When one of Freeport Magus Sunset Shimmer's friends is nearly killed, she must find out who is responsible and decide how far she'll go to bring the attacker to justice.
Sunset Shimmer, the Magus of Freeport, has always been of two minds regarding Strumming Heartstrings. The Equestrian spy is irritating, difficult to work with, and does a lot of things Sunset doesn't approve of. However, when an old enemy leaves Strumming on death's door, Sunset will have to decide how far she's willing to go to bring her attackers to justice.
Life as the only proper Magus within Freeport, and a magus-for-hire at that, wasn’t always about insane risks and excitement. Sure, every once in a while I wound up with a job that involved someone trying to find inventive and painful ways of killing me, but most of the time I was doing stuff that was a lot safer—often better-paying, too.
Taking on a powerful lich who claimed to be a time and dimensional traveller makes for a great story, but that job had ended with me, Puzzle, and Strumming all taking a trip to the hospital. And all to help a group of poor commune farmers who barely had anything before the fight with the lich had burned up a lot of crops and smashed up their homes.
After something like that, some nice, safe, and easy jobs sounded absolutely perfect. “So, how sensitive did you want this tremor ward to be?”
Puzzle looked over the safe he kept hidden behind a large painting. “This one will defer to the Shimmer-mare’s expertise on the matter.” He shrugged. “It is sure that a magus knows more about the details of constructing a magical ward than it does.”
I frowned and rolled my eyes, not buying his false modesty for a minute. There were a lot of words I could use to describe Puzzle Piece, but ‘ignorant’ certainly wasn’t one of them. Especially not when it came to something as important as the magical defenses protecting his secrets. Information brokers take that kind of thing pretty seriously.
Sure, these weren’t Puzzle’s most important secrets—those were almost certainly contained within the magically inert cold iron floor safe hidden under an illusion. I’m pretty sure Puzzle didn’t think I knew about that one. Or maybe he realized I did, and just wanted me to think I’d gotten one over on him. Or maybe that safe was a decoy, and the real one was somewhere else in his basement. You could never tell with Puzzle.
I grimaced and got back to the task at hoof. “I just didn’t know how paranoid you wanted to be about your security. You know how it goes with tremor wards: make them too sensitive and it’ll go off every time someone slams a door or plays loud music. Dull it enough to not get any false positives, and...” I didn’t need to finish the sentence.
Puzzle nodded along. “This one would prefer to err on the side of caution. Its basement should be reasonably insulated from many of the things which might normally trigger a sensitive tremor ward. This one prefers to keep its office and working area as self-contained as possible precisely to avoid any problems of that sort.”
I’d already guessed as much from the state of his basement’s magical defenses. The wards were a real hodgepodge; my best guess was that he’d hired a dozen different contractors to put together a couple defenses, then tied the whole thing together himself. Certainly not as good as what I could do, but the sheer variety of different magical arts involved in his wards would throw a lot of people off. On top of the obvious changeling magic, I saw some unicorn spellwork, a few caribou runes, two different kinds of zebra magic, a couple of gryphon blood sigils, and one spell thread that was borderline warlockery.
As far as magical defenses went, this was already a very solid setup, which inevitably begged the question. “So why do you need my help?” Especially since the most likely reason he’d set up his wards the way he had was so none of the contractors he hired could give away the secret to breaking his defenses. I had no intention of backstabbing Puzzle, but someone in his line of work wouldn’t count on me staying friendly to him.
Puzzle must have guessed what was going through my mind, because he grinned and answered with entirely too much sincerity. “For one, this one trusts you.”
I scoffed and rolled my eyes. “Well aren't you sweet?” Puzzle hadn’t become one of the biggest power players in Freeport’s cutthroat society by being nice and trusting. Sure, we had a good working relationship and wouldn’t backstab each other, but I kept some secrets from him and I’d be utterly shocked if he wasn’t doing the same. “So, reason number one is that you trust me. What’s number two?”
Puzzle grinned, showing me his fangs. “As you no doubt gathered, in the past this one used multiple contractors so that no single individual could compromise its defenses. These individuals were far less magically adept and dangerous than the Shimmer-mare, and thus far more vulnerable to being forced to reveal this one’s secrets. It pities the street thug that thinks they could force the Shimmer-mare to reveal anything she didn’t want to.”
I nodded, not quite managing to hide a proud grin at the obvious but still pleasing flattery. “I can take care of myself. It’d probably be a lot easier to break into your office than it would be to try and capture me for information on how to pull that job off.”
Puzzle nodded approvingly. “Exactly. And finally, there’s the fact that if this one ever made the mistake of mortally offending the Shimmer-mare, it does not think the security of its secrets would be this one’s biggest concern. This one would be far more concerned about itself and its property catching on fire than it would be about you stealing information from its vaults and engaging in a long and drawn-out campaign of subtle manipulation against it.”
I frowned at the implication. “I can be subtle and sneaky when I need to, you know. It’s not like I’m a one-trick pony who can only set things on fire.”
“Of course not,” Puzzle conceded. “However, this one assumed the Shimmer-mare would chose an optimal strategy to destroy it. This one is far better at secrecy and manipulation, while the Shimmer-mare could easily overwhelm it in a direct confrontation. That is precisely why our partnership has been so mutually profitable: each of us possesses skills to cover what the other is less suited to.”
“Right, you’re the sneaky planner who can’t fight his way out of a paper bag and I’m the dumb muscle.” I chuckled and rolled my eyes. “Never mind the fact that you’re pretty handy in a fight due to being so sneaky and smart even if you don’t have my spellcasting skills or anything else that makes you an especially skilled fighter. Just like how I may not be as sly as you, but I had to be smart in order to make myself a Magus, not to mention having enough brains and talent to be Princess Celestia’s protege. Really, as the only proper magus in all of Freeport I probably rate as one of the smartest ponies in the country by pure IQ.”
“Most likely, yes,” Puzzle conceded. “So now that we’ve established that you’re stronger and I’m sneakier, even if we’re both still quite strong and sneaky in absolute terms, how about you finish up the wards this one is paying you for?” He paused, smirking at me. “This one almost suspects you were simply dragging the task out so you could charge it more.”
“Tempting, but you’re not paying me by the hour. Besides, if I wanted to drag this out, I’d just wait for the weekend so I could turn this into a lesson for Kukri.”
“This one was a bit surprised you didn’t bring her regardless,” Puzzle commented.
“She’s got a school project due Friday,” I offered by way of explanation. I wanted my apprentice to at least get a basic general education before I shifted to teaching her magic full time. It’s what Celestia had done with me, and despite some mistakes on her part, the overall idea had been sound. Not to mention that Kukri was still too young to work with any of the real advanced or dangerous magic, and I was still figuring out all the little differences between changeling and unicorn spellcasting.
I paused, frowning thoughtfully. “Speaking of the grub going to school, that reminds me of an idea I had the other day. Might as well see what you think of it.”
Puzzle raised a single eyebrow, trotting over to one of his comfortable chairs. “Oh? And what idea would that be?”
I decided to take a seat opposite him—the ward-work itself would be pretty simple, so there would be no harm in stopping for a quick chat with Puzzle. “Well, like we said I’m the only magus in Freeport. That’s not going to change until I’m done training Kukri, and that’s a long ways off. But training her got me thinking ... I know the Council was probably half-hoping I could set up some sort of Freeport Magus Corps. The idea sounds pretty good, but the only way to really train magi would be to start young, like I am with Kukri. Even if I kept the trend going and took a new apprentice as soon as I was done with Kukri... ”
Puzzle nodded along. “If all your apprentices took students of their own as soon as they graduated, every single apprentice graduated to full magus, and you didn’t lose anyone from retirement, accidents, injury, or simple voluntary departure ... you might live long enough to see something large enough to actually be worthy calling a magus corps in your twilight years.”
“Yeah, the most optimistic numbers I came up with said we’d break a hundred magi when I was in my nineties.” And that figure involved a lot of very dubious assumptions, such as me training apprentices in my nineties. “But that got me thinking, part of why magus training works so well in Equestria is because they have things like the School for Gifted Unicorns and West Hoof, so it’s not all dependent on lone magi taking and training apprentices, plus it gives all the young apprentices a solid foundation to build off of.”
Puzzle frowned thoughtfully. “So you want to found your own school?”
I nodded. “It’s the key to making a magus corps that would actually function and last for a long time.” There were probably faster and easier ways to make something I could call a magus corps, but the only way to do it properly was to start from the ground up. Especially since, while I planned to steal plenty of ideas from the Equestrian Magus Corps, I didn’t want to make an exact copy of it.
“Creating a magical academy that would rival Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns?” Puzzle frowned and tapped his chin. “Well, you certainly set an ambitious goal for yourself.”
“I don’t do things small.”
What Puzzle didn’t know was that the school was just phase one in my plan. I wanted to change Freeport for the better, but there was only so much a lone mare could do, even one with my talents. But with an entire magus corps backing me up—one that had been trained by and would be loyal to me ... well, that opened up a lot more options.
Puzzle nodded along. “This one can’t imagine the Shimmer-mare would be content with anything less than the best magical academy in the known world. If the Shimmer-mare could manage such a feat, the rewards it brings would be considerable. Freeport is certainly well-positioned to benefit from many overlapping magical traditions, and your academy could potentially draw students from all over the known world.”
“Not to mention it would give us a proper force for dealing with warlocks, criminals, and other troublemakers in Freeport.” I scowled. “I’m sure you’ve noticed the condottieri are ... well they’re not totally useless, but when your army and police force is made up of mercenaries, they tend to be more loyal to whoever pays them than to the nation or common good.”
“Whereas a corps of experienced magi you’ve trained and molded into your own image would be loyal to whatever values you instill in them.” He smirked at me. “This one is sure that they would only serve the good of Freeport, with no ulterior motives or hidden agendas. In any case, it seems your plan is sound in principle, so let us move on to practicalities. How do you plan on pulling this off?”
I shrugged. “Well, the first couple steps are obvious. Set up an actual school facility, buy all the equipment we’d need, and get some good teachers. I’m sure you can draw up a list of people with the skills to train our students, and who we can rely on to not be spying on us, have a hidden agenda, or bring any nasty baggage.” I knew finding enough teachers to fill out the school’s staff wasn’t going to be a small talent search, but hunting down information on important ponies was what Puzzle did. He could manage that.
Puzzle tapped his chin thoughtfully. “So what you need is money, and lots of it. Even leaving aside the costs of buying land for a magic academy and actually constructing the facilities, convincing teachers good enough to train magi to move to Freeport and help start a new school won’t be cheap. Especially since the Shimmer-mare’s standards will limit our options. If she wants teachers with no dark secrets, this one cannot blackmail the staff to keep wages down or convince them to take a far less secure job.”
“How much money are we talking about?” I tried to recall exactly how much I had in my bank account. I’d stopped paying attention once it hit a point where I always had enough for what I wanted to buy. I was pretty sure I was a millionaire, if a small one. Mercenary mage work did pay surprisingly well.
Puzzle frowned. “Add two zeroes to your current bank balance, and then we can start to talk about a proper school. That much would cover our startup costs—running expenses would also be substantial. Staff need to be paid, facilities maintained, and equipment replaced. Staff salaries ... well, imagine how much you would want to be paid to teach a classroom full of students full-time. That’s not even getting into how expensive benefits can get.”
He had a point there. I’d figured I would need to save up for a bit to make it happen, but I hadn’t really thought about exactly how insanely expensive it would all be. Even if I tried to set up a school that was within my current budget, it didn’t seem like I stood much of a chance or moving on from that small start. Especially since I wasn’t willing to cut corners and produce a bunch of half-rate knock-off magi.
I groaned and slumped down in my seat. “Bottom line, it's way beyond my current resources or anything I could realistically obtain.” I tried to come up with another solution. “I guess we could try to find someone willing to loan us the money or sponsor the school. Except a loan’s not likely since the school wouldn’t turn a profit, and anyone who’d be willing to just give us that much money would want something in return, like control over the school. And that’s assuming we could find someone in the first place.”
The list of people with that much money to spare was a short one. Maybe I could convince Celestia to pay for it, but she’d definitely want to set up something similar to the Equestrian Magus Corps. I didn’t have any issues with taking inspiration from Equestria, but I didn’t want to make a carbon copy—not to mention that if Celestia paid for everything it would look less like a Freeport Magus Corps and more like some sort of Equestrian plan to gain influence in the city.
Puzzle nodded grimly. “This one can’t imagine you want your new Magus Corps to end up as some rich merchant’s private army. It could attempt to persuade the Council to fund such a project, but they would certainly want assurances that the new corps would be absolutely loyal to it, and nopony else.” His eyes rested pointedly on me. “This one presumes that would not be an acceptable arrangement.”
“No, it wouldn’t.” It wasn’t like I was planning to use my new magus corps as a private army to overthrow the council and crown myself the new Queen of Freeport ... but I’d be lying if I said the thought hadn’t crossed my mind. However I planned on changing Freeport, it would be a lot easier to make those changes stick with a couple hundred trained magi backing me up. Too bad it was nothing more than a pipe dream. “So ... it’s another idea that gets discarded on the pile of ‘I don’t have enough money to make it happen.’”
Puzzle shrugged. “It is what makes the world go ‘round, as they say. Though this one feels that it should mention that there are ways the Shimmer-mare could substantially increase her income.”
I had a pretty good idea where he was going with this. “So, I’m going to guess that getting a lot more money than I’m currently earning would involve doing something highly immoral, insanely dangerous, or both?”
Puzzle nodded reluctantly. “Yes, assuming you want to earn that money quickly enough to actually see your plans to fruition. You could possibly save up enough money to start your school by the time you reached the end of your active adventuring career, but...”
“Same problem as just training up apprentices as fast as possible,” I concluded. “I’d probably be dead of old age before we got anything substantial done.” I groaned and flopped onto my back, staring up at the ceiling. “There’s not much point in coming up with plans that won’t even pay off until after I’m gone.” Celestia couldn’t give me wings twenty years after I died. I needed a plan that could work fast enough to make me an alicorn.
“This one feels it should mention the value of establishing a legacy that will endure past your own death.” Puzzle paused for a moment, then smirked at me. “Though perhaps that is something the Shimmer-mare is a bit young to be worrying about. This one certainly doesn’t plan on having the Shimmer-mare die anytime soon.”
“Me either.” I frowned, thinking back on some of the jobs we’d been on and a few close calls I’d had. Combine that with the fact that now Puzzle had suggested I take even more dangerous ones if I wanted to make enough money to pay for my school plans. I was good, probably one of the best unicorns in the world, but sooner or later my luck would run out, or I’d pick a fight with something I couldn’t beat, or—
“Shimmer-mare!” Puzzle hissed, snapping me out of my train of thought. “Did you hear that?”
“Hear wha—?” Before I could finish asking, I found out what he meant: a loud thump coming from upstairs. Loud enough for us to hear it down in the basement,
I was suddenly very aware of the fact that the magical defenses on Puzzle’s office were a lot weaker than normal. I’d turned a lot of his wards off so I could work on setting up my new ones without triggering a bunch of anti-tampering alarms. At the time I hadn’t been worried about it; Puzzle and I could handle any trouble that came our way. Except ... well now that it looked like we might actually be in for a fight, I wasn’t quite as certain we’d be fine. I hadn’t brought my armor, and Puzzle probably didn’t have all his concealed weapons on himself at the moment. At least, as far as I could tell.
Puzzle silently motioned towards the stairs, and the two of us headed up. There was another thump, and now that we weren’t in the basement we could tell it was coming from the front door. From how loud the thumps were and the way the door shook in its frame, it sure sounded like someone trying to kick it down.
Puzzle and I quickly took our positions—him to the side of the door with a dagger perfectly positioned to stab into an attacker’s back once they came through, while I took cover behind Merry Penny’s desk and got a fireball spell ready. Once we were ready Puzzle nodded to me, then silently mouthed the countdown before yanking open the door.
Instead of the burglars or assassins we’d been expecting, Strumming Heartstrings stumbled through the open door. She was utterly soaked—no surprise when Freeport was having one of its usual storms blown in from the sea. I scoffed and rolled my eyes while Puzzle closed the door behind her. “You could’ve just knocked. Puzzle and I thought you were...”
The rest of my sentence vanished when Strumming collapsed onto the floor with a weak groan. She didn’t get back up, and after a couple seconds I noticed that water soaking into Puzzle’s fine carpeting had a distinctly reddish tinge.
Puzzle’s eyes widened, and he quickly pulled off Strumming’s rain cloak to get a look at how badly she was hurt. I wasn’t sure what I’d been expecting—probably some huge, horrible, bleeding gash. Instead there was just a little hole in her side, between two of her ribs. It wasn’t even as big around as a ducat, and while it was bleeding, it didn’t even look like she was losing that much blood. You’d think it would take something bigger and uglier to leave Strumming in such bad shape...
“Shimmer-mare!” Puzzle snapped at me. “There’s a first-aid kit in the Penny-mare’s desk! This one needs it right now!”
“Right!” I used my magic to snag the kit while throwing a quick medical analysis spell Strumming’s way. The news wasn’t optimistic. “She needs a doctor.” I knew a few basic first aid spells, but trying to do serious medical magic without the proper training was more likely to kill the patient than help them.
Puzzle quickly wiped the wound with some disinfectant, then hissed. “Bullet wound. The puncture is too clean for a dagger.” He carefully placed a bandage over the hole. “Maintain pressure, this one is going to summon help.”
I secured the bandage with a quick blast of ice, but I knew we were only buying her a little bit of time. I briefly considered trying to freeze or cauterize whatever was responsible for the internal bleeding, but I really didn’t know enough about medicine to be sure I’d get it right. “A bandage isn’t going to fix this. She’s bleeding inside, Puzzle.”
“This one knows!” Puzzle snarled. He rushed into his office and came back with half a dozen gems and runestones that he quickly smashed and triggered. “At least one of those doctors should be able to make it here in time.” His eyes narrowed, and a hint of a growl entered his voice. “For their sake, this one hopes so.”
“Calm down, Puzzle...” It was no surprise he was pissed about his girlfriend being hurt, but the last thing we needed was him flying off the handle and losing his temper. Puzzle’s best weapon was his brain, but someone thinking with their rage isn’t using that. That was one thing I had ample first-hoof experience with.
“Calm down?!” Puzzle repeated incredulously. “How can this one possibly be calm when its mate is...” He snarled and turned his back on me, pacing furiously.
I gave Strumming another quick scan with my spell. It still looked bad, but not that much worse than it had been when she got here. She’d survived long enough to make it from wherever she was attacked to Puzzle’s office, so I was cautiously optimistic she could last until a doctor made it here. Especially since Puzzle had several of them on emergency call. No surprise, given our line of work.
That just left Puzzle to deal with. I didn’t want to deal with him nervously pacing and generally panicking and getting in the way, so I decided to throw something his way to keep him distracted. “Any idea who did this?”
“Someone who just signed their own death warrant,” he snarled. However, a couple seconds later Puzzle stopped pacing and took a deep breath, and I could practically see his brain turning back on. “Someone used an arquebus on her—on a rainy day, no less. Clearly not a spontaneous attack, this was planned. This one knows of only one group in Freeport that uses firearms and has a grudge against the Heartstrings-mare...”
“The Blood Stripes.” Breaking into the headquarters of that zebra mercenary group had all been Strumming’s idea, and they had made some noises about getting payback after we’d finished up our job against them. Apparently, they’d followed up on that.
Puzzle’s scowl deepened. “This one will make them regret that.”
While Puzzle resumed his furious pacing, another worrying through sprang to mind. “If the Blood Stripes went after Strumming, they’ll probably guess she went to you for help.” If I were looking for Strumming, the only place I might check before Puzzle’s would be the Equestrian Embassy. “If they’re watching and see a bunch of doctors come running to your office, they’ll know she’s here.”
Puzzle froze in place, then slowly nodded. “Right. Yes. Of course. Shimmer-mare, can you check the perimeter? This one would not put it past the Stripes to target this one’s medics to prevent the Heartstrings-mare from getting aid.”
I nodded and headed out into the rainy night without another word. It didn’t take long to confirm that there weren’t any Blood Stripes around. They clearly hadn’t had anyone watching Puzzle’s before Strumming got here, or they would’ve shot her again before we opened the door. They’d probably set up ambush somewhere dry for the initial attack on Strumming, but with how hard the rain was coming down they probably couldn’t make it to Puzzle’s without getting their equipment soaked. From what I knew of arquebuses, they and their powder needed to be completely dry to work properly.
Still, I didn’t feel completely safe until I saw one of Puzzle’s doctors make it through the front door without incident. That just left the hardest part of all.
The waiting.
