Heart Speaker had never been to Great Forks – but he had heard a lot of things about it. Unlike Nexus, he had even heard nice things about it, mainly through all the Forkian ponies that had come to Lookshy to be trained in military matters; For several centuries, Lookshy had trained most of Great Forks’ armed forces’ officers. In return, Great Forks was famed for its medical industry; Speaker had been trained in Lookshy’s medical academy which was staffed almost entirely by highly respected and skilled Forkian ponies - and Great Forks manufactured most of Lookshy's medical supplies.

Speaker could smell it in the air, even at the docks. The scent of a thousand strange eastern herbs blew out of Great Forks on the wind, with the sweet scent of hashish mixing with countless medicinal herbs, most of which were splayed out on the flat roofs of Great Fork’s houses so they could dry in the sun.

Cash Charmer quickly found himself engulfed in a heated discussion with the port director, a water elemental in pony form from the looks of it. Cash insisted that since he was going to sell the ship anyway, that he didn’t need to pay a full week’s worth of docking fees in advance. The water elemental was less impressed, looking like a pony made of water, with dark outlines of organs, eyes and other ‘innards’ somewhat visible through its ‘flesh’ of murky water.

Speaker watched as Cash and the elemental trotted off to an office, and used the time to take stock of what was left of his medical equipment. Having patched up the enslaved village had meant using most of his bandages and disinfectants, plus a lot of his silken suture thread. Sure, soldier ants could be used as field expedient ‘living suture’ if you could make them bite down right to hold a wound shut, but where would Speaker find ants in a city? It would probably be easier to buy some thread once Cash had sold the junk.

Cash returned a while later looking strangely satisfied and soaking wet, proudly declaring that they wouldn’t have to pay any docking fees at all. He was about to trot off to look for a buyer for the ship when Shimmer returned to the docks with three ponies.

Of the ponies following Shimmer, the hooded mare in front seemed the most authoritative, even if she was the smallest of the three. There was a stern purpose to her stride, and while her off-white cloak obscured her features, there was an unmistakable seriousness to the way she carried herself, and in how her red eyes beheld all she saw – despite her stature revealing her as a young filly, making Speaker wonder if she even had her cutie mark. Even Cash seemed captivated by this mare and her pure white coat, of what little could be seem by her off-white cloak.

The two other ponies following the hooded mare were plainer, one a mare with a grim expression and an unmistakable air of fury around her. It was the mean look on her face, her fiery orange eyes, an aggressive gait, the scars on her face and the simple but utilitarian dark clothing, the sort that a real bruiser would wear, especially since Speaker couldn’t help but notice that her combination of a dark brown coat and her dark clothing would hide blood spatters well. Decades of exposure to sensible Lookshyan dragon-blooded fashion had at least taught him that much.

The third pony was a fairly unremarkable stallion, wearing a deep straw hat that reached down so far that it obscured his face completely – a real coolie hat, typical of servants as it prevented them from looking their masters in the eyes. From how this pony dressed, he was probably just a servant to one of the others; one unremarkable beige-coated stallion in a city of those infinitely more colorful.

Shimmer approached Speaker with a big smile on her face: “Speaker, this is Sunrise Glow, Sunrise Glow, this is Bright Machine Speaker”

Sunrise Glow gave Speaker a thorough look. Speaker felt as if he was being scrutinized by a mean drill sergeant.

“Show me your caste mark” the mare said. It wasn’t a question. And Speaker could practically taste the essence linked into the command; resisting the urge to obey was not easy, but Speaker had never been one to buckle easily under stress or to unreasonable orders. Of course, thinking about it for a moment, Speaker realized that by now news of his state of being would certainly have reached Nexus, so it wouldn’t be more than a week or so, maybe even only a few days, before merchant ships would reach Great Forks and bring the news of the hundred kingdoms anathema by his name with them. With that in mind Speaker chose to throw caution in the wind for the moment and flashed his caste mark briefly, the bright golden circle on his forehead with its top inner half illuminated by the glow of a setting sun, showing Speaker to be of the Twilight caste.

The filly’s lips curled into a tight little smile, albeit not a kind one by any standard: “Very well, you will follow me, we have work to do”

The filly and her two henchponies turned around and trotted off. Speaker wasn’t entirely certain what to do or say – he hadn’t really been given the chance to ask any questions himself. Looking at Shimmer yielded little else, as she seemed perfectly content following the three, while enthusiastically gesturing for Speaker and Cash to follow.

