//------------------------------//
// The Brawl 
// Story: Bards of the Badlands 
// by Amber Spark 
//------------------------------//




“I never should have let you into my house,” Sunset snarled as she reared back, knocking her chair to the ground. “I thought for a second that I might actually enjoy this but… no. This is insane. Get out.”
“Sunny—” Minuette started, but something in Sunset broke at that second. She’d forced herself to stay civil too long. She’d repressed too much.
“Stop calling me that!” Sunset snarled at Minuette. “I don’t care if Moon Dancer made you promise! Stop it! You don’t get to call me that!”
“Hey!” Twinkleshine was suddenly in Sunset’s face. “You leave her alone!”
“What are we doing here, Minuette?” Lemon Hearts snapped. “She obviously doesn’t want to be around us! And we don’t want to be around her!”
Sunset tried to catch her breath, tried to control the pounding in her skull and the pounding in her heart, but it wasn’t stopping. 
In fact, it was only getting worse. 
Oh Celestia, no. No, I’m not having another one. Not now. I refuse to lose it in front of these ponies!
It took every bit of willpower she had, but she forced the piece of her that wanted to start screaming at the top of her lungs down just enough to let her breathe.
She dragged the little pieces of herself together, shaking with the effort.
Then she looked at Minuette. The blue unicorn’s ears were pasted against her head. She chewed on her bottom lip for a few seconds before finally opening her mouth to speak.
“I made a promise. I’m going to keep it. Anyway, I already told you. Right place. Right time.”
Both Lemon Hearts and Twinkleshine let out a groan and facehoofed in almost perfect unison.
Sunset blinked, surprise washing some of her knotted emotions away. Wait… what?
“What… what are you talking about?”
Minuette smiled faintly, and turned so Sunset could see the hourglass symbol on her flank.
“My special talent, of course.”
Sunset stared at her blankly.
Minuette’s grin faltered slightly. “Really? You were Professor Polish’s aide for a whole term, and you don’t know our special talents?”
“It wasn’t in the files she gave me,” Sunset muttered. 
Minuette’s smile reignited. “Oh, that’s wonderful! It’s been a while since I’ve had a chance to tell somepony about this!”
Lemon Hearts groaned again before giving Sunset a dark look, turning around and stomping back over to the table. Minuette righted a few of the figurines that had fallen over. 
“I’ve got a special talent for timing. I have a knack for knowing when things are going to happen. I know how to help things along and make everything go just so! So, I kinda explain it as I always know what the right place and the right time are.”
“That’s impossible.” Sunset stared at her. “That sounds like… precognition. And that’s a myth.”
“Oh, it’s nothing that fancy. It’s usually just a sense. A vibe. Sometimes it’s a lot stronger, but that only happens for my friends. Like right now!”
“Right now.”
“Yep! Right now, every bit of me is telling me that being right here and right now is the right thing. With you. In your apartment. With Lemon Hearts and Twinkleshine! Playing games!”
“You must be crazy.”
“That’s the first thing she’s said today I agree with,” Lemon Hearts muttered.
“It’s an easy thing to agree with somepony on,” Twinkleshine commented with a roll of her eyes. 
“Why are you making this so hard, Sun—Sunset?” Minuette asked.
The panic welled up in her once more and she spoke before she could stop herself.
“I was trying to get you to go away!” Sunset cried. “There, you happy?”
“Why would you do a silly thing like that? You need all the friends you can get, Sunny!”
Twitch. “Yeah, because I can tell Lemon Hearts and Twinkleshine are just aching to be my friends.”
“Not really,” Lemon Hearts muttered.
Twinkleshine looked a little awkward and gave a tiny shrug.
“Lemon Hearts and Twinkleshine are supposed to be here. I’m absolutely positive of it. They’re exactly where they need to be right now.”
“Oh, lay off it, Minuette,” Lemon Hearts growled. “Nopony really believes the whole ‘right place, right time’ thing!”
Twinkleshine spoke up, “Uh… that’s not true.”
Lemon Hearts turned to her other friend. “You’ve got to be kidding me. You can’t seriously believe she’s actually got some sort of… ‘future vision.’”
“I don’t know.” The other unicorn shrugged again. “But she’s been right about stuff before. So, I’m willing to believe her.”
