Chapter 7: A Town Called Money

“Vanhoover.”

“What was that Jackpot?”

“We're stopping off in Vanhoover and from there we're gonna have to take a boat out to these islands.”

“Ugh, I hate boats.”

“I know ya do but if we wanna find this place we're gonna need to take a boat.”

The Canterlot train station was busy that day, mostly from ponies heading home from the funeral of Grit that had by now ended. Enyi, Jackpot and I were all waiting for our train to set out from the Canterlot station and it was of course late. Silver had prepared everything from the train tickets to chartering a boat(quiver).

“So how did you meet this Silver guy again Ivory?” Jackpot was keen to ask.

“I met him on my first trip to the A.I HQ with Grit. He gave me some advise that didn't necessarily pan out but he meant well.”

“So this guy gives bad advise, duly noted.”

“You're being overly dramatic.”

Jackpot was laid out on his seat in the private booth Silver had bought for us. He was taking up an entire side of the booth, leaving Enyi and I to share the other side. Enyi was too busy staring out the window at all of the finely dressed ponies shuffling about to be paying any attention to our conversation. I was sitting there spinning my A.I pith hat around on my hooves completely bored while waiting. Jackpot, of course, had several saddlebags with him, one empty and one filled with his flasks, newly refilled with all of his favorite ciders.

“Remember Jackpot we're giving everything back to the Vanhoover historical society when we get back, you know that right?”

“Ivory is right, it is good enough we bring the relics to light.”

“Yeah yeah I know, but these are for anything else interesting we find.”

“Like what?”

“I don't know, it could be anything.”

“Well anyway, we should go over the game plan so we know what exactly we are going to do and where exactly we are going to look. These Islands aren’t exactly small remember.”

“Well they ain't that big either and how hard is it going to be to find this cloud palace thing anyway.”

“Seeing as noponyies ever found it yet I would say pretty hard.”

“It is always good to have a plan Jackpot my friend,” Enyi out in while still looking out his window.

“I know but still, they don't call me Jackpot for nothing.”

“They call you that because that is your name.”

“Oh, silly little Ivory. Look at my cutie mark here”, he pointed to the image of a pot of gold on his flank, “this means I always find the treasure, I always hit the jackpot.”

“Yes, and its very impressive but a good plan will beat cutie mark magic any day of the week.”

“Says the pony with the weird cutie mark.”

“My cutie mark isn't weird!”

“Really, a compass that points west, what does that even mean! I think yours is broken or something.”

“It's not broken!” Jackpot knew how to just push my buttons.

“What is even the issue with these cutie marks?” Enyi said while finally turning his gaze from the window.

“What do you mean the issue!? I could say the same thing with those squiggles on your flank!” Jackpot was on point today, unfortunately this seemed to just aggravate Enyi.

“They are not 'squiggles'!”

“Sure look like a bunch of squiggles ta me!”

“They are a time honored ritual that..”

“Yeah yeah, I'm sure it's sooo important! Cutie marks denote who a pony is and what we love and who we are inside, way more important than a pile o' squiggles.”

“At least my glyph does not force me into being a criminal!”

“Whoa there buddy, I ain't forced into nothin by nopony!

This was going to be a long train ride.

The train ride to Vanhoover was mercifully short. Enyi and Jackpot spent the majority of it pouting over whatever it is stallions like them like to pout about while I just sat quietly in the middle of them with Jackpot's words about my cutie mark still ringing in my ears. I mean he wasn't technically wrong, my cutie mark was kinda weird but I had always known that following in Grit's hoofsteps was what I was meant to do. Even so the whole broken compass thing did always annoy me which prompted me to not think about my cutie mark so much and just roll with whatever was put in front of me.

We arrived after only a night of travel and thank Celestia's merciful mare-hood(oops, thinking out loud) for that.

“I swear you two have never argued like this this before.”

“I was defending you Ivory.” Enyi said with pride.

“Ha, that's a laugh! Yer just mad cuz you got a bunch of squiggles on your ass and not a beautiful pile o' treasure like me.”

“Ugh!”

The train pulled up at the Vanhoover station and I was more than happy to no longer be confined in a small car with my two esteemed companions bickering about who had the better butt stamp(I wasn't arguing, just thinking about it). Come to think of it, I had never really noticed the strange symbol that Enyi had in place of a pony cutie mark. I knew Zebra anatomy was a bit different than pony's but I had never thought much of. But then again I had never really met a Zebra before and had the time and clear mind to think about it.

“Ok guys, now we really need to focus if we want to find this cloud palace thing.” my two friends at least nodded to this.

“Ok Enyi, you got the two books right?”

“Yes I do.” he said as he turned slightly revealing the saddlebag he wore that had the obvious shape of two books in it.

“Good, we might need them later, they could have more stuff we haven’t translated yet that could help.”

“Yes, all hail our valiant book shelf!”

“And Jackpot, shut up please.” Oh what Grit must have gone through trying to wrangle Blaze in when he was younger.

Jackpot kept quiet and after a while even started to look a bit remorseful as I got us a cab to drive us all to the harbor since we didn't know our way around the city.

“It's pretty chilly here isn't it?” I said to break up the long silence that was beginning to form.

“Vanhoover is always chilly, even in summer.” Jackpot said as he stared out the side of the cab.

“I would not know.” Enyi said as he stared out the other. It was clear that my plan had failed so I sat back into my seat and just accepted the silence of our ride.

We finally arrived at the harbor where after a quick look around we found the boat that Silver had chartered for us. Standing next to it was a rather gruff looking Earth Pony who only introduced himself as Backlash.

“So, yer the ponies that Mr. Silver wants popped on over that that there Island eh?” he said in an equally gruff sounding voice while staring at my A.I pith hat.

“Um yes, that's us.” I said in response just staring in absolute dread at the old and leaky looking boat that he wanted us to ride in. On the side of the boat was painted the words S.S Tub which certainly did not evoke any kind of confidence in the safety this boat would provide on what was certainly going to be a very uncomfortable hour boat ride.

“Aww, don't worry bout the ole Tub there, she'll get ya wher ya wan ta be goin!” Backlash said with a surprising sense of pride that he was able to show.

“I have a bad feeling about this.” Enyi said from behind me as he began to walk towards the leaky boat.

“You and me both.” Jackpot put in as even he looked a bit unnervingly at the old tub.

