10: A Sudden New Contract
Sunset stared with wide eyes at the surprise guest to Twilight’s house. Behind the princess were a group of pony guards, none of which she knew, but they were certainly younger than she was. Celestia had locked eyes with Sunset and had a somewhat relieved look in her eyes as she took a step inside, walking right past a flabbergasted Twilight Sparkle. “Sunset…I’m so glad you’re safe.”
Sunset took a step back from Celestia, which made the alabaster alicorn pause. Before Celestia could say anything, Sunset spoke. “How’d you know I was here?” she asked through clenched teeth.
Celestia stopped in her tracks and then did something unexpected. She sat on the ground right where she was standing. “I received a report via pegasus about the attack on Twilight here,” she said, turning to Twilight. “I’m glad to see you’re not hurt,” she said, giving Twilight a small smile.
Twilight smiled back a bit nervously. “Ehehe, thanks.”
Celestia nodded, then turned back to Sunset. “I’ve been told you joined a group of mercenaries.” She gestured behind Sunset. “Are these them?”
Before Sunset could respond, Tobias stepped up to stand to her left. “My name’s Tobias, and this is our leader Revan. We’re a mercenary group named Shadow Dawn.” Sunset noted that he had a serious tone and expression on his face.
Sunset felt the looming but now familiar menacing presence of Revan on her right. Celestia looked at the two with a look of curiosity and confusion before she nodded. “I see. It’s nice to meet you two.”
“Your Highness, mercenaries can’t be trusted,” one of the guards, a unicorn who wore lieutenant stripes, said as he stepped forward and moved to protect the princess. “Look at how armed they are, and I don’t even know what kind of creature the one with the mask is.”
“Stand down, lieutenant,” Celestia said swiftly, “these two are not our enemies unless you make a move on them.” The lieutenant stiffened, clearly not happy with the order, but complied and stepped back. Celestia turned to Sunset again. “Sunset, I-”
“Save it, Celestia,” Sunset snapped back, trying her best not to unload everything at her former teacher. “I’m not your little pet project anymore. I’m not the pony you manipulated into becoming the Element of Magic.” She gave Twilight a withering look before turning back to the princess. “I’m my own pony, and I will find my own path.”
Celestia’s expression changed and she looked down at the carpet. “I never intended for you to be a pet project-”
“Tell that to the little experiment of yours over by the door,” Sunset snarled back angrily, pointing towards Twilight, who flinched.
Tobias stepped forward and put a paw on Sunset’s back. “Hey, don’t let your anger guide you to do something you’ll regret later. Don’t let your emotions influence you. Do you want to be like other ponies like that?”
Sunset snapped her head up at the abyssinian, anger showing clearly on her face. “Don’t butt in like you know what happened to me!” she shouted angrily.
Tobias stood his ground, however, and continued. “No, I don’t know what happened, and it’s not my business, but you’re a part of Shadow Dawn. We do not act rashly.”
Sunset took in a deep breath, years of repressed anger and emotions bubbling to the surface. However, before she could get another word in, a gloved hand gently but firmly pulled her back. She looked quickly up at Revan, but thanks to his mask, she couldn’t read his expression or even guess at his emotional state. He did, however, give her a single, quick, but meaningful pat on her withers before he turned back to face down the Princess without so much as a word. Sunset felt appreciation welling up in her for his support of her as she took a deep breath to calm her emotions. She might not have liked to hear it from Tobias, but he was right. She was falling into the same folly that the ponies of Ponyville did with Jason Wright. She looked up to face Celestia. “I don’t know what you hoped to accomplish by coming here,” she said evenly, “but I won’t be coming back as your student.”
Celestia looked hurt by this, but she nodded. “I didn’t expect you to,” she replied, “but I couldn’t let you leave without at least talking to you and expressing how sorry I am for what I did.”
“And just what is it you’re apologizing for?” Sunset asked with a hint of distrust.
Celestia gave her an apologetic look. “I didn’t make an effort to reach out to you as I should have,” she began, “and I failed to see just how you were growing. Our last conversation was one I deeply regret. If I could go back, I’d be a lot more understanding. I pushed you away from me, and I am so very sorry for it. I’m very sorry for everything I did. I’ll understand if you don’t want to forgive me, but I had to come and say this to you.”
Sunset didn’t react to this. Inside, she was rather shocked to hear that Celestia was actually acknowledging some of her faults. Still, part of her wanted to lash out. What about her dismissal of Sunset’s talents? What about whenever Celestia tried to force Sunset to make friends when she never wanted to make any because they always inevitably disappointed? She stood up straighter, closed her eyes, and inhaled deeply. “I’m surprised that you came all this way just to say that,” Sunset replied before opening her eyes. “That’s a lot of effort for an apology, even if half-assed.” She’d heard that expression from Revan at one point.
