply insulted.

“Well to be fair Rexy, you do look a bit gruff and menacing,” Vix-Lei chuckled before leaning over to lightly smack his side. “But anyone that deals with ya for a bit knows that you’re just a mixture of a big softie and a total egghead. Totally surprising that you know of naughty ways in and out of this city.”

“Yeah,” Xvital rubbed the back of her head, no doubt struggling to rethink of how she would address him again. “As was I saying, what are the drawbacks?”

“The tunnels would require us interacting with more Diamond Dogs and as I said before I cannot return there lest we encounter my former pack. The other option is that we move onwards past several gatehouses to where there is a… passageway for those that wish to remain unaware by the law,” he coughed, ears flicking as he was forced to address about the lss wholesome knowledge he had in traveling from the Middle to the Lower.

“Okay, how bad would it be if they, your old pack, saw you? I know that you said they’d kick up a fuss but how bad would it be; you think we could just bribe them or something?” Xvital asked him, leaning over and looking at him with a steady eye connection.

“To put it bluntly, they hate my guts,” Rex said dryly. “Leaving your pack is one of the worst things a Diamond Dog can do and being forced out is even worse than that. They would see it as me attempting to return to the pack and they would kill me for it. The only way I could be left alone in the Under is to invalidate their reasoning for forcing me out of the pack."

“And I guess a bit of arson doesn’t help?” Wind Breaker asked, reminding him of the fire that had occurred in the old Museum of Victory that the government was accusing of them of committing. Although how they could convince anyone that it was really the spirit of Balance was beyond him for the moment and thus Rex knew he would be stuck with that charge for a long time to come.

“No, ironically enough, they know that if I were to start to commit arson, it would be far more destructive due to my alchemic knowledge and would in fact see this as another example of my weakness that I did not do all that I could do.”

“That seems,” Night began, with the young noble obviously thinking of a proper way to voice the idiocy of it.

“Completely inane?” Rex offered before letting out a short annoyed bark. “It is, Night Blade. But again, I am happy with my life as it is. Or was as this recent development has caused an unexpected change.”

“So I guess we’re going to use these smuggler tunnels then?” Xvital said, eyeing everyone in the room.

“We don’t have much choice,” Page said after she finished stacking up the dishes. “We can’t use the gatehouses since we’re wanted criminals now, and we can’t use the Under because of Rex’s history there. The tunnels are the only option left.”

“How far are they?” Xvital asked him, pulling out her map as Rex walked over to examine it and began to locate where they were exactly and where the nearest tunnel entrance was before tapping a location. “That’s not that far, maybe a few hours’ walk.”

“Is that counting how much sneaking along we will have to do?” Rex inquired, causing her eyes to widen and let out a tiny curse.

“Shit, you’re right.” she groaned, rubbing her face with her tail paw. “It’s going to be a nightmare and I doubt that either you or Page could disguise us.” She flicked her eyes to Page. “You said the owner gave you some of the money back, right? Maybe we can buy some stuff to hide us from her.”

Rex heard Night let out a tiny snort at that. “Perhaps,” he said, “You should ask Night Blade for permission to use those funds, given it was his money originally.” He turned to Page. “I mean no offense to you, of course.”

“None taken,” Page replied with a smile gracing her face no doubt grateful that someone had spoken up for the nox pony. Rex knew how a pack worked and while Xvital was the alpha, she clearly needed help to make sure that she did not cause divisions within their pack.

Night shot a surprised look to him, with Xvital frowning before shaking her head. “It amounts to the same in the end; we’re in this together.” Night simply grunted at that, saying nothing to which Xvital let out an annoyed sigh. “You know what, fine, I’ll prove that I’m not full of shit. Everyone, dump your cash in the center right now; we’ll pool what we’ve got together, okay?” She started this by reaching into her pack and pulling out her coin bag and upending it into the middle of the floor. Rex was taken aback by this action although Vix-Lei joining first did not surprise him, even if some of the contents did.

"Why do you have that in your coin bag?" he asked.

"Emergencies," Vix-Lei replied, pulling the large rubber lizard that had prompted the question out of the pile of coins and stuffing it back into her pack.

