Caverns & Cutie Marks

by TheColtTrio

Chapter 48: One Jump Ahead

As was usual, Just Duty had found himself lurking around the food tables of the current ball he’d been attending. He despised them; too many ponies with too much money and not enough passion. He usually preferred the ‘balls’ of his town, which were little more than night long parties in the taverns among friends; which was similar to the parties he remembered from his adventuring days. Still though, if he was to garner the support he wished, he’d have to continue to play in the big leagues, as Light Patch had told him. He sighed and ate another pastry while watching the currents of the ballroom.
“Don’t you think he looks tired?” Wits End appeared beside the blue-grey stallion, pouring himself a glass of the closest beverage. He motioned with his head toward the gathering of most important nobles surrounding King Bastion himself. After a moment, he held out a hoof. “Wits End. Friend of Light Patch’s. We’ve met in passing before.”
“Yes, I remember,” Just Duty responded, trying to not let his surprise show at having been snuck up on. He turned to look towards the king and the group gathered around him. “What do you mean by him looking tired?”
Wits sipped his drink before using it to point out the king again. “Just seems like he’s spreading himself a bit thin over there.” He swirled the contents of his glass, a wry smile on his face as if he knew exactly what Bastion were saying. “Sort of stretched, like butter scraped over too much bread... Ah well,” he shrugged, “I suppose planning a war does that to a pony, no matter how powerful.”
Just Duty whirled around to look at the mint unicorn. “A war?” he spoke tersely. “Bastion couldn’t possibly be planning a war. With the kingdom's biggest allies at each other’s throats, and our banditry issues, we couldn’t possibly stand up to the other kingdom around us.” The blue-grey stallion turned to observe the king closer; noting a few more rings under his eyes than normal, for even a king.
“Of course, of course.” Wits nodded. “Tensions between Roania’s closest allies.If war were to break out between them, there would be no-pony to come to Roania’s aid.” His smile widened as he raised the glass to his lips again. “Of course, somepony could always take advantage of the two weakening each other…” He sipped his glass. “How have the King’s attempts to smooth those tensions been going, anyway?”
Just Duty frowned as he tried to recall news about the king's attempts to halt the war. “He’s had more failures than successes, far as I can remember,” the small town noble said, rubbing a chin. “If I’m remembering correctly, it hasn’t seemed to have been much use. Some nobles are even calling it a waste of effort at this point.”
Wits End sighed. “Now isn’t that a shame? After all of the work the king has put into it, too...” The mint-colored unicorn let silence hang in the air for a moment before continuing. “Then again, such a war would be the perfect opportunity to, say, claim some of their outlying territories along Roania’s border...”
“Yes, it would be the perfect opportunity to seize land; if one had a legitimate claim to it,” the blue-grey stallion responded. “Without a just claim, however, even a king would face as much resistance from inside the kingdom as he would outside. And an act like that would ruin any alliances as they sit.”
“Indeed it would.” Wits nodded. “A king would have to prove that his actions were for the good of the kingdom, not just for his own personal pride. To go to war simply to reclaim land lost by one’s father would be pure hubris.” He drained his glass, setting it on the tray of a passing server-pony. “My apologies, but I’ve some other business to deal with. Enjoy the rest of the ball.” He took a few steps before looking back toward where King Bastion and his group were. “He really does look tired, doesn’t he?” With that, he vanished into the crowd once again.
Just Duty watched Wits End disappear before he turned to look towards the king. If the mint-colored unicorn was correct, and the king was planning a war with the kingdom’s own allies just for lost land, it would burn the alliance, and leave Roania with more enemies than she could afford. The kingdom would be torn apart, and hundreds of innocents would die; his ponies would die for an unjust cause. The stallion trotted quickly though the ballroom, plans already forming in his mind.
From the crowd, Wits End watched the noblepony and the look on his face. I could be good at this, he thought, wandering through the ball in search of the next target. Sorry, Patchy’s friend, but the plan takes priority right now. He stood on the tips of his hooves to try and see over the other ponies. “Now,” he muttered under his breath, “where’d she get off to? We should coordinate to make sure we’re not covering the same pon-”
He froze. Over the wall of ponies, he saw the telltale purple coiffure of the fashionista mare, immediately next a familiar mass of copper-colored pony. Wits frowned, pushing his way through the assembled nobleponies. “What is she doing?” he muttered. “Excuse me! Out of the way! Important pony business!” He reached the purple mane, but not before the other pony had vanished. “Rarity!”