Celestia raised an eyebrow at the expression curiously, but said nothing. She simply replied, “You’re worth the effort, my former student,” she said softly. Slowly, Celestia stood. “I want to make things up to you however I can. I could provide you with a large number of bits and even a homestead somewhere quiet where you could live comfortably-”
“And there’s the other horseshoe drop,” Sunset said, disappointment dripping from her tone. “You want to keep me trapped in Equestria under your auspicious gaze, just like you did with the inhabitants of this pathetic, unworthy town!” She was about to go on, but Revan’s hand reappeared on her withers. She paused a bit, remembering what Tobias said once more. She calmed herself once more. “I’m a free pony, Celestia, and I’ll live life as I please. Let me ask: aside from diplomatic missions, have you ever, and I mean ever, gone out into the rest of the world? Have you seen the squalor and crime you ignore in Thornfall and Klugetown? Have you met with the tyrannical Storm King’s forces? Have you seen how far the gryphons have fallen from grace? Do you even know what the reality is for the others out in the world? How other species suffer because of your complacency?”
“How dare you speak to her Highness that way??” The lieutenant, clearly unable to hold back anymore, stepped forward with a magical aura around the hilt of his sword. However, Revan and Tobias both stepped up, the latter with his rapiers drawn and the former with his two strange miniature cannon weapons aimed at his head.
“Lieutenant, stand down now!” Celestia added. “You’re only escalating the situation!”
Sunset, while appreciative of the efforts of her new compatriots, stepped between them. She faced the lieutenant boldly. “Blind loyalty will only lead to blindness. Look at Jason Wright. What did Loyalty do to him?” Celestia and Twilight both stiffened at that, and this further emboldened Sunset. “Loyalty must be earned, especially to her royal sunnyness here.” She couldn’t help but throw in an insult, no matter how foalish it felt in the moment.
“That was too far, Sunset,” Tobias said.
She knew it was, but she couldn’t help it in the moment. Still, she regained focus and faced Celestia. “Why not use that money you were apparently saving for me and put it to work in helping ponies here who actually might want the help? And who are worthy, although that’ll be a difficult task. From what I’ve seen here, no pony in Equestria is worthy. None of the ones I’ve met seem to want to learn anything. The best of them, and I use that term loosely, only seem to wallow in their own self-pity.” She gave a quick look to Twilight, who looked away with shame. Feeling emotionally and mentally drained, she sighed. “If that was all you wanted to talk about, then we’re done here. We’ve got to head back to Thornfall for another job.”
“Actually, there were a few other things I wanted to talk with you about,” Celestia said, “and it has to do with the reports I received about the attack on Twilight and the transformation of one Spoiled Milk.”
“Witness statements?” Tobias asked as he finally sheathed his swords. Celestia nodded. “One of the guards was there, along with a few others. They saw and heard what we did, so I don’t see why we need to be here.”
“Because it seems one of you has information vital to the investigation,” Celestia said, and with that she looked at Revan. “What do you know?”
Revan, who had put his miniature cannons back, stood still. Sunset had heard the tone of his voice when he mentioned someone named Queen Majesty. He then seemed to take on a relaxed tone. Holding out a hand, he spoke. “We don’t give away this kind of information away for free,” he said. “How much will you pay us?”
The lieutenant snarled at this, and several other guards also seemed to take interest in what this masked figure had said. “You dare to demand money, you filthy mercenary!?”
“Lieutenant, leave this house right now,” Celestia said with a tone that Sunset had never heard from her before. A menacing tone full of threats of retribution. It even made her shudder in fear. “You are not helping anything.”
“You’re Highness, I must object-!”
“LEAVE!” Celestia bellowed before turning to the other guards. “Set up a perimeter around the house until I leave, is that understood?”
They nodded and quickly left, some amusingly with their tails between their legs like a dog after being scolded. That caused Sunset to snort a bit. When they’d left the house, Twilight shut the door and asked with a nervous tone, “C-Can I make you some tea, Princess?”
“No, but thank you for offering,” Celestia said with a soft smile. She then turned to Revan. “How much are you charging?”
“Five hundred bits, all upfront,” he said with a neutral tone.
Sunset was shocked that he’d asked for so much, but was even more shocked when Celestia nodded, raised her horn, and cast some magic which teleported a brown sack onto the ground in front of them. “Will this do?” she asked.
Revan didn’t move, but Tobias did. He swiftly picked it up and opened it. A cursory glance seemed to satisfy the abyssinian and he nodded at Revan. The masked biped then looked down at Sunset. “Anti-scrying spells, are there any?” Confused, she nodded. He then turned to Celestia. “You, Sunset, and Twilight cast a simultaneous anti-scrying spell, your most powerful one. I don’t want any prying eyes and ears seeing or hearing this conversation.”