The next couple hours went by in a blur, which was kind of odd considering how little actually happened in all that time. It was mostly just following Strumming to the hospital to make sure nobody tried to shoot her again, and then a lot of waiting. At least she was reasonably secure once we actually got her to the hospital. One of Freeport’s unwritten rules was that hospitals were neutral ground. Mostly because starting a fight in one was a good way to get blacklisted by Freeport’s medical community, and no mercenary group wanted to risk that.
That didn’t stop Puzzle from hiring an entire platoon of Doos, just to be safe. After all, the Blood Stripes were mercenaries, and with mercs just about every rule was up for negotiation if the pay was good enough. No need to worry about getting hurt if you’re getting paid enough by a job to retire in comfort, and the hospital might forgive a breach of conduct in exchange for a large ‘charitable donation.’
Once the doctors had Strumming stable, Puzzle and I slipped out. There was a lot to do, and not much time to plan it all out. He led the way to a nondescript building in the dockside warehouse district. I was barely surprised when he opened it up to reveal a safehouse that had almost as much equipment as the hospital, albeit with fewer beds.
Puzzle shrugged and started checking things over. “This one likes to be ready for any situation. If this one should need to hide for a few days, it only made sense to account for the possibility that it might be injured.”
“Right.” I started looking over everything as well. “I’m surprised you had her taken to the hospital instead of straight here.”
Puzzle shook his head. “This one considered it, but it had not checked this safe house as recently as it would have liked. It did not want to risk bringing the Heartstrings-mare here only to discover that something critical was missing, some of the medicine had gone bad, or the house had been compromised, or...”
“Got it.” I gave the magical defenses a quick upgrade—not enough to hold up to a serious attempt to break them, but still miles ahead of what had been there before. “Place looks secure, as far as I can tell.”
Puzzle nodded grimly. “This one will bring in one of its doctors to check the rest of the supplies and make sure it has everything it needs. Assuming there are no problems, it will bring her here as soon as she’s stable enough to make the trip. Once the trauma surgeons are done with her, she shouldn’t need too much in the way of treatment. It’ll mostly just be a matter of recovery.”
“Right.” I put fresh sheets on the bed. “Think it’ll be safe to move her?”
“The Heartstrings-mare is in the hospital under an assumed name, and this one has plenty of guards,” Puzzle grunted out. “The only thing it can do to make her safer at this point is to deal with whoever is responsible.”
“And I’m gonna guess you have a gameplan for that.” I found a battered but comfortable couch and took a seat. It had been fairly late in the evening when all this started, and by now we were an hour away from sunrise. I probably would’ve been tired if I wasn’t so keyed up from everything we’d gone through. “So what’s your plan? Should we get in touch with the EIS?”
Puzzle immediately shook his head. “No, no involving the EIS. This one would prefer not to introduce any more complications into the matter. As for the plan itself, it’s really quite simple.” He opened up a closet full of potions, weapons, cloaks, and a suit of mail. “This one is going to find whoever is responsible for what happened to the Heartstrings-mare and then it will destroy them. Permanently, and utterly.”
“Yeah, I already figured you’d be doing that.” I hesitated, not quite sure how I felt about that. Strumming and I ... well to say that we had some complicated personal history would be an understatement. I wasn’t okay with the Blood Stripes shooting her, but I wasn’t anywhere near as mad about it as Puzzle was. Considering some of the uglier things Strumming had done, maybe I should’ve been alright with what happened to her, but... “Strumming isn't my favorite pony in the world, but she's still one of us.”
Puzzle nodded sharply. “That she is, and she is this one's mate. An object lesson needs to be made.” He pulled out several throwing darts, checking their balance and practicing a few throws. “This city seems to have far too short of a memory for its own good.”
Well, that sounded ominous. I didn’t like the idea of Puzzle going on the warpath. From the way he was talking, he wasn’t going to be happy until everyone connected to the attack on Strumming was dead. That was a lot further than I was willing to go.
Puzzle pulled out several knives, checking how sharp the edges were. “The big question is how far this goes. The three most likely explanations are that this is the act of a single or small group of Blood Stripes, this is an act by the company as a whole, or someone is hiring them as a convenient group to attack the Heartstrings-mare.”
“No matter which of those three it is, it sounds like our investigation needs to start with the Stripes,” I pointed out.
“Indeed.” Puzzle pulled out a pair of spike-studded gauntlets. “This one just needs to figure out which Stripes it needs to have a private meeting with. Mercenaries usually do not reveal information about their clients, but this one can be very ... persuasive.” His eye hardened, and he added. “Though this one is terribly tempted to go right to the headquarters of the entire company, chop off the head of their captain, burn their base to the ground, and hunt every single last one of them down like animals.”
I sighed and leaned back on the sofa. “Yeah, kinda figured you’d feel that way.”
Puzzle shot a look my way, and his eyes hardened. There was something about the look on his face I really didn’t like. His eyes were just so ... cold. I’d always known he could be a ruthless, calculating killer, but I’d never seen it so openly displayed before. “This one didn't become one of the most powerful and well-connected fixers in Freeport by being nice, Shimmer-mare. Oh, this one will play ball, negotiate, compromise, make friends and alliances. But sometimes...” He rather pointedly hefted his spiked gauntlet. “Blood needs to be paid with blood in Freeport. If you’re not ready for that, then go home.”
Worst fears confirmed. I wasn’t happy about Strumming getting shot, but the idea of starting a bloodbath for her sake ... hay, starting a bloodbath at all... “Exactly how much blood are we talking about?”
Puzzle shrugged. “Depends on whose idea it was to try and kill the Heartstrings-mare, and why they did. If it was the act of a lone Stripe with more bravery than good sense, then this will be a clean cut. A quick example made to the Stripes to keep their members in line. If it's bigger than that ... this one will not let any of the ones responsible escape.” He stared out the window, his eyes taking in the rain-drenched streets. “It could be that someone is acting against all of us, and the Heartstrings-mare was just their first target. Maybe she discovered something that someone would rather keep secret. Or maybe we’ve just made too many enemies, and this is their opening move against us. This one has more than its fair share of enemies, and there are plenty who would have a toast if they found out this one was dead.”
Oh. If he was right about that ... well, it changed things. “I'm not exactly wild about the idea of blood running in the streets ... but I like the idea of getting killed even less.”
Puzzle grunted and nodded. “That is the way of Freeport sometimes. If the Blood Stripes are after all of us, our only choice is to kill them first. This one has done it’s best to respect the Shimmer-mare’s moral qualms in the past, but that is a luxury we can no longer afford. This one will not let this attack on the Heartstrings-mare go unavenged. It will destroy everyone responsible for Strumming’s injuries, no matter how deep the trail goes. This will only end with blood, and likely quite a bit of it. If you aren’t prepared for that, then this one suggests you return to your tower and leave the matter in its hooves.”
I grimaced, my eyes slipping down to the floor as I thought it over. It was ... ugh. I didn’t want to get mixed up in a bloody street war, but just going home and sitting this one out didn’t sit right either. Since I didn’t like either of the options before me, I tried to find a third one. “Let's hope it doesn't come to that.”
Puzzle didn’t say another word for a long time. He just stared at me, until it had gone on long enough that I was shuffling uncomfortably on the sofa. Just when I was about to start looking for an excuse to get somewhere out of his line of sight, he finally spoke. “We will see. Though before we worry about how to destroy our enemies, we need to find out who they are.”
I was glad the conversation was back on safer territory. “Right, the big question is whether the Stripes shot her as payback for that break-in she did on their headquarters, or if someone hired them to do it.”
“It’s difficult to say,” Puzzle conceded. “Their new head of operations in Freeport, Captain Sanaa, has a reputation for financial-minded pragmatism, but also understands the importance of maintaining appearances. It seems equally likely that she could dismiss revenge as profitless, or decide that protecting the group’s reputation was of utmost importance and Strumming would have to pay for making the Stripes look weak.”
In other words, he had nothing. Or rather, he didn’t have anything yet. “So I guess this is the part where you talk to all your contacts and see what they can dig up?”
Puzzle hesitated, a frown spreading across his lips. “This one ... is not inclined to spend a great deal of time out in the field at the moment. This one should remain in a central location to better coordinate its agents’ activities in the field. Not to mention that if we are all targets, it would be foolish for this one to expose itself to an unnecessary risk.” He hesitated a moment, then far too casually added, “And of course, this one will need to supervise the Heartstrings-mare’s transfer to the safe house, and she will need care and protection while she recovers from her wounds.”
He should’ve just started with that. He’d never had any issues with going out in the field before, and I didn’t buy for a second that he needed to spend all day in a safe house to keep tabs on his agents. No, this was all because he didn’t want to leave his girlfriend’s side. I guess it was kind of sweet, in a really stupid and annoying way. He and Strumming didn’t even really like each other that much.
I took a deep breath and put the matter out of my head. Why he was staying here wasn’t as important as the fact that he was. “Well if you’re not going to be working with all your spies and contacts, how are we supposed to figure out who we go after? It’s not like we can go up to the headquarters of the Blood Stripes and politely ask them whether they went after Strumming on their own, and who hired them if it was just a job.”
“True...” Puzzle shot a look my way, and I saw a mischievous glint in his eyes as a smirk spread across his lips. “This one needs someone to act as its proxy in the field. Someone highly intelligent, capable, and reliable. Perhaps the Shimmer-mare would like the chance to get a bit of hooves-on training in the arts of espionage and information gathering?”
Oh. Huh. Well, I suppose that was one way to go about it. I would’ve thought he would have someone in his own organization who ran things when he was busy elsewhere. Of course, this wasn’t exactly a normal operation for him.
Besides, finding out a bit more about spywork in general and Puzzle’s organization in particular would almost certainly come in handy at some point. “This is what I get for that talk we had about how I could be smart and sneaky.”
A brief smile flickered across his lips. “Think of it this way; now you get to prove how good you really are.”
I took a deep breath. “Well ... this’ll be interesting.”
I needed to meet up with some of Puzzle’s lieutenants to work on unraveling who was behind the attack on Strumming, but there was one problem: I’d already promised to take Kukri to the museum to help her with a school project, and there was no way I was letting her down.
Besides, I’d never really checked out any of Freeport’s museums. It seemed a bit wrong to know so little about my adopted homeland’s history, but museum tours had never really made it onto my priority list. Lucky for me, Kukri was there to fill the gaps.
I trotted up a full-scale recreation that showed a pegasus and changeling standing atop a cobbled-together barricade made of furniture, defiantly holding up a banner. Kukri stared up at the statue in awe while I read the plaque to make sure I had all my facts straight before quizzing her. “So, you needed to do a report on Torch the Chainbreaker?”
Kukri nodded, then helpfully pointed to the pegasus holding the flag. “Yeah, this one has to write a paper about one of the leaders of the revolution that tossed out the pirate kings and brought the Council to power. This one was torn between Torch and Starbound.” She pointed to the changeling next to him. “This one could just read a book, but museums are way better.”
She was right about that. “Seeing things for yourself adds that extra touch that you’d never get by burying your nose in dusty old books.”
“Exactly.” Kukri grabbed my hoof and dragged me over to some display cases. “I mean, the armor’s there, the weapons, the banners—it’s all right here! Almost close enough for this one to reach out and touch it!” I nodded and looked over the relics with her, pausing as she stared up in rapt glee at one of the larger display cases. “Oh my stars, it’s Torch’s armor.”
I stepped up to her side and looked it over. At first I thought the patches of rust, holes, and mismatched nature of the set meant that museum had done a terrible job of preserving the armor. A second later the obvious truth sprang to mind: Torch Charger had been a down-on-his-luck mercenary before he’d gotten caught up in the Liberation. Of course his armor would’ve been in terrible shape.
I gave Kukri a prompting little nudge. “So ... what exactly were you going to write?”
Kukri pulled out a notebook filled with chaotic scribbles and random highlights. “This one’s supposed to give a brief overview of Torch’s life and accomplishments. Its teachers want a standard five-paragraph essay.”
Ugh, those. One thing I had to give Celestia credit for, she’d never given me any of that obvious time-wasting busywork. “If you need any help with it, let me know. I need to meet some people at the museum cafe, but I’ll stay where I can keep an eye on you.”
Kukri’s ears perked up, but I noticed a slight frown crossing her lips. “Oh. This one thought ... never mind. Who are you meeting? Anyone this one knows?”
Ouch. I hoped she realized I was just multitasking rather than blowing her off. “Probably not. Some of Puzzle’s people need to talk to me. I told them I was busy with you, but they said it couldn’t wait until we were done.” Maybe not strictly one hundred percent accurate, but it wasn’t a lie and it would spare her feelings and make her feel more important.
Apparently she wasn’t upset, so that part of my plan worked. Instead, she got even more curious. “What are you meeting them about?” She hesitated, then frowned. “Wait, don’t tell this one they’re going to help with its paper too.”
I snorted and shook my head. Kids, they always think the world is either revolving around them or doesn’t care about them. Or both at the same time. “Nothing to do with you, it’s business. I needed somewhere to meet them, and you needed to work on your report.”
“Oh.” Sure enough, my apprentice had more follow-up questions. “What kind of business? Or did Puzzle say you can’t talk about it?”
I thought it over for a second, then decided to share at least the basic facts with her. After all, if the theory that someone was after all of us was true, she needed to know to keep her eyes open. “Someone attacked Strumming and left her in pretty bad shape. Puzzle’s keeping an eye on her while she recovers, and I’m running point on figuring out who did it.”
Kukri blinked in shock, then scowled. “Pity they didn’t finish the job.”
I turned on her, grabbing her shoulder and frowning. “Kukri! What the hay is that supposed to mean?!”
“Whaaat?” she whined with proto-pre-teen petulance.
I crossed my forelegs over my chest. “You know exactly what, young lady.” For a brief, horrible second, I realized I was using almost exactly the same tone Celestia had used with me whenever I’d been a bratty little kid. Gah...
Kukri’s ears seemed to go flat almost from pure instinct. “Sorry, Shimmer-mare.” She took a deep breath, then shook her guilt off and grimaced. “She’s a spy who kidnapped this one, just so she could use it as leverage against you and because this one was in her way. This one doesn’t understand why you seem to have forgotten that, or forgiven her.”
I sighed and ran a hoof through my mane. “That ... well, a lot of things have happened since then, and there’ve been times since then where she had my back when I really needed it. It’s ... I haven’t forgiven her for it, but I guess I care more about right now than I do about stuff that happened in the past.”
Kurki shook her head. “She’s not helping you because she went from being a bad mare to a good one. She did it because it’s her job. Just like she locked you up and kidnaped this one because she believed that was her job.”
“I know that.” I groaned and turned my attention to a display case with several old banners to give me an excuse to put my thoughts in order. “Doesn't change that she’s helped me out. I’m not saying that she’s a changed mare or that I’ve forgotten about the stuff she’s done in the past, but...” I struggled to find the right words.
I didn’t like Strumming. More often than not she was an annoying pest, and her moral compass was not so great. There was all the stuff that had happened when I first met her, plus stuff like the time she’d killed a necromancer by stabbing the guy in the back after we’d agreed to a cease-fire. There were times I wished I’d stopped her, but she’d killed the guy before I even realized what she was planning. Besides, without her help the fight against Rising Fire probably would’ve ended badly for all of us.
There were times when I wondered why the hay Celestia had sent Strumming to keep an eye on me rather than ... well, anypony else. You’d think she would’ve sent the best agent she had after me, not one who I’d figured out was a spy after talking to her for five minutes. The only way I could make any sense of it was to say that either Celestia had screwed up or she was playing some massively complicated game of chess I couldn’t hope to understand. For all I knew, Strumming was actually here for a completely different reason, and all the talk of her being here to watch me was just a smokescreen.
Kukri trotted over to a display case holding a couple artifacts recovered from the ruins of the old Tower of the Necrocrat. “So why should either of us care if something bad happened to the Heartstrings-mare? This one’s clan has helped you in the past, but you don’t go rushing out to avenge its clanmates who gets injured or killed.”
I was tempted to point out that her clan only helped when I’d hired some of them, but it wasn’t like Strumming had ever helped me for altruistic reasons. Besides, I would help them out if Kukri’s clan ever asked me for help or was under attack. Hay, I already had with the proto-changeling that had gone after her.
“Why not let the EIS handle it?” Kukri pressed. “She works for them, so if she gets attacked that’s their problem, not ours. Or even just leave it up to Puzzle? Why do you have to get involved with this?”
“It’s...” I struggled to come up with an answer to that. Sure, Puzzle had asked me to help, but he could probably manage just fine without me. Yet, I’d never really considered not jumping right into the middle of the whole thing. “Well, she's one of us. You know, part of our whole ... group ... thing. Which means nobody’s getting away with shooting her.”
Kukri scowled and shook her head. “This one certainly doesn’t consider itself part of any sort of group with the Heartstrings-mare. This one would bet its allowance that whoever went after the Heartstrings-mare had a good reason for it.” She turned her back on me, giving her notebook her full attention. “Maybe she killed someone’s mother, or stole a centuries-old heirloom, or kidnapped someone else's kid for leverage while saying that ‘It’s nothing personal.’ Like that makes it okay.” Her pencil snapped, and she snarled at it, digging in her bag to find another one.
I took the broken pencil from her and sharpened it with a quick spell, then pulled her in for a quick one-legged hug. “Kukri ... one lesson Celestia taught me is that you can’t linger on the bad things. I’m not saying you should forget about it or forgive Strumming, but you can’t let that kind of stuff eat you up from the inside. Don’t go around wishing ponies were dead unless they really deserve it, or you’ll end up going to a really bad place.”
I’d never asked Celestia about that directly, but from the look in her eyes when she’d given me that lecture I had a feeling it was hitting pretty close to home. Maybe it was connected to what had happened to Luna.
Kukri took a deep breath, then slowly nodded. “This one will ... consider that. So why’re you here? Instead of Puzzle, this one means.”
“He says he needs to coordinate things from a central location.” I frowned and shook my head. “I think that’s just an excuse, though. His girlfriend got hurt, and he wants to stay close by to take care of her until she’s better.”
“Oh.” Kukri gagged and stuck out her tongue. “This one really doesn’t understand why he likes the Heartstrings-mare so much.”
I shrugged. “Don’t know, don’t care. If he has such poor taste in mares, that’s his problem. The bottom line is that I want to find answers for who’s behind Strumming getting shot. For all we know, it could be the first stage of someone coming after the rest of us.” I thought it over for a second, then shook my head. “I don't think it’s too likely. If someone wanted to drop all of us, I think they’d go after me or Puzzle first since we’re the bigger threats. Until we know what’s going on we can’t rule anything out.”
“And what if it's just her problem?” Kukri pressed.
I took a deep breath, then let her know how it was. “I’ve got a lot of issues with the mare, but I’m not okay with someone trying to kill her.”
“Even if they’ve got a good reason?” Kukri demanded. “Will you still defend her if she’s done something so terrible she deserves what happened to her?”
That was a trickier question. From what I’d seen of the mare, she almost certainly had some nasty skeletons in her closet. I couldn’t rule out that she’d done something nasty enough to make me want to cut ties with her. Maybe I already should’ve for some of the things I knew for sure she’d done. Still... “I want to find out who went after Strumming, and why they did it. Right now we’re just speculating, and I’d rather have some facts backing up whatever I do.”
Kukri thought it over for a bit, then slowly nodded. “That makes sense. Mom and Dad always say there’s no such thing as too much information.”
I nodded and gave her a quick pat on the back. “Your parents are smart. Listen to them more often. Do you need any help with your homework, or will you be alright on your own while I go take care of business?”
She frowned down at her notebook. “This one thinks it knows what it needs to do from here. If you’ve gotta talk to Puzzle’s people, this one will take care of the rest its work by itself and let you know if it needs to move to another part of the museum.”
“Alright. I’ll be right over the cafe, so try to stay where I can see you.” Not that I was expecting any trouble in a museum, but sometimes things go bad when you least expect it.
I headed over to the cafe, searching for anyone who matched the descriptions I’d gotten from Puzzle. Thankfully, it didn’t take long to spot the trio in a corner table at the back. Freeport’s a pretty cosmopolitan place, but even at a simple museum cafe it’s rare to see a hippogryph, a pegasus, and a zebra sitting together. The zebra mare was nursing a cup of coffee and seemed to be caught up in a book, while the pegasus had his back to the wall and was scanning the area as if every single cafe patron and member of the waitstaff might pull a dagger and attack him at any given moment. The hippogryph was the only one to actually notice me, grinning and waving me over as soon as we made eye contact.
I trotted over and claimed the one unoccupied chair, adjusting it a bit so I could keep an eye on Kukri while I talked to them. “Hello. Alya, Blackwing, and Gustav, right?” The zebra, pegasus, and hippogryph nodded in turn. “Sunset Shimmer, pleasure to meet you all. Now that introductions are settled, I assume you all know why I’m here?”
Blackwing the pegasus scowled at me, which made his dark grey coat look even darker than it already did. “Do we?”
