The Olden World

by Czar_Yoshi

First published 23rd of June, 2017

Equestrian culture loves cutie marks. Filly Starlight Glimmer hates them and never wants one. So, she leaves Equestria.

Equestrian culture loves cutie marks. Filly Starlight Glimmer hates them and never wants one. So, she leaves Equestria.

---

Inspired by Imploding Colon's Austraeoh.

Fallen

There was grass beneath Starlight Glimmer's hooves.

Her head was spinning; she didn't feel up to opening her eyes... or even getting up. Beneath her, blades wet with morning dew brushed against the pinkish fur of her belly, slightly chilly and soothing against her newly-acquired host of aches. She could breathe, however... and was reasonably sure she hadn't passed out.

Her ears flicked, a mountain breeze tracing its way through them. She heard a distant rush - possibly water, or trees, or any number of things. Thankfully, she also felt the weight of two saddlebags pressing against her sides. Trying to survive without her provisions wasn't something she cared to think about.

At last, she opened her eyes. She was lying on the crest of a large hill, freshly strewn with loose gray stones dislodged in her tumble. Groaning, she looked upwards. A sheer, loose cliff face loomed high above, and several meters up she could see a dark patch marking the mouth of the cave from which she had recently fallen. Starlight eventually ignored it, looking only forwards.

The hill itself was surprisingly forgiving, just shallow enough in gradient that thick, rich grass clung to it all the way down. Beyond, in every way she turned, mountains far taller than the one from which she had fallen blotted out the horizon, close enough that they forced her to tilt her neck to see the peaks yet still impossibly far away.

In the valleys littering their bases, forests sprawled in a dark green blanket, reaching as far as halfway up some of the more imposing slopes. Starlight didn't need the shade of their canopies to tell her the area in which she'd emerged was rich in rains; the musky scent of freshly ionized air tickled her nose even though there was hardly a cloud in the sky.

She held still, sniffing harder. The mountain range behind her was said to be impassable - no roads braved its surface, no passes had been documented, no ponies kept more than grannies' tales of the lands that lay beyond. For several weeks - judging by the number of times she'd slept, at least - Starlight had walked and lived the caves that traced through the heights of those mountains, in search of a way to prove the ponies wrong. And finally, she'd done it. She was outside.

Slowly, she felt a heat against her back. The sun was high enough in the sky to pierce the mountain behind her, it seemed. Apparently, that meant she was facing west. Starlight didn't care. She simply lay there, allowing the warmth to soothe the caverns' lightless chill that had infested her very core. She let the dew soak into her coat, feeling a spike of pleasure at the almost palpable sensation of stony dust working its way free. She inhaled deeply, allowing the clean mountain air to cleanse and refresh her lungs... and promptly fell asleep, there in the grass.

Starlight came to with a start. The sun was reaching the horizon - admittedly, still quite high up. She ran her mind over her extremities, something she chided herself for not doing earlier, and was relieved to find nothing painful or broken. So, she got to her hooves and stretched.

Then she shrugged off and opened her saddlebags, taking stock of their contents. Having lain in the grass alongside her, the bags were damp... as was she. Starlight grumbled and brushed her chest fur with a hoof before turning back to the bags.

She had some food left - probably enough for another week, if she conserved at her present pace. Hungrily, she stole a glance at the trees in the shadowed valley below; anything they might grow was certainly better than stale bread and holey cheese.

Her water canteens were a different story. All but one were empty, and that was after refilling them at a pool deep within the caves some time earlier. It wasn't as good as mountain water was proverbially said to be. But perhaps that would change now that she had made it to the surface; already, she could count over two dozen streaks of glacial meltwater racing down steep inclines to the forested valley beneath her. Her eyes drifted upward, catching the glare of the setting sun refracting off freshly-fractured snowbanks that fed the glacial runoff. Peaks linked with peaks in a wall of amber-tinged majesty that nearly made Starlight's eyes water.

The only items remaining were a thin, lightweight blanket, a folded paper map of Equestria - not that she'd need that - and a small black box, sealed closed inside a waterproof case. That appeared to be undamaged. Good.

Starlight looked forward again with renewed interest, mentally planning her route in her head. The sun was setting; she knew that to be west. And since the mountain range she had just crossed ran from east to west... she squinted at the rivers, sparkling in the sunlight. Those would ultimately be making their way north. Following them would take her out of the mountains, and at least give her a plentiful supply of water and vegetation.

Vegetation... her stomach growled, and she glared back at her bags. Then she nosed the grass on the ground, rolled her eyes, and took a bite. It wasn't like anyone was watching.

For something that was considered anywhere from a sign of abject poverty to a public nuisance in Equestria - and even worse in predominantly desert areas - eating grass felt and tasted surprisingly good. It might have been the mountain air, or the fact that this particular patch of grass likely hadn't been trodden in thousands of years, or even the monotony of her diet the last few weeks, but the crunch of greenness against her teeth and slender, leafy bitterness on her tongue and throat made Starlight shiver in delight. She tossed her head back, munching and swallowing. It was like eating spaghetti and a salad at the same time.

She leaned back down, taking a second bite and a third... and eventually lay back down entirely, contentedly munching away. As she filled her cheeks with greens, she reflected with additional satisfaction upon how naturally she was doing something that was entirely unnatural in Equestria.

Eventually, Starlight rolled onto her back, delightfully remembering what it felt like to be full... when she was plunged abruptly into shadow. She glared up at the western mountains; the sun had sank behind them entirely. Shivering involuntarily, she glanced forlornly up at the still-lit peaks to her right and back. She'd just slept the whole day, and as tired as she was, she didn't presently feel like fixing an inverted sleep schedule.

So, she hitched up her saddlebags and climbed to her weary limbs and began trotting north.

Night

Starlight climbed steeply down the grassy hill, treading stiffly so as not to topple and faceplant. The ground beneath her was dark, assaulting her senses with confusion when the sky above was still perfectly bright with evening glow. The far mountains' shadow stretched longly, and she suddenly felt a wave of familiarity as memories of caves and darkness swam through her mind. She wasn't sure if it was pleasant or not.

She didn't light her horn - not yet, at least. After countless days of wandering beneath the ground, with only herself as illumination, it was taxed far beyond aching. The unicorn folded her ears, feeling ever so slightly nauseous as a result. Perhaps she was young, perhaps she was unskilled, or perhaps she just had unrealistic expectations of what a unicorn should be capable of, but she wouldn't let the hornache stop her. Besides, she could see in the dark.

The darkness suddenly magnified tenfold.

With a yelp, Starlight tripped over something and barely caught herself. She landed on her flank, looking up to see the fringes of a canopy obscuring the still-light sky. Had she reached the forest already?

Stubbornly, she climbed several paces back up the steep hill for a better vantage point. When she turned around, she saw that she had indeed reached the beginning of the trees - or any other patch of never-ending, monochrome land bathed in the blue of the night.

Starlight sighed. Rubbing her horn gingerly with a hoof, she tapped it once... twice... and winced as it lit up, throwing out a spark or two. Squinting and holding herself low to the ground, Starlight re-entered the forest, praying for a breeze to make its way through the trunks and cool her horn.

Surprisingly, the underbrush wasn't dense. Giant ferns blocked her path, but they were neither prickly nor poisonous, and she pushed her way through headfirst with relative ease. Her hooves padded across a bed of needles, indicating that the woods were coniferous. She licked her lips; pitch was a fairly useful material.

Threading her body through the amply-spaced trunks, Starlight continued downhill with a slight sideward variant. She was trying to reach water, both as a guide and for her own supply. Fortunately, her meal earlier had been sufficiently moist - far more than her hard, preserved rations from the caves. She kept her ears pricked for the sound of rushing water, just in case... and plodded onward.

Starlight blinked. The woods ahead of her opened up into a clearing, her namesake filtering down from above. Smooth, flat stretches of exposed rock abounded, covered in moss and perfectly inviting. She touched one with a hoof; it was springy and supple and felt reasonably well insulated. She let her horn go out, breathing a sigh of relief as she pondered stopping to sleep the night away.

Casting off her saddlebags, the unicorn flopped down on her pink back, admiring the cloudless sky and trying to pick out familiar constellations from her foalhood. Idly, she followed her gaze with a pointed hoof... but every time the action came with a lingering sense of nostalgia, as if her favorite constellation simply wasn't there.

What was there was the moon, early into its rise and still partially obscured by the treetops. It was far more relaxing, and Starlight stilled, letting its white light wash over her body until her thoughts quieted and she couldn't even feel her horn. It felt good. She wouldn't have minded if it had stayed.

But eventually it moved on, and Starlight was plunged back into relative darkness. She frowned, holding still for a moment longer... and realized she was hungry again. Grumbling, she got to her hooves, relit her horn, and resumed her trot into the forest.

This time, Starlight felt, the trees moved faster. The ground was more forgiving, opener and slightly less steep. There were still crags and boulders she had to leap over or navigate her way down, but they were further apart and hardly as tall.

Her mind processed this as she wound around a particularly wide trunk. Rocks fell down, so wouldn't the base of the mountain have an abundance of-

Her ears perked. She heard water.

Starlight Glimmer bounded forward, suddenly thirsty in addition to her hunger. A gust of wind suddenly disturbed the treetops high above, but she simply stopped, waiting for the noise to die and her ears to pick up the river again.

Belowhoof, the ground grew barren again, its only coating lichen, moss and the occasional root so powerful it had forced a crack in the stone. Eagerly, Starlight sped up, chancing a brightening of her horn. Something glistened ahead, a long ribbon of reflectiveness... and there it was, racing down the incline perpendicular to her charge, pure and crystal and with no bed save for flat, hard stone.

Eagerly, Starlight leaned down... and dipped her horn into the stream. Briefly, she hissed in pain at the temperature change, but soon the pain melted away into relief as her overtaxed appendage cooled and numbed. It was like a gulp of fresh air, if fresh air could be applied directly.

Next, she drank. For nearly two minutes, Starlight lapped without pause, only stopping to roll onto her side and groan after having as much as she could possibly hold. Still, she felt thirsty... so she resolved to lay there, the tips of her four hooves barely touching the running water, until she was able to drink again.

Before too long, however, laying on the exposed stone in the night air began to take its toll. Starlight shivered; it wasn't a bone-piercing cold like that of the caves that had never seen the light of Celestia's sun, but it was the kind that would wear out its welcome soon to even the sweatiest of exercisers. Starlight felt her coat. It retained all of its youthful fluffiness, but that group definitely included her.

Starlight got up, considering taking a bath in the stream... but decided against it. If she was cold now, that would just make things worse. She'd do it in the daytime, when the sun could dry her out.

Instead, she pulled open her saddlebags and removed her flasks. Unceremoniously dumping the cave water from her last filled one, she held the three under the stream with her mouth, carefully rinsing them and filling them back to the brim. To test, she sniffed one and took a sip - exquisite. She topped it back off and returned them to her bag.

Next, she withdrew her food supplies in their entirety. Stale, dried fruit. Stale, dried bread. Stale, dried cheese... and maybe some other things. Much less exquisite. The unicorn glared at them, wishing for the grassy meadow from the previous evening... but they were what she had. Frugally, she put most of them back away, saving a few bites to munch on as she made her way downstream.

Clifftop

Starlight stared in dismay at the landscape ahead.

She had emerged from the trees, and now stood at the edge of a wide, flat, smooth stone field. Her river coolly streamed across it before vanishing at the edge in a cloud of haze. And beyond? She could see nothing for miles save for the jagged shadow cut through the heavens by the distant interlinking of peaks.

Starlight paced to the edge anyway, careful to steady her hooves in the event of wet ground. Peering over the cliff face, she swallowed: it was perfectly sheer, and so far down she couldn't make out the bottom. Or she could - but all it was was a mirrorlike lake, reflecting the immeasurable swarms of stars in the sky.

Sitting down, she took a moment to pout, thinking back on the way she had come. She had hoped the flattening of the terrain had meant she was reaching the bottom; instead, she had merely found a cliff... and would have to part from her river, as well.

Her instincts told her there was no time to waste, and she batted them away. So long as she found food and drink, she had all the time in the world. So she sat there at the edge of the cliff, staring flat-eared at the sky and the moon, the horizon that limited her sight so far away she felt she could touch it.

After a moment of moongazing, she shook her head and looked away, briefly chastising herself. She enjoyed it, to be sure. Perhaps a little too much. With a slight feeling of nervousness, she curled around and inspected her flank. It bore two parallel lines of charcoal gray, exactly as she had seen it last.

She sighed bitterly, overcome by an unknown mix of emotions that left a lonely taste in her mouth. Eventually, she straightened up, turned around, and continued walking.

The first thing Starlight Glimmer did was backtrack along the river to a safe distance from the cliff's edge, so that she wouldn't get washed over if she slipped and fell in. Next, she dipped in her muzzle and drank deeply once again - this time remembering to stop while she could still move. She sighed again, wiped her lips, checked that her flasks were full... and turned her back on the stream, marching with the edge to her left.

The filly stayed on the fringe of the forest, gladly letting the light from above replace her need to use her horn. But she stayed within range of the carpet of needles; thin as it was at the border, and even though she wore horseshoes, it was considerably better than hard stone.

As she walked, she noticed her shadow growing longer... and it wasn't just from the setting moon. The ground beneath her was slightly sloped, indicating that she was losing altitude. She hummed pleasantly to herself; she had guessed the right direction.

That and she just hadn't wanted to cross the river.

The moon set. Abruptly, Starlight found her path that much darker: she hadn't realized just how much of the light it was responsible for. She almost considered relighting her horn, but the terrain was flat and the only cliff around was very obvious. Besides, it felt nice to rest, for a change. Rest. She snickered; she couldn't remember a time in her life her legs had been this used.

Honestly, she was surprised she'd done as well as she had, going on hoof. Early on - before she'd even reached the caves - she'd overtaxed herself and had to rest for a day, legs turned to pillars of pink pudding, and had proceeded with horrible cramps afterward. But ever since, she'd been more careful, and hadn't once given herself more than she could bear. She wished she could say the same for her smarting horn.

Starlight was still following the cliff edge when the sky began to lighten, and again when the sun fully rose. It snuck speedily out from behind a crag so fast she barely had time to blink - though her blink was more at the realization that she didn't need to blink. She craned her neck up and up, trying to look over the towering wall of stone that loomed before her much closer than the day before... and when she saw the sun, it was nearly at midday.

She sighed, shivered, and stood there, allowing it to warm her coat and dispense of the night's chills. Then she continued walking.

Now that the sun was up, Starlight opted to make another trip to the edge to check what was below. When she reached it, she was pleasantly surprised to see the forest canopy only a few meters down. She was almost there.

Hardly wanting to shimmy down a sticky, sappy trunk with her saddlebags, she kept going. Parts of her body began to complain: her stomach was hungry, her legs were weary, her back was hot even though she still felt cold inside. Unhappily, she thought of the rations in her pack and the size of her last meal. If she didn't want to run out of food, she'd need to find trees that grew something other than pine cones. Or more grass. She doubted she could take that with her, but it had certainly been nourishing.

Still, she forced herself onwards, periodically checking the cliff. Several hours later, it finally became shallow enough to jump down, so she braced herself, coiling, and leapt.

More stone. Starlight frowned; she had hoped for grass. But the sun was still high in the sky, and the forest resumed ahead of her, so she would need to get a good start if she didn't want to have to use her horn again to see at night. To that end, she stopped, spread her packs, curled up on a rock and had the most pitiful picnic that mountain valley had ever seen.

She winced from hunger again even as she re-packed her saddlebags, and shrugged it off. There would be real grass again eventually. Maybe she'd eat a full meal that evening. She'd tried ferns and moss already, only to find them intolerably scratchy, bitter, and dubiously edible.

At least she wasn't sleepy. That much, she had under control: after countless sunless days in the mountain caves, her sleep schedule had devolved to something nopony could even guess. She wasn't sure how long she would sleep for when she next properly went to bed, but she knew she'd been up for a day and a half and her eyelids weren't the least bit heavy.

So, with a supply of food that needed to last an unknown amount of time and a pair of eyes that definitely weren't sleepy in the slightest, Starlight Glimmer hitched up her saddlebags, perked her ears forward, and trotted into the forest.

Crossing

Starlight had found food.

Exuberantly, with the setting sun tinging the topmost layer of the canopy gold above her, she munched and munched contentedly, pulling berries off a cluster of bushes with her telekinesis. Her eyes were closed, relying on the feel of her magic to separate the fruit from the leaves... though the leaves on this particular bush were quite tasty, too.

She scarfed the berries by the dozen. Small, bulb-shaped, and incredibly sour, they made her tongue puff up as she ate, but she didn't care. As far as she was concerned, any flavor at all beat out stale bread. Besides, she liked sour.

More usefully, the berries were fairly hard, sturdy and didn't drip. When she had eaten as much as she considered wise (plus a few extra hooffulls for good measure), she set down her saddlebags, rearranged the contents so that one was empty, and began packing the thing with berries as well.

The berries were small, and the bushes not infinite, so that task took her several hours. It might have gone faster if she hadn't kept eating, but she didn't care - at least, not until she realized stars were visible through the treetops above. The sun had set, it was night, and her horn was just beginning to ache again.

Starlight yawned, belching contentedly, and realized how badly she needed a drink. Deciding it could wait, she shrugged on her saddlebags... and promptly faceplanted into the springy earth.

She hit the ground with a yelp of surprise. Her saddlebags were heavy! And she was full, and more than a little tired. She blinked, twitching her ears, wondering if it was time for a nap.

Not sleeping now meant sleeping during the day... or staying awake twenty-four more hours, twice as long as she'd already been up. Swiftly making up her mind, she dumped her saddlebags again, rummaging through the contents. The filly produced a warm, lightweight blanket and backed her way to a nearby outcropping of stone, against which she curled, wrapping herself like a burrito. She hovered her bags next to her head, extinguished her horn, and listened to the night.

At a sudden burning sensation on her face, Starlight yawned herself awake. She blinked, cringing, upwards; the sun shone on her through the trees directly above. It was midday, and she had been rudely awakened.

Grumbling, Starlight shook out and packed her blanket, checking on the berries in her other bag. They had held up, it seemed - perfect. She searched the bushes one last time, grabbing a few more elusive clumps and throwing them in her mouth as she set off again.

The sun was perfectly overhead, so she couldn't use it for guidance. What she really needed was another river: water flowed downhill, so it would inevitably lead her to a lake, or, preferably, out of the mountains or even to civilization. As she walked, she daydreamed about what non-Equestrian civilization would be like. There would be no worship-this and worship-that of cutie marks... or possibly no cutie marks at all. She licked her lips and looked back at the gray equals sign on her lilac flank.

She walked perfectly counter to the gradient, reasoning that water flowed downhill, so by keeping her altitude constant she'd cross the most potential room for rivers to run. Eventually, her instinct paid off, leading her to a rushing torrent many times wider than the small stream she'd found earlier. It was moving downhill to her left, so she shrugged and followed it.

The river led a fairly straight course. Starlight was somewhat surprised; from her view of the mountains from above, they looked like folds in a blanket: jagged, triangular and geometric, straight sloped lines all the way to the bottom. She wondered if that meant she was nearing the bottom, but was hesitant to assume seeing how recently she'd been tricked by the alien geography.

Home... the mountains of home didn't look at all like this. They were tall stacks, rounded humps, whimsically deposited across flat stretches of land like scoops of ice cream fallen from the cones of giants. Even the homeward side of the supposedly-impassable mountain range she was leaving behind was somewhat curvy, though it was definitely closer to this than anywhere else.

Something about the triangular mountains soothed her. There was an ordered chaos to them, something wild and raw... that hadn't been made to be anything other than what it naturally was. She was almost jealous, in a way.

Jealous of mountains! Starlight laughed, picking her way around small logs that had washed up at the riverbank. No, she wouldn't be jealous of anything. That was too much like getting attached, and she had to prevent herself from caring too much about anything in order not to find her cutie mark.

Evening had come again, the sun shining the last rays it would shine before being swallowed by the impossibly high horizon when Starlight and her river exited the forest. She breathed in wonder at the lake before her, its perfectly flat waters stretching all the way to a massive, sheer cliff face to her left. Her eyes searched for the top, and perhaps a mile down she saw a small waterfall glistening in the dying light. That was probably where she'd been last night.

The waters met the cliff without leaving a path, meaning Starlight's only path forward was around the other side of the lake... and across any and all rivers pouring into it. Silently, she hoped there was at least one that left it, because if not, she'd have to find a pass, and that meant more climbing.

She didn't want to swim; she knew that much. And seeing as she wasn't tall enough to ford all but the shallowest of shallows, she set off to find something she could use as a bridge.

A series of flat, decently-large rocks poked up through the river, just high enough that they avoided most of the splashes and spray. Starlight Glimmer sized them up, decided they would do, then waggled her tail and leapt.

With a clink of metal on stone, she landed on the first one. Her legs complained slightly from the jump, but she was still sturdy. The stone below her was too, not shifting in the slightest from her landing. Pausing, she examined the river surging around her again, lining up the best way across. She targeted her next stone, backed up as far as she dared, and made another jump.

Tink! Her hooves made contact, scrabbling for purchase. She'd been munching on berries from her saddlebag all day, so it wasn't as heavy as it once had been, but was still cumbersome. Minding its weight, Starlight judged another stone and leapt again. Halfway there.

She made it past one more jump... and paused, realizing she had made a mistake. The end of the river loomed just ahead, but it was more distance than she could jump at once and she was all out of stones. She frowned, bit her lip and pouted. The river rushed around her.

Eventually, when the river had made it clear it wasn't going to magically grow a new platform for her to stand on on its own, Starlight sighed and narrowed her eyes. Grunting in concentration, she lit her horn and pointed it at the halfway point between her and the rocky edge.

Flash! A stream of teal flew forward. Where it impacted, cyan manacrystals formed together in midair, interlocking into a prism that traced its way down until it ingrained with the riverbed. Starlight stuck out her tongue in concentration, pouring all her focus into the high-powered spell, all the while making sure to deliberately not enjoy it.

The crystal block stayed put. After a few moments, horn still active and keeping it in existence, Starlight gritted her teeth, ran forward, and jumped again.

Her hooves made a strange, metallic sizzling noise as they came in contact with the substance, but it was as sturdy as anything she'd ever walked on. Not stopping to rest on her work, Starlight immediately jumped again, relying on her momentum to carry her to the far side.

She landed abruptly, pebbles shifting under her weight, and hopped to higher ground. Her horn went out, the block behind her disappearing in a flash. She smirked, proud of herself... but not too proud. She didn't want a cutie mark in river crossing, after all.

So, with the setting sun in her eyes and the forded river at her side, Starlight set off once again, returning to the lake at the bottom of the cliff.

Raining

Starlight awoke with a flash of panic. She didn't remember falling asleep or even making camp... but what she was now was wet, and she was getting wetter.

It was raining. Fat dollops of water fell all around her - at first sporadically, then closer and closer together. Her coat bristled in defense even as it became plastered to her backside, and she looked around wildly to get her bearings.

She was at the edge of the lake. She'd been walking alongside it. It had been night... she must have fallen asleep on her hooves. The sky and everything below it were gray, indicating it must have been some time during the day... but when didn't matter. She had to find shelter before her packs soaked through.

Already imagining her hard, stale bread and carefully hoarded berries turning to mush, Starlight woke her sleepy limbs and galloped, hooves scrambling against the wet lakeshore below. Sand and pebbles slipped beneath her, jamming in her horseshoes and making her wince. She needed shelter... but where?

Quickly, the filly zipped up to a tree, a steady thrumming rising in her ears as rain beat down on the soft floor and rippling lake around her. Its branches and needles were thin, however, and it offered next to no protection. She shivered and darted further into the forest, leaving the lake behind.

She passed a gnarl of bushes that strongly resembled a wilder version of a garden hedge, branches waving invitingly at her... but they were already soaked. She stuck her head in anyway, shiversnorting from the wet contact, and backed out, cantering away.

Ahead, a break in the trees loomed, and she burst out into the full force of the downpour... and groaned. Ahead was another river, waters churning hungrily as the gray rain fed it further. Again, she tried and failed to bristle, little lilac face falling with the raindrops.

With a muddy hoof, Starlight pushed her wet mane out of her eyes and surveyed the area, hooves hurting and teeth chattering. This river was far less straight than the last one, zigging and zagging through an open stony field with occasional outcroppings of rock sticking straight up into the sky.

Hopefully, she took a few steps toward them, wondering if she might find one with an overhang.

Starlight wandered in and out among the blocky, flat-topped spires, ears flattened by the pounding rain as she peered around corners and inspected rocks. At last, she found something: two protrusions, one leaning against the other such that their tops locked together, creating a small tentlike crevice between. With a gasp, the filly darted toward them, wriggling her way in.

She held still, breathing. The twin walls reached up like a stony hug, open at the front and back and so close together she couldn't even lay on her side... but at last, she didn't feel rain on her back. She eased her saddlebags off and set them in front of her, tucking in her tail to keep it out of the rain.

Inside, her blanket was... wet. So was her bread, and most of her other food. Her water was fine, of course. She popped a hooffull of berries into her mouth, pleasantly surprised to find that they were still as firm as ever and even tasted good with rainwater. And her black box was completely fine.

Squirming, she turned her head around, inspecting her flank. It was blank and markless, safe for a few smudged streaks of gray that even then seemed to be running down her coat. She groaned inwardly, but couldn't fix it now. Her coat was still too wet.

Unsure if wearing her blanket while both she and it were wet was wise, Starlight raised the object in her telekinesis, squinting as she hung it near one entrance of the triangular cave. She set her bags next to it, contents arrayed as spaciously as she could afford... and turned around, squeezing to fit through the narrow walls of the enclosure.

As the rain hammered down around and above her, with the muffled roar of the river in the distance, Starlight sunk down, tucking all four limbs beneath her body and pulling her soggy tail alongside her. She tried, futilely, one more time to fluff her coat, then lay there, a silent sentinel of the watery valley, content to watch, listen, and maybe fall asleep.

Eventually, Starlight awoke in a snug, soggy pile... and sneezed. She shivered. That wasn't a good sign. Catching a cold here, while completely reliant on her own ability to take care of herself, would be disastrous. At the least, it would force her to find shelter and sustainability and stop for a few days until she was better.

The rain had stopped, though. Instead, the world outside was shrouded in cold, gray mist, creeping right up to her cave and filling the air with so much humidity that she imagined her blanket would be even wetter than it was before. Starlight groaned, hugged herself, and stood up, strolling outside.

The first thing she noticed was the river. It had swollen considerably from the day before, and with a spike of alarm she imagined it getting so large that it would reach her and wash her away. Thankfully, that didn't seem like it would happen soon.

She sniffed the air. As clammy as it felt, it at least had the decency to smell nice. Tilting her head straight up, Starlight took a deep breath... and sneezed. She scowled.

Turning around, the filly began dragging her things from her cave with telekinesis. Sure enough, her blanket had several bucketfuls of water waiting to be squeezed out, which she did at a distance and with several shivers. It probably needed to be washed, anyway.

Repacking her things, she slumped the wet saddlebags against her back, miserably tramping away from the cave. As she walked, she realized she'd forgotten to clean out her horseshoes, but wasn't about to stop now. This much mist likely meant it was early morning, and she wanted to travel as much as possible before night returned... or it resumed raining.

Starlight hung her head as she walked, searching for a way across this river. If there was one thing she had to be happy about, it was that her horn had stopped hurting. There was still a twinge every time she thought about it, but it was far from omnipresent. Traveling in the day and giving it a rest, apparently, had helped.

Eventually, she came to a large tree that had fallen across the river. Perking slightly, she inspected it, cautiously feeling it with telekinesis. It was wedged firmly in place, though it had been stripped of bark and was slick with moisture. Starlight eyed the swollen waters below distrustfully, their blue-gray waves lapping up against the side of the log. Carefully, she tested it with a hoof... and promptly slid right off.

The filly frowned, lighting her horn. Concentrating, she forced mana into the log, watching as it shimmered... and began to change. Her magic wrapped around the outside, forming manacrystals attached to the surface, tiny and jagged and myriad across the bridge. When she tested it again, their coarse, magical surface gave excellent perch to her hooves, and she immediately scampered across without incident.

Having reached the end of the bridge, Starlight sighed... and sneezed again. Releasing the crystals from her magic, she let them fade behind her as she plodded drearily onwards into the dripping forest.

Encase

As the day passed, the rains mercifully didn’t return… but neither did the sun. A blanket of grayness hung low over the world, infecting even the trees with dim, monotonous shade.

Starlight plodded on regardless, her little hooves beginning to drag across the forest floor. Trees surrounded her, tall and straight and with limbs interlocking in a web of crossroads high above. No wind blew through them or caused them to sway, but the forest was hardly silent. Exotic birds trilled deeply, crows and woodpeckers and hidden things that gargled deeply with their throats. But all of it was in the treetops. On the ground, Starlight was silent and alone.

She broke the silence with a sneeze, her still-wet fur clinging oppressively to her back. Wiping her nose on a foreleg, she looked around without stopping, unable to see more than a few dozen meters in any direction due to the density of the trees.

Aside from fallen branches and scattered boulders, the way was clear, at least. Starlight couldn’t feel a path beneath her, instead trusting her instincts and traveling almost imperceptibly downhill. With the sun hidden behind a wall of gray, she had no way of orienting herself save for the slope of the earth.

Ironically, her goal was still to find water. Dully, she popped a few drying berries into her mouth and contemplated where she was headed. At this rate, she’d find herself back by the lake… two streams crossed, yes, but then what? If it was indeed a mountain lake, the odds were good it had no way out. She could remain indefinitely trapped in that crater until she climbed, and then… what then?

Suddenly, Starlight broke out from the forest cover. A river of loose, jagged stones lay in her path, winding its way all the way up into a fold between two mountain walls. An avalanche zone, evidently. She briefly considered climbing it, but the land above looked just as gray and foreboding as the sky that touched it. Not wanting to stay in an area where something might fall and crush her, the filly plodded onwards, thoughts of grayness beginning to fill her head.

Rain had been rare, growing up. Her home had been near a desert, and while the pegasus ponies had been convinced that watering it was important, there had always been a degree of stinginess to the job. Rain had been something to rejoice over. Still, it had looked nothing like this - fluffy, swirly white clouds that dumped their payload when bounced on and were carted away.

These clouds were nothing like that… if they could be called clouds at all. They completely lacked any defining features, quantifiable not in number but by volume. No matter how hard Starlight stared, leaning up and glancing past the sea of branches, they were one and the same, without bottom or edge, sans even a single swirl or spiral etched into them to show the world their purpose.

They were just gray… not as an adjective, but an incarnation. And that grayness was beginning to infect Starlight’s mood, too. With sullen steps, she dragged one hoof after the other, occasionally stopping to sniffle as she wearily hiked further into the forest.

Starlight Glimmer couldn't go on.

Miserably, she lay flat on her stomach, staring at the perfectly smooth lake before her. It was a different lake than the one she had seen before, with a short cliff to her right that swiftly petered out. She looked at it, told her legs to move, and they didn't.

For all the chills she had endured in the caves spanning the peaks of the mountains, nothing compared to this. She had lain on bare stone, protected by nothing but her blanket and her fuzzy coat. She had walked miles through sunless depths, with no source of warmth save for her own little body. Never, though, had she been wet and unable to dry off.

The water hugged her like a squid, half-evaporating and refusing to finish the job. Every time she imagined it, thoughts of her wet blanket filled her mind instead - how was she supposed to fix that? Without it, she couldn't stay warm. Without it, she couldn't-

Starlight yelped as a thick drop struck her squarely in the muzzle, spurring her legs into action. Within seconds, the rain had returned, morphing into an extension of the mist, an impenetrable curtain of drops individually too thin to see yet together capable of soaking anything and everything.

The filly panicked, shivered, hissed, and cried, fleeing along the short, stony bank along the cliff floor. It narrowed as she ran, quickly trapping her with a wall on her right and the rippling, disturbed surface of the wide lake on the left. Starlight sneezed violently, looking around with wide eyes at the bank on which she stood. It was backtrack or be trapped... and she didn't remember having recently passed any good hiding places.

Frozen, Starlight stood, her decision-making having failed her. A split second later, her horn flashed, and suddenly the air where she had been standing was replaced with a block of crystal.

Inside, a lilac filly blinked. The material had formed around her, by instinct or otherwise. Her panic held her frozen for a minute longer... during which she realized she didn't need to breathe. The crystal seemed to respire for her, placing the feeling of cool, rainy air in her lungs without even a rise and fall of her chest. She didn't think about what would happen if she had to sneeze.

The misty rain silently made land on top of the prism, trickling its way down the sides in thick rivulets that reminded Starlight of looking out a window... if the window was made of teal stained glass. As her heartrate slowed and her brain took stock of the situation, she realized two things: she was still wet, but she wasn't getting any wetter.

Mentally, Starlight felt her horn. It was shimmering, keeping her protective cage in existence. While putting a pony inside a block was an entirely new experience to her, she assumed the usual rules for making gems still applied. Simpler is easier. Stop concentrating, and they disappear. A little more taxing than levitation... which was easy in a pinch, but awful to sustain without breaks for an extended amount of time. Still, Starlight was far from tired. She could probably keep it up a while longer.

As she thought that, the rain intensified, picking up until the beat of drops against her shield was audible and even tangible. She shivered within the block, narrowed her eyes, and resigned herself to a long, drawn-out wait.

Several minutes into her vigil, something caught her attention. In the lake in front of her, a branch was floating past. Its movement was surprisingly rapid, from which Starlight could only deduce one thing: the lake must have a current. That meant it had an exit. There was somewhere further for her to go.

With a rush of determination, Starlight steeled herself. Her horn pulsed, and the protective crystal shield around her vanished, immediately exposing her to pelting rain and a light wind. She cried out in shock and annoyance, but didn't break her concentration, instead forming a wide, flat slab of crystal on the ground in front of her. With careful skill, she maintained the sheet, lifting it in her telekinesis and holding it above her head like an umbrella.

Her horn immediately complained from performing two sustained spells at once. Pushing through the accompanying wince, Starlight blew a raspberry. She was dry, and she could move. Keeping her horn happy could wait.

Starlight didn't waste a second of her newfound mobility, kicking into a swift trot on soggy, cold, over-taxed legs. Some part of her knew that she would have to rest hard soon, but that could wait... and for less practical reasons than that she presently had no shelter. She wanted to find out where the current went!

Hurriedly, she chased after the branch, its barren twigs still poking up in her misty sight. The path below her shrank so thin, her shield grated against the cliff, each contact causing a few sparks to pop from her horn and her head to tilt as if she'd been slapped. Eventually, she ground to a halt, fuming. The land beneath her completely disappeared. There was nothing but water, all the way up to the cliff.

Panting, growling, exhausted, and pained, Starlight stared angrily at the stick that had led her to the dead end... when suddenly, it swerved, turning right and floating straight into the cliff face, where it promptly disappeared.

Starlight's eyebrows rose. She leaned out as far over the water as she dared, trying to get a better view of the area the branch had disappeared to. A vertical sliver of black teased at her vision... when a sudden, violent sneeze nearly capsized her, forcing her to throw a hoof into the water to prevent tipping in entirely.

Yelping, Starlight righted herself. She threw away her shield and stared, feeling fresh rainwater begin to evaporate off her warm horn. With the frown of an accepting challenger, she relit her horn, pointing it downward at the vanished shore in front of her, and fired.

Slowly, a thin bridge materialized out of crystal in front of her, allowing her to progress slightly further along the cliff base. She did so deliberately, refusing to flinch or shudder as the rain drummed against her back... and when she reached the end, a black cave yawned in front of her. She peered around the entrance, eyes adjusting to the light... and with a sudden burst of smugness, saw that there was an outcropping of rock several hooflengths above the flowing water, flat and dry and tucked nicely against the wave wall. Starlight coiled her legs and leapt.

Her body complained, and the jump didn't go quite as far as she intended it to... but the upper half of her body still landed cleanly on the platform. Scrabbling, she wheezed as the hard edge dug into her belly and her hind legs met water, kicking and splashing as she tried to haul herself up. The crystal behind her vanished in a puff of magic as she did so, and soon she was entirely on the platform, saddlebags and all.

Starlight stood up, surveying the blackness. She lit her horn, summoning a light spell, and just had time to see that the shelf stretched further back into the cave before a loud pop extinguished her horn in a shower of sparks. Exhausted and pushed to her limit, Starlight fainted, collapsing with her saddlebags still on to the cold stone floor below.

Cave

When Starlight Glimmer came to, it was slowly, groggily, and with a great deal of unhappiness. The discomfort in her hooves, legs, and horn swiftly made her wish she hadn't.

She wasn't sleeping, though, and found she couldn't if she tried... so she simply stared dead ahead. The mouth of the cave loomed in front of her, and beyond it lay night... and more rain. Big surprise. Her coat felt slightly drier, at least, albeit with the stiffness that comes from leaving one's clothes out and forgetting to iron them. It probably needed brushing. Starlight didn't have a brush.

Her saddlebags were still on. The side she was laying on was the one with the berries. That probably meant they were all smashed. She inwardly groaned, but there was nothing she could do about it then. Doing anything required moving.

Still, as long as the rain continued, there was no way she was setting hoof outside that cave. Slowly, she also reminded herself that she'd need magic to get out. Her horn warned her not to even try casting a test spell, and she wisely listened.

With nothing else to do, the exhausted filly lay there, defeated and bored, staring unblinking out into the night.

The next time Starlight came to, the rain had stopped. The sun wasn't shining, but it was definitely day. That meant she could continue, if she got up and left the cave.

She didn't get up or leave the cave.

Instead she groaned, long and loud, stretching until her legs cramped and she curled back up, hissing. Her horn was still useless, but she had had enough of laying around. Slowly, stubbornly, Starlight rotated upright, dumping her saddlebags in the process. They hit the floor, her few possessions falling out behind her.

There was, at least, one thing she possessed the tools to take care of then and there. Twisting around, she examined each hoof in turn, prying off the curved strips of metal that normally served to make her life easier. Clumps of sand, mud and pebbles dislodged as she did so, and with a contented sigh she massaged the tender, newly-freed surfaces at the bottoms of her legs.

Her concentration was broken by a sneeze. Nose running, Starlight sniffed several times, absently looking out into the cloud-shadowed daylight.

There was grass on the lake's far shore.

Ears perking in interest, Starlight leaned closer. She wasn't sure how she had missed it earlier, but it was clearly there. A good, large food source that was right within her reach the moment her magic recovered. Guiltily, she turned back to her saddlebags, one of which was indeed leaking berry paste. It was a good thing she didn't need that anymore.

She had shelter, and a nearby source of plentiful food and water. She was also exhausted, possibly sick, and with supplies in poor condition. Starlight's common sense didn't take long at all to overrule her stubbornness and tell her she'd be staying in that cave for a while. So, she turned back to the belongings she did have and began to ponder how to make a camp.

Several minutes later, Starlight sat back at the entrance of the cave, proud of herself. Her blanket had been stretched to dry on a section of floor far back enough from the river swiftly flowing by below that it wouldn't pick up any errant spray or dampness, and her box and food supplies were similarly arrayed. Her saddlebags sat nearby; she would need to wash them of berries and stickiness, but the current was extremely swift and she couldn't reach down to the water without serious risk of falling in. That task would have to wait until her magic was recovered.

Ideally, she wanted her things outside to dry. But the sun wasn't really shining, and getting there required magic too. So, with nothing better to do, Starlight sat back and began to groom herself.

It wasn't pleasant work, due to the mish-mash of angles her fur had dried at and the amount of dust and dirt that had become caught in it. She made liberal use of her mostly-full canteens, both for re-wetting herself when necessary and frequently cleaning out her mouth. Slowly, she worked her way down her chest, along her sides, up her legs, and across her unmarked, off-pink flanks. But she was in no hurry.

Eventually, she finished, leaning out over the flowing water and using it as a mirror. Her coat lay smooth at last, which did feel undeniably pleasant even if her mouth tasted like hair and dirt. Her mane, though... it had been weeks since that had been cared for. Her old pigtails had vanished long ago, her neatly-trimmed bang had grown far enough she could probably lick it, too.

Fortunately, it was so matted, it stuck to itself when she moved it and she could just stick it behind her ears. That was something she'd have to fix properly later, once she had a brush and felt up to a bath. Maybe once she got closer to civilization.

Starlight did have one other thing that could technically wait for civilization, but she wanted to do now. It would be tricky without her magic, but she would manage. Pacing stiffly towards the area where her things were stored, she picked up the black box from her saddlebag in her teeth and moved it closer to the light.

Delicately, she unwrapped it, determined not to break the protective layer that she would inevitably need later. When that was done, the lid popped gently open, and she leaned inside.

Within was a small, feathery brush, a folded piece of stiff paper, and a large amount of gray powder. Starlight unfolded the page, revealing a stencil pattern of two parallel lines that she proceeded to hold to her flank. Taking the brush carefully in her teeth, she dusted it over the page, trying desperately not to sneeze as she worked. Ash flew as she worked, and when she pulled away, her cutie mark was restored, good as new.

She repeated the process for her other flank, then folded the stencil and put her box away. Strictly speaking, the mark she had applied was pointless. Not only was Starlight not yet at the age where she would hit a growth spurt and leave behind her filly body, but there were no ponies around to question her blankness in the first place, let alone who knew her enough to call her bluff if she said she was younger than she was.

Still, something about the equals sign that graced her flank was comforting. Starlight had vowed that she wouldn't accept any special talent that could set her above others... but there was no such thing as a cutie mark in not having cutie marks. So, she had made her own.

The filly finished packing, setting her box next to her other things. Next, she looked over her food supplies. The bread was wet, and as stale as it was it couldn't possibly last much longer like that. Since she had a ready food source just outside the cave, Starlight shrugged, taking every last bit of it to eat then and there.

Slowly munching, grimacing at taste and texture, Starlight contemplated the world outside. Her magic was recovering, but she didn't want to use it yet. But the world would still be there tomorrow. Silently, she laid with her bread at the edge of the cave, deciding she wouldn't mind if she fell asleep.

Camp

Lazily, Starlight Glimmer opened a single eyelid, though it didn't tell her anything she didn't already know. It was day again. Her horn felt a little better - good enough to use. And once again, it was raining.

Resting her chin in the crook of a leg, the filly looked glumly out at the enticing, green patch of grass on the far side of the lake that was presently being flattened by the weather. She wasn't hungry, but her bread was gone. Hopefully, the rain would let up within the next day, or she would be forced to soak herself again in order to graze. And she still couldn't properly sun-dry her things.

She huffed a bored sigh, using her telekinesis to draw swirls in the dust on the cave floor. A headache swiftly sprang up, causing her to stop. She wasn't that stubborn. Instead, she rolled over, laying on her back and looking up at the many shades of mineral deposits etched on the ceiling.

That, however, caused her running nose to swiftly plug. Flipping upright and standing on heavily cramped legs, she groaned loudly and stomped a hoof, venting her displeasure to any who were nearby to hear it. The echoed flow of the cave river quickly swallowed all reverberations, and soon Starlight was once again alone with only the water for noise.

For several moments, she just stood still, staring across at the far cave wall for no reason in particular. Then, owlishly, her head swiveled until she was facing further downriver, looking past her belongings at the ledge that trailed into blackness... and shrugged, stepping toward it. She had nothing better to do. She might as well keep exploring.

Summoning a dim glow to her horn, Starlight kept her ears well-perked, listening intently as the sounds of the rain and the world outside died away, only to be replaced by cave noises like drips and gurgles and the echoing, omnipresent flow of the river. The stone was smooth beneath her unprotected hooves, sloping slightly downhill to match the river's alarmingly swift pace. A hunch told Starlight that there would probably be a waterfall somewhere deep within the cave. That, she didn't want to fall into.

Soon, the familiarities of cave travel set in. Like old habits, memories of endless dusty labyrinths and relying on her own horn to tell direction floated across her eyes, reminding her to look down at all times in the event of spiky stalagmites. Starlight rounded a bend, fairly certain she had reached the point where the sun was only a myth. She felt a chill, not as all-encompassing as the bleak mountain hearts she had pierced before, but still decidedly uncomfortable when she was on the mend from chills. And then, just when she began to shiver... the path widened.

Starlight brightened her horn, holding still through the bout of nausea that came with it. Maybe using magic so early hadn't been such a good idea, after all. However, all thoughts of tipping over and curling up were swiftly banished from her head as she saw what the room contained.

It was filled with wooden crates - nearly a dozen of them. They were dusty, and clearly old, but their deliberate architecture was plain to see. Some time, some ages ago, another creature had been this way, and seen fit to bring cargo. Wherever civilization was, it couldn't be too far.

More important, however, was the possibility that the crates held something of use. Starlight sized one up, sticking her tongue out and squinting across its length. It was easily bigger than she was, the kind of thing for which a full-grown stallion would be paid bits for moving at a job. Rearing gingerly up to try to make out the top, Starlight hopped a little... and frowned. It appeared to be nailed shut.

Feeling her horn, she figured she could magic it open... but wasn't really up to that right then. Instead, she dropped back to the ground, poking around for anything else of interest.

Quickly, she discovered a keg, the remains of several burlap bags, and what looked like a very old stump. Starlight paused at the last item, curious. What would someone have dragged a thing like that in there for?

Its surface was smooth, almost polished, and hard enough to use as a table. It seemed to be sloped toward one end, and the base at its lowest section had a concavity that practically begged to be sat in. Was that what this was? A desk?

Starlight licked her lips and tried it. It was clearly meant for somepony much bigger than her, but its function was undeniable. A thought crossed her mind, and she felt around, searching for shelves or drawers.

Suddenly, part of the stump slid open under her telekinetic pressure. A flat, recessed sheet of wood slipped out, and in that was a thin, neatly-bound book. Dry and dusty, it lifted easily in her hooves, a tingle of magic that might have been a preservation charm reacting to her presence. Starlight set the book on the desk... and sneezed violently, turning away just in time.

Shuddering, she turned back to it. It had an unmarked cover and loose, open binding, begging to be read. However, her dizziness from acting as a lamp was rising, bringing a wave of nausea along with it. Wisely, she stood back up, deciding it was time to bring this expedition in the caves to its end.

Back at the entrance to the cave, Starlight lay as close to the rain as she dared, allowing the misty air to purge her lungs and refresh her headache. It worked to an extent, after which nothing but time seemed to help. So, she opened the book, reading aloud by cloud-covered sunlight.

Dear future explorer,

I am Sosa, explorer of minor renown. Based on whether I survive this expedition, I imagine you will either know me as an adventurer of legend or have never heard of me at all. I can only guess at how the world has changed in the years, decades, or even centuries since my time in these mountains, but it warms me to know that as long as there is mystery in the world, there will be those like yourself who actively seek it out.

At the time of this writing, I was on a quest to explore and record these venerated hills, that future generations might have a chance to know and love their majesty as I do. Should I have succeeded in my goal and earned the world's fame, this journal will undoubtedly prove to be a historical artifact of great import. Take it, and with it earn yourself a slice of the fame and riches that I myself may have enjoyed. They will be nothing compared to the beauty of this wilderness that you and I have shared, but if I am given them, I pray you will be, too.

On the other hoof, should I fail in my journey and perish before returning my knowledge to civilization... please. I beg of you, complete my life's work. Take my journal and return with it alive, so that creatures of all types might benefit from what I died to see. Show these mountains to the world.

I leave to you this journal, and bid you luck in your own quest. May the mountains be with you.

-Sosa

Starlight flipped through the rest of the pages, sticking her tongue out in disappointment. They contained no maps, no directions, and nothing but boring, flowery poetry. Still, Sosa's camp might prove useful to plunder, depending on how well it had been preserved. She'd go back to it later, when her horn stopped wanting to kill her.

Sunny

Finally, the sun was shining.

The realization caused Starlight to lurch awake far more quickly than she preferred to, and she spent the next ten minutes sitting groggily up with a slump that could put every teenager ever to shame. Blinking, she licked her lips several times, eventually stretching away a cramp and taking a drink from her flask. Her horn didn't feel wonderful, but it would let her get out and in again.

Outside the cave, there wasn't a cloud in sight. Starlight took her time, figuring the sky would give her ample warning if she needed to run, and when she formed the bridge to exit the cave it was with her saddlebags packed and her eyes fully awake. The berry pouch was untouched, still filled with smelly paste, and her slightly damp blanket occupied the other.

Stomach rumbling, Starlight reached the end of the rocky spit that lead to the cave and circled around to the grass. She threw down her things, spread her blanket out to receive as much sun as possible, and then proceeded with the slightly gross task of cleaning her saddlebags.

Wading up to the very edge of the water, the filly dunked the article entirely, using a concentrated ball of telekinesis to scrub around in the inside. Reddish yellow glop began floating to the surface where she worked, and she had to change location twice to keep her work in clean water.

Eventually, the bags passed the smell test, so she turned them inside out and left them to dry, too. With that accomplished, Starlight knelt and began munching on grass.

She wasn't sure why, but it wasn't as pleasing as the meal she had had upon emerging from the upper caves. Perhaps the joy to be outside was gone, now that the weather had rudely welcomed her back with endless buckets of rain. Perhaps the thrill of eating things she wasn't supposed to had worn off, now that she had been away from home for longer. Or perhaps the grass up there was just better.

Either way, she still made a point of enjoying it. Her rations were gone, and unless Sosa had been there recently enough that his were still intact, this grass was all she'd have. Briefly, she contemplated how she might efficiently harvest the grass... and then she felt the sun on her back.

It had been there for the past hour, of course, but now she actually noticed it. She noticed how cold she was, and how much she'd missed it... and flipped over on her back, simply laying there and sunbathing.

The rays of light poured down on closed eyes, softly fluffing her fur and sinking their way into her body, warming even the deepest recesses of her where the caves' chill had taken root. A smile slowly grew on Starlight's face as, with the pace of an artist and the effectiveness of hot soup, the sun warmed her from within, allowing her to finally feel as if she didn't need to shiver.

She rolled over several times, letting the surface of her coat cool while still absorbing warmth. She sniffled once again, and eventually fell into a peaceful slumber.

Starlight awoke when the sun disappeared. Looking disappointedly upwards, she watched as cloud cover rolled in from the peaks, obscuring her precious warmth with hazy, high-up grayness. She pouted, but at least the sun had done its job: the filly felt like a living heat battery, a warmth sitting in her core that stayed and comforted her even as the air temperature began to drop.

She took a moment to smile giddily. She still had other problems, such as a temperamental horn and minor leg cramps, but this was a feeling she'd been missing for weeks. Even the sun she'd received at the exit to the caves hadn't come near to comparing to this.

Of course, she also hadn't been wet then. But rather than ponder the intricacies, Starlight instead took another mouthful of grass and turned to her things. Her saddlebags still held moisture; appropriate, given that she had recently submerged them. Her blanket, however, was as toasty as she was. It had a sufficient amount of dust and dirt that she briefly regretted not washing it, too, but that could wait. She shook it instead, closing her eyes at the cloud that flew from it, and then wrapping it around herself like a shell. Taking her saddlebags in her mouth, she made her way back to her cave.

Once there, she sat in the entrance, huddled under her blanket to preserve as much of the sun's warmth as possible. The sky looked back down at her, not raining but very well threatening to, and she wasn't about to tempt it. She could explore the cave again, but presently had that feeling that wasn't quite a headache yet could become one in an instant and decided against using magic.

That left her with little to do... though she could always try reading Sosa's book to see if she could learn more about the land around her. She shrugged at the thought; as boring as it had looked, it was probably less boring than doing absolutely nothing.

Silently, the filly skimmed the pages, turning them with her mouth like an earth pony. The walls of text within were just as mountainous as her surroundings, consisting of all sorts of canticles, arias, odes, dirges, boleros and other fancy types of songs. Green this, blue that, majesty and glamor and blah blah blahhhh... Starlight's eyes rolled as she read. Maybe it wasn't better than nothing. Still, she kept reading.

Once or twice, she read mention of something called the Yule river. Sosa wrote of having a boat, so she figured it must have been more substantial than the shallow things she had crossed with stepping stones. Pondering, she closed her eyes and imagined herself on a boat, cruising through a glacial river with no need to use her hooves and shelter always at the ready. She had just begun considering how she might make such a boat when a useful, if slightly morbid, thought occurred.

There had been quite a few crates in Sosa's camp. Wouldn't the explorer have taken those with him if they had gone on? What if they had never left the mountains, after all?

Not thinking at all about the fact that the long-buried remains of a starved corpse might lie in the old camp in the cave, Starlight turned her daydreaming instead to the possibility that a nice, fully-made boat could be waiting for her somewhere, still afloat and ready to carry her out of the mountains.

Crates

As the week wore on, Starlight Glimmer continued her recovery. Each day, she used her horn as little as possible, making do with hoofwork and simply doing nothing instead. The filly reattached her horseshoes, finished drying her saddlebags, and flatly refused to take a bath. On days when it was dry out, she left the cave, carefully cutting grass and spreading it in the cave to dry into hay. On days when it was raining, she hunkered under her blanket, reading Sosa's journal for the umpteenth time.

She kept herself warm, and before long her nose stopped running. She made sure to stay active, not willing to let herself get out of shape while she was down. And before long, she decided it was finally time to gear up and do something.

The day she decided that, it was raining.

Starlight pouted at the entrance to the cave, empty saddlebags slung over her little back. Outside, a gale was blowing, forcing her to stand back lest the rain intrude too far. She curled a lip, stuck out her tongue, turned around, and decided to explore the old camp instead.

Her horn felt fresh as she lit it, and the tingle of pleasure from finally being able to use magic comfortably almost succeeded in dispelling her dour mood. This was the first time she had returned to the camp since discovering it, not wanting to push herself while she was still on the mend and secretly fearing what she might find. But excitement was there too, and it forced her steps to quicken as she drew deeper into the cave.

She reached the camp, gaze immediately drawn to the sealed wooden crates she had observed before. Tossing aside her bags, she struggled to climb on top of one, jumping to reach the edge far above her natural height. Once there, she inspected the top in greater detail.

It was bound shut by numerous nails, and a quick telekinetic probe revealed nothing for her to easily grab to force it open. She could probably manage by lifting the lid from within, but was already unenvious of the amount of effort that would take. She paused, thinking... and then closed her eyes.

Starlight extinguished her light spell, but the shimmer on her horn remained. Carefully, struggling for precision, she expanded her telekinetic field until it surrounded the box... and everything in it. Tightening her grip only the barest amount, she slid her field left and right, feeling small amounts of drag as it passed the solids by. Over a minute, she repeated the process, gradually building in her head a map of where the resistance was.

Eventually, she stopped, and proceeded to sit in pitch darkness, unmoving as cool cave air filled her lungs. Whatever was in the box was heavy, long, pointy, and numerous in quantity. Her mind couldn't place what that could be, but she was relatively sure it wasn't food, rope, a tent or anything else useful to her.

She abandoned the crate, yet smirked in satisfaction; scanning it had been surprisingly effortless. Perhaps it was because she was fresh, but the difficulty had all been in imagining what she was feeling. Her horn pulsed on her forehead, good as new.

Licking her lips, Starlight chose another crate to scan. This time, she identified the contents fairly quickly: bottles, probably glass. She turned up her nose; water was good enough for anypony.

Scanning was definitely easier than forcing the crates open, Starlight thought to herself as she chose another and covered it in her field. Briefly, her eyes widened in disgust at what she felt: the contents of the box were coiled in all sorts of chaotic directions and moved when she felt them, nearly a centimeter thick. She quickly realized it was a rope, and wiped a hoof across her brow.

Starlight had brought a rope when she first set out. It had been useful, but was lost fairly early on in the caves after she misjudged the slope of an incline at the base of a ledge and tumbled far out of reach before she could untie it. This was something she needed to get.

