Author's Notes:

A quick note. This chapter takes place after a crossover with Timeless Lord Slayer's Fic A Pale Eagle of White Tail. Specifically chapter 21. I had a fun time and worked with some lovely people, check out the fic and enjoy it.

My Little Tactics

Chapter Thirty Three: Trains and Travel.

“You sure about this lad?” The smith asked of Dustan as the man just gave a nod and smiled. “Ok then, I will have my apprentice look at it as he is gettin’ to be better with fine work then I am in my old age.”

“That is fine Bellows. Truth is I expect it to be destroyed during you taking it apart. I just wanted to make sure you and yours know how to make more or even variants of them if possible.” Dustan watched as the box was carried in the back and murmuring was quickly heard from the old smith’s young ward. “Be careful of the smaller objects in that box, they are explosive.”

“You already told me twice. Though you still haven’t told me where you got such an interestin’ contraption like that.” The old stallion’s hooves were thrown up in the air at this point in excitement. “You go and vanish on us like that and when you show back up you don’t say much just say you had to go somewhere. Had us all worked up and now you give me something like this.”

“I know it’s a bit much to ask but everyone has to keep a secret or two, keeps us all interesting right?” Dustan’s grin must have been infectious as the smith soon started to smile himself.

A chuckle came from that grizzled veteran throat before he gave a nod. “That it does. Alright fine. I will see what I can do, but it’s not a top priority got it? I have enough keeping my plate full as you work all the guards around here into stupors and ding up their armor and weapons.”

“Gotcha. Let me know if you make anything of it. If you need any pointers I left a note of what I do know about it in the box I gave you. Should answer some things but not much as I don’t know much about the inner workings only what it can do.” Stretching, Dustan looked up into the sky before he sighed. “Got to go meet with Allure and then hope on a train, so I am not going to be here for a while.”

“Well safe travels lad. I wish you the best of luck in whatever it is you do.” The brick red and rusted stallion gave him a smile at that. “Seems like whenever you go away this place gets boring so don’t stay away too long.”

“Sorry but if I had my choice, peace and quiet would be the order of the day. I will keep that in mind though.” Dustan didn’t get to take two steps though before he found himself face to face with a flapping blue and rainbow colored obstruction. “Hello Rainbow Dash, mind flapping over to the side? I have to head that way.”

Said pegasus looked at him curiously for a moment as if trying to gauge something. “Actually I wanted to talk to you about something but then I overheard you talk with Burly Bellows there. You going somewhere?”

“Yeah I got to go meet with Allure. Talk to me along the way.” The Squire told her as he started to walk with her flapping around to his side. “What question did you want to ask? Unless the question is ‘where did I go?’ then I will just answer that I had to go meet someone. Just like I had the last few dozen times I got asked that.”

“Umm…” The flying speedster looked away and scrunched up her face, not the most convincing of signs if one was trying not to look like they were thinking up a question on the spot. “H-how are you?”

“Really? You came all the way here to ask me how I am?” She only gave a hesitant nod before Dustan sighed and played along. “I am fine, thank you for asking Dash. Work must be slow if you are concerned about how my day is going.”

“Actually because of the schedule and it being late Spring and early Summer, beyond a few light showers there isn’t much to do.” She told him honestly as she sighed. “Honestly I was thinking about taking a vacation or something it’s just been kinda boring around here.” Gesturing to him she chuckled and smiled. “Honestly I was hoping to get some sparring in with you. Twilight has told me you have some abilities related to martial arts and I am a black belt myself so I was hoping we could get some training in.”

“She is right, but I can’t. I am about to head out of town.” At this point they had gotten to the office in the castle village proper where Allure had her new base of operations.

Most of her work still occurred in Ponyville but she was much more comfortable around the diverse assortment of castle dwellers. “Hey Dustan, Rainbow Dash welcome as well. What brings you two here?”

Dustan just cocked his head to the side confused before gesturing with one of his hands to her. “You called me here remember?”

For a moment the Kirin just looked confused before her hoof came up to slap her forehead. “Silly me, right. You are heading to somewhere in the Neighvada Desert right?”

