We could already see the guards whispering among themselves as we approached the front entrance of the Pantheon. It might have been a bit self-assured to think that Iron Sights would have time to see us first thing in the morning, but at the very least I wasn’t going to leave without a more definite answer as to when we could speak to him. As we neared the two central pillars, I instinctively slowed down, and sure enough, the guards crossed their halberds a second time as we got near.
“State your business,” he spoke in a calm voice, although I got the distinct feeling he wasn’t happy about doing so.
“We wish to speak to Iro… Marshal Iron Sights,” I replied, quickly correcting my near mistake. “We were hoping to negotiate on behalf of the Rebellion.”
The two guards looked at each other for a brief second, exchanging a disgruntled look before uncrossing their halberds and planting them vertically once more.
“The Marshal is expecting you,” the other guard picked up. “Check in at the desk for an exact time, and don’t think about causing any trouble.”
We started to walk between them when I suddenly thought of something very stupid to say.
“What if somepony has something I want?” I asked, leaning back to look at the guards we had just passed. “Could I not beat them up for it? Would that not be causing trouble?”
Both guards glared at me, their faces going slightly red as they began huffing and puffing. I quickly continued on into the Pantheon, giggling audibly for them to hear, I do love diplomatic immunity. Fluttershy gave me an exasperated look as we entered the foyer of the building and made our way up to the desk.
“Sorry,” I said genuinely, my laughter cutting off abruptly.
“It’s okay, have your fun,” Fluttershy replied, although I could tell she didn’t mean it.
“No, no, I’ll be professional now,” I promised her. “Besides I just wanted to mess with them for their attitude yesterday, when we get to Iron Sights I’ll be a different pony.”
As we stepped up to the front desk, I quickly switched off my amulet while Fluttershy addressed the pony behind. We were invited to take a seat off to the side while we waited for our appointment, which turned out to be almost an hour of shifting uncomfortably and fidgeting in our seats before we were finally called for. The interior of the Pantheon reminded me of the Tower in Arclight, much smaller, but the staircases that led to the second floor were a similar style. Two separate staircases curving along the wall to meet in the centre, where a door stood rather than a teleporter.
When our time came, we were alerted by a clear voice calling down from the platform at the top of the stairs. Looking up we saw a pegasus in full dragoon armour, what little I could see of her coat was artic blue, while her tail was snow white, I didn’t even need to see her face to know that it was the same pegasus who had met Iron Sights as he left the arena the evening before. As it was however, her helmet was also a bit of a giveaway, it was similar in style to Rainbow Dash’s, except it had no plume of any kind, while the open section at the front was much narrower and filled in with a purple visor, the part that really gave away who was behind the mask like helmet.
We walked up the left staircase to where she stood waiting for us, once at the top, she turned and opened the doors, leading us down a short corridor to Iron Sights' office. Perhaps it was his display in the Coliseum, but I had walked into the office expecting something slightly more… barbaric. Like for his desk to be made from the bones of his enemies, or for their heads to be mounted on plaques around the wall. I was almost disappointed when the room turned out to be rather bland in appearance and décor, almost… but then I caught myself on. Iron Sights was sitting behind his desk, dressed in his own armour, his forelegs resting on the table as he sat up straight and waited for us to enter.
Although it was difficult to make out while he sat down, he also wore a red cape similar to the officer Rainbow Dash had knocked out when we first arrived. Only Iron Sights' was embroidered with gold, with two silver discs clasping it to the rest of his armour. As I noticed that, I also realised that the pegasus who led us into the office and now stood at Iron Sights side, wore a crimson cape of her own. Although hers looked torn and tattered, and she wore it draped around her neck like a scarf. Iron Sights' helmet was identical to that of the other pegasus, only without the purple visor, and it sat off to one side on his desk.
His face was rather plain; it was a motley grey colour, his dull red mane cut short and flat at the top. I half expected him to be plastered with battle scars, but his face looked as fresh as if he had spent his life in an office. What struck me as most odd about him, was that he didn’t even look that strong. He wasn’t even big for a stallion, yet his display in the arena was reminiscent of somepony twice the size of Big Mac. Fluttershy and I stood awkwardly at the door, waiting to be addressed, but for the longest time he simply stared at us. I could tell he was sizing us up, it was slightly unnerving, but it didn’t last too long before he finally raised one of his hooves and waved it through the air, gesturing to the two seats that had been set out from the desk.