Squinting, she hardened her telekinesis under the lid and shoved... and let out a frustrated growl as the crate flew upwards entirely, coming back down with a wooden clunk and nearly flattening her. She wished she knew how to teleport. Accomplished mages would be able to get inside the box, then push from there. But Starlight had to make do with her filly magic, and that meant doing it the hard way.

She set the box aside, deciding that no smart pony would use packaging so hard to open without leaving a tool for it laying around. Relighting her horn, Starlight returned to poking around the room and its low stacks of crates, searching for anything that might prove useful.

Her search turned up no real tools, but she did find a jagged shard of rock that might serve as an impromptu crowbar. Carrying it in her mouth back to the offending crate, she kicked and shoved the thing until it rolled over, leaving the nailed top on one side. Starlight scrambled back up, hammered the rock into a seam, and pushed, uniting telekinesis and her own physical strength.

The box creaked... groaned... and gave. A crack opened up, wide enough for Starlight to shove the rock further in and use it as a lever. She worked her way down the side, rolling the box several more times as she completed the tiresome process of loosening the lid, eventually wrenching and chucking the nail-ridden thing away. The box's contents came tumbling out.

It was, as she had predicted, a rope. Starlight beamed, sitting upright and holding a length of it in her forehooves. It looked slightly frayed and was horribly tangled, but seemed thick and didn't make too many cracking noises when she touched it.

Working by the light of her horn, she knelt and began trying to sort out the first knot... only for the thing to immediately snap in her hooves. She blinked in surprise. Selecting a random portion of the rope elsewhere, she gave an experimental tug, only to be met with the same result.

Starlight groaned loudly, kicking the box before throwing the rope aside and flopping down with her chin on the floor. It was cold, but her frustration needed to be cooled. All that work for a broken rope? At least it hadn't snapped when she was trying to use it. Her heart briefly slowed as she imagined falling down an endless cliff into a pit of darkness, a frayed rope end trailing meters above her...

She gulped, and immediately found that her frustration had been replaced with tears. She wasn't exactly sure why, but lay there and let them come. The rope must have been old. Any food Sosa had brought would be old, too. There was probably nothing of use in his camp, after all.

After several minutes of feeling cold and tired, Starlight scooted forward and pushed herself to her hooves. The cave did still go further, after all. Maybe she would see if there was anything interesting that way.

The passage, to Starlight's complete and utter surprise, led to more caves. And those to more caves still. She followed the river, dubiously eyeing the passages that broke off from her shelf every now and then. She was used to narrow, shifty tunnels, but was without her food and the river was her only method of reliably backtracking.

The river itself rushed at a fairly steep slant, leading Starlight to wonder just how deep it went. A shelf similar to the one on which she walked sprang out of the cave wall on the opposite side, and she could see tunnels branching off there, too. She could have formed a bridge out of manacrystal and crossed, had she wanted to, but that would have been pointless. So, she kept walking.

Her hoofsteps wound ever downward, twisting and spiraling to the point where Starlight swore she was directly under a point she had trodden before. With a slight twinge of nervousness, she realized she had left her saddlebags in Sosa's camp and all of her supplies even further up; if she got too hungry or tired to climb all the way out, she'd be stuck there. She wasn't hungry yet, but this amount of uphill could change that in an instant.

Starlight was almost ready to turn around when she felt a curious sensation on her cheek: the rush of wind. She sniffed; fresh air was indeed coming from somewhere ahead. Her curiosity was instantly piqued. Raising her ears and lowering her head, she charged further into the caves.

Wind this low was unusual. She had entered the cave on level with a lake. After this much altitude loss, shouldn't she be far underground? She shook her head at that line of thought; as far under the surface as the caves she had survived earlier were, they still ran through the very peaks of the mountains. Regrettably, she had no way of telling altitude as she did direction.

She rounded a turn, and realized that she didn't need her horn to see. Light was filtering in from somewhere ahead, and it illuminated the river surging forward with a furious froth. An echoing, stone-piercing roaring that had been building for some time finally completely overpowered the river, leaving little doubt as to what lay ahead. Starlight skidded to a stop around the final bend anyway, blinking furiously as her eyes adjusted to broad daylight - and the sight before her.

Canyon

Starlight skidded to a stop at the lip of the cave. It opened abruptly in a wall of sunlight, the river dropping out from beneath her and her ledge doing the same a few paces later. Above, below and all around stretched a sheer, vertical wall of stone, the river simply popping out of a hole in the side and falling into the distance.

Across from her, many meters away, rose a parallel wall baked gold by the afternoon sun. Starlight swallowed, hairs prickling at the sight: she was in a colossal canyon, a harsh sideways wind whipping past and nearly threatening to unbalance her. She crouched low to the ground, weathering the blasts and fluffing her coat in defense as the scale of the mountains overwhelmed her with its suddenness.

Above, the sky was blue. Her ears flicked as she watched it; this wind must have blown the clouds away. She could see trees packed all the way to the edges of the gorge, leaning perilously and in one place even forming a natural bridge across the wonder. Below, a river churned, much larger and more violent than any she had crossed before. Flowing from around a bend to her left, it rushed past her, fed by the comparatively small cave stream she had been following and surging on into the... horizon?

Starlight blinked. The left end of the canyon bent and twisted out of sight, but the right one simply vanished, ending the river in a curtain of mist and above that, a spotless blue sky. Conveniently, the ledge she stood on clung to the cliff face for a ways, allowing her to get closer.

Crawling to minimize the area of her exposed to the wind, Starlight crept forward along the narrow protrusion, hooves scraping across loose stones and pebbles that had likely fallen from above. As her eyesight adjusted to the size and depth of the canyon, she grew slightly more confident; it wasn't that deep. The water below was close enough that she could throw a reasonably-sized stone and probably hear the splash, and the cliff edge above was low enough down that if she tried to climb it and fell, she might be able to do it without breaking anything important. Not that she wanted to try, of course.

The ledge kept going, widening and narrowing in intervals as she slid cautiously along it. It rose and fell, dipping so low at one point that if she pinned her tail to the edge and dangled from it, she might be able to touch the splashing spray. All warnings of venturing too far from her supplies forgotten, the filly pressed on, determined to see what lay at the end of the canyon.

Starlight's ledge reached the end, and she saw that it wasn't just the end of the canyon - it was the end. Everything dropped away, from water to mountains to land itself in an endless expanse of green below and blue above. This was a more dramatic height change than what Starlight had seen emerging from the peak tunnels, the landscape so far below that she couldn't even make out individual trees. But trees were what there were; green intermixed with black and gray in a sharply rising and falling sea of stone and foliage that looked more like a bumpy carpet from her vantage.

On the horizon, where miles turned to inches and those into an atmospheric haze, a flat belt of clouds retreated, blown out of the mountains by the wind and sent to annoy the lands below. Aside from that, the sky was so open that it might not have existed at all. For a moment, Starlight stared upwards, before realizing she was above the sky. She pondered if this was how pegasi felt, before remembering that she had never seen one soaring overhead with even a fraction of this much height. She was on top of the world.

Finally, her eyes focused on the horizon, and she took in the most important detail of all. At the base of the waterfall where the river left the canyon, there was a massive lake, hammered into the bedrock by untold years of pressure and torrents. At the edge of the lake, a tiny ribbon of blue trailed into the forest before it was lost to the canopies... but she could still track its path by following the depressions in the landscape. And perhaps twenty or thirty miles downriver, she could see smoke.

It wasn't the thick, dark smoke of a forest fire, but a wide, compound haze caused by hundreds of controlled burns in one area. Her purple eyes shone, reflecting the pillar: that was the work of ponies. And for there to be so many ponies in one place... she was within sight of a town.

Soberly, she reminded herself that when you could see forever, something being in sight didn't count for much. Still, she had a promise from the land: if she followed the river, there would be an end. Perhaps it would be a community of ponies who wouldn't care if she never got a cutie mark!

That still left her with the question of exactly how to get there. Miles meant miles, which could mean days with no guarantee of shelter in a climate where rain could appear without warning. Even that close, one unfortunate soaking could still spell disaster. More importantly, she needed a way to lug her saddlebags and self down a cliff higher than a pegasus sky city, a drop she would have been nervous to take even if she had been a pegasus herself.

She scooted forward, examining the edge of the cliff as carefully as she could. Sosa had made a camp in that cave, and had mentioned having a boat. Any logical place to put a boat would have to be downriver of all major waterfalls, which likely meant he had climbed up this way... which could mean he had left a way back down.

Deciding to take the fast method of searching, Starlight closed her eyes, stuck her tongue out, and expanded her telekinetic aura. She wrapped it around the cliff face near her ledge, tightening it just enough to perform her newly-invented scan, and rubbed, getting a feel for the edge. Quickly, a line of thin, hard spikes protruding down the wall stuck out to her, and she blinked in realization. The contents of the first crate she had scanned must have been some sort of nails for anchoring a mountaineer to a cliff face!

Unfortunately, she was still without rope, which meant such things would be useless. And even if they were close enough together to form a ladder... she shivered mightily. Starlight wanted nothing to do with a plan like that. She poked her head out around the edge, looking at the rest of the mountainside in hopes the slope got easier elsewhere, and was rebuffed.

Groaning loudly, Starlight plopped herself down in the dust at the edge of the cliff and yelled at the sky. But it was clear that she had reached the end of the trail, and there was nothing more she could do there. So, feeling the beginnings of hunger stirring and other signs that she was beginning to tire, she got back up, turned around, and began the long ascent to return to her camp at the lake cave entrance.

Experiments

Back at her camp, Starlight ate swiftly, not taking the time to properly rest. Her head was too abuzz to do so, swinging back and forth between creativity and defeat at hundreds of times per second. She had seen smoke. Civilization must be near. Yet, an insurmountable drop and miles of jungle still lay between her and her destination.

She picked up a stone from the lakeshore and threw it, letting the ripples disturb her reflection. The gale from the canyon blew here, as well, but by some geographical oddity the surface of the lake was protected from the winds and remained still and placid, even as the conifers threatened to topple.

The town was clearly built next to the river. If she could follow the river, she'd find it for sure. Sosa had had a boat, but with the rope in that condition... it would probably be useless, too.

A thought suddenly occurred to her: while the rope had been useless, she had struggled long and hard to get the crates open. Those had to be sturdy. It wasn't impossible that she could make her own boat from them, should she find a way of surviving the waterfall. Immediately dropping her meal, Starlight scampered back to the cave, eager to test her hypothesis.

She arrived, chest puffing and saddlebags bearing the full weight of her supplies. Around her, illuminated by the light of her horn, Sosa's crates lay exactly where she had left them... but they wouldn't stay that way for long. Starlight licked her lips, selecting the one she remembered to contain bottles. The climbing spikes might come in handy, now that she had seen what lay ahead, but never this.

Starlight sized the crate up, taking a minute to rest and even her breathing. Then, she shoved against it with her shoulder and telekinesis both, pushing it toward the subterranean river.

It ground along the dusty, stony floor, much heavier than the one with nothing but dry rope. Grunting as she pushed, Starlight leaned harder... and barely caught herself when it suddenly disappeared over the lip. A colossal splash rose up, soaking her face and mane, but she leaned into it, hornlight intensifying as she eagerly watched the choppy, speeding surface of the river.

A second later, the crate surfaced, bobbing madly as it surged along and was swept out of sight. Starlight grinned triumphantly: if they could float with that much weight inside, surely they could carry her. Forget having a whole boat, she could just use a plain old crate!

With a confident smirk, Starlight hoisted the rope crate in her aura and began trotting back toward the beginning of the cave.

Starlight's crate gave a light plop as she dumped it into the shallows in a still part of the lake. She then sat back, watching.

The blue sky scrolled by overhead, and trees bowed over, leaning in with interest as Starlight Glimmer apparently did nothing. Her crate bobbed placidly, occasionally drifting away from the shore and being dragged back by a warding prod of telekinesis. After half an hour, Starlight pulled it out and looked in... and frowned. The walls were wet, and nearly an inch of water had pooled in the base.

She yanked it up further onto the shore, dumped it out, and sat back to think. At best, a leaky boat would be extremely uncomfortable to ride in. At worst, it would sink. She tipped it back on its side and examined it, but couldn't see any obvious holes - the boards must have just been loose in general.

Sitting back and sighing into the sky, Starlight wracked her brain for answers... and one quickly surfaced in her memories. Trees were covered in sap. Tree sap was sticky. Once, she had been playing and covered herself in the stuff, and water hadn't been able to wash it out. Would the same apply here?

Willing to find out, Starlight stood up and approached the nearest pine. She tongued the inside of her mouth, imagining the best way to collect the stuff, and eventually settled for brute force.

Her telekinetic aura expanded and encircled the tree. Starlight was no expert at levitating liquids, but pine sap was more solid than liquid anyway. It would work out.

She rubbed and rubbed, but nothing seemed to happen. Frowning, she rubbed harder... and suddenly broke off, feeling the twinge of an oncoming headache. That wouldn't do at all, not after how long she had waited to get her magic back. Reluctantly, Starlight gave up, flopping onto her back and staring moodily up at the trees.

Several hours passed, during which a lone cloud scuttled across her vision. She glared at it, daring it to rain on her. It chickened out, floating off into the distance without so much as a drop. Starlight thumped the back of her head against the soft forest floor and sighed.

When she got up, it took only a brief glance at the mirrorlike lake to tell her she had twigs in her mane. Grumbling, she didn't bother to brush them aside, enthusiasm cut sharply short by her forced break. The one positive was that it had worked; her headache never fully materialized. Still, she glared treasonously at her stubby lilac horn. Why couldn't she use magic for days on end like grown unicorns?

The crate lay where she had left it, drying in the midday sun. Perhaps she'd settle for a leaky boat after all. If only Sosa had had something to say about how to build a boat, rather than how awesome his was.

It didn't matter anyway, she thought miserably, mood failing to reflect the brightness of her surroundings. She still had no way of getting down the waterfall, let alone with a giant wooden crate. Completely ignoring her earlier fatigue, she channeled all her frustrations into her horn in one swift burst and conjured up a giant manacrystal in midair. With a yell, she slammed it into the water, taking bitter satisfaction in the giant splash that arose.

Seconds later, it bobbed to the surface.

Starlight blinked as the block vanished, her spell dropped in surprise. That stuff floated too? Her curiosity suddenly returning, she felt her spirits lifting, returning a grin to her face... until her horn stabbed her with a bolt of dizziness. Growling loudly and unhappily, Starlight stomped over to her crate, flipped it upside-down over her like a shelter, and took a long nap.

Preparations

Starlight was awakened by a loud rumble from her stomach. Groaning and rubbing her eyes, she lifted the lid of the box, gulping down a breath of fresh air. Outside, the light was dim, with fading stars still visible in the sky and dew covering the grass around her.

Patiently and groggily, she crawled out into the world and began munching. Apparently, she had slept the rest of the day away, and the whole night as well. It took her almost a full minute to remember why she was so tired; she had done more in the last day than the entire previous week put together.

Before her brain could wake up enough to recall her frustration from earlier, her box caught her vision. With grass poking out of her mouth, she eyed it, suddenly realizing that if properly waterproofed, it could make a superb portable rain shelter. A glow rose in her chest; that was another problem solved.

She felt her horn, and it seemed to be fine. Maybe it would take more than one day of overexertion to tire her out for good, now that she was rested. But she didn't want to push it, so she spent the rest of the time until sunrise eating in peace.

When she finished, belly full and the sun beginning to break over the snow-capped horizon, it was with a renewed determination to test her earlier discovery. Starlight crafted another manacrystal, this one sufficiently small as to take little effort, and dropped it into the water near her.

It bobbed and floated, about a quarter of its volume sticking above the surface. With a hoof, Starlight tapped it down, and it swiftly rose back up. She grinned.

Next, Starlight released the pebble. She had an idea she wanted to try, but it would be tricky... but something that could probably be done. Recalling the feeling and the process she had used when sealing herself in a crystal earlier, she summoned again, this time targeting only her head.

A prismatic block appeared, almost perfectly in place. Starlight suddenly struggled in panic, having forgotten that this would result in her being unable to breathe: though her head was trapped, her chest was free, yet she was unable to expand her lungs. She quickly banished the spell, hyperventilating and staring wide-eyed down into the lake.

After taking a drink to calm her nerves, Starlight focused on her memories of the experience earlier. She'd made it work before, after all. All she had to do was be rational... and calm. Rational and calm. She repeated it to herself in her head several times, took a minute to practice holding her breath, and lit her horn, ready to try again.

This time, she successfully fought back the initial wave of panic as her head was encased and the rest of her body remained free. Acting as if she was deliberately holding her breath, she found that she still didn't need to breathe while in the crystal... and nothing felt wrong until she tried to use her lungs.

Now more comfortable, the filly waddled to the water's edge, struggling not to tip over in her new, top-heavy state. Her vision was impaired by the crystal's refraction, setting the world spinning at bizarre angles and playing havoc with her depth perception, but her goal was to submerse her head, and that was something tipping over was at least beneficial for. A splash reverberated around her, wetting her hooves and forelegs and sounding strangely hollow from within the prism, and she was in.

Starlight blinked within the gem, slightly surprised at what she saw. Beneath the surface of the water, everything looked perfectly normal, the cyan-tinged view beyond the crystal melding neatly with its prismatic exterior to create an almost-uninterrupted portrait of the lakebed. The surface and edges of the gem were nearly invisible, and she found that she could somehow still breathe.

Pulling up, Starlight dispelled the gem and waded back out of the pool, an idea rising in her mind. She had no idea how hard her manacrystals were, but what if she could use them to shield herself during drops? There was a sizable lake at the base of the large waterfall, and it was undoubtedly carved to be extremely deep by the forces that created it. What if she descended the mountains by jumping?

The prospect sent a chill of fear up her spine, but also excitement. A skydive of that length would surely be a once-in-a-lifetime experience... but was it safe? She'd have to test first.

For now, though, that could wait. She still had the problem of waterproofing her boat to deal with, and was ready to tackle it with a fresh mind. Sticking her tongue out at the conifers that had failed her the previous day, Starlight turned away and kicked one, surveying the land for alternatives.

A pine cone fell down and bonked her on the head.

Narrowing her eyes and rubbing her scalp, the fuzzy filly glared up at the tree... farther up than she had usually looked. Suddenly, she realized that among the branches were crystallized orbs of sap clinging to the trunk, just waiting like fruit to be picked.

She extended her aura warily, and after a bit of focus and struggle snapped one off. Levitating it down to eye level, she examined it carefully, poking at it with the barest tip of a hoof. It was hard and completely solid. Wasn't this stuff usually runny and sticky?

The cold mountain air answered for her. Like chocolate, she reasoned, sap must have a low melting point. All she needed to do to make it spreadable was warm it up!

Starlight proceeded to gather several more nubs as she pondered exactly how to do that. Unicorns were capable of heat spells, but they were among the most exhausting one could perform. Converting mana in a horn to light or kinetic energy was an extremely efficient process, with very little lost to friction. But warming something up? That would be akin to rubbing herself telekinetically with a towel to generate heat. There was no way she could handle something like that.

...The forest, however, might. A grin growing on her face to match the plan in her mind, Starlight righted her box and began gathering small branches from the forest floor, tossing them in.

That evening, Starlight had herself a fire. It crackled in the cave entrance, fed on scraps she had carried over from the woods, fairly small and yet sufficient to do the job. Her crate lay upside-down nearby, thoroughly doused in water to prevent it from catching any stray sparks, and her still-packed saddlebags sat in a pile further back. The entirety of her sap collection now hovered in her aura, turning into a honeylike ball of golden slime as she turned it and cooked it over the roasting twigs.

When it reached the consistency of jelly, she decided it was ready. Spreading it thinly, Starlight levitated the mass over the crate and slathered it on, paying special attention to the bottom and the lower half of the sides. She worked it in, pushing and rubbing, briefly imagining herself as a telekinetic masseuse as she coated the crate in gold.

Finishing the project, she set it aside to cool and dry, turning instead back to warm herself by the fire. Usefully, the crate seemed to be fairly bottom-heavy, meaning it would roll itself upright if it got tipped over in the voyage. If she could ensure that diving in a crystal would be safe, she could just wrap everything in at once, then release herself safely at the base of the falls in the boat.

Still, one more piece needed testing: the dive. Idly unpacking and repacking her saddlebags, Starlight tried to convince herself to do that there and then. There were still several hours of light left in the day, after all.

Her blanket was tightly wrapped and rolled. She'd split the waterproof wrapping from her cutie mark box with Sosa's journal, having decided that as boring as it was, the adventurer might be right about others paying for it. The rest of the space was packed to bursting with dried hay, enough to keep her well-fed for at least three days. Longer, if rationed. Idly, she decided she might as well go get dinner before dusk fully descended.

Munching on the lakeside, Starlight watched her cave from across the water. The embers of her pocket-sized fire burned within, silhouetting the large dark rectangle of her new boat and the small lumpy shape of her saddlebags. She'd need to test the boat again, too. Applying the sap had been fairly easy, once she discovered how to do it. She could always give it more if needed.

But that could wait for tomorrow. She was getting tired, and the sun was beginning to set. With a belch, she got up from her meal and began trotting home.

She had just reached the stony spit that would take her within reach of the entrance when a cool breeze blew down from above, ruffling her ears. Glancing upwards, Starlight blinked at the sky... and grinned. She still had some energy. Might as well not retire until she really needed it. Maybe she could test now, and set out the next morning. Now that progress was on the horizon and things were working smoothly, it was getting harder and harder to deny her eagerness to continue.

Starlight backtracked, quickly finding a point where the cliff that formed the lake face was low enough that she could climb up. She swaggered confidently along the edge, walking along and looking for a point sufficiently high that she could make a dive. The stony path to her cave was in the way, its gentle slope indicating that the lake was quite shallow beyond it... she'd have to go further.

She passed the mouth of the cave, walked several more meters to where a small stream trickled down the rock face, and looked again. There wasn't a visible bottom to the water, and it looked fairly clear. Starlight suddenly gulped, nervous... but this was still her best shot. She had her fire to dry off if she got soaked, and if she couldn't make a jump like this, how would she ever convince herself to go over the falls?

Steeling herself, the filly swallowed harder, backed up... and ran at the cliff. Little legs flailing, she charged off the edge, leaping as far as she could with her horn already lit. Mouth open in a yell of determination, she formed the spell around her, and the crystal formed just in time to protect her.

Splash!

Bobbing to the surface, Starlight realized she was upside-down... but a feeling of elation filled her. The jump had been slightly awkward and disorienting, but she had made it. Hitting the water at terminal velocity probably wouldn't be too much harder. Now she just needed to-

A shadow suddenly covered Starlight's head. With a flicker of freezing panic, she realized that she was drifting... and had just been sucked into the mouth of the cave.

This was a mistake. A huge mistake! Starlight started to flail in terror, before remembering that she was trapped... and just what a bad idea releasing her crystalline prison would be. She would be going over the falls then and there, ready or not, and she wasn't ready at all. So, focusing with every ounce of concentration she had, she reached out with her magic instead. Was there anything it could do to help her?

Instinctively, the first thing that came out was a scanning spell. Starlight felt her fire, her boat, and her saddlebags all on the edge of her perception and swiftly drawing away... so she did the only thing she could think of and hardened her aura, dragging them into the river with her.

Tumble

The world darkened around Starlight as she rounded a corner, thrusting the sun firmly out of reach. Her crystal rammed up against a wall, knocking her into a spin. Rotating and disoriented, her telekinesis failed and she lost her grip of the things she had dragged after her.

Unable to gasp due to the solid around her, the filly was taken over by an instinct deeper than any she knew she had. Suddenly, with a dull flash, she lost feeling in her throbbing horn, her gem hardening as her body did everything in its power to make sure what little protection she had wasn't lost due to shock. The cold lucidity a pony feels when facing inexorable death flooded over her, and then she was alone, able to think, and perfectly still with the entire world moving around her.

Starlight wasn't sure what to do with her newfound calmness. Beyond the swirling in her ears, she felt gravity's pull and knew that she was leaning at a sharp angle, her head likely half-submerged. She imagined being able to see the tunnel around her, and her horn obligingly lit of its own accord, painting the patterned ceiling in shades of refracted cyan and black.

The edge turned its way into view. It was high enough that she wouldn't be able to grab it even if the water was warm and still, and the reactionary pang her brain sent through her when she even considered dropping her shield was too much to bear. It rotated its way out of sight again and Starlight floated further, drowning in river noises amplified tenfold by the gems in her ears yet so quiet and defined she could make out every last drip.

She drifted past Sosa's old camp. Briefly trying to grab more crates and being met with denial, she imagined her box in her saddlebags and wondered if its wrapping would really be enough to protect against this. She had split it with the journal, after all. Of course, that only mattered if she could ever find it again... and that only mattered if she survived the fall. Which she probably wouldn't.

Why wouldn't she, though? This had been her plan all along... or as long as she'd had a plan, at least. Maybe she could have thought of something better. Definitely, she'd have started at the big waterfall and just made one jump, and she'd have protected her boat and saddlebags with her... but she could still do this. She just had to concentrate properly. She could-

The world lurched around her as the river's flow altered, some subterranean structure beneath the surface changing the currents around her. Bumping, Starlight splashed several times as choppy waves rose up around her, freshly staining her window with moisture. The eye she had below the surface blinked at darkness, and she felt herself speeding up.

Several more times, she clanked with the walls, each contact harsher than previous. She could feel muted sparks in her head each time they struck, her brain's ability to ignore pain evidently being pushed to its limit. Spinning, Starlight tried not to think about what she'd feel like afterward.

The next surge sent her tumbling in a different direction, head rapidly submerging and rising again as she flipped from upside-down to right side up and back again, forcing her to extinguish her light spell lest her vision add to the chaos overwhelming her senses. Her stomach flipped with her, and she instantly regretted eating so much right before performing her test. If she hadn't been completely immobilized, she would have surely lost it by then, but all she could do was hold still and weather the turns.

Another wall clash flipped her upright again, immediately followed by the water dropping out from under her. Seconds later, she splashed, submerging entirely and spinning in random directions as river turbulence forced her under. The only thing she could see was the dim light from maintaining the crystal reflecting off the insides of its walls.

Suddenly, that changed. Starlight was catapulted out into the light, falling in a curtain of mist as velvet twilight surrounded her. She only had time to register that up was one of the directions swirling around her before she was submerged again in a shower of bubbles. This time, the water around her wasn't pitch black, carrying a purpleness from the sky that gradually intensified as she floated back to the surface.

She reached that surface... and then the surface vanished. She had crossed the edge.

Her horn chose this moment to fail, causing her barrier to explode in a shower of sparks and droplets. Feeling returned full force... at the cost of her vision. For the first few seconds of her drop, Starlight struggled to make sense of the blackness and then meaningless images that flickered through her brain, before tying them to her eyes... and forcing her eyes, in turn, to work again.

The land below was still bathed in golden sunset, having a far enough horizon that it didn't obscure the sun. She barely had time to register the ironic beauty when her horn hit her like a carriage, pulsing against her skull with such force that she imagined it exploding like her barrier had.

Hyperventilating, Starlight steeled control of her lungs and forced in a deep breath, pushing it out while plugging her nose to build pressure in her head. Her ears popped, her hornache subsided just a little, and she could think again.

The world around her was still spinning. She flung out all four limbs like a kite, feeling chill air ripping at her somehow-dry body... and stabilizing it. Soon, she was able to look downward, and the moment her eyes stopped tearing from the wind she realized just how much she still had to fall.

Starlight flipped over onto her back, her own wind shadow allowing her to see and breath more easily. Above, she could hazily make out the top of the waterfall she had toppled from, its cliff face sitting at such an angle to the setting sun that great swaths of shadow mixed geometrically with still-lit planes on what appeared to be a nearly flat surface. A small spot of black tumbled in the distance above her, which was probably her boat. She couldn't see her saddlebags anywhere.

The wind continued to shred through her, and she readied herself, flipping over again. The ground was maybe a little closer. Her brain pointed out that the closer it was, the faster it would seem to approach, so she resolved to keep an eye on it as thoroughly as possible. Somehow, she was repressing her dread of what she would do when it arrived. Her horn was probably useless, hurting even to think about. Maybe time itself would make an exception and stop, just for her.

Noticing that she was drifting off course from landing in the sizable lake at the cliff's base, Starlight angled her body, soaring closer. As she did so, an errant spray of water from the falling torrent hit her, quickly wetting the surface of her coat... which in turn began doing something between drying and freezing due to the wind. Starlight hissed, fighting the urge to curl up and looking wildly around.

Something small and solid flashed across her vision, falling with her. She spread her limbs again, stabilizing to look at it better. There, perhaps twenty meters below her, was a dark patch maybe the size of her head... or, two dark patches tethered closely together. Her saddlebags?

Grimacing in determination, Starlight adjusted her angle again, pointing her forehooves in front of her like a speeding pegasus and diving. Second by second, she sped up, dodging through jets of water that appeared around her in slow motion. The land below faded out of her perception as she locked her focus to the tumbling bags, muscles straining to reach as she approached closer and closer.

At last, she reached a hoof out... and snapped it around the strap connecting the two objects. Her saddlebags ejected water like a sponge, no gravity present in freefall to even begin wringing them of their held moisture. Starlight squawked in displeasure, looking away... and realizing just how close the ground had gotten during her dive. Eyes widening in dismay, she stuck the strap in her mouth and spread her limbs again, trying desperately to slow her fall.

The lake loomed large below her, close enough that she could begin to make out its sandy shore. Individual trees were now visible, protruding like green-gray spikes in the night shade. The sound of the waterfall hammering down wasn't yet strong enough to pierce the wind's eternal roaring, but she could tell it soon would be. Starlight was out of time.

She pushed energy into her horn, and it pushed back, causing her vision to flicker again. Hissing, the filly tried again, and still got no result. She managed to swallow, the size of the ground increasing measurably with each passing second.

Her horn wasn't working. She was going to die. What else did she have? What else could she do? Panic rising in her chest, Starlight bit open one pouch of her saddlebags, only to be met with a pile of sodden hay flying up into her face. Spitting and blinking, she opened the other pouch.

Her box and the journal floated out, and she didn't have time to ascertain their condition, stuffing them back into the first side. Her water flasks came, too. The only thing left there was... her blanket. What could a thin, sodden blanket do for a filly falling to her death above a giant lake?

Hopefully enough.

Grimacing in concentration, Starlight flung her saddlebags onto her back, where they would hopefully stay. The blanket, she gripped in her mouth, still spread-eagled to try to preserve the last few seconds of her fall as long as possible. Hooves wouldn't work for holding something like this. She needed a better way.

Again, Starlight felt her horn, begging it to work. A crystal was too much to ask for, but could she have telekinesis? Just a little? Pretty please?

Nothing. Predictable. Her horn couldn't even work to save her life! Choking back a yell of frustration, she readied her forehooves; the clumsy appendages would have to do instead. Grabbing two corners of the blanket, she tied them in a messy knot, barely managing to pull it tight with the assistance of her mouth. That would have to do.

Starlight lunged forward, pushing her body through the loop created by the blanket. Allowing the knot to slide back until it caught against her hind legs, she took a bite elsewhere and began to pull. Little by little, Starlight worked her grip closer to the far corners of the blanket as it trailed behind her like a cape.

A new kind of thunder filled her ears. The base of the waterfall was within hearing. Without even stopping to look, Starlight reached the end of the blanket, bunched the two far corners in her mouth... and yanked down.

The blanket billowed above her, mushrooming out into a small, soggy parachute. Air resistance caused it to tear at her teeth and drive into her stomach simultaneously, winding her and nearly causing her to lose her grip. Starlight snorted through her nostrils, teeth clenched and bared... and she held on.

Her fall slowed abruptly, but she was still moving at a considerable speed. Mentally, she judged the depth of the lake and how deep her dive would take her, and angled sharply towards the shore. A countdown began in her head as she watched individual waves and ripples grow closer. Three... Two...

The knot holding the blanket around her belly snapped, rendering the parachute useless. Flailing, Starlight tumbled the last meter and impacted the water, her blanket catching the wind and flapping onto the beach nearby.

Alive

Starlight Glimmer opened her eyes.

She was laying on her side on a bank of sand. She was wearing her saddlebags, but they were mostly empty. Her horn burned with a dull fire, her stomach felt as if it had been punched, and her entire body was a giant bruise just waiting to pass out again... but she was alive.

She was also completely drenched. Rivulets of water drained from her coat and mane, and the lake shore water lapped across her legs and hindquarters. A chill night breeze was beginning to stir, and the mountain water was hardly warm. She had to move, or she wouldn't stay alive much longer.

There had been smoke. Downriver, there was a town. There would be safety... she hoped. No, there had to be. She had nothing to her name save for a box, a book and two empty saddlebags, all of which were likely just as waterlogged as she. Three canteens of mountain water, too. She wasn't in a very good position to appreciate the irony.

The breeze caused her blanket to roll over in the sand ahead of her, and she blinked slowly. She had that too, for what it was worth. The thing was wet, which meant wearing it would make her even colder... not to mention how much sand it had likely picked up. The fabric, normally the same midnight purple as her mane, didn't appear much different after everything it had been through, but there was no doubt about its condition.

At least it was something. What she didn't have, and what she needed more than anything, was her-

Her boat. A rectangular shape was bobbing in the lake, floating gradually to her left. Had it somehow survived the fall, too? She shook her head; of course it had. If she hadn't been able to break it, there was no way that dumb waterfall could do the trick.

If it was her boat, it wouldn't stay there for long. Rather than let her best chance slip away, Starlight commanded her body to move several times... eventually getting her hooves to pick themselves up and get underneath her. She stood slowly, balance upset as the various parts of her moved on their own, without central coordination. Shakily, she took one step and then another, first hobbling towards where her blanket had fallen. It was useless now, but she couldn't spare any advantage, no matter how slight.

...Maybe not entirely useless, she thought, slowly spreading the thing out. As dirty as it was, the fabric was intact. Maybe she could wash it, and dry it, and it would be good again. It wasn't ripped, at least. Unfortunately, Starlight was cold now, and that meant she needed an immediate solution. If she could survive this night, she could make anything work. She hoped.

After putting the heavy, water-soaked thing into her saddlebags, Starlight stumped along the shoreline, spitting the taste of grit out of her mouth and leaning sideways with the extra weight. Odds were, she'd have to groom herself again, so she needed to get used to that. The sand shifted under her hooves, a product of countless years of water striking stone and refining it into mush that was only good for clogging horseshoes and annoying fillies like her. Too bad for it she was too tired to be annoyed.

Unblinking, Starlight followed her boat. Eventually, it drifted nearer to the shore... so she marched straight into the water in pursuit. Ripples lapped at her chest fur and tugged at her saddlebags as she approached the box, but it was shallow enough that she didn't need to swim.

The boat greeted her, half-submerged yet somehow upright. At least that had worked. Unable to give it a smile, Starlight got behind the thing and pushed, dragging it closer to shore. Her tail trailed limply in the water behind her, such an unbrushed mess that her streak of cyan was completely invisible, the hairs blended into the rest of the appendage. Wading through her own ripples, the filly leaned and shoved, occasionally backing off and bumping against the box to give it a little extra push.

Once there, she overturned the box and waited patiently as all the water drained out. She had her things back... or, at least, as much as she was going to get. She still had miles to cover. She wasn't hungry. Eating was the last thing she wanted to do right then, but she knew that wouldn't last, and had no food. Wracking her slow, tired brain, she tried to recall the vista she had seen from the clifftop. Had there been any more waterfalls in the way?

The forest around her seemed to increase in size as she thought. Bushes peered out from under trees, leaning toward her like a solid wall of twilit vegetation. Above that, trees towered, and above that? Stars.

She sighed. The atmosphere seemed to be conspiring against her ability to think, but she couldn't recall seeing any waterfalls - at least, none of this scale. Making up her mind on the spot, Starlight righted her boat, threw her saddlebags inside, and began to push it back out onto the water. She was going to fall asleep. She was going to get hungry. She needed to reach safety... so she might as well get started.

Successfully, Starlight climbed into the crate. It righted itself as she had hoped, rocking slightly as she sat down in the middle. The walls were too high for her to see over, which was probably an oversight. But they also shielded her from the wind, and there was nothing she could do about it anyway. They were also wet, so she couldn't tell if her sap was working. If it didn't, it would wake her up, at least. And if it didn't? Well, if she reached that state, there would probably be nothing she could do even if it did.

With nothing left she was capable of doing, Starlight curled up in the middle of the crate and passed out, hoping fervently that the waters would be on her side.

Drifting

Starlight didn't stay out as long as she was expecting. Her eyelids opened for her, pried apart by the cold and a splitting headache. Slowly, she breathed, trying to let the nearby crate walls orient and comfort her as the river's gentle trickle filled her ears.

Her horn was like a dark spot in her senses, always on the edge of what she could feel... but no closer. She didn't dare try to use it, which was just as well: there was nothing she could have done with it in the first place. She was in a mildly-waterproofed box, floating down an unknown river with nothing to her name in hope of finding a destination that merely had a high probability of existing.

The chill from the caves was back, this time born by the water in her coat. It wormed its way past her muscles and into her bones, cooling her very core. Already, she felt a scratchiness in her throat, though whether it was an oncoming cold or merely rawness from screaming, she couldn't tell.

A shallow layer of moisture lined the bottom of the box, combined residue from what had dripped from her coat and what had remained when she bailed the boat out earlier. It made it difficult to tell how well her waterproofing job did earlier, but at this point, it didn't matter. She was already wet, sandy, freezing and entirely at the mercy of the coming sun. Hopefully, she would make it that long.

Starlight shivered, hugging herself. Grimacing at the feel of sand gritting through her coat, she rubbed her sides and back, lucklessly trying to eke out a bit of warmth from the actions. It was likely a waste of time, but she had nothing better to do. Hopefully, she glanced at the sky, but the moon hadn't even risen yet. She would just have to occupy herself and try to survive until sunrise.

Maybe she should have made a fire, on the beach. There had been wood, hadn't there? She struggled to remember, mostly recalling a thick layer of green underbrush that would have made searching on hoof impossible. Perhaps it was edible. She still wasn't hungry.

She reared up on her hind legs, deciding to get a look at the land around her. The crate wobbled as she did so, but still managed to balance, leaning but not capsizing. Starlight peered out, seeing a wide, flat expanse of still water fringed by jagged, rocky spikes intermixed with sand. Above and beyond that was the canopy, branches stretching nearly far enough to meet in the middle.

The river was calm and smooth to the point where Starlight had no expectations of rapids anywhere near. She tried to take the opportunity to sleep again, but couldn't tell if she succeeded: no dreams came to her pounding head, and the river looked the same as it had before.

On the crate floor, her saddlebags and blanket lay in a bundled, watery heap. What did those even contain? Water? Ironically, all three of her canteens were intact and full. She took a sip from one, hoping it would help calm her overtaxed horn. If only she could stop doing that to herself!

There was also sand everywhere. Aside from her coat, her blanket was full of it; perhaps even more so. Could she fix that, at least, as she floated? ...Actually, maybe she could.

Unbunching the thing in her hooves, Starlight figured out where the corners lay, sitting upright on two legs as she worked. Upon extracting two, she carefully gripped them, then tossed the rest over the side of the crate.

Her blanket hit the water with barely a wet slap. As soaked as it was, this wouldn't make much of a difference, but it could still wash the sand out. She let it trail in the water for a moment, then rotated it to another angle, washing the bits that had previously been held above water. With nothing better to do, she sat still, continuing the process for quite a while.

Eventually, Starlight leaned back, deciding it had had enough. She rolled the blanket up like a burrito, folded it in on itself once, and twisted it further as if baking a pretzel, food evidently on her mind as she wrung as much water as she could from it, eventually hauling it back into her crate. It took nearly a minute for the stream of runoff to dwindle to the point where it broke into droplets, at which point she deemed that to be good enough, as well. Folding it carefully, she draped it back along the crate edge, making sure to keep it above water.

She had done something, at least, even if it had done nothing to make her less cold. The air around her seemed moderately humid, which annoyingly slowed her drying. She took a moment to ponder that; in her hometown, it had been fairly hot and dry most of the time. Cold and humid seemed like a logical counterpoint to that, especially given how much rain she had seen the place receive, but pictures in her mind gleaned from reading books said humidity paired with hotness. Jungles, and things. And from somewhere, she recalled that it could simply be too cold to rain.

That obviously wasn't where she was now, she thought to herself with a shiver. Growing up, rain had always intrigued her. Perhaps it was because the pegasi brought it so rarely, but it had seemed like an otherworldly event. Unnatural; magical, even. Wild magic, not the domesticated kinds that ponies used. The kind that begged to be explored... that she might have explored herself, had her life taken a different turn not so very long ago.

Now that she no longer had a roof over her head and windows to watch from, there was no more wonder in the rain. It was a menace, and she hoped it stayed away. Eyeing the fringes of the star sheet strewn above, there were no clouds in sight... though the massive mountain range from which she had fallen loomed starkly nearby, and she knew rain could descend from that in an instant.

The boat rocked gently, snapping her from her contemplations. Was the river changing? No, a quick glance told her that she was merely rounding a bend. At least she was moving. Starlight sighed and brushed her sandy coat once with a hoof. It was beginning to dry, and the sand was causing it to stick together and clump into useless, patchy spikes. She would have to get those out soon. That, and fix her cutie mark. All things to do when she was inevitably forced to make landfall, be it by hunger or rain.

Hoping for the former, Starlight Glimmer drifted onward into the night, tired and broken... but not yet unable to proceed.

Pouring

All around Starlight, it was raining.

By some miracle, she wasn't presently wet. Instead, she lay in her crate, turned on its side on the sloped riverbank as an open-air shelter, hoping the wind wouldn't decide to change. For the moment, the air was still, allowing the water to drum down in perfectly vertical shafts, intermixing blackness with streaks of slightly more blackness.

Starlight huddled, her almost-dry coat wrapped in her almost-dry blanket in a combination that proved warmer than doing otherwise. Her horn still throbbed, though it was beginning to fade back to the state of controlled senselessness where it made a pact with its owner that they would mutually leave each other alone. She could live with that. She had to. So long as her luck didn't turn foul, it wouldn't kill her... and her luck had been surprisingly good, so far.

The rain hadn't snuck up on her. She had been fully alert for it, in between attempts to shut out the world and pass time through unconsciousness. She had seen the stars disappear, swallowed by the mouthful, as clouds rolled down from the mountains and blotted them out above.

She had also realized, then and there, that she possessed no method of steering or propelling her boat. Drifting helplessly in the middle of the stream, it had been by pure fortune that her craft had washed ashore before the rains started. Now that she was there, she had no intention of returning to the water without some sort of safeguard.

But finding a method of propulsion would have to wait. At present, she could do nothing but lay and wait, feeling as friction prevented her from sliding out of the downhill-facing opening. If the wind picked up, threatening to drive the rain in at her, she'd just tip the box over all the way and lay on the wet sand.

Every once in a while, her roof dripped. She took each drop with a grain of displeasure; they meant her boat wasn't waterproof. Oh well. There was nothing she could do about that now.

There was nothing she could do about anything. Eyes closed and head raised, Starlight waited for the rains to pass, and didn't care whether she did so by sleeping or not.

Eventually, she was met with success. A gleam of morning sun pierced the trees; the first she had properly seen since embarking on her journey. In the mountains, dawn had long left the sky by the time the sun reached her. Here, it was instantaneous, and she reveled in its light.

The rain stopped shortly after, and Starlight crawled out to explore. The first thing she saw was the state of her boat, and it made her lip curl with displeasure.

The thing was peeling. Her wonderful, hard-spread tree sap was all coming off, a flimsy, brittle sheet hanging from the tightly-spaced boards like a scab waiting to be picked. That must have been why it was dripping. Why hadn't it worked?

Stomping in frustration, the filly turned and ignored her craft, climbing further up the riverbank to reach the vegetation. She was growing hungry, and needed to find food. Clambering her way through the vertical, rocky spires that the terrain devolved into, Starlight struggled to keep her fur from brushing against too many wet surfaces, trying to reach the wall of green that peeked through.

Her head came within reach of a plant, and she bit down... immediately spitting it out. Bitter! She didn't know for sure, but felt that a good rule was that if something didn't taste good, it wasn't meant to be eaten. It certainly wouldn't do to eat the wrong kind of plant and make herself sick.

She bit back a sneeze, nearly falling flat from the motion. That wasn't something she was eager to see back. Waiting a bit to ensure her lungs wouldn't rebel again, Starlight returned to poking around for plants.

Bitter... spicy... too hard to bite into. She gave up entirely when something stung her tongue, the underside of the leaf apparently covered in prickly spikes. Whimpering lightly, Starlight held her mouth closed and returned to her boat, soothing herself with a drink. It only served to remind her of her increasing hunger. She had to press on.

But to do that, she needed a paddle. Casting around on the rocky beach, she eventually found a moderately long, flat piece of wood wedged under a boulder, and freed it with a couple of strong tugs. Experimentally, she swished it through the river several times, and found it to hold. It would do.

Returning her things to her box, Starlight pushed it upright and shoved it back into the stream, running and jumping to get in at the last moment. Quickly, she was back to drifting, her destination an unknown number of miles away.

Starlight sighed. She was beginning to feel exhaustion weighting on her eyelids, but some part of her body refused to let her sleep. It was as if the survival instinct that had taken her over and kept her shield up in the cave river simply never let go, and she was now beholden to a force that told her she had to stay awake or die. She hoped that wasn't the case. If it was, she was likely a lot more tired than she felt. And now that she was beginning to feel tired...

How long had she been awake for? She couldn't tell if she had slept after going down the falls. That had been the previous evening. Probably. And before that, she had been up all day... had that been the day she went to the canyon and returned to Sosa's camp? The day she built her boat? No, there had been a night in there somewhere. Hadn't there? She couldn't remember. Apparently, her body had decided that memory wasn't a critical aspect of survival.

In her worn-out state, she had to agree with it. The only thing that mattered was staying fed, staying dry, and reaching the source of that smoke. She stood up, clutching her paddle resolutely, deciding to test if it could really move her or make her go faster.

Many hours later, with the sun lowering in the western sky, she had determined that it didn't. In fact, the thing was useless for anything more than making her spin in circles. That was a problem, because the clouds were returning.

Gulping and staring upwards, Starlight continued to desperately waggle the thing, hoping it would push her to shore. She could see the rain itself, a dismal wall of gray haziness that perfectly hugged the bottom of the advancing cloud front. How much longer did she have? Not long at all.

The edge of the cloud covered her, and suddenly there was mist. Her ears registered the hiss of water pouring into water, and her exposed head told her that the mist was already turning to droplets.

She was out of time. Thinking fast, Starlight pulled on her blanket, untangling herself from the article. Propping her paddle up like a pole in the middle of the crate, she strung the blanket on top, wrapping it around all four sides like the canopy to a tent. She could no longer see where she was going, and it wasn't very waterproof, but maybe it would help.

As the air darkened around her, Starlight huddled against the pole, standing slightly to avoid the leakwater already pooled in the bottom of the crate. She would just have to hope the cover didn't blow off... and that there would be warmth and dryness waiting for her at the end.

Finally

Time passed, and the water rose around Starlight. Drop by drop, it leaked in through the cracks in the walls and floorboards and dripped from her hasty blanket ceiling, stranding her in a puddle an inch deep and growing deeper.

Her hooves were soaked. She was standing up, but hadn't managed to keep her belly fur from getting wet... and her legs were getting stiff, too. Walking all day, she had practiced. Standing still for hours, while cold and tired? That was a different story entirely.

Still, there was nothing she could do but survive it. Failing wasn't an option; she didn't want to die. Her saddlebags were useless. Her blanket was in use. Her paddle had failed her, and her horn wasn't yet feeling up to registering as an organ she possessed. So she stood, eyes closed and ears flattened to avoid brushing up against the dripping ceiling, and waited.

The boat rocked around her; at least she was still moving. She would get... somewhere. There was somewhere she could go. Somewhere better than this. Wasn't there?

Unable to see the world around her, Starlight listened. The song of billions of raindrops hitting a placid surface and lending it turbulence hissed like static in her ears, magnified and echoed by her container. Some wetter thumps sounded, the noise of droplets striking her blanket like a drum. Heavy plops were mixed in, these from the moisture that seeped through and landed in the lake at her hooves.

She could hear her own breathing, too, cold and ragged. Her lungs didn't want damp, evening air, but that was all she had. She imagined she heard her heartbeat, but it might have just been in her head. She could also hear voices, like those of her parents at her old home.

Her ears folded harder, and she fought back a sniffle. Her flank was bare, having not been repainted since it was last washed clean, leaving the reason for her exodus staring blankly back up at her. She was blank. And she wanted to keep it that way.

Did she really want it bad enough to leave behind all the ponies she had ever known? She told herself she did. She told herself leaving someone behind wasn't a very big deal at all. It happened all the time. If only she could do that without becoming lonely. At this rate, she would-

Thud!

Something heavy rammed against the crate, causing it to jolt and knocking Starlight onto her side. She wheezed silently as the water bit through the remainder of the dryness she had, kicking her legs uselessly, unable to stand. The crate was moving. Wherever it was going, it was taking her with it... and there was nothing she could do but lay there and go along for the ride.

Suddenly, there was a scraping against the bottom of the crate, and Starlight felt it tilt as if on an incline. Her ears wiggled, picking up more phantom voices.

"I got it!"

"Yay, we got another one!"

"I wonder what's inside this time!"

"Hey, look at the top!"

Starlight's cover was whisked away, exposing her to nail-like streaks of falling rain... and was swiftly replaced by three wide-eyed faces.

"A filly!" one gasped, clearly shocked. The others mimicked her expression.

"Is it alive?"

"Look! She is! She blinked!"

"Look on her head! She's got a horn!"

"Woah! A unicorn?"

"What's a unicorn doing up there?"

"Forget that, I bet she's freezing! We need to do something!"

"Willow, you have foals! Don't you know what to do?"

"My house is clear on the other side of town!"

"Mine's close by! We can take her there!"

"Should I go get anypony?"

"No, help me get her out!"

Strong legs reached down, grabbing Starlight and hoisting her out of the crate. She wasn't deposited, instead held against the chest fur of a grown mare who had evidently been standing in the rain for quite some time. Part of her wanted to say something, but her brain refused to make the necessary connections to put thoughts into words... or even to form thoughts at all. Had Starlight been able to think, she would have frightfully realized that she wasn't able to think anything at all.

The mare who was currently holding her had a silvery coat, which reflected well in the dim light shining through the clouds. Another looked brownish, and the third was so wet she couldn't tell. Had she swam out to push Starlight to shore? The filly couldn't tell that, either.

The brown one was rummaging further in Starlight's boat, seemingly oblivious to the rain soaking through her coat. "Girls!" she called, lifting her head. "Look! Saddlebags!"

She lifted out Starlight's pack, hanging them from one hoof. Feebly, Starlight stretched out a hoof of her own, reaching for them.

The brown mare looked at her, concerned. "Are these yours?" When Starlight nodded, she added, "Don't worry, I won't touch them."

"Hey, should someone keep watch?" the drenched mare asked, pointing over her shoulder at the river. "If a kid could come down this thing, who knows what next?"

"Amber, you're soaked!" the mare holding Starlight protested. "We'll get someone else to do it!"

"Well, I'll stay here until they arrive," Amber called back through the rain. "Now are you two gonna go take care of that poor thing, or what?"

The brown mare had approached Starlight gently, saddlebags carefully worn across her own back. "Do you know if there's anyone else with you?" she asked, ruby eyes shining softly.

Starlight's teeth chattered in response. Her chest lurched, and she heaved out a sneeze.

"I think that's about as good of an answer as you're gonna get!" Amber called from the riverbank, where she had repurposed Starlight's boat into a shelter of her own.

"Yeah..." the silver mare sighed. She leaned down and over until she could make eye contact with Starlight. "We're going to help you, okay? You're going to be all right, little filly. You're going to be all right..." Hugging carefully, she rocked Starlight back and forth over the ground.

"Willow..." the mare with Starlight's saddlebags huffed. "Wouldn't that be better done inside?"

"Yeah," Willow repeated. "Which way was your place, again? Over there?" She indicated a direction with her head.

"This way!" the other beckoned. Willow immediately kicked into a slow trot, moving as fast as possible while doing her best to keep Starlight from bumping and shielded from the rain.

As they walked, the leading mare drew alongside Starlight, smiling gently. "My name's Maple," she offered. "I wonder what your name is, little filly..."

Starlight couldn't answer. She was still too exhausted to register its importance.

"You're going to be quite the sensation around here, little filly," Maple continued, hopping along. "Maybe the most exciting thing that's happened here in years..."

Maple might have kept talking, but Starlight didn't notice. Safe in Willow's embrace, she finally closed her eyes... and blacked out.

Held

Starlight didn't need to wake up. She didn't want to wake up. In her dreamless, half-lucid sleep, she was warm... and the functional part of her brain told her that the only thing waiting beyond her eyelids was water, ice and darkness.

It felt so nice... Somewhere, a flicker of thought said that if she was far enough gone that she didn't feel the cold, that meant she was almost dead. She had to get up. She had to move, had to make herself truly warm. She had to... yet she couldn't. Would there really be warmth after the mountains? If the mountains were going to defeat her, shouldn't she take this last shred of comfort?

No. She couldn't. She had to keep living, it was too important. Pooling her consciousness and her willpower, Starlight lifted an eyelid as hard as she could... and the warmth didn't vanish.

A fuzzy, tingling sensation rolled over her body as she slowly regained feeling. Something large, soft, and honestly, truly warm was wrapped around her, covering her back and ears and other eye. The area was bathed in an ambient orange light, so dim the only thing it showed for sure was the lack of dripping walls all around her. Her ears registered the dim thrum of rain pounding somewhere above.

The cold of the mountains was still there in her chest, but it was fighting a losing battle against whatever her present insulator happened to be. The aches in her legs from untold hours of standing were there too, as were all the pains from hitting the water at the base of the falls. But how? The last thing she remembered was... rain. And her boat. They couldn't have just gone away, but...

The thing touching her moved, expanding slowly... and contracting, a quiet stream of warm air brushing past her exposed ear. Starlight would have tensed, but her body decided not to. Focusing her eye on the thing her head was leaning on, she squinted... and the outline of a fetlock came into view.

It was a pony. Somepony was hugging her. She had been found.

This time, Starlight shook. She scrunched her eye back shut, but the warmth was now overpowering. It mixed in her heart with her blankness, her solitude, her decision to run away, morphing into the realization that this pony had probably saved her and definitely cared. That realization ballooned throughout her, finally finding an outlet through her eyes. Motionlessly, Starlight began to cry, tears soaking cleanly into the foreleg beneath her.

The older pony noticed. After a gentle drawing of breath, her muzzle prodded the top of Starlight's head. Her voice came, then, in the barest of whispers from above.

"Are you awake yet, little filly?"

Starlight opened her mouth to respond, but no words came out. Then, after a pause: "Am I alive?"

"Hmm... You are, and you're lucky to be. You're still so cold, little filly." The mare responded with a gentle hush, laying her chin over Starlight like a blanket. "It's the middle of the night. You're safe here. Go back to sleep."

Nestled between the mare's forelimbs, with bedding beneath her and warmth all around, Starlight felt her willpower weaken even as her tears continued. Was she in danger? Did she trust this pony? If she didn't, did she trust her less than the river and the rain?

She knew for sure that she was tired of fighting for her life. Maybe the north really was as good as she'd told herself. Maybe this was a risk she was ready to take.

The state of survival that had taken hold of her in the river finally began to abate. This time, when Starlight's eyelids drooped, it was loose and peaceful. The exhaustion of the past days and weeks spread through her, and she was finally free to do what it told her.

Starlight didn't even have time to finish registering how tired she was when she fell back asleep. She didn't wake up for a long, long time.

