Chapter 16: The Battle of Khaweth

“Contacts of the studio have reported great columns of smoke rising over the coast of the Zebra homeland of Khaweth and pushing out in all directions for many miles.” Pish Posh's voice said, stark and serious, over the radio. “For months now there have been official reports that hostilities between local Zebras and the highly organized poachers and criminals have greatly risen. Hero, of course, has elected to go and cover what our sources call, an all-out attack on the lands surrounding the ruins of the city of Numnah, the location of Grit Stratum's final adventure.”

My shocked face turned towards my friends, who themselves were locked on to the radio and the voice that so eloquently came from the speakers. Scarlet's face was completely aghast(apparently I had missed some of the more gory details earlier on in the broadcast) while Jackpot's face stood nearly emotionless as he listened closely to the broadcast.

“We don't know much and with how far Khaweth is from Equestria we will not likely know the full story until after the event has concluded. We do know, from multiple convicts arrested some time ago in Vanhoover, that these groups are connected with several criminal elements that have been seen within Equestria itself over the last few months. Zebra forces will no doubt soon be deployed in the area if they are not there already.” Pish's voice faltered somewhat here and a very audible sigh was heard soon after. “I'm going to be honest here, I have a feeling something very big and very bad is going on down there.”

“To any who have been listening to this channel recently, you know about the strange occurrences that have been happening around Equestria recently. Luckily, we have a certain hero of our own who has been going around and helping to fight off these ruffians! Please Ivory Star, go help Hero and the Zebras! Show the world you aren't what they're saying Grit was.”

I turned the broadcast off, my face very obviously betraying the worry and fear that I was feeling inside. My mind immediately went to Enyi and the too coincidental timing of this attack with him leaving with the helmet. My mind raced with thoughts of him getting seen by the wrong pony with the helmet and then the Family launching an all-out attack to get it.

“This ain't like them.” Jackpot said, looking up seriously at me almost like he knew what I was thinking.

“Huh?” I said, coming out of my deep and panicked thinking.

“They don't usually do big things like this. Something must be wrong.” he said, his tone both serious and contemplative.

“We need to go help!” Scarlet shouted up suddenly. “A lot of Zebras are going to be hurt in this and we need to go and help!”

“Have we heard anything from Silver at all?” I asked.

“Nothin.” Jackpot responded by shaking his head.

“This is just too worrying.” Scarlet squeaked, still trying not to let her worry get the better of her.

“This obviously has to do with us so of course we're going!” I said, pounding my hoof on the table.

Scarlet looked at me with a hopeful and grateful smile while Jackpot just continued to shake his head while taking a few quick swigs from his flask. I did agree that this seemed off as the Family had never, to my knowledge, tried to pull something this big off since the Ponyfire Club incident over forty years ago in Marewaukee. It gave me an uneasy feeling, almost as if a little pony in my head was shouting obscenities at my brain, but my worry for Enyi's safety and for the safety of Abila's helmet overshadowed this bad feeling.

Before much else could happen a sudden ringing at the front door broke me out of my determination trance. It surprised all of us as we jerked our heads as if something really bad was about to happen. All that did happen though was a letter slipping through the bottom of the door, pushed by a telekinetic field. I trotted over to see that the letter was addressed from The Silver Standard Transport Company.

“Hey guys! I think we got something from Silver!” I shouted over to my friends, remembering the name of the shipping company that Silver also ran.

“What does it say!” Scarlet whinnied, quickly running over to me to see the letter.

“Come on, tell us.” Jackpot agreed, himself getting up and smoothly floating over to me.

I tore the top of the letter open with my mouth before carefully unfolding the letter in my hooves. I could see that Scarlet was awash with worry and eager to see if Silver was alright so I set my eyes on the letter and read it aloud:

Dear friends,

I do apologize for my sudden departure but, well you see I have been seeking to expand my business for quite some time now and I was in the process of finalizing a deal with the Zebra of Khaweth to be able to expand my shipping opportunities to their country. I was called away shortly before our last trip and decided I could no longer afford to delay the process any further. Unfortunately, as you may have heard by the time this letter reaches you, Khaweth has been seemingly placed under siege and I unfortunately find myself somewhat stuck here. I know that you are one of those ponies that sometimes feel the need to help others(a trait I quite admire) so I would greatly appreciate a quick deviation from your schedule to help me and the good people of Khaweth out of our current predicament, I would be most grateful. I understand the urgent need to continue fighting that insidious Goldie and her band of ruffians but perhaps you might find something of use here in Khaweth, maybe one of those magical artifacts we are looking for.

Sincerely, Silver Chaser

“That settles it, we're definitely going!” Scarlet said emphatically.

“It's gonna take some time to get this set up Scarlet.” Jackpot said, bringing up the memory of Grit needing several days to set up a trip. “You can't just travel to Khaweth these days. You need connections, money, and all sorts of things we don't have right now.”

“Shut up Jackpot!” Scarlet said in a tone much more forceful than her usual self, “We can't abandon two of our friends to something like that!”

“Quiet both of you!” I nickered, “There's more, now if you would let me finish.” I continued reading:

PS: I understand that getting to Khaweth will be difficult so I arranged means of transportation should you choose to go. Everything is paid for et cetera.... You should just get to the nearest train station and show somepony in charge the badges I have shipped with this letter and you should have an express ticket to Khaweth.

Indeed, inside of the envelope were three curious looking badges, each marked with the names of Jackpot, Scarlet and myself. They were small, silver(he does have a 'Silver Standard' to live up to I guess) and each had a symbol of three lines converging to create one line that went straight out from the others, surrounded by a triangle(the symbol of his shipping company).

“Wow, he really does think of everything.” Jackpot mused as I finished reading the letter.

“Organization is a great virtue to have! You could learn from this Jackpot.” Scarlet said, almost enthusiastically considering the very dangerous situation she was so eagerly jumping into.

“I’m plenty organized.” Jackpot said, sounding slightly insulted.

“When it comes to cider it seems so, unfortunately for everything else you seem to have a lack of good fore-planning.” Scarlet sounded very snippy as she said this.

“What's with this attitude all of a sudden?” Jackpot sounded as surprised as Scarlet seemed snippy.

“I'm worried ok! It's mostly your fault Enyi went there in the first place and let's face it, all that violence is probably on account of that helmet he had that you two were keeping hidden from us. I have every right to be mad at both of you for this!” this kind of attitude was not like Scarlet which got me worried about just how worried she was about Enyi and Silver.

But Scarlet was correct, Enyi was probably the target of this and it was my fault that he ran off so quickly. Her words stung me very deeply and my face did not do a good job of hiding this fact as Jackpot and Scarlet continued to argue. The fact that Silver was now caught up in my mistake made me feel even worse about everything. I wasn't sure what to do or what to think, my actions had now caused my friend and the Zebra I had feelings for to get thrown into great danger.

Scarlet and Jackpot continued to argue with each other which only made my mental state worse. I couldn't think straight and I stood there, almost stunned, as though everything I currently cared about was a deer about to be rammed into, stunned by a Unicorn's horn-light, unable to run away. I mean, thinking about it, I really wasn't cut out for all of this. Grit taught me how to dig in dirt and not break anything(not my best lesson), he taught me how to read ancient languages and pursuits that wouldn't lead me to a situation like this. I hadn't been prepared for this kind of life. I couldn't help but begin to think that Grit had not only failed Equestria but somehow failed in teaching me. His actions would certainly have consequences for me, whether it was his lack of parenting skills or his illegal smuggling actions for the Family or other reasons.

My thoughts then raced back to Pish Posh's broadcast, 'Show the world you aren't what they're saying Grit was.'. I knew deep down that Grit just wasn't this evil thief that a lot of ponies now thought he was but I also knew that he had done everything he was being accused of. It had caused more than one confused inner monologue about how I was processing all of this(like this one). In all the years I had known him he was only ever what I thought him to be, awesome, intelligent, cool and suave and fiercely dedicated to his goals. There's no way he faked all of that, and with everything Hero and her friends said about him, that showed he was no villain. I thought back to all of the articles from Hero's studio and all of the great things Grit did with her and then with Adventure Incorporated before the Family took over.

Though,I admit Grit's ultimate intentions were probably lost on me and what his full plans and intentions were would probably be lost forever. I had spent my entire life practically worshiping the ground he galloped on and now, after everything that had happened, after all the confusion and loathing of both him and myself for thinking he was perfect the only conclusion I could come up with was that he was indeed trying to do the right thing at the end. Grit was a hero and before he died he came to the decision to do the right thing to try and make up for his mistakes and the best I could do in this situation is to try and do the same thing.

Enyi would have to be another matter entirely though. This one was my fault, at least partly. I could have sat there and laid the blame on Jackpot for convincing me to leave the helmet a secret but there really was nothing stopping me from telling Enyi and I suspected that Jackpot was feeling his own version of guilty about this as well. My heart was still(and probably always would) hurting for Enyi leaving like he did and it filled with dread at the idea that he wouldn't want to see or talk to me ever again. All I ended up feeling was fear and nervousness, mixed in with a bit of anger at both his and my own actions. I hoped, deep inside, that if I could just find him and explain everything that he would want to take me back and that everything would turn out all right. If that wasn't the case then...then I didn't know what I would do.

It was a strange feeling, what I felt about him. I had never really experienced love, save for the blind love I had for Grit in my more formative years and even though I had known Enyi barely a single summer I just felt something every time I looked at or thought about him(especially at night). There was just something about his eyes, his voice, his well...everything. Every time we dug into those ancient scrolls and tomes I felt comfortable and at ease with him and his insights on them certainly helped us to translate and understand them. With Grit gone I had worried, deep down, that I wouldn't have anypony to share my love for these kinds of things with but with him I saw someone whom I had a huge shared interest with and whom I though looked absolutely wonderful all the while. The only other pony I had anything like this with was Emerald and while she I always loved spending time with her I never felt anything for her like I did with Enyi. I knew that Emerald always liked me differently than I liked her and aside from a few curious, fleeting thoughts, I never really entertained the idea of being with her on any level besides friends.

As my friends argued, I stood there, took a deep breath and stomped my hoof on the ground to garner their attention.

“Guys, get whatever you need. We're leaving within the hour.” I said, staring down both of my arguing friends.

Grit's legacy might have been tarnished now but he did leave one thing behind, me. And I was now willing to do whatever I needed to do to make sure that the last thing Grit left behind was indeed something good that would save whatever legacy he had left behind. I felt that, that was the least Grit deserved for his many years of service to Equestria, years of service that seemed to not matter to so many ponies now. I might never fully forgive him, nor should he necessarily be forgiven, but I did feel that he deserved at least my best effort to ensure he had a chance at redemption, even if it was through me completing his final mission, to stop Sable Granite.

“You know, if this is what we think it is, Goldie is probably gonna be there.” Jackpot said quietly.

Scarlet's face immediately sank down as she realized what that would mean. She knew we simply couldn't beat Goldie and both Jackpot and myself knew this equally as well.

“We'll find a way, ok.” I said, comforting Scarlet as I gave a reaffirming nod and a confident look.

We raced around the house, gathering whatever we could think of that would be useful and stuffed them into our saddlebags. We had to move quickly if we wanted to get back to Khaweth in order to save Enyi and Silver from what could be certain death, if it wasn't too late already. I resolved myself not to think those kinds of thoughts as we all ran out the door of the house. One stop at cider Joe's so Jackpot could spend what little money he had left on refilling all of his flasks(for both of us at this point) and we were headed straight off to the train station.

We showed the badges Silver had sent off to one of the managers of the station and were conducted to a special train that ran off to the side of the normal trains. This was one of those new, high speed trains that were normally reserved for important ponies but the badge seemed to set the manager off enough so that when we boarded the train it started up almost immediately. I was still a bit too anxious to realize how odd and unusual that was and just wanted to get going as fast as possible and the fact we were leaving immediately didn't need any justification at the moment.

The train moved south quickly, at nearly twice the speed a normal train would move at. It was undoubtedly powered by magic as several Unicorns stood in the front car; horns glowing as they stared intensely forward towards the oncoming tracks. We were all on edge, Scarlet wouldn't stop fidgeting with her usual worry while Jackpot(with a few more flasks in his bag than usual) seemed distant and unsociable the duration of the ride. In my case, I was acting more like Scarlet than I would normally like to admit. My mind raced with hypothetical scenarios of everything bad that could possibly happen, happening. What if Silver was hurt...or dead, what if Enyi was hurt or...DEAD! What if he hated me now, what if he never wanted to see me again, what if we never got to have sex again(don't think like that now Ivory, there's more important things)! I sweated profusely to whole train ride south, unable to rid myself of all the horrible things that could go wrong in a place so far from home. I just couldn't shake the feeling that something really bad was going to happen once we got to Khaweth.

My nervousness and sweating only got worse when the train ride ended and I saw what now awaited me, a boat. Beside the boat was an orange Pegasus, looking very gruff as we showed him the badges and he went to prepare the boat for launch.

“Celestia's pregnant bitch-tits!” I lamented as I saw the very fast and very shaky looking boat that sat at the docks in front of me.

“Forgot you hate boats.” Jackpot said, nudging me from behind. He offered me one of the extra flasks of cider which I proceeded to chug until empty. “There, that should help.”

“Are you sure that actually helps?” Scarlet said doubtingly.

“She's getting on the boat now, ain’t she.” Jackpot pointed to me as I took a deep breath and landed my hooves on the speed-boat.

