Port Nowhere wasn’t an ideal place for a family vacation. It was the type of port where pirates rubbed shoulders with smugglers, both handing bribes to the local guards who in turn passed on a percentage to whatever corrupt Zebrican noble was driving the place into the ground that year. It only barely passed as civilized, with ramshackle buildings that defied any kind of convention and streets that widened, narrowed, and turned seemingly at random. The locals shunned outsiders with suspicious scowls as they passed, and the only smiles one could find came from insincere playacting as merchants peddled their wares. It was dirty both in body and spirit, oppressively humid, and about the last place any halfway respectful pony should be going.

But there were opportunities to be had in Port Nowhere—if you knew where to look.

That was why I was there: for an opportunity to wipe my debts clean. Going to a prestigious university and leading archaeological expeditions to the ends of the world didn’t come cheap, and archeology didn’t pay very well for honest scholars. There were plenty of creeps out there willing to sell priceless artifacts to the highest bidder, and they hadn’t made life easier for me. In fact, I was in a race against one of my rivals. It was a race both for my future and the integrity of my profession, and I had to win it.

Thus, I found myself heading into one of Nowhere’s shops. Cihan’s Quite Curious Curiosities was an old pawn shop, at least on the surface. Poorly lit, the shop was filled with tightly packed shelves that you had to navigate carefully to avoid knocking anything over. The “You Break It, You Buy It” sign hanging from the ceiling made me suspect this was by design. I reached the front desk of the store without having to buy something I didn’t want and, not seeing anyone, I hit the bell on the desk.

A voice drifted from the back of the shop. “I’m coming, I’m coming!” It wasn’t long before a reedy-looking zebra stallion emerged from the back curtains. Cihan dropped a box onto the desk before flashing me a wide smile that didn’t reach his eyes. “Daring Do! Good to see you again. You here on business?”

I frowned. “You know I am, Cihan. Do you have what I asked for?”

Cihan was the best fence in Nowhere, and unfortunately, my quickest means to get the artifact I needed to reach my objective. He wasn’t the type of person I enjoyed working with, but according to my contacts, he could get me one of the magical compasses needed to reach the City of Giants. I had only arrived in Port Nowhere the other day, and while I felt confident I could eventually find one of the compasses on my own, time was pressing. That backstabbing snake Ephemera had already stolen most of what I had learned about the Dromaed City of Giants back in Equestria, and now both of us were racing to our goal. It didn’t help that I had already been slowed down due to ... extenuating circumstances, but I had dealt with worse odds over the years.

Cihan’s smile became something slimy in nature. “Of course. I said I could get it, and I now have it in my possession. It took some trouble to obtain, but nothing insurmountable. That will be fifty thousand bits.”

“Assuming he didn’t have it all along,” Puzzle said. “He could just have said it was difficult to get in order to drive up the price. This one has heard of plenty of merchants and fencers that have done that type of thing.”

Daring snorted. “And I’m sure you’ve never done yourself.”

“This one admits nothing.”

I narrowed my eyes and my teeth started grinding against one another. “We agreed to twenty-five thousand, and not a bit more.”

The fencer shrugged. “It cost more than I originally expected it would. These things happen. Fifty thousand.”

My hoof slammed down onto the desk. “And I’m telling you that wasn’t our deal!”

Cihan shot me an unimpressed look. “The deal’s been renegotiated.”

“This one doesn’t suppose you made a contract with him?” Puzzle asked.

Daring rolled her eyes. “This isn’t Freeport—selling stolen goods isn’t a regular business practice. Besides, I didn’t exactly have the time or money to pay some fancy lawyer to draw up a contract for me.”

Puzzle grinned. “Haste makes waste, Do-mare.”

Daring smacked him with her hat. “Oh shut up, you.”

I braced myself on the desk with both hooves, looming over the greedy merchant. “You’re trying to fleece me, you cheat!”

Cihan crossed his arms over his chest. “Fifty thousand or walk. Just know you aren’t going to find another one of these Dromaed compasses anywhere else.”

I knew that was a lie—there were a few other leads I could follow to get another one, but that would take time, and I was more concerned with how much time I would waste if I tried to get one of these artifacts from somewhere else. I didn’t want to come second place in the race to the City of Giants, not when that would give Ephemera the opportunity to loot the ruins of priceless artifacts. Knowing her, she would just sell everything to some rich snob for a private collection that never saw the light of day. That wasn’t going to fly with me.

