//------------------------------//
// Chapter 25: The Part Where We’re Fucked 
// Story: Papers, Ponies, and Attitude 
// by Yellowtail 
//------------------------------//

I stand in front of the usual entrance to the Border, taking in the scenery of the other side of the giant stone walls. I never really looked beyond the Border walls too much, and I never noticed how peaceful it looks. The wall of the Border faces north, towards a line of mountains. In front of the Border, is a large dock, resting to the right of a train station. The right side of the train station turns north, with the tracks going into a tunnel into a mountain about a mile away. Going west, the left side of the train station's tracks go into an open plain away from the Border. The fields are a sort of wheat color, having a darker hue due to the grey clouds above us. I find it strange that the weather is cloudy yet again. The grey mountains are topped with snow from what I can see. Farther up north, I can barely see a few yak-made trails going up and into the mountain. They are certainly wide enough to fit troops or wagons of equipment through. I keep my eyes out, scanning the fields, mountains, and sea as I smoke my cigarette. It's been a day, and very little has been seen. The weather ponies never took the clouds away, the train station never received any trains, and not a single ship has been spotted. I sigh as I stretch my back. My crossbow is leaning on the wall next to me, still loaded and cocked for anything strange. I didn't sleep last night, but coffee has helped me through the time.

Suddenly, I hear the clattering of armor, signalying marching soldiers. I instantly pick up my weapon and point it around. However, the only thing to greet me is a regular Royal Guard, who exits out of the room to see me pointing a weapon at him. "Don't shoot!" He cries, freezing as he sees me. I sigh and lower my weapon.

"Report," I say, recomposing myself. The guard clears his throat and visibly relaxes.

"Sir, Spearhead asked me to report to you that nothing of interest has been spotted."

"Any news from Segway?" I ask. 

"No sir." 

"Great," I mutter. Spearhead had decided to make three patrol parties to scout out into the fields and mountains. They each have at least one unicorn that can send messages to us. They'll write a letter and teleport it to a designated spot. They'll only report if anything was seen or heard, but they'll check in with us every two hours. It's not the second hour yet, so I didn't really expect anything. 

Yesterday, after the speech I made, I was given a head count. Five hundred Royal Guard, two hundred Earth Ponies, two hundred pegasi, and one hundred unicorns. We have two hundred allied mobs, fifty earth ponies, thirty pegasi, ten unicorns, fifty five griffons, five Minotaurs, and fifty hippogriffs. In total, seven hundred. I don't know how Spearhead divided up the troops, but I trust that he can handle it. Though, I had to step in when Lighter and Spearhead started butting heads. After a few choice words, I made sure they won't strangle each other for the moment. 

"Sir, do you want me to go make sure again?” He asks. This guard in particular is a runner for Spearhead, Lighter, and myself. We’d use our radios, but they have been a little finicky and unreliable recently. We can’t even use the walking-talkies. 

“No, go to Lighter and see if he needs anything,” I say. The guard salutes and runs off. I sigh and return my attention to the possible entry points for the enemy army. Currently, there are a number of Pegasus archers keeping watch with me, among the clouds, but I can’t see them. I set my weapon back where it was and resume watch. I silently feel glad that nothing has been reported. I doubt that our impromptu army is going to do well after all. From what I can tell, we have a few veterans, but most of the soldiers we have are fairly new. 

I simply keep my eyes open for anything strange or out of the ordinary. Now that I think about it, I have this bad feeling in my gut, like something’s wrong and I don’t know it yet. I look around again, trying to catch even the most minuscule of details by squinting my eyes.

Something’s wrong. I can feel a subconscious panic rising up, but I don’t know why. I look around again, trying desperately to see what’s wrong. I suddenly realize that I see something out in the plains. I hurriedly pick up my crossbow. “Hey, whoever’s an archer, try to fly up and identify the-“

“It’s the scouts!” A pegasus guard yells from above, sounding happy. I let out a sigh of relief and lower my weapon. As the figures come closer, I can see the camouflaged armor that was outfitted for the ponies wearing them. I smile in relief as I can see how many came back, but I drop it when I see that none of them look happy. Segway, the leader of the group, rushes up to me as he gets closer.