*****

The boat was small and fast, very fast. The cider seemed to help at first as my body seemed to go almost completely numb(Jackpot later said it was a lot harder than the stuff he normally got). When I eventually came to my senses(a good number of hours had passed, thank Celestia and Luna) the feeling of the rocking waves hit me harder than ever. I immediately rushed out of the small cabin that existed on the boat and barfed everything I had ever eaten in my life into the ocean(Scarlet's spells couldn't even help me now). I don't think my head ever left the side of the boat for the days we spent swiftly sailing across the choppy and highly disturbed waters of the sea, which greatly slowed the pace of the boat, towards Khaweth. This I noticed very eerily the closer we got to Khaweth; the waters themselves seemed blackened by some soot or other nasty thing I didn't want to know about. The few times I felt good enough to even move my head upwards I saw the sky, darkened by clouds with the sun unable to be seen as we closed onto the land. When we were but several hours from shore Jackpot and Scarlet came to my side and lifted me upwards.

“You might wanna look at this, kid.” Jackpot said, almost hesitantly and with obvious worry in his voice.

“Huh?” I moaned weakly.

“Um Ivory, you really might want to look at this.” I heard Scarlet mumble, herself seeming very terrified at something.

I managed to raise my head up with some effort almost to immediately wish I hadn’t. Above me and slowly rising over the distant shore were many great, massive columns of black smoke. Bits of ash and burnt debris now came, falling onto the boat the nearer we got to the shore. The Pegasus driving the boat gave us bits of cloth to protect our mouths with as the ash became thicker and thicker.

“Celestia protect us.” Scarlet mumbled under her breath as she stared out at the land, consumed by the black fog that seemed to be spreading out in every direction.

“What the actual fuck?”Jackpot said, almost in utter disbelief in what he was seeing. He swung his head around, closed his eyes and reopened them as if to try and deduce if what he was seeing was false or not.

“Indeed.” Scarlet agreed, herself to amazed and terrified to yell at Jackpot for swearing.

When the boat landed I almost regretted getting off it(even with the waves no longer disintegrating my insides). We landed in the same Village that I had landed in with Jackpot and Grit when all of this nonsense began and was welcomed with a very different sight. I thought the village couldn't seem any poorer or more rundown the last time but it seemed to outdo itself with this trip. This is because the village was gone, only a few burnt-out huts remained and the majority of the ground was covered in the burnt remains of what used to be the village. The sight was horrifying, dead Zebras lay all around me, several dozen at least. Some were burnt beyond my ability to identify them and I only guessed that they had been Zebras. Even the forest beyond the village was gone, at least from what we could see from the smoke in the distance. Everything around the village had been burned down. Scarlet's face went numb behind me, I heard her let out an alarmed squeak as we passed by a Zebra who had her stomach and what I guessed were all of her intestines carved and spread right from her stomach. Jackpot covered her face with his wings, his own face avoiding the gruesome sight that laid before us.

“How much you wanna bet I know who did that.” he said, asking this question in a way that was more of a statement of, 'Goldie is here'.

This horrendously gruesome sight angered me. I had plenty of reasons to hate Goldie but the sight of such an overly gruesome murder reminded me too much of what I had seen the morning I had found Grit. The only difference being that this Zebra seemed to have been mutilated, her insides carved from her body and splayed all about. My heart was filled with rage at what I was seeing as this sight seemed mirrored in the bodies that surrounded this particular one. Perhaps though I stared a bit too long as with the rage and anger came another feeling, nausea.

“I'm never gonna get used to this!” I belched as I almost impossibly vomited out more of my insides when I could have sworn I had nothing left inside my body at all.

Then as if out of nowhere, seven Zebra shot out from beneath the ash, surprising us and easily knocking me on the ground in my weakened state. Jackpot moved to cover Scarlet as her horn began to glow with any spell she could find to possibly help in any way before a Zebra with deep green eyes, who was their leader stopped the attack.

“This seems contrived! These ponies only just arrived!” she shouted to the other four who had now surrounded Jackpot and Scarlet.

“The fuck was that!” I yelled from the ground, angry at the sudden and seemingly unprovoked attack.

One of the Zebra eyed me for a second before deftly moving over and whispering something into the green-eyed Zebra's ear. She then gazed directly towards my flank and my cutie mark. She trotted over with quick but powerful strides and rolled me over, staring at my flank to get a better view.

“Hey! What are you-” I started to yell before the Zebra interrupted me.

“She is the one! We must bring her to him before the day is done!” she called to her companions, each of them nodding in agreement before exiting their fighting stances.

We had no time to ask questions before the Zebras lifted me up and pushed me back into my friends. The leader with the striking green eyes pointed towards something I had not noticed earlier, a large tent, covered by a group of unburnt trees, that sat a good bit of distance from us and the worst part of the smoke. Even as the smoke covered everything else, the tent seemed nearly unaffected as it stood there, now very noticeable in the barren wasteland that surrounded me. The green-eyed Zebra pushed us along towards the tent as the other Zebras gave us nasty looks before disappearing back into the ash on the ground.

“Where are we going?” I asked, somewhat incensed at the rough treatment I thought undeserved from this Zebra.

She didn't answer, instead quickly leading us towards the tent at the edge of the village. When we entered the tent a wave of relief washed over my body as Silver Chaser stood there, a wing wrapped in a sling, talking to a slightly larger and more muscular Zebra. They spoke quietly and I couldn't hear what they were discussing but it didn't matter I was so overcome with a sudden burst of joy at my friend not being hurt.

“Silver! You’re ok!” I yelled happily as I sprang towards him, Scarlet and Jackpot not far behind me.

“We were so worried about you!” Scarlet said, almost crying she was so happy and relieved. It didn't take Scarlet more than a few seconds and even less time to start fussing him over it as she began to examine it.

“I knew the whole time you'd be fine.” Jackpot said trying to sound his usual cocky self.

We all ran straight up to Silver and embraced him in a big group-hug which caused him to wheeze a bit as we tightly wrapped out hooves around him.

“Where's Enyi?” I asked with both eagerness and fear.

“I don't know.” Silver answered quietly, “I haven't seen much outside this tent since the Zebra rescued me.”

Then at that moment I became aware that it wasn't just me and my friends in the tent, there was still the green-eyed Zebra and the one Silver had been speaking to. I looked up(he was pretty tall) and saw his face staring at us with a mix of curiosity and something perhaps a bit more devious.

“Sir, this pony has the right mark, I think this conflict she did spark.” the green-eyed Zebra said, almost angrily.

The Zebra standing by Silver waved his hoof at her, signaling her to leave, “Thank you Siri, leave now and put aside your fury.”

The green-eyed Zebra, who I guess was named Siri, nodded and actually gave the leader Zebra a quick smile before swiftly disappearing back outside. The smile, I noticed, was not one of those every-day-friendly kind of smiles but an almost flirty one that I knew all to well from being with Enyi and(on further reflection) Emerald. The leader Zebra actually returned this smile before Siri had turned away and left the tent with an almost skip in her step that contrasted the very serious demeanor she had sported not moments before.

“No need to be so formal my friend.” Silver said cheerfully, “Ivory is quite the agreeable pony.”

I looked up at the Zebra who continued to stare at me with a very obviously interested look on his face. He was already planning something and he was making no effort to hide that fact. Just when I was beginning to think he could do no more than just stand and stare the Zebra turned his gaze towards Jackpot and spoke.

“I congratulate you on your pardon Jackpot, it must feel good to know I will no longer be hunting you.” the Zebra said in a voice that sounded nearly as confident and arrogant as Jackpot on his best days.

“Don't take it personally but you were just a huge pain in my ass.” Jackpot responded in an equally cocky tone.

I stood there, staring at the two stallions, each gazing at the other with faces that stallions usually give off when they are trying to compare whatever inane trait they thought made them more manly.

“Am I missing something here?” Scarlet asked, thankfully breaking the tension.

The Zebra spoke again, “For his part in the securing of the crown of Abila, Jackpot the Pegasus is officially cleared of any charge of wrongdoing that he may have committed against the Zebra in the past.” then in a move that surprised everypony the Zebra turned to me and spoke directly to my face. “The pony known as Ivory Star, however, is now wanted on charges of theft and artifact smuggling. My orders are to arrest her on sight with force authorized if she resists.”

“WAIT!? WHAT!?” gasped Jackpot, Scarlet, Silver and myself almost simultaneously.

To say that such an announcement came as a shock would be like saying that Twilight Sparkle got huge hard-ons for magic.....a big fucking understatement! I stood there in complete bewilderment as the Zebra simply maintained his calm demeanor.

“The Celestia-loving-fuck is that supposed to mean!” I shouted at the Zebra as my friends eagerly nodded in agreement and we all glared at him with gazes so sharp they would make Goldie Grail jealous.

The Zebra merely trotted over to a chair that was placed by a large table at the far end of the tent and sat down gingerly. He turned to face us in a relaxed position and spoke again.

“I am a Zebra of my word Jackpot. You are to not be implicated in any wrongdoings and any past actions have been pardoned.” his face turned serious as he continued to speak. “However, it seems that you have failed to live up to the agreement that Grit made to ensure the crown of Abila does not return to Khaweth.”

“What are you talkin bout?” Jackpot asked, his face now nearly as confused as my own.

“You did not know?” the Zebra looked confused, “We hired Grit Stratum to take the helmet away from Khaweth.”

What the double-fuck!? The Zebras? The Celestia and Luna at the same fucking time Zebras! Hired Grit! To steal and smuggle the biggest and most important relic of their whole fucking culture! And now I was being fucking blamed for it! The actual FUCKING FUCK!

“Hold on a princess-lickin minute.” Jackpot said, thankfully answering for me while my brain was busy processing what it had just heard. “Why the fuck are you blaming anything on anypony? Ivory wasn't even part of the deal! In fact, she barely knew anything at that point!”

“Exactly.” the Zebra said, “Grit failed on his end of the deal and so now we are forced to improvise. News that the crown was stolen will spark an outrage among the Zebra and we will need someone to blame. Ivory is a good choice due to her not being a Zebra as well as her affiliation to you and the now well-known smuggler Grit Stratum. That and blaming her does not contradict the terms of the contract I made with Grit Stratum. It sounds quite believable if I do say so myself.”

“You can't do that!” Scarlet wailed. “That's not fair! She didn't do anything wrong!”

“Then you should have made sure Enyi did not discover the crown, as Grit promised.” the Zebra said, remaining very calm amongst the hysterics.

“Fuck that fucker for having that fucking Zebra come with us!” Jackpot shouted out, losing control on his temper as he did. “What was he thinking would happen!”

“I do not know, but it does not matter now.” the Zebra answered.

“Ok ok, let's all calm down for a minute.” Silver interjected. “I'm sure we can talk this out like reasonable ponies.”

“You obviously can't be reasonable with fucking Zebras!” Jackpot shouted, his voice very obviously filled with anger.

“Jackpot! Shut up!” I shouted at him, causing him to whirl his face over to me in surprise.

“Ivory, you can't actually be going along with this...this striped piece of shit!” he was still quite upset.

“What choice do you think we had?” the Zebra said, now standing up, “Enyi will tell the council exactly what happened and as I said we cannot formally charge the child killer here.” the Zebra's gaze turned very harsh as he shot Jackpot a look that could have easily killed.

At the mere mention of that, Jackpot's face collapsed in on itself. I could tell he was on the verge of charging right up and bucking this Zebra right in the face but was doing everything he could to hold himself back. I could see his body shaking in both anger and regret as the Zebra seemed to know exactly what to say to shut Jackpot right up.

The real surprising thing was that this Zebra knew exactly who Jackpot was and what he had done. I suppose if he had been one of the Zebra chasing Jackpot(as he said) back then, then it would make sense he knew. There was certainly more to this Zebra than meets the eye if he was so lucky to be privy to information that Enyi and so many other Zebra were not allowed to know. For the moment however, my brain was just thinking that here was another guy who might know more about what was going on that me and if Enyi's descriptions of Zebras was anything to go by, he wouldn't tell me anything. This irritated the hell out of me but I had enough sense to not go around accusing this guy of whatever my brain decided to conjure up about him, especially if he holds whatever future I might have left in his hooves. Just who was this guy?

“I think we should get some air...well as much as we can seeing as the air is filled with smoke and ash, but it would be good to let Jackpot cool down.” Scarlet said softly as she put her hoof around Jackpot's near frozen body and slowly began to lead him out of the tent. Silver quickly followed leaving me and the Zebra alone in the tent.

I looked up at him and took a deep breath and slowly asked, “Do you know where Enyi is now? Is he ok? Is the helmet ok?”

“Enyi was attacked not long after landing here.” my heart shrank at hearing that.

“Is he...” I couldn't say it.

“No, he is alive. Several guards gave their lives so he did not have to, if that comforts you at all.” his voice was mixed with both stoicism and what I thought might be something that could in some alternate reality be confused for empathy.

I would be lying if I said it didn't and hearing that Enyi was alive and well quelled some of the anger I was doing my utmost to repress. Though, hearing that several Zebras were killed protecting him only made that anger for Goldie Grail and Sable Granite rise even more.

“Where is he?” I continued.

“Safe.” he answered.

“The helmet?” I asked.

“Taken.” he answered.

“So Grit failed on every level then.” I sighed deeply, on the verge of tears at hearing my mentors final good act had failed so utterly.

And now here I was, being thrown under the proverbial bus, in order to make up for this utter failure. It seemed my very soul was shriveling up inside of me. Everything I had dreamed for my life would probably never happen now that I was stuck far from home surrounded on one side by murderous ponies who wanted to rule the world and Zebras who wanted to throw me away for my mentor failing to prevent it.

