N)158 words

Crossing the Line

Dear Princess Celestia

I regret to inform you

It is with great regret that I

I'm sorry to say

-Spike

Silence.

There was no sound in the forest besides the light breathing coming from the two unconscious ponies and Spike's own. Seconds felt like minutes as his mind tried to process what he had done. His body began to tremble, his arms loosing grip on the crossbow.

"Spike." Sin whispered looking down to the griffin than back to him. "Spike, it's ok."

Though, his words fell on deaf ears. The baby dragon simply stood in awe. He shot somepony, he killed her.

Sin slowly leaned his head down and placed his ear to the mammals chest. "She's alive." The drake merely trembled with shock. Sin walked closer and slapped him, he left his stupor and eyed his assailant. "Sorry, but we don't have time for this. She isn't dead."

Relief beyond anything he'd ever felt warmed his reptilian blood at the revelation, he wasn't a murderer? He didn't kill her? And some where a chorus of pegasi hummed a revolutionary tone. Hallelujah!

"Thank Celestia." Spike sighed slouching. Thinking you've killed someone takes a lot more out of you than he would have thought.

"Indeed, however, this has put us in a time crunch." Sin proclaimed unwrapping the root from the log. "Tie those two up, I'll handle her." Spike nodded dumbly, and numbly began to hog tie the ponies legs together while Sin handled the female of the group. He may not have killed her, but that really didn't help his mental state of almost doing so.

After the Federalists were secured and blinded, Sin motioned for them to head to the border. "Once that patrol doesn't report in, they'll be onto us and comb the area. We need to move. Now."

Though Spike wasn't exactly in the best of conditions, and Sin's jumping at the pony and having him call his friends had greatly shaken his confidence in the pony's sanity, he agreed with a nod. He was far to distracted with the current events to bring up his concerns, and on top of that, the rest of the wall patrol would eventually find those three and ask what happened.

Luckily the sun was beginning to set, and for what time the two had, enough was observed to give a pretty good indicator as to what the exact regiment was for a certain section of the wall. Three chances if the pattern was followed as it had been nights prior.

Twilight gave way to dusk, they began to approach the wall, hiding behind the fallen tree trunks for what little cover they gave. Now was time for his favorite part, the waiting game. His eyes being serpentine, the drake could see in the dark, keeping an eye out for wondering patrols, though, he didn't need them to see the long stone wall before him., or the guards standing atop of it.

The dark grey structure may have only been about ten or eleven feet high, but what was impressive was it's length. Both sides, as far as the eye could see, the wall stood proud and ready. No cracks, no doors,just flat stone; probably some entrance some where that lead up, none in sight though.

Considering the way the ponies on top moved, the wall was a considerable width as well. Torches were mounted on the wall a few feet away from each other to give illumination to the ground bellow. Fortunately, it also impaired the ponies own night vision by desensitizing their eyes to the darkness that lay beyond their intimidate vicinity.

Idiots.

So the two sat, they sat and they waited. Neither daring to breath a word. Seconds became minutes, minutes became hours. How was it possible to be: Excited, Bored, Angry, Scared, and Proud all at the same time?

Sin gritted his teeth, he lied.

He'd never lied to Spike before, and he didn't want to now, but he also couldn't have the drake moping in guilt about what he had done either.

Now wasn't the time for guilt on either of their parts, now was time to observe and pray to all things freedom oriented that they don't discover the missing patrol until the two were far into North Equine. 'prayer? Didn't I give up on that?'

What he wouldn't give for some kind of time keeping device right now, though it felt like it was almost time for the first change of the guard. Though, he'd like to wait for the third guard to come, considering he'd enjoyed a rather intoxicating beverage, the stallion wasn't completely sure how much time they had, nor how the wall would be secured once the patrol was discovered.

And on top of that, there was the unseen eye in the sky of the pegasi and griffins above. In the day time, it was no problem to catch one of them, but at night? It was like throwing darts in the dark. Luckily, the North didn't much care about immigration from the South, considering that the South's system of doing things would hold far more benefits thanks to the recession, so not too much would be needed to deal with after the wall was cleared.

