//------------------------------//
// Tranquility at Archer Point 
// Story: Odrsjot 
// by Imploding Colon 
//------------------------------//

	"Scarlet roses... Baby's breath... Xonan juniper and Eastern lavender!"  Ebon Mane ran his hoof across a garden of flowers at street level.  It was nighttime, and a bonfire in the center of town cast a glossy sparkle across his wide eyes.  "Eagle, are you seeing all of these?!"

"Yes!" Eagle cooed, mane flouncing.  "And I saw them all earlier!  Aren't they beautiful?"

"Beautiful? Pffft!"  Ebon Mane smirked.  "I'm just thinking of the scrumptious broth I can make with them! When was the last time you swallowed down some real, earth-grown juniper?"

"Unnngh..."  Eagle Eye rolled his eyes and trotted off in a huff.  "Where's Josho?  I think I'd rather go test the town's outhouses with him."

"What?!" Ebon Mane shrugged, scampering to catch up with the stallion.  "That's what you brought me over here to see, right?!  New ingredients for the Noble Jury's kitchen?!  EE, wait upppp!"

Past a crowd of ponies gathered around a fire, Zaid leaned against a building corner, wearing a dark brown cloak.  "So yeah," he said, nodding towards a trio of stallions standing before him.  "I used to be a member of this religious group called the Herald, and then I sort of became a freelance adventurer overnight.  But now that—like—I'm here in this killer little merchant village n'stuff, I figured I'd try my hoof at being a tradespony, y'know?"

"You just decided that overnight?" one stallion scoffed with a smirk.  "And just what do you have to sell?"

"Well, confidentially..."  Zaid glanced over his shoulder, then pulled out a book from his trenchcoat.  He opened it and a center page unfolded three times.

The stallions all stared, bug-eyed.  One or two of them may have even whistled.

"Wow..."

"Wow is right, pal," Zaid said with a smirk.

"I had no idea that they got that..."  One blushed red as a beet.  "...hefty."

"Hey, where I come from?  Lactose intolerance would just murder a honeymoon!  And—look at the bright side!  Now that the war is over, you could carry your keisters west pretty darn soon and find out for yourselves!"  He waved the book.  "Consider this a sample, and I've got more like it."

"Uhhhh..."  One stallion squinted, pointing at the corner of the unfolded pages.  "What's that stain right here?"

"Certificate of authenticity."  Zaid cleared his throat.  "So, how about it?"

"How many bits are we talking about?"

"No bits, pal."  Zaid leaned forward, practically sneering through clenched teeth.  "Grilled.  Bucking.  Cheese."

Several trots away, Collins stood with Props, their ears collectively twitching from the laughter of nearby parents and their fillies by the bonfire.

"Whelp, but I'm really really really really super dilly needing is some sort of bifurcated hydraulic manifold that can interface with a central core of mana conduits and allow the express transferrence of both skystone energy and compressed steam!"

"Hmmm..."  Collins rubbed her chin.  "Long ago, there were merchants of the north who were lucky enough to harvest skystone, and they crafted steam/mana hybrids not unlike what you were describing.  Unfortunately, most of them operated before my time, in a time when the war didn't consume this part of the landscape."

"Unngh!  I know!"  Props pushed her goggles up and wrangled her blonde mane.  "Mmmphhghhh... if only I had an archetype for that stuff, and then I'd build the darn thing myself!"

Collins brightened.  "You know, our town library has a few books that were passed down by descendants of the northern merchants who had decided to settle here!  Maybe one of them would have a diagram that you could follow!"

Props gasped, leaning forward from the weight of her bright blue eyes.  "Really?!  You really really really really think so?"

Collins giggled.  "I really really really really know so!"

"Squeeee!"  Props bounced in a tight circle.  "Oh you sweet, adoracute pony with a funny name!  Do that, and I'll hang a hydraulic pipe around my waist, build myself into a steam stallion, and marryyyyyy youuuuuu!"

"Heheheh... I'm afraid I'm already taken."  Collins winked. "But how about we barter for some of your ship's excess steam generators and work from there?"

"Dealio!"  Props sing-songed, leaning in to hug the villager ecstatically.  "Besides, I haven't pajamas for the honeymoon anyway!"

