Rainbow slipped out of the other winged woman’s grip. “No, I won’t. I’m not going back,” she said, crossing her arms.
“Rainbow, who’s this?” Bright asked, walking up to the duo.
“Rainbow?” the woman asked before her eyes widened. She turned to the other flier, “You took a full adult name, didn’t you? You know as well as I do that you can’t do that!”
“Oh, yeah? Who’s stopping me?” Rainbow asked.
“Our laws!” the griffon exclaimed. “They clearly state—”
Applejack spoke up, walking into the room, “Ah think we need an introduction, here. Who are you?”
“My name is Gilda Dash,” she said. “I’m her half-sister.”
“Wait, Gilda? You have an adult name?” Rainbow asked, confused.
“I changed the day after you left,” she said. “That’s why they let me come after you.” Gilda grabbed her sister’s arm. “Come on, we’re leaving.”
Rainbow’s face darkened as she smacked the other woman’s arm away. “I already said it. I. Am. Not. Leaving.”
“By our laws, you are still a child,” Gilda growled. “I didn’t want to pull that card, but—” She was interrupted as she was decked onto the ground.
“DAMN OUR LAWS!” Rainbow shouted, lowering her fist. “I am NOT leaving! Go back and tell the whole damned clan not to come after me anymore.”
“I don’t think you realize,” Gilda growled from the ground, getting up, “just the trouble you’re in. I am not allowed to return without you. Dead or alive.”
“Go on, then. Kill me,” Rainbow said, spreading her arms wide. “Free shot.”
Gilda stared at her sister in shock, mouth agape. Rainbow kept her arms spread, growling "What, need a weapon?" The woman walked up to Applejack, tearing a sword out of one of the many sheaths the agent wore, tossing it at the full-blooded griffon's feet. "There. Now hit me with your best shot."
"But I—" Gilda started.
"C'mon!" Rainbow exclaimed. "Do it!"
Bright stepped between the two women. "Look," he said, "let's talk about this rationally."
"I'm not allowed to return without her or proof of her death," Gilda said. "This is non-negotiable."
"Then stay with us," Bright suggested. "Because I owe my life to this woman, and even if you were to kill her now, you wouldn't get far."
"I don't want to kill her," Gilda exclaimed. "She’s my damned sister! But she stole from four different people before leaving clan territory. If I can't return her within a few months to face trial, they'll send soldiers to find her."
"Let them send their soldiers," Rarity said, walking into the room. "There are over a dozen people in this building alone indebted to Rainbow, and we have personal relations with at least two of the thirteen Icons. We are not a force to be trifled with."
Gilda sighed, "Look, I'm not trying to threaten you. I'm happy for her for finding a place to belong so quickly, I really am. The problem is that the clan is going to want its property back soon, and the one that stole it."
Scoot walked into the room to see what the commotion was right as Rainbow grabbed an object out of her bag and slammed it onto the table. "You mean this, right?" she exclaimed. The mage gasped as she saw the red lightning-shaped gem in the center of the necklace on the table.
"Why did you even take that?" the younger winged woman asked. "That's all mother has left of your father."
"It's enchanted," Twilight said, looking closely at the necklace. "It feels familiar, somehow. Like I've seen it or something like it before."
"How strong would ya say it is," Applejack asked.
"Very. I couldn't tell you what it does, but it wouldn't let itself get stolen unless it wanted to be," the studious mage said.
“There,” Rainbow said, placing the necklace back in her bag. “Tell that to them, straight from the egghead’s mouth.”
“I can’t just go back and tell them ‘Oh, too bad, the necklace wanted to be stolen.’ I will be laughed out of Eyrie!” Gilda exclaimed.
“Then stick with us, as I offered,” Bright said. “It will be good having another flier around, even if Rainbow does a marvelous job of it already. If you can convince her to leave with you, then you can go.”
Gilda grumbled quietly to herself for a moment before responding, “Fine. I’ll stick with however many of you there is.”
Bright nodded. “We were about to gather to talk about our next step. You’re more than welcome to join in the conversation.”
