Last night hadn’t been the oddest one of his life, but it definitely wasn’t anywhere near the bottom of the list. Following Gem Mill to Bedville’s only tavern, the Bull Horn, Phantom entered the small building and was greeted by raucous laughter and singing. Much to his surprise, he hadn’t walked in on a special occasion; the workers apparently enjoyed their off hours to the fullest once the mines closed for the night.
As it was, Gem Mill was welcomed with enthusiasm, nervously taking hardy pats on the back and being ushered in, leaving the pegasus at the entrance, watching with a raised eyebrow the spectacle before him. Evidently, Gem Mill had down played his relationship with the miners. The pegasus was never this friendly with those he owed favors, and he felt it a safe assumption that most would agree with the sentiment.
It was only after downing the third shot of liquor pushed between his hooves that the earth pony got around to introducing Phantom to the group. About half of them were minotaurs, with the other half being a mix of earth ponies, diamond dogs, and gryphons, which meant that there were more than enough claws and fingers amongst the lot of them to pull the reluctant pegasus into their merrymaking.
As much as he tried to turn down the tantalizingly un-sobering beverages, it was a losing battle, especially after the miners were informed that the two of them came for help. Refusing to drink with those you were asking for assistance from was untrustworthy, after all. And so it was, the pegasus found himself nursing a glass of whiskey as his temporary companion explained what it was they needed doing.
Of course, it was Phantom who ended up giving the details, telling them that a couple of very dangerous beasts had escaped his boss’s custody, valuables in tow, and that they could be coming this way. The news that their peaceful little settlement could be besieged by vicious criminals got an encouraging reaction from the miners as they promised a pounding to anything that threatened their home. They even agreed to turn the offenders over to Phantom’s boss when the time came.
“Friends help friends,” they had told the shocked and mildly tipsy Gem Mill when he said the assistance would settle any debt between him and those who helped, adding that any friend of his was a friend of theirs. From that point on, the serious talk was over and the group returned to partying. Phantom was loath to admit it, but he partially surrendered to his weakness and had more than a few drinks. Luckily, his developed alcohol tolerance prevented him from getting absolutely smashed.
Unluckily, he would have preferred being in such a state when one of Mill’s closer friends arrived, and ended up being the very minotaur that the pegasus had asked for directions earlier that day. What followed were awkward and falsely accepted apologies for bringing up his scars, as well as having to listen to the pair of old buddies talk on for the rest of the night.
Phantom wasn’t even granted respite when the bar closed up and the patrons wondered home; Ironwork, as the bull’s name was, deciding to follow them through the streets instead of leaving his and Mill’s conversation unfinished. Of course, when they finally arrived at the jewelry shop, it was only polite for the earth pony to invite his friend inside, and Phantom ended up crushing a pillow to his ears on the couch while the two morons talked through the night.
A short time after morning’s first light, the pegasus was awoken by an overly loud, very obnoxious yawn, and looked over to see the dark-blue minotaur stretching his arms over his head while seated atop a pile of blankets. “Oh, sorry if I woke you; I’m used to waking up early so I can get the forges ready for the day ahead,” the bull explained when he looked over to see Phantom leering at him.
“It’s no problem,” grit out the pegasus, wisely deciding it was far too early to be picking fights. “So, you ended up staying here, eh? Aren’t you two a little old for slumber parties?” Okay, maybe not that early.
“Nah, Mill was just being a pal; I’d have probably stumbled into trouble if he hadn’t let me sleep it off here,” Ironwork responded, apparently impervious to the slight barb aimed at him as he twisted his back, sighing in relief after a series of sickening pops. “I don’t tend to have the best sense of direction when I’ve gotten a few in me.” He chuckled, a sound both deep, yet notably young as he pushed some of his black mane away from his face. “I’ve ended up in the wrong house more than a few times after a night of drinking, which usually ends with me having a black eye.”
Phantom hummed as he climbed off the couch, attempting to do his own stretches before being halted by a slight pain across the largest scar on his chest. Looking down revealed a small tear, blood just starting to bead atop it. Damn, I’ve gone too long without my ointment; the wind from flying really dried my skin out. The worst of his burns melted off a fair few layers from his hide, leaving the bulk of his scar tissue prone to ripping if he didn’t keep it moisturized.