There he goes.

Sin poked at Spike to get his attention than pointed to the lone pegasus on the wide section of the wall looking around impatiently. After a moment of frustration, the pony groaned loudly and trotted off to the left, assume-ably looking for his relief.

"Lets go." Sin bolted forward, Spike quickly in tow. Though, just as they were about to run out of the brush, the stallion threw the breaks on hard, allowing the dragon to slam right into his back.

"Ow, what the-"

Sin slammed his hoof over Spikes mouth before motioning to the top of the wall again.

Gis green eyes widened upon seeing two griffins in the place of the lone pegasus. Two? Where did they come from? Why were they there? Sin considered aborting the mission, though, even if they did get out of range of the search parties to come, the walls security would be upgraded to the point getting through might be impossible! Or they would have to wait until the security relaxed, ending any chance of making remotely resembling efficient time.

Sin slowly turned around and gently began tip hofing back to the point the look out they had before. Why were there two griffins there? That wasn't part of the routine, did they discover the patrol already? Was security being beefed up for them already?

They finally made it back and decided it best to wait until the second shift change, both hoping there would be enough time for it.

A few hours in, Spike piped up: "Hey Sin," He whispered, "Do you think they'll be alright?" The dragon's mental state seemed to have finally calmed. That was good news at least.

"The patrol? I wouldn't worry about them."

One was dead, and the others would probably be traumatized for life. No helping that now though. "Just keep your eyes pealed, never know when another patrol might cross us."

Indeed another patrol passed by as if on cue, though they only served as a pleasant reminder of how unprofessional the guards truly were. Joking and staggering around.

Were they drunk? Would it surprise him if they were? He probably could have walked over and knocked them all out one at a time, and they wouldn't have a clue what happened. Had it not been for Spike's... unusual body type, he would have taken the guards cloths and disguised themselves to gain what little advantage it would give them.

In retrospect, perhaps it would have been beneficial to observe some of the guards to see if there was some sort of code he could learn. Maybe keeping Shade around would have been beneficial after all-

His thoughts were thrown off by a slight chuckle from beside him. The stallion looked down to find his dragon associate doing his best to muffle a raging cackle. 'Oh fuck. He's lost it, hasn't he? Upon further inspection, he noticed a rolled up scroll in the drakes hand.

Noticing his curiosity, Spike handed him the scroll and explained that it was the scroll from earlier.

Dear Spike

Are you in a safe place to talk right now?

Your friend,

Twilight Sparkle

And suddenly it all clicked.

Irony, if there was ever a moment made flesh for the definition of the word, it had to be this point in time. He couldn't help it, he chuckled with his friend mirthfully.

After a few minutes the drake ceased himself, his spirit seemingly restored. "Boy, you think I'd be mad, but that's just too funny."

Sin shook his head in reply, burying the urge to remind the drake that she was the reason the two were pretty much time strapped now. However, he too was surprised how mellow he was feeling about the whole situation.

All well, nothing to do now but wait.

"Hey Sin, tell me something." Spike said stretching his chest, the following cracks evident to the hours he'd been still. "When we were at the first compound, the... what did you call it? The Syndicate? They stole from the surrounding farms didn't they? Isn't that someone else's property?"

Sin's eyebrow shot up, he thought on the notion for a minute than nodded his head admissibly.

"Well, isn't that a bit hypocritical?"

"Isn't life?"

"Huh?"

The stallion stretched his shoulders and gave a sigh of relief. "Life, I keep hearing how it's suppose to be this glorious gift to those who are given it. Do you agree with that sentiment?"

Spike furrowed his brow, seemingly in thought before nodding.

"Those Diamond Dogs in Golvec's Cavern, did life seem to be a blessing for them?" He smirked.

"Well, no, I guess not. But that's only because they allowed him to do it."

"Exactly."

"Huh?"

Sin cracked his neck. "There were two questions I asked myself a long time ago when I was very young. One of them I asked you, the other lead me to that question." He paused for a moment. "But to answer your question, we do what we must to survive, if petty thievery is required; so be it."