The three named ponies exchanged looks before as one they all raised their horns. Three glowing shields surrounded the small group. As they moved to sit at the couches in the room, the shield moved with them. When they all sat, Revan folded his hands. “My information on Queen Majesty is limited at most,” he began, “but she was a unicorn who was once known as the most magical of all ponies. She ruled over them from Dream Castle in Dream Valley located in Ponyland. Her pet dragon Spike lived with her in the castle. She was a benevolent leader but her methods of punishing those who threatened her ponies were rather…harsh. She would cast rhyming spells on those who did harm to her subjects, turning them into trees or some fitting punishment. However, the stories become more convoluted from here.” He leaned forward. “She and her pet dragon vanished from Ponyland before the arrival of Megan Williams and her siblings, humans who traveled to this world to help in times of need. The legends I’ve read about has led me to believe that something happened to her when the flutter ponies vanished.”
“Wait, humans were here on Equus?” Celestia asked in alarm.
“Here on Erda, yes,” Revan replied, using what Sunset now knew was the original name of this world. “That’s another story for another time. Somehow, she’s back and can cast spells from a distance. I will not be caught up in her shenanigans.”
Celestia looked at Revan with a curious expression now, then nodded in understanding. “I understand,” she said. “Thank you for telling me these things. Is there any other pertinent information you can relay to me? I can pay extra.”
Revan looked down a bit, then after a few moments shook his head. “Off the top of my head, I can’t think of anything. Only that she has, or had in the past, a magic scrying mirror that could see anywhere she wanted. Clearly, she was using it to punish Spoiled Milk for what she did, and since Spoiled was using drugs, she turned that mare into a tree. You’d probably call it a poetic punishment for her.”
Celestia’s expression hardened at that, but she simply nodded. “Cruel is what I’d call it,” she said, “but I suppose that’s one way of looking at it.” Looking up at Revan, she added, “Is there anything else?” Slowly, Revan shook his head. “Alright, thank you for telling me.” Raising her horn, she lowered her shield. Sunset and Twilight did the same.
“Is there anything else we can do for you?” Tobias asked.
“As a matter of fact, just one more thing, please,” Celestia said. “Before you leave, would you tell us, in your own words, what happened during the attack on Twilight and during your attempt to save the four fillies who Spoiled foalnapped?”
“So,” Tobias said about a day later as the members of Shadow Dawn had left town the afternoon before to head back to Thornfall, “you were once a student of the Equestrian Princess?” He gave Sunset a curious look. The question had been on his mind for the entire day, and he couldn’t hold his curiosity back.
Sunset looked up at Tobias, and he could tell that she didn’t want to talk about this. Still, while he knew a bit about her past thanks to Gregory showing him the Equestria Girls money grab, he had his reasons for pushing a bit. “Years ago,” she said, “it was so many years ago.”
“And you didn’t feel the need to tell us?” Tobias asked with a slight frown.
“It wasn’t pertinent,” she explained.
Tobias shook his head. “Wrong, my little pony,” he said, “it’s very pertinent. You saw just how pertinent it was back there. Your old teacher came to try and get you back.”
“I thought the mercenary guild didn’t care about who joined a guild,” Sunset snapped back.
“If we’d gone anywhere else aside from Equestria, we wouldn’t have cared,” Tobias pressed. “We’re not expecting your whole damned life story, but you could have at least given us a bit of a warning.”
“Well, you know now, happy?” Sunset asked, clearly growing more aggravated.
Tobias was about to reply when he felt the gloved hand of his friend on his shoulder. He looked over at the ‘Revan’ mask as Gregory gave his shoulder a squeeze. Tobias relaxed. “Yeah, for now,” he said in a warning tone.
“We’ll be on the road for a few more days,” Gregory said, “so let’s try not to tear each other up. Let’s just get as far away from Equestria as possible.”
“Hey, Revan, do you think that job in Panthera is still up on the board?” Tobias asked. Gregory just shrugged. There had been multiple requests from Panthera for a mercenary group to do a job in the abyssinian kingdom, and it had been upgraded a few times with increased payouts. The pay was good, but the job was the most dangerous one on the board. “If it is still there, should we take it?” As far as he knew, the Panthera job was the one that was farthest away from Equestria.
“Sure,” he said simply.
The fact that he’d instantly replied sent up alarm bells in Tobias’ mind. Gregory wasn’t one to take big jobs like that, he knew, so if he was this quick about it meant he was more afraid than Tobias thought. He hoped to get some information about it out of Gregory later that night. Figuring that his closest friend wanted to change the subject, Tobias decided to turn to a lighter subject. “I seriously didn’t expect you to make the princess pay for that information.”
That caught Sunset’s attention as well, and she fell back to walk closer to the two bipeds. “The look on that lieutenant’s face was priceless,” she smirked.
“That’s not quite what I meant,” Tobias said.
“What did you mean?” Sunset asked.