“Anon! Anon, this is bad!” He yells, sounding panicked.

“W-what!? What’s wrong!?” I ask. He skids to a halt in front of me, panting. 

“T-there’s- there’s a-“ he keeps stopping to catch his breath.

“Is the army here!?” I ask. He shakes his head.

“W-worse!” He says, still panting. “Shield- t-thing-“ a fellow guard finally walks up to me, after catching up.

“Sir, we’re in a dome,” he says. My eyes go wide.

“Excuse me, what?” I ask.

“We’re trapped!” Segway yells, finally catching his breath. “We’re all trapped!”

“What do you mean we’re all trapped!?” I yell back, shaking him.

“S-Sir, uh, do you recall the Royal wedding of Canterlot?” One guard asks. I give him a confused as fuck look. 

“The fuck does a wedding have to do with this!?” I ask loudly. 

“Captain Shining Armor created a force-field with his magic, protecting the city from outsiders during his wedding.” The solider looks up with a hint of fear. “I heard that it’s also good at keeping things on the inside.” Just like that, I understand what’s happened.

“How big is it?” I ask. Segway looks up at me with pure terror.

“As far as we know, it covers the entirety of Manehatten,” he says, trembling. “Another scout group was assigned to following the dome’s edge, but they haven’t come back.”

“When did they leave?” I ask.

“About two o’clock this morning,” another guard says. 

“Shit,” I say, panicking. “Uh, is there a chance that an ally of ours is doing this?”

“Sir, this type of enclosure would be publicly announced,” a guard says. “This is not a friendly move.”

“Shit,” I say, pacing as I try to think of what to do. “Shit, shit, shit!” Shit just went from zero to ten real fucking quick. 

“Sir, should I try to call reinforcements?” A different guard asks. I look over to see that he’s a unicorn. I nod.

“Yes, try to send a message to any outpost-“

“It won’t work.” Everyone stops to look at the guard who previously spoke. “The field blocks magic from interacting with it, or going through it.” I feel my jaw drop as I process what he just told me. After a few minutes, I can only say one word.

“Fuck.”

“Sir, we also have something else to report,” yet another guard says. I face palm as I turn to him.

“The fuck is it now?” I ask tiredly.

“We spotted enemy scouts, north of here.” The guard swallows audibly. “Two dragons, and a Minotaur.” I sigh in frustration and look around me. 

“Alright, uh...” I trail off as I try to think of what to do. What the fuck am I supposed to do!? I mumble a few words to myself before sighing. “Let’s head inside, we’ll need to gather everyone up for a meeting.” All the soldiers salute and rush to get inside. Segway, though, stays in front of me, trembling. I can see that he finally caught his breath, but he’s now deep in thought. “Segway, let’s go,” I say, after waiting for him to move. He looks up at me with wide eyes before speaking.

“A-Anon?” He asks. “W-will I die?” The question catches me off guard, and I look at him with surprise. He’s not looking at me, but rather at the ground.

“... You’ll be fine,” I say uneasily. He looks up at me with a hint of fear. “Just, don’t do anything stupid.” To that, Segway gives a hollow chuckle.

“I-I think it’s a little too late for that,” he says. However, after a couple seconds he nods before looking back up at me. “Welp, if I die, it has been an honor serving with you.” Before I could say anything, he stops me. “I just want you to know, that I’m still grateful for the chance you gave me. I’ll do everything I can to repay my debt.” With that, he marches confidently inside as I stare after him. I put my hands to my face as I try to calm down.


I sigh as I get to the mic in my office in the office building. We hurriedly installed it for the ease of convenience. “Ahem, attention all soldiers, we have a big problem. The scouting team came back, and it’s been reported that a giant dome has encased the city of Manehatten,” I say. “We’re not fully aware of how big it is, but we have a general guess that it covers a wide area. Their enemy scouts were spotted, so we believe there will be an attack soon.” I lean back to give out a shuddering sigh before leaning in. “I don’t know when, and I don’t know how, but they’ll attack. We will... We’ll...” I trail off as I take another breath. “... Please stand by for orders. On that note, Spearhead, Lighter, come to my office.” I lean back and rub my face with my hands. 

