//------------------------------//
// Chapter 19: War Reparations 
// Story: Ungrounded 
// by Lucien Chance 
//------------------------------//

	It had stopped snowing in Ponyville. The clouds above had cleared, revealing a cold blue sky. A chilling wind wound its way through the buildings and buffeted Lucien's thick jacket. "I really wish that spell applied to all aspects of the weather. It's friggin' cold out here!" he half-whispered. He held up his hand and summoned a small flame to keep warm.

The human and five accompanying ponies walked through the layer of snow that had blanketed the streets and roads of Ponyville. They were making their way to the most defensible position in town, a large hill that looked over the park. They hadn't encountered any Filth along the way, something that seemed a little strange to Lucien. "'The Filth is characterized by great numbers,'" he quoted in his mind, "so where are they?" He shrugged mentally.

After a minute of walking, they reached the hill and quickly ascended it. Once they were at the top, Lucien stretched his back and groaned, then he began to do a few quick stretches. While he was reaching to grab his left leg, he felt several pairs of eyes on his behind, and he turned around quickly, only for each pony to look away in a different direction. Except for Pinkie Pie. She just kept on staring at him. "What are you looking at?" he asked.

"What are you doing, is more like it. You look like an idiot," Rainbow Dash said, cracking a smile.

"Rule #18, Rainbow Dash," Lucien said as he continued his routine stretches, "Limber Up." He finished and stood to face them once again. "I'm not going to be caught out there because I got a cramp in my leg or some equally ridiculous sprain. The Filth hasn't gotten me before, and it won't get me now."

The five ponies adopted a look of consideration, before they all somewhat hesitantly began doing stretches of their own, if a bit awkwardly.

Lucien chuckled. "Not so much of an idiot now, am I?" he taunted teasingly.

"Go stuff it," was Dash's reply between stretches.

They all limbered up for a moment longer, then Lucien interrupted. "Alright, are you all ready? Because I sure am, and the Filth sure as hell is."

Twilight looked up and glanced at the conflicted faces of her friends. They each wore a look that resembled that of false bravery. "I guess we are. What's the plan?"

"Heh. You guys are gonna love this." Without another word, he removed his backpack and started to rummage through it. After a brief second of searching, he pulled out a small metal cylinder with what appeared to be a small orange funnel on the top, along with a roll of a silvery material. Mystified, the ponies watched as he took a few steps down the hill and scooped out a section of snow with his hand.

Lucien glanced back up at the five and flashed them a smile. He took a bit of material off the silvery roll and attached it to the side of the metal cylinder. Then, just before he wrapped the around the top, he looked back up again and said, "let me play you the song of my people." An extremely annoying sound began to blare out its ungodly call to the whole town of Ponyville.

The multicolored horses covered their ears in response to the cacophony. Lucien dropped the cylinder in the hole he had dug and then covered it up again, muffling the sound enough for the ponies to take their hooves off their ears. "What was that?" Applejack asked first.

"That was an air horn with duct tape wrapped around the trigger. It'll go on like that for a good few minutes before finally dying out. Which reminds me-" he turned and pointed at where he buried the horn and his hand glowed a dark red. Hovering slightly above the snow, a circle of runes of a matching color spun rapidly for a moment before settling into a slow rotation on the spot. "There we go. Now, just wait one moment." He turned his head so that his left ear was facing the center of Ponyville. Then, right on cue, many enraged cries of anguish reached their ears. "Right on time."

"So this is the plan? Let them all come to us so we'll be overwhelmed?" Twilight interrogated Lucien.

He held up his hands in defense. "Hold your horses there missy, that's only phase one."

He took her deadpan expression as a cue to continue.

"The Filth will all come running and screaming over here, which will get them out of the bulk of the town and into one place. They'll ignore us until that horn stops going off, and then they'll probably shred it as soon as they dig it up. But, fortunately, they will have a difficult time doing that." He pointed at the red circle over the horn's burial spot. "Do you know what that is?" he asked her.

"A spell of some sort? Those look like runes so- oh. I see," she said.

