After Xvital’s little announcement, the Order ponies began throwing cloaks and then gesturing at the six to follow them.

“Um,” Wind Breaker began as he struggled to put the cloak over himself - it was way too small for his griffon’s body. “Why exactly do we need this?” He was still scared of the ponies; the horror stories he heard from them the Hatchery of what they had done was very disturbing, both on and off the battlefield. Beyond their complete hatred for changelings, they also made sure that none could get inside their Order by never taking off their masks, revealing what they really looked like or sounded like or what Tribe they were.

Wind Breaker remembered one story he’d heard, way back when the Order first started up and had proved themselves to have avoided an infiltration by any changelings. They had assembled in a massive square and had the Guards surrounding them before randomly killing one of their own until the Guards were satisfied while never making a sound or flinching from seeing the pony next to them killed. Only after who knows how many of the Order ponies were executed and then examined did the Guards stop. Then the Questioning Order demanded that the square be renamed the Proving Field and the surrounding area in the Crystal Dominance made into their headquarters.

According to legend, King Blueblood couldn’t agree fast enough before making tracks back to Canterlot.

The Order ponies made some of their hoof gestures at Xvital and while they began to look somewhat similar to what he had seen before, Wind Breaker had no desire to piss them off further by learning their language by accident.

Xvital began to repeat what they were saying under her breath before turning to face them. “While they are taking us clear across the countryside, we’re still wanted fugitives and they won’t like to… wait, can you repeat that because I think you just said you don’t want to have to kill a dozen or so Royal Guards?”

Night took a sharp intake of air; didn’t he have family in the Royal Guards?

The pony in charge of the Order nodded their head.

“You’re crazy if you think you could kill Royal Guards and get away with it,” Night hissed in anger and then in pain as he tried to pull the cloak around his body, clearly moving something that was still banged the Tartarus up. Page took a step forwards to help him but Night shook his head; which was right. From what Wind Breaker could tell of Night, it would be something of a matter of pride to do this himself. Muttering and grumbling, the bat pony managed to get the cloak around his body before letting out a sigh as he looked at his right wing, which was bandaged and slathered with ointment. Again Wind Breaker found himself emphasizing with the sword pony. Even though he didn’t fly that often, being forcibly grounded was something that would send him around the bend.

They made a series of gestures at Xvital whose eyes began to grow wide before she suddenly shouted, “Okay, enough, I don’t want to have that or- Night please don’t ask me to repeat it.”

“Okay…. huh?” Night turned his head to see one of them present a book to him. With an annoyed grunt, he took it with his left wing and read the title, “The Unofficial Record of Confrontations between the Questioning Order of Celestia and the Equestrian Guards.” Night blinked as he took in what he just said. “Is this actually true?”

The pony just nodded their head and then patted Night on the head; the batpony started to snarl, but Wind Breaker stepped forwards and shook his head at Night, to tell him it was not worth it. “Oi, I’m the only one that can treat him like that,” he growled at the pony. In an instant, he felt the tension in the room growing, only for it to calm again when the leader of the Order ponies grabbed the one who had handed over the book, created a shield around them and then, by Wind Breaker’s best guess, read them the riot act before dropping the shield again.

The Order pony was standing sheepishly and began to do some hoof gestures before the leader smacked them across the back of the head. The pony then reached for the bottom of their mask and lifted it slightly enough for their lips to show.

“I am sorry,” the voice, a middle-aged sounding mare, spoke at Night before re-lowering her mask on her face and turning to glare at Page.

What did she have to do - oh right, Page was a changeling and the Order hated them for killing the Goddesses.

“So as my associate was inquiring,” Rex chimed in, almost drowning in his cloak, growling in frustration as he tried to wear it properly. “Where exactly are we heading?”

Xvital watched them gesture and began to translate for them. “They’re taking us to their headquarters in the Crystal Dominance - it’s where they’ve kept the last Element all these years and,” her eyes flicked wide for a second and Wind Breaker could see that the leader fumbled for a second. “Another item from the old Canterlot castle that was destroyed when…” Xvital trailed off a second, looking at Page.

She sighed, shaking her head. “Let me guess, when the changelings attacked and invaded the wedding of the demi-goddess Mi Amore Cadenza and her consort; am I right?”

This made the tension in the room even worse before the leader of the Order signaled at the six to follow them out of room and down a long hallway in single file with Xvital in the front, Night immediately behind her, and himself behind the bat pony. Glancing behind, he saw Rex fall into step behind him, Page following next, and finally Vix-Lei taking up the rear, while a gaggle of the Order ponies took up both ends to keep them herded in. Wind Breaker couldn’t help but wince as he saw Night hobble around, the sharp intakes of pain every time he took a step.

Night didn’t complain even once, although he seemed to growl at the stairs before he started to climb them. Given his injuries, Wind Breaker couldn’t blame him. Especially given how many they had to climb, by the looks of it, and it was spiraling to the right which was where most of Night’s injuries were.