“So what?” Lemon Hearts cried. “We shouldn’t be here! Sunset obviously doesn’t want us here! She wants to sit alone in the dark, miserable because the only friend she had abandoned her.”
Sunset could feel the anger starting to slip through the cracks in her mind left by the barely-controlled attack. She could feel it watching. She could feel her watching. 
“Hearts, you’re pushing it. And you really don’t want to do that. Especially in my house.” Sunset growled through gritted teeth. “You’d better learn to shut that muzzle of yours. Or I’ll teach you how, Hearts.”
“You and what army?”
“Seriously? You’re going to respond with something that trite? That’s pathetic!” Sunset heard herself snap back. “Also, if you haven’t noticed, I’m Celestia’s personal student. I could mop the floor with you!”
“Why don’t you give it a shot, you two-timing, backstabbing little b—”
“That’s enough!”
With a sudden flare of magic, Minuette stood between them. Her eyes darted back and forth between the two ponies… at least, the parts of her eyes Sunset could see. It looked like she’d run a few laps around a burning house. Wisps of smoke curled around Minuette’s body, mane and tail. A few sparks spat from the top of her horn. 
Sunset gaped at Minuette in complete shock.
“Minuette… did you just teleport?”
Lemon Hearts and Twinkleshine both stared slack-jawed at her, too.
Minuette blinked a few times, smoke still coming from her mane and tail. “Uh… maybe? I don’t know. I was just… I was just getting really… really…”
“Really what?” Lemon Hearts challenged.
Suddenly, Minuette’s expression changed in an instant, the worried face replaced by one of fury. 
“Peeved, okay?” Minuette snapped. Sunset flinched away from the sheer venom in her voice. “I’m trying my best here! I’m trying to help Sunset! But Lemon Hearts, you’re just egging her on! You’re just trying to make her mad!”
“Because she des—”
“And you!” Minuette cried, whirling on Sunset. “Whether you like it or not, Moon Dancer did something for you! Something I’d never seen her do before. Did you know in our first-year, she didn’t speak to anypony for the first three weeks of the first term? And she shouted down Dean Slate, Cinnamon Tart, Professor Clear and Professor Polish in front of the entire class!”
“Hey! That’s why she’s my friend now! She… she was the only one who believed me.”
“So, if Moon Dancer sent us here, and she’s your friend, why are you trying so hard to get rid of us?”
“She sent you here,” Lemon Hearts corrected. “You just hauled us along for the ride!”
Minuette ignored her, focusing entirely on Sunset. 
“Why, Sunset? Why do you want to be alone that badly?”
Sunset swallowed hard, eyes darting around her apartment.
“Because I don’t know why you’re here!” Sunset cried. “Yes, Moon Dancer may be my friend now, but why are you here? Not that ‘by order of the Princess’ stuff. What’s the real reason?”
“You really don’t know? That’s… you really don’t know?”
“Know what? What the heck am I supposed to know?”
Minuette’s eyes drifted to Lemon Hearts and Twinkleshine. Twinkleshine was staring at her hooves and Lemon Hearts wouldn’t meet either Sunset or Minuette’s gaze.
“Because I’m trying to be your friend, too.”
She’s insane! An angry little voice screamed. She’s certifiably insane!
Something inside of her cracked. The little ball of fiery panic once more swelled in her chest and this time there was no stopping it.
Dammit all! Since that damn alchemy test… this keeps happening to me! Why?
But she couldn’t answer the question. She could feel the cogs of her brain start to grind and smoke. Before her hooves started to shake, she managed to stumble backward. That was enough to get her in motion. Without looking back, she galloped up the stairs and into the safety of her bedroom. With a telekinetic throw, she slammed the door shut and ignored the sound of the door cracking.
Sunset flung herself onto the bed and managed to get out a little scream before her body thrashed. It only took a few seconds for her to get her body back under control, but that was enough to send the comforter and pillows flying across the room. After that, she just laid there, panting, her brain spinning like mad while one part of her—the angry one—berated her for allowing others to have this level of control over her. Another part listened to the conversation below while mentally noting she needed to get thicker doors.
Lemon Hearts—of course—was the first voice she made out. “No! You don’t get it, Twinkleshine! I loved him! And she turned that into a nightmare! He didn’t say one word to me after the Fall Formal! Not one! And you want me to forgive that?”