“Sit,” he said simply, in the same calm, authoritative tone that he had used to demand his opponent's surrender.
We glanced at each other out of the corner of our eyes before obeying. Once we were seated, Iron Sights raised his foreleg to gesture to the mare who had led us in.
“As there are two of you,” he began, now that he was no longer speaking in single word sentences I realised just how slow he really was when talking. “My second, Air Chief Fleetfoot will sit in on these… negotiations.”
“That’s perfectly acceptable,” I replied, unsure whether that would be a problem or not.
“Where have you travelled from?” he asked. “Was it Pivot?”
“No, we received our orders near Port Mule,” I admitted, seeing no point in being anything other than honest.
“Then you have travelled a long way,” Iron Sights commented bluntly. “What you have to say must be very important.”
“We wished to discuss the situation regarding Cragsburg,” I informed him, only for him to raise a single curious eyebrow. “You know, the Children of the Earth?”
Iron Sights stared at me for a moment, before turning to Fleetfoot and giving her a questioning look, she simply responded with a shrug.
“You will need to explain this situation to us,” Iron Sights droned as he turned back to me. “Olympus takes no interest in the affairs of the rest of Panchea anymore.”
“Well I think you might need to start taking an interest,” I grumbled. “The Children of the Earth are a group based in Cragsburg, they started out as little more than religious sect that the Rebellion deemed… too minor a concern to deal with. Now they have built an army, and they have the entire city of Cragsburg under their control. A while back they even invaded Pivot where they… killed a number of citizens, and cut the wings and horns off every pegasus and unicorn.”
“Really?” Iron Sights uttered, sitting up slightly straighter while Fleetfoot shifted uncomfortably.
“We don’t know a lot about why they’re doing this,” I explained. “Although from what we have gathered, it sounds like they see unicorns and pegasi as being unnatural. They call us abominations, that we are in some way offensive to the natural order of the world.”
“While we travelled up here,” Fluttershy chipped in. “We passed through Breakwater and Brine, the Children of the Earth had sent scouts to both those towns, we fear they may be planning an attack.”
“Similarly, we think Olympus may be targeted,” I finished. “It does after all, have a pegasus majority population.”
“These Children of the Earth,” Iron Sights began. “Do their soldiers have a uniform? Something we can use to identify them by?”
“Yes,” I confirmed. “They wear dark green robes with hoods, and armour on the outside that resembles granite.”
Fleetfoot let out a bark of laughter, causing both myself and Fluttershy, as well as Iron Sights to look at her curiously.
“Those guys?” Fleetfoot asked in her hoarse voice. “Those guys are pushovers, we had a few of them marching up to the front gate a couple weeks ago, the vanguard took them down without breaking a sweat.”
“I… wasn’t made aware of this,” Iron Sights responded, his voice lowering while his eyes narrowed ever so slightly.
“Uh, my apologies Marshal,” Fleetfoot said hurriedly. “I didn’t think it was important enough to bother you with, and I assure you they were no threat whatsoever.”
“Don’t underestimate them,” I warned. “For starters, their armour is made of something we’ve never seen before; none of our weapons even scratched it. Also, when they attacked Pivot, they didn’t do it with a few… they had hundreds.”
“I can see why these Children of the Earth concern you,” Iron sights admitted. “But I fail to see why they should concern me. If my second believes they are no threat to us, then I trust her.”
“Maybe not,” I agreed. “You have one of the most easily fortifiable cities in Panchea, and you have one of the largest armies. I very much doubt you would be in danger if they came marching up the mountains, but that’s not what we’re here to talk about.”
“You want us to lend you our strength so that your cities will no longer be in danger?” Iron Sights questioned.
“Because the Rebellion army was too weak to protect Pivot,” Fleetfoot added. “Now you need someone stronger to scare off your enemies.”
“Well the Rebel army isn’t as strong as it used to be,” I pointed out. “Forgetting about all the soldiers that left with you, we also lost huge amounts when Arcana and Typhoon split off.”
Again, Iron Sights raised a single eyebrow to indicate he had no idea what I was talking about. I wanted to scream in frustration, to think this stallion controlled the second largest army in the country, assuming the Liberators still had the largest following the incident at the Fort, and all he seemed to want to do was bury his head in the sand and kill anyone that questioned him. Fluttershy could see the distress I was in, so she quickly stepped in and gave a quick explanation of why the Rebellion split around the end of the war, and how the Arcane Order and the Liberators were formed.