"I see." Spike nodded thoughtfully. "And what was the question you first asked?"

Sin smiled and looked directly into the drakes eyes. "Why is life?"

Spike was actually taken aback by the inquiry. 'Why is life? What, like: what is life? What is the meaning of life?' For some reason, Twilight came to mind as he thought about it. All of his friends did. All of the times they spent time together, all of the fond memories and adventures they shared.

A warm smile made it's way onto his mouth. He didn't know why they came to mind, they didn't create him, they didn't birth him into the world for a specific reason. But they gave him something far greater than life in and of itself, they gave him purpose. Purpose and happiness.

"Why is life?" Spike repeated with an amused chuckle. "Pretty deep stuff Sin."

The aforementioned turn his had back. "Not really."

After a request for elaboration, the survivalist mentioned how it was only common sense to ask such a question. Though most came to the conclusion of "What is life?" That was severely limited to basic facts and figures, equating basically to the answer of "reproduction" or "service to a higher power". It was hard to explain exactly what the difference was between "what" and "why" in terms of this topic.

However, the notion of why is life would offer some very different results. Yes, if used by a closed mind, they would basically come to the same answers as before.

The main difference, was the question of 'why' was so much more thought provoking than 'what'. In "what", there were concrete details and predetermined purposes. When asked 'why' the questions became endless. (Unless one asked 'what is the purpose of _____' though, that it essentially asking, "why" as well.) Though, the best way Sin could explain it was: "What" seemed so limited, while why just built onto itself. At least in a psychological sense.

Spike had mixed feelings on the question. To him, they both seemed to be the same thing still. His teachers explanation was there and held some merit, however; it just seemed to play on semantics.

His skeptical demeanor must have been far more apparent than he realized. "Stop me if you've heard this one. Life's what you make of it." Spike nodded. "Why is that?"

"Because... It's your own life?"

"And?"

Spike was starting to become confused. Why was his life his own? What kind of question even was that? How could it belong to someone else? Even if there was some "higher power", what ever that was, he didn't feel he owed it anything for creating him. Finally after concluding to have no real answer, he shrugged.

"Because you choose to make it your own." Sin looked forward again, the conversation clearing Spike's head of the shot griffin in favor of thinking about the concept of 'Why' as opposed to 'what'. He didn't see the difference personally, and he thought his friend a bit odd for saying there was one, but; Sin was anything but foolish. Though maybe he was in a way, after all; nopony was perfect.

Spike's thoughts trailed to what exactly he knew about Sin's personality. Cold, Calculating, Freedom oriented, and Emotionally withdrawn.

Any real attempt to make an emotional connection with the guy never went well. He seems more distant than even Cranky back in Ponyville, against Pinkie no less. Pinkamina Diane Pie, the most happy and cheerful pony he knew of couldn't get Sin to be her friend. Why? If he disliked her bubbly disposition he never voiced it to anyone. Then there were the others who were a bit more subtle, but even they voiced their concerns about his stand offish behavior when ever they tried to have meaningful dialog that didn't revolve around professionalism.

The way Spike saw it, Sin's foolishness didn't lay in his logic or intelligence, but in his emotional well being. Ace and Shade weren't exactly emotional in their own right either, but at least they had personalities. And none of their conversation, at least that he heard, held anything to do with their dreams, aspiration, or feelings. It was always business and professional. Come to think of it, most everything he'd ever done had been based around the notion that friendship was the most powerful idea that could ever be. Yet, Sin's obsession with freedom lead him into higher political office, becoming a survivalist, and a philosopher; seemingly with out an emotional support from anyone else.

This made him begin questioning which was more important: Friendship or Freedom?

"You alright?" Sin asked, Spike looked up. "The meaning of life," Sin chuckled, "Mind boggling when you think about it, isn't it?"

"Yea." Spike replied thoughtfully. "The meaning of life."

Spike abandoned his train of thought, the adrenaline had been taking it's toll on his body; and as much as he wanted to be an adult, he was still a young dragon. Albeit he'd grown due to the belongings Sin had given him, and what he purchased himself, but he wasn't matured fully. Funny how dragons work like that.