Rarity turned around. “Ah, darling. I’ve just had a fascinating conversation with Lord Heavy Wait. You wouldn’t happen to know what he told me, would you?”
Wits End’s eyebrows knitted. “Rarity, I might be in rumor-mongering vizer mode, but I’m not psychic. What are you on about?”
Rarity’s expression soured. “Lord Heavy Wait’s lips are loose enough to sink an entire baroque clothing line. You’ve been busy setting Amber up long before any of this started. And when were you planning on telling Purple Heart about his part in your little plan?”
“If it ain’t baroque- Sorry. I needed a contact in the nobility in case somepony disputed Purple Heart’s victory.” Wits tapped his hoof on the ground. “Which they did, I might add. I figured it’d be a good idea to get on Amber’s good side by giving her a hoof-up on the succession. That’s all.”
“You can drop the act, Wits End. I might not be the element of honesty, but I can tell when somepony is hiding something.” Rarity frowned. “Do you really think that going behind everypony’s back is the best way to go about this?”
Wits’ frown mirrored the purple-maned mare’s. “If you’re trying to get me to say ‘do you think you can do better’, don’t hold your breath. I learned my lesson back at Road’s Crossed. As for the rest, I need you to believe that I’ve got a good reason for what I’m doing.”
“Reason? Yes. But is your goal to help the nine of us, you three stallions, or just yourself? I’m starting to wonder-” She stopped, shocked into silence by the shockingly serious expression on the mint-colored unicorn’s face.
“You have,” he said slowly, “no idea.”
After a moment, Rarity made a dismissive noise. “Fine. Then maybe I should start acting on my own plan, without telling anypony else. What do you think?”
Silence again. Then, a wide grin spread over Wits’ face that didn’t nearly reach his eyes. “Go for it!” he said with a laugh. “The more plans the better at this point! Let’s get a thirty gambit pileup started in here!” His grin turned more subdued. “Of course, we should finish our job here first. Then the dueling plots can start up, okay?”
“Hmph. Fine.” Rarity flipped her mane and trotted away, disappearing into the depths of the ballroom.
Once the purple fashionista was out of sight, Wits’ grin vanished. “This is getting out of hoof,” he muttered. “I need to finish this as fast as possible.” After a moment to collect himself, he turn around, put his best smug smile back on his face, and trotted up to an innocent-looking noblemare. “Don’t you think he looks tired?”

It didn’t take long for Purple Heart and Twilight to get directions to the Royal Archives. A particularly rude kiosk owner had pointed out that the Archives were housed in a low-traffic annex of the castle grounds. Not many ponies took interest in the knowledge stored there unless it was absolutely required. It would be foolish for the two research ponies to ignore the vast amount of knowledge that could probably help them residing in the dust filled building.
“Welp, this is the second time you’ve been to a library on this adventure,” Purple Heart commented softly as they trotted through the open doors of the Royal Archives.
“So?” Twilight snapped, still irked over the fact that Wits had basically ordered her to assist the purple earth pony. The stallion in question shrugged as they walked up to the circulation desk where a young filly sat.
“I dunno,” he said. “Just failing at making idle conversation.”
“You tried no less than ten times since we left the tavern,” the alicorn pointed out. “You’ve been failing a while now.”
“Eeyup,” he agreed, “but at least I’m trying to clear the air. You must still be irritated with the good versus evil argument way back when.” Twilight opened her mouth, about to contradict Purple Heart’s assumption but never got the chance as the purple earth pony had chosen to greet the young unicorn filly behind the desk.
Her bright green mane bobbed as she looked up at the new arrivals, a grin splitting her blue face. “Hello!” she greeted cheerily. “My name is Brooke! How may I help you?”
“Greetings,” Purple Heart said, a small smile on his lips. “I’m Purple Heart and this is Twilight Sparkle. I’m curious as to where the birth records for the Royal Family are.” As Brooke’s emerald eyes widened in awe, Twilight hissed at Purple Heart.
“The Royal Family wouldn’t just leave their records laying around in the Royal Archive!” she hissed.