Alya sighed and rolled her eyes, setting her book aside. “Yes, we do. You certainly spent enough time grumbling to us about it.”
Gustav did his best to smile welcomingly as I settled in. “Ignore Blackwing, he’s just mad he’s not running things.”
Blackwing scowled at everyone else. “Because this one should be in charge of this operation. It has over a decade of experience in our employer’s operations.” He leveled an accusing hoof at me. “While that one is a teenager our employer has a soft spot for. Exactly how much experience do you have in covert operations?”
I took a moment to silently thank Puzzle for warning me about Blackwing and giving me a few pointers for how to deal with him. “Your boss thinks I’m the right one to lead this. You got a problem with me, then you have a problem with him.”
The changeling glared at me, and I returned the favor. After several seconds, he blinked first. “You’re lucky this one has far more respect for our boss than it does for you.”
“Why don’t you go back to your natural form so you can compare horn sizes with her?” Alya groaned and emptied her cup, signalling a waiter for a refill. “Ignore him. He’s like this with everyone. It’s all about the pecking order with him.”
“Especially to anyone who’s not a ‘this one’.” Gustav agreed. “Don’t mind him, once you meet whatever standard he sets, he tones it down a lot. Almost to the point of not being a complete dick anymore.”
“Right.” I crossed my forelegs and put all my attention on Blackwing. “I don’t care if you like me or not, but the bottom line is I’m in charge on this op. You can either act like the professional you say you are, or you can throw a tantrum like the kid you say I am. Your pick.”
Blackwing scowled at me and grunted something vaguely assenting. When he didn’t complain anymore, I presumed we’d settled the matter.
Conversation drew to a halt while the waiter refilled Alya’s coffee and asked the rest of us if we wanted anything. Once that was done, Alya spoke up. “As long as you don’t lead us all to a horrible death, I don’t mind following your lead.”
“I’m against any form of death, even if it’s quick and painless,” Gustav chimed in. “I like living, and being alive. Not to mention that us dying would make the boss very unhappy.”
“He does hate wasted resources,” Alya agreed. “One of the best ways to get on his bad side.”
I saw the perfect opening to get straight down to business. “Yeah, but it looks like someone found a way to climb straight to the top of his list. Namely, by going after his girlfriend. Someone shot her, and he wants to know who did it.”
Blackwing scoffed. “Really? The boss is letting it get personal? He shouldn’t be getting upset over some foreign spy he’s banging to the side.”
Gustav took a sip from a glass filled with some nasty-looking thick green juice. “Spoken like a bug who’s never been in love.”
“Of course not.” The changeling picked up his pretzel and nibbled on it. “This one doesn’t waste its time on love.”
Alya turned to him with a raised eyebrow. “Don’t you eat love?”
Blackwing hesitated, and all of us smirked as we realized he was busted. Finally, the changeling had to concede. “This one doesn't waste its time on romance.”
I chuckled along with the others, but that only lasted a moment before we had to get back to work. I gave them the details of the attack on Strumming and what we knew so far.
Alya whistled softly. “They used an arquebus? On a rainy night? That’s a lot of trouble. You’d think they’d pick a weapon that doesn’t fail as soon as it gets wet.”
“Almost like they went out of their way to use one,” Blackwing agreed. “The Blood Stripes are the only group that has them outside of the odd curiosity piece, so that makes them the obvious suspects.” He frowned and shook his head. “Perhaps too obvious. The Stripes would probably pick a weapon more suited to the weather. The only reason to use an arquebus in the rain is to make a point of using one, so it’s a good way to frame the only merc group with them.”
I nodded along. “That’s one thing we have to consider. It’s either the Stripes deliberately calling us out, or someone trying really hard to make us think that’s what’s going on.”
Gustav shrugged. “First rule of any investigation: follow the money trail. I can check on who’s hired the Stripes recently, then see if anyone outside their ranks bought an arquebus. It’s pretty rare for those to be available outside of Zebrica.”
“No kidding.” Alya contemplatively stirred some sugar into her coffee. “I thought about trying to smuggle one out of Zebrica last time the boss had me operating there, but it wasn’t worth the trouble. Keeping it supplied with powder, fuse, shot, and getting replacement parts was too much effort and too many ducats. Especially when a knife in the back is just as good, and way quieter.” She grimaced. “It’s like Blackwing said: this was about more than killing her. Whoever did it picked that weapon to make a statement. I’ll see what I can dig up about her recent activities and see if she crossed paths with anyone recently. There are plenty of people who might want an Equestrian spy dead, but we have to assume there’s a solid reason behind it happening and why they went to so much trouble to use an arquebus to do it.”
“Makes our job a lot easier if we assume it wasn’t all just a random mugging with a weird choice of weapon,” I agreed.
Blackwing grinned, and I caught a hint of changeling fangs within his pegasus mouth. “Let this one capture one of the Stripes and interrogate him. It will have the answers we need before the day is out.”
Gustav scowled and shook his head. “Yeah, and I’m sure torturing one of them or trying to break into his head won’t come back to bite us at all.”
“I know how to keep things quiet.” Blackwing shrugged. “As long as whoever I grab disappears without a trace, the Stripes will probably assume he just found a new job or wandered into the wrong neighborhood late at night.”
I tried not to react at the mention of what Blackwing might do. I had just enough experience with mind magic to know it was horrifying stuff that shouldn’t be messed with, and torture ... yeah, no way I would ever be okay with that. Not to mention what he was implying he’d do to cover up the rest of it. In fact, that someone working for Puzzle was willing to suggest that made me wonder about him. I’d always known there were probably some nasty aspects to how Puzzle did business, but I’d never had it all so blatantly shoved in my face before. “None of that’s happening while I run the show. Find another way.”
Blackwing scoffed and leaned back in his chair, folding his hooves behind his head. “If you want to keep your hooves clean, you’re in the wrong line of work. I figured Puzzle was coddling you, but I didn’t know he was going that far.”
I was about to give him a piece of my mind when Alya cut in. “If Blackwing’s done trying to piss off our boss, how about some non-psychotic suggestions? I say we find where the attack went down and do some looking around. Someone might have seen or heard something.”
I frowned and shook my head. “It’s worth trying, but the rain probably got rid of our evidence and kept everyone indoors.”
“Actually, the rain might have helped us out,” Alya countered. “It would’ve driven the shooter inside too, which would keep any evidence a lot safer than out on a city street. There might even be some unburned powder left on a windowsill or wherever the arquebus was propped. Maybe an alchemist could figure something out with that.”
“Sounds like something to follow up on,” I agreed. “I don’t think we know exactly where Strumming was when she got attacked, but she was hurt bad enough that it had to be somewhere near Puzzle’s office.”
To my surprise, Blackwing chimed in with something useful. “What about the bullet? You know any spells you could use to track it back to the source?”
I thought it over for a bit. “I know a couple spells that might work, though I’ve never tried anything exactly like that. I’ll look into it.” Not to mention I’d need to get the arquebus ball itself. The doctors had said something about getting it out of Strumming, but I had no idea what they’d done with it after that.
“It sounds like Magus Shimmer has our assignments settled then,” Gustav announced with a friendly smile. “I’ll follow the money trail and call in a few favors, see if anyone knows anything. Blackwing and Alya will try to find where the attack happened and see if they can turn up any evidence or find a witness. Meanwhile the magus will—much to everyone’s shock—see if she can use her magic to find any information.”
“That’s the plan.” I got up and nodded to each of them. “You know where my tower is. I’ll be there as long as I’m trying out tracking spells, and if I’m not there you can either wait until I get back or leave a message setting up a meeting. Meet back here at the same time tomorrow if nothing comes up before then.” I thought about letting them know where Puzzle’s safehouse was in case they needed to get in touch with him too, but he wanted that kept as quiet as possible. Not that he didn’t trust his lieutenants, but his secret hideout got a bit less secret with every person who knew where it was. “Any questions, or shall we get started?”
None of them had any, so we broke up and went our separate ways. Kukri grinned when I joined her in front of an exhibit detailing the formation of the Council in the aftermath of Torch’s Revolution, and I quickly looked over her notes. Finding out who was responsible for shooting Strumming was important, but so was my apprentice’s homework.
I was in a bad mood by the time I got back to my tower. Things with Kukri had worked out just fine, but the trip to the hospital had been a complete bust. Worse, it hadn’t been as simple as just immediately finding out the ball had been disposed of. I’d spent two hours bouncing between different employees, then another hour waiting for one of the doctors to get out of surgery just to find out he didn’t know anything useful either. Hopefully, Puzzle’s agents were having a bit more luck.
I’d barely gotten through the front door and started thinking about what I should do for dinner when someone knocked. My first instinct was to snap at whoever it was and tell them to come back later, but someone knocking this soon after I got back probably wasn’t a coincidence. One of Puzzle’s lieutenants might have been keeping an eye on the place waiting for my return. I hadn’t seen any of them, but Blackwing was a changeling, and the other two were in a line of work where not being noticed was a useful job skill.
I tried to wipe the obvious signs of annoyance off my face before answering the door. The pony on the other side was not one of Puzzle’s agents, or anyone else I’d ever seen before. The earth pony at the door looked utterly bland; his coat and mane were in unremarkable shades of grey, and his face looked completely normal, without a single unusual feature or distinguishing mark. He was so utterly boring that I checked for a Background Pony spell or something like it, but found nothing. The whole effect was a little unnerving, and that put me on edge. “Who are you and what do you want?”
The Bland Pony’s voice was just as suspiciously unremarkable as the rest of him, a monotone without a hint of accent or a single change in pitch. “Greetings, Magus Shimmer. The Council wishes to speak with you at your earliest convenience.”
Huh. The Council hadn’t interfered too much with me aside from the first job I’d taken from them. Granted, a lot of that was probably because I filtered most of my work through Puzzle, and he dealt with them a lot more often. That suited me just fine, since I liked going out and doing things a lot more than sitting around talking with a bunch of politicians dressed up in robes and masks. I’d been a bit tempted to try yanking those robes off to get a look at what was underneath, but I was pretty sure they had something in place to stop that. Not to mention it would severely piss them off.
For that matter, ignoring a summons from them wouldn’t go over too well ether. I sighed and levitated my nicest robes out of the closet. “Give me a minute to get ready. Did they say what they wanted to talk about?”
“No,” Bland answered flatly.
“Right.” I was tempted to shut the door in his face, but put aside that impulse almost as soon as it popped into my head. Needlessly offending people was usually a bad move, and for all I knew he could be the personal secretaries to one of the Council members or someone else with just enough power to make me pay for snubbing him. I’d learned not to do that after Puzzle’s secretary found a dozen subtle but annoying ways to get back at me for barging past her when I’d wanted to talk to him.
Instead, I decided to be a bit of a gracious host. “Come in and have a seat in the foyer. Would you like anything to eat or drink while I get ready?”
“Thank you, no. I am not hungry or thirsty.” He walked over to one of my chairs and sat down in the most boringly conventional way possible.
I nodded, then trotted upstairs to get dressed. I was meeting with the rulers of Freeport, it was only proper to make myself at least a little presentable. I wasn’t vain about my appearance, but one of Celestia’s many lessons was the importance of looking like the part you wanted to play. The Council would be a lot more likely to treat me like a powerful magus who deserved their respect if I didn’t show up undressed and with my mane a bit ragged from several hours of dealing with hospital bureaucracy.
About an hour later I was freshly showered, had my mane fixed up properly, and had picked out a few bits of jewelry that showed off my wealth and power without being too ostentatious about it. Combined with my dress robes and a little bit of carefully applied makeup, I checked myself in the mirror and nodded approvingly. I undid the top button on my robes to make sure my armor was visible underneath it. It never hurt to remind them that I’d seen plenty of combat.
Blandy was still waiting for me, still sitting exactly like he’d been when I let him in an hour ago. I was starting to wonder if he was an automaton. At the very least, my wards confirmed that he hadn’t tried to do any snooping around while he waited.
The walk to the Council’s palace was exactly as boring as one would expect, given my traveling companion. It was late enough that most of the daytime traffic was winding down, but not quite late enough for Freeport’s nightlife to have started. At least the heavy rain we’d gotten last night had cleared the air of the usual stenches of a port town, though I’d lived here long enough to know that it was only a matter of time before Freeport’s dead fish and rotting seaweed smell came back twice as strong.
Blandy led me to the Council’s squat rectangular block of a palace, made of obsidian just like my tower. Once we were inside, I realized he wasn’t headed for the meeting chamber I’d used the last two times. I thought about speaking up, but for all I knew he was just taking a shortcut, or the Council wanted to meet me somewhere new.
It turned out that neither of those was strictly right. Mr. Boring eventually led me to a door that was just as nondescript as he was, and opened it to reveal a small but efficiently laid-out office. He walked across it to a door set into the back wall, then knocked once. “The Magus is here.”
“Bring her in.” It was hard to tell through the door, but the voice on the other end sounded like it belonged to one of the Council members. All of their masks had a spell to conceal their voice as part of the whole secrecy thing, though not even that magic could make them sound quite as dull and lifeless as the errand boy they’d sent to find me.
The unremarkable stallion held the door open for me, and I stepped into a far more lavishly decorated office. It wasn’t ostentatious like the waiting room for people who were meeting with the full Council, but only because the wealth wasn’t being shoved in my face. The desk made out of exotic zebrican hardwood decorated with inlaid pearl probably cost more than a lot of Freeport’s workers made in a year.
Of course, my main focus wasn’t on the desk, but the being behind it. When I’d been called in to meet the Council, I hadn’t expected it to just be one of them. It was a bit odd to see someone going through all the paperwork on their desk while wearing heavy identity-concealing robes and a silver mask covering their face. The Councilmember looked up, and despite the completely face-covered mask, I got the sense that I was being met with a polite smile. “Thank you for seeing me, Magus Sunset Shimmer. Have a seat.”
“Pleasure.” I accepted the offer and made myself comfortable. “So just one of you? I was expecting to meet the Council.”
“You are,” the Councilmember set their paperwork aside. “The full Council does not need to assemble for every single affair of state. In this case, one of us will suffice.”
No surprise. Getting all thirteen of them together at the same time couldn’t be easy, especially when the common theory was that the Council were the richest, most powerful and influential members of Freeport’s high society. They had to get up to something whenever they weren’t sitting around in dark rooms wearing their creepy robes and masks.
However, there was a big difference between meeting with part of the Council and only meeting with one member. “Let me guess: this is an informal off-the-record meeting?”
They nodded. “It would be less complicated for both of us if that were the case.”
“Interesting choice of words.” I had to wonder just how much this particular member of the Council was in lockstep with the others. They might always be on the same page publicly, but I’ve never met thirteen people who could agree on absolutely everything. I decided to test the waters. “Must be hard to do paperwork in a cloak and mask. I’m surprised you don’t drop that when you’re not in an official meeting.”
The Councilmember slowly set their paperwork aside. “Do you know why the Council operates the way it does, Magus?” I’d read enough history to know the basics, but decided to let them lay it out for me in case there were any new insights to be gleaned. “We began as an underground movement, which naturally made anonymity a necessity. Darksword the Necrocrat hated us for disrupting his slaving operations, and went to considerable effort to destroy our leadership. By remaining anonymous the Council not only protected itself, but also provided the image of continuity. Whenever we lost a member to his agents they were immediately and seamlessly replaced, with no indication that we had suffered a loss. The lack of any visible success both frustrated him and made him look impotent.
“That same continuity serves us well now.” The Councilmember scooted back from their desk, gesturing to the mask and robes. “Where Equestria has its immortal ruler to provide continuity, we create the illusion of immortality. Anonymity makes us mysterious, unknowable, and at least theoretically incorruptible. Every member of Freeport society steps just a bit more carefully when some small part of them must always wonder if one of us might be hidden in their midst.” The barest hint of amusement entered the voice. “And, of course, it leads to endless speculation about who we might be, what our masks conceal, and what our true agenda is. Some of the theories are quite ... creative.”
The Councilmember paused, then waved whatever they were going to say next away. “Hopefully you will make appropriate use of this insight. In any case, we brought you here to talk about recent events, not to discuss about how the Council conducts its day-to-day business.”
I nodded along, though I was pretty sure that little impromptu history lesson hadn’t been a random meaningless tangent. “Alright then. What recent events did you want to talk about?”
“The ones revolving around Strumming Heartstrings, and the attempt on her life.”
I leaned back in my seat, trying to look as unconcerned as possible. “Guess I shouldn’t be surprised you heard about what happened to her.”
“Nothing happens in Freeport without our knowledge.”
I was pretty sure that was a load of horseapples. Probably just part of the image the Council wanted to project. I couldn’t resist the temptation to tweak their nose. “If you know everything, can you tell me everyone who was involved in shooting her, what their motives were, and where I can find them?”
The Councilmember paused, and I got the distinct impression that a very annoyed glare was hidden behind that mask. “We know that you think the Blood Stripes are involved in the attack.”
“Are they?” No reason to stop pressing my luck when it was working.
Unfortunately, the same trick didn’t work twice. “At the moment, the truth is far less important than what you believe and how you intend to act upon those beliefs.”
Interesting answer. Were they worried I would go off half-cocked and do something before all the facts were in? “Why does the Council care about me looking into the Blood Stripes? Last I heard, they weren’t your favorite merc group.”
“They are currently in disfavor,” the Councilmember confirmed, “in no small part due to an operation both you and Strumming Heartstrings were involved in. However, just because you stand in our favor while they do not does not give you the right to indulge in excess in your response to an attack on Agent Heartstrings. To be blunt, we do not want you burning down half the city to punish them for injuring a single mare.”
I clenched my teeth at the implied insult. “Have I ever done anything like that?”
“You have an established pattern.” The Councilmember pulled a folder out of their desk and opened it. “The destruction of Glimmer Manor; wrecking a public marketplace in an incident that also resulted in several dead condottieri; leaving half of the plantation on Sweetash Isle in ruins; two out-island communities ravaged during the Rising Fire incident. We trust our point is clear, but we can go on if you wish.”
My eyes narrowed and I went down the list point by point. “Glimmer Manor was torn up far more by one of its occupants resisting arrest than by me. If you hire mercs who are stupid and corrupt enough to take bribes from warlocks, that’s your problem. From what Puzzle said, you were more than happy to write off some damage to a plantation or some out-islands if it meant stopping Chrysalis or a crazy lich.” I crossed my forelegs over my chest, refusing to give an inch. “My job involves taking on warlocks and criminals on a good day, and I’ve gone up against a lot worse on a bad one. I do my best to avoid collateral damage, but I’m sure you'd rather have me wreck a few buildings then let the bad guys get away with whatever they’re up to.”
The Councilor held up a forelimb to cut me off. “I think you misunderstand our concerns, Magus. Overall, we consider the amount of collateral damage you’ve inflicted to be within acceptable levels commensurate to the threats you face. As you said, repairing a plantation is a small price to pay to stop whatever Chrysalis was planning. However, in the matter of Agent Heartstrings you are not acting in defense of Freeport or its interests. She is a foreign spy whose presence we tolerate because expelling her isn’t worth the trouble. Whatever you do in your conflict with the Blood Stripes or whoever you ultimately conclude to be her attacker is private vendetta that offers no benefit to Freeport.”
“So don’t burn down half the city in a crazy revenge quest?” I concluded.
“We would appreciate the show of restraint,” the Councilmember agreed dryly. “For all its reputation as a lawless haven for criminals, Freeport does have rules, and maintains a reasonable degree of public order. The Council tolerates the occasional private feud, and in exchange both parties agree to limit their actions. Feuding parties avoid burning down entire city blocks or choking the gutters with the blood of their enemies, and in exchange we accept when a feud ends with someone drowning in the harbor, falling down a flight of stairs, or tragically committing suicide by stabbing themselves in the back three times with a longsword.”
I frowned as all the facts came in. “So you don't care what I do with the Stripes as long as we keep it from spilling out into the streets?”
“Essentially,” they agreed. “In a perfect world, the condottieri would have the resources to investigate the matter and would be reliable enough to do so impartially. However, we both know that is not the case. Even if it were, the Council knows that neither you nor Puzzle would be content to sit back and wait for the results of such an investigation. Thus, the compromise: we stand aside, and you control yourselves.”
I couldn’t help but recall what Puzzle had said after we got Strumming back from the hospital. All his talk about blood in the streets definitely didn’t sound like he planned on restraining himself. Maybe he was just venting. Nobody would blame him for being pretty mad when his girlfriend had nearly gotten herself killed. That didn’t mean he’d follow through with that after he’d had a bit of time to cool off. Puzzle had always been pretty cold and analytical, and he would probably go back to that once he calmed down.
The Councilor must have guessed what was on my mind, because they hit me with a question. “Puzzle was supposed to be here with you, but he has not answered our summons. Do you know why he would do that?”
