As soon as Twilight entered, she was hit by a wall of odor.
	The purple unicorn and her six closest friends had taken a pegasus-driven chariot from the palace in Canterlot to Fillydelphia (per the suggestion of one of the guards) in order to look for a caravan that they could take to Appleloosa.
	They had asked around town as to where they could find caravans leaving the city; there weren’t as many as there used to be due to the invention of the steam-powered locomotive; which was quickly becoming the most popular form of long-distance travel.
	On a tip, they had travelled to a back-alley bar in what Rarity described as “Fillydelphia’s cesspool”.
	It was loud, full of ponies and griffons shouting over one another in an attempt to make small talk. The pub was also cramped, the seats were full, every pony who didn’t have one would stand in any empty spot the place had to offer. The combined body heat of the customers that culminated in a slight steam didn’t help.
	“Stay together, girls, we don’t want to get lost,” Twilight told her friends.
	No sooner than she had said this did Rarity speak. “Oh! Have you no manners?”
	Twilight turned around to see Rarity reprimanding…
	“Oh, no…”
	“Do all of you disgracefully uncoordinated brutes come in threes? I sometimes wonder if all Diamond Dogs are ignorant, improlite buffoons!”
	Twilight winced as the white unicorn insulted the three Diamond Dogs. Twilight my have been able to subdue an Ursa Minor, but that was through non-violent magic. That approach would most likely be useless here, and, now that she thought about it, she really didn’t know any spells she could use offensively.
	As for her friends, Rainbow Dash and Applejack may stand a chance against the Diamond Dogs, except for the fact that the dogs were armed with large, crude knives. That could be problematic.
	“Rarity, why don’t we just-“
	“Oh, I see now. You see? These six are together,” One of the dogs pointed to the fillies, mumbling to his friends.
	“They look… clean. And nice and all pretty, don’t they? Where do you think they come from?”
	“Ponyville. Definitely.”
	Although they were generally stupid, Twilight had to admit that it took a degree of skill to so easily identify where somepony comes from.
	“How much do you think we could get for them?” One said, rubbing his hands together greedily.
	“A lot.”
	Twilight could feel herself begin to sweat at this point. She knew that they were referring to the underground pony slave market, something that she, understandably, did not feel the need to be a part of.
	“Excuse me,” A brown stallion, an earth pony, walked between the two groups and up to the bar counter, ignoring the confrontation completely. He wore a long, tan trench coat and a fedora of the same color.
	“Hey,” he turned to the pony beside him. “You know anypony in here looking to join a caravan to Appleloosa?”
	Twilight overheard him and couldn’t believe her luck. She immediately pushed between her friends and the Diamond Dogs.
	“Hello there, I heard you asking if there was anypony looking for a caravan to Appleloosa, and my friends and I would be more than happy to take up the offer.”
	The stallion looked at her for a moment and then to the groups standing behind her.
	“All of them?” He waved a hoof to the fillies and the Diamond Dogs.
	“Oh, no, just the ponies.”
	He shrugged. “I-“
	“Hold on, what do you think you’re doing?” The Diamond Dog in the front of the group lifted Twilight off of the ground by her mane. “You six are coming with us.”
	The denizens of the bar were becoming less rowdy, and had begun noticing the conflict.
	“Excuse me, but we were conducting business,” The stallion said.
	“So are we,” The Diamond Dog replied.
	“You mean the slave market. That hasn’t been legal in over three thousand years.”
	“Well, are you a royal law keeper? Or the town sheriff?”
	“I’m a detective. Is that good enough for you?” The stallion said flatly.
	“What are you gonna do, then? Find clues to stop us?” The dogs laughed to one another.
	“I could do that, or I could snap off your arm and make you eat it. How does that sound?” As soon as the stallion finished this sentence, he turned his head to order a drink. Instead, he was sent over the counter by a punch from the Diamond Dog holding Twilight.
	The crowd that was gathering around the altercation murmured to one another. They had seen ponies punched over the bar counter countless times before, so they weren’t exactly fazed. Twilight and her friends, however, were shocked by the action, and the purple unicorn decided that it didn’t bode well for whatever the dogs had planned for them.
	The dog that had delivered the punch leaned over the counter to get a look at the stallion, holding Twilight in one hand and grabbing the counter with another.
	As soon as he caught a glimpse of the other side of the counter, the stallion stood up and wrapped a foreleg around the Diamond Dog’s arm.
	The dog was so shocked that he failed to drop Twilight, and the coated pony had no problem bringing down a glass bottle on the dog’s head.
	He slid over the counter but slipped on the liquid contents of the bottle he just broke. One of the other Diamond Dogs poised himself to strike, only to punch the floor as the stallion rolled to the side.
