Getting Ready for Battle
I grinned and looked myself over the mirror once more. I liked what I saw.
I was covered in scales. Not literal ones—Puzzle hadn’t skinned a dragon, but for the protection it offered, he might as well have. Half-oval mithril scales covered me from neck to flank and shoulder to under my belly, with matching scale-like greaves both above and below my knee. The joints themselves were covered by ligaments padded with some kind of shape-moulding fabric that didn’t feel like it would chafe against my knees. A matching hood rolled up and rested in a bun against the back of my neck, and didn’t even dig into my neck after a few quick adjustments. There wasn’t much in the way of ornamentation just yet, but I figured I could add a clasp or something around the neck later on.
The entire suit was tinted bronze that was a few shades darker than my coat, and even though Strumming would’ve probably cracked some stupid joke about it shimmering in the light … well, she would’ve been right. I’d have to find a way to dull that if I ever needed to sneak around, but stealth didn’t really fit my style anyway.
The suit was half as light as I expected it to be, given how much metal I was wearing, and the first time I turned in it I almost tripped from overcompensation. I turned a circle around the room, holding up a couple mirrors to check how I looked from different angles. I wasn’t vain about my looks, but that didn’t mean I didn’t appreciate looking good. “I like it.” I grinned at Puzzle. “So what brought this on?”
Puzzle looked me over, then adjusted the armor so it rested a bit better on my shoulders. “There is the little fact that we’ve made a habit of going into life-threatening danger, and will shortly be doing so again. This one thought it best to make sure you were well protected.”
“Well I can't fault that reasoning.” Some armor definitely would’ve saved me a few injuries on some past jobs that had gone horribly wrong. Which happened far too often. Granted, nearly ending up dead once was too many times, as far as I was concerned.
Strumming tugged on the armor, then smirked. “This is nice custom work. Which makes me wonder how he got your measurements for the blacksmith, since this stuff is a perfect fit. Considering this was a surprise present, he obviously didn’t call you in for a bunch of adjustments.”
Puzzle smirked. “This one is an information broker. What type of spy would this one be if it couldn't find out a little detail like what size to make the Shimmer-mare’s armor?”
Now I had to wonder if Puzzle had gone over me with a measuring tape while I was napping. Or paid Kukri to do so. Or something else entirely. Regardless of the details in how he pulled it off... “Well that's slightly creepy.”
“This one does a great many things some might consider creepy,” Puzzle announced dryly. “Its stock and trade is learning others’ secrets, then selling that information to interested parties.” He blinked, then held up a hoof. “Though this one feels that, for the sake of its health and happiness, it should state that it would never sell information regarding the Shimmer-mare’s body.”
“Good idea.” My eyes narrowed. “Now that we’re such good friends, I’d hate to have to set you on fire.”
“This one would much prefer that it not be set on fire as well,” Puzzle deadpanned. “It has no first-hoof experience, but judging by the reactions of those who have suffered such a fate it sounds extremely painful.”
“It didn't look fun,” I agreed. “Plus once you were done burning I’d have to find someone to replace you. That would be really inconvenient.”
Strumming slowly circled around me, giving my new armor a few more pokes. “This stuff looks expensive.” She grinned and elbowed Puzzle in the ribs. “It better not cost more than the presents you buy me, or we're gonna have words.”
The changeling rolled his eyes. “This one was considering taking the cost of this armor out of the Shimmer-mare’s pay for this job.”
That caught my attention. “We're getting paid that much? I thought you were grumping about us losing money on this job.”
“We would be if we had stuck to the Shimmer-mare’s plan,” Puzzle groused.
Strumming smirked and wrapped a wing across his shoulders. “Lucky for you and your wallet, bug boy worked something out.”
“This one is very clever like that,” Puzzle agreed with a confident smirk. “This one’s ability to make a profit on a foolishly sentimental endeavour is one of the reasons you come to this one for jobs such as these.”
“He’s a sneaky one,” Strumming agreed, ruffling Puzzle’s head-crest. “He’s the one who set it up so me and my buddies can run around in Freeport territory without causing any diplomatic incidents. This is technically a joint Freeport/Equestrian police operation. You guys wanna arrest Necro McWarlock for attacking this village, and we want him for being ... well, Necro McWarlock.”