This is too much. We’re already screwed, I can tell. My office door opens with the two people I requested. They’re both panicking. “Anon, was what you said true?” Spearhead asks.

“... Yes,” I say. 

“Human, is... is it true that everyone in Manehatten is trapped?” Lighter asks. 

“... Most probably,” I say. 

“W-what are we going to do?” Spearhead asks. 

“... Spearhead, we’ll need to tell the people in the city,” I say. However, before I can say anything else, I hear the door to the office building open. 

“Does anyone know where the manager is!?” A voice calls. I sigh.

“In here! Who is it?” I ask. Spearhead steps aside as Lighter scowls. Walking in, a slightly buff cream-colored pony with a blue uniform walks into view. I can see his police badge on his vest and hat. 

“Um, hey, I’m Glancey,” he greets nervously. “Uh, There’s a-“

“Yes, we’re aware of the dome over the city,” I say tiredly.

“O-oh, is the city supposed to have it?” He asks.

“No, we don’t know who’s generating it,” I answer. 

“Oh, oh no,” he replies. “Is there anything we can do to help?” I start to shoo him off, but I stop.

“Actually, yes, there is something you can do,” I say, getting an idea. “Go back to the station and send out as many officers as you can. Please, try to take everyone into a safe place like a shelter or subway tunnel. Make sure to pack supplies like food and water for everyone.” The officer looks at me with confusion.

“W-why?” He asks. 

“It’s better if you just make sure no one goes out until the all clear, okay?” The police officer looks between me and the two other ponies in the room.

“Is- is there an invasion?” He asks. I groan out loud.

“For fuck’s sake, this is a military operation, just go!” I yell, making him jump in shock before scrambling to leave. I sigh as I look at my desk. Things just got a hell of a lot more complicated, but if police training is going to amount to anything, it’ll at least ensure safety for civilians. I rub my face again as I lean back in my chair, hearing the door close as the officer leaves the building. “Okay, right, so we have an army coming to attack us, we have no way of communicating to the outside world, we’re probably vastly outnumbered and outgunned, and now, we’re trapped in here with them.” I throw my hands up, scaring Spearhead and Lighter as I yell, “Oh this is fuckin’ great!”

“Calm down Anon, we can get through this,” Spearhead says cautiously. 

“Yeah, you need to remember, we still have a chance,” Lighter says.

“Yeah, a chance,” I say. Suddenly, a guard rushes in, bursting into the office.

“Sir! We have company!” He says. 

Spearhead and Lighter instantly scramble out of the building as I try to follow them. The moment we’re outside, I call down a pegasus archer. “Headcount!” I yell.

“Uh, four Minotaurs Sir!” The guard replies. I frown. It’s probably an attempt at parley, or it’s a cocky threat. “One of them is holding his arms up, I think they want to talk!” I sigh as I think of what to do. I shrug as I figure that I might as well hear them out.

“... Let me go out!” I call. 

I walk outside of the wall, meeting the enemies as they walk up. They’re in an arrow-like form, the leading Minotaur had grey skin and fur, and red eyes. Very edgy. “The fuck do you shitlords want?” I ask.

“Greetings Equestrian,” the leading minotaur says. “We have come to negotiate your surrender.”

“Hold up, who said anything about a surrender?” I ask. The Minotaurs grin.

“Please, don’t be stupid,” he says. “Your soliders are outnumbered from what we’ve seen. You’re not going to last two hours against our forces. Please, do us all a favor and don’t waste our time. If you surrender, we will make everyone’s death painless.”

“Kinda dishonorable to fight us, you know,” I say, making the Minotaurs drop their grins. “I mean, if you’re really gonna kick us while we’re down, wouldn’t that bring shame for such a dishonor?” All the Minotaurs grumble.

“We know, and we wish we could do something.”

“What’s stopping you?” I ask. The Minotaur leading the group frowns.