"Get ready." Sin seethed standing up. Spike shook himself awake and eyed the wall again, the second guards pony was was arguing with his relief. There he was, the brown earth stallion who would allow them passage in all of his drunken glory. The second guard was yelling something at him, to which the drunk simply waved him off and and took a seat on the wall's edge. Finally, after a few more words, the diligent pegasus shook his head and flew off in the same direction he did the nights prior.

Sin motioned for Spike to follow and the two began to slowly creep up out of the brush. The drake kept his eye fixated on the darkened sky above the elongated structure. They were up there, would they spot him? They didn't seem to be carrying any weapons on them, but what about THEIR reprieving guards? Would they?

Sin gave the signal to for the dragon to hold his position. He looked left of the wall than right, as usual, all other visible guards were too far away to be considered any real problem. Wait, this was the last guard before dawn, if they wanted to get past unmolested they'd have to dispose of him... Uh oh.

Spike was about to voice his concerns, but Sin was already a step ahead of him. He was loading a bolt into his crossbow. The two were just out of range of the torches light, or so the drake hoped.

"You're going to kill him?!" He asked in a harsh whisper.

"No," Sin replied, he pulled out something from his saddle bag that looked like dark brown sphere and stuck it onto the head of the bolt. The object couldn't have been to heavy, considering, but that only meant that it wasn't strong. And if it wasn't strong than the sharp head of the arrow would go through it!

Before the drake could voice his concerns, Sin lined up his shot and fired.

What happened next was nothing less than astounding. Either Sin was far better with a crossbow than Spike had ever given him credit for, or that was one of the luckiest arrows in the world. The bolt grazed the pony's muzzle than zinged by. A dim pop, along with the wind and no doubt pain of the bolt brought the drunken earth pony back to his senses. For a moment, for what ever the sphere contained exploded into a fine dust when it made impact with his head.

"What's going on?" He yelled looking around, "Who's out there?" And it wasn't long before he began yawning, as the minutes drew on, the yawns became longer and in quicker succession, until finally collapsed where he stood. Good thing he didn't report the abnormality. Spike smirked, Luck seemed to be on their side tonight.

Spike looked over to the markspony with a questioning eyes. "More effective when thrown," Sin commented pulling out another one of the dark spheres. "But, even with the compromise of the arrow, Knockout Pelts will drop almost anything." He dug back into his saddle bag and pulled out a rope.

"Oh, are you going to attach that to a bolt and and shoot it up to the wall, stick it into a stone, and crawl up it?" Spike asked, his eyes burning with excitement. Random burst of comic relief GO!

Sin stopped his doings and simply looked at the dragon in shock. "No." He finished pulling out a large metal hook and began tying the rope within the loop at the top. "As much as I would like to do that for efficiency's sake, the stone is too hard, the bow too weak, and the arrow too brittle." As he finished his speech he tossed up the hook and latched it onto something up the wall.

Spike found himself torn, he couldn't believe he asked such a dumb question, but at the same time, the idea of it happening was just too cool to go unappreciated.

A quick few tugs, a reload of the bow, and the survivalist began to climb up the rope. After making sure the coast was clear he motioned for his associate to follow up. The drake smiled and began his assent. Upon reaching the top of the wall, the wall dawned on him. He couldn't exactly explain how he felt, but the structure just seemed so much brighter and epic from where he stood now. Miles and miles of stone to his left and right, illuminated by the torchlight, even though he'd observed it from a distance before, right there it seemed so... Overwhelming for some reason. The only leap in the constitution was a darkened incision that lead deep within the structure.

Maybe it was the lack of sleep finally getting to him. Luckily after the quick climb back down, it was smooth sailing, and he'd be able to get a peaceful night's rest.

Sin grabbed the rope and reeled it onto the wall, and over the other side before securing it on the opposite opening it was on previously.

"You know, this was easier than I thought it would be." Spike said confidently.

Sin deadpanned. "Please tell me you didn't just say that."

BUM BUM BUM BUM Drums began sounding from within the wall. Panicked voices yelled orders to awaken and commanded the border be "locked down"

Spike grinned sheepishly.