Gilda silently nodded, sitting down at the table. With a quick check of the younger flier’s aura, which came up with no abnormalities, Rarity left to get Dirk up. Bright took the moment of respite to fill the newcomer in as to recent events.
Scoot sat with conflicted thoughts. That necklace was one of the items she was tasked with bringing back. She could just take it while the flier wasn’t looking and head out for Canterlot. There were a few issues with that, however. Not the least being that she had grown fond of the brash young flier over the day or so they had known each other.
She sighed, heading back into the room she shared with Snail. She would have plenty of time to think over her options when the time came.
Within an hour, everyone was awake and sitting at the table. Nobody said a word for a silent minute, before Pinkie spoke up with the first words she had spoken since the battle. “I’m finding the bastard responsible for this and ripping his guts out with my bare hands. If you’re not okay with this, by all means back out now.”
“Pinkie,” Bright chastised. “Don’t let emotion cloud your judgement.”
“Whatever,” she scoffed, seeming to be closer to her regular self already.
Bright sighed. “She is right about our next line of action, however. We need to find out who the leak is. Whoever set this up likely doesn’t know that Pinkie and I survived. That is our one and only advantage. How are we going to press it?”
“Keep you guys from the public eye as much as possible,” Applejack said. “If they don’t see you, there won’t be a problem”
“Fourteen people, two of which are winged, will attract a lot of attention running around,” Rarity said. “As it is, someone will find the bodies of the paladins fairly soon, and word will get out. We will have to be incredibly careful what we say and where we go.”
“What about posing as mecs?” Rainbow suggested. “They go everywhere and come from all walks of life, so it shouldn’t be too odd to see us wandering around the countryside.”
Twilight nodded, “That is a great idea, actually. It will allow us to move around without being too obvious as to what we’re doing.”
Gilda spoke up, “I still don’t understand why we don’t just storm into the monastery and start demanding answers.”
“Because that won’t work,” Bright said, “and will inform the mole that we’re onto them.”
“We could go the rumor route,” Applejack suggested. “Put out a rumor that three dozen paladins died, and that it was an inside job.”
“They’d assume that someone survived to pass on the information,” Pinkie said, suddenly back to her bubbly self, despite the seriousness of the situation. “Plus, that would lower the public opinion of the Order, which is the last thing we want to do at this point.”
“Nobody’s mentioned that one of the corrupted got away,” Snail said. “He was out of range of my grease spell.”
“What do you mean?” Scoot asked. “I thought we got them all.”
The man shook his head, “Nope. One got away.”
“The one that grabbed Jack,” Mac said, suddenly interjecting himself into the conversation. “Hobbled off before the fireball.”
“Sun,” Bright said, face screwing into an expression of distaste. “I didn’t like him before he was corrupted, but now, I don’t know what to think.”
“I think that he’s corrupted, and therefore should be purged,” Pinkie said with way too much happiness in her voice. “At this point, he’s gone.”
“So out first order of business is figuring out who’s staying with us,” Bright said. “Any of you can leave, I wouldn’t blame you at all.”
Rarity flipped her bangs. “Darling, I was asked to heal some paladins on mission. It seems to me that the mission hasn’t ended, and it would be unladylike of me to abandon you.”
“If Rares is staying, count me in,” Dirk said from his spot next to the healer. “You seem like you need the help, anyway.”
“If’n the lady’s staying, we still got a contract to stay with ‘er, too,” Applejack said. Mac and Bloom nodded their assent.
“I can’t well let you do this on your own, can I?” Belle asked.
“Count me in, too,” Twilight spoke up. “It’ll be an adventure, and I think I’m more than overdue for one of those.”
“Count me in,” Snail said, “as long as Scoot will go, too.”
“If you’re going, so will I,” Scoot said from her position on the man’s lap.
“I think I’ll go too, if that’s okay with you,” Flutter said quietly. Mac gave her a smile of encouragement, causing her to sit slightly straighter.
