“Wait, what is this city called again?”

“New.”

“New what?”

“Just New.”

I cocked a brow skeptically, following Exe down the packed dirt path before us. After emerging from the mists around midday, it had taken us only an hour to come across the simple road, and we had been on it ever since. We had passed a sign a few minutes ago, with one arrow pointing west labeled simply with ‘New,’ and I’d been questioning him about it since.

“That makes no sense,” I said. He’s gotta be pulling my hoof.

“It makes perfect sense,” he sighed. I got the feeling he was getting tired with me. Are bears much for jokes?

I repeated my previous reasoning. “But it has to be New Something! New is an adjective. Where’s the noun?” Are bears good with grammar?

“It’s just New, pony. For fuck’s sake.” He sounded a little exasperated, but I wasn’t about to give up anytime soon. I decided on a different approach.

“So then, why is it called New?” I asked. He twisted his neck to glare at me, but I refused to back down.

“Because nobody remembers the rest of the name,” he admitted.

“Hah!” I stomped a hoof in triumph. “So there is more to the name!”

“Not anymore!” he shot back. “The city is called New, and just New! There’s nothing else to the name, so shut up about it!”

He seemed somewhat… annoyed. Another question rose to my mind.

“Why does everyone speak Equestrian out here?” I asked. It hadn’t occurred to me to wonder before, since I had always thought of the recusants as mostly pony. After meeting a bear that spoke it though, it had started to nag at me.

“Stop it with your fucking questions! By my blade! We all speak Equestrian, because everyone speaks Equestrian! There!”

I hushed myself. I might’ve crossed some kind of line there. I must be bothering him. Maybe bears didn’t like talking?

We passed another sign. A larger one, this time. Welcome to New! It exclaimed in the bright and friendly colors of worn out and chipped paint. There was something else written under the greeting, in smaller, sloppier letters. JUST NEW.

I guess it’s a pretty common question. I could see why someone would get annoyed over it.

Turning the corner around a thick wall of trees we’d been walking by, the city finally came into view. It was situated on a cliff on the coast, with an open plain leading up to it. To my left, which was south, the mists swirled around themselves in the distance. To the north, the cliff gradually sloped down to the beach.

New was a city unlike any I’d ever seen before. Most of it was made up of a ramshackle array of simple homes or large tents, interspersed with the occasional shop or inn. Five groups of skydocks rose up in distinctly separate parts of the city, each hoarding its own herd of airships. At the top of the tallest tower in each group a massive flag waved in the wind, proudly displaying its color of choice. Black, red, white, green, or brown. Around the base of each tower group, a smattering of extravagant palaces frowned down upon the little constructs around them.

Stretching around the city from one cliff edge to the other was a thick necklace of camps. Each one seemed to have at least thirty tents, going up to as many as a few hundred. In the middle of every camp, a larger tent rose above its brethren, flying distinctive flags and displaying brightly colored stripes.

As we climbed the gently sloping hill to the city perched on the cliff, the traffic began to thicken. Our simple dirt path grew into others, and soon we were walking on the only paved road I had ever seen since leaving Equestria. A few wagons passed by, pulled by chained up wolves and bears under the careful watch of their masters. Most of the passerby was on foot. All of them wore some kind of armor and displayed some kind of weapon.

We entered the ring of camps, and I treated myself to a closer look at them. The camps were full of almost exclusively griffons. Griffons eating, sparring, chatting, gambling, planning, and arguing. I shrunk back towards Exe, averting my eyes. Would they still be chasing me?

“Who are they?” I asked.

He snorted. “Merc flocks. Almost impossible to find a griffon that’s not part of one.”

I nodded. “What are they doing here?”

“Looking for a job. Plenty of gold flows through this city. And where there’s gold, there’s work.”

The griffons that attacked the clan have probably forgotten about me already, I reasoned. No need to hide anymore. I straightened up, feeling a little silly about my previous suspicions. What were the chances that every griffon in the Outer World was out to get me, anyways?

We reached the city proper. The buildings here were small, sparse, and run-down. Half of them looked abandoned. The road quickly split into five directions, each heading towards one of the skydock clusters that dominated the clouds above. At the entrance of each road, a couple of griffon guards stood, eyeing their counterparts suspiciously. There wasn’t much uniformity between them, with each one showing his own arms and armor, but each pair had some kind of identifying equipment in common. The pairs wore either green sashes, white armbands, brown bandannas, black capes, or red caps. Do they have five different guard companies here or something?

Exe went for the road occupied by the two with black capes, and I followed suit. After we passed them, he twisted his neck to look back at me.