“Much cheaper than hiring the Doos,” Puzzle murmured to me. “This one doubts Glaive would grant it a squad of clanponies in exchange for a bottle of springwine and a hoof massage.” Puzzle cleared his throat and raised his voice for Strumming’s benefit. “This one finds that the jobs where everyone gets something they want are the best. Well, except for the warlocks, in this case. But this one doesn't think we're particularly concerned about that issue in this instance.”
“Nah,” Strumming agreed. “Orders are to capture him alive for trial if possible, but I'm pretty sure the Council would prefer for us corpsify him. Makes for much less paperwork, and spares us the long argument over who prosecutes him first.”
“Probably,” Puzzle agreed nonchalantly. “However, this one thinks that we’ll just have to see how dangerous this necromancer is when he shows himself. No sense locking down which one we'll go for before we know for certain how powerful he is, and what he’s capable of.” He shrugged. “Some targets are easy to capture, while some are far too dangerous to even consider capturing. Not to mention that when you’re dealing with necromancers, death does not always have the degree of permanency one would expect.”
I hoped Puzzle was wrong about that. Knowing the bad guy we were up against probably had something really big and nasty waiting in the wings was worrying enough. If he’d also gone and made himself hard to kill, I might be in over my head. Hopefully it wouldn’t come to that, and we could just knock him out and be done with all this. “Let's not get all fired up for murder unless there's no choice.”
“This one would like to play it by ear,” Puzzle confirmed. “Unfortunately, we just don't know much about this warlock yet. Which is very annoying. This one hates not knowing things, especially such fundamental facts as what its opponent can do and what its goals are.”
“Makes it hard for us to hammer out much in the way of strategy, beyond building the wall. Still hoping I'm right with my theory that he’s after Starlight. It would explain a lot, plus maybe we could just hoof her over and solve the whole problem.” Okay, I was mostly joking about letting the crazy evil necromancer take Starlight. Mostly.
“She is the newest element in the commune,” Puzzle agreed. “Though this one wonders what she might have done to make a necromancer come after her. Unless she is lying to us, she has no idea why she is a target.” He tapped his chin thoughtfully, then added. “This one could look into whether she is concealing anything from us.”
“I’ll help,” Strumming chimed in. “Not much else for me to do. When it comes to building a palisade, my contributions are pretty much limited to ‘Sergeant, have your soldiers build a palisade.’ Sneaking around and digging up other ponies secrets? That’s much more my speed.”
“It seems we have a plan, then.” Puzzle turned to me, grinning. “Shimmer-mare, this one would suggest you remain active and in the open. The Glimmer-mare seems fixated on you, and would likely pay far too much attention to your activities to notice us.”
“Sounds good to me.” I sighed and rolled my shoulders, already feeling pretty comfortable with my new armor. I tossed my black magus cloak on over it. Hopefully the temperature-regulating spells I’d worked into it would keep me from roasting once I was out in the tropical sun. “Try to make it fast. If she keeps getting on my nerves...”
“Yeah, yeah, set her on fire,” Strumming acknowledged with a bored hoofwave. “We got it.”
When I followed through with the plan to distract Starlight while Strumming and Puzzle did a little digging, I found Starlight ... digging. Strumming’s guards were hard at work getting everyone in the commune to throw up a simple log palisade around the town hall, and Starlight was using her magic to dig out holes for all the logs. Fortunately, it looked like we would have enough trees to get the job done.
I stepped up and grabbed one of the logs, grunting with effort as I lifted it up and slotted it into place. Starlight glanced my way and blinked in surprise, then scowled. However, before she could say anything else her eyes flicked left and right, taking note of the villagers all around around us. She took a breath, then spoke with forced neutrality. “Sunset.”
“Starlight.” I silently picked up another shovel and got to work. I didn’t particularly want to start another shouting match with her, especially not where the entire village could see and hear everything. It would cause problems we didn’t need, and even if I wasn’t worried about that, Starlight just wasn’t worth the effort.
Once I’d finished with my hole, Starlight set a log into it. She stared at me for several seconds, then cleared her throat. “So...”
I set aside my shovel for a moment to make eye contact. “Yeah?”