“Well, the stud’s goin’,” Rainbow said, pointing to Mac, “so count me in.”
“I’m not letting Rainbow get away this easily,” Gilda said. “I’ll join in your little adventure.”
“Wonderful,” Bright said, smiling. “We’ll send some of the womenfolk out to grab the tabards while everyone else gets some other supplies.” He paused, looking to the scantily clad griffon and half-breed. “And some clothes for you two.”
“Aw, come on. You know you like what you see,” Rainbow said, striking a pose that ended up being quite revealing with the clothes, or near lack thereof, she had on. Bright’s face lit up and he looked away with a cough.
“Miss Dash, I’m almost a decade older than you,” Bright said, still not looking in her direction.
“Aw, come on. You’re like, twenty-three,” Rainbow said with a smirk. “That’s only five years older than me. Perfectly acceptable.”
“Actually I’m twenty-seven,” Bright said. “A full nine years older than you.”
Rainbow deflated slightly before shrugging, moving to be in front of the paladin and getting right into his face. “No skin off my back. You’re still cute.”
Bright flushed even more as her breath brushed across his face, and he quickly stood up. “Well, got stuff to do. Things.”
“Aw, leaving already?” Rainbow teased. Bright beat a hasty retreat from the room. Rainbow managed to hold in her laughter until he was out of range to hear it.
Applejack looked at her with distaste, “He’s almost twice yer age, Rainbow.”
She shrugged, giggling, “That’s an overstatement, but even if he was, he’s so much fun to tease. Did you see how red he got?”
Pinkie shook her head at the flier’s antics. She stood up, and was about to talk when Rarity spoke up, “Wait, ‘send some of the womenfolk out to grab the tabards’? What did he mean by that?”
Dirk chuckled, “Look at the men in this group. One is a paladin, one’s me, one’s whipped, and one’s Mac over there. Do you think any of us are qualified to grab tabards that we’ll use to represent ourselves for the foreseeable future?”
Rarity paused, mouth open and finger up, about to retort. After a moment, she lowered her hand. “Valid point. I’ll go, who wants to come with?”
“I’ll go, and so will Gilda,” Rainbow said.
“Wait, I will?” the woman in question said.
“She will?” the healer asked.
“Of course,” Rainbow said. “We need some culturally acceptable clothing, after all, no matter how much fun it is to tease Bright. Plus, Gilda’s three years younger than me, and definitely too young to be borderline breaking a nudity taboo, however stupid it may be.”
“I’m—” Gilda started to say.
“Griffon laws don’t apply here, Gilda,” Rainbow said. “You’re still considered a child until you’re sixteen.”
“Damn,” the younger woman grumbled. “Of course.”
“It is sixteen, right, Rares?” Rainbow asked. “I think it’s sixteen.”
“It’s mostly sixteen, but some places go as high as eighteen,” Rarity said. “You could pass yourself off as an adult anywhere, but your sister. . . wouldn’t. Even as a member of a different species, she is still obviously young. She could get away with it casually, but no bars would risk serving her, even in the sixteen areas.”
“Damn,” Gilda said.
“Meh,” Pinkie said. “Alcohol’s overrated. Makes you stupider and more likely to do something you’ll regret. I don’t see any upsides, but it seems to make people think they're happy.”
"But we digress," Rarity said, clapping happily. “What we need to do is go shopping~!”
Rainbow and Gilda groaned, slamming their faces on the table in unison. This was going to be a long day.
—*~*~*—
The man whimpered on the ground as he bled from very creative places. The woman adjusted the helmet on her head. “I think that’s been long enough.”
“I–I’m sorry, mistress,” the man almost whispered. “I won’t fail again.”
“See to it that you don’t,” she growled. She paused, looking slightly to the right for a moment, before smiling. “It seems your failure isn’t complete, yet.”
“Mistress?” he said with hope.
“One of the paladins got away. One of our paladins,” she said, grinning maliciously. “I can use this to my advantage. Time to try something. . . unorthodox.”