There was a pause before a softer voice spoke up.
“Girls, stop, please. Lemon, could you please step outside for a few minutes. Take a breath, maybe run to the shop for a hayshake?”
Another pause. The part of Sunset that was listening thought it could hear the grinding of teeth. A tiny logical part of her pointed out that was impossible. That part was promptly beaten up and thrown in a corner by the rest of her.
“Actually, Twinkleshine? Could you go with her and grab four of Fountain Swirl’s best, please?”
Sunset caught the sound of the front door closing and suddenly she snapped upright, only to collapse again on the bed with a sigh. 
I can’t believe that just happened. I can’t believe that just happened again! I was supposed to be over this sort of thing years ago! But since the alchemy final… and since Moon Dancer left… they’ve been getting worse.
Still, panic attack or no, she wasn’t about to go back down there. At this point, she didn’t care if Princess Celestia herself came in to demand she play that moronic game with those idiot girls. She was ready for the charge of treason. Anything would be preferable to continuing that disaster. 
Even still, she counted the seconds before a faint knock came from her door.
“Go away, Minuette.”
“Sunny—”
“What did I say about that name?”
Minuette let out a strangled whimper on the other side of the door, yet she continued with a pleading “Sunset…”
Sunset finally groaned and flung open the door with a flare of magic, allowing the blue unicorn to enter her bedroom. 
“Go away.”
“If you really wanted me to go away, you wouldn’t have opened the door, you know?”
“You’re evil.”
“You said that downstairs.”
“Just making sure I wasn’t misunderstood.”
“Nope. I have excellent hearing.”
“Yet, you’re still here!”
“It’s no wonder you’re the Princess’s personal student.”
Sunset sat up and stared at Minuette.
“Did you just use sarcasm?”
Minuette blinked a few times. “Of course not, silly. Why would I do something like that?”
“Right.” Sunset tried to bury her head under a few pillows. It worked about as well as she expected.
“Things got a bit rough, but we can work this out! Come back down, Sunset. Please?”
“No,” Sunset mumbled through the cotton.
“Why not?”
“Because Lemon Hearts intends to make this as miserable as possible for me and I don’t see that changing anytime soon.”
“She’s just roleplaying. Nightblossom can be intense, sure, but—”
“Roleplaying, my hoof!” Sunset shouted. “She hates me, Minuette. And I’ll box your ears if you repeat this, but I don’t really blame her.”
Minuette remained silent, long enough to make Sunset peek out at her, wondering if she had been fortunate enough to get the blue unicorn out of her bedroom.
No such luck. Instead, Minuette sidled over to sit on a chair on the side of Sunset’s bed. 
“Why not?” she asked.
“I didn’t ask you to sit down.”
“Funny. I didn’t ask you to ask me to sit down either.”
Sunset tried glaring a little harder. It worked as well as all the other glares. Which is to say, not at all. 
“Why not?” Minuette repeated. 
“Green Fields was her first crush and I used him to humiliate her,” Sunset muttered. “If I were in her horseshoes, I’d hate me too.”
“Sunset, I think you’re looking at this all wrong.”
“Really now?” Sunset cocked an eyebrow. “How am I wrong?”
“I didn’t say you were wrong. I said you were looking at this wrong.”
“Then enlighten me, O great and powerful pegasus ranger.”
“Did you ever stop and wonder why they’re here?”
Sunset rolled her eyes. “Because trying to play a tabletop quill-and-parchment game with only two players would be pointless?”
“Yes.”
Sunset blinked. “Really?”
“No, silly!” Minuette laughed. “I meant those two specifically. Why they are here?"
Sunset stared at her. 
“Because Lemon Hearts has been nursing a grudge against you for almost two years now,” Minuette replied without a trace of humor in her voice or face. “And whether she admits it or not, it’s hurting her.”
“What the hay am I supposed to do, apologize again? I already tried! I can’t force her to accept my apology!”
Minuette shook her head. “I’m sorry, Sunny—” Twitch. “—but this isn’t about you.”
“You’ve lost me.”
“This isn’t about you saying you’re sorry. You actually did a pretty good job at that. This is about her accepting it.”
“And how is her roleplaying somepony who hates me supposed to help?”
Minuette’s smile suddenly returned with such intensity Sunset shied away from the other unicorn.