Starlight frowned and turned away from me, packing the dirt in around the log. “Why'd you come to my commune?”
I picked the shovel back up and got to work next to her. “Equal said you needed help.”
For a second I thought she’d start growling about how they didn’t need my help and she had everything under control, but she surprised me by taking a different direction. “Yeah, but why'd you come?” She glanced over at the Equestrian guards, frowning. “You don't exactly have the most ... altruistic companions.”
I shrugged and threw a bit of fire at the base of the log to harden the dirt and hold it in place. “Puzzle found a way to turn a profit on it, and Strumming seems to be more interested in taking out the necromancer than helping your village. Me...” I thought it over for a bit then shrugged. “There were a bunch of crazy zombies coming after this place. You needed help.”
Starlight finished up her side of the log, then scowled at me. “Oh, please. Do you really expect me to buy that you're a bleeding heart?”
I’m not sure what I’d expected her to say, but it certainly wasn’t that. Out of all the words I could think of describe myself, ‘bleeding heart’ was nowhere on the list. I mean, maybe someone might think that from me rushing in to save this place without worrying about if I would make a good profit on it, but that wasn’t bleeding heart. More ... not being a total jerk. “To be honest, Starlight, I don't care if you believe me or not.” I shifted my attention to the next log we had to work on, using a burst of fire to clear away all the twigs and limbs.
Starlight grunted and picked the log up, moving it into place. “You must have known I was here.”
“It came up,” I acknowledged.
The log slipped into its hole with a heavy thunk. “So you actually came despite knowing that?”
“Yeah.” I filled in the rest of the hole, then baked the ground. “Believe it or not, I don't want to see an entire village wiped out just because you live there. Besides, I am Freeport's magus. Dealing with stuff like crazy necromancers is part of the job.”
“Even if it means you’re losing money?” Starlight asked skeptically.
I shrugged. “My bank account's secure enough to survive a bit of altruism.” To be honest, I really didn’t even pay that much attention to the money, beyond making sure I had enough of it for what I needed. The World’s Port Bank had given me a very nice account as thanks for dealing with Starlight, and one of their financial guys made sure my money all stayed together and earned a decent interest rate.
Starlight snorted skeptically. “Oh come on. Do you really expect me to believe you're a mare of the people? You live in that big, fancy, obsidian tower that sticks out of the middle of Freeport like a huge black eyesore.”
My tower wasn’t an eyesore. Yeah, it was big and unique, but those are good things for a mage’s tower. And honestly, compared to some of the crazy architecture you could run into in the richer sections of Freeport, my smooth black tower was downright tame by comparison. And as far as ‘mare of the people’ credentials went... “That’s pretty rich from someone who was living in a mansion last time we met.”
“That's different,” Starlight answered primly.
Oh boy, this should be a fun chance to hear some hypocritical ranting. “Alright, I’ll humor you. Explain it to me.”
Starlight scoffed and planted her hooves, proudly thrusting out her chest. “My dad won some money in a lottery. He didn't hurt anyone to get all those ducats. It's not like he was some dockmaster who stole his fortune off the backs of a bunch of dockside laborers who barely get enough pay to feed themselves, or a merchant who buys up all the grain, then sells it back for five times that when everyone starts starving. We earned our money honestly.”
I rolled my eyes. “Last time I checked, I wasn’t oppressing anyone for a living.”
Starlight defiantly met my eyes. “Yeah, but you've accepted money from those that do. That’s just as bad.”
“Didn't your father win a government-run lottery?” I countered. “Because I’m pretty sure you’d classify the Freeport government as one of those oppressors you’re railing against.”
She scoffed and shook her head. “Yeah, the government uses those lotteries to trick a bunch of scared, desperate ponies with the dream that maybe some day they’ll get lucky if they keep giving away their money. They pocket half of it for themselves, then randomly dump the rest onto someone to convince the masses that one day that could be them if they just keep feeding into the cycle of repression.”
“Which was exactly my point.” I dug out another hole for the next log. “Wasn’t your father just perpetuating and propping up the corrupt system you’re always complaining about?”
Starlight sighed and rolled her eyes. “Oh, whatever.” She moved the log into place. “How my dad got his ducats isn’t what matters. The important thing is that I want to help people without having to play by the rules of others.”
