//------------------------------// // Give Me Liberty // Story: Hunter's Path // by SwordTune //------------------------------// Fiora and Silver Drop sipped tea while the rest of the fighters wrestled with the drugged hadyhosh. Last night it returned after rampaging through the forest, and only now the fighters were able to get it near its cage. It was an injured, wild monster, but apparently the cave had become its home. Though by no means tame, even monster couldn't refuse safety and food, especially after it had been attacked by a hunter. Fiora sympathized with it. She had badly needed the supplies sent by employer, even if she didn't like being manipulated to fight for some pony. Contracts on monsters were simple; if a pony had a problem, they'd pay a hunter and the problem would be gone. Monster hunters exterminated Equestria's ultimate infestation, and never took murdered for coin. Stranglethorn clearly understood that no hunter would willing be used as a weapon of war, nor would they take a contract on a pony, and thus had her niece hire her to "escort" the Sunken Sow. Fiora was reluctant to use what was given to her by that mare, but there was little choice. Her injuries had healed over night thanks to the potion ingredients and Silver Drop's herbs. Now she was free to drink fragrant tea without worrying about bones healing crookedly. Her tea needed a strong scent to mask her from the hadyhosh's nose. If it recognized her, the entire camp would certainly be reduced to ruins. "You plan on going back to Neighagra once we get the ships?" Fiora asked Silver as they watched it eat hay sprinkled with everseed powder. Her answer was cut by the hadyhosh's long, single-note moan as it rolled around in the alluring substance. Silver continued once the beast was relaxed in its cage. "We'll have to see. I might study when the war is over." She looked inside the cave, where fighters were exhausted on the ground from handling the massive creature. "The fighting here has shown me what I want to do. I want be there and help people when they need me. I could become a field surgeon after a few years of study and training, but the war's bound to be over by then." Fiora finished her tea, its sweet aroma masking her own scent. "I wouldn't count on it. Doubt the High Mountain Kingdom can take over the whole Far Coast anytime soon, and if the coasts win, then they're sure to fight among each other." "Maybe you're right," Silver Drop said. She rose from her seat and picked up a variety of vials, decoctions, and herbalist tools. "Everything I have is so familiar. It's easy to think I can stay as I am. I think that's what makes me feel like I have to learn more, because things shouldn't be easy." "Won't try to influence your decision," Fiora said, standing up as well and stretching out her side. She had brewed some infusions and decoctions from the ingredients provided, using vodka from Silver Drop's stash to concentrate the potion further. It wasn't a common practice for hunters, since the components extracted from monster organs were already potent, but injured wings and a broken rib were not easy things for the body to mend. Aeduard climbed up the slope to the mouth of the cave to join Fiora. "You two ladies look ready." "Ladies?" Silver Drop raised a brow. "Please, we're not some village fillies to dote on, Aed." He chuckled. "Of course not. Just passing words while my fighters sharpen whatever weapons we have." "What'll you do once I get the hadyhosh close enough?" Fiora asked, shifting the topic to the battle ahead. It wouldn't be much a fight with the beast working for them, but a plan was still necessary. "Assuming it draws enough attention," he answered, "we'll raid the storehouses for all the supplies we can find. Weapons is the first priority, but we'll need food too." "Meanwhile I'll be taking my friend and the crew of the Sunken Sow to the port to meet you," Fiora added. She had brought up the subject over dinner last night around the campfire, and Aeduard agreed that it wouldn't hinder the plan in any way. In fact, able-bodied sailors could help commandeer the ships faster. "After that, then what?" Fiora would have to go back to Bovinus, but she still wondered what a small insurgent group planned to do against a secret occupation by the largest kingdom in Equestria. "We'll sail up north and meet with other resistance groups from the neighboring villages," Aeduard supplied. "Me and the my lieutenants agreed that it'd be foolish to try and free the village immediately. We'll need time to equip