The next evening, a door creaked open, ringing the room with a vertical halo of light. "Willow?" A face peeked in, whispering softly. "You've been in here nearly twenty four hours."

Willow's silvery head stretched to look at the door, having given up on laying upright and now sideways on the bed. "She woke up a little, but quickly went back to sleep. She's more peaceful now. Want to take a shift? I need to stretch, eat and other things..."

"I sure hope you do," the other mare said worriedly, sliding through the door and closing it to a crack behind her.

"Nngh..." Trying to avoid letting the bed bounce Starlight, Willow spread her weight, untangled herself and got up, sliding away. "All yours. Thanks, Maple."

Maple winked. "No problem."

As she moved to slide back onto the bed, though, the filly stirred again. Both mares froze, waiting to see what would happen.

Starlight's large eyes opened and took both of them in, unblinking. Willow and Maple watched back with kindly smiles. Eventually, Starlight worked her jaw, and after a few attempts, said, "Am I a-alive?"

"You already asked that, little filly," Willow replied, smile growing as she took two steps back toward the bed. "And you are alive."

"You really are lucky," Maple added. "Earlier, my friends and I were down by the river, when we noticed a crate had gotten caught on the shore. But there's nothing upriver a crate could have come from! We got curious and decided to camp out by the river to watch for more, but it was raining and the sun was setting and we were almost ready to go back to our homes when you floated along."

Willow nodded. "Was there anyone else with you? Anyone we should be watching the river for?"

Starlight shook her head, teeth already beginning to chatter in memory of the cold, even though it wasn't chilly in the room at all. "N-No..."

"That's a relief." Willow sighed and brushed back her mane. "I guess I'll go tell Amber and whoever replaced her, too. And I need to check up on my kids after leaving them alone all day. You'll be fine here on your own for a bit?"

"I think so." Maple nodded, already on the bed. "You will come back though, won't you?"

Willow gave a sure smile. "Wouldn't miss it for anything."

The door clicked behind her, leaving Maple to turn to Starlight. For several moments, no words were said. Then: "Do you have a name?"

"Starlight," she murmured, shaking.

Maple spread her forelegs, patting the bed in front of her. Starlight raised an eyebrow, looking on with caution.

"Here," Maple said, frowning. "Aren't you still cold?"

Starlight nodded and bit her lip.

"Were you out there for a while?" Maple asked softly, lowering her head to the bed. "Alone?"

Starlight nodded again.

"Oh." Maple's face fell. "I guess you're not really used to other ponies right now, then."

Without moving from where Willow had left her curled, Starlight gave her a look that told her all she needed to know.

Maple sighed and looked away. "Right. You're probably a bit wary of everything right now, aren't you?"

Starlight still said nothing, fixing her with wide eyes that reflected what little light there was in the room.

"If it will help you trust me..." Maple paused, and produced Starlight's saddlebags as if out of nowhere, tossing them halfway over to her. "I saved these for you. I opened them to let them dry, but I didn't look in your book or your box."

Slithering across the bed, Starlight reached the bags. They were still fairly damp and unpleasant to the touch, but a brief bit of poking revealed that the most important things were still there.

Maple smiled. The filly had at least gotten closer.

"Starlight is a pretty name."

Starlight said nothing, watching Maple from across the bags.

Flicking her tail in irritation, Maple thought... and perked up. "Starlight?" she offered. "Are you hungry?"

Starlight nodded, mumbled, and sat up.

Maple instantly brightened. "Yes! I can fix that. Follow me!"

Rolling across the bed until she hit the floor, the older mare straightened up, trotted to the door, and swung it open, letting evening light flood the room.

Mares

Starlight dropped off the bed herself, plodding along the wooden floor on heavy hooves. Someone had removed her horseshoes. She wasn't sure what to think of that.

The door Maple had opened led into another room, shaped like a semicircle. Every surface was made of wood paneling, the natural golds and browns accented further by the late evening light streaming in through four circular windows. Extrapolating this design to the bedroom behind her, Starlight figured the building was roughly circular. The presence of a descending staircase against the flat wall indicated that they weren't on the ground floor.

Her host watched her curiously as she took in the room, and Starlight watched her back. She looked almost as if she resented the filly for following her, yet wanted to hug her at the same time. Did she want Starlight to ask her to carry her? This pony was strange.

Silhouetted against the vertical shadows of tall, branchless trunks visible through the windows, Maple forfeited the staring contest and turned to a counter, set with many cabinets and drawers. Humming softly, she began to open them. "Starlight?" she asked without looking back. "What kind of food would you like?"

Maple knew that without turning to make eye contact, she would have to speak to respond, of course. Starlight silently pouted at that. Part of her yearned to open her mouth and answer... and not stop there. It was the same part of her that had never wanted to leave Equestria, had seen the hardships of the mountains as an injustice, and now wanted nothing more than to tell someone everything she had been through. She knew that the more she talked, the harder it would be to stop it... so she just whimpered.

The older mare sighed loudly. "Fine, then. I guess I'll just have to guess."

How would other ponies react if she told them everything? Would they be proud and impressed? Starlight didn't want that. The whole reason she had left was because she was tired of some ponies being better than others for reasons they couldn't control and that didn't matter. At the same time, crossing those mountains had been the hardest thing Starlight had ever done. There was always the chance others wouldn't be proud and impressed... and she was more terrified of that than she was willing to admit.

What if they felt sorry for her, instead? What if they wanted to hug and coddle her and do everything they could to make everything right? Would she deserve it? It would be embarrassing, but she couldn't deny that she wanted it. Her memories of everything since the waterfall were hazy, but she was certain that last night, she had decided to trust and let it happen.

Last night, when Willow had slept with her in her forelegs, Starlight had felt something. Something she'd been missing... something she'd conditioned herself to survive without. She couldn't put her hoof on what it was, but it had felt wonderful. She wanted more, but like talking, she knew that the more she accepted it, the more she'd lose her ability to survive without it. And surviving was the most important thing she could do.

A whistle interrupted her thoughts, and she realized Maple was standing right in front of her, holding a plate in her teeth and grinning. On it was a sandwich of some sort.

Maple wiggled the plate in her teeth, eager for Starlight to try it. Starlight sniffed, and it smelled good. She couldn't identify the type of bread used, but she was undeniably hungry. Leaning in, she picked the whole thing up in her mouth and swiftly pulled back, chewing awkwardly and having to support it with her hooves.

Her host watched her eat, and Starlight watched back in turn. For the first time, she was able to get a properly good look at Maple. The mare was an earth pony, a fully-grown adult of average size. Her eyes were ruby, her coat was a light, dusty tan, and her voluminous mane was brown bordering on reddish. It had a tangled curliness that looked less like a natural property and more the result of not being brushed in a week, and was tied in a very loose braid that trailed off at her shoulders. Starlight pointedly ignored her cutie mark.

"Well?" Maple asked, looking as if she was restraining herself from leaning in. "Do you like it?"

Starlight swallowed, and before she could stop herself, said, "Thank you."

Maple beamed, and made to respond when her head suddenly tilted. Starlight raised an ear in question, and Maple looked to the stairway in response. "I just heard the door slam. I know I put out the closed sign..."

As if in answer, a pair of ears stuck up above the floor in the stairwell, followed by peeking eyes and then a head. "She's up!"

"We're back!" Willow's voice announced as she trotted into view, followed by the third mare from the river. "Whew! I feel much better after a long run. Kids'll get along without me a little while more."

"Hey, kiddo!" The third mare, slightly small and with a yellow coat, leapt over the stair railing, landing next to Starlight and immediately laying down on all fours. "I'm Amber. I swam out to get you last night! Better me than you, right?"

Starlight took a single step backwards, half-eaten sandwich hanging from her mouth.

"Amber..." Maple chided. "She's been around nopony for a long time, and isn't very talkative. Don't push her."

Inwardly, Starlight rolled her eyes. Other ponies weren't allowed to ask her things, but Maple could do so as much as she liked?

From across the room, Willow gave her a look that quietly informed her the silver mare could read minds. She pursed her lips and gently shook her head.

"So, what's cooking?" Amber walked across their line of sight, shattering the effect as she approached Maple. "Got anything good for us after such a night?"

Maple rolled her eyes for real. "Don't tell me you haven't eaten. It's been a whole day." She shot a sideways glance at Willow. "You have eaten, haven't you?"

Willow smiled softly. "I've had enough, but if Amber talks you into making something nice, I'm staying too."

"Hmmm..." Maple wandered to the window and stuck her head out, peering into the orange distance. "I'd like to make soup. A half-frozen filly could do a lot worse than that." She blinked across the room at Starlight. "Don't you think?"

Hot soup did sound good, and the sandwich hadn't filled her up. Starlight nodded appreciatively.

Nearly spinning on her hooves, Maple strolled back to her countertop with a spring in her step. "Well, I'd like some too," she hummed. "Just have to find something that won't take too long to make... hmmm..."

Amber already had a hoof on the staircase. "Want me to go check what you've got in stock?"

"No need." Maple shook her head. "I've got a pretty good memory. But I might need an extra clove of garlic..."

"On it!" Amber slapped a hoof to her forehead in salute and vanished below.

Starlight watched with vague interest until she suddenly became aware of a presence next to her. Somehow, Willow had crossed the room unseen, and now crouched right next to her, staring across at Maple as the earth pony worked.

She didn't need to look to tell she had the filly's attention. "She cares about you a lot," Willow murmured.

Starlight said nothing.

"We all do," she continued. "I don't know where you're from or what your story is... but..."

She turned to look at Starlight fully, and her face was soft and gentle. "If you can, it would mean a lot to her if you would accept it. And, as her friend, it would mean a lot to me, too. Think you can do that?"

Starlight didn't break eye contact, and after a second her ears folded. She opened her mouth and shivered. "Uh-huh."

"Thank you." Willow exhaled heavily, smiling. "You're a strong pony."

"I got the garlic!" Amber erupted from the stairway, skidding to a stop as she sheepishly checked her enthusiasm. "Here." She held it out, grinning nervously.

Willow rolled her eyes, sighed, and got to her hooves, slowly walking toward Maple and the assembling meal. "All right, girls. Anything I can do to help?"

Starlight watched her retreating figure with pinprick eyes. It was just as well that all three mares were ignoring her - had they not been, they would have seen her staring, transfixed, at Willow's silvery flank, upon which she had just realized there was no trace of a cutie mark whatsoever.

Confusion

"You don't have a cutie mark."

It was the first full sentence Starlight had said in over a month, enunciated with a pointed hoof and too many different emotions to count. Even discounting her tired, conflicted state, she simply felt too much to begin putting into tone: surprise, confusion, hope. So, hoof hanging in the air, she closed her mouth and waited for the mares to explain.

Willow looked over her shoulder first. "A what?"

"A cutie mark," Starlight repeated, ears shifting. "On your flank." She indicated her own... or where one would be, if she had one.

"Oh!" Willow chuckled. "Well, that's a cute name. But I'm not that old."

As Amber elbowed her in the ribs and whispered something nefariously in her ear, confusion won out in Starlight's mind. "Huh?"

Willow raised an eyebrow. "Is that unusual?"

Starlight simply stared, hoof pointing again as her jaw hung loosely. "But... you're fully grown! You said you had kids!"

"I did." Willow took a step closer, tilting her head. "Given that you're a unicorn, I'd have expected you'd be more surprised that these two have them."

A quick scan told her that Maple and Amber were indeed marked: the first with an open-topped box, and the second with something that looked like honey on the end of a board. But Willow's words did nothing to quell Starlight's confusion, so she could do nothing but sit down and repeat herself. "Huh?"

The two looked at each other, Maple and Amber joining in, but none knew how to break the silence. Eventually, Willow said, "What part of me not having one is confusing you, little filly?"

"Her name is Starlight," Maple murmured.

"Starlight Glimmer," Starlight corrected. "And you-"

She stopped, seeing three pairs of widely-raised eyebrows. "What?"

"I've never heard of a Sosan with a name like that," Amber tensely whispered, excitement hiding behind her eyes. "Maybe that's why she calls them cutie marks! She must be from really far away!"

"But that's impossible!" Maple's face scrunched. "We found her floating down the river to the north, didn't we? There's nothing but wilderness for hundreds of miles to the east, so she had to have come from the west!"

Starlight had thought her confusion to be at maximum, only to have it double in a single word. "Sosan?" she mouthed, thoughts fixating on the journal in her saddlebags.

The three mares took turns staring at each other. Then, with one voice, they turned to Starlight and asked, "Where are you from?"

Bristling, Starlight hunched backwards, pulling her head towards her fuzzy shoulders. Some part of her noticed that her fur was no longer dried and spiky, but had, at least partially, been licked straight. But that was the last of her worries right then. "Ummm..." She probed the room nervously with her eyes. "First tell me why she doesn't have a cutie mark."

Willow sighed and took two more steps toward her, bending down until her head was on eye level with the defensive filly. "I can't tell you if I don't know what it is you don't know, Starlight." She bit her lip. "May I assume you don't know anything?"

Starlight was still.

"So." Willow knelt down until she was laying on all fours. "When a pony has a dream, and they want very badly for it to come true... so badly that they'd do anything, including dedicating their life to making it happen... sometimes, the world will bless them with powerful, unique magic that will help them make that dream come true. That magic takes the form of a symbol on the pony's flanks."

Starlight attempted to narrow her wide eyes and failed. "So why don't you have one?"

"You can't get one if the world doesn't think you need it." Willow shrugged, turning to the side. "I've never had any dream I wanted to chase badly enough. Maybe I would have, but..." She heaved a loud sigh. "Never mess with stallions if you don't want your life to get anchored in place, suddenly and abruptly. Anyway." She blinked, turning back to Starlight. "Ponies who get them mostly get them around my age or older. You have to know something about the world to care about it that much. Does that answer your question?"

From the sidelines, Amber grinned. "I don't think I've ever heard you talk quite so much at one time!"

"I'm sure you don't have anything to do with that," Maple added with a roll of her eyes. "Chatterbox."

Starlight, for her part, swallowed hard. "So you mean... ponies who never get cutie marks are... normal? That happens all the time here?"

"Worried you'll never get one?" Willow smiled softly. "Starlight, all sorts of ponies go through life contented with who they are and never have it matter."

Amber awkwardly piped in. "Sure, the magic is neat and all, but it's not like anyone would ever be mean or a big elitist about it! Not here, at least."

"Yes." Nodding, Maple stepped up. "If this is something that's worrying you..." Her lips stretched in a curved smile. "Don't be."

Starlight simply sat and gaped. She could practically feel her eyes lighting up as two thoughts warred in her head. One told her that what the mares said was too good to be true, while the other insisted that this was everything she had ever wanted... and if she passed it up because it seemed unreal, she would never, ever be able to live with the real thing.

There was also the issue that she longed to trust someone. After more than a month in the caves and mountains on her own, she had thought herself used to the solitude, but it was becoming more and more apparent that she couldn't keep going on the same way when other ponies were actually around. And so far, these mares had been perfectly welcoming... and would offer more. They already had. In a snap, her resistance crumbled and she rushed across the room.

Willow staggered backwards as Starlight wrapped herself around her forelegs, trying frantically not to sniffle. "Can I stay here? With you?"

Gently prodding the filly, Willow nudged her toward Maple. "I think you're asking the wrong pony," she whispered. "Trust me. She'd appreciate being asked."

Maple beamed down at them, as if she knew what the silvery mare was saying. Her forelegs waited, open and inviting. Starlight hesitated, honestly preferring Willow... but decided that if she was giving this whole thing a chance, she might as well go all in and be as nice as she could be. Besides, if anything turned out rotten, she could always run away again.

"Can I stay with you?" Starlight repeated, cautiously making eye contact with Maple.

"You can." Maple leaned down, and Starlight accepted the hug. "For as long as you like."

"Thank you." Nervously, Starlight stayed in the embrace. She was keenly aware that she hadn't yet told them where she was really from, and she remembered they hadn't even imagined it as a possibility earlier. Sosan unicorns had also been mentioned. She needed to ask about that.

Suddenly, Maple's ears twitched, and she looked toward a nearby pot. "Soup's ready!"

Breaking from the hug, Starlight watched as the other two mares shuffled and bounded toward a wooden table. Slowly, she got back to her hooves and took up her own seat, deciding to join them.

Home

When dinner finished, Starlight found her mood to be considerably more relaxed than earlier. She had managed to avoid talking about where she was from, in no small part thanks to Willow reading her mind again and hinting to the other mares to leave her alone. But Maple had been generous with her cooking, and the two bowlfuls of soup Starlight had downed now warmed her pleasantly, lulling her and making her eyelids droop.

Burping lightly, she turned away, standing next to a window as the other mares conversed and two of them prepared to leave. The breeze flowing against her was cool, but not cold. This was one of those times when the cold felt nice; when it could wash over her coat but fail to steal the warmth inside. It was the feel of facing a difficult challenge, but being more than prepared... of sitting indoors during a storm, of having danger nearby and knowing that she was perfectly safe.

But she didn't want to go to bed quite yet. Even though it was dark out, she had woken less than two hours ago. Her limbs ached with the restless tiredness that came with recuperation which could only be cured by sleeping and running at the same time. But she presently felt good. It was enough.

She turned, watching as Willow's tail vanished down the staircase. Listening intently, she heard the slam of a door below.

Maple heard it too, and finally looked up from the staircase her friends had vanished down, meeting Starlight's gaze from across the room. "I wish Amber would be gentler with my door," she mused. "Don't you think?"

Feeling as if she was supposed to say something and having nothing to say, Starlight muttered, "I guess?"

"So... you're living with me now." Maple smiled at her. "That's exciting, right?"

Starlight shuffled her hooves.

Maple saw it and frowned. She hesitated a second, and began crossing the room to join Starlight. Eventually, she reached the filly and sat beside her, lowering her head. "I really want to be nice to you, you know. Could you please tell me what you'd like? What I can do for you?"

"I..." Ordinarily, Starlight would have been silent, but Willow had asked her specifically to be nice to Maple and give her a chance. That warranted a response, at least. "I've been on my own for a while, so I'm not... really used to asking for things." She looked up, hoping her expression was apologetic.

"Oh." Maple's ears folded. "Well, if it helps you get used to asking again, you can ask me anything, okay? I won't mind at all."

"Okay." Starlight did her best to maintain eye contact, and succeeded.

Maple sat there, thinking. "Oh, I know!" She suddenly perked up, hopping to all fours. "Would you like me to show you around my house? It's yours now too, of course."

The grown mare stood there, eyelashes fluttering hopefully... so Starlight nodded. "Mhmm."

"Great!" Maple nearly jumped, turning toward the staircase. "You've seen the upstairs already, but follow me!"

Starlight got up to follow her, but hesitated, a memory turning into an idea inside her brain. "...Could you carry me?"

The sound of several hoofsteps preceded Maple's arrival at the base of the staircase. She practically bounced her way down, the filly on her back fighting not to be launched off.

"Here we are!" Maple cheerily flung a hoof, barely looking where she was pointing. Starlight quickly took in that the circular room was separated into two halves like the floor above, though rather than by a full wall it was by a low counter. Was this some sort of store?

"So for my job," Maple perkily confirmed, "I run a store. Right here in my house. It used to be a general store, but now it's more of a bakery. It doesn't really matter what I make, since it's mostly for my friends. But here..." She pointed at the counter, under which several boxes were stacked. "...is the counter, and across it is the customer area, and back here..." She turned around, to where a wall split the half of the room they stood on further into two. "...is the storage room!"

As Maple stood still, beaming, Starlight took her own time to inspect the place. It had the same round windows as the upper floor, along with the same omnipresent wood paneling and general aesthetic. Several paintings were hung on the walls, breaking up the theme, and three small, round tables rested on the other side of the counter. She wondered how full they would get during the day.

"This is your new home, Starlight Glimmer," Maple whispered in the silence. "I hope you like it."

"Mmmhm." Starlight kept her head up and neck straight, still looking around.

"Good."

They stood in relative darkness, golden-orange light from the brightly-lit kitchen above filtering down the staircase. The lower floor had the quiet stillness of a building normally welcoming and now firmly asleep, making Starlight feel as if she was in her own little bubble of warmth. The staircase beckoned to her.

"Starlight?" Maple asked. "Want to go back upstairs?"

"Okay."

Maple took Starlight back to the bedroom. While it was even darker than the ground floor, the darkness had a completely different feel: rather than being fast asleep or resentfully woken, it was drowsily awake, waiting for someone to arrive before it could turn in for the night. Laying on the bed across from Maple, light from the kitchen still shining through the door crack, Starlight felt her drowsiness returning.

"Well, then," Maple said with a smile. "We didn't do much today, did we?"

"Nope," Starlight said face-down into the bedding.

"Hee..." Maple murmured, carrying the conversation. "That's because you just got up! ...Still, it feels like so much happened... I mostly whiled the day away thinking about you, up here."

"Mmmmmhh..." Starlight yawned into her pillow. That soup really was making her drowsy.

"We're going to have fun tomorrow, though." Maple crept closer along the bed, and Starlight neither approached nor shied away. "I'll take you out to see the rest of the town. We'll get you cleaned up, too. I bet your mane looks pretty when it's clean."

"Mhmmmm..." Starlight was fond of her mane, if she was being honest. Striped manes weren't very common in her old home. It was probably hypocritical of her to be proud of that, but she had just climbed over a mountain range to prove a point. Besides, staying blank was about not changing who she was. Changing her mane would be silly.

"I don't know if you know, but this town is called Riverfall," Maple hummed, sliding closer. "Would you like to hear a little about its history?"

Soft snores greeted her in answer.

Maple chuckled, making out the rise and fall of Starlight's form before her. "I hope you like sleeping with the night light on," she murmured, "because I don't feel like getting up to shut that door."

Starlight continued to slumber, relaxing further as whatever dream she was having began.

"And also, I... enjoy it..." Maple yawned too, realizing she would swiftly follow the filly. "Good night, Starlight Glimmer. We'll have fun... tomorrow..."

Stretching, Maple finally made contact with Starlight. With a single hoof, she scooped the filly closer, nestled her chin against her, and weathered a restless kick. The night stretched on about them, and they were both too asleep to care.

Equestrian

The room was perfectly dark when Starlight finally woke. Due to the covers tightly draped over the windows, she couldn't see if the sun had risen, though a sense she'd gained through her mountainous trek told her it was still pre-dawn. It didn't feel like pre-dawn. The air was warm around her, and another body slumbered close beside.

Her senses and memories returned much faster this time: this was a town where ponies could never get cutie marks and no one would care, and this was her new home. The mare nearby was her... caretaker? Starlight wasn't sure what their relationship was, other than that Maple was trying, so she would have to, too.

But for then, Maple was sound asleep. Starlight was hesitant to get up and go about her business, both for fear of waking the mare and because she had no idea exactly what her business would be. But falling back asleep was out of the question; as hard as she had pushed herself recently, there was only so much rest her body could take. She had to get up. She had to do something.

She could always test her magic, of course. Maybe it was working again? She hadn't tried the night before, and it had been too soon before that... and she couldn't have taxed it that hard. Concentrating, she dragged her horn back into her awareness and forced energy toward it, bidding it to light up.

It did... with a shower of teal sparks and a stab of pain. "Ow!" she grunted, immediately stopping and wrapping a hoof around her head.

Behind her, Maple stirred. "Nnguh? Wuzzwrong?"

Starlight cringed; she hadn't meant to wake her host. "Sorry! Nothing," she hissed. "I'm fine. Go back to sleep."

"Starlight?" Maple's head rose, in the middle of a giant yawn. "Nnmph... is it morning already?"

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry!" Starlight curled back up, drawing away. "I didn't mean to wake you!"

Maple yawned again. "No, I... usually don't sleep in. You must... be wide awake though, right?"

Starlight held still, not saying anything.

"Two minutes," Maple muttered. "Just..." She flopped back down, facing away from Starlight, and resumed her slow, steady breathing.

Stifling a sigh, Starlight relaxed too. Waking her host up in the middle of the night wouldn't be a good way to get off on the right hoof at all. Hopefully Maple was asleep enough that she wouldn't remember it in the morning, or would think it was a dream.

Just as Starlight finished purging her worry and started setting her train of thought on a more interesting track, though, Maple snuffled and sat up. "All right," she said, blinking. "That'll do it. I'm awake now."

Starlight folded her ears. "I didn't mean to wake you up..."

"Oh, stop apologizing," Maple chided. "I told you, I'm an early riser. Now, what time is... hmm."

"Huh?" Starlight tilted her head.

"About an hour left until sunrise," Maple softly proclaimed, staring intently at the gray light leaking through the window coverings. "Well?" She turned to look at Starlight in the darkness. "Since we turned in early last night, would you like to talk about anything now?"

Starlight shrugged.

"Hmm..." Maple looked upwards, wracking her brain. "I'm curious where you're from. We thought for sure it would be Sosa, but you sounded surprised when we mentioned that last night. Would you like to tell me that?"

"I..." Starlight looked down, conflicted.

"Oh... well, if not, let's see..." Maple's eyes lit up with another idea. "I could tell you about where we are right now! Of course, I have no idea what you already know, so..."

Starlight gulped, feeling herself pushed toward a decision. "If I tell you where I'm from..." She fought back the clamminess that came with doing or saying something irrefutably bad and harmful to one's reputation. "Will you promise to keep it a secret? And tell nopony else?"

"Even Willow and Amber?" Maple gave her a concerned look.

"Not yet? Please?" Starlight didn't mistrust Willow, but she barely knew anything about the yellow mare and didn't want to sound like she was picking favorites. "I just... well..."

"All right. I promise." Maple edged closer, leaning in politely.

Starlight sighed, and relented. "Okay. I'm from the south."

"The south?" Maple's brow scrunched. "But there's nothing to the south. If you follow that river we found you on for about thirty miles, you reach a cliff that's so tall, we call it the edge of the world! It's higher than even pegasi can fly. Ones who try really hard sometimes make it, but when they come back down, they say there's just more and more above it... or they never come back at all."

"I fell off that cliff," Starlight muttered, hanging her head. "If I'd been able to get down the proper way, I wouldn't have needed saving."

"You... fell off?" Maple blinked in confusion. "But how did you get up there? Even pegasi and griffons have trouble! You can't even fly!"

"I told you," Starlight stubbornly answered, "I didn't. I went the other way. From the south."

"But... that's impossible..." Maple's jaw was hanging. "Those mountains are supposed to go on forever! There's nothing beyond them!"

Starlight stuck out her lip. "Yeah there is. It's called Equestria. And there, everyone has to get a cutie mark when they're young, and they all thought there was nothing to the north of the mountains. So there."

Maple blinked again, eventually managing, "...Are you sure?"

Starlight was about to roll her eyes when she remembered Willow's request to be nice. "Mhmm."

"Woah."

Now it was Starlight's turn to blink. "You believe me? Just like that?"

"Well, it explains why you were so confused earlier," Maple breathed. "If that's true, you must have come from a completely different culture. Maybe even different magic! You would have had to, if you could find a way to get that many ponies branded!"

"Yeah." Starlight's mood darkened. "I don't miss it."

"Oh?" Maple's ears folded slightly. "Now I'm even more curious. Something big must have happened to you to take your chances with a supposedly infinite mountain range..."

"You could say that," Starlight muttered.

Maple drew closer, laying a hoof around Starlight's shoulders. "Can you tell me about that?"

Starlight looked up, eyes wide. "So it doesn't matter that I'm from Equestria? You don't care?"

"I think it's exciting," Maple offered hesitantly, acting like she was wary of a trap. "I've always loved stories of far-off lands. And I bet most of the ponies here do, too. You could get super famous if you told everyone..."

"No!" Starlight pulled back, alarmed. "I don't want to be famous! I'm just an ordinary pony!"

Maple looked hurt. "You don't? I think it would be fun..."

"No," Starlight pouted, slowly allowing Maple to re-hug her. "All I want is for everyone not to treat me differently for some dumb bit of magic I can't control and would be stuck with for life, or because I refuse to get one."

"Will you tell me why?" Maple gently asked, pulling her closer.

Starlight looked at the window coverings, and they were still unlit and gray. "Well..." She had come this far. She might as well tell Maple everything. "Okay."

Geography

"I'm sorry to hear about your friend," Maple murmured, hugging Starlight close. The filly so far had succeeded in keeping her eyes dry, and wanted to keep it that way... though if she was going to trust Maple, she wasn't entirely sure why.

"Uh huh."

"But... still..." Maple hesitated. "You went across a mountain range that's legendary for being impassable all because of one friend leaving?"

"No. I told you, that's just what started it," Starlight grumbled. "It was because of the cutie marks. He caught a stack of books! What's so special about that?" She punched a pillow. "It's like you can accidentally do one stupid thing and your life completely changes for it. 'Oh, you're a mage, you should go off to mage school!' It's not fair. Why should anypony get treated that differently just because of some decision they made or thing they did when they were young?"

"So you weren't worried about never getting one, then," Maple said, folding her hooves. "You were worried that you would get one, weren't you?"

"Yeah. Some bit of magic should never be that important. But apparently, not having one makes ponies treat you just as differently as whatever you get." Starlight hung her head glumly. "I wear a fake one around most of the time. It washed off in the river, though, and I haven't put it on. It looks like an equals sign."

"It sounds pretty," Maple offered. "Maybe if you ever get one, that's what it will look like."

Starlight frowned.

Maple saw it and re-hugged her. "Well, I don't think you'll have to worry about that. I don't know how things are in 'Equestria' that you can get one for shelving books, but they're very rare here."

That caused a memory from the previous evening to surface in Starlight's mind. Latching on to it and changing the subject, she asked, "What's Sosa?"

"Sosa?" Maple's brow furrowed. "You don't... oh. Right, you don't know anything about what the world looks like here, do you?" Her eyes brightened as she spoke, up from the melancholic solidarity of moments earlier. "I suppose you'd like to hear about that?"

Starlight nodded for her to go on.

"Well, then. Where's the best place to start..." Maple glanced upward, wracking her brain. "So the mountains run from east to west, forever. You can't go around them. It might sound silly, but ponies have tried. Though you'd be better asking ones who have been outside this village than me..."

"Mhmm," Starlight politely pressed.

"And along the base of the mountains," Maple continued, "runs a great river called the Yule. This town, Riverfall, is built on its southern bank, and the river continues until it reaches an ocean far to the east. The stream you floated in on is one of its tributaries, coming down from the mountains."

"The Yule? I've heard of that," Starlight said smugly. When Maple's eyebrows rose in surprise, she immediately shook her head. "Never mind!"

"Okay..." Pausing, Maple re-grabbed her train of thought. "So if you follow the mountains far enough west, they start to curve north. They're low enough there that you can climb them, but you still can't go south. If you keep going west through the mountains, you reach Yakyakistan. That's where the yaks live."

Starlight nodded. That much had been made apparent by the name.

"But before that, right where the mountains curve, is where the Yule's headwaters are," Maple said, tone growing tense and excited. "And there's a city there that supposedly is built straight into the mountains, from the snowy heights to the forest below. It's called Ironridge, and it's very big."

Starlight continued to nod.

"And Ironridge sits in a very unique place that lets it make a lot of things. Fruit, steel, mining..." Her eyes practically swam as she spoke. "And there are no roads that reach it. The only way in or out is by boat, along the Yule... and that's where this town comes in. Halfway along the river is a waterfall big enough to be impassable. Sailors and traders had to climb out and carry their boats uphill to cross it, and eventually they stopped and made a town here. And that's where we are now!" She blinked cheerfully. "Riverfall. Your new home."

"Huh." Starlight had paid attention, but had little to comment. "So what's Sosa?"

"Oh! Right." Maple's ears rose in embarrassment. "Sosa is in Ironridge. I think? It's a part of it, like a city in a city... it's where all the unicorns live. That's why we thought you were from there."

"Oh." Starlight had nothing more to say.

Maple sighed loudly. "Well, that's what I know. I've never been there. Most of the ponies in Riverfall are here because they intend to stay. I once followed the river south to the base of the mountains with some friends, to see what it would look like. But that's as far as I've ever been."

"So they just like it so much they never want to leave?" Starlight asked dubiously.

"You could say that," Maple said with a twitch of the corner of her mouth. "But more often, it's because they disliked somewhere else, and Riverfall was where they had to leave to. Ponies ambitious enough to be elsewhere in the world never settle at a backwater service town like this, and all the adventurous colts leave as soon as they're able. Of course..." Suddenly crestfallen, she finished with, "For certain types of ponies, there's so much to like you'd definitely never want to leave."

"Huh?" Starlight's ears twitched at the other pony's sudden mood swing.

"Oh, don't mind me." Maple smiled dully. "Just reminiscing about what could have been."

Starlight stuck her tongue out. "You sound like a granny."

Maple snorted heavily, breaking into choking laughter. "Me? A granny? Hah! Ha ha ha... Ohh..." She calmed enough to roll over, stretched, and laid a foreleg over Starlight, having broken away earlier. "I'm glad you're staying here. You're a funny filly, Starlight."

Starlight's eyes crossed. "It wasn't that funny..."

"Ohhh..." Maple groaned, and stretched again. "It's probably almost morning, isn't it?"

"Yeah. Probably." Starlight nodded in agreement.

"I'll go get breakfast started, then," Maple grumbled, beginning to scoot herself from the bed. "There's a mirror and a brush over there, if you think it will help, but we really need to get you a real bath. Not a sandy river dunking with no towels."

She trotted to the wall and pressed her hoof down repeatedly on a small, metal pedal on the floor. A string attached to it moved up and down like a pump, turning a previously-unseen mechanism that caused her window coverings to roll up.

Starlight looked keenly on with interest. "Where'd you get that?"

"Oh, you like these?" Maple smiled over her shoulder as she continued around the room, raising the other blinds. "There's an old inventor who came here from Sosa around a decade ago. He's constantly making us toys like these. Everypony loves him." She finished her work and trotted to the door, cracking it open. "I'll be sure to take you to meet him. I bet you'll get along wonderfully."

Maple left the room, leaving Starlight sitting behind on the bed. Gray light from the windows washed in around her, waking her eyes with monochrome and a streak of orange. Through the farthest window to the right, she could see a burning haziness just above the horizon... sunrise.

Maybe this would be a good day. Maybe she'd get to meet more ponies and find out that Riverfall really was as good as Maple and Willow made it sound. Hopefully, she wouldn't accidentally earn her cutie mark. Either way, Maple was cooking something, and it already smelled good. She took a deep breath of the blossoming aroma and decided that, good day or not, it couldn't hurt to look good... so she bent over and began licking her chest and sides, grooming the dawn away.

Pancakes

"I made pancakes!"

Starlight didn't need Maple's announcement to tell. Beside the beaming mare stood a golden stack tall enough to feed four, wafting steam as it cooled.

Maple paused to pull two more from a griddle, then expertly popped the tray onto her back and walked over to the table, barely even paying attention as it swayed with her stride yet somehow didn't fall off. Starlight had always been curious and slightly envious of earth ponies' abilities to do that. It would make having a horn that was useless half the time much more bearable if she could carry things without her mouth or saddlebags. She would have asked, had she not been certain the answer was "magic."

"I made pancakes," Maple repeated, voice softer as she slid them onto the table. "Eat as many as you like. I'll have whatever you don't eat."

"Uhh... okay. Thanks," Starlight muttered, distractedly searching for condiments.

After a minute of munching, Maple caught Starlight's attention. The mare was still standing by the griddle, flipping several more when she looked over her shoulder and coughed. "Starlight?"

Starlight swallowed. "Huh?"

"I don't suppose..." Maple turned back to the griddle and sighed. "No, never mind."

"What?" Starlight leaned closer, taking another bite.

"Well..." Maple fidgeted, suddenly bashful. "What do you think of my friends?"

Chewing, Starlight lifted a single ear.

"Amber and Willow," Maple elaborated, turning back to the cooking pancakes. "Who found you with me."

"Oh." Starlight swallowed again, wondering how honest to be... and decided it wouldn't hurt. "Willow's nice. I like her. I couldn't tell much about the other."

"Hmmm..." Maple sighed wistfully as two more pancakes sizzled and browned in front of her. "And what do you think of me?"

Starlight's eyes widened slightly. She had no strong attachment to the mare either way and still preferred Willow, but somehow doubted saying that would go over well. "You're nice too," she offered.

"Am I...?" Maple trailed off, pulling out the pancakes and not putting more in. Slowly, she added them to her new stack and brought that over to the table too, sitting down next to Starlight. "You can tell she's much better at this than me, can't you?"

"Huh?" Starlight looked up, ears folding.

"At kids," Maple stated, a note of bitterness in her voice. "You've been out in the wilderness for who knows how long, probably surviving with whatever you can find. Now you survived, and are here. It sounds like Riverfall is a place you'll like, doesn't it? From what you've said? And all I want is to give you what you deserve for making such a long, hard journey... but you just shrug at all of it." Her ears folded, mirroring Starlight's. "I really want you to like me, Starlight. What else can I give you?"

Speechless, Starlight fought back a shrug. "No, you're nice. I just don't really want anything."

That was apparently the wrong thing to say, because Maple drooped even more. "So there's nothing I can do, then?"

"Uhhhh..." Starlight hesitated, panic briefly flaring. Be nice to Maple. Don't make Maple sad. Right then, she was accidentally doing exactly the opposite of both. Quickly, she decided to try distracting her instead. "Why would she be better than you?"

"Because she already has foals," Maple said, shoulders sagging. "She's done this before. She knows what it's like. And I never have."

"Why not?" Starlight asked around a new bite of pancake. Sad or not, she was still hungry.

Maple didn't say anything.

"Uhh... okay..." Starlight looked around the room; that wasn't working either. Suddenly, she hit upon an idea. "Hey! It'd make me happy if you could feel better..."

When Maple looked aside at her, Starlight leaned her head against her, gently rubbing. The earth pony seemed to have a thing for physical affection, so maybe that would work?

Miraculously, somehow, it did. Maple's face lifted and she blinked away the beginnings of a tear. "So you do care about me. At least. Thanks." Snuffling briefly, she then devoured a pancake whole and licked her lips. "Mmm. These turned out good, didn't they?"

"Mhmm," Starlight replied absent-mindedly. Then, re-railing her train of thought, she added, "I like pancakes. They're nice."

"Oh?" Maple brightened. "I can make them every day, if you like."

Starlight shook her head, thinking for a tactful response. "Make other things too. Don't you have a bakery?" She licked her lips and added, "I want to try all kinds of stuff."

"Oh!" Maple began to grin; apparently that was also on the right track. "Now I'll have to plan something really good for dinner. Hmmm..." She brought a hoof to her rounded chin in thought.

Starlight's ears flicked. "What about lunch?"

"Oh, we might not be back here in time for that." Maple swallowed another pancake, eyeing the stack sideways as she counted how many were remaining. "Seeing Riverfall might take most of the day, and somepony will probably invite us to stay with them for lunch on the way."

"Oh." Starlight looked down at her own plate as Maple reloaded it. She was getting full, but if she enjoyed her eating her cooking...

"I have other friends besides Willow and Amber," Maple offered. "You might like them."

Starlight's mouth was full, so she didn't respond.

"You also might get along well with Willow's kids," Maple added, downing another pancake. "Her eldest is about the same age as you, I think." She blinked. "I never asked! How old are you?"

"I dunno," Starlight said, swallowing. "Filly."

Maple blinked harder. "You don't know? You don't know how old you are?"

Starlight blinked back. "Is that important?"

"Well, I..." Maple fidgeted. "I mean, you don't have to, but it's a useful thing to track, so..."

"Age doesn't really matter in Equestria," Starlight explained disinterestedly. "At least, not the part I'm from. Most ponies can figure theirs out if they want to, but the only age that most ponies care about is when you get your cutie mark."

"Oh." Maple immediately stilled. "Well, I guess our cultures have their own ways of measuring maturity, then. I wonder what other things could be completely different there that we think of as so normal, we wouldn't even question being changeable..."

Starlight ignored her and continued. "And even if I wanted to find how old I was, I was adopted when I was little, so my parents never got my birth certificate."

"Well, I'm sorry to hear that." Ignoring the rest of her food, Maple leaned over and gave Starlight another hug. She flinched, and added, "That your real parents are gone, of course. There are adoptions here, but from the stories I've heard they can be anywhere from happily ever after to waking nightmares, or never even happen at all..."

"Don't be," Starlight sighed. "My real parents probably would have cared just as much as the ones who raised me about my cutie mark."

Maple sighed too. They were silent for a moment, before she said, "I'm twenty-five, if you were curious."

"Huh." Starlight poked at the remains of a pancake.

"Willow is twenty-nine," she added, staring off into space. "And Amber is twenty-three."

Starlight had no response, and Maple had nothing more to say. Some time passed, during which the pancakes continued to cool.

Eventually, Maple eyed the stack. "We should finish these and get on with the day, don't you think?"

"I'm full," Starlight burped. "But they were good, though. Thank you for making them."

"Hee... thanks." Maple nuzzled the top of her head, before going cross-eyed. "We really need to fix your poor mane. Go do anything else you need to get ready, and I'll finish these off."

Nodding her thanks, Starlight got up and paced away from the table, heading for the bedroom. Her saddlebags were still there, and as useless as the contents now were, she felt safer with them on. She looked over her shoulder, smiling at the sight of Maple framed by the door, tilting her head back and cramming the rest of the pancakes into her open mouth in an attempt to devour them as fast as possible. She was feeling it would be a good day.

Riverfall

The morning air was like a slap to the face as Starlight stepped out of Maple's home, but she didn't notice it for long. She was too busy looking, for the first time realizing what the earth pony's idea of a village was.

Cylindrical dwellings much like theirs were scattered almost without thought or placement, stretching as far as the eye could see... though due to the lack of any straight roadways, that wasn't very far at all. Starlight couldn't see a thing that wasn't some shade of red or brown, with the hard-trodden dirt plazas that separated buildings and the dim, canopied horizon.

They were situated in a forest of perfectly straight, branchless trunks that reached impossible heights, the top so far above that Starlight couldn't make out anything but a sea of muddy color. The trees grew wherever they pleased, be it in the middle of a thoroughfare or neatly behind something that didn't seem to be in use.

It was utterly directionless, without roads, landmarks, distinguishing features or even the hint of a gradient to tell one where to go. The half-dozen ponies out and about didn't seem to care, slowly going about their ways with their eyes closed and features relaxed. Starlight half-wondered if they even had destinations at all.

"Pretty, isn't it?" Maple asked, appearing beside her and shutting the door.

Starlight was practically cross-eyed, trying to find anything that looked planned or even stood out in the chaotic, peaceful neighborhood. "How do you tell where to go?"

"Hee... It's pretty big, too..." Smiling just as carelessly as the ponies around her, Maple began walking, heading in what seemed like no direction in particular. "Look above you."

Starlight gave upwards another glance. It was almost dizzying, between the straight brown trees and the distance they stretched for, but she quickly realized what Maple wanted her to see. Ropes bedecked with colorful pendants were strung between combinations of houses and trees, and after a bit of staring it became apparent that they weren't as random: color was related to direction.

"Those are guideposts?" she asked, unsure of a better word.

"Mhmm!" Maple chirped, a spring in her step despite the sharp morning air. "They take a bit to learn, but they tell you whenever you're heading toward anything interesting." She smiled down at Starlight as she walked, turning to avoid a house almost by instinct. "But don't worry about needing to do that any time soon. If you ever want to go anywhere, I'll be happy to come with you!"

"So where are we going now?" Starlight asked, briefly stumbling in her effort to match the older mare's pace.

"The bathhouse," Maple said frankly. "Probably a good idea to get you looking nice, first."

Starlight couldn't protest. She wasn't hung up on fashion like some of the fillies she knew back in Equestria, but it still felt nice to be clean. It would probably be nice to get wet without the imminent threat of hypothermia for once, too. After all her negative experiences with water lately, she could use it. The last thing she wanted was to develop some sort of phobia.

"...So, where's the bathhouse?" she asked after several minutes of walking.

"We passed one already," Maple informed her as if it was the most natural thing ever. "But the one we're going to is downtown. You'll know it when we're getting close."

"We passed one?" While not a protest, there was a certain demand for explanation in Starlight's voice. "Why?"

"Because I'm friends with the mare who runs this one," Maple said. Apparently that was all there was to it.

Starlight wouldn't admit it to anyone but herself, but she wasn't holding up as well as she imagined she would. Perhaps it was because she was full, or perhaps laying and resting for the last week had taken the edge off her exploration-induced stamina, but she could already feel the tug of gravity on her legs. Maybe it was as simple as the fact that now, she didn't need to keep moving.

To distract herself, she kept looking around the town, searching keenly for more things of interest. The longer she stared, the more she realized it wasn't the same all the way through, merely so different from anything she was used to it took an acclimated eye to tell one kind of different apart from another. There was variance to the houses, whether they were made of light wood, dark wood or some reed-like material that looked like incredibly thick, notched straw. The size of everything was subject to change, from tiny pathways where two buildings were squeezed together to byways wider than they were long, and the number of stories present at a time could be anything between five and one.

But no matter how hard she looked, two things about the town seemed completely static and unchanging: all the other ponies she saw were earth ponies, and they were all mares. A slight feeling of uneasiness bubbled within her, and at one point she checked and made sure her matted forelock was covering her horn.

Maple was right, however: Starlight did indeed notice when downtown was approaching. Aside from a slight uptick in the heights of buildings and an increase in bridges built high-up between them, the road around her grew looser and looser, transitioning from hard-packed dirt to soft beach sand. And then, in a hard line, the sand was gone, replaced by glass.

Starlight stopped to take a moment to stare, and Maple let her. Stretching in front of her, the town roads were a mirrorlike sea, flawless and reflective to such a degree that she saw a perfect double of every pony walking on it shining below. When she looked down through the glass, her eyes were met with a cloud of suspended, wildly-colorful rocks ranging from pebbles to the size of her hoof. The glass ran down nearly as deep as she was tall, ending in a gray, unobtrusive bottom wherever she was able to see past the rocks.

"Woah..." Starlight poked cautiously at the surface. "What's this?"

"A gift," Maple replied, grinning at her curiosity. "It looks slippery, doesn't it?"

"Yeah," Starlight mumbled, poking it again. The edge of her hoof glided effortlessly across the pristine surface... but the moment she put it down flat, it was like she was standing on glue. Her hoof simply wouldn't budge in any direction but up, no matter how hard she forced it.

In the distance, a pony was pulling a wagon across the glass with no trouble at all. Raising her head, Starlight gave Maple a questioning look.

"The stones are enchanted," Maple explained, stepping confidently onto the substance. "They hold your hooves in place. Wheels, too. Even when it's raining, this place gives you the best traction in town..." She sighed and closed her eyes, reliving memories. "Once, when this was new, I twisted a hoof trying to dance on it. It's that strong. It's still being made, too. Some day, it's supposed to cover the entire town. I can't wait until it's finished up to my house. Isn't it pretty?"

Starlight nodded mutely, still investigating the magical surface.

"It also means we're not far," Maple offered. "Ready?"

Standing with all four hooves on the glass, Starlight nodded. She slid her saddlebags to a more comfortable position, and they set off, continuing into the heart of Riverfall.

Splash

The bathhouse certainly proved to break up the wild, circular nature of the town, Starlight thought, staring as Maple's destination came into view. Rather than a tall, round tower like most every other building she could see, it was squat and appeared to be shaped like a peanut. The filly squinted. "Is that two houses turned into one?"

"Three, actually," Maple replied, her step light and tone cheery. "But you can't see the third from here. They wanted to get as much ground room as possible, since it's hard to elevate a waterproof basin. The upper floor has a salon, as well as Sycamore and Frond's house."

"Who are they?" Starlight asked, stubby legs scurrying to keep pace.

"The owners. And friends of mine. Especially Sycamore. You'll see!" Maple winked back at her.

A bell rang as Maple trotted across a short patio and pushed the door open. "Coming!" a voice sounded from above, followed by a clatter of hoofsteps as a gangly teenage filly tumbled down a brightly-lit staircase. "Hey, what can I do for..." Her eyes widened before she even finished getting up, and a grin appeared on her face. "Hey moooom! It's auntie Maple! And she's got the river filly!"

Starlight drew closer to Maple's side, standing in her shadow but not quite hiding behind or under her. "Auntie?" She raised a questioning eyebrow. "Her mom is your sister?"

Maple smirked back. "Not quite. As best as anyone can tell, Sycamore and I are second cousins, but we were friends growing up. And in this town, memories count for more than ancestry."

A saloon door in the back of the room quickly swung open, and a middle-aged mare with a pristine, deep purple coat strode through, broad face widening in a welcoming smile. "Maple!" she exclaimed, rushing to hug the mare. "How's it going? Is this little Starlight?"

Starlight stared her straight in the eye, doing her best to maintain a poker face. "Hi."

"Hi, Sycamore," Maple gasped, flailing for air in the older mare's grasp. While Sycamore wasn't abnormally sized and could probably fit into a normal mare's clothing, her muscles were so toned that she dwarfed a grown stallion in force of presence alone.

"You're so cute," Sycamore hummed in a deep baritone voice, dropping the frazzled Maple and turning entirely to Starlight. "And by 'cute' I mean a disaster in need of fixing up!" She edged a thick eyebrow at Maple. "That's why you're here, I presume?"

"That we are!" Maple smiled as she regained her breath. "Out and about, touring the town, you know..."

"Well, if you're looking to go soak yourself," Sycamore began, motioning for Starlight to hang her bags on a rack, "Amber's been hogging the main tub for two hours, and you're more than welcome to make her share the place. I, for one, need to go grab a bite before tackling a knot like that. So make yourselves at home, m'kay? Frond, be nice to our guests! Later!"

Starlight and Maple watched as the purple mare barged toward the door, shoving it open with her chest and strolled out onto the glassy streets. It swung closed behind her with a whoosh.

There came a yawn from the staircase, where Frond was still standing. "So, how long will you two be staying?"

Maple shrugged. "As long as it takes. Certainly not before Sycamore's back. Why?"

"Oh." Frond swallowed and turned around. "Well, don't leave before I get to meet the river filly! But right now, I'm... I'm gonna go back to bed... Next time, don't come so early, okay?"

They watched her vanish around the lip of the ceiling, and Maple rolled her eyes. "Some ponies... Oh well. Come on, Starlight. Let's get you cleaned up."

The doors swung open before Maple's hoof, revealing that the interior of the building was actually an open-sky courtyard lined with a stone floor and several pits of clear, rippling water. The air was warm and incredibly moist, and puddles of condensation lined every available surface.

"Yoohoo!" A mare in the middle pond waved frantically, indiscernible except by voice through the light haze of steam that enveloped the room. "Maple? Starlight? Over here!"

Maple rolled her eyes again. "Hi, Amber. Mind sharing the water?"

No response. Maple's eyes narrowed as she paced closer, Starlight at her side. Amber's head lowered through the steam until her eyes and nose were barely above the water, peering out like a crocodile as the two stared down from above. "...Amber?" Maple asked, readying a hoof.

"Welcome to my domain," Amber rumbled, deepening her voice to subterranean levels without raising her head.

Maple snorted. "Oh, really, now? Is that-"

Amber's head broke further above water, and she was grinning like a lunatic. "Have some of this!"

Splooosh! She heaved a blob of water with both forelegs at Maple, who wasn't able to dodge out of the way in time. Starlight shrieked and jumped to the side, moisture spattering her coat, but Maple took the blast full-force, standing and dripping and snarling down at her friend.

"Uhhh..." Starlight backed away, raising a hoof.

"Oh, it is so on!" Leaping and tucking in all four legs, Maple cannonballed at the pool, vanishing on top of Amber with a huge splash. Several moments later, they both resurfaced, laughing uproariously and flinging more splashes at each other.

From a safe distance away, Starlight raised an eyebrow. "What are you doing?"

Amber stuck her tongue out. "What the water was meant for! Having fun!"

"Come on in," Maple added, beckoning and splashing with a hoof. "It's really warm!"

Starlight dubiously eyed the water, the two waving mares in it fading into the background of her conscience. For a split second, her vision went gray, and the pool was transformed into a raging river, which then slid sideways as gravity changed, falling endlessly without direction until it hit a storm-tossed ocean, her head separated from it only by a pitch-black sky... She shook her head frantically, trying to clear the vision. This was exactly what she didn't want to happen. It was practically a hot spring! And there were other ponies nearby. She'd never be in danger of freezing here.

Still, she gulped. The pool was there... and her friends were in it. And if she was honest with herself, she really did need a real bath. Besides, there was no way she wanted to live her life being afraid of water.

That did it. Picking up her hooves and moving them one by one, Starlight stomped toward the pool, overcoming her own stubbornness with even more stubbornness. At last, she reached it, dipping a forelimb in... and finding that Maple hadn't exaggerated about the temperature. Blankets and warm hugs aside, if she was still frozen from earlier, this would be a great way to fix that. Idly wondering if the hot water would do anything for her horn, Starlight slipped herself in, shivering warmly at the contact.

Maple grinned at her from across the tub. "Do you like it?"

"Yeah, it's nice," Starlight admitted hesitantly. "But I don't know if I really aaack!"

Amber's cheeks deflated as she blew a jet stream of water at the filly. Smirking playfully, she raised an eyebrow, daring Starlight to retaliate.

"Grrrrr!" Starlight floundered at her, reaching for the bottom of the pool with her hooves to find purchase so she could fight back. Maple stood to the side, laughing at each subsequent blow until an errant wave swamped her and forced her into the melee. A mixture of shrieks and laughter floated skyward as the three playfully assaulted each other, splashing on into the morning.

Untangle

Maple, Starlight and Amber's bath-turned-waterfight was interrupted by a thunderous clearing of a throat. The three ceased their battle, looking upwards at the purple mare who was half-smirking back at them. "Sorry, ladies," Sycamore growled with a hint of regret in her voice. "But some real, paying customers just arrived, and I need to at least pretend to be running a respectable establishment." She pointed a large hoof over her shoulder at a pair of mares slinking towards a far-corner pool and nuzzling furtively.

Amber waggled her eyebrows. "I'd say whatever they're planning is a lot less respectable than good old splashing and dunking!"

Snorting, Sycamore shot a sideways glance at Maple. "Could you slap her for me, hon? There are fillies present."

As Maple obliged and Amber yelped, Starlight's face scrunched in thought. "What?"

"Never you mind that. Now what else was...?" Sycamore held her chin in thought. "Ah! I should turn the ventilation on. It's getting steamy in here. Be right back..."

As she wandered off, Maple nudged Starlight. "So? How do baths in Riverfall compare to where you're from?"

"That was it?" Starlight's eyes widened. "But we were just messing around!"

"That's what they all say," Amber interrupted, backstroking past. "But Riverfall likes its water way more than the rest of the world. Just because 'bath' and 'boring' start with the same letter doesn't mean you need to make them one and the same!"

"Hmm... well..." Maple gave a soft tug on Starlight's mane, which was still a gnarled clump. "It'll take a little more to fix this. And maybe not all outings I've had here have been this energetic. But I bet you do smell much better!"

"What did I even smell like?" Starlight muttered under her breath. "I laid in a box and didn't do anything else since the last time I got wet..."

They were interrupted by a low hissing noise from above, followed by Sycamore's returning hoofsteps. As she walked, the air cleared around her, making it almost seem like she was approaching twice as fast as she really was. With a sigh, she flopped down on the edge of the pool, patiently watching the three inside.

"Well?" she prompted when no one spoke. "I'm dying to hear about your new filly, Maple. Aren't you dying to tell me?"

"I basically told you everything there is to know," Amber drawled, floating past again. "We camped the river and found her floating past in a crate, and Willow told Maple to take her home!"

"Oh, really?" Sycamore leaned in closer. "And how does a little filly come to be floating north along a tributary from the mountains? That's a long way to walk to get here from Sosa..."

Starlight squirmed slightly at the question. Mercifully, Maple noticed and interceded. "She actually asked if we could not talk about that for right now. I hope you don't mind?"