I thought about just stonewalling completely, but lying to the Council was probably a bad move. Not that I planned to give too much away. “He’s got Strumming in a secure location while she recovers. I doubt you’ll be able to get in touch with him by leaving a message at the office.”
“I assure you Magus, we have other means of contacting him.” The Councilmember steepled their hooves, resting their chin on them. “If Puzzle is not responding to us, it is because he choses not to do so. Do you know why?”
I shrugged. “I don’t know why he does half the things he does. And half the time I think I know why he’s doing something, I’ve probably got it wrong. “
“That does sound like Puzzle, yes.” They leaned back in their chair, looking almost suspiciously relaxed. “A word of advice, Magus: Puzzle is very good at what he does, but do not forget what that is or what he is. He is an affable crimelord with many legitimate business ventures, a small degree of respectability, and far too much ambition for his own good. If you become too dependent upon him you might one day regret it. He has disposed of assets in the past when they became too much of a liability.”
“I'll keep that in mind,” I answered neutrally. I didn’t doubt that most of that was true, but I wasn’t stupid enough to think they were telling me that out of the goodness of their hearts. I decided to change the subject back to the whole reason I’d come here in the first place. “So about keeping the vendetta under control, I assume you'll tell the Stripes the same thing?
“The Stripes were told how we expected them to conduct themselves the last time they disrupted the peace of the city.” Somehow the voice took on a menacing tone despite the mask’s magic obscuring it. “We don’t like to repeat ourselves.”
“Just making sure.” From the sounds of things, the Stripes were operating on much thinner ice than I was. No surprise, when I’d been running a very above the board and respectable operation defending Freeport, while they’d already pissed off the Council once.
“The Council trusts your judgement and expects you will do the right thing for Freeport.” The Councilor picked up some of the paperwork they’d set aside when I entered the office. “Unless there is anything else, you may go.”
I wasn’t quite sure what to make of my meeting with one member of the Council. I guess the overall thrust of it wasn’t too much of a shock. They saw a feud brewing and wanted to make sure it wouldn’t go too far. What baffled me was that they were worried I’d push things.
Yeah, I wasn’t happy about Strumming getting shot, but I wasn’t so enraged that I’d go around blasting everything the Blood Stripes owned to pieces. I didn’t even like the mare.
So why did the Council, in all their vaunted wisdom, think I might do something like that?
I grinned as the nucleus of a plan started forming. After all, if the Council, with all their resources and information, was worried that I might go flying off the handle and do something extreme, how worried would the Blood Stripes be?
Subtlety has never been my strong suit. Sometimes, it’s good to spread your metaphorical wings and try something outside your comfort zone to expand your skillset. Diversifying your abilities gives you more options for handling problems, and having more options is always a good thing.
On the other hoof, sometimes the winning move was to redefine the conflict. Instead of trying to do something you’re not good at and play by someone else’s rules, find a way to reframe things to fight it out on your terms.
For example: instead of trying to play the subtle spymaster, I could go up to a Blood Stripes-owned warehouse. A warehouse that held some of that highly flammable and explosive powder they use to make their arquebuses work.
Two Stripes were watching the front door, probably just to discourage anyone from loitering around the area. Their war paint looked a bit sloppy, though that might have been on account of the rain. The weather was also probably why they were both slumped against the wall getting as much cover from the rain as they could. What was less excusable was them chatting instead of keeping close watch on the area. Clearly the Blood Stripes didn’t put their best troops on late night warehouse guard duty.
I made a suitably dramatic entrance, teleporting in front of them with a very flashy but completely unnecessary burst of flame. The theatrics were totally worth it just to see their eyes bug out in shock. One of them wound up slipping and falling on his face while the other hastily scrambled to bring their weapons to bear and look somewhat professional.
I didn’t even make a token effort to hide my disdain. Instead, I got straight to the point. “Do you know who I am?”
The one who hadn’t fallen on his face managed to answer with only a tiny nervous squeak in his voice. “M-Magus Sunset Shimmer, right?”
“That’s right.” I turned to the other one, who’d managed to pick himself up off the ground. “And do you know type of magic I use?”
“Fire,” he squeaked out.
“Very good.” I gave them both a smile dripping with condescension. “Now, here’s the bonus question. Did you two know that right now I’m really pissed at the Blood Stripes for hurting one of my friends?”
The two guards traded a nervous look, then hesitantly leveled their spears at me. The weapons were trembling in their hooves, and I could already see the panic-sweat gathering on their brows.
I scoffed and rolled my eyes, but didn’t bother saying anything. After giving them a couple more seconds to stew and get even more terrified, I raised an eyebrow and calmly asked. “Why haven’t you started running?”
Displaying the first glimmers of intelligence the two guards had shown since I’d arrived in front of them, they bolted. I was pretty sure they wouldn’t stop until they made it back to the Blood Stripes’ headquarters. At least, I certainly hoped they wouldn’t—if they didn’t get word back to their superiors, I would’ve just wasted a couple minutes of my life bullying idiots.
Thankfully, I had a backup plan if they dropped the ball. I pulled out an impeccably written letter explaining exactly what my grievances with the Blood Stripes were and demanding appropriate restitution for their transgressions. I attached it to the front door after making sure it would be out of the rain.
Then I shot a pillar of fire a couple hundred feet into the air.
“So,” Gustav murmured softly, leaning back on the couch and watching me over his tea. “Subtle.”
Blackwing grinned, showing off his fangs. “This one is beginning to think that the Shimmer-mare might have potential after all.”
Alya rolled her eyes. “You would think that after she blows a lot of stuff up.”
“I didn’t blow anything up,” I offered in my own defense. “I just sent the Blood Stripes a message they couldn’t ignore.”
“A message that evidently involved lots of fire and explosions,” Alya deadpanned. “I suppose that is one way to get their attention.”
“But not necessarily the good kind of attention,” Gustav murmured. “The Blood Stripes are closing down hard after what happened at their warehouse. I couldn’t even find half of my usual contacts, and the ones I could find weren’t eager to get involved in a gang war.”
Blackwing scoffed and shook its head. “This one thinks that contacts who clam up at the first sign of trouble aren’t very reliable in the first place. The Shimmer-mare’s actions might be just what we need to get things moving. It rather doubts Puzzle wants us to spend a few months beating around the bush and double-checking our sources, or for the analysts to finish up with whatever evidence Alya found. When he leaves seclusion, we need to at least have answers for him ... and preferably also the head of whoever attacked his lover.”
“Says the changeling who wanted to kidnap one of the Stripes and see what information he could torture out of them,” Gustav grumbled.
Blackwing shrugged. “You might not like this one’s methods, but you can’t argue with the results they produce. If we’re going to war with the Blood Stripes, we can’t afford to get squeamish about the fact that some of them will end up dead. They’ve already made it perfectly clear that they don’t share your compunctions.”
“If we actually had a war on our hands, I’d agree with you,” Gustav countered. “But so far all we have is our boss’s girlfriend getting shot. There’s plenty of evidence hinting that it’s the Blood Stripes who did it, but we don’t know for sure—not to mention they haven’t done anything directly against the boss or his organization. If we push things right now, I don’t think the Council would come down on our side.”
“And if we wait for the Blood Stripes to make the next move...” Blackwing left that hanging ominously in the air, letting us all draw our own conclusions. I might know much about street wars, but I’d studied enough actual war in Celestia’s history classes to know that ceding the initiative was rarely a good move.
“Which is why I made a move first,” I responded. “Nobody died or got hurt, so we didn’t escalate the fight. But I’d say we sent a pretty strong signal that messing with us any more will have nasty consequences. The Stripes know that the only reason that warehouse isn’t a crater in the ground is because I decided to give them a chance to come clean. They’ll have to make some kind of response, and whatever they do will tell us a lot about how guilty they are.”
“That’s one theory,” Alya murmured, “but there’s two problems with it. First, we don’t know what they’ll do, and it might be pretty nasty. Second, even if they were completely innocent they might still have to start a fight now that you’ve publicly called them out. The last thing we need is them sending a couple squads of their best troops after you.” She held up a hoof to forestall my response. “Yes, I know, you could blow up their gunpowder, but if they’re specifically after you, they won’t bring any. Not to mention they’ll probably be dosed up on potions to make them stronger and faster, and they’ll be trying for a surprise attack.”
I grimaced and reluctantly nodded. “If they get a dozen super-fast and super-strong guys right on top of me before I even know they’re there, I’d be in trouble.” I had teleportation and a few other spells that might be able to get me out of a situation like that, but if any of them got past all my magical defenses I was a very mortal and killable pony. “But I don’t think that’s going to happen. If they wanted an all-out war with Puzzle and his allies, they wouldn’t have wasted their one surprise attack to knock out his girlfriend. That leaves his organization intact to launch a counter-attack, and pisses him off enough that retribution is a sure thing.”
“It wouldn’t be the first time the Stripes have made a stupid move,” Gustav pointed out. “Rumor has it that on top of all the nasty long-term health consequences, some of those alchemical potions they use to bulk up mess with their heads.”
Blackwing nodded grimly. “Often with vendettas it’s more about inflicting as much pain as possible than about tactics. Shooting any one of us would hurt Puzzle’s organization a lot more, but I doubt the boss would be taking any of us to his secret safe house to nurse back to health.”
“Maybe he wouldn’t do that for you,” Alya shot back with a grin.
“Alya does have the advantage over us in that regard,” Gustav conceded with a teasing grin. “I certainly don’t have as ... close of a relationship with our employer.”
She scoffed and rolled her eyes. “You let the boss feed on you one time in the middle of a desperate situation, and for years you have to endure jokes about sleeping your way to the top...” Alya cleared her throat, then turned to me and explained. “About five years back, the boss and I were on an operation on the far side of Zanzebra. Checking out the ancient temple was fun, but once we had an angry Dromaed Hristak on our tail we had to improvise.”
I asked the first follow-up question that sprang to mind. “What’s a hristak?”
“Long story.” Alya cleared her throat and pointedly got back on topic. “So, we’ve got the Blood Stripes stirred up. What’s our next move?”
“Good question.” Gustav turned to me. “I’m starting to wonder if we have any sort of plan, or if we’re just making it all up as we go.”
I shot an annoyed look Gustav’s way. “I admit, I don’t have an elaborate twenty step master plan to annihilate our enemies and bring Strumming’s attacker to justice. The whole point of hitting their warehouse was to force them to react on our timetable. Like I said, I don’t think they’re out to start a war with us ... which means they’ll probably try to de-escalate things. The Council’s already mad at them, while I’m one of their favorites. If things heat up too much...”
“Good point,” Blackwing conceded. “This one wouldn’t count on the Council doing too much, but just the threat of it’s going to have the Stripes stepping carefully. They have to know that if the Council gets involved, it won’t be on their side.” The changeling grimaced. “This one does not like sitting back and waiting, but one of the lessons Puzzle always hands out is that sometimes the best move is stand back and let your enemy dig themselves deeper on their own.”
“Pretty sure he’s said something like that to me, too.” I stood up and injected a little authority into my voice. “So right now, we’re playing this by ear. Saying there’s a twenty step plan is another way of saying that the plan has at least twenty different points where it can fail. You three know what you’re doing, and I think I can trust you to show some initiative.”
That seemed to satisfy all three of them, so we got down to going over all the information they’d gathered. None of them had any bombshells on par with what I’d done, but sometimes the little things mattered. I knew enough about investigations to realize that something that seemed like an insignificant little detail might be the one piece we needed to complete the puzzle.
We’d been at it for about half an hour when somepony knocked on my front door. It sounded way too loud and authoritative to be a casual visitor, and considering we were waiting on a response from the Stripes...
Alya glanced my way, pulling out a small crossbow. “Who do you want to answer that?”
“Considering this is my tower, they'll expect to see me. You three stay somewhere they won’t see you, but where you can get involved if things turn messy.” I levitated my robes and armor over, putting them on as fast as I could without botching it. I made sure Puzzle’s agents had found their hiding spots, then took a deep breath and carefully opened the door.
I wasn’t the slightest bit surprised to be greeted by a large zebra in full Blood Stripes war paint. His armor had enough fancy gold trim and medals that I was reasonably certain he was someone important, especially since he also had a big hat. Every merc group had their own rank system, but those two things were universal signs. The fact that he looked like he weighed twice as much as me (and all of it was muscle) added to the intimidation factor, even if it was comforting to know that I could flash-fry him in an instant—though the squad of Stripes escorting him would probably object to that.
He cleared his throat and spoke in a surprisingly soft voice for such a big guy. “Greetings, Magus Shimmer. I am Captain Volkan of the Blood Stripes. I believe we have a great deal to discuss.”
I decided to play coy and draw things out a bit. “Do we now? What about?”
Volkan’s eyes narrowed almost imperceptibly, and the barest hint of annoyance entered his voice. “I think you know. You could have delivered your letter without terrifying two of my guards and threatening to blow up our warehouse. Freeport’s postal service is quite reliable.”
I shrugged and grinned shamelessly. “What can I say, sending it through the post office just lacked that dramatic flair. Not to mention it would’ve taken longer for you to respond. I don’t like to be kept waiting.”
“Well, if you wanted to get our attention, you certainly succeeded.” Volkan grimaced. “I have been up since early this morning doing damage control.”
“Impressive, considering the only thing I injured was your pride.”
Volkan regarded me with a raised eyebrow. “I would think that you would know, Magus, that an injury to one’s pride can often be more painful than any physical wound.”
“You’ll live.” I was probably taking a risk being so flippant about it all, but taking him too seriously wasn’t a great solution either. It’s not like I was going to apologize for calling the Stripes out, especially when it had worked so well. “I assume you came here to talk, so come on in and let’s sort this out before anyone else’s ego gets bruised.”
Volkan’s eyes briefly flicked back to his guards. “Given the current tensions, I would prefer to meet in a neutral location.”
I rolled my eyes. “If I wanted to start a war, I would’ve done it last night. If you’ve done any research on me, you’d know that murdering a guest under my own roof isn’t how I operate.”
Volkan frowned, but very slowly nodded. “That much is true, though some of your associates have far less savory reputations.”
My eyes narrowed slightly. “Well you’re not dealing with them right now. It’s just me. You want to talk, my door is open.” I stepped away, deliberately leaving the door hanging open. A quick scan of the room confirmed that Puzzle’s agents were well-hidden. Good thing, since having three people waiting in ambush as soon as Volkan walked through the door would’ve ruined all my hard work. I guess they knew enough to make themselves scarce.
Volkan hesitated for half a second, then stepped through the door. I wasted no time being a gracious host. “So, you want tea or anything to eat before we get started?” The whole idea of sacred hospitality might be a bit old-fashioned, but those little gestures still meant something. One of the many lessons I’d gotten from Celestia whose value I hadn’t appreciated at the time was the importance of those seemingly insignificant courtesies.
So I was a bit annoyed when instead of taking the tea he said, “We have quite a few things to cover and I doubt either of us wants to waste time with pleasantries.” A bit of my irritation must have shown on my face, because he cleared his throat and carefully explained. “I feel I should state for the record that the Blood Stripes do not desire conflict with you or Puzzle Piece.”
If he wasn’t going to waste any time beating around the bush, I would respond in kind. “I noticed a rather significant omission from who you don’t want a fight with.”
Volkan sighed and nodded. “I cannot say that we are entirely blameless in what happened to Strumming Heartstrings. One of the soldiers under my command requested a day’s leave and his weapon to see to a few private matters.” He grimaced. “He neglected to mention that he was out for revenge against a mare with very powerful friends.”
“Revenge?” I scowled at him. “Don’t tell me this is all about Strumming catching you working for that crazy one-eared guy...”
Volkan groaned and closed his eyes, slumping down into one of my chairs. “The only good thing I can say about that disaster is that it cleared the way for my promotion. My predecessor ignored one of the most fundamental rules of being a good mercenary in Freeport: never take a job that goes against the Council. As for Agent Heartstrings’ role in the matter, being a mercenary rarely allows one the luxury of grudges. She had a job, our client was the target, and she outplayed us. It happens. We might win the next round, or she might even decide to hire us herself.”
Oh. Well, there went my best theory for why the Blood Stripes were after Strumming. Which rather begged the question... “So why did one of your soldiers shoot her?”
“A blood debt,” he answered matter of factly. “According to him, Agent Heartstrings is responsible for the death of his uncle. He attempted to repay her in kind.”
Strumming had murdered somepony? I probably should’ve been more shocked by the accusation than I was, but it wouldn’t have been the first questionable thing she’d done. “And I’m going to assume he decided that with her having diplomatic immunity, reporting the crime wouldn’t do any good?”
Volkan nodded. “Even without that, the condottieri are not known for their impartial dedication to justice. If you want justice in Freeport, it is generally better to claim it for yourself.”
That was depressingly close to what I’d been told in my meeting with the Council. They simply didn’t have the resources or the will to turn Freeport into the sort of place where you could rely on the authorities to punish crimes. The problem with relying on mercenaries to maintain public order was that they tended to only be loyal to who paid them.
Volkan sighed and ran a hoof through his mane. “I brought him with me, he’s part of my escort. I expect you will demand blood for blood as recompense for the attack on your friend?”
Even leaving aside my general dislike of killing people, getting bloody revenge on the guy seeking bloody revenge sounded like a great way to set up one of those endless cycles of revenge you always hear about. I really didn’t want to start a centuries-long feud my descendants would still be fighting out long after they’d forgotten what originally started it all. “All I want is for you to turn your soldier over to the authorities.” Sure, Freeport’s institutions were nasty and corrupt, but it was a safe bet that Puzzle could outplay anyone who tried to get Strumming’s attacker off. Relying on all the corruption to balance itself out was a terrible solution, but it would stop things from escalating.
Volkan scowled and shook his head. “Zuberi might be an idiot who caused us far more trouble than he’s worth, but he’s still one of us. I’m not handing any of the soldiers under my command over to Freeport’s justice.”
Well, that complicated things. Without the Blood Stripes’ cooperation I didn’t have a perpetrator or any evidence to back up my claim. However, Volkan probably hadn’t come to my tower and laid out all the facts just to stonewall me and start a war now. “Alright, so if you’re not turning him over what are you willing to offer me?”
“I would think the solution obvious.” Volkan waited for a second to see if I would finish the rest of it for him, and when I didn’t he moved on. “The conflict between you and Zuberi is a private matter of honor. Freeport has laws and customs for addressing such concerns.”
I frowned as the rest of the dots connected. “You want me to fight a duel with him?”
“Yes.” Volkan sighed and ran a hoof down his face. “In hindsight, I should have insisted he pursue that course with Agent Heartstrings instead. It certainly would have saved us both a lot of bother. However, I cannot change the past. Hopefully this will at least address some of your concerns and move the conflict to a more civilized theater.”
Oh yeah, fighting each other in duels is far more civilized than relying on the legal system. There were times I really missed Equestria, even if it was a long way from perfect. “So what sort of duel are we talking about? A fight to the death?”
“The two of you would need to discuss the terms yourselves.” Volkan shrugged. “For my part, I would certainly rather have him alive than dead, but the offence he has offered is such that I cannot deny your right to his life.”
I held up a hoof to reassure him. “Don’t worry, I’m not wild about killing people when there are other viable options on the table.”
“I will ensure that he abides by whatever terms the two of you agree to,” Volkan offered. “A soldier with no honor who cannot follow orders is of no use to me.”
“Super.” So at least the duel would only be stupid, instead of stupid and pointless. I guess that was something. “Sounds like all that’s left is to talk with him about the actual terms for the duel.”
Volkan nodded. “I’ll send him in.” He headed for the door, but paused on his way out. “Magus, I ... regret that one of my soldiers is responsible for this. While I cannot surrender him to Freeport justice, I would be happy to pay blood money. By the same token if there is any punishment I could levy within the Blood Stripes that could satisfy your grievance against him...”
“He shot one of my friends,” I growled out. “He needs to answer for that, and with more than a demotion and a few ducats.”
Volkan didn’t so much as blink at my answer, so that was probably what he’d expected me to say. “Alright. I’ll send him in.”
He exited, and a minute later another Blood Stripe walked in. The new guy looked positively scrawny compared to his superior. Considering he only looked a little older than me, he probably hadn’t been chugging down potions to bulk himself up for anywhere near as long as Volkan had. There was something vaguely familiar about the lines of his face, though I couldn’t quite put my hoof on it. The standard war paint of the Blood Stripes probably made it harder to pick out facial features—zebras look weird when they’re red and black.
He must have seen that I was trying to figure out who he was, because the young zebra’s eyes narrowed. “I am Zuberi Aksoy of the Blood Stripes. You were there the day my uncle died, Magus Shimmer. Do you remember it?”
Considering I’d only ever seen Strumming kill one zebra, it wasn’t too hard to guess who Zuberi’s uncle was. “The bokor in the out-islands.”