“So in conclusion,” Fluttershy finished. “The Liberators have the largest army in the land, but our attempts to reconcile with them have been… unsuccessful.”
“And now you’ve turned to us,” Iron Sights muttered. “Since we turned away from the Rebellion, we have confined ourselves to Olympus. We have not meddled in the affairs of your leaders, and in return we’ve been left in peace to live as we see fit. I fail to see why that should change now.”
“Well, think about it this way,” I began. “Olympus doesn’t exactly produce an awful lot; a good example would be food. You still rely on trading with other towns for the food you can’t grow here, but if the Children of the Earth took over Breakwater and Brine... although we’ll come back to Brine in a little bit, you would be cut off from the rest of the country. The Children of the Earth may not be able defeat you in combat, but they can wait you out simply by cutting you off from any towns or cities where you could trade food from.
“And that’s not to mention your local businesses,” I continued. “We’re staying at the Stratus Hotel, and it’s ready to go under, because they aren’t getting enough travellers from outside the city paying to stay with them. If they’re struggling now, imagine how long they’ll last when not a single pony can safely make it to Olympus; imagine how all your business will suffer.”
“At the very least you could send some of your troops to protect the towns in the Lesser Pastures,” Fluttershy proposed. “The Rebellion don’t have the numbers necessary, but you do, and you could even help restore Brine. If you did this, you could ensure the Children of the Earth are never able to move further than Cragsburg, and you’d keep your trade routes open.”
“What do you mean about restoring Brine?” Fleetfoot asked suspiciously. “What happened there? Did these Children of the Earth take it over too?”
“Worse,” I replied grimly. “Something… strange has happened in the town, every single pony who lived there is dead… and they continue to walk around as animated corpses.”
“Okay, this is starting to get ridiculous,” Fleetfoot groaned. “You were starting to talk sense, but now you’re talking about a town of the undead, and you expect us to take you seriously.”
“It’s true!” Fluttershy insisted. “We barely got out of their alive, we saw them kill another agent we were travelling with, and she turned into one of them.”
“I would be inclined to believe the word of a sister,” Iron Sights said in a contemplative tone before staring directly at me. “Tell me, who do you receive your orders from?”
“I received my orders from Maverick,” I replied simply.
“You believe he trusts you?” Iron Sights questioned.
“No, but I believe he trusts me to get the job done,” I admitted.
“I used to think the same thing,” Iron Sights stated, his voice now sounding slightly bitter. “Until I was replaced with that insufferable wench.”
“Iron Sights…” I began in a wary tone before noticing Fleetfoot’s helmet snap in my direction. “Marshal, don’t let bad blood dictate your decision here, you have to think about what’s…”
“Tell me Miss…” Iron Sight cut in before trailing off.
“Rarity,” I filled in.
“Miss Rarity,” Iron Sights continued. “What do you know of the reasons behind my… demotion?”
He said the final word with so much venom, it was the most emotive he had been since the start of our meeting.
“I… I was told that you tried to have some farms burned down when it looked like they were about to fall into the enemy’s possession,” I replied warily, deciding to leave out the troop movements for now.
“Yes, I did,” Iron Sights confirmed. “When Typhoon approached me and asked me to lead their growing army into war, I was being entrusted due to my skills and experience, that they trusted me to make the decisions that were necessary to see them victorious. It turned out I was mistaken, they didn’t trust me anymore than Maverick trusts the insufferable wench he replaced me with. All they wanted was a servant who would blindly carry out their every instruction, no matter how foolish they were. You think the war was won by a pair of politicians and their loyal goon? No!
“It was won by me!” Iron Sights snapped, his calm voice melting away to be replaced by a furious bellowing one. “It was won by my decisions and my soldiers, and what thanks did I receive? What did the trust that was placed in me really amount to? Absolutely nothing! I was stripped of my rank and title, and replaced like one would replace an unfaithful spouse. You might think me some kind of monster or war criminal, whatever it is your master calls me, but I guaranteed victory for the Rebellion long before Equestria was even considering surrendering.
“But I am not vengeful,” Iron Sights continued, his voice calming slightly as he sunk back into his chair. “I took those who were loyal to me and together we took Olympus for our own, the Rebels and their leaders could think of it as the minimum payment we were owed for our services. I swore I would never oppose those fools, but nor would we ride to their aid and fight their battles again, and I have no intention of doing so now.”