"Of course." Sycamore backed off respectfully. "Not meaning to pry."

A moment of silence followed, during which Maple suggested, "Should we get dried off? Then you can get to work on Starlight's mane?"

"Heh. Won't that be a treat." Sycamore rolled her eyes and extended a forelimb in case any of the bathers needed a lift getting out. Maple took it graciously, while Starlight scrambled her own way onto the ledge and Amber stayed carelessly floating in the pool.

"Right, then..." In a section of the building that ringed the pool compound, next to a window looking out over the bathing area, Sycamore set Starlight, wrapped in a towel, onto a stone table. She stuck her tongue out, squinting as she ran a hoof over the filly's mane. "Let's see how we can save this, shall we?"

"O-Okay," Starlight grunted, shivering. She couldn't tell if she was actually cold or if it was merely a reaction caused by all her memories of being unable to get dry, but it was certainly unpleasant and not a welcome way to end what had been an otherwise funner-than-expected experience. Fun... she needed to remember to be careful with that. It would never do to get a cutie mark in bathing.

Sycamore had just begun pulling apart her mane, searching for a way to make a part when an ear-splitting boom echoed in through the window, causing Starlight to jump. She didn't cry out, but every muscle in her body tensed in preparation to run.

"Hold still, you." Sycamore pressed a strong forelimb over her, pinning her in place. "I'm not done yet. No reason to end early over a little thunderstorm."

"Thunderstorm?" Starlight lifted an ear. "But it's not raining out there." She pointed a hoof toward the open window, beyond which Amber continued to soak in peace.

Sycamore stuck her head out and looked upwards. "I really think it's raining, kiddo. Have a look, but then get back here so I can do your mane."

Released, Starlight looked outward and upward herself... and blinked several times. Rain was indeed beating down, but it stopped as if striking an invisible surface, turning to a rippling sheet and sliding off. There was some kind of dome or barrier protecting the building she somehow hadn't noticed before.

"Like it?" Sycamore asked, tapping the table Starlight was supposed to be waiting on. "That shield is Arambai's doing. Same goes for the plumbing, the water heater, the ventilation... everything that makes this place run, really. That stallion is a wizard, both literally and metaphorically."

"Who's that?" Starlight glanced up at Maple.

"Arambai? He's the inventor I was telling you about earlier," Maple replied, sitting nearby and rubbing herself with another towel. "The one who made my window blinds. He also is making the glass roads, and lots of other things in town."

"He's amazing," Sycamore added, rolling her eyes. "Single, too. I'm sure the only reason he stays that way is because it keeps half the town daydreaming whenever they're around him."

"Or it could be because he's old enough to have grandfoals," Maple chided. "Or because he doesn't want to pick favorites."

"So what's so great about him?" Starlight squirmed as part of her mane was tugged, finally coming loose from the rest. "Is it because he's the only stallion in this place?"

Maple blushed heavily. Sycamore might have as well; her coat coloration made it difficult to tell.

"What's with that, anyway?" Starlight tilted her head, forcing the mare working on it to bend with her. "Why aren't there any stallions here?"

"Didn't I tell you?" Maple shifted where she sat, looking out at the rain sliding down the dome shield outside. "It's because, as long as we can remember, all the colts would eventually grow up to the point where they got bored with this town and leave. They all hopped on ships headed west, to test their fortunes in Ironridge and beyond. Same with the unicorn fillies that are inevitably born whenever Sosan stallions come back here to settle down."

"All of them?" Starlight frowned. "Wouldn't there be some who stayed?"

"That's not how herd mentality works, kiddo," Sycamore rumbled, gently teasing apart a knot. "If enough ponies do it, it becomes the normal thing to do. Besides, who doesn't want to be told their expectation in life is to be set free after spending ten or fifteen years cooped up in this town?"

Starlight's frown grew deeper. "So I'm going to be abnormal if I don't leave and run away again, huh? Is that it?" Her leg twitched, and she re-adjusted her seating, looking forlornly at Maple. "I thought you wanted me to stay here..."

"Well..." Sycamore cleared her throat. "That's how it used to work, at least."

When Maple saw Starlight's confused expression, she leaned in to clarify. "I won't be making you go anywhere you don't want to, Starlight. Don't worry." She gave her a short, wet one-legged hug.

"But why doesn't it work that way anymore?" Starlight asked as her mane was yanked to the side, snagging briefly on her horn. She gritted her teeth.

Sycamore sighed, then hesitated. "We... don't really talk about that."

"What?" Starlight exclaimed, brow furrowing. "Why not?"

"Because it's a sore subject for every pony old enough to remember it," Maple murmured in her ear. Before Starlight could protest again, she added, "I'll tell you later if you want to know. But she was nice enough not to ask where you were from, remember?"

Starlight pouted, but that was the end of that. "So what's so awesome about the inventor?"

"Well, for one, it's how much he's done for this town," Sycamore replied with a smirk. "He's the spitting image of selflessness. Makes all this wonderful gear for us, and never asks a thing in return except the right to his own privacy and secrets."

"Which I'm sure he has a lot of," Maple added. "He turned up one day, nearly ten years ago, as if out of nowhere. None of us know a thing about his past, or about how he learned to make so many things. Or why he's so nice to us all the time."

"He got off a boat from Ironridge, obviously," Sycamore cackled. "That or one to it. I'm convinced the whole forlorn, mysterious thing is just an act to give all the unattached mares something to pine over. Fits with every other thing he's done for this town. They'd all go insane without it."

"He sounds shifty to me," Starlight muttered darkly. "I don't trust him."

"The one thing we know for sure is that he cares about Riverfall," Maple soothed. "You'll be able to ask him yourself, if you want. I'm sure we'll run into him within the next few days."

Sycamore nodded. "Trusting him is one of the things every pony in this village agrees upon. We'd make him leader in a heartbeat if he ever asked. Some have even tried to volunteer him for the job. He just shrugs and goes about his business."

"Do you have a leader already?" Starlight batted at the clips holding finished sections of her mane out of the way as Sycamore continued her work.

"Nah. Well... sort of." The purple mare paused, using her teeth to work out a particularly stubborn snag. "There's another stallion, Hemlock. He's basically the opposite of Arambai. Born and raised here in Riverfall. Went off to get his adventures, but eventually came right back. He invented this machine to help hoist boats up the falls, and acts like we should all worship him for it. But everyone knows that ninety percent of the time, he's got nothing important to say, so we just let him do his own thing and only pretend to listen."

Maple nodded sagely. "Those two are the closest to leaders you're going to get."

Sycamore glanced out the window. "Oh, lookie there. The rain's stopped. I should probably get a move on this and finish her up so you two can get on before it returns, shouldn't I?"

Starlight shivered in agreement, not liking the idea of taking a hike through the rain. Especially not on that glass surface. Magic or not, she wasn't sure she was willing to give it her full trust so soon. With no dissent, Sycamore doubled down on her efforts, finishing up Starlight's mane and moving on to her tail as the day continued to tick by.

Him

Starlight and Maple stood in the entrance to the building, backed by Sycamore as the muscular mare bid them farewell. "So, fillies, where do you think you'll be heading next?"

Maple was busy nuzzling Starlight's silky, freshly groomed mane, and didn't stop when responding. "After all that, I'm famished. We're going to go to Willow's and see if she wants to share lunch, I think."

"You mean you're going to shamelessly raid her pantry, right?" a loud voice chimed in as Amber strolled in from the pool room, dripping streams of water and not bothering to wear a towel. "Sounds smashing. Mind if I come with?"

"Mmmm... you could... so fuzzyyyyy..." Maple purred into Starlight's mane. The filly almost regretted not having a mirror. She had a feeling her deadpan expression could win some kind of record, and wanted to see it.

"Well, I wish you luck with that," Sycamore chuckled, pursing her lips at Starlight's plight. "Want a poncho for the road? I've got a few spares laying around here..."

Maple looked up with a smile, to Starlight's immense relief. "We could do with that, I think."

"No way, no how!" Amber shook her head vehemently. "We're water ponies to the core! Right, sis?" She shoulder-bumped Maple, sending a shower of droplets her way. Maple and Starlight cringed.

"Sis?" Starlight asked after the water bounced harmlessly off her fluffy coat. "Is that another 'family but not really' thing?"

Amber smirked wryly. "Well, technically I'm her half-aunt. But when she's older than me, that just hurts to think about."

"How...?" Starlight's face contorted. "Your family tree must be really gross."

Maple laughed. "Every pony in this town is related in some way or another. It comes with the demographics. That's why we never care about blood relationships. The only thing that matters is who you know, who you care about and who you get along with."

"Ponchos, ponchos, ponchos..." Sycamore interrupted, humming as she bustled back into the room, carrying a thick, shiny garment. "Here you go."

As Maple accepted the gift, Amber sidled in and nudged Sycamore. "A nail for your thoughts?"

Sycamore blinked. "If I ever have another kid, I should name them Poncho. Just to rebel against this trend of naming foals after trees. It would be the most unique name in a thousand miles. My foal would never have to share a name with anyone." After seeing the looks the other three were giving her, she shrugged. "You asked."

"Remind me next time I see you to do nothing but chat about the weather," Amber said, sticking out her tongue. "Now let's get going! Are you girls coming, or what?" She marched, still dripping, over to the door and flung it open, eliciting a clattering of bells and tromping outside.

"We're coming, we're coming..." Maple rolled her eyes and looked aside at Sycamore. "Thanks for saving her mane. I was worried it might have been a lost cause."

Sycamore nodded. "Just promise to let me try out a new style on you, too, one of these days. Now, away with you!" She flung a hoof, ushering Maple and Starlight swiftly to the door.

It slammed shut behind them. Moments later, before Sycamore had even turned away, a tumbling sounded from the stairs, and the bleary-eyed, leaf-green head of Frond poked down. "Mom? I didn't miss them, did I? ...Mom? Mom... oh, come on!"

Moisture from the rainstorm was still draining away as Starlight strode across the glass roadways, her broad hoofsteps necessary to keep up with Amber. Maple took the pace with similar levels of enthusiasm, her face strained as she stepped and splashed quickly, looking as if she would much rather follow her strenuous soak with a leisurely stroll than an almost-dash.

Starlight stomped her way through a puddle, noting with less interest than she would have normally given how the glass seemed to be constructed with invisible holes in it, allowing the water to sink into the ground rather than disperse entirely by runoff. Whoever had thought that up must really have had good foresight. She was still skeptical of Arambai after everything Maple and Sycamore had said, but there wasn't much doubt that the stallion's engineering abilities truly were that good.

Memories of that conversation filling her head, Starlight recalled when she had asked a question and been rebuffed. Apparently, something about the town had changed recently, within Sycamore's memory... but she had nothing to go on. Maple had offered to fill her in, but while racing hardly seemed like the time to do that. Especially since her legs were complaining.

So, instead, Starlight focused on not-quite-running, legs propelling her through the rain-soaked world. They weaved around cylindrical buildings, the stones suspended below sparkling like stars in the night sky. Hadn't someone said this trip would be short? Her lungs weren't yet burning, but her legs were to the point of noodles, and there was definitely nothing her horn could do to help. Growling in frustration, Starlight spurred herself onwards, trying to keep up with Amber's increasing pace.

"A-Amber!" Maple called out, gasping. "Do you mind? Not all of us are athletes!"

Amber pouted and slowed down, leaving Starlight time to catch her breath. "Sorry? I figured we were all hungry, so might as well get there fast..."

"It's, well..." Maple swallowed. "We are almost there, at least. But can we walk the rest of the way?"

Starlight swallowed as well, her saliva thick from exertion and likely dehydration. She eyed a puddle on the glassy road, wondering if it would be suitable for drinking. Maple made the decision for her, grabbing and nudging her along at a new, more reasonable pace.

Within minutes, they were there. Willow's home was a single tower that looked to be four stories tall, a marked improvement from Maple's apparently modest two. An exuberant knock from Amber followed, and that was proceeded in turn by the door swinging open.

Willow was there, and she looked down and scoffed. "Amber, you are not setting hoof in my house until you dry off. Go on. Shoo." She waggled a hoof, at which the offending mare took off running with a gasp. Her gaze softened, and she swung the door open the rest of the way. "Maple, Starlight! Touring the town?"

"You could say that," Maple wheezed, still slightly winded. She pointed a hoof at Starlight. "Got her mane fixed. Bathed at Sycamore's. Mind if we drop by for lunch?"

"Well, it's a little early in the day for that," Willow mumbled, poking her head back inside in thought. "Sure. We'll have an early lunch. Come on in."

At Willow's beckoning, they walked through the door. The interior design immediately stood out: unlike Maple's partitioned shop of a home, the floor was wide open save for a few counters for cooking and an iron spiral staircase descending from a hole in the center of the ceiling.

"It'll take a few minutes to get lunch on," Willow explained, already turning toward the cupboards that were undoubtedly stuffed with ingredients. "You're welcome to go upstairs and make yourselves at home. Faron is probably reading, and the kids should be on the third floor. Starlight?" The corners of her mouth tilted upwards in a smile. "I bet you'd get along very well with them, if you want."

Starlight shrugged and turned toward the staircase. "Okay. Who's Faron?"

"My husband," Willow replied firmly, yet with low volume. There was a note of something in her voice, sounding equal parts pride and resignation. That was an odd combination. Muttering her acknowledgement as Maple volunteered herself to help with lunch, the filly ascended the staircase.

The second floor was littered with bookshelves, a double helix staircase wrapping around both far walls. Somewhere within the maze of literature was a large recliner, no doubt occupied by Faron. Starlight didn't see any reason to bother him, so she made for one of the wall stairs and continued upwards, hooffalls soft and soundless against the padded wooden floors. Was that good? Did she want to announce her presence? Starlight realized with some trepidation that she hadn't met a foal since...

No. She shook her head as she climbed; that was in the past. That was a world of mountains away. And she'd met plenty of ponies her age since then... she just hadn't become friends with them. Not best friends, at least. There was no reason at all for her to feel nervous about this.

She reached a landing, which was decidedly not open like the previous floors. Instead, it had several doors and more stairs up... Willow's children all had their own rooms, apparently. Unsure of where to knock, she settled for clearing her throat loudly, making her presence known to all.

Almost immediately, a door clicked open, and a bright face with a stubby horn poked out. "Hi, there! Are you the river filly mum was talking about?"

Starlight was speechless.

"I'm Alder," the colt said, offering a hoof. "Mum told me you were a little shy, and might like a friend. Wanna be friends?"

Still, Starlight couldn't say anything. She trembled, her jaw hanging loosely.

"I've always wanted a friend from far away," Alder added, his fiery, rust-colored mane bobbing as he tilted his head. "She said you floated in on a boat you made yourself. That sounds pretty cool!"

Alder blinked at her, looking slightly concerned when she still didn't respond. "What's your name, river filly? I already told you mine."

Starlight didn't say anything. How could she? He was standing right there in his burnt-orange coat, covered in splotchy markings of his mother's silver, holding out a hoof and asking to be friends. It was like she was staring into a mirror that showed into the past. She could already feel tears stinging at the corners of her eyes. Somehow, across all this distance, she was looking at him.

Cracking like a dropped glass, Starlight burst into tears, turned tail, and ran, wailing, leaving Alder sitting on the landing with an empty hoof. He looked after her, surprise and confusion covering his silver-marked face. "Was it something I said?"

Fled

Maple jumped as a pink-and-purple whirlwind tore through the kitchen in a fit of tears and crashed out the door, leaving it swinging behind her. Willow arched an eyebrow, silently asking if she knew what that was about and whether she wanted to handle it herself. Maple shook her head.

A thumping announced the presence of another body coming down the stairs. Alder tumbled to the bottom, looking torn between panic and worry as he scurried halfway up to his mother. "I swear, I didn't do anything!" he emphatically protested, jaw flapping. "All I did was ask her if she wanted to be friends, and she took off like she'd seen a ghost! She didn't even tell me what her name was!"

Willow shushed him with a hoof, looking to Maple. "Do you want to go talk to her?"

Maple stared back, shrinking. "But I don't know what to do! I don't know how to handle-"

"Shhhh," Willow interrupted. "Then I've got it." She briefly knelt to Alder, whispering, "I believe you. I'll go talk to her, okay?"

The colt nodded, clear relief on his face. He turned around and scampered back up the stairs, leaving Willow to push her way outdoors and try to find Starlight.

Standing on the small patio that ringed her house, she raised her nose and sniffed. It wasn't raining, but the air told her there would soon be more... and she wagered Starlight would be able to tell that just as well as her. There was no trace of the filly, but with that in mind, the most likely direction she would have ran would be... this way.

Willow walked hurriedly, yet kept her steps soft. There was an art to sneaking up on a foal who had recently ran off. Approach too fast or loudly, and they'd likely avoid you. Appear without warning, and they'd think you were hunting them and clam up, or even bolt. You had to let them know you were coming without causing them to spook... you had to make them feel like they had a choice whether to see you or not. Fortunately, Willow was skilled in giving such choices.

She threaded her body through two close-pressed houses, slowing as she heard Starlight's sniffling come into earshot. One by one, she moved her hooves forward, tail down and posture loose until the filly saw her. Starlight looked up and hiccupped.

Instead of talking, Willow chose a dry spot and sat down a safe distance away, looking at an angle where Starlight was in her peripheral, but not her focus. Then she did nothing, waiting and listening to the filly's breathing. Thankfully, there were no pedestrians around.

Eventually, looking straight ahead, she said, "You gave my son quite a fright back there."

Starlight sniffled. "Sorry."

"Oh, I'm not worried about him," Willow said with a hint of reassurance. "If I was, I wouldn't be out here, right now. But he's a resilient child. He'll shrug it off quickly."

No response greeted her ears. Marginally, she turned her head and saw Starlight staring at the ground, unblinking. She waited three slow breaths, and said, "Is there anything I can do?"

That did the trick. Starlight didn't look up, but she muttered, "No. I'm fine. He just surprised me." She hesitated, and eventually added, "He reminded me of Sunburst."

Willow said nothing, sensing she wasn't done... and keep talking, she did. "He was my best friend back in Equestria. We did everything together, until the day h-he got his cutie mark. Then his parents packed him up and shipped him off somewhere where I'd never see him again. That's how things worked, back there. You accidentally do some magic and lift a dumb stack of books, and everyone says you have to do that for the rest of your life. That's why I ran away." Starlight paused, and wiped at her face with a hoof. "He's dead now. To me. Because they changed who he was. They've probably got him locked up in some dumb school full of books and make him go around telling ponies that he's going to shelve books for the rest of his life. Maybe the cutie mark makes him enjoy it, too. It's stupid."

Willow blinked several times while Starlight was rambling, getting the feeling that she was missing some important context. Perhaps it had been given to Maple, instead. But she shelved the confusion in the back of her mind, simply sitting and listening as the filly continued to talk.

"You're lucky not to have a cutie mark," Starlight finished glumly. "You never had to change who you are. Or had any other dumb ponies try to change it."

Willow's heart sank slightly. "Would you believe me if I told you I regret not getting one?"

"What?" Starlight narrowed her eyes. "No."

"Good," Willow sighed. "Because I don't. There's no point in worrying what might have been."

Starlight looked suspiciously at her. "Buuut?"

"But that doesn't mean my life has never been involuntarily changed," Willow said softly. "Life happens. And with it come all sorts of twists and turns that make you live in ways you'd never imagine... and those don't always happen when a pony gets branded. Finding the power to make your dreams come true is a big change... but it's not the only thing that can happen out of nowhere and never be undone."

"Huh?" Starlight stood up and took a step closer.

Willow spread her forelegs, still sitting up and looking as far as the distance would let her. "Come here. I have a story I'd like to tell you, if you don't mind..."

"A story?" Starlight moved closer. Her voice was no longer shaking. That was a good sign.

"A story," Willow repeated. "About when I was younger. Maple and Amber are in it, too. When we were young, we were quite close. We still are, but for different reasons."

Starlight stopped. "You're not going to try to convince me to get a cutie mark, are you?"

Willow glanced down at her own, bare flank, and laughed ruefully. "Do I look like the best pony to tell you that?" She shook her head, and added, "I'm not, Starlight. I don't want to convince you of anything. I just want to tell you about the time my life took a giant turn nopony saw coming... not me, at least. And how it had nothing to do with getting branded at all."

"Why?" Starlight looked unconvinced, but she took a step closer.

"Because it sounds like you were perfectly happy with your life and how it was going, until something changed you couldn't control." Willow sighed, motioning again for Starlight to join her and looking away. "I just wanted to show you that I know how that feels. And while I'm not going to try to convince you of anything..." Her gaze softened. "I don't want you to take it out in the wrong place."

She received no verbal answer... but did feel something soft brushing up against her leg. She looked, and Starlight was there, trying to appear noncommittal and doing a very poor job of it. Laughing slightly, she lifted the limb and tucked Starlight against her chest. "I take it that's a yes, then?"

"Okay," Starlight mumbled, sitting under Willow with her back to the mare.

"Well, then," Willow sighed as thunder rumbled in the distance. It would probably begin raining soon; she fluffed her fur in defense. "It all began on that day, ten years ago..."

Story

"When we were younger, we were inseparable. Of course, age makes a bigger difference then, so we were hardly equals... I was the leader of our little group. The one the others looked up to. I had recently finished my growth spurt, while Amber was still a filly and Maple was somewhere in between."

Willow's eyes drifted as she began to recount the story, hovering aimlessly from house to house. "We were ambitious, though. Adventurous. Did anypony tell you why there are so few stallions and unicorns in Riverfall, yet?"

Starlight nodded. "Mhm. But she said that had changed and didn't tell me why."

"Well, I'll get to that. But this simplifies things." Willow sighed, considering the best point to start, and continued. "Myself and the others didn't really think of ourselves as ponies to stay and live out our lives here, growing old and never setting hoof outside this village. For years, we would stay up at night, and I would tell them stories I'd heard listening to the Sosan sailors who guided ships along the river. We promised ourselves that someday, we'd go on an adventure ourselves, and see the world..."

She stopped and paused, taking a moment to let the memories refresh themselves in her mind. "It was Amber who wanted to go the most. She should have been born a pegasus, I'm sure. Imagine all the enthusiasm she has now, only focused. Funny, now, that she's the one with the least regrets..."

Starlight narrowed her eyes. "But you said you didn't have any regrets."

"That's not entirely true," Willow murmured, her chin on Starlight's head. "I merely choose not to dwell on them. But they are there. Anyway..." She cleared her throat, and shifted around the filly. "Maple, by contrast, simply adored me and wanted to do everything I would do. I'm sure that's not all there is to it, as she did become branded for our efforts... but it was a big part."

Willow sniffed, clearing her sinuses. "I, on the other hoof, was mostly interested in the foreign ponies. When everything is the same around you growing up, it only takes meeting one pony from far enough away to completely change your world..." She nudged Starlight's ears. "When I'm done, if you have any stories you'd like to tell me, I'd love to listen."

"But you haven't even gotten started yet," Starlight complained, tucked against her chest.

"Shhh. I'm getting there." Willow stared, then closed her eyes. "Our dream was to go to Ironridge; to see the city and make a living for ourselves. But we couldn't just leave whenever we wanted. On my own, I could have made it much earlier, but as the caretaker of a group? I needed to make sure I was old enough for the job. And we couldn't leave while Amber was too young, either. We also needed to get some money to live off of, and buy passage..."

Willow sighed heavily. "Eventually, Maple became... earned her... cutie mark?" At a nod from Starlight, she continued. "In packing things. She was arranging supplies in boxes to try to make them fit... and that was when I knew it was almost time. So I started spending more time at the docks, and I began looking for a boat that might take us." She hung her head. "I didn't find what I was looking for. Instead... I met Arambai."

Starlight tried to give her a questioning glance, but her horn only wound up grazing Willow's chin. The older mare needed no prompting, however. "I did. This was a year or so before he moved to Riverfall. Town legend says he appeared out of nowhere one day and set up and stayed, and he did never tell me his name, then... but I'm sure it was him. He was the captain of a westbound ship. I asked passage for me and two others."

"And what did he say?" Starlight flicked her ears.

"Something I hadn't expected," Willow answered. "He didn't truly refuse me. He just warned me that something bad was going to happen soon, in Ironridge. He told me to be wary... that we should stay here, because this wasn't a good time to be optimistic and ambitious. But he assured me that nothing bad would befall this town."

"So you stayed here," Starlight muttered. "And trusted him."

"I decided to be cautious," Willow corrected. "I didn't tell anypony what he had said. I told Maple and Amber that I was still looking for a boat... which I was. Only, instead of asking for a ride, I just tried to gossip with the sailors. I listened to them, asked them to talk... and do you know what I found?"

She shook her head. "At first, nothing. But as I got more and more familiar with them, I began to notice a change. They talked less, and the words they did say had less meaning. They were nervous. I didn't know what to tell Amber and Maple..." Willow gulped. "But soon, I didn't have to."

Starlight's ears folded. "What happened?"

"Alder happened," Willow said dryly. "My son, whom you just finished scaring witless."

The silence that ensued was broken by several heavy drops, the rain choosing that moment to resume. Willow and Starlight sat in the open, but didn't budge, Starlight protected by the bigger mare's posture and thick coat. Pellets of water bounced off of Willow's head and back, trickling along the ground beside them. From the safety of Willow's shadow, Starlight eventually asked, "How?"

"How?" Willow smirked. "I think you're a little too young to know the exact details of that. The important part is that I was constantly associating with mysterious, interesting stallions who had things to say that I wanted to listen to... and occasionally, I let myself enjoy it a little more than I should have." She sighed loudly as the rain began to turn to mist. "And then I paid the price. I put off telling Maple and Amber as long as I could. There was no way I could care for a foal and those two while navigating a foreign city filled with mysterious danger."

Stiffening her back against the rain, she continued in the same calm voice she had maintained for the entire tale. "They learned eventually, of course, but that's a story for another time. Our dreams were dead. When Alder was born, I didn't know what to do with myself. I devoted myself to being the best mother I could be... I decided I never wanted my son to be able to see me look at him and think that, given a choice, I would take a life of adventure over him. And that was the end of that."

A prolonged silence stretched between the two, broken only by the static of rain all around them. Eventually, Starlight mumbled, "Huh."

"The important part," Willow said, breaking her stoic narration and resuming a warmer tone, "is that things happen. Who you think you are and what you're meant to do can change extremely fast. And as much as it can hurt... a strong filly like you can learn to love what you still have, and what you've gained." She turned to look at Starlight, opening the way for a few errant drops to land on the filly's head. "Can you do that for me?"

Starlight nodded mutely.

"Good," Willow sighed. "As shaken as I was back then... Maple and Amber forgave me. Alder is happy, and has two more siblings. I have a husband. My life isn't what I dreamed it would be, once... but it's a lot better than many ponies can ask for, even in as peaceful a town as Riverfall."

"So..." Starlight mumbled towards the ground. "Sycamore said something happened here a while ago, and wouldn't tell me what it was. Was that what he was talking about?"

Willow exhaled slowly. "It was, yes. Shortly before Alder was born, Arambai returned to Riverfall and began his life here. And after that? The boats stopped coming. It didn't happen instantly, but for the last seven years, we haven't seen a single boat go by."

Starlight's eyes widened. "They stopped?"

"More or less," Willow whispered, voice muted by the hiss of rain landing on and around them. "To some ponies, that's a good thing. Riverfall is now so isolated, nothing will ever happen to change our town for good or for worse... and it's a good town. There's a lot to be happy for, here. To some ponies, this will be a paradise forever."

"You don't believe them, do you?"

Willow chuckled. "Being too sure of your own future is never a smart thing to do. Something will happen to change this town, someday. Who knows? Maybe it will even be you."

Starlight shuddered uncomfortably at that, prompting Willow to lift a hoof and hold her closer. "For other ponies, though, it's a cage with no escape. We don't have the knowledge or the resources to make a boat that could survive both the trip east and the open sea, and we wouldn't go to Ironridge. Arambai discourages everyone who tries. Eventually, ponies just stopped trying."

"So if they aren't leaving anymore, where are all the unicorns and stallions?" Starlight asked. "Or pegasi?"

"If there were ever any pegasi here, they would have flown away," Willow said wistfully, her damp forelock plastered to her head and no longer able to shield her eyes from the rain. "As for the others, it just takes time for a culture that's been around as long as ours to change. Riverfall has always been a town where stallions are rare and mares are everywhere. Some just enjoy staying inside and letting us do all the work. Others don't like the attention that comes with being a rarity. In fact, that could be said of almost all the Sosans in town. They're very quiet ponies..."

There was a long silence. Eventually, in a voice so low Willow had to lean in to hear it, Starlight asked, "So what happened to Ironridge?"

Willow opened her mouth to answer, but was interrupted by the approaching sound of hooves splashing across wet glass. "Hey!" a voice shouted from behind them, distinctly recognizable as Amber's. "Willow? Starliiight? You gals out here, or what?"

The yellow mare charged around a corner, decked out in a slick poncho likely liberated from Sycamore. Her face flew into a smirk when she saw the duo hunched over in the rain. "Well, well, well! If it isn't the mare who told me to go get dried off before scooting inside her pretty home! Ha ha ha! Who's laughing now, grandma?"

Willow fixed her with a calm, unbreakable stare. "Starlight and I were having an important talk. The rain could have waited, but I wasn't about to go out of my way to deal with it."

"Oh. Heh." Amber shrugged sheepishly. "Well, Maple asked me to come hunt you down and let you know lunch is ready. She made fruit salad. Nothing special. See you back at the house!"

She disappeared as quickly as she had arrived, leaving Starlight and Willow sitting alone once more. "Ready to go back?"

"Yeah," Starlight muttered. "I'm cold." She hesitated. "But... can I keep talking to you later?"

"Of course you can." Simultaneously getting up and leaning down to give Starlight a hug, Willow broke into a slow trot, memory and instincts guiding her effortlessly back toward her house.

Foals

"How'd it go?" Maple asked without turning around as the door swung open behind her. Willow and Starlight stepped through, the former streaming water, the latter manageably dry.

"I'm okay," Starlight instantly said. She wasn't the best at sounding reassuring, but it seemed to pacify the mare.

"That's good. I-" Maple interrupted herself mid-turn with a gasp of surprise. "Willow! You look like you just got caught in a thunderstorm without a raincoat!"

"Or went swimming," Amber added, mumbling around a piece of fruit in her mouth as she strolled over from a different part of the room.

Willow smirked slightly. "I was having a talk with Starlight when the rain came up, and I decided I'd rather keep talking than stay dry."

"Oh?" Maple took a step closer, smiling down at Starlight. "What did you end up talking about?"

"Our trip to Ironridge." Willow suddenly fought back a shudder. "Now, if you'll excuse me, it's best I don't stay this wet for any longer than I need to..." She ducked back out the door, where the sound of furious shaking could be heard, followed by a ginger rush to the staircase to the upper floors.

Amber rolled her eyes, surveying the trail of water her friend had left despite her precautions. "I'll clean that up. Maple, you got something to do with yourself?"

"I'll manage," Maple replied, sounding as if it was the hardest thing in the world. Then, as Amber darted up the stairs as well in search of a towel, she turned to Starlight. "Feeling better now?"

"I was just surprised," Starlight mumbled, her head looking as if it was shrinking into her neck. "He reminded me of someone I hadn't seen in a while. That's all."

"Does this mean you want to be my friend after all?" a voice asked from above. Starlight looked, and Alder's head was poking down the stairwell, blinking hopefully at her. She sighed.

"Yeah... okay."

"All right!" Alder pumped a hoof. "We're hanging out back on the third floor until lunch is ready, if you want to come and join us?"

Starlight shivered slightly. Alder really was a spitting image of Sunburst, right down to the facial and hoof markings that had made her old friend stand out so much. It still produced a powerful reaction to do something, somehow... to warn him and prevent him from getting his cutie mark, or else to flee, to be as far away as possible when the moment arrived so she wouldn't again be hurt. She only managed to stand her ground and keep her composure because she was expecting it, but it was still undeniably unsettling. So, after a slight pause... she accepted Alder's invitation.

Amber cleared her throat, prancing down the stairs around the colt with a bundle of towels slung over her back. "You kids know lunch is ready now, right?"

"It'll keep," Maple said, waving Starlight onwards. "Besides, we've got some drying to do. Here, let me help." At her insistence, Amber passed her a towel and they set to work, clearing the way for Starlight to head upstairs with her new friend.

"So where are you from?" Alder rambled as he led the way, Starlight close behind. "What I heard was that you mysteriously floated down in a box from the southern mountains! Are you a pirate?"

Starlight's eyes whirled. How did he make that leap of logic? "Buh?"

Alder shrugged. "Well, mum said that the day before, another box showed up, and it was full of alcohol. Pirates love alcohol, right?" He turned up the next staircase. "Besides, they're totally mysterious and can do just about anything!" He rubbed the back of his neck. "At least, they can in mum's stories..."

At Starlight's silence, he continued, speculation growing wilder and wilder. "Or maybe, you were teleported there in a giant laser beam! Wouldn't that be cool? Oh, or you might have found a secret passage up from the underworld! Or what if... what if you actually fell down from the mountains!?"

"Yep. That's what I did," Starlight said smugly, waiting to see the shock plastered on his face.

She was handsomely rewarded. "No way..." he gaped, turning around and nearly tripping on the stairs. "That's amazing! Or..." His face scrunched. "Are you pulling my tail, river filly?"

Instantly, Starlight remembered why she wasn't telling anyone where she was from, and nearly broke out in a cold sweat. Fortunately, he had given her an easy out, and ever since Sunburst had left, she'd had a lot of practice becoming a good actor. "Heehee," she giggled, putting on her camera smile. "Yep. Keep guessing, pirate colt!"

"Pirate... colt...?" he muttered confusedly, clearly distracted. Perfect. "Oh, I see! Because I called you river filly! Well, I wouldn't have to if you would tell me your-" He cut himself off, eyes widening with a new idea. "Wait a moment! Are you a princess...?"

As Sunburst... no, Alder pushed open the door to what was presumably his room, Starlight carefully plotted her alibi in the event she did have to tell them where she was from. Maple and Willow had assumed she was from Sosa, so that seemed like a reasonable excuse. Willow had implied earlier that Sosans were quiet and didn't talk much about where they were from or what things were like there, which suited her just fine since she knew nothing about the place. It was too bad Willow hadn't told her more before they were interrupted. Hopefully there wasn't some secret everyone knew that was too obvious to be worth telling... Also, Willow's husband was a Sosan, apparently. He might be able to call her out on anything. Best to say nothing for as long as possible, then.

"Psssst!" A loud whisper interrupted her train of thought. She looked to see Alder beckoning from a pitch-dark room, the door of which was cracked just enough for her to wiggle through. "Come on!" he beckoned again, looking hopefully out at her. "This is our secret meeting place!"

Shrugging, she slipped in, brushing against the doorframe. Alder closed it as soon as her tail was clear, tapping her with a hoof to get her attention. "Follow me!" he breathed, prowling ahead in the blackness.

Something that felt like a lightweight curtain swished about her head as she moved. The air grew warmer and staler, and Starlight detected the presence of a third body. She kept silent.

Suddenly, there was a light flash and the hiss of magic... and two horns lit in the darkness. Alder's yellow aura - of course it was yellow - mixed with a rich sapphire blue from a filly who sat next to him, creating a small point of white light that descended and hovered just off the floor, staying on even as their horns went dark.

Starlight blinked at her surroundings. She appeared to be in some type of tent or blanket fort constructed from objects normally found in a foal's bedroom. Alder and the filly, whom she presumed to be his sister, sat with their backs to the backside of some kind of cabinet, watching her eagerly.

"Welcome to our lair," Alder rumbled imposingly when she didn't say anything. "Do you like it?"

"Yeah, it's nice." Starlight nodded. "And I'm Starlight." Tactfully, she omitted Glimmer, as that had seemed to somehow tip off the older mares last time that she wasn't from Sosa.

"Yes!" The other two hoofbumped, raising their voices above a whisper. The filly turned to Starlight and grinned. "Hiya! I'm Fir. Nice to meet you. This is my brother, Alder, and he's a doofus."

"Am not..." Alder scratched his head. "Besides, me and her have already been introduced!"

Starlight was taking in Fir's appearance. Her coat was a pleasing spring green of a much richer hue than she had ever seen in Equestria, and her striped, two-tone mane thankfully didn't trigger any more flashbacks or panic attacks. She also seemed to hold the kindred opinion that Alder was ever so slightly out there. A good first impression, all told. Maybe she would be nice to be around.

"So this place," Fir began, seeing that Starlight didn't appear to be starting any conversations on her own, "is pretty much our clubhouse. And it's just the two of us just about all the time, because Yew isn't old enough yet, Frond is too old and Maple and Amber don't wanna have kids for some reason."

Alder nodded sheepishly. "Well, that's because mum said Amber only likes other mares..."

"Eh. Whatever." Fir shrugged, and leaned toward Starlight. "So you're being adopted by Maple, right?" When Starlight hesitantly nodded, she added, "That's cool. I've always thought it must be super lonely living by yourself like that. Brrbrrbrr..." She hugged herself, shivering for emphasis.

"...She's nice," Starlight offered, unsure of what else to say. "And she is pretty lonely."

"Well, good thing she's got you, then, huh?" Fir scooted over and nudged her, grinning conspiratorially. "You know, if you make good enough friends with her, you could try to hook her up with somepony. I bet it would make her really happy. We'd totally help, too..."

"Fir..." Alder droned uneasily. "Remember how mad mum got last time you tried to do that?"

"Huh?" Starlight's ears perked. "She didn't want you trying to find her a special somepony?"

"She blew her stack," Alder muttered tragically. "Gave Fir a big long talk that she probably doesn't remember any of."

He shoved Fir, and she blew a raspberry in response. "I remember it just fine! 'Something something, blah blah blah...' You know!"

As the siblings bickered and teased each other, Starlight's head was spinning. This was something she'd have to remember to ask Willow about... assuming the older mare would tell her.

"Enough about that for now, though!" Alder interrupted. "River filly, we wanna hear some cool stories about wherever you're from! Won't you tell us?" He leaned closer, face hopeful.

Fir bonked him. "Doofus. She said her name was Starlight!"

Alder rubbed his head. "Ow, what was that for...?"

Starlight cleared her throat before they could start again. "Where I'm from," she began imperiously, "there are cities that grow on clouds, caves filled with monsters, and, uhh..." She wracked her brain for something obviously untrue. "There's also a castle made of cheese."

"...Are you pulling my tail again, river filly?" Alder narrowed his eyes.

"Doesn't matter if a story's true or false as long as it's epic. Doofus." Fir stuck her tongue out and folded her forelegs, laying down towards Starlight. "Don't stop there, Starlight! Tell us the best story we've ever heard!" Grinning sideways at Alder, she added, "Just make sure it's got lots of romance. You know, make it mushy. Heh heh heh..."

"Awww..." Alder protested, frowning at her. "Sis! C'mon..."

Lunch

A knock sounded at the door to the room Starlight, Fir and Alder were holed up in, and Willow's voice drifted in. "Kids? We're going to eat now!"

Fir and Alder groaned, but Starlight sighed with relief. She'd spent the last several minutes trying to appease their demand for stories, a difficult task to accomplish without reminding herself how much she used to like reading. There were only so many ways to make a tale sound convincing while also having a bad time telling it, but the last thing Starlight wanted was a cutie mark involving books.

The siblings released their light, relenting to their mother's call. Starlight left the blanket fort first, sliding through the door that Willow held open. "Did you have a good time?" the mare asked, her freshly-dried fur still spiky in places where it had clumped together.

"Mhm." Starlight nodded briefly, not waiting for the others on her way down.

It took a few minutes for her eyes to adjust to the bright, yellow-orange lighting of the ground floor, during which she blinked a lot and stood off to the side. Eventually, Amber noticed and sidled over to her, a bowl balanced on her back. "Hey there. Looking a little overwhelmed?"

"Yeah." Starlight nodded quietly.

"Well, hey. Those kids are a hooffull. Don't worry about it. Fruit?" Amber reached behind herself and held out a pre-peeled banana, waving it temptingly in front of Starlight's face.

"Thanks."

As Amber returned to the table where the others seemed to be gathered, Starlight munched and cleared her head, taking stock of the room. There were cupboards... counters... but no visible sign of a pantry. They were arranged in a mostly circular pattern along the walls of the house, maximizing storage area while minimizing dead wallspace and how much they got in the way. Starlight figured a household like Willow's probably had to keep a lot of spare food on hand.

The lights were inset into the wooden ceiling, and looked like some sort of enchanted crystals. Part of her wanted to ask about them, but the other half knew the answer was likely Arambai. She snorted at the thought. Everyone seemed to have such a high opinion of the stallion, and she hadn't even met him.

With a start, she noticed that there were only five bodies present at the table: the three who had found her, and Willow's kids. Was Faron still upstairs? Starlight frowned harder. It was as if all the stallions in Riverfall were actually determined to avoid her... Alder notwithstanding.

Apparently, Amber noticed her pout. "Starlight!" She waved. "We're saving you a seat!"

"Okay. I'm coming." Starlight did come, but she took her time, leisurely trundling across the wooden floor. Her spot was between Amber and Maple, and she took it without complaint.

"So," she mumbled around a pear, "What happened to Ironridge?"

"Hmm?" Maple turned to her, also munching.

"You know." Starlight swallowed. "The thing that stallion warned you of. That made all the boats disappear. You were going to tell me, but then you decided to come back here instead."

"Oh!" Willow folded her ears. "Right. I was going to do that, wasn't I?"

Amber rolled her eyes and popped a pear into her mouth. "It's not that hard to guess. Sailors get worried, then stop coming? Obviously, somepony found a better way to get to Ironridge and put all the Sosans out of work. Give 'em a year to hear about it, then another to get worried and one more for the producers to all switch over. Boom, fits what happened perfectly."

Politely, Alder raised a hoof. "Personally, I like the theory that a plague of zombies came down from the mountains and ate them all up."

Fir scoffed. "Zombies? More like they got taken over by Yakyakistan and now have to pay all their food in taxes, so they can't send it through us! We've just got to wait until another hero shows up and kicks their rears, and everything'll go right back to normal!"

"Another?" Starlight's ears flapped. "What happened?"

The siblings looked at her like she had just committed heresy. Alder pointed a hoof. "You mean to say you don't know the story of Yakyakistan and Blazing Rain?"

Starlight looked cluelessly at Maple, then Willow. The silver mare smiled at her, and responded, "A bedtime story I used to tell these two about a pegasus who once stopped a civil war in Yakyakistan."

"A magical pegasus," Fir forcefully corrected. "Who could fire laser beams and make explosions and beat a hundred yaks with one wing tied behind her back!"

Willow smiled forlornly. "It's based on a bit of gossip I heard during my dock days. Between my own memory, a little embellishment and the fact that the original narrator was completely drunk and trying to impress me, I wouldn't trust it too much."

"Hey," Amber belched. "I've heard of that too, and not from you. Blazing Rain, that is. Dunno about lasers, though. In the one I heard, she could freeze stuff solid."

Alder pointed accusingly at her. "You mean you knew another of her secret powers and never told us?" He glared at her for a second, before being distracted when Amber tossed him a mango.

Starlight zoned out again as an argument started over whether or not Blazing Rain was real, and if so what powers she possessed. Ancient legends were all well and good, but who cared what ponies had done thousands of years ago? Not her. Well, not since Sunburst had left.

If she was honest with herself, she used to love old legends. Ones surrounding the Mare in the Moon had been her favorite, but she'd liked them all. They were just another thing that had been taken from her when her friend had gained his cutie mark.

Taken from her... Once again, when being honest, she had taken them from herself. At first, it had been because she used to love sharing them with Sunburst, studying and reading ancient history and the folklore that surrounded it. She had tried looking at them again, in the days that followed, only to find the memories still too raw to touch. Later, during the start of her personal crusade against getting a cutie mark, she had prevented herself from doing anything enjoyable, for fear that it might earn her her mark, too.

Now, she might have been past that. There was a mirror image of Sunburst sitting across from her, and she was functioning normally. She'd slipped up and enjoyed something enough times by now to realize it wasn't quite the instant trap she had imagined, though she still treated joy with caution. But more than anything... now she was scared to discover that she could enjoy them again, and all that shunning of the other things she loved would turn out to have been for nothing.

Maple poked her, snapping her back into reality. "Starlight?" She briefly nuzzled her ear. "Getting full?"

"Huh? No." Starlight looked down; the pile of fruit on the table was rapidly diminishing. "I'm still hungry." To prove her point, she leaned in as far as she could, taking a mango in her teeth.

"Hey, river filly..." Alder looked curiously at her, wincing as Fir kicked him. "How come you don't use magic to grab your food? It's much easier than reaching..."

Starlight swallowed her bite, and mumbled, "I hurt my horn making it here."

Maple's eyes widened, and she gasped. "You should've told me! There might be something we could do, or..." She blinked several times, thinking, and eventually scooted the basket of fruit closer to Starlight. "At least you shouldn't have to reach across the table!"

"It's nothing," Starlight grumbled. "I just overtaxed it. It'll be alright in a few days."

"A few days?" Amber raised an eyebrow. "It's, uh, afternoon now... and you were sleeping all of yesterday, and we found you the evening of the day before, and you didn't look like you'd been able to do that much that day either. Just how many days does it take to recharge a horn?"

Willow frowned worriedly. "The worst Alder and Fir have ever had it, it took them all night to recover. Having your horn broken for several days can't be normal..."

Starlight shrank, suddenly apprehensive. Getting special treatment she didn't deserve was one thing, but the last thing she wanted was ponies thinking there was something wrong with her. "Hey!" she protested, coat fluffing in defense. "I almost died a bunch of times out there. It was use it too much when it was tired, or don't make it at all. And I'm here now, aren't I?"

"You are," Maple said, hugging her with one hoof, "and I'm proud of you for making it."

They went back to eating, though Willow occasionally stole glances at her, clearly concerned. Some time passed, during which there wasn't much conversation. Starlight almost wished there was, now. She could use something to distract herself from the possibility that her horn was defective.

Amber granted her wish with a tremendous belch, earning herself a scowl from Willow. "Welp!" she announced, thumping her petite chest, "Think that's it for me. Thanks for lunch, grandma!"

As she got up to leave, Starlight looked curiously at Willow. "Why does she call you that?"

Willow sighed and rolled her eyes. "It's a looong story..."

"One I don't even remember," Maple added. "Any chance you want to retell it... grandma?"

"Not you too," Willow snorted. "Come on, kids. Help me get lunch put away." She turned back to Maple and Starlight apologetically. "You two are done, right?"

"I am," Maple nodded. Starlight added her own nod in confirmation.

"I'll see you tonight, then." With that, Willow turned away, leaving Starlight and Maple to march for the door. Maple grabbed the poncho from Sycamore on the way out, though it didn't appear to presently be raining.

"Tonight?" Starlight asked, easily matching Maple's leisurely pace. "What are we doing then?"

"She said something about you wanting to talk more with her," Maple answered casually, strolling between two houses and into a wider section of road. "So I invited her over. Really, though, the three of us are welcome to come and go at each other's houses whenever we please."

"Huh." Starlight shrugged and fell into step, splashing her way through the still-draining rainwater as she followed Maple through the city.

Chance

Starlight could tell there were still clouds overhead, as evidenced by the gray coloration to the light filtering down from above. The distant, deciduous canopy was too thick for her to make out the sky itself, but she knew. She wondered if any pony's mood had ever been improved by not having a dismal, gray backdrop provided by the weather. Hers might have been... or perhaps it hadn't.

Truth be told, Starlight wasn't exactly sure what she was feeling. It felt like loneliness, but that didn't seem right: she had just met a bunch of ponies. Perhaps she was still feeling some repressed shock from her run-in with Alder before lunch. Whatever the case, thinking about it was drawing her into her own head and shutting out the world around... which probably wasn't the best idea. She should be taking in and enjoying Riverfall, even if for no other reason than to make Maple happy.

Unfortunately, there just wasn't much to take in at the time. Tall, round houses and buildings? Check, she had seen those before. Glass streets with magical stones swimming below? Once the initial wonder wore off, they were just there. Rain-soaked everything? Always present. The town really did fall into a consistent pattern, once she stopped being boggled by the circular, alien architecture and differences from Equestria. But at least it wasn't raining then. She might have been bored, but she was also dry.

"Starlight?" Maple huffed over her shoulder, attention grabbed by the filly's silence. "How are you holding up? We can stop for a break, if you need to..."

"I'm fine," Starlight mumbled. If the distance to Maple's house was anything like she remembered it being, she wouldn't be fine later, but Maple didn't need to know that. Yet.

Her hooves splashed along, and she began to make a game of seeing how small of ripples she could make. She had just managed to take several steps walking with her legs angled so she made less contact with the ground when Maple's voice again jolted her back into the world. "Well, hello!"

"Buh?" She dropped back to standing normally, then scurried to catch up.

In the clearing ahead, the glass surface morphed back to sand, before trailing into mud and dirt in the distance. At the dividing line stood Maple, and beside her was a large yellow stallion who appeared to have just stopped working. "Starlight!" She waved, smiling cheerily. "You wanted to meet Arambai, didn't you?"

Starlight did a double-take, eyeing the stallion more closely. "You're him?"

"I am," he answered in a voice that wouldn't have been out of place on a lumberjack with a sore throat. "Working on the roads, right now. It's easier when the sand is wet, because it stays in place for melting."

With that, he turned and pointed his horn at a flat, compacted stretch of sand bordering the forged roadway. A purple aura so dark it was nearly black enveloped the area, almost causing the sand to appear as if it was bubbling... and then a bright white jet of light flew from a point at the tip of his horn, and like water spreading across a floor, the sand melted into an expanding pool of white, before it was flash-frozen into road, the traction-giving gemstones already underneath.

"So you're the filly that washed in from the south," he said, standing upright and stepping toward her, careful to avoid the steaming patch of glass behind him. With a nod, he extended a hoof. "I'd wager you know who I am already."

Starlight shuffled uneasily, staring back at him without answering. In addition to his powerful, oversized frame, he sported a horn nearly twice the length of a normal pony's. His shaggy black mane, long for a stallion and short for a mare, bore a look of wild, ungroomed would-be-handsomeness that could only actually be achieved through careful cultivation... or incredibly lucky genes. He had a neatly trimmed beard to match, and not a scrap of muscle that was only there for show.

"Uhhh..." Starlight mumbled, taking a step back. Eventually, she steeled herself and said, "Every pony here thinks you're pretty great."

Arambai looked down at her with a hint of a smile. "There are a lot of ponies who think a lot of things about me. I don't tell them how to go about that. Some day, my actions can speak for me instead."

"Uh huh." Starlight nodded dully. "This place pretty much worships you already."

Maple smiled awkwardly from the side, half apologetic and half in agreement. "No offense, but they really do..."

He shook his massive head. "None taken..." Then, turning to Starlight, he asked, "So, I hope you're enjoying your new home?"

"It's much better than what I left behind," Starlight said with a shrug.

"Well... I hope it stays that way." Arambai looked off to the side, past the patch of cooling glass from which wisps of steam were still rising. "This town is in the middle of nowhere, making it difficult to get to... and even more difficult to leave. In Sosa, ponies sometimes refer to it as Last Chance. It's as close to a paradise as exists in the world, where you can bring your secrets and failures and die with them, all while living out a happy life. And no one will think any less of you for it."

Starlight watched him apprehensively, feeling as it a but was coming. It came.

"Of course... as good of a chance as it might be, it's still the last one around for hundreds of miles, not counting Ironridge." Arambai sighed into the cool air, and continued. "So take my advice and don't do anything you'll regret here. Unlike wherever you came from, you can't fix a problem in Riverfall by running away."

Starlight bit her lip. "Okay."

"Good," he finished, straightening up. "I've dedicated a lot of time to making this place as good as it can be, precisely because there's nothing better. That's always a talk I like to have with every new arrival. Glad to see you and I are on the same page."

He stepped back, giving Starlight more space. Maple moved closer in turn. "Well? Now that you've met him, what do you think?"

Starlight fidgeted. Somehow, she got the uncomfortable impression that Arambai knew everything about her, including where she was from... but didn't want to say it when he was standing right there. "He's nice," she managed instead.

"Really?" the stallion cut in from where he was standing, the corners of his mouth twitching upwards. If he detected the lie, he didn't show it. "Interesting. Most ponies either find me intimidating, or far too attractive for their own good."

"I knew you did that on purpose," Maple quipped, grinning triumphantly.

Starlight frowned. "Did what?"

"Nahhh..." Arambai waved a hoof. "Everyone knows I've got more to hide than the rest of this town put together. It isn't my fault they choose to enjoy it. Besides, I'm too old for that stuff. Although..." He raised a thick black eyebrow at Starlight. "I am the best secret-keeper in town. If you've ever got anything you need to get off your chest that wouldn't do getting out, miss Maple here can show you where to find me."

"There are lots of cool things in his house," Maple hummed aside at Starlight. "You might want to take him up on that."

"Well..." Arambai sniffed upwards. "You kids better get on home. Smells like it's going to rain again soon..."

"I think we should," Maple nodded, already trotting through the sand. "Thank you! It was nice talking to you, Arambai!"

"Aaaah, don't sweat it," the stallion grumbled, turning back to his work. "Until later, ponies."

"It's good advice, you know," Maple whispered once they were out of earshot. "Aside from Ironridge, Riverfall is the only civilization within hundreds of miles. You're very lucky to have made it here, and won't just be able to run away again if anything bad happens."

"What do you want me to do?" Starlight asked as her hooves padded through the wet sand, a flash of magic illuminating behind her. "I'm already following you around all day! I went swimming, and I had lunch and talked with Willow's kids!"

"Nothing," Maple murmured, slowing down and nuzzling her as she caught up. "I think you're doing a fine job, especially for your first day. Still, if he thinks it's something you might need to be careful with... I don't think it would hurt to keep that in mind."

"Yeah, but he said he says that to everyone," Starlight grumbled. Then, changing the subject, she added, "So what does he do on purpose?"

"Ohh..." Maple sighed heavily. "He doesn't usually act the way you saw today. Most of the time, he's darker and more depressing, like he wants you to ask about his past. Lots of moping and brooding."

"Why?" Starlight asked, looking up from her hooves, careful not to slip on the still-muddy ground.

Maple winked slyly. "One of the things that lots of mares find attractive in stallions is the implication that they could cheer them up. He gives so many something to pine for, it's practically an act of public service."

"Oh." Starlight blinked. "So why was he different today?"

"Because I let him know long ago that I wasn't in the market," Maple stated plainly. "I imagine this was what he looks like when he's not putting on airs."

Starlight was about to ask why again... when she remembered what Alder and Fir had said earlier about trying to find Maple a special somepony. If these were about the same thing, it was probably better that she didn't ask. Regardless, the hairs on her back were rising, and something in her nose told her more rain was imminent... a sense she wasn't inclined to mistrust.

Apparently, Maple felt it too, because she motioned Starlight closer. "We should get going," she observed, staring upwards and checking to make sure she had her poncho.

"Yeah." Starlight nodded. "We should." Together, they kicked into a canter, speeding across already-waterlogged dirt roads in an effort to return home before the rains arrived.

Work

Starlight stepped inside Maple's house just after it began to rain, long enough for her coat to become wet but not completely soaked. She fluffed it in defense; so long as the water didn't touch the skin beneath, she'd stay plenty warm.

"Starlight?" Maple called from ahead of her, where she was rummaging in the storage room. "Here, I found you a towel!"

"Thanks." Starlight took it without ceremony and, having no magic to hold it in, threw it on the ground and began rubbing her head on it. Around her, the ground floor of Maple's house was slowly becoming lit as the earth pony bustled around, tending to the lights, her own coat either not important or already taken care of. It felt like it was evening, due to the drop in temperature and all the things they'd done earlier, and Starlight had to remind herself that this was still afternoon and Maple had a shop to run.