“Our King, we have found out, is at stake. A pony has been controlling him since the beginning of this war,” he says. “We found out yesterday, when the pony made the dome around your city. Currently, she’s negotiating the surrender of this city with your Princesses.”

“So, why don’t you all gang up on this voodoo-bullshit-using bitch?” I ask.

“She hid the King, and promises to kill him if we fail to follow any further orders she makes,” he responds, sounding angry. “It’s humiliating, to find that we have to be pawns in her war, a war we don’t even want anymore.”

“Why’s the King so precious to you guys?” I ask. “I know it’s kind of a bad question, but-“

“King Redfur has done many things for Minotaurs!” The Minotaur yells. “He United us once more, whilst we were divided by petty differences! Do not ever suggest he is worthless!”

“Alright, sorry man! Geez,” I say. The Minotaur huffs.

“The pony says you have three days to make the choice to surrender.” I glare at him as he speaks. “After that, the pony will start making negotiations with the Princesses to release the city.” The Minotaur’s eyes squint at my unchanging expression. I merely keep my glare. “I suggest you pray that the Princess is quick, the pony wants us to keep attacking you until the city is released.” With that, he signals for the other Minotaurs to leave. As they leave, I let my face contort to panic as I rush back inside. The moment I step back out to the other side of the wall, I see a crowd of soldiers that were apparently listening in. One of them steps up.

“Um, sir? What do we do?” He asks. I look around at everyone as I process the situation. On day three, we’ll be attacked, and the princesses can start trying to negotiate the release of Manehatten. That could take some time, depending on what the ‘pony’ wants. After I stand around for a minute, I say the only thing that comes to mind.

“We’re fucked...”


Whisk frowns as she serves up a shot glass for another patron. She has a bad feeling, and she doesn’t know why. Everyone’s been pretty friendly, and the weather was relatively fine. She’s a little confused about why the weather-Ponies didn’t change the clouds, but she figures it’s a change of schedule. As she thinks to herself, the door opens with a police pony walking in. “Excuse me everyone! May I have your attention please?” He calls. “We are all under a mandatory city-wide lockdown of sorts. Please follow road signs and instructors as they guide you to shelter!”

“What the hell are we going to a shelter for?!” A patron asks.

“W-well, stay calm, but there’s a dome over the city!” The police pony says. Whisk’s eyes go wide, along with everyone else’s. “The military has instructed civilians to please go to the shelters and remain calm! The military is taking care of everything!” Whisk’s mind races as she hears all this. What’s going on? Is Anon safe? Why is there a dome over the city!? She hurriedly looks over everyone.

“You heard him everyone! Finish up your drinks and start heading out, the bar’s closed now!” She calls. She hears some of the drunks groan, but they start sipping their liquor a bit faster. “Please be safe Anon,” Whisk mutters to herself as she start hurriedly packing up glasses and bottles...


It’s midnight. The Border is lit up like a Christmas tree as armored ponies and punk-dressed mob members scurry around to account for weapons and supplies. The sky isn’t really visible due to the clouds. The scout team that Segway sent this morning finally came back a couple hours ago. They found the enemy army, and we all deflated when we heard what the scouts describe it as. Massive. Simply massive. According to them, the army easily doubles ours, with the mafia included. Spearhead went off to re-organize troops, Lighter is off to convince his buddies not to leave, and I’m sitting in the Checkpoint’s office building, having a vague idea of what to do. I groan out loud and hit my head on to the desk. Suddenly, I hear a siren. My head shoots up, my eyes going wide, recognizing the heart-stopping sound. 

Bombing. 

I grab the mic on my desk. “Attention all soldiers! Please head inside buildings! Initiate anti-bombing procedures! Archers, start letting arrows fly!” I yell. As soon as I was done, an explosion shakes the room. I quickly rush under my desk to try and protect myself. Why are they bombing us!? I thought we had three days! Suddenly, a letter appears beside me. I grab it and quickly unroll it to read. 