"Damn it." Sin spat pushing the drake to the rope. "Move!" Obliging, the dragon slid down the rope to the bottom of the wall. He quickly moved out of the way and looked up to see his associate following behind. Adrenaline coursed through his veins, excitement mixed with terror, danger, and the unexpected. He wouldn't admit it out loud, but by Celestia's sun this was exciting. Almost like some of the adventure-fiction books he read back home.

To his surprise, the terrain was actually more of the same. No moat, no spikes to hold off an invasion, nothing that looked like it could be a trap, just open grassland with trees in the distance. It was a little disappointing for some reason.

"C'mon!" Sin yelled. The next thing Spike knew, the two were in a dead sprint for the wood work. Voices from behind began shouting at them to return. Yea, because shouting "Get back here" is going to make them do that. He chuckled, they made it half way to the field before two green clad pegasi intercepted them, both baring blades on their forelegs that were held in place by belt straps.

"Stop!" One called, prompting the two fugitives to come to a screeching halt. "You're under arrest. Come peaceably."

"How about no?" Sin asked sarcastically pointing his crossbow. Spike remembered his own and took aim as well, keeping in mind NOT to have his finger directly on the trigger.

"Lay down your weapons." Replied the other pegasus with authority.

Any form of excitement gave way to a familiar fear. This was exactly like the last situation, save these guys had weapons on them. Spike knew there was one of two things to do: Wait in this stalemate until their friends got here to take them into custody, or shoot and be free. No thought beyond that.

"I'll make this simple." Sin called bluntly. "By the count of three, if you don't move, we open fire."

Spike steeled himself, there was no other way right now.

"One-" Was all Sin got before the duo rushed them. Two thuds of string and two impacts later, one of the pegasi guards was down, the other cried out in pain from the projectile in his shoulder joint. Spike had mixed feelings about actually hitting him though.

The pony wasn't distracted long, he lunged at Sin as was finishing up the quick load and tackled him.

Spike watched as the two began wrestling.

'What am I supposed to do?' He thought, Sin let out grunt of pain and rose his leg and slammed his hoof into the pegasus' shoulder. 'C'mon Spike move! Help him!'

The guardspony slammed Sin onto the ground and with a wicked smirk, and threw down his weaponized foreleg. A yell of pain brought Spike back to the present to see the painful sight of his friend being slashed into.

On instinct, the hatchling barreled over the assailant and found himself on top of him. The next few seconds were a blur of angry words, slamming fists, and wet claws. His mind wasn't in the fight, it wasn't even in this current point in time; it was on all the times he hadn't done anything when someone he cared for needed him.

The Dragon Migration and those three jerks who wanted to destroy a defenseless egg, while all he could do was run away to defend it, eventually being saved by Twilight, Rainbow Dash, and Rarity. His lack of action against Nightmare Moon while his friends risked life and limb to stop her, their dealings with Discord and the changlings, the diamond dogs abduction of Rarity, and most importantly; his foolishness in turning his back on Twilight after he thought her wrong for accusing "Cadence" of being something she wasn't. All those times he was needed, yet wasn't there.

This time, it would be different.

Rage, guilt, shame, and sorrow were all he had as he repeatedly slammed his fists into the muzzle of the pony. His eyes quickly teared at the primordial and raw emotion he was putting into each slam. He didn't know why he was hitting this pony anymore, and to be honest, he didn't care. All he knew was he wanted the inexplicable burst of emotion inside of him to quell, and this seemed to help.

A sudden strike to the back of his head sent him to the ground and back to reality. He looked around confused for a moment, Sin yelled something unintelligible before pushing him forward and running for the woods. He followed, only daring a chance to look back at his work. His claws felt warm and wet but he couldn't care less at that point, he was tired, tired and scared about the unknown amount of ponies coming to do Celestia-knows-what to them.

All he knew from then was that he was running, any words spoken lost their meaning, noises wouldn't register with his brain. His sides hurt, his lungs burned and his legs ached. He couldn't tell how long he'd been moving since the wall, the sky was starting to brighten to dawn. If that was a good thing or not had yet to be determined.