They finally reached their destination on the roof of the stronghold after climbing several stories straight upwards, with Wind Breaker spreading his wings out to take in the air as it flew past him. It wasn’t often that he was this high up and had no building to block the flow of the wind. Turning his head, he could see Page doing the same thing with her wings with a small smile on her face. With her needing to hide all the time, it must have been a very long time since she’d last really had a chance to do this, he thought to himself.

“Fucking Tartarus,” Night grunted as he had his left wing out and was trying to do same with his other wing by instinct, only to remember it was bound up against his side. He glared at his damaged wing, tucked his left wing back in, tilted his head upwards and gasped. “Whoa!”

Wind Breaker turned his head to see a simply massive airship hovering in the air, with a column of mist filled with ever-shifting forms painted on the decorative sails with a ton of Order ponies bustling underneath it in complete silence as they loaded stuff on it.

“Whoa doesn’t even cover it, Nighty,” Vix-Lei said with awe in her voice. “This is a customized V-2 zeppelin, with sometaur having a flare for the old water ship style.You can even see the individualized craftsmanship on the hull of it.” The minotaur walked over to it and stood on the tips of her hooves to see the underside of it. “I think this came from the Ledra docks, people.”

Xvital let out a low whistle. “That is impressive… and you say your dad works with these kinds of ships?”

“He certainly does; my family has been working on airships for ages,” Vix-Lei said proudly. “I think my granddaddy worked on this ship, I’m pretty sure I see his trademark on it.” She went to examine it closer but she was stopped by an Order pony grabbing her arm and shaking their head in the negative. “Party pooper,” she pouted before shaking her head. “At the very least, you’ve got to let me drive this beauty.” This got all of them shaking their heads and several actually backing up. “What, what’s wrong?”

One of them held out a newspaper clip of a skimm-wait, it was them!

“Wait sometaur took a picture of that?” Vix-Lei shook her head. “Oh crap, my dad is going to kill me when he sees this! Wait, how did anytaur take a picture of us? I reckon we’re going too fast for it actually happen.”

“Well, they did manage to get a picture of u…” Rex began to trail off as he looked at the picture and began to growl loudly and tried to snatch it from the Order pony, only for them to snatch it back and give it to the minotaur. Vix-Lei looked at the picture closely and began to laugh, before giving it over to Xvital who started to giggle.

“Well Rex,” she said as she gave it over to him so he could see what was so funny. “I guess you are proven wrong after all.”

Wind Breaker looked at the picture and tilted it so that Night and Page could see, with the diamond dog grumbling off to the side as the Order ponies began to load the air- OH!

Wind Breaker couldn’t hold back his laughter at seeing Rex, of all people, with a big goofy grin on his face as he leaned across the side of the skimmer with his tongue sticking out and a somehow visible line of drool leaving his mouth.

“That is certainly falsified as I did not do that,” Rex grumbled with his arms across his chest, although there was a faint smile on his face. “The photograph must have been doctored to slander my good reputation!”

“...Rex, you do remember that we are currently Equestria’s most wanted,” Page said softly as she did her best to stifle her laughter. “Our reputations are at the absolute lowest until we deal with this enemy of ours.”

“Right, thank you for reminding me of that Page,” Night grumbled as he put a hoof on the rope ladder and tried to climb it but his body was holding him back. “Although I might be able to get away with it; I haven’t seen myself yet but I don’t think I look like me anymore…” he stopped and let out a sad sigh.

“You’ve picked up one scar,” Wind Breaker told him, trying to get some sense into him. “And bandages, but you won’t have them forever. One scar is hardly going to make you look different enough to not get recognized.”

Night Blade shot him a look, but the griffon just shrugged. “Just telling it like it is,” he said. “Besides, look at Page; just because you change your outside doesn’t mean who you are inside is going to be different.”

Night Blade’s face reddened. “I… see your point,” he admitted. “Thank you.” There was a brief moment of awkward silence as the Order finished loading their ship up before Night coughed and looked to the side. “One scar?” he asked, rubbing the cloth covering his face.

“Yes, Night,” Rex said as he walked over to him. “From what I was able to observe of it, while your eye is fine, there will be some scarring on your eyelid and eye.”

Night paled at that, his ears folding backwards before he coughed again and made his face all noble-like before turning to face one of the Order ponies that was using their magic to load the ship. “Excuse me, but in my current state, I cannot climb abo-”

The Order pony seemed to glare at Night and was about to make some gesture before Night continued to speak. “My family is responsible for providing a great deal of your metal-based supplies, and once this is all over I will do what I can to increase our support of your Order at decreased price.”

This got the lead pony’s attention and after a series of fierce hoof gestures, the Order had retracted the rope ladder and extended a sheet of wood outwards.

“Nicely done, Nighty,” Vix-Lei said as she patted him on the back only to wince as Night let out hiss of pain. “Oops… sorry about that,” she apologized with a weak giggle. “Really didn’t mean to get you hurt again.”