“Giving away information is a…tricky thing for the guild,” Tobias explained. “Obviously, we don’t give away information on our clients while we’re on a job, but it’s also implied that we don’t do it after the job is done. Still, some of the more disreputable mercenaries will sell out past clients for the right price, as I’m sure you know. Those are partly where the rumors about mercenaries come from. Giving out random information like what Revan did is a bit on the edge of acceptable behavior, but we won’t likely get punished for it by the guild. Especially since he wrung some really good coin out of the Equestrian government. If news of that gets around, our standing in the guild shoots up and the guild master will probably get us some more high paying jobs.”
“Damn,” Sunset said, sounding clearly impressed.
“We’re not telling anyone,” Gregory said firmly.
“What you’re saying now and what you told me earlier don’t add up,” Sunset said. “You said time is money, but you don’t want to increase your likelihood of getting better jobs.”
“The higher a job, the higher the risk involved,” Tobias explained. “With the money we’ve made now, we can easily pay off some of our debts so we’re in the black again.”
“Then what about that job in Panthera you mentioned?” Sunset asked.
“That’s a unique job that anyone can take, regardless of experience,” Tobias continued to explain, “and it has no time limit to complete. As a bonus, it takes us away from Equestria. Apparently, some shit is about to go down.”
Sunset seemed to understand this as she nodded. “I see,” she replied.
The three continued walking for hours, sometimes pulling out some of the small snacks they’d purchased in Maretime Bay before leaving to keep their strength up. They would also occasionally stop by a body of water where they refilled their canteens. Sunset knew a spell that sterilized and cleaned the water so no harmful diseases would be transferred, and Tobias enjoyed the taste of fresh water for the first time on the road. The water from Twilight’s house was clean enough, but there was a taste to it that he couldn’t readily identify. Lead, perhaps, he wasn’t sure.
It was about a half hour before they were going to stop that they came upon a campsite in a clearing of trees on the barely worn road. They’d seen the campfire smoke long before they saw the camp itself. Going around the mid-sized forest would only take them a day and a half out of their way, so they had no choice but to go through said forest. Tobias remembered this forest from their initial trek here, and it had a clearing just big enough for a campsite, which was where they found two earth ponies sitting around a campfire.
Tobias, the stealthiest among them, had scouted ahead and spotted them. Two mares, one a light gray with a straight darker mane and tail and the other a faded pink with a darker faded pink mane and tail. He immediately recognized the two from his viewing of the My Little Pony show. It was Pinkie and Marble Pie. Both were sitting on some rocks that had been dragged around the fire and were apparently boiling some delicious smelling stew of some kind. They were talking quietly but even Tobias’ ears couldn’t pick it up.
When he got back to the place where Sunset and Gregory were waiting, he gave his report. “It’s Pinkie Pie and another mare I don’t recognize,” he half lied. He knew he could get away with recognizing Pinkie since her face and cutie mark were well known, but he couldn’t get away with recognizing the latter.
“Can we go around them?” Sunset asked, clearly not wanting to see any new faces.
“Not unless we want to take an extra day getting back to Thornfall,” Tobias said. “Besides, there’s space there for both of us to have a camp, and the forest is free of dangerous creatures.” He paused, part of him wondering how he knew that, but shoved it aside as he continued. “We can’t avoid them. Time is money for a mercenary, you know that.”
Sunset gave an exasperated sigh, but simply nodded and said, “Fine.”
Pinkamena ate the carrot stew carefully, savoring the rather delicious and nutritious food that Marble had made as she stared into the bowl. The two of them had made excellent time ever since leaving their farm, better than most other travelers thanks to taking some shortcuts that Pinkie had felt out using her own methods that even she couldn’t explain. Methods that had once been more prevalent in her happier days. They were about a day/day and a half away from Maretime Bay.
Marble, on the other hoof, was keeping a close eye on her older sister. During their journey, the younger sister had stayed close to Pinkamena’s side, keeping her focused, helping her set up and strike camps, making sure Pinkamena ate three times a day, even if lunches were something simple like a hay and oat sandwich with lettuce and tomato. Pinkamena had helped with her part of the striking of camp and making breakfast and dinner, such as gathering firewood or cutting vegetables that their parents had packed for dinners and lunches, but for the most part Marble was doing the lion’s share.
“Great soup,” Pinkamena had to admit. The ingredients were simple, but Marble was always the best cook among them. Pinkamena may have been good when it came to desserts, but Marble was amazing when it came to normal food. She’d learned a lot from their mother in that regard.
“Thank you,” Marble said with a soft smile before wiping her muzzle with a small towel that she placed down on her lower legs before facing Pinkamena more fully. Her mane and tail fluffed slightly as she entered her Marble Sense persona. “Pinkie, you’ve been extra quiet today. Something on your mind?”
In truth, something had, but Pinkamena had been actively trying to suppress it, not wanting to think about it. Now that Marble had brought it up, she had to say something or risk going insane. She nodded. “Yeah. My Pinkie Sense is going haywire today.”
Marble looked concerned. “What are you sensing?” she asked.