‘I hate you horse pun god, or whoever decided that these puns were ok.’ Putting a smile on his face despite the irritation of said humor. “Right. Why?”

Reaching into her desk she pulled out a small object and tossed it from her mouth to him. “Take that brooch. If you clip it onto your cloak there as a type of clasp it should enchant it.”

Blinking for a moment before doing as she asked, he looked over his brown cloak and didn’t notice a change. “Ok what is supposed to happen?”

“Ok look at it.” Doing as she told him she continued her instructions. “There is magic in that brooch that is supportive in nature in a couple of ways. The two diamond shapes on the top and bottom indicate temperature. It can give your cloak a slight heating or cooling effect to help mitigate high heats and low colds. Not enough to save you from the effects by itself but coupled with the appropriate clothing it can certainly help.”

Pressing the down diamond he found his cloak started to radiate a cooling effect. “Oh that is just sweet. Air conditioned cloak.”

“That isn’t all.” She told him smiling and holding back her giggles at his demeanor. “The two diamonds rest on a circle, and you notice how it has various colors to it?” Giving a nod she gestured with a hoof. “Rotate it. It’s a wheel.”

Doing so, something instantly caught his eyes as he looked down at his cloak. Cycling from brown it turned to red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet, purple, white, black, then back to its basic brown. The brooch not only turned his cloak into a portable ac, but could change its colors to anything.

Laughing suddenly at a thought he couldn’t help but express it out loud. “Better not show this to Rarity. She would want to equip this to every piece of fabric she could all the time.”

“Yeah, no kidding!” Dash called out laughing with him.

Allure turned her attention back to the pegasus now that she had spoken up remembering that she was here. “So Rainbow, what can I do for you today?”

The laughter of the speedster slowed till it stopped as she thought about things. “Truth is, I was hoping to spar with Dustan here but he is leaving, so my next thought was to take a vacation since weather season is light right now. I have the paperwork already done, just have to turn it in if I want to go. Problem is I don’t know where to go or what I would do.”

“I see. Why don’t you just go with Dustan then?” The Kirin asked of them both to which she could see Dustan shake his head. “Is your mission that dangerous? I have only heard where you are heading not why.”

“Yeah it is that dangerous.” Face-palming and sighing, especially seeing the excited look on Rainbow Dash’s face he knew that she would follow him and not let him out of her sight now. “I am going on a mission asked by Celestia and Luna themselves to the desert on the reports of a possible Esper being there.”

Allure frowned and went into her desk starting to dig around for something as Dash looked confused. “When you say Esper, you mean like that Maggle thing?”

“Moogle.” The human corrected before squinting in concentration. “Also yes and no.” Clearly both Dash and Allure, who had pulled out some documents, were confused. “Yes it’s an Esper, Eidolon, or whatever you wish to call it since it has a few names, but the Moogle is the calmest and least likely to harm anyone.”

“So you are saying it’s going to be dangerous?” The guild leader asked of him as a concerned look came over her to which he gave an affirmative nod.

“How dangerous?” The prismatic mare asked from never him flapping around to face him.

“Dangerous enough that Celestia and Luna are sending plenty of guards with me to find out. Also it will entirely depend on what Esper it is. Golem is the best bet; Titan and Salamander are iffy as I am not one hundred percent sure on what their personalities are supposed to be like. Ifrit though…that is my worry. Ifrit typically doesn’t like other beings at all.”

“You make it sound like you know them.” Dash commented making Dustan both chuckle and shake his head.

“Just stories.” The Squire commented. “Where I am from Titan has been shown to be a guardian, a disturbance, and more. Salamander I think has only shown up in a couple of stories but only one that I know of where it’s been an Esper, I could be wrong on that as it’s been so long my memory is starting to fail me on some things I used to know.” Dustan caught both of the ponies in the room flatten their ears back and make a face so he shook his head. “Its fine. I have accepted the fact that some things are lost to me.”

Rainbow Dash still had her ears back and a worried look on her face. “Are you sure? Merlene said you had been drinking quite heavily before you vanished a couple of days ago.”