"Yeah, a trap. A big, fiery trap that makes me glad there are only a few trees around here. But before they start to show up, let me tell you phase two." But before he could continue speaking, the first few Filth made their presence known on the base of the hill. "Well it took you long enough, you ugly sacks of shit!" Lucien called down to the mindless monsters.

If they heard him, they didn't show it.

"Lucien, that's hardly dignified!" Rarity said, aghast at the man's actions.

"I like to think that their Queen, wherever it is, can hear me talking. Hold on a second," he turned and cupped his hands over his mouth, "You hear that Queenie?! I'm gonna find you!" he yelled madly. He turned back to Rarity, "besides, it helps me get pumped."

Pinkie raised a hoof. "You said there was stage two, right? What's that?"

"Oh, yeah. Almost forgot about that." Lucien casually turned and raised his foot high in the air. When he stomped down, six wooden sleds popped up out of the snow. When he faced them again, they could notice slight fatigue on his face, but it brightened up again almost immediately. He waved his hands at the sleds like he was modeling fabulous prizes for a game show. "Stage two," he said.

"You can't be serious," Twilight said.

Lucien's expression told her he was serious.

The sound of a hoof connecting with a forehead could barely be heard over the sound of the air horn. "I can't believe this..."

Her friends were in similar states of disbelief. Their emotions ranged from slight excitement, to concern, to worry. "Ah'm not sure if this is the best idea," Applejack stated.

"Nonsense, it's the best idea!" Lucien exclaimed. "We're gonna have so much fun with these!"

But before he could continue, an exceptionally large column of flame erupted behind his back, setting the left arm of his jacket on fire. He patted it out almost absent-mindedly while the ponies rushed forward in a flurry to make sure he wasn't burnt. He waved them off quickly as the sound of the horn was abruptly cut off.

"Time to go, fellas, take your pick of vehicle, I'll keep them off the top of the hill for the moment." He walked to the edge of the mound they stood on and looked down at the masses of dark-stained individuals, each baying for a taste of the mage's blood.

Harmony flashed into his hands and he allowed them to spin freely for a moment while the first wave of Filth got closer to him. When they were within range, he closed his fists and threw the chakram in his left hand at the closest monster. It sliced through its neck and kept flying. After a second, it flashed back into his hand. "Cool. Seems a little bit OP, but I'll take it."

He sprinted forward and spun around, letting the blades fly from his hands and spin around his body thanks to a enchantment he had given them. The three or four Filth closest to him suddenly found that their legs were no longer below them. Lucien's face was slightly splattered by the inky substance that they bled.

When Harmony returned to his hands, they flashed and Balance came into existence in his left hand. He swung it forward and cleaved through one Filth before flipping it backhanded and slicing cleanly through another. He switched over to Chaos after the slice had ended and used the sudden momentum to spin around and slam the heavy hammer into not one but two Filth that had run up to him.

"Lucien!" a voice called from the top of the hill. The man paused in his ministrations and looked up to see that the five mares were all sitting on the sleds he had conjured up.

He jumped back and lifted Chaos up slowly, charging it up with mana quickly. He let it begin to drop and added his own force behind it. The magically-charged hammer smashed into the snow, digging in deep and leaving a thin fault line that stretched a fairly large distance to his right and left. Chaos reverted back into Balance and Lucien turned to run. 

When he reached the summit of the hill, he spun around quickly and held up a palm to face the horde below him. There was a spark, and suddenly flames burst out of the fault line, forming a wall of fire. Lucien's face flickered in the flames and illuminated his manic face. He bore the smile of a mad man, and he slowly flipped his sword on his back and held out his arms to either side. The flames before him grew larger and brighter while the Filth quickly burnt to a crisp in the magical fire.

He spun quickly to face the ponies waiting for him, still bearing the grin of a maniac. His face and clothes were streaked in dark fluids and his hair was wild. The girls flinched at the sight of him, their ears folding back against their heads. As the human walked toward them, fear was prominent among them.

Then, suddenly, he turned away from them and away from the sleds. They glanced at each others' faces momentarily in confusion. Out of seemingly nowhere, Lucien returned, in a full sprint, and jumped onto his sled. "Whoooooo-hoo! Let's go!" he hollered as he began to slide down the hill.