“Even if it ends in the destruction of your city?!” I exclaimed, outraged by his stubbornness.
“Olympus will never fall no matter what these cretins from Cragsburg do,” Iron Sights replied simply. “Our city runs on strength, not gold as you would believe. If these Children of the Earth do cut off our trade routes, so be it, the strong in our society will endure throughout any trial.”
“But what about Brine?” Fluttershy said hurriedly. “You said you believed me about what’s happened there.”
“I said I was inclined to believe a sister,” Iron Sights specified. “But sisters do not leave the Bask, therefore you cannot be one, and I would never trust somepony who attempts to deceive others in such a way.”
Fluttershy’s face burned with a furious blush.
“So that’s it?” I asked in a frustrated tone. “There’s no way you’ll ever consider helping us defeat the Children of the Earth? You won’t even send soldiers to protect your neighbouring towns?”
“So long as I am leader of the Dragoons, they will not ally themselves with the Rebellion,” Iron Sights replied flatly. “But take solace Miss Rarity, for so long as I am leader of the Dragoons, they will not be your enemies either.”
Fleetfoot walked around the desk to stand beside me, her helmet tilted down to look at me.
“I think it’s time you both left,” she stated, I could hear the glee in her voice.
“Just… one final thing,” I said quickly, looking back at Iron Sights. “I am… sorry to hear that is your decision, but I had one other thing to tell you while we were here.”
“And that is?” Iron Sights asked, his voice now completely returned to its original calm.
“Maverick told me to inform you that Arcana was assassinated,” I lied. “The Arcane Order appears to remain strong in his absence, but Arcana himself is dead.”
“Does Maverick think I had something to do with it?” Iron Sights asked curiously. “Surely you’ve picked up that we have no interest in their dealings, I wasn’t aware your leaders had even split, let alone whether they were alive or not.”
“Well no, we don’t believe you had anything to with it,” I assured him. “Maverick just thought you’d appreciate being told, he seemed to think the two of you were close.”
Iron Sights had an amazing poker face, even when he lost his temper he managed to keep his face under strict control, but when I uttered those words, I saw the flash of panic cross his visage. It was only for the shortest of seconds before he managed to recover, if I didn’t have such a keen eye for details like that, I would have missed it completely, as I’m sure Fluttershy would have.
“I don’t know where he got an idea like that,” Iron Sights replied, sounding genuinely confused. “Most of my orders came directly from Maverick or Typhoon, I never had a great deal of interaction with Arcana.”
“Well, I can’t begin to surmise why he thought that,” I stated casually as I stood up and Fluttershy followed suit. “I’m just following his orders by telling you, but if there’s nothing more to be said, then we shall take our leave.”
“You do that,” Iron Sights replied, giving a small bow of the head in farewell.
Fleetfoot led us from the office, back into the foyer of the Pantheon, leaving us at the top of the staircases before closing the door. I quickly made my way down the stairs and out the building; Fluttershy had to trot to keep up with my quick strides. Once outside I quickly switched on my amulet and made my way down the streets, making for the hotel. The whole way Fluttershy tried talking to me, asking me questions, but I was too enveloped in my own thoughts to reply immediately… besides, I didn’t want any Dragoon soldiers to overhear and report back to Iron Sights.
Once we were back in the lobby of the Stratus Hotel, we quickly greeting the receptionist mare and requested some food to be delivered to our room before hurrying up the stairs. Once we were safely in our room, I slammed the door and proceeded to pace about, muttering to myself while Fluttershy sat on the bed, tired out from walking here so quickly.
“Well that was disappointing,” she commented while giving me a concerned look.
“Yes it was,” I admitted. “You were right when you said strength isn’t synonymous with being a good leader, to think that stallion actually believes Olympus can survive without food just because its inhabitants are strong.”
“He definitely seems to have a warped view on the world,” Fluttershy stated. “But what’s gotten you so agitated? Are you upset we failed our mission?”
“Failed?” I repeated, beaming back at her. “Fluttershy we haven’t failed anything, our mission was not to successfully negotiate any kind of alliance with the Dragoons. Maverick even said that if we could ensure they wouldn’t be a threat to us, that would be fine, and Iron Sights has made it quite clear he doesn’t give a damn about anything beyond Olympus. No, our real mission was to find out if he knew anything about who Arcana was in contact with.”