each stallion and figure out how to stop their reinforcements from trampling us." "Good plan. Like to make sure the terrain's clear when I hunt monsters, especially if they travel in numbers." Fiora was only half surprised they chose caution over pride. The fighters all discussed both sides to no end last night. The hadyhosh would give an opportunity to rush the keep and take the village, and a lot of the fighters were eager to go home, but Aeduard was right to make his decision. "Speaking of good plans," Aeduard untied a long wrapped object from his saddlebag. "I had your sword cleaned and sharpened once we were able to get it back. I'm guessing you might need it." "Oh she'll need it alright, and this," Silver Drop said, producing a half-filled waterskin, though it didn't feel like one. Fiora felt it. The waterskin was slightly firm, its contents a pasty mixture of water and herbs. "What is it?" "A paste made from ground everseeds and slow acting stimulant," Silver Drop answered. "The stimulant's in a more concentrated form me and my mother used when we needed to treat patients throughout the night. I prepared quite a bit of it before I came north, but haven't had the need to use much of it." "Won't that just cancel the effects of the everseed?" Fiora could sense the ingredients. There was certainly a minute pull on her magic, even from inside the waterskin. "The stimulant works slowly. It'll only show it's effects once the everseed's begins to wear off," reassured Silver Drop. "You should apply the paste on the monster's tongue before you leave the forest. It should burst into action once it's brought inside to be examined." "Doubtless the Admiral would want to study what plagued his troops for months," Aeduard added. "Let him see it up close." "In that case, he'd be thrilled to get the hadyhosh in prime condition." Fiora unfolded the cloth protecting her sword and returned it to its sheath, adjusting her belt with the weight. "Any reason to wait?" ============================================================= The creature's weight was lighter when carried by magic, but considering its size and dense bones and muscles, dragging it through the village was not easy nor enjoyable. The guards outside village walls let her in without question. They knew the contract on the monster, and simple minded soldiers were easily in awe of such beasts. It wasn't dead, but no pony bothered to question the prfoessional. Still, the dose of everseed kept the hadyhosh calm and docile. The drain of magic from the seeds kept the monster's skin cold, whereas it should have hot to the touch. Fiora was lucky the monster was rich in magic, or levitating it with Silver Drop's concoction would be impossible. "Monster Hunter! Why have you brought the beast here?" The Admiral met her at the gates, most likely as an answer to the panicked reactions of his soldiers. "It's no ordinary monster. Need to perform a ritual to drive it away from the village." A lie. The hadyhosh was formidable but no less mortal than a corpse eater or basilisk. But she needed it in the heart of the village to create the largest distraction, and that was where the keep stood. "You're serious?" The Admiral exclaimed in his false accent. Fiora nodded, avoiding the urge to twist her face at his speech. "Its magic is linked to this land, and it must be purged or it cannot die." The Admiral looked around at his troops. Many were friends of those who were attacked, Fiora could see it on their faces. Twisted snarls of anger and fear and relief swirled around their heads. If Fiora said she had a way to kill it, the soldiers would jump to have it be done, regardless of the petrified Admiral's reservations. "If any damage comes to the keep, we will discuss it over your payment, Monster Hunter." He collected himself, shielding himself with his dignity, and beckoned to a whole troupe of soldiers to help Fiora haul the monster inside. It was a perfect arrival. The Admiral's presence with Fiora drew looks, and once they set their eyes on the hadyhosh, soldiers came to watch. Archers, smiths, trainees, even some doctors and nurses, they all cheered for Fiora's success. The draw on her magic that she sensed from the hadyhosh was gone. The seeds had worn off, which mean the stimulant would kick in. Already, she could hear its heart beat getting stronger, faster. The soldiers drew their weapons the moment they saw its chest expand and heave with air, but they were too slow to react. Fiora leaped out of the way, propelling herself farther with a blast of magic. The