He had been in such a rush to get to Bedville and back that he didn’t bother packing saddlebags, arguing to himself that they would have added undue drag and weight to an already tiring flight. The trickle of crimson running down his chest made him regret that decision. Phantom’s jaw clenched slightly. “When Gem Mill wakes up, tell him the rest of the preparations are up to him. He’ll know what you’re talking about,” he said as he made his way towards the stairs, not even bothering to raid his host’s kitchen for a quick breakfast. “The sun is up, and I’m getting out of here.”
“The sun is up!?” Ironwork suddenly shouted as he scrambled to his hooves, somehow not noticing until now the light beams that had slowly been creeping across the room. “I’m supposed to be ready before the mines open! I have customers coming by to pick up their repaired equipment today!”
Phantom had wanted to ignore the minotaur as he started making his way down the stairs, but the scrambling of hoofs rushing up behind him and the shout of “excuse me!” made that difficult. This was especially true when Ironwork tried to push past him, resulting in both of them losing their balance and tumbling down the steps. While they fell and his body quickly racked up a few dozen scrapes and bruises, Phantom couldn’t help but ponder whether this was just the next unfortunate event in his current string of bad luck, or cosmic punishment for once again drinking on the job.
Probably a bit of both, he thought as he finally came to a stop, only to have Ironwork land directly on top of him. The universe definitely hates me.
“Ooow…” groaned the minotaur as he sat up, though not bothering to remove his rump from Phantom’s back. “It’s a good thing I landed on something soft.”
“Yes, how fortunate for you,” the pegasus growled as he bucked the surprised bull from his back and stood up. He only managed to stay upright for a seconds however, as he was struck by a wave of dizziness, bringing him to fall to his own rump, eliciting an “oomph!” as he effectively reversed his and Ironwork’s previous position. The pegasus really hoped he was disoriented from the many spins he’d performed in the fall and not because he’d managed to get a small concussion.
Gem Mill could be heard shouting questions from above as the front doors to the business opened. Guess Mill wasn’t sober enough to lock up before hitting the hay, Phantom absently mused as he looked up to see who it was, and froze. His vision stopped swimming as it zeroed in on a tall, purple figure.
The creature mimicked his disbelieving stare and even words when he mumbled, “You have got to be kidding me.”
The air seemed to grow as still as the two adversaries, their eyes locked, searching each other for any clue on what was going on in each of their respective heads. “Argh, today’s going to be a bad day, I can already tell… Hey, who’s that?” Ironwork questioned.
Amethyst Thistle whipped around then, grabbing hold of the little monstrosity who Phantom hadn’t even noticed, and bolted down the street.
“Those are the thieving monsters we’re supposed to be catching!” Phantom roared as he bolted into the air. The fear of following the fire breathers clashed with that of what his boss might do to him when he found out he did nothing while his nemesis escaped again. “Come on! We got to catch them!”
His newfound dislike of Ironwork was overpowered by his desire to have a meat shield on hoof in case the dragons decided to open fire on him. Flying behind the now standing minotaur, he pushed him towards the door. “Mill, find all the help you can! Tell them the dragons are here!” Phantom shouted, not bothering to look back even as he heard hooves thundering down the stairs.
“Hey, no pushing! I got this!” barked Ironwork as he suddenly bound forward, leaving the pegasus to nearly fall on his face. “Hey! The lowlifes Mill wanted us to deal with are in town!” Ironwork could be heard shouting once he was out of sight.
Leveling himself out, Phantom looked towards the opening, the bright light shining into the dark room making it impossible to see anything beyond. He couldn’t help but think of blindingly burning fires, and wondered if he’d be having another run-in with a dragon’s flame before the day was through. I don’t care what the boss says, I’m going to be getting hazard pay for this job; robbing ancient temples is way safer than dealing with beasts like these. Steeling himself, the pegasus shot out into the daytime, as ready as he could be to face Amethyst Thistle.
~8~
Spike decided now wasn’t a good time to complain about the soreness in his arm from having Amy drag him through the streets. He had made a valiant effort to keep pace with the dragoness, but in the end his significantly shorter legs couldn’t match the longer strides of his sister and ended up trailing uselessly behind them.
The discomfort would be worth it though if they avoided being captured again. It was a fear he hadn’t even realized had festered inside of him until the prospect of falling victim to the zebracorn’s magic became a possibility once more. Truly, the young dragon’s heart felt as if it froze, making the already aching chill in his chest frigid when his eyes fell upon the burnt, burgundy stallion.