“I’m fine,” he said through clenched teeth, doing his best to steady his legs. “Just… give me a mome-”

“Okay, got it,” Xvital said, causing Wind Breaker to look away from the bat pony. “Night, they want you to go to the infirmary to check on your injuries once we’re up on that… ship,” she let out a tiny yowl, reminding Wind Breaker of how much she hated how Vix-Lei flew the skimmer. “Vix-Lei, they want you to go with him.”

“No problem, kitty catty,” she tipped her head as she began to look at the airship again, aching to explore it, run her hands over the generators that were providing the lift, hear all the engines humming including the massive turbofan in the center of the airship, climb the masts to see the view from crow’s nest… She smiled at the thought.

But she had to make sure Nighty was okay first before she even attempted anything she just thought of. “Come Nighty, I think I know where it is…” she said as she walked up the red oak gangplank and onto the deck with bustling airponies. “This seems to a real standard model so if I am right…” she said as she kept a hand on Night’s side as she walked over to the entrance of the hold at midship and trotted down the steps, ignoring any of Order gesturing at her. “Ah, there it is, Nighty!” she said, pointing at the door.

“How can you possibly tell Vix-Lei?” Night asked, tilting his head so he could see her with his one good peeper.

“The nose knows,” she tapped her snout. “I can smell all that medical stuff.” She waved her hand and went to knock on the door. There was a clatter from inside and after a few seconds, the door opened up to show another Order pony tilting their head up at her before looking at Night.

They then waved them in and pointed at the examination bed built into the side of the room. Night let out a tiny sigh as he walked over to it and started to pull himself onto it, only for the doc to stop him and point at her, then at Nighty and then back at the table.

She blinked in confusion before realizing why they wanted her here instead of Xvital who could actually tell what they were saying. With as much grace as she could muster, she lifted Night up and placed him on the bed with the guy stopping his squeaking as soon as he put two and two together.

The Order guy then tried to wave her away but Vix-Lei simply leaned against the door and began to tap Lady Kabonk against the side of the wall.

The doc simply stared at her before shaking their head and beginning to examine Nighty, starting by pulling back the bandages around his side. Vix-Lei let out a hiss as she saw it was all red; at her reaction, Night promptly tried to turn his head around to examine it himself, but the doc booped his nose and made a gesture that even she could tell meant stay still. The doc then took a washcloth and began to wipe away all the blood on his side.

“Damn Night,” she swore as she did her best not to hover the doc. “Why didn’t you say something? That looks rough.”

“Because it didn’t hurOW!” Night hissed as the doc sprinkled some disinfectant alcohol on the spot and began to re-stitch the wound. “Some warGrrk!” Night sputtered as the doc shoved a bar of rubber into his mouth before returning to their work. With his mouth full, he turned and glared, but the doc ignored it and wrapped up the wound in new bandages. The doc then began to prod and poke the other injuries, wrapping them up after cleaning and re-stitching. Night made a lot of angry squeaking sounds as the doc held out his wing and boop instructed him to hold it out straight. They held a light over the scabbing wounds and brought some ointment over, spreading it over Night’s wing.

Seemed Night was fibbing a bit as he let out a sigh of relief with the spread; even his body was relaxing out and his tail was all waggy. The doc then folded the wing back to Night’s side and reached for Night’s face.

Nighty flinched, trying to say something but the rubber in his mouth was really preventing him from doing anything but squeakies. The doc booped Night’s nose again and then started to unwrap the bandages around Night’s face and Vix-Lei couldn’t help herself. She had to see how cool Night’s scar was.

Finally, after a while, the doc had finished unwrapping Night’s face and Vix-Lei took in a sharp breath of air and was impressed with what magic was capable of doing. I mean, you couldn’t even tell the eyelid was magicked back together, she thought to herself as she eyed the wavering scar downwards. Night looked at her all of a sudden with a manic and nervous look in his left eye, making more squeaky noises for some reason while the doc was getting very annoyed at him squirming around. The doc finally settled Night by pushing him flat on the table and smacking his nose before reaching for a small medical flashlight and forcing Night’s eyelid open with their teal coloured magic.

Vix-Lei had a few seconds to see the eye before the light made it shrink but she could see jagged lines all across the eyeball. How the Tartarus did they thi-

She almost did a double take as Night was actually able to somewhat follow that standard eye test thingy, following the hoof with his right eye before making wincing sounds and shutting the eye tightly as he tried to rub at it with his hoof.

The Order pony stopped him and used their magic to search for something in the draw-Oh wait, she knew exactly what the doc was looking for and she had it in her pack for just such emergencies. Fumbling around until she reached her emergency case, she pulled out the eyepatch to both the doc’s and Night’s confusion.

“What? You never know when you might need an eyepatch,” Vix-Lei said as she gave the eyepatch over to the doc who put it on Night.

Night tried to say something no doubt in his usual posh voice but couldn’t due to the gag. The doc tilted their head at this before using their magic to pry Night’s mouth open wider and yank the long rubber out of him. “Thank you,” Night said, rubbing his jaw before looking at her. “As I was saying, be that as it may, why do you have an eyepatch made for a pony’s eye?”

“Ah, you see…”