Zuberi scowled and nodded sharply. “Once, long ago, before the Council, my family was pacted to one of the lesser necrocrats. For most of my family, it was nothing beyond a minor note of trivial history. To my uncle, it became an obsession. He dreamed of recapturing what he called the lost glory of our family’s golden days. He did his best to keep his studies harmless, confining his activities to one island that had almost no contact with the outside world. His undead were used for strictly peaceful activities, like farming. He did no evil and caused no harm to others.” His teeth clenched. “That did not stop your Strumming Heartstrings from murdering him.”
Despite my best effort to play it cool, I flinched. I wasn’t proud of my role in that entire mess. Yeah, the guy had been a necromancer practicing forbidden dark magic, but I hadn’t seen the bokor doing anything nasty enough to require death. Strumming had still put a spike in the back of his head without a moment’s hesitation, and after he’d backed down and agreed to let us leave in peace. Nothing about the incident had sat well with me, and the only reason I hadn’t done more about it was that Rising Fire hadn’t given me much time to reflect on it all. The crazy super-powered lich who claimed to be a time and dimensional traveler overshadowed little things like a necromancer getting killed.
Though really, what could I have done? Necromancy was dark magic, and the bokor had sicced his zombies on us and nearly killed one of Strumming’s soldiers. The Freeport authorities obviously didn’t care, and Strumming’s superiors in the EIS had been fine with her locking me up when I’d barely dabbled with dark magic under far more justifiable circumstances. About all I really could have done about it was ... well, more-or-less what Zuberi did. Guess that meant I could sympathize with him.
However, a little sympathy didn’t change anything about what he’d done. “So you shot Strumming to avenge your uncle? If you knew who she was and that I was there too, you had to have some idea how much trouble going after her would cause.”
“Some,” Zuberi conceded. “But he’s my blood.”
Ugh. Should’ve known it would boil down to that. Family is just one of those things people can’t be reasonable about. If someone hurt Kukri, I would’ve torn them down no matter how bad the consequences. Hay, I didn’t even like Strumming, and I was going after the guy who shot her. Still, I had to try and reason with him. “Do you think your uncle would want you to get yourself and a bunch of other people killed? People are talking about a street war right now!”
Zuberi groaned and ran a hoof down his face, falling heavily into one of my chairs. “I didn’t want that. I was just trying to...”
“You wanted to avenge your uncle, and now it’s all gone way too far and you’re in over your head and have no idea how to get out,” I concluded. “There’s an easy solution to it all: turn yourself in and confess. I’ll make sure they go easy on you. I can probably even get Strumming or her superiors to pay you blood money.”
He grimaced and shook his head. “I can’t give up while my uncle’s killer is still alive, and gold cannot pay for a debt of blood.” He threw a desperate look my way. “You could stand aside. I have no quarrel with you—this is between her and me. You don’t have to be involved if you don’t want to.”
I crossed my forelegs over my chest. “I think it’s pretty obvious that I do.” I could just pass on the duel, but then Puzzle would solve things his way. Which would probably be much nastier and bloodier than a duel.
Zuberi sighed and nodded very slowly. “She must be a very good friend if you are willing to go so far for her.”
I scoffed and shook my head. “I don’t know if I’d call her a friend. Actually, most of the time she annoys the hay out of me.”
I expected that to surprise Zuberi, but instead he just chuckled and shook his head. “My uncle Djimon ... well, he was already the weird uncle nobody liked to talk about who spent all his time around dead bodies. We only invited him to family gatherings because we were obligated to, and everyone was secretly happy when he didn’t turn up.”
“And yet, you’re willing to kill for him,” I murmured.
Zuberi’s eyes narrowed. “Just because my uncle was a creepy necromancer I hated spending time with doesn’t mean I’m okay with some Equestrian cutting his throat.”
“Sort of like how just because Strumming gets on my nerves doesn't mean I’m okay with some zebra putting a bullet in her chest,” I shot back, crossing my forelegs over my chest.
He nodded slowly, conceding the point. “Then it seems we are at an impasse, with no choice but to fight a duel for the sake of two people we don’t even like.”
I growled a couple words Celestia wouldn’t have approved of. “If you can come up with any alternatives, I’m all ears.”
Zuberi sighed and shook his head. “If I had a better idea, I would have done it already.”
Super. “Alright then, looks like we’re dueling. Not to the death, though.”
Zuberi nodded. “I have no desire to kill you either. Shall we limit ourselves to fighting until one of us yields or is unable to continue?”
“Yeah, sure.” It shouldn’t be too hard to land a disabling spell that would destroy his ability to offer effective resistance. Zuberi was stubborn, but I was pretty sure he’d back down once it was clear he couldn’t win. If he was honest about only trying to avenge his uncle out of obligation he might even want to lose on a subconscious level. It would give him a way out of the mess he’d gotten himself into without violating his sense of honor. Of course, that same stubborn honor would probably say that he couldn’t deliberately throw the fight.
Zuberi closed his eyes and took a deep breath. “It is settled, then. If I win, you stand aside and allow me to gain my vengeance on Strumming Heartstrings.”
I thought about mentioning that Puzzle was probably the one he really needed to worry about, but wisely kept my mouth shut. After all, that would only matter if I lost, and I had no intention of doing that. “Alright, and if I win you drop your vendetta against her and turn yourself in and make a full confession to the condottieri.”
Zuberi scowled and shook his head. “Freeport’s justice is no justice at all. I will not make another attempt on her life, but surrendering myself to the condottieri is out of the question.” He thought it over for a second, then suggested. “I could, however, request a long-term assignment somewhere far away from Freeport. I trust a de facto exile would suffice?”
“I can live with it.”
“Then we agreed on the terms.” He nodded solemnly. “I trust you are familiar with the provisions of the Zebrican dueling code?”
I tried to recall whether I’d actually heard anything about it before. “There are all the usual rules about no poisons, outside aid, and other forms of cheating. Each one of us names a single category of weapon that neither party can use, and we’re free to bring anything else.”
“That’s the basics,” he agreed. “To be honest, I don’t remember all the finer points of it myself. Since you are the wronged party, you get first choice of weapon.”
I didn’t need long to think about it. “No firearms or other ranged weapons.” Zuberi looked a bit skinny and under-muscled to be one of the Stripes’ close combat specialists, and he’d used a gun to take out Strumming. Not to mention that forcing him to close to melee with me would cut down his options and give me a lot more time to land a spell.
“As expected,” he murmured. “I’m sure you’ve already guessed what I will use.”
I shrugged. “I’m not a mind reader.”
“I would have thought it obvious, magus. I choose magic.”
“What?!” I hadn’t been expecting that. “You can’t—magic isn’t a weapon! It’s a fundamental force that runs through everything in the universe! That’d be like trying to ban air or water from a duel!”
Zuberi answered me with a raised eyebrow. “Tell me, magus, what means were you planning to use to fight me in our duel?”
Horseapples. He had me there. While I didn’t think of magic as a weapon, it was pretty hard to argue I didn’t use it all the time in combat. However... “It’s still way too broad. Almost everything I do involves using magic in some way.”
He tapped his chin, thinking it over. “No offensive spellcasting, or any spell targeted directly at me. No spells to give yourself unnatural physical strength, speed, or any other abilities. You may use your telekinesis, but only as it doesn’t significantly increase your reach beyond what you could manage with your hooves. Your equipment cannot be so enchanted that it provides you with a substantial advantage over me. And just to be safe, let’s toss in a general prohibition on any form of magic that provides a substantial advantage in the duel that could not be obtained by any other means.”
I scowled and shook my head. “Not sure I like those terms.”
He shrugged. “If we cannot agree on terms for our duel, then it will not happen.”
In other words, we were right back to the prospect of a street war between Puzzle and the Blood Stripes. Not a great outcome ... but I wasn’t wild about trying to win a battle without having access to much in the way of magic either. “I’ll think about it.”
Zuberi nodded solemnly. “You have until noon, tomorrow. I will await you at the dueling grounds near the central plaza. If there is nothing else, magus…?”
I grunted and waved him away. He trotted out without another word, which was fine by me. I wasn’t in any mood to continue playing at being a good host or diplomat. I only had until noon tomorrow to figure out a way to win a one-on-one battle against a trained and experienced mercenary where I couldn’t use any spells more advanced than what an unmarked foal could manage. If I didn’t find solution, we were back to blood in the streets.
Without most of my magic, I couldn’t see any easy ways to a win a duel under the rules Zuberi had set. I was more than a little tempted to just refuse the whole thing, but then I’d be right back to square one. If nothing else, I wanted to make sure I couldn’t come up with a way to win before I gave up on the idea completely. It was still my best option for putting this whole issue to rest without anyone getting killed.
Too bad I had even less in the way of options when it came to getting advice. If I had more time I could’ve gone to the Doos for a crash course in close combat, but with the duel set for tomorrow I wouldn’t have time for anything more than a couple of pointers. Certainly not enough to handle someone who had years of training in fighting with melee weapons. If I was going to win this fight, I needed a sneaky plan. Thankfully, I had a couple allies who were good at that sort of thing.
When I stepped into Puzzle’s safe house I discovered that Strumming had woken up. Whatever they’d given her at the hospital had evidently worn off. She was handling her convalescence with about as much grace as I’d expected she would. Her bed was almost completely covered in discarded books and magazines, and the floor around it was already developing a thin coating of empty snack bags and wrappers. She grinned and waved when she saw me. “Hey, bacon-mane. Hope you brought some fresh snacks with you—bug-boy’s threatening to make me eat healthy hospital food instead of the good stuff.”
That got a bit of a chuckle out of me. “Not even out of bed yet and you’re already back to your old self. Good to see you’re awake.”
She shrugged and smirked. “Yeah, you know what they say. Can’t keep a morally ambiguous mare down.”
Puzzle stepped out of the kitchen and cleared his throat. “Shimmer-mare. How is your investigation going? Do we have any suspects yet?”
“It’s going,” I answered carefully. “I’ve got a few promising leads, but I want a bit more time to make sure we’ve got something solid. No sense in going on the vengeance warpath against the wrong target. How are you two holding up?”
“I’m doing just fine, aside from bug-boy trying to finish killing me with health food.” Strumming rolled over a bit, showing off her bandage. “The docs did a good job of plugging up all my leaks, and I am on so many painkillers right now.” Her eyes slowly took in the room before focusing on me. “Are you melting because it’s so hot and humid outside, or is that the meds?”
Puzzle cleared his throat. “This one is almost certain the Heartstrings-mare is exaggerating.” He turned to face me. “So what brings you by? It sounds like there aren’t any major updates on your case. Did you need this one’s help with anything? It hopes that the agents it provided to assist you have proven adequate.”
“Yeah, no complaints.” I tried to think of the best way to get him out of the room. “I just wanted to check up on you two. Maybe relax for a bit and get a bite to eat without worrying about someone watching me. Would you mind getting me something warm and filling?”
Puzzle frowned skeptically. “This one is sure the Shimmer-mare is capable of feeding herself.”
Strumming cleared her throat. “Actually, as long as Sunset’s here, there’s some health stuff I wanted to go over, and some things I was hoping she could pick up for me.” Puzzle opened his mouth, but Strumming held up a hoof to cut him off. “Feminine issues.”
“Ah.” Puzzle shut his mouth, shifting uncertainly on his hooves. “This ... this one sees. Very well then. It will go get the Shimmer-mare’s food, then.” He cleared his throat and quickly trotted over to the door, but paused right before he stepped out. “When this one returns, it will knock three times, then twice. Do not answer the door under any other circumstances.”
“Yeah, yeah...” Strumming rolled her eyes. “Now get your cute little butt outta here so we can talk about icky girl stuff.” Puzzle wasted no time following her advice. Once he was long gone, Strumming grinned at me. “Always works. You ever wanna get rid of a stallion, bring that up. Even an information broker doesn’t wanna know all messy details of his girlfriend’s monthlies.”
“It’s not just stallions who don’t want to know that stuff,” I grumbled. Just because I shared a gender with Strumming didn’t mean I wanted all the messy details of her personal health.
Strumming leaned back on her pillows, grinning at me. “So ... what’s up that don’t you want bug-boy finding out about?” She held up a hoof. “Reminds me, before we get started you might wanna knock out the listening device he’s got in the lamp. Actually just toss up a privacy spell after you do that. If I spotted one, he might have others I haven’t seen.”
“Right.” I disabled the first device, then gave into the temptation to scan for more. A second later, I took Strumming’s advice and just tossed up a privacy spell around the two of us instead. “He’s got a lot of wards over this place, and I don’t think we’ve got enough time for me to untangle which ones might be there to spy on us.” It irked my professional pride to admit that Puzzle had given me a magical problem I couldn’t solve, but denying it wouldn’t do any good. Besides, I could’ve taken his wards down if I’d really wanted to, it just wouldn’t have been subtle. Puzzle would be very annoyed if I ripped down all the defensive spells on his safe house just to get rid of a few eavesdropping spells.
Strumming got straight to business. “No idea how long we’ve got until bug-boy makes it back, so let’s not waste any time. What’s going on, and why don’t we want him knowing about it?”
I slumped down onto a cushion near Strumming’s bed. “I think I might be in a bit over my head, and I need a sneaky plan to even the odds.” I sighed and ran a hoof through my mane. “I figured out who shot you. Turns out it was the nephew of that bokor you killed during the whole Rising Fire thing. He was acting on his own.”
Strumming snorted and shook her head. “Should’ve figured the crazy necromancer might have some minions lurking around.”
I frowned and shook my head. “I don’t think they worked together. He’s just mad you murdered his uncle.”
“Executed,” Strumming corrected. “Though I’m gonna be honest, why exactly he wants to avenge his psycho uncle by murdering me is kinda academic. So why don’t you want Puzzle to know about it?”
I took a deep breath. “Because if Puzzle find out who shot you, the kid’s dead.” I scowled and shook my head. “He’s not that much older than I am, and it sounds like he didn’t even like his uncle that much. But ... well, family is family.”
“Oh.” She thought it over for a second, then nodded. “Okay, I get that. You think he’s a stupid kid who made a bad call, and bug-boy's kinda on the warpath right now. ‘Course, I could point out the problem of coming to me for help. The guy shot me. I think you’ll understand if I take that a little personally.”
I grimaced and couldn’t quite meet her eyes. “Because you’re not as mad about it as Puzzle is, and you don’t have his resources. He’s been talking about starting a war with Blood Stripes and clogging the gutters with blood.”
“Aww, he really does care.” Strumming stretched out a bit. “Still, you’ve got a point. Though that’s not the whole picture, is it? You need someone who can give you sneaky-backstabby advice, and now that bug-boy’s out I’m your only option.” She paused, then amended, “Well, I suppose you could always try Princess Celestia thanks to that magic book of hers, but I don’t think you want her advice on something like this.”
She was right about that. I didn’t want to run to Celestia every time I was in a tight spot, since the whole point of coming out here had been to establish my independence. Besides, I didn’t want to go to the mare who was pretty much my mom for advice on how to fight a duel. She’d probably try to interfere and keep me from doing it at all.
I sighed and shook my head. “Most of the time when I have a problem with something going on in Freeport, I talk to Puzzle about it. He knows most of what’s going on, and his advice is usually worth listening to.”
“Not this time though.” She grabbed a pillow, fluffed it up, and stuck it behind her back. “Thus, you need the advice of a brilliant genius spy. So what are you planning to do about the zebra guy who shot me?” She paused thoughtfully. “He got a name?”
“Zuberi.” I sighed and shook my head. “He works for the Blood Stripes. I agreed to a duel with him to try and settle this whole thing before anyone dies. If I win, he goes into exile.”
Strumming’s eyes went wide and her jaw dropped. “Wait a duel?!” She scowled and angrily shook her head. “Cancel it.”
I crossed my forelegs over my chest. “You know I can’t. Puzzle’s agents were there for the whole thing. I’ve got them occupied running around confirming Zuberi’s story, but eventually they’re going to report back to the guy who signs their paychecks. Once that happens, it’s only a matter of time before Zuberi’s found floating face-down in the harbor.”
“Maybe that’s not such a bad thing,” Strumming groused, pointedly looking down at her wound. “If he’d been a slightly better shot, we wouldn’t be having this conversation. In case you didn’t know, duels are dangerous. You obviously didn’t agree to a death-match, but if things go wrong one or both of you could still end up dead. That’s a pretty big risk to take for a total stranger who put a bullet in me. Why are you doing this?”
I scoffed and turned my head, refusing to look at her. “Maybe I just don’t want anyone dying because of this stupid thing. What’s so crazy about that?”
“The insane chances you’re taking for no real gain.” She shifted towards the edge of the bed. “I get it, you don’t want anyone dying. That’s totally reasonable—noble, even. The problem is you picked a horrible place to make a stand. How do you think Puzzle’s going to react when he finds out you’re going against him to take the side of the guy who shot me?”
“It’s not like that.” I grimaced and shook my head. “I’m just trying to find a solution before this escalates into a street war. If Puzzle kills Zuberi, how do you think the Stripes or the rest of his family will take it?”
“How do you think Puzzle’s gonna take it if you let the guy get away?” Strumming paused, glowering at me. “For that matter, how do you think I feel about it? You’re bending so far over backwards to keep this guy alive that you’re betraying your friends and allies.”
“So what do you think I should do then?!” I snapped.
Strumming took a deep breath. “I’ll handle it. Just sit this one out, Sunset. I started this, and I’ll finish it. Pretty sure I can convince Puzzle to stand down if I’m going after the guy myself. The whole protective boyfriend thing is cute, but I have first dibs on the guy who shot me.”
I scoffed. “You’re going to take care of it? How? You can’t even get out of bed right now. I can only keep Puzzle in the dark for a bit, and he’s going to find out what’s going on way before you’re healed up enough to do anything.”
“So maybe Puzzle kills the guy,” Strumming conceded with a shrug. “Maybe it even touches off this street war you’re so scared of. Maybe the gutters run red with blood until the Blood Stripes are wiped out. I’d take that deal in a heartbeat if the alternative is you getting killed in a stupid duel. If you think it could get bad now, imagine what happens if you die: Puzzle would go on even more of a rampage, and you know Princess Celestia wouldn’t take that lying down.”
I snorted and shook my head. “Then I just need to win.”
Strumming groaned and ran a hoof down her face. “You think it’s that simple?”
“Of course it’s not that bucking simple!” I snapped again. “I have no idea how I’m going to win! I just don’t see any other option to clean up the mess you made! The only alternative you’ve given me is murdering someone just for trying to avenge his uncle’s death!”
“So that’s it.” Strumming leaned back against her pillows and crossed her forelegs over her chest. “This is some sort of atonement thing?”
I turned my back on her. “I was there, Strumming. I helped bust down his defenses. There’s no way you could’ve killed him without my help. Pretty sure that makes me an accessory.”
“Oh for the love of...” Strumming threw her hooves up into the air. “He was a warlock. An enemy of all civilization and ponykind. It’s not murder, it’s justice.”
“You stabbed him in the back after we agreed to a truce,” I growled.
“The safest way to kill a warlock is to get them when their guard’s down.” Strumming shrugged. “Sure, maybe it’s not fair, but I’d rather cheat to take down the bad guy without losing any of our people than fight him fair and bury some of my soldiers at the end of it. Speaking of which, we only agreed to that truce because he was holding one of my guys hostage. Pretty Celestia taught you enough law to grasp that agreements made under duress don’t count.”
“Guess that means I better keep a close eye on you,” I growled. “You arrested me for using dark magic once. Do I get a spike in the back of the head once I let my guard down?”
Strumming crossed her hooves over her chest, refusing to look at me. She stayed quiet for a long time, long enough that I was wondering if I’d killed conversation entirely. Not that I would’ve minded, considering how it had been going. Finally she spoke very softly, her voice lacking its usual bravado. She sounded ... almost humble. “I was wrong about you. Back when we first started, with the whole ‘arresting you’ thing. That was a bad call.”
I glowered back at her, refusing to give an inch. If she wanted to apologize, I was going to make her work for it.
Strumming sighed and ran a hoof down her face. “You're a good pony. Not a perfect one, but I think you’re at least trying to do the right thing. Yeah, you used dark magic, but you were stuck in a rough spot with no other way out, and a whole lot of innocent lives at stake. You made a tough call. The sort of call a magus is supposed to make. I misjudged you, and I’m sorry.”
I sighed and shook my head. “I probably didn’t make it easy on you. I was still going out of my way to do the exact opposite of whatever Celestia wanted from me, and you got caught in that. Granted, it would have gone better if you had helped me a bit more instead of criticising everything I was trying to do.”