As she watched, Maple got a rack full of pastries set up, humming to herself as she went up and down the stairs to the kitchen with a stamina that made Starlight jealous. Smells of assorted berry sauces and glazes filled her nose, until she regretted having eaten her fill already at Willow's. Maple even offered her a cookie, and she unhappily had to decline.

Eventually, Maple moved to turn around the sign on the door, letting ponies know she was open. As she passed Starlight, she asked, "Do you have anything you want to do while I work? I'll probably be doing this for several hours..."

Starlight shrugged. "I'll just watch you."

Maple smiled at that, and stepped aside to allow Starlight to pass. The filly took her towel and walked behind the counter, where she jumped and curled up on top of a box next to the storeroom, in full view of anything that might happen below.

Several minutes passed, during which Maple fussed with various small things that probably didn't need attention. Just when Starlight was about to question her decision to stay and take a nap, however, a bell jingled and a stallion in a heavy raincoat walked in.

Starlight watched as Maple's ears perked in interest. "Oh, hello!" she greeted in a tone that suggested she wasn't familiar with this customer but was intent on remaining polite nevertheless. "Forgive me if I don't remember your name... Can I help you?"

The stallion nodded hesitantly, and spoke in a slightly subdued voice. "Sorry. I don't usually come here. I'm with Birch, but she was feeling under the weather and asked me to-"

Maple cut him off, nodding briskly. "Then I'll have to get her something extra special. I assume she told you that I'd know what she would like?"

"Yeah!" The stallion blinked thankfully, accepting a basket full of goods in his aura a moment later. Maple waved him off, bidding him deliver her best wishes to Birch, who was apparently a friend of hers. The door jingled again on his way out, and then the shop was still.

Starlight sat on her high perch, musing. Eventually, the door rang again, and a dark green filly marched inside. Water poured from her bare coat and mane, but her head was held high, and the spark in her eyes dared any pony who saw her to suggest she didn't enjoy it. "Hey, Maple!" She loudly announced her presence.

"Pine," Maple began with a note of exasperation, already moving to fetch towels for the floor, "do you really have to drag so much water in here?" Her ears rose, and she added, "Cookies, scones, or pie? I've got a turnover in the oven, if you want to wait."

"Wait?" Pine stuck her tongue out. "Lady, I waited for the rain to start. Six cookies, please?"

"Seven, you rude thing." Maple packed a bag, rolled up the top, and handed it to the filly. "And they'll taste better if you don't let them get wet on your way back."

The door jingled shut yet again as Pine left. Starlight looked down at a tray of cookies arranged on the counter, eying a hole where Maple had taken several to give to the filly. She sniffed; they were still warm. Maybe she could manage some desert after all...

Before she could get down, the door banged open again, and a red-coated mare with massive bags under her eyes and an umbrella saddle strolled in, sighing massively. Maple greeted her with a wave and presumably a smile.

"Acacia!" she chirped from behind the counter. "You're looking better than I expected. How's life with the foal?"

"One week, Maple," Acacia grumbled with a slight smile on her face. "It's been a whole week, and I've had like an hour of sleep at a time. I don't know if I'm cut out for this..."

"You poor thing..." Maple trotted out to give her a hug. "Let's see what I can get you..."

Starlight stuck her tongue out, having little interest in the conversation. Eventually, Acacia left with a pie, and Starlight half-registered it through the haze that comes when trying to take a nap after already having had too much sleep.

The door didn't ring again for several more minutes, during which Maple restocked her display, ate a cookie, and eventually sat down, doing nothing just like Starlight. After even more silence, Starlight observed, "You're giving all your food away for free."

Maple looked up with a twinkle in her eye. "Money has more value where you're from, does it?"

"Uhhh..." Starlight's face scrunched. "Doesn't it everywhere?"

"Here," Maple said, pulling open a drawer and taking something out, hoofing it up to Starlight. "Take a look at this. Pretty, huh?"

It was a small crystal, six-sided and colored cloudy purple. At about half the length of her hoof and much longer than it was wide, it was small enough that she nearly had to squint to look at it. To the best of her limited knowledge, there was nothing special about it: it wasn't a true gemstone, just a common mineral that formed underground and in caves. She had seen plenty like this, on occasion, while walking through the caves in the mountain peaks from Equestria.

"Is this money?" she asked, eventually making the connection Maple wanted her to make.

"It is in Ironridge," Maple answered. "Color determines value, and four-sided ones are worth more than six-sided ones. Lots of them were left here when the boats stopped coming." She turned back to her drawer and sifted a hoof around inside, a rattling from within suggesting it was filled with the stones. "We still use them, sometimes. Every pony honors them. Some, especially the Sosans, just feel more comfortable with some kind of safety they can hold. But money never leaves or enters Riverfall, and there's plenty here for everyone already, so most of us just don't even bother."

"Huh." Starlight licked her lips, staring again at the crystal in front of her. Maybe she would keep it. Even if no one cared, it couldn't hurt to have, right? Of course, that was probably what the entire town thought. Idly, she tucked it away, yawned, and thumped off the boxes, pacing towards the stairs. "I'm gonna go upstairs for a bit..."

"Okay," Maple called after her. "Wait... Here." She caught up to the filly, offering a cookie.

"Thanks." Starlight took it, slowly munching. It was oatmeal and... coconut? Interesting. She found she liked it, and all too soon it was gone.

Starlight eventually found herself drawn to Maple's bedroom, where she set down her saddlebags and curled up on the bed, basking in the silence that allowed her to think. It was nice to slow down now, without having to ignore other ponies to do it. Maybe she really had gotten used to the solitude, up in the mountains with no ponies around for miles.

Slowly, her thoughts began processing the day. Maple, Willow, and Amber... had she only met them that morning, or had it been the evening before? Some part of her remembered soup. That was likely before, then. Now there were Sycamore, Alder, Fir and Arambai... and a few other, less important names. Sprig... or was it Frond? Yew, someone the siblings had said wasn't old enough to play with. The ponies who had just come to the shop. And another... Hemlock? Idly, she wondered how often Riverfall ran out of trees to name ponies after.

She had made a list of all the things she wanted to ask someone about... or, at least, subconsciously thought of them at the time. She tried to go about unraveling it, but the only thing she could remember at the moment was to ask someone about Maple's special somepony. Or maybe her lack of one. Or maybe it would be better not to ask about that at all. Willow was coming over that evening. Hadn't she wanted to ask something of her? She shook her head; she couldn't remember.

...Her horn. She needed to do something about that, though she wasn't sure what. Just as long as she could use it enough to convince other ponies it wasn't defective... Starlight squinted. Tensing her focus, she pulled her magic back up where she could feel it, registering only a dull pain in her horn. No pangs of dizziness. That was good.

Experimentally, she pushed magic into her horn, not letting it go anywhere or do anything; simply a small current to wake the appendage up. It sparked slightly, and eventually glowed to life. It didn't feel good, or even like nothing, but it was manageable. She could probably use it for more or less anything, if she needed to. Thus, she planned on not needing it for anything, provided she could help it.

Just to prove she could, Starlight extended a cyan wave of telekinesis, eye ticking slightly as she hoisted her saddlebags onto the bed next to her. Her horn went out as she examined the contents, prodding her way through her meager possessions. There wasn't much. Three water canteens, all of which were empty. Her blanket, which had been thoughtfully cleaned. And, still mercifully encased in their waterproof wrapping, her cosmetics box for her cutie mark and Sosa's journal.

She unwrapped the book, leafing through its pages. They were still as intact and boring as ever, but once again, she found it to be the closest thing she had to entertainment. As she pretended to read it, she pondered briefly if this was going to become a problem in the future. Back in Equestria, she had always had something to do... first, hanging out with Sunburst, and later avoiding doing anything. In the mountains, whenever she hadn't been sleeping, she'd been forcing herself onward, or else recuperating in the cave. Now, her options for what to do seemed limited to talking with Maple, walking somewhere... and that was it. The only other thing for her to do was sleep.

That evening, she resolved, she would find something better to do with her time. She'd add it to her list of things to ask Willow, maybe. There had to be something to do around here that was either productive or fun. Arambai was proof of the former. Idly, she found herself wondering if she should ask him what to do, next time she saw him... but until then, there was nothing for it but to try to fall asleep.

Bored

Starlight woke blearily, with a feeling that told her sleep wouldn't be the answer to having nothing to do forever. For once in her life, she was too hot, and every part of her felt stiff and restless. She wasn't full, but wasn't hungry either. Most of all, she desperately needed something to do.

"Hellooooo?" she mumbled loudly, seeing little point in getting up.

The door swung open more quickly than she was expecting, and Amber's head poked through. "You were asleep again? Spend any more of the day like that and you'll turn into a cat!"

"Mmrmph." Starlight rolled herself upright and onto the floor. "It's not my fault there's nothing better to do around here." Tail dragging, she made her way to the door where Amber waited.

"Nothing to do?" Amber's eyebrows rose. "Are you sure about that, kiddo?"

"Well, what do you do all day?" Starlight countered.

She hadn't expected a response, but Amber was all too willing to give one. "I make my rounds across the whole town and hang out with every pony I know," she smugly proclaimed. "Between that many, there's always someone who has something cool I can get in on. Wanna know what I did today?"

Starlight nodded, so Amber continued. "Went swimming, ate lunch with a friend..." She leaned in conspiratorially. "You were there. Then I went and saw another friend who makes paintings. She asked me to model for her. She usually does. After that, I tested a zipline another friend was building to make sure it was safe for her kids, and then I went to the library and got a book I'll read if I ever have time." She grinned as if spilling forbidden secrets. "You look like you'd be good with books. If you're ever bored, just go check that place out. Our literature's a little dated, but we do have an author or two in town."

"Huh." Starlight blinked. She wasn't reading books as a personal rule... but that didn't seem to have stopped her with Sosa's journal in the cave. Perhaps it would be worth breaking more often.

"Starlight!" Maple appeared around the corner, a tray balanced on her back. "Dinner's almost ready, and Willow just arrived. She said you wanted to speak with her?" She grinned slyly at Amber, before adding, "And it seems someone else has shown up to eat all my food again, as usual."

"Hey." Amber put a hoof across her chest in self-defense. "I worked to make it here, for your information. Besides, you give free food to everyone..."

Maple rolled her eyes. "Since when is memorizing directions and getting lost anyway work?"

"Oh, come on..." Amber rubbed at the back of her neck. "You haven't had this place that long. And everything looks the same in this section of town!"

Starlight's face scrunched in confusion. "Doesn't everything look the same in all of the town?"

"Amber..." Willow's voice chided from out of sight. "The one that was right next to mine wasn't set up for a business, remember? We've been over this many times."

Maple moved over and nuzzled the mare as she came into view. "Thanks, Willow. And who knows? Maybe I'll need a bigger place some day, now that Starlight's staying with me. If I do, we can try harder to find one that's not so far away."

Amber relented, so Maple sighed and turned to the bedroom. "Starlight? Want to come for dinner?"

Starlight paced out and seated herself at the table, where an unknown dish with sliced apples over a flan-like pastry awaited. She sniffed, and found it quite good.

As the others arrived and sat down, she swallowed her first bite and asked, "You moved? Why?"

Maple looked away, face falling, leaving Willow to speak up for her instead. "Remember what I told you about life having ways to change your plans without warning?" Starlight nodded, so she added, "Well, Maple moved a while back, and then something changed and she had to move again."

"And you should do what I don't do and not bug her about it," Amber chimed in, already serving herself seconds. "It was a little hard on all of us."

"Okay." Starlight leaned down for another bite. As curious as she was, she hardly wanted to make herself unwelcome by poking her nose where others had hinted it didn't belong. Especially not when she didn't want to tell most of the other ponies where she was from. Willow could know, she supposed. She trusted the silvery mare. Amber was nice too, she decided, but maybe not as trustworthy.

Briefly, she recalled her encounter with Arambai. The stallion had made no secret of showing that he had secrets, but had been perfectly respectful of her own. It was starting to feel more and more like that described every pony in the town... including herself.

"So you're bored, hmm?" Maple broke her train of thought, leaning towards her and smiling pleasantly.

"Yeah." Starlight nodded, pausing to lick her empty plate. She didn't think she wanted seconds.

"I told her about the library already," Amber helpfully volunteered. "She didn't seem that interested. Maybe you'd have to take her there to see?"

"They do have a very good stock of adventure books," Maple hummed thoughtfully. "Mostly because of ponies in Riverfall who dream of them but can never leave, of course. They probably would be boring when you've experienced the real thing..." She laughed slightly. "I don't imagine you had any run-ins with pirates, mysterious cults or ancient artifacts on your way here, did you?" Then she sighed. "Of course, when you can never actually go anywhere, it doesn't hurt to imagine..."

Starlight shook her head. "There was nothing but trees and cliffs and caves out there. It was dangerous, but not very exciting. I wouldn't do it for fun."

"That's the point of living vicariously, though," Amber chimed in. "If you get to watch somepony be put in danger without any danger to yourself, you get safe thrills, not unsafe boredom."

Maple snorted. "Maybe we should just have more real adventurers write books."

"A real adventurer..." Amber sighed wistfully. "How many of those do you think exist in the world anymore? Like... five?"

"More than that, I'm sure," Willow muttered, sipping tea from a mug. Starlight frowned; for some reason, she only had water.

"And there's one sitting right here," Maple added, pointing proudly at Starlight. "She's probably the only pony in all of history to have made it here without taking a boat from Ironridge, or the sea."

"Without wings, either." Amber nudged Starlight jovially. "If I had some of those, who knows where I'd go." She blinked, and added, "But I'd make sure to come back here and visit you two every now and then. Even when your home is on the road, you have to have a real home, too..."

"Would you really go, though, if you could?" Maple asked, setting down her own mug and counting up how much food was left in the pan. "I know we tried to do that once, but that was then..."

"You did?" Starlight blinked. "When?"

Willow smiled bemusedly. "Didn't I just tell you that story earlier?"

"Oh. Right." Starlight's ears sank, and she slumped slightly in her seat.

"Well, there is a little I didn't say," Willow continued, prompting her ears to perk back up. "After I found out we wouldn't be going to Ironridge, I didn't want to let these two down too hard, so we made a back-up. Instead of going west on a ship powered by mana or steam, we built our own, wooden boat, and rowed south down the river you floated in on. It took us nearly a month to build the boat and another to get there, but we made it all the way to the cliff base. I don't know if you ever saw the cliffs up close when you reached the river to come here..." She smiled softly. "But they made the whole thing worth it. We camped there until we ran out of supplies, just enjoying the wild... and then drifted back here, and haven't left the village since."

"If you didn't see them and ever want to," Amber added, "some day, I'll take you. I've still got the boat we used. Got myself branded making it. But let me tell you, they're a sight I'll never forget."

Starlight blinked. If she was ever to tell these two where she had really come from, this was the best chance she'd have have for a long while... so she threw caution to the wind and took it. "I sort of saw them." She shrugged, and added, "I was kind of dead, though. But they were pretty from the top."

"The... top?" Amber's face scrunched. "What?"

"Of the cliffs," Starlight stated matter-of-factly. Then, she sat back, waiting for the impact of her words to sink in.

Amber got it first. "You were up there," she said blankly.

Willow was similarly confused. "How did you get down?" she asked, head tilted.

"I fell by accident," Starlight said with a shrug.

"You fell?" Willow's jaw dropped.

"Forget that," Amber said, voice rising. "How did you get up there? Those things are so high even pegasi get tired and give up halfway to the top! For a unicorn, that would be impossible!"

Her adrenaline from the announcement wearing off quicker than she would have liked, Starlight suddenly felt cold. It hadn't even sounded nearly as epic as she had hoped. Suddenly fearful, she demanded, "I'll only tell you if you promise to never tell anypony else. Got it?" She leaned in fiercely towards each of them in turn. "I ran away because I was tired of being treated differently because I didn't want to be like others. I don't want to be special or famous!"

She sat back, slightly shocked at herself. First, she had spilled a secret she had been feeling proud of herself earlier for keeping... and now she had just yelled at Willow. What would she do next?

Fortunately, Willow seemed to be completely understanding. "I promise," she said softly. "But you shouldn't tell me anything if you don't want to."

Amber looked almost more surprised at being yelled at than from the announcement that Starlight had fallen off the cliff. "Wow," she finally said. "Yeah, don't worry. Your backstory is safe with me."

"Well... all right..." With none of her earlier confidence and no other options, Starlight heaved in a breath and began her narration, sparing none of the details she had given Maple earlier.

Guest

"...And he looked just like Alder, too," Starlight finished, having talked for the better part of an hour. "That's why I was surprised when I saw him."

The mares, to their credit, hadn't interrupted once during Starlight's speech. Finally, sensing she was done, the only thing Amber could manage was, "Wow. That's crazy."

Starlight's shoulders slumped. "So now I'm here. I don't want to have to run again. So please don't treat me like anything special?"

"I dunno..." Amber rubbed the back of her neck, staring at the window. "It sounds to me like you're more special than the hundreds of thousands of other ponies who never even dreamed of crossing something like that, let alone actually made it. Wouldn't it be... like... the whole 'not treating you like who you really are' thing to sell yourself short when you've actually done something big?"

Starlight almost considered thinking about it, then vehemently shook her head. "No."

"Suit yourself..." Amber muttered, still slightly confused.

"Do you still have that journal?" Willow asked softly, head tilted. "What you said makes sense with everything else we know about you, but it could be a good way to prove you're telling the truth..."

"No!" Starlight pouted, almost snarling. "I told you, I don't want other ponies to know about where I'm from!" Suddenly aghast at her behavior, she cowered, and added, "Sorry. But I do still have it..."

"I promise we won't tell anyone," Willow reassured. Then, looking concernedly at Starlight, she added, "Are you okay?"

"Yes," Starlight sniffed. "Can we talk about something else?"

Amber darted to her rescue. "Then that's my cue to change the subject! So, the other day I was down by Mulberry's place, and someone said they had caught a giant..."

Starlight instantly zoned out. Unfortunately, her head wasn't the most pleasant place to be at the time, being torn between second-guessing her decision to tell Amber and Willow where she was from, guilt for yelling at Willow, and the knowledge that she wasn't likely to have anything to take her mind off it any time soon. Her throat was getting sore from all the talking she had done, too, which was never pleasant and might have been making her irritable.

She had just begun to properly stew when Maple slunk up beside her, whispering so as not to interrupt Amber's story. "Are you really all right?" the dust-colored mare asked, mouth close to Starlight's ear.

"No," Starlight muttered dismally. "I'm bored."

"Hmmm..." Maple held a hoof to her chin. "What could we do about that...?"

Amber cut herself off, apparently listening in. "Oh, right, I was suggesting things to do! Say..." She looked out the window, musing. "There's probably still a few hours left before dark, and I don't mind being out past then. If there's anywhere you wanted to go, I could probably give you a ride."

"She's pretty fast," Willow added, raising an eyebrow. "It might be bumpy..."

Starlight stared back at them. It was like they knew she had been invited earlier by Arambai, and wanted her to take him up on it. As they all gazed innocently at her, she silently weighed the pros and cons in her mind.

She still wasn't sold on the praise for the stallion, of course, but he hadn't seemed particularly rude, manipulative or creepy when she had met him. The odds that he would do something to give her a reputation in town seemed slim, too. All things considered, the worst that would likely happen was that he wouldn't be interested and send her away. And just perhaps, it could be interesting. "Tonight?" she asked, seeking confirmation.

Amber shrugged. "I don't see why not. Have a place in mind?"

"I was thinking..." Starlight scuffed at the ground. "Arambai told me earlier, I could..."

Maple instantly beamed, with a faint hint of smugness. "You sure warmed to him quickly. I think visiting him is a fantastic idea."

Starlight fidgeted, prompting Willow to lean in and whisper, "The sooner you leave, the longer you can stay, or the faster you'll be back if you don't like it. Besides, I'd like to talk to Maple for a bit."

Starlight sighed, and said, "Okay. Now. Sure. How do youuuaaagh!"

Somehow, Amber had appeared underneath her, standing up and hoisting all four of Starlight's hooves off the floor. The filly flailed slightly, before realizing that she was actually quite well supported by Amber's strong back. Amber turned, winking at her with one eye. "You'll want to hold onto my neck for sure. Anything we're forgetting?"

"My saddlebags," Starlight mumbled, obediently wrapping her forelegs around Amber's neck. "They might be useful..."

"I doubt we'll need them," Amber said, sucking the inside of her mouth, "but sure. Are they in there?" She pointed toward the bedroom. At a nod from Starlight, she trotted in, and soon re-emerged, the filly on her back clad in saddlebags once again.

"Thanks," Starlight said as they walked to the stairs, voice muffled by Amber's fur.

"Save the thanks," Amber answered, grinning as she descended, "until we get there."

Willow hadn't been kidding about Amber being fast, Starlight reflected as her steed charged enthusiastically through the muddy roads of Riverfall. The yellow mare was nearly kicking up a spray as she cantered, causing Starlight to bump up and down on her back and fervently wish she had taken this ride before dinner. Still, she did an admirable job of holding on, and in mere minutes they reached the start of the glass that coated the roadways, making a pleasant break from the squishy, flying muck.

Amber shouted no less than three personalized greetings at ponies she passed and nearly rammed into a cart, at one point banking so hard that Starlight was knocked breathless by the force with which she was pressed into her back. Eventually, they drew to a stop outside a pair of towers joined with several bridges, the base formed into a single room like Sycamore's bathhouse from earlier.

"Hellooooooo?" Amber called at a volume that likely alerted every pony within a hundred meters to their presence. Starlight clumsily hopped down, landing on all fours on the slightly moist roadway.

"Hello yourself, missy," called a weathered old stallion perched in a rocking chair at the edge of the roof spanning the first story. He gazed down at them through a monocle, sporting a droopy gray goatee and a well-treated top hat, rocking idly as if he neither cared nor had anything better to do. "Is that miss Amber I see?"

"No, it's a big hairy walrus," Amber called back dryly. "Is Arambai around? We're here to see him, not for you to hit on me."

The stallion's goatee drooped. "Really? Shucks. I hadn't even gotten started. You know me too well, missy..." He then leaned over his shoulder, took a breath, and bellowed, "Hey, Arambai! Get your caboose up here, you got company!"

Starlight glared suspiciously up at him as he shouted. Eventually, once he had stopped: "You live here too? Really? Who are you?"

"Nah. The view's nice here, though." He worked his mouth as if chewing something. "But what's a pretty little lady like you doing, not knowing who I am? You not from around here, or something? 'Cuz pretty much every pony 'round these parts knows who I am."

Amber cut between them, blocking Starlight from his line of sight with her posture and grinning aggressively. "I'm sorry, who did you say you were, again?"

He gazed mournfully down at her. "Come now, this is no way to treat an old friend..."

"I'm sorry, could you repeat that?" Amber called back up. "Being around you is inflicting short-term memory loss!" She stuck her tongue out for emphasis.

The stallion shook his head. "If this is about what I said about your mane last week at the bazaar, I still stand by every word of it."

"Hey, Hemlock!" Arambai's voice suddenly growled from behind him on the balcony. "Who made you the welcome wagon for my house, eh? You better not be scaring away any of my guests..."

"Hemlock?" Starlight's face scrunched in recognition. "He's the stallion everyone ignores, right?"

Amber and Arambai both burst out laughing, the muscular stallion pointing a hoof at Hemlock. "Take that, you old coot. From the mouths of fillies!" His dark eyes narrowed. "Now, if you'll excuse me, it seems I have some business to attend to."

With a loud thud and accompanying crack, Arambai jumped off the roof, landing sturdily on the ground below. After a second, he straightened up, eying Starlight and Amber. "Well, well. Looks like someone just missed me that much, hmm? Because the odds are ten to one you didn't come here for him." He trotted up to them, extending a hoof. "Welcome back, kid. What brings you here this evening?"

Amber shrugged, answering for her. "Short answer? She was bored." She smiled apologetically. "And no offense, but your place is pretty interesting..."

"Hah! I'd take offense if you said it wasn't." Arambai grinned, then suddenly turned around, saw Hemlock still rocking, and roared, "Hemlock, get off my roof!" He looked back to Starlight and Amber. "Don't mind him. Everyone ignores him, anyway." Lightning his tone, he continued, "So, let me guess. You've found yourself in the middle of nowhere, gotten away from whatever haunted you enough to drive you here, and now the relief is wearing off and you're realizing that no matter what you do, it'll never matter to the world again?"

"Uhhh..." Starlight's eyes crossed. "No. I'm just bored."

"A quick secret?" He leaned down, whispering in his growly voice. "I never really got over that one myself. Ambition is part of what makes ponies ponies! Doesn't matter what we've been through in life, being told you won't amount to anything never loses its sting." He looked up at his roof, which was thankfully vacant. "The entrance is on the second floor. There's some stairs around the back. Follow me."

He set a brisk pace, and Starlight followed him. "Really? Why, what's inside?"

Arambai's lip twitched in a hint of a smile. "You think an old stallion like me would take irrelevance quietly? Nahhh. Come on, I want to show you my workshop. See if you can manage to stay bored then."

Technology

The entrance to Arambai's house was on the second floor. As Starlight slowly descended the stairs to the first, however, it felt much closer to a basement. There was more metal present than she had seen in all of Riverfall so far combined, and it was twisted into shapes and constructs she couldn't even begin to trace the purpose of. Pipes hung from the ceiling, and every permanent surface was covered in trails of glowing, geometric conduits that pulsed with ethereal light.

Walkable floorspace was limited to tight walkways, with bulky wooden tables higher than her line of sight taking up every available inch and then some. Under the tables were an endless sea of crates, boxes and other storage devices, some covered in sheets and others simply open-topped bins.

Completely lost and confused, Starlight settled for following the stallion as he confidently navigated the maze, vaguely aware that Amber had followed her inside. They turned several times, until suddenly, abruptly, the walls fell away. Starlight blinked at the openness.

She was standing on a slightly raised circular dais, inscribed with more runes and glowing etches leading up to a higher pedestal in the middle. Suspended in the air high above was a mesh of what looked vaguely like rails, twisting about in a cloud of metal but never quite intersecting, hung from barely-visible crystalline supports. Nearby, a stack of glowing towers seemed to feed into it.

"Just takes your breath away, don't it?" Arambai asked, using the central pedestal as a stool. "I've spent the better part of seven years building this one. Based on some research by an old colleague. How do you like it?"

Starlight was completely nonplussed. "What is it?"

"Well..." Arambai gestured up at the nest of metal rails. "This one here's supposed to be a long-distance teleporter, at least in theory. But it's more of a proof of concept for more, cutting-edge technology." He raised an eyebrow at Starlight. "How much do you know about mana tech, kid?"

Truthfully, Starlight answered, "Nothing."

"Ahhhh..." Arambai growled. "Shame, that. Then you probably wouldn't be able to appreciate the intricacies even if I told you. Of course, if you're looking for something to do here, and you've got time to make vanish, you could always learn... Say, how good are you with that horn of yours?"

Starlight winced. "I hurt it getting here. I don't want to use it yet."

"Shame to that, too." Arambai got up, pacing in a circle around the center. "How'd it happen? Trip and bang it on a rock?" He moved to a clearer table at the edge of the dais and began rummaging.

"Overtaxed myself on a spell," Starlight muttered, hanging her head. She considered trying to deceive him, since the last thing she wanted was another unicorn telling her there was something wrong with her horn. She was here to stop sulking, not be told she was defective.

"Overtaxation? And it's still bothering you now?" Arambai looked back over his shoulder. "That must have been quite the spell that took you out. What all could you do, back when it worked?"

Starlight shrugged. "Levitate, light stuff up. Normal things. Make crystals appear."

"Making crystals appear?" Arambai's eyebrows both rose, and he grinned. "Huh. Sounds to me like you were quite the magical prodigy. I bet you'd learn quickly, if there was anything you wanted me to teach you..." He picked up what looked like a helmet with one end cut off, spinning it on one hoof. "Any spells you'd like to learn? Teleportation, perhaps? Transfiguration? How to fly?"

"How to fly?" Starlight's eyes nearly bulged. "Unicorns can't do that! Only pegasi can!"

"Is that so?" Arambai's lip twitched. "Tell me. Have you ever seen a pegasus?"

Starlight nodded, and Amber shook her head.

"Heh." Arambai swung a hoof, nodding at Amber. "I hardly blame you. Those winged goofballs hardly come 'round these parts anymore. But the important part is, they look like you took a normal pony and stuck a pair of flappers on just to make them cuter or more huggable." He raised an eyebrow upon seeing the expressions he was getting. "Sure, go tell that to the town. Me having a thing for pegasi would make a fantastic rumor. I can't wait to see how they manage to take it too seriously. Now where was I?"

"Have we seen a pegasus," Amber helpfully interjected.

"Right, right, I knew that," Arambai loudly muttered. "Point is, they're about the least aerodynamic things you could imagine, and their wings are tiny compared to the size of their bodies. Ever wonder how those things stay in the air?" He grinned triumphantly. "Magic. Same as unicorns have magic in their horns and earth ponies have... whatever it is you earth ponies do. Way I see it is, how different can two kinds of magic be?"

Starlight scuffed at the ground. She could guess where Arambai was going, but something about messing with a pony's personal magic sat uneasily with her. It felt too similar to forcibly changing who they were.

"Plenty different, it turns out," Arambai growled, distracting her from her thoughts. "Mana is the basis for all magical technology society has ever built. It's like an energy form produced in unicorn horns, and a few other ways... Anyone who learns a simple spell can push it out, and trap it in a gemstone where it can be used for all sorts of stuff. Heating. Sending signals and information. Making giant engines for boats and ships. But real ponies can effortlessly do things like telekinesis and flight that we can't even begin to approximate with mana tech. It's always been as if there was something missing..."

He hefted the helmet, and offered it to Amber. "And I just might be on the right track to figuring out what that something is. Care for a little demonstration, miss...?"

"If it's what you make it sound like," Amber said, licking her lips, "I'm beyond game. And it's Amber, by the way. I'm pretty sure we've met?"

"I knew that!" Arambai waved her closer. "So, little filly, I'll need you to lift her. Any way you like will do, so long as it's off the ground. Just to get a sense for how heavy she is."

"And I'm Starlight," Starlight mumbled, moving towards Amber and trying to slide under her, hoisting with her back the way Amber had lifted her earlier. Amber was fairly small for a grown mare, so she didn't have trouble getting the required height, especially when the earth pony spread her limbs out, putting her entire weight on Starlight's back. The filly wheezed, but stood strong without shaking.

"I knew that too!" Arambai growled. "Anyway, if you've got it, then put her down. Amber, come here and wear this." He held out the helmet, which was connected to the glowing towers with a set of heavy wires. "It goes on your butt, by the way."

"What?" Amber took it, blinking bemusedly and holding it to her behind. "Why there?"

Arambai shrugged. "Don't ask me who decided where ponies' brands should appear. But they're somehow involved, so the closer this gets, the bigger the effect is... Let's see, now." Seeing that Amber had the helmet properly fitted, he turned back to a control panel next to the towers and made some adjustments. "Starlight!" He turned back to them, watching eagerly. "Try to lift her again."

"I don't feel anything..." Amber said uncertainly, but still stretched for Starlight to lift her.

The filly held her up, thinking. It didn't really feel that much different from last time... but now that there was a metal helmet on her, she should probably feel noticeably heavier. Instead, if anything, she felt slightly lighter... about the difference that would be made by her being hungry, instead of just after a good meal. She blinked several times. "I guess she's lighter? Maybe?"

"Hah! There you have it, then. How many times have you ever seen an earth pony do that?" Arambai moved to turn the machines off, adding, "You can set her down now. It's not like she'll up and float away, or anything..."

"What happened?" Amber asked bemusedly, taking off the helmet and hoofing it to Arambai.

"Technology happened," he replied with a grin. "Well... it will happen, eventually. Unfortunately, it's fairly useless right now, but still around a hundred times better than anything anyone else has ever made! This thing's powered purely by you, and not anything else. Maybe after enough years, I'll get it efficient enough that you can fly for real!" He turned to Starlight, adding, "Sound interesting, yet?"

"You said there was no way out of this place," Starlight answered, changing the subject. "So why do you have a giant teleporter?"

"Proof of concept, mostly," Arambai said with a shrug, running a hoof along the central pedestal. "I want to make this work with as much natural pony magic as possible. It can do telekinesis, too, at about enough strength to levitate a tissue. As for getting out of the village, it doesn't have that long of range. Maybe with half the population of Riverfall powering it, it could get you to Ironridge, but there's nowhere out there for a much bigger distance past that." He leaned in, adding, "Care to know a secret?"

"Okay." The stallion was rambling so much, Starlight didn't see much point in giving him permission to continue, but did it anyway. After all, it probably couldn't hurt to know more about this.

"Where I'd really like to go with this thing..." He sucked in a breath, looking wistfully upwards. "Is to get on top of those big cliffs everyone thinks are the edge of the world. It's definitely good enough to do that, I think. Only issue is where to go from there... and once you were done, how to get back down. I actually had a talented seamstress offer to make me a parachute once." He sighed, still gazing into the distance. "Never found out if that was ever going to happen. Just a dream, I guess."

Starlight held her tongue. It very well could have been accidental, but she was getting the uncomfortable feeling back that he knew where she was from and was baiting her to talk about it.

While she was thinking, Arambai shot her a glance. "Is any of this hooking you, kid?"

Starlight shrugged. "It's nice," she answered, truthfully adding, "but I don't get it."

"Well..." Arambai hitched himself up, straightening and stretching as if he was preparing to leave and return upstairs. "If you ever find yourself needing something to do, I can guarantee you that you can sink more hours into this work than you'd otherwise know what to do with. I think you'd be a good learner, and I'd be happy to teach you. And if you'd rather be in it for the reward..." He narrowed his eyes conspiratorially. "Who knows? Maybe you'd be around when this gets to the point where you could carry everything you need to make it work on your back, in a suit of armor."

Amber brightened, shivering slightly. "That sounds like something straight out of a story..."

"Well, what's the use in having technology if you don't make it interesting?" Arambai chuckled slightly. "For real, though... this is too new for me to have any idea what it could lead to. Anything could happen, absolutely anything... and you'd be there when it does."

"I'll... think about it," Starlight finally answered, shuffling nearer to Amber.

"So, old stallion..." Amber poked at some of the supplies laying nearby that weren't part of his flying machine. "What else do you have down here?"

"Heh. I'm glad you asked..."

Sosans

"And this one," Arambai said, proudly holding up a silvery box with a slit on one end, "is a nifty device for cooking bread! You put a slice in at the top, and it makes it all nice and crispy, see?"

Starlight looked at the box with a slightly bored expression. "It's a toaster."

"Well... yeah..." Arambai rubbed his neck. "But nobody has toasters out here. Sometimes, reinventing the wheel is easier than dragging one in from halfway across the world!"

"So you just build appliances all the time?" Starlight asked, watching as Arambai set the toaster down next to what looked like a triangular abacus.

The stallion shrugged. "Well, I am an inventor. Science doesn't make itself happen overnight, and I like doing things for the town just as much as for my own curiosity. When I'm not out building roads or getting ponies settled in, that is. It makes for a busy life, with just enough time to do whatever I want."

"Wait..." Starlight blinked. "Getting ponies settled in? They're moving?"

Arambai rolled his eyes. "Surely you've seen at least some of the stallions moping around town. They're a bit of a quiet bunch, but not that quiet. How do you think they got stuck here?"

"I dunno," Starlight said, drooping slightly. "I never thought about it before."

"Remember what I said about Riverfall being a town of second and last chances?" Arambai walked behind her, his growly voice low. "Well, every time some poor stallion up in Sosa gets so sick of their situation that they're ready to leave, this is where they end up. There are two kinds of stallions in Riverfall... ones who were born here and never got out before the boats stopped, and refugees."

"Does that make you..." Starlight trailed off, voice hesitant.

"A Sosan? Well." Arambai hung his head, grinning sadly. "I like to think of myself that way. A lot of the ponies back there probably think of me anywhere from a genius and prophet to a coward and a traitor. Don't ask what I did, or why I left. I think I've earned the right to my silence by not pressing you for where you're from. After all, we both know you're not from Ironridge."

Starlight had known that was coming for a while, but it still felt like she had been slapped in the face with a fish. "H-How did you know?" she stammered, fighting to retain her composure.

"It's simple," he said, closing his eyes and leaning against a wall of boxes. "Just like how it's all mares in Riverfall, Sosa is a male-dominated society. Most of the ponies who call themselves that don't actually live there, see. It's all commuters... and they and their families live elsewhere. A cute little filly like you shouldn't have had any reason to run away, and if you did, your dad would already be here by now." He raised an eyebrow. "And I'd know about you. Hope I didn't spill the beans to miss Amber, by the way."

"That I'm not from there? She already knows," Starlight said, gulping.

"Good..." Arambai sighed, whistling slightly. "I couldn't tell if it was an act you were putting on or not. Any Sosan here would be able to see right through it, if it was."

"Well..." Starlight scuffed at the ground. "I don't want ponies to know where I'm from..."

"Should'a told me earlier," Arambai grumbled. "Now I'll have to make up an alibi for you on the fly. Oh well. Not many ponies here will care, either way..."

"What's the difference between Sosa and Ironridge?" Starlight suddenly asked. "Everyone talks about them like they're the same thing, and I couldn't tell..."

"Mmmm! Right!" Arambai straightened up. "Obviously wouldn't hurt for you to know a bit about the city, if you want to pretend you're from it. I assume you know nothing?"

Starlight nodded.

"Right..." The yellow stallion let his gaze wander, searching for a place to begin. "Ironridge is built into the side of a mountain, you see, which means the terrain changes a lot in a very small amount of distance. So they divided the thing up into districts... There are seven of them, but only four that really matter. The Sky District, Stone District, Earth District and Steel District."

He cleared his throat before continuing. "Sky District's up at the peaks of the mountains. All snow and ice and stuff ponies weren't meant to have to live next to. Then you've got the Stone District, which is the part on the mountainside. Very nice climate, lots of ponies live there. Below that, in the jungle basin, you've got the Earth District. That's where fruit and crops are grown, and where a bunch more ponies live. And finally, you've got the Steel District, which is on the edge of the river. Mostly a bunch of factories and warehouses, these days. Anyhow, the Steel District calls themselves Sosa."

"Huh." Arambai's explanation had been surprisingly simple. Starlight had expected there to be more to it than that. "So what happened to them?"

"You mean, what started this whole 'no more boats' thing?" Arambai smirked wryly. "Well... isn't that a story. What happened was airships." He gazed out across the teleporter dais, eyes wandering across walls of equipment. "In the olden days, the Yule river was the only way in or out of Ironridge, short of trekking hundreds upon hundreds of miles through wildlands full of shattered stone and inhospitable forests. Forget about building a road across that. Would have been impossible..."

The manalights glowing overhead flickered as he talked. "Sosa prided themselves on being the gateway to Ironridge. They were majestic, and had everything going for them. The city was a major exporter, and they were the welcome wagon for traders from all over the world... and traders themselves. They built boats specially designed to handle both the waters of the Yule and the open ocean to the east, until they mastered their craft and came to rule the waterways. Sosa was everything."

"So when airships came," Amber added, having sat quietly for some time, "that stopped?"

"More or less," Arambai said, stretching. "When they were first invented, nopony batted an eyelid. Then they got better, and the bigger ones started packing enough fuel to make it there from Yakyakistan under good weather. After that, they started reaching the cities in the north... Everything really went downhill when they started building a skyport in the Sky District. That place had a refueling station, doubling the distance ships could travel. Suddenly, they could bring cheaper ships, with more room for cargo. It was a blow Sosa wasn't able to handle."

Starlight's ears folded. She knew plenty about forced, external change. "What happened?"

"The Sky District became the new gateway to Ironridge," Arambai said simply. "The Stone District prospered, and so did the Earth District. Most Sosans live in the Earth District, at that. The city's doing better than ever, and everyone's well off... but sometimes, survival isn't enough for a pony, you know?" He raised a knowing eyebrow. "The Sosans were crushed. They lost their purpose, drifting along on a rising tide, completely powerless to do anything. Funny, then, how the ones so desperate to have some say in their lives that they'd leave their families and run away found themselves here, where there's even less they can do to be relevant in the world."

"So now what do they do?" Amber asked, voice subdued.

"Exist? Survive? Don't look at me," Arambai said with a shrug. "I got out early. It's the others you should ask if you want to know what it's like now... but don't expect them to tell you. I may have asked them when they came here not to be downers all the time. You Riverfall mares are so bubbly, and who'd want to depress that?"

Starlight got the distinct feeling that that was the end of the story. Sighing through her nose, she stared straight ahead, focusing and unfocusing her eyes, trying to think of what to say next... if anything.

Her eyes fell on a silver, metal pendant hanging from a strap that had been looped around the corner of a box. It was triangular in shape, with another upside-down triangle inscribed in the center, dividing it into four smaller triangles... or perhaps three, with a hole in the middle. "What's that?"

"Huh? Oh, this?" Arambai walked over and picked the amulet up with a single hoof. "This is a keepsake a friend made me to remember them by. Beats me if it means anything. Probably some sort of personal crest. But it's got a lot of memories attached to it..." He sighed wistfully. "I should put this somewhere safer. Don't want it getting scratched or buried."

"While you go do that," Amber said, stepping in, "we might have to get going. It's probably getting dark out, and I didn't tell Maple when to expect us back."

"Have to leave so soon, eh?" Arambai's face fell in disappointment. "Well, it was interesting talking to you, even if I'm the one who did most of the talking. I have a tendency to ramble sometimes. You should interrupt me more!" He gave a brief, growly laugh. "Probably comes with the whole quiet treatment I give the village most of the time. Don't forget to gossip about those pegasi, now."

Amber giggled. "Yeah, sure, I can do that. Bye now!"

"Hold up!" Arambai raised his voice, giving Amber and Starlight pause. "I've got something for you, kid. Here. Take this."

In his darkly colored aura, he extended a thin book towards Starlight. She took it in her hooves, eying it uncertainly. "What's in here?"

"That," Arambai explained, "is a bit of a textbook. If you ever feel like taking me up on my offer, or at least want to see if you're cut out for this stuff, or even are just bored, give that a read. It's got some of the basics in regarding mana tech and how that relates to pony magic."

Starlight shrugged, stuffing it in her saddlebags. "Okay. Thanks."

"Right, then. Have fun, you two!" Arambai waved as they walked up the stairs. "Ahhhh..."

Maple's door clattered open, a panting Amber stepping through from the dim twilight haze into the now-closed store, Starlight clinging to her back. "Hello?" Amber called, glancing around the dark, unlit room. "Girls, you still here? We're back!"

"We're up here," Willow's voice called, drifting down the staircase.

Amber smirked and began to climb. "Right you are. We had a pretty fun time down at old Arambai's. Got to test out this sweet machine that takes a piece of bread and..." She stopped in her tracks at the top of the staircase, looking across the dimly-lit upper room to where her friends sat at the table. "Maple?" she asked, a hint of concern in her voice. "Are you crying?"

Maple sniffed, eyes slightly red. Willow was presently right next to her, one foreleg draped around her back. The silvery mare answered for her friend. "We were talking about Aspen."

Amber's enthusiasm immediately vanished, and she let Starlight slide off her back. "Oh."

As Maple scrubbed at her eyes, trying to compose herself, Starlight asked, "Who's Aspen?"

Willow ignored her for once. "Since it almost came up earlier, and Starlight decided to trust us with where she was from, I asked Maple if she wanted to tell her this. We had a talk about it."

"And what did you decide?" Amber asked, stepping forward.

"Well..." Maple sniffed again, clearing her throat. "I'm probably going to cry again, but... Starlight? Would you like to hear a story?"

Starlight was slightly taken aback by the mood in the house, to the point where she almost suspected it would be polite to refuse the mare. It felt as if every pony she met that day just wanted her to listen to them, and she had to remind herself that she had done plenty of talking of her own that day. Was that what her life in Riverfall would be? A pony who wandered around, listening to tales? It was like the opposite of a bard. Inwardly, she shrugged. It couldn't hurt to try...

"Sure, I guess." Starlight nodded, and waited for the story to begin.

Hope

Minutes passed, and the room sat in silence.

Starlight eventually looked up. "Are you going to say anything?"

"Sorry." Maple swallowed. "Just thinking... You know how Willow was talking to you earlier, and said I looked up to her? That she was my role model, and I tried to do everything like her?"

Starlight nodded mutely. She didn't remember the exact words, but recalled something similar.

"Well... I did." Maple sighed, and continued, held against Willow's side by a steadying hoof, just in case. "That was true for wanting to leave Riverfall. After that failed, we didn't know what to do with ourselves. Well... I didn't. Willow started a family. I was just a teenager." She shuddered heavily.

"Eventually, I grew up," she said, eyes barren. "Things changed. Willow met... her husband. I wanted that too. I tried, and... well..."

She broke off, starling hollowly into the distance. Willow let her sit for a minute, and when she didn't continue, nudged her. "Do you want me to take over?"

Maple turned and buried her face in Willow's shoulder, answering without words.

"Maple met a stallion," Willow said without fanfare, her voice as gentle as it always was. "From Sosa. We all liked him. She got a bigger house. They moved in together. She wanted to have kids, like mine." Her voice clenched briefly, and her lips tightened, showing her teeth. "Apparently, he didn't. We found out it would happen, and were overjoyed. But the day after she told him... he left." Maple shook visibly against her.

Amber paced slowly out of a corner, talking. "We were furious. Sosans don't talk much, so we never really know what they're thinking... but to do that? To just leave someone without warning, explanation or even a chance? I hunted for him for weeks, after that. I found him, eventually, clear on the other side of town." Her face darkened. "I got an explanation. It wasn't good enough. I also got one of his teeth."

"We told Arambai, too," Willow said softly. "We asked him what we should do. After all, he takes responsibility for most of the Sosans in town. He said he would take care of it. He wasn't pleased."

"We never saw that stallion again, after that," Amber added. "Granted, we weren't looking."

"Maple was distraught." Willow hugged the dusty mare closer as Starlight watched patiently. "She'd been looking forward to that for so long, only to have her dreams collapse in front of her... right after everything seemed to be going so well. Her new house was right next to mine. I spent many days after that just sitting with her... Her foal's name was going to be Aspen..."

"But she miscarried," Amber finished. "I've heard depression can do that to a pony. I was there when it happened. It's... not something you need to know the details about." She shuddered, and added, "Or something I'd be comfortable telling."

Willow shook her head in agreement. "Things got even harder after that. At the time, I was pregnant with Yew, my third foal. I never would have tried for her then if I had known all this would happen. She was eventually born perfectly healthy... I could barely even look at Maple after that. Not when I had everything she didn't, purely by chance. Not when I had Faron and three happy, healthy foals..."

Maple sucked in a hissing breath, lifting her head. Her eyes were wet with tears. "After we c-couldn't go to Ironridge, these two s-set down lives and did something with themselves. I tried that and f-failed." She shuddered, hugging herself. "Being branded is supposed to give you the p-power to make your dreams come true! So why couldn't I? It still hurts, sometimes... feeling powerless when I should..."

A triumphant surge coursed through Starlight. Of course this was about Maple's cutie mark. "See?" she proudly proclaimed, pointing a hoof as connections were made in her mind. "I told you! If you never had gotten a cutie mark, you never would have tried to change who you were just because it told you to, and you wouldn't be sad because you failed now!" She stood, eyes closed and fully validated.

Pow!

"Eeeep!" Starlight went sprawling, landing awkwardly on her side with a heavy stinging in her cheek. Amber was standing over her, face thunderous.

"What is wrong with you?" the yellow mare snarled, teeth bared. "We tell you about the hardest thing we've ever gone through as friends and your first reaction is to interrupt her to try and prove a point that has nothing to do with what we're talking about? Look at her! Look at her!" she snapped, pointing a hoof at Maple's subdued form. "Does she look like she had us tell you that so you could complain about cutie marks?"

"Amber," Willow said sharply, eyes flitting between her friend and Starlight's stricken face. "That's enough."

"No it isn't." Amber sucked in a sharp breath, addressing Starlight once more. "Where is your compassion? Where's your... your empathy!? Weren't you just telling us about how you lost your friend earlier? How'd you like it if one of us had responded to that by going, 'Hah! I was right about something earlier that's presently completely irrelevant!?' You should know how she feels! Where are your emotions?"

"Amber." A silvery hoof appeared on her shoulder, and like a siphon the rage was drained out of Amber's face. Her eyes, ears and muzzle fell, along with eventually her neck and tail.

"I'm... sorry," she said, turning to walk away. "That might have been uncalled for."

"Stay." Willow patted the floor next to her, Maple already walking over. "We aren't done yet. Are you okay, Starlight?"

Starlight stared at her, drawn back and too frozen to move.

"Starlight." Willow's hoof stretched out, offering itself to the filly. "What you went through must have been terrible, to drive you out over the mountains. But what I hope you can understand..." Her eyes softened, and she beckoned again. "Is that hardship is a fact of life. There are no ponies who have lived a perfect, ideal life, Starlight. Some of us are like you and Maple, and have been hurt directly by circumstances beyond our control. There's nothing to blame for it. There is only rebuilding and moving on."

She looked over to Amber, who had finally collapsed against her, on the opposite side as Maple. With both of her friends leaning on her shoulders, Willow continued, "Others are like me and Amber. Our lives may have been free of misfortune... or at least had little enough that we move past it naturally, without scars that won't heal. Yet because we know other ponies... because we have friends whom we love, and care about very deeply... their hurts become our own. You cannot avoid pain and hardship, without also living a life without joy... which would only bring pain in another way. You can only endure and survive... and, if you're strong enough, make a positive difference for others, as well. Would you like to know what happened to us next?"

Mutely, Starlight nodded.

"We survived," Willow said, "and we healed. It wasn't easy. Amber helped Maple find a new place; this one. It was hard, being farther from me... but it was the right decision. Her old house had too many dead memories and dreams... After that, we continued to support each other. Maple learned to smile again, and then to laugh, and eventually to truly mean it. The memories still hurt and will never go away, but eventually..." She sighed, and smiled. "We moved on. Our wounds healed, and we became stronger for it... as friends and as ponies. Sometimes, we still sit and remember it like this... but our lives are happy, now."

Sniffling, Maple dared to speak again. "Starlight? Do you know what took the longest to heal?"

Starlight shook her head.

"You can probably guess," Maple said with tears in her smile. "It was for me to hope again. It's easy to expect the world to get worse. It's possible to recover, and be happy with what you have... but expecting the world to get better, all on its own? After the last two plans I had made for my life fell through, it took a miracle for me to start believing that was possible again..."

She reached forward, breaking from Willow and touching Starlight's face where Amber had slapped it. "A miracle like a filly floating down in a box from nowhere, for me to look after."

As Starlight's pupils dilated in realization, Maple sniffed and added, "So if I'm a little overbearing, that's why. Sorry about that."

"And that's why I asked you to be nice to her," Willow added softly, speaking to Starlight. "But it turns out you two are even more similar than I thought."

"So... please?" Maple held out a tender hoof towards Starlight, offering to help her up. "I'm ready for things to be good around here, for a change. I want to love you and care for you and give you everything you need to be happy as I watch you grow up... and after everything you've been through yourself, you deserve it. Please? Our world is getting better, and you can be a part of it. I'll never make you become anything you don't want to, and I'll always be your friend. Always."

"Always?" Starlight sniffed, breaking her silence. "You promise?"

Maple smiled down at her. "I promise."

Willow and Amber faded into the background as Starlight slowly got up and moved into Maple's embrace. "I'm sorry," Starlight mumbled, unsure whether the tears beginning to sting her eyes were in remorse for what she had said earlier... or from somewhere deeper.

"Whatever it's for," Maple answered, hugging her tightly, "I forgive you."

They stayed that way for a long time.

Drums

Maple awoke with a start... but some instinct she never knew she had prevented her from actually moving. It pinned all her limbs in place, holding her still while her brain caught up with the rest of her body. It had nothing to do with fear, panic or hesitation, however.

No, this instinct was caused by not wanting to crush the fuzzy ball of lilac breathing pleasantly against her chest.

She smiled softly, memories of the previous night filtering themselves into the only thing that really mattered: Starlight was here. Starlight had been told everything there was to tell, and still, she was here. That was more than Maple had once thought she could ask for. Having no pressing reason to get up, she relaxed, sliding a tender foreleg over the filly and matching herself to Starlight's slumbering breaths. She could already tell this was going to be a perfect morning, feeling a tear threaten to slip through her closed eyelids.

One of her ears was inside out. Pressed to a fluffy pillow, she felt no reason to correct it... until she realized why she had suddenly awoken.

A rhythmic thumping reached her eardrum, the kind that travels through the ground rather than the air. It sounded like a beast with hooves the size of houses was marching many miles away, and while that would have been absurd, she couldn't think of any valid explanations. Annoyed, she rubbed her head against the pillow, trying to fix her ear so that it might blot itself out. Eventually content that it had worked, she curled more closely around Starlight, perfectly happy to continue relishing her morning.

But try as she might to ignore it, the thumping continued, pulsating in her very core and preventing her from returning to slumber. Eventually, she gave up, realizing she could neither get back to sleep nor banish a growing irritability at whatever had woken her... so she gently licked the top of the filly's head, just in case she was awake. "I'll be right back," Maple murmured, carefully disentangling herself and moving toward the edge of the bed. "Don't go anywhere."

"Mmmkay..." Starlight lowly mumbled, facedown, from where Maple had left her.

Sighing, the earth pony went about her way, slipping out the bedroom door and closing it before it could let too much light in.

Looking about her kitchen, she guessed the sun had risen about three hours ago. Outside, it was raining thunderously, such that even when she opened a window and stuck her head out all she could hear was the hiss against the ground. There was no sign of whatever had woken her.

Still, she left the window open as she went about preparing something to eat. The cool breeze felt pleasant against her filly-warmed coat, and she strongly suspected bed would feel nicer if she cooled off first. She had every intention of returning, having sat up far later than usual with Starlight before finally going to bed.

She didn't touch the stove, instead taking a serrated blade in her teeth and carving off the end of a partially-hardened loaf of sourdough bread. Casting around for something to put on it, she eventually settled for strawberry jam and nothing else. She took her sandwich and settled back at the window, munching thoughtfully.

It smelled nice out. The rain was mixed with the smell of pine, and while it was a smell that was frequently around, it was far from unpleasant. Her tail swished as she took a bite, her mind idly running over any ingredients she might be running low on. Powdered sugar, she'd have to pick that up... but little else. Not knowing what to do with herself, she had made a run two days before, while Willow was busy caring for Starlight shortly after the filly had been found.

The tower next to hers and immediately in her line of sight was four stories tall. She wasn't intimately acquainted with her neighbors, but knew that two separate families shared the space... or three, depending on how you counted. It was complicated. But there were plenty of foals living there... She'd have to take the time to get to know them better, to give Starlight someone nearby to play with. Mentally, she added taking them a gift cake to her to-do list.

As she watched, the door to the house burst open, and a mare wearing a thick poncho dashed out, hastily turning and charging off toward the center of town. Maple frowned. She hadn't seen the mare's facial expression, but she was moving with a haste usually the rain alone wasn't enough to cause, especially when one was dressed for it. She strained, almost feeling she could still hear the drumming in the distance. She could certainly hear the rain.

Maple shrugged, shutting the window and stuffing the rest of her sandwich into her mouth. It had been sufficiently filling, and she had better things to do. Cheeks bulging, she pushed open the door to the bedroom, tail flicking contentedly.

A pair of filly-sized eyes stared back out at her, shining in the darkness. "I stayed here."

"Sorry about that," Maple grumbled, climbing back into the bed and wriggling over to Starlight. "You can go back to sleep now, Starlight. I shouldn't need to go anywhere else for a while."