It seemed to me that Grit's failure was now complete as not only did he fail himself but it would seem that I would be failing to be his legacy. Any chance of ponies ever feeling positively towards Grit again was practically gone, not to mention towards myself. I could practically hear my future waving goodbye as it boarded a ship, bound for unknown waters, never to return.

“This is not personal.” the Zebra said. “I have been hearing much about you Ivory Star. You are quite popular on your radio.”

“Wait.” I said, shooting my head upwards towards the Zebra, “You listen to Hero way out here?”

“She is here you know. Her and a peculiar apple vendor arrived a few days ago to help out and gather information. She has spoken very highly of you.” his tone now seemed gentler and he even garnered a small smile on his face which began to remind me of Enyi's smile a little bit.

“Then why? Why are you doing this to me?”

“I told you, You are involved in plans you knew nothing of, but involved you are. Enyi, like all storytellers, is stubborn and will relay events as he sees them. I have already spoken to him and you did indeed act to keep the helmet hidden from him and by extension our people. The Khaweth Council will not inform him of the full extent of the deal, for their own sake, and so you are the only one left who carries any blame. Keeping this attack a secret will be impossible and the Zebra of Khaweth will need someone to blame, and so, it will be you.”

Hearing it again did little to improve the deepening pit of despair that I was feeling and the fact that Enyi was inadvertently(I hope) helping to fuck me over made me feel even worse. I had failed as Grit's legacy, this act would all but ensure that he would lose any sympathy back in Equestria once they heard his apprentice was arrested for smuggling sacred Zebra artifacts. Not only had he failed but now I had failed him, my friends and myself as well. My brain now could only think of what my family would think, what would Blaze think, what would Emerald think of me. Could I even ever show my face in Equestria again? I certainly couldn't stay here, assuming I would ever get out of whatever hole the Zebras decided to throw me in.

“Do not worry little pony.” The Zebra lifted my sulking face up with his hoof, “I have plans for you in the future.” his smile was comforting but his eyes were devious.

“What do you mean?” I asked.

“Help us now and I guarantee the Zebra of Khaweth will hear about it. Hero will ensure Equestria hears about it. Ivory Star, the pony who saved hundreds of Zebra as she selflessly risked her life to defeat the Family and their insidious plot.” I was right, he was devious.

I had come with the intention of helping anyway and the idea that this would now benefit me in this horrible situation only made my resolve stronger. Plus if Enyi heard about it then that would certainly not hurt my chances of him not hating me forever.

“I came here with the intention of helping and that is still what I intend to do.” I stated firmly much to the Zebras delight.

“Good, then I will tell you what needs to be done.”

“No, here's what's going to happen.” I couldn't let this guy keep manipulating me forever now could I? “I know the pony who is leading this attack and I intend on finding her and bucking her fucking head right off of her bucking neck!”

“Her?”

Now I looked at him with a confused expression, “Goldie Grail. She's Sable Granite's right hoof pony.”

“Oh, Goldie....that is disappointing.” he did sound genuinely disappointed.

“What's disappointing about it?” seriously, Goldie Grail is like, the biggest target save for Sable himself. I could get preferring Sable be here but being disappointed that it was just Goldie made me feel a bit uneasy and belittled.

He let out a slight sigh, “Oh it is nothing, I had just hoped it was another but Goldie would be a worthy prize.”

I didn't know what or who he was talking about, Sable himself maybe? He seemed like the only other possible target. Either way if this Zebra could help me get to Goldie then I at least could make sure I at least got to make the pony who killed Grit and got me into this mess pay dearly for it. I remembered what I had reserved myself to doing to her while talking to Jackpot in Yakyakistan. When I found Goldie Grail, especially now, one of us wouldn't be leaving from that encounter. I didn't care that I stood no chance against her, I just wanted her to pay for everything she did to Grit and myself. If I could actually get at her then anything that came after would be worth it.

“I will tell you then Ivory, that my scouts believe their leader has made her base within the ruins of Numnah and that there have been signs of infighting among the enemy forces.” the Zebra said, looking back to the table where several local maps of the area lay.

Infighting? I didn't know ponies belonging to secret societies could have infighting. The way Jackpot described it pretty much everypony in the Family was raised to believe they were the best thing ever and any sacrifices made along the way would be worth it. Then again, the very fact Jackpot was with us and telling me these things proved that was not entirely true. Even so, the idea that there would be a noticeable amount of infighting here of all places was confusing and I couldn't even begin to comprehend the intricacies of an organization I knew practically nothing about.

“Do you know how many ponies Goldie has attacking with her?” I asked.

“A thousand at least, if not more.” he said, a hint of hesitation in his voice as he said this.

“WHAT! How many soldiers do you have?”

“Two hundred Socotra(elite Zebra soldiers).”

“WHAT! And you expect us to accomplish anything with odds like that!?” I swear my gasps could be heard in Yakyakistan.

“Oh we will win, but many Zebra lives will be lost.” he sounded regretful.

“How can you win, you're outnumbered five to one at least?” I was beginning to lose hope again.

“We...have a new toy I wish to test out. I am sure you will see the aftermath when you head out.” now he sounded almost gleeful.

He trotted up to the table where many maps of the area were laid out for me to look over with him. He showed me every location where the main fighting had or would likely take place and he laid out in great detail the route I should take to Numnah if I wished to arrive and avoid most of the fighting before I got there. His explanations were so detailed and well thought out that it almost made me think he had planned this before I ever arrived although Hero was here and knowing her she probably guessed I would follow and told this Zebra. It was an odd thought I had, that he would wait for me to deliver the horrible news he had and yet still knew I would somehow help him out. This Zebra was quite the conundrum and no matter how much he talked I never felt as though I had a good read on him. Although I was sure of one thing, I didn't like him very much. Sure I could just tell by how he carried himself that he at least seemed genuine and yet I just couldn't get over with how casual he took the job of screwing me over and potentially ruining my life. He seemed to care and yet at the same time not care, which freaked me out inside(not like I would tell him though).

“What's your name by the way?” I asked as he wrapped up his plan to get me to Numnah.

“My name?” he responded.

“Yeah, if you're going to send me off into a war zone and then ruin my life by destroying my credibility for arresting me for a crime I didn't commit, the least you could do is tell me your name.”

“That seems fair.” he seemed almost amused by my request, “My name is Karfiso and do not be so quick to think you will know how this will turn out, little pony.”

“Wait, so you're not going to arrest me?” my hoped rose.

“No, I will definitely be doing that.” my hopes sank down again.

“Well, I guess I don't really have much of a choice right now but to do what I can to help.” I sighed.

“That is the spirit!” Karfiso said gleefully, “Remember, positive thinking as you wander into a burning jungle filled with angry beasts and two armies of killers fighting to do what they do best!” ok, now I knew I was definitely going to die.

*****

I left the tent to see Jackpot sulking off a few feet away with Scarlet talking to him in an effort to cheer him up. I could see a flask in one of his wings and I desperately longed to have a few gulps of my own to put off the edge of everything I had just heard. Silver was standing closer to the tent, staring at the other two, and poking at the wing that was wrapped in bandages.

“Silver, what happened to your wing?” I asked now that I had the sense to pat attention to something other than my dreams being crushed.

“Oh, I ran into some of those Family goons. Karfiso and a few of his Zebra saved me.” he answered, sounding very thankful and somewhat in awe.

“How do they fight?” I asked.

“It was Karfiso and two Socotra...against a dozen or more Unicorns, it was...impressive.” yup, there was awe in Silver's voice but I really couldn't blame him. Three Zebra beating at least a dozen Unicorns was very impressive and Karfiso didn't have a single scratch on him.

Ok so getting on this Zebras bad side would be a very bad idea. Taking a look at the Zebra bodies that were littered around the destroyed village it was plain to see the Unicorns who had done that were very different from the ones Goldie had brought with her in our various encounters across Equestria. Those Unicorns didn't even seem to be using lethal spells(except for Goldie herself who always went for the kill) and simply used spells meant to incapacitate. That was probably Sable Granite wanting me to join him but since I refused him in Yakyakistan, Goldie and her ilk now seemed to be in all out murder mode. It really gives you the fuzzy tinglies inside knowing there are a thousand murderous Unicorns lurking in the woods just waiting to eviscerate you.

I slowly trotted over to where Scarlet was comforting Jackpot. It always unnerved me a little bit inside whenever I saw Jackpot not be the cocky, arrogant, crude, yet confident and lively pony I knew he was and this time was no different. To see him look so defeated was not a look that suited him and proved that Karfiso certainly did know a lot about our little group. It was a rare feat to make Jackpot shut up; a feat I only thought Goldie could ever really accomplish but apparently this Zebra had mastered that skill as well. It kind of gave me the shivers, knowing there was another person out there who could match Goldie in anything, but then again this Zebra really looked like he could smash Goldie's head in very easily(Ok, I might something about him).

“Come on Jackpot, Scarlet. We should be heading out.” I said as calmly and friendly as I could.

“Ivory's right Jackpot.” Scarlet cooed sweetly, “Maybe fighting some bad guys will cheer you up.” she smiled.

Jackpot tilted his head upwards, looking towards the line of trees, now burnt and black looking. He turned his head towards me and I saw how his face now sported an extremely determined look on it. He took one more aggressive swig from his flask, tossed the rest over to me and gave his normal, cocky smile.

“Let's fucking do this kid!” he said, his voice boasting his usual confidence.

Scarlet let out a little squee of happiness as she turned towards me, a big smile on her face.

“I think I'll call it, Ivory Star and the hunt for Goldie Grail!” a very loud and very fierce voice called out from behind me.

My body jolted around at the output of such a loud voice to see Hero landing behind me, the draft from her feathered wings whisking around me as she touched the ground. Angela Apple leapt from her back, a sack of delicious looking apples slung on her back.

“Howdy there partner!” she said gleefully, tossing three of her apples towards me and my friends. “These'll keep ya nice n' fit fer yer lil o' quest!”

“You won't come with us?” I asked, realizing that having a dragon on my side would basically ensure victory.

“Sorry kid.” Hero said in a slightly lighter voice, “I'm busy helping in other places. Besides I need to keep getting interviews from soldiers and prisoners, I don't have the time these days to have world saving adventures of my own anymore.”

“Don't worry there kiddo!” Angela beamed, “Jus' member ta keep ta yer wits and I think y’all will find what yer lookin fer!”

“I admit, the vote of confidence makes me feel a little better at least.” Scarlet said, taking a bite out of her apple.

I took a bite from the apple Angela had thrown me and it was even better than the apple she had given me in Marewaukee. It almost seemed to fill me with whatever energy I needed to keep going forward as well as the confidence I needed to not be weighed down by doubts and fears. Judging by Jackpot's and Scarlet's faces, they felt the same way about their apples.

Hero gave me a little reassuring hug before heading off towards Silver and Karfiso's tent. Angela trotted towards me and whispered into my ear before trotting off herself.

“Three lefts, two rights, then wait.” she winked before trotting off towards Hero.

“Huh?” I said as she trotted away, leaving me just as confused as the last time I saw her.

*****

The jungle was very different from how it was the first time. Instead of the wet, dense and animal filled jungle there was layers of ash that covered the ground and stumps of burnt trees strewn across the landscape. Thick clouds of smoke covered parts of the field but thankfully Jackpot was able to fly over them and scout out a more preferable path for us to take that led through the least amount of smoke possible.

It was almost mind boggling just how much destruction had been thrown at this land. I certainly didn't think the Broken Wilds were entirely pleasant the last time I was here but at least the jungle offered up a place just filled with flora and fauna that gave the area a life to it(even if part of that life was monsters). Now everything was barren and there were no animals to be heard in all of the surrounding areas. The only animals we did see were the eviscerated or burnt kind that lay intermingled with dead Unicorns that had been killed in the fighting by the Zebras.

“If you want to know just how good the Socotra are, look around you Ivory.” Jackpot said as he gazed upon the burning forest. “Not a single dead Zebra and yet there are at least two dozen dead ponies here.”

Jackpot's observation was correct of course, much to Scarlet's dismay. The dead ponies here were even more horribly mutilated than the dead Zebras we had seen in the ruin of the village. At least those Zebra had their body parts in a relatively near position to their bodies while these Unicorns, that wore the standard black uniform of the Family, had entire sections of their bodies blown off. Some were piles of mush that only vaguely resembled something that used to be a pony while others were simply parts of ponies with entire chunks of their bodies missing and their innards blown out in many directions around them.

“Karfiso's new toy.” I mumbled to myself as I viewed the bodies.

Luckily though, these bodies didn't make me want to hurl my insides out. In fact ever since eating Angela's apples me and my friends felt absolutely great, almost like magic. It felt great and I felt great. All the bodies did now was fill me with a great sense of dread and unease of accidentally running into a fight between these two groups and getting caught in the crossfire of something capable of blowing ponies apart.

These Socotra were scary but as we continued on we began to see a few Zebra bodies mixed in with the pony ones. They had empty vials and bottles next to their corpses, presumably to hold whatever alchemical concoctions that allowed them to blow up so many ponies. One of the dead Zebra had a vial on him that was not entirely empty. Scarlet carefully lifted it up with her telekinesis and held it up for inspection. It was a strange black powdery substance that seemed relatively harmless and benign. I couldn't imagine something so plain looking to be able to blow ponies apart with such intensity and quickly decided I didn't want to mess with it.