I was a bit surprised to hear myself say, “That's actually something I can agree with.” I snorted and shook my head. “Who would've thought?”
“It was bound to happen sooner or later.” Starlight agreed with a wry grin. “I mean, we're both exiles stuck a long way from home.”
My ears drooped at the reminder. “Yeah, I guess we are, aren't we?” Whenever I was almost used to thinking of Freeport as home, something new would come up to remind me that it wasn’t.
“Twice for me,” Starlight confirmed. “Well, more or less. Celestia’s school was never home, but I was there for long enough to get kinda comfortable. Even if Canterlot was full of snooty, upper-class snobs who are more concerned about their image than anything important, I still wasn’t wild about getting kicked out.”
“Most of the nobles aren’t that bad if you just know how to deal with them,” I pointed out. “Namely, by not jumping on them for being snooty upper-class snobs.”
“That’s real rich coming from you,” Starlight snapped. “I did a little research after our fight. Wanted to know who I was dealing with. Yeah, your family might not have any noble titles, but you can’t pretend you weren’t part of the elite. Both your parents were archmagi, for pony’s sake! Not to mention being Princess Celestia’s protegé.”
“Just because someone’s born into privilege doesn’t make them automatically a stuck-up snob,” I countered. “Just look at you.”
“That’s different,” Starlight insisted. “My family didn’t have centuries of fame and fortune. We might’ve gotten lucky and struck it rich, but we remembered our roots as common ponies.”
“And yet, despite all my family history, here I am helping you and all the other common ponies.” I concentrated on lifting the next log into place, but this one was particularly thick and difficult to move. After a second Starlight chipped in to help me get it into place.
“Yeah, I guess you are,” Starlight conceded once we were done, frowning as she stared at me. “What, is it some sort of noblesse oblige thing?”
“Nah, I wouldn’t call it that.” I scorched the sand to hold the log in place. “More like ... well just having some basic decency.” I shrugged. “First Puzzle, now you. Why’s everyone making such a big deal out of me helping? What, do you think I want a medal or something? ‘Congratulations, you’re not a horrible pony who let an entire village be wiped out!’”
Starlight scoffed and shook her head. “Well at least you’re honest. The fact that you expect to get paid once you’re done does kill any effort to set yourself up as a hero of the common pony.”
“I do like having a place to live and food to eat,” I countered. “Not to mention supplies, research materials, hospital bills; being a magus isn’t cheap.” My eyes narrowed as a fresh thought sprang to mind. “Though while we’re on that subject, need I mention how you kept most of the money you stole 'for the common ponies' for yourself?”
“I had good intentions for that money,” Starlight shot back. “Just because I hadn’t given most of it away within a few hours of stealing it all doesn’t mean I planned to keep it all for myself.”
That all sounded good, but she’d left out one key fact. “And that fancy dress you were buying?”
Her ears dropped, and her gaze shot to the side, then she said something that really surprised me. “That ... was a mistake.” She sighed and shook her head. “I guess I let the money get to my head. Told myself I was doing so much good for the common pony that I’d earned a few rewards for myself as well. Thankfully, I learned from it. Now I wouldn’t waste valuable money on something as frivolous as fancy clothes.” Her eyes rather pointedly dropped to very nice set of armor I had on.
I tapped my armored chest, causing the scales to clink off each other. “Not frivolous in my case. It’s an entirely practical investment: I can’t help anyone if I’m dead.”
Starlight shrugged. “We’ll see how well it holds up in battle. Anyway, what I was saying is that I've learned a lot about what's important since then. Silly dresses and what a bunch of stuck-up jerks think of me aren’t things that really matter. What would I even do with a nice dress out here? Not like it would stay nice for long. We're a little more concerned with keeping all our tools in good shape, and not being hungry.” She scoffed and shook her head. “Fancy dresses. Most ponies would love to have that kinda thing be their biggest problem.”
I lifted up a couple more logs and put them into place. “Sounds like you actually don’t mind being exiled off to live with the common pony.”