"I'm not tired," Starlight offered, laying with all four legs tucked underneath herself and her tail wrapped neatly around her side. "You're cold. And you smell like strawberries."

"Yes, I am cold," Maple astutely observed, "and you can do whatever you want, but I'm not getting up until I'm warm again."

Starlight responded by snuggling up against her again, causing Maple's heart to leap in her chest. The warmth from that feeling alone was more than anything physical Starlight was providing... though that was welcome too. "Thanks," Maple murmured, draping a hoof back over the filly.

"You really like cuddling," Starlight remarked, squirming slightly.

"I guess I do," Maple exhaled. "That's not a problem, is it?" she asked worriedly.

"No." Starlight rolled over. "It makes it easy to make you happy."

Maple flushed slightly, moderately uncomfortable at the idea that the filly was making accommodations for her... but also enjoying that she was being thoughtful. Before she could finish thinking, however, Starlight asked, "So how long ago did all that stuff happen?"

"From last night? Very recently," Maple answered, shifting uncomfortably. "Though it feels like forever. It couldn't have been more than two years ago that it started. Maybe a year and a half. I've only had this house for a few months. It's not history. I'm still on the end of it." She leaned in and nuzzled Starlight. "Or maybe it ended two days ago."

As she lay there, she began to hear the distant pounding again, and her ears twitched. "Starlight?" She sat up, craning her neck. "Do you hear that?"

"Yeah," Starlight mumbled, sliding slightly into the depression under Maple that had been left in the bed. "It's called the rain."

"Not that..." Maple stared hesitantly at nothing. "It's like... drums..."

Starlight's ears pricked too. After a minute, the filly said, "Huh. I think I do."

"Maybe we should check it out," Maple grumbled, sinking back to the bed. "Not yet, though. Nnngh... Gotta get ten more minutes..."

Starlight stuck her tongue out, flopping back against Maple. "I thought you were a morning pony. Hmmph."

She received no response.

Over thirty minutes later, Maple finally stirred. The noise was still present, and had, if anything, gotten louder. "All right," she muttered, stretching. "That's enough. Let's go see what that is."

"About time." Starlight was out of bed faster than Maple could blink. Standing by the bedside, she briefly tested her horn, and the expression on her face indicated she was pleased at the result.

"Is you magic feeling better?" Maple asked as she got up, figuring she'd prompt the filly to talk about something she might enjoy. Slowly, she paced to a mirror and began straightening her mane.

"Yeah..." Starlight squinted, summoning sparks. "It doesn't hurt to use, I guess."

"That's good." Maple hummed, brushing. "I'd love to see some of your tricks some time..."

Starlight shrugged. "Okay. I'm hungry."

"I'll find something. Just a moment." Finishing her work, Maple set down the brush... and as her eyes passed over Starlight, she squinted and tapped her chin. "I know what would look good on you."

"Huh?" Starlight twisted, then suddenly yelped as she was grabbed and set on the bed, Maple fussing with her mane. "Hey, that pulls! Ow!"

"Sorry..." Maple bit her lip, working. "And... there!" She stepped back, triumphant, and grabbed a mirror for Starlight to see. The filly stood with her mane in a neat ponytail, one of Maple's own bands tying back all the excess that had grown during Starlight's time in the mountains. "Now you can see again!" she proclaimed, waving the mirror. "Do you like it?"

Starlight touched it with a hoof. "Huh. I used to have pigtails back in Equestria. But this is bigger, and just one..." She turned her neck, examining herself. "Yeah, this is nice. I like it."

Maple tapped her forehooves happily. "Well, consider it a present from me. Now let's get you some breakfast!" Nearly skipping, she bounced back into the kitchen and began preparations.

One home-made caramel apple later, and Maple and Starlight stood downstairs, examining a poncho. The distant booming still ringing in their ears above the thrum of rain, somehow louder than ever, they were all set to investigate... save for one problem. Maple didn't own any filly-sized raincoats.

"I can just wear a big one," Starlight volunteered, looking up at the garments. They were sleeveless and more resembled rubber robes, allowing plenty of room for size adjustments. Any excess would just trail behind her... which would be dirty, but not unmanageable. The only perceivable issue was that the hood might fall into her eyes.

"You'd trip on the front," Maple replied, dashing her hopes. "Trust me, I did that once when I was younger. I'm trying to think of a way we could..."

Starlight shrugged. "We could tie the dangling part so it doesn't reach the ground?"

"Hmmm... maybe..." Maple scratched her chin with a hoof. "But there's got to be a better..." Suddenly, her eyes lit up. Had she possessed claws or talons, she would have snapped them. The kind of grin spread across her face that only comes with the hatching of a truly bad idea, and she giggled slightly. "Never mind! Heee! I just thought of the perfect idea...!"

Extraordinaire

Maple pranced through the rainy streets of Riverfall, wearing a poncho that appeared several sizes too short and a smile that suggested everything was right with the world. If any ponies had been around to stare at her, they probably would have felt differently, but that was neither here nor there.

"Maple?" Starlight asked, riding on her back with the poncho draped over them both, her head crammed awkwardly through the neckspace. "Doesn't this look really weird?"

"Oh, hush," Maple replied, her ears pressed against her scalp by rubbery fabric that was stretched far tighter than intended by the presence of two heads in the hood. "It's cozy."

"Yeah, but..." Starlight had to lean so far to the side to see around Maple that the only thing keeping her from falling off was the tightness of the over-stretched coat. "It probably looks like we have two heads, or something!" She glanced down at their reflection in a passing puddle.

"It does not," Maple teased, pushing her stride a little faster. "Besides, it saves you from having to walk! I'd sure love to be lazy today. Mmm... This should have been a lazy morning..."

"Yo! Maple, is that you?" Amber's voice sounded through the torrent of rain, followed by the splashing of hooves. Her yellow body skidded into view, characteristically drenched without so much as a hat to protect against the water. Her coat was plastered to her sides, making her seem even smaller than she actually was, but the amount of excitement in her eyes brought her back up to larger-than-life. That excitement drained only slightly when she took Maple in, raising a soggy eyebrow and snickering. "Woah! Did you grow a second head, or something?"

"Really?" Starlight pouted, face slightly scrunched by the close quarters of Maple's hood.

"Well, then, I take that back," Maple breathed, brightening for her friend. "Hi, Amber!"

"Hi yourself," Amber panted, tossing her wet forelock out of her eyes and turning back in the direction she had come from. "I was coming to get you. Thanks for saving me some distance. You won't believe what happened!"

"What did happen?" Maple picked up her pace, following. "We heard a pounding, and..."

"That was probably the parade," Amber urgently replied. "Everyone's super excited. But get this: a boat came!" She spun around, walking backwards on the mud with shining eyes. "Going west! To Ironridge! It's one of the old Sosan makes that's been out of production for years! Specifically designed for this river and everything! I didn't see the crew; there were too many ponies to get close. But everyone's speculating and saying they might use the waterway for trade again, and reopen the docks, even! Hemlock's out there getting his hoist machine thing set up and..." She stopped, gasping for air.

Maple further picked up speed, gaining a look of determination. "Hold on tight, Starlight. This isn't something I'd miss for the world."

At some point after the glass began, the surroundings transitioned from devoid of life to all too full of it. Maple and Amber crashed into a sea of mares, teeming and bustling and chattering with wide eyes and eager faces. Surprisingly few of them wore ponchos, and the resulting plethora of mish-mashed coat colors made Starlight's head spin. Their ages seemed mostly concentrated between young adult and middle-aged, though she figured that some older ones might be hidden beneath raincoats and some younger ones were too short to be visible in the crowd.

Amber herself fit into the 'too short' category. Growling, she nudged Maple and headed off, skirting the fringes of the crowd. "Follow me."

She led them to the door to a tower on the edge of the crowd, and knocked heavily. A few moments later, it was opened by a tan stallion in his early twenties with meticulously-groomed hair and an air of perfume about him. His eyes lit up upon seeing them. "Hey there, girlfriends. Here to petition for access to my VIP box?"

"Depends how reasonable your terms are," Amber answered with a smug smile and aggressive posture. "Otherwise, we'll petition your mother instead."

He laughed and waved them inside. "I wouldn't take a hug even if you offered it to me, not when you're that wet. Towel rack is on the right. And howdy." He bowed to Maple, though his eyes were mostly on Starlight. "Cute kid. Ivy's over; I take it you'll want me and her to keep it down?"

Amber rolled her eyes, draining water from her coat and fluffing it with a towel. "What do you think, doofus?" She coughed and added, "Starlight, this is Cedar. His mom foalsat Willow when she was a teenager, so he's a bit of a family friend. And he has a balcony, so get out there and go see what's happening!" She waved them toward a staircase, spraying droplets from her mane.

"Ow, no introduction for me?" Cedar's mane drooped. "Harsh. Oh well. Follow me, ladies!"

He led them up three flights of stairs and out a door, across a covered bridge between two towers. Below, Starlight unenviously watched the mares jostle, a loudspeaker somewhere booming. They crossed into a lavishly-furnished sitting room, a glass double-door on the far side already open and a patio suspended beyond. Waving again, Cedar strolled out onto it.

"Hi mom," the stallion briskly said before flopping down onto a couch next to a curvaceous, well-endowed mare with a dark green coat and possibly-dyed hot pink mane. "And hi, Ivy," he purred, nuzzling up to her.

As they flirted, a hanging bench that swung from two cords turned towards Starlight and Maple. To the filly's surprise, Willow sat there, next to a slightly older mare in a poofy jacket that looked to be trimmed with pegasus feathers. The mare's lips turned upwards, and she extended a hoof. "You must be Starlight. I'm Juniper, and it's a pleasure. Now pay attention, he's about to get to the good part!"

"He?" Starlight's face scrunched as she slipped down from Maple's back. "There's only one?"

Willow got up, drawing a hoof around her and moving to the edge of the balcony, rain plummeting only a short distance beyond. "See for yourself. He's an explorer."

Below, in the center of the huddled crowd was a clearing, and in that a covered tent. Beneath it, a griffon stood, gesturing exaggeratedly. "By that point, I knew there was little reasoning with them," he proclaimed in a refined voice, "so I drew my sword faster than they could blink, and felled all six with a single blow!" He cleared his throat, adding, "Unglamorously, I made more from looting the mercenaries than from the treasure I fought them over, but that's neither here nor there. And that is how I was able to afford this ship!" He bowed humbly, the crowd roaring and stamping their hooves in applause.

"Hoooo-whee! Sounds like that was one pack of unlucky llamas," a familiar stallion with a top hat announced, standing beside him. "Yer' one impressive adventurer, Gerardo. Go on, give us another one. How about tellin' us how you got that fancy sword of yours, what do you say?"

"Gerardo Guillaume," the griffon corrected, brushing something off his red coat. "And are you quite sure you can't move my boat now? I would feel much better about entertaining if I knew you were making the same effort to aid me in return."

"Eh, we'll get to it." Hemlock turned to the crowd surrounding him, and bellowed, "Ladies and gentlemares... Gerardo Guillaume, griffon adventurer extraordinaire! So, what would you like to hear about next?"

Gerardo sighed into his sound-enhancing device. "Very well. I suppose I can do one more..."

"Heh. 'Griffon adventurer extraordinaire,'" Juniper chuckled as he launched into a slightly unenthusiastic tale. "That's how he referred to himself when he first showed up, and the first time that old crone has said it the right way. I bet he's tickled pink inside!"

"He's been sounding more and more annoyed each time Hemlock asks for an encore," Willow informed Starlight, still watching the griffon below. "He might just fly off, if this continues."

"Or start telling stories that are bad on purpose," Ivy drawled, a bored expression on her face as she looked over the railing, ignoring the stallion who was lovingly rubbing his face against her. "Cedar, knock that off. There are fillies present."

He raised his head, smiling guiltily and without remorse. "What? You know you like it, babe..."

"Slap him for me and then shut up," Juniper tartly requested. "I wanna hear this story."

As Gerardo began describing what he had eaten for dinner two nights ago in fulfillment of Ivy's prediction, Starlight leaned closer to Willow and whispered, "Why isn't he quiet like you said?"

"You mean Cedar?" Willow leaned down, murmuring in her ear. "And the Sosans? It's because he's not a Sosan. He was born and grew up in Riverfall, and just wasn't old enough to leave by the time the boats stopped. There are quite a few like him, actually. Most of them figured out that being rare makes you special, so they banded together to live in this part of town, looking for thrills and getting whatever they want." She rolled her eyes, and added, "Most of the time, that means making the most of the fact that they live in a city full of mares. Don't expect Maple to take you here very often."

"Then I added another stick to my fire," Gerardo rambled below, "and another! By the fourth one, I knew I risked ruining the soup if I didn't take utmost care, so I took my sword and whittled it down precisely to the size I needed!" He glanced around dramatically, somehow managing to maintain a convincing stage character while telling a story about absolutely nothing. "Alas, by the time I finished that the fire had burned down considerably and I needed to stoke it again..."

With a thunderous boom, the rain tripled in strength, a sheet of falling water veritably flattening the audience. Many along the fringes instantly broke off and began fleeing, while others hugged buildings or backed nervously away. Starlight recoiled from the edge, hairs raising from the sheer force.

"Well, would you look at that," Gerardo cheerily announced, covertly kicking the tent stand next to him and causing it to collapse. "It seems we're out of time! A pity, that. But fear not, there will be time for more later..." His voice took on a businesslike tone. "After I move my boat. Might we get on that?"

"Arrrgh!" Hemlock flailed, his hat knocked off by the tent as it imploded overhead, immediately becoming drenched by the pouring rain. "Shucks! Uhhhh... Hey, y'all! Who wants to come see the first boat raising Riverfall has had in some seven years?"

"I know I do," Gerardo muttered, shrugging off the rain as if it were nothing. "A shame about your tent, by the way. They really don't make these things like they used to. Now, if you all would be so kind as to allow me to pass..."

Starlight watched as he pushed a path through the adoring, drenched crowd, the rain evidently too heavy for him to fly. "Huh," she commented, having little else to say.

Maple was already prodding her. "Well? Want to go see them lift the boat?"

"Do it," Willow whispered, nodding. "I've seen it many times, but it'll be less crowded."

Nodding her assent, Starlight prepared to walk back into the house... when she ran straight into Amber. "Hi, girls!" the yellow mare chirped. "Whoo, finally got dried off. What'd I miss?"

Arrrrrgh

Starlight and Maple resumed their march through the city, following along with the crowds bold enough to brave the rain and continue after Gerardo and Hemlock. This time, Starlight rode on Amber's back, giving her enough height to wear a raincoat and not trip. All things considered, she found it a much more dignified arrangement than sharing a hood with Maple, and was content to sit and ride.

"It's not far from here to the docks," Maple explained as they walked, pace slowed due to the necessity of the thick crowds. "They line the north edge of town. Most of them are above the waterfall, which is probably why Gerardo wants his boat moved." She splashed through a deep puddle, her own coat shielding her from most of the effects. "He might even be moored in the middle of the river, now."

Abruptly, the air lightened around them. Starlight glanced around for the cause, eventually looking up and seeing it: the impermeable canopy that stretched high above all of Riverfall met a sudden boundary here, leaving the gray, overcast sky perfectly open to view. She didn't look long, however, a torrent of fat raindrops meeting her face.

"It looks like we're there!" Maple hummed, almost skipping out between two final towers. With just as much abruptness as the sky had changed, the houses fell away, leaving nothing but an ornate plaza stretching until it fell away. Starlight had no doubt it formed the southern bank of the river.

The crowd pushed its way east, eventually jostling to a stop. "Hey!" someone shouted, "No pushing! Don't knock anypony over the edge!" It had little effect, the ponies all pressing closer to get a view of what was happening ahead.

Amber grinned up at Starlight. "You're totally small enough to slip through them, if you wanted a better look. It's not like you can see much from here."

Starlight shook her head mutely. Her view wasn't very good, but when she stretched, she could still probably see better than most of the ponies here.

"Actually... hang on." Amber began moving toward Maple, and Starlight had to steady herself to hold on. "Maple? Think we could try... The Tower?"

Maple snorted in surprise. "Really!? We haven't tried that in years! How would we even...?"

"I don't weigh that much," Amber said with a shrug. "Neither does Starlight. And if you wanted to see, I could probably hold both of you and take a turn on the bottom."

Starlight watched with mixed caution and interest as the mares debated... and then Maple knelt down and Amber began trying to climb onto her back, the filly still attached to her own. Somehow, they both managed to stand straight up, Amber's hooves planted squarely on Maple's shoulders... and Starlight suddenly realized she was the tallest thing around, easily able to watch the distant proceedings.

"And that," Amber proclaimed, "is why being friends with ponies of all sizes is a good thing! Whoo, I don't think we've done this since the docks stopped! Good old times, huh? Starlight, what can you see?" Then, slightly guiltily, she added, "And Maple, how are you holding up?"

Maple smiled up at them. "I'll be fine. If Willow could do this, so can I!"

For her part, Starlight looked out over the assembled ponies, realizing just how useful a move like this could be. A short distance ahead, the ground seemed to drop away in a cliff, a thin iron railing preventing the packed mares from tumbling off... and below that, the plaza continued. To her left was Riverfall's namesake, about two stories high and somewhat unimpressive compared to what she had fallen from in the mountains, yet still a significant obstacle to naval travel.

"I can see his boat!" she announced, realizing the other two expected her to be narrating... mostly for Maple's benefit, but still. "I think? It doesn't look very big..."

"I recognize that," Amber said below her, apparently also able to see. "It's an S24. Crewable by one to four, designed for speed and fuel efficiency over cargo capacity or stability. You wouldn't want to take it to the open ocean, since a storm would sink it instantly. But it's good when you can stick near ports, and especially for this river. He must have known what he was doing when he got this."

"Manaships..." Maple shuddered in excitement. "Who's with it? Is Arambai there?"

"I... think he is, yes," Amber muttered, trying to shade her eyes without unbalancing the stack.

Starlight looked for herself, scanning the boat's slate-gray hull and deck for signs of life. Eventually, she realized the creatures of interest were lining the shore next to it, not aboard it.

The magically enhanced voice of Hemlock blared to life. "Hello? Is this thing on, yet?"

"Eeyep. Seems like it," Arambai's growly voice confirmed, also magically amplified.

"Beautiful! Now get outta here, hornhead, and stop stealing my show!" Hemlock waved a dripping forelimb at the yellow stallion, his tent canopy restored... albeit somewhat too late to preserve his dryness. "Go on! Shoo!"

Without a word, Arambai disappeared into the crowd, leaving Starlight blinking. "Woah," Amber remarked. "He pretty much just vanished. There's no way you can hide a stallion that big in a crowd!"

"Maybe he used some kind of spell?" Maple offered. "To... make yourself less interesting so no one notices you, or something?" She turned her eyes upward. "Starlight? Can magic do that?"

"I dunno." Starlight shrugged, more interested in the conflagration of ropes and pulleys she now realized existed in the background behind Gerardo's boat. "Is that the lifting machine?" she asked.

"Watch and see," Maple said, leaning forward with a grin.

Hemlock whistled, and below a team of ponies dove into the waterfall basin where Gerardo's boat was moored. Surfacing at its edges with bits of rope in their mouths, they began working and tying... and eventually, a giant net was wrapped around the bottom, the lines trailing off into the opposite bank. The boat bobbed there, ensnared and presently useless.

"My good stallion," Gerardo began, "This all looks very impressive, but are you quite sure-"

"Haw haw! Watch and learn, Gerardo the Great!" Hemlock posed aggressively... before stomping a hoof. "Fire it up, ladies!"

The mares on the far riverbank nodded, and together began spinning what appeared to be a giant crank. With a titanic groan, a crane arm of solid timber swung out over the river, positioning itself just above Gerardo's boat with enough height to clear the waterfall.

"Hah! How do you like that?" Hemlock pointed a limb in Gerardo's face. "This is Riverfall tech! And while it was very kind of you to give us some stories and that parade earlier, now it's time to see what we can do for you! Lemme tell you, son, you're gonna be wowed by this here lift."

He barked another command, and the team operating the machine changed their positions. Wood creaked and pulleys turned, and the ropes connecting the boat to the crane boom pulled themselves tight. Then, there was a pause, a rush of water... and the boat lifted, rising above the water until it was dangling in midair.

"Wow," Amber commented, watching the thing ascend as the sounds of creaks and snaps filled the air. "I'm honestly kind of surprised that thing still works after seven years. Maple, you should see this. Want to take a turn in the middle?"

"Sure," Maple offered, tensing as she prepared to lower Amber and Starlight to the ground.

Suddenly, a sharp crack filled the air, and a collective gasp rippled through the crowd.

"Hold your panic! That's just a little maintenance it needs," Hemlock's voice shouted, failing to stem the rising din.

"Back up! Back up!" Amber hissed, quickly being lifted again. The boat was still hanging from the crane, but one of the ropes holding it had snapped, and was dangling in the rain. A cold wind stirred, rushing down the river corridor and causing the entire boat to sway.

"My good stallion," Gerardo exclaimed, "this is precisely why I requested that we remove my cargo before moving the boat! Did you really expect me to trust a machine this primitive?"

"Hey, there's nothing wrong with it, now," Hemlock hastily reassured. "Had that happen all the time in the old days. And watch your words, son! A slight against Ironridge tech is a slight against Ironridge! Ladies! Keep it moving!"

CRACKKKKK!

A splintering sound emanated from the base of the crane, causing the boom to jostle. As it did so, several more ropes broke from the shock, causing the boat to tilt at a wild angle and begin to slide from its net. The action sent a shockwave crashing through the crowd, who began to panic and shout.

"Maple!" Amber hissed breathlessly. "Hemlock's crane is falling apart with the boat midair! This is huge!"

"Woah, that's not good!" Hemlock yelped from below. "Ladies, bring 'er down gently!"

"We can't!" a mare screamed from the opposite riverbank, fighting to be heard without magical enhancements. "The central gear's shattered! If we even touch the emergency release, it could cause the entire tower to explode!"

"Arrrgh!" Hemlock tore at his beard, hat long forgotten. "Arambai! Help! Where'd that hornhead get to at a time like this? Arambaaaaaii!"

Before anyone could respond, he was blasted aside by the unfurling of Gerardo's wings. The griffon rocketed out through the rain and over the water, clutching the edge of his boat and flapping heavily, providing as much lift as he could, attempting to stabilize it. "Do something!" he panted, straining. "Anyone! My cargo...!"

"On it!" Arambai charged out of nowhere, horn lighting with a murky aura. It surrounded the boat, pressing upward alongside Gerardo... but failed to be enough, the ship sliding a few more degrees as another rope snapped. "Bah! That's not gonna work!" he growled out at the crowd, looking back as his horn blazed. "Anyone else? Running out of ideas, here!"

"Maple?" Amber asked, a note of fear in her voice as the crowd's panic reached a fever pitch. "What should we-" Her voice was cut off by a burst of artificial wind as a poncho fluttered down over her head, empty.

A streak of purple knifed through the falling rain as the sky filled with snaps and cracks, the boat tilting further and further. The crowd flinched as a set of tiny lilac hooves stampeded by above, leaping from head to head with grim determination and not a single apology. At the head of a wake of agitated ponies was Starlight, flying toward the railing, mind as clear as glass.

Crystals can float in water.

Her horn flared to life like a sword being drawn, crackling with energy as its cyan aura reflected in her eyes. It hummed welcomingly in her ears, apologizing for all the times it had made her head hurt and informing her it was ready to do anything. She sure hoped it was.

Landing in front of the railing, Starlight pushed out a wall of telekinesis, shoving back the ponies around her to give herself some space. They didn't matter. The only thing that mattered was that something bad was happening, something someone didn't deserve... and she was in a position to stop it. Aiming through a gap in the iron bars, she maximized her energy and fired.

Exactly as she did so, the crane's base exploded in a shower of tension, sending debris soaring like rockets across the river. Through some spring-loaded backlash, the crane boom was driven downward, smashing into the roof of Gerardo's boat like an axe and flinging the griffon away. The boom and the boat locked together in free-fall... which was precisely when Starlight's beam struck. F-F-F-Flaaaaashh!

Starlight grunted under the impact, the roar of crystal striking water nearly drowned out by the harsh magical buzzing in her ears. Beads of sweat began to mix with the raindrops on her brow, and she strained, even as she gathered air in her lungs to shout. "Hurry! Push it up on land!"

Panting, Starlight rolled onto her back, leaning against a railing as she focused all her concentration into maintaining the massive gemstone. This was guaranteed to hurt later and would probably put her out for several days, knowing her luck, but she didn't consider that important to think about right then. What mattered was the boat... and she could already feel hooves tapping against the side of her crystal, indicating that ponies were pushing it toward shore.

After a minute of pure exertion, she felt something huge and grainy scrape against her crystal... the riverbank. Silently hoping that no ponies would be crushed, she released the aura as gently as she could, allowing the crystal to fade out and give them some warning. Yells came from below... but no worse. Organizing shouts were heard, and Starlight allowed herself to collapse, horn hissing in the rain.

As she lay there, feeling catching up to her body, she began to be aware of the ponies around her... ponies who were staring at her with reverence and awe. "You just saved that guy's boat," one mare said, pointing a hoof.

"That was amazing," another breathed, holding a hoof to her mouth. "I haven't seen magic like that from even Arambai!"

"Who are you?" a third inquired, leaning in curiously.

"Hey, I recognize her!" a fourth exclaimed, dancing on her hooves. "She was at Sycamore's bathhouse with Amber!"

Starlight stared back at them in horror, comprehension dawning over what she had just done. Gerardo, to them, was some kind of myth... and she had possibly just saved his boat, or at least tried to in a very flashy way. The one thing she wanted was to never be treated like anything special... and now, she had given the entire town a public display of why they should do the opposite of that. It was her second day here. Her second day, and she'd managed to blow it. Already, tears began to sting her eyes.

The mares continued to press in around her. "We should take her down to see Gerardo!"

No. Not that. Anything but that. Starlight closed her eyes, burying her head in her hooves and wishing she had left the boat to its fate. It was probably wrecked anyway. She had to get away, as far away as she could. Anywhere but here. She had to... leave.

Unbidden, her horn lit itself, surrounding her in a harsh teal glow. A strange sensation tingled through all of her limbs, like she was being pulled and compacted from the inside... and suddenly, everything was quiet.

Goodbye

Starlight was still as her vision slowly adjusted to the darkness. Dim, pulsating lights seemed to swirl around her, illuminating a flat stone floor that definitely wasn't anywhere near the docks. A wave of dizziness from her horn washed over her, making her shudder and cringe. It wasn't nearly as bad as what had happened when she fell off the waterfall, at least. But what had happened, and where was she? It was as if... she had teleported...

Her eyes finally focused, revealing the sluggish lights to be traces of energy worming their way down manaconduits in the ceiling. She gasped softly, and every further detail she took in only served to confirm it: somehow, she was in Arambai's basement. She had felt a powerful urge to flee, and her horn had activated... that she had performed new magic was the only reasonable answer. Besides, it wasn't like she hadn't done it before. The mountains had forced her to come up with all sorts of new uses for her horn, like encasing herself in crystal and scanning hollow things with telekinesis. But why here?

...She was laying on the central dais of Arambai's teleportation machine.

With a sickening feeling, the reality of why she had fled crashed into her at full force. Those ponies back on the docks, they probably adored her by now. She had saved their hero! Hadn't she? What if she had failed? She hadn't seen the aftermath. What if she had crushed someone when the crystal dispelled? What if Gerardo's boat would have just floated naturally to the surface? No matter what, the entire town knew about her and thought she was special... but they could just as easily consider her a villain as a hero. Not knowing only made it worse.

A sudden spark of determination dulling her emotions, Starlight realized why her horn had elected to bring her here, of all places. Her chances of living in Riverfall were ruined, so why not visit the one exit door the town possessed? With a pang of regret, she remembered that her saddlebags were still at Maple's: she hadn't thought to pack them under the poncho when they left.

There was nothing she could do about that now, though. Who knew how long she had to figure out how to turn the teleporter on and escape? She could have anywhere from hours, if Arambai helped with the cleanup, to minutes if he could track her teleportation spell. Hoisting herself to her hooves with an iron frown, Starlight began inspecting the equipment, trailing water from her brief time in the rain.

The controls were surprisingly easy to find. It looked like Arambai had hacked together some sort of splitter, a dial labeled with strips of tape sticking out of a box many cables were connected to, with room for several more. Not stopping to marvel at the fact that Riverfall used a script she could read, she quickly turned the thing to Teleporter, silently thanking the stallion for making things easy.

Something came to life in the machine behind her, though it still looked relatively dormant, the twisting rails overhead silver and cold. Of course, it needed power. The helmet-like apparatus wired to the main towers of the machine was still sitting on Arambai's desk from the demonstration the day before, so Starlight took it in her hooves, thinking. What had he said about it? The closer to a pony's cutie mark, the better? But that had implied it didn't need to be perfectly there to work... which suited her perfectly, since she neither possessed a mark nor was big enough to wear it where intended.

She investigated the machine further, but couldn't find any sort of on-switch. Digging in her memories through the haze of her horn, she didn't actually recall Arambai doing anything to activate the flight magic the day before... merely putting the helmet on Maple and letting it work. Or had she worn it before? She couldn't remember, but maybe that would work all by itself. Steeling herself just in case and pushing back a final tide of doubts and reservations, Starlight stepped onto the central pedestal, holding the helmet high. She wouldn't get to say goodbye... did it matter? It didn't. She lowered the device, ceremoniously allowing it to make contact with the top of her head.

CRACK!

A bolt of lightning surged through the rails above her, blinding her in a bluish haze. An instant later, or maybe before, it lashed through the helmet and her body in a surge of white pain. Her scalp seared where it made contact with the blazing metal of the helmet, and a concussive blast of thunder sent her flying, smashing into a high shelf of objects. She tumbled, hit the ground, and blacked out.

Silence.

Hoofsteps.

A thin beam of bright light across Starlight's face.

And then: "Woah! What in the seventh district happened here?"

Starlight blinked, seeing spots, her body somehow refusing to move. "Unnnnngh..."

"Starlight!" Arambai's yellow face loomed over her, his black beard appearing bigger than usual from below. "We've been looking all over for you. Well... me and your folks, at least. Figured you wouldn't want too much of a fuss made over you. I was coming down here to see if I could find a device I made a while ago for telling you when unicorns were near. Your new mum's been worried sick." He narrowed his eyes, and added, "Less importantly, what happened to this here machine?"

"I-I'm sorry," Starlight choked. "You said it could go to Ironridge, and I was trying to escape..."

"Ahh, never mind." Arambai shook his head. "I'll go find someone to let Maple know you're here. As long as you aren't dying of anything magical. But even if you were, here's the best place to be."

Starlight hiccupped, laying miserably in a pool of water that had seeped from her fur. She still felt the urge to run and hide, more overwhelming than ever... but her legs wouldn't respond, and even if they would she knew it was all over. Other ponies knew. They wouldn't let her leave. They would force her to be special... to be everything she despised. A coal of helpless anger burned in her heart, but there was nothing she could do. A moment later, Arambai returned.

"Someone'll get her," he casually explained. "So, then. You tried to use my machine, did you...?" Poking at the panels and instruments attached to the case, he asked, "What did you hook this thing up to?"

"Myself," Starlight shivered. "I thought, maybe, since it was powered by ponies, I could..."

"Weird..." Arambai growled thoughtfully. "This is mind-boggling..."

"I... didn't break it, did I?" Starlight asked glumly, deciding she needed another reason to feel bad about herself. Her reflection in the puddle on the floor sniffled back up at her, and she imagined it agreed.

"You? Nahhh." Arambai shook his head and gave a mysterious grin. "Not unless you swallowed some ancient artifact when you were an infant or are an entirely new species I've never seen before. We don't really power this, you see. Ponies are more like... catalysts, for energy that already naturally exists. But this looks more like some sort of energy surge, or short circuit... And don't worry about my machine, either. It's built to handle way more power than that. That wasn't even a percent of what it could take!"

He picked up the helmet, hefting it and inspecting it with one narrowed eye. "This thing, however, is completely fried. But they're easy to make, and I've got dozens of extra. What I'm more interested in..." He tossed the helmet away and leaned down towards Starlight again. "Is you, little filly. That back there was some skill in magic it takes a full-grown unicorn who specializes in wizardry to match. If you do that on a regular basis, I can see why you'd get your horn so roughed up."

Tensing, Starlight tightened her voice, making herself sound as fierce as she could muster. "I don't want to be special. So tell everyone to leave me alone!"

"You don't, huh?" Arambai asked bemusedly. "That's a pity. You'd be good at it. In all my years, I've seen a kid with talents like yours maybe once, and they already had their brand. Imagine what a sight you'll be if you ever get yours!"

"No!" Starlight hissed. "I don't want a cutie mark! And I'm not getting one!"

"Hmmm..." The corners of Arambai's mouth fell. "You know, I'm doing you an awful lot of favors here, kid. Giving you a tour of the place, offering to make you my student, telling you I'd spread around some story from where you were from... and now, I'm about to overlook the fact that you broke into my house and damaged a very rare experiment. I care about this town, but that's an awful lot to do for just one pony, you know?" He looked questioningly at her, as if permitting her to suggest otherwise.

Starlight shivered, finding the strength in her legs to back away.

"Now, I like respecting ponies and their pasts, but if you could give me an honest answer about just one thing, it would make me feel a lot better about doing all this for free." He raised a thick eyebrow, inviting more objection. Still, Starlight was silent.

"All right," Arambai sighed. "You came from across the mountains, didn't you?"

Mutely, Starlight nodded.

"Go figure," Arambai muttered. "Eventful days, these. Anyway, your secret's safe with me. I won't tell a soul... and I'll see if I can whip something up to take the eyes off you, too."

Maple chose that moment to barge down the stairs. "Starlight!" she yelled, eyes wide with concern and excitement. "You're here!"

"Good afternoon, Maple," Arambai greeted with a lazy wave. "Your timing is excellent. I just finished having a chat with her, myself! Anyhow, I've got to clean up after a little mishap, so have yourselves whatever talk you need to!"

"Starlight?" Maple stepped closer, face suddenly questioning when she saw the filly's state. "Are... you all right?"

Starlight sniffed once. For a second, the only noise in the room was water dripping against the stone floor from Maple's coat.

"You didn't hurt your horn, did you?" Crossing the distance and leaning down, Maple wrapped the filly in a watery hug. "You were amazing out there. You saved that griffon's boat! I couldn't see it from the bottom, but they told me..." Slowly, the excitement drained from her face, replaced by comprehension. "Oh. That's why you were hiding."

"Yeah. Oh." Starlight's voice was bitter and cold. "I was amazing. Right in front of the whole entire town!" She sniffed, burying her face in Maple's coat... which didn't have the effect she had hoped, partially because they were both soaking wet and partially because she still had every intention of leaving as soon as she was able. Maybe she'd stow away on Gerardo's boat, or something.

"I'm sorry," Maple sniffed back. "I was just so proud of you. I guess..." She sighed deeply. "That explains why Amber was grandstanding and trying to be an attention hog after the thing was over. I guess she just had a better grasp of what you were feeling than me. And instead, I come running in here, all happy for you..." She wiped back a tear, though it might have been water from her mane. "Some parent I'm turning out to be, huh?"

Something tore at Starlight's insides. Could she really tell Maple she wanted to leave? What would it do to the mare? Would it matter, if she wasn't there to feel it? She knew all too well what it felt like to lose a friend one had come to cherish above all else. How come upholding her values, which were designed to avoid pain, would wind up hurting others? She hung her head; it just didn't make sense.

Once, there was a time when Starlight didn't solve all her problems by running away. That was also the time when she could count on other ponies to solve them for her, and be fair in doing so. Ponies like her parents, and Sunburst's. That was before they had failed, and shown her how useless they were at being fair and protecting her from accidents. Before she had learned to do everything herself, with what limited power she had... even if that power was only to run, and hope there might be some corner of the world where things were better.

But what did better look like? Was it really a freedom from hardship, or change? Or could it just be that there were ponies who were there to fix things when they went wrong... or at least tried? She desperately hoped that could be true... so she pressed closer to Maple and did her part.

"I don't want to run away again," Starlight truthfully cried, eyes squeezed shut. "Can you fix it? Can you make them leave me alone?"

"I don't know," Maple answered back. "But I'll try, Starlight. I'll try."

Hello

"Starlight?" Maple whispered out of the embrace. "Can I show you something?"

"What is it?" Starlight grunted, wrapped between Maple's still-wet forelegs on the stone floor of Arambai's basement.

"It's nothing special," Maple began softly. "Just a trick I learned when I was feeling down... that sometimes helped me feel better. Maybe it will work for you, too?"

"Mkay..."

"Well..." Maple stared off into the walls and rows of boxes and storage that made up most of Arambai's lab. "Whenever I was feeling like there was nothing that could go right with the world, I would get out of bed and take a walk. And while I was walking, I would look at everything I saw, and think to myself about who might be happy that it was there."

"Mhm."

"It didn't always work perfectly," Maple continued patiently. "Sometimes, I would get jealous, or angry that the world was unfair. Still, those emotions are better than despair. They can make you want to change things. And I know how you feel about that, but when things never change, they can also never get better..."

She shifted, scooting to a slightly dryer part of the puddle. "But other times, I didn't feel that. Instead, it made me glad for other ponies, imagining what they had and loved. And on those days... it didn't matter what I was glad for. I was happy, and then, that was enough."

The lights flickered overhead more harshly than usual as Arambai messed with a piece of equipment in the back, causing Starlight to wince and close her eyes.

"No matter what I felt while I was on those walks, imagining who loved what I saw, though, I always ended them the same way. Do you know how that was?" Maple leaned down and nuzzled Starlight, receiving no response.

"Hee... well... whenever I would get back... the last thing I looked at was a mirror."

Starlight grunted, still seeping water from her coat and mane. "I'm cold..."

"Well, we should fix that," Maple said, holding her close. "But after we do, will you go on one of those walks with me? I think it would help... and I'd love to share one with you."

"I can tell you what somepony would love right off the bat," Arambai interrupted, trotting out from between two stacks of boxes. "It's called a towel rack, and there's one right upstairs! Seriously, it's like you brought the entire river down here!"

"Sorry," Maple hastily apologized, cheeks reddening as much as her rain-chilled state would allow. "We can, uh, clean this up on our way out?" She stood up, hefting Starlight and facing the stairs.

"Don't worry about it," Arambai replied with the wave of a foreleg. "Just take care of yourselves, you two. I'll manage this mess by myself."

"Thank you!" Maple waved back as she climbed the stairs, Starlight on her back.

"Well, this isn't how I usually begin these," Maple admitted, rubbing herself vigorously with a white linen, "but being dry is nice, right? Isn't this a good thing?"

Starlight slumped beside her, not moving or toweling herself off.

"What's wrong?" Maple's head craned around to look her in the eyes. "Starlight, I really am trying my best. Won't you at least talk to me?"

"Sorry," Starlight mumbled at the floor. "I'm listening. You can keep talking."

Maple sighed, forcibly unfurrowing her brow and beginning to dry Starlight. "Starlight, I'm already saying practically everything I can think of to try to make conversation. I've given you my inspirational speeches, I've told you about how my life hasn't been perfect just like yours. I'm running out of things to say! And it's not like I can help you with just words when I don't even know you as well as I'd like. You told me about you, and where you came from, but that doesn't help as much as you'd think it does. To get to know you, I need to... well..." She sighed again and drooped. "I need to talk to you, and you need to talk to me. And I bet it goes the other way, too. How well do you know me? You know what I've done and what's happened to me, but that's not the same as who I am..."

"Sorry," Starlight repeated. She didn't have anything else to say.

"Look, if you need time..." Maple sucked in a breath. "I'll give you time. Okay? For right now, let's just finish getting you dried off, and then go on that walk. As long as you're trying. Please try?"

Before Starlight could answer, Arambai bustled up the stairs, the light of inspiration in his eyes. "I've got it!" he crowed as he passed. "I bet there's something in that griffon's cargo that caused the machine to go haywire through proximity! And those readings might have been closer to what I was trying to achieve, too! I've gotta track him down before any variables change!"

Starlight and Maple looked at each other, then at the still-swinging door Arambai had barged out of, his voice trailing off into the distance. It appeared to have stopped raining.

"Well? That's something a lot of ponies are probably happy about, isn't it?" Maple asked with a smile. "Good for us, too! Do you want to walk yourself, this time?"

"My horn hurts, okay?" Starlight looked sharply up at Maple. "My mind won't stop thinking about things or slow down and it's giving me a headache! It keeps coming up with stupid ideas for how I could make everyone here forget I ever did that or treat me the same anyway that would never work, and it won't stop telling me how screwed I am and how I need to run away even though that's impossible and I already decided I'm staying here! Okay!?"

"Oh..." Maple's lips pursed in shock. "I'm sorry! Would it help if I wasn't talking, then?"

"No. Keep talking," Starlight muttered, rubbing her forehead with a hoof. "It distracts me."

"Okay..." Gently, Maple lifted the filly back to her back and pushed her way out the door. It wasn't sunny, but the rain seemed to have stopped, save for a few fat drops still working their way down from the canopy. They splashed against the river of moisture making its way to a drain somewhere along the glass, gemstones twinkling like stars below. Maple breathed, relishing the scents.

"See that house ahead?" she asked, not batting an eye when Starlight didn't respond. "I bet somepony really loves that house. Or maybe some ponies. Don't you?"

Starlight was silent.

"I wonder... what if one day, when this house was newly built, a pony hurt themselves here, falling from the roof. A construction worker, maybe, adding the finishing touches. And because of that, other ponies began to think this house was bad luck, and no one wanted to live here. Wouldn't that be sad?"

She closed her eyes, walking by instinct as she narrated. "But then, one day a little filly about your age didn't know the house's history, and she moved in, taking shelter from the rains after having a fight with her mother. The house was so grateful to her for giving it a chance that it hid her when ponies came looking for her, and provided for her every need. Eventually, didn't need to hide anymore and reconciled with her family. The house had kept her safe while she needed it most."

Maple rounded the building, brushing it with her tail. "In time, she grew up and learned the story of the house, and why it had been empty when she needed it. It still was. But she remembered everything it had done for her and bought the house, and they lived happily ever after."

"Did she really?" Starlight asked from her back, eyes distant.

"Heehee. No." Maple skipped along, putting the house behind her before settling into a gentler gait. "That's just a story I made up to tell myself. Sometimes, you see a thing and you know instantly how it's loved. Other times, you have to guess, so why not have fun guessing? Besides, like you said. Imagining helps take your mind off whatever you don't want to be thinking about."

"Oh." Starlight blinked, staring around.

"I have so many stories like that..." Maple sighed wistfully. "Part of me needed to hear them."

"Only part?" Starlight leaned forward to ask. Maple brightened; the filly was getting engaged.

"Well," she giggled softly, "the other part of me needed them to be told. We told you about our attempt to see the world. It didn't make me depressed when we failed, but I never got over it like Willow or Amber, either. I still dream of places far away, you know. But that's okay." She leaned back and nuzzled Starlight. "As long as I have you here, I think I can rest, knowing that I'm doing something with my life. I'm glad you're here, Starlight." She blinked, and added, "But I do still like telling stories."

No response.

"You see the road?" Maple asked, tapping her hooves as she walked against the glittering surface. "We can't see the sky very much in Riverfall. You have to be at the docks to see it, and it needs to be a clear day. If it's night, though... well, I bet you saw the sky a lot in the mountains." Starlight hummed, so she continued. "Sometimes I like to imagine that the roads are the night sky. They're shiny... glowy... yet behind the stars, it's perfectly black. It's beautiful."

She cleared her throat, shaking off an errant drop of rain. "Anyway, I tell myself that before Arambai came here, he was a powerful mage... and he made a pact with a sky spirit, who knew what we were missing and wanted to give us the sky to have, always. So the spirit sent him here, and told him he could never leave until we had the sky... but if he succeeded, he'd be rewarded. Arambai then took a slice of the sky and sealed it in glass, and now we have this, for all of us to look at whenever we please."

"Huh." Starlight continued to ride without fidgeting, giving no indication that she was impressed... or bored. She had withdrawn back into her head, and wasn't coming out.

"I know, it's a silly story," Maple admitted, pressing on past the boundary of the glass. "But doesn't it help? To be able to escape somewhere else for a while, without having to actually leave?" She hung her head as she walked. "I know it helped me, at least. Let's see, though... ah!" She pointed a hoof across from her. "See there, on that patio? Someone's left a stuffed toy. It doesn't take a story to imagine how that could have been loved..."

Maple continued glancing around, looking for things. "There, that house has a wind chime by the door. The wind never blows here outside of the docks due to all the trees, so somepony must have put that there for a very special reason. And look at the cups in the window of that house! They look lovely, but the set is incomplete, so they must be in use. I bet somepony appreciates those..."

They wandered further through town, Maple's hooves squelching in the mud. "Look over there," she offered. "See that cart parked next to that house? It looks like it's been repaired, and skillfully, too. Somepony must have really loved that cart to take such good care of it..."

On her back, Starlight's eyes drooped. "I'm not tired," the filly pre-emptively explained. "Magic just makes you yawn. It's... nngh..."

"Taxing. I know." Maple softly shushed her, not using a hoof as hers were caked in mud. She continued to scan the area, eyes settling on a passing mare. "Oh!" In a low voice, she exclaimed, "See that mare? I think she's going to have a foal. I know just how much joy can come with that. When you're not... you know..."

Blinking, she shook herself from her rising stupor. "And look, she walked right past us! That's good, right?" She looked back at Starlight. "Looks like you aren't famous enough that every pony in town knows, yet!"

"Mmph." Starlight sagged. "She probably had better things to do than get smashed in a crowd and rained on for hours, like staying inside and minding her own business."

"Perhaps," Maple hesitantly agreed. "Now that I think about it, though, we haven't been stopped once, and you're in plain sight. Where are all the ponies from the docks?"

"Nngh." Starlight shrugged noncommittally. "I don't care."

"It's weird, though..." Maple glanced around, eyes darting back and forth as they entered a street lined with ponies standing around and chatting. Snippets of conversation flew around, the words 'griffon' and 'boat' registering several times in Maple's ears... though all she picked up were a few friendly waves. More than half of the ponies ignored them entirely. "It's like they don't even see you! What happened?"

"Don't know, don't care," Starlight muttered. "I'm hungry."

"Relax," Maple said, rounding another turn. "We're almost home. Tonight, I was thinking of making biscuits with vegetables and mushroom gravy. I think you'll really enjoy it. In fact..."

More houses passed by as Maple talked about dinner, and eventually hers came into sight. Sighing tiredly, she announced, "Next time, I think you get to walk. Anyway, we're home!"

"Okay." Starlight slumped to the ground. "Just not right now..."

"Hold on," Maple murmured, pulling her back. "Aren't you forgetting the final step?"

Starlight's head was turned toward a shining mirror sitting on the porch. She stared back at herself, recently drenched and still half-wet, with shadows under her eyes and a few black singes along the edge of her mane from Arambai's machine. Her ponytail had come undone, and her purple eyes were dull.

"The other ponies might not be able to see you, or maybe act like they don't," Maple hummed, stepping up behind her and placing her chin on Starlight's head, "for better or for worse. But I do, and I love what I see. No matter what you do, whenever you look in a mirror, you can see yourself and think of me. Okay?" She waited a moment, sighed contentedly, and then stepped back, raising a hoof to push open the door.

It swung open of its own accord, and a beaked face blinked out. "Oh, hello!" Gerardo Guillaume announced cheerily. "It seems these directions were correct, after all!"

Rude

"You probably know who I am already," Gerardo Guillaume said, preventing an awkward silence from forming. "Gerardo Guillaume, griffon adventurer extraordinaire. In case you forgot, you lent me your aid earlier, and for that I am most grateful." He bowed graciously at Starlight.

"Uhhhhh..." Maple recoiled harshly, her expectations of a quiet, private evening suddenly dashed. "What are you doing in my house?"

"In order of importance?" He raised an eyebrow, staring at them with one avian eye. "First, to thank you; second, to apologize; and third, because one can never have too many friends." He coughed into a wing, and added, "Also, because I'll apparently be stuck here for a while and have nothing better to do."

"To apologize?" Maple asked, coldly pushing forward into the door while Starlight glowered at the griffon from behind. "For... breaking into my house?"

"To her, as a matter of fact," Gerardo said, pointing a wing at Starlight. "And in my defense, you did leave the door unlocked, and it was still raining when I arrived. Furthermore, this is a store..." He backed away from the door, allowing the ponies through. "Regardless... I have been made aware that putting yourself in the public eye in order to aid me was not something that was in your best interests to do?"

"What?" Starlight blinked groggily up at him, frowning.

"You saved my ship," Gerardo explained in simpler terms. "Or, more precisely, the priceless cargo inside it." He tilted his head. "Did you not?"

Starlight growled towards the ground. "Mmmph..."

Gerardo raised a concerned eyebrow at Maple. "Does she not like me, or is it always like this?"

Maple shrugged, leaning suspiciously against her store counter. "No offense, but you're not really making the best first impression on me either..." Inwardly, she bristled, hoping he would get the point.

"Erm. Yes. Ahem. I do apologize." Gerardo shuffled from talon to talon, apparently nervous. "I like to think diplomacy is my strong suit, but apparently I misjudged the situation. Might I have a redo?"

"Fine," Maple waved, moving to stand next to Starlight. "But just so you know, today I got up earlier than I would have liked, hiked back and forth across town while carrying a load, got rained on, ran around very frantically for four hours and just had a long, emotional and very one-sided chat with my newly-adopted daughter. I'm exhausted, and no matter how excited I usually might be to find an adventurer from distant lands standing in my house and wanting to talk to me, right now all I want is to make dinner, take a nap and reassure Starlight that her world is not about to implode."

"I... see." Gerardo blinked several times. "Perhaps it would be best for all parties involved if I came back at a later time, then?" He looked toward the window and blinked again. "How do you tell time here when you can't see the sun?"

"You do that," Maple grumbled. "I'm going to go put dinner on..." She and Starlight climbed the stairs, not waiting to see what the griffon decided to do.

"Stupid griffon... stupid griffon..." Maple stewed as she prepared a pot of broth, stiffly throwing in ingredients that would transform it into mushroom gravy.

"All I wanted," she sniffed angrily, stirring the pot with two hooves, "was to make dinner, sit down, and go to bed. But apparently, that is too much to ask for without some bozo invading my privacy when I was talking with Starlight and ruining the mood! Rrrgh!"

She slipped to the side, dumping a vat of rising dough on her counter and beginning to shape it into dollops on a sheet for baking. "He could have knocked..." She threw down a lump. "Or waited outside..." She splatted another, briefly folding her ears and pushing it back into shape. "Or apologized when I asked him to instead of talking about something completely different..." Dropping the mix, she threw herself onto her back, staring up at the ceiling and steaming. "But he didn't. And now I'm ticked, and can't cook right, and am talking out loud and sound like Amber!"

She panted for a moment, not quite hyperventilating but still laying on her back. Eventually, still irked, she professionally flipped onto her hooves and resumed spreading the biscuit dough, not speaking a word as she shaped them with considerably more finesse than earlier.

As she worked, leaning across to give the pot a quick sniff and additional stir, the back of her mind continued to spin. What had the griffon done? Come to say thank-you after Starlight worked her magic for him? Spoken in an unnecessarily theatrical manner that was probably a show for all the villagers?

A sudden hiss outside heralded the return of the rains, never content to stay gone for long. The cool air from the open window caused Maple's coat to raise, and she huddled slightly closer to the pot as she worked than she otherwise would have. She knew exactly what Gerardo had really done: caught her with her guard down. It wasn't something that would have been a problem years ago. A younger her would have been delighted to come home and find an explorer in her house. Now, she could only lower it for ponies she trusted... and as an offering to Starlight. He probably truly had no idea what he had walked into.

"Starlight?" she asked, turning around. "Do you think he was...?"

Starlight was nowhere to be seen. The benches at her table were vacant, the lights dim and the door to the bedroom ajar. Curiously, Maple stuffed the biscuit sheet into the oven to begin baking and walked toward the door on the tips of her hooves. It swung open soundlessly at her touch.

Light from the door illuminated half of a lilac body slumbering softly on the bed, Starlight's head fully in the shadows. Maple felt her poise soften at the sight, and she stepped further in, leaning her head onto the bed. The feel of Starlight's gentle breaths brushed against her cheek, and like that, all her tension was gone. It didn't matter. The thing that mattered was currently on that bed, and she was happy enough to be at peace.

With a smile on her face, Maple resumed her cooking, thoughtfully adding more to the pot. She had too little experience to know what Starlight would love, so she let her imagination take its place, projecting her mind out beyond the mountains.

Should she use spices commonly associated with Riverfall? It would always be good if the filly developed a taste for local cuisine. On the other hoof, maybe something more exotic would impress her. Face scrunching as she tried to sniff two vials of spice at once, she felt her eyes brighten at the combination and prepared to generously shake it in.

Thud.

Maple gasped, realizing that something yellow and fuzzy had plastered itself against her window. She squinted. "Amber?"

"Mapllle!" The yellow mare grinned through the glass, clinging on upside-down like a giant yellow squirrel before lithely wriggling around and squeezing herself through the aperture, leaving a trail of water across Maple's counter as she slithered to the floor.

"Amber, what...?" Maple squinted curiously, standing over the soaked mare laying on the floor.

"So, enjoy the gift?" Amber grinned cheekily up at her. "Stupidest thing I've ever done, but wow will it be worth it in the morning. And oooh, is that something coking I smell?"

"Gift? Wait a minute. You didn't..." Maple blinked worriedly, doubt creasing into her brow.

"I did!" Amber nodded twice, wearing an expression that suggested she was leaking a national secret and loving every second of it.

"Oh." Maple hung her head. "He might have surprised me, and I... told him to go away."

Amber bit her lip, still laying on the floor. "Huh. Hope you didn't make it too awkward, because me and him are kind of friends now and he's stuck in Riverfall until I can fix his boat."

A silence as perfectly awkward as Amber had implied settled between then. Eventually, Maple said, "Well, I am making dinner, and you're welcome to stay if you're hungry." She rolled her eyes and added, "Not that being unwelcome would ever stop you."

"Or that I'd ever be unwelcome?" Amber asked, flipping upright with a smirk. "We also tried to take some of the heat off Starlight, by the way."

"That was you?" Maple raised an eyebrow. "Everyone was ignoring us on the way back. It sounded like you were doing something when I was leaving, but... what did you do?"

Amber stuffed a hoof in her mouth, suddenly trying not to laugh. After composing herself for a moment, she snickered, "Basically, I got everyone's attention, then convinced old Hemlock right in front of the crowd that I had sabotaged his crane and made it explode. He blew his stack super hard! I think he was actually looking to blame someone for that already, but whatever. Most of the crowd probably just thought I was messing with him in return for wrecking Gerardo's boat, but they loved it and played along. Gerardo was in on it, too! I got him to tell everyone the crystal thing was a safety mechanism in his boat. Get some conflicting stories out there and then don't give anyone time to think about it, you know?"

She licked her shoulder, straightening an errant clump of fur, and continued. "So yeah, Starlight might still be a bit of a celebrity, but she's already old news. And Gerardo's stuck here for a bit, so as long as he hangs around her he'll keep her in his shadow. I'm also technically a fugitive now, which is why I came in through the window, but who cares? So, when's dinner?"

Relief washed over Maple's face. "Soon. But you actually did that for her?"

"Well, I can't say it didn't feel fun to do," Amber said, brushing some dirt off a foreleg. "Ever since that one day where he followed me around the downtown bazaar and..." She shook her head. "Ugh. You remember. Who does that, anyway? Point is, he had it coming."

"Why's it so loooooud...?" Starlight complained, hobbling out of the bedroom while rubbing her eyes with a hoof.