“Why are you still following me, pony?” he asked.

I blinked. “Well, uh...” I guess we did only agree to go to the city together, didn’t we? “I’m not... sure?”

“What is your business in New?”

I cocked my head, mulling it over. “I’m looking for my friends. They’re somewhere in the Outer World, probably near this coast, and I thought I’d try this city first.”

He stared at me disapprovingly. “You have no idea what you’re doing.”

I sighed. “Yeah, you’re right.”

We walked in silence for some minutes. I eyed the foreign cityscape around me. I really don’t have any idea what I’m doing. I didn’t know the Outer World. I didn’t know its people. What chance did I have finding my crew? I was grasping at straws here.

“I will help you,” Exe said.

“Wha- wha...?” Didn’t see that coming. “Why?”

“Just a whim.”

Well, uh... okay. I sped up, coming to heel with his head. “So where are we going?” I asked. Now I had a guide of sorts, I was starting to get excited. I have a chance!

“Inn. The Hub. We’ll rest there the night,” he stated.

I nodded, walking alongside him contentedly. It seemed that as we got closer to the nearest skydock, the city grew more packed and better maintained. The alleys between each building grew thinner, and the open space in the crowd became sparse. Despite the run-down atmosphere, the city was full of life. Merchants hawked their wares from simple stalls on the side of the street as black-caped griffons eyed the horizon from the rooftops. Wolves sat together in small groups, discussing recent news and watching passerby. Wingless gargoyles walked by, pulling carts filled with food. Zebra rushed past, saddlebags bouncing on their backs. I spotted a small group of bears lumbering down the street, displaying heavy armor and weaponry, given a wide and respectful berth by those who walked past them. I saw a few recusants, huddled together in an alleyway as they eyed the pockets of everyone close by. Everyone, regardless of race or job, had a weapon.

We came to an intersection, and Exe turned down a street going away from the black-flagged skydock. The buildings began to spread out as we put distance between it and us, and I even saw a team of wolves and gargoyles building a new one. We eventually arrived at our destination, a relatively large construction just a few buildings down from a large courtyard. A wooden signpost advertised its name: The Hub. Pushing past a group of drunks laughing in the street, my bear companion led the way over its threshold and into chaos.

The defining feature of The Hub was the volume. It was loud. Half of the main room was dominated by griffon mercs, exchanging stories, drinking, eyeing any females they saw suggestively and the members of other merc flocks suspiciously. I saw a couple of recusant mares dancing on their tables, false smiles painted over their disgust as the mercs howled their approval. At one table in a dark corner, three bears drank together quietly, offering Exe a respectful nod when they noticed him. The rest of the place was a mixture of gargoyles, zebra, and wolves. They ate, they drank, and they were generally rowdy.

I stepped closer to Exe. This crowd was making me nervous. Sure, the inns in Equestria had a similar air of relaxation and wildness to them, but here I felt a tense undertone of violence that I’d never felt in any of the Equestrian inns I’d frequented. The sound of metal on wood was from the weapons of the patrons just as much as their mugs, and the three fires crackling in the hearths reminded me more of burning villages than a friendly respite.

We stopped at the bar, where a long-eared and wingless gargoyle was busily eyeing the room disdainfully. He brightened a little at the sight of Exe, and a sincere smile leaked onto his face.

“Exe! Long time no see, my friend. How was the South?” he asked.

“Dangerous, as usual,” Exe replied. “Though not enough to stop me.”

The gargoyle nodded, and his eyes fell upon me as if noticing me for the first time. “And who is this little snack, hrm? This is no place for a pony!”

I shifted nervously under his gaze. It seemed cold. Calculating. Not at all like the warmth they had held for Exe.

“Call it a charity case, Sinnel. Have you got a couple beds?” Exe asked.

Sinnel bent into a shallow bow, pulling a quill out from under the bar and making a mark on a sheet of paper on the wall beside him. “Certainly, certainly. Number ten. Anything else, my friend? A drink? Some food?”

The bear shook his head. “Maybe later. For now I want to get the pony settled in and relax.”

Sinnel nodded understandingly, sliding down the bar to greet a trio of wolves. Exe beckoned to me with his snout, and I fell in behind him. We made our way across the wide room to a sturdy staircase built into the wall, climbing up to the second floor. It was much quieter there, with the noise of the main room deadened by the thick wood. Passing a few silent doors and one that exuded some passionate thumping, we stopped before our room. There was no lock or handle on the door, the only decoration being an engraved number ten. I didn’t feel very secure when it closed behind us.