She frowned to herself as she packed sand in around the log. “You know, I really don’t. In a weird way, a part of me is glad that things worked out the way they did.” She looked up at and her eyes narrowed. “I’m not saying I forgive you for destroying my home and attacking me, but coming out here was a nice silver lining to the cloud.” She waved a hoof, encompassing the entire commune. “This is how ponies should live. A community where everyone is perfectly equal. We all work together and support each other without letting status, titles, or wealth get in the way. Equestria likes to talk about harmony, but what we have is far more harmonious than anything they’ve ever produced.”
“But there's always going to be some who stand above the rest,” I argued. “Think about it. You’ve got all differences between species: a pony and a gryphon will never be exactly the same. And even if you stick with just ponies, some ponies are naturally smarter, stronger, or faster than others. I've still got more magical talent than anypony who doesn't have wings, and you're ... above average.”
Starlight scowled to herself “Well maybe that's something that should get fixed someday. It’s not like you did anything to earn being born with more magical talent than anyone else.”
My eyes narrowed suspiciously. “You’re above average too. Would you wanna give up your magic just to be equal with those who don’t have it?”
She hesitated, and her eyes flicked down to the side. She took a deep breath, then slowly nodded. “If it meant an equal society, sure. Though I’d rather bring ponies up to our level than drag everyone down to the lowest common denominator. And just because we have a society of equals doesn’t mean everyone has to be utterly identical.” She waved a hoof, encompassing the commune. “Look at what we have here. The fact that I have so much magical power doesn’t make me special. I’m just as equal as everyone else.”
Something about the way she said it was almost ... believable. Something about the eager glow in her eyes and genuine enthusiasm in her voice told me that she was a true believer. The harsh dose of reality she’d gotten hadn’t shaken her out of her ideals, it had brought them into focus and changed her from a spoiled young mare with a few ideas into ... something else. “Huh. You've changed.”
Starlight sniffed haughtily. “Ponies do that sometimes. I’m sure you’re not the exact same as when you first came to Freeport?”
“Okay, you've got a point there.” I’d certainly gone through a lot since I first set sail for Freeport. I hadn’t been planning on staying. For that matter, I hadn’t been planning on much of anything. I’d only hopped on a ship to Freeport because I’d been on the run, and that ship was the first one I found that was leaving immediately and seemed safe enough to sail on. Instead I’d found a place that was starting to feel a bit like home, despite its flaws. And while I’m not quite sure I could really call Puzzle or Strumming friends, they were certainly the closest I’d ever had to that. And Kukri ... I loved the little bug, and really enjoyed teaching her.
Yeah. I’d changed a lot. Should it really be that surprising that Starlight could change to?
I thought it over for a bit longer, then slowly extended a hoof. “I know you don’t like me, and I still find you pretty annoying, but there’s a lot more at stake here than our pride. What do you say we drop the rivalry, and focus on working together to save everyone here?”
She thought it over for a long moment, then sighed. “Yeah, hate to say it, but you’re right. We've got enough troubles that I can’t afford to be picky about who’s offering help.” She took my hoof, shaking it. “So, what’s your plan?”
“With any luck, we have until nightfall to finish the palisade.” I took a quick look at our current rate of progress, and felt reasonably optimistic we could make it. “Of course, that’s assuming they attack tonight. From what you’ve said, they don’t show up all the time.”
Starlight shook her head. “It’s been off-and-on. Though with us building up a wall and your soldiers coming in, I’d bet they try something tonight.” Starlight grimaced. “I only know what I’ve read in history books, but if I was in charge of the zombie army that’s what I would do. Waiting just gives us more time to build up defenses, and maybe get more help from the outside. Think the necromancer will show himself?”
“Seems likely.” I frowned, thinking back to my examination of the zombie we’d recovered. “Mindless undead need to be controlled, and the more you have the more work it is. He’d have to be pretty close to a zombie army to keep it together and pointed in the right direction. If they launch a full-out attack, he’ll be there.”
Starlight grimaced, then leaned in close and carefully whispered. “Can we win?”
I shrugged and whispered back. “Depends. I still don’t know enough about what we’re up against. Honest opinion, how good are your farmers in a fight?”
“They’re farmers,” she answered bluntly. “They’ll fight for their homes, and most of them are pretty brave and hardworking, but ... they’re farmers. We don’t have proper weapons or armor, and those metal zombies are pretty tough. I took out a couple with spells, but pitchforks and hoes aren’t designed for fighting, and definitely not for breaking armor.”