"Do I even want to know what sort of emergency would require it?"

"Probably not," the minotaur admitted with a blush on her cheeks. “Though knowing our luck, we’ll need it before this is over.”

“Ah.” Pulling his own coin bag out, Rex added its contents to the pile. Page followed his example, and then Wind Breaker. Finally, though he grumbled about it somewhat, Night Blade emptied his bag and the one Page had given back to him. The ahuizotless then swept it all towards Rex.

“Care to split up the cash into proper amounts for us to carry?” she asked him as she moved to sit down on a bed, wrapping her tail around herself. “You did a good job with how you did with the supplies...”

Rex nodded his head and was quickly aware of what Xvital had done. While most would not be able to tell who had owned the coinage before Xvital had pushed them together, Rex had learned to grow a fine eye working in his lab lest he blow himself up again.

Night, by far, had the most money and he would actually come away from this poorer while everyone else would gain a profit from this. Judging how Night’s face was, he was well aware of this fact and that he could not say a word about it without seeming extremely petty. If this was Xvital’s plan to fire him up once more, it was a good one as Night had no way to save face without biting his tongue again. Rex did not like being a part of this trickery but there was always the chance that Xvital had no real malice and he was just imagining this.

In any case, he quickly counted how much they had - seventy-two Cadenzas, several didrachms and about the same amount of reales and escudos - and began to divide it up. They couldn’t use the didrachms, reales and escudos - nearly no place in Canterlot would take them in and those that would would undoubtedly be watched by the government if they were foolish enough to shop there. Rex then began to pack their money away into the different bags and sliding the foreign currency into the spare bag.

Passing each bag to the group, Rex saw Xvital flash a look directed at Night that spoke volumes and Night clearly saw it by how his body posture shifted. He wasn’t sure it was a good thing or not that no one else saw it, but either way, it concerned him.

“The question remains,” he said. “How to get to the tunnels without being seen.”

“Yeah, ‘cause trying to be subtle with coats and stuff will get us caught in a hurry,” Vix-Lei put in. “Believe me, the more subtle you try to be, the more suspicious you look.”

“So what, we go in as is?” Wind asked, raising an eyebrow.

“Believe or not, act like you belong somewhere and you can bullshit almost anything,” Xvital said before looking at Vix-Lei sheepishly. “Sorry about that.”

“No probs,” Vix-Lei replied. “If you don’t mind me doing the same, eh kitty cat cat?” The minotaur ended that with a grin that put a smile on Rex’s face; it seemed that Vix-Lei was able to puncture Xvital’s bravado without causing a major incident.

“Okay, I got it,” Xvital said with a smile on her own face. “Look guys, we’ll figure out how we’ll get there somehow.”

“Rex, can you help me please?” Page asked as she lifted the plates, looking straight at him. Rex was thrown by this as she did not ask Night but he simply moved onwards, picking up some of the other dishes with one paw as he opened the door with the other. “We will be back once we are done and hopefully have some better ideas.”

With that said, the two of them left the room and began going downstairs, Rex staying on the side of the railing as it was only proper to do. Smiling to himself, he found her to be a very nice and kind soul; so eager to be helpful to others even with things that did not require more than one doing. It was obvious why she had obtained the Element of Kindness and she would be very good for the group.

Wagging his tail as he stopped at the bottom of the landing to wait for her, with the unicorn smiling and giggling at his gentledog behaviour.

“Excuse me, ma’am,” Page said to the owner, the mare flicking her eyes in a disinterested fashion. “We just finished the wonderful breakfast you provided us and we would like to be helpful and bring the dishes back.”

The mare simply grunted and tilted her head towards the backroom. With a shrug of his shoulders, Rex simply walked forwards into the kitchen, making sure to hold the door open for her. He frowned as the kitchen was empty, the pantry door open and food cooking in the oven. Placing the dishes by the sink, he took a deep breath to take in the smell of the kitchen, the bread cooking in the ovens, the eggs boiling on a stove, the frying hash browns, the smell of freshly moved dirt… wait, what?