glint of blades and armor stirred the monster awake, and fire erupted around it. "The hunter fooled us!" shouted the Admiral, dropping his false accent entirely and barking orders at his troops. He turned to flee, but the hadyhosh kicked him and flung him into a barrel of provisions. The other troops found little luck. Fire spouted from the beast's horns, enraged by whatever drug Silver Drop put in it and the sounds of the terrified stallions. It rooted its hooves and charged forward, a streak of fire across the camp, tearing and burning all sections of the keep's wall. As storehouses burned and the forges were burned, Fiora galloped for the prison behind the Admiral's quarters. She was met by two guards at the gate, but quickly stabbed her sword through gaps in their armor before they could even draw their weapons. The key on one of the guards opened the gate. Unlike the structured keep outside, the prison looked haphazard. The guard room was above, with a table and a couple chairs, presiding over a trap door. The prison was below, carved out of rough bedrock, and barely lit by smoldering torches. "What's going on out there?" whispered a voice. "Don't know. Whatever it is, it's loud." Fiora recognized Navier's voice. Another replied, and she knew it was Sharp Tone. "Sounds like a monster. Dragon, maybe, some do fly this far north." "Hadyhosh," she called out to them, following the carved tunnel until she reached their cell. "And it can only buy us so much time." Their cell was a simple metal door that locked a cramped cavern area for mining. In the dark, it was impossible for them to tell what they were mining, but Fiora could pick out chunks of iron ore at their feet. The more they mined, the more space they had to move around. That was how the Admiral would have forced them to work if they were never rescued. "Holy shit." Sharp Tone stood up. "When they didn't lock you up, I thought you drowned." Fiora grabbed the cage door with her magic, forcing it against the brittle stone until it started to shake. The others joined it, hammering at the stone until a gap opened up, enough to slide out the entire door. Navier clasped his hooves around Fiora's. "Glad to see you're safe." "Won't be if we stay long," she added, pointing upward. "Hadyhosh won't stay in the village. Soon at it finds its way out, so do we." "And we'll just going to run from a battalion of soldiers?" Sharp Tone asked. "Met up with some locals, the ones these High Mountain troops pushed out," Fiora told them. "They're taking the ships at the harbor. More than enough for us to grab one and sail back south." "It'll take time to load supplies and ready the ships." Navier looked out to the orange light pouring into the prison from above. "But it looks like we'll have the time." ============================================================= Fiora pushed back a couple soldiers in chainmail into the path of the raging hadyhosh. Sharp Tone followed her, picking up the weapons and passing it to the rest of the crew. Fire spread to nearly every part of the keep, and was pushing to the houses of the surrounding villagers. Nothing could stand before its weight, and so the hadyhosh tore down every structure. Traps were laid; it demolished houses filled with wooden spikes and oil barrels. But fire could not harm it and the spikes were barely splinters. The traps only worsened the village's condition. They met little resistance as expected. Most of the soldiers were focused on finding any rope or chains to restrain the monster, while archers had spent their crankbow bolts firing at it. They would kill it, eventually, but that moment wasn't coming anytime soon. Nevertheless, escaping didn't look easy. Soldiers ran from the walls to the buildings carrying buckets of water, while lines formed at the wells as families and communities tried to save their homes. Some danced in front of the monster, taunting it away from the mares and their children, drawing it into circles of soldiers armed with spears. Their efforts slowed the relentless assault, but every pony that engaged it was either trampled or burned. The smell distracted Fiora the most. She couldn't risk bringing her senses in and getting caught off guard, but letting her magic extend her scent wasn't much better. Burning flesh and manure filled the air around the village, slow to escape thanks to the encircling walls. As she twisted some pony's hoof and threw him aside, she spotted the Admiral rallying his soldiers. The were not charging for the hadyhosh--a fight any commander could see