“Yeah, I messed up.” She cleared her throat, then held up a hoof to cut me off before I could respond. “That said, you have no idea just how bad dark magic can make a pony. You think that because you’ve had years of training from Equestria’s moral center and you’re grounded enough to use it once or twice without going off the deep end, that means it’s totally safe. Don’t get up on your high horse about how just because we didn’t personally witness a crazy necromancer doing anything evil, that means he’s a pure innocent who’s never done anything. We only had his word he never killed anyone for his horde of zombies, and that’s hardly a reliable source. When a necromancer looks at a living pony, all they see is another potential corpse to use.”
“You’re making an awful lot of assumptions,” I grumbled. “Aside from him using a bit of dark magic, you don’t have any evidence of wrongdoing.”
Strumming flicked up the wing from her uninjured side, counting her points off on her feathers. “First off, using necromancy on a large scale is already pretty heavy evidence of wrongdoing. It’s like saying ‘aside from the pile of dead bodies hidden in his basement, there’s no evidence he’s a murderer.’ Speaking of, the guy also had a bunch of corpses in the basement. Second, think about who you’re dealing with. This guy admired the necrocrats. Anyone who looks back fondly on the days when Freeport had an undead ruling class and is building up his own force of zombies is dangerous. Third, he tried to kill my soldiers. Finally, three ships have gone missing in that area since the necromancer set up shop. Funny enough, all his zombies look like they drowned.”
I frowned and shook my head. “At best, that’s circumstantial evidence. Ships going missing in the out-islands isn’t exactly rare. Storms, pirates, smugglers, monsters, and a dozen other things can sink a ship with no necromancer involved. I’m not sure if you recall how the justice system works, but we don’t go executing anyone because they might have done something. You crossed a line, Strumming.”
My scowl deepened as something new occurred to me. “Puzzle. When he found out what you’d done, he said there was some reason you’d done it. That it wasn’t about him being a criminal or a necromancer. You got real pissed at him for bringing it up, too.”
“Because it was none of his damned business,” Strumming growled. “It’s none of yours either.”
“It kinda is once you start making me an accessory to murder,” I countered, deliberately stressing the last word.
Strumming grunted and turned her back on me. After several seconds of silence, she sighed and nodded to herself. “Fine.” She took a deep breath. “Back when I was starting off, my first partner got caught by some bad guys. He’d been doing some undercover stuff, and they wanted to know how badly he’d compromised them. Of course Moonstone wasn’t gonna talk, and they didn’t have enough time to force it out of him. So ... they broke into his head. Pretty sure you can guess how it went from there.”
I grimaced, all too familiar with the effects of mind magic. I’d been forced to break into Metal Mome’s head to stop his golems, back when I first moved to Freeport. Last I heard, the Council still had Mome in a secure mental facility. On a good day he was capable of feeding himself with a little help. Breaking into someone’s head that way ... it was sort of like going into their mental library and pulling all the books off the shelves until you found the right one. You could end up tearing their psyche to bits in the process.
Strumming nodded glumly. “He’s about as bad off as that pirate you fought. Used to go visit him from time to time, when I had time off work. Figured if anyone should check up on Moonstone, it should be me.”
I was about to say something sympathetic when a thought occurred to me. I quickly dug up Strumming’s medical chart to confirm it. My sympathy vanished in an instant. “Moonstone is your middle name!”
Strumming’s face fell. “I was hoping you didn’t know that.”
I snarled and got to my hooves. “You know what? There’s a lot I can get over. The snacking, your flippant attitude, the way you muck around my business. I could even give you a pass for being too aggressive with a warlock.” I got up and started pacing. “But the one thing I am utterly fed up with is your lies!”
Strumming met my anger with an uncaring shrug. “Don’t take it personally, I lie to everyone.” She pulled out a bag of nuts and opened it up, tossing one into the air.
I telekinetically snatched the nut before it landed in her mouth. “‘Don’t take it personally’?!” I repeated incredulously. “You’re lying to me! Of course I’m going to take it personally!” My jaw tightened and my teeth clenched as my outrage built. “I’m going out on a limb for you and trying to give you a chance to explain yourself, and you’re still lying to me! Why should I trust you with anything when you pull stuff like this? You want to know why I don’t trust you, and we got off to a bad start? Because of horseapples like this! Because you go off and murder some zebra minding his own business and get me mixed up in this big mess, and you won’t even tell me why! No, worse than that! Not telling me would still piss me off, but lying about it is twenty times worse!”
“Why do you think I told you to drop this and let me handle it?” Strumming growled. “You think that because you’ve mixed yourself up in my business, you get to know my secrets? Well maybe I don’t want either of those things.”
“No, clearly you’d rather murder another zebra who didn’t deserve it!” I snapped.
“Oh please.” Strumming rolled her eyes. “If you’ve got some weird guilt thing over having a small supporting role in killing a bad guy, don’t take it out on me.”
I scoffed. “Right, the bad guy. Except I’ve only got your word that he’s actually bad. Why should I believe a thing you say? You freely admit you lie all the time!”
Strumming snorted and turned her back on me, wincing from the effort. “Fine then, you’re right. You really shouldn’t believe me anyway.”
I started pacing again, trying to make sense of her behavior. Maybe some of it made sense if she was trying to get me so pissed at her that I abandoned the situation out of pure spite, but there was more to this than that. She’d been a chronic liar for as long as I’d known her. Puzzle had once shared a theory that she lied so much she couldn’t even keep the truth straight in her own head. Why would a pony even do that to themselves?
The answer came in a flash of inspiration. “So who was it?”
“Who was who?” Strumming shot back, still not looking at me.
“You were right about one thing. You do lie a lot.” I trotted around the bed to face her again. “But Puzzle told me something once. That even the lies a pony tells can be used to find the truth. Then there’s one of the lessons I got from Celestia: how to defend my mind against a mental attack. There were a lot of different techniques, but one of them seems particularly applicable. You lie.” I held up a hoof to forestall her response. “Someone trying to break into your head wants information, and they won’t stop until they get it. So give them what they want, or at least something close enough to make them think they’ve won. Of course, lying to someone who’s inside your brain isn’t easy. You’d have to lie so well you couldn’t even tell the difference between your own truth and lies.”
Strumming raised an eyebrow. “Interesting theory. Of course, somepony who can’t tell the difference between their own lies and reality would be ... well, a total nutbar. Completely divorced from reality. That’s not me.”
I frowned and shook my head. “Depends on how much you do it. Normally someone would only do that if they expected an immediate mental attack. You’d have to be ridiculously paranoid to use that technique all the time.” I fixed a knowing gaze on her. “The sort of paranoia that comes from seeing someone close to you suffer the after-effects of a massive mental assault. You used your own middle name for that story. Makes a pony wonder if maybe that story hit a bit closer to home for you than you want to admit.”
“You’re reaching,” Strumming grunted out, scowling at me. “That’s a ridiculously complicated theory. Maybe I just lie because I enjoy it. Or I’m a pathological liar. Or just because lying’s a skill, and skills need regular practice.”
All those answers made sense, but my instincts told me I was onto something. “So who did you get your middle name from?”
Strumming rolled her eyes. “My parents, same as everypony.”
That sounded like an straightforward deflection, but I had to wonder if maybe that was another case of a lie revealing some of the truth. “The EIS is a family business, right?”
Strumming’s eyes narrowed. “You know, if I’m not telling you the truth it’s probably because I don’t want to, not because of some elaborate conspiracy theory.”
She was getting angry again. I was tempted to push her a bit harder, but that might be a wasted effort. She was getting more and more defensive the more I probed and the closer I got to the truth. I was probably better off comparing notes with Puzzle. However, I had to get the last word in. “Yeah, it was somepony close to you. Close enough to make you go around on a personal crusade against warlocks.”
Strumming scoffed. “What a load. I don’t need some deeply personal childhood trauma to be opposed to dangerous black magic users. I just need to be after them because they’re loonies who use forbidden dark magic to kill and hurt innocent ponies.”
I sighed and shook my head. I still suspected I was a lot closer to the truth than she was admitting, but I was honestly tired of dealing with her. “Whatever. I still have to figure out how to get out of this mess without there being a body count, which means winning the duel.”
After a long, awkward silence, Strumming asked a question. “What are the duel terms?”
“We’re going by Zebrican terms, so each of us agreed to ban one weapon.” I grimaced as I got to the bad part. “He’s not allowed to use firearms and I can’t use magic. Well, I can’t use magic to do much more than basic telekinesis to wield melee weapons. I’m sure I could find a few loopholes to exploit in the rules if I really wanted to, but...”
“That’d probably just make him say you won by cheating, so the results don’t count,” Strumming concluded. “If the Stripes don’t think you won legitimately, they’ll probably refuse to honor the outcome, or at least turn a blind eye when he breaks his exile.” She frowned and scratched her chin. “So, it’s melee weapons only? Presumably not to the death, considering you want this to give you a way out without killing him.”
I grunted and nodded. “It goes on until one side submits.”
“Might want to be careful,” Strumming cautioned. “With those terms it’s frowned upon to go for the kill, but accidents happen.” She frowned thoughtfully. “Now, if you want some advice on how to win this, I’d suggest...”
Once Strumming and I had hashed out a plan, it was up to me to put it into action. Thankfully, I had the resources to pull that off without needing Puzzle’s network. The Doos were more than willing to rent out the gear I needed, and for a bit more I got a few quick lessons. There wasn’t time to learn more than a few basics, but if everything went according to plan I wouldn’t need more than that.
I arrived at the dueling ground ten minutes before we were due to start. My equipment was a little different from my usual cloak and armor. I’d managed to find a set of full-plate in the Doo armory that made for a good enough fit with a few adjustments. It was still a long way from perfect, but it shouldn’t be too much of a problem with what I had in mind. I didn’t plan to do a lot of maneuvering, and as long as I won the duel, I could live with some chafing. It wasn’t like I planned to use this stuff long-term.
The rest of my equipment was even less typical. A longspear and a heavy shield that I had almost no prayer of properly wielding without telekinesis. Good thing I was allowed to use my magic for that, as long as I didn’t extend my reach and maneuverability past what I could manage with hooves. Or rather, what I could manage if I’d done proper combat training and exercise. If I made it out of this in one piece, I would have to work on physical fitness.
Of course, my visit to the Doos ensured that I would attract an audience. Naturally Kukri was in the front row, along with her father and a few other members of the clan. That made me all the more determined to win this thing. I certainly didn’t want Kukri to see me fail or get hurt; it would break her hero-worshipping little heart.
Zuberi stood at the other end of the ring, chatting with several of his fellow Blood Stripes. His war paint had been freshly done up, and he was wearing a much lighter quilted gambeson and suit of chainmail. The cluster of zebras noted my approach with raised eyebrows, quite taken aback by my heavy wargear. Zuberi confidently strode over, a scimitar hanging from his hip. “Magus Shimmer. It seems you have arrived.”
I smirked and nodded. “Well spotted.” I put just a hint of mockery into my tone.
The very serious young zebra frowned at me. “You can still back out.”
I scoffed and shook my head. “We both know that’s not happening.”
His frown grew into a scowl. “I have heard it said you are a mare of honor. Why are you protecting the pony responsible for killing my uncle?”
I rolled my eyes. “I’m pretty sure we already had this conversation when we were setting up the duel. I thought you came here to fight, not talk.” Poking at him like that wasn’t something I normally would’ve done, but Strumming had suggested it. I wasn’t going to beat him with pure martial skill, and even with a few clever tricks up my sleeve I needed every edge I could get. If I managed to get under Zuberi’s skin and annoy him so much he started making mistakes it might give me the edge I needed to win.
Zuberi’s eyes narrowed, and he nodded sharply. “Fine then. We fight.” He sharply turned on his hooves, going over to the two judges who would be inspecting our gear. Per Zebrican tradition, each of us had named one of them. Knives Doo served as my judge, since I knew her reasonably well and she had some experience with dueling protocol. Unsurprisingly, Zuberi had picked his commanding officer to be his judge.
Knives only gave my gear a cursory inspection, since she’d helped me pick it out. Commander Volkan subjected it to far stricter scrutiny, hefting the shield, spear, and several pieces of armor to make sure I hadn’t put any weight-reducing spells on them. Zuberi seemed to share his concerns. “How can she even carry all that without magic?”
“They’re called muscles,” I countered. “I can see why you wouldn’t be familiar with them.”
The young zebra flushed with wounded pride, whirling to his Commander. “What about heat? Is she using any spells to keep from overheating while wearing all that metal?”
Volkan carefully looked the armor over, poking each piece of it to see if he could find any evidence of spellwork. “I see no sign of that.”
He wouldn’t. I wasn’t planning on cheating in the duel. Granted, some might say I’d exploited a bit of a loophole by using a bit of subtle biomancy to drop my body temperature down by a few degrees. I had dropped the spell right before we approached the duelling grounds, but starting off on the cool side would buy me a bit more time before the heat started getting to me.
Zuberi grimaced, but he couldn’t find any legitimate grounds for complaint. “Fine then.”
I took the opportunity to needle him a bit more. “Problem?”
“No,” he answered sourly.
I smirked confidently. “If you don’t think you can win, you can always back down.”
Zuberi glowered balefully at me. “If you think you can beat me before you suffer heat stroke from dressing up in that tin can, feel free to try.”
“I’ll manage,” I answered confidently.
His eyes narrowed suspiciously. “Check to make sure she isn’t using any spells.”
Before the judge started, I held up a hoof. “I do have one contingent teleportation spell set up to take me over the medics if I’m severely injured. Needless to say, that would be a de facto forfeit. I can remove the spell if that’s an issue, or I can cast it on Zuberi too if he wants.”
Volkan nodded thoughtfully. “Sounds useful. I don’t see any issue with that spell. The whole point is to close this out with no deaths. Zuberi?”
“I don’t need a spell for a contingency that won’t happen,” he declared confidently. “Besides, she would probably try to use it to teleport me out as soon as I received flesh wound.”
“I don’t need to cheat to beat you,” I shot back with a dismissive wave. “Just like I don’t need any spells to crush you.” As if to emphasize my point, the sky rumbled as a storm began sweeping in from ocean.
Zuberi grimaced, his eyes flicking to the sky. “We better get started then, it’s going to rain soon.” I heard the barest hint of nervous fear in his voice, and he swallowed heavily as he took the first steps towards the ring.
I saw another opening. “Afraid of a little water? Don’t worry, I’ll finish this before you get your mane wet.” I levitated my weapons up, grinning as I trotted into position.
Zuberi’s teeth clenched as he drew his scimitar. “Let’s see if you can fight half as well as you talk.”
“Works for me.”
Knives and Volkan nodded to one another, and the mare stepped forward. “You will remain in position until I give the word. Neither party may exit the dueling ring once you begin. Exiting the ring is a forfeit. The battle will continue until one of you yields, steps out of the ring, or is unable to continue.”
“Understood.” Zuberi settled into his place, flicking his scimitar through a quick series of slices in an effort to impress the crowd.
I didn’t try anything flashy. I just got into position, my spear and shield facing my opponent. If I’d tried to dramatically flourish my weapons, I probably would’ve just made a fool out of myself. “I’m ready.”
Volkan did the honors. “Three. Two. One. Begin!”
Zuberi began with a slow, cautious approach. It was the prudent thing to do against an unknown opponent who was up to something suspicious, but it wasn’t the best move. If he’d rushed me, he might’ve turned it into a very short and embarrassing duel. With my heavy and imperfectly fitted armor, I wouldn’t have had a chance of keeping up. He could’ve easily outflanked me and started stabbing me from behind.
Caution stole his chance. As he advanced I fell back and to the side, until I’d put my back to one of the corners of the dueling arena. With my back secured and both flanks protected by the boundary, he had no choice but to fight me head-on.
Zuberi paused and frowned as he realized what I’d done. He knew I was in a strong position, and digging me out of it wouldn’t be easy. With no better options, he tried to taunt me out of it. “Afraid to fight me, Magus?”
“Nope.” I smirked at him, though now that I had a helmet on it didn’t work as well. “Just playing smart. You’re the one who was too scared to face me while I could cast any spells. Here I am, the magus without any magic. Come and get me.”
Zuberi scowled and closed in, trying a few quick jabs to probe my defenses. None of them came close to getting past my huge shield, but blocking those attacks didn’t leave me with many openings to counterattack. Not that I planned to do much of that at this stage. The few pokes I made with my spear were little more than a token effort. I would’ve been utterly stunned if I’d actually landed a hit.
Just as I’d hoped, the longer I held him at bay with relatively little effort, the more frustrated Zuberi got. His attacks became less and less careful as he tried to find a way past my shield, or barring that just batter through my defenses.
I was more than content to sit back, snug and safe in my corner and let him do exactly that. As Strumming had put it, winning the fight wasn’t a matter of me pulling off some brilliant and complex maneuver. I just needed to survive until he made a mistake. I threw out another taunt to help move him along. “Looks like you’re having some trouble.”
He snarled and stepped in, swinging for my spear. He succeeded in knocking my weapon aside, but he’d forgotten a lesson Knives had drilled into me during my crash course. The shield isn’t just a slab of metal you use to block attacks—it’s as much of a weapon as a spear.
Zuberi saw the attack coming in time to partially dodge it, but the rim of my shield still caught him across the jaw. He staggered back, and for a moment I was tempted to pursue and try to take him down while he was off-balance. I suppressed the instinct. In a magic fight I could afford to be aggressive, but not now. Stick to the plan, and stay defensive. If I went on the attack too soon, it could end very badly for me.
Zuberi slowly regained his bearings, then spat out a mouthful of blood accompanied by half a tooth. It was a good thing he’d managed a partial dodge; if I’d caught him full in the mouth, he probably would have been stuck eating his meals through a straw for months. He glared furiously at me, picking up his dropped scimitar and pacing back and forth as he searched for an opening.
I saw another opening for a weapon that hurt nearly as much as my shield had. “Have I made you angry?” I turned to the crowd. “I think I made him angry.” That got a few chuckles out of them, mostly from the Doos.
A soft growl left Zuberi’s lips at the laughter, and he rushed in again. This time he kept a wary eye on my shield. His swing went wild, and I put my spear into his path. However, he caught me by surprise when he kept barreling forward, trusting his armor to keep my speartip at bay. His chainmail was good enough to keep my strike from penetrating too deep, and the long shallow gash along his side wasn’t enough to kill his momentum.
I grunted in surprise when he body-slammed my shield, pushing it back against me. A second later I realized what his plan was as I felt my hooves beginning to slide back. My position in the corner meant he couldn’t flank me, but it also put me perilously close to the edge of the ring. He only needed to force me a short distance back to knock me out. I tried to bring my spear back to bear against him, but he was too close for me to get a good angle. At least, not without breaking the duel rules by attacking from an angle that couldn’t be managed with hooves.
Zuberi grinned as he saw his advantage, pushing hard to try and drive me back the short distance he needed to clench his victory. He tried to sneak a punch past my shield, but thankfully the awkward angle robbed the strike of enough force to do more than lightly clang off my helmet.
I couldn’t beat him in a contest of raw strength, so I changed the rules. One of the rules of magic duels was to never use a brute force shield when you could just redirect the attack so it missed. I tried something similar, ceasing the shoving match in favor of angling my shield and taking a half-step to the side. The sudden shift in position left Zuberi unbalanced, and he nearly stumbled out of the ring before he managed to catch himself.
I didn’t let the opening go to waste now that I’d opened up some distance. I brought my spear to bear and jabbed at his foreleg. The armor there wasn’t as thick, and I managed to score a passable hit. His armor kept the blow from penetrating too deeply, but that suited me. I didn’t want to cripple him or risk hitting a blood vessel that might bleed him out. I just wanted him slowed down.
Zuberi yelped and jumped back, retreating back the center of the ring. I let him fall back, content to reclaim my defensive position. “Is that all you’ve got? Not so hot when you’re not shooting someone in the back, are you?”
He snarled at me. “Come out of that corner and fight me, coward!”
“Why should I?” I asked bluntly. “I’m winning. Not my fault you’re too stupid to figure out a way to beat me.”
Zuberi’s teeth clenched, and he tried to charge in again. He made it about halfway before his wounded leg gave out on him, turning his rush into an off-balance stumble. This time I took the opening, stepping forward and thrusting with my spear. He barely managed a parry, but that left him so badly out of position that he was helpless for my next attack.
With another step forward, I slammed my shield into his face. This time I used the boss instead of the rim, mostly because the rim probably would’ve smashed several bones in his face. As it was, he fell to the floor of the ring with a painful thud.
I let the rim of my shield fall onto his main foreleg—not hard enough to break it, but more than enough to make my point. Then I leveled my speartip at his throat. “Yield.”
Zuberi twitched beneath me, trying to find some way out. There wasn’t any. I had one of his legs pinned, and a spear at his throat. He screamed in frustration, refusing to meet my eyes. Finally, he spat out the words like a bitter curse. “I yield, damn you.”
Knives Doo nodded, a hint of a smile on her lips. “Zuberi of the Blood Stripes has yielded. The victory goes to Magus Shimmer.”