“That’s what I was afraid of.” Much as storytellers love tales of plucky underdogs, in the real world training and equipment make a huge difference. “I think we need a backup plan.”
Starlight nodded. “Something better than running for the boats with everything we can carry.” She grimaced. “That was our ... well actually our only plan if they showed up and launched a big attack.”
“We can do better than that.” I looked out over the surrounding area, searching for anything we could use. Alas, the commune had cleared most of the nearby land to make room for their farms, and our own wall-building efforts had stripped the island of much of its remaining trees. Terrain and natural resources were ... lacking. All we had was a bunch of crop fields, a log wall, and a growing pile of scrap wood from the construction of said wall.
I turned to Starlight, grinning. “I have an idea. It’s gonna take a while to set up, so we need to get started right now.”
There was just one problem with my plan: it required a lot of preparatory spellwork. Hours of it. Days would have been better, but I had to agree with Starlight’s assessment: if there was any intelligence controlling these undead, it wouldn’t give us that much time. I doubted I’d be able to get things anywhere close to ideal with my limited time and resources, but I was doing the best I could with what I had available.
That’s where another problem with the plan came up. Extended spellcasting takes a lot of concentration over an extended period of time. When I was in my tower, I was reasonably certain nothing would interrupt me, especially since I usually told Kukri to keep anyone out unless it was an emergency. Out in the middle of a farming village, getting that level of isolated serenity was ... not happening.
Puzzle trotted over and took a seat at my side. “Shimmer-mare, this one hopes it is not interrupting anything important...”
It was a little late to worry about that after the damage was already done. “I'm—I was concentrating on a spell.”
“Ah.” Despite his almost perfectly unreadable face, I could pick up just a tiny hint of embarrassment in Puzzle’s voice. “Concentration this one just interrupted, no doubt.”
“Little bit, yeah.” I sighed and shook my head. There was no point in getting snappy with him. It’s not like he’d meant to mess up my spellcasting, and I’d been at it for long enough that taking a little break was probably a good idea. “In case you wondered, I’m working on a big spell to deal with the zombies if they show up.”
Puzzle cocked his head to the side. “And what spell is that, if this one may ask?”
I really didn’t want to run him through the whole plan, but I didn’t think I could get away with denying information to a guy who’s entire job was getting information. Better to just tell him outright, rather than try to stonewall him and risk being pestered for hours. “Right now, it's a dehydration spell on that barley field. There's a whole lot more to do after that.”
Puzzle frowned skeptically. “A barley field? This one doesn't think the farmers will like you destroying their crops.”
I shrugged. “I talked it over with Starlight. They’re not wild about it, but if it saves the village, they can live with one less barley field.” I waved back at the rest of the village. “It’s just leaving their houses outside the wall—surviving is more important.”
Puzzle nodded. “This one is glad to hear the villagers are being so sensible about this. It just wanted to make sure there wasn't going to be an issue.”
“Always thinking ahead.” That was the main reason I worked with Puzzle, after all. That and his uncanny ability to make sure I made enough money to stay in business. “I guess you didn't turn up anything on Starlight being a target?”
Puzzle sighed and shook his head. “Nothing more than the zombies seem to make her their primary target every time they show up. Or at least they seem to focus on her once she shows herself. Though most of the villagers just think it's because she is responsible for almost all of their losses thus far. It has raised her profile in the community considerably.”
I grunted and nodded. “Yeah, can't exactly fault that logic. She's the main threat, so they focus everything on taking her out first.”
“Just so,” Puzzle agreed. “So while it could support your theory that she is the primary target, that's hardly anything conclusive.”
Great, just what I was hoping for. Nothing conclusive. “Well, if this works I’ll be dealing with the zombies. Maybe that’ll show us something.”
“Perhaps,” Puzzle agreed. “Though even if your spell works, we will still have to face whatever comes after the zombies. This one hopes you don’t mind if this one stays hidden for most of the action.”
There’d been a time when I might have gotten grumpy with him over that decision, but I’d learned a lot from working with him for most of a year. “Actually, I’d recommend it.” Sticking Puzzle on the front line would be a waste of his talents.