Well I'm sure you remember my delicate relationship with boats and the Tub certainly did nothing to alleviate that relationship. I began to feel sick almost immediately to where Enyi and Jackpot had to hold me over the side of the boat so I wouldn't vomit all over the deck of the 'boat'.

“Only an hour.” I said to myself over and over again as the boat chugged along the very wave filled waters of the frigid Luna Bay. There were several times where the boat would start to dip down that I would fear for my very life but even though it would always bounce back up that did not lift my hopes when it would dip down again moments later. This combined with the chilliness of the air made for a most uncomfortable ride where I was miserable the whole time and Jackpot and Enyi spent the whole time just making sure I didn't fall overboard.

“Behold, Celestia's shithole!” Backlash finally called out as we neared one of the islands. He wasn't lying either as on the island was built a small town, if you could even call it that, which was little more than a shanty town. “It's called Money.”

“Ooh, my kind of place.” Jackpot said looking eagerly at the pile of sticks somepony decided to call a town.

“What is this place?” Enyi asked as he looked over at Backlash.

“This place was founded by some crazy pony a few yers back now. He claimed to have visions of some treasure on the island so he called his little shack Money. Eventually he somehow got other ponies to follow him there and now there’s a whole town of crazy ponies out lookin fer treasure that don't exist.”

“Hmph! They obviously don't know how to look for treasure right!” Jackpot said nickering at the village. He took a quick look back at me and then said, “They got some kind of doctor over there or anything?”

“The city sent some kind o' doctor ther a few yers back now, somethin bout tryin to make it look like they care.”

“Good, looks like we'll need em. Ivory don't look too good right now.”

It was true the stress of the integrity of the boat, the choppy waters and the cold was getting to me and I had vomited at least twice in that last conversation alone. So much was my happiness when we finally landed on the shore of the most southern of the two islands that I fell to the ground(like I could stand) and kissed the ground repeatedly.

“You're gonna make Enyi jealous if ya keep that up.” Jackpot whispered into my ear as he helped me up. Enyi had just finished unloading our saddlebags and was putting them on our backs when a rather pretty looking peach colored Unicorn mare with lovely red hair and a red cross inside a heart cutie mark came galloping out of the crowd and right over to me.

“Bring her with me quick!” the pony yelled at Jackpot and Enyi.

“Wait, what!?” said both of my friends in surprise.

“Look at her, she's practically dying!” said the pony as she pushed past my friends and threw me on her back with a swift telekinetic burst before running off.

I must admit her back was not altogether uncomfortable but the way she ran jostled me around and if I were more lucid I would have noticed vomiting on her back as she ran but I wasn't. When I finally did wake up I was on another mat that lay on the floor in a small shack.

“I'm going to make a habit of waking up like this aren't I.” I said to myself. I did feel a lot better, better in fact than when I woke up in Khaweth. I could hear several voices coming from outside as this time I made sure to grab my hat before wandering out of the shack.

“She was just a little seasick, ya didn't have to scare us like that!” Jackpot said rather loudly.

“Indeed, a little sleep and she would have gotten up with a leap.” Enyi said in his familiar accent.

“Well I didn't know that, when I saw you on the boat she looked half dead to me.” another voice said rather nonchalantly.

“You are not a very good doctor are you?” Enyi said as I exited the shack.

“See, she's fine and if you look closely you can see the wonders my treatment did for her.” the doctor pony said.

“Good to see you awake kid!” Jackpot said with a happy smile on his face. “Now I have to ask you, are you gonna do this on every trip we go on?”

“Only the ones with boats.” I said as I walked up to my friends.

“It is good to see you up and about, but you did have to miss Jackpot pout.” Enyi said. I laughed a little at his rhyme and the redness that came over Jackpot's face as he said it.

“Well now,” Jackpot said no doubt trying to change the subject, “Now that we're all awake hows about we go looking for this treasure.”

“Oh, there's no treasure here.” the doctor pony said.

“Excuse me but whats your name?” Jackpot asked annoyed at the idea of somepony saying no and treasure in the same sentence.

“Oh it's Scarlet, Scarlet Aloe.” she said proudly.

“Pretty, but what do you know about treasure anyways?” Jackpot said.

“Well, ponies have been looking all over this island for about a decade now but nothing has ever turned up.”

“Backlash said that some crazy pony had dreams of treasure, where is he, maybe he could help in some way?” I asked Scarlet.

“Nopony knows, he went missing last year and nopony has seen him since.”

“Well that's just great. Where are we going to look now.” I said to myself.

“Don't worry Ivory, finding treasure is literally my calling in life, I'll get this done before squiggle-butt here can say 'Glyphs are better'.”

“Glyphs are better.”

“You're full of shit, ya know that Enyi.” Jackpot said as Enyi gave a little smile of satisfaction.

“Well if it will help you, Scraggy, the pony who disappeared, was last seen somewhere in the north of the island.”

“Thanks Scarlet.” I said with a smile as we set out north from the town.

Jackpot was a bit eager and decided to fly on ahead of us ans Enyi and I trotted the way on hoof. The island we were on was pretty barren and lifeless with mostly small patches of dried up grass and prickly looking plants sprouting up from the rocks.

“I like this place.” Enyi said to me as we walked along.

“Why, its so...empty here.”

“I do not know but it has a good feeling to it.”

“What does that mean?”

“It means that I like the way the island feels.”

“Well, that sounds like a good sign to me so I'm gonna take it like that.”

We continued north for about an hour. Every so often Jackpot would circle back around to make sure we weren't lost before darting back off into the sky.

“Ivory.”

“What?”

“Let us take a quick break.” I saw Enyi was starting to pant a bit so I found a nice little spot under half wilted tree for a five minute break to let Enyi catch his breath.

We sat there for only a minute or two before Jackpot slammed down onto the ground in front of us. He was panting hard and had a very worried look on his face.

“Hey Jackpot, what's wrong?”

“Ok, so we kinda have a pretty big problem.”

I quickly stood up from where I was sitting, “What is it?”

“Hurry, and keep low.” Jackpot whispered as he dragged Enyi up from where he was laying down.

Jackpot ran forward dragging Enyi along with him as I followed behind. We got to a hill where Jackpot pushed us all down onto the ground. It didn't take more than a few seconds to see what he was talking about. Down the hill a ways was a camp that had at least a couple dozen large and intimidating looking Unicorns all dressed in black, spy like outfits. Their faces and bodies were completely covered except for their horns and they all stood around the camp, walking around and gazing out into the island space around them. It was at that point that I saw her, coming out from a large tent in the middle the camp was a golden Unicorn with an even more bright yellow mane walked out, on her flank was an image of a golden goblet and I instantly knew who it was.

