And you idiots stopped that plan from bearing fruit. But she didn’t say so. It was hard to berate Lucky when her plan had ultimately been a successful one. The winner got to write the history books. “Qingzhi’s strategy is the one that minimizes our losses,” she finally said. “That’s the reason he wants to fight out there. Not because it’s best for Equestria. Not because the odds are the best that way. But because fighting some slaver tribes out in the dirt isn’t likely to give us high casualties. He isn’t thinking about saving Equestria now; he’s thinking of building our own nation that can resist if this Storm King ever shows up. Or maybe about liberating Equestria a few decades down the line. Think about it—the only troops he’s sending in are special forces. Bet you all the booze I’ve hidden in…” She trailed off. Her hidden still was gone now, along with everything she’d ever made with it. “I bet the special forces he’s planning on sending in are Perez and my former team. He doesn’t want to put a single soldier into real danger.”