“Dad says never to bargain when you can’t walk away from the table,” Kukri chimed in. “But this fence seemed to think he had you over a barrel.”

Daring glowered. “That was the problem.”

I leaned closer to the pawn shop owner. “And just where do you get off being so high and mighty? You haven’t even shown me the compass yet. For all I know you don’t have it, or are planning on selling me a fraud. Especially considering the way you jacked the price on me.”

Cihan snorted. “Please, all of my goods are legit. I’m more concerned you don’t have the money, and plan on stealing my wares as soon as I show them to you.”

I glowered as my frustration rose. “Show me you’ve got the compass and I’ll show you I’ve got the bits. Otherwise, no deal.”

Cihan considered me for a long moment, our eyes locked in a contest of wills before he eventually nodded. “Alright then.” He leaned down and fiddled with a safe sitting under the counter. There was a click as the safe opened, allowing him to withdraw a small box from within. Closing the safe, he set the small box on the counter and opened it up, revealing the exterior of the compass nestled inside.

I studied the compass, determining that its unique designs matched what my research had said it should look like. I reached out to open it, but Cihan’s hoof slammed down to block me.

“No touching,” Cihan warned me.

I glared at him. “I need to make sure it still works. You’re not trying to pass off shoddy goods, are ya?”

“My goods are always the real deal. Here, see.” He opened up the compass, revealing the magical emerald inside. An internal light glowed within it, shifted, and then formed into an arrow. “As you can see, it still works. Just as promised.”

It certainly looked legit. There was still the possibility that it was a very good forgery, but it seemed unlikely that Cihan would have been able to make one in the short period of time since we’d made our deal. I was about to get back to bargaining with the seedy merchant when the tinkle of the doorbell sounded behind me.

Half a dozen burly-looking ponies and zebras entered into the store, and given their decided disinterest in the merchandise and the care they took to block the exit, I didn’t think they were here to shop. They looked like the big, thuggish types Ephemera loved to hire as goons, and something told me they were looking for trouble.

The biggest and ugliest of the lot—the de facto leader, unless I missed my guess—stepped up behind me with a nasty sneer on his lips. “Ephemera sends her regards, Daring Do.”

I sighed and pressed down on my hat to make sure it was secure on my head. “Of course she does.”

Cihan’s eyes narrowed as he took in the scene in his store. “I don’t want any trouble in my store. Take it outside or I’ll call the guards.”

“Afraid it isn’t going to work out that way, Cihan. Sorry about this.” The thugs’ leader lunged for me, but I was ready. My hindlegs bucked out and hit him square in the chest, sending him flying. The rest of Ephemera's thugs started closing on me, knocking items from the shelves in their rush. I snapped my bitbag out of my saddlebags and tossed it into Cihan’s face to his startled cry of surprise. “There’re your bits!”

I scooped the compass up before Cihan could recover and leapt up onto the counter, tucking the compass into my saddlebags with one fluid snap of my wing. I kicked a vase sitting on the counter, hitting the nearest thug in the face. I jumped over the next goon to land on a nearby shelf. It creaked and groaned under my weight and several items fell off to shatter onto the floor. The goon tried to swipe my legs out from under me, but I hopped over the swinging leg, knocking the shelf off balance in the process and onto one of his compatriots. He was pinned to the ground as I jumped onto another unsteady shelf.

Another of the thugs bucked the shelf right as I landed on it, knocking it out from under me. He caught me wrong-hoofed, and I fell before I could catch myself with my wings. I rolled once down the side of the shelf only to knock its neighbor over. The sounds of breaking knickknacks rang all throughout the shop as it descended into chaos.

I found myself wedged between a standing shelf and another pushing against the floor, making it hard for me to regain my hooves. Thankfully, the thugs were having every bit as much trouble moving around thanks to the fallen shelves and their goods littering the floor. Still, the goon that had pushed the shelf out from under me worked towards me, a nasty grin on his face.

Knowing I was in trouble, I pretended to be unable to move. When the thug got close enough, I planted a well-aimed kick right to his knee. He howled in pain as his leg crumpled under him. I scrambled to my hooves, footing precarious as the rest of the goons circled me. I grinned as they drew closer. They outnumbered me and the environment sucked for a fight, but I had an advantage they didn’t.

I kicked off a shelf and snapped my wings open. There wasn’t much room to maneuver, so I took a direct route: the door. Another thug moved to block me from getting out—dumb move on his part. I barreled right into him and slammed his back into the door. The cheap pawn shop door cracked and broke under our combined impact. We both hit the ground, and I landed on top of the goon, blasting the air out of him. I rolled with my momentum until I was back on my hooves.