Following the scent of the moved dirt, he walked over to the pantry and knelt down near the floor. As his eyes were meant for near darkness, he could see the outlines of a trap door fairly well. Without so much a thought for properness, he slid his claws into it and popped it open, seeing that there was a tunnel that seemingly ran straight down the street. Turning his head, he saw Page hovering over his shoulder, smiling just as broadly as he was. “I’ll go get the others, you go check how far this goes Rex.”

“Absolutely,” he replied as he walked her back to the door, watching Page mention how she needed to go get some dishes that they had forgotten. Rex was about to close the door behind him when he heard a gasp from a familiar voice.

“Boss?” He turned around to see Connection and Mixture trot into the inn, looking at him with shock and awe. “Is that you?” Secured continued to ask him, her eyes wide as Mixture snapped a look at the inn owner who simply rolled her eyes and walked away.

“Magic Mixture, Secured Connection, what are you two doing here?” he asked his employees, moving to embrace them.

“We just finished talking to the Guards about you,” Mixture said, smiling at him as the white and yellow-patched stallion pulled back from the hug. “About how you, out of all people, are wanted for treason.”

“We told them that you’re too straight-laced to do even the most minor of crimes,” Secured rolled her eyes. “And finally the Guards finally let us go and dropped us off in the East. We just came here to get some food before heading back to the lab and figuring out how to clear your name.” The teal mare tilted her head as if to gesture him to follow the pair out of the inn.

“Magic, Secured, I cannot come with you,” he said in a soft tone, ears flicking as he heard Page lead the rest of them down the stairs. “Trust me when I say this, although the charges are accurate, I - nay, we - are innocent. Xvital,” Rex tilted his head upwards as he waved the ahuizotless over. “There is a tunnel that I am sure we can use to make our escape.”

“Got it,” Xvital replied, pulling herself into the kitchen with Vix-Lei right behind her. Wind Breaker peered around, keeping an eye out for the owner before walking in with Night covering Page’s entrance into the room.

“Rex, this isn’t like you,” Secured said, patting his arm, almost pulling him with her. “Come with us, let us go to the Guards and explain everything to them. Safe and reasonable; that’s what you taught us when you took us on as your students!”

“Connects is right,” Mixture said, pleading to him with his big brown eyes. “Come with us; don’t throw your life’s work away.”

“I am sorry, but this is something I must do,” Rex said in a soft whimper before shaking his head. “Regardless of what happens, rest assured I took measures to take care of you two in case something were to happen to me.” Rex held up a finger to silence his two employees who were also struggling to make a life together as he fished into his vest for it. Pulling out a number of vials, potions, a few bits of emeralds and other odds and ends, he finally retrieved the sealed envelope that had his address on it. “This letter,” he said quietly, “Will transfer ownership of the lab and shop over to you two as soon as you mail it.”

“Rex!” they both shouted, eyes going wide. “This is too much, way too much.” Connection blubbered with Mixture patting her back, still obviously in shock.

“We can’t take this from you; you built your lab from the ground up,” Mixture said. “It’s your life’s work…”

“And it is yours now,” Rex said firmly. “I have taught you a great deal, and I know you are both more than worthy of claiming it.” He bowed, holding out the letter. “I am proud to call you my students and-” his sentence was cut off as they took hold of the letter, his eyes going dark.

Rex opened his eyes to find himself in front of a tall, colorful building. Studying it, he noted the decorative pillars and the rather… fancy overhang that surrounded it.

While the area around the building seemed pleasant enough, with its grass and trees, he could see no other signs of life. Contemplating for a moment, he stepped forward and opened the door of the building. A small bell tinkled overhead as he stepped into the shop.

Studying its interior, he saw several mirrors, a number of displays that bore somewhat of a resemblance to the outside of the building, a set of ponyquins wearing some of the fanciest, and yet most tasteful pony-style dresses he had ever seen, and a rack of similar dresses off to one side.

“Hello?” he called.

“Just a moment, darling,” a voice with an almost musical quality to it called out from above. Moments later, a white unicorn mare trotted down the staircase, her elegantly styled violet mane almost bouncing as she joined him.