“That’s just it: I don’t know,” Pinkamena said, a hint of frustration in her voice. “It’s super vague, but it’s only increasing as we get closer to Maretime Bay.” Her body jerked a bit for a brief moment before stopping. “See?”
Marble nodded, her concerned frown deepening. She actually looked like she was in deep thought. “Pinkie,” she began, “have you meditated on it?"
Pinkamena sighed. "Yeah, but it hasn't been helping as much lately," she said. "I don't know if I'm doing something wrong."
Marble nodded. “That happened to me a few times, and I just needed to change how I approached it. You haven't done that as far as I know. Finish eating, and I can teach you,” Marble said. “It works better for me with less physical distractions, and an empty stomach for you is a major one.”
Pinkamena gave a half smile at this, looking down at her leaner frame. Even now, after her grief had begun to subside after leaving Ponyville behind, her returning appetite had been bigger than the rest of her family’s own. She nodded and began shoveling healthy helpings of the carrot stew into her mouth, chewing gratefully on the softened carrots and celery.
She was just ladling out a second helping when a disturbance from the eastern part of the glade caught their attention. The two quickly turned, Marble standing with fear in her eyes and Pinkamena standing to her full height and moving to protect her younger sister. However, instead of some monster from the forest, three new figures emerged from the path that led to the exit of the forest. One of them was a pony, and that made Pinkamena breathe a sigh of relief, only for guilt to rush to the surface. The other two were bipedal, one being a black furred abyssinian while the other was a creature with a menacing looking mask who wore all black.
It was the abyssinian who spoke first. Raising his paw, he gave the sisters a friendly looking grin. “Howdy, folks,” he said with a friendly tone, “didn’t mean to startle you. We’re just passing through on our way back to our home.”
Pinkamena knew her sister didn’t do well with strangers, so she spoke up first. “Hello there,” she said.
The abyssinian smiled wider at her. “Hope it’s okay if we set up a camp somewhere nearby. This place is the safest spot for miles around and this forest has no monsters in it, so it’s perfect for us.”
Pinkamena looked behind her to see what her sister might have been thinking, but saw that Marble was looking at the group with wide eyes. Not eyes of fear, but eyes of shock. Worried, the dull pink furred mare nudged her sister. “Marble?”
“Hmm??” Marble came out of whatever trance she’d been in, looking at her sister with confusion.
“They’re asking if they can stay in the grove with us,” Pinkamena repeated.
“If you’re not comfortable with us being here, we can move on,” the abyssinian said. “There’s at least a half hour of day left.”
Marble looked back at them, and Pinkamena followed her gaze. Marble seemed to be looking between the hooded pony and the menacing looking masked biped. She took a deep breath, then looked back up at Pinkamena. “Mmhmm,” she nodded.
The abyssinian clapped his paws together. “Perfect, thank you! We’ll stay out of your hair as best as we can.” And with that, the group moved away towards a patch of flat ground near the edge of the grove, but one with a small hole in the forest canopy that gave a view of the sky.
Marble and Pinkamena resumed eating, now hearing the sounds of a nearby campsite being set up. Pinkamena could hear two voices speaking quietly: the abyssinian and the hooded pony. The masked creature with the glowing eyes in his mask said nothing, but did help.
Pinkamena didn’t watch, considering it rude. For the majority of the time their new neighbors set up camp, she just ate in silence, keeping her head down. At one point, however, she reached across to get a few more ladlefulls of soup when she noticed that Marble’s mane and tail had reached a level of fullness she’d never seen before. It wasn’t like the fluffy mane and tail of Pinkie Pie, but instead hers had locks of waves in them. More waves than anything Pinkie or Pinkamena had ever seen. Not only that, but when Pinkamena looked at Marble, she saw that her sister was staring intently at the group. More specifically, she seemed to be staring at the masked figure. “Marble?” Pinkamena asked in concern. When she didn’t respond right away, Pinkamena grew more worried and gently nudged her sister.
This caused her to jump, spilling a bit of her stew on the ground. “Ah, um, yes?” Marble asked.
“Are you alright?” Pinkamena asked. “You were staring at our guests.”
Marble didn’t respond right away. Instead, she looked down at her stew with a contemplative look. After a bit, she looked back over at the masked figure. “My Marble Sense is going wild,” she said softly so that only the two could hear. “That creature over there, whoever he or she is, is setting it off.”
That shocked Pinkamena. Her sister’s own Sense had never gone wild, at least not that Marble had ever said. She joined her sister in looking at the masked figure. Currently, he was lifting some rocks to create a fire pit while the other two were setting up a pair of tents. She wondered why this figure was wearing all black and never showing any of its…fur? Scales? Anything underneath. Was this creature hiding their identity as a species for some reason?
Marble looked back at the stew, then back at the group. “Pinkie, we packed extra bowls, right?”
Guessing her intentions and not faulting her for it, Pinkamena reached into one side of her saddlebag and pulled out three bowls. “Got them right here.”