“What’s he doing here? I thought Zariba would be looking for us in Ford Junction!” Spike shouted as he looked back at the now fairly distant jewelry store just in time to spot the blue minotaur come barreling onto the street.
“Zariba’s network is big, I expected that, but I can’t believe he knew I’d come this way!” Amethyst exclaimed, and Spike couldn’t tell if she was speaking to him, or herself. “How did that bastard know? He can’t know me that well, can he?”
A shadow darted overhead, and Amy’s frantic musings were interrupted by Phantom’s shouting. “They’re here! The criminals are over here! Get your arses up already and stop them!”
Spike looked up to see the pegasus circling them from a safe distance, marking their location for whomever he was commanding. The response came sooner than the young dragon would have liked when he heard someone yell for them to stop and he looked to see a new, much more muscular minotaur standing in their path.
Fluidly, Amy yanked him forwards and up to be cradled to her chest in one arm while lowering the staff and supplies upon his belly with the other. He didn’t know what to do, but seeing that his sister had no intention of slowing down as she sped towards the unmovable-looking bull, the young dragon latched his claws around the stuff. In the next moment, Amy surged forward, causing a look of surprise to flash across her opponent’s face as she appeared within his guard to drive a fist deep into his gut.
Spittle flew from the bull’s mouth as all the air in his lungs was violently discharged; his eyes bulging in disbelief and pain. Spike swore he could hear the minotaur’s spine actually crack from the force of impact. Without slowing down, Amy withdrew her fist and ran around the large bull as his hands came to his battered solar plexus and he began to fall forward. Spike could hear the big fellow hit the ground and shouts of anger as his sister continued her sprinting.
They had made it a block and a half before being attacked again, this time having a gryphon dive-bomb them. Amy saw the rapidly growing shadow and dove to the side, covering her brother as best she could as she rolled. “How dare you hurt Strong Arm!” the female bird growled before pouncing. Even from her downed position, Amethyst Thistle was not helpless as her tail lashed out like a whip to strike the gryphoness in the face and sent her crashing, her momentum bouncing her across the ground like a thrown skipping stone.
“Sis!” Spike heard cried from above. Looking up revealed another silhouette in the sky, similar to, but larger than that of the gryphoness. Before whoever it was could take their vengeance however, Amy sent a jet of flame towards them, not high enough to reach the bird, but strong enough for the burst of heated air to disrupt their flight and force them to land on a roof.
Once again the dragoness was on her feet and running. “We got to get out of town and find somewhere to lay low.” Amy said, looking down into Spike’s wide eyes. “Don’t worry Spike, just keep a tight hold of those supplies and let me handle things, okay? I won’t let you get hurt again.”
The younger dragon nodded, comforted by the surety in his sister’s voice. Their gazes were jarringly broken apart as a burly earth pony plowed into them, sending both dragons rolling away from each other. “Guess nopony ever told you not to make trouble in Bedville, eh missy?” taunted the pony.
Spike groaned as he got to his feet, supplies miraculously still in his claws. “Hmm? What the- what’s a runt like you doing here?” The young dragon froze then, forcing his eyes up to see the pony had approached him. “What are ya, a colt? I thought that burnt fella said you two would be a couple of criminals,” he puzzled, head tilting slightly.
Before he could say more, Amy returned the favor, shoulder checking the stallion and reaching for Spike. Unfortunately, the large gryphon that had been stalled from attacking earlier launched his own assault, talons coming down onto Amy’s shoulders, driving her into the ground. “Nobody hurts my family!” he roared, clawing at the scales of Amy’s back, actually managing to tear some free.
Watching in shock as his sister growled and tried to shake the gryphon loose, turning herself around so that she could push at his head and chest, Spike felt his own fury grow, his grip tightening on Amy’s staff as it did. With a scream, Spike brought the length of dark wood down upon the preoccupied bird’s head, a loud crack resounding through the air. “Nobody hurts my family either, jerk!” the young dragon breathed, panting heavily as adrenaline pumped through his veins.
Going rigid a moment, the gryphon went limp and was subsequently pushed aside by a shocked dragoness. “Wow… nice hit,” Amy commented as she stared at her brother.