“Motherfucker.” I whispered to myself as Goldie Grail sauntered around her camp looking far to content for my own good. I almost instinctively rushed out towards the camp as I suddenly grew very angry but a spread wing from Jackpot stopped me.

“Don't be stupid Ivory.”

“But Jackpot, it's her!” I said rather loudly.

“Shhhh. You want them to hear us.”

“Who is that pony?” Enyi whispered into our ears.

“She's the one who killed Grit.” I whispered back, gritting my teeth as I said it.

I looked back down at Goldie and saw around her was a bandoleer which held several knives within a few sheathes. Around her neck was a string that a small box dangled from as she walked around the camp.

“What are we going to do Jackpot?” I whispered.

“We are going to head the other way and search the other side of the island for now.”

“But.”

“No Ivory, I'm not stupid enough to fight her and you're hardly ready to act as any kind of backup for her goons.”

Jackpot and Enyi slid down the other side of the hill as I just sat there and stared at Goldie for several seconds. I'm going to fucking kill her(seriously) if it's the last thing I do. I mean she just looked so happy and carefree I just couldn't stand it and I wanted so badly to just jump down there and pound her stupid yellow face in.But for now I set my anger aside and followed Jackpot and Enyi down the hill and away from the camp. This feeling was a very new one for me and I didn't know much how to react to it, I mean I had never really hated anypony before and I wasn't too entirely sure how to handle this feeling.

“Jackpot, we need to do something about her, I mean She's RIGHT THERE!”

“Oh for the love of Luna. Ivory we Can't do anything right now and I said keep your voice down, she could have goons anywhere and we need to be careful.”

“What of the town?” Enyi whispered to Jackpot.

“Yeah, if they find Money there might be trouble. We should go and warn them.”

“Listen it sucks ok but they need to take care of themselves, we need to find this cloud palace thing and Goldie being here probably means we're in the right place.”

“Jackpot!”

“Shhh.”

“Oh shut up, I can't let Goldie hurt more ponies ok.”

“There's nothing we can do right now. The best way to stop her is to find the treasure ok and we can't do that if we die defending random ponies in a pointless fight.”

“I agree with Ivory, we need to do something.”

“Fine, I'll fly back to the town and tell them, you two head south and just try to stay out of sight, I'll find you when I'm done.”

“How will you find us if we're hiding?”

“I just will ok.”

And with that Jackpot took a swig from one of his flasks and darted off into the overcast sky with soundless wing flaps. Enyi and I ran as quickly as we could away from the hill in the opposite direction. There was little in the way of anything we could use as cover but I we got some distance between us and Goldie we could stay well ahead of her and pretty safe. Enyi had a hard time keeping up but I guess his sense of urgency kicked in and he wasable to keep running for a while at least. We ended up getting pretty far when Jackpot finally swooped in from above us.

“That was pretty fast.”

“Well um...I didn't get to the town per say.”

'What?”

“I was too late, there were several of Goldie's goons there and they had already rounded up most of the townsponies.”

“Celestia's marehood Jackpot, and you didn't do anything!”

“Whoa there, I'm not a good enough fighter to take on a dozen of those guys singlehoofedly.”

“There's a dozen more!?”

“At least.”

This was getting bad, Goldie was filling this island up with her henchponies, there were only three of us and the only other ponies who could have possible helped us are now captured. Today was not turning into a good day and now I doubt we could even get back to Vanhoover safely if Goldie has this many ponies on the island.

“If she had the townsponies, do you think she knows about us?”

“It's hard to say.”

“Well I think we still need to find a way to help those ponies.” Enyi said, butting into the conversation.

“Yes, we should focus on that first and then once we have them on our side maybe we can use their help to get rid of the rest of Goldie's goons.”

“This is a bad idea Ivory, but if you're set on this I'll go along if only to make sure you two don't get yourselves killed.”

“Thanks Jackpot.” I said giving him a smile.

We immediately turned around towards Money and ran and flew as fast as we could towards it. Jackpot arrived first and got us a good spot behind some rocks where we could get a good view of the town. I almost immediately regretted that view as all I saw were bodies lining the streets as several ponies had been killed already. Goldie had arrived and was standing in the middle of the town with several dozen of the townsponies corralled up next to several of the shacks. She was standing there with a disappointed look on her face while wiping some red stains off one of her knives on the body of the pony she had just stabbed through the neck. I almost threw up again but Enyi was there to grab me and help me hold it in.

“All right!” Goldie shouted out, “I'm going to ask one more time and if none of you give me an answer I will kill lets say...five more ponies this time ok!” she cleared her throat, “We have on good authority that something we have been looking for, for quite some time, is here on one of these two islands.” she looked out at the crowd of terrified ponies, “So who knows where this palace in the clouds is eh!?”

How the fuck did she know about that! Seriously We only just found that out and apparently Goldie has known long enough to go out searching an entire island before we even get here. This really isn’t fair and now I found myself hating Goldie even more than I already did. The ponies didn't answer, well one did shout out that none of them knew but Goldie just seemed to ignore him.

“Very well, since you want to play it that way! You three, go grab five ponies and bring them hereto me.” three of her unicorn guards powered up their horns and in telekinetic grips dragged five random ponies out of the crowd and threw them and held them before Goldie.

“Jackpot.” I said worriedly.

“Just look away Ivory, she has too many guards around right now.”

I could hear the five ponies screaming and crying as they tried to force their way out of the telekinetic bubbles. I sat there behind my rock not knowing what to do when suddenly a pony rushed out from the crowd. It was Scarlet, the doctor pony, who ran up to Goldie before being thrown to the ground by another Unicorn.

“Please Miss! We really don't know anything! Look around, you think anypony here actually found the treasure on this island.” Scarlet was crying as well as she said these things to Goldie.

“Really, this town has been here for over a decade and nopony has found any trace or clue of any treasure, you expect me to believe that.”

“You must believe me, I know its daft that these ponies have stayed here but we really don't know anything, please just leave us alone!” Scarlet started to really cry as she crawled over to Goldie's feet.