Honestly the concern struck Dustan more then he thought. ‘Didn’t realize that they all knew that or were that concerned. Then again, I kinda wasn’t hiding the fact that I was trying to drink my worries away either. I really should take some time and let them know that I am fine now. The meeting with Durin on his world helped out a bit. Seeing another human and knowing that there are others out there going through similar things to me.’ Reaching up he gave Rainbow Dash a pat on the head. “Thanks for the concern, means a lot to know I have people looking out for me. Though I am getting over what was bothering me, slowly but surely Dash.”

Almost adorably Dash nuzzled up into that pats with a happy look on her face before her eyes shot open and a blush came to her face as she swiped at the hand to make it leave. “I am just worried that you will get into another funk and things won’t be its normal levels of crazy around here is all.”

Giving a genuine smile he gave out a simple. “Thanks Rainbow Dash.”

The pegasus looked torn between accepting the thanks as normal and refusing it but luckily was saved by Allure’s giggles. “While the two of you are absolutely adorable, I am curious as to how dangerous your mission will be. On a scale of taking a comfy nap, to taking a dirt nap, how dangerous are we talking about?”

Sighing and leaning his head against his hand the human closed his eyes. “Depends on the Esper. If its Golem, then I would say its somewhere between a lumpy bed of sleep to, sleeping on the ground.”

“What about that Ifrit you spoke of. If it’s that one, what is the scale then?” Allure’s question honestly bothered her as it did Rainbow Dash because when answered it made things awkward.

“There is a good chance that something will die if he follows his lore from what I remember of it.” Dustan frowned as he said that. ‘If he follows lore he will hate me right away just for being human. However a lot of things that aren’t supposed to be in this world have been here long since before I came. Were there humans as well here before me and if not would he still hate humans or something else? There are too many questions.’ Looking up at them he simply said. “In the end, no matter what it is we find, it’s going to be dangerous. Not to mention the Esper, there are plenty of monsters along the way so it’s going to be a trek through creatures some of which even I don’t want to face.”

The last bit got both of the ponies in the room to take attention. “Creatures you don’t want to face? I seen how you fought against Captain Armor and you are telling me there are things that even you still fear?”

“Absolutely.” With that declaration Allure merely sat back down and sighed.

“Ok then. That means I am absolutely going with you.” Rainbow Dash told them with an adamant tone. “Just got to go take Tank to Fluttershy and hoof over my forms for vacation.”

Before Dustan could even argue or try to talk her out of it, even if he personally knew that it wouldn’t work, the mare zipped out of the room. “Hope she at least remembers to pack for the desert.”

The Kirin must have been feeling some sympathy for him as she went into the back and grabbed a few items that were pony sized. “Just in case. Also here.” Pulling out a familiar lantern she smiled. “Had it enchanted just like you wanted. It should connect to Spike just like the princesses and he should be able to send messages to this lantern no matter where you are. We already tested it to see if it could and it does.”

Stuffing the items into his pack along with the new enchanted Ever-bright Lantern, now the Ever-bright Message Lantern, Dustan stood up and told her. “Might as well head over to the train now and wait, going to have to have some explaining to do to the captain when I eventually board on why I am talking a civilian so taking time to make up an excuse now will do me some good.”

As he was leaving Allure told him. “Just tell them she is an Element of Harmony, which should smooth things over.”

Waving to the pony guild master he would make his way to the bench in front of the train boarding platform as Dustan took the moment to meditate as well as thinking up excuses for Rainbow Dash. Speaking of the mare, she showed up just in time as the train was pulling up with her saddle bags looking stuff.

She chuckled and rubbed the back of her head with her hoof. “I wasn’t sure what to pack, so I just grabbed a lot of items.”

Dustan didn’t get to say anything as the door opened and an armored stallion came out and saluted him before looking at the pegasus along with another coming out one Twilight Sparkle. “Sir, we are here as requested for pick up. Is there mare to accompany you? If so she isn’t authorized.”

For a moment Dustan wanted to try his excuse first but decided to go about it via Allure’s suggestion. “This is an Element of Harmony, specifically The Element of Lo-”

The stallion turned and saluted Rainbow Dash right away. “I am sorry Ma’am I wasn’t aware. Forgive my insubordinate attitude.”

