Once the shrieking and frantic shielding of faces with hands had died down, everyone looked through the new hole in the room. On the other side, a guard in the livery of the Duchy of Manehattan, ragged and covered in soot and dust, grimaced.
“Sorry, Your Grace, the riots have escalated. They’ve got their hands on fireworks and explosives from somewhere, we’re abandoning the gates,” he said.
Duchess Muffins bit her lip, eyes distant. “The staff, are they safe?” the woman asked. The front of her simple dress was caked in plaster, and rubble lay strewn at her feet, but her focus was ever on the wellbeing of others.
Twilight nodded to herself, her doubts fading by the minute. This was clearly a woman thrust beyond her depth, but not incapable of learning to swim.
She tuned back into the conversation too late to hear the guard’s response, but from the setting of the Duchess’ shoulders she assumed things could be worse. Instead she looked to her own charges. Captain Sunrise was unrattled, and both Starlight and Rarity had seen worse not long ago. Rainbow and Sunset, however, were breathing heavily. Twilight turned to face them.
“How are you two holding up?”
Rainbow’s hand was tight around the neck of her guitar, but her voice, tight as it was, remained steady. “Still good. I did sorta do the same to the other wall, right?”
Sunset smiled. “Just surprised. I’m usually the one making the explosions happen. I’d seen the crowds when we were sneaking in, but they just seemed angry. Not… violent.”
There was awkward shuffling for a moment as the sounds of the crowd washed over everyone. As the castle shook, something sprang to the front of the Princess’ mind. “Say, Duchess, you mentioned that there were scary guards outside?”
“Oh, yes!” the Duchess nodded fervently. “They’re not my guards, I don’t know where they came from. Mine look more like, ah–” She gestured towards Big Macintosh, standing in the grays and browns and gold of her House. “The new ones come in gray and red and yellow, and they aren’t from any noble House I recognise.”
A look at the gathered people revealed that they had no more idea where the colours came from than Twilight did, so she decided to move on. One thing at a time, until something could be crossed off the list. “We should get somewhere safer. Any ideas?”
The Duchess looked like she was gathering her thoughts, but her guard beat her to it. “We can take the staff passages to the emergency exit. No-one else should know about it,” Big Mac said. “Might be a bit of a squeeze, but it won’t have no interruptions.”
“Excellent, thank you, Mac,” Duchess Muffins said. “Oh, I just know this could have been avoided somehow… what could I have done differently?”
“No point worrying now, Your Grace,” rumbled Big Mac, shouldering his gun. He lowered his eyes apologetically as Rarity flinched and went to nurse her side. “Time to move.”
The group went ahead behind the Manehattan guard, pausing only to watch him expertly tease aside a painting to reveal a narrow, padded hallway within the wall. It was in dead silence save their own breaths that they continued to follow, wincing at the occasional impact that shook the tower around them.
Princess Twilight had wound up walking just behind the Duchess, and noticed her nervous fidgeting. With nothing better to do, she spoke quietly. “What was it you wanted to ask me for help with, Duchess?”
“Ah!” The woman jumped, then slumped. “Right. As you might have heard, I, ah, didn’t really come into this position on purpose? I’ve only been the Duchess of Manehattan for some months.”
Twilight nodded. She tried to keep abreast of the changing interests of most major regions of Equestria, and the chaotic circumstances behind the death of the previous Duchess had raised many eyebrows in the court of Canterlot. If Muffins had indeed masterminded such a farce, she was a supremely skilled actress. Still… she sounded far too lost and willing to rely on Twilight.
“One of my first goals was to work together with local organisations to help those less fortunate. I did my research and paid a few visits to prospective partners in this endeavour, and I quickly found a few. It just turns out that most of them are also run by the crime families. So now I have to work very closely with them on account of my generous donations and they’re genuinely more effective than most of the noble Houses I’ve had to deal with so I’m completely lost. I don’t want to be a criminal, Princess!”
The young Duchess was shaking by the end of her speech, but still doggedly putting one foot in front of the other. Twilight could appreciate the problem, having had to deal with unsavoury individuals before (usually through the proxy of Agent Glimmer, if she could help it.) They were genuinely driven people, most of the time, and uncannily resourceful. None of Canterlot would admit it, but they also effectively ran Manehattan.
“It sounds like you’re aware already, which is a good first step. Luckily we have had similar situations before, Duchess, so we won’t be going in blind. If anything, a crime family loyal to the Crown is an asset,” Twilight reassured.
Muffins sighed in relief, and craned her head back. “There’s more, though, Princess,” she said, “the rest of the families think it was a deliberate choice. It’s a high chance they’re involved in the riots.”
“Would that explain the guards?”
The Duchess paused to think, barely remembering to keep moving as Twilight began to bump into her. “Not at all, Princess. That would only happen with another House making a claim for the Duchy. Except all the Houses have different colours than the guards inciting the crowds.”
“Well, at the very least we can help you diversify your connections and bring in more help from the outskirts, loosen the hold of the families in Manehattan,” Twilight offered. She was vaguely aware of the confused muttering of the displaced Rainbow Dash behind her, and Sunset’s hushed crash course on the political arrangements and dynamics of this particular dimension.
They continued in a comfortable rhythm as the Princess outlined some of the steps they could take to consolidate Muffins’ control and help the less fortunate that were so oft overlooked in the massive city. Eventually everyone came to a halt when Big Mac used his impressive height to signal over his head. He pulled on the wall and stood attentively as it swung outwards, whisper-silent.
Everyone filed out of the narrow passage and onto a small lawn by a stream, scant paces from a bridge across to the main city. Twilight turned, intending to ask about a safehouse that they could commandeer for the moment, when Starlight Glimmer and Strawberry Sunrise raised their voices in overlapping shouts of caution.
There was a grunt from Big Mac, and the feeling of magic washed over the Princess. The large man had been brought to his knees, and as her senses cleared she sensed another charge being built up. Whirling around even as she crouched, Twilight saw a woman with silver hair shouting as she dove from the bridge, magic slowing her fall and propelling her towards the group. Raw, unfocused blasts of mana flew at them, all swept aside by Starlight. The second volley was even easier, as Sunset had recovered her wits and Twilight was already weaving layer after layer of protection over her immediate surroundings.
The silver-haired woman landed and sent forth a net of air, tripping up both a charging Rainbow Dash and an unsteady Big Macintosh. Agent Starlight, ever the professional, simply divided the lattice before herself and swept in close, one hand pushing the assailant’s hand from its pattern and the other slamming the magic limiter home around her neck. A choking, spluttering sound came from her mouth as Starlight brought the woman to the ground.
“Princess, she passed out as soon as I engaged the limiter. Something’s not right,” Starlight called.
“Let me take a look,” Twilight said, eyes and other senses surveying the area. “There’s no other threats right now.”
Motioning to the others to stay put, she approached the unconscious woman she now definitively recognised as Trixie Lulamoon.
“Oh, Trixie, how did you get mixed up in this?” she whispered. She turned the woman onto her back and gasped. Her clothes were rough, red and gray and yellow, and on her breast was a sigil she had thought long buried.
The Fang of Chaos.
She looked up at her most trusted agent. “He’s grown more influential than we’d feared.”
Starlight nodded, her face tight at seeing her dear friend so clearly under compulsion.
“We can’t afford a safehouse now, He must be at the centre of this, Manehattan will only be the beginning.”
It appeared that her confusing feelings for Rarity would continue to wait. This was no longer a botched diplomatic visit, it was a far grander threat.