was a lost cause--but were hunting down the escaped prisoners instead. "Forget fighting," Fiora warned, picking up her pace and clearing the road of scorched soldiers. "Just run." Snow was useless in the face of the flaming beast's rampage. Despite the cold and the ice, fires had spread to the edges of the village. Even the guards at the door had left their post. Outside, they all could see the fighting at the harbor. With no reinforcements, the guards at the warehouse were losing, badly, but Aeduard's fighters weren't well equipped either. "We need to help them take those ships as fast as possible," Navier commanded his crew once every stallion caught up and was outside the scorched wall. When he was sure no pony was left behind, they followed the path down to the harbor. Fiora and Sharp trailed behind, making sure no soldiers, or the hadyhosh itself, followed them. Sharp Tone was eager to join the fighting, while Fiora put herself to more use by firing spouts of fire onto the harbor. Streaks of red flames snaked through the sky and struck guards. Armor didn't matter against magic. All of them were quick to remove their blazing plate armor and dive for the safety of the cold tides. Yet with the remaining soldiers galloping for her, the fight devolved to clashing steel. Navier and his crew split to every ship Aeduard and his fighters had begun boarding. Fiora and Sharp Tone kept their weapons in motion, and no soldier could get past them with their speed. Fiora struck them through their armor, and before a soldier could clutch his neck and collapse she was already winding her weapon around another opponent's blade. Before the skirmish subsided three ships were loaded and prepared to sail. "How long do you think we have?" Sharp Tone asked, wiping his blade on a dead stallion's gambeson. Fiora could see the smoke column rising from the village. Even if the Admiral's troops had managed to kill the hadyhosh, the fires were too big to stop. "Not long," Aeduard interjected. "Our home is useless to them if they can't save it. I know how their officers are trained. They'll abandon the village and its ponies just to catch us and make sure we don't tell ponies about their actions here." "If they don't all burn first," added Sharp Tone. "Will you be alright?" Fiora asked Aeduard. He had accepted that fighting the High Mountain could have lasting damages on his village and its land, but absolute ruin was beyond both their expectations. The sound of screaming was distant for every pony, save for Fiora and Sharp Tone. Their trained ears caught every pained, strained, and choked cry. Soldiers melted in their armor. It was a necessary evil. But mares and their young ones suffered worse, trapped in houses or trampled by the frightened. To distract a whole army, the innocent were condemned. Another necessary evil. "They had this village under an iron hoof," Aeduard said, not bothering to hide his solemnity. "I don't know if any less force could have lifted it." "Without a home, what will you fight for?" Sharp Tone asked. Aeduard turned to the ships, watching his stallions load weapons into the hold. Silver Drop was with them, making sure they brought enough herbs to treat the wounded. "Kith and kin," he answered, his tone lowering as he mouthed the last word and turned back to his village. "And liberation." The sound of liberation, of unfurling sails and wide, sleepy tides, was cut by the cries. War cries, the sound of oppression. The High Mountain was known as a place of culture and refinement, but its soldiers knew war as well as any other. Theirs was a blood-curdling scream from the earth, shaking and wrenching safety from all quarters into the light. A cavalry charge. Lances and spears mounted onto saddles glistened as the remaining soldiers trampled the world under their hooves. Fiora reacted first, throwing up barriers of magic that would break their point of impact. "Get on the ships now!" Aeduard sprinted for the nearest one, grabbing his fighters and shoving them along. "We need a couple more minutes on the sails!" shouted Navier from the last ship. "Then we'll only be alive for a couple more minutes," snapped Sharp Tone, his wings nervously fluttering as he boarded the ship. But there were too many to make it onto the ships. Aeduard's fighters and Navier's crew stumbled over their crates, making for the ships as fast as they could, but Fiora knew it was no use. She levitated everything she could, piling up a wall of barrels and boxes behind magical barriers. Barriers that glistened with unnatural