“Th-thanks,” he returned, now shaking slightly as he looked down the length of the staff, eyes zeroing in on a drop of blood pooling at the end and rolling towards his claws.
“Come on! Is this the best this stinking town can do! They’re making fools out of the lot of you!” Phantom bellowed from above, having finally returned after fleeing from Amy’s earlier skyward display.
“Cowardly bastard,” growled the dragoness under her breath. “We can’t get far with him constantly giving away our location.” A wicked grin suddenly stretched across her muzzle. “Good thing he’s easy to deal with.”
Inhaling deeply, Amy held it for a time, ignoring a new group of pursuers running at them, and did something Spike had never seen a dragon do before. To his amazement, she shot what appeared to be a concentrated line of fire, barely half the diameter of an Equestrian bit straight through the air, crossing the gap between her and the pegasus faster than he thought possible.
In his own impressive feat, Phantom reacted quickly, twisting his body to avoid the searing stream. He failed to dodge it completely however, the tip of his tail being set ablaze instantly. The wild screaming was immediate, and Spike almost felt bad for the pegasus as he flailed, beating at the fire with his hooves while simultaneously trying to fly away; the combination only resulting in is steady plummet downwards.
The vile insults he spat while doing this killed any sympathy he had for the pony.
Once again, Spike found himself swept off his feet as Amy finally turned her attention to the townsfolk roped into trying to capture her. The pyrotechnics seemed to give them pause, but the braver of their numbers were cautiously edging closer, a look of obvious thought on their faces as they tried to decide the best way to stop the dragons without ending up well-done.
Amy never allowed them a chance to find an answer as she resorted to her favorite escape tactic, taking a deep breath and blowing out a large cloud of black smoke. Shouts of surprise were ignored as the dragoness sprinted between two buildings, using the extra cover to ensure they weren’t followed this time.
The following few moments were utterly disorienting for Spike as Amy carried him ever closer to the edge of the small town; ducking and diving to avoid the sight of anyone, regardless of whether or not those individuals were even looking for them. There were more than a few sharp turns, and his sister even climbed over a few structures to make a clean escape.
Soon, the two dragons were out of the small pocket of civilization, but Amy didn’t stop, leaping with a panicked grace across boulders and rocky spires. It registered in Spike’s mind that they were actually traveling up the mountain Bedville’s mine was dug into the side of. “Uh, I think we lost them, Amy,” the smaller dragon commented, doing his best to look behind him without dropping anything.
“It’s better to be safe than sorry. They’ll come looking for us once they realize we’ve left the town; I’d prefer being far away when that happens,” Amy replied distractedly. The terrain was inclining the further they went, and Amy was now occasionally pulling herself, one-clawed, up cliffs.
This was no doubt rather strenuous while carrying such a heavy load if the grunts and twinges in her expression were any indication, and Spike said as much. “Okay, they will probably be coming for us, maybe you shouldn’t wear yourself out like this.” He tried to force a smile. “I don’t think I’ll be able to knock enough of them out like I did that gryphon, after all. You should save your strength, you know?”
Amy didn’t respond for a while, eyes focused ahead as she scanned for the next claw-hold to ascend with. Finally, she spoke. “A little further, at the first good hiding spot, I’ll take a breather. Is that okay?”
Spike, a little surprised, and fairly relieved that his sister was actually listening to him on this matter, nodded his head. “Yeah, that sounds like a good idea… How far do you plan on climbing?”
The younger dragon was jostled and had to scramble to keep a tablet piece from slipping away as Amy jumped up to pull herself over another rock face. “Far enough that we’ll only have to worry about flyers finding us.” She paused a moment, adjusting her grip on Spike while he did the same with their supplies. “After that… I don’t really know. I didn’t expect Zariba to look for me here so soon.”
She growled suddenly. “That was stupid of me, I shouldn’t have underestimated him. The two of us have been going at it for years now, always trying to best each other. He’s even gotten the better of me more times than I care to admit, so I should have been prepared for something like this… I should know him as well as he knows me.”
Not knowing how to comfort her, Spike remained silent while his sister continued climbing. There were a few moments where the younger dragon feared that they’d fall or that he’d be dropped, but Amy proved herself quite competent at scaling mountains, and the two were soon hidden within the shadows of an overhang.
