Rainbow Dash just wanted a nice evening. A good meal, and some good music. Celebrating a local holiday of her new home, and having a civil night with her friends. She had a nice day with her son at his school and had high hopes for the night. But no. Those degenerates just had to show up, demanding to talk to her. And even before the biggest bitch of them all, Fluttershy could even finish her excuse, Pinkie slammed her in the face with a massive cake.

This lead her to having the remaining frosting scraped out of her left eye socket with the... whatever the thing the dentist used to scrape the plaque off your teeth was called.

The remaining guests had left, leaving only a few other people in the room. It was her, her husband, Vexillum, Consul Gaius, and one of the doctors. Castus was pacing back and forth, muttering, while the others just stood still. She was as well, as she didn't want the doctor to mess up and poke her while she was messing around inside Rainbow's eye. None of them said anything for a good three minutes.

Finally, the Consul said, "So, Praetor. Care to explain exactly what sort of relationship you have with those, foreigners?"

She scowled, letting the doctor finish. Once he finished and left, she said, "All you need to know is that they're old 'friends', who bent me over and fucked me in the ass before my exile from my home. I would've been more than happy to never see any of those whores again, and figured I never would. No clue as to why they're here."

"According to the info I was able to glean from our Pedes and some of the staff", Vexillum said. "They want to talk to you about something."

"Any idea what?", Castus asked.

Rainbow shrugged, pulling on an eyepatch she had been given until a replacement eye could be procured. "Maybe. I somehow doubt that Pinkie talked all of them and one of theirs' brothers to come all the way here just to break my eye and hit me with a cake. Likely they realized that while I was being fucked, they had fucked themselves." She sighed, and then looked down at the floor. "You'll be following protocol when it comes to criminal acts, right?"

"Unless Imperial law has changed in the past six hours", Gaius said. "Then yeah. They still stay in the holding cells until trial, then are transferred to the IPS if convicted.

"Postpone the trial. Vex, bring them down to my office tomorrow morning, 10:30 sharp. If they want a talk, then they'll get a talk." As her Second saluted and trotted off to go fulfill the order, she turned back to the Consul. "I know this isn't protocol, but I know them somewhat well. They're stubborn, the orange one especially, and half of them are barking insane. So, they won't stop until they get this talk. Just, trust me. I'll listen to them, then hand them back to you for all of the Legal BS."

"I still have to get the charges on the books", the Consul said. After he saw the look on her face, he sighed. "Fine. I can get you the folder on your desk tomorrow before they arrive. Just don't kill them."

"Hehe. Ave, Consul."

She sat at the desk in her room, looking over her diary. She was writing in her latest entry, groaning at the small leather-bound book. Her head ached and she was tired, yet she refused to go to bed. The pen wrote down the words in the book, dipped in the ink well, then went back to writing. Finally, she sighed and slumped back in her chair, once again groaning like she was pregnant again.

"Honey", A voice said. Turning her neck to look behind her, she saw Castus over by the bed, his tunic off. He was ready for bed, and she was still in her subarmalis. "Are you still staring over that thing? You need some sleep."

"Pisof", she muttered, going back to writing. She then felt a pair of shoulders on her back, looking back to see him leaning on the chair, and on her. "I told you to piss off."

"No, you said something I'm not even certain is a word." He then looked over her at her diary and grinned. "You make-out with your mother with that mouth?"

"What did I say about reading my diary, cocks-for-brains!?"

He lifted up a paw, whispering, "Shush. Depressi is asleep." She looked back down at the book and sighed again. He leaned in close, wrapping his forelegs around the chair and her. "Listen, I get if you don't want to talk about it. It's your life, and even I don't have any business in it. However, if you let me, I'll help you as best I can."

She smiled at his compassion, nuzzling into his hug. "You're the best, Castus."

"You've told me. Like that time last week when you let me be on top, and I was pounding into you until you-"

"By Damocles' marble balls, you're a pervert!"

He smiled, returning her nuzzle and lifting her up. "Oh yeah, little miss 'High-and-Mighty'? I seem to recall the time you spiked the Legates wine with some, what was if called? Sneezing Powder; that you got from Griffonia?"

"Don't tell me it wasn't funny." When he just laughed and nodded, she said, "I fucking love you, Cocks-for-brains."

The next morning, she stood outside the fort, along with several officers, waiting for a shipment of new equipment. She tried to push the thoughts of her former friends out of her head, but couldn't really do it. She couldn't help but wonder why they were there. She hadn't done anything and didn't even have any knowledge of what was going on in Equestria. She shrugged it off, planning on asking about them when she met with them.

Her thoughts were drawn from them when she heard the whine of engines coming up the road. Several large vehicles made their up the road towards them, with several of them towing war machines that reminded her of Pinkie's party cannon behind them. When they pulled up, a Caragor got out of the lead vehicle, stopping before the group of officers and saluting. "Ave, Praetor. Ave, officers. Corvinius, head of the Imperial arms manufacturing department. My pleasure to give you some new weapons."

"Ave. What exactly have you brought us?", Rainbow asked.

Corvinius yelled at the soldiers on the trucks, who began unlatching the guns and other boxes of equipment. A few were laid in front of the officers and opened, revealing their contents.

One of them was full of what looked like boxes, with black coverings on one end and narrowed down towards the opposite end. The second box had several long poles, resembling spears with a trio of hollow metal tubes around the tip with it extending out about twelve inches and a small handle sticking out the side, about halfway down. Looking up, she examined the cannon. It was on a wheeled cart with a pair of latches securing the metal gun to the carriage.

"So, what exactly are we looking at here?", Vexillum asked, picking up one of the black boxes.

"What you're holding there is what we call a Hornet Swarm. Pull-on the black strip." When he did so, it opened up to reveal a large number of spikes mounted to the inside, connected by strips of oiled cord and had small black powder charges connected to them. "The back end also opens up, revealing a place where the cords meet. You light that, and all of those rockets will go off. A pain in the ass to reload, but can put out more fire than a company of Velites in less than thirty seconds."

"Impressive", Rainbow said. "I can't wait to see what exactly they can do-"

She was interrupted by one of her troops coming up to her. "Ave, Praetor", he said. "The prisoners are waiting in your office, as ordered."

Rainbow mentally slapped herself and sighed. "Vexillum, deal with this. I'm terribly sorry, sir, but I have something I need to attend to. Vale", she said, saluting and backing off. She took another sigh, before trotting off with the Decurion following behind her towards the Principia.

Next Chapter: 81~Lots of F****** Yelling (Re-written) Estimated time remaining: 2 Hours, 33 Minutes