I could have stuck around to duke it out, and probably have taken them out one at a time as they tried to get out of the shop, but there wasn’t any reason to. I had what I had come for. As Cihan bellowed after me and my attackers to come back and pay for what they had broken, I took to the air and got the hay out of there.

After my initial dash away from the pawn shop, I slowed down to check if anyone was following me. I didn’t see anyone, but after getting jumped I decided play it safe. Ephemera had surprised me more than once already, and while I didn’t like being bored, being constantly ambushed by her goons lost its novelty after a certain point. I was worried how her thugs had known they would catch me in Cihan’s shop. Maybe they had just followed me there? I hadn’t noticed them on my way in. It was possible I hadn’t been cautious enough, or—more worryingly—she had some sort of magical means to follow me. She wasn’t a magus, but she had shown a few tricks over the years, and there were plenty of magical means to track a pony.

Worse still, the third possibility was that someone in my patron’s retinue was a traitor.

Thus, I carefully made my way through alleyways, crowded streets, and over rooftops all while keeping an eye out for any pursuers. There wasn’t any I could see, so unless someone invisible was following me, I should have been in the clear. That being the case, I made my way to my destination to find my patron. To my irritation, he wasn’t in the cantina he was supposed to have stayed in until I returned.

My frustration growing, I headed to the counter to address the owner. “Hey, what happened with the stallion that was drinking over there?” I pointed to the table my patron had been drinking at.

The cantina owner gave me an unimpressed glower. “Why you asking?”

I growled as I saw where this conversation was going. I slammed a couple of coins onto the counter to get to the point. “Where did he go?”

The owner shrugged and scooped up the coins. “Your friend was talking with one of the local bigshots among the port gangs—goes by the name of Melih. They seemed to be getting along before they left together. Sounded like they were heading dockside.”

I muttered something my mother wouldn’t have approved of and bolted out of the cantina.

Now I was really worried. Port Nowhere was a pretty rough place even for someone who knew how to take care of herself, much less for some posh noblestallion. Some gang might think he was a rich, easy mark and rob him, and that was one of the better-case scenarios. My anxiety wasn’t helped by the fact that I had heard about this Melih when I had first made the rounds to find the compass now in my possession. Apparently, he was one of the up-and-coming underworld types who had his hoof in a lot of dirty deeds. My patron could very well be taken away and kidnapped right that moment. That thought quickened my step as I looked around with increasing desperation, but what I found in one of the seaside market squares stopped me dead.

A boxing ring had been set up in the middle of the square, surrounded by dozens of individuals cheering and jeering as two contestants within slugged it out. My eyes widened when I saw who one of the boxers was—and then my jaw dropped when I saw who he, or rather what he was fighting. Capital Idea stood on his rear hooves as he faced off with a big, mean-looking bear. The bear even had a pair of gloves, and to my surprise actually seemed to know how to box as a skillful left hook nearly took my patron’s head off.

I ran towards the ring, but a couple of street thugs stepped into my path. “You’re gonna need a ticket, ma’am,” one of them cooly informed me.

Not wanting to get into two fights in as many hours, I shoved some bits into his hooves. “There’s my ticket!” I broke past the thugs and towards the ring. The goons shouted after me as I squirmed my way through the audience. The crowd was thick with jeering people, and plenty of them cursed at me as I wormed my way through them. I arrived at my patron’s corner of the ring just as the bell rang to end the round.

Lord Capital Idea, heir to the County of Rushington, was a barrel-chested unicorn. His white coat with just a hint of orange in it was drenched in sweat—a mixture of the humid climate he wasn’t used to and the added exertion of boxing with a bear. His normally precisely trimmed mane was matted to his head, and he breathed heavily as he sat back. Still, despite the bruising and swelling he sported, he smiled at the sight of me. “Daring! Jolly good to see you to make it!” he said in a thick Canterlot accent.

Capital’s parents had hired me to take their son out on an adventure—and make sure he stayed safe. He had just graduated from college and wanted to see something of the world before he settled down for a career, and his quite wealthy parents had thought it a grand idea. I had been going through my contacts to find a way to scrounge up enough bits to reach my destination when they had heard I was trying to get to the lands of the Dromaed. With how pressed I was for money these days and the expenses revolving around an expedition to the far-off Dromaed lands, I didn’t have much choice about their proposal to take their son with me. It was take their son (and their money) on my expedition, or there wasn’t going to be an expedition.