Puzzle grinned, showing off his fangs. “As long as we both agree that this one is not a coward, but merely prudent.”
I chuckled and rolled my eyes. “Relax, your reputation is safe with me. If anyone asks, you were standing right next to me with weapons in both hooves. Now shoo, busy casting spells.”
The changeling chuckled and nodded, getting up. “Alright, alright, this one will leave you to your work.”
He trotted off, leaving me in peace ... for about five minutes.
I was torn out of my spellcasting trance by a sharp jab on the shoulder. “Hey, Sunset! I’ve been trying to get your attention for the last minute.”
I opened my eyes and glowered at Starlight, though I didn’t care enough to do anything worse. “Working on the plan. Need to concentrate.”
Starlight shot me a token glare for getting a bit snappish, but didn’t push things past that. “Right, right, the plan. Though that’s kinda one of the things I needed to talk to you about. I think we might need to make a couple changes.”
My teeth clenched, but I valiantly resisted the urge to say or do something I’d regret. “What sort of changes did you have in mind?”
“Well, first things first, could you maybe go to that sorghum field over there?” She pointed off to a slightly different area from where I’d been working. “It's not doing as well as the barley, plus the market price has been down lately and it's farther from the village. So it would be less of a loss if you destroy it.”
“You want to change where we’re setting up?” I scowled, and a bit of petulance slipped into my voice. “You do know I’ve been working on getting the barley field ready, don’t you? Maybe you should’ve figured this kind of thing out before I started working?”
Starlight glared and let out an annoyed huff. “Things are a bit chaotic right now, and I didn't think of it while we were talking.”
I groaned a ran a hoof through my mane. “Fine, fine. The far sorghum field. Got it. You can still get your end of things set up over there, right?”
“Of course,” Starlight sniffed haughtily. “It’ll be easy. Though I’m not exactly wild about what you had in mind for me...”
“We’re setting up a trap,” I answered simply. “Traps need bait.”
“Yeah, but why do I have to be the bait?” she demanded.
“Because the zombies are more interested in you than anyone else,” I answered simply. “The whole point of bait is that it has to pull the bad guys in. Besides, I thought you’d be willing to put your life on the line to protect your community.”
“Oh don’t give me that horseapples,” Starlight snapped at me. “There’s a big difference between defending my home and what you’re asking me to do. You do realize that if the plan goes wrong you could end up burning me to a crisp along with all those zombies.”
I smirked at her. “What, are you saying you’re not confident in your shield spell’s ability to resist a bit of fire?”
“Go buck yourself,” Starlight shot back. However, my remark must’ve worked, because she dropped the issue. “Okay, one last thing: did you want stew for lunch?”
I shrugged. “I'm not picky.”
“Good, because stew is all we've got.”
I spared a faintly annoyed glare at her. “Then why did you ask me?”
“Going hungry is also an option,” she answered matter-of-factly. “Plus, I didn’t know if you’d brought your own food. I know that one pegasus leading the Guards seems to have her saddlebags stuffed to the brim with snacks. Anyway, it’s a fish and seaweed stew. You picky about the fish part of that?”
“You can save the fish for someone who wants it.” I’d made a lot of adjustments since moving to Freeport, but an omnivorous diet wasn’t one of them. It’s not like I hated eating fish or shrimp, but they just ... didn’t appeal to me. Maybe it was an acquired taste. “Just bring the stew when it’s ready. I already have to redo everything I’ve done in the last half hour.”
“I’ll have someone take care of it.” Starlight got up and finally left me in peace.
“Now if I can just finish this up without any more distractions...” In hindsight, I really should’ve known better than to tempt fate like that.
Sure enough, I’d just about finished catching up with my work on the sorghum field when Equal Share trotted over. “I brought your stew, Magus.”
I clenched my teeth and slowly took a deep breath. “Thank you, Equal. Just set it down, and I'll eat it in a bit.”
“Of course.” He set it down in front of me. “And may I just say, Magus, how much I and everyone else in the commune appreciate how you’ve come here to help us?”
“You’re welcome,” I grunted out.
Equal cleared his throat. “If there is anything you need, anything at all—”
“I’ll let you know,” I finished for him. “If you don’t mind, I’m kind of in the middle of something right now.”