“They would if nopony frequented the Archive at all,” the purple colt retorted, not turning around. “What better place to hide sensitive documents than in a place nopony goes to? Short of burning down the archives, that’s the best defense, in my humble opinion. No offense to your archives.” The last was said to the still gaping Brooke. Shaking herself out of her shock and awe, the blue unicorn shook her head, smiling.
“None taken,” she breathed. “I just like being here because of all the knowledge and stories. Rarely does anypony come in. You can find the Royal Family birth records in aisle 2B.” Purple Heart smiled and inclined his head in thanks before moving towards the dust-covered stacks.
“I hope you don’t mind me saying this,” the green-maned filly chimed, “but you are an amazing stallion.” Purple Heart balked, his brow furrowed.
“Why, pray tell, am I an amazing stallion?” he asked over his shoulder. Twilight looked between the two ponies, curious as to how the situation would play out. From what she had deduced about Brooke’s reaction to Purple’s name, she had to guess that she was a fanfilly with a crush. To her immense surprise, what Brooke said next shot that theory clear out of the water.
“Why, you’re still alive of course,” Brooke replied. “You must already know this, but nopony has won their freedom in the Coliseum for a decade, the last free Gladiator being a mysterious colt named Looshee. You’re a legend now. I wouldn’t be surprised if some Coliseum official came in today to make an annotation on your achievement.” Twilight and Purple Heart blinked in surprise.
“You mean you aren’t crushing on him?” Twilight asked. Brooke reeled back, her face a mask of disgust.
“Ew, no,” she huffed. “Why would I do that? I have a very nice fillyfriend, thank you very much.” Twilight opened her mouth to say something else but was dragged off by Purple Heart.
“Congratulations then!” he called as they dove into the stacks. After stumbling several yards after the hefty purple earth pony, Twilight twisted away, her face red with irritation.
“What was that for?!” she snapped.
“Just wanted to keep you from putting your hoof in your mouth again,” Purple Heart calmly commented. “Now, start looking for Amber’s birth records.” Before Twilight could make a come back, the purple colt had disappeared into the stacks. Grumbling under her breath, the purple alicorn turned to the shelves and began skimming over the titles, looking for anything that could be mildly related to Royal ancestry.
Four hours, several glasses of water, a hoof-ful of bathroom breaks, and thirty dust filled tomes later, Twilight and Purple Heart were becoming punchy and displeased. They had sprawled their gatherings across three tables and were moving between them like worker bees, trying to connect obscure dots and relations. The majority of the books and tomes they had browsed through held either no information regarding Amber Glitter’s parentage at all or merely had a passing footnote annotation. Suffice to say, Purple Heart and Twilight were not happy.
“I know I like books,” Purple Heart grumbled into his foreleg, “but I’m getting sick of them now. And all this dust isn’t doing me any-” He sneezed loudly, ruffling the pages of the book before him and sending dust dancing through the stale library air. “-favors. Everytime I sneeze, it’s like a bomb is exploding.”
“At least you can see straight,” Twilight whined. “I’m starting to see triple.” Purple Heart sucked air through his teeth in pity.
“That’s gotta reek,” he consoled. The clopping of hooves sounded from the direction of the circulation desk and the pair of spent researchers looked up blearily to see Brooke.
“Any luck?” she asked.
“Nope,” Purple Heart growled. “We’ve looked through Northern Family Trees, Southern Family Trees, even Foggy Swamp Family Trees and we’ve found nothing. Save stories of a castle being rebuilt every time it sank into the Monti Pithone Marches.”
“I’m starting to think that Amber Glitter isn’t royalty,” Twilight sighed. “There’s no mention of her in any of these books.” She waved a hoof at the assembled tomes.
“Oh,” Brooke mumbled. “Did you look at B’s Thousand Familial Concoctions?” The broad purple earth pony looked up, a frown marring his features.
“Nooo,” he answered, elongating the vowel. “Should we have?” Brooke shrugged.
“I guess,” she said. “It’s a really in-depth analysis and ancestral trees of ancient and recent families of the ruling and noble classes.”
“Where is it then?” Twilight asked. Brooke shuffled her hooves and stared down at the floor, avoiding Twilight and Purple Heart’s questioning gazes.
“Well?” Purple Heart prompted.
“I was reading it,” the archivist mare mumbled softly. The two searchers blinked, staring at the uncomfortable looking pony. Seconds of silence passed, stretching on into a full minute before Purple Heart slammed his head repeatedly against the table and Twilight sighed in exasperation.