	The pony then stood up and looked at his opponents. Two Diamond Dogs, both now holding knives. He determined his chances of winning weren’t entirely good, so he took a different approach.
He turned away from the Diamond Dogs and towards the crowd of ponies watching, which stood less than a foot away in the cramped bar. He delivered a punch to the first spectator he saw.
Immediately, the spectator punched back, only to hit another member of the crowd by accident. Within moments, the entire pub was in a state of pandemonium, bar-goers attacking one another at random, bottles being broken, and tables being overturned in a massive brawl.
Twilight and her friends found themselves huddled together, shaking with fear, attempting to shield each other from the insanity.
The lavender unicorn felt a tug on her shoulder. She looked up to see the stallion that had started the melee. “Come on, let’s go!” he shouted over the crashing and shouting.
She alerted her friends and they all grabbed onto one another, crouching as they rushed out of the bar behind the brown earth pony.
The stallion burst out of the door, and when all of the six fillies had successfully exited, he slammed it shut.
All of them stood hunched over, panting and attempting catch their breath. The stallion, however, spoke up.
	“Does your offer still stand?”
	“What?”
	“You still want to tag along with me?”
	“Um, maybe,” Twilight was astonished by how quickly his mind was back on their conversation.
	The stallion nodded and motioned for Twilight and her friends to follow him. “Let’s walk and talk.”
	It was about noon, and the roads were congested with carriages moving ponies around the city.
	“All of you okay?”
	Applejack was the first to answer. “We’re fine as far as Ah know, but what the hay happened back there?”
	“If you can’t win a fight conventionally, think unconventionally. Also, it’s easy to piss off Fillydelphians and make them fight each other. Keep that in mind.”
	“So, basically, if you suck at fighting, cheat?” Dash flew up next to him.
	“It’s not cheating, it’s… creative use of the environment,” he frowned, “and I don’t suck at fighting.”
	“But none of us have been in brawls before! We could’ve been seriously injured!” Twilight responded.
	He turned to face her. “But none of you are; and you would have otherwise been walking down the streets with a collar around your neck by now.”
	Twilight decided he did deserve some of their gratitude, and, reluctantly, did admire his inventive approach. “Okay, I guess you’re right. Thanks for helping us with the Diamond Dogs. But, just, please don’t do anything like that again.”
	He tipped his hat. “Alright, I promise. My name’s Carton Foals.” He extended a hoof.
 	Twilight returned the hoof shake, but was unable to respond before she noticed his eyes traveling down to her rear.
	“Hey! What are you-“
	“You’re Twilight Sparkle!”
	Twilight was dumbfounded. “How did you know my name?”
	“My job is to know the names and cutie marks of ponies whose names and cutie marks need to be known. Celestia’s prized pupil counts.”
	His face became more inquisitive. “Why would you be in this part of Fillydelphia? It’s dangerous for… well, now that I think of it, all of you. Six young fillies like you? You’re all magnets for trouble in an area like this.”
	Twilight looked at him closely. “What qualifies as young? You can’t be more than 5 years older than me.”
	Carton tapped his head one time. “That may be the case, but I know how to handle myself in places like this.” He looked around and then began walking once more. “We should keep going.”
	“Where are we going, anyway?” Dash asked, flying beside him.
	“Friend of mine has a wagon we can use. I don’t have one, because I’ve never lead a caravan before.”
	“You didn’t tell us that.” Twilight said, a hint of irritation in her voice.
	“I still have some experience with the concept. I’ve taken one or two caravans before, and I picked up a book on the subject.”
	“Really? Can I see it?” Twilight’s voice immediately lost its irate tone, replaced with one of curiosity.
	“Sure, I think I’ve got it here…” Carton reached into one of the large pockets on his coat and retrieved a small but thick book. He then tossed it to Twilight, who caught it with her magic and began flipping through the pages studiously.
	“We’ll probably need to sleep outside, by the way; I don’t think the wagon is going to have space for us to sleep in.”
	Rarity gave a nearly inaudible “ugh” at the idea of sleeping on the dirty, dusty ground.
	“So where exactly is this friend of yours?” Twilight asked, looking up from her book.
	“Trainyard. He’s bringing it in on a locomotive. He doesn’t own a train himself, but he’s got a lot of favors that he can call in.”
	“Sounds like a good pony to know.”
	“I know a couple ponies you’d be smart to know. And a lot you’d be smart to not know,” He said flatly.
	Twilight noticed the lack of humor in his voice. “Wait… what do you mean by that?”
Carton stopped at a gate and gave her an unconvincing smile. “I’m rambling, don’t worry, you wouldn’t want to hear my stories anyway,” He stopped at a gate that led between two trainyard warehouses. “Think he’s in here.”