Considering Ephemera had just stolen my research on the City of Giants, I knew the clock was ticking, so I took the deal despite my better judgment. No small part of me had hoped that Capital would have found the rigors of the road too tough and gotten homesick—but instead of the decadent noble in over his head that I had expected, he had taken to our journey like a fish to water. I still wasn’t sure how to take that, especially now that Capital had somehow gotten himself into a boxing match with a bear!

“What are you doing?!” I demanded. “You were supposed to be back at the cantina! Not ... this!”

Capital flashed me a grin. “Well, you see, it all started with a chat with that lovely zebra fellow by the name of Melih over there.” He pointed to a zebra in the opposite corner with a top hat and a nasty-looking scar over his left eye. He was giving us a grin I really didn’t like the look of. “We got to talking, and I mentioned that I was part of my school’s boxing club. And ... well, here we are!”

My teeth ground together. This really wasn’t what we needed right now. “You can't talk about boxing with a bear like it's nothing!”

“Oh pish-tosh Daring, I have everything well in hoof!” He hissed as his butler pressed an ice pack to his brow. “Admittedly, it would help if I'd been warned about the blasted ursine boxed southpaw.”

Captial’s butler, a unicorn stallion by the name of Posh Penny, frowned as he treated his master. He was one of the greyest ponies I had ever met; light grey coat, trim dark grey mane, thick grey mustache, and a grey and dry sense of humor. “I'll be sure to ask about that the next time you want to get into an impromptu boxing match on the street, my lord.”
Capital opened his mouth to reply, but the bell drowned him out. “Oh, look at that! Time for the next round—be back in a jiffy!” Despite my cries of protest, he got back up and headed towards the center of the ring to face off against his opponent.

He approached the bear, throwing out jabs to keep it at bay. But after a pair of exchanges the bear broke through the jabs and landed a straight blow right to Capital’s jaw, sending him to the mat.

Having seen enough, I grabbed the bottom rope and moved to jump into the ring when someone loudly cleared their throat behind me. I jerked my head to the side to see Melih standing next to me. When had he gotten over here? What was worse was the fact he had four members of his gang with him. This looked like trouble.

“Is there a problem here?” Melih’s smiled didn’t reach his eyes as he watched me stand halfway through the ropes. “I hope this mare isn’t causing any issues. It would be unfortunate if she had to be thrown out for being too rowdy during a sporting event.”

I hopped down from the ring to glare at the gang leader. “I can show you rowdy you—“

Posh placed a restraining hoof on my shoulder and shook his head. “None at all. She’s just one of the young master’s friends who got a little excited.”

“Ah.” Melih nodded slowly. “I can understand that. It is a good match, after all. Buggy is the port champion, and your friend is quite the sportsman. The audience is getting quite the show.” He glanced towards the ring where Capital was back to his hooves and holding the bear off with a series of flashy jabs to the shouts of the crowd.

I jabbed a hoof towards the fight. “That bear outweighs him by hundreds of pounds! How in the world is that fair?!”

Melih shrugged. “Oh I’m sure it’ll turn out alright for everyone in the end.” He looked to the bear boxer and deliberately patted the top of his hat.

Suddenly the bear dropped his guard, looking like one of Capital’s jabs had stunned him. Capital seized on the moment to slam his hoof into the bear’s kidney, doubling the bear over. My patron’s hoof shot up in an uppercut and sent the bear collapsing to the mat. The referee counted to ten and called for the bell. He raised Capital’s hoof to signal him as the winner to the general applause of the audience. It had all happened so quickly that I had trouble registering everything.

Melih sighed and shook his head, but his grin didn’t lose any of its luster. “Oh dear, it looks like my champion lost. What a pity. People might start talking about how Buggy’s over the hill now. That’ll make things interesting for the next championship match, for sure.”

I scowled. “You don’t seem that upset about losing.”

“You win some and sometimes you lose some.” Melih shrugged. “It’s how you deal with defeat that’s important.”

My eyes narrowed. “Bet it’s pretty easy to take it easy when you signaled your boxer to take the f—”

Melih abruptly pressed a hoof to my muzzle to stop me from talking. “Now, now, ma’am. Let’s not say anything we can’t take back. Especially when that type of talk can get people riled up.” His gaze swept meaningfully over the audience. “Don’t want to start a riot, after all. Not when we’d be right in the middle of it, right?”