“Stupid, stupid, stupid,” Purple Heart groaned, emphasizing each repeat of the word with another bash of his head on the table. “Of course it isn’t in circulation!” Twilight rolled her eyes at the purple earth pony’s self-punishment for lack of observation and merely stood, walking over to Brooke.
“Could we please borrow the book for a while?” the purple alicorn asked gently. “We really need to look at it.” Brooke’s eyes widened in realization and she smiled brightly.
“You’re looking up the Princess’ ancestry, aren’t you?” she asked. Twilight froze, eliciting a giggle from the blue unicorn.
“It’s kinda obvious, y’know,” Brooke explained, leading Twilight to her desk. “I mean, you are looking up royal ancestry and he’s in a supposed relationship with the only princess this side of the Tiber.” Purple Heart raised his head, frowning at the two mares as they walked over to Brooke’s desk.
“Hitotsu,” the purple barbarian called after them, “our relationship isn’t supposed. It’s really a thing. Futatsu, please tell me there isn’t some pony with a name like Hulius Kaiser ruling some flourishing empire east of the Tiber.” Brooke’s brow furrowed as she moved a stack of books and plopped them on her desk before diving back into her treasury.
“I don’t know about any flourishing empire,” she hedged, her voice muffled from being under her desk, “but I do know that the prince of the Rowans to the east is named Jewel Seizer.” Twilight couldn’t repress a snort of amusement when Purple Heart beat his head with a book, chanting some strange hymn before each strike.
“Aha!” Brooke crowed, popping up from beneath her desk, a thick grey tome held in her magic. “Found it!” Her magic dissipated and the tome landed on the table, puffing a cloud of dust into the air. Twilight grasped the cover with her own magic and flipped it open.
“If you’re looking for Princess Amber Glitter, she’s near the back, being a recent addition to the ruling class,” Brooke offered. With a nod of thanks, Twilight flipped quickly through the pages, skimming as she went.
“You know what I think?” Brooke mused, resting her chin on a hoof as she watched Twilight skim. “I think the Princess is the lost daughter of Vale Blossom.” Twilight almost ripped a page and Purple Heart fell out of his chair. Both searchers looked at the foliage-maned unicorn, their jaws agape.
“Wanna run that by us again?” Purple croaked, walking over to where the two mares stood.
Brooke frowned at the two ponies from behind her desk. “I think that Princess Amber Glitter is-”
“I heard that,” the purple earth pony interrupted. “I just wanna know why? What proof do you have to this theory?”
“Well, look here.” Brooke flipped through several pages of the tome in front of Twilight before stopping and pointing at a picture of a regal looking unicorn the color of burnished bronze with a mane of sunkissed gold. The caption beneath read.

“So?” Twilight asked, looking back to Brooke. “Breed and color have nothing to do with parentage.”
“But still,” Brooke urged, flipping to a page with Amber’s information on it, “Lady Blossom died about a week before the Princess appeared in a neighboring country. Now I think Lady Blossom gave birth and knew that her brothers wouldn’t take kindly to having another royal running around, so she sent her newborn away, protecting the foal.”
“That’s a nice conspiracy theory,” Purple Heart grunted, his chin resting on the desk, “But we can’t prove it to be true. For all we know, Amber could be some peasant’s daughter who became part of an elaborate scheme to bring chaos and ruin to Gallopilli.” The blue unicorn’s emerald eyes flashed with anger.
“I thought you were her friend!” Brooke snapped. “Her lover shouldn’t be questioning her like this!” Purple Heart’s rage bubbled forth in indignation.
“Hey! I care deeply for Amber! I respect and cherish her friendship and am pleased that she can see past my numerous faults! But doesn’t mean I won’t question her past! Secrets will make or break a relationship and so far, I’m not happy with what I’m finding!” Brooke and Twilight stared at the ranting earth pony, stunned at his tirade. His chest heaved as he sucked in lungfuls of air, his cobalt orbs flashing with emotion. Twilight shook herself and went back to the tome, leaving the two other ponies to settle their differences.
As she skimmed the pages, she noticed a curious set of smudged figures unobtrusively left in a corner, almost as if the author had scribbled them down in an afterthought.
“Brooke?” Twilight said. “What’s this? I don’t recognize this language.” Purple Heart growled and turned away, leaving Brooke to look back to Twilight. The blue archivist unicorn blinked down at the figures and began nodding.