We continued on from the battle scene as we finally found ourselves in a part of the forest that wasn't completely burned down. The smoke began to clear away as green plants once again began to pop up in the now thin layer of ash that blanketed the ground. With the smoke clearing away I could see that the forest once again became dense a ways ahead as it seems that Goldie and her Unicorns lost interest in burning the forest down. The fires that caused the smoke were far from us as Karfiso had planned a route that led us away from the main blaze.

It felt good to see she wasn't able to destroy everything and that her destruction hopefully didn't include the ruins of Numnah themselves. Destroying such a historically important site would move her from unforgivable piece of shit cunt to, 'holy shit I'm going to rip off your horn, rape you with it, shove it down your throat, then rip it out your fucking stomach and shove it up your ass'. The darkness of these thoughts didn't dissuade me from having them as I began to imagine every worst case scenario involving Goldie. I thought up everything bad she could ever do and simply imagined that she had actually done them and allowed these thoughts to fuel my anger towards her.

My friends trotted onwards with dour yet determined faces while mine just began to seethe with the anger I was feeling towards Goldie. All she seemed to do was keep ruining lives; not just mine now but every pony and Zebra that died here was a life that simply ended because of her. Even if I felt no real sympathy towards any of the ponies under her command they were still living beings that she was ultimately leading towards their deaths. A pony that would toss the lives of her subordinates away so casually didn't deserve to lead them.

We trotted uninterrupted for hours. Even once we passed beyond the border of the destruction the jungle remained deathly quiet. No animals of any kind could be seen or heard by any of us save for a few dead ones that lay on the ground, their bodies torn apart by something, the fighting perhaps. It seemed as though the jungle itself was dead or at least dying in some way as the absence of any kind of living animals. I was beginning to think there were no more animals in the jungle when something dark caught my eye. A shape that I dreamed I would never have to see again, a long scaly tendril that stuck out from a patch of dense undergrowth. A scent of death and rotting flesh emanated from the beast, it was a Pyth, a dead one, but still a Pyth.

Jackpot let out a loud and audible whistle as we followed the tail of the serpentine monster up towards its head. This one was a good thirty feet long, not as big as the other one but still a monster nonetheless. Its body was covered in horrible looking gashes from which its certainly venomous blood slipped out and pooled around its body. Just looking at this beast showed what a horrific fight it must have been in and dished out to whomever attacked it. It took all of several seconds to figure out who it was when the real shock came when we saw what was laying around it; dead ponies and Zebras. Several dozen in total, more ponies than Zebras though. Their bodies were horribly burned by the beasts acidic venom, the sight of which made the spot on my flank I had been hit with burn again. Their bodies lay about the creature mangled and distorted by the burning venom. They no doubt suffered horribly in the seconds it would have taken them to die from such large amounts of venom coating them. I knew the feeling well and for a split second I actually felt sorry for some of the ponies whose bones I saw jutting from their quickly dissolving remains. This feeling was fleeting however when I remembered that these ponies worked for the very same ponies who had essentially ruined my life.

Jackpot carefully made his way through the bodies as he examined the scene, no doubt to try and deduce just how long ago this had happened. His investigation stopped however when he did, his face frozen at the ground in a glare that I could only describe as intensely sad.

“What is it Jackpot?” Scarlet asked as she held her nose and made her own way through the bodies towards Jackpot.

When I got to where he was standing I saw what he was staring at. A dead Unicorn pony stallion, light red coat with a purple mane and a set of dimples on what remained of his face. Part of the midsection of his body had been horribly burned away so that he was almost completely bisected in two. What parts of his face remained were frozen in a scream of complete and total terror, no doubt he was hit with a gout of venom and felt a horrifying burning as his own body dissolved before his eyes. Luckily Pyth venom is very potent and his suffering would have lasted mere moments.

“His name was Strawberry Dimple.” Jackpot said quietly and slowly, a depression in his voice, “When I was younger I used to make fun of how stupid I thought his name was.”

At that moment a thought hit me, a thought I should have thought much earlier but for whatever reason didn't. Jackpot had been raised his whole life in the Family and he would undoubtedly know many of them personally besides Goldie. I remembered back in Vanhoover when I took the mask off of one of the Family ponies Sparky had knocked out and being glad he was just a pony and not some horrifying monster. I swear, these ponies were making it very difficult to continue blindly hating all of them as I so desperately wanted to when I was forced to see them like this; just ponies, dead, dying, or with just plain looks of fear and anguish in their faces.

“Are you ok?” Scarlet asked as she tenderly put her hoof on Jackpot's shoulder.

“It's been so long.” Jackpot said, his words came slowly as he seemed to struggle to speak them, “He wasn't like Goldie.” is all Jackpot said as he turned his face and flew upwards and away from the scene.

I hadn't even considered that Jackpot might have known more ponies in the Family, which is strange as seeing as he grew up with them it would be pretty obvious that he knew many ponies who would be members of the Family.

As Scarlet and I stood there silently the calm broke when Jackpot came slamming into the ground from the sky. Scarlet let out a very loud eep as Jackpot was thrust into the body of his former acquaintance. Following him, five Pegasi landed in a circle around us so fast we hardly had any time to react to them. They each wore the typical black-ops like outfits members of the Family usually wore but what surprised me was that they were all Pegasi. I hadn't really seen any member of the Family, except Jackpot, who wasn't a Unicorn and this threw me off guard somewhat as we were quickly surrounded.

“Jackpot!” Scarlet and I both yelled as he hit the ground.

“Ha! Looky what we got here!” One of the Pegasi, the leader I guess, howled out in excitement. “We're here to fight one traitor and a second one just falls into our hooves!”

The fact that Jackpot had been taken out so quickly made me hesitant to move. My hooves were surrounded by bodies so my movement was limited and with Scarlet, a noncombatant, next to me I couldn't really risk moving much anyway.

“Dammit Sky Scraper!” Jackpot groaned before he rose from the ground, “Seems you never learned your lesson did you.” Jackpot put on a slight smile as he said this.

“Jackpot who are these guys!?” I asked, dropping into a fighting stance.

“A bunch o' kids who never listened when I tried to teach them bout fighting.” Jackpot said, nearly laughing now. “I'll admit you surprised me but once again your kick missed any spot that would have incapacitated me Sky Scraper.”

“That was a fluke!” Sky Scraper said angrily. “The next buck will break your rib cage!” Sky sprung forward, propelled forward by his strong wings towards Jackpot.

Jackpot's face resumed his cocky smile as he simply sidestepped the Pegasus, slamming his hoof into Sky Scraper's side and slamming him into the mud, propelled even faster by his speed. This Sky Scraper definitely seemed to have learned his fighting from Jackpot with his quick and forward attacks but Jackpot proved even quicker as he swept down and pinned the over-eager Pegasus to the ground.

“I'm disappointed Sky.” Jackpot mocked, “That hot mom of yours must really miss me to send her little shit to hunt me down.” as Jackpot said this he did something that actually shocked me. He pressed his hoof into Sky Scraper's wing and pressed down on it. A cracking sound came from the wing as Sky cried out in pain as Jackpot broke his wing, bending it in ways that wings were not meant to be bent in.

“Jackpot!” Scarlet roared, “What are you doing!”

Jackpot yanked the Pegasus’s mask off with his teeth, revealing a young looking rusty orange colored Pegasus. This kid looked no older than me, younger maybe. Jackpot got off from on top of him as he rolled on the ground, holding his broken wing and tearing up. The other four Pegasi actually started to laugh hysterically as Jackpot took a little bow looking all too pleased with himself.

“Wait, what?” I said, confused.

Sky Scraper got up from the ground and looked completely ashamed, his head falling low and a defeated(and very pained) look on his face. “I'm sorry sir. Goldie never took us out on ops so all we could really do is practice with each other and well...practice only takes you so far.” he winced with each word as his broken wing convulsed, ever so slightly with each word he spoke. Despite this Sky Scraper seemed to largely ignore the very obviously painful and crippling injury that had just been inflicted on him.

“Wait, what!?” this time Scarlet and myself said it together.

Jackpot ignored us as he talked to the young Pegasus, “What's going on here Sky? Last I checked all out attacks on kingdoms aren't our usual m.o.”

Sky looked at Jackpot with a quizzical look, “You didn't hear? I thought you guys would know everything, being the super evil nemesis who always seem to be one step ahead of us.” who's he calling evil!

“Um, we're not the bad guys here, you are.” Scarlet pointed out in a very matter-of-factly tone. Sky Scraper seemed to just ignore her.

“Goldie has betrayed Sable Granite and by extension she has betrayed all of us. She took every Unicorn who she could get to betray us and came here to seize power for herself by taking the last of the artifacts we need to complete our plans of saving Equestria. Sable Granite just arrived with every other pony at his disposal to stop her before she ruins everything and exposes all of us to both Khaweth and Equestria.”

“WAIT, WHAT!?” shouted all of us.

Jackpot rubbed his hoof worriedly through his mane. “Well I know there’s more than a thousand ponies under Sable's command so I'm guessin that Karfiso's Socotra are about to run into a bit bigger fight than they think.”

Jackpot and Sky kept on talking but I didn't listen. My mind was focused on what he had just said, “Sable Granite just arrived...”. This had to be the best luck of my life; the chance to take out both Goldie and Sable, or the chance that they would just kill each other filled me with more happiness than I would care to admit to my friends.

Despite my now intense happiness this news just didn't seem right from what I knew of Goldie Grail and Sable Granite. Goldie was definitely one hundred percent loyal to the Family and Sable practically was the Family so her turning traitor just didn't sit right with a part of me. And yet here was Sky, a soldier of Sable Granite, out to hunt Goldie and her followers as traitors to the Family. Something strange was going on I thought to myself but if it got me the chance to get at both Goldie and Sable I didn't much care.

There was of course the other things Sky had said about the Family trying to “save Equestria” but that just seemed like typical brainwashing to me. Jackpot had mentioned that ponies in the Family were raised to believe that the Family was a force for good after all.

“I just don't get it, not at all.” Jackpot sighed, shaking his head as he did.

It was now that I snapped out of my happy daydreams that only seemed to grow darker by the day. Jackpot and Sky Scraper had talked for some time but I had tuned them out for most of it. Jackpot was not entirely thrilled to have to retell me that Goldie accused Sable of treason then he did likewise to her. Most Unicorns followed Goldie here to finish their plan while Sable gathered the rest to follow Goldie and put her down. I suppose this made slightly more sense than Goldie just turning traitor but the office politics of secretive organizations that were tight-lipped by nature didn't interest me at the moment. I just assumed that they didn't believe in the power of friendship or something(as all villains seem to fail to do) and subsequently fell apart over it. An almost too convenient truth that I was willing to have myself believe as all my thought processes now seemed bent on finding a way to get to them so I could finish their jobs of killing each other for them and save Equestria and Khaweth as a bonus.

Jackpot cleared his throat as his posture and tone changed as if he were the captain of the Wonderbolts.

“Well, it seems your squad leader is injured.” he said authoritatively, “I suggest leaving the battlefield before any of the rest of you idiots gets yerselves hurt or killed.”

“Yes sir!” the troupe of Pegasi said in tandem.

The other four Pegasi helped Sky Scraper onto on of their backs before giving Jackpot a wave as they flew in the opposite direction than they had came from. Seeing as they had just agreed to leave the combat zone it was safe to say we now knew the general direction of where all the main fighting was going on and of course it was in just the direction we needed to go.

“Sorry bout that guys.” Jackpot said, slightly embarrassed, “Those were some kids who I used to train back in the day. They kinda looked up to me or somethin.” Jackpot explained how they were actually pretty nice kids and that they had one of those sibling rivalry relationships where they would always try and beat the crap out of each other whenever they met.

Still, I did sometimes forget the fact that Jackpot had once been a member of the Family and was very capable of the same ruthlessness that they employed. His casual action of cracking and breaking the wing of somepony he supposedly liked seemed almost alien to his personality now and was, admittedly, a bit unnerving for both myself and if Scarlet's face for the next few hours showed anything, her as well. It just didn't seem to fit him and I didn't like it much when he did show that side of himself that he kept insisting was gone.

*****

As we continued our trek through the thicker parts of the jungle it soon became apparent that we would have to find a place to sleep. It had taken over a day of uninterrupted trotting to get to Numnah the last time and this time we had to take a horrendously large amount of detours to avoid flames, thick smoke and strange distant explosions that we figured were not as distant as we would like them to be.

Jackpot continued to be a massive help here, scouting out paths that would be the safest for us to travel. Anywhere that had fire or foes he managed to lead us around(I can see why so many famous adventurers were Pegasi).

Every so often we could hear loud explosions coming from the distance, a distance that seemed ever closer to where we were. The battle was spreading out and we were heading right into the thick of it. It occurred to me that it would make sense for the fighting to get really bad the closer we got to Numnah and that once we got there shit would be hitting the fan, so to speak.

The sun eventually began to set and once again Jackpot came through with a place for us to (hopefully) sleep safely for the night. A small cave, well more like a hole in the wall...well more like a hole in a large boulder. It was lucky enough to be nestled into a thicket of trees that while it would be hard to find from the ground, it was spottable from the air. Thank Celestia for Jackpot!

The hole was just big enough for the three of us to fit inside as long as we stayed huddled together. Starting a fire would have risked detection or at least attracted any potential monsters that might still be prowling around. The days were hot and the nights were cold(same as last time) but now we had no fire, worse shelter, and several armies all around us trying to kill us. Suffice to say it took a whole flask of cider for me to be calm enough to actually drift off to sleep. Jackpot and Scarlet were still awake when I eventually drifted off to Luna's all encompassing dream-land which only made it easier for me to feel at ease as I fell asleep.