“Okay, who’s the hood and goon squad?” Cash casually asked Speaker.

Speaker shrugged and sighed: “I have no idea. Hey Shimmer, hold up for a moment!”

Shimmer stopped and trotted back to the two Solars and cheerfully said: “Come on guys, can’t let your circle wait”

“Our circle?” Cash Charmer wondered out loud.

“I think what Shimmer means to say is that those three were also Solars – possibly our circle, the old word for a group of five Solars, one from each of the five castes” Speaker explained, looking on as the three possible Solars stopped and looked back at Speaker and Cash.

Cash frowned and rolled his eyes: “That doesn’t mean that some little filly gets to boss you around like that – or me for that matter. I see no reason to follow her anywhere. I have a junk to sell. I need some coin and a visit to a good brothel!”

Speaker was about to tentatively agree with Cash when the hooded Sunrise Glow once again stepped up to the two, looking up at them with glaring eyes that displayed the fury of a zealot preacher: “I said follow”

“Right little filly – I don’t know what rock you’ve been living under, but Speaker here doesn’t take shit from no-pony, and neither do I, Cash Charmer, for your information. If you want us for anything, tell us what and why, otherwise we’ve got better things to” Cash fired off, speaking quickly and firmly with his rebuttal, yet with a charm and sense of purpose that Speaker had only seen when Cash was ordering his crewponies around.

Sunrise Glow’s lips twisted into a snarl. While her hood – which on closer inspection looked much too big for her - covered most of her face, and made it impossible to see her eyes properly at that moment. The bumps on her hood from her ears twisted, which when combined with her snarl revealed her annoyance for all to see. Still, she kept her voice calm and collected, even if her words dripped with venom: “You dare talk back to me? I should have your legs broken”

Cash chuckled for a moment, for getting such threats from a filly was quite amusing to him. Sunrise Glow was taken aback by this reaction to such a threat, but she in turn didn’t know of Speaker’s miraculous healing powers. Cash was quick to seize the initiative: “I’m pretty sure Speaker here can fix those faster than you can snap ‘em – but before you even get to try that you’ll have to deal with my Hoof of the Daystar style martial arts!”

Speaker found it amusing to see Cash in his element like this.

Suddenly, the grim looking mare next to Sunrise Glow perked up and embraced Cash in a great hug. She moved so quickly that nobody had time to react, like a snake striking its prey: “Good to finally meet another pony who wields the true power of the sun! But come on, Sunrise is right; it is not smart to talk about what we are in the open here. Not all spirits in the city of temples are equally happy for the return of... the sun-touched”

Having admitted to also practicing Hoof of the Daystar style, the scarred mare had pretty much revealed herself to be a Solar as well. This reassured Cash and Speaker, so they finally consented to going with Sunrise and her friends.

Cash gave a few last orders to his crewponies, mainly to enjoy their shore leave while he found them a new captain, and then him and Speaker were off.

Sunrise Glow led the motley crew from the docks to the eastern city gate, as the Great Forks port was set outside of the city proper. The ten-yard tall white-washed city wall curved around the edge of city, and Speaker knew from his medical professors that Great Forks was surrounded by a circular city wall. The gate was guarded by a unit of ‘enforcers’, the name of Great Forks’ aptly-named law enforcers. The most striking feature of them was that half of the twenty-some enforcers at the gate were obviously not ponies. They were elementals, spirits, and a couple of them were probably gods! It was easy to understand how all of the river provinces, or scavenger lands as most ponies knew them, called Great Forks a city of wonders or a city of temples.

Being a local, Sunrise Glow was let through the gate into the city with nopony asking questions. Her two followers got the same treatment. Cash was nearly submitted pulled into customs, but the dockmaster flowed up and ‘vouched’ for him… and gave him a very wet kiss. Speaker was wondering where Shimmer had disappeared to when he spotted her beyond the gate, inside the city – but he didn’t get many moments to ponder how Shimmer had slipped past the gate when he was pulled aside.

“Name, place of birth and your purpose here” a strange-looking being said. It was a spirit in the rough form of a pony, but with a body of black stone which seemed to shift, crack and reform as the spirit moved. Its eyes were as polished marble orbs, making it difficult to be sure where it was looking.