Marble quickly took them and began filling them up with the steaming stew. Once she was done, she grabbed the cutting board she’d brought, placed the bowls on them, and began carrying them over.
Pinkamena was even more stunned than before. Marble was being incredibly bold. Still, she noticed that some of the waves in Marble’s mane began to straighten as she walked up to the group. Ever the protective older sister, Pinkamena quickly put her stew down and went to beside Marble towards the group.
The pony was the first to notice them. Underneath the hood, she gave a snort. “What do you want?” she asked evenly.
“Um, we wanted…to offer you some…of our dinner…” Marble said before Pinkamena could say anything. She was back to her hesitant speaking habit, but the fact that she’d spoken first was still a shock to Pinkamena.
The abyssinian came up to the group, a wide friendly smile on his face. “Really? That’s very thoughtful of you, but are you sure we wouldn’t be taking anything from you?”
Pinkamena spoke up now. “No, we’re not too far from our destination and we’re planning on staying for a while,” she explained.
The abyssinian looked over at the masked figure, who had stopped what they were doing and looking at them. The figure nodded, then went back to creating a fire pit. The abyssinian looked back and reached down to grab two of the bowls. “Well, if you’re offering, we’d be more than grateful to accept,” he said.
The hooded pony then revealed herself to be a unicorn when the third bowl lifted off of the board. “Where are you going?” she asked. “Let me guess: you’re going to Maretime Bay to talk to your former friends, Laughter?”
Pinkamena’s expression fell a bit. She knew her cutie mark was well-known throughout Equestria, and the way this unicorn mare was talking to her, it was clear she wasn’t a big fan. To her even further surprise, Marble stepped in front of her, the straightness of her mane becoming wavy again. “As a matter of fact, yes we are,” she said in a much more audible tone than her previous sentence to the newcomers.
That seemed to surprise the two and the abyssinian came up and put a paw on the unicorn’s back. “Go help with the firepit,” he said, “you’re not helping anything here with your attitude.” As the unicorn walked away, the abyssinian knelt in front of Marble. “I’m sorry for my companion’s behavior,” he continued. “She’s what you might call an acquired taste. All business, as it were.” He put a paw on his chest. “My name’s Tobias. We’re just passing through on our way back to where we live.”
Pinkamena nodded. “She’s not wrong, though,” she said. “My sister and I are on our way to Maretime Bay to visit our old friends there.”
“We were just there for a job,” Tobias explained. “We saw three of your old friends there, and they seemed to be doing alright.”
That caught Pinkamena off guard a bit. “A job? What kind of job?” she asked.
“An escort mission,” Tobias replied. “We were guarding and escorting a family moving there.”
“Mercenaries…” Marble said softly.
Tobias nodded. “Yes, miss. We’re mercenaries. We’re heading home now.”
She wasn’t sure why, but Pinkamena asked anyway. “Were you escorting somepony we might know? Somepony from Ponyville?”
“We were escorting a family from Ponyville, yes,” Tobias replied.
“The Apple family…” Marble said.
“That’s right, miss,” Tobias replied.
Marble looked back at Pinkamena. “They had to leave…?”
“Guess their land was more honest about their daughter’s cruelty than they were,” the unicorn scoffed.
At that, the masked figure threw down the stone they were carrying, stormed over to the mare, and grabbed at her cloak. “You. Me. Talk. Now.” The voice the sisters heard was menacing and deep, but also clearly male. He dragged the unicorn away with surprising speed into the forest surrounding the canopy.
Tobias watched them go, then turned back to the two sisters. “I don’t know too much about the reason behind their leaving,” he said with an apologetic shrug, “but what little I did see of their old home was of dying or dead crops. The entire town didn’t have a single blade of grass in it.”
Pinkamena looked down at the ground, slowly nodding. “Makes sense…” she said.
“Thank you…for telling us,” Marble said gratefully.
“You’re very welcome, miss,” Tobias said.
“Do we…owe you anything…for that information?” Marble asked.
Tobias shook his head. “Nope, that’s not sensitive information. We may be mercenaries, but we’d like to try and be as honest as we can be. The more honest we are, the more our clients would trust us and the more likely we’ll get repeat business.”
Marble and Pinkamena nodded. “Understood,” Marble said. She looked up at Pinkamena, then back at Tobias. “Could you…excuse us…for a…bit?”
“I’m not going anywhere,” he said as he pulled out a wooden spoon from his pack, sat on the ground against a tree, and began to eat the still steaming stew that the Pie sisters had given them.
Marble walked away, followed closely by a very confused Pinkamena. “Marble, what’s going on?”
Marble looked up at her sister. “I don’t know,” she admitted, “but something in my Marble Sense is telling me that I can’t be too far away from that masked creature.”
“But doesn’t he scare you?”
“He terrifies me,” Marble agreed, “but I can’t explain how my sense works.”