*****

BOOM!

I was immediately thrust awake to the sound of an explosion that sounded much nearer than I'm sure anypony would have liked. My eyes shot open as did my head, only succeeding in hitting my head against the boulder that I had been sleeping under.

“Time to go!” I heard Jackpot yell as I was yanked from my spot in the cave-like hole that I had managed to get comfortable in during the night.

Scarlet had me in her telekinetic hold as a red aura surrounded me, dragging me along the forest floor. Several bolts of Unicorn lightning zoomed past me as we were shot at before swiftly coming to an end as another explosion blew up from behind us, knocking all of us down in the process.

“Watch it you assholes!” Jackpot shouted, “We're here on orders from Karfiso!”

Jackpot's warning seemed to fall on deaf ears as a small spark lit over our heads, near the tops of the trees. Luckily Jackpot had acted swiftly enough to grab Scarlet and myself as he flew as fast as he could away, while carrying two ponies. He wasn't fast enough as the explosion blew him right to the ground before a Zebra leapt out at us from the undergrowth and right at Jackpot.

Jackpot had landed in a better position than myself and was up in time to meet the charging Socotra. The Zebra seemed to move with an almost supernatural grace as he spun and leapt around Jackpot. Jackpot was quick though and managed, with help from his wings, to keep pace with the Zebra and get some bucks into his opponent.

The Zebra though, countered every movement Jackpot made until he shot a hoof into Jackpot's ribs, grounding the Pegasus and knocking the wind from him. I had now gotten up, ironically knocked out of the exhausted daze I had gotten from my sudden awakening, in time to get behind the Zebra as he knocked Jackpot down. I threw my front hooves right between his rear legs, aiming for a spot I knew would hurt anypony. I hit home and the Zebra toppled over onto the ground, making it easy for Scarlet to wrap him in telekinesis as I jumped on top of him to help keep him down. Jackpot got back up, heaving and coughing from his hurt pride, as he joined in to hold the bucking Zebra down.

“Didn't ya hear me ya striped bastard! We're friends!” Jackpot yelled. “Hear that, friends!”

It took a minute for the Zebra to calm down, exhausting me even further just trying to hold him down. When he did he seemed to finally understand Jackpot's repeated use of the word friend. He was covered in an odd green paint, making marks around his body as to help blend in with the jungle. On his side were small pouches that had once held vials of the potions and poisons that the Zebra were known to use for various purposes(two bits as to what he had used his for). This Zebra clearly did not speak Ponish and seemed absolutely confused as to why we hadn't killed him yet. He seemed even more confused when we let him go, this time all of us chanting the word, friend, as we did so as to ensure he got the message. I even mentioned Karfiso's name just to be sure he understood us, he did.

“We're looking for Numnah.” I said slowly, “Numnah. Safe. Route.” it was clear from this experience that things would get exceedingly dangerous from here on out.

It took several minutes for the Zebra to nod that he understood what we were trying to say. He didn't speak at all himself which struck me as odd until I remembered that Enyi said the Zebra didn't share their language with outsiders. But hopefully he still understood our weird charades as he tried to motion out what we anted along with our words. He signaled he agreed but whether or not he actually understood us would only be shown in time.

Turns out he did understand us as the Socotra brought us along paths that seemed even better than the ones Jackpot had been scouting for us the day before. Paths so well hidden that several times I saw Unicorns and even from time to time, other ponies(Sable's soldiers), run right past us without even noticing our presence.

This Zebra knew his land well as we covered a good amount of distance in very good time. These Socotra were absolutely amazing! As we moved along the paths I couldn't help but admire his body. He was so lean and well-built that in terms of pure aesthetics he might even be nearly as hot as Enyi was(oh the thoughts of what the three of us could do! Or what Enyi could potentially learn to do!). He moved with grace and speed that would make Jackpot jealous(it did) and his hooves seemed to silently glide across the ground, muddy and plant filled though it was. If all of the Socotra were like this I could see why Karfiso said they would win against Goldie's forces, after all he had floored Jackpot with only mild difficulty.

“Are we there yet?” Scarlet whispered as our guide stopped us in the middle of a small copse of trees.

He held out his hoof to tell us to stay put as he peeked between the trees that formed the edge of the thick group of trees. He gestured for us to approach which we did as carefully as we could. I peeked through the same opening our guide was staring through and saw what he saw. Three dead Socotras surrounded by several dozen dead ponies at least. One of the Zebra had her head sawed off by something very sharp and I immediately knew who had done it and it made me even more angry.

He lead us for several more minutes as sounds of trampling hooves, shouting and several more explosions began to echo from ahead of us.

The sounds grew gradually louder as we approached Numnah. I could hear shouting and yelling as ponies fought with Zebras and other ponies at the same time. Pegasi flew overhead, spells were flung from Unicorns every which way and Earth Ponies knocked down trees and smashed in skulls as they all fought.

I could see a lot of it from our hidden location. The Socotra could actually still win this if they kept up what they were still doing. The fighting was mostly between Sable Granite's and Goldie Grail's ponies with the Zebra Socotra appearing and disappearing between the trees, launching their sparks of black powder at groups of ponies, blowing them apart.

Scarlet let out a shrill shriek as the blown-off head of a Unicorn landed square at her hooves, her eyes still open in a look of horror at her own death. Her neck leaked blood over Scarlet's hooves, turning them scarlet to match her mane and eyes. Jackpot had his hoof over mouth before her scream could be heard over the sounds of fighting.

All around us were dead ponies. Some with smashed bodies, others with blast and scorch marks from spells and still others with blow off limbs and extremities. Blood stained the forest-floor, turning it and all of the low-growing plants that still survived red. Several Zebra bodies were scattered around the field as well, though those were few and far between. Karfiso was right to have such faith in his troops and it seemed they could hold out until help arrived if not win outright with how many pony bodies already littered the forest floor.

The sight was ghastly to say the least but this time I found myself feeling no more pity for the ponies who died in the depths of the jungle. The churning in my stomach was not what it was when I arrived here and I found myself wanting to push onwards even when our guide motioned us to rest. We were so close to Goldie and Sable that I could practically see them before my eyes(Goldie at least, I didn't know what Sable Looked like, though I imagined it was rather ghoulish). The going was slow now as we found ourselves stepping lightly over bodies, sometimes piled in small...well piles. It was becoming hard to breath as the stench of them filled the air, a smell of rotten meat mixed with ripe dung which burned not only my nostrils but my whole body as well it seemed.

We met up with several more Zebra who had gathered in a small clearing about a mile from Numnah itself. Our guide whispering in their ears, explaining that we were friendlies and his cohorts seemingly nodding in agreement. It seems Karfiso had sent some notice ahead as one of the Socotra came to us and actually spoke in ponish.

“We were told of your coming, I hoped you would be more stunning.” his face showed a general look of being unimpressed at us before our guide whispered something else into this Zebra's ear.

“If you three could beat Kimya here, then perhaps you might not give into fear.” a slight smile crept over his face.

“We're here for Goldie and Sable.” I said, my face showing clear signs of anger as I said those names.

The Zebra looked over at Scarlet, “Your mark denotes...”he stopped, looking for the right word, “a doctor.” he looked relieved that he found the right word. “We have wounded, your help would be proper?” he asked this as his gaze caught Scarlet's cutie mark, the cross inside a heart that sat on her creamy-peach colored flank.

Scarlet suddenly looked a little embarrassed to be singled out by the super Zebra warrior. She let out an awkward laugh as she backed up several steps. Scarlet was I admit....not the best healer in the world, but since she joined us she had both improved and shown a desire to continue to do so. But with the kinds of injuries that I had been seeing around here her skills were perhaps not up to the task. She had been able to ease Jackpot's pain of having been kicked in the ribs by our Zebra guide as well as cleared up the bruise Jackpot had given him with a well-placed buck of his own. This, so far, was the acme of her skill and it now dawned on me that bringing her along with us was perhaps not the best of ideas, considering she was not a combatant on her own and her healing skills, so far, were still relatively sub-par. She would not do well if we confronted Goldie or Sable and so for that reason I put my hoof around her shoulder and whispered into her ear.

“You should stay and help them.”

Her face looked shocked, “But what if you need me!?” she stressed, her face turning a mixture of both scared and slightly angry.

I liked Scarlet, Jackpot especially seemed to like her, but the truth of the matter was she just wasn't ready for this kind of confrontation and come to think of it neither was I. Jackpot could at least hold his own against Goldie for a little bit but if she had any kind of help with her we would be screwed. But then again we did have a group of these Socotra guys here to help us and they at least seemed able to beat Jackpot, or at least give him some trouble. Four or five of these guys and Goldie and any help she might have wouldn't stand a chance against us. Plus having a half dozen Jackpots on our side with blasting powders would just come in handy in general I think.

Unfortunately it was not to be as this lead Zebra explained that they were about to head out and they needed an answer from Scarlet. I could tell she was unsure and she kept glancing at Jackpot and myself, hoping one of us could give her an answer. The silence was mercifully broken by Jackpot.

“Go with the Zebras Scarlet.” he said as gently as he could.

Scarlet's eyes nearly burst into tears, “What! No, I want to stay with you two! I-I-I need to be around to heal you two if you get hurt o-o-o-r...”

Jackpot put his hoof to her mouth, silencing her. “You've been a big help Scarlet, really. But if you go to fight Goldie with us and I mean a real fight, the kind of fight where one side.....doesn't come out of it...you. Will. Die. You don't have the combat ability and your magical medical knowledge isn't good enough to help us out and while I'm sure your practical medical knowledge is great I don't think Goldie will wait two months for a broken wing to heal.”

Harsh but true. Thinking about it, I mean really thinking about it, bringing Scarlet here was really irresponsible. Somewhere deep down I think I had wanted my own adventure companions, just like Grit did in his younger years. I wanted a crack team of individuals who would form an unstoppable juggernaut of awesomeness it seems that just isn't what happened. Jackpot was undoubtedly a good fighter, our best fighter in fact, I was probably only above average and Scarlet, as Jackpot said, had no reason for finding herself in the middle of the kind of fight that was about to go down. She might not be the best medic around but that is where she could do the most good.

“I agree with Jackpot.” I said bluntly. “Scarlet, you will do the most good with them. From what I've seen they don't have many, if any, doctors here right now and if these Zebras have wounded then you should go and help where you are most needed.

“Ivory!? Jackpot!? Please, I want to help you!” Scarlet had become very distressed at the thought of being left behind but Jackpot remained adamant.

He went over to our anguished friend and gently put his forehoof on her shoulder, “Scarlet please, they need your help more than we do right now. You can't fight and you know the Family is gonna exploit that. And besides, the Socotra can protect you better than we can.

Tears were rolling down Scarlet's cheeks as she whimpered words out, “But..I-I've come so far. I'm so much better and friends s-s-s-should stick together and...” it was clear that Jackpot wouldn't budge on this fact and I wasn't about to go against the decision of the far more experienced member of the party.

Jackpot's logic was sound as well and even though I thought Scarlet had as much stake in beating the Family as we did it was the right decision to not take her with us. There was also the fact that as we got closer and closer to Numnah I only found myself getting more and more angry towards Goldie. I didn't like it much when Jackpot broke Sky Scraper's wing and I didn't want Scarlet to see what I might do to Goldie, if given the chance.

This had to be a good idea, right? If Jackpot and I did fail then we would probably...well we wouldn't be around to make sure somepony else knew everything about what was going on. Leaving at least one of us behind to make sure all this information was safeguarded was logical, it made sense. And Scarlet was technically a noncombatant so making sure she didn't throw herself directly into a situation where she would be of little help just seemed smart. She really should stay behind and help as many of the wounded Zebra as possible, where she could be the most use.

Despite Scarlet's protests Jackpot was dead-set on his decision and my own support of the idea practically ensured it's implementation. The Zebras led Scarlet towards where they had constructed a small encampment to house their wounded. She went willingly in the end but the few tears that rolled down her face showed her displeasure of the decision. But they were leading her to safety and besides, they could protect her better than we could anyway.

As Scarlet moved away, accompanied by two of the Socotra who had gathered in the clearing I heard her mutter in between sniffles, “If only I was stronger, if only I still had that staff.” after that she disappeared into the trees with the Socotra warriors.

*****

The valley that Numnah sat in was in ruins(aside from the fact it already was...well a ruin). The fighting was heavy both down in and around the valley as several explosions blew trees and plants into Jackpot's and my own faces as we neared. A message had been sent to the other Socotra that Jackpot and I were friendlies and Karfiso had apparently sent another message that confirmed this that had just now reached his army.

Jackpot and I had sat ourselves in a blown-out hole that was carved into the edge of the cliff that overlooked the valley. The intricately carved stairs that I had once nerded out about with Enyi were largely destroyed as was the bridge that held the carvings of the nightmare dragon, Balaur. Here I could see the aftermath of the three armies fighting to kill each other as groups of dozens of ponies fought with each other in the valley as more ponies fought with Zebras in the upper parts of the valley and around it.

Every so often pained screams could be heard echoing across the forest as parts of the wall of the valley gave way to the black powder of the Zebras and ponies, alive and dead, fell from the top to the valley floor.

Lower on in the valley dozens of dead ponies and a few Zebra corpses littered the field. I won't go into great detail on the conditions of these bodies as even now, I still didn't feel entirely comfortable seeing some of them(they were bad).