Speaker calmly took a deep breath and figured that his military record would be enough to let him through without any more questions being asked: “My name is Bright Machine Speaker, born of Lookshy, formerly of the 7th legion, 1st field force 3rd Gunzosha 1st medical scale, rank of Chuzei, now retired, here for… spiritual enlightenment”

It was difficult to see if the spirit was more impressed with Speaker’s credentials or that he’d said all of that in one breath. The 7th legion of Lookshy was known by all in the scavenger lands as the bulwark that holds back the realm – and the Gunzosha were the mortal pony elite of Lookshy, shrouded in as much legend and mystery as the rest of 7th legion itself.

Speaker might only have been a combat medic, but he had been a combat medic for the very best and had been trained accordingly, having served in the field as much as in army hospitals. It wasn’t something he spoke much of, for to become Gunzosha, a pony would sacrifice the remaining half of his or her life, by wearing magical armor that would leech power from themselves, and thus speed up their aging. Having served for almost three decades with such ponies, Speaker had seen four generations of Gunzosha wither and die before his eyes, not from wounds acquired in battle, but from wearing the very armor that rendered them almost impossible to kill, with Speaker helpless to stop it from happening. Speaker might be proud of his service to Lookshy, but he was pained by the memories of so many good ponies having died in this way.

It turned out that the marble-eyed spirit didn’t have any ill will towards Speaker, but having revealed his military past, Speaker quickly found himself being questioned by enforcers with very obvious military fetishes – and with Lookshy being well known for having the finest military in creation with the most largest known arsenal of magical first age weapons, it was clear why the enforcers thought it interesting to gush at Speaker. Of course, having been but a mortal doctor with command over twenty nurses, a few junior doctors and a handful of orderlies, Speaker couldn’t tell of much first-hoof experience with any magical weaponry, only what he had seen other legionnaires and 7th legion dragon-blooded use. This didn’t bother the curious enforcers, but questions about the Gunzosha dredged up unpleasant memories.

Cash was quick to alert the others that Speaker was being held up by the enforcers. But when Cash and the others approached the beleaguered Speaker, something unexpected happened: A seemingly decorative fixture, an amber and gold wind-chime that hung at a door in the city wall to an enforcer office started to make far more noise than a simple wind-chime should be capable of… and the amber started to glow with a bright red light.

Normally this would not have been given any thought, indeed Sunrise Glow and her two followers didn’t seem worried, as Great Forks was well known to have so many weird and magical things in it that such almost overflowed into the gutters. The enforcers in earshot reacted quite differently, as in a flash two dozen more enforcers materialized – all spirits or god-blooded ponies, the result of ponies and spirits or gods having foals together.

What was common for all of them was that they looked confused, and some of them were visibly scared. Orders were shouted, and higher ranking enforcers demanded to know what was going on, while lower ranking enforcers kept asking for orders.

“What’s going on!?” Speaker asked, his voice half-drowned out by the enforcers hastily surrounding the gate.

A high ranking enforcer, as visible by the highly ornate silken sashes the particular spirit of vigilance was adorned with, with seven eyes sprouting from its vegetable-looking head suddenly shouted: “Okay, the sun-chimes went off – reveal yourself Solar!”

Standing right under the chime, everypony looked at Speaker, who at the moment wished that he wasn’t so damn tall.

The many-eyed spirit in colorful silks approached Speaker, while a god-blooded pony used its magic to unhook the wind-chime and float it down right next to Speaker where it started to glow brighter and make even more noise, producing a mildly annoying cacophony of monotones.

Looking at the wind-chime being waved in his face, Speaker recognized the thing as being made out of many small chimes originally made in the first age to alert servants of the approach of their Solar masters, so that they could ready themselves.

“Are you… a Solar?” the spirit said, trying to feign some level of professional aloofness, although Cash would later inform Speaker that the spirit’s voice quaked with fear, at least to those who knew how to listen for it.

Looking around, Speaker caught Cash’s eyes and looked pleadingly at him. Speaker knew that Great Forks were on good terms with Lookshy, but how would they react to the ancient rulers of creation returning? Cash only managed to shrug at the confusion before another curious enforcer blocked Speakers view to him.

Had he been given time, Speaker might have been able to evaluate the situation and what to say a little better – but since he had already spent the last few weeks coming to terms with the fact that he would soon be well known throughout the east as one of the Solar anathema, he once again flared his caste mark for a few seconds.

All of the enforcers took a step back, the eastern gate of Great Forks falling completely silent. The marble-eyed spirit’s voice broke into a fully quaking voice, quivering in fear: “I… you, we have orders to bring all Solars to an audience with the three – will you come with us willingly?”