Suddenly he found himself half on the forest floor, half on something warm and soft.

"Augh!" Sin exclaimed kicking Spike off of him, the drake was about to yell at him but his breath and energy weren't there. Especially after noticing the fine lines and smears of crimson seeping from the pony's cheek, chest and leg.

"Sin!" Spike said walking over to help his friend, his eyes dripping with concern. "Are you alright?"

"Yea," He replied catching his breath, "I'll be fine." He looked back the way they came, nothing was behind them. "I think," He gasped for air, "Well be safe... For now."

"Your leg..."

The stallion looked down to inspect the bleeding appendage and gently set it on the ground. "Shit." He winced and forced himself up shakily. Spike winced in sympathy, the gash looked like it almost made it to the bone. How was he even walking? "C'mon, I'll be useless once the adrenaline runs out."

Spike wanted to follow, he really did, but he couldn't. He'd had enough. Tired, Hungry, demoralized, emotionally drained; this was it. His limit was reached. He took a step forward, however, and found himself on the forest floor for the umpteenth time. Darkness took his vision, and the world muted around him, the last thing he remembered was a voice in the distance calling his name, and then; oblivion.

Malich found himself walking down the streets of Unitas, his ragged attire blended in perfectly with the common folk below and none were the wiser to his prestige and power. He liked doing this from time to time, going about the day to day folks of his land and seeing exactly what they see. If nothing else than to boost his own ego about how utterly clueless they were t the real working of money in politics.

Though North Equine was considered one of the "Boltinian" states, Unitas had a rather diverse citizenry, if given enough time; it would make history by electing one of the first Syndicrats to office within the state.

'Like it even mattered.' he thought with a chuckle. There was one place he knew politics would be talked, he'd taken a liking to the small tavern some where on the east side of the city. Even if the patrons were oblivious to the truth, they were still relatively entertaining and good company.

After a few moments of roaming the cobble stone streets, the high grey building finally came into view. As expected the lights flooded out the window with dancing shadows granting obstruction to the world outside. He smiled, this was going to be fun.

Upon entrance, the chilly air gave way to the typically warm and inviting atmosphere of the pub. The place was abuzz, as usual, with the conversations, debates, and arguments it usually was.

"Hot damn Boltinians" this and "Jack ass Syndicrats" that. It put his mind at ease knowing he wouldn't need to be on emotional guard here. Slowly he danced his way around the scattered tables full of all different races until he finally reached the back of the bar where the light was much dimmer.

"Crain!" Called a voice he knew all to well. Malich walked to a table harboring two old unicorn stallions, one diamond dog, and a Donkey. "How have ya been?" One of the Unicorns asked. An alabaster stallion with deep azure mane.

"Been alright." Malich replied taking a seat, thankfully, he'd been at this long enough to repress his urge to spurt more sophisticated vocabulary. "How about yourself Venture?"

Venture shook his head. "The wife's been up my flank sideways about my pay. Prices going up and all, she wants me to get another job!"

"High prices huh?" Replied the Diamond dog, a white and brown pug, taking a shot. "Guess you can thank your little Boltinian friends for that one after the Timber wolf relocation and it's effect on the trade lines."

"Yes, Harry." Replied Venture. "It's all because of the relocation of the Timber wolves. It wouldn't have anything to do with the fact you Syndicrats are supporting the efforts to allow Columbus to force lower prices on food for themselves and lay the make up revenue on the rest of us."

And they're off...

Malich sat and listened contently as the political sophisticates went back and forth. Everything from the relocation of the Timberwolves (the current "crisis") to abolition of interracial mirage, (Spanning the new who want to allow it vs the old who don't) and using the ever prominent rhetoric that Malich simply adored.

"March free." lines of the Boltinians, and the "Fly high" of the Syndicrats. It was almost too perfect how the meanings of those had been twisted to fit perfectly into metaphors and rhetoric. Most had no idea that when the Boltinian and Syndicratic parties formed, it was essentially to keep both the sky and land literally free of too much government influence. The hope was that future politicians would be held to those standards and follow to only those two clear cut beliefs.