Above us in the air, Pegasi soared around, dodging bolts of magical energy as Goldie's Unicorns shot at them from a fortified position in the ruins themselves. Every so often a Pegasi would get hit and fall, their bodies erupting as they were hit with the murderous intent of Goldie Grail and her goons. Around the ruins themselves the Unicorns had used telekinesis to lay many of the large trees of the jungle in between the towers that formed the center of the ruins and the entrance to Abila's tomb. They had laid them to form a wall and Earth Ponies would come and hack away at them every so often, only to be cut down by magical lightning from the Unicorns.

“There's got to be a couple hundred at least in the valley alone.” I whispered to Jackpot in between the roaring explosions and screams. “How do you propose we get in without fighting a whole Luna damned army?”

Jackpot had better eyes than me as he seemed to be able to scan far more of the valley than I could. It was too dangerous for him to fly out in the open but even grounded he still had the eyes of an expert flier and could easily make out distant objects and ponies.

“There's a spot in the back.” he whispered back to me, “Part of their wall has fallen down. We'll have to wait until night or until they are sufficiently distracted to sneak past it though.”

I squinted towards where Jackpot pointed and sure enough there was a small part of the log-wall that had collapsed enough that I could get in without Jackpot flying me over the wall and getting caught. About a dozen Earth Ponies lay dead around it though and there were several dozen Unicorns looking over it, unable to repair the damage and unable to go out and find new trees to repair the breach.

My attention was immediately diverted from the hole as several Unicorns blasted one of the ancient towers of the ruin, knocking it and the Pegasi that had been creeping on its top down. They were destroying thousands of years of history! I almost jumped out of our hiding spot right then but Jackpot was quicker than me and held me back.

“If we go out there without a plan then we're dead.” he said grimly.

“We can't wait here forever! They are going to destroy everything!” I shouted back at him, my fueled anger very evident.

“Better a few towers get destroyed than we get killed. I promised Grit I would look after you and that's what I'm going to do.” his voice was stern and he stared me down to the point that I sat back down in my hidden position, unwilling to disobey him for the present.

I didn't want to just sit here and watch the battle. Despite what you would read in a book or hear in some stories, actual battles were not exciting to watch. There was no epic music to hype you up, there was no glorious charge that filled you with excitement. It was screaming, pain and death. There were some parts of the valley that were pooled with blood and smashed insides from which a rotting and putrid stench seeped out of. The fires from the forest were growing, the constant magical attacks and the powder of the Zebras fueling and exciting it as it raged across the easily eaten jungle. The smell of blood and smoke filled my nostrils to the point that we had to relocate to a safer part of the upper valley.

Jackpot put us down lower in the valley in a small copse of trees that had not yet been destroyed by the fire of the fighting(there were only a few of those left, three or four at the most in the entire valley). I stayed inside the tree cover as Jackpot kept a lookout to make sure we weren't discovered and to watch for an opening in the battle. It took hours of waiting, Sable's ponies would attack, pull back for a bit, then attack after a small pause. Each time they were pushed back by the Unicorns but each time they managed to kill a few more of them as the Pegasi dive-bombed them from above while the Earth Ponies and Unicorns that had stayed loyal to Sable lobbed rocks and magic and whatever else they could find.

The noises from above the valley were not much better, Karfiso's Socotra were probably winning as the explosions never ceased and every so often I heard shouting in a language I didn't understand. It wasn't the despaired shouting of a beaten opponent but more of an adrenaline fueled roar of victory.

Jackpot, perched in the branches of a tree, kept a lookout over the fighting, looking for a good route to take and a good time to take that route. Despite my hesitation at wanting to watch ponies constantly trying to kill each other I did eventually peek my head out in pure, unadulterated curiosity. I was no expert mind you but the tactics I was seeing were to say the least, amateurish(I did read a book on the subject...once. But dammit it was a good book!). In the jungle the Zebras seemed practically unbeatable, so why Sable Granite even bothered to send all of these ponies after Goldie Grail in the first place began to gnaw at and bother my brain. Thinking about it, I mean really thinking about it, it made no sense. Instead of letting the Zebras finish her off he was pretty much sending everypony he had at his disposal to their doom. All the Zebras really had to do was pick off whoever went into the jungle and let the rest of the ponies kill each other off until they were all dead or help arrived. Karfiso was smart, really smart by what I saw, and I think he knew this and was carrying out this very strategy. It looked like Goldie had tried to destroy part of the forest to mitigate the Zebras ability to hide so effectively but the jungle was just too big and she must have given up. That's what it looked like to me anyway.

Goldie was here for the helmet, that much was clear, but still, Sable being here just started to make less and less sense and now I had my normal(more like exceedingly, massively, extraordinarily massive anger) towards them and now this general annoyance at still not knowing what was fully going on. Sable had to be planning something, he just had to be. But what? It bothered me and irritated me and I didn't want to think too hard about it but I just had to.

All of this, everything that was going on, it all bothered me. Something just wasn't right. I had read enough of Grit's books to have that instinctual feeling to know when something was going on, but what that something was I couldn't guess and had no real way of guessing. The fact that each Goldie and Sable were accusing the other of being a traitor just seemed as ludicrous. It made this whole situation much worse and even harder to understand. Nothing was clicking in my head and I hated it. Grit had to have taught me better than this! He would usually tell me all about his adventures, if I asked, and if those adventures weren't of importance to this plan he had and never told anypony apparently.

I could tell by looking at Jackpot's face that he seemed at least a bit bothered by all of this as well. Plus there was when he asked Sky Scraper about the unusualness of this situation so at least I wasn't the only one who found it all terribly confusing.

Eventually Jackpot pulled on my mane, signaling me that we were moving again. The sun was setting now and the sky was awash with the reddish-orange light that the sunset brought, that or it was just the light from the fires(hard to tell at this point). The fighting had died down some as night fell on the Broken Wilds. The explosions from above us became less frequent and the attacks on Goldie's tree fort all but ended as the shadowy embrace of Luna's night crept over the jungle.

*****

Jackpot had indeed spent hours watching the fields around the fort. He led me along the edge of the valley, hiding behind what shrubs and trees had survived the battle(not many). When there were none he would hide us behind any small hill or mound of dirt and even several piles of bodies that had begun to litter the valley floor. None of the ponies in the valley would go to collect the bodies. To Goldie's Unicorns they were to close to Sable's ponies and to Sable's ponies their wasn't enough cover from Goldie's Unicorns. So there they would lay, stinking and polluting the forest until one side wiped the other out and by then the stench of the blood bath would never leave the valley.

As we crept along the edge of the valley, Jackpot leading me skillfully as we got closer and closer to the wall, I noticed several drops of water hit my face. A rainstorm was about to hit the Broken Wilds and my initial hope was that it would help stop the fires which I could see glowing far in the distance. The rain had the added bonus of helping Jackpot and myself get even closer to the wall with a greater ease than without the rain. The clouds darkened the already darkening night sky and the rain, which soon grew heavy, masked our sound and shortened the sight of the ponies on both sides.

The downpour was sudden and intense. The ground, already muddied and trampled from the blood and bodies, quickly began turning into a swampy nightmare. Blood and guts ran past my hooves as Jackpot dragged me through the darkened battlefield. My hooves squished and sloshed through quickly growing pools of dead ponies. Then came the stench. The smell before had been sickening, yet I was able to manage not vomiting once I got used to it but now every horrid smell of every bit of what used to be living beings came at me full force. I heaved even as Jackpot continued to pull me through the route he had scouted out before, changing from his original route only when he saw a pile of bodies piled just a bit higher than the one he had picked out.

The experience was nauseating to say the least. Jackpot was actually using piles of dead ponies as cover to help hide us from unfriendly eyes. There must have been several hundred in the area we were in alone. I had never in my wildest and most horrifying nightmares ever even conceived of the possibility of me being surrounded by so much death and gore. Even though I hated these ponies and felt gladdened by each of their deaths, running through their horribly mutilated corpses felt wrong somehow and each time Jackpot stopped to survey our surroundings I kept my face pointed decidedly towards the ground, or towards the sky. Basically I was doing my best not to look at the faces of the bodies. I just...couldn't, and for some reason whenever I glanced towards one of them it was almost as if I was looking at the face of...well ponies.

It got worse as we neared where the wall was when Jackpot pulled me behind a pile of four ponies, an Earth Pony, two Pegasi and a Unicorn. He jerked me so quickly and suddenly I tripped over and fell, face first into a puddle of disgustingly discolored water. I scrambled as fast as I could to remove myself from the pool of fetid liquid, dreading what made it smell and look so foul when I found myself face to face with the Unicorn of the pile, buried beneath the other three ponies. This would have been horrid enough except that her eyes suddenly moved to meet my own as I lifted my head towards her.

I froze, my face staring blankly into the face of the dying Unicorn, her grey coat was matted and dirty. Blood from multiple cuts oozed out from between the bodies she lay trapped under, her purple mane was partly torn as though she had been participant to a particularly horrible physical altercation. Her mouth moved, or tried to move, as soundless words dripped from between her torn lips. Her eyes stared straight back into mine as I tried to move my head away only to hear a slight cry from the Unicorn.

“Ivory, you ok?” Jackpot whispered as he looked down at me, seeing what I was looking at. He lowered his face down to the Unicorn and when her eyes tilted to see him a small light of joy filled her slowly darkening pupils. Jackpot gently touched her forehead with his hoof and whispered gently, “Hey there Inky, go to sleep now, ok.” I swear I could hear his voice trembling as he spoke.

A few tears appeared on Inky's face, or maybe it was just the rain, as several more soundless words left her mouth. From her face she was happy, or at least not in complete despair any more. Jackpot pulled me away before he said or did anything else, dragging me from the scene and closer to the Unicorn fort.

“Who-”I started to ask.

“She liked to write, had a penchant for sappy romances stories. We dated for a few months when we were kids. I did it to make Goldie jealous.” If it wasn't raining, I would have seen Jackpot crying just there.

We both needed a few swigs of cider after that...well maybe Jackpot had more than a few.

*****

Jackpot actually got us right next to the wall as many of the Unicorns left it, scrambling for cover from the downpour. As I clambered over the wall, Jackpot looking out from behind me, hovering right over my head, I could see most of the Unicorns running into the remaining towers that formed the entrance to the tomb. Only a few dozen even remained outside and maybe half of them were even standing on the walls. They weren't expecting an attack in this kind of deluge, a decision I was sure either Sable's ponies or the Socotra would end up exploiting somehow.

Luckily the downpour had gotten worse and the sound and lack of visibility it created helped Jackpot and myself get up and over the ruined part of the wall. The only hiccup was several Unicorns who had been watching the hole in the wall for intruders. I admit that if it wasn't for the darkness and rain we probably would have been spotted but Goldie's Unicorns had looked away for just the right amount of time for us to sneak in and get behind a large stone that was situated near one of the towers.

From this point we had a good spot to hear and see what was going on inside the camp. With the rock on one side and the wall on the other we were almost completely hidden and with the help of the rain we certainly wouldn't be spotted at all. Most of the Unicorns had indeed gone to find shelter, wither inside the towers or under small shacks they themselves had set up as shelter. They were pretty much piles of sticks and had no finesse about them at all but from the looks of it they served their purpose well.

Among the shacks nearest to us there were two Unicorns in particular who were loud enough that we could hear them, even through the rain.

“I hate this place! Can't we just go back to Equestria? What's the point in staying if Sable has us all penned in like this?” Said one Unicorn, an orange stallion with a yellow mane.

“We have to stay!” Said the second Unicorn with a purple coat and an orange mane. “We need to protect our family. We need those artifacts Goldie has to do that, remember?”

“That won't do us any good if we're dead.” lamented the first Unicorn. “I've fought against enough former friends of mine and this needs to end. Besides...”his mood changed to a softer one, “...we can't get married if we die here.”

Twilight Sparkle fuck me with a fucking library of books about fucking! Dammit! I hated when these ponies made it hard for me to hate them! Why do they have to seem so fucking normal sometimes? Why can't they just always act as the evil henchponies I know they are and just be vile and nasty so I can buck in their faces without feeling bad(deja vu)? I've decided I don't like moral quandaries like this and that things like this would be much easier and straightforward without them.

“Ivory now. Follow me.” Jackpot whispered as he spotted a break in the Unicorn patrols.

He soundlessly glided just above the ground to mitigate any noise he might make while I, being an Earth Pony, had to tromp through the copious amounts of mud the rain was making. Luckily I managed to be quick enough to make it to one of the tower entrances just behind Jackpot and before any of the very miserable Unicorns could spot us. As we slipped in through the door it took me only a moment to notice; this was the same tower we entered last time, when Grit was still with us. I stopped for just a moment to look back outside, I couldn't see very far with the darkness and the rain but what I could see didn't look good. Everypony looked absolutely miserable which made me both happy at their misery yet slightly empathetic(a strange combination I know but that's just how I was feeling).

Jackpot led me down the familiar stairs of the tower; the passageway was just as cramped as I remembered. This time Grit wasn't here to supply us with lanterns so we had to go down the darkened stairs slowly. The ground was also muddy from when the Unicorns had run in from the storm, I wonder where they went? When we got into the first chamber, the one with the ancient Ungul writing on it, it was a slight relief to see that there were several lanterns lighting up the room and the two passageways that led out from it.

“Hey Ivory?” Jackpot's voice echoed softly within the chamber.

“Huh? What is it Jackpot?” I said, stopping right behind my friend.

“I've been thinkin...” he began.

Oh crap, this sounded bad.

“...I know why we're here...and I know that it needs to be done...”he said slowly.

Oh Sweet Luna's succulent slits, he was going to chicken out on me! Fuck no!