With some quick thinking Cash had his fellow Hoof of the Daystar practitioner throw him into the crowd of enforcers surrounding Speaker. With a loud shout of “Incoming!” the mare effortlessly did so, allowing Cash to land with supernatural grace right next to Speaker, sporting a big smile and as much swagger as his captain’s outfit could muster. Aside from the surprise, then Speaker mostly found himself thinking that he very much wanted to know how Cash had landed so well…

Cash quickly got around to saying that of course his friend Lord Solar would comply, provided that he could bring his friends, flashing the enforcers a soothing grin. The spirit was visibly relieved, sweeping sweat-drops of liquid stone off its brow.

Pulling Speaker aside, Cash quickly asked if Speaker had done anything to set off the alarm. Speaker adamantly claimed innocence, pointing out that if those chimes had worked right they should have detected Sunrise Glow coming to meet them on the docks, but they actually appeared a little broken and very out of tune, so they had probably only reacted to all of them having passed through at once.

“Okay, and they want you to meet ‘the three’, any idea who that is?” Cash said with a worried tone.

Sunrise strode up and noted that ‘the three’ were the three immortal gods that ruled Great Forks: The Talespinner, the Dreamweaver and the Dayshield.

“Okay, but if the enforcers have standing orders to bring all Solars caught at the gates before them, is it safe to go?” Speaker wondered, looking around to see if it would be possible to escape should the need arise.

Cash confidently said that he’d come along. Sunrise insisted that she and her friends come as well. The spirit with the stone-hide and marble-eyes nodded in agreement, appearing quite unsure of how to otherwise handle the requests from the ponies to follow this mysterious Solar.

The group was swiftly escorted into the city, through the streets bustling with thousands of ponies. Ragged and tired pilgrims dragged their hooves from shrine to shrine, colorfully or more often scantily dressed cultist ponies danced and sang praises to their deity of choice in full view from the street through the open doors of their temples, merchants hawked everything from idols and effigies to strange herbal mixtures and exotic euphoric powders. Travelers from all over the scavenger lands trotted about on their way to or from places, and on every street corner there was a shrine with a barker, promising enlightenment and ecstasy if you simply joined in worship at the temples they advocated for. This was Great Forks: Home to the hundred god heresy, or so said the immaculates; home to hundreds of free gods and spirits say the locals.

Speaker marveled at the colorful temples and the many different spirits and gods that walked amongst ponies, all as citizens of Great Forks. They had many strange forms, all vaguely looking like ponies, but some had bodies of leaves, while other glowed bright purple, or left strange vapor trails of light. Some had manes that seemed alive, others appeared to be made of streamers of colorful silk. How ponies could live with such wondrous beings and not constantly trip over each other as one stops and stares was beyond Speaker.

The enforcers escorting Speaker and friends led the group out into the central temple district of Great Forks. A heavy scent of incense and scented oils hung in the air, as processions to various gods snaked through the crowds of pilgrims and worshipers that went to and from the myriad of temples and shrines that filled the district. Every now and then ecstatic cultists or pilgrims could be seen being hauled off, having passed out or become ill from the excitement. This was the constant revelry that Great Forks was famous and infamous for: the city with a pleasure cult for every vice a pony could imagine and each with their own patron god. For this, Great Forks was also known as a city of decadence and endless vice, as nearly every citizen was rumored to be part of at least one pleasure cult.

In the middle of the district, Speaker was led up the stairs to one of the three main gates to the grand temple of the three – the temples and homes of the three gods that ruled over Great Forks. This was the largest temple complex of the city, dwarfing everything else in Great Forks as it stood in the center of the city. The group entered through the gate to the fane of the weaver of dreams of victory, a grand structure that reached for the skies with silvery spires as if to pluck dreams directly from the moonlight at night.

Inside, it was clear that the temple also doubled as the seat of government, as Speaker and his friends were led past a lot of office space where dozens of clerks worked, into a room furnished with large cushions to sit on, and low tables with cups standing ready with hot, sweet smelling tea – the room obviously meant for audiences and meetings.

The enforcers closed the door after Sunrise Glow and her two followers had entered, stating that the three would meet the Solar momentarily in the chamber.