Behind him, Amy rummaged through their supplies for the water canteen while Spike stared out at the cloudless horizon. As long as he didn’t look down at the desolate landscape below, the sight was vaguely reminiscent of the ones he had often witnessed from the outskirts of Canterlot, and he found it soothing at the moment.
“Don’t get too close the edge, Spike. We wouldn’t want you being spotted,” the dragoness called. “Why don’t you come over here and have a drink?”
Humming, Spike did as his sister bade, crawling the short distance between them to lean against the rock wall before accepting the canteen. “So… what are we going to do now?” he asked once he’d taken a gulp.
“I… don’t know,” was the disheartening reply. “If he guessed right that I’d be going this way, then he’s probably sent word to every settlement, town, and city between here and Equestria.” She sighed. “We’ll probably get the same welcome wherever we go if we try to get to Equestria. Time passing will make that even more likely.”
“What do you mean?”
“Those guys back there that attacked us, they weren’t organized, which makes sense. We only just escaped the night before after all, so Zariba’s lackeys haven’t had time to set up proper watches and what not.” She gestured vaguely out in front of with a claw. “By the time we manage to hike to anywhere populated, there’s going to be someone waiting for us.
“… I suppose I should look on the bright side; at least we got a chance to pick up some supplies before we were chased out of town.” Though it was meant to sound optimistic, the forlornness in her voice told the younger dragon that her thoughts were anything but positive.
Clenching his jaw, Spike thought hard on their predicament. Amy had said Zariba knew her too well for her to easily outsmart him, but that could be the key to them getting out of this mess. “If Zariba knows what you’re going to do before you do it, then maybe I should decide on what we should do,” Spike suggested. “You were thinking about heading back to Equestria, right? So that just means we have to go somewhere else.”
Amy was silent, and Spike expected his idea to be shot down any moment. As much as he liked to argue otherwise when Twilight treated him like one, he was just a kid. What did he know about pulling one over on a creep like Zariba?
“Where would we go instead then? We don’t have any idea what’s going on with your fire, and the princesses may be the only ones who can fix it.”
Spike blinked a few times, stunned that, when she finally replied, it wasn’t just to dismiss his opinion. Was she really taking him seriously? “That’s not necessarily true,” he began, thoughts turning furiously in his head as he tried to put a plan together while he was still being listened to. “Magic is hard to make permanent. Really hard in fact. Twilight told me so herself when she was studying enchantments.”
“The magic, uh, magic matrix I think it was, of a spell can only hold itself together for so long before it unravels or whatever. Even great spells eventually fall apart most of the time if they don’t have something solid to stick to. Now that I think about it, it probably would have been almost impossible for anyone other than Princess Celestia to enchant my flames in the first place.”
“That’s interesting I guess, but what are you trying to get at?” Amy asked, despondency being replaced with genuine curiosity.
“What I mean is I don’t think what Zariba did to me will last forever. I mean, just like how those guys back in town hadn’t had enough time to set up a trap for us, Zariba could have only known about my special fire for, like, a day tops. It takes Twilight weeks sometimes to get a new spell down just right, and she’s the Element of Magic. There’s no way that zebra could have come up with a spell and cast it well enough to last really long in just one day.”
His words picked up speed with his confidence as all the pieces fell into place in his head. “Yeah, Twilight practiced all sorts of little spells on me, and each time she cast any particular spell the longer it would last. She told me it was because she was getting better at making the matrix stable, something about fewer mistakes for magic to leak out of or something.”
Putting a claw to his chest, he closed his eyes and breathed deeply, endeavoring to feel for his flames. Just as it had been the first time he tried this, Spike’s attempt was met with a cold darkness, and its presence made him wish to turn his focus outwards and away from the perverse sensation. He fought the urge however, and clumsily studied the strange magic. Pressing his awareness against the surface, Spike finally did notice something different. A slight, almost non-existent warmth that had not been there before seeped through the barrier.
“It’s only a matter of time,” he mumbled, before increasing his volume. “All we have to do is wait this magic out, and then we can send a message to the princesses so they can get us out of this mess.”
“And how long will that take? I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to try and live off of dead land like this for months. Especially when every populated area around here will have eyes watching for us.” Amy said skeptically.
