A few of the big Pegasus Triarii hauled Gloria’s unconscious form back into the Triarii Camps, on a rack of boards big enough to bear half a carriage-load of gear. It took six of the Triarii Knights to carry her in her full armor plate.
The Professor, who could not help feeling partially responsible, joined the little retinue as they proceeded down the half-built camps, along with a few of the Mercenary soldiers; Jean, Remy, and Melara wanted to see what the armored monster looked like with her helmet off, for you must remember that the Triarii Knights and the Mercenary Soldiers did not mingle much with each other.
Leo came along merely to see how much he’d reshaped Gloria’s muzzle.
The Auxiliari Architecti resumed their task of building the fortification around the Professor’s house, with all the accompanying clashing and grinding of stone upon stone, the hammer and clatter of stone and woodworking tools, the squeak and groan of wooden cranes, and the grunts of exertion from the workers at their task.
Sir Michael disappeared mysteriously as he usually did, though not before leaving his newspaper with the Professor.
“Why?” she had asked, taking it from him with a bemused look.
“There’s a story in there about your disappeared Junebug,” Sir Michael explained, pointing to one of the columns. “It looks like your Vampire Fruit Bat Countess is starting to attract attention. Some colts and fillies say that three beautiful ladies have been seen talking to them and enticing them with gifts of flowers, toys, and candy, too. I’d stake my title on them being your Fruit Bats. Though why they should be trying to turn youngsters into vampires is mostly beyond me. They must be trying to build up a reserve force hidden in the shadows in case their current plan fails.”
“I’d hardly call those evil underclothed harlots ‘beautiful’,” the Professor said, with a scowl. “I don’t blame those silly little colts and fillies; they don’t know any better, and wearing tight clothes and sticking one’s rump and breasts out is not what makes one ‘beautiful’. They look like brothel workers from Prance.”
Sir Michael struggled not to laugh, and pretended to clean his monocle with the sleeve of his immaculate black tailcoat. “Ha! Ahem…yes, indeed. I wonder if we’ll get a look at them up close soon.” He caught sight of Professor Deborah’s scowl, and hastened to assume a serious look. “Be that as it may, I shall leave you and your companions to it, while we wait for word from the castle.”
“What are you planning to do?” the Professor said, incredulously, her silvery eyebrows climbing up her head.
“I feel like having a pleasant post-breakfast walk through our fair city, Deborah. You really ought to accompany me – it clears the head and aids the digestion.”
“No, no…I’d better check on poor little Gloria.”
Sir Michael chuckled appreciatively at the Professor calling the huge Pegasus Triarius mare ‘little’.
The Professor continued. “Leo really smashed her head in…I could feel that blow all the way up here on the balcony. It’s not funny,” she remonstrated Spike severely, as the young purple dragon began laughing uproariously, slapping his thigh, his scales a-rattling with amusement. “She could have been very badly hurt.”
“Bloodying her nose is hardly a great injury, Deborah, be reasonable,” Sir Michael said, spreading his hands in a conciliatory manner. “Those Triarii Knights experience worse in daily training. She’ll be as right as rain in a jiffy, you mark my words - and the better for it.”
“Whatever you say,” the Professor grumbled, half-fondly, half in exasperation, folding her arms under her chest, the newspaper clutched firmly in one hand. “Will you be back before lunchtime? I should hate to have to proceed to the castle alone.”
“Yes, surely, my dear,” Sir Michael said. He strode over to the Professor, taking her in his arms, pressing his lips to hers briefly. The Professor reddened slightly, her wings lifting a few inches. Then he let go of her, and smiled roguishly. “You never know who you might encounter in these city streets. Perhaps that infamous spymistress Leo spoke so highly of…a magician, an apple-seller, a baker, a tinker, a tailor, or even a scantily-clad Vampire Fruit Bat girl.”
“Don’t be absurd, Michael,” the Professor said, with a half-smile. “You’re out of luck if you intend to ogle some Vampire Fruit Bats, anyway; they don’t wander around until night falls.”
“I certainly hope so,” Sir Michael snorted. “Not all of us are fantastic swordsmares like you, Deborah. I’d hate to have to take up arms against them directly.”
“Why go out alone, then?”
“No one will notice me then. I’m just another Canterlot lordling out for a stroll.” He gave the Professor a quick kiss on the cheek, and left her quite alone with Spike.
“Come on, Spike,” the Professor said, taking the young dragon’s paw in her hand. “Let’s go down to them.”
“Yes, Professor,” Spike said, cheerfully, wriggling all over like an eel.
The makeshift hospital for the Pegasus Triarii in the courtyard was a great wood-and-stone affair, a single story high. The Triarii bearing Gloria’s makeshift littler dumped her rather unceremoniously upon one free bed, and the party following her rapidly surrounded it.
Sir Michael’s camp surgeon, a grim-faced, white-coated, red-maned Unicorn mare in her middle ages, called Doctor Sagittarius, pulled on a pair of gloves and set about sliding Gloria’s battered helmet off. She grimaced; Gloria’s face was covered in bruises and cuts, and her jaw seemed to have broken in the impact Leo gave her. Both of Gloria’s eyes were blackened and swollen, and blood ran from her nostrils, her lips, and the cuts on her muzzle.