Speaker looked around while sitting on one of the cushions. The tea was sickeningly sweet, and the walls were decorated with drapes embroidered with text that spelled out the story of Great Forks’ founding in every language known to pony kind – with Speaker only recognizing the rivertongue and old realm, even if he couldn’t read the old realm embroidery.

“Hey, they even have the story written in sea-tongue!” Shimmer exclaimed, subsequently chuckling at the botch-job whoever had translated the story had done: “Oh this is rich. I think they got this wrong, or they're ruled by the bayshield and the weaver of scallops”

Noticing that Sunrise Glow was looking very intently around the room, Speaker finally found time to ask the hooded filly what she was thinking ordering him and Cash around so casually. Turning to Speaker, Sunrise calmly stated: “You aren’t the first pony coming to Great Forks with claims of have exalted by the light of Celestia. I exalted three weeks ago by grace of Celestia to walk amongst ponies as her prophet, so I needed to know if you were telling the truth”

Speaker and Cash both cocked an eyebrow upon hearing this. Cash was quickest to voice his thoughts: “Right, that still doesn’t give you the right to boss us around little lady”

Sunrise Glow threw her hood back, revealing a very young filly. Speaker again wondered if she even had her cutie mark, even if the filly sure did look cute as button.

“As I said, I exalted three weeks ago, as I was finishing my indoctrination into the cult of the illuminated. I got this at the same time” Sunrise noted, lifting up her robe up around her right flank, revealing a golden sunburst as her cutie mark.

Sunrise Glow explained that her exaltation came with a vision from Celestia to restore faith in her: “…but to worship Celestia is not something you do in public here. The enforcers have cracked down on the cult of the illuminated twice already”

Cash’s face soured: “So wait, the city of a hundred creeds won’t let ponies worship the most high? That doesn’t make sense”

“Have you not heard the baleful story of the Fields of Kumu?” Sunrise’s servant pony humbly commented, citing the story that many travelling immaculates liked to tell.

The story of the Fields of Kumu was a nasty one, and favored by the immaculates to show why worship of Celestia was bad and why worship of the immaculate dragons was good. Cash had not heard of this story, having purposely avoided ever speaking immaculate monks, him explaining his choice of ignorance with “They’re bad for business, they say their faith doesn’t allow you to hang a sign over your store with a picture of what you sell – they say it’ll lead to idolatry, but so few ponies can read… so a sign where you write what your business is just doesn’t work, so I've always avoided them out of principle”

“Well then, I will tell you the story” Sunrise Glow started, giving Cash a quick and abbreviated version: It had happened a long time ago, in territories then ruled by a warlord known as Blue Iron Hoof. A farmer named Kumu of the Apple who had fallen on tough times had prayed to Celestia and was rewarded the next morning when the sun shined unnaturally brightly on his apple orchard, which had suddenly grown a full and ripe crop of apples overnight. Such instant wealth through divine intervention made the fields surrounding the orchard quite famous, leading to a grand influx of pilgrims and worshipers seeking similar favor from Celestia. Then a few months later the whole area was annihilated by heavenly spirits that struck down everypony with bright fire, despite their only offense being their prayers to the most holy Unconquered Sun.

The servant pony noted that in Nexus the story was often used to demonstrate how unpredictable and dangerous worship of Celestia was, compared to the ‘obviously safe’ and divinely just immaculate dragons. There were other similar tales, all well known in societies where immaculate monks and priests preached. Sunrise Glow added that such events shouldn’t be able to happen at all, so something was most certainly wrong: “I want to see an end to that chaos. Praying to Celestia has been fraught with strange or dangerous results like that for far too long!”

“That would be nice, but that is not the matter to discuss right now” A strange but undeniably soothing and authoritative voice said. It sounded faint but distinct, like a chorus of ten thousand soldiers speaking calmly as one, coming from the now open door into the meeting room.

Everypony turned to look at the direction of the voice and were met with the sight of a mighty god in the guise of an armored pony. It was black-maned and with a coat of silver runes, wearing a suit of bright incandescent red armor that seemed ready to defy any attack brought against it – and the armor seemed to be as much part of the god’s body as the silver runes, with a cutie mark in the form of a red shield with a glowing silver aura on its flank-plates. At her sides were two slightly curved sabers in red, wooden sheaths. This was the god known as Shield of A Different Day, the Dayshield, one of the three.