powers, but still would never hold against the fury of a charge. Then there was shouting from behind. "Shields and spears! Help the hunter slow them down!" Aeduard was tossing spears to any fighter near him. Dozens took up arms, running back to the front and standing their ground behind the wall Fiora had built. There was hardly any at the line, but it was a chance. A chance for a few to buy time so the rest of the fighters could board the ship. They ran from across the harbor, scurrying like rats to safety. It was seconds away. No eyes met the charge, their helmets piercing black slits. What was fear to a soldier with blinders, who could only feel the rush of his fellows beside him? They were not a collection of troops, but a single will to win. Magic and metal and bone and crates shattered. Bodies raging against the spears pushed themselves. How many clamored over? Fiora just killed them. Like wave-splashed drops on the beach they were soaked up fast. Some burned. Others tumbled back. Bolts magic littered the battlefield with the backdrop of red-stained grass. There was no knowing. One could never know their place in a charge. Not attacker, not defender. Fiora didn't know how she found herself on the ground. She choked on and spat out grass, tasting blood on the green blades. There was another force. Turned around, she saw the crankbows at the edge of the ships. More fired. The earth erupted with fury. The line was broken, but she still had to reach the ship. Fiora pushed and cleaved. Soldiers clawing at the ground reached up to Fiora, to any pony, just to find a savior. They were crushed underneath. A bolt exploded in front of her. Bodies tumbled her way and there was no where to move so she went under, falling for what was an eternity in seconds. It had only been seconds. It seemed hellfire erupted from the harbor. Explosive bolts fired by Aeduard's fighters scattered the charge. Wood splintered up and dozens plummeted down into the water. Fiora clamored over countless bodies as the cavalry charge withered against the desperate defense of her comrades. None of the other fighters were found. They had been swallowed up by the charge. Fiora moved over the panicked soldiers, their confidence broken by the overbearing explosions, and found herself on the deck of Aeduard's ship. "Any pony else out there?" He shoved a crankbow to a young fighter's grasp to reload. Another was picked up immediately and fired. Fiora turned to a strained, drawn-out cry. Her sword flashed and split the stallion's knee. "I didn't see," she said. As the brave soldier fell off the edge of the ship she looked over to Navier's deck, spotting Sharp Tone lending his wings to helping the crew. "Silver Drop?" She couldn't help but account for her own friends, even as Aeduard's own were fighting. "Below, tending to wounded," he answered. The rest of the ships were meters from the shore now. Soldiers fired their crankbows from the remains of the harbor and threw spears when they ran out of bolts. Fighters on deck were hit, but the High Mountain could not keep up. The exhausted troops couldn't catch the prepared insurgents. "Draw them on us!" yelled Aeduard. He fired another bolt into a crowd of soldiers and ducked when they returned spears and arrows. He didn't strike Fiora as a "victory-or-death" type, despite his courage and determination. Drawing their attention was more than just a diversion to save his fighters. And as quickly as she noticed it, Aeduard let loose his plan. The supporting beams of the docks, holding walkways meters above the solid seafloor, rattled under the clamoring of a hundred armored soldiers. Some jumped and taunted at the insurgents, firing bolts and flinging their spears. Some pushed each other to flee the explosions. All together they shook the harbor and its once-sturdy docks. "Take out the beams," he told his archers. Dozens of crankbows fired at once, and the pillars holding up the docks vanished in a violent smoke. Half of the army crumbled into the ocean. Their deaths was followed by a volley of bolts from the remaining archers. Crankbows twanged and launched their projectiles, but there were too few to cover the whole deck. Yet they weren't aiming for the whole deck. Fiora sheathed her sword and started to move for the wounded when Aeduard collapsed. Two bolts stuck from his chest, leaking blood into his lungs. ============================================================= "Bite down." Silver Drop stuffed Aeduard's mouth with a rolled cloth and set to work on removing the bolts. Fiora assessed