The younger dragon looked at her and smiled. “Like I said, if we can’t get back to Equestria because that’s what Zariba expects us to do, than we just have to go somewhere unexpected.” His smile turned into a full-on grin. “I’d bet the last place he’d expect us to go is after Bahamut’s hoard.”
Amy’s face remained blank for all of five seconds before she shouted, “What!?” Clamping a claw over her mouth, her eyes darted around before she whispered. “Why in the world would we go in the same direction as the zebra who's trying to capture us?”
“Because it’s absolutely crazy,” Spike answered with a confident nod of his head. “Besides, after you risked so much just so Zariba didn’t find the hoard, I know the idea of just going back to Equestria now would hurt… It would hurt a lot.”
Wincing, Amy averted her eyes. “That’s… That’s not true. There are more important things in this world than fulfilling a dream, and I’ve got you to think about.”
“And that’s why I want to do this,” Spike countered, gaze burning. “I don’t want to be the reason you miss your chance at finding Bahumut’s hoard!” He took a deep breath. “Listen, I know what I’m saying is crazy, and dangerous, and crazy dangerous, but it’s not like I haven’t thought about it before now.” The younger dragon turned his head back to the horizon.
“I already knew this was important to you from when we talked about it at Kamaboko Ramen, but it really sunk in after you went back for the journal. This is everything to you, and… and I want to be a part of it.”
Amy pulled him into a hug then, holding the younger dragon to her side. “It’s not everything Spike, I’ve got you now, and Lore Finder too. I don’t want you getting hurt because you think you need to prove yourself to me or earn my love or anything like that. You’re my little brother, the last living member of my family, and you’re…” She stopped to take a deep breath, squeezing him tighter to her body. “You are more important than some treasure.”
“That doesn’t change that I still want to do this,” he shot back, gaining a surprised look from the dragoness. “You’ve been on all these amazing adventures, found all these amazing things, and saved whole countries! Well, this is just like those times! Last night, when we talked about how dangerous some of those artifacts could have been if the bad guys got them instead of you, and then later, I asked you what kind of things Bahamut would have collected. Well, I put the pieces together, and I’m sure you have too.
“Bahamut probably has hundreds of powerful artifacts that could hurt a lot of people all over the world if they fell into the wrong hooves, and I’m pretty sure Zariba’s hooves count as the wrong ones! This isn’t just about me, this is about everyone!”
Spike’s voice had grown in volume as he spoke his mind, but Amy didn’t shush him. Instead, the dragoness stared with wide-eyes into the determined gaze of her little brother. When she finally did make a sound, it wasn’t one of anger, or a lecture about how he was too young to understand such things like he expected, but a snort. This was soon followed by giggles, and then full-blown laughter. “Mom and Dad really would be proud,” she finally said as she got control of her convulsing diaphragm. “Their youngest child, not even rid of his baby fat, and already with a hero’s heart.”
His cheeks burned red and puffed out, displaying the baby fat he was about to deny having, before his sister cut him off. “Okay, we’ll go in the direction of the treasure. If anything, our chances of hitting up the same towns as Zariba’s little caravan are pretty low, so it may be the safest bet.” Spike began to smile widely, but lessened some as the dragoness continued. "But that doesn’t mean we’re going after Bahamut’s hoard. As soon as your fire starts working again, we are going to send a letter back to Equestria, and get you home safely, understood?”
Though he wanted to argue, the little dragon decided not to push his luck; this was more than he could have expected from Twilight after all, and so he nodded. “Yeah, I get it”
The two went quiet once again, Spike taking a sip from the still-open canteen before returning it to his sister.
“So… are you part of a debate club or something in Ponyville? That was a pretty convincing speech you gave there. Very heroic, too.” Amy asked.
Spike shrugged. “Well, I kind of live with a hero for one, see her five heroic friends on a regular basis for two… and read a lot of hero comics for three… I guess it just rubbed off on me.”
“Huh… Lore would be envious. She’s been trying to make me more responsible for years, but I keep getting myself into the most ridiculous situations… I wonder what she’ll have to say about this one.”
“But this time wasn’t your fault, right?”
“Try telling that to her. She’ll probably think I’m passing my bad habits onto you once she finds out what we’re doing.”
“… Twilight’s going to be really mad at me.”
“It’s always the brainy ponies that are the most frightening when they’re angry.”
“Yeah, Twilight literally sets on fire when she gets mad.”
“… What?”