As Collins chuckled, a group of colts and fillies galloped by, joining the young little crowd that had formed around Kera.

"Wowwwww..." One filly cooed.  "I've never seen a Xonan your age before!"

"Tell us," a colt stammered.  "Did it hurt getting those tattoos on you?"

"Or were you foaled with them?"

Kera chuckled, basking in the warmth of both the attention and the nearby bonfire.  "Well, I was given them shortly after I was foaled, actually.  A few of them I got later.  Thing is, I don't remember much of it."

"Probably a good thing.  I bet you were too busy screaming."

"Pfft!  Maybe you would be screaming!  But not me!"  Kera folded her forelimbs.  "I hang out with Rainbow Dash, after all.  Y'know... the pony who beat up the evil chaos dragon west of here?"

"Wowwwwwwwwww... really?"

"Yup!  She can only fly with the strongest ponies in her posse!"  Kera winked.  "And that includes the strongest filly!"

"Uhm..." A filly reached out.  "Is it okay if I touch 'em?"

"They won't bite."  Kera smirked.  "Not unless I command them to leap out and attack you."

"Eep!"  The filly instantly hobbled back.  "C-can they do that?"

"A fully grown Xonan warrior can strangle you with just his neck tattoos alone."

"No waaaaay!"

"Way!"  Kera stretched her forelimb.  "But these are mostly harmless.  Check it!"

Two fillies and a colt reached out, feeling the etched lines across her coat and flesh.  They all exhaled and giggled with wonderment.

A few meters away, Pilate sat next to Bellesmith, his ear trained towards the whole conversation.

"I hope that doesn't turn into a habit," the zebra muttered.  "When she becomes a teenager, that's gonna be a lot less innocent."

"Oh come on, Pilate, don't be silly."

"I'm not the only one thinking it, am I?"  Pilate shrugged.  "Being around us gives her a sense of security that makes her fearless, considering all of the dangers we've run into and somehow squeezed by unscathed."

"They're just foals."  Belle leaned against him.  "Let her have her moment of socializing with ponies who actually care.  From what I know of her days at Blue Nova, she rarely ran into a street urchin her age who didn't want to brutally harm her."

"I just can't help but wonder what all of this is going to do to her when she grows up," Pilate said with a sigh.  "She isn't exactly having a normal foalhood, now is he?  I mean... you and I have been through a great deal of trials and tribulations, but that didn't happen until we were adults."

Belle giggled... then giggled again.  Her cheeks turned rosy as she nuzzled Pilate tighter.

The zebra's metal brow furrowed as he tilted his head her way.  "What's so amusing?"

"I'm not amused so much as I'm tickled pink."  Belle's lips curved.  "I always felt you kept yourself a bit aloof around Kera, but here—listening to you go on and on—you really do sound like a worried father."

Pilate bit his lip.  "I just think that we've had a major impact on her life and I'd like it to be for the best, y'know?"

"And I don't doubt you, Pilate.  It's just nice hearing you actually say it."

"Well, it's been on my mind a lot lately, Belle.  And quite frankly..."  He winced slightly.

Belle noticed it, of course.  "What, Pilate?"

He gulped.  "Well, I was... doing some mapping—in the navigation room n'all..."

"Yeahhhhh...?"

"And O.A.S.I.S. stumbled upon a name that struck me as familiar.  All it took was a little bit of thought, and then I remembered the place.  And with the war apparently coming to an end and all..."

"What... are you getting at, Pilate?"

The zebra sighed.  He patted Belle's shoulder and stood up on wobbly legs.  "I think it's best that we continue this conversation someplace a little more private."

"By private, you mean away from Kera?" Belle muttered in monotone.

"Yes, Belle.  Yes, I do."

The mare glanced worriedly at him.  Nevertheless, she escorted Pilate towards a part of the village where the lights of the bonfire didn't reach.

Across the street, Rainbow Dash hovered at the second story level, folding her arms as a shiver fell across her body.  Her teeth chattered, and she did her best to remain upright in her wing-flapping levitation.

"Havin' another one of your spells, there, color wheel?"

Rainbow glanced down.  The fat image of Josho focused in and out of sight.

"Nnnnngh... yeah... kind of."  Rainbow Dash rubbed her pendant, summoning a harmonic glow that she held her hooves in front of, as if warming them.  "It's not so bad."