The room was simple and the furnishings spartan at best. A couple of beds, a wardrobe, a small table and three chairs, and a window was all it had. Exe dropped his axe on one of the beds and pulled off a dark green hood before doing the same with it as well. I hadn’t even noticed the hood earlier. He didn’t wear anything else, and it was practically unnoticeable against his brown coat.

A few silent moments passed.

“So, now what?” I asked.

“I’m relaxing,” he said. “Leave me be.”

I looked around awkwardly. Well, okay then.

Lacking anything else to do, and curious about the first Outer World city I’d ever seen, I decided to try some exploring. I dumped my saddlebags on the empty bed, but kept my swords and barding. If everyone else here walked around armed and armored, I’d do the same.

I trotted out the door, down the stairs, through the drunken rabble, and out into the street. I looked left, and then right. Which way to go?

I decided to head left, towards the large courtyard. Although I hadn’t noticed so before, it was surprisingly empty for what seemed to be, as far as I could tell, the center of the city. The circle was dominated by griffon guards, each group wearing the same colored apparel I’d seen before, each standing at one of five streets, and each staring eachother down. There was a thick sense of challenge in the air, and what few citizens dared to cross the courtyard did so hurriedly and with eyes down.

I decided that perhaps left had not been the best direction to go.

I turned around, opting to explore along an alternate route, and began walking towards the cluster of skydocks flying the black flag. There was some kind of emblem on it, but I couldn’t make it out from here. I guessed that it was made to be visible from incoming airships, rather than those traveling by ground.

The sun was low in the sky now, and much of the street was cast in shadow by the buildings. The crowd was thinning, and stall merchants were packing up. I noticed more black-clad griffons arriving, landing on the roofs or patrolling the alleys with watchful eyes.

My ear twitched, and I looked to my side. There was a recusant there, being harassed by one of the griffons. He had a grey coat and brown eyes, with dull bronze stripes running down his legs and a short but styled brown mane. Still believing in the Equestrian notion that guards were there for the people, I didn’t think twice about approaching them.

“Hey, what’s going on here?” I inquired.

The griffon turned, a cocky sneer already painted on his face as he held the recusant with one claw. I suddenly remembered that I was in the Outer World, and that the guards here probably didn’t care about random passerby at all. Shit.

With his mouth already open and ready to offer some insulting challenge, he focused in on my horn. He faltered, his eyes widening. All at once, he wiped the contempt off his face and replaced it with respectful subservience. He straightened himself into attention and cleared his throat.

“Yes, sir?”

I blinked. What? I realized that he thought I was some kind of superior. “What’s going on here?” I demanded, trying to speak like the rough and derisive officer he clearly thought I was.

The griffon pulled the recusant forwards. “This recusant, sir. He was stealing, sir.”

“He most certainly is not!” I scoffed. I fought to contain the laughter building up within me. I couldn’t let myself smile! “This recusant is my personal aide. Release him this instant!”

The griffon nodded, bowing as he backed away. “Yes, sir.” The recusant wrenched himself from his captor’s grasp, stepping to my side with his nose in the air. Cowed, the griffon bowed one more time before taking to the skies.

I looked to my ‘personal aide.’ He looked to me. He grinned, offering an extravagant bow. “And who might you be, oh savior of mine?”

I cocked my head. He was nothing like the Stygians. “I’m Dissero. You?”

He waggled his eyebrows at me knowingly, scanning what remained of the daytime crowd. “Eh, I dunno if I can tell you that just yet. Why did you help me?”

“Some recusants have saved my life before. I thought I’d return the favor,” I explained.

He was staring right at me, right into my eyes. He squinted. I faltered, taking a step back. I waited for some kind of response. Nothing. We passed a few awkward minutes like that, and finally I looked down, scratching at the ground with a hoof. When I looked back up, he had a wide smile plastered on his face.

“Well, okay then!” he exclaimed. “I’m Slick. Thanks for helping out, but really, I had it handled. You’re not working for the Baron, are you?”

I felt my heart skip a beat. I was surprised that the Baron had an influence in this city. Then again, I suppose it makes sense. All the Equestrian trade flows through here after all. Luckily, I maintained enough composure to answer the question.

“Uhm, no.”

His eye’s brightened. “Hey, cool! C’mon buddy!”

Grabbing me in the surprisingly strong grip of a wing, he walked into a nearby alleyway. Still somewhat surprised by the sudden change in attitude, I completely forgot to ask where we were going as I was pulled behind him.