Twilight and Applejack shared nervous glances, then the five pushed off and began to slide down into the horde below.

They looked down to see Lucien already part of the way down, chakrams flashing from side to side and sword chopping down anything in front of him. Applejack uncoiled her chain part-way, Rarity levitated her poleaxe, Rainbow Dash unsheathed her katana and put the sheath on her back using its tie. Twilight's horn lit up and her bat hovered by her side, and Pinkie Pie cracked her hooves (somehow).

Lucien was a fearsome individual, that was certain. They had known him as a happy, fun guy for the time that he had been in Ponyville. Aside from the few incidents that had occurred, namely Bronze Gear, the Terramorphus, and the Revenant, he had stayed the happy guy that they knew and loved. The person they looked down on and had seen before; that was someone else entirely. Wild eyes, messy hair, ink-splattered clothing, maniac grin; it wasn't like anything they had ever seen before.

And he was just loving every second of it. As his kill count raised so did his energy. Each close encounter with a member of the Filth made his heart pound all the harder and his grin all the wider. His sword demolished everything in front of him in just a single swing, and his chakrams cut down everything to his left and right. When he got about halfway down the hill, he looked back to see how the girls were doing.

What he saw made his blood turn to ice.

The sleds flew by him, riderless. Without hesitation he leapt off and rolled through the snow while his momentum dissipated. He ran up the hill as fast as he could, cutting down any Filth that tried to grab at him while he dashed by. An arm caught him in his right shoulder but found no purchase on his new piece of armor.

He looked up for a moment and noticed Rainbow flying through the sky, bomb-diving members of the horde. Each pony was fighting a battle against one or two Filth, and more were steadily joining the fray. He had to act quickly.

Without hesitation he swung Chaos into a Filth Rarity was fighting, then smashed the hammer into another one about to attack on her blind side. After the two were dispatched, Rarity's poleaxe flew away and stabbed directly into another Filth preparing to attack her. Lucien shouted to her, "are you alright?!"

She responded in a steady voice, "I think I'll be fine, go help the others!"

Lucien followed her words and ran once again, this time towards Applejack, who was swinging her chair around wildly. He came up behind her and shouted, then a chakram flew out of his hand and embedded itself in the chest of a Filth. He ran forward and jumped on its chest, feet first, and it went down with the mage on top of it. He pulled the chakram out of its place and drove Balance through the Filth's head immediately afterward.

"Duck!" came Applejack's voice, cutting though the sounds of the fight, just as her chain cut through several taller Filth a moment later. The chain wrapped itself around her hoof again and Lucien faced her momentarily, each face bearing a look of respect and determination.

Lucien took off toward a pack of Filth that was approaching Pinkie, until a cry of surprise and pain was heard over the moans of the monsters. His head shot over to its origins and noticed a few flashes of blue disappearing underneath a sea of black. Lucien screamed in anger and sprinted over as fast as he could.

He swapped Balance into a back handed position and swung it into the closest Filth in the horde that had taken down Dash. It cleaved through and Lucien kept slicing. He waded further in and continued his bloody work. All he could see was black everywhere he turned, and his eyes desperately searched for the blue he hoped was hidden inside somewhere. He punched a Filth to his right and kicked another to his left. They both went down and the different blades of Harmony each embedded themselves inside their heads. They flashed back into Lucien's hands and he transformed them back into Balance.

He decapitated another two Filth with quick slashes and, suddenly, Dash was hovering before him, katana slashing dangerously close to his head. Out of reflex, Balance came up and blocked the attack. "Dash! Are you okay?" he asked as their blades locked.

The mare's coat was mussed and her hair was even more unkempt than usual. She was almost drenched in ink, even more so than Lucien. She had a slightly crazed look in her eyes, but a fighting spirit shown in them regardless. "Yeah, I'm alright, let's get 'em!"

They both spun and were back to back while the Filth regrouped in a circle around the duo. Lucien spotted Twilight and Pinkie teaming up to beat on a couple Filth slightly further up the hill. Rarity was close to them, using Applejack for support while they handled their own little horde. Satisfied with the knowledge that his friends were secure, Lucien turned his attention back to the monsters before him.