—*~*~*—
“—but you’d look stunning in green. Oh, I don’t know!” Rarity exclaimed, holding up two shirts of matching styles, one blue and one green. Rainbow sat nearby hanging off the back of a chair. Gilda had managed to escape five minutes ago, and the crazy woman wouldn’t come looking for her for at least twenty minutes, the rate Rainbow’s shopping was getting done.
“What do you think, darling?” the healer asked, turning to the bored flier. “Do you want to try the blue one first?”
Rainbow groaned like she had been shot in the stomach by a bolt, “I would rather walk around naked, like I want to!”
“You can’t, darling,” Rarity said calmly for the third time in as many minutes. “There are different expectations here. You can’t get away with everything you could back in the Empire. Besides, it’s not naked, just topless.”
Rainbow groaned, “At least bring Bright along next time so I can have something to do.”
“I don’t think he’d be interested, Rainbow,” the healer chuckled, “but he’d be flattered by the offer.”
“You know what I mean,” the flier pouted. “He’s not interested in me anyway.”
“You noticed he mentioned age, not lack of attraction, as his reasons for being uncomfortable with the idea, didn’t you?” Rarity asked. She drug the flier over, handing her a shirt. Her eyes widened, “Oh, I need to get backless shirts. You do have wings after all.”
Rainbow groaned as she was drug back into the store for the third time that day.
—*~*~*—
“The end times are upon us!” a man yelled, running through the streets. He grabbed a random passerby, who just happened to be Pinkie. “It’s on the way! It’s on the way, and when it gets here, we’re doomed!”
“Calm yourself and speak clearly,” she said, grabbing onto the man.
“Calm myself? Calm myself?” he shouted hysterically. “The corrupted are approaching the gates of this town and you want me to be calm?”
Bright, who had been standing next to Pinkie, stepped up to speak to the man. “How many and where?”
The man struggled in Pinkie’s vice-like grip for a moment, before giving up and responding. “There were dozens, dozens of them. But that’s not the worst part.”
“Speak clearly and without dramatizing things,” the young woman growled.
“A cloud is on the way!” he shouted instantly. “I saw it not far behind the corrupted!”
“From where?” the older man said.
The man took one look at Pinkie before responding, “South! South! It’s coming from the South!”
Pinkie dropped the man, and the second he saw the stony look on her face he ran away. Bright sighed, looking in the direction the man mentioned. “This is bad, very bad.”
“This is fine,” Pinkie corrected. “Every corrupted it throws at us is one less it can use later.”
“And what of the civilians in this city, Pinkie?” he asked rhetorically. “I’m going to gather the group. We’ll be by the southern gates in an hour.”
The woman nodded, walking straight for the mentioned gates.
—*~*~*—
Bright threw open the door, examining who was in the room. The mercenary siblings were there, as were the mage sisters. Of course, if Scoot was anywhere, Snail wasn’t ever far away. Flutter was sitting with Mac and Bloom, to no surprise. What was a surprise was the fact that Dirk was sitting calmly at the table, and Rarity was nowhere to be seen.
“Is Rarity still out with the fliers?” the paladin asked.
“Yep,” Dirk said, using a knife to pick under his nails. “She’s always been one to spend a long time to get a few things. Or a lot of things. You can never really tell with her.”
Bright nodded, announcing to the room, “We’ve got a small army of corrupted reportedly marching straight at the gates of Baltimare. That wouldn’t be a problem, if only it was only them.”
“Don’t talk in riddles, Bright,” Dirk grumbled loudly.
The paladin shot the ex-bandit a look, before continuing. “We’ve got a cloud on the way. What we need to do is get around behind it and close down its source.”
“They have a source?” Scoot asked, once more sitting on Snail’s lap.
“Everything has a source,” Snail said softly. “Why should its clouds be different?
“A’ight,” Mac said, standing up. “I’ll find the ladies.”
“No, Mac,” Bright said. “I’ll get them. I already know where they are.” At the larger man’s disbelieving look, he elaborated, “I have to know where they are to avoid them, don’t I?”