Zuberi groaned as I stepped away, and one of the medics entered the ring to see to him.
“Well fought.” I nodded respectfully. “Sorry about the trash-talk. It was just part of the match.”
Zuberi grunted, refusing to meet my eyes or respond. I decided to back off and let the medics patch him up. Hopefully, the damage to his pride was worse than any of the wounds I’d put on his body. He was getting out of this alive, which was more than anyone else could’ve offered him.
As soon as I was outside the dueling ring I spotted a young changeling leaping into the air and cheering her lungs out. Once I’d put my weapons aside, Kukri rushed over and immediately hugged me. “This one never thought it’d say this, but you did a hell of a good job fending off the Heartstrings-mare’s attacker.” She paused for a moment. “Just don’t make a habit of it, alright?”
I nodded and idly ruffled Kukri’s head-crest. Once things settled down some, I should probably bug Strumming to apologize to Kukri. If she’d apologized to me, she could do the same for the kid. However, there were happier things to focus on. “So, I won. I think that calls for a victory party. Who wants ice cream?” Kukri’s widening smile answered my question.
“This one would like some as well.”
As soon as I heard that voice I froze, then slowly turned around.
Puzzle was standing right behind me. And he didn’t look happy. At all.
I’d known it was only a matter of time before Puzzle found out what I’d done. I might’ve outmaneuvered him for a while, but keeping secrets from an information broker was never going to be a viable long-term strategy. Still, I’d hoped it would’ve taken him a bit longer to figure out what I was up to. At least long enough for Zuberi to get away cleanly.
We marched back to his office in complete silence. I was a bit surprised he wasn’t headed back to the safehouse with Strumming, but I guess he wanted to have a private chat. My tower was closer to the dueling grounds than his office, but he probably wanted to make a point with the location by having me talk to him in his center of power rather than the other way around. I didn’t like those sorts of petty power games on a good day, and this wasn’t one of those.
Upon arriving at his headquarters I noticed that his secretary was absent. Probably not a good sign. Once we were inside his private office he settled in behind his desk, then pointedly nodded towards one of the unoccupied cushions. “Sit.”
I didn’t like his tone. It sounded far too much like an order. I remained standing and answered him with the same amount of displeased authority he’d addressed me with. “If you have something to say, get to it.”
Puzzle looked me over, then shrugged. “If you want to remain uncomfortable, that's your prerogative. But this one imagines that all the adrenaline and endorphins from your fight are probably wearing out right about now, and that armor doesn’t look light. Especially for a mare not used to wearing all that. No doubt that was part of why your tactics for the duel involved as little movement as possible.” He smirked and leaned back in his seat. “But then, you like being stubborn, don’t you? This one suspects you would rather spend all day standing than sit when someone tells you to.”
I snorted and rolled my eyes. “I’ve got all kinds of spells helping me manage this stuff now that the duel’s over.” I’d still planned on taking it off before now, but I hadn’t gotten a chance to do so just yet, and I certainly wasn’t going to make myself look weak in front of him.
Puzzle scoffed. “Stand away, then.” He trotted over to one of his cabinets and slowly started mixing himself a drink.
I could tell he was drawing out the entire process just to mess with me, and I really wasn’t in the mood to play this game. “Why don't you stop wasting time and get to the point?”
“Oh?” Puzzle regarded me with a single raised eyebrow. “Did we have something to talk about? You didn’t come to this one to talk about anything yesterday or today. Surely you would have informed this one if there was something we needed to discuss?”
I groaned and rolled my eyes. “Oh cut out the horseapples! I’m sure you think this some grand way to establish your authority and make me sweat, but it’s really just petty and annoying.”
Puzzle picked up his drink and calmly sipped it. “Do you know what the purpose of a duel is, Shimmer-mare?”
I scoffed. “To solve a dispute that can’t be handled any other way, and would otherwise escalate to more severe unregulated violence.”
Puzzle shook his head and tsked. “Not really. There is far more to it once you strip away the surface and dig deeper. A duel is a social construct intended to meet certain perceived needs in society. First, it is intended to be a ritual where a ruler can resolve issues amongst a substantial warrior caste without having all those warriors slaughter one another in an escalating series of violent acts. Second, it allows said warrior class to place itself above other competing groups within society—after all, the only people that can compete in duels are those that can take the time to dedicate themselves to a martial tradition and can afford all the arms and armor needed so survive such contests. Those without such training have no choice but to acquiesce when challenged.”
I snorted and shook my head. “I don’t need a sociology lesson, Puzzle. Stop beating around the bush and get to the point.”
Puzzle sighed patiently, swirling his drink. “Did you ever ask yourself why Zuberi wanted to do Zebrican rules for your duel?”
I scoffed and rolled my eyes. “Obviously because he thought he could win if I wasn’t allowed to use magic.”
“Precisely.” Puzzle pointed to my heavy armor. “You were played. Zebrican rules are skewed against anyone that doesn't belong to the warrior class. After all, how many weapons is a non-warrior going to be proficient in? And isn’t it funny how magic, with all its diverse applications, spells and schools, can be ruled out wholesale as a single weapon? That must be convenient whenever a zebra warrior has to compete against a spellcaster.”
“Yeah, he stacked the deck against me,” I conceded. “Which just makes the fact that I utterly crushed him in the duel all the better. Beating him a duel where I smack him around with magic wouldn’t have made an impression, because of course the magus can win with magic. But the magus beating a trained warrior without magic? That’s something worth paying attention to.”
Puzzle shot a withering look at me. “You got lucky. You were up against an inexperienced mercenary of at best mediocre skill who was mentally imbalanced, and you won by using a series of unconventional tactics he wasn’t ready for. You proved nothing, and what’s worse is that you didn’t even really beat him. You lost before the contest began.”
I took a seat so I could cross my forelegs over my chest. “How do you figure?”
Puzzle glowered at me. “Because, our dear Zuberi is now going to suffer the terrible fate of going back to the homeland of his people, where he will join his fellow Blood Stripes in hiring himself out to whichever faction pays the most in what will most likely be an inevitable civil war. No doubt that conflict will allow him the chance to earn quite a bit of money and prestige. No doubt his efforts will be aided by his new scars that prove he’s been in a scrapes before, and might even impress the ladies with his ruggedness. Surely you don’t think that an adequate punishment for all he has done?”
“Assuming you’re right about that civil war, he’s going into a likely warzone that could leave him dead in one of the opening skirmishes,” I countered. “Merc work is never safe. While Zebrica might be the homeland for his race, Freeport is his home, and he’ll never see it again. Who cares about what happens to him during his exile? He’s not here, and he’s not our problem anymore.”
Puzzle’s eyes narrowed. “This one thought you cared about the little fact that he attempted to murder the Heartstrings-mare.”
“Of course I do.” I planted my hooves on Puzzle’s desk. “And now he’s beaten, humiliated, and doomed to never see his home and family again.”
“All of which he will very quickly get over, as this one just pointed out.” His teeth clenched, and I saw a brief flash of his fangs. “Strange, this one thought they actually cared about things like attempted murder in Equestria.”
“I do.” I stubbornly set my hooves and met his eyes. “We also care about actual murder, like what Strumming did to Zuberi’s uncle. That’s one dead body too many. I just want to get this whole mess solved before we add any more to the tally.”
Puzzle sighed and shook his head. “If only it were that simple.”
I snorted softly. “I’m pretty happy with how I solved it.”
Puzzle’s teeth clenched, and he glared at me. “He attempted to murder the Heartstring-mare, and you're going to let him walk away scott free because you feel guilty about something you did in the past. So guilty that you let yourself get played like a cheap fiddle.”
My temper flared. “I wasn’t played! I knew exactly what I was doing and how it would play out, and I was okay with it. He lives, Strumming lives, nobody else dies. I call that a win.”
Puzzle leaned back in his chair and crossed his forelegs over his chest. “So you're okay with how this undermines your authority as a magus?”
“I don’t see how.” I started pacing around the room. “Publicly winning a duel without magic just shows everyone I’ve got more skills than just magic.”
Puzzle sighed patiently. “The problem is that you never should’ve fought the battle to begin with. Allow this one to put it in the simplest possible terms: does your authority as the Magus of Freeport include the right to punish a warlock for using dark magic?”
“Of course it does,” I answered testily.
“Exactly this one’s point.” Puzzle let that hang in the air for a bit before continuing. “This one would further presume that those assisting you in such operations have the right to punish those who use dark magic. Furthermore, should any warlock resist your authority you and your agents have the right to use whatever means necessary and proper to end the threat, including both lethal force and using otherwise proscribed magic.”
“Yes,” I confirmed. “But what Strumming did was neither necessary nor proper.”
“Some would disagree on that point, the Heartstrings-mare first among them,” Puzzle answered coolly. “Moving on, does Equestria normally allow the family members of warlocks to attempt to murder magi and their agents in retaliation for their actions?”
“No,” I growled. “But that’s different.”
“Is it?” Puzzle demanded. “This one understands that you are displeased with the Heartstrings-mare’s actions. In all honesty, this one is not terribly happy with her either. However, that does not mean this one is willing to allow her to be murdered. If she deserves to be punished for her actions as your ally, you should levy the punishment yourself.”
I frowned and shook my head. “Under the circumstances, I think she’s suffered enough.”
Puzzle regarded me with a single raised eyebrow. “And how do you think people outside our little circle are going to perceive all of this? The Heartstrings-mare killed someone while working alongside you, and your public silence on the issue indicates acceptance of her actions. Then you allow someone else to gun her down in the street, and somehow you think it’s all tied up in a neat little bow? Strumming killed without your permission, but it’s okay because she nearly got shot to death? Zuberi nearly murdered one of your allies, but that’s okay because you bloodied his nose and let him scurry off?”
I grimaced and shook my head. “He had a ... I understand why he did it.”
“Yes, he wanted to avenge his uncle.” Puzzle scowled at me. “So he scouted out a location to ambush the Heartstring-mare, got an arquebus, and shot her in the back. Coldly and deliberately. What a hero. And what would we be saying now if the Heartstring-mare had been killed? Or if she had been crippled?”
I frowned. “I probably wouldn’t be quite so understanding.”
“No,” Puzzle agreed. “You probably wouldn’t be. But that was Zuberi's intention. Should we go easy on him just for being a poor shot? Not to mention that he probably would have come for you next? Killing one person in revenge is rarely enough. It’s entirely possible that he planned to use the duel as an excuse to kill you. It would hardly be the first time one of the participants in a duel died in a tragic accident.”
I scowled. “The hypotheticals and talk about what might have happened don’t matter. Nobody else died, and I plan to keep it that way. What do you want?”
Puzzle’s eyes narrowed. “This one would greatly prefer if no one it cared about died.”
“And look, nobody did.” I tossed my head and smirked. “So why aren’t you thanking me?”
“The Shimmer-mare is entirely too proud of herself,” Puzzle grumbled. He took a deep breath, then spoke up. “The problem, Shimmer-mare, is that you made this one look weak. Someone shot this one’s mate and he’s going to walk away from it with no real consequences, and all because you felt sorry for him.”
My teeth clenched. “Exile’s not a small punishment. He’ll never see his home or family again. He’s stuck going to a nation he’s never seen before, where he has nobody. Even the other Blood Stripes probably won’t think much of him when they learn why he’s there.”
“Mercenaries are an adaptable sort, and few will care about his past failures once he finds any measure of success.” Puzzle sighed and shook his head. “More importantly, people will wonder if this one’s gotten soft. If it’s going to let someone get away from shooting its fillyfriend, then what else will it let others get away with? Demanding protection money from its businesses? Attacking its other associates? And will those associates trust this one to protect them when it failed to respond to an attack on its own mate?”
“So what do you want?” I snapped. “Do you want to murder the kid just to show everyone how big and tough you are?”
Puzzle frowned at me. “Should this one feel nothing about its mate nearly being killed?”
“Feel whatever you want,” I conceded. “It’s not an issue of what you feel, it’s about what you do. I draw the line at murder.”
“Like with the Heartstring-mare?” Puzzle asked archly.
“Yes.” I scowled at the floor. “If she wants to stay as part of this ... whatever we have, she can’t do anything like that again. I probably would’ve gone after her right away if it all hadn’t happened in the middle of the whole Rising Fire thing.”
Puzzle leaned back in his chairs. “And what will you do if she does? In case you haven’t noticed, she doesn’t exactly feel bad for her actions. This one sees no reason to think she will not do the same thing again. In all likelihood, if she encounters any other warlocks she will use lethal force against them, regardless of your opinion on the matter.”
He had a point. Strumming certainly hadn’t shown any shame or regret. “If she does that, I’ll file a full report and formal protest to the embassy and the Council. She might have diplomatic immunity, but I’m pretty sure I can have her declared equus non grata. Not to mention how Celestia will react to the news.” Considering Strumming’s role, I didn’t think Celestia would keep her around if I didn’t like her. My eyes narrowed, and I focused my gaze squarely on Puzzle. “And if you go after Zuberi, I might take my business elsewhere.”
Puzzle’s face went carefully blank. “And where will you go next time you need information? If this one might be frank, this one’s competitors are going to charge you more for less and won’t have your best interests at heart.”
“I’m not sure I buy that you’ve got my best interests in mind,” I countered. “We’re friends and we have a good working relationship, but you’ve got your goals and I have mine. If my best interests go against what you want, I know which one you’ll pick.”
Puzzle’s reaction surprised me. Despite his best efforts to hide it, for a moment he looked genuinely hurt. “This one had thought we had far more than a mere pragmatic partnership driven by mutual interests. It had begun to think it was actually friends with the Shimmer-mare. If it was mistaken in that impression...”
“No, it’s—” I cut myself off with a sigh, running a hoof down my face. “I’m just ... I’m tired. I feel like I’ve gotten too comfortable. Like I’ve settled into my nice safe little magus job, and all those big dreams I had for what I was going to do with my life are slowly fading away. I’ve gotten too used to tolerating things that shouldn’t be tolerated, because I couldn’t find any way to change them. I’m sick of it. Sick of compromising and looking the other way, and saying there’s nothing I can do about it right now. So I’m drawing the line.”
Puzzle regarded me with a raised eyebrow. “Is that so?”
I set my hooves in place. “Yes. It is.”
Puzzle regarded me flarly. “And what do you plan on doing with this new outlook on life? Freeport is a corrupt nation full of scum and villainy, where the guards are regularly bribed, black magic is done in every nook and cranny, and smuggling is a regular part of business. What's your plan?”
“The same as it always was: to clean this place up.” I took a deep breath. “The difference is, I’m going to start by putting my own house in order. We clear?”
Puzzle slowly leaned back in his chair. “More than a few would decry this one as either a major symptom or cause of the troubles in Freeport.”
“Maybe they would, but I’ve never cared what the crowd said.” I looked him over, frowning in thought. “I think you and me are on the same page. I don’t think you’re a symptom of Freeport’s problems so much as someone who’s ... adapted.”
“So what are you proposing?” Puzzle asked, cocking his head to the side. “Are you proposing something concrete, or just thinking out loud?”
I grimaced. “Still figuring that part out.”
Puzzle nodded. “This one suspected as much. To work together, we’re going to need to actually work together. A great deal of the trouble we’ve gotten into is because you’ve wandered off to do your own thing without even consulting this one.”
I frowned and crossed my forelegs over my chest, refusing to give an inch. “So I need to ask your permission for everything I do? I didn’t tell you about Zuberi because I couldn't count on you to follow my lead. If I’d given you Zuberi's name and kept you up to date about what was going on, he would’ve been found floating facedown in the harbor.”
Puzzle scowled at me. “This one isn’t some minion you can order about, Shimmer-mare. You have no reason to assume this one would have automatically killed Zuberi. Perhaps it could have faked his death to satisfy your need to have no more corpses on your conscience.”
I scoffed and shook my head. “That’s not the way you were talking.”
“This one can hardly be blamed for speaking hastily in the immediate aftermath of seeing its mate nearly killed,” Puzzle answered coolly. “Perhaps it simply wanted to vent its rage while it came up with a plan? Maybe it wanted to see how you would react to it being mad and seemingly out of control? Or perhaps this one wanted to give you a bit of motivation to figure out what was happening and quickly?”
“What a load of horseapples,” I snapped. “Even if I believed any of that, you’re saying it’s okay for you to lie to and manipulate me, but the instant it’s the other way around...” I went up to him again, jabbing his chest. “That’s what all this is really about, isn’t it? You're mad that I beat you at your own game.”
“You hardly beat this one,” Puzzle groused. “All you managed to do was conceal a few pieces of information for a few hours. If this one was determined to see Zuberi dead, it could still easily arrange it.”
I smirked and poked him again. “Sounds like wounded pride to me. What’s wrong? Are you not a big enough bug to admit it?”
Puzzle sighed testily. “Oh, very well then. That might be part of it. If this one liked being played for a fool, it would hardly be in its current profession.”
I growled and turned my back on him. “Dammit Puzzle, I busted my flank and put my life on the line to try and make this bucked-up situation a bit less bucked up! Now all you can do is whine about how I did it without you!”
“Perhaps that is why this one is upset!” Puzzle snapped back at me. “Yes, this one was furious when the Heartstrings-mare was wounded. Yes, it wanted to drown the streets in blood to avenge her. However, it also trusted the Shimmer-mare to help it find the culprits and bring them to justice. Perhaps if she had concerns that this one might go too far, she should have spoken to it. It would not have ignored her advice.”
He rose to his hooves, furiously pacing back and forth. “Everything you’ve done could have been accomplished without putting your life on the line. Do you have any idea how many promising people this one has watched get themselves killed for nothing?! Talented people that could have gone on to do great things, but died in some utterly preventable way?”
He kept on going before I could answer the question. “Too damned many! They destroy themselves by overstretching, or because they didn’t know better, weren’t prepared, or were inexperienced! Dead, wounded, burned out, or turned into something worse! This one has watched too many get swallowed up by this city, by its corruption, and its monsters! Even the Council lost its way, despite everything that was supposed to stop that from ever happening. It makes this one wonder if Freeport is cursed.”
Puzzle sighed and slumped back down into his seat. “Does the Shimmer-mare think she is the only one who wants something better for Freeport? This one ... it supposes it is something of a patriot. It used to dream of one day joining the Council, and working with them to make this world a better place. Now it’s clear that will never happen. The Council is content to rule over Freeport, growing fat and complacent as the lessons of its founding are lost. This one will never help them rediscover themselves. It had hoped that...” He sighed and shook his head. “It hoped many very foolish and naïve things, when it was young.”
I slowly stepped around the desk then hesitantly wrapped a foreleg around him. “Well, I’ve still got enough young and stupid for both of us.”
Puzzle chuckled. “This one can certainly vouch for that.”
“Jerk.” I gave him a half-serious punch in the shoulder. “The point is, we’re a team. And I’d like for us to stay a team.”
“If we’re going to be in a team, that means working much more closely together,” Puzzle murmured. “We cannot have a repeat of this particular incident. If we don’t trust one another, a team would never work.”
“That’s fair,” I conceded. “But that goes both ways. If you want a say in everything I do, then I get a say in everything you do. No more plotting or going behind one another’s backs. We put all our cards on the table.”
“That is a great deal to ask,” Puzzle answered evenly. “This one has never had much luck with partnerships in the past, and it suspects the Shimmer-mare will limit its ability to act freely far more than its previous allies. Not to mention that this one has a great many secrets it would prefer to keep ... secret.”
“I’m not the sort to go blabbing,” I pointed out. “As for your history, you’ve never been in a team with me before.”
Puzzle shot me a bitter smile. “So, your plan to recreate a new, moral version of Freeport relies upon teaming up with an infamous information broker and problem solver that no one really likes?”
I smirked and bumped his shoulder. “I like you. That’s a start.”
“It’s better than nothing,” Puzzle allowed. I probably would’ve slugged him again, if he hadn’t continued. “It’s a bit bad when this one can’t even say for certain if its mate really likes it at all. The Heartstrings-mare is ... complicated.”
“I think she does.” I frowned and scratched my chin. “I mean, she wouldn’t be dating you if she didn’t like you.”
Puzzle smiled languidly. “I suppose our sex life has been rather active for a couple who have no actual fondness for one another.”
I groaned and buried my face in my hooves. “I didn’t need to hear that.”
Puzzle smirked. “Clearly I have begun picking up the Heartstrings-mare’s bad habits. First comes the gadfly remarks, then the constant snacking.” He shook his head, and his smile faded away. “As for Strumming herself ... she doesn’t have a foundation to build upon. It’s like trying to build something in a sandy desert without a solid base. It all just all gets swallowed by the sand.”
“The sand in this case being her never-ending cycle of lies and deception?” I asked.