“But when you mentioned Arcana to him, he didn’t care,” Fluttershy pointed out.
“Oh, he’s good at keeping a straight face,” I admitted. “But he’s not as good as he might think; he slipped up just a little when I said that Maverick thought they were close. It was just enough to tell me that he knows something about what Arcana was doing, and he’s afraid of Maverick finding out about it.”
“You figured that out from a look?” Fluttershy questioned, trying to hide her scepticism. “A look I didn’t even see.”
“I’m just that good Fluttershy,” I said jubilantly. “But that just confirms that he does know something, it doesn’t tell us what he knows though…”
I was interrupted by a knocking on the door that nearly gave me a heart attack. Naturally it turned out to be the mare delivering our lunch and I ended up feeling rather silly. While we sat and ate together, we began discussing plans for how we might find out what we needed to know. We were still discussing by the time we finished our meal, and even long after that. I lost track of how long we were talking and repeatedly coming up with nothing constructive, but by the time we decided to call it quits, I was already starting to feel hungry again.
“But you nearly got the information from Arcana…” Fluttershy began. “You know, before Pinkie killed him. Maybe you can use the same technique again on Iron Sights.”
“I don’t think that’s a good idea…” I muttered, trying to imagine seducing that guy and shuddering at the thought. “Why don’t we take a break, go get some fresh air or something?”
“Yes, let’s,” Fluttershy agreed, sounding relieved.
We left the room, not bothering to put on our satchels or harness our weapons. We were, after all, just going for a walk around the plaza, it wasn’t like we would need them. I was still talking, half to myself, about what our next move should be as we started walking down the staircase to the lobby, when suddenly Fluttershy threw herself on top of me, clamping her hoof down over my mouth. For a second I tried to struggle against her, absolutely bewildered as to what had come over her, before I noticed the urgent look in her eye.
I followed her gaze down to the lobby which had just become visible, to where the receptionist mare lay curled up in the middle of the floor, clutching her abdomen in agony. All around her were seven Dragoon soldiers, forming a circle which enclosed her and her attacker, easily identifiable from the purple visor on her helmet and her tattered, crimson scarf.
“I will ask you again,” Fleetfoot said in her usual raspy voice. “And I really hope you refuse to answer again, because it brings me great pleasure to kick a pony while they’re down. So, which room is Rarity staying in?”
“I… I…” the mare gasped, clearly struggling to form the words from the pain she was in.
I could just imagine Fleetfoot grinning behind her helmet, right before she wound back and kicked the mare hard in the stomach. Fluttershy had to clamp her free hoof over her own mouth to stop herself crying out in shock.
“I can do this all day,” Fleetfoot taunted. “But somehow, I think you’ll die long before that, so tell me what I want to know, and I might lose interest in hurting you.”
I looked at Fluttershy who had a pained look on her face, but I could also see some anger there. When she caught my eye, I gave her a small nod and she let go of me. After taking a second to brace ourselves, we walked down the rest of the staircase to meet Fleetfoot and her thugs in the lobby.
“That’s enough!” Fluttershy called out, signalling our presence.
Fleetfoot’s head snapped around, instantly forgetting about the poor mare as her new prey came into focus.
“Oh good, I do prefer it when they come to me,” Fleetfoot drawled. “I enjoy the chase, but you end up losing so much time that could be better spent.”
“What do you want?” I demanded in a cold voice as we stopped at the bottom of the steps. “Why are you doing this?”
“I’m just following orders,” Fleetfoot replied simply. “You see, something you said upset the Marshal, and now he wants you taken care of, and I was more than happy to oblige.”
“Sounds like you didn’t need the orders then,” Fluttershy said in an uncharacteristically snide tone.
“I’m just one of those ponies that’s lucky enough to have a job that brings me great personal pleasure,” Fleetfoot replied in a sinister tone as she reached back to her waist, grabbing a metal baton similar to the one Rainbow Dash had wielded.
Before she could pull it free however, the doors to the hotel were kicked wide open, and all eyes in the room spun around to see an armoured figure standing in the threshold. It was clear she was going for a very dramatic look with the way her silver armour gleamed in the sunlight, and her prismatic mane flowed freely in the wind, which I later found out she intentionally rigged.
“Rarity, Fluttershy,” Rainbow Dash announced. “I’m here to rescue you!”