Goldie stood there for several seconds, a look of contemplation on her face. She tilted her head down towards Scarlet, “Nope.” suddenly two of her knives flew out in a magic aura and slit the throats of the five crying ponies she held on the ground.

“YOU MONSTER!” Scarlet cried out as she burst forward to the five dying ponies. Her horn glowed as she wrapped her aura around their slit throats, trying to stop the blood loss. It didn't work and soon the five ponies stopped twitching and laid there still on the ground.

I fell backward onto my flank. My eyes were streaming with tears and I couldn't move much. Jackpot just sat there unmoving from his position while Enyi wrapped his hooves around me in a vain effort to comfort me. I slowly looked up at Jackpot, “Fuck you.”

“Ok then ponies!” Goldie shouted out, “It will be ten next time, including you.” she looked down at Scarlet.

Several telekinetic bubbles formed around more ponies as they and Scarlet were thrown down in front of Goldie right on top of the dead bodies of the five previous ponies. Now I just couldn’t take it anymore and rushed up, pushing Enyi to the ground and running right past Jackpot.

“Ivory, what in Tartarus are you doing!” Jackpot yelled as I ran past him.

I burst into the street, Jackpot close behind me and rammed straight into Goldie's side. Her guards didn't seem to expect me at all as my attack proved successful and I toppled Goldie right over only to end up tripping right over her and falling to the ground myself. Several of the guards now ran over with glowing horns but Jackpot swooped down on top of them and slammed their heads with his fast moving hooves. He managed to bring them down before landing right next to me and adopting an aggressive stance.

“Jackpot? That you?” Goldie said as she lifted herself up, seemingly unphased by my attack.

“Long time no see Goldie.” Jackpot said as he put himself between myself and her with his eyes now darting back and forth to the guards who now surrounded us.

“That was you in Canterlot right? I thought it might be but I almost didn't recognize you.”

“Yeah it was me.”

“And this must be the little pony you were with then huh?” she looked right past Jackpot and right at me.

“Yup.” Jackpot's gaze was now entirely fixed on Goldie and it was not a friendly one.

“So she must be that little pet Grit kept around, nasty business that but business is business after all.”

“WHAT!” I shouted as I brought myself up from the ground. “So it was you!”

“I really didn't try to hide it but yeah, orders are orders.” Goldie smiled as she said this.

“Celestia burn you in Tartarus!” I shouted.

“That all you got.” Goldie nodded her head as suddenly several blasts came from her Unicorn guards. Jackpot jumped backwards towards me and tried to push me out of the way but was just not fast enough. The beams hit both of us and after a second of searing pain I fell unconscious.

*****

I awoke tied to a tree with Jackpot right beside me. I looked around saw only that Goldie was sitting directly in front of us, watching Jackpot in particular with a solid stare.

“Ivory, you awake yet?” I heard Jackpot's voice say.

“Yeah, I think so.”

“So Jackpot, this is your new mare huh?”

I was still pretty groggy but I once again looked back up at Goldie and began to pull and tug at the ropes that bound us to the tree.

“Don't bother, you won't be getting out of those ropes anytime soon.” Goldie said with a smile on her face.

“Where are the townsponies!?” I shouted at her.

“Oh they're fine for now but now that I have you and Jackpot here I don't particularly need them anymore, understand.” she looked me dead in the face as she said this.

I understood her meaning perfectly so I stopped trying to get out of the ropes and settled down as best I could being tied to a tree and all.

Suddenly Goldie stuck her hoof right onto my stomach where the ropes didn't cover, “Hmm, she doesn't seem pregnant at all.” Goldie looked over at Jackpot, “What, you learn some self control this time or did I do more damage that I thought?” Jackpot just sat there with his head down, avoiding eye contact with anypony.

I looked over at Jackpot and saw just how red his face was even as he looked away from me. What was Goldie talking about I wonder? I didn't have much time to think about it before Goldie turned her attention back to me.

“So, you were Grit's little pet pony right?”

“I was his protege!”

“Well good fuckity fuck for you, I'm sure your so proud to be the ex protege of a dead washed up fraud.” her smile never faded as she said this.

My face turned back angry as I just pushed against the ropes again just trying to get at Goldie. I felt that urge again, the one I felt when I thought to myself how I would kill this piece of pony garbage. Goldie didn't even seem to care what she was saying, her face seemed so calm and almost happy as she talked about these horrible things.

“Seems I touched a nerve there.” she slowly slid a magic aura over a small knife with a red band going down the middle of it, “Do you wanna hear what I touched with this back in Canterlot?” she said with her stupid fucking smile on her stupid fucking face.

I stopped moving as I stared at the small blade in front of my face. My face was very visibly angry and Goldie certainly knew she was getting to me as I gritted my teeth and started to sputter my breathing.

“I see what you see in her Jackpot but really, cavorting with a pony who isn’t a Unicorn or even another one of your Pegasi, for shame. Goldie took the knife with the red band in a telekinetic grip and slid it up to my forehead, placing the blade right on top of my face, “I could make her a Unicorn you know, it would be so easy right now, I would just need to slide in her horn, just a little bit.” I just froze, Goldie staring at me with her calm and happy eyes just unnerved and terrified me as she slid her sharpened blade right over my face.

Jackpot finally said something, “Look, I'm sorry ok. It was my fault, don't take it out on Ivory here!”

“You betrayed us Jackpot, you left the family, you...don't...leave...the...family...ever!” Goldie finally backed off from us, “Oh well, you'll join back up, I know you too well Jackpot.” Goldie then pushed his head back and gave Jackpot a small kiss on the cheek before turning away and walking back towards the town.

“I hope Celestia sticks her horn right up her”

“Drop it Ivory, lets just focus on getting out of this mess you got us into.”

“Where's our stuff?” I said noticing our saddlebags were missing.

“I gave my bags to Enyi before I went charging off after you but your stuff is probably gone by now.”

“Sorry Jackpot.”

“No need for that, lets just get out of here.”

“I wonder what she plans on doing?”

“Well, she probably thinks we know about the treasure and will want us to help her find it or else she kills the villagers.”

“How did you ever work for these ponies Jackpot, I just don't see it?”

“I was young ok, but like I said just drop it for now and lets come up with a plan.” Jackpot began to look around what his narrow tied up field of vision allowed him.

“If Enyi is still out there he might come up with something, especially if they don't know about him.”

“You may ask me yourself, once I have freed you myself.” Enyi's wonderful accent said from behind the tree.