Soon I found myself following him through the alleys of New. They were an amazingly intricate and equally disgusting spiderweb of tiny little pathways, darkened by the constricting buildings that made them. We were near to a skydock, and the buildings were so close together that sometimes we could barely fit between them single file. Our hooves splashed through stagnant rainwater that, lacking anywhere to go, had no doubt been sitting in the alleys for weeks. Every now and then we broke out of the claustrophobic tunnels onto wider paths that might, in a Canterlot slum, have been worthy of calling a road, only to delve back into the alleys a few seconds later.

An obvious question that I should’ve asked earlier suddenly occurred to me. “Where are we going?” Stupid. Why would you just follow him like that? Too trusting of recusants... My head was starting to spin from the labyrinthine route.

Slick didn’t slow down as he called back an answer. “To our place! I think you can help us out!”

I skidded to a stop, splashing filth everywhere. “Help you? When did I agree to that?”

He slowed down, looking back to offer me an innocent smile. “I thought you wanted to help. Because I’m a recusant.”

“What? No!” I sputtered. “I already helped you with the guard.” I began to walk away, regretting the lost time and chastising myself for my idiocy. It took me all of two steps to realize that I had no idea where I was.

“You from around here, Dissero? It’s easy to get lost in all these twists and turns.”

Shit. Why did I let him pull me into this? Into here? I narrowed my eyes at him disapprovingly. He did this on purpose!

“Fine,” I said. “Lead the way.”

New, I learned, was much bigger on the inside than it looked from the outside.

It was full on night time now, and I was panting behind Slick as we trotted along. We had dodged griffons of every one of the five factions that seemed to control the city, and once even been caught by a patrol. Slick had stalled loudly, drawing another patrol from a different faction, and we had escaped while they fought over who got to apprehend us.

“What’s up with the guards in this city?” I asked.

“Well, New doesn’t really have, strictly speaking, any singular ruling power,” Slick explained. “As a matter of fact, it’s not, strictly speaking, a single city. I’m sure you’ve noticed the five skydock clusters, and the five flags?”

I nodded, then remembered that I was behind him and he couldn’t see me. “Yeah.”

“Those are all owned and maintained by five different companies, who’re all competing for the trade with Equestria, Harvest City, and the west. It just so happens that this is the closest point between the Outer World and wherever those Equestrian ships come from, and the only place west of the Bare Lands in reach of Harvest, so they all set up here. They all claim to be in charge, and they all hire their own mercs to act as guards. It’s really quite nice for those of my profession.”

“And what profession might that be?”

“Illegality. General unlawful behavior. Robbery, thievery, tomfoolery, smugglery, littering. It’s really nice. Got a guard hot on your tail? Draw him past a rival patrol! Works every time.” He looked back to wink at me.

Oh, great. Criminals. I cocked my head ponderously. “Are there any recusants that aren’t outlaws?”

“There’s a few of us, but it's tough living inside the law. Everyone is always expecting us to break it.”

Slick came to a stop, pulling a key out of his mane and slotting it into a nondescript door. We had finally arrived at our destination. I looked up at the stars, wondering if Exe was worried. No, that didn’t seem like him. Maybe aware would be a better term. Yeah. I wonder if he’s noticed my absence.

The door opened up to a ladder in a narrow shaft. I went down first, and Slick closed the door behind us.

A few rungs down, the ladder ended, and I found myself in a simple stone basement. Three bedrolls huddled together near a vent that radiated heat, and a couple of lamps on the wall provided some dim light. There was another recusant there, leaning over the wooden table that served as the room’s centerpiece. He had the same grey coat as Slick, with a single green stripe running down his spine

He looked up, somehow taking notice of me through the thick green mane that hung over his eyes. “Ey! Who’re you?” he demanded.

I heard Slick landing behind me, and felt him put a hoof around my shoulder. “Relax, brother. I got us the unicorn we needed!”

I stifled a groan. What have I gotten myself into...?

The other recusant’s eyes brightened, and he rushed up to shake my hoof. “Really? You’re gonna help us?”

I opened my mouth to respond, but Slick interrupted me. “Yeah!” he said. “Dissy, this is Pick. He’s my brother. Pick, this is Dissy. I picked him up off the street.”

I shot him an appalled look, debating between whether his usage of my foalhood pet name or his insistence that he had ‘picked me up off the street’ bothered me more. I shook my head and started to offer Pick a greeting.

He interrupted me. “Hey, cool! I’m gonna go upstairs and get Trick. Hopefully she’s not busy.”