Posh squeezed my shoulder. “Perhaps it would be best to leave well enough alone, miss?”

I clenched my teeth, not wanting to give Melih the satisfaction of hearing he might be right. But that was the thing: there’d be trouble if I started screaming about how he’d told his boxer to take a fall. This was a pretty tough crowd, and judging by the angry scowls and gestures of the people around me, more than a few had put their money on the local champ. They probably expected the town favorite to put some snooty foreign noblepony in his place, and boy had they been disappointed. If they learned the real reason Buggy the Bear Boxer had lost was because of cheating...

“Safe money says he was also running the betting ring for the match,” Puzzle observed. “Between ticket sales and knowing the outcome ahead of time, Melih probably made a tidy little profit. Not to mention doubts about Buggy’s performance would have jostled the betting pools for the next match, resulting in even more money being made on the betting pool.”

“You would know all about the scummy ways to earn a bit, wouldn’t ya?” Daring asked through a lopsided grin.

“Just saying.” Puzzle shrugged. “You need to know why people are doing what they’re doing if you want to avoid trouble.”

“Because you’re so great at avoiding trouble,” Daring teased.

“This one is alive,” Puzzle pointed out. “This one can’t be that bad at it.”

Capital returned to his corner to sit on a stool. “Well, that was bracing! I have to say, that’s one way to get the blood pumping, am I right?”

Melih grinned up at Capital. “Right you are, right you are, my good sir.” He reached into his jacket and pulled out a purse. “And here you go, the winnings from our gentlestallion wager. You’ve earned every bit of it.”

He tossed the purse and Capitol caught it. My patron grinned and proudly displayed the purse for me and his butler. “How about that? That makes for a fine day, if you don’t mind me saying so.”

I glowered at Capital. “Yeah, great. Mind taking those gloves off so that we can get going?”

“What’s the rush?” Capital asked as Posh assisted him.

My eyes flicked to Melih. I didn’t want a scumbag like him to overhear what we were up to. “I’ll tell you on the way.” I helped him out of the ring and then pushed him through the audience. Posh grabbed our things and followed after us.

“Whoa!” Capital stumbled as I moved him forward and waved to Melih. “Goodbye, good sir! Perhaps we can have another drink later?”

Melih waved back and grinned as we departed. “I look forward to it.”

Capital frowned as we got out of Melih’s sight. “Now there wasn’t any reason to rush, Daring.”

I glowered, really not wanting to get into this right now. “Remind me, what did we agree you were going to do while I got the compass?”

Capital hesitated. “Just have a few quiet drinks at the local pub.”

“Right.” I jabbed a hoof into his chest. “And what did you do?”

Capital rubbed the back of his mane. “Well, one thing led to another...”

“And then you got into a boxing match with some greasy gang leader’s bear?”

Capital cleared his throat and didn’t meet my gaze. “Well, I did win.”

“Naturally that is the most important thing,” Posh stated dryly.

I grumbled under my breath. “Whatever, what's done is done. But the boxing match isn’t what’s important right now.” I grabbed Capital by the leg and pulled him into a nearby alley so that we could be alone. “A few of Ephemera's goons tried to take me out when I was picking up the compass.”

Capital frowned and he drew himself up. “Oh my, that is terrible news. Are you okay? I’d hate the idea of some ruffians putting their hooves on a fine mare such as yourself.”

“I’m fine,” I assured him. Though now that the adrenaline from the fight back in the pawn shop had worn off, I was starting to get a bit unsteady on my hooves. I could feel where I was going to be sporting some bruises from the fight, especially when I’d taken that nasty fall. But complaining about some aches and pains wasn’t going to get us anywhere. “Point is, I think Ephemera is somewhere in the port, and I’d be surprised if her goons didn’t want a second round with me.”

Capital scowled. “You really should have brought me with you. The two of us could have chased those scoundrels off once and for good. Then that would have been that.”

I shook my head. “No way. Last thing I need to do is get you hurt.” Dragging my patron into a fight sounded like a terrible idea. I’d promised to keep Capital safe, and I knew he’d just slow me down. Not that telling him to sit tight had done much good, since he had managed to get himself into a fight anyway. Port Nowhere really wasn’t the type of place I wanted to drag around an up-and-coming rich noble, so the best I could do now was to get us off this island and away from Ephemera’s reach.

Capital stiffened, but he didn’t press the matter further. “Well do we have the lead you were looking for?”