“None of us can,” Pinkamena said.
“How many bits do you have?” Marble asked.
“Um…maybe fifty,” Pinkamena said. Then, the implications of Marble’s question hit her. “No, you’re not-”
Marble, however, was not listening. Instead, she rushed back to Tobias, who was now being rejoined by the masked figure and the pony, the latter of whom was now no longer wearing the hood and had the look of a scolded foal on her face. “Um…Mr. Tobias…if we…wanted to hire…you to…escort us to…Maretime Bay…what would that cost us?”
The unicorn mare’s eyes widened at that. “We just left,” she groaned. This earned her a smack to the back of her head by the masked creature.
“You want to hire us to escort you to Maretime Bay?” Tobias asked, as if to confirm.
“Mmhmm,” Marble nodded.
The three mercenaries exchanged a few glances, then the masked creature spoke. “Excuse us.”
As the three walked away to speak in hushed tones, Pinkamena pulled Marble back. “Marb,” she said, using her sister’s nickname, “I don’t want to sound cruel, but how can we be sure we can trust these three? We don’t know anything about them.”
Marble nodded. “I understand, but do you trust me?” Pinkamena nodded. “Then trust that I’m doing the right thing. Also, was Tobias’ smile fake?”
“Huh?” Pinkamena was confused now.
Marble gave a small smile. “You claimed to be an expert on smiles. Was Tobias’ smile a fake one?”
Understanding dawned for Pinkamena, and she shook her head. To tell the truth, Tobias seemed very genuine in his smile. She knew from experience that anytime anyone lied, their smile was always off. Tobias’ was sincere. She immediately felt bad for making assumptions, realizing that she’d done the same things that her former friends had done with Jason. The same thing that she’d done too. She sighed. “I wonder if I’ll ever grow up.”
Marble gave her sister a reassuring smile and put a hoof on her back. “You’re getting better,” she said. She then hugged her sister close.
Pinkamena smiled a bit, then hugged Marble back for a number of seconds before breaking the hug. “I guess having a couple of escorts won’t be so bad,” she admitted. “But do you think we can afford to hire them? I know mercenaries need to be paid.”
“I brought a bunch of bits to be safe,” Marble said before reaching into her mane and pulling out a money purse.
Pinkamena’s eyes went wide. “Where did you learn how to do that??” she asked incredulously.
“From watching you,” Marble said with a triumphant smirk as she began walking back towards the three who were approaching them.
“So, we’ve discussed it,” Tobias said when they reconvened, “and if you’re willing to pay twenty-five bits upfront and seventy five upon completion of the escort request, we’d be more than willing to accommodate you.”
Pinkamena was a bit surprised by how cheap it was. The unicorn then spoke up. “The price is reduced because it’s a short request.”
“Do we have a deal?” Tobias asked.
The sisters looked at each other for a few seconds. Then, Pinkamena turned and nodded, reaching her hoof out automatically. “Yes,” she said.
Tobias reached over, wrapped his surprisingly soft paws around her hoof, and shook.
The former Queen Majesty sat in the bathtub that her new subjects, the nox ponies, had recently refurbished for her. The hot water felt good on her ancient yet youthful fur. The steam filled the private bathing area. She needed it after the infuriating day that she’d had.
Somehow, that human had known about her when nobody else in the world should have. And when he was explaining things to that foal pretender Celestia, he’d been smart, or paranoid, enough to have her and the two other ponies there put anti-scrying spells in place which had blocked her mirror’s view of the conversation. If it had only been one of them, it would have been easy for her to break through, but with three, even her powerful magic mirror couldn’t see.
In front of her was a floating smaller version of her mirror. She was focusing on the interior of a tent where Tobias as she now knew his name to be sat with the human, who’s mask was off again. A small lantern was lit between them, barely illuminating the two. The human, who was apparently named Revan, had a blanket pulled over his head like a hood to hide any shadows the lantern might show of his face on the tent fabric.
“I thought you really wanted to get out of Equestria,” Tobias was saying.
“Believe me, I do,” Revan replied in a whisper, “but a job’s a job, and we’re getting paid well.”
Tobias nodded in understanding. “I guess so,” he said, “but those two made it from their home to here without incident.”
“Pinkie is also a former Element,” Revan said, “which means she’s a target. You know that we need all the money we can get. If they didn’t want to hire us, I’d have agreed with Sunset and said no, but we’re in the red.”
“Okay, okay, you’ve made your point,” Tobias said. “I agree, but I just hope this doesn’t come back to bite us in the ass.” Majesty was confused as to why this action would bite a donkey, but she continued listening in.
“Me too,” Revan said as he lay down in bed. “Come on, let’s get some sleep. We can at least get a full night’s rest thanks to Sunset putting up a magic barrier.”
“Not so fast, G,” Tobias said, still sitting up and looking down at the human. “You have another question you need to answer.”