With a shout he went to work, slashing and swinging wildly, slaying great numbers of the abominations with every blow. His motions were fluid. As he would finish off a Filth in front of him with Balance, he would switch over to Harmony to kill anything within range. The process was repeated multiple times until he found himself surrounded once again. Out of nowhere Dash flew in and slashed at multiple Filth. She took off an arm that was about to bash Lucien and then removed the head of the arm's possessor.

The two tag-teamed the mobs around them. One eye was focused on the next target while the other one monitored how their counterpart was doing. Lucien put Balance through another Filth and Dash swooped in to finish it off. Sword still embedded, his head snapped to the side and he threw out his arm. Out of his sleeve flew a small dagger that dug into the neck of a Filth a ways behind him.

"Dash, fly out of here, I'll handle the rest!" he called out suddenly. Without a moment of hesitation she flew away to survey the battlefield. As she hovered she saw that Lucien was still surrounded by the bulk of the Filth, at least 25, while the rest of the girls had only three to four to deal with. A question bubbled up in the back of her mind, but it dissipated when she saw what Lucien was doing.

The mage used some pent up mana in Harmony to launch himself up high into the air. He hung there for a moment, on the same level as Dash. Then his hands flashed and Chaos appeared in them. He twirled it around his body before hurling it downward, head first.

The hammer slammed into the ground, knocking back more than several Filth initially. More swarmed in as Lucien came down quickly, his foot catching Chaos' handle, propelling the weapon up into the air slightly. He grasped it in one hand and swung it around with slight difficulty. The impact of the hammer drove through five Filth, sending them flying backwards over the horde. 

He turned his head and slid backward, the opposite side of Chaos butting into a Filth, sending it skidding away. As the rest of the monsters on that side tried to attack him, he swung downward, causing an impact of force that launched the rest of the Filth on that side.

Chaos flashed and Harmony replaced it suddenly. He twirled around and the blades followed suit, rotating around his body until he finished his rotation. He caught them both simultaneously and took a knee, breathing hard. His heart pounded fast and heavy in his chest, and he waited a few moments, listening for approaching attackers. Surprisingly enough, none came.

Lucien's head rose to scan the slanted battlefield. What he saw surprised him. All the Filth had been reduced to small piles of black gunk on the snow, and the ponies were all standing together a ways off to his right. After a few seconds, they separated, and he got a good look at their conditions.

Twilight had suffered a few scrapes and bruises, and her bat sat on the ground next to where she was standing. Both her and it were splattered with ink, and the bat was splintered a bit.

Applejack was unharmed for the most part. She hardly had any gunk on her, save her hoof, which was covered in the stuff. The reason for that being that the chain was still wrapped around it.

Rarity didn't have a single hair out of place, and she was somehow clean of any ink. Her poleaxe was sticking out of the snow, pointy end first, and it was also completely clean. "Neat freak."

Pinkie hadn't shown her bright face for most of the fight, but she seemed mostly unharmed. There was a bit of confetti stuck in her mane, which explained why there were random bits of party supplies scattered across the battleground.

Rainbow Dash had taken the worst out of all of them. Many of her feathers were rustled and out of place, her mane stuck out wildly, and she was bleeding from multiple cuts across her body. She also happened to be near-drenched in gunk. It didn't even come close to rivaling Lucien's image.

When the girls noticed the mage sitting there, each gasped, either in surprise or horror, at what they saw. His clothes were torn and bloodied, ink staining them all over. His hair looked like it had been through a hurricane. His eyes were intense and hectic, darting about the area, looking for an attack that would never come. Balance was buried halfway into the snow, his hand resting heavily on the hilt. Lucien had taken the brunt of the Filth's masses, that much was clear.

His breathing had returned to normal when Twilight approached him, her hooves sinking softly into the snow. She stopped a few feet from where he was resting. She made a quick motion to make sure the rest of her friends weren't following. "Lucien? Are you alright?" she asked softly.