Thankful for the change in topic, I pulled out the compass and showed it to him. “Bingo. It matches my research exactly. Still works, too. I was a bit worried we’d have to get it fixed since it’s pretty old, but it looks like the Greenseers knew their stuff.”

Capital smiled widely, a look of sheer excitement on his face. “Oh capital! I'll let everyone know to get ready to go. Um...” he gave me a sheepish smile. “We are good to go, right?”

I nodded. “No reason to stick around this dump. The sooner we leave the better. If we're lucky we'll leave Ephemera in our dust. She's only gotten this far because she took the easy route and piggybacked off my research—she can't find the City of Giants without one of these compasses and there aren’t many of them lying around. We had to pay out the rear just to get one of these, and I’d be really surprised if there’s another one anywhere in the city.”

Puzzle cleared his throat. “Yes, about that...”

“You’re nothing but trouble for me.” Daring slugged him on the shoulder. “You know that?”

“Only for those this one is paid to be trouble for.”

“We had best make sure she doesn't try to follow us, then,” Capital agreed. “Let’s gather up my retinue and find the first ship on its way to the Dromaed coast. The sooner we go, the less likely she’ll be able to pick up our trail.”

“Couldn’t agree with you more.” I didn’t voice my doubts about being able to give Ephemera the slip. She’d been able to keep on my trail thus far, if not pull ahead of me in a couple places. But talking about it wasn’t going to help much if I didn’t know how she was keeping tabs on me.

Puzzle hummed as he rubbed his chin. “There are a number of ways she could have kept tabs on you. Paid beggars to spy on you, guttersnipe scouts, enchanted scry pools, summoned spirits—the list goes on and on.”

“And I’ve had to deal with it all sooner or later,” Daring grumbled as she crossed her legs over chest.

I crossed my legs over my chest. “There’s still a few ways to counter clairvoyance and tracking spells if you know what you’re doing.”

Daring grumbled under her breath. “Shame I didn’t know them at the time. Anyways...”

“Let’s get going then,” I said as I led the way.

Capital smiles widely. “Bully good! Adventure calls!”

Back at the Ephemera-mare’s hotel room, her door opened and her squad of hired muscle entered the room. The Ephemera-mare’s Zebrican guards followed behind them and closed the doors once everyone was inside. The group looked like they had seen better days; all of them were sporting bruises and other wounds, and their shoulders were slumped as they tried not to meet their employer’s eyes. This was not a group that looked like it had succeeded in its assignment, and they no doubt knew the consequences of failing their master.

“My heart bleeds for them,” Daring said with all the compassion of a rockslide.

The Ephemera-mare’s questioning gaze narrowed into a suspicious glare. “Why do I have a sinking feeling you're going to tell me something I don't want to hear?”

The hired muscle in the center grimaced as he stepped forward—probably the leader, considering he was the biggest of the bunch, though right then he looked like a schoolcolt who had been sent to the principal's office. “Daring—she got away from us.”

“I was right.” The Ephemera-mare’s glare swept over the group. “I didn't want to hear that.”

Seeing the course of this conversation, this one remained silent at the balcony. This one knew what a sinking ship looked like, and wasn’t eager to jump on board. This one had plans developing, and attaching this one to the employees who had just failed their boss wouldn’t help any.

“She flew away,” he tried to explain. “There wasn't anything we could do.”

“She's tougher than she looks,” added another.

“I'm not interested in excuses.” The Ephemera-mare snapped at them. “You’ve failed, every one of you.”

An uncomfortable silence fell over the room and lasted some time before the leader of the team brought himself to speak. “So what now?”

The Ephemera-mare turned her back to them. “Obviously I need more useful help.”

The leader took a step back. “What do you mean?”

The Ephemera-mare snorted. “What I mean is that I want people who can stop a single mare when they have her outnumbered, something you lot clearly can’t do.”

The leader blinked, but then his face hardened into a scowl. “Hey, we came all the way out to this plothole for this job. You can't just fire us like this!”

The Ephemera-mare turned her back to the group. “Then I suggest you find a way to prove your usefulness. Quickly. I don’t have time to waste on ponies who can’t show results.”

“Now wait one bucking minute.” He placed a rough hoof on his boss’ shoulder. “You can’t just—”

The Ephemera-mare’s zebra guard moved with lightning speed. Before the hired muscle knew what what was happening, the zebra yanked his hoof off and slammed a hoof right into his ribs, then followed up with another blow to the face that sent him to the ground. The leader gasped in pain and lay whimpering on the ground.