“What?” Revan sounded tired, and his eyes were already closed, the face mask on his forehead.
Out with it,” Tobias said with a frown, “how do you know about that Queen Majesty?”
Majesty sat up in her tub, curious to see what would be revealed here. However, Revan shook his head. “Someone could be watching us,” he said, “and I won’t risk that information falling into the wrong hands, hooves, or other appendages.”
“I’m not taking no for an answer this time, G,” Tobias said sternly. “Don’t you trust me?”
“You’re the only one I do trust,” Revan replied, “but neither of us can cast an anti-scrying spell.”
Tobias considered this, then slowly nodded. “Fine…fine…Does it have to do with Emelpi?”
Majesty tilted her head. What in Erda was Emelpi? Revan took a deep breath, then reached over, forming his hand into a fist. He gently pushed it against Tobias’ chest, then removed it before grabbing the lantern. “Goodnight, Toby,” he said, blowing out the lantern before pulling the blankets over him, covering his eyes with a sleep mask.
The mirror was covered in complete darkness now, but Majesty could still hear things from the mirror itself. The last voice she heard was the sound of Tobias saying in a disappointed voice, “Goodnight.”
Majesty raised her horn and teleported the smaller mirror back to her personal quarters, sinking lower into the water and letting the warm liquid soothe her ancient frame. Whoever this Revan was, he knew things about her that nobody should. That could not stand. Magic didn’t emanate from him like it did anything else on Erda. The only other source of that sort of anti-magic field came from the gravesite of Jason Wright. She suspected that a direct magical move on him wouldn’t work because of this.
So, she needed to think of indirect ways to get to this human and figure out what he knew about her.
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If I'm remembering previous chapters correctly, I'm surprised Sunbutt Sr. didn't imply anything about G's species once they were private. The report she received had enough clues if I wasn't nistaken. Then again, I suppose in the presence of the still-convalescent Twilight, it might be a bad idea.
You made a slight mistake. In this chapter you say that Pinkie Pie doesn't know how to meditate, yet in the previous chapter you mentioned during Pinkie's doozy that "She focused inwards, using her recent years of experience of meditation that she had learned from Marble to concentrate on the feelings from this doozy."
11901393
I thought I'd caught that, but I guess not. Just fixed it.
I don't get why her knowing that Equis/Equestria was just a "fictional" TV show from Earth, being a bad thing?
Won't that give her a existential crisis or something?
Uh, Celestia? If you really believe that, then why didn't you see anything wrong with putting wrong doers in a fate much worse than death, such as turning Discord into a stone statue? You should re-evaluate your thinking process about that, otherwise it'll land you into more trouble than you currently are.
11901407
Also thank you again for the story.
I hope you have a good day.
11901507
You're welcome :)
And their one chance to get out without being considered 'in-play' has now expired.
Good Luck you two
11901411
No one wants their mysterious magic nemesis thinking about what they could gain from dabbling in other realities when the archetype is pretty much synonymous with hubris. The result could be anything from Majesty with a machine gun to some idiot calling the Elder Gods.
11901456
It's also hypocritical at worst as well.
11902187
Sorry, but I don't fully understand what you're saying?
And did you make a Mortal Kombat joke? What's that got to do with this?
And now that I think about it, doesn't Majesty already know about Earth anyways?
Considering how the ponies in G1 kinda knows that Megan William and her siblings AREN'T from around "Pony land"?
11902194
Basically an evil mage is a lot like a mad scientist, therefore risking giving them ideas is a Terrible, Terrible Idea because they could go literally any direction with the wrong offhand comment. Plus for all we know, Majesty has the power needed to make portals to other worlds and simply never considered doing it, but an alien showing up with long-forgotten knowledge of her will definitely prompt the thought.
Tldr, knowledge is power.
I actually don't know a damn thing about mortal kombat aside from the kazuya-kazooya meme in my groupchat because I'm comically bad at fighting games.
11902212
Is she really that "evil"? I mean, she was once the "kind pony queen/ruler" of dream valley from G1.
And so far, she heavily punishes other evils like Chrysalis or Spoiled Rich. So, Majesty would have some standards.
Plus, if I remember correctly. She too is very upset how modern ponies treat the humans, and dislikes Celestia for obvious reasons.
Again, I still don't get how/why Gregory will be freaked out by her, when he doesn't even met her in this story as of yet, outside of the G1 cartoon back on Earth?
Raiden: I must speak with the Elder Gods.
That's how I got the interpretation?
11902235
They don't know anything about what she might be like now though, and optimism isn't exactly conducive to survival in the badlands, let alone as a mercenary.
EDIT: by elder gods I meant like, Cthulu and whatnot.
11902266
Oh, H.P. Lovecraft. I don't think the "negative" consequences of her knowing will go that far.
*Cthulhu*.
11905519
Wow wow wow, wow.
11902345
Well from what it seems like. She might be the big bad and if not i still think she will still be an antagonist