Mac nodded and sat down, taciturn again. Bright stopped long enough to grab his armor and weapons, then headed straight for Sapphire’s Boutique, where Rarity had drug the fliers.
A bell rang out as he walked through the door, and a voice called out from the back, “I’ll be there in a second, darling. I’m with a customer.”
“Is it three pretty ladies?” Bright asked. “Two with wings?”
“Is that Bright’s flattery I hear?” Rarity asked, peeking her head around a doorway. “What are you—you’re in armor,” she ended in a deadpan as she walked into the room. “Why would you wear that dreadful armor around town?”
“Because something big’s about to go down,” he said. “It’s making a play. Grab the girls and meet the rest of us at the school.”
Rarity took a hissing breath in, before nodding. “I have Rainbow here. We’ll find Gilda as fast as we can and meet you there.”
The woman in question peeked around the doorframe. “Hey, cutie,” she said, winking. Bright felt his face redden involuntarily. “I’m changing right now, but if you want to come back—”
“Miss Dash,” the first voice said from the other room, “you can flirt with your boyfriend later. We still have a few shirts to try on.”
“Nah, we’re not dating,” Rainbow said, walking—topless—through the doorway. She walked right up to Bright, smiling wider as the man got redder and redder. “He’s a prude,” she said, tracing a finger down the center of his breastplate.
Bright coughed, “I, uh, have to get going. You know how it is.”
“Rainbow!” Rarity scolded. “That is not how a lady should act!”
“Good,” the flier said, twirling and walking back towards other room, but paused to get one last look at the priceless expression on the man’s face. “You’re too easy to fluster, Bright.”
“Rainbow,” Rarity said. “This is serious. We’re finishing up here, now.”
Rainbow gave her a sideways glance, and seeing the serious look she was being given, nodded. “Sapphire? I’ll take whatever Rares says I should take.”
Bright sighed in relief as the frisky woman changed targets long enough for him to escape. He took a deep breath to steady himself, before trudging over to the school to wait for the group to gather.
—*~*~*—
Pinkie was already at the gates, as Bright had suspected, by the time the rest of the group got there. The paladin had placed himself on the opposite side of the group from the teasing Rainbow, a fact not missed by the young flier. As the group walked up to Pinkie, Bright started talking, “Okay, so nothing we do will matter—no matter how many corrupted we kill—if we can’t stop that cloud from reaching Baltimare.”
“And how do you plan on doing that?” Rarity asked.
“Simple,” Applejack said. “These clouds are created and maintained by complex rituals that borrow power from the Dark One.”
“So they are, I’m surprised you’d know that, Jack,” Bright said.
The woman shrugged, jabbing a finger at Bloom. The younger woman blushed at the sudden attention, managing to squeeze out, “I’ve talked with some paladins and EIA agents from the field.” Bright seemed to accept this, much to the lying Bloom’s relief. She shot a look at Applejack when nobody else would see, silently berating her for almost blowing their cover.
“Somewhere near the back of that cloud will be a moving platform, most likely a converted wagon, that will hold corrupted mages,” the paladin continued. “If we can destroy the mages, we will disperse the cloud. If we get to them fast enough, we can even save the city while we’re at it.”
“So all we have to do is go kill some mages on a cart?” Rainbow asked. “Damn, I thought this would be difficult! I’ll be back in, like, five minutes.” She spread her wings and launched herself into the air. Within seconds she was well on her way to the cloud.
“Rainbow!” Bright exclaimed. “Get back here!”
She either didn’t hear him, or decided to ignore him, because she kept flying. “Damn it!” Bright said, grabbing a flabbergasted Gilda, pulling her to face him. “Go and get her. She will—I repeat, will—die if she tries to do this alone.”
“But she’s faster than me!” Gilda said. “I’d never catch up!”
“Then get as damn close as you can and shout really, really loud,” was the man’s reply. He turned to the rest of the group as Gilda’s jaw dropped. “Come on. We now have two clocks to race. One clock to save Baltimare, and now one to save Rainbow.”