Sunrise Glow immediately threw herself on the ground. Cash and the servant bowed deeply. Sunrise’s other friend, the thuggish looking mare, simply bowed her head in respect. Speaker didn’t really know how to react; etiquette had never really been his strong suit, and meeting gods face to face was not something he had ever really done before. Looking around at the others, Speaker suddenly felt a painful tug in his beard as Shimmer yanked his head down to her level, forcing him to bow his head.

“Rise, especially you, Lord Solar – for I would much rather see you as an equal on this most auspicious of days” the Dayshield said, lifting everypony’s spirits simply by her presence, her kind eyes of gray stone warming everypony with her gaze like a charismatic warlord giving comfort to his soldiers.

Speaker looked around at his companions, as if to ask why they didn't get up as well since most of them were also Solars, then got up and nodded politely at the Dayshield: “If you say so, your holiness”

The Dayshield chuckled: “So humble – but tell me Lord Solar, what is your name and what brings you to Great Forks?”

“I, uhm… I'm Bright Machine Speaker, and I think my friend here can explain that much better” Speaker somewhat clumsily said, gesturing towards Cash Charmer with his right hoof.

With the attention focused on him, Cash really wished that he’d had some time to get some new clothes – the dead captain’s old clothes were okay, but by no means suitable for an audience with a deity. Still, he cranked up his charms and politely explained that he was but a merchant, son of a barge captain, doing his business in the hundred kingdoms when he came across the then mortal pony Heart Speaker, at which point Speaker received the blessing of Celestia: “This had the unfortunate effect of having both of us accused of being anathema, so we fled to the river of tears. Speaker procured a ship, and then we sailed here for a safe haven”

“Such a tale is common here; Great Forks receives hundreds of ponies every year that flee persecution due to their choice of faith. If you choose to abide by our laws, then you are welcome to stay” the Dayshield stated, Speaker feeling great relief.

Appearing out of nowhere, a handsome-looking stallion with a graying mane, sun-bleached and travel-worn clothes and countless small baubles and talismans filtered into his mane and hanging around his neck, suddenly stood next to the Dayshield, with a glowing aura of sunflower-yellow revealing the stallion’s divine nature: “That is nice, but I personally find this Charmer’s tale of fiction more entertaining”

Looking at this oddly plain-looking god, then at Cash, Speaker wasn’t sure what to do. Luckily, the Dayshield acted first: “Oh come now Talespinner, it doesn’t matter where the two are from – I for one believe that they fled to seek a safe haven here, and that’s all that matters”

“Shimmer, who’s this guy?” Speaker quietly whispered to Shimmer, who’d also gotten up now that the ponies had started talking.

Shimmer gave the pony with the yellow aura a look over: “That would be the Spinner of Glorious Tales, another of Great Forks’ ruling gods”

Bowing deeply, the Talespinner gave off a smile that visibly emanated with a calm and confident demeanor in form of slight flecks of light, while his eyes glinted with crystalline excitement: “Oh, guilty as charged – and might I say, what a well-traveled pony you are young la- well, okay, young-looking lady”

Speaker quickly noted the raised eyebrow Shimmer got as the Talespinner seemed to discern her true age.

“Oh you think she’s interesting, I’ve seen those three’s dreams” a third voice spoke, sounding like smooth velvet on the ears. It was a deep and husky voice, and it came from another goddess as it materialized, revealing a being that was – compared to the Dayshield – far more obviously not a mortal pony. The god had a form made of the solidified expectations of all those around her: She appeared as an amalgam of all mares that each individual beholder had ever seen, but with a mane of sleek black liquid that flowed down around her into a long voluminous dress that seemed to fade into nothing as it trailed after her.

Speaker recognized his mother’s eyes, a mouth that curled just like his oldest sister, Shimmer’s nose and small cute ears of one of the fillies at the village Speaker had lived in until he had exalted… it was a strange sight, and yet oddly pleasing to look at – as if one was trying to imagine the mare of one’s dreams.

“So, who’s this?” Speaker turned to ask Sunrise Glow. To his surprise he found Sunrise looking worried.

Audibly swallowing and even revealing a slight shiver through her off-white robes, Sunrise Glow had to fight to exert no small amount of self control at the sight of this third god: “That, Bright Machine Speaker, is her highness the Weaver of Dreams of Victory, known to the common ponies as the Dreamweaver”

Having snuck in Speaker’s name, he didn’t feel like he had to introduce himself again to the gods – something Sunrise Glow would later berate him for – but Speaker bluntly cut right to the chase: “Okay, so you’re the three. Now tell me why you wanted to see me”