“Um…its ok?” The look on her face said she wasn’t really comfortable being addressed like that before she shook her head for a second and stood up with more confidence than before. “I mean, It’s ok soldier. You weren’t aware and it’s an honest mistake, you did good by checking in to make sure. You did nothing wrong.”

“Thank you Ma’am, let us board if possible, we all wish to get to the destination quickly.” The soldier told them and Rainbow Dash went ahead and inside.

Dustan waited and looked to Twilight and asked. “Hitched a ride from Canterlot? Wasn’t aware that you even left last night. I could have sworn I saw you after the last train left still in Ponyville.”

The unicorn chuckled a bit nervously. “Yeah, went to see my parents so I boarded the last train. I am sure you must be misremembering the time.”

‘Weird, Twilight is clearly lying, but I don’t think she is meaning any harm and Tactical Eye says she is normal. Oh well.’ Shrugging he let her think the lie worked. “Sorry about that. Anyways Dash is coming with me, mostly cause I can’t stop her so we will be gone for a few days.”

“Oh ok, no problem.” Twilight seemed strangely relieved, too much for just letting the lie glide by like that but Dustan didn’t have time to actually follow up as he went inside.

As they boarded the soldier kept his cool before heading off to inform others after showing them to their cabin passing by many other soldiers all looking prepared for a fight or were checking on equipment. Clearly these were the active combat soldiers that occupied the Equestrian forces. Judging by their levels they were lower than that of the Exhibition match participants, but higher than the normal Royal Guard he saw around Canterlot.

Since it was only supposed to be Dustan it only had one bed though it was large enough for him. “I am rather surprised you handled that so well Dash.”

Clearly Dash was thinking that they were going to share that room as she was unpacking already some items. “Yeah, the Wonderbolts, while being mostly for shows and such, are a military group so I made sure to practice how to respond to things like that as well.”

“Um Dash, this is my room. We are going to have to get you a room to yourself.” He was honestly impressed though that she went to that extent to learn the skills of the Wonderbolts. Though as he got halfway through that thought his surprise wore off before realizing that of course she would do this.

“Hmm true, there is only one bed. Guess you will have to find another room.” Seeing the playful look on her face he knew she was kidding.

Deciding that two could play that game he gave her a grin and shrugged. “I suppose that sleeping with you again wouldn’t be that bad, you are light and you seemed to enjoy being on top of me.”

“Well yeah you are nice and war-” Seems her brain caught up to it to what he said only in the middle of what she was saying and caused her to right away turn into a tomato with her color as she started to wave her arms and flap her wings. “N-no, I swear that it’s not like that.”

Coming in closer to her he would lean in close and whisper. “You sure Dash? You sure looked like you really enjoyed my fingers.”

The eyes of the pegasus turned to swirls as she started to stutter and quickly grab her stuff. “I-I gotta go!”

Dustan watched amused as Dash had to carry her saddle bags in her mouth as she couldn’t fit them on her body with how her wings were positioned and had a bit of trouble getting out of the door. ‘Huh, wing boners are a thing. Neat.’ Tossing his bag to the nearby shelf the human stripped out of his weapons and armor laying it close by as he knew by what was discussed at the castle that this would take a good few hours to reach the destination. By few they meant about seven to eight hours. That meant they should arrive around three or four in the afternoon. ‘Wait, are time zones a thing in this world. If so that means it would be what one at the earliest? Or would it be noon, I forgot if Nevada was western or mountain time zone. FUCK, I have forgotten so much of my world.’

His musings were interrupted with a knock and the door opening with a rainbow maned head peeking in, still with a bit of a blush on her face. “Dustan? T-they don’t have any spare rooms.”

‘Oh that is rich, having to come back after my teasing like that.’ Smiling Dustan asked. “So you are wondering if you can share my room like before.” She gave a rather bashful nod before he waved her in. “Sure, but I have one condition.”

She came in with a sigh though when she heard that latter part she tilted her head. “Ok sure what?”