‘Can’t hit- High Altitude’

I feel my eyes bulge as I see the words. High altitude bombing is not really counterable for us, the range our archers have is too short for that. Granted, they could go to the sky, but they’re not equipped for high altitude fighting. I imagine that the ones doing the bombings are dragons, since they have thick scales and can naturally fly much higher altitudes than pegasi. I toss the letter away and try to stand up for the mic. “Change of plans, retreat back into the sturdier buildings of the Checkpoint!” I yell. I go back under the desk and squeeze my eyes shut as I feel the heavy thuds and hear the explosions. 

It feels like it’s been hours since it started. I’m starting to feel cramped as I hide for my life under my desk. I would get messages from Spearhead and Lighter, they’re not certain if everyone’s fine, but the majority are. I continue to wait for the incessant bombing to stop as I stare at the inner wall of the desk. I’m used to the shaking now, and I’m starting to wonder what the fuck the dragons are trying to hit. Suddenly, the shaking stops, and all is silent. I slowly and cautiously poke my head out to try to look out the window. Everything seems deceptively normal. I crawl out and walk out the office. I exit the building and frown. There are big holes everywhere, they seem to be roughly six feet wide. As far as I can tell, they weren’t really aimed well. Some buildings were hit, but the holes are scattered across the ground. I sigh and go back inside. I head to the mic on my desk and lean in. “The coast is clear, I believe the bombings have stopped.” I sigh as I sit back down. After about half an hour, I hear the door open and I look up to see Spearhead.

“Anon, we have eight of our soldiers dead.” I frown at the news and start shaking my head as I rub my temples.

“Dammit, I thought we’d get three days to prepare, but I guess they want to make sure that doesn’t happen.” I hear some stomping hooves and sigh. 

“Human!? Where are you!?” Lighter’s voice calls. “I’m calling off our support! The boys are getting restless, and this whole shindig’s not worth it!” I groan and get up. The mafia needs to stay, their help is invaluable at this point. I walk outside and almost bump into Lighter. He’s pissed. He looks up at me with a glare.

“Look, I understand this is stressful, and I understand that this was unexpected,” I start. “But please, don’t back out on us. We’re counting on your support.”

“Look buddy, Princess or not, I’m not gonna have the threat of bombs over my boys’ heads!” He scoffs as he rubs his head with a hoof. “I should’ve known better than to trust that you know what you’re doing.” I frown and cross my arms. Now this is just pissing me off.

“Well I’m sorry that I didn’t know they would do that,” I reply. “What do you want me to do, kindly ask them to stop?” I sarcastically ask. “Oh, I certainly think that could work!”

“Guys, calm down!” Segway yells, running up. 

“I agree with Sergui, you two should calm yourselves,” he says. “Judging from the where the majority of bombs landed, I would say that this is more of a fear tactic. The deaths of our men were probably just bonuses to them.” Lighter whirls around and glares at Spearhead.

“I don’t care! We’re pulling out whether your happy ass likes it or-“ I shut Lighter up by grabbing him by the jacket and lifting him off the ground. This startles everyone around us, both the guards and mafia members. I turn him to face me as he dangles in the air.

“The hell you will!” I yell, looking at him in the eyes. Lighter grits his teeth, almost biting off his cigarette.

“You wanna go buddy boy!?” Lighter yells in my face, not deterred by my pony-handling.

“ENOUGH!!!” Spearhead yells, effectively shutting us up. He runs to me, bats my hand to let go of Lighter, and gets between us before we do anything. “Anon, if they don’t want to help, don’t force them, it’ll only make things worse in the long run.” I look at Spearhead in shock, knowing that he knows the importance of their help, but I see his eyes. He perfectly understands what’s going on. “Anon, I’m angry too, but we’ll need them to be willing if you want them to help.” I stare at him for a little longer before I sigh and turn away as I drop the pegasus to the floor. Lighter coughs as he gets up.

“War or no war, I’m more concerned about my guys, not everyone else,” he says. He fixes his jacket and starts walking away. Before he gets far, I say something.

“You do realize what they’ll do, right?” I ask, never turning. This makes Lighter stop. “They’re not taking prisoners, and they’re specifically instructed not to let anyone leave alive.”

“.... What?” He asks calmly. I finally turn to him, wearing an angry expression as I recall the conversation I had with the Minotaur.