Maple pursed her lips in alarm. "Oh! Sorry, I forgot to shut the door for you! But, umm..." She smiled hesitantly. "The biscuits are in the oven and this gravy is coming along well, if you'd like a taste?"

"Kiddo," Amber said, leaning down with a smile, "me and Gerardo got the town off your back for you while you were out there. Just wanted you to know." She threw in a wink for good measure.

"...Huh?" Starlight blinked several times, mouth stretching in a massive yawn.

"Yep," Amber added, "we did. And by the way..." She glanced aside, then whispered out of the corner of her mouth. "The dude's actually kind of... y'know... nice. You did him a big favor, and he did one in return for you. So it would be cool if you at least said thank you, next time you see him, because I have a feeling that the last time, you didn't."

"That's why the other ponies left us alone," Maple added from the background, still stirring. "Something about you being old news. You won't have to worry about being special after all!"

Starlight blinked again, hope and mistrust mixing in her eyes. "You did? How?"

"Hogged the spotlight, stole the show." Amber waved nonchalantly. "Gave Hemlock the runaround he deserves. Still am, actually. I just told Maple all about it. She'll give you the story. I've gotta run."

"...You're not staying for dinner?" Maple asked, a slight look of annoyance on her face as she finished dumping more ingredients into the pot. "But I was making extra!"

"Oh, I am." Amber grinned, hopping up onto the windowsill with a salute. "Just after I'm back... with guests."

Party

Maple sighed as Amber disappeared from the window, and turned to Starlight. "Well, I guess-"

Thump.

She raised both eyebrows as Amber climbed back inside. "You," the yellow mare began, seating herself on Maple's counter and folding her forelegs, "might wanna go check your porch."

Slightly nonplussed, Maple turned down the heat on the gravy and softly stepped down the stairs. She crossed the darkened interior of her store, eventually reaching out a hoof and swinging the door open. "Hmm?"

A very wet griffon stared back at her, standing a respectable distance away... but no further. Gerardo bowed. "I do wish to apologize for anything I may have said or done that was unbecoming. Is there any chance this is a better time? I am, as you can see, in a slightly uncomfortable position."

"Uhhhuhummm..." Maple laughed nervously. "No, that was my fault. You can come in. Sorry." She waved him in, at which he gratefully rushed past. "It's rude to enter others' homes without asking, though."

"I gathered as much," Gerardo said wryly, beelining for a stack of towels and rubbing his head and face against them. "And before you ask, fear not, I didn't smash any of your crockery in search of money. That's one stereotype even I won't be living up to any time soon."

"What?" Maple squinted, tilting her head.

"You friend Amber invited me here, for the record," he said before the conversation could continue in that direction. "I felt I should mention that sooner this time."

"She's upstairs. She told me." Maple kept her distance from the big griffon as she spoke. Regardless of her intentions of hospitality, she still felt a significant awkwardness around him. "Did you really do that for Starlight?"

"Your filly?" Gerardo blinked, shrugging off his sodden garment and hanging it next to the towel rack, the clattering of steel emanating as he did so. "If by that you mean giving that fraud at the river a piece of my mind, indeed I did. That isn't to imply that I'm not grateful she saved my ship, nor that I'm unfamiliar with the circumstances that can cause one to want to lie low, of course."

"So..." Maple began warily, keeping her curiosity in check. "Amber said your ship is broken, but you say it's saved. What happened there?"

Gerardo sagged slightly. "More precisely, what has been saved was the cargo aboard it. I am, or at least was, making a delivery, you see. As for the ship, its core components and hull appear to be intact, but the cabin was completely smashed when that crane fell on it. I'm afraid I will be stuck here until it can be returned to service."

"Okay." Maple hesitated, unsure of where to go next. The griffon was still dripping, but she could invite him upstairs... or go look for more towels. Thanks to Amber, the kitchen was already wet, so his sogginess probably wouldn't make a difference.

Suddenly, the door breezed open and a large mare in a long raincoat walked through. Willow tossed off her hood, preparing a cheery greeting... then stopping in her tracks, eyes widening at Gerardo. "You're here?" she managed, sounding nearly breathless.

"Willow?" Maple tilted her head. "What are you doing here?"

Willow composed herself with remarkable speed. "I heard from Amber that Starlight had had a hard day and wanted to come see if there was anything you needed, but..." She shook her head.

Gerardo blinked concernedly nevertheless at her. "I hope I haven't managed to offend again."

Forcing his concern back with her stare, Willow stood her ground... then swiftly glanced up at the stairway, catching a yellow head retreating around the top. "Amber?" she called, smiling like she had caught a naughty foal. "Is this your fault?"

"No promises," Amber replied, lazily backstroking down the stairs. "Sure would be a shame to let all three of us being here with an awesome adventurer go to waste, though, wouldn't it? Maple, I sure hope you made a ton!"

"If that's an invitation to stay, I do have nowhere else to be," Gerardo helpfully volunteered. He hesitated, and added, "Technically, Hemlock invited me to borrow his residence for the time in compensation. I told him to go jump in the river."

"C'mon, Maple..." Amber pleaded from behind the counter. "This is actually, literally a once-in-seven-years opportunity. Let's have a party and stuff! We can be the luckiest mares in Riverfall tonight!"

Maple sighed, smiled, and let go. "All right. Come on upstairs, everyone. I'll get extra started."

Three mares and a griffon sat around Maple's small upper-floor table, warmed by lighting, hot biscuits and general good cheer. Gerardo beamed broadly, firing off answers to questions as rapidly as they came, with Willow, Amber and Maple asking whatever came to mind between bites.

Maple sat back and sighed, feeling much better than earlier now that Starlight was sound asleep in the bedroom with the door shut tight and her friends were all present. She was still working off her surprise and annoyance toward the griffon, but for the moment felt much better. Swallowing, she asked, "So, you talked about llamas before the river? What were they like?"

"Ah!" Gerardo twirled a biscuit on one talon before devouring it whole. "The llamas live in a port city far to the north. I'd tell you its name, but the city is run by a council who gives it a new name each and every day. I suspect them to be insane, blind adherents to tradition, or both."

"I've never seen a llama," Amber belched, licking gravy from her plate. "How big are they?"

Gerardo shrugged. "Quite a bit of variance. Between ponies and griffons, I would say. Of course, if I'm the first griffon you've seen as well, that can't be a perfectly good reference."

"About that..." Maple licked her lips. "I thought you were red earlier, but you look sort of blue now. Does being wet change your coat?"

"This is my natural coloration," Gerardo responded, stretching a blue-gray wing for emphasis. "I imagine what you saw before, if from a distance, was my coat, which hopefully won't end up shrunken."

"Oh. Yeah... Sorry about that..." Amber bit her lip. "Probably should have been there too when you turned up, huh?" She munched the end of a green bean pulled from the gravy for emphasis.

"Think nothing of it." Gerardo calmly spooned himself more gravy, adjusting his talons carefully to use the utensils designed for gripping by pony mouths and hooves. "I'm sure this town has a tailor somewhere I could get something new at. Perhaps black would look good on me? I have been meaning to try a new look..."

"I have a question," Willow asked, putting down her drink. "Have you heard the legend of Blazing Rain? We were having an argument earlier over how much of it is true."

"Now there's a legend ponies are good at putting spins on." Gerardo sipped from his own, eyes increasing in intensity. "The pegasus who stopped a Yakyakistani civil war forty years ago. The closest anyone has come since times of legend to saving the world. There's no doubt she existed."

"Forty years?" Willow leaned forward with interest. "That's not outside living memory."

"Saving the world?" Amber practically vibrated. "That's the part that's true?"

"Yakyakistan is built predominantly on top of a large glacier," Gerardo narrated, setting down his food. "That glacier, according to legend, happens to be the resting place of a race of demons known as windigoes. Windigoes are said to feed on hatred and strife, so if a war transpired in Yakyakistan..." He drew a talon ominously across his throat.

Amber had stopped eating, watching him with wide eyes. Maple and Willow still politely chewed, making as little noise as possible.

"Whether or not the windigoes even exist beneath the glacier is indeed up for debate," Gerardo continued with significantly more levity, "but what is certain is that the war was snipped in its infancy and the windigoes did not come out."

"But what about the magic?" Amber asked, gauging the amount left in the pot. "She had special powers, right?"

Maple smacked her hoof away. "Save some of that for Starlight, please."

As Amber shook her sore hoof, looking more hurt than she really was, Gerardo answered, "That's difficult to verify, considering the only witnesses were members of her band and yaks. It is, in turn, impossible to tell who really accompanied her when it is such a tempting position to lay claim to, and the yaks are..." He stared upwards thoughtfully. "An interesting bunch, to say the least."

"So, have you ever been south of the mountains?" Maple asked casually, preparing a bowl and setting it aside for Starlight.

"The mountains?" Gerardo blinked. "Which ones, if I may?"

"To the south," Maple said, doing her best to keep her tone as innocent as it had been. "From here. The tall ones."

Gerardo shook his head ruefully. "I'm aware they aren't as infinite as some lore makes them out to be, but crossing them remains truly impossible. Travel east or west as far as you please, there is no way around them. The distance and altitude gain make them insurmountable to even the best-equipped airships. And if the height of technology cannot conquer them, what hope do lone adventurers have?"

"But they have tried, haven't they?" Maple consciously kept her ears straight. "And just failed?"

"They've been trying for thousands of years," Gerardo laughed. "The most successful barely scratched the foothills. One did discover the natural formation upon which Ironridge was founded, however. I imagine that worked out nicely for him!"

Amber, Maple and Willow shared a look among themselves, and instantly knew what the others were thinking. "...So!" Amber chirped, before the silence could get suspicious. "Could I get a rerun of how you battled those mercenaries to buy your boat?"

Strange

Several hours after dark, the party ended. Gerardo vanished to who knew where, Amber leaving through the window soon after. Maple's dinner had been completely devoured, save for a small bowl for Starlight staying warm on the stove.

Gray slits of light filtered in through the covered windows as Maple stood in the doorway, seeing Willow off with a wave. The silvery mare was the last to leave, poncho hugged tight against the gently pounding rain as she vanished into the night.

Maple waited for a few moments, letting the cool night air cleanse her emotions. As it drifted against her face, she felt the evening's excitement turn into a perfect sense of calm and lucidity. She still felt uneasy around Gerardo, though it was mostly on a superficial level and hadn't prevented her from enjoying his company. Starlight had apparently had a traumatic day, but she was fine now, out of the public eye and sleeping peacefully. Everything seemed to be going fine... which meant it was time to take Starlight her dinner, and then get some sleep herself.

The stairs creaked slightly under Maple's weight as she ascended. Upstairs, only a single light was on. She didn't bother to snuff it as she passed; it would be good to have if she came back out. Instead, she carefully balanced Starlight's bowl on her back and pushed open the door to the bedroom.

A teal light greeted her. Starlight was awake, horn glowing and hunched over sideways. She started when Maple appeared, gasping briefly and looking up.

Maple blinked. "Starlight? Are you okay?"

"I had a nightmare," Starlight muttered, face suddenly downcast. "It woke me up."

"What was it?" Maple asked, minding the bowl on her back as she stepped closer. "Er, if you want to tell me?"

Starlight hung her head. "I dreamt I really wanted my cutie mark."

"Here." Maple set the bowl down and leaned onto the bed, letting it support her as she offered Starlight a hug. "You can want whatever you want, and I'll still love you. Okay?"

"I was older," Starlight continued, not returning the embrace. "I was killing ponies to get it."

"Oh..." Maple felt her insides tighten. "Well, maybe try not to want that?"

"I don't," Starlight protested forcefully. "I'm never getting a cutie mark. Not if it could make me do that. I woke up, and I've been watching to make sure it doesn't come..."

"I don't think it will," Maple said in what she hoped was a reassuring voice. She was slightly unsettled that Starlight would have that sort of dream, but didn't want it to show. "I saved you dinner. It's very good; I made it with you in mind. Want some?"

"Okay. I'm hungry," Starlight said, worming her way to the edge of the bed. "And tired," she added with a yawn. "I want to sleep, but I'm scared if I do, I'll..."

Maple lifted the bowl up to her. "If you do, I'll be here for you when you wake up. I promise."

Starlight didn't bother with utensils, lapping directly at the bowl with her tongue. "This is good," she managed between bites.

"Thank you," Maple replied, leaning against the bed as soft teal light streamed off of Starlight's horn.

Eventually, the filly finished, leaving the bowl completely cleaned. "Nnngh... I feel better..." she yawned, pulling back.

"Better?" Maple took the bowl and set it aside. "Was anything else wrong, besides hunger?"

Starlight yawned again. "I felt fuzzy when I woke up, like I was made of paper or cotton. It's been going away for a while..."

Maple nosed her, climbing into the bed. "You're using your magic. Does that mean your horn feels better, too?"

"I am?" Starlight's eyes crossed upwards. "Oh. Huh. My horn does feel better. I don't know why. Usually it doesn't work for..." she yawned again. "Days..."

"I think somepony needs to get to sleep," Maple murmured, rolling onto her side and inviting Starlight closer. "Or some ponies. But don't worry. I'll be... here if anything happens..."

She closed her eyes, melting into the bed in the darkness of the bedroom. A minute later, she felt Starlight approach, crawling under a foreleg. A minute after that, she was asleep.

Starlight slowly felt herself come to. The room around her was dark, as it usually was. That was right. Maple was next to her, large and warm and softly breathing. That was also right.

As she checked over herself, though, she started to get suspicious. Her head was almost too clear, and she didn't feel any of the usual cramps or grogginess associated with waking up. Her limbs felt like she'd just finished her morning stretches, and she wasn't thirsty. She was always thirsty in the mornings. It was almost as if things were too perfect.

She had just been using magic, too. Her sleep had been so dreamless, it felt like seconds ago... and her horn definitely didn't hurt now. That wasn't right... or, at least, it wasn't normal. She certainly couldn't complain about any of the changes, even if they were seemingly out of nowhere. Still, something had to have caused them...

With a flash of panic, her eyes flew open and to her flank. Her horn lit dimly, but all that was there was blank lilac fur. She sighed heavily. At least that wasn't different.

As she sat there, though, she heard the muffled noise of Maple's voice coming from behind. When she turned, the earth pony's eyes were squeezed shut tighter than normal, her mouth upturned in a frown. She muttered several incomprehensible words.

Starlight bit her lip. Apparently somepony wasn't having nearly as nice of a morning as she was, unusual or not. For that matter, how early even was it? She could never tell, thanks to Maple's darkened windows. But that wasn't really important, right then.

Maple shifted and hugged herself. Poking carefully, Starlight squeezed in such that the mare was hugging her instead... and watched with satisfaction by the dimming light of her horn as her face shifted to a smile.

It was probably early. There was no reason not to go back to sleep. So Starlight did that, letting her light die out as Maple contentedly sleep-snuggled her. There would be time to properly wake later.

Outdoors, the morning light was dim and misty. The sun hadn't yet begun to rise, and within the cover of the forest, all was likely pitch-black. But on the banks of the Yule, next to the waterfall basin where the previous day's collapse had occurred, there was just enough light to see by, filtering in from the exposed eastern sky.

Gerardo Guillaume puttered about in that light, pacing next to the wreck of his boat. It had been left on the shore, the cabin top hammered in by a gigantic beam of wood still partially affixed to it. His cargo had been moved, and was now safe and dry. But he still marched, not feeling the least like sleep.

He spread his giant wings, effortlessly soaring to the top of the waterfall, and resumed pacing along the riverside plaza. The moon sat low in the southern sky, low enough that he could walk in the shadow of the trees and remain nothing more than a wraith in the pre-dawn sunlight. Not that he had any wraith-like business to attend to, of course. Still, it was important to be aware of one's terrain at all times.

Taking wing again, he glided down to the site of the destroyed crane, landing among the wreckage. Splintered gears, shafts and beams were everywhere, the only intact part seeming to be a control platform unattached to any formerly moving parts. He calmly ascended it, picking up and examining a fragment of a massive wooden cog that appeared to have split down a pre-existing fault line. Granted, that line appeared years or decades old.

The far side of the river was a relatively uninhabited place, which was almost surprising to the well-traveled griffon. In a town like this, waterfront space would likely be considered a luxury... or so his experience told him. But here, the jungle grew nearly unimpeded right up to the riverbank, save for a small carved clearing where the crane wreckage stood. Curious, Gerardo began examining the edges of the clearing. Was that really all that was back here? If so, why build the crane on the far side of the river when there was all that space on the town's side?

His hunch paid off. At the back of the clearing, furthest away from the river, he detected the remnants of a trail that hadn't seen use in quite a long time. Foliage pressed in from both sides, though the ground was hard-packed from decades of hoofsteps and proved a reliable guide.

The curious griffon didn't bother hacking vegetation aside with his sword, pushing naturally along the northbound path with his head lowered like a plow. As he proceeded, it quickly became apparent why that side of the river hadn't been settled: the terrain broke up as if it had been raked by a giant, alternating spikes and chasms of rock passing by that would have proved extremely annoying to navigate without either wings or that trail. Gerardo had both, and followed it with relative ease.

The trail seemed to hug the cliff wall that formed the waterfall to the south. Suddenly, it opened onto a flat, well-cleared plane adjacent to the cliff, which looked as if it had seen a lot more recent use and maintenance. The trail continued to the north, broader and better-kept... but the wall in the clearing also bore the entrance to a cave, and lights shown from within. Suspicious, Gerardo prowled closer.

A few paces in, the cave transitioned to a reinforced tunnel, manalights embedded in the ceiling and crates stacked against its broad walls. Gerardo narrowed his eyes, sniffed... and withdrew, taking to the sky to wing his way back. An industrial-looking cave in a town formerly sporting an industrial district was very likely commonplace, but the griffon had seen enough caves to know that caution was always the better route to take regarding them. Perhaps he'd ask someone about it in the morning.

Perfect

Maple rolled awake with a soft grunt, realizing with pleasure that she had nothing important to do that day... and that Starlight was presently sleeping on her. The filly was snuggled up so far, she was using Maple's barrel as a pillow, mouth cracked open with a thin thread of drool hanging out. It was the kind of situation a mother would find adorable and anyone else would cringe at, and she felt a warm surge as she realized her reaction was the former. Unable to lift a hoof to wipe the drool away, Maple settled her head back into the bedding, perfectly content to let her day start as slowly as it wanted to.

They stayed that way for at least half an hour, during which Maple alternated between letting her mind lazily wander and planning and plotting for the day ahead. Starlight likely didn't need another bath, not after she had gotten rained on the day before. Then again, few ponies in Riverfall ever went to bathhouses to get clean. Doing that again wasn't off the table.

Weighing meals in her mind, she alternated between making lasagna and doing something with corn for dinner. She found she had a particular urge to eat corn right then, the thought of its scent making her mouth water alone... but there was the issue that she didn't have any corn, and would need to go out and get some. Fortunately, she was looking for things to do with her day, and a trip shopping was something Starlight hadn't done yet that might be very interesting.

She resolved to do that, laying there with Starlight's head resting upon her. All she needed to do first was get up... and that required the lazy filly to awaken herself. Maple exhaled, not at all minding that it might be a long morning.

As if on cue, Starlight sniffed, snuffled, snorted and awoke, blinking around before rubbing her face with a hoof. She turned, blinking again when she saw Maple staring at her. "Oh, you're up."

"I was going to say the same to you," Maple laughed. "Enjoying the morning? I sure am."

"Uh huh." Starlight licked her lips. "I'm hungry."

"Aww." Maple pouted slightly. "Well, I am too. Might as well get up and start the day?"

She rolled to her hooves, humming lightly as she furled the window covers and pushed open the door. Outside, dawn had long passed, sending light streaming into the house and eliminating the need for artificial illumination. Walking into the kitchen, Maple pulled out a saucepan, turning on her stove. "Oatmeal, Starlight?"

The filly nodded, depositing herself at the table and yawning away the last vestiges of sleep.

"I think," Maple began, readying water to cook the oatmeal, "that we should have some kind of morning tradition. Don't you?"

"Huh?" Starlight looked questioningly at her, one hoof on the table.

"Oh, I don't know. Something like asking each other how our night was, or always adding something special to our breakfast, or sitting by the window together. Shouldn't we?" She filled a glass as she spoke, ferrying it over to the filly.

Starlight took it, slurping noisily. It was suspended in her aura, Maple noticed. Apparently, feeling well enough to use magic extended to the morning.

"Yeah, I guess." Starlight finally set down the glass. "I slept okay. After you came in."

"It sure looks like it," Maple observed, watching as the water heated. "Weren't you only barely feeling well enough to use magic yesterday? And then you did all those spells, but now you look fine."

Starlight shrugged. "I dunno. I don't really remember yesterday. But I feel fine, and it would be dumb to want to feel bad."

"Well, don't overtax yourself," Maple reminded as she waited for the water to boil. "But I am glad you're feeling better. Hmmmm..."

She stared out the window as it simmered. Outside, the rare weather seemed to be drawing the entire town out of their houses. Due to the perpetual shade offered by Riverfall's tree canopy, it wasn't likely hot, but for many ponies it was still a welcome break from the chilly rains.

A few beams of sunlight that managed to make their way down landed on the colorful pennants designed to give the town direction, lighting them up like a festival. The dirt road was just becoming dry enough not to stick to the hooves of passing ponies, a welcome gift for the crowd of mares that wandered aimlessly, basking in the not-rain without purpose or care.

The hiss of boiling water interrupted her, and she turned back to her oven, pouring in the oats and stepping back. That would take a minute or two to cook. In the meantime...

"Starlight?" she asked with a measure of caution. "I was thinking of going shopping today, to get things for dinner. It's a nice day out, though, and there are a lot of ponies outside. Want to come with me?"

Starlight gave her a slightly strange look. "I'm not scared of other ponies. I just don't like it when they're treated differently for things they can't do anything about. I don't want to be a hypocrite. Otherwise I'd be just as bad as Sunburst's parents."

Maple sighed, giving the oatmeal a stir as it cooked. Inwardly, she was impressed that Starlight knew what hypocrite meant, but she had a suspicion mentioning it wouldn't do any good. "Starlight, you saved his cargo, and you very much did it on purpose. Isn't letting ponies thank you for that different from splitting up two friends just because you can?"

Starlight almost seemed to think about it... and then pouted. "No. It isn't."

"Okay..." Maple closed her eyes, then let out a breath, opening them and pouring the oatmeal into two bowls. She pulled out a banana to top them with and began slicing it, thinking. It was clear Starlight's response was based entirely on emotions and what connected in her mind to her hurts, rather than logic. Having once felt such a response herself, Maple was entirely able to sympathize... but it didn't stop her from seeing plainly how much happier the filly would be if she could move past this, and she wasn't sure how to help. The best she could offer was time and friendship.

...And a warm bowl of oatmeal. "Here you go!" she chirped, pushing the steaming breakfast in front of Starlight.

Maple watched as she dug in greedily. That seemed to have worked, at least for the moment. Pleasantly, she settled in across the table from Statlight, licking thoughtfully at her own bowl. With everything considered, it was still a perfectly fine morning, completely lacking in scared fillies, annoying drums and griffony drama. How long would that last? Until she reached the market, she wagered. Still, all the more reason to enjoy it while it was there.

Many

No water dripped from above as Maple strolled leisurely through the streets of Riverfall, Starlight stalking warily at her side. They were, for the most part, ignored... but every now and then, a clearly curious mare would turn and stare at them as they passed, and Starlight deliberately avoided making eye contact. They could stare at her as much as they wanted, for all she cared, but she wouldn't give them the pleasure of knowing they got a response.

"I bet they'd be less interested if you walked normally and weren't acting like they were doing something wrong," Maple whispered, leaning down to meet Starlight's ear amid the hubbub of the streets. "You kind of are making yourself stick out right now."

Starlight folded her ears. Was she? To be fair, it wasn't like most of the mares had anything better to look at. Aside from the ponies in it, the street looked the same as any other in Riverfall: brown dirt floor, randomly placed house towers, and thick bases of tree trunks. The ponies were probably the only thing that really changed from day to day, if that. How many of them knew each other already? Were they neighbors, or just passing through? Maybe being new was all it took to make her stand out.

One of the nice features of the town was that there were no sudden bends, making it nearly impossible to accidentally walk into anyone. A cherry-coated mare with a foal on her back strolled around a house ahead, neatly hugging the wall yet still so visible they had ample time to get out of the way. Starlight walked by her, eyes lingering for some reason on the infant the mare carried.

She surveyed the crowd again, suddenly taking interest in the ages of the ponies present. Adults were everywhere, young and old, and she saw several in their later teens. There were also a surprising number of foals young enough to be carried... yet very few who looked to be near her age, and none who were slightly younger. "Maple?" She prodded the mare. "Why are their ages so split?"

"Because between when the boats stopped and the colts who were stuck here grew up, there were very few stallions old enough to have children in Riverfall, and almost all of them were married," Maple hummed, not taking her eyes off the path. "Now, there's enough of them that foals are everywhere again. More foals have actually been born in the last three or four years than... well, in a long time. And it's probably not going to change any time soon..."

"Really?" Starlight tilted her head, noting that Maple's pace had reflexively quickened and adjusting hers to match. "There are that many stallions?"

Maple deadpanned, "It doesn't take that many stallions to..." She cut off, eyes focusing. "You know what? You can learn about this at home. Or from Willow. Or not at all."

Starlight squinted at her. "Okayyyy..."

"Sometimes, I wish you were a few years older," Maple sighed. "I'm curious how this works in... well... never mind."

Respectfully, Starlight didn't press. Instead, she took another quick scan of the crowd, realizing with a spike of resentment that a decent number of them were still watching her. Hardly all, or even a majority... but enough to be unusual. "They're still looking at me," she complained.

"That's not really a crime," Maple pointed out. "I mean, aren't you looking at them? Besides, you just said how rare ponies your age are here, and don't forget that you are a unicorn. Maybe they're interested in you because of that, and not because of what you did at the docks. And if anything, that's closer to what you were talking about earlier, with circumstances you have no control over."

"Yeah. Maybe," Starlight said, trying her best to appear normal and boring. "I just don't like it, okay? I just want to be a normal pony who never makes anyone do anything they don't want to or makes them better or worse than anyone else and have them do the same to me! Why is that so hard?"

Maple bit her lip, then sighed. "When you put it that way, it sounds impossible. You think influencing someone's decisions is bad?" She stopped walking, rounding on the filly. "If it wasn't for you, I wouldn't have made those biscuits last night, and everyone enjoyed them. If it wasn't for you, I wouldn't have joined Amber at the bathhouse the other day, and we had a ton of fun there! Speaking of Amber, it sounds like she finally got her revenge on Hemlock because of you. And Starlight... these are all good things that wouldn't have happened if you hadn't made them." She hung her head. "I know if you hadn't come into my life, I would still be living day by day, not letting myself hope things would get better. You made that change just by existing here."

Starlight shrank, not knowing what to say.

"I know what happened to you was horrible," Maple said, "and I'm not saying it wasn't. But I think you're too busy blaming things that can be both good and bad, like unexpected change..." She leaned down and hugged the filly. "Rather than appreciating the good things that do happen. Like meeting me. That's good, right?" She held the hug for a minute longer, before nervously breaking. "Oh! Sorry. If ponies weren't staring before, they definitely are now..."

"Never mind," Starlight muttered, resuming her pace. "I'll think about it. Let's keep going."

"So if there are more and more ponies," Starlight suddenly asked in the middle of a busy plaza, "wouldn't you run out of houses? Where do they stay when they move out?"

"Well, nopony knows for sure," Maple answered, weaving her way between a pack of chatting mares and a broken couch someone had seen fit to leave on the roadway. "It's actually slightly worrying. They've converted a bunch of old industrial buildings used for storage when the docks were active into houses. Those are the tall ones in the north side of town, like where Arambai lives, and where we watched from when we went to see Gerardo. But they won't be enough. Once this new wave grows up..." She brightened. "Well, they're thinking of expanding town to the southwest, and building more."

"Huh." Starlight sidestepped a mudhole that apparently hadn't had enough time yet to dry. "Wouldn't that take a ton of work? Who would make it?"

Maple smirked. "Does this town look like it has anything better to do? There are plenty of volunteers. Most of the stallions help out, too. Which is good, because it's their fault we need it..." She sighed. "Before, we never needed to worry about growing or shrinking. When it got hard to find space, ponies would be more inclined to leave. When it got easier, they'd stay. But now, there's no way out..."

"What do they look like?" Starlight asked.

"I don't know." Maple shook her head. "They only started a year or so ago. And I've... well... that's where Amber found my former husband. I haven't wanted to go there since then."

"Oh." Starlight shrugged, and didn't press. Together, the pair walked onward, the streets becoming still busier as they drew nearer to the heart of town.

Market

It was readily apparent when Maple and Starlight reached Riverfall's market. The glass flooring resumed, but the crowd was so thick it was barely visible. They walked under a wooden archway, taking great care to stick together as the tide of ponies ebbed and flowed, and into an open pavilion with a great many booths lining the fronts of houses. A forest of stakes poked high up from the ground, undoubtedly supports to use for setting up cover when the weather wasn't dry.

Starlight hopped up on Maple's back for no other reason than to avoid being trampled, and looked around alertly. It was too busy for any individual ponies to pay attention to her, but she couldn't relax amid the noise the rainbow sea of mares was making. Shouts rang out, everything from haggling to friendly conversation as they pressed forward, accidentally knocking against more than one pony in the chaos. Maple offered an apology each time she did so, but was likely never heard.

She studied the banners above the merchandise booths with interest. Unable to ask questions amid the din, she tried to deduce them herself, and quickly noticed a pattern. There seemed to be a deliberate divide between locations providing raw goods, such as food or building material, and ones offering services and artistic things.

Maple approached one of the goods stalls, evidently selling produce. A spring-green mare with a bright yellow mane who looked to be in her late teens sat behind the store window, and instantly perked up when they stopped in front of her. "Hi!" she chirped. "What can I get for you?"

"We're just here for corn," Maple answered with a smile. "I think... ten ears should do it?"

"Woah!" The corn mare smirked happily back at her. "Planning a feast, huh? Well, here you go!"

She bundled together the requested ears of corn, tied them off with a string, and hoofed them over the counter to Maple. "Have a super day, and come back if you need more, okay?"

Turning away with a wave and a shout of thanks, Maple took her bundle and dove back into the crowd, swimming through mares until eventually stumbling into an alcove free enough to hear herself speak. "Well, Starlight?" she asked. "We've got what we came for, but we did just get here. Want to do anything else before we leave? See what some other stores have to offer, maybe?"

"I dunno," Starlight answered with a note of tension. Her own feelings on how ponies treated each other aside, that many bodies in that little space was enough to put anyone on edge.

Maple tapped the ground, evidently thinking. "We could go get ice cream," she offered. "I bet the line is long today, but it's worth it. They usually have fifteen different flavors!"

As long as Starlight stayed above the crowds, she didn't mind relenting. Ice cream did sound good, after all. "Okay," she said with a shrug. "Sure. Ice cream."

"Hee!" Maple giggled, not-quite-bouncing back into the crowd.

Starlight slumped against her warm back as she progressed, idly noting that Maple seemed very good at making herself a path without getting shoved around too much in turn. They did get jostled, but she never really felt it. It was almost like her ride had armor. Even though it was probably all skill, Starlight briefly let her mind wander, imagining Maple as a big tan tank bulldozing her way through a mosh pit. It felt nice, imagining her to be strong and useful. She wasn't quite sure why, since it probably amounted to treating her better than the other ponies in the crowd, but no one would mind her fancy if they couldn't see it.

Or could they? Starlight suddenly became aware of a mare several pony-lengths away who was somehow managing to keep eye contact through the crowd, lips pursed in recognition. Starlight didn't recognize her... but apparently that didn't go both ways.

"Hey! Hey, everyone! Look!" the mare screamed, hopping up and down excitedly. "It's that filly! The one with the really impressive magic that makes her better than everyone else!"

The crowd froze, somehow all turning to Starlight. "The one from Equestria?" another piped up.

"Yes, her!" Someone lunged at Starlight, trying to knock her off Maple's back. "She's amazing! We should give her a scholarship and send her off to Ironridge!"

Starlight's lips split in a snarl, her horn lighting... when someone tapped her on the shoulder. "Starlight?" Maple's voice asked. "What flavor do you want?"

She sat bolt upright and shook her head, blinking. The crowd was minding its own business, a sea of colorful ponies milling around as aimlessly as ever. She was still on Maple's back. The only ponies looking at her were her ride and the attendant at their present stall, who seemed to be waiting on her for an order. "Uhhhh..." she mumbled, disconcerted.

"I'm having mango," Maple offered. "It's really good. They make it right here, fresh."

"Okay," Starlight said hollowly, still clearing her head. "I'll have that too."

"Starlight?" Maple asked as the mare at the counter filled their order. "Are you okay?"

"Just a daydream," Starlight grumbled unhappily, shifting around and settling back into a comfortable position. "Mmmph. I'm all right."

"Here you go!" the shopkeeper chirped, holding out two chilly, yellow treats. They were frozen around short loops of string in such a way that a pony could suspend them from one hoof, eating without needing to stop walking. "Next!"

Starlight didn't have that issue, taking both in her telekinesis and holding Maple's up for her. "Thanks," Maple hummed appreciatively, taking a few experimental licks before shivering with pleasure. "Just as good as they always are! Starlight, you should try yours!"

As they walked in search of a less-crowded part of town, Starlight did so. She had to agree with Maple: the mango was good. Almost overwhelmingly sweet and fruity, but only almost... and that made all the difference. Hers was nearly gone by the time the crowd broke, Maple stepping into a narrow alley that no ponies seemed to be using, finally able to talk and be heard without raising her voice. "Well? Is there anything else you want to do?" she asked. "We can go to a less busy part of town..."

Sliding down from her back, Starlight steadied herself as her hooves made contact with the glass roadway. "I dunno," she said with a shrug. "Ummm..." She looked around. "What is there to do?"

"Well, we could go visit Willow," Maple suggested. "We could try to track down Amber, but that might be hard. We could also go look for Gerardo, if you'd like to meet him. We probably shouldn't visit the bathhouse, though, because I bet they'll be busy..." She closed her eyes and inhaled, evidently thinking. "I could show you the riverbank where we found you. We could also visit Arambai. He might know something about why your magic is feeling better, but we've been there an awful lot lately..."

"Visiting Willow sounds nice," Starlight offered. She didn't mention that she felt a slight twinge after carrying the ice cream in her telekinesis for several minutes: as restful as the previous night had been, there were no supernatural horn fatigue cures involved.

"We'll do that, then." Mind made up, Maple oriented herself and set off towards her friend's house, Starlight scurrying along behind.

Brand

It didn't take long to reach Willow's house from the Riverfall market. Both were fairly close together, slightly north of the center of town. A useful location, Starlight decided, if you had five whole mouths to feed in addition to ravenous friends.

They arrived slightly before noon, at a time when the morning crowd of street-happy mares was on its way out and the afternoon just coming in. Ponies walked with purposeful gaits, some heading south to the market, others walking in all directions, laden with bulging saddlebags and contented smiles. With a start, Starlight suddenly realized that not only was she wearing none... neither was Maple.

"Maple?" she asked worriedly, Willow's house in view at the end of the road. "What happened to the corn? Did you forget it when we were getting ice cream?"

Maple continued her carefree stroll, hooves and mouth empty and nothing on her back. "Nope."

Starlight's face scrunched. "Then did you ask somepony to take it back for you?"

"No, it's right here." The dusty mare produced a pristine, green-wrapped ear of corn from somewhere, then just as easily put it back, no trace of it remaining. Starlight's eyes bulged.

"Where... where..." she stammered, pointing. "How did you do that?"

"My cutie mark," Maple said plainly. "It's like a big pocket for holding things. It's very useful. I haven't been using it much around you because I know how you feel about them, though."

Starlight squinted. "They can do that? Really?"

"Mine can." Maple shrugged and kept walking. "Other ponies' do different things. Didn't we tell you earlier? They give you magic to help follow your dreams. I wanted to be an adventurer, and got it while packing boxes and saddlebags. Now, I don't even need to!"

"Huh..." Starlight stared at the ground, thoughts abruptly set on a completely different track than the way other ponies treated her. After all, everything really did come down to cutie marks. Were they really not just status symbols and prophecies by which one had to live their life, but also actually powerful? She couldn't remember seeing any ponies in Equestria doing tricks with theirs... though she had made a point of not looking. This was something she'd need to ask about later.

Suddenly, another thought struck her like a sledgehammer: Maple had said she wanted to be an adventurer, and that was how she got her mark. Yet, ten years after the fact, she clearly wasn't, never had been, and had just received the best reason of her life to not get up and go become one. Societal mandate, divine providence and bad luck had all stayed perfectly out of her way and allowed her to go on living her normal life. Aside from a minor magical convenience that was probably less useful than a horn, she didn't have a single thing wrong with her life and out of control as a direct result of her mark.

Pondering the implications of that would have to wait, however, because they had arrived.

"Hello?" Maple asked, rapping politely on the door. A moment later, it swung open.

"Oh, hello again!" Alder's striped face beamed up at them, causing Starlight to briefly shudder. "Mooooom!" he crowed, charging off to the house. "It's auntie Maple and the river filly!"

It didn't take long for Willow to appear in the doorway. "Hello, you two," she greeted with an ever-so-slightly tired expression. "Out enjoying the weather? I wish I was." She sighed. "Apparently, Yew missed me more than usual while I was at the party last night. It took nearly until dawn to calm her down, and until now for me to... nngh... wake up..." Smiling through her yawn, she stepped aside, waving the pair in. "But don't let that make me a bad host. Just so long as you're not expecting anything... fancy for lunch..." She yawned again, strolling back into the house and seating herself.

"Wow, that sounds fun," Maple said wryly, following her into the kitchen. "She's asleep now?"

"Thankfully," Willow groaned, curling up on a bench cushion near her table, head propped just high enough to see over. "And before you say anything, you're not imposing and this isn't a bad time."

"Whatever you say," Maple giggled, rolling her eyes. "In that case, want me to make lunch?"

"Oh, yes, please..." Willow closed her eyes halfway and stretched out. "That would be helpful..."

Starlight stood awkwardly in the middle of the room, Alder having vanished upstairs and for some reason not returned. Maple set to work cooking, and she was just about to join her and watch when she realized Willow was beckoning her from the bench. She trotted over, ears perked.

"Hey, Starlight," Willow greeted with a subdued voice, reaching out to nuzzle her between the ears. "Sorry I said I'd come visit so we could talk, and then spent each trip doing other things. Is there anything you'd like to talk about now?"

"I dunno," Starlight answered. In truth, she didn't remember why she had asked the mare to continue talking with her earlier, though it probably had to do with Sunburst. Still, she felt compelled to think of some question to ask. "Maple just told me what her cutie mark does."

"Oh?" Willow's ears twitched. "And what did you think?"

"I dunno," Starlight repeated, hanging her head. "Curious, I guess. I'm still not getting one."

"Then you took it better than I did when she first got it," Willow said, smiling gently.

Starlight tilted her head. "What do you mean by that?"

"Didn't we tell you several nights ago?" Willow closed her eyes, settling into the cushion. "She got it after I knew we wouldn't be going to Ironridge, but before I had told either of them. I remember how excited she was, and I'm sure she remembers too. It made it so hard to tell them, knowing that it was my fault the plans were off. Maybe I shouldn't have dragged it out as long as I did..."

"I told you," Maple said, overhearing and wandering over, "not to second-guess yourself. We're happy now, aren't we?" She offered a hopeful smile. "And if we went, we'd never have met Starlight."

"I know," Willow hummed, blinking tiredly. "I was only answering Starlight's question."

Maple was about to remark something else when a loud thud sounded from the upper floors, prompting all three to look up in concern. "What was that?" Maple asked.

Willow's ears folded, and her teeth briefly showed. "It better not have woken Yew..."

"I'll go see what it is," Maple offered, moving toward the staircase with curiosity. Starlight trotted swiftly behind her, while Willow stared regretfully at her cushion, looking as if she was having a fierce internal debate on whether or not to get up.

They quickly reached the second story. There, a clear path through Faron's maze of bookshelves led to a nearby window... that was presently ajar, Amber standing in front of it and dusting herself off. "Oh, hey, girls!" she piped upon spotting Maple and Starlight. "Funny running into you here!"

"Amber..." Maple put a hoof to her forehead, then pointed at the window. "Are you always going to enter that way from now on?"

The yellow mare shrugged. "I'm actually really enjoying this whole fugitive thing. It's gotta be the most exciting thing that's happened here in seven years. So yeah, I probably am."

"It certainly is enjoyable," Gerardo's beaked head announced, popping into view outside the window. "Almost interesting enough to make me forget how I'm stuck here. And I certainly don't mind lending my aid when the target of her antics happens to be the one equine in this town I count among my enemies." He proceeded to attempt to stuff his massive, feathery body through the open window.

Maple groaned and shook her head, but could do nothing more than invite them in with a smile.

Sword

"Well?" Gerardo began, giving Amber a glance as he straightened a few feathers that had gotten bent climbing through the window. "I take it you have an agenda for our visit? Or is this merely a social call?" Contented, he ruffled his wings and stood at attention.

"It's for breakfast, of course!" Amber replied. "Well, technically lunch, but you know. Hey Maple, got anything cooking?"

Maple raised an eyebrow. "As a matter of fact, I do. But why would you come here for my food when I live all the way on the other side of town?"

Amber shrugged. "Happy coincidence?"

As the two grown mares began teasing each other, Starlight realized uncomfortably that Gerardo was staring at her. She folded her ears and met his gaze. "Um, hi?"

"Ah. Starlight." He stepped forward, extending a talon once he was in reach. "I believe I haven't had the chance to thank you properly yet for saving my fortune during yesterday's fiasco, especially as it was at great apparent risk to your reputation." He bowed deeply. "Please accept my sincerest thanks."

"Someone said you made everyone else leave me alone?" Starlight asked, seeking confirmation.

"Well, we certainly gave them something else to think about," Gerardo said, brushing off a foreleg. "Though most of the thanks goes to your friend miss Amber over there. She was the one who traded her reputation for yours." He laughed, and added, "Though if my reading of this town is correct, she'll be more of folk hero than villain by the time this blows over. She likely has been all along. It's readily apparent that she enjoys it, after all."

Starlight had nothing to say to that. After a moment of silence, Gerardo seated himself next to her and asked, "If you don't mind me asking, what prompts you to lie low in a town like this? It seems to me the entire population either has pasts of their own, or are used to not caring about others'."

"I kind of do mind, actually," Starlight mumbled at the ground.

"Perfectly fair enough." Gerardo sat back and stretched, looking ahead. "Queen knows there are many things I'd rather not answer about myself. Of course, for every one of them there are ten I love to talk about. Funny how that adds up, isn't it?" He gave her a wink.

Neither had to say anything for Starlight to get the impression that he very much wanted her to ask about whatever it was he didn't want to talk about. So she asked... something else. "What queen?"

Gerardo's headcrest drooped; apparently she had read him right. "Of the Griffon Empire," he explained disappointedly. "The home of any griffon worth their griffon-ness. Myself included, of course."

"Huh." Starlight pursed her lips. She had expected something a lot more elaborate.

At that moment, they were interrupted when Willow hauled herself up the stairs. "What's going on up..." She blinked. "How did all of you get up here?"

"Oh, hey, grandma!" Amber chirped, waving happily. "We came in through the window."

"The second-story window," Maple added with a roll of her eyes. "Again."

"Grandma?" Gerardo asked questioningly, tilting his head. "You don't look that old..."

Willow sighed noisily. "I'm not her grandma, it's a very long story, and that still makes me sound old." She climbed off the stairs, slightly unsteady on her hooves. "Nevertheless, welcome to my home."

"The pleasure is mine," Gerardo relied, bowing neatly. "You seem to be quite the tight circle of friends, and while starstruck fans have their merits, they don't make for nearly as pleasant company."

Maple tapped a hoof. "If you're going to stand around talking, maybe I should go finish lunch? Because there's nobody working on it and otherwise it'll never get done."

"As noble a task as any." Gerardo stepped cleanly out of her way. "Please, by all means."

As Maple vanished down the spiral staircase, Willow stepped closer, and attempted to keep conversation going with a fatigued expression on her face. "What did you do this morning?"

Gerardo beamed proudly. "I spent an inordinate amount of time being fitted for and waiting for the completion of this new suit. Granted, time is presently the one thing I possess in excess..." He craned his neck downwards, lifting the black fabric of his outfit with a single talon. "What do you think?"

Willow eyed him blearily, blinking several times. "Sorry, I think I'm... not really awake enough to judge, but... nngh... if it's made by Cypress, I'm sure it's very quality..." She yawned heavily.

Starlight eyed him properly as he showed off. The garment looked vaguely similar to a tuxedo or business suit, with a pronounced collar and shoulders, and a professional-looking breast pocket. However, it was made from a material that looked significantly more durable, and had some of the trappings of a military uniform. Notably, a long sash ran down the side, equipped with a large sheathed sword and plenty of room for more weapons. She had no doubt he knew how to use them.

"Is that a sword?" she finally asked, curiosity getting the better of her.

"And what a sword it is," Gerardo chuckled, withdrawing it with a nod. Glancing down the flat of the blade, he waved it several times. "What's a wandering hero without his magic sword, after all?"

"Excuse me," Alder's curious voice came from a nearby stairwell, "but did you say magic?"

"He totally did!" Fir's voice interrupted. There was a yelp, and the two children suddenly tumbled into view, one having apparently tripped over the other. They waved sheepishly.

"Magic I did," Gerardo answered, not in the least bit fazed by the new audience. "To make things better, it even looks the part. Very detailed, black blade, a fancy hollow hilt..." He poked a talon through the triangular hole bored through the sword right where the blade was attached and waggled it for emphasis. "It's as if it was designed to be a hero's sword. In fact, I'm fairly sure it was."

Starlight watched, transfixed, as light glinted off the sword's dark, smoky surface. It was likely because she had never seen a weapon bigger than a vegetable knife before, but something about the blade called to her, urging her to touch it. Feeling equal parts fear, yearning and awe, she almost took a step forward to reach for it... but mentally slapped herself and sat back down. Becoming fascinated with things was a good way to accidentally earn a cutie mark, and she had no interest in hurting ponies.

Gerardo continued swinging it around, admiring the length and balance. "It's almost an exact replica of the kinds of swords in the greatest griffon epics. Thousands of years old, only the chosen may wield... that type of thing. The only thing that's missing is the history, and that matters little in a fight."

"And how do you know it isn't?" Amber asked, winking slyly and giving him a nudge.

"Because I bartered it off a unicorn whose specialty was in enchanting weapons," Gerardo said, smirking sadly. "Technically, off the daughter of such an enchantress who was helping her mother sell her wares. A cute little thing, if somewhat of a scruffy urchin. Similar in age to Starlight, I would guess."

Amber didn't lose her teasing grin. "You buy from child merchants? How do you not get hustled?"

Gerardo shrugged. "I know quality metal when I see it. Even if the enchantment had failed, a sword is still a sword, and a fine one at that. Besides, I no longer needed what I traded for it."

"But, like, what's it do, though?" Fir asked excitedly. "How's it enchanted?"

"I can demonstrate, if you wish," Gerardo said with a smile. "I assure you, it's completely nonlethal and the effect wears off rapidly..." He blinked at Willow. "With your permission?"

Willow blinked back. "If you're offering to test your sword on my kids..." She growled. "Not on your life. Why can't you just explain it?"

Gerardo sagged slightly. "I meant no offense, I assure-"

"Test it on Hemlock!" Amber interrupted, pounding her hooves together with a shark-like grin.

"Maybe after lunch?" Maple's face popped up above the staircase. "It's ready!"

"Hey, sounds good to me," Amber muttered, still grinning as she made her way to the stairs. Gerardo followed, and soon Willow was rounding up her kids and pushing them down as well. Starlight watched them descend, sighing. Her eyes were still fixed on the now-sheathed sword, and this time, she found she couldn't tear them away.

"Starlight?" Maple called from below. "You coming?"

"Yeah, I'm coming!" Breaking into a trot the moment Gerardo vanished from sight, she headed toward the staircase, trying instead to focus on thoughts of an early, tasty lunch.

Faron

Lunch was taken with a subdued eagerness, Willow constantly yawning and Starlight never really having much to say. Amber and Gerardo mostly carried the conversation, which centered largely on their exploits as a result. Maple shuttled more food to the table in a constant state of fond exasperation, while Alder and Fir jabbered and egged the griffon on.

"So why can't you test your sword out, huh?" Fir asked, ears alert and smile confident. "What's it do? Shoot lightning? Freeze stuff? Summon a swarm of monsters to aid you in your hour of need?"

"It probably starts a tornado," Alder offered helpfully.

Gerardo laughed and shook his head. "Not remotely close, I'm afraid. It can cut through anything..." He sliced at the air with a cucumber shard for emphasis. "But when it passes through a living creature, it doesn't leave a mark. Instead, it saps them of their strength to such a degree that they become completely incapacitated." Seriously, he added, "Perfect for nonlethal combat, though hardly a toy. There's power in this thing to fell even a mighty yak in a single blow. The only cure is time."

"If it can cut through anything," Alder asked with an innocently confused expression, "why doesn't it chop its way out of its sheath when you're not using it?"

"Well... almost anything," Gerardo responded, flustered. "It would hardly be much use if you couldn't carry it safely when not in use, of course."

"I wonder if it can cut through the river filly's crystals!" Alder pointed at Starlight.

Fir gasped. "We should have a contest!" She pumped a hoof, eyes dancing with inspiration.

"River filly?" Gerardo asked bemusedly, batting his eyelids. "Is that how she's known after yesterday's incident?"

"No, it's-"

Alder didn't have much of a chance to begin speaking before he was loudly interrupted by Amber, who rubbed her hooves deviously. "So it can cut anything and make ponies tired? I can think of so many good pranks involving that..."

As Gerado repeatedly insisted that it wasn't a toy, Starlight stared thoughtfully at her salad, poking as she ate. It was remarkably fresh and moist. Willow must have had a good way of preservation. Now that she thought about it, however, where did all of Riverfall's food come from? If the town was completely isolated with no way in or out, they would need to have massive plantations somewhere to support so many ponies.

She dug through her memories, trying to recall her view of the town from atop the mountain waterfall. There, it had been heralded by a few plumes of smoke, but no breaks in the trees that she could recall for farmspace. Distractedly, she connected the smoke to fires, and realized disappointedly that neither Maple nor Willow had hearths. One of those would have been nice to warm up against, back when she had first arrived and was freezing. It would still be nice, actually.

Food, though. A second thought clicked in Starlight's head: earlier, Maple had fretted about population growth, and where the new ponies would be housed when they grew up. But wouldn't expanding food production be a bigger issue? The town's food supply would have to be extremely stable for that not to be the case. Additionally, Maple had also bought corn at the market. Wasn't corn something that required fairly warm weather to grow? In Riverfall, more often than not it was raining.

Suddenly, a collective rustle at the table made her look up, discarding her train of thought. Everyone's heads had turned, and Starlight followed their gazes to the staircase, which was presently being descended by a stallion.

The stallion, presumably Faron, stared back at the dining ponies and griffon with orange eyes. "No need to stop on my account," he muttered in a slow, weary voice that was slightly too deep for his darkly-colored build. "Just getting myself a refill."

"You're always welcome to join us..." Willow murmured, eyes closed as she half-slept.

Faron didn't respond. Instead, he paced with just as much speed as his words to the edge of the room, where he kicked open a large storage cabinet. Without using the dark gray horn on his forehead, he slid a crate about the size of an adult pony halfway out, reached in, and withdrew a clear glass bottle in his teeth. Colorless liquid sloshed inside as he set it down, pushed the crate back, and closed the door.

Starlight watched him first with curiosity, then suspicious recognition. There was something familiar about that crate... Her eyes narrowed, and suddenly flew wide. It was the same kind of crate she had seen in Sosa's camp in the mountains!

A vague memory flickered through her head of scanning a crate and finding it full of bottles. A second half of the memory recalled dumping it in the river, though as an experiment or in frustration she couldn't recall. Maple, Willow and Amber had found her floating in a crate. Had they found that one as well? Apparently so, and whatever was in it, Faron found worth drinking.

"You have a spirit collection?" Gerardo asked, apparently more curious as to the contents of the bottles. "Not that I question your hospitality, but isn't it customary to offer such to guests?"

"A what?" Amber scrubbed her ear with a hoof, confused. "This place is haunted?"

Willow sighed, face looking almost as peaceful as if she were really asleep. "No, it isn't. Alcohol is a Sosan thing, and not many ponies are accustomed to having it..." She trailed off, as if she forgot she was supposed to be talking, then resumed. "Why bother when nopony wants it? But help yourself..."

"Well, my apologies!" Gerardo chuckled, nevertheless getting up eagerly. "I hardly consider myself an aficionado, connoisseur, or even the biggest proponent of drinking in the first place, though I have learned that one can in fact get a very good impression of local culture merely by the way they brew their hard drinks. Hah!" He stepped toward the cabinet, reaching out and swinging it open.

"Mmmm..." Willow mumbled, so vaguely it could have been agreement or emphatic protest.

"Hah," Gerardo chuckled, pulling the crate out into the light. "Quite the label on this one. 'The cure to mountain madness.' Whoever packaged this had a real sense of adventure. Fitting, for a foothill town. I think I feel kindred already!" He pulled out a bottle in one talon, inspecting it quizzically.

"Quite the interesting bottle design, as well," he observed, running a talon over glass lettering formed by ridges in the bottle. "You ponies have an excellent ability to replicate the style of the antique. It even has an old Sosan emblem! The last time I saw a bottle that looked like this, it was in a smuggler's hideout that had been abandoned for decades, or perhaps centuries!" He tried to pop the cork, only for it to crumble beneath his talon and become stuck in the neck. His smile faltered. "What?"

"They're hard to get out," Faron sighed from the staircase, having not yet ascended. "It's worth it, though, to have something like this again. You never realize how much you'll miss it until you have something you truly want to forget..."

Gerardo squinted down the blocked bottleneck. "You may wish to have words with your supplier about this," he remarked, experimentally digging at it with a talon. "There is such a thing as too much antiquity, after all. It's never a good practice to have products that fall apart when used."

"We didn't buy it," Willow mumbled sleepily. "Found it floating down the river... just before Starlight..." She shifted in her chair, peacefully oblivious.

Instantly realizing what had been said, Starlight cringed... which only caused Gerardo's eyes to widen in intrigue. "Ironridge is dumping their detritus into the river? Including aged spirits and fillies?"

"The boxes didn't come from Ironridge!" Alder proudly proclaimed. "You found her floating north, from the foot of the mountains! Didn't you, mum?"

He sat there, eagerly wagging his tail like a puppy waiting to be praised for remembering a new trick. The rest of the room, however, was frozen as Gerardo put two and two together, muttering aloud to himself. "Floating north? Along with a crate that by all rights appears ancient... You couldn't possibly be from..." He raised an eyebrow. "Could you?"

The terrified expression on Starlight's face was all the confirmation he needed.

Valuable

"The Plains of Harmony," Gerardo muttered as if revealing a great mystery, sipping from his ancient wine. "Few believe in them. Fewer are aware that they actually exist. The mountains that separate them and us are said to be infinite and uncrossable, yet-"

"No offense," Maple broke in, raising a hoof, "but we've actually heard this speech before."

"More importantly," Amber added, hefting a hoof dangerously, "this is exactly why Starlight doesn't want too much heat on her! So if you so much as dare tell anypony else, I swear I'll..." She paused, looking around. "I'll stop being your friend. And that goes triple for you kids!" She pointed dangerously at Alder and Fir. "If you tell, I'll stab you with Gerardo's sword, or something."

Alder's eyes lit up. "That actually sounds really awes-" He was forcibly silenced by his sister's hoof, Fir wearing an apologetic, guilty grin and whispering as hard as she could at him to shut up.

