I sat on the edge of the bed, frowning. We were in our room. Easy was looking at me with an odd expression.

"Are you just going to sit there?" She shook her head. "We won't get paid if we don't actually do something."

"I want to!" I practically jumped to my feet. "I'm ready to start a dozen little projects to improve the world, and we can't do any of them." I had expected to be wrestling with logistics and physics, not sociology. But, then, what great project ever came to be without the cooperation of the times? "Look, we've been taking this all in, but, like you said, we haven't done something. Let's change that."

Easy clapped her hooves. Whenever ponies did that, it was a nice reminder that they were not horses. Any horse that could do that was already maimed for life. "I like the sound of that. What kind of something do you have in mind?"

"We are outside parties." I waved a finger between her and myself. "Let's get the other half of this story, straight from the horse's mouth."

She squinted at me. "We aren't horses, but alright...? Who is the other half?"

Right, what I know doesn't get shared to her automatically. "The rebels. The ponies fighting Equestria, and doing a good enough job of it to keep the country in paralysis. Maybe we can convince them to stop this, or at least learn what their side of it is."

Easy looked suddenly unsure. "You want to go marching up to a bunch of armed and dangerous ponies and just kinda... say hi? The last time we knew there were armed ponies waiting for us, we turned around and left."

That reminded me... "I wonder if he knows about them."

"Who?"

"Work Pants." Come to think of it... "He is, or was, a part of the same guild aiming for us, probably. I want to talk to him." I pocketed my phone and moved for the door.

Easy hopped clear of her own bed and came trotting up behind me. "Alright, that's something I don't fear for my life doing."

I opened the door to see a glowing horn and a raised hoof. Water Lily scrambled back a step. "Sorry, sir. I was just about to knock." She gestured her head to the side at some floating linens. "I was going to make your beds."

Easy wrinkled her nose at Water. "Go ahead, we're taking our valuable stuff with us this time."

Water shrank at the accusation, but didn't fight back. It hurt me to see her like that. "It's alright," I assured. "We were just headed out."

We traded places with her. She trotted into the room and we went down the hallway, heading for the castle's exit.

"Sir." A guard at the castle exit rose as we came into view. "I have a package, from the princess." He fished out a bag and held it towards me. "For services rendered."

Had I rendered any services yet? I accepted the durlap bag. It had some weight to it, and I could hear metal clinking around in there. I had just been paid, despite not... doing much yet. I needed it too much to complain too loudly. "Tell her I said thank you."

Easy circled in front of me. "I've been mighty patient, but I get a share of that, right?" Her eyes were on the bag. "Fair is fair, and I've been an A+ manager, right?"

I had no idea how many bits were in there, and only the start of an idea of how far any given bit went. "Let's discuss that, not here."

Easy's ears fell to either side. "Oh, right. Have a nice day, gentleponies." She turned away from the guards and we both descended the stairs into the city proper.

We weren't even a block away before I saw her horn glowing. "Let's see how much she's paying."

I wanted to grab her horn, but my lesson was learned. One should not just go touching ponies like they were a well-trained pet. "That can wait until we're back inside. For now, let's not flash bits around as we go."

She huffed at that, but didn't argue it further. "Do you think he's still at the same place?"

"Only place we can look."

As we winded through the city, my eyes took in details I had missed the first time. Before, I had been focused on the ground and its lay. That time, I found myself noticing the graffiti. It made much more sense, with the context. 'Gods don't own the sun', reported one scrawling.

They had done an impressive job of isolating the city from the war, considering I only spotted the barest handful of missives decrying things from the specific angles of the rebellion. Most were gang signs, I assumed, or just personal tags. Mind, they did not have spray paint. Such marks were gouged or stained with exotic things that likely took much more time and effort than shaking a can would ever had done.

It did mean whatever messages were made were put there with a very intent purpose. One did not 'idly' carve a message into stone or wood.

The crowds were present, pushing their way through the crowded streets. I quietly pined for the wide and majestic avenues that Canterlot once had... in the future? Will have? I had to focus on getting past equine bodies, everyone trying to get to where they needed to be and few seeming to care about the others. I was just as guilty, in the end.

As we pushed past the central road and began approaching the poor corner we had first met him, the noise and crowd died away. Less ponies were present, or perhaps they were more indoors around that area. It did have a gang problem, perhaps they were smart for staying off the streets.

Work Pants was where we had left him, though his left eye was swollen shut with a big hoof print showing around it, as if he'd been kicked in the face. Despite that, he sat there, being as composed as a person with a black eye cloud be. "You're back," he greeted. "Good to see you again, sir, ma'am."

Easy pointed right at the injury. "What happened to you?!"