the damage quicker than she could, however. Mutant eyes, keener than a cat's, could pick out the stress on the muscles and infer the damage inside. The internal bleeding was heavy, and there was no way they could cauterize a wound that deep. "Then we'll have to stop it," Silver Drop answered when Fiora voiced his condition. "The partner, Stranglethorn, she prepare you a hunter's saddlebag. There must be some potion that can heal his internal wounds." She worked through his pain as he clenched his teeth and flinched with each bolt pulled. Fiora glowed her sword with magic and the blistering red point sizzled and cooks the skin. Aeduard's throat croaked a disgusting chord as the blade dug deeper. "That'll slow things, but he's just as injured inside." Fiora quenched her sword in a bucket of water and sheathed it. Silver Drop was already measuring her herbs and preparing a pot of boiling water. "I can make a decoction that that thicken blood and help clotting, but it'll work to slow." She turned to Fiora, waiting for an answer. "If I had anything that could help we wouldn't have needed all this," she pointed to the deformed flesh on Aeduard's chest. "It takes years to build tolerance to hunter potions. That's why we train so long before even being considered ready." "Tolerance or not, they still work," Silver Drop replied. "Why even help if you think he's going to die?" "Honor." Fiora gave Aeduard a light hoof shake for comfort. "You gave everything for this. Take time to say final farewells." "Are you mad?" Silver didn't take her eyes off the medicine. "We can't just give up like that. I didn't come all this way to quit on a patient." Aeduard pushed the cloth with his tongue and spat it out. "Silver, the hunter may--" "The hunter may keep her opinions to herself if she refuses to help," Silver snapped, "and so can the idiot who got himself shot." She poured the blend of herbs into a flask of strong alcohol, letting the solvent take the essence of the roots and herbs. Pouring it into a clean wood bowl, Silver brought it over to Aeduard and commanded him to drink. There were only a few fighters below deck watching. Most were wounded or watching over them. Fiora backed away from the table Aeduard had been resting on and leaned against the doorway of the cargo hold. The others rooms were taken. She could brew a restorative potion with the ingredients in her saddlebag. In fact, there was enough to make a few different types. None could help him recover, not without ravaging his body as well. Shock alone could kill him, even if it healed his body. On the off chance he did survive, he could have permanent nerve damage, or muscle paralysis. Silver was doing her best without alchemy, looking for anything she could use to perform a blood transfusion. More blood would give Aeduard's body more time to clot the wound, but by the time the herbs started working he would've drowned in blood. Any real chance required a potion. Was it worth the risk? He was commander who led by example, who fired at the enemy and expected soldiers to follow. What would he live for if he couldn't fight? Aeduard wasn't a general. Fiora couldn't see him sitting in a tent, planning and scheming while others did the fighting and dying. But he was going to die anyway. A potion would give him a chance, even if it was just a chance to be forced into the role of a general. It was still a chance to serve his cause. "Get him some rum or whiskey," Fiora blurted out, interrupting Silver Drop's desperate attempts to turn a diving pump into something to transfer blood. Silver whipped her head to Fiora. "Alcohol's a blood thinner, Fiora. It'll make things worse." "Alone it will," Fiora unloaded her saddlebag and unfurled a tool belt across some crates. There were measuring spoons, pincers, glass vials, and all the ingredients for a variety of potions. "But it'll help with the pain while the potion heals him." Fiora measured the ingredients carefully, reducing the concentration of the potion but keeping everything proportional. With strong alcohol from Silver Drop's medicine pouch, it took little time to create the infusion. As soon as Fiora was certain the potion was ready, Silver Drop grasped it in her hooves and showed it to Aeduard. Other fighters watched carefully. They may not have known much about medicine, but they were all fighters and had been on the receiving end of a doctor's touch. "I'm pretty sure this'll taste like the worst thing in the world, but it can heal you," Silver Drop told him. She was about to put the flask to his