“Enyi, how did you get here?” I whispered.

“If there is one thing I know, it is how to lay low.”

“I know Ivory loves your rhyming but can we focus on just getting out of here.” Jackpot whispered back.

“Very well. I have already spoken with the village ponies, if we can free them they can hide in some old mines on the west side of the island until Goldie leaves.”

“Good job Enyi, you will need to do that, if we leave before they do Goldie will kill them before we get a chance to even get near them.”

“Very well Jackpot, I shall lead them to this spot.” I heard some light rustling as Enyi faded back out into the town.

“How is he gonna get all those villagers out?”

“I don't know Ivory but we better hope he can and soon.”

Within minutes Goldie came walking back up to us with a dozen of her Unicorn guards.

“All right, we got some search spots, get those two untied and lets get going.” the guards completely freed Jackpot but left me tied up as they led us away from the village. This was actually a lucky break as Enyi now he'd less guards to deal with and Goldie was also going to be gone. Maybe we could pull this off.

We were led out of town as Goldie stayed near the front of the group with Jackpot who was still kept completely free and unbound. From my vantage point in the back of the group I could see Goldie walking very close to Jackpots side as she would occasionally whisper things into his ear. I couldn't hear what she was saying and this both irritated and worried me. Every so often Jackpot would stop and look around and even sniff the air before pointing in one direction or another. Our whole group would then turn and follow his directions.

After a couple hours of walking Jackpot finally stopped. We were probably near the south end of the island and the sun was starting to go down. Before us was a plain empty spot that didn't even have any grass growing on it. It was pretty much just a bare rock that jutted out from the rocky ground.

“Whats this?” Goldie said, finally with some irritation in her voice.

“Treasure.” Jackpot said in response.

Goldie gestured to several of her Unicorn goons and they activated their horns surrounding the rock with a telekinetic glow. After a minute of tugging and pulling the Unicorns finally heaved the large rock from the ground and Goldie walked over to see what was left over. I tried to raise my head up to see what Goldie was looking at but there were too many goons in the way for me to see.

“This is just plain old treasure.” Goldie said as she lifted out a large chest with her magic aura.

“That's what you wanted isn't it?” Jackpot said.

“Lets see.” Goldie opened the chest and began to dig through it. She threw out several old looking papers and other small worn looking trinkets.

I managed to shuffle over to where one of these papers landed on the ground and stooped down to take a peak while all the guards were watching Goldie. The paper was very old and made out of some smooth feeling material that I didn't recognize as regular paper. The most striking thing was that it was written in Pre-Celestial Script but what it said I still didn't know.

“All of this shit is useless, none of it is what we're looking for!” Goldie said finally dropping her calm facade and having her own face turn red.

“It would help if I knew what I was looking for!” Jackpot yelled back at her.

“I don't know what we're fucking looking for!”

“Then how do you know this isn't it!”

“Because I do so shut up or I'm killing your friend here!” at this I snapped back up and stared right back at Jackpot. He grumbled a bit, turned around and kept walking in another direction.

Before we could get far however one of Goldie's goons ran up from over in the direction of Money and started shouting in a deep, hoarse voice.

“Captain! The villagers got out, they surprised our squad and retook the town!”

Hell yeah! Is what I thought but at the same time I was very sure this wasn't the original plan. Enyi or the villagers must have thought this up later and thought it was a better idea than just hiding. But if he actually managed to retake the town then its all the better for us with even less of Goldie's goons to worry us.

“For Sable's sake you incompetent idiot! What are you a Unicorn or a fucking Earth Pony, get all of our forces back and head towards the town, kill everypony and burn the shithole down!”

“That wasn't the deal Goldie!” Jackpot shouted. Suddenly Jackpot found himself held down by magic and bound just like me.

“Fuck your deals, it's time for some fun!” Goldie shouted as she and her goons dragged us back to the town at a very fast pace.

We got back to the town in minutes but when Goldie and her now almost two dozen remaining Unicorns got there the whole place was deserted. Goldie levitated all seven of her knives as she slowly walked through the center of the town.

“I thought you wanted to fight!” Goldie yelled, “Where are you!”

There was no answer at first. The town remained quiet and nopony, not even Goldie's other goons were to be seen or heard. Goldie stood there in the middle of the street looking around but there was just nothing there.

“Well that's disappointing.” She said as she lowered her knives.

I stood there, wondering what was going to happen when Jackpot whispered into my ear, “When we're free, go to ask Enyi where he hid our bags then look in mine.”

“What, why?”

“Get ready.” he whispered.

Suddenly a slight whistle was heard behind one of the small shacks over on our left side. Goldie and her goons turned towards the noise when a shovel suddenly fell from up and behind us, landing right on the head of one of the Unicorn goons. Within seconds more digging utensils came flying out from behind several buildings in various directions. Several dozen townsponies came out soon after once the Unicorns were busy levitating the falling debris with their magic. They didn't react fast enough as the ponies slammed into them before running off again.

The Unicorns were taken by surprise but quickly regained composure. They took several shots at some of the ponies, hitting several and burning their bodies until they stopped moving.

“Spread out and finish them off!” Goldie yelled.

Her goons followed her orders and soon darted off in various directions as they chased down the townsponies that had attacked them. I could hear their horns going off even as they got farther away as Goldie and two of her goons stayed behind to watch me and Jackpot. This didn't seem to help as once they were distracted Jackpot leapt up and got loose of the Unicorn holding him. He swooped back down and grabbed me before tumbling off and away towards the buildings.

“Oh fuck my horn! Get after them you useless fuck munchers!” Goldie yelled as her Unicorns fired several shots towards us. Luckily the shack provided cover and they missed as Jackpot helped me up and ran off towards the edge of town.

Enyi ran up from behind another shack, “Good to see you two made it.”

“Did you come up with this?” I asked as we ran.

“Well, I helped but it was mainly the villagers idea. The throwing of the shovels was my idea though.” Enyi said with pride in his idea.

“Good work Enyi but you need to go hook up with the rest of the villagers, they probably need more help! Ivory and I will soon meet you but we need to get our stuff back first!” Enyi nodded and pointed towards a lone shack near where we were running and veered off towards where the other villagers were running towards.

Suddenly a blast of magic shot past me just grazing my mane, “Look out Jackpot!”