That is really frustrating. How many times had I been interrupted today? Were they doing this on purpose? Would I be spending tonight in a jail cell? While Pick trotted up the stairs built into the far wall, I turned to Slick, hoping to find some answers.

He was standing over the table, beckoning to me. “Come over here. You can’t help if you don’t know the plan.”

Well, good enough. I stepped up to the table. A creased map of the city and its surroundings was spread out upon it, pinned down by a small box of colored pencils. The city was split into five sections, with each one being outlined in either red, green, brown, black, or white. A few other markings were on the map as well, all centered around a large building in the red district, built close to the cliff’s edge.

Slick circled the building with a red pencil. “Our goal, basically, is to get into this warehouse, open the safe, extricate the Equestrian gemstones within, and get them out of the city to a safe place in the woods.”

I squinted at the map skeptically. It was hard to see in the dim light. “And what would you need me for? Aren’t you all experienced with this stuff?”

He shook his head. “No. Well, yes. But no. You see, this warehouse is special. The Jackal keeps most of his Equestrian gemstones there, waiting to be shipped out across the continent. We need you to help us with distracting the guards, and with getting the gems out.”

I rubbed my chin thoughtfully. “I don’t see how I could help you with that...”

He grinned. “Oh, don’t you worry. I do.”

With a dull thud, Pick returned from upstairs, leading a lithe recusant mare behind him. Her long, flowing red mane made a stark contrast against her light grey coat. Narrow pink stripes ran up her neck and cheeks, tapering off at her shoulders and under her gentle pink eyes. Carefully applied makeup accentuated her facial features, and a colorful but loosely buckled saddle bounced on her back. I swallowed nervously.

She was giving me a weird look. Suddenly, I realized that my mouth was open and I had stopped breathing. I shook myself, blushing as she approached me.

“So, you’re our unicorn?” she asked. Wow, that voice. I closed my mouth again, nodding mutely.

She extended a hoof. “I’m Trick. Nice to meet ya.”

We shook, and Trick unbuckled her saddle, letting it fall to the floor carelessly. Slick beckoned us all over to the table.

“Come on now. We’ve gotta review the plan with Dissy here if we’re gonna do this tonight,” he said.

“Wait, what? You want to do this tonight? Doesn’t this type of thing usually take months of planning and practice?” I asked. Everything was just going downhill. I should’ve stayed with Exe.

Pick stepped forwards to explain. “We’ve actually been planning this for a while now. Slick’s already scouted the place and Trick’s already got the safe code. We’re all ready, and we kind’ve need to do it tonight.”

I stepped back, face screwed up with denial. “Wha- Why? Why can’t you just give me some time to think about this?”

“Because one of Robber Baron’s lieutenants is out of town tonight, and we can’t do it while he’s here. If we wait another day, we’ll have to wait until he cycles out to Equestria, which would be months more,” Trick said. “Besides, I’m tired of paying for this shithole.” She gestured to the cold stone walls of the room, disgusted.

I cocked my head. “What do you mean you’re tired of paying?” Don’t recusant clans usually stick together anyways?

“It’s been a slow couple of months,” Slick explained. He put on a strained smile. In the silence that followed, a brief burst of passionate male moaning leaked through the ceiling. I looked at Trick’s saddle where it lay on the ground, and noticed for the first time the unusually sensual cut. My eyes widened as I made the connection. Oh.

“Okay, fine. What’s the plan?” I couldn’t turn them down now. Not after realizing the truth behind their predicament. Despite myself, my heart was getting the better of me.

Slick and Pick both grinned widely. “So you’re in?” they asked.

I sighed, closed my eyes, and nodded. When I opened them, Trick was smiling at me. “Looks like you’re our unicorn after all,” she said.

Slick pulled me closer. “Okay, listen up. We don’t have much time.”

I paid rapt attention as he explained the plan to me, pointing and marking on the map with the colored pencils. I nodded, asking questions when necessary for clarification. If I was going to do this, I wanted to have a good idea of what was happening.

I hadn’t even been in New for a whole night, and it was the first Outer World city I’d ever entered. There wasn’t much law out here, but I was already ready to break what little could be found.

Author's Notes:

Look at you, Dissy. Truly a model Equestrian citizen. I guess when you spend all that time living with a band of outlaw recusants, it kind've rubs off on you.
Besides, what could possibly go wrong? Huh? Huh?

Y'know, It's remarkable how many cities can be given clever names from a lack of creativity.
"What should we call it?"
"I dunno. New something. But New what?"
"How about just New?"
And it worked perfectly!