His grip tightened on Balance quickly, making Twilight flinch. His eyes met the ground once again, and he heaved a few deep breaths. After a moment, his grasp relaxed, then his hand slipped off the weapon entirely. Both of his palms were set on the snow, supporting his weight along with his knees.

Then, in one motion, he pushed backwards and sat down on his bottom. His legs splayed out forward and a lazy grin crept its way across his features. "See?" He coughed to the side, spitting up a bit of ink that had found its way into his mouth. "Fun, right?" he asked the group.

"Lucien!" The ponies rushed him and tackled him over. Hooves wrapped around his midsection and he suddenly found himself in the center of a massive group hug. It lasted for a few minutes, or at least it felt like that to him. He ruffled manes and patted backs, then they all started to rise out of the snow.

When they all had regained their standing positions, Lucien looked around and noticed that each pony had tears welling up in their eyes, partially hidden under smiles. "What's wrong, guys? We won, right?" he asked, slightly confused.

"Ya had us mighty scared for a second there, Lucien. Thought ya might have gone after tearing through those monsters like ya did. Scared me, for sure," Applejack responded. The rest of the ponies nodded their assent with her statement.

His eyes met the ground again. "Yeah, sorry about that. I tend to get carried away when facing small armies of those things and such. I would call fighting them a hobby, but when it's for the survival of the human race, eh." He shrugged. "Hunting down small packs of them I do for sport though," he added.

"Well I'm just glad you're alright," Rarity said. Then, after taking note of the state of his clothing, "and look what you did to your wardrobe! All that work soiled! I'll get right to work on making you another jacket, dear. You've earned it." She flashed a winning smile at him.

"What you did was so awesome! With the hammer and just like- boom! smash! pow! You totaled those things!" After collecting the stares of the entire group, Dash calmed down and her hooves touched the ground again. "I mean- it was cool fighting with you, even though I totally could have taken them all myself."

"Right, Dash, right. I'm sure you would have been able to take out all what, thirty of them? Without any help whatsoever?" Lucien poked at her.

"Well I-" she sighed. "Yeah, you're right. You're the only one who could have done that, and I'm glad you were here," she said in a rare moment of humility.

"I agree. You saved all of us back there, Lucien, you should be proud of it just like we're proud of you. I can't even imagine how much effort it took to cast all those spells in such a short time. Gravity spells, acceleration spells, spells that upgraded impact, I still have a hard time believing your knowledge of magic!" Twilight exclaimed. "You're going to teach me some of that sometime," she added firmly.

Lucien laughed. "I don't know if you're ready for that kind of magic Twilight, it can be a little rough at times. Maybe someday I will, but not any time soon."

The mare huffed and looked away in slight irritation, then her ear twitched and she looked down the hill. "What is that?" she asked, prompting the group to look in the same direction as her.

"What?" Lucien noticed a mob of ponies steadily advancing toward them. "Oh, right. I told Spike that he should let the townsponies know that it would be safe within an hour, which is," he pulled back the sleeve on his right hand to check his watch, "three minutes ago."

The ponies reached them, Mayor Mare ahead of the pack. "Twilight? Lucien? Girls? What is going on here?" she said, her reproachful and fearful look saying more than her words.

Just as Twilight was about to speak, Lucien nudged her side, leaned down and whispered in her ear, "let me handle this."

She replied with a nod and the human stood up. He straightened his back and checked to make sure his jacket was on correctly. He ran a hand through his messy hair, causing it to not change in the slightest, and began to walk towards the mare.

"Madame Mayor," he began, raising a finger into the air like a lawyer about to make his case, "my colleges and I discovered an infestation of Filth in this fine little town of yours, and we took it upon ourselves to, well, eradicate this menace. As you can see," he swept an arm to gesture to the entire battlefield, "we succeeded, but we aren't quite finished yet." He could practically hear the confusion coming from the ponies behind him. "There is one last monster that I need to take care of before this place will be safe. It is something that I will do alone, with nopony else." The last bits were spoken after turning his head to the side slightly.

"And now, I think you and the rest of the townspeople should probably get back inside." He checked his watch quickly. "This snow is so thick I can barely see five feet in front of me!" he exclaimed.