“...but I don't think I can-”

“Shut up Jackpot.” my voice was filled with rage. “You're not flaking out on me now. We have to take out Goldie, for good!”

“Ivory, she's my oldest friend and I...I...” Jackpot sounded extremely shaken up. This wasn't like him, he shouldn't be like this, he couldn't be like this, not now.

“I don't care Jackpot, she killed Grit, she killed all those ponies from Money and now look at all the death she's caused here. She needs to die and I can't hope to beat her on my own.”

Jackpot's face was desperate, “Ivory please. You need to understand that-”

“Oh I understand all right!” something just snapped, “She ruined my FUCKING LIFE JACKPOT! And a whole lotta lives besides mine as well. You think I haven't been paying attention to all those stories you told me? Well guess what I have and I know that you still have feelings for her, however faint and confused they may be. But guess what, by the time Karfiso and his Zebras get through, Goldie might find a way to slip away and we can't let that happen! And apparently now, thanks to you and Grit, I'm going to be thrown into some shithole prison somewhere in the middle of fucking nowhere and you can bet your feathery ass that I'm going to make sure I get something out of this before everything I ever hoped and dreamed for goes up in flames! So Jackpot, I want you to think to yourself, are you going to let me get fucked over by life or are you going to help me lube up my fucking ass so that life’s fucking dick doesn't hurt going down.”

Jackpot stared at me blankly. I stood there, heaving out heavy breaths as my body cooled down from my rage fueled venting. I was crying. He stood there, motionless, as my legs gave out and I collapsed on the floor. I lifted my head to look at Jackpot, his face had turned quite dour and he was no longer looking me in the eye. This whole idea was horrible, it was probably the most horrible idea ever in the history of ever. Two emotionally damaged ponies going to fight a homicidally insane Unicorn with a small army of troops probably surrounding her. I was going to die. My only consolation would be that I wouldn't have to spend the rest of my life in a Zebra prison and that maybe with this act, Enyi might one day forgive me.

“I'm sorry.” Jackpot said slowly.

“No, don't be.” I heaved. “This has been hard on you to, I know.”

I mean he had just seen a friend of his lying in a muddy pit of blood, slowly dying. Not to mention that other pony from earlier, Strawberry Dimple I think his name was...oh Celestia, I had barely even thought about how this was affecting him. And still here he was, willing to help me kill a pony he had once had feelings for, maybe even loved, though he would probably never admit it. The only thing the Family seemed to do was cause me and my friends pain, I was so glad we didn't bring Scarlet. I didn't want to have her see us like this and I didn't want the memories of her friends all getting killed by Goldie to warp her like my hatred for Goldie was so obviously warping me.

Had I become so callous that I now so desperately wished for the death of a pony and felt little to no remorse for the deaths of ponies who simply associated with her? The answer was yes, I don't know how Jackpot had resisted it; well I suppose it showed on him sometimes but he was at least trying to be a better pony than that. I just wanted all of this to end, if only Goldie would just show the fuck up, then we could end this and hopefully get some time to find some peace.

Jackpot helped me back up to my hooves, a determined and sympathetic look on his face and a reaffirming nod showed he would stick by me.

“I promised Grit I'd look after you. That's what I'm gonna do.” he forced a smile.

I gave him a friendly nuzzle and turned towards the two passageways that led out of the chamber. The one on the left, the passageway that led to Abila's tomb and the other passage Grit had gown down with Enyi.

I clasped my hooves together and ran them through my soaked mane. Driblets of water ran from my hair, pooling on the floor of the chamber. My coat and saddlebags had also been thoroughly soaked and my body felt cold and uncomfortable.

“Ugh, I'm soaking wet.” I groaned as I tried shaking off the water that had embedded itself in my coat.

“Wet? Impressive, Enyi's not even here.” Jackpot said, snickering.

'Oh Sweet Celestia', I prayed inwardly, 'save me from my idiot friend'.

“I really don't think now's the time for jokes Jackpot.” I grumbled, rolling my eyes, yet still slightly amused(not that I would ever admit to being amused by suck low-brow humor in a situation like this).

“Hey, just trying to lighten the mood a little.” Jackpot chuckled to himself. “Plus, I see that little smile on your face.” he said, pointing.

“Well I....” dammit.

*****

“Three lefts, two rights, then wait.”

The words of Angela Apple suddenly popped into my head. I don't know why they did or where they came from but nevertheless there they were. I turned my head left and without anything else to go on I just started trotting down the left passageway. Jackpot followed me without hesitation as we walked down the passage, lit dimly with lamps that either Goldie or other Zebras had installed.

“No way.” I said in disbelief as I looked at the exact spot where the secret door opened to Abila's tomb.

The wall on the left side oh the hallway had been blown open(Goldie). This was the second left. I ran in, saw the old hallway where the Pyth had chased me and turned left again, the third left. This was indeed the same route, If I kept going I was going to end up in the burial chamber. But Angela's directions didn't lead me there, I remembered enough of my terrified flight from the Pyth that the directions were just a bit off. That and the passageway was still blocked off from when the Pyth rammed into the ceiling while trying to lunge at me.

Jackpot and I continued down the halls, this time they were lit and I could see where I was going. There were passageways that I had missed before in my haste to escape the Pyth and they led straight down into the ruins, further down than Abila's burial chamber.

“We're here.” I said, taking the last right and then coming to the entrance to another hallway.

“Where is here?” Jackpot asked.

“Angela said to wait after taking three lefts and two rights. That's where we are now.”

“Wait, How the fuck does Angela know where we are supposed to go!?” he asked justifiably.

“I don't know, she's always kind of known stuff like that I guess. I mean when a mare that's at least in her seventies and looks like she's twenty gives you a vague and seemingly pointless direction you practically have to follow it.”

“No. No you don't.” Jackpot was obviously not convinced of the awesomeness that was one of the most legendary characters from Grit's early adventures.

“Listen, I don't know why but Angela is just weird like that ok. And besides, her advise is usually correct.”

Jackpot gulped down a lump in his throat, “That's what I'm afraid of.”

*****

We waited. And waited. Then we waited some more. Ok it actually wasn't that long of a wait, ten minutes at the most, but in this cramped hallway where the only noises were the occasional rumbling of something outside it seemed much longer than it actually was.

Jackpot and I were waiting behind the corner of where the two hallways met when I heard the unmistakeable sound of hooves galloping down the stone corridors. Then I heard an even more unmistakeable sound, the sound of Goldie Grail cursing and shouting as she ran down the long hall.

My body tensed up, I turned, facing away from the adjoining hall, scrunched up my body and began coiling up like a Pyth to unleash the most powerful buck I could muster the moment she ran past. Jackpot was looking down at me worriedly, himself crouching down so he wouldn't be seen by anypony that wasn't looking directly at us. I could feel myself tingling with nervousness and excitement(nervouscited?) as her hoofsteps got louder and louder. There were others besides Goldie's. She had ponies with her, she was talking to them and I could hear them talking back. It was not a cordial conversation; Goldie was fuming and cursing at them and presumably at herself.

“I fucking hate these striped fuckers!” Goldie cursed as she ran down the corridor.

“Miss. Grail!” one of her Unicorns shouted, “We have the spear and the helmet ready for transport. All we need to do is get the rest of our ponies down here and we can funnel out that back entrance!”

No! There was another entrance, crap! Goldie was planning on getting away with the rest of her Unicorns and that. Couldn't. Happen. But she was getting closer now, I could almost feel her.

“Fuck that Sable Granite!” what was Goldie saying now? “I should have known what he was planning! Hiring all those...non-ponies. One minute he acting all holier than fucking Celestia's fucking anus then he's trying to fucking get us all fucked. If I ever see that cock-munching traitor again I'll rape him with my fucking horn before ripping his damned soul from his damned ass!”

I was so unbelievably happy to hear Goldie so miserable I was hardly paying attention to what she was actually saying.

“First Jackpot and now this ass sucking dick-head! Every damned pony I trust just decides to dry-fuck me right up my ass!”

Dammit. And Jackpot already felt bad enough, that statement might cause some problems. And it was indeed, Jackpot shrank down even further behind me but Goldie's hoofsteps were getting loud now. Only a few more seconds and...

“We'll need to report all of this shit to-” Goldie didn't finish as she galloped straight past where I was waiting.

I sprung my back hooves out as fast and as hard as I could and they hit. My timing was good, my luck even better; Goldie flew sideways as my hooves connected with her face. I actually managed to knock her off her hooves! Yay me!

Goldie flew straight into the wall, hitting it with a crack as the wall itself dented with her impact. She was dazed but wouldn't be for long if her past durability was anything to go by. Jackpot leapt over me and at the two Unicorns she was running with. His front-hooves knocked the Unicorn of Goldie's left while his back-hooves hit the Unicorn who was on her right, rendering both of them skillfully unconscious.

Goldie got back up quickly though, her eye was stained black from my kick(Hell Yeah!). She was in complete shock, it was obvious she hadn't expected to see us.

“How the fuck!” She mumbled.

Goldie's face turned, looking straight at Jackpot. For an instant her face turned sad before turning to see me; then a rage took her. The kind of rage that only she was capable of having. Goldie's rage far eclipsed any kind of anger that I could ever muster up and that's saying a lot for this situation.

“It had to fucking be you didn't it! Of course he would send you two to.” she looked directly at me, “I'm going to fucking murder you to death.” she grimaced, her face looked terrifying as she ground her teeth together in rage.

I was repositioning myself, getting ready for her to come at me. Jackpot was behind her and while he might not be entirely reliable in taking Goldie out he would at least help fend her off from me. I really didn't stand a chance against Goldie head on; I knew this, Jackpot knew this and Goldie herself knew this. But Jackpot could usually hold his own for a bit and that is what would allow me to get in my hits and hopefully find a way to beat her.

It took me several seconds to notice, Goldie didn't have her knives with her. Was it my fucking birthday or what! Was I in bed with Enyi, with Luna and Celestia climbing on top of us or fucking what! Without her weapons we had a chance, I had a chance; we could do this!

Goldie noticed my eagerness at this impending fight and in a surprising move she pivoted, threw Jackpot down with a quick telekinetic shove and galloped, full speed, down the passageway where she had come from.

I couldn't let her reach her equipment! I set off after her with Jackpot recovering from the push after I had passed him a good ways. Goldie was fast too, faster than I could normally run but I had adrenaline pumping through me, I was galloping, as fast as my Earth Pony legs could move, down after her. I was slowly but surely closing her lead as I chased her down the underground corridor.

“I'm going to kill you Goldie! I'm going to make you pay for ruining my fucking life!” I was angry, I was letting my anger speak for me no matter how weird it felt saying something like that out loud.

Goldie shouted back, “Don't make me laugh you little shit, If death comes anywhere near me I'll rip her tits off!” Goldie started to increase in speed(magic spell maybe?).

Jackpot caught up to me, his wings propelling him forward.

“Calm down Ivory, we have to be careful with Goldie! We can't afford any mistakes here!” it seemed he had resolved to help me, that was good.

Goldie reached a large chamber filled with support pillars before we could catch up to her. The room was wide enough to support a couple hundred ponies and tall enough to stack maybe...five or six ponies upwards. She leapt off towards the side, her telekinetic grasp grabbing hold of three of her knives from a box before setting them down, a wicked smile across her face.

We reached the chamber and Goldie was standing in it's center. Her smile was pure evil as she floated a beautiful silver spear from a crate in the corner of the room.

Fuck no! She had one of the artifacts! Wait a minute, was that...was that Bighorn's spear?

“What the hell?” I shouted in obvious confusion.

“Oh yeah that's right bitch.” Goldie snarled, “We haven't been sitting on our asses while you were off playing adventurer.”

No, it wasn't the same spear. The etchings and filigree that graced the slender spear were different from the one I gave to Doublehead. If Goldie had hurt him too...but that was besides the point right now. Goldie had a...a...HOLY SHIT! She had a super powerful ancient magical death spear!

Goldie swung the spear towards me, I jumped, as far and as fast as I could. The spear hit one of the pillars, slicing through the stone and demolishing a part of the pillar as though it were melted butter. Ok, getting hit in any capacity by this spear was definitely a big no-no.

“For the Family!” Goldie shouted as she leapt towards me, her evil glare now emanating death as though she were the reaper pony incarnate.

Jackpot leapt at her from the side, pushing her off course. Luckily she wasn't trying to kill him(he must have known this) because he came at her head on and with no thought of defense. This allowed him to focus all of his strength into his attack as he pushed Goldie off course enough for the spear to miss me.

This did not last long as Goldie delivered a nasty buck to jackpot's face as well as a telekinetic thrust that slammed him towards the floor. He got the wind knocked out of him as he lay there, heaving heavily on the floor.

Goldie turned back towards me but I had been busy running towards the pile of crates where she had floated the spear from. Goldie didn't hesitate as the spear stabbed forwards at a speed that would have made Rainbow Dash herself jealous. It smashed through several pillars easily, making plenty of noise for me to hear it coming and jump sideways out of it's way again.

Goldie herself was closing in as she caught my tail in her telekinesis and flipped me over, knocking me into the pile of crates. My Earth Pony body allowed for a quick enough recovery to avoid instant death as the curved blade of the spear came down. It was close though, the blade sliced through part of my mane(a bit too close perhaps). I tried my best to scramble over the boxes, desperate to put some space between me and Goldie but she had none of it.

Goldie took her hoof and slammed down on my tail, stopping me cold. With her other hoof she bucked me in the face, blackening my eye.