‘Will this make things awkward, sure, but is it worth it. Considering how adorable she acts when she is embarrassed absolutely.’ Smiling innocently he asked his question. “As you know I don’t know much about pony behavior, so I am curious. Why were your wings so stiff earlier?”

His answer was her blush returning and a pomf from her wings extending.

Twilight watched the train as it had left and wiped her brow from the imaginary sweat she felt formed there because of her nervousness. ‘I feel bad for lying like that but I have a good reason which I know he will love. I just have to think of it like a surprise party, I can’t let him know when it’s ready or that I am setting it up or he won’t be surprised.’

Trotting to the tree house that served as her home she greeted her number one assistant as she told him that she was going to be in the basement. “Alright Twilight, I will come get you when Lunch is ready if you don’t come up before that.”

“Thank you Spike!” She called out behind her as she descended the stairs to the basement which had become her makeshift lab since she moved in. While it couldn’t compare to what she worked with in Canterlot it made due. Her current project was currently sitting on a raised platform and drawn using chalk. Nearby on a desk was several books, one of which she got during her birthday along with the device that came with it. “Ok lets see.” Finding her current notes she smiled. “Stability brought about by Clover’s conversion of mass calculation was indeed correct. This leads me to believe that the advancements made by others to improve upon them might work, but going to be using shorter range destinations to confirm. First I have to take three baseline measures of how much thaums it uses up.” Writing down her notes and her process she smiled as she moved upon the platform and erased some marks to replace them with others. “Commencing test number one.” Her horn lit up as did the circle she was using before a pop sounded and she vanished.

Spike would later remark about her coming through the door a few times but never seeing her leave. “Twilight, if you are going to teleport somewhere let me know before ok? Or is this just practice to keep your teleportation skills sharp? Wait; is this part of your experiment?” She knew that Spike asked each of the question and got the answer each time as her face surely would tell with how big her grin got towards the last one. “Never mind then, I will just let you know if Lunch is close if I see you walk through the door and if not I will come get you.”

“Thanks again Spike, you are the best.” She told him with a smile and gave him a big hug causing him to chuckle and dig his foot into the wood of the floor a bit embarrassed. Getting back down to the lab she wrote down the number and smiled. “Process recorded and getting consistent numbers. On to experiment TP-V3-01.” Redrawing different parts of the circle now she smiled and triple checked her notes before moving to the raised platform. “Experiment start!” And just like before she vanished.

Pegasus fur and down were surprisingly so very soft Dustan noted as he woke up first. Dash, though wanting a nap just not in the same position as before, was next to him deeply breathing showing she was still asleep. Checking the time and stretching, Dustan slowly and quietly went outside to avoid waking up the pegasus and asked a soldier how close they were to their destination.

The soldier recognizing him right away saluted and remarked. “Sir, it seems we are about thirty minutes away from our destination.”

“Thanks.” Going back to his room he found Rainbow Dash already awake and pouting slightly. “Sorry, didn’t mean to wake you up when I left.”

Shaking her head and starting to stretch out her legs and wings she looked over to him. “You need to cover up a pegasus if you leave them alone after cuddling them. We are ponies that are attuned to weather and thus temperature. I woke up because the warmth on my back was gone.”

The human had never actually thought of that but it made sense. “Sorry about that, didn’t know.”

Nodding and continuing her stretches she smiled and told him. “Yeah I figured. I could tell when you came back in the room and mentioned about leaving. Griffins are the same way, anything with wings really so keep that in mind.” Flapping out her wings some before bringing them around to start grooming them she continued to say. “Earth Ponies are more in tune with movement while Unicorns are more in tune with magic or something. The more they know their partner the easier it is for them to pick up when they left. That is just in general though so it changes from pony to pony you know.”

Dustan had not expected to get a lesson on pony sleeping habits but it was good to know. “Neat, I will have to keep that in mind. I mostly keep to my own bed though, so it’s rare that I have had to share like this and only when needed.”

“Well you should remember it for when you do. You are nice and warm and considering you tried to spare my feelings by moving quietly that means you are considerate at the least. Lots of ponies like that in bed partners.” Remarked the pegasus as she pulled a loose feather out and sighed in relief.