He winced and withdrew just a little. "I had a... conversation with my old friends. Let us put that aside. Has the princess approved of your project?"

I could hear hope in his voice. It was hope I didn't want to let down. "We have a new project," I said, trying to sound as confident as possible. "One, I hope, you might help with." I crouched down to be closer to his level. "Do you know about the rebellion?"

His good eye widened, darting left and right. "Y-you shouldn't talk about that, sir. You'll only invite trouble."

Easy lifted her shoulders. "Which you've been avoiding so well. Seriously, what happened?"

He sagged back with a weary sigh, as if he could hide in the shade of his alley. "I... went to tell them, about possible work, sir, ma'am. They didn't appreciate the idea of being hopeful without bits in hoof, as it were. 'Maybes don't feed our foals,' I think was said."

Easy's face only soured. "And that's enough to kick a pony these days?"

"Don't hold it against them." He sagged. "They are angry at me, and I deserve it... I must have seemed to them as if I were asking for forgiveness with empty promises." His eye returned to me. "Now, sir... What is it you're hoping to hear?"

I sank down further, sitting in front of him. "What do you know, about the war?"

"More than I care to." He shrank back further into the gloom, only the very end of his snout touching the light. "Ponies don't like talking about it... A good way to get my other eye bashed, sir."

Easy pointed at me with a firm thrust. "He isn't 'most ponies', and he asked. We're your friends, and you haven't made either of us angry, so..." She began to roll that hoof. "No kicks, promise."

He smirked a little. "A beat old pony, is that what I've become, jumping at shadows." He laughed, a short pained sound. "Sorry, do forgive me. Where do we begin then? Do you know something to start?"

So I caught him up on what I had learned. Easy was quite fixated, that being her first time hearing of it, I guessed.

He nodded slowly. "Not inaccurate, but very... clear what side spoke those words, and what eyes saw the events." His tongue peeked, running over his lips. "Have you already taken a side?"

I held up a hand, palm towards him. "I want to know more. I've tried acting first, it hasn't worked so far."

"Fair." He shuffled in place softly. "I didn't come from such... unfortunate starts. I was once a noblepony, next in line to the Pants estate. I took the wrong side." His lips turned upward into a faint smile. "Isn't that how that tends to go?"

Easy stomped a hoof hard enough to bounce in place. "You want to kill Celestia?!"

Work withdrew entirely, scrambling backwards into his alley. "N-no!"

"Easy there, Easy." I hadn't meant to repeat the word, but it wasn't my fault that was her name. "Work, please, tell us then, from your view, what you were supporting."

"Yes... well..." He got himself back upright onto his haunches. "I think Princess Celestia is a fine pony, but that is too much power, and responsibility, to put on the shoulders of any one pony." He tapped the front of his hoof on a loose cobblestone. "I was thinking... maybe we should trust more ponies... It's what we do, without saying it. Local ponies make local laws, and it seems to work."

Easy pointed up towards the castle. "She's not in charge. She can't even just hire us to start fixing this dump."

"This dump is my home, ma'am." For however meek he had been, he hardened in defense of Canterlot. "This may not be its finest hour, but it is still a wonderful city. It deserves better."

I stood up and offered a hand into the dark. "No arguing that," There was a slight tremble in my voice. "Canterlot can, and should, be more than it is now. I've seen it."

He was quiet a moment, staring at me. "What have you seen?"

"Clean, wide streets. Happy ponies." I could envision it in my mind. "Snooty nobles snooting it up in the center of a thriving Equestria. Where parties are what people look forward to, instead of... this." I threw a hand at the city-at-whole. "Where ponies worry more about perfecting their purpose instead of where the next meal is coming from."

"That... sounds nice." He chuckled as he stepped closer slowly, rising up to all fours. "And you think we can reach that? You are a strange one, sir. You're not even a pony, but you're going on about an ideal land for them. Why do you care, sir?"

It was a decent question. Why did I care? "I had a thousand stupid reasons before, but this is where I am and will remain. This is my home, and, as you said, it's not nice to call your home a dump. I'd rather work on that."

"A traveler come to find root, hmm." He sat before me and put a hoof to my still outstretched hand, meeting it. "Very well. Let me tell you the other side then, since you've heard the 'loyalist' angle."

Easy huffed out an impatient sigh "Is this going to be a while?" Her eyes moved to me. "I'm taking a few bits and getting us something to chew on while we listen." It wasn't a question. Her horn was already glowing.

Still, it wasn't an awful idea. I thrust a hand into my pocket and dug into the bag, feeling out a few coins and producing them.

She sharply whistled as she took only two of them. "Put the bigger ones back away before we're mugged."

Author's Notes:

Work Pants has a story to share! Yay! But what manner of typos hide in his tale?

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