Equal blinked, then hastily stood. “Oh! Yes, of course. I didn’t mean to—I’ll leave you to ... uh ... whatever it is you’re doing.”
He left me in peace, but by this point I wasn’t even surprised when another irritant came rushing in to fill the vacuum he’d left behind. Strumming trotted over, noisily chewing on some of the loudest potato chips I’d ever heard in my life. To make matters worse, they were one of the brands that came in a bag that made a ridiculous amount of noise every time she reached in for a another chip. “Hey, bacon-mane, how's it coming along? Want some crisps?”
Okay, that did it. No more Miss Nice Sunset. “Trying to concentrate, keep getting interrupted. You. Gone. Now. Or else fire.”
Strumming rolled her eyes. “Sheesh, maybe you are a real magus after all. You don’t quite have the subtle part of it down, but you’re definitely grumpy and quick to anger.”
“Hair ignites at 233 degrees,” I answered conversationally.
“Okay, okay...” Strumming slipped out, taking her noisy bag of chips with her.
I groaned and ran a hoof down my face. “I swear, if anything else interrupts me, I’m just encasing myself in a solid dome of ice.” I closed my eyes and got back to work.
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Nice chapter.
I thought this was Trust Issues at first. "What? Why are we in Sunset's point of view?"
I really liked the conversation between Sunset and Starlight. After you get past the bluster, they're both rebels in a way, and I like this Starlight more than canon even. Still with her "equal" ideals, but tempered a bit by her experiences. She still wants equality, but she sounds less insane and even admits that buying herself that dress was a mistake. I have no idea if she'll backslide and get worse, but nice to see them hold a pretty civil conversation.
Very nice chapter.
I do have to point this out (as a matter of it being a pet-peeve of mine.
This should be; "a joint Freeport-Equestrian police operation".
The syntax for joint operations is typically to place a dash between the organizations, I can understand why you have a slash and it isn't wrong, but it isn't really the 'proper' way. It does become more important when you introduce more organizations (i.e. joint American-British-French operation).
Really hope the next chapter starts with her in a dome of ice now, and now to go read said next chapter.
This chapter made me rember something. I'm suprised Sunsets Parents haven't come looking for there daughter or sent someone to try to bring her back again. Celestia may be willing to leave alone but I doubt her parents would.
Is that 233 degrees in Fahrenheit or Centigrade?
7671632 Thank you. I know the grammar lesson was directed towards the author, but it also benefited me as a writer.
One not in danger of having his mane burnt off?
"Hey Puzzle, before you die, can you give me the name of another good information broker?"
That's ... a little disturbing, actually.
Well, hopefully this necromancer didn't decide to peel off their mortality to see if it grants immortality.
What about half the village? One third?
It's not the character they expect from you?
Not a medal, just a ribbon. They're cheaper.
Weren't you just discussing necromancy up the page?
*too
oh, i've read stories about farmers being surprisingly nasty fighters...actually, i was thinking of Ranchers-the type who raise pigs and such, then slaughter them in the Winter. they aren't squeamish about blood, like city-dwellers...
8364587
I think it's more that they are untrained rabble than trained militia. They would most likely cause alot of accidents and hurting each other in the fur ball that is close combat.
Now this is more along the lines of a believable redemption arc for starlight then the show canon, even if this isn’t a redemption arc
Did Sunset just multiclass ibto Cleric? Suddenly she's wearing scale armour and attempting to smite undead with the light of The Sun.
If so, this says something interesting about how some ponies believe Celestia to be a goddess.
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Needed? For what? To become a princess? Unless it involves a load of cash to become a princess, I'm 100% clueless in what Sunsets goals are.
9973378
Agreed, in her last appearance I was completely convinced that she'd accept total oblivion for everyone except her family than admit to being wrong in even the slightest. Character growth is indeed a wonderful thing.
Canon Starlight was nursing a grudge and locked into the "all or nothing" thinking that more befits a childhood temper tantrum "If I can't fly, then nobody should". Sure, there's a lot of what ifs and things that could have been done differently in her situation, but "Our Town" was less about fairness and more about total unquestioning obedience and conformity. It's a wonder that she didn't try and strip Pegasi of their wings and unicorns of their horns (herself naturally exempt due to some totally convenient reason).