“Because she’ll get a chance to work it out on Garnet and not you. And because once she starts having fun, I think she’ll start to forget why she hated you so much.”
“I really doubt that.”
Minuette’s smile only grew. “Then you seriously doubt the power of fun.”
“Given what I’ve seen, yes. Yes, I do.”
“O ye of li’l faith. Come, sally forth into adventure with thy boon companions, and thou shalt behold the light dawning from a greater an’ still brighter morn!”
“Minuette?”
“Yes?” She fluttered her eyes innocently.
“Don’t ever do that again.”
Minuette laughed. “I’m sorry, have we met?”



Garnet’s ears picked up the sound of the pegasus behind her even as she stalked away from the tavern and toward the river. She didn’t give the sound any thought. If she was quick enough, she could catch the ferry and be rid of this thrice-cursed place before midnight.
Sorry, my friend. I appreciate the attempt… But there are some things I simply can’t do. Dealing with that lot appears to be one of them.
“Garnet, please wait!” Behind her, the voice of Wind Speaker echoed in the empty street.
“I have nothing further to say to you,” Garnet informed her, not deigning to look back. “I’ll not be called a monster by one of those abominations. Nopony calls me a monster. I will not stand for it.”
“You deny what happened in Bridledale?”
Garnet whirled, the thick mist swirling around her like a whirlpool as she rounded on the pegasus mare.
“I deny nothing!” Garnet spat. “But I will not have my nose shoved in my own mistakes. I have tried to make amends as best I can. Yet there are too many in the entire nation that are all too ready to curse my name and tar me as a beast to be slain.”
“If you’re worried we’re going to turn you in for the bounty—”
“I don’t care about the bounty!” Garnet shouted. “I care about my name! It was once celebrated, a chosen and gifted practitioner! My star was in ascendance! Now, little more than soot remains.”
“And how will fleeing change that name, save for adding ‘coward’ to it?”
With a wild surge of magic, Garnet yanked Wind Speaker down to her level and shoved her muzzle into hers. “You tempt fate by calling me such a thing.”
To her credit, Wind Speaker didn’t back down. “I didn’t. You did through your actions. I only speak what will be said of you.” 
With a growl, Garnet released the pegasus and sat on the cold dirt of the street. 
“I offer a chance to restore your name. Do you want it?”
“You think whatever foalish job you have is enough?”
“The Mistress of Tomes does.”
Garnet swallowed and stared at her hooves for a long moment.
“Let us say I consi—”
She was interrupted by the sound of a body crashing through a window from behind the pegasus.



“What?” Lemon Hearts demanded. “It’s not a good bar brawl unless somepony goes crashing through a window.”
Sunset suppressed a snicker despite herself and took another sip of the hayshake. She’d been surprised when the two had returned with the shakes, but apparently Minuette knew her friends. Through some sort of strange voodoo magic, she’d gotten Lemon Hearts to sit down again. 
Celestia, she even got me to sit down again. 
Twinkleshine just rolled her eyes at Lemon Hearts's comment while Minuette smiled. 
“Okay, good point. Still, he only takes two points of damage and now just looks even more peeved.”
Lemon Hearts's grin widened and she rolled her shoulders as if she was about to get into a real brawl. “Good. I need to work out the kinks on this build.”
“Why do you always have to get into a bar fight?” Twinkleshine complained. “Seriously, this happens every time.”
“Nightblossom is an angry cider drinker.”
“Nightblossom is just angry,” Twinkleshine retorted.
“Well… yeah.”



Wind Speaker was fast, even for a pegasus. She shot through the mist, leaving a trail of swirling vapors in her path, directly toward the sound of the fighting. Garnet could hear the enraged shouts of that idiot batpony accompanied with more smashing, crashing, banging, and other various noises that were traditionally associated with a tavern brawl.
The pegasus was already inside by the time Garnet arrived. What greeted her inside was total bedlam.
Nightblossom was currently wielding hoof-batons to devastating effect on any of the foals stupid enough to stand against her. As Garnet watched, she deftly cracked a hulking mass of a pony in the head, flapped her leathery wings for an instant and came down hard on another, only to finish the move by bucking a third halfway across the room.
“What in Tartarus is she?” Garnet murmured.