“Oh, that’s a Heritage Spell,” she said. “A lot of royals use that to make sure their children weren’t born out of...um...infidelity.” The purple alicorn blinked and her eyebrows rose.
“Purple!” she squeaked. “We could use this to find out about Amber’s parentage!” The purple earth pony turned around and blinked several times at the smudged characters.
“It’s worth a shot,” he mused. “How do you learn it though?” The Discord-voice echoed throughout the near-empty archive.
“Twilight has learned the Heritage Spell,” the voice boomed. “This spell can only be cast three times.” As silence fell on the trio, Twilight and Purple Heart looked at each other.
“Huh,” the purple barbarian grunted, “that was fast.”
“It was,” Twilight responded, turning to Brooke. “Thank you so much for your help.” The blue unicorn smiled and dipped her head.
“Happy to be of service,” she said, watching the two ponies rush from the Archives.
“Now we just have to find Amber Glitter,” Twilight panted as they galloped through the castle corridors, drawing many a confused eye from the staff as they went.
“Well that shouldn’t be too hard,” Purple Heart replied, trotting smoothly beside the purple alicorn. Twilight arched an eyebrow at the stallion.
“And what makes you say that?” she queried. A jerk of his head in the direction they were going caused Twilight to look and see the golden unicorn they were searching for. Amber Glitter looked up from her book in surprise as Twilight and Purple Heart approached her. Seeing their heavy breathing and wide eyes, she allowed fear to rush through her.
“What is it?” she asked, panic leaking into her voice. “Is something wrong?”
“Not really,” Purple Heart responded while Twilight caught her breath. “We just want to cast a quick spell on you.”
Blink. “Beg pardon?”
“I cast Heritage Spell on Amber Glitter!” Twilight barked. A silver shower of sparks sprinkled from the purple alicorn’s horn and rained down on Amber Glitter, dousing her in spell’s magic. The sparks settled on the Princess and ran over her body in waves before disappearing into her coat. Amber shivered and sneezed, puffing the cloud of sparks into the air where they hung there, roiling around in a frenzied torrent. Seconds passed as the cloud split and became individual letters. The letters zoomed around, assembling two names. The trio of ponies gaped in awestruck silence.
“Well carp,” Purple Heart mumbled, praying that nopony was watching them. “Things just got a lot more complicated.”
Hovering before Amber Glitter were two names:

Light Patch looked towards the pegasus next to him. “So, what’s the real reason you’re coming with me?” Rainbow Dash sighed.
“Let's examine my options: I could have tried to convince Wits End to send me with Purple Heart rather than Twilight, which would have let me look at really old documents about who is whose parents,” Rainbow said, flitting a little closer to the pegasus stallion. “Or I could have tried to go with Wits End and stir up rumors with nobles, and risk falling into the same thing that happened to Purple Heart. Or, I could go risk a paper cut with Applejack. Oooor, I sit back and enjoy the entertainment value of your shenanigans,” the pegasus finished listing off.
“I’m so glad I can entertain you,” Light Patch said, his voice dripping with sarcasm.
“Yeah, me too,” the cyan pegasus replied, ignoring his sarcasm. “Overall, this bit of the adventure has been fairly stale for me, all this intrigue and sneaking around.” She waved a hoof dismissively. “To be honest, the Daring Doo books never did those bits all that well, I’ve really only read a couple of series’ that were heavy on intrigue I enjoyed.”
“It’s not what I tend to look for either, but every now and then you find one where the author does it just right,” the grey pegasus responded. “What ones can you think of?”
“Well, the first in the Town of Sparks was fairly good. And there was this gryphon one named CheifKiller Essays.” Rainbow Dash thought for a few moments. “That’s all I can think of right now. What about you?”
“Well, there was this suspense-slash-survival thriller named the Maretion, which I really enjoyed. And the Holdsafe series is a lot of fun.”
“Huh, they sound kind of interesting. I’ll have to ask Twilight if she knows where I can get them.” She alighted on the ground in front of a farrier’s shop. “Looks like we’re here. So, what’s the plan?”
“I thought I’d ask if we could copy, or maybe even borrow, the royal document for his work order. Then I thought we’d try for a few other smiths, preferably weapon and armor smiths for further proof. And then finally I thought we’d scout around and see if possibly we could find some pony in the militia or army and get some kind of proof from one of them about their mobilization orders,” Light Patch responded, trying to not look hesitant to enter the farrier’s shop. “Well, mares first.” Rainbow Dash looked at the grey pegasus with an arched eyebrow, but after a quick shrug entered the building.