mouth when his hoof stopped her. "Fiora's warning still stand." His voice was quiet, nevertheless he still spoke with a leader's conviction. "I'm not afraid of dying. But I don't want this to fail and have it be on your conscience." "Well it won't," Silver insisted. "Just drink." He took the flask from her. "Whatever happens from now on, go back to where you came. No army needs a doctor who never went to a medical school, and it's only a matter of time before your talent isn't enough." He looked down the neck of the flask, raising it slowly to his mouth. His eyelids slammed shut as his whole face grimaced at the taste, but he drank it all until the flask ran dry. He showed the empty glass to Silver. "Neither a choice nor a life can be taken back. Go to school and learn what choices are the right ones." Silver Drop nodded. "Fine. But right now I'm still your doctor, and I say you need to rest. No point proving your masculinity anymore, you've been injured just like the rest of your stallions." There were chuckles all around from the bystanders. Even Aeduard managed a smile and whispered back to Silver. "Battle scars are badges for stallions. I might live to show off the best ones." He closed his eyes and smiled while he rested, taking the last word with him. Silver Drop and Fiora packed up their equipment and went to the upper deck to catch a breath of air. The smoldering corpse of a harbor burned away as they sailed. Even if the Admiral wanted to send his remaining ships after them, no pony could get to them. The other ships were ahead, signaling each other with flags, communicating where to go to regroup and switch over ponies who were on the wrong ship. Some of Aeduard's fighters were on Navier's ship, and Fiora spotted at least one of Navier's sailors on the ship she was on now. "You can't let your feelings get in the way of judgement," Fiora told Silver Drop after a calm moment of the ocean breeze. "What's that?" Silver turned her head. "Best case scenario, Aeduard recovers completely with no side effects," Fiora explained. "But that won't change the fact that you acted on the impulse of your emotions." Silver tilted her head and gaped at Fiora. "I'm sorry if I challenged your professional opinion about potions, but I have a duty to any pony who needs help." "And that includes weighing the costs." Fiora stood her ground. Silver Drop gawked at Fiora, unable to believe what she was hearing. "He was going to die. Where's the harm in giving him a chance to live?" "And what about when it's not such a simple decision?" Fiora tilted her head, showing a mostly healed scar left by one of her early contracts. "This, on a pony, could kill them if treated wrongly. The world isn't filled with clear decisions, and our emotions muddle it further." Silver Drop scoffed at Fiora, refusing to take it. "Like you know so much about feelings. Maybe I didn't want him to die, but what doctor does? If I didn't give my best here, how could I go back to Neighagra and become a doctor knowing I didn't fulfill my duty?" Fiora felt Silver Drop seething, much angrier than the gentle herbalist she seemed to be on the outside. "And if you want to talk about being rash, maybe take a look in the mirror the next time you assume. There's nothing between us." Fiora found that a little hard to believe. "You're miles from any semblance of home, and he's the pony you choose to focus on. What am I supposed to think of that?" "I prefer my side of the field. I just admire Aeduard because, unlike Monster Hunters, I have the freedom to take sides. The Far Coast is my home, and he's fighting for a piece of it." She stormed off the deck and went back to the bunks where the other fighters were recovering. Fiora took herself to the front of the ship. Silver Drop had a youthful fire to her, that much was certain. And she was right in this case--Aeduard was a dead pony anyway. But Fiora still worried. Young doctors too eager to please were bad enough. They followed their mentors to the letter and found it hard to be independent. But those too eager to prove? They always tried to reach independence too quickly. Fiora looked over to Navier's ship and saw Sharp Tone waving at her. She spread her wings and waved back. Sharp Tone yelled something, but the ocean wind carried the sound away, and Fiora could only laugh while Sharp Tone kept shouting harder and harder. From below deck, another voice shouted in pain. It was a clear sign that the potion had begun to work. ============================================================= "What in Equestria