Puzzle frowned and nodded. “Quite. Being involved with her is certainly entertaining, but this one cannot help but worry about the long term viability of the relationship. It is quite hard to build a trusting relationship when your partner appears to be a pathological liar. This one can’t even be sure what she actually wants in a relationship.”
“Sounds about right.” I decided to take a shot in the dark. “Do you know what Strumming’s big secret is?”
His face became carefully, unreadably blank. “This one will save us both time and say yes.”
“Okay.” I frowned thoughtfully. “I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t curious, but I’m also pretty sure Strumming would get pissed if I found out about it behind her back. Not to mention what it would do to your relationship with her.”
Puzzle grimaced. “She nearly broke things off with this one just for learning. If she even suspected that it had told anyone else, the question is not whether our relationship would be over so much as how deeply she would hate this one. Even without that, this is personal for her, and that isn’t the type of information this one would normally sell for cheap.”
“I’d guessed as much.” Strumming was always an unpredictable loose cannon, and the one thing I could say for sure is that pushing her on this issue would make her even more erratic. That didn’t sound like a good idea. “She lied to me when I asked, but I came up with some good guesses about what happened.”
“This one was curious why she had suddenly become so grumpy.” Puzzle held up a hoof to cut off my response. “Grumpier than could be explained just by her injuries.”
“At least her suggestions for how to beat Zuberi worked.” I hesitated for a second, then took the plunge. “Do you think I did the right thing, helping her? I mean, leaving aside the fact that you and she are a couple.”
Puzzle was silent for several seconds before he answered. “When this one first began its career in Freeport, it heard some advice from one of the mercenaries it hired: You always back up the other members of your team. The mercenary listed absolutely no exceptions to this principle. In their line of work, the only ones you can rely on are your immediate companions. That ironclad support with no exception is what ensures that the team remains a team, regardless of the circumstances they find themselves in. Break from that and nobody will want to work with you, since they’ll know they can’t count on you when it matters.”
“So that’s it?” I asked. “I should support Strumming, even if I think she committed murder?”
“That is certainly how many in Freeport would view the matter,” Puzzle answered neutrally. “And that is where this one stands. Regardless of its thoughts on her actions, this one will defend her against any attacker.”
I guess I couldn’t fault him for that, even if I didn’t share that sort of unconditional loyalty. Not like I had any reason to believe Strumming would share the sentiment. “You said regardless of your thoughts on her actions. So what do you think?”
Puzzle frowned thoughtfully. “This one thinks the Heartstrings-mare truly believed what she was doing was right and proper. It also believes that her judgement is severely impaired by her own personal history regarding black magic and those who use it. Worse still, she dragged you into this situation because of that lapse.”
“What about the warlock himself?” I asked. “Strumming seemed pretty sure he was up to a lot of nasty stuff.” My eyes cut to the floor. “I’m not saying it would make what she did completely okay if she was right, but I’d sleep a little easier.”
Puzzle shrugged. “It is hard to say at this point. Ships were lost in that area after the bokor established himself, but that is circumstantial evidence at best. We did identify a few of the bodies in his possession as being crew from those vessels, but that also proves little. There are many hazards in the out-islands that could lead to a ship sinking, and a necromancer harvesting dead bodies is expected. As for any grander plans he might have had, the Equestrians purged the site before this one’s agents could investigate.”
I grunted. “So we don’t have any solid evidence. Just a few suspicions strung together by a mare with a huge grudge against warlocks.”
“Just because she’s paranoid doesn’t mean she’s wrong,” Puzzle countered. “Though the matter is largely academic. Strumming’s judgement was clearly compromised, and she didn’t tell you that she intended to execute the warlock even after you agreed to end hostilities. Not to mention that if not for her biases, we might have the information to determine the bokor’s guilt or innocence rather than being forced to rely upon conjecture and circumstantial evidence.”
“Makes sense.” I sighed and shook my head. “So what am I supposed to do with her?”
Puzzle set his hooves on his desk. “So far as this one can see, you have two choices: first, you could stop affiliating with her and attempt to have her removed from Freeport. This one is quite certain you could do that if you wished. The other options is to keep working with her, and perhaps moderate her undesirable behavior.”
I frowned and thought it over for a second. Celestia had to have known about Strumming’s past, and I was pretty sure she’d played a major part in picking Strumming as my EIS minder. Maybe there was some bigger picture to it? Not to mention that Celestia would replace her with some other EIS pony, and I had no idea who I might end up with. Plus Puzzle would probably be annoyed if I got his girlfriend kicked out of Freeport. “I guess we’ll have to give her one more chance, then.”
Puzzle nodded approvingly. “Then you need to outline to her what undesirable behaviors are, and the consequences of crossing the line. While you find her actions distasteful, they were not technically in violation of laws regarding warlocks. Perhaps she will moderate herself if you make your wishes clear.”
“And if she doesn’t, I’ve got that much more ammunition to use to get her booted out of Freeport for good.” I probably could’ve gotten rid of her as things stood, but it never hurt to make my case ironclad.
Puzzle smiled. “This does always like to stack the deck as much as possible in its own favor. So, we have answered several questions that troubled you, and found solutions. I hope this has been an adequate demonstration of why you should always come to this one for advice.”
My eyes narrowed. “Don’t push your luck, Puzzle.”
He smirked playfully. “This one has been pushing its luck for a long time. One would think that the honored and distinguished Magus of Freeport would not be quite so prickly when one of her friends lightly teases her.”
I rolled my eyes. “At the time, I thought I was making the right move by cutting you out. You were talking about going on a bloody rampage. The Council was scared of you doing it. So were the Blood Stripes. Hay, the threat of me helping you with that was how I brought the Stripes to the table.”
“The inevitable risk of developing a reputation,” Puzzle conceded. “It is good to be feared by one’s enemies, but this one made the error of frightening allies and neutral parties as well.” He tapped his chin thoughtfully. “Still, perhaps this one could turn that to its advantage. Just as you used a bit of theater to force them into the open, this one could frighten Zuberi and the Blood Stripes in paying blood money for the attack on its mate. That would leave him destitute, in even more disfavor with his employer, and would avoid any loss of face for this one.”
That made sense. The whole point of paying out blood money was to give both sides a way out of starting long blood feuds. I was tempted to suggest having Strumming pay Zuberi for his uncle as well, but he’d probably forfeited any right to it by shooting at her. “Sounds like you’ve come up with a good solution to it all. That just leaves one question.”
“Which is?”
I scowled. “Whether Strumming goes along with the plan.”
When I went back to the safehouse to check on Strumming, I found her lying on her unwounded side, slowly stretching out her wing. She was moving very slowly and carefully, checking her range of motion with it.
That was probably a good sign for her health. “Looks like they’re letting you move around now.”
“I’m not exactly running around doing a tap dance yet. Don’t wanna risk ripping any stitches.” She moved her wings into gliding position. “Just making sure I can still move everything.”
“Looks good so far.” At least, as far as I could tell. I certainly wasn’t a doctor, and I only knew the theory on how wings worked. “You going to make a full recovery?”
“That’s the current cautious prognosis.” Strumming confirmed, wincing as she moved her wing a bit too far. “Still pretty sore, but it looks like the damage is gonna heal up decent enough. Gonna have a scar, but everything’s gonna work more-or-less how it should. Pretty sure the rib I lost will grow back eventually.”
I was pretty sure ribs didn’t grow back. “You’re lucky. It could’ve been a lot worse.”
“Yeah, the big hole in my side kinda gave that away.” She tucked her wing back in, evidently done testing it out for the moment. “So bug-boy busted us. It was only a matter of time before he found out what we did. Good news is that I'll probably be off the metaphorical couch by the time I’m healthy enough for any fun stuff anyway.”
Right ... I didn’t need to know that. I took a seat next to the bed and made myself comfortable. “So I guess he had a big talk with you too.”
Strumming shrugged. “Wasn’t hard for him to guess our private chat had something to do with you running around behind his back. Speaking of which...”
I tossed up a privacy spell, just to be safe. “It’s more than a little annoying how hard it is to keep secrets from him.”
“Tell me about it.” She scowled, and I remembered Puzzle’s story about how mad she’d been when he dug into her past. “I guess his line of work has him hard-wired to find things out. Guy just can’t accept that there are things he’s not supposed to know.”
“Yeah.” I frowned and nodded slowly. “I was tempted to ask him about whatever happened in your past, but ... I think if I ever learn about that, I’d much rather have it be from you.”
“Yeah, s’not his secret to share.” She shook her head. “Probably wasn’t something he set out to dig up specifically. I mean, just the usual background and history checks probably would’ve turned it up. You could probably figure it out pretty easy if you really tried.”
“Maybe, but as long as you keep your issues under control, I won’t dig up personal information you want kept private.” I frowned and rubbed my chin. “So why do you date him? A mare who loves her secrets hooking up with someone who wants to know everyone else’s?”
“I’m a fan of contradictions.” She shrugged, then smirked at me. “Plus he buys me nice things.”
I knew neither of those was anywhere close to the real answer. “Horseapples.”
“No really, he does.” She pointed out a gold necklace with a large emerald in the middle. “He just got that for me. It’s beautiful and expensive, plus it’s got some reactive spellwork and runes that’ll go off if anything small, fast, and metallic comes at me. So it’s fancy and useful if anyone tries to shoot me again. Only works once a day, but that’s a big step up from nothing.”
My eyes narrowed at the dodge. “You know what I mean. You’re not just dating him because he’s your sugar-daddy and you’re his trophy fillyfriend.”
Strumming scoffed. “Well of course not.”
I folded my forelegs over my chest. “So what, you’re just using him?”
Strumming met my eyes. “Remember that talk about how some things are none of Puzzle’s business? Well, all the messy personal details of what’s going on between me and Puzzle are really none of your business. We’ve got a thing. It’s a little weird and complicated, but we both enjoy it so it works.”
I sniffed haughtily, but refrained from probing any further. “Fine. In that case, let’s talk about something that is my business. Like everything surrounding this mess you dragged all of us into. There’s a lot to wrap up.”
“Sounds good. So how'd my plan work?” She gave me a quick once-over. “Must’ve been good, since I don’t see a scratch on you and you’d be way crankier if you’d lost.”
I hesitated for a second, then admitted. “Yeah, it went great. He didn’t land a hit on me.” The tactics had been a bit cheap and gimmicky, but they’d worked.
“Cool.” She grinned and poked me. “Told you I’m good at plans. So he’s gone?”
“He has twenty four hours to pack his bags and say his goodbyes,” I confirmed. “But that’s not what I want to talk about. We need to talk about the past and the future.”
“How intriguingly vague.” She sat up a little bit straighter. “What about them?”
I took a deep breath. “You can’t keep doing what you’re doing. You can’t go around killing warlocks whenever you want. It’s created way too much trouble, and it’s not your job.”
Strumming frowned and shook her head. “Someone needs to deal with them. I'm not letting crazy necromancers run around unchecked. That necromancer had been doing his thing for years. Who was going to stop him?”
I stood my ground. “You should have told me about him ahead of time. We should have made sure he was doing something wrong, and then came up with an actual plan to deal with him. We went in there without enough intelligence, and we clearly weren’t on the same page when it came to how we wanted to deal with him.”
Strumming stared at me incredulously. “Made sure he was—” She cut herself off with a scoff. “He was a necromancer. Just that’s pretty good evidence he did something wrong.”
“Yes, necromancy is dark magic,” I conceded. “He was also in the middle of nowhere farming kelp. That’s not the sort of necromancy where we barge in with a full assault team on the first visit. There wasn’t an emergency where we needed to stop him right away like with Rising Fire.” I sighed and ran a hoof through my mane. “Look, I’m not saying there’s nothing wrong with what he did, and I know you think he might’ve done a lot worse than kelp farming with zombies, but if I’m going to kill someone I want to be damned sure they deserve it. Got it?”
She shrugged. “I was sure.”
“Good for you,” I snapped. “But that’s not enough if you're going to drag me into something like this. Even if everything you believe about that guy is true and we find all the evidence we need to prove he was a total monster tomorrow, what you did was still wrong. One of those lessons from Mom, just because you think you’re right doesn’t make it okay to do things the wrong way. Not to mention there’s always a chance you might not be as perfectly right as you think you are.”
Strumming answered me with a flat look. “Funny, I thought you were just a merc who only cared about getting paid.”
I got up, pacing back and forth as I thought over my answer. “I needed money to survive. I came to Freeport practically broke.”
Strumming shrugged. “That’s true. Now you live in a giant tower, and your bank account broke seven figures after that last job you did. I guess you’re one of those self-made mare success stories. Well, except that you made all that money because you’ve got the sort of skills that only come from being Celestia’s student for a decade. It’s a little hard to say you’re still mercing out by necessity. What’s your plan? Keep filling up the bank account and add a couple more floors to your tower?”
“No. I never went into this just for money. It's just something I need to survive, not the end goal.” I took a deep breath, then slowly nodded as much to myself as to her. “It’s why I’m going to change a few things. I'm going to stop being a magus-for-hire. I think it’s past time I started acting like a full-fledged magus instead of a mercenary with a fancy title.”
Strumming blinked, then looked me over and grinned. “That so?”
I nodded sharply. “I’m sick and tired of standing by and letting bad things happen. All of this waiting on the sidelines as people get hurt or do bad things and saying there was nothing I could do about it stops now. Freeport’s the way it is because nobody is standing up and doing something about it, and I’ve got no excuse not to. Freeport needs a real magus, and I’m going to do that job.”
“Interesting.” She fixed a probing gaze on me. “So you’re gonna start actually going on the offensive pro bono? No paychecks or waiting for clients, just hunting down the bad guys and dealing with them?”
“Pretty much,” I confirmed. “I’ve earned a lot of money, and Puzzle’s done a good job of investing it all. Even with all the expenses of my lifestyle, I don’t need to work for at least the next ten years. Now that I don’t need to worry about pissing off the people paying me, I’ve got a lot more freedom to go after the bad guys.” I grinned. “Exactly how I like it.”
“Interesting.” Strumming shifted around so her hind legs were hanging off the side of the bed. “You’ve got a point. You're quite literally independently wealthy. As long as nothing big comes up, you can do whatever you want with no worries about being out of money.”
“Yeah for normal day-to-day money’s not an issue anymore.” I frowned as I recalled the talk I’d had with Puzzle earlier. “There are a couple ideas I’ve had that would take a lot more money. I’d like to do them, but the sort of jobs I’d need to pay for something like that ... it’d be big.”
Strumming nodded along. “I’m gonna guess these plans are as huge and lacking in subtlety as your usual big grand plans?” My unamused glower probably answered that question. “Yeah, if you’re talking about adding one or two more zeros onto your bank balance, that’s not gonna be easy. Like, maybe you could make that much if you jumped in on the civil war everyone thinks is coming in up Zebrica.”
“More or less what Puzzle told me.” I sighed and picked up one of Strumming’s snack bags, opening it up and eating a few chips. I was a bit surprised she let me get away with that. “He pretty much told me the only ways to get that much money quick were either going to be extremely risky, or were going to be things I would hate myself for later. Probably both.”
“Sounds about right.” She stole a couple chips out of my bag, though considering they were technically her chips I couldn’t complain. “So what’s your plan? Do a couple things that’ll dirty your conscience just so you have enough money to afford everything you want? You might wanna be careful about that. You’ve kept your nose clean, and you’re never gonna be a real magus if you murder someone for money, or whatever bug boy would suggest. I don’t think you can clean up Freeport by diving into the muck to make money. That’s why you’re dropping the whole merc thing, right? I mean, even if you’re talking about ‘one last job’ for a big score, I think you’ve read enough books to know how that usually ends.”
“I know that.” I got up and started pacing again. “But what am I supposed to do? I’m not saying it’s impossible to change the world without money, but it’s a lot easier with it.” I was a bit tempted to dig out that journal and write to Celestia. So far I hadn’t used it for much more than just keeping in touch. The whole reason I’d come out here was to start making my own way in life, and writing her every time I needed a little advice would defeat the purpose. Still, this was one of those times when I might really need her help.
“You’re overthinking it.” Strumming answered for me. “It’s a simple question, really. Would you do the wrong thing just to get enough money to do the right thing?”
When she put it that way, it did sound simple. “No. I think if I start my grand plan to make Freeport better by doing the worst it has to offer, it’d mess everything up.”
“Well there you go.” Strumming nodded, then her eyes lingered on me for a few seconds. “Tell you what, if you become a real magus, I’ll ... well I was gonna say I’d tell my secrets, but I don’t wanna make a promise I might not keep.”
“I don’t think I can trust the habitual liar to tell the truth.” Though come to think of it, the fact that she’d admitted that she wouldn’t keep that promise might have been progress of some sort. At least she was honest about the fact that she’d lie.
She frowned, thinking it over for a bit longer before she spoke. “Still ... tell you what. If you’re really a magus, I’ll follow your lead when it comes to magus matters.”
“Good.” I took a seat and folded my forelegs over my chest. “Because that’s exactly what you’re going to do, or you’re going to answer to me from now on.”
Strumming raised an eyebrow. “That a threat?”
“It’s a fact,” I answered levelly. “You pull something like you pulled with the bokor again, and I’ll have you exiled from Freeport. Or worse, if the Embassy decides to waive your immunity.”
“That would a shame.” Strumming kept her tone casual, probably to try and make my threat seem toothless. “I’ve been living here for long enough that I keep a lot of my stuff here.”
I smirked. “Stuff Puzzle’s given you?”
“That, and a few of my own things too.” She paused for a long moment, then shrugged. “Like that one throwing spike I had made just in case I needed to take down an alpha-level warlock. Tell you what, you can have that one. Call it thanks for saving my butt and putting up with me.”
Given the description, I was pretty sure who she’d had that made for. However, my perfectly reasonable suspicion of every word that left her lips robbed the gesture of some of its value “I’m sure you only have one.”
“Actually, I do.” She shrugged. “My official orders were pretty clear that even if I needed to bring you in, I had to play nice. My bosses were quite clear that bringing you back to Celestia in any condition other than alive and intact was a bad idea. Had to pay for that spike out of pocket, and plain old cold iron wasn’t going to cut it. It had some serious high-grade custom runework.”
“So you definitely have a backup,” I answered.
“Yes,” Strumming conceded with a smirk. “But I’d like to hang onto that one. Giving you one is a nice symbolic gesture and all, but it’s only prudent to keep another on-hoof. Palling around with you exponentially increases the odds that I’ll run into bad guys in your magical weight class.”
Well ... she wasn’t wrong about that. Maybe I should just take the gesture as it was meant. “Thanks.”
Strumming took a deep breath, then slowly nodded. “I won’t back off on dark magic users, but I’ll follow your lead, Magus. That’s what the EIS policy is when we’re coordinating with an Equestrian magus, and I can’t see any reason not to follow that precedent when it comes to you.”
“Works for me.” I nodded firmly. “So no going after warlocks without my permission. And no going after family members of theirs either. Got it?”
“Got it.”
I took a deep breath, then nodded. “So, I think we’re on the same page.”
“I’d say so. Anything else?”
I shrugged. “I can’t think of anything, and I’m pretty beat by this point.”
“Then go home, get some sleep. You had a long day.” She shifted around on the bed so she could reach over and give me a pat on the shoulder. “And ... thanks, Magus Shimmer.”
“You’re welcome.” I sighed and my head dropped down. “Just trying to do the right thing.”
Strumming chuckled. “Most ponies would say you’re probably better at it than I am.”
“Maybe you should try a bit harder?” I suggested. “I mean ... I think you’re trying to be a good pony, even if your moral compass is pretty screwed up by whatever it was that happened to you. I think if you really want to do the right thing, you can.”
“If doing the right thing was easy, we’d all do it.” Strumming shrugged. “Guess all we can do is just muddle through the best we can, and hope we’re not horribly screwing up and making a mess of things. “
I snorted softly. “I think that might be the first completely true thing you’ve ever said to me.”
“It was bound to happen eventually.” Strumming grinned, then shooed me away with one of her wings. “Alright, that’s enough girl-bonding and setting up rules and expectations for one day. I’m tired. Go away and let the wounded mare sleep.”
I nodded and rose to my hooves. “Just try and not to get shot again. You’re enough of a pain in the rump when you’re not stuck in bed all day.”
She smirked and shrugged. “Yeah, yeah. You know how it is, you’re out on the town late at night, looking for kicks, and someone asks if you wanna be shot, ‘cause that’s the latest thing all the kids in the clubs are into. I kinda have a policy of trying everything once just to see if I like it, but this one’s a big nope.” She waved her wings again. “Now go. If you’re gonna be a real magus, you’ve got more important things to do than worry about me. Shoo.”
“Yeah.” I ran a hoof down my face. “That’s me, busy saving the world one screwed up situation at a time.” I trotted out the door, already looking forward to whatever madness would be waiting for me tomorrow. At least now I felt better about taking it on.