Mayor Mare just looked completely lost. "Snow? What snow?" she asked while turning her head around wildly.

"Why, this snow!" Lucien held his arms up to the sky right on cue. His weather spell wore off and the white fluff came dumping down all around them, obscuring their vision greatly.

"I won't pretend to know how you did that, Lucien, but just know that I'll be keeping a close eye on you. Come by Town Hall later so we can speak," she said with finality before turning around and waving all the ponies back to town.

Lucien rejoined his group and began to explain. "Alright, here's the deal. I have one last thing to take care of, the Hive Queen. I suspect she's camping out somewhere in the Everfree, so I'm gonna track her down after I finish off the Filth that we just destroyed, I could always use some more practice. Any questions?" he asked.

They all began talking at once, but Lucien cut them off as soon as he realized what a bad idea that question was. "Actually, never mind, I'll just take care of it and be back in a few." He took a breath. "Oh, hold up."

He rummaged around in his bag again, reaching both arms deep inside. When they reemerged, he was cradling six small metal cylinders. "You guys can have these," he said, tossing the cans to his friends. "You'll feel better after you drink it." Each popped the tab and took a hesitant sip, then a few more as they got used to the taste sensation of the canned potion.

"What is this? It tastes super!" said Pinkie Pie.

"I modified some Red Bull. Energy drink. It'll help you recover from all that fighting, and recharges a lot of mana along with it. Took a while to get the recipe right, and more than a few sleepless nights, but the payoff was worth it. Cheers," He opened his and chugged it down rapidly. "Can't drink too many at once though. I theorize that it would give a slight case of spontaneous combustion."

Each pony grimaced slightly at his words, but drank up anyway. Soon enough, the cans were empty and retrieved by Lucien. He held each one up in his magical grasp and quickly melted them down into a ball of hot aluminum. It cooled off rapidly, then he clapped his hands over the ball. When he separated them again, it was gone.

"Now, I'm gonna go hunt down that bitch in the forest." He reached once more into his backpack and withdrew two small, black, angular objects, one in each hand. He placed them in the snow next to him and withdrew two small rectangles, then he tossed the empty can back inside. He put the small rectangles in his pockets and picked up the other objects.

"Hey, what are those?" asked Rainbow Dash, flying over.

"These," he said back unhelpfully, much to Rainbow's annoyance. He showed the weapons to the ponies. In his hands were two pistols, and in his pockets were one magazine for each.

"What are those?" asked a curious Applejack.

"Do you have firearms in Equestria yet, Twilight?" he asked, choosing to forgo Applejack's question for one of his own.

She was caught off guard by the question. "Well, about five years ago, the Griffin Empire entered Equestria and brought new forms of armor and weapons. The armor used steam power to enhance movement speed, strength, and stamina. The weapons used a black powder to fire a single projectile at extremely high speeds, high enough to cut though even the most powerful magic. Some guards use them, basic models we call flintlocks. They aren't all that effective though, and only one shot can be fired before reloading."

He glanced at her. "A simple 'yes' would have sufficed, but thank you for giving us the history of guns in Equestria," he said, causing a slight blush to rise to her face and a snicker from Rainbow. "So these are like your flintlocks, only they're smaller, faster, and have about fifteen shots before they need to reload. I'm not going to demonstrate because I have limited ammo, but you get the idea. We have other models of guns back home too. Assault rifles, 'bout thirty shots, 'bout this big," he stretched his arms out to demonstrate, "pretty powerful too. Light machine guns, anywhere from fifty to one-hundred shots, a little bigger than rifles but much heavier. Pistols, light, quick, easy to hide, something I really appreciate. And shotguns, my personal favorite. They've got some insane variations, anything from a scattershot of several bullets to a single powerful slug, to a ton of flechettes.

"I use really whatever I can get my hands on, but the guns I find don't last with me very long, nor are they that helpful against the monsters I fight. Whenever I find one I'll take it with any ammo lying around and save it for my next fight. Unfortunately, every time I run out of the ammo I find, they're useless, since I'm not going to good money on ammo I don't really need. It's great when I do find something like this because I can take a load off my magic and get the satisfaction of blowing something's head off without too much strain on my mind."