is happening to him?" One of his lieutenants barked at Silver Drop to hurry back, all the while restraining Aeduard's shaking body. "The potion uses the magic from specter essence to heal," Fiora explained, pushing aside the lieutenant and casting some simple mental magic on Aeduard to quell the pain. "But the essence only works on ponies after it's been exposed to a specific enzyme that binds the magic to the body." "So why is he in pain if it's healing?" worried the lieutenant. "The enzyme is toxic to ponies," she replied. The pony stormed at Fiora, his enraged breath nearly at her face. "You poisoned our leader?" She waved his concern away and focused on maintaining mental spell on Aeduard. "I warned you all this would happen." "Warned us what would happen?" Silver Drop entered, wiping her hooves clean with a dish towel and tossing away a bloody bolt head. "What's happening to Aeduard?" "His body wasn't trained to take in the infusion effectively," Fiora lectured Silver. "It's fighting inside him, killing and healing him at the same time." "How do we stop it?" Silver asked. "Drug him," she answered. "Anything to reduce the pain." "Will everseed work?" Silver offered, but the look on Fiora's face gave her an answer. "Everseed makes creatures drowsy by sapping the latent magic from their bodies. It'll only take away the potion's magic, killing Aeduard in the process." Fiora loosened her magic, straddling the line between hallucination and relaxation spells, so that it was just enough to take Aeduard's mind off the enzymes devouring his insides. Keeping a gentle stream of magic on Aeduard, Fiora reached into Silver Drop's saddlebag and produced her satchel of herbs. "You must have collected some Pixie's bark rose from the woods." Fiora rummaged through the satchel until she produced a small bundle of flowers. The parasitic flower, which burrowed into the sides of trees, were common in the denser forests of Equestria and made effective narcotics. Fiora took the flower petals and ground them into four little piles, placing two at each side of Aeduard's head. With a spark of magic, and a little bit of alcohol drizzled in, the petals started to slowly burn. "What did that do?" Aeduard's lieutenant wiped the sweat from his commander's brow, feeling the heat on his skin. "Bark rose has strong effects on the mind," Silver Drop jumped in before Fiora could reply. "It's used by sages and druids to enter a relaxed, almost trance-like state." "Change the flowers when the smoke starts to thin out," Fiora added. "Other than that, enjoy the ride and wait to see how his body handles the infusion." Fiora heard sailors on the main deck calling out to each other, signalling toward a cove where they could trade their passengers. Fiora needed to get back to Bovinus, return and see how Geiss was dealing with her magic. Hopefully Island Hopper managed to get her a new, more comfortable, necklace. She stepped into the sea air once more, now in hearing range of Sharp Tone, who was cracking jokes with Navier and a couple other sailors. The other stolen ships had already dropped anchor and were lowering rowboats to transport ponies to their right ship. "Master Monster Hunter!" called out one of Navier's sailors, getting ready to untie their own rowboat. "Mind lending a hoof? A spear cracked one of the wheels on the pulley, but your magic could fix it in no time. Already got the new pieces." He pointed to a circular piece of metal at his hooves. Fiora obliged and lifted the metal piece, switching it out for the pieces of metal that once operated the pulley. It was thick and heavy, but definitely too brittle to take more than a few hits. After the clash at the harbor, no pony should have been surprised that it broke. "Ready to head home?" As soon as she said it she caught herself. Where was home? The Golden Hills certainly wasn't it. Geiss and Argent came close, but Fiora had never thought of Bach Kha'morhgen as a home before, and Argent Ploja was almost always there. Wherever it was, it certainly didn't include Stranglethorn or Thesa. The sailor chuckled. "Been to every port in Midshore and the South Coast. It all starts to feel like home." "Make sense," Fiora shrugged, agreeing only that it was a valid view. For her, there had to be an anchor. Every place she went to couldn't be a home. Something, Fiora realized, was drawing her to Bovinus. She helped the sailors lower the boat and watched as Navier's ship did the same. A little hop between ships and she was on her way back, though to what, Fiora couldn't be sure.