“I’m telling you, if you leave, the enemies won’t stop at killing us, they’ll hunt for civilians. If they’re hurting innocent people, they’ll sure as hell try to hurt your guys as well.” I start shaking with anger. “Now, I want you to listen, and listen closely. I don’t give a fuck if you don’t like being threatened with bombs, because they’re not going to stop at threats once they reach the city. We’re lucky they’re cocky or honorable enough to give us time, or else we’d be dead already.” I see Lighter’s wings go limp. He’s starting to understand. “I want you to tell your men this: The enemies are going to kill and destroy anything and everything in the city without hesitation. If your men have any families in the city, they better step the fuck up and help us defend, because they won’t have a chance to do that when we’re dead.” Lighter looks at me, silent for a moment.

“... If they don’t want to stay, they’ll leave,” he says. “Don’t try to stop us if that happens.” Without another word, he walks away. I sigh, exhausted from the past two days already. I run a hand down my face as I start to feel light headed. 

“Spearhead, I’m going to go sleep, wake me up if something happens,” I mumble. “Tell everyone who’s not on duty to go to bed.” I stumble back into the office building as I start looking for a cot I had set up yesterday. I set it up in my office, to the right of my desk. I don’t take off any of my clothes, and instead, I opt to just flop onto the cot itself. This, in turn, made me grunt in pain as I realized that the cot is almost as hard as the ground. However, it’s good enough to sleep on. I feel my eyelids getting heavy as I pretty much pass out...

I open my eyes to find that I’m home, in the living room, with the TV on. It’s on the news channel, but the words are sort of blurrier than usual. “Anon!” A voice calls. I look left to see Luna as she wraps her hooves around me for a bone-crushing hug. Well, it’d be bone crushing if I wasn’t in a dream. “Thank the stars, thou art fine!” She says. 

“Yep. I’m kicking,” I say. “Did you hear about the new predicament my Border’s in?” 

“Hear about it? Anon, we art panicking about it!” Luna replies. She gestures towards the TV, prompting me to look. The screen is different, showing a crystal clear picture of a large transparent dome with a blue hue to it. “We hath tried everything to get inside, but nothing works! This level of magic is beyond extraordinary!” As she speaks, I inspect the dome to see that it’s rather ridiculous how big it is.

“Damn, So we’ll be stuck defending Manehatten by ourselves then,” I mutter, shoving my hands into my dream pockets.

“W-what does thou mean?” Luna asks.

“Well, I rallied up a small army of my own, I even got the mafia to join in. Turns out, the enemy army was already here, they arrived a little more than two days ago. The dome was set up during the night, probably.” Luna’s face turns to horror. 

“Is that why no one’s been sleeping there?” She asks. “Is it due to constant panic and vigilance?!”

“Wait, no one’s been sleeping?” I ask. Luna nods. I sigh and rub my face. “Well then, thank God I told them to sleep then. No wonder why everyone’s so pissed off.”

“Anon, how many soldiers are with you? We hath heard reports of quite a few of them breaking off from the main force to join you.” I chuckle as I dream up a cigarette. I put it in my mouth as I answer.

“We have less than seven hundred troops to fight an army that’s more than twice its size.” I turn to Luna with with serious expression. “If we fail, they’ll destroy Manehatten, and kill everyone. They’re being forced to do it though, so keep that in mind.” Luna’s face contorts to terror.

“An army more than- Oh no, we didn’t think-“ Luna stops to hug me again. “We art so sorry! We art so, so sorry!”

“It’s not your fault, it’s the incompetence of ponies,” I say. “Speaking of which, tell those asshats that made the decision in the first place to shove it up their ass.” Luna nods in my chest, struggling to hold back her tears. 

“We will Anon, we will,” she says. Luna breaks away from the hug to look at me. “Anon, you shall be waking up in a moment. Take care, alright?” I chuckle as I pat her head and ruffle her mane a little.

“Don’t worry about me, I’ll be damned before I’m letting someone through the Checkpoint,” I say. She smiles tiredly at me. And suddenly, everything goes white...