The two zebra guards stared in silence at the rest of the hired muscle. For their parts, the remainder didn’t seem particularly eager to start a fight; between seeing their leader crushed before their eyes and their earlier defeat, their morale had hit rock bottom. Not that this one blamed them. This one had seen alchemically enhanced Zebrican soldiers before. More than a few of the mercenary companies back in Freeport used the same potions to enhance their abilities, and this one’s own run-ins with such soldiers weren’t pleasant.

The Ephemera-mare hadn’t even blinked at the sudden explosion of violence, instead picking up her teacup and calmly sipping it, not even bothering to look at the ponies she had brought all the way from Equestria. “Are all of you still here? Unless you have something I can use, get out.”

The hired muscle decided not to press their luck. They picked up their leader and shuffled out of the hotel room.

“That was irritating,” the Ephemera-mare said, half to herself as she returned to this one at the balcony.

“Sounds like you're having some trouble with the help,” this one said, stating the obvious.

The Ephemera-mare snorted as she looked out at the harbor. “Calling them ‘help’ would imply they actually did something helpful.”

This one shrugged, seeing an opening for itself as the conversation proceeded. “You get what you pay for.”

“Mmm, quite.” She poured herself another cup. “And I wasn't getting good value for the money.”

This one grinned. “Perhaps you should buy up. By the sounds of things, this Daring Do is causing you quite a bit of trouble, and the type of cheap muscle you’ve been buying hasn’t been cutting it.”

The Ephemera-mare quirked an eyebrow. “Are you making an offer?”

This one leaned against the balcony railing to give the impression of calm confidence. “For the right price, I bet I can deal with your troublesome archeologist problem.”

This one wasn’t under any delusions that Ephemera was any sort of good boss, but working for the Council hadn’t exactly been a walk through the park either. What’s more, she had money and a lot of it, given the volume of cash she had to be throwing around for this expedition. Another factor was that this one wanted off of this island before bounty hunters and assassins showed up, and a ticket off this island was something she could probably offer. Even better, all the sales and transactions for the trip could be done under her name, thus making it harder to find a paper trail to follow this one under. Not that this one was going to tell the Ephemera-mare any of this—that would have only undermined this one’s bargaining position.

“And you wonder why people don’t trust you, Puzzle,” I said.

Puzzle flashed me a grin. “This one was only following its instincts as a proper Freeportian. You can hardly blame it.”

“Yes we can,” Daring chimed in.

The Ephemera-mare hesitated before asking, “What sort of price?”

“I want a quarter million bits, plus expenses paid,” this one stated as its initial bargaining position.

The Ephemera-mare scowled. “That's a lot up front.”

“You get what you pay for,” this one repeated itself. “How about one hundred thousand now, one hundred on doing the job, and ten percent on whatever you make on this expedition? Consider it impetus to make sure you succeed.” This one knew this was probably a lot more money than she had ever paid out to a single employee before, so this one had to walk her to an acceptable amount for itself.

My potential employer scoffed. “Ten percent on what I stand to make is a lot more than fifty thousand.”

This one was pleased it had confirmation that this expedition was going to be quite worthwhile. In the Ephemera-mare’s head, at least. It was possible this would all be a bust, but that was what the upfront bits would cover for. Even if everything went to Tartarus, this one would have the bits it would need to get by for a while. As long as this one had options, and bits always created options, it could keep itself alive.

“Only if you actually get to this City of Giants.” This one looked out at the harbor, keeping its tone carefully businesslike now. “Tell me, what's your success rate whenever this Daring has gotten in your way?”

Her brow furrowed. “Not as much as I'd like.” She placed her cup down and faced this one. “And what makes you worth it?”

“Because your chances of success will be much better with me around,” this one answered seamlessly. “And if I'll remind you, I'm the one that got you that nifty little compass there—something the rest of your employees failed at. I've got the combat skill, knowledge in infiltration and spywork, and the intelligence to see to it that the job gets done. I don't come cheap, but I get results.”

The Ephemera-mare considered it for a long moment. “Do you know what I'm after?”

“Good old treasure and gold?” Sensing there was something behind this, this one decided to press a bit. “What else are you after then? I know the City of Giants is some fabled city of gold, but beyond that it’s all legends and fables as far as as I know.”

“Oh, you don't realize what the real treasures are?” A smirk spread across her lips. “How much do you know about the Dromaeds?”

“The basics.” This one shrugged. “That they're a species of sapient feathered reptiles and are divided up into a bunch of petty kingdoms on the southern half of the continent. They’ve been there for a long time, predating most equine civilizations.”