"You mean...?"

"It's not like what I went through with the book or with Nevlamas or with any of that crap."  Rainbow Dash sighed long and hard.  "It's just the same old-same old."

"Hmmm.  Well if that doesn't suck."

Rainbow raised an eyebrow.  "Yeah...?"

Josho leaned his plump self against the building's foundation and muttered, "After all you've done, after all of the heroics n'crap, you're still sick as a dog."

Rainbow closed her eyes, hovering limply above him.

"Guess that was pretty low of me," Josho muttered.  "Many of us have futures.  It's pretty cruel to remind you that you don't."

"I have a future, alright," Rainbow Dash breathed aloud.  Her muzzle formed the slightest of smirks.  "It may be short.  It may come to an end at any time.  But, all things considered, I say the ride's been pretty sweet."

"Oh really?"

"I thought all of the crap I went through in Ledomare was for nothing," Rainbow Dash said.  "But now—with this whole cease fire business—I'm starting to wonder if I actually made a difference."

"It certainly cost a lot of poor saps their lives."

"Yeah, well—what if the war had gone on for another few decades, huh?  What if Xonan and Princess Lassy-Fish or whoever she really was pushed their way into the Confederacy?"

Josho nodded, scratching his scruffy chin.  "You make a good point."

"Darn tootin' I do, buckaroo."

"Only... that wasn't what those freakjobs were looking for, was it?"  Josho glanced up at her.  "The shape-shifters, I mean.  Like... from what you say, and from what I saw, it seems like those creepy-crawly things were running the whole bloody show."

"Yeah..."  Rainbow Dash's ears drooped.  "And now they've teared their way east, doing Celestia-knows-what.  I wonder if I'll live long enough to find out what they're actually up to."  She gulped.  "I wonder if I want to..."

"Well, if worse comes to worst, you have my promise that I'll kick each of their hard-shelled butts," Josho said.  "For what they did to you... and for wh-what they did to Secchy."

Rainbow Dash winced.  She glanced down.  "Everything's been happening so quickly, and yet this crazily cheerful village feels like the biggest jolt of all.  Still, it's no excuse for the fact that I haven't gotten a chance to tell you... th-that I'm sorry for what happened to your best friend."

"Eh..."  Josho shrugged with a sigh.  "Seclorum was my best friend, back when we were almost alive... and almost handsome.  Only consolation I have about the whole matter is that the ol' bastard probably got a way better death than the one I was oblidged to give that friggin' imposter."

"He wasn't in that metal ravine full of replaced ponies n'crap?"

"If he did, he died long before the others placed there could have identified him.  Hell, most of those guys and gals hated Seclorum's guts—blamed him for being tossed down there in the first place."

"Still, it sucks not to get much closure."

"Eh, I'll live.  It's not the thing that's biting me the most."

"Then what is?" Rainbow asked.  "Unless I'm prying."

"You?  Pry?  You'd need a forklift to get under my skin."  Josho smirked dazedly into the distant bonfire.  "All I ever knew for ages was this damned war.  It consumed the better part of my life.  At some point, I simply gave up believing that it could ever come to an end.  So I surrendered to the bottle and became this lame-ass Prime Enforcer for a trading town in Green Slope."  He sighed, then tilted his head up towards the town.  "A trading town a hella lot like this one, which is what friggin' haunts me to no end."

"Yeesh.  I never thought of that."

"And why should you?  First time we met, you and I were playing boomstick tango in the center of downtown!"

Rainbow Dash winced.  "Yeah.  Uhm... Luna poop, you were one nasty shot."

"Heh... Good thing you didn't ever fight me when I was sober."  He winced upon a sudden thought, gazing down into the flame once more.  "It's like starting over... standing here... the fire and the stars all clean-like and pure."  He gulped.  "Now the war's over, my best friend's gone, and the entire horizon is peeled open in front of me.  I'm thousands of miles away from the place I used to call home, without a house, without a beloved—and yet, it feels like I'm right back where I started.  Hell... if I was a smart horse, I'd take advantage of that."

"Josho, are you..."  Rainbow fumbled for words, fidgeting.  At last, her voice cracked, "Are you actually thinking of—?"