An expression came to his face as he understood what she was doing. “Oh ok, I get it. I walked into that for teasing you earlier.”

His chuckling came to a stop as the human heard Dash growl and fly over to him making him face her. “Ok we are nipping that in the bud right now.” He wasn’t sure what she meant as she landed before him. “I am going to teach you about pony body language now and you are going to pay attention. It seems you can understand a bit by our ears but you have to look at how we are standing as well as our tails, not to mention other cues.”

The next thirty minutes had Dash covering everything from how fast a tail swishes, to stances, to combination and as the train was pulling up she even quizzed him on what she taught. Suffice to say he didn’t do too well on the test, so she noted that he needed improvements for sure giving him only a ten percent out of a hundred. He was with her though in that he needed to improve that aspect of himself a lot and was glad for the help even if what was being taught was in fact way more complicated then he thought.

As they exited the train, right away it was clear that they stopped in the middle of the desert itself in front of a base camp of sorts. What was also clear was that the sun and heat of that the desert was no joke making Dustan turn on the ac ability of his new charm and also changed the color of his cloak to white. When he spotted Dash sweating up a storm he pulled out a spare cloak that Allure gave him along with the same brooch that he possessed.

“Turn it onto white color as that reflects light more.” Looking confused at his instructions he smiled and told her. “Light generates heat, that is why when you lay in the sun your body warms up. Reflecting more light means less heat transfers into the cloak and thus keeps you cooler.”

“Oh, makes sense why clouds are so cool even at low altitudes then.” Rainbow Dash said mostly to herself as she turned the dial to white. “This cooling cloak is almost as cool as I am.”

Rolling his eyes Dustan marched with the others to the camp as the leader came out, the same general that was in the meeting with him before. “Lord Warner, good to see you. With your help here we will be sure to conquer the creatures out there and make our way to the source of the problem.”

As the general came up he noticed other creatures not in soldier or guard uniforms come with him, ones that he knew too well from the show. “Buffalo general?”

Nodding he smiled and pointed to the one to his left. “This is the chieftess of the local band of Buffalo that call the desert its home, Chief Sandstorm she and her tribe know this area better than anypony.”

Dustan reached out a hand to try to shake the chief’s hoof only for her to look to the general and ask. “This is the one who is knowledgeable about the creatures invading my tribe’s home?”

“That is right ma’am.” The general told her with confidence. “I have seen his prowess myself and have picked his mind to find it matching his prowess and I can assure you that with his help we will get to the heart of things.”

The buffalo snorted at that claim. “We will see, but I cannot officially greet you till you have proven yourself in my eyes.” With that she turned and went back to her tribe.

“I take it things are more tense then it seems around here?” Dustan looked around seeing the Buffalo all gathered together eyeing the ponies with mostly a neutral look, mostly as some have open hostile eyes and others that are begging for help.

Sighing and taking off his helmet the general scratched the back of his mane. “The Buffalo are being driven out. The monsters appearing and growing fiercer in the area are forcing them to flee. Some are blaming us ponies saying we are somehow turning the monsters loose on them to run them from their home. The ones that aren’t hostile are either looking for our help as they realized they can’t fight this while the others are too stubborn to admit they are out matched.”

“Because of that they are basically mostly against you since there is hostile, ones who resist, and only a few who want they help?” The general gave a nod to the question which made the human sigh and close his eyes. “All we can do is try to help hoping that convinces them of our involvement and intentions.”

“The Buffalo of Appleoosa were pretty stubborn as well and there had to be a compromise on both ends for that to work.” Flapping into the air and looking around she shook her head. “Considering its monsters we are dealing with, there isn’t going to be a compromise here at all is there?”

“’Fraid not.” Dustan told her his thoughts and they were not happy. “Truth is, even if we are successful here, monsters are still spawning. I am not sure how they breed, if they spawn from mana, the earth, or old fashioned breeding. Regardless they are now here and like it here. To secure this place we would need to wipe them out so they won’t return because even if we get them to manageable numbers, the Buffalo being nomadic will eventually run from a place and they will gather up there, which gives them a good spawning area to grow again.”