“So you know nothing of their history, I take it?”

This one shook its head. “Not much, no. Not beyond some legends, and how their history is a lot of periodic wars between King Someone vs. Queen Important.”

Daring tsked as she shook her head. “I’m disappointed by your lack of scholarship.”

“The lands of the Dromaed were outside the range of most of this one’s studies,” Puzzle said. “This one spent most of its time reading up on nations that Freeport regularly dealt with and were more important to its interests—Equestria, the Zebrican Empire, and Westmarch are way more important to Freeport’s daily concerns.”

“And more important to its bottom line,” I pointed out.

“Trade and Freeport’s interests go hoof-in-hoof,” Puzzle agreed. “And since we just don’t do nearly as much trade with the Dromaed, this one didn’t know much about them. Really, this one wanted to head to Zebrica, where it was much more familiar with the land, but fate had other ideas...”

“They are much more primitive now than they once were.” The Ephemera-mare sniffed haughtily. “They had a great and terrible empire that encompassed the entire continent. Their knowledge of the magic arts was supreme, they built great wonders, and their power was absolute over all they ruled.”

This one digested this information, and guessed where this conversation was going. “This one of those stories about how they used to have some advanced civilization before some calamity struck them down?”

The Ephemera-mare nodded. “Exactly. According to what I read, they were great once. A nation ruled by giants who made the world tremble at their steps. That is until they collapsed from a great civil war.”

Daring snorted. “All she knew was what she had stolen from me. Not that there’s a whole lot of information out there about ancient Dromaed societies to start with, thanks to the passage of time and the lack of written records...”

“A good civil war would do it.” This one had a feeling there was more to it all, but the exact details of why some long-dead civilization collapsed wasn’t overly important. “So this City of Giants is supposed to be full of old artifacts? Assuming anything has survived, they could be worth quite a bit.” This one knew more than one merchant back in Freeport who could sell such things for a very tidy profit.

“My inner archeologist is screaming that you’re thinking about selling historical artifacts instead of putting them in a museum,” Daring said.

“This one just donated a bunch of artifacts to the museum, didn’t it?” Puzzle countered.

“Yeah, which makes me wonder what you haven’t given me.”

“Oh, there most certainly are artifacts that have survived,” the Ephemera-mare purred. “The Dromaeds don't use their own artifacts from the City of Giants, and no outsider has ever been there. And from what I’ve heard, they keep powerful preservation magics over the city. For some reason, their shamans consider the place important enough to keep it as it is. Whatever their reasons, it gives us an opportunity.”

“That would explain why you want to get there first,” this one observed. “This sounds interesting... And very profitable. If you succeed, that is—this Daring Do would seem to be a major obstacle to your plans.” This one didn’t want the Ephemera-mare to forget about her nemesis when that was this one’s key to getting a potentially extremely lucrative job.

“Oh I will.” The Ephemera-mare snapped open the compass and its green light shone in her eyes. “This will make sure of that.”

“And your chances of success would be much higher with my help,” this one reminded.

The Ephemera-mare paused. “Perhaps.”

“If you're not interested, I can take my business elsewhere.” This one moved towards the door. “There are plenty of opportunities for a guy like me. Good luck with Daring Do.”

As this one hoped, it didn’t get more than a few steps away before she spoke up. “I'm interested.” This one stopped and turned to see the Ephemera-mare smirking. “Fifty thousand, and a ten percent share.”

“A hundred thousand and ten percent,” this one countered. “This is going to be a long trip, and it’s going to eat up my time. Time I could spend making money somewhere else.”

“Deal. You drive a hard bargain.” The way she kept smirking at this one made it wonder if it really had. Had this one badly underestimated how much she would have paid this one? Did she know something that this one didn’t? The best case scenario this one could think of was that she was just that happy to have a counter to the Do-mare. Whatever the case may be, this one had an itch under its carapace that wouldn’t go away, and it didn’t like it.

Still, this one wasn’t about to let her see this one’s doubts. It grinned for her as it said, “Trust me, I’m worth the bits you’re paying. Just let me get my things and I’ll be ready to go.”

“I can't wait.” That smirk didn’t leave her face as this one made its exit.

Author's Notes:

Thanks to my editors Chengar Qordath and Comma-Kazie for all their help, and to my pre-readers Brony Writer, wolfstorm56, Trinary, 621Chopsuey, Rodinga, PoisonClaw, and Swiftest for their hard work editing.