"Staying here?  Pffft.  With how cheerful these Archer Pointers are, I'd be liable to shoot myself by week's end."  The stallion shook his head.  "Naw... The only thing I can think of right now is the one thing that made sense to me the past month and a half."

Rainbow Dash nodded.  "Moving forward."

"Damned if I'm not jealous of you and your wings sometimes, color wheel."  Josho shrugged.  "But that's all good.  I've got the Jury, even if it is piloted by a mad deer-thing.  And... besides..."  He stared down at the ground and muttered.  "More than anything right now, I kind of wanna see that the prissy little scamp makes it through all of this mess in one piece."

Rainbow Dash blinked.  "What 'prissy little scamp?'"  She glanced down at him.  "You mean EE?"

"You breathe a single word to him and I'll make you eat that pendant around your neck," Josho grumbled.  "I don't care how many months or years you have left to live."

"Heh... I gotcha."  Rainbow smirked.  "And on that note, I think I'm gonna go check on Roarke.  Have you seen her, by the way?"

"Pffft.  She never friggin' left the ship."

"Oh?"

"Yeah, probably back on the Jury playing hoofsie with Floydien."

Rainbow Dash raised an eyebrow.

"Yeah.  Right.  I get it.  She's just sulking by herself in the hangar."

"Of course."  Rainbow Dash turned around and floated towards the edge of town.  "Try not to eat your weight in depression while I'm gone."

"Y'know, it wasn't a friggin' backup manacore that kept that dayum broad alive."

Rainbow Dash froze in the air and glanced over her shoulder.  "Excuse me?"

Josho grunted, waved a hoof, and trotted closer to the blazes.  "You know what?  Forget I said anything.  I'm gettin' frickin' ancient, I swear to Ledo's tailbone..."

Rainbow Dash watched him trot away.  She was about to shrug the whole thing off when she heard a sharp noise to her right.  Twirling about, she craned her neck, hearing a heated conversation reach a fever pitch.  Flapping her wings, she edged herself around a building, finally spotting the shadows of a mare and a zebra in a dark alley.

"...even think of such a thing, Pilate!" Belle snapped.  "You're more intelligent than this!  Don't make... br-broad assumptions based on circumstance!"

"It has nothing to do with trying or not trying to be intelligent, honey!  I'm not seeking to impress you, the Jury, or even her!  I just think—"

"What?!  That we can ditch her like some pathetic, unwanted toy?!  Hasn't she been through enough?!"

"Okay, for one, I think you're being too overprotective of her—to the point that it's clouding your judgment."

"Oh, and since when were you expert on that?!  You barely spend any time with her!"

"Belle, you're not even trying to listen to me!  I'm just saying that we should stop by the place and let her see it for her own eyes."

"What good will that even pretend to do?!"

"Think of it this way.  Years from now, when she's grown and matured, and she realizes that we never even bothered to give her an opportunity to witness and feel the town for herself, much less have a say in the matter, how do you think she's going to react?"

"I... w-well..."

"Are you prepared for her to be hurt?  Maybe even be angry at us?"

"You can't expect it to be that way..."

"Belle, I can't expect anything!  But it's healthy to anticipate anything.  And it's high time we thought about her choice in the matter!  I mean, this is her future, after all!  And now that this war is coming to an end, the landscape may still be too hostile for us—but not for her!"

"Hey, uhm... g-guys?" Rainbow Dash nervously squeaked.

Pilate tilted his head while Belle looked up.  The zebra clammed up while the mare hung her head, shivering.

Rainbow winced.  "I... I-I'm sorry.  That was totally uncool of me to intrude like that."  She swallowed a lump down her throat.  "It's just that... th-that I've never seen—"

"It's okay, Rainbow Dash," Belle stammered through a heavy exhale.  She ran a hoof over her short bangs.  "We weren't arguing about you."

"Oh, well... uh... th-that's great!"  Rainbow chuckled nervously.  A beat.  Her brow furrowed.  "Wait.  Then just who were you...?"

As the pegasus' words trailed off, Belle bit her lip.  Pilate kicked loosely at the shadowed blades of glass.  Everypony was silent.

Rainbow blinked, and then her eyes twitched in realization.  She turned and gazed pensively towards the center of the town, where the bonfire flickered like a distant star.