Heh, it's funny how now a days you can just say "Fly free my brothers" and suddenly it's a Syndicratic notion. Take something literal, make it metaphorical and suddenly it's a political ideology that he could manipulate all for the sake of 'party loyalty'.

It actually perplexed Malich when he was younger. Noticing all the contradiction within the political parties and how such words could get all of the "teams" to follow suit with them. Any blind individual can see the so called "Two party system" is a farce, contrived and maintained by the higher class; such as himself now. Mob Psychology was one of his favorite lessons in school, Emotional thinking vs Logical thinking helped him understand a great deal about everything everyone did. Why a mass of Citizens act a certain way, why they react to something as a group, but react differently as individuals, what to do to cause a certain reaction, it was the most intriguing class by far.

"So what do you think Crain?" He heard, snapping him out of his thought.

"I'm sorry, what?"

"Do you think the Boltinians are trying to destroy New Equine?" He was referring to North Equine, but all from the state always refereed to it as if it was all encompassing.

Malich made a thoughtful sound, "In regards to it's trade practice beliefs and constant money borrowing for the state, I can't really say no." He said innocently enough.

"OH YES!" Called the Harry throwing his paws in the air. "Borrowing money from Cania and Vain to support the greedy life styles of the New Equnites. I blame the Corporations personally." Malich had to fight to repress a smile. Count on Harry to point out the obvious, especially the fact that he was a resident of the state he was degrading, but the song and dance does have a slip. "And the Boltinians who help support their agenda."

The group continued to discuss politics as usual. Though, it was around this time Malich finally noticed the lack of actual facts and statistics being laid forth. "Hey, where's Bullion?"

"Haven't seen him all day." Venture shrugged.

Strange, the amber minotaur was never one to miss the political banter he'd come to accept as his weekend tradition. Wonder what's keeping him? Pft, why do I care? Probably off with his nose in newspapers or the newest edition of Political Compilation.

The party continued their merriment until a griffin uniformed in a Triple M. overcoat motioned his boss over, trying to keep himself out of view of the others. Malich nodded and the hybrid stepped out of the door. "Well gentlemen, as always, it's been a pleasure." He stood up against the protests of his associate. "Sorry guys, you have a good night, alright?"

He was playfully waved off by the others and walked out of the tavern, he found his subordinate standing inconspicuously down the street with a smile on his face. Malich approached and requested the agent explain his interruption. "You're brother has finally arrived in North Equine."

Malich smiled. "As expected. What of the others in his group?"

"There was only a dragon sir, and reports claim he collapsed from exhaustion."

"Only a dragon?" Malich repeated remembering all of the ponies he saw before. He gave an indifferent shrug. "Too bad, I was hoping to talk to that Twilight mare some more."

The stallion continued interrogating the flier, neither seemed to want to go back, so it was unlikely the others were captured. Maybe just sent away? Hard to tell, he was beginning to wish he'd sent observers into S. Equine. Nothing for that now, he had watchers on Islander currently, and that was all he could do. Apparently the stallion himself was hurt, but hauled the dragon a couple of miles farther into the state. Found refuge in an abandon cottage, and have since stayed to recover.

He smiled, he'd heard his brother had pulled through worse. A few injuries wont be able to stop him from getting here.

"Keep an eye on them." Malich stated turning around. "I need him here in a Weeks time."

"Sir, if I may." His subordinate interjected. A quick nod of affirmation and he continued. "Why don't you simply take him by force? It wouldn't be difficult to have a few agents storm the place and take him by surprise."

Malich chuckled. "My brother is far more passionate about his freedoms than his life, Sargent. He'd swallow his own tongue before he'd allow himself to be taken against his will."

"Is he really necessary?"

Malich smirked and closed his eyes. Memories of all the conversations they had began to repeat over and over in his head. The lessons he learned from his brother helped open his eyes to the world and what it really was. He wanted to fix it, he wanted to make it better, but he didn't have all the answers he needed. Islander would.

"More than you know."

Author's Note:

Yay drama.

Now comes one of my favorite parts... I do hope you like it.

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