Jackpot leapt upwards and somersaulted to the roof of a side shack. He jumped down and landed right on the head of one of Goldie's two remaining Unicorn guards. The guard fell to the ground as Jackpot flew back up towards the sky. I managed to make it to the building where Enyi had pointed to and run inside. I stopped and looked down, seeing our saddlebags lying down next to each other. I opened Jackpot's and saw it filled with his flasks. Then I saw what he had meant, beneath them was the bracelet and Abila's helmet, wrapped in a small cloth to help hide it.

I slipped the bracelet on and then the helmet and suddenly was filled with the energy that it gave me. The bracelet grew over my foreleg as the crystal glowed a bright purple. I put the helmet back in Jackpot's bag and fastened it shut, “It suddenly dawned on me that I never actually got around to practicing with this thing.” aw shit. I had no idea how it actually worked, I tried to think back to Numnah but can only remember falling unconscious as the Pyth pounced on me.

“Emotion.” I said as I remembered feeling how I was about to die and wanting that not to happen. I put my hoof up and thought to myself how I wanted to move through this wall but nothing happened. I poked my head out of the shack and saw that several of the neighboring houses were on fire and that the one remaining guard was there just shooting at random buildings.

I held my hoof out again and this time thought on how I wanted to stop him and Goldie when he turned towards me and charged. His horn began to glow as a beam of magic shot out towards me, I managed to dodge but the black took out part of the shack, causing it to collapse. I rolled away but when I looked up he was on me again. This time when he fired I lifted my hoof up again feeling that I was about to die again when the bracelet glowed and blasted me back. I opened my eyes and saw the Unicorn guard blasted with a wave of purple energy. He was blown back straight into one of the burning shacks behind him and fell with a thud to the ground.

I carefully got back up and crept over to where he was laying on the groundto see that unlike the Pyth he had not exploded. Instead he was lying there on the ground with a slight groaning as he was obviously unconscious. I held up the bracelet and looked back down at my downed opponent, I dragged him out of the burning shack and pulled off the black mask he was wearing. To nopony's surprise he was just a grey Unicorn with a brown mane.

“Well he's no monster.” I said as I looked down back towards the bracelet and thanked Celestia that I hadn't actually killed anypony. “Let's save that for Goldie.” I told the bracelet as it glowed even brighter as if in response to my question.

I ran back out of the village where I saw Enyi running towards me with several villagers, including Scarlet.

“Ivory, you have the bracelet?”

“Yeah, Jackpot packed it.”

“That is good, with it we can actually fight back now!” he said happily.

“Come on, my friends are in danger!” Scarlet shouted as she gazed back towards some smoke coming from the western side of the island.

“Where's Jackpot?”

“I don't know, he was with you.”

“I lost him in the confusion.” I looked around quickly but could see nothing. I just nodded towards Scarlet as we all charged off to help the other villagers.

We found several already dead as we ran closer to where we saw the smoke. There were also a few of Goldie's goons laying around but only about three were actually taken down. I counted ten dead villagers which disturbed me to no end but I just had to keep on going. We eventually got to the mine that Enyi had mentioned and saw that the remaining Unicorn guards had surrounded the entrance to the mine. Around the mine however was a small forest, well more like a bunch of trees and rocks that a pony could mistake for a small forest but it was enough to hide us in.

“How are we going to get past!?” Scarlet said with great worry in her voice.

“Leave that to me.” I said as I began to creep down to where the Unicorns were watching the entrance.

It seemed that the Villagers had pushed a large stone in the way of the entrance and Goldie's goons were trying to get past it. They were all taking turns blasting at the huge rock but it kept together. I crept up behind where the largest group of the Unicorns were standing, there were about five of them waiting for their turn to blast at the rock. I held my hoof up and ZZAT the bracelet let out a burst of energy that knocked out every Unicorn in front of me. This time I was thinking of protecting the villagers and the bracelet reacted in kind. The other guards immediately turned around and faced me. I now realized just how pretty much screwed I was at this point with all of them on me like this and just started to run.

I didn't get far when a shot blasted the ground where I was standing and threw me to the ground with a thud. I pulled myself up only to see about four more Unicorn goons standing over me.

“You're gonna regret fighting back!” one yelled angrily as all of their horns began to glow.

I knew I didn't have time to aim at any of them and that this might be it when suddenly several rocks wrapped in a red telekinetic field flew past and hit one of the guards in the head. Their concentration was broken as they all looked in the direction of the rocks to see Scarlet standing there. As they prepared to fire at both of us Enyi came in from the other direction and slammed a large stick he was carrying in his mouth into another guards head. With this distraction I lifted my hoof and with the thought of protecting all of us I blasted the two remaining guards. Unfortunately Enyi was a bit too close and got thrown back a bit by the blast as well.

“Oh, Enyi I'm so sorry!” I ran up to him as he slowly rose back up.

“Well, I do believe I am exhausted.” Enyi said as he stumbled back down.

“Hurry, the other Unicorns will be here soon!” Scarlet yelled out.

“Help me.”

Scarlet wove a magic field around Enyi, trying to pick him up, “He's...heavier...than he looks.”

“Put him on my back.” Scarlet lowered Enyi onto my back, “Ugh. You need to exercise more Enyi.”

“Criticize later, run now!” Enyi said from my back.

I managed to Carry Enyi away with Scarlet close behind me. Several more Unicorns arrived at the scene moments later before returning to their squad.

“We won't surprise them like that again.” I said.

“Oh, whatever are we going to to.” Scarlet began to cry.

“We have bought the ponies time, but I do hope that Jackpot is doing fine.”

“Yeah, I wonder where he is.” suddenly Goldie's words flashed through my mind, that Jackpot would join up with her again. He wouldn't do that, would he? He wasn't here and I didn't see him or Goldie in the village when we ran out of it. I shook my head rapidly, “Get those thoughts out of your head Ivory, Jackpot wouldn't do that.”

“Do what?”

“Nothing Enyi. Lets just focus on saving the rest of the townsponies right now.”

I poked my head out from the rock we were hiding behind, I could see about seven Unicorns in the distance still blasting away at the slowly cracking rock.

“That doesn't add up. Goldie had twenty four goons, two stayed behind and with the three the villagers took down, we should have taken out a dozen.”

“So only twelve left then.” Enyi said as he lay on the ground.

“Yes but we only see seven.” Scarlet added.

“So five of them are laying in wait for us.”

“We need some help here Ivory.”