“Payback for your little surprise earlier, bitch.” She growled.

But now I was close enough to her and I delivered a powerful buck to her stomach which both staggered her and made her even angrier. It did, however, release her grip on my tail and allowed me to scramble away from her. I looked back for just a second to see Jackpot slowly getting up from the ground, still breathing heavily.

“Jackpot, a little help here!” I yelled.

Jackpot sprung to the air, not at his best speed, but still fast enough to quickly close in on Goldie as she continued to stomp towards me, death in her eyes. Jackpot came at her from the side again, but Goldie was waiting for him this time. She turned to face him, keeping the spear facing me. Jackpot expected this and put a little spin in his attack vector, coming at Goldie slightly askew, enough to dodge her powerful buck that would have taken him down for a few more seconds.

Jackpot kicked upwards, sending Goldie flying up a few feet and knocking her down as Jackpot closed in on her, not giving her the time to use the spear. I leapt forwards, grabbing it in my mouth, trying to pull it from her magical grasp. I pulled as hard as I could but it wouldn't budge.

Jackpot was beginning to fall back from Goldie and that meant I would be dead if I was anywhere near that spear. I gave up on pulling it and once again began to run towards the pile of boxes, hoping beyond hope to find the other artifact I knew Goldie had.

Jackpot used his wings to great effect, staying just out of Goldie's physical reach as she tried to bludgeon him with the shaft of the spear. Goldie was quick but Jackpot was quicker, though he was not doing to head on fighting he was usually accustomed to.

Goldie was in a fuming rage as she spun her spear around herself, trying to hit Jackpot without actually hitting him. Jackpot could at least distract her long enough for me to find the helmet, he was good at that, even with Goldie. In fact I think all Jackpot could do was just dodge and weave around Goldie. She used that spear expertly, constantly swinging it yet always having it between herself and Jackpot, not allowing him any openings to counter her. She obviously wasn't trying to kill him but she certainly had no qualms with injuring and incapacitating him.

I had to shift more of my attention to the piles of crates, they were filled with various supplies; food, medical supplies, etc. Goldie must have been planning on carrying all of this stuff when she escaped out of the back entrance she mentioned.

SMASH

The noise broke my concentration as Goldie's spear broke through another Pillar that Jackpot had latched himself on to. Damn, even the shaft could break through solid stone; what was this thing made out of?

I searched and searched and searched, rummaging as quickly as I could while still being thorough in the crates. Most of what I was finding was useless in the current situation, despite the food somewhat tempting my rumbling stomach(I felt as though I was starving). But I didn't have any time for that, I had to keep searching.

THWACK

Goldie had hit Jackpot. He stumbled, falling over onto his side, his body convulsing in the extreme pain he was most likely in. Goldie swung the spear-shaft at his head, hitting it and knocking Jackpot completely unconscious as well as throwing his body towards the passageway that led out of the room. I froze for just a second at hearing the noise of their fighting stop. I knew I had a few seconds at most before I was dead as I smashed one last crate open with my hooves, frantic as I was.

Celestia suckle my butt! I fucking found it! There in the final crate was Abila's helmet, glittering with a silvery light, even in the dim light of the underground chamber. I wasted no time in slipping it on my head just as Goldie's spear came down on my head. The helmet had just saved my life as the spear rebounded off of it. The force of the blow knocked me down though no physical damage had been done. This helmet was amazing!

All at once my body suddenly filled with energy and all pain and discomfort just melted away. Sparky, still on my foreleg, shone with a bright purple as the band grew from a simple bracelet into a sheath that encompassed my whole foreleg. Goldie was actually surprised by this and took several steps back as I quickly shot up and turned to face her.

“This is for Grit, and every other pony you've hurt.” I said, grimacing.

“Dumb cunt, you don't even know what the fuck you're doing.”

“I know I'm about to avenge the best pony I've ever known.” I set myself into a low stance, ready for anything she could throw at me.

“HA! You don't even know you're being used and it's almost adorable. If I gave a shit about you I might be inclined to tell you, but I don't. In fact I'm going to really enjoy gutting you and making sure you die knowing that you. Knew. Nothing.”

“What?” I began to say before Goldie leapt towards me, leading with the spear in her magical grasp.

“I really hate you!” Goldie screamed as she swung the spear swiftly and deftly towards me. “I could be saving my family with Jackpot at my side right now if you and that dumbass Grit didn't come along and ruin my life!”

Goldie was relentless, even with the helmet I was unable to get my hoof up to aim at Goldie and shoot her with Sparky. Her swings were coming at such speeds that without the helmet I wouldn't have stood a chance. The only positive was that the angrier Goldie got the less focused her attacks became, her swings were getting wider and easier to dodge, her movements became obvious, even to me. But she still came on fast and hard, not allowing me to really do anything but stay behind whatever support pillars were left to avoid her blows.

But that gave me an idea, a rather good idea I thought at the time. I ran straight towards Goldie, she swung, she missed, I bucked her in the face as she tried peddling back from me. I was just a bit too fast as my hoof connected with her face, making her angrier. It gave me the time I needed to jump back, raise my hoof and fire as Sparky suddenly glowed a bright red as all of my thoughts and feelings went towards hurting Goldie.

ZZZAT!

A bolt of destructive red lightning shot forth from my hoof, I was nearly blown back, having to brace myself with my other three hooves. Goldie saw it coming and dodged, but I wasn't necessarily aiming for her. The bolt hit the pillar that was behind her and the resulting blast knocked two additional nearby pillars down with it.

Goldie jumped forward, swinging her spear in a surprisingly quick downward swing that caught the edge of my saddlebag. I ripped my bad in half, emptying my cider flasks onto the floor and pulling me to the ground with it. I managed to twist myself onto my back as Goldie lifted the spear for another swing. I raised my hoof and fired right into Goldie. She tried to dodge but the blast gazed her side, knocking her halfway across the room and leaving a nasty, blistering burn on the side of her golden coat.

I-I-I-I actually hit her! Holy fucking hell yeah!

Goldie was flung right into one of the few remaining pillars, cracking it as she hit. I stood up, even with the helmet on my legs were a bit wobbly, almost unable to keep me from falling over I was so tense. I stood there, taking in a few deep breaths as Goldie lobbed the spear at me from a distance. I ducked my head but the spear was thrown a bit wobbly, turning in the air as it flew and resulting in the shaft smacking me in the side of the neck, staggering and knocking me down.

The room began to rumble slightly.

Goldie rose from the ground, sliding the spear back to her with her magic. I stood up as well, feeling a bit weak even as the stamina and energy of the helmet coursed through me. She was starting to breath a bit heavily now; I was actually beginning to tire her out! As for me, though my legs were a bit wobbly, I still felt mostly fine and only had to catch my breath for a few seconds.

Goldie glared at me with her death-glare, her face was filled with hate and anger at my presence. Then her body relaxed and she let out a slight smile.

“You wanna hear how I slit his throat.”

Oh shit! Oh no! Fuck her! I had to fucking stop her from talking!

Now was my turn to lunge angrily at Goldie, my fear all but dissipating. I should have used Sparky but for that brief moment I just wanted to smash her in the face with my hooves. I lunged forward but the spear flew up and smashed straight into the helmet, knocking me down and sliding me several feet across the floor.

“Getting in was easy, all I had to do was ask that little fucker at your retarded adventure club for the codes to Grit's house and the rest was a cinch.” Goldie started to slowly trot towards me.

Who was she talking about? Who at Adventure Incorporated would.....Blaze. No, please Celestia, just no.

“He must have thought I was you because he waved a hoof at me as I stepped up behind him.”

I threw myself up, just trying to get her to stop. I kicked and bucked and did every move I had ever seen Jackpot do that I thought I could to just try and hit her and make her stop. Goldie side-stepped them all, smacking me back down with the shaft of her spear once again.

“You remember that red knife of mine right? It's somewhere around her. All it took was one motion; just one swift cut and he fell.”

“I'll fucking kill you!” I screamed as I raised Sparky up and fired a blood-red bolt of lightning at Goldie Grail.

Goldie managed to get out of the way, but as she moved her side crumpled in. She screamed in pain as her burned side felt the heat and force of the edge of my blast. She fell on the floor as the bolt hit the ceiling of the chamber.

The roof collapsed. Dust filled the room as stones and dirt flooded down from the roof of the chamber. I lost sight of Goldie as more sections of the room caved in, I dragged myself out of the way of a falling stone, half my size, just in the nick of time. As I did though, another stone, a bit smaller than that one, hit my head. Abila's helmet absorbed the force of the blow but the stone itself still knocked me down as another stone fell and hit one of my rear hooves.

“Jackpot!” I screamed as I lost sight of his unconscious body as smoke and dust filled the air.

The few remaining pillars had collapsed and stones and boulders now filled a majority of the chamber. Another stone had hit my head at just the right angle to knock Abila's helmet off. Pain shot through my body as another stone hit my head, knocking me out cold.

*****

Cough! Cough!

Dust filled the air as the stones settled into their new positions. I could hardly see there was so must dust and debris everywhere as I opened my eyes after coming to. I tried waving my hoof to clear away the layer of dust that floated around my face but to little avail. I had gotten sooo extremely lucky. Only my back-left hoof refused to move. Abila's helmet was gone.

“Huh...how long have I been...” I was disoriented, dizzy and weak.

My body felt like it was going to explode as I crawled out of a small pile of rocks and dust that had covered part of my body.

“Jackpot! Jackpot!” I yelled out as loud as my half-dead voice could manage.

I limped around, my body screaming at me every time I did. Even as it felt like hundreds of tiny knives were stabbing at me I knew that Goldie might still be around so I had to keep going.

My vision got blurry as I tried clearing out the dust from around my head only to realize it wasn't that. I was bleeding. Blood was dripping down my face, stinging my eyes and blurring my vision. I didn't have anything that was covered in dust so rubbing it out was out of the question. My hoof then stumbled onto something familiar, my torn saddlebag; there was still some partially filled cider flasks left. I opened one and poured it on my face, clearing out some of the blood as I pressed the dirty bag against my forehead. I finished another partially filled flask, the cider feeling like a Celestia sent orgasm as it went down my throat, swiftly dulling some of the pain.

I stumbled my way around the darkened, destroyed room. Some of the lanterns had miraculously survived, laying on the ground, cracked but still magically functioning. Plus Sparky glowed a faint white now, giving me the light I so desperately wanted.

As I limped around my hoof felt something cold and hard, one of Goldie's knives, the red one. I hated the sight of it but I needed something in case Goldie had survived and I wasn't about to use Sparky with the room already half caved in like it was. I slowly and cautiously lifted it into my mouth, shutting my teeth around the hilt of the blade; it tasted like dirt and hate.

I really didn't know where I was going, the chamber wasn't extraordinarily large but it was big enough that it would take some time to crawl through. I saw an opening as a large boulder leaned against a former slab of wall that made a hole in the bottom, just big enough for me to fit through. My body squeezed through the hole; I had to go slowly to make sure it didn't collapse while I was under it.

I managed to squeeze through as my body slid out of the hole with a pop. The dust was thicker here as I hears a faint rustling noise, as if somepony were digging themselves from a pile of dirt. I got excited at the prospect that it might be Jackpot...but it could also be Goldie. I crept over, hiding behind a fallen stone I poked my head out to see. I saw a pony on the ground, crawling through the rubble. The dust was so thick I couldn't see who it was. I heard a grunt, it sounded deep, a bit too deep to be Goldie maybe?

I crept cautiously up through the dust, getting closer to the pony. Finally I was within a few feet, enough to see who it was.

It was Goldie.

All of her legs had been broken in the cave-in. She was barely moving, using her chin to inch her way across the floor as she winced in pain at each movement. She was covered in blood, her own for once. I walked up to her, blocking her path.

Goldie's face slowly turned up towards me, her eyes meeting mine. They went wide for a second before forming into blazing suns of rage.

“Fu-” she couldn't finish. I made sure she didn't finish.

With one swift motion I swung my head down towards Goldie's, her knife still in my muzzle. I swung down as hard and as fast as I could, missing her face but hitting her neck. The blade caught into and then punctured her throat as her face bubbled in pain. I yanked out the knife, tearing out a chunk of her throat as I wildly yanked backwards.

Blood followed the knife, squirting from her neck as she let out a dying gasp for air. I tripped and fell on my flank, close enough that her blood dripped onto my face and chest. Goldie began to cough and sputter as her eyes went wide once again, her legs twitched as they tried to move. Her mouth sputtered blood as she tried to speak, only more blood came out though. It took several seconds for her to stop twitching; her eyes went dark, her body went motionless, and blood stopped spurting from her mouth and settled on leaking out the hole in her neck. It dripped from her dead body and began to pool on the floor, spreading out until it reached where I was laying.

I just sat there and watched Goldie die, unable to move away as her blood coated me. Either from when it shot out of her mouth and neck or when it leaked over to me as it pooled beneath her. I started to hyperventilate, I had never...I had never actually killed a pony before. No wait, I had. On Mt. Everhoof, the ponies I knocked out in Aurora's tomb and then the avalanche. No way they all got out of there alive. I had almost forgotten them, they had never even been a concern. I had thought that doing this would feel cathartic and in a way...it did. But at the same time I now saw something different. A dead pony. A dead pony that I had just killed, and it terrified me. I tried pushing back from the body but my legs stopped working. I wanted to vomit but there really wasn't anything in my stomach to vomit up. I began to panic, not believing what had just happened. Was it true? Did I actually...? But there was the undeniable proof in front of me...

Goldie Grail was dead.