"Well..." Romulus huffed, flexing his shoulders. "First thing's first." He turned towards the other two ponies. "We meet up with the rest of the gang."
"Not happening," Rainbow grumbled. "The moment I get within eyeshot of those melon fudges, I'm good as—"
"You should have thought of that before talking those little turds into hiring us both!" Romulus snarled. "That's the crud you roll into when bumping shoulders with the ones you've robbed blind!"
"I didn't rob anypony of anything!" Rainbow snarled. "And I sure as heck didn't enslave deer, threaten families, blow up warehouses, or put random cooks into a coma just to get something that didn't even belong to me!"
"Don Canter and his business associates had laid claim on those shards!" Romulus hollered louder. "You should have left well enough alone instead of listening to the schizophrenic ramblings of your... goddess dayum..." He pointed at the statue on Rainbow's shoulder. "...stone mole cricket!"
"You know what..." Lancie raised a talon, smirking. "There's gotta be a band name somewhere in the middle of that insult."
"Do us a favor and get that shriveled excuse for Mt. Rushmare to put a cork in it!" Romulus barked.
"Nuts to that—" Rainbow flinched, looked at the burrow behind her, then exhaled with relief. She continued her growling diatribe at the assassin. "If it weren't for the little guy, we'd still be rolling around like a pair of dumbflank pinatas in there, just waiting for the crazed rodents to burst us open! Instead, he got us a word with the matriarch—"
"—and you got us on an impossible fetch quest! Way to go, pony!" Romulus rolled his one eye. "I swear... pegasi will be the death of the skies."
"Spoken like a true murderous hypocrite."
"At least I get paid handsomely for what I do!" Romulus folded his arms. "Unlike you. Pffft... when the Flim Flam Brothers finally revealed who you were and where you lived, I nearly keeled over in laughter at how pathetic it was. Tell me, 'Rainbow Dash'... burned any good books lately for warmth?"
"Grrrrr!" Rainbow flew towards him.
"Bring it—!"
FLASH! Sunset Shimmer materialized between them. "KNOCK IT OFF!" She instantly reeled, plopping back on her haunches. "Eugh..."
"What's the matter?" Rainbow slurred. "Wheels in your head turn against you?"
"Ha hah..." Sunset grumbled. "Regardless of how stupid and annoying this situation is, there's now only one way to get the shards. If we kill each other off, then there's likely no chance of getting those furballs to help us with leverage on the dragons. So let's try to save the bloodletting for later, okay?"
"I thought your damn horn was out of juice," Romulus said.
"Yeah, well..." Sunset rubbed her bandaged skull, wincing. "Seems to be coming back... in b-bursts..." She sighed. "Something tells me that if we're gonna do this right, then we'll need to bring in the whole company."
"Wait..." Rainbow grimaced. "You mean you wanna bring more goons here?"
"Correction... Don Canter wants to bring more goons here." Sunset stood up with meager help from the griffon. "And—presumably—he wants to show up too."
"What for? To smell the dragon poop?"
"You have to admire a boss who desires to see the job done with his own eyes," Romulus said, pacing towards the edge of the burnt forest. "And once he hears about this stupid partnership bullcrap, I swear, he's gonna burst a blood vessel."
"Then we'll have to explain things to him quite carefully... so let me do the talking," Sunset said.
"Do you have enough magic to do a teleportation spell?"
"I'd... best save it to when I'm within proximity of my crystals again," Sunset said. "And to do that—"
"—we must fly back to camp. Got it." Nodding, Romulus grabbed Sunset in his talons. "We'd best lay low—in case the dragons are still coasting the grounds west of their flight." He turned to sneer at Rainbow Dash. "You... pony... had better lay lower. Top Dog still wants the first bite out of your flesh. Heheheh..."
"Wait... wait." Rainbow frowned. "What about what Brucie said?"
"What about it?"
"He mentioned something called the 'Ashen North.' It sounded important."
"My mother's words sounded important," Romulus slurred. "Until I ripped them from her voice box for talking back to me."
Rainbow grimaced. "You can't be serious."
"As serious as I am after all these years, soft-hooves." Romulus flapped his wings. "Let's see you say the same after this blood-curdling mess is over. Now fly!"