“Welcome to Carousel Boutique, where every garment is chic, unique, and magnifique.” She eyed his vest with an expert analyzing eye. “Though I see you already have excellent taste in outfits, my good sir.”

“Thank you, ma’am,” Rex said as he took her hoof to place a kiss on it. “While I would wager that you are the Lady, recent events have alerted me of the error of assuming that it is your actual name.”

“You would be quite correct, my good sir,” the unicorn replied with a smile. “Rarity Belle is my name, but you may call me Rarity.”

“A pleasure to meet you then, Rarity,” Rex said, bowing his head slightly. “From how I have heard of Page Turner, Vix-Lei and Wind Breaker, may I assume that you have negative feelings towards your title?”

“To a degree,” Rarity replied as she walked over to the backroom of her shop which was, not surprisingly, her workshop. “While I was alive, it had been a goal of mine to marry a prince and become one of the noble elites of Canterlot. Now that I have seen how my identity has been altered to prompt a sense of elitism along with giving charity to the less fortunate is a bit off putting, especially how often the charity is a token effort,” she let out a tiny sigh, shaking her head. “Regardless, our Element is still present with how they remembered me, and I suppose I should be grateful for that.”

“Ah,” Rex’s eyes widen at that nugget of information. “So our Element is generosity then?”

Rarity smile turn into a smirk. “The girls and I were betting who would guess their Element first and you, Rex, just helped me win.”

“Glad to be of service,” Rex chuckled at this, feeling as good as diamonds. “May I inquire how does our Element relate to the group?”

“You may,” Rarity said with a smile. “And to answer your question, we are possessed of an open heart that desires the greatest good for others. We understand others and inspire them with our selflessness as you did by giving your two students not only your lab and shop but the means for them to start their life as a couple.” She sighed happily. “Do pass on my best wishes to them, darling - for a long and happy life together, with many generations of young ones to bring joy into their lives.” She smiled wistfully. “Alas, the only young one in my life was my own little sister… but she was, and still is, a joy and a treasure.”

Rex nodded. “I see, and I’ll make sure to pass on your message.” Then he quirked his head before snapping his claws. “Speaking of siblings, I know that Applejack had an older brother-”

“Oh yes,” Rarity purred, a faint blush racing across her face. “Big, tall, strong, silent hunk of a stallion. He was the desire of a lot of mares back then and even a few colts. Of course, I could never go after him as it would not be proper, but ooh was he handsome!” She sighed happily, before turning serious again. “Regrettably, it is not my place to inform you of his identity just yet, but I can promise that you will have an answer to your question before this is all over, darling. And other questions you might have about any of our siblings, both the elder and the younger.” She looked up. “And now, equally regrettably, it is time for you to go… your companions, and your students, are waiting.”

She pressed a hoof against his snout, and for a moment, there was nothing.

When he opened his eyes again, he found himself on the floor of the kitchen’s inn, seven concerned faces looking down at him. “You all right, boss?” Mixture asked, a concerned tone in his voice. “You just blacked out there-”

“I’m very well, thank you,” Rex replied as he got to his feet. “Better than I was before, in fact.” Reaching a paw to his neck, he found what he was expecting: a golden necklace, with a violet gem in the shape of a potion bottle in the middle. Secured Connection immediately noticed it too.

“Boss? What is that?” she asked nervously. “And where… did it come from?”

Rex sighed. “That is a long story, and not one I have time for at the moment,” he said. “We must be away, and quickly.”

Mixture and Connection both shared a look before pulling him into a hug. “Be careful, Boss,” Mixture said before letting go. “Come Connects, we need to get out of here; no doubt the Guards are watching us to see if we run into you and we won’t let that happen.”

“You take care of him,” Connection said, looking at his new pack before leaning over to place a kiss on his cheek. “Be safe.”

Smiling at her kindness, Rex hugged her once more before walking to the pantry with the hidden trapdoor open, walking down the steps into the darkness with Xvital on his tail, Page Turner and Night Blade following her, Wind Breaker behind the couple and Vix-Lei bringing up the rear. Rex turned to see the minotaur reach up and lower the door down on them, plunging them into darkness.