Melara covered her eyes with her hands; Jean looked a little ill and looked away from the smashed ruin of Gloria’s face. Remy put her hands on her hips, and looked closer, sniffing at the scent of blood, sweat and female horseflesh the big female Knight-Captain exuded.
“Well, Commander, you’ve stoved in her head like a rum puncheon, that’s for sure,” Doctor Sagittarius declared, pulling Gloria’s bruised eyelid open and peering at her eyeball. “She doesn’t seem concussed, thank Celestia. I’ll have her as right as rain in a jiffy. Observe, everyone,” she snapped at the little audience of mercenaries, Triarii Knights, the Professor, and her new friends. “I shall knit her jawbone back together with magic, like so…” the Doctor said, sounding as if she were putting on a show in an operating theater.
Doctor Sagittarius placed her hands on Gloria’s broken jaw, and her horn glowed red. A beam of light shot from her horn to her hands, then to Gloria’s jaw. A wet, squelching, cracking sound came from Gloria’s jawbones as they fused back together, and Jean Silverhoof, the young Mercenary unicorn cadet, gagged a little, sounding visibly sick.
“Don’t like medicine, boy?” Doctor Sagittarius said, smiling. “Make sure your commander doesn’t place you in the healer’s section of your mercenary outfit.”
“I will,” Jean said, swallowing hard.
“Now I shall wake her,” Doctor Sagittarius said, placing her hands on Gloria’s chest. A beam of light shot though Gloria’s chest, and the big knight’s body jerked on the operating table.
Gloria’s eyes snapped open. She noticed Leo standing above her, and began to cry in fear. “I yield,” she sniffled, tears running down her bloodied cheeks. “Mercy, sir. Don’t kill me.”
The Professor rolled her eyes. “Still as big a crybaby as ever, I see. You’re all mouth,” she complained, tweaking Gloria’s long equine ear teasingly.
“Don’t be stupid, Gloria,” Leo muttered. “I just wanted to see the look on your big dumb face when you got up and realized you got knocked the buck out.”
And he thrust a hand – the naked one, not the armored one – forward, taking Gloria’s much larger hand in his own. “Get up, ya big lug. Feeling better now?”
“A little. Good Celestia, my face hurts,” Gloria complained, levering her giant body upwards with Leo’s help. Surprisingly, the smaller Human male was capable of pulling her to a sitting position.
“Yeah, well, my whole leg’s killing me,” Leo said. “Your canned horsemeat is too goddamn tough. I’m going to have a word with San Miguel about his choice of breakfast platters when he gets back, you can be sure of that.”
Spike, Jean, and Remy burst into laughter. Even Gloria smiled slightly through her tears; the Professor shoved her glasses up the bridge of her nose and groaned in disgust. “Really, you lot are just like little colts and fillies! I suppose you’re all going to kiss and make up, now, like good little children?”
“I had no intention of kissing the girl, Professor, but if you insist…” Leo said, his dark eyes flashing.
Gloria colored visibly, and shook her head. “No need,” she said, hastily. “I’ll be good now. My spear is all yours to command, Leo, and so are those of my sworn sisters of the Triarii.”
“Forget it, kid,” Leo said, brushing her offer away graciously. “I won’t hassle you with my problems. Just make sure you keep close to our backs when we launch the attack on those vampires.”
“I will,” Gloria promised.
“I did tell you to remain at our university, Gloria,” the Professor said, folding her arms under her chest and levelling Gloria with a very stern look. “Just look what’s happened to you now. You know very well you could have asked us for help if you were experiencing difficulties at home I-“
Jennever Windup, the green-maned, carrot-coated Earth pony mare who served as one of the mercenary captains reporting directly to Leo in their mercenary company, burst through the hospital room doors with a loud “BANG”, her leather-shod hooves pounding on the floor as she ran towards the operating room table where the others were crowded around Julia.
“Commander! I bring word from the Spymistress! She has returned!” she shouted, skidding to a halt before the table and standing at attention, her legs spread, hooves planted well apart, one arm held at an angle behind her back, the other bent at a firm 90-degree angle over her chest, her closed fist held over her heart.
“I shall go,” Leo announced, letting go of Gloria and striding towards the door.
“I, as well,” the Professor announced, striding up behind him, glaring at Captain Jennever through her spectacles.
“Don’t leave me here!” Gloria wailed, crawling off the table. She got to her hooves, wobbling somewhat – Doctor Sagittarius, Spike, and the three mercenary recruits sucked in their breaths and visibly tensed up as she did so, their hearts pounding.
Leo turned back and strode towards the tottering Pegasus mare; he swiftly thrust an arm under Gloria’s own, grasping her lower back with a firm hand. “Easy there. You’ll throw yourself head first onto the ground and crack your skull.”
“Wait!” Doctor Sagittarius protested, as Leo began hauling Gloria away, half leading, half-carrying the giant mare. “She needs to have her wounds disinfected and bound! Steady on there, you lot! Hey! Come back!”
But they were all already gone. Doctor Sagittarius sat disconsolately on one of her hospital beds, folding her hands. “Oh, well…”