I wake up to Spearhead shaking me. “Anon, there’s something you should see!” He says quickly and loudly. 

“Fucking- what?” I ask groggily.

“Minotaurs! A small army!” He calls. I shoot up from my cot. “They asked for you to come out to talk!” I hurriedly jump up and start running. I accidentally shove him out of the way as I do so. I run up to the wall, go through the doors, and come outside. I immediately stop as I see the large group of enemies before me. They’re all wielding large maces and swords. I finally realize that it’s almost the middle of the day, if the brightness is anything to go by.

“Anonymous the Human,” the leader of the group says, who I recognize as the one who talked to me last time. I quickly realized that I forgot my crossbow. Shit. “Rather bold of you to not bring any weapons.” It seems he noticed too. I recompose myself and stare him in the eyes.

“Rather bold of you to be alive,” I counter. I hear many of the Minotaurs chuckle at that statement. 

“... Good one,” the leader compliments. I cross my arms, starting to get impatient.

“What, not gonna tell us how we should’ve expected the bombings?” I ask, crossing my arms.

“Actually, that was not supposed to happen,” the Minotaur says. “The dragons were... over eager, to say the least.”

“Alright, so what was the point of you guys coming over here?” I ask. The leader clears his throat and steps up, making everyone uneasy. I hear the bows of the pegasus guards above us start straining from the arrows being drawn. I make a gesture for them to hold fire, which apparently works. I look at the Minotaur again, but stop as I see him and his group kneeling.

“We wish to join you,” he says, never looking up. I silently stare at him, slowly raising an eyebrow.

“... Excuse me?” I ask. “Is... Is this a joke?”

“No, small human, it’s a request,” the Minotaur says. 

“... What’s the catch?” I ask. He shakes his head, finally looking up.

“There is none.”

“... What about your king? You know, the one you made a big deal about?” I ask. He sighs.

“We received a message from our king as a ‘payment’ from the pony,” he explains. I notice his emphasis on payment, like it was supposed to be sarcastic. “Not only did he say he’s fine, but he gave us words of encouragement.” I quirk an eyebrow at this. “He told us that he was ashamed. Ashamed of his fall, and of ours.” I notice his fists clench as he talks. “He talked of how we were true warriors from ages past, warriors that would not dare lay down their sword for simplicities of gold or fortune. No, we had done it for the weakest of us, for the ones that could not walk with us or join us in battle.” He looks at me with determination in his eyes. “We had done it for our own, even if our numbers were few, we fought for them.” He looks down with a hint of shame. “I realized that you are currently doing that now. I wish I could ask the King for forgiveness for the choices we made.”

“Wait, what choices?” I ask. I can see him frown a bit more. 

“The choice of going along with this war, the choice of following this cowardly pony, and the choice of putting his life in danger.”

“How’d you do the last one?”

“By breaking off from the pony’s army,” he replies. “Luckily, enough of my men followed me to make sure I didn’t die while doing so.” All the other Minotaurs smirk in almost perfect unison, with a few giving a hearty bark of laughter.

“We feel the same Galon,” one minotaur says. To this, all the Minotaurs cheer from their kneeling positions before quickly shutting up from the leader’s glance.

“Regardless, the point is, we wish to join your army and try to defend your city,” he says. I quirk an eyebrow.

“How do you think your King would react?” I ask. The leaders frowns deeply.

“If I didn’t do this, I would never be able to look at my King in the eyes, knowing how many innocents I would have helped slaughtered.” I hum in acknowledgement and rub my chin. I don’t entirely trust them, but their eyes are pleading and yet determined. I sigh and gesture them to follow me. 

“Alright, come on, I’ll take you to another entrance that’s big enough for all of your soldiers,” I say, turning to the right to start walking.

“Thank you, Human,” the leader says, getting up with the rest of the Minotaurs.

“Don’t mention it. Now, you’ll have to talk to Spearhead when we get inside, you and him will sort out your men. Sound good?”

“Yes,” he says, walking fast to catch up to me. “Thank you for this chance.”

“Seriously don’t mention it, I might regret it later.”