“I know but we don't have any help.” I was acting very brave but that shot I almost took and now carrying Enyi was taking its toll, I was completely exhausted and starving. I was almost running on empty and I was beginning to show it.

“I just do not know what we can do.” Enyi said, his tone beginning to lose hope.

“If I can just get some good shots in I think I can take out all of those Unicorns.”

“So you need me to lure them out for you so your...thing there can take them out.” Scarlet said.

“Yeah but right now I can't really move much so you'll have to bring them here.”

“Well, I can't say how well I'll do but..” Scarlet looked back towards the mine, “I'll do it.”

“Thanks.” I said, giving her a friendly smile.

I dragged myself to the top of the rock where I could get the best vantage point, “Remember try to bring as many as you can here ok Scarlet.”

“I'll do my best.”

I watched as Scarlet crept closer back towards the Unicorns and the mine. I saw her use her magic to pick up several stones as she slowly walked into some bushes that sat near the clearing where the mine was. She tossed the stones into the backs of several of the Unicorn guards and then bolted from her bush. It was a good thing she did as the bush went up in flames as five Unicorns rushed from the woods towards Scarlet. What few trees were in this woods were quickly blasted down by the unicorns as they chased Scarlet but she proved to be speedy enough to evade them. It didn't last long however before she tripped on a rock and fell over revealing her to the pursuing Unicorns. This was now my part as I thought of only saving Scarlet and a ZZAT burst from my leg and right into the pursuing Unicorns.

“I thought I was done for there.” Scarlet said as she sat there on the ground panting.

“Don't worry, I got ya!”

“Hurray for Ivory.” Enyi said weakly as he was still laying on the ground.

“Not that the praise doesn’t feel nice but we still have seven Unicorns left to deal with.”

“Well, I don't think they can break through the stone if they take many more off of breaking it but we have evened the numbers out quite a bit.” Scarlet said.

“Yeah but Enyi's pretty much done and I'm out of juice too.” I said.

At this Scarlet lit up, “Well, now that we have a minute I will have you know that I am a medical pony and I was trained at Celestia's school for Gifted Unicorns!”

“And what does that mean?”

“It means I know a few healing spells.”

“Wait, you actually know healing spells?”

“Well, they are just beginner level and I'm still technically practicing with them but they can keep you on your hooves in a pinch.”

“Well don't just stand there, lay it on us!”

Scarlet first went over to Enyi and her horn began to glow a light red color. Her face began to show some strain as she grunted and puffed as sweat poured down her face. After a few seconds of this her horn popped and a little light went over Enyi as his face perked up a little bit.

“Well now...that feels....something.” Enyi said as he was now able to stand up.

“It won't actually heal any injuries but this spell does restore some stamina...but I can't do it many times before I tire myself out so once I do you Ivory, I'll be pretty much spent.”

“That's ok, you'll have earned a rest by then Scarlet.”

Scarlet clambered up the rock to me and performed the spell once again. When it had been cast she slumped down and slid back to the ground. I, on the other hoof, felt a bit more energized. I was still starving and my legs were beginning to hurt but I could move again and that was ok by me.

“Thanks Scarlet. Come on Enyi, lets save some ponies!”

Enyi and I both trotted back down towards the mine. The Unicorns were back at it but this time only two were actually blasting away at the rock. The boulder was now showing some very serious signs of breaking so we had to hurry. The other five Unicorns stood around them, watching for us and any others who would dare to approach. They had made one mistake though and I noticed it. They were standing pretty close together as there wasn't many of them left. This meant with one good shot I could get them all at once or at least leave only one or two left, then Enyi and I could finish them up easily.

Enyi crept down into the last few available spots for cover as I lifted my hoof and took aim. I took a couple seconds to line up my shot in the in the now rather dark night air before the sound was heard, ZZAT. I hadn't been as good as I thought as only the five Unicorns watching for us were taken out but it was good enough. The other two immediately turned around and saw me from where I had fired. They charged forward and fired blasts from their horns which I only dodged by falling to the ground and getting hit by a falling tree branch which had fallen in the blast. The two Unicorns were now very close to me when Enyi jumped out from the bushes with another stick. THWACK, he managed to smash his branch into the face of one of the Unicorns but the other just instinctively bucked his legs out and threw Enyi to the ground. We were now both down, our stamina boost was now all but gone, the Unicorn's horn charged up as he took aim at me first.

THUMP, a rock fell on the Unicorn's head and he fell to the ground unconscious. Behind him stood one of the villager ponies, the stone had crumbled in the last seconds and this Unicorn had exited levitating several stones expecting a fight. Instead he ended up saving me and Enyi and we made sure to thank him for it. The rest of the villagers came out, only about thirteen were left in total including the one who charged out.

“You're all ok!” Scarlet yelled out as the ponies carried us towards her.

“Thanks to you and these ponies here we managed to come out all right.” The Unicorn who had saved us said.

“Not all of us though.” a rather young looking Earth Pony who came up said with a sad tone.

“Their leader is still out there.” I said from the back of a large Earth Pony.

“Goldie.” Enyi said.

“Jackpot!” I said as I realized he was still missing.

We all raced back towards the village as fast as our beleaguered legs could carry us. When we arrived most of it had burnt down but it's proximity to the Luna bay and the lack of vegetation had prevented the fire from spreading. We all stood there just looking at the devastation when Jackpot suddenly fell from the sky straight into some of the villager ponies who stood right next to us.

“Your wing is gone!” Scarlet yelled.

“Wait, what!” Jackpot shouted as he suddenly sprang up to inspect his wings.

Scarlet had overreacted, Jackpot still had both of his wings but one of them had a nasty gash through it with several feathers missing. Suddenly Goldie came running up with several large bruises on her face.

“Fuck.” is all she said as she looked at the crowd of ponies in front of her. She immediately turned around and ran the other direction back towards her camp in the north of the island.

None of us were in any condition to go after her and I'm glad she didn't know that or else she might have tried to take us all on(she might have won that one actually). But for now everypony just focused on trying to rest and recuperate.

“Get me my saddlebag!” Jackpot yelled as he lay on the ground twitching.

I hobbled over to the crushed hut and had several other ponies help in digging out our saddlebags. I slid Jackpot his bag and he slid out one of his flasks and proceeded to gulp the entire thing down.

“Ah, its been to long. Wish I had some of this while fighting Goldie, I might've stood a chance then.”