“Hello,” a voice greeted them from further back in the shop. “Thanks for coming in, but I’m afraid I’m- Oh!” A yellow and purple maned, orange coated earth pony mare walked around a corner. “Light Patch! It’s good to see you again, but what are you doing back so soon? You looking to see if I can squeeze her in to be shod as well?” The farrier mare asked, gesturing to Rainbow Dash.
“Actually, Shureshod, I was hoping that you could-” Light Patch started before the orange mare suddenly yanked one of his hoofs towards her.
“Something wrong with the shoes?” She asked, twisting the grey pegasus’ hoof every which way. “I knew I shoulda used the bigger ones I had spare.”
“No, actually, the shoes are-” Light Patch tried again, still being ignored.
“Don’t worry about it. I can have you reshod quick as a bug spits,” the mare said, dragging the stallion towards the back of the shop. “Then we can use the smaller ones you for your friend here,” she continued before snagging the cyan pegasus’ tail in her mouth. Before either could lodge further complaints, they found themselves in her work space. “And don’t you worry about taking up my time. I’ve already just about finished my part of the royal order.”
As soon as her tail was free, Rainbow shot up into a rafters and assumed safety. “That's what we came to talk to you about,” she said, looking down.
“Wush aboush shem?” the farrier mare mumbled around the rasp she was using on Light Patch.
“We were hoping you’d let us borrow or make copies of them. We need them to, uh.” The multi colored pegasus paused looking for words.
“We need them to win a bet,” Light Patch said in a resigned tone of voice as Shureshod finished removing the last shoe.
“You can take’em. I don’t need them anymore. I’d have probably just used them as tinder for starting a fire and- Hold still or I’ll nail you to the floor,” She bit out at the fidgeting stallion. “So go ahead and take the ones you need. They should be somewhere on the top of the workbench.” The farrier finished with a wave towards the mentioned furniture. “Stop fidgeting like a filly getting her first dress!” Rainbow Dash chuckled as she listened to the back and forth between her friend and the farrier while she searched for the document. After a couple more minutes of shuffling the papers around, she found nicer looking parchment covered in official looking hoof-writing. She rolled it up and stuck it in her bag.
“Found it! How much longer till you’re do-” She turned around to see a now fully reshod Light Patch studying his shoes as Shureshod checked for any last adjustments to be made. “Wow, that was quick,” she finished, not even trying to hide her surprise.
Shureshod smiled at the praise. “Well, what can I say; I’m one of the best. So, you ready to get your own?” The farrier mare’s eyes widened in surprise as Rainbow shot into the rafters again.
“She’s got really sensitive hooves,” Light Patch said, waving it off while ignoring a Discord sounding voice informing him of his improved unarmed attack. “Hey, you wouldn’t happen to know any other smiths who’ve finished their parts of the order do you?”
Shureshod’s face scrunched up in thought. “I do know one or two others who’ve finished, and I know a couple who are close. Why do you ask?”
“The more proof we’re able to gather up, the more likely we are to win the bet,” the grey pegasus said.
“Ah, I gotcha. Well in that case, you’re gonna wanna write this down,” the orange coated farrier said before beginning to list off other smiths they could ask. After a few minutes, they finally said their goodbyes and left.
“Wow, not even Caramel was that fast of a farrier, and it’s his special talent,” Rainbow said, glancing back at the entrance to Shureshod’s smithy.
“Great, now I’ve gotta get used to this set of shoes,” Light Patch muttered before looking at the mare. “You know—I’m getting surprisingly used to saying this—splitting up might work in our favor here. We got a fairly large list of smiths to check.”
“Yeah, she probably listed just about every metal worker in the city,” the Rainbow Dash said, looking at the mentioned list. “I’ll take the top half and you take the bottom?” she suggested.
“Sounds suspiciously like a plan,” the stallion responded. “Also, keep your eyes peeled for any army or militia ponies, and see if you can get them to write their orders down, or at least get some more verbal confirmation.” The cyan pegasus gave a quick salute before racing towards the first smith for her to check.
Light Patch watched the mare go before turning and starting to stumble towards the first smith on his part of the list.