Looking at him wide eyed she looked to the general who had a similar pained look to his face. “So you are saying they are doomed?”

“Yeah, more or less. Unless they leave this area or can somehow protect themselves better then they have, it’s going to be over for them.” The tears in the pegasus’ eyes told of her sadness even if they didn’t come forth.

“SIR ENEMY SPOTTED!” A call came from the edge of the camp towards the North.

Dustan stretched and drew his Blood Sword. “Good, I am itching to take something down.” Heading over to the guard line in the North the human took a look at what was presented. “Three Bombs huh?”

“Those creatures are what have devastated my tribe; we get them on death’s door only for them to decide to take down their attackers with them.” Chief Sandstorm told him as she looked at him as well as the other tribe’s members. “Subdue those three on your own and you will have proved yourself capable of leading us to the heart of this problem.”

‘Seriously going to potentially kill me just to make me-you know what fuck it.’ Looking back to the enemy approaching Tactical Eye revealed something to him ‘Huh.’

Scratching his chin he heard Sandstorm chuckle. “Afraid aren’t you?”

“Huh, oh no. I am just worried I am about to make this seem really easy.” That got her chuckling to stop and a frown to appear. “But Whatever.”

Stepping forward past the line, he could hear some of the guards speak up worriedly, only for Dash to assure them. “Don’t worry, he has got this. Show them your stuff Dustan!”

Moving his hand towards his right side horizontal from his body, he spoke. “Liquid that gives life. Take it away now! Water!” He moved his hand from right to left as six balls of water spawned. He chanted the spell twice more and now three rows of water balls were floating in the air. Dustan lifted his hand to face the enemy cocking it like gun. “Bang.”

The balls shot away from him heading straight for the Bombs at a good speed and each one hit with an impact that would make some of the guards and Buffalo wince. When the final ball hit three small plumes of flame floating in the air were all that were left, evidence that the Bombs were no more.

“Cheater!” Called the Chief who now looked furious. “You used cheap magic tricks to win! You are no better than the horned ponies who do the same!”

“Really?” The Buffalo was stubborn about this and nodded. “Really?!” He was walking over to her now only to get another stubborn nod. Suddenly surging forward he grabbed the Chief by the throat and lifted her up with one hand only to get close to her and whisper. “Really?”

Sandstorm, leader of her tribe, the strongest and wisest grasped with her hooves at that arm to pull it away only to find it like steel and just withstood her strength. So she tried hitting at it, she did leave marks and some deep cuts which started to bleed but couldn’t remove his arm.

“Dustan stop!” Both the General and Rainbow Dash called out to him only to be stopped by a glare from him.

He then turned back and looked at both the chief and then the Buffalo themselves. “Truth is, you are all going to die. It doesn’t matter if it’s today, tomorrow, or a year from now. The monsters out there aren’t going away, they will keep breeding. Those Bombs only need to have twenty of them in the entire desert, maybe less depending on if their explosion catches multiple of you or if they get you at night. If you say magic is cheating, if you think we are here to kill you, let me tell you this. We don’t need to do anything. They will do it for us. Yet here we are, trying to help. Why?”

“To enslave us?” One of the formerly glaring tribe’s members called unsure of themselves.

“Ha, really? Why? I took down three of them myself, any caster unicorn here can do the same at range. A pegasus can just gather the small bits of moisture in the air and then form it into a rain cloud to kill them. Those are just the Bombs too. Lets talk about the Aevis, the Antlions, the Skeletons, or perhaps the worst of them all the hooded lizards known as Tonberry.” He noticed the tribe shiver at the last description. “Oh, you have run into one of those have you? Let me tell you something, those are the worst of all of them, even I wouldn’t go against one. As I said, as it stands right now, you are all dead. Unless you can do one of two things this end result will not change.”

He dropped the chief now who coughed and gasped for air while rubbing her throat. “What two things?”