“How long were you two fighting? We were gone for a good while.” I asked.

“Hard to tell, time gets kinda fuzzy without my flasks here.” Jackpot said as he guzzled another one down, “Makes the pain hurt less.” he squeaked after finishing another one.

“Ugh, fine.” I said as I took another one from his bag and guzzled down several gulps before I had to breath. He was surprisingly right, after only a few minutes my body was not hurting as much.

“We need to get back to Vanhoover!” One of the ponies shouted.

“Scarlet is still to exhausted to heal anypony and there are still dozens of unconscious goons laying around the island!” said another.

“I agree but there's no way back until we call Backlash.”

“Well then it is a good thing he gave us this before departing.”

Enyi reached into his newly reacquired saddlebag and lifted out a small devise with a button on it with his mouth. He placed it on the ground and stepped on it with his hoof.

“What's that?” I asked.

“He gave this to me after Scarlet dragged you off, he should be along in a few hours if he is listening.”

“Ivory!”

“What?” I said.

“What do you mean what?” Jackpot, who was still laying on the ground drinking said.

“Who called my name?”

“Nopony called your name.”

“But I heard it.”

“Well I'm saying nopony called your name.”

“And I'm telling you I heard somepony call my name!”

“Well it wasn't anypony here.” the others nodded their heads in agreement.

I looked back out towards the inner island and suddenly my mouth dropped nearly right to the floor.

“Um, guys, look behind you.”

Everypony turned around and suddenly floating just above the island was a massive structure made of clouds. It seemed almost to float down and touch point just beyond the village as it hid the entirety of the rest of the island from view and seemed to illuminate the now darkened night sky.

“What the?” Jackpot said as he put the last of his flasks down.

“It's the palace, but how, when?” I said.

“I do not know.” said Enyi.

I rushed up towards the palace, my own wonder and curiosity overpowering my exhaustion in this situation. Enyi came with me while the rest of the ponies simply stared at the large cloud structure which now loomed over the village. Enyi and I reached the edge of the town to where the new structure had appeared. I took a single step towards it when suddenly its cloud walls opened up revealing a glistening interior.

“I wish I was a Pegasus right now.” I said.

Enyi then took several steps forward and then into the cloud palace, “Wait, Only Pegasi can...” to my own amazement, Enyi successfully landed on the floor of the main room. Ignoring what I previously thought I knew I followed only to find myself also within the structure.

“This place is amazing.” I said to myself as I gazed at the interior.

The room was a fluffy white, with cloud pillars on either side of us. A great staircase rose in front of us that split into two separate paths. We each walked up these stairs and chose to go down one path each. The path I chose led down a long hallway with the cloud walls swaying and swirling around me even as I walked past them. The hall led into another large room where a large stone sat in the middle of.

“How is this stone sitting in clouds?”

I trotted up to it and inspected it, even pushing it with my hooves to ensure it was real. A single word was written on this stone, it was in the Pre-Celestial Script but once my hoof touched it I felt that I knew what it meant, selflessness. Was this place trying to teach me a lesson, because it had a very funny way of doing that and it was a way I must say I didn't particularly like.

I looked up from this stone and then realized something very important. My hat had fallen off in the fighting! “Well, it can't be helped I guess.”

I looked around the room and saw one more passage, I followed it and at the end of this one was Enyi. He was standing alone in this room, looking up at the far end of it. I led my eyes to where he was looking and saw something that nearly stole my breath away.

A shield, bright and shining, hanging over a large container made of a strange golden cloud. I walked up and put my front hooves around the extremely light shield and lifted it down. Instantly I felt strange, as if nothing could harm or deter me from anything.

“The tomb of Whisperwind the Pegasus.” I said as I examined the golden cloud box. I was able to recognize Whisperwind's name from the same runes in the journal and what I now knew was the coffin.

“Is that what we are looking for?” Enyi asked from the other side of the room.

“Yeah, I think it is. Lets get back to the others now.”

Enyi and I left the palace and as we stepped out of the front doors the clouds dissipated and the palace was gone. We rejoined our friends to see Scarlet was up and treating Jackpot's wing injury.

“You won't be able to fly straight for awhile but it should heal.”

“Maybe you should give me a more thorough exam, I think I have some other parts that got hurt too.”

I slapped Jackpot on his face, “Now's not the time for that.”

“What?”

“It's no trouble Ivory, I'm just a beginner but I do have my medical licensee and I am prepared to give full examinations to my patients.”

“That's not what he meant by thorough examination.”

“Well what else could it mean?”

I face-hoofed, “I'll tell you later.” Scarlet just looked confused.

About an hour later Backlash arrived with his old leaky boat, “Hey hows it going....what in Tartarus happened to this place!?”

“Just take us home Backlash.” I said as Enyi helped Jackpot get on board the boat.

“Ivory, Wait!” Scarlet yelled, running up to the boat.

“What is it?”

“Can I come with you?”

“Wait, what?”

“Well, Money is pretty much gone and with the other ponies all planning on going back to the mainland I was wondering if I could come with you.”

“Why would you want that?”

"Well a lot of my friends were um...killed...and I need to make sure the ponies who are out to stop the ones who did that are always kept in tip top shape.”

“Let her join!” Jackpot shouted in a slightly slurred tone from the front of the ship where he was laying down with Enyi.

“Are you sure?” I said giving a worried glance towards Jackpot.

“Yes I am!” Scarlet said very adamantly.

“What are the rest of you going to do?” I asked the other village ponies.

The Unicorn who saved us at the mine walked up, “Well we are going to give you something for saving us then we're gonna go and round up all those unconscious Unicorns for when the authorities arrive. After that, we'll probably head out to other parts of Equestria or maybe come back here when enough time has passed.

“Listen, you don't really need to give me anything.”

“Well it's not really ours, or I mean that we didn't have it before today but Jackpot told us about that chest of old papers he found and we want you to have it as thanks.” two ponies came up, they must have hurried off when I was in the palace but there they were carrying the chest full of old papers.

They loaded it aboard the boat and returned to the island to set off with their final tasks on it. Backlash set out with the Tub with Enyi, Jackpot, Scarlet and myself now along for the ride. I kept the shield with me but it didn't help when I started to feel sick again from the rocking. This time though Scarlet was here and she spent her time casting one spell on me that kept the unease down to a minimum. I was suddenly very happy that she was now along with us as any boat trip would now be tolerable.