“Somepony who tends to accomplish her goals in a critical manner,” Forest Whisper replied beside her. She was leaning against the wall looking vaguely disappointed. “She always seeks to be as dexterous as possible, quite often to the detriment of everything else.”
“Forest, what happened?” Wind demanded.
“Three rather brawny stallions and a mare came in from the rear of the tavern. They appeared already intoxicated, at least… I believe they were.”
“This is a tavern,” Garnet commented. “Drunk is probably the norm.”
“Perhaps. But falling over and bucking Nightblossom’s chair was still quite rude. Nightblossom took offense.”
“This is insane,” Wind muttered. “We have more important things to do.”
With that, she flared her wings and Garnet got a better look at the contraption she was wearing. It was some sort of mechanical barding with twin arrow quivers attached to Wind's hindlegs. With a twitch of a hoof, a pair of arrows shifted into position and were pulled back by a spring assembly. A small metal bit popped up in front of the pegasus as she lined up her shot.
Then she bit down hard on the strip of metal. 
Instantly, two arrows were loosed, striking mere inches above the largest pony’s head. A moment later, they burst into a brilliant flash of light and sound.
When the afterimages faded, the room was dead silent as Wind stretched a hoof and the mechanism reloaded.
“Anypony else want to try something?” she asked with a small grin. “I should warn you, I have had a few, so my aim is a bit off today. That’s probably the last warning shot I’ve got in me.”
“Hey!” Nightblossom protested. “I was having fun!”
“Nightblossom, we are leaving.” Wind snapped. “Now.”
The batpony growled something under her breath before trudging toward the three other mares. 
Garnet had a strange feeling. Something was wrong. Her eyes searched the crowd and with a flash of insight, she saw a thin-looking grey unicorn draw something out of one of her saddlebags. A gleam of metal flashed in the light from the hearth. 
There wasn’t time for a warning, only action. 
Without thinking, Garnet shouted out a word and from nowhere, a brilliant streak of red and gold exploded into existence. In a deft move, the phoenix-like bird snatched the blade out of the air and threw it to the ground as Garnet—



“Whoa, whoa, whoa!” Lemon Hearts cried. “Your familiar is a phoenix? That’s totally against the fifth edition rules!”
“Eoana isn’t actually a phoenix,” Sunset said with a sigh. She suspected this would happen the moment her familiar actually came into the gameplay. “She’s a hawk with an illusion enchantment on her. She wears the charm around her neck.”
“Seriously?” Lemon Hearts scoffed. 
Minuette flipped through one of the books behind her Game Master’s screen with her magic. 
“Yes, seriously!” Sunset snapped back. “Garnet traded some arcane artifacts found in a forgotten library for the charm. The only thing it does is make Eoana immune to fire damage.”
Twinkleshine and Lemon Hearts both shot looks to Minuette. Sunset sighed again, and took a sip of her green tea hayshake. 
“She was on my character sheet,” Sunset pointed out. “You said the sheet was okay. You even mentioned her in the opening.”
“I thought the flames were just some magical smoke and mirrors!” Lemon Hearts protested.
Minuette took the character sheet back and studied it for a few moments. 
“Hm. I skimmed this part… Looks like the hawk out of the back of the Bestiary,” Minuette muttered to herself. “Base attack… mhmm…”
Sunset sighed and stared at the ceiling before a cough got her attention again.
Minuette pierced her with a stare. “And she can’t do anything else?” 
“Nothing beyond what the Fifth Edition of O&O allows. Bonus to defensive physical actions. Normal hawk actions and abilities. Only thing special is the immunity to fire. She looks like a phoenix because of the charm, nothing more.”
“No blinding flashes?”
“No.”
“No breathing fire?”
“No.”
“No reincarnation?”
“Uh… no.”
“No adding unnecessary complexity to established characters?”
“No. Wait, wh—”
Minuette snapped both books closed, cutting off Sunset. Twinkleshine jumped a little. “It’s a bit on the fence, but since you just used her to save Nightblossom from getting a dagger in the back, I think I’ll let it slide.”
“Hey! I could have dodged it!” Lemon Hearts cried. 
“The blade was thrown by a unicorn assassin, and you were caught off-guard. She has advantage on you.”
“Ugh, I really don’t want to heal her flank again. She enjoyed that far too much last time,” Twinkleshine muttered.
Lemon Hearts just glared at all of them.