“Either plea for help from other tribes, including pony ones to see if can bolster your forces enough to survive your encounters with them, doubtful if they aren’t trained in combat.” Casting a Cura spell on his arm healed it right up with no marks. “Or two, you can flea from the desert. Cause let me tell you something, I came here to find an even bigger threat then the creatures you have faced. One, which if it went on a rampage, would devastate your tribe in a matter of moments. Truth is, there could be more options to you, but half of you hate help, the other good bit of you are too stubborn to ask, and those that realize you need it, seem like you wouldn’t abandon your tribe.”

The tribe looked at each other some losing their anger towards him only to have it replaced with sadness, while others kept up that stubborn and hateful glare. “We won’t run.”

“Then leave. You aren’t here to help your tribe but to bury them right alongside yourselves and your traditions.” Was he perhaps too harsh? Yes. Kind words wouldn’t solve this one, especially when the chief clearly wanted help but was being a choosing beggar. “Those of you that stay and done leave with your tribe, I have other options for you, but they are tough ones. Ones that will break your traditions and others that might break your culture as you see it. However to preserve what you can is what I am offering you, nothing more, nothing less.”

“Come! We leave this place and these desert dung here.” Sandstorm called out to her tribe. As she was leaving she turned and looked at all who joined her, only finding two thirds of her tribe with her. “Cowards! You will not be welcomed back, you have made your choice!” Then she ran off faster than the others creating a large dust cloud behind her, likely the reason for her name.

Those that were left looked equal parts hopeless and eager for any hope he could give them. “Ok then, I have a few choices for you.” He held up a single finger. “Leave to join other Buffalo tribes, there is one in Appleoosa that I know of but beyond that you would have to ask around for where others are. I am sure they would offer you a home.” Some looked at each other at that as if that was a good idea. “Two, join pony society, learn how to survive there with them though considering how they live and how you live it will be beyond difficult.”

That got the Buffalo talking looking like they would lose hope at that. “Are there any more choices?”

“Yes, but it will make you think I am trying to do as the one of your former tribe’s members spoke of and enslave you.” That got them looking very apprehensive. “The last is to come to live with me at Castle Luminary. There I and my people can train you to be greater warriors, tactics, weapons, even magic all can be learned there. We just ask that if you do that you can contribute to the castle in some way, be it trade skills or even as guards. You will no longer be able to run as free as you have before, running from place to place. However what I can guarantee you is that you will gain the skills needed to one day take back your home from these creatures. It will be within your lifetime but I cannot say if by then that the children you will have will be raised up like you will have wanted to them by a tribe. They will be raised in an environment that belongs uniquely to the castle comprised up of different species from different cultures. Human, Pony, Dragon, Griffin, and more all reside at my castle.”

“You are telling us we could learn magic? Like you used to beat the living flames?” He assumed that the tribe member meant the Bomb and so nodded his head.

“What if we don’t want to fight, what if we wanted to learn how you healed yourself, would we be able to learn that magic?” As he heard that he smiled and looked to the young male Buffalo that asked.

Moving over to him he knelled before him. “My castle is a castle of choice. I don’t care where you were born, what you are like, or even your race. All I care about is that you have a choice and that you can live free how you wish. Given there are bounds to what I can do, the forest I live in is a bit dangerous so stampeding around isn’t something I can give you as it would put your life at risk. But healer, combatant, blacksmith, tailor, anything you want to do and more, I can tell you that I don’t mind any of it and welcome it all.”

The adults that were still there, about a dozen with two dozen more children, all looked at each other before looking to him. “Is there a time limit on this offer?”

“Yes and no. The first two don’t as you can reasonably do those any time you wish.” Standing up now from the Buffalo boy he looked to them all. “For my personal offer, yes. I want your answer before I leave from this place. Truthfully I wouldn’t put a time limit on this as anyone is free to join anytime at my castle. However with how your chief was, I don’t want you to be pressured into coming to my castle later to learn my secrets for someone willing to throw you all away like that because she didn’t like your choice. I rather not she get my abilities as I fear she might do something unjust with them. Anyways I will let you all deliberate now while I get a sitrep from the general about the ar-”

“I agree to your terms.” One of the adults said before he was finished.

“As do I!” Another called out, only for the rest of the adults to call out one by one. Soon it was clear that they all wished to join him.

“Huh…going to need to draft a letter.” Dustan mused to himself honestly surprised.