He took their variously disgusted expressions as a cue to change subject. "Anyway, I'm gonna take these and go kill the Hive Queen before she can spawn more Filth. It usually takes her about a day, so we'll be fine while I search for her." He stopped talking, put the pistols in his waistband, and shrugged off his backpack. The ponies were silent as he rummaged around. After a moment he withdrew a strange object that he proceeded to fit onto his face.

"What is that?" asked Applejack.

"A rebreather. Remember how I said the Filth uses an airborne fungus of sorts?" The ponies nodded. "This makes it so I keep breathing fresh air." His voice came out tinny and slightly electronic from the speakers in the rebreather.

"Where'd you get it?" asked Rainbow Dash.

"Hmm?" Lucien responded, zipping up his backpack after depositing several sodas. "Oh, yeah, it's just something small that I picked up from Earth. It's been through a lot with me, I'll tell ya."

"But anyway, that's enough exposition. I'm gonna go take care of this, and none of you are coming with me. Meet me back at Twilight's library in about an hour and I'll show you whatever I get for killing that bitch. Hive Queens tend to leave nice things lying around . . ." He looked around at each of the worn out faces. "Fantastic. Now go. Get some sleep if you want, you all look tired as hell."

The ponies obliged and stared to trudge down the hill. "And don't forget to pick up Fluttershy while you're at it," he hollered down.

He pulled the pistols out of his waistline and walked off towards the Everfree, intent on slaying the monster that had invaded his new home.





"It's been forty-five minutes, where is he?" Twilight asked nervously, staring at a clock. She stood near the checkout stand in the main room of the library.

"Don't sweat it, Twi, he's got this. He knows how to handle himself, I've seen it," came the retort of a laid-back Rainbow Dash. She was reclining in a small alcove next to the staircase leading to Twilight's room.

"Ah'm sure he'll be back any moment," added a slightly unsure Applejack, who was sitting on a bench beside Dash. Rarity was laying down on her emergency sofa, Pinkie Pie was looking at the giant wooden statue in the center of the room, and Fluttershy was trying to comfort Twilight.

Just then, the door opened, and an ink-soaked human shuffled inside the warm library. Rarity screamed at the sight of what she thought was a monster and leapt behind Pinkie Pie.

"Hey, relax, it's just me," came Lucien's slightly metallic voice from the towering pile of gunk that stood it Twilight's doorway. "Twilight? Do you think you can wipe off all this stuff with your magic?" he asked tiredly.

"Sure thing," she replied, relieved that he was safe. He glowed lavender for a moment and all the ink swept backward off him and out the door, carried in a cloud of Twilight's magic.

"Thanks." He shut the door and walked inside. He reached the center table, next to Pinkie Pie and Rarity, and sat on it hard. His face was worn out, and he slouched greatly.

"So what happened?" asked Pinkie Pie after a brief moment of silence.

"I found the nest, I strolled right in, I wasted all of my ammo into the queen's head." He offered them a weak smile. "Might as well say I wasted my time too, got nothing off her to show from it.

"Why would you want something off such a horrid creature?" asked Rarity.

"Eh, keepsake, maybe. We had some good times back there, you know?" He flashed her a tired smile. "Alright, I need to go see what Mayor Mare wants. After that I can see about grabbing some sleep." He stood back up with a groan and began to walk to the front door.

Right as he was about to grasp the handle, the door burst open, and in rushed several members of the Day Guard. They fixed themselves in positions about the room and tried to look authoritative. Lucien was bewildered, spun around so he was facing the library again. "What." His eye twitched. "What are you all doing here?" he asked to the room he was just about to leave.

He felt a gentle but strong hoof on his shoulder and he turned to face its owner, despite already knowing who it was.

Princess Celestia gave Lucien a small smile. "I am here to talk with you about something that has been brought to my attention recently," she said regally.

"If this is about the Filth, then I swear I had nothing to do with-" he was cut off when her hoof was placed over his mouth.

"This is about Bronze Gear," she said simply.