Sunset managed to keep her mirth down to a snicker. 
Dammit. I’m never going to live this down, but this is actually almost fun. Almost.



—as Garnet shouted a word and slammed most of the tavern with a potent sleep spell, laced with a bit of wild magic. Nearly half of the brawlers went down with little sighs, including the unicorn assassin. The sheer force of it also happened to create bunny ears on about a quarter of the ponies, all of which—for some reason—happened to be male.
“I could have handled that,” Nightblossom growled.
“You’re welcome.”
Wind Speaker turned to glare at those ponies who were still upright. “Now, would somepony please tell me what in the world is going on here?”
Nopony looked particularly eager to speak. 
“That’s it!” Nightblossom snapped. “I’m done waiting!”
Nightblossom darted for the innkeeper, a thin but tall blue unicorn with a short-cropped mane and a dirty apron around his front standing beside the barkeep. He tried to dive through the door behind the bar, but a quick flap of the batpony’s wings sent her crashing into him. They landed with a thump with the batpony securely on top.
“Answers!” she snapped as she slammed his head into the hardwood floor. “Now!”
“I was just paid to let them in!” the innkeeper squealed. “Nothing more!”
“How much?”
“Two hundred bits!”
Garnet shared a look with Forest and Wind. 
“Somepony wants us gone from this realm with all haste, if they’re willing to dispense that much coin simply to allow those brutes access to this establishment,” the deer murmured. “This does not bode well for us.”
Eoana landed on Garnet’s back with a cry. The illusionary flames flickered in the hearth’s light, casting strange shadows around the room. 
“We need to leave,” Garnet whispered. “I don’t like this.”
“I would agree with the sorceress.” Forest nodded. “Wind, we should depart with all haste.”
“We could try and get some more answers out of these ponies,” Wind pointed out while Nightblossom tried to do exactly that by pounding the innkeeper against the ground a few more times. “We may not find any more information outside these walls.”
“Unless you want to wake our would-be assassin,” Forest pointed out. “I do not see that working in our favor. There is no telling how many more ponies may be in the employ of those seeking to do us harm.”
Garnet nodded. “I’m with Forest. Do you know the next step?”
“Yes.” Wind didn’t look happy about leaving. “But this is not a safe place to speak of it.”
“Then let’s retire to somewhere safe,” Garnet insisted.
“This is the last safe place,” Wind snapped back. “The last one before we enter—”
Garnet raised an eyebrow, but the pegasus wasn’t willing to say any more. 
“Hey batpony!” Garnet called. “We’re leaving!”
“Tartarus, no!” Nightblossom called. “I’m going to beat some answers out of these ponies. And I’m going to enjoy it!”
“Is she always like this?” Garnet asked with a sigh. 
“Actually, she’s usually a lot more… demanding,” Wind admitted. “She’s on her best behavior tonight.”
“That doesn’t make me feel much better.”
“It shouldn’t,” Forest replied.
“Nightblossom!” Wind called. “We cannot stay here any longer!”
The batpony slammed the innkeeper one more time into the floor. “Damn you, you cowards. Fine! We’re leaving!”
Nightblossom leapt up onto a table and glared at the conscious patrons of the tavern. “Anypony who follows us will find their lives short and miserable!” she crowed. “Do I make myself clear?”
There was a hurried assortment of nods and bows in her general direction. She scowled at them all before leaping back down and trotting to the door. 
She paused. “You three coming or what?”
Then she stalked out into the night.
“Best behavior?” Garnet asked.
“Oh, you should have witnessed her in Everspring last fall,” Forest said with an emphatic nod.
“Be glad that you didn’t,” Wind muttered as she trailed out behind the batpony.
Forest went next and Garnet backed out of the tavern, watching everypony carefully. One mare with a snowy mane in particular was staring at her. There was a glint of a wicked smile on her face, but when Garnet tried to look closer, the pony had vanished.
Once outside, they gathered in the mist for a moment before Wind Speaker set off at a brisk trot south toward the Elderfields River. Garnet fell into step beside her while Nightblossom flew overhead and Forest Whisper took up the rear.
“Can you at least give me something to work with? Why were we attacked? What is this job?”
Wind cocked an eyebrow and smirked a little. 
“Tell me, Miss Dawn,” Wind said casually. “Have you ever heard the legend of the Keening Dirge?”