"Oh, you've nothing to fear from me, I assure you," Gerardo promised, eyes on the still-petrified Starlight. "In fact, everything makes much more sense now. I can see far more clearly why you wished to lie low at the docks. A very wise decision, and one I'm glad to have helped with."

Willow blinked herself into slightly more wakefulness. "Kids, go upstairs," she commanded, apparently sensing the conversation was about to route into sensitive territory. "And don't listen in."

Grumbling, they both obeyed, Starlight unfrozen just enough to follow them with her eyes as they left. Her jaw cracked. "I just wanted ponies not to treat me like I'm special..." she mumbled.

"Yeah," Amber added slowly. "How did you know why she wants to be left alone?"

Gerardo's brow furrowed. "Do you mean to say you don't know the reason a potential Harmonian would wish to conceal their identity at all costs?"

The atmosphere in the room chilled slightly, and Starlight clammed back up.

"Then it is... quite fortuitous I found out," Gerardo said, sounding as if he was fighting back a sigh. "Allow me to enlighten you. The Plains of Harmony are the most reclusive nation in the world, covering its entire southern half, and have been since an unknown calamity one thousand years ago prompted them to seal themselves away and sever all ties with the creatures of the north. Entry is blocked by a confounding mountain range some swear to be enchanted. It has never been crossed... ever."

He raised his head, brow shadowed in such a way that it appeared he was looking up at and down on the others at the same time. "Yet, the realm is also said to be the resting place of amazing treasures and ancient powers. That, on top of peace and prosperity that would make any struggling nation envious."

Gerardo sipped once from his glass. "Needless to say, were one truly to have made the pilgrimage across the mountains and lived to tell the tale, it could not be by coincidence... and even if it was, who would believe it? You would suddenly find yourself in possession of knowledge concerning a security flaw in the largest, most isolated nation in the world... the kind of knowledge that wars are fought over. And I think we can all agree that that would be bad."

Starlight was looking at herself as if she were a bomb. Amber appeared similarly shellshocked, while Willow merely blinked sleepily. Maple, however, straightened up with a frustrated expression. "Really?" she huffed. "Are you trying to scare my filly out of her wits? There are so many ways you could have said that less dramatically! Besides, what does it matter when no one can leave this town?"

Gerardo's headcrest drooped. "My apologies. My penchant for drama can do that, sometimes..."

Ignoring him, Maple hugged Starlight close. "It'll be fine," she murmured in her ear. "I'm sure it's not that bad. There's nothing better you could have done if you had known, and nothing you'll need to do different. Things can just stay how they are, and you can stay with me..."

"Indeed," Gerardo agreed. "With this town in the condition it's in, I see no reason to panic. Still, we never know what the future holds! If I may, who else knows about this besides the four of us, Starlight herself, and your foals?" He nodded aside at Willow, who was valiantly propping her eyes open.

"I told Arambai," Starlight muttered weakly. "He found out. He didn't give me a choice..."

"Didn't give you a choice, you say," Gerardo mused, scratching at his chin, wine long forgotten. "He does seem like the type of pony to run everything from the shadows. And that reminds me, I had something else I'd like to inquire about as well. Yes, perhaps we should pay him a visit..."

"It's early afternoon," Amber announced, banging her hooves together. "He doesn't live far away. We could do that right now?" She stood up, turning toward the door and looking back hopefully.

"I trust Arambai," Maple murmured, still hugging Starlight. "But it's probably a good idea..."

"Nnngh... I'm staying here..." Willow yawned and got up. "I should go back to bed..."

"As you wish." Gerardo nodded and bowed, straightening up himself. "In that case, let us be on our way!" Politely, he offered a wing to help Maple and Starlight to their hooves.

Two mares, a griffon and a filly trotted out the front door to Willow's house, Starlight once again riding on her surrogate mother's back. Behind, inside the house, Willow wearily staggered towards the staircase, thinking thoughts of warm bedding and crying foals... when a powerful pair of forelegs reached out and steadied her.

"Unngh... thank you, Faron..." Willow groaned, pulling herself upright until she was standing on her own. "I finally think Yew is growing out of infancy, and then this. I guess I should have just stayed asleep when I had the chance, huh?" She smiled tiredly at him, light reflecting off her eyes.

"Perhaps." The stallion walked carefully at her side as she ascended the staircase, though her footing was more sure and she didn't even stumble. "As long as she brings you happiness, I'm glad we had her. You are too, I hope?"

"Most of the time," she answered, climbing. "Right now, I'm too tired to be anything but tired!" She giggled slightly. "You should come read by the bed while I nap. It would be cozy..."

Faron nodded in agreement as they climbed. However, his head was to the side, looking out a passing window at Gerardo, Maple, Amber and Starlight as they walked away below, an unreadable expression on his face.

Secrets

Maple, Amber, Gerardo and Starlight strode purposefully towards Arambai's house... as purposeful as they could be, at least, with Starlight still mutely riding on Maple's back. None of them spoke, in fact, but with the other three it was mostly for drama. Thus, when a voice finally shattered the quiet, it didn't come from any of them.

"All right, you hooligans!" Hemlock yelled, not leaving his rocker on Arambai's roof. "I see you down there! That means you, yellow missy!" He flung a hoof wildly at Amber. "I hope you like chewin' on justice, because the hottest tail in the world isn't gonna save you this-"

SPROOIIING!

With a noise like a jack-in-the-box, a floorboard under Hemlock's chair came loose with such force that it catapulted the stallion sideways, spilling him over the floor. "Ow! What the-!?"

"Hah." Arambai stepped out from behind a wall, picking up Hemlock in his telekinesis and unceremoniously moving the stallion to the street. "Been working on that one for a while. Very satisfying to see it finished and doing its job." He glanced down, staring at the four visitors. "Well, if it isn't the most prolific crew in town. Can't say I didn't expect you to show up, sooner or later. Here for the old 'how do I get outta the middle of nowhere' talk for Gerardo? Because I'm pretty sure I already gave you that..."

"Something else, as a matter of fact," Gerardo said, acting as the spokesgriffon for the group. "Although..." His eyes darted to the fallen Hemlock. "It might benefit us to have some privacy?"

"Easier done than said," Arambai replied, turning toward his house with a wave. "You all know where the stairs are. See you inside."

Arambai led them to a fourth-story room in one of his twin towers. The side facing outward was a solid wall of curved glass, trimmed with metal and affording a view of the town that felt almost like the bridge of a ship. Several bean bag chairs were present which the mares instantly gravitated to, as well as more formal seating chosen by Arambai and Gerardo.

"So," the stallion began, once they were all seated. "What is it you lot have on your mind?"

"It concerns young Starlight's country of origin," Gerardo answered, sitting up straight. "Namely, the possibility for that information to spread... and the potential undesirable consequences thereof."

"Oh yeah. So you found that out, huh?" Arambai tapped a hoof against the arm of his chair. "Can't say I'm surprised. You strike me as difficult to keep a secret from, and with all these chatty mares around it's practically begging to be spilled. So we're talking damage control, then?"

Gerardo blinked. "As a matter of fact, it concerned the possibility that you intended to use knowledge of her origin for nefarious purposes. Though damage control is most welcome, as well..."

Arambai's grin was so big, it stretched the corners of his black beard. "Me? Nefarious purposes? I may not be the most forthcoming pony in existence, but it's pretty obvious where my heart is."

"With all due respect, your benevolence could be seen as suspicious," Gerardo remarked in turn, raising a talon. "Does it not bear mentioning?"

"It also bears mentioning that you showed up yesterday morning without an ounce of credibility to your name," Arambai growled. "If they want to be suspicious, it's not me they ought to be wary of."

Gerardo flinched. "I didn't mean-"

Arambai didn't let him finish. "Point is, if we start arguing about who's trustworthy, we'd never get anything done. Besides, what kind of scummy villain would want to hurt a cute little filly?" He gave Starlight an approving glance, but she remained still and huddled. "I do trust you came with something you wanted to get done?"

Maple interrupted, sparing the griffon from having to answer. "He said that if ponies find out Starlight came from Equestria, she'd become the most important thing in the world and wars would be fought over her, because she'd know how to get there." She glared briefly at Gerardo, then looked softly to Starlight on her back, who was still speechless. "I don't think she took it very well..."

"Rubbish," Arambai said in return. "If anyone powerful enough to use information like that got ahold of it, they'd be smart enough not to tell anyone else they knew. Besides, nobody in their right mind would fall for that without proof, and we don't even have anything that proves she's from there and not just lying. Crossing those mountains is just too implausible... and if they did take the bait, they'd just try to steal it with spies instead of going to war. Besides, Starlight herself wouldn't even matter once some other pony knows the secret." His eyebrow lifted. "Assuming there is one."

Starlight spoke for the first time since leaving Willow's house. "So they wouldn't...?"

"Wouldn't think you're the greatest thing since sliced bread?" Arambai shook his head. "Nah. Granted, they'd still want to know. But there's plenty we can do to take care of that..."

"How's that?" Amber asked, head raised from where she loafed on a bean bag.

"Simple!" Arambai waved a hoof. "Starlight tells me how she did it, then I go spread that around a little as a rumor in some disreputable areas. Once the knowledge of this 'secret route across the mountains' has had a little time to propagate, anyone can let it slip whenever they want and nobody will think she's anything but a dirty pretender trying to take credit. And it won't really matter that they know, because who's gonna try climbing that mountain range based off a rumor from a friend's friend?" His lip twitched. "A combination of truth and audacity is one of the most powerful secret-keepers around."

"Well?" Maple asked, looking to Starlight, who was now folded beside her as she lay.

Starlight looked as if she was thinking heavily... and sighed, ears folding. "I fell off the waterfall. I didn't do anything special. I was trying to protect myself with a crystal on the way down, but I had to use a parachute instead. Then I floated here, and Maple found me."

"Okay," Arambai said, sounding slightly disappointed. "But ponies have managed to scale the initial cliff before. What about after that? What about the rest of the mountains?"

"I just walked a ways," Starlight answered, shrugging slightly. "For about a week. And before that, I went through the caves."

"Caves, you say?" Arambai's eyes widened. A slow grin appeared on his face. "Perfect. Impossible to verify, yet actually one I haven't heard before. That should be all we need... Out of curiosity, though, how long in total did it take you to cross those mountains? Are we talking weeks, months, years, or what?" He leaned forward in interest.

"A month. Maybe a little more." Starlight shrugged. "I couldn't see the sun in the caves. I don't know how long it was. I also got sick right before the cliff and had to stop for a week and get better."

"You did?" Maple hugged her closer in concern, prompting Starlight to squirm slightly.

"It was just a cold..." Starlight mumbled. "I got rained on and couldn't find shelter in time..."

"Well..." Arambai got up, stretching. "I think I know everything I need to. If that's all, I'm gonna go start spreading this around. See ya later, ponies." He tipped his head toward Gerardo. "And griffon."

Gerardo held out a talon, slowing him. "As a matter of fact, there was one more thing..."

"Oh?" Arambai stopped, and looked back. "What's eating you?"

"While inspecting the wreckage of the crane, I couldn't help but press deeper into the forest." Gerardo cleared his throat. "There I found a cave that seemed to be... in use."

"You found that, did you?" Arambai looked back, bemused. "You really are good at digging up secrets. Come on down to the basement. This'll take some time, but if that's got you curious, I have something you'll really like to see."

Tunnels

"I call this..." Arambai grunted, shoving his weight against a stack of boxes that were slowly sliding out of the way. "The best-kept secret in Riverfall!" He jumped aside as they finally ground into place, revealing another set of stairs leading beneath the ground. "Don't ask me why that is. It's hardly one I try to keep. It's like everypony just wants to forget about it, or something."

Gerardo, Amber, Maple and Starlight hesitated at the top of the stairs as he began descending. "Come on, you lot!" Arambai beckoned with a hoof. "It's a bit of a walk, but it ain't dangerous."

With some initial reluctance, they followed. However, as the stairs morphed into a tunnel that continued sloping downwards, the area took on a very well-used feel. The gray stone walls were clean, hewn into the bedrock yet free of wall drippings, stalactites and distant watery echoes. Manatorches winked on snappily at their presence, giving the air that the place was in perfect working order.

After three or four stories of sloping downward, the tunnel came to a four-way intersection, widening out significantly. Arambai paused and leaned against a wooden support beam, waiting for the others to catch up.

"Arambai?" Maple asked, eyes more on the ceiling than the floor. "What is this place?"

"Back when the boats were around, this was a tunnel under the river," the yellow stallion narrated, a light shining steadily above. "Industrial stuff. The ponies didn't really want to build a bridge, because it would get in the way... but being able to cross the river on hoof is useful, you know?" He winked back at them. "It doesn't see much use now, of course."

"Wow," Amber remarked, surveying the crossroads chamber. "I can't believe I never actually knew about this from back when we used to haunt the docks."

"Eh. It's not the most impressive thing. Besides, I've made some improvements." Arambai turned again and continued walking, pacing in a circle around the room. "I got dibs on the house I did actually because it was connected to this place, thinking I might be able to use it for something." He passed by an opening and indicated. "To the left, here... that's west, by the way... it leads to some other old openings. Not much good for anything other than pranking an unexpecting stallion."

He continued walking. "Over here, then, to the east, there's an old storeroom. I'll tell you what I use that for in a moment. But right now, we're going north, under the river!"

The north passage continued to slope downward, a sudden chill invading the rocks as they drew underneath the river. Eventually, it flattened out, and then began to slant back upward. For the duration of the dip, Maple's imagination was held hostage by the idea that the rocks were glass and she could see through, walking in an air-filled tube through the depths of the ocean. Then, as quickly as they had descended, they reached another crossroads.

"More storage," Arambai lectured, pointing to the north. "West heads to some spare docks further upriver that were used when things were really busy. If you think Riverfall at present has a decrepit harbor situation with that crane and all... heh. Well, let's just say you wouldn't want to go up that way. But we are going east!" He leaned back and smiled knowingly. "That's the entrance Gerardo found."

"No offense," Amber muttered, scratching her head, "but all this north-south stuff isn't really easy to follow when we're underground."

"Eh. Sorry about that." Arambai shrugged and moved on. "I just try to visualize what they'd look like if you drew them on a map, from above. Makes it a whole lot easier, that way..."

"If I may..." Gerardo asked, walking on his knuckles to prevent his talons from clicking annoyingly against the stone floor, "what about this makes it the best-kept secret in Riverfall?"

"Oh, it's not these tunnels. They're just boring." Arambai waved a hoof. "It's what's on the other bank that no one ever notices because they don't come down here!"

The tunnel widened again, spare crates and boxes stacked around the edges. Soon, the rocks grew rockier and more rough-hewn, and eventually traces of natural light began to filter through before blossoming into a full-fledged curtain. A few plants and vines drooped their way over the top of the entrance, and then everyone was outside.

"Well, this is indeed where I was," Gerardo observed, glancing around the forest clearing they had emerged in. "I'm not sure whether that was more or less impressive than what I was expecting."

"Save your impressions for when we really get there," Arambai growled. He then kicked at a slightly-overgrown trailhead and pressed in, the ground below winding its way upwards and further east.

The path continued its gradual upward trend, until it suddenly spiked sharply, leaving the ponies climbing a carved set of stairs. Gerardo flapped slowly alongside, eyes keen in case anyone should slip. "Where are we going?" Maple huffed, pulling herself upward. "We're gaining so much altitude..."

"Probably another reason ponies don't care to come here," Arambai answered, apparently not winded in the least. "Too much work. Why go to all this effort for a reward when you've got a paradise down there, free for the taking? It's not the most sensible of options, when you think about it..."

"I still don't know," Maple grunted, "what that means!"

Abruptly, the ground dropped away, the group having reached the pinnacle of whatever rocky spire they had been climbing. The path continued, however... in the form of a bridge spanning to a nearby tree trunk, where it was anchored in a platform. Another bridge was visible on the far side of that, though mostly obscured by the tree.

"Well?" Arambai asked, stepping out onto the wooden structure. "You like it?"

"That can hold my weight, right?" Maple asked nervously. Starlight, still on her back, eyed the bridge dubiously.

"Well... it couldn't, for a while," Arambai admitted. "Or, at least, it wouldn't have been safe. But I had a go at magically reinforcing it a while back, and now it's as solid as dragon hide."

Gerardo poked at the bridge from the air, and it didn't sway. Amber trotted out onto it, and it continued to hold fast under her and Arambai's combined weight. Eventually, Maple stuck a hoof of her own out... and sighed in relief at the solid feeling beneath it. The bridge had nearly as little give as the bedrock in the tunnels.

"See?" Arambai shrugged. "What did I tell you? Anyway, it's just a little further." He stepped out toward the tree platform, the rest of the group still in tow.

Around the tree, the bridge did continue. But only one more link... and after that, they abruptly reached the edge of the forest.

Perched on the border of an extremely sheer drop, Maple, Amber, Gerardo and Starlight found themselves on some kind of lookout platform. Below was the river, inching by at the bottom of a veritable canyon made of trees. The canopy stretched above them so close that Maple could hit it with a a thrown stone, lending a palpable greenness to the air that was completely absent in the town below where everything was red and brown.

In the distance, to one direction, the corner of Riverfall was visible, the waterfall pouring downwards and the northbound tributary intersecting the river a moment later. The outlook was directly perched on a bend in the river, providing visibility in the other direction as far as possible.

"You like it?" Arambai asked, turning to the rest of the group. "It's the prettiest place in town, and for some reason... not a soul knows it exists but us."

Exit

"Is this some kind of lookout to watch for inbound ships?" Gerardo asked, apparently slightly more used to seeing things from above than Maple or Amber.

"Precisely," Arambai replied. "It fell out of use, after. Beats me why. You'd think ponies would come here just for the fun of it, but apparently I'm the only one who needs a place sometimes to sit and think, where nobody else will bother you. What do you think?"

Starlight gazed out across the river. The forest on the far side consisted entirely of thick, upright trunks, with no branches until the very top. She could see just as far through them as she could on the ground. And above them, in the distance... she saw the mountains.

"This must be what pegasi feel like..." Maple breathed, wonder in her voice as she stared at the ground far below. Beside her, Amber's expression indicated she felt similar.

"I can confirm that the view of the world from above is a very interesting thing," Gerardo added, wings shifting. "It seems a shame that this is not better-used..."

"This is super impressive," Amber finally said, eyes shining. "Thanks for bringing us up here."

"I know, right? And don't mention it." Arambai shrugged. "You're welcome to come back at any time. There's another entrance to the tunnels in that one single-story tower next to the river plaza that nobody lives in, if you ever need it."

"So, you took us here purely to sate my curiosity about the cave?" Gerardo enquired after the mares took a few more minutes to look around. "I can't tell if that's surprisingly generous or..."

"A waste of your energy when you could have just flown up?" Arambai asked wryly, then laughed. "Nah. Actually, I had something else I wanted to segue into, and this seemed like an appropriately dramatic place to discuss it. But enough about that." He shrugged, then changed the subject. "Having fun on your accidentally-forced tour of Riverfall, so far? Enjoying the cuisine?"

Gerardo smirked. "You can't expect me to answer that candidly when the chef who prepares half my meals here is standing right beside me. What's more, after living on canned goods and the likes of supply crate food for a month, anything is refreshing. However, it is remarkably good."

"Glad to hear she's taking care of you." Arambai nodded respectfully at Maple, who faintly blushed from the praise. "Have you gotten a chance to tour the fields where it's grown, yet?"

"I can't say that I have, no," the blue griffon answered, blinking.

Amber pointed a hoof at Arambai. "Hey, that's a dirty trick. You make all of Riverfall's food with magic. We don't even have growing fields!"

"Really?" Starlight asked. "Nopony mentioned this when you were trying to make me like him?"

Maple rubbed the back of her neck sheepishly, careful not to dislodge Starlight. "Umm..."

"If I may be frank, that's ridiculous," Gerardo retorted, pointing a talon at Arambai's bearded face. "I'm no mage, but I've taken the time to learn some of the theories of magic. Conjured materials cannot be maintained without at least some strain that can vary based on distance and abuse, and all unicorns have limits at which point the difficulty of conjuring more becomes extreme. Furthermore, all conjured materials are energy-neutral and are thus incapable of acting as fuel, including by means of digest-"

Arambai cut him off by breaking out in laughter. "Sorry," he said, wiping an eye after a minute. "Didn't mean to do that. It's just that you spent so much effort not taking me seriously there, and..."

"Wait a minute." Maple's brow furrowed. "When I was buying my house, the previous owner listed you as their supplier for raw food materials, and so have most of the marketplace vendors I've stopped to talk with. Don't tell me you're not the source of Riverfall's food?"

Starlight's brow continued to furrow. "Seriously, how didn't anyone tell me this?"

Amber frowned at her. "I guess we didn't think a kid would care about economics. Sorry."

"Now now," Arambai said, waving a hoof. "I didn't say that. Anyone want to take a guess at what's really going on?"

"So you're getting enough food for an entire town without magic?" Maple held a hoof to her chin. "I always thought you had a machine to do it, that was powered by the river, or something..."

Amber's eyes narrowed. "If you're not growing it and you're not making some other way, then you have to be importing it, and that means you have a way into and out of the town. Which would mean..." Her eyes widened. "Your teleporter? You've been teleporting food into Riverfall?"

Arambai slapped his forehoof. "One leap of logic too far, there. Teleporting food... heh... Nah, I do it by boat. Same way we get more Sosans showing up every now and then from Ironridge."

"By boat?" Maple squinted. "But we haven't seen any for years! When..."

"More like where," Arambai answered. "I told you, those tunnels are connected to an advanced western loading dock out of sight of the village. I just run a barge every night that brings in food for the next day, along with every once in a while some poor pony who needed to leave their old life behind."

"So what you're getting at, if I know my heroic scenarios," Gerardo cut in, "is that you do have a way out of this town, and you're about to offer it to me in exchange for some favor. Is that it?"

"Well..." Arambai shrugged. "Maybe. That's one way of putting it. But it's less a matter of payment and more one of risk management, so it'll take me a while to decide. Of course, the fact that I'm telling you now is proof I'm highly considering it."

"Risk management?" Gerardo's headcrest perked. "I'm unused to being considered a threat by anything but scum and villainy. Should I take that as a compliment?"

Ignoring the question, Arambai said, "Yeah, risk management. You think an old stallion like me can just make a mountain full of food appear out of thin air? Because it's just as easy here as it is in Ironridge. All that's gotta come from somewhere, in addition to the power for the boat. Truth is... before all this air travel business started, I used to be a very influential pony. Quite well off, with connections in high places. I don't think you lot have any business knowing exactly how that worked, but a large part of the reason I'm here now is because Riverfall is off the map, and I need to be, too. You follow me? I can't let hide nor hair of you leave this village until I've got some manner of assurance you won't spill the beans about me being here. Or any of the other Sosans, for that matter. The stuff in my shop, too."

"Who else knows about this boat?" Maple interrupted to ask. "I mean, you don't want us to tell ponies in Riverfall about it either, right?"

"Think of keeping quiet about it here as a sort of test," Arambai said with a shrug. "If you tell anyone, I'll find out, but I've already got damage control in place on that one. And, uh... sorry, Gerardo." When the griffon stared back questioningly, Arambai added, "I just tied your ability to leave to the secret-keeping ability of a couple of mares, didn't I...?"

Maple, Gerardo and Amber all shared a glance that wondered exactly what was going on.

"This feels slightly like a threat," Gerardo finally said. "Something akin to blackmail..."

"It ain't just for me," Arambai replied. "This town is full of hideouts who don't want anything more to do with the world and would hate if it came knocking on their doors. I may be a beneficiary, but I also more or less built the place. It's kind of my responsibility. Besides, I didn't say you could never leave. I've just gotta... trust you, you know? Just give it a day or two more, I'll think of something. All the Sosans here know about that boat, by the way, so don't worry about letting it slip to them. But nobody else, even their wives!"

Maple bit her lip. "Even Willow?"

Arambai shrugged. "I made this deal with all of them when they came. You wanna stay here, you don't mess with others. That includes spreading around ideas that make ponies want to leave. Once the floodgates are open, this is just another backwater town that's no good for keeping secrets."

"This is... a lot to take in at once," Amber admitted, blinking at the ground. "I mean, you've always had a way out of here... since the very beginning... and never told anyone..."

"Yeah. Sorry, but there's not much of a better way to break that than all at once, with the warnings attached." Arambai shrugged and turned toward the bridge back to the ground. "Those two storerooms we passed, by the way? Stuffed with enough nonperishables saved from the shipments to last this town two full years. More, with rationing. Seeds and landscaping equipment, too. So if worst came to worst, we could shut down the ferry, add some military defenses in the river, and grow our own food. It wouldn't be pretty, but it would be a living. Just thought you should know. Feel free to stay here, and head back whenever you like. I've got some experiments to wrap up back at my house."

He stepped down the bridge and out of sight. Soon, Gerardo and the three ponies were alone on the platform, mid-afternoon passing gradually around them.

Troubling

The moment Arambai was out of earshot, Maple began to fume. "Nnnngh!" Angrily, she kneaded the wood flooring with her forehooves. "What was he thinking?"

"Mmm." Gerardo nodded his head in agreement. "While his logic is sound, I still can't help but feel I've been blackmailed."

"Ugh! Not you! Me!" Maple would have thrown her hooves in the air, but didn't want to unbalance Starlight. "Why would he talk about a secret way out of town right next to Starlight? He knows how precarious it is that she's here! She even tried to use his teleporter to run away!" She scowled heavily down the bridge the stallion had left by, expression not at all matched by the color and cheer of the forest. "And he just... he just told her..."

"I'm right here, you know," Starlight droned from atop her back. "I can hear you, and I'm not leaving. I thought about it... but I changed my mind. I'm staying here with you."

Maple immediately calmed... mostly. "Thank you..." She reached back to nuzzle the filly.

"It's still super strange, though," Amber muttered, pacing and holding her chin. "Whether Starlight should have heard it or not, what about us? If he really wanted to keep that as tight a secret as possible, why not tell Gerardo alone? Why drag you and me into it?"

"It's not impossible he means it as a test," Gerardo said with a shrug. Upon receiving two identical stares, he elaborated, "Of my ability to keep a secret. Much easier for me to not tell anyone than to keep those who know from telling, is it not?"

"Well, we won't tell..." Amber said hesitantly. "But if it's a test for you, why would he specifically warn us himself not to tell our best friend? Wouldn't he stick that on you?"

"He told us so much other stuff that didn't have to do with that, too," Maple murmured, walking back toward the other two. "We were in private in his house. Why bring us all the way out here? Not that it isn't pretty, or anything. But he made a big point about how much food he had stored up..."

"You don't suppose it was a veiled threat that he can and will stop the ferry at any time if word gets out, do you?" Gerardo asked, pacing as well.

"Veiled? Didn't he say that directly?" Amber rubbed her head. "It feels like overkill, but..."

"I wonder just what's going on in Ironridge that he can keep that much food coming out on a regular basis, but stay completely hidden," Maple mused. "How much do you think a town this big eats in a day? For that matter, I wonder how many ponies even live in Riverfall. A thousand? Two?"

"It just doesn't make sense..." Amber whined. "Didn't we go to him in the first place to clear things up? Why did he have to go and be confusing? He's usually so helpful!"

Starlight loudly cleared her throat from atop Maple's back, prompting everyone to look her way. "Okay," she demanded, "stop being paranoid! I'm not leaving, and we're all being quiet so Gerardo can leave. Problem solved." She looked around, as if satisfaction with her outburst was conditional on everyone else's approval.

Maple looked at Amber. "Can you do that?"

"I can do that. Sounds like a plan." Amber shrugged back. "You?"

"Mmhm." Maple nodded solemnly, then turned to the griffon. "Okay, Gerardo. We won't speak of this to anyone, even Willow. I'm going to have some words with Arambai about it, and I expect Amber is too, but only after you're safely on your way. I..." She looked sheepishly to the side. "I guess you don't really have an end of the bargain to hold up, do you? Still, we're thankful that you helped distract everyone from Starlight earlier, and we are sorry about what happened to your boat, so..."

She reached out a hoof in offering, and Gerardo shook it, sealing the deal. He gasped slightly as he did so. "You are unexpectedly strong! Err, pardon. Nevertheless, you have my thanks."

Amber held out a hoof, and they similarly shook. Starlight settled for an exchange of nods.

"Well... it's a long walk back..." Maple sighed and turned toward the bridge. "I better get going. I'd like to open the store a bit before dinner. Starlight? Want to walk, this time?"

Starlight slipped off her back, and the two stepped side-by-side down the bridge that led to the ground, the colors of the afternoon shifting around them.

Amber and Gerardo remained on the platform, watching them leave. Amber eventually shrugged, the sun shining through the river corridor and illuminating her yellow back. "So..."

"I take it you'd prefer a ride back?" Gerardo asked, tilting his head. "I have no intent of repeating that trek, at least."

"Yeah... hold on." Amber bit her lip, fidgeting with a hoof. "There's still something not quite right, and I can't put my hoof on it..."

"Concerning our recent lecture by Arambai?" Gerardo exhaled. "I can't say it sits well with me, either. Still, there is little we can do but do what he says, even if it seems unfair or-"

"No. Not that." Amber held a hoof out to the side, facing away with a grim expression. "It's just... I can't get over it. He's usually so nice and helpful to the village. He totally cares about every pony in it! He's not a 'few for the sake of many' kind of guy. So why would he tell me and Maple that he's had a way out of this town all along, and not let us tell Willow? He knows our history. Hers, especially. He's the one who told her not to go to Ironridge when she had a chance to take us! It's like... like he's being a hypocrite, and now he's rubbing it in our faces? This just doesn't make sense! He has to be..."

"What's this?" Gerardo asked quizzically. "You and miss Willow were thwarted in leaving before?"

"Long story," Amber said with a shrug. "Not as relevant as it sounds. I'll totally tell you later, though. But it's just... out of character! Like, he knows us. Maybe even better than he knows most of the other Riverfall ponies. How could he have said all that and not expected us to get suspicious?"

Gerardo blinked. "You don't mean to suggest he wanted us to become suspicious? That he was... leaving some sort of secret message?"

"Ugh... maybe..." Amber rubbed her head, eyes closed. "But why not be direct? He's good at getting ponies alone. He had us alone! Unless it was supposed to be a secret that only one of us could figure out, but..." She sighed deeply. "Maybe Starlight's right. I'm totally being paranoid about this. He probably just wanted to be dramatic and messed up, or something."

"Perhaps," Gerardo happily announced, brightening and resuming his pacing. "However, I actually find secret-digging to be quite fun. And if there were any to be found here..." He stroked his chin for the umpteenth time. "They would be found by analyzing the broader context of our meeting. Do you recall what we were doing right before that deluge of information?"

Not waiting for Amber to answer, he continued. "We were discussing the potential implications of knowledge concerning the Plains of Harmony, which are apparently known locally as 'Equestria' escaping. And, immediately after, he chooses to reveal to those of us who inquired... all those who inquired... the existence of a route outside the city. Try going about putting an altruistic motive to that!"

Amber's eyes widened. "A warning..." she gasped. "He was warning us? That... if anyone found out... they might have a reason to, if they knew they had a way out of the city! And if they're good at finding secrets, of course they would..." Her pupils shrank. "He was warning us about you, wasn't he?"

"Not quite," Gerardo said wryly. "Remember who he specifically said not to reveal the existence of this conversation to."

"Willow?" Amber's eyes crossed. "Why Willow, though? Why..."

Gerardo opened his beak at precisely the moment realization dawned on the mare. "And remember who he said already knows about the ferry to Ironridge."

"And who I completely forgot was listening when we talked about where Starlight was from..." Amber groaned. "Pegasus feathers. We're thinking exactly the same thing, aren't we?"

"Sadly, I believe so," Gerardo agreed. "It seems our tricky ultimatumist is in fact a benefactor attempting to warn us about a possible foalnapping and subsequent sneaky escape."

"We're totally guarding Maple's house tonight, aren't we?"

Gerardo's beak curved in a grin. "Actually, I was thinking of doing some sneaking of our own..."

Magic

A dusty door at the entrance to a single-story riverside home swung open, by all other means looking abandoned. Out stepped Maple, Starlight at her side.

"Well," she sighed happily, "fresh air does feel nice after those tunnels. Doesn't it, Starlight?"

"Yeah." Starlight walked out of her shadow, lilac legs scurrying to keep up with the older mare's stride. "So are we going home, now, or what?"

"I think so," Maple breathed, stopping and taking a moment to bask in the weather, which was still sunny and pleasant. "Like I said, I want to open my store for a while today. I hope you won't be bored?" She looked aside at the filly, slightly concerned.

"Nah." Starlight shook her head. "I'll find something to do. It's not like I can spend all my time riding around to visit friends. That alone would get boring too, after a while."

"Well..." Maple looked down the nearest road between two houses. "I'm glad you feel that way. That, um, visiting friends is fun." She was silent for a moment. "Thank you. For... saying you're staying."

"I don't know why you're surprised," Starlight mumbled. "Why would I run away and leave you just because some stallion told me I could? That would be stupid."

"I guess I don't know you as well as I'd like, then." Maple bit her lip. "Sorry. It just seemed like something you'd... I mean... you were trying, with the teleporter, weren't you?"

"Yeah. But I told you, I changed my mind." Starlight straightened herself up, perfecting her posture. "Besides, I can't complain about Sunburst's parents sending him away just because they can and then leave just because I can right after. If I left, I'd have a good reason for it. And I'd tell you."

"Well... thanks." Maple looked again down the street. "Let's get going."

As they walked, Starlight let herself get lost in her head, following Maple out of the corner of her eye as guidance so she didn't crash into anything. She recalled her initial mistrust of Arambai... mistrust that had mostly been shelved, but never really evaporated. Had he been trying to convince her to run away, or merely letting her know that she could if she needed to? But hadn't he stressed how dangerous Ironridge was? Why would he think she would be better off there, alone, instead of in Riverfall with Maple and the other mares? Was there something in Riverfall he knew about that he wasn't telling her? And if so, why not?

She shook her head. She couldn't chastise the others for reading into his words like they were some kind of mystery plot, then do so herself behind their backs. But what was she supposed to do, then? She had promised Maple she would find something to do, and everyone's fussing was stuck in her head and she couldn't get it out. What else could she do? Talking about something? She wasn't much for conversation, but she did need a distraction. But what to ask about?

"Maple?" she asked, seizing the first thing that came to mind. "Tell me about your cutie mark."

"Huh?" Maple looked back, bewildered. "Why do you want to know about that?"

"I'm curious," Starlight replied simply. "It doesn't seem like it has much to do with what you do."

Maple's eyes focused for a moment, until she apparently realized what Starlight was talking about. "Oh!" She shied back slightly. "Yeah, it doesn't, does it? It sure is useful, though. I just use it for ordinary things, and never really think about why it's there. Or, at least, I try not to..."

"What do you mean?" Starlight pressed, hoping this didn't have to do with Maple's past and that she wasn't being insensitive.

"When you think about it, it's like a dead dream," Maple answered. "Isn't that sad? I mean, I guess you wouldn't see it that way, but I sure do. I wonder if it's possible for a cutie mark to disappear..."

Starlight clammed up. The last thing she wanted was to make Maple moody, after accidentally scaring her that she would leave earlier. For the rest of the walk, she remained silent.

"All right," Maple chirped, "we're home." Starlight saw her pause to look in the mirror hanging next to the door as she entered, and took a second to study her own reflection as well. Her mane looked slightly frazzled, probably from when Gerardo had been talking about countries going to war over her, but her flanks were as blank as ever, just like they should be.

She stepped inside, her host already busying herself setting up a display case. Shrugging, Starlight looked around, considering offering to help. Her horn still felt pretty good. Levitating things would be easy, especially if they were lighter than Sosa's old supply crates up in the mountains. But she suddenly found herself feeling slightly lazy... and slightly rebellious. After all, she had both just asked calmly about a pony's cutie mark, and turned down an offer to ruin someone's life just because she could. At least one of those deserved a reward, though at the moment she wasn't sure which.

Regrettably, she found herself reaching the top of the staircase, and then her room, with nothing to indulge in. Maple didn't have any confections ready yet for her to eat, and even if she did, something about eating to pass the time didn't seem like a good long-term strategy.

Her hooves led her to her worn-out saddlebags, still slightly stiff from being river-drenched, sand-crusted, and not properly washed or dried after. Idly, she poked at them. Her cutie mark makeup box rolled out, along with Sosa's journal, which prompted a sigh. She had read that boring thing so many times as a cure for boredom that it was worse than nothing, at that point. Although...

She turned to the other side of the bags, dumping out her blanket. She really needed to ask Maple to wash that. However, there was one more thing packed beneath it: the magic book lent to her by Arambai. She stared at the cover for a solid minute, not daring to open it. It was academic material, supposedly, which meant it both wasn't there for fun and paying attention could result in her gaining skills... which was dangerously close to a cutie mark. At least, it would have been, going by what she assumed them to be in Equestria. Were they really different here? What made them so much rarer? She shrugged; either way she wouldn't be at risk if she still stayed somewhat bored. She opened the book.

It was a table of contents. Starlight yawned and began skimming. The conservation of energy... Mana: the stable state of magical energy... Natural occurrences of mana... The properties of crystals... Harmony and thermodynamics... The elements of harmony... Concentrations of harmony in harmonic life forms... Brands of power... She blinked. Brands of power? As in cutie marks? Intrigued, she began searching for the listed page number.

She quickly found it, realizing with slight dismay that Arambai's writing was just as rambley as his normal speech. Tracing her hoof along the page, she read aloud by the light of her horn.

"After days of interviews and poring over all the data I can find on brands, it seems most useful to categorize them on a three-point system," she whispered, imagining her voice to have Arambai's growly tone. "There are normal brands, which don't have measurable magical effects. They do things like make a pony smart about something, most of the time. It's clear something's happening, but you can't scientifically measure or quantify it. Then, there's more powerful ones with measurable effects, like making a pony stronger or faster. Sometimes they can even do weird stuff, like create certain types of objects out of thin air. There's one mare I've seen who can store anything and recall it later."

Starlight stopped reading, eyes widening. Maple was in the book! She giggled slightly, then immediately stopped herself. It wouldn't do, taking pride that some ponies were being treated better than others, just because of a mark they couldn't control. Still, as little as she wanted to admit it, some part of her felt proud of the mare, and she couldn't tell why. She kept reading.

"The third kind are incredibly rare. I've only seen one of them, and it's going to remain anonymous in case this book falls into the wrong hooves. Their magic deals more directly with the harmonic energies that make up a brand, externalizing it in ways we've never seen before, ways that should be scientifically impossible... stuff like putting the wrong kind of species magic in a pony. To my knowledge, they've never been studied, and could lead to absolutely anything. Of course..."

Starlight squinted, then turned a page. Arambai's hornwriting had become crammed up against a margin, making it hard to read. "Anyway," she continued on the next page, "that's where the focus of my research goes... and what whoever reads this could one day help me on, assuming they paid attention to the basics. Speaking of which, if you saw the word 'power' and skipped right to the end, shame on you! Go back and..."

She set the book down, blushing at having been so thoroughly called out. Regardless, what she was reading seemed less like academic information or scientific methods and more like propaganda aimed at getting her to stay and help the stallion with his experiments. Had he really kept a book like that laying around, just in case? What was he even doing with something like that? Had he somehow known she would come? That was preposterous and silly, but she pondered it just the same.

Her pondering was interrupted when the door swung open, Maple's cheery face sticking in. "Starlight? You've been in here a while! The corn's almost done, if you're hungry..."

Starlight licked her lips. Corn sounded welcome indeed. Pushing off the bed, she trotted out of the room, ready to join Maple for a peaceful early dinner.

Sneaky

Sunlight filtered down warmly through the leafy cover high above Riverfall, lighting the paths of hundreds of ponies going about their evening business. For most, that consisted of ambling slowly, chatting with others, or hanging around outside and seemingly doing absolutely nothing whatsoever.

For Amber, however, it consisted of laying atop the roof of a three-story tower directly adjacent to Willow's, and had been for the past three hours. Her head poked surreptitiously out over the edge, constantly watching her friend's door for any signs of coming and going.

A rush of wind and a furling of wings behind her heralded the return of Gerardo Guillaume. The blue griffon landed softly on the roof, a corn cob clutched proudly in his beak. Taking it in a talon, he announced, "They're currently having dinner, and a very fine one at that. In fact, miss Maple almost seemed disappointed you didn't show up. She said something about making extra." He pulled a fresh, un-gnawed cob out of his suit and offered it to the yellow mare.

Amber took it briskly, pinning it between her teeth as if it was a pipe and utterly failing to look cool due to its comically large size. Scrapping that plan, she grabbed it normally in her hooves and took a large bite. "It's good. Tell her thanks if you recon over there again!"

"Any signs of suspicious activity on this front?" Gerardo whispered, sidling up to Amber and holding his beak sideways to her ear.

The ear flicked. "Yeah," Amber suddenly deadpanned. "Us. We're, like, lurking on someone's roof and have been all day! We're probably the most suspicious ponies in town right now!" She covered her mouth to prevent loss of corn due to snickering. "At least, we should be. Watch this."

She swallowed and stuck her head back out, surveying the street around Willow's house. Out of the crowd passing below, at least two mares looked up, saw her, and smiled and waved.

"Apparently there's absolutely nothing unusual about me doing this whatsoever," Amber said, bewildered. She shrugged. "I actually don't know whether to feel proud or offended."

"All the more useful for us," Gerardo proclaimed. "Incidentally, this corn is very good." He pulled out another cob and bit the top clean off. Speaking with his mouth full, he added, "I don't suppose you'd care to make a friendly call on an old friend to see how our friends in the house below are doing?"

"Uh... sure thing, friend," Amber offered, setting aside her unfinished corn. "Give me a lift?"

"Still sound asleep," Amber reported, strolling out of Willow's house for the third time since Gerardo had returned with the corn. "Kids still playing. Faron still reading. And I'm pretty sure I'm not gonna be able to ask again without making someone actually suspicious."

"Oh well!" Gerardo shrugged happily. "No harm, no foul. Speaking of fowl, I happen to have a chicken-themed deck of playing cards, if you consider it a better way to pass the time..."

Amber eyed the implement strangely the moment they were back on the roof. "Where did you get a thing like that?" She arched an eyebrow as high as it would go, studying the slightly bizarre cover image of a chicken girded in a crown and battle uniform.

"A passing vendor gave it to me when I was touring the bazaar," Gerardo replied with a deep smile. "For free, of course. It isn't common knowledge, but us wandering adventurer-hero types actually do get a hero discount." He hung his head. "Regretfully, it's rarely for anything useful."

"Right..." Amber asked dubiously as the griffon spread his cards atop the roof. "And while we're playing cards, who's going to watch the door to see if Faron goes anywhere? You are taking this seriously, aren't you?"

"Of course I'm not," Gerardo replied flatly. "If we're correct in our assumptions that your friend's husband is in fact a nefarious foalnapper, which already sounds like a rather silly accusation, he'd have to be an idiot to do anything during the day when there are this many ponies around and his escape route is only present at night. Our stakeout up here is completely pointless save for the fun of it, and that is what I intend to capitalize on. Of course..." He aimed one eye at Amber, and it shone dangerously. "Once night falls, then it will be time to take things seriously."

Night fell.

With a single sweep of a wing, Gerardo assembled the deck and stuffed it back in its case, erasing their score tally before anyone could check who the overall victor had been. He stood militarily, touched the hilt of his sword with a single talon, and strode to the edge of the roof. "Now," he spoke, "it is time to be serious. Keep a careful watch over that door."

Amber nodded solemnly, looking back over the edge herself. The day's crowd was quickly dispersing, ponies flowing back to their homes through ever-thinning streams of traffic. The sound of doors clicking echoed below as shadows deepened and windows came alive with lamplight, and within half an hour, the streets were deserted save for a few solitary figures dashing about on late-night business. Gerardo and Amber waited an hour after that, and then another. Moonlight began filtering through the trees. No ponies entered or exited through Willow's door. Riverfall was silent.

"I think," Gerardo whispered, leaving Amber crouched at the edge, "that I'm going to take a look around. Should anyone leave while I am absent, pretend to be an owl."

The mare nodded again, and Gerardo swooped off, circling around Willow's tower and clinging beneath window frames, checking them one by one. It didn't take long for him to return.

"Suffice it to say," Gerardo announced slightly more loudly than he had done before, "that being up all night tending to foals is a perfectly valid reason to sleep all day, but apparently that does not necessarily extend to the night after. Furthermore, our possibly-villainous stallion seems directly occupied as a result, and I strongly suspect he won't be feeling up to trying anything heinous, nefarious or dastardly before next sunrise. Finally..." He rubbed his talons together. "Those window blinds you ponies have are a miraculous invention and whoever created them deserves a raise and a promotion."

Amber reddened. "Yeah, thanks for making that subtle," she stage-whispered back. "So... we kinda waited up here all day long. You're just going to call it quits and... what, try again tomorrow? Because this could actually get boring after a while and I don't really feel like becoming nocturnal."

"Oh, ridiculous," Gerardo said with a smirk. "I said we were going to sneak, and we'll still do that. All we need is something else to sneak around, and I have the perfect target in mind..."

West of Riverfall, the forest of the southern riverbank rustled as a griffon glided his way through it, navigating between trees as much with his talons as with his wings. Amber clung to his nearly upright back as he swiftly and silently flew upriver, staying close enough to the water to see the opposite shore but not be seen as anything more than a passing shadow.

Abandoned, broken-down docks stretched along the far riverbank, mostly just poles that floating platforms had once been chained to. Amber felt a few thoughts about dubious construction fleeting through her head that they could be in that bad of shape after only seven years, before she remembered what had happened to Hemlock's crane... and the hubris that had allowed it. Who knew what kind of condition they had been in before the boats stopped coming?

Suddenly, they reached a dock that didn't seem damaged at all, at least from afar. It stood sturdily and without tilting, harsh white manalights stationed in rows atop short pillars on either side. Nothing was moored there... but the silhouette of a stallion stood at the end, coat illuminated with a yellow corona by the orbs of light.

Gerardo froze. When Amber saw him, she did too. They waited like that, hunched over in the foliage on the southern riverbank, for what felt like eternity. And then... a light drifted around the bend.

The river split in the beginnings of a wake as a dark prow nosed past, the boat that followed gliding soundlessly through the river. It seamlessly slid to a stop alongside Arambai's dock, disturbance so shallow that it was entirely swallowed by the river's natural turbidity. Out of sight, a platform dropped, and the sound of wood striking steel could be heard. Gerardo hovered closer.

"Ahh, Gunga. Here with tonight's shipment, are you?"

Arambai's voice rang out across the water. It was evident that he was talking softly, but the sound carried so well that Amber and Gerardo could hear it plainly. They craned their necks for more.

"That I am, Milord." A refined voice answered him, sounding like its owner was attempting to make it sound deeper than its natural pitch. "A reminder that the shipping schedule is due to update in a week. I brought you another new copy, just in case."

"Bah. You worry too much. But still... thanks. Anyway, here's the latest for you-know-who. Don't let it slip, but I think I've got a big break coming! Still a work in progress, though."

"You say that every time, sir," Gunga said with a hint of amusement behind his stiff, important tone. There was a flash of telekinesis, and something floated between the two stallions.

"Shut up!" Arambai's tone was whimsical, and two seconds passed before both stallions snorted and began chuckling. "All right, all right, yeah, I do," Arambai admitted. "So for the record, it's your fault if anyone gets their hopes up. I've got a whole city to run, here, for crying out loud! Besides, I've read the reports; things are perfectly stable. Why blunder into something untested when we've got all the time we could possibly need?"

"Whatever you say, sir," Gunga replied. "Shall we move these crates to land?"

"Eh, hold up. There are a few special circumstances." Arambai didn't move, and the stallions remained standing on the dock. "First off, a traveler wandered into my town the other day, and I'm thinking of sending 'em your way. Mind keeping any eastern passengers off the boat for the next week or so? It'd probably be easier if you arrived to take them alone."

"As you wish." Gunga bowed. "I assume you've already thought through the complications that could arise from such an act?"

Arambai laughed. "You bet your boots I have! It ain't an easy choice, let me tell you. But what am I, some kind of prison master? And besides, I think this'll be for the best."

Gunga didn't protest. "You mentioned more than one circumstance?"

"Yeah." Arambai paused, taking a breath. "I've got a rumor I need spread around, to get nice and circulated. How fast do you think you can spread a sensational story around Ironridge?"

"Sosa? One morning. The Earth District? A day. The whole city? Forty-eight hours."

"Snazzy. Here it is, then: some wild yahoo crosses the mountains, from the south. Found a network of caves that let them get through, or something. They probably crossed... eh, about two hundred miles east of my village. A pegasus, adult. Real rambunctious, loves bragging about it. Has a bunch of shiny artifacts to prove it. If anyone asks, you heard it from the crew of an airship from that crazy llama city that can't decide on a name. Ain't around these parts, though. Think you can sensationalize that?"

"A pegasus, sir? From the Plains of Harmony?"

"Yeah, that place. Oh, and he's gotta look the part, too. Let's see, what's something no sane pony would ever look like... ah, I know! Red and black mane, totally evil-looking. And he's got a sinister goatee! Nothing beats doubters like the smell of fake embellishment covering up the real thing."

"Should I give him a name, or say I don't know?"

"Yeah, better make it something spooky. Lots of M's and D's! How about... Dommordimo?"

"No offense, sir, but that's a terrible name."

"You're right, I stink at naming. Figure something out yourself, then. And help me get this stuff to shore! I'll come pick it up properly in the morning."

As the two stallions adjourned their conversation, Amber and Gerardo looked at each other, both brimming with unanswered questions. Silently, mutually, they decided to go someplace more private to discuss them.

"What was that all about?" Amber asked as they broke into a small, unused forest clearing.

"A good question," Gerardo huffed. "The better one is, where to begin?"

"That was Starlight's cover story!" Amber exclaimed softly, waving a hoof. "But why are they spreading it in Ironridge? Isn't Ironridge not supposed to know about Riverfall?"

"I'm more interested in the part where that stallion referred to Arambai as 'milord,'" Gerardo replied, catching his breath. "I'm not perfectly versed in Ironridge's political system, but I do believe it to be governed largely by an economic council. That is to say, the shipping companies are the government. It is hardly a monarchy to produce lords and ladies. He is from Ironridge, is he not?"

"Arambai?" Amber asked. "I mean, I think so. Maybe it was, like, a gesture of respect? He did only do it once, after all."

"Yes..." Gerardo mused. "Nevertheless, within a confidential setting I was not supposed to be privy to, they went about making preparations for my eventual voyage out of town. That, at least, is heartening, is it not?"

"For you," Amber replied. "I just wish our sneaking had actually answered something. Maybe Arambai wasn't kidding when he said he had more secrets than the rest of Riverfall put together." She blinked. "He did say that, right?"

"I don't know..." Gerardo stroked his chin. "However, I believe further discussion on this matter would best be done in the morning, after a good sleep, and with as many minds present as possible. What say you we pay our friend Maple a very late visit?"

Amber shrugged. "Well, sure. I'm game if you're game. But maybe we should sleep somewhere that doesn't involve barging in in the middle of the night?"

"Very well. Then let us be off!" Picking up the mare on his back, Gerardo swooped into the forest, heading back east in the direction of Riverfall.

Known

Starlight felt herself awaken, but didn't open her eyes. Everything was warm and dark, and she found herself with no pressing reason to get up. Stretching slightly, she curled up and prepared to enjoy the morning by doing nothing... or perhaps going back to sleep. It wasn't like Maple wouldn't do the same, of course. Aside from that first morning, the earth pony seemed perfectly content to let the time go by and cuddle. All in all, it was a much nicer way to start the day than with an alarm clock.

Maple stirred against her as she moved. "Starlight?" she mumbled. "You're up?"

"No," Starlight mumbled back. "I'm asleep. You can stay... if you want..."

A hoof draped over her, pulling her closer to Maple's snuggled form. "Hee... I like waking up this way. Thanks for putting up with it, Starlight. I'm glad..."

Starlight hummed, rolled so that she was facedown, and let herself drift back to sleep.

The next time she awoke, it wasn't quite so peaceful. First, one ear twitched, and then another, registering some sort of roar around the house... and not the soothing sound of rain on the roof.

She groaned, which seemed to awaken Maple as well. "Really?" the earth pony scowled, moving her hooves in an attempt to get up. "Why is the town so noisy these days? If it's another boat..."

Maple hauled herself upright, and Starlight eventually followed suit. Both blinked owlishly for a moment as Starlight lit her horn, removing the need to open the blinds for illumination. "Well," Maple announced, sliding off the bed, "I'm out of patience for noisy events for the time being, and have every intention of pretending it doesn't exist. Come on, Starlight, want me to fix your mane?"

Starlight stood still as her mane was fussed with, eventually coming away with it in a neat single ponytail that Maple probably thought looked quite cute. She followed the mare to the kitchen, sat by the table as breakfast was prepared, and eventually nursed an ordinary bowl of cinnamon milk and oats, all the while pretending to ignore the hubbub outside. Maple sat across from her, and they politely and awkwardly stared at each other and nowhere else for the duration of the meal.

"All right," Maple said, putting aside her finished bowl, "this is getting ridiculous. It sounds like they're just outside the..." She trotted to the window and looked down, bewilderment pausing her in mid-sentence. "House? Why is there a giant crowd of ponies standing right outside my house?"

"There's what?" Starlight got up, walking over herself. "How big is it?"

"Maybe something happened and my store got famous," Maple murmured, turning toward the stairs. "I'm going down to check. You can wait here, if you like."

Starlight declined, creeping warily along behind Maple as the mare moved to open the lower door. The moment it swung open, her mane was blown back by the sheer force of excitement radiating in from outside. "Hi!" a pony beamed, managing to cram their face past all the others and into the door. "Is this where Starlight lives? The one from the Plains of Harmony?"

Both ponies in the house froze. Maple took a step backwards, ears folded. "I... what?"

"Starlight!" another shouted over the first one's head. "We heard she crossed the southern mountains! Is it true?" More ponies pressed in, and more questions were launched, though they quickly became indiscernible due to the clamoring.

Maple's ears pressed heavily against her head, and she tried to stammer an inaudible response... when a field of cyan telekinesis picked her up and gently pushed her aside. That same field hardened into an iron ball, forcing the doorway clear of ponies as Starlight icily stalked outside, maintaining space for herself with a telekinetic forcefield that the visitors smashed up against. "All right," she hissed, words drowned out by the crowd, "you have three seconds for me to realize this is a nightmare and wake up."

None of the ponies heard her. Three seconds later, Starlight's horn crackled with energy, and suddenly the entire crowd was encased in a giant manacrystal, Starlight standing in a clearing in the center. Behind her, Maple looked on in shock. Her horn twinged painfully, but she ignored it.

"One at a time," she demanded, shrinking the crystal just enough so that a lone mare stumbled free. "What happened to not bothering foreigners about their pasts!?"

"I-I..." the lone mare stammered, clearly stupefied by the crystals. "I don't know! I j-just followed the others because they were excited, and t-they said, well..."

Starlight stamped a hoof. "Okay, look! I didn't come here because I wanted ponies to be obsessed with my past, or care about where I'm from, or treat me like anything special, because I don't want to be! Got it?"

She stood there for a second, watching. From the crystals, eyes blinked back at her, and she suddenly realized that the captive ponies hadn't listened to a word she had said. Guiltily, she remembered the panic she had felt the first time she had sealed herself; the feeling of neither needing to nor being able to breathe.

The crystals vanished. There was a minute of still silence, and then the crowd dispersed and vanished in the blink of an eye, only a few cowering stragglers remaining. "I-I'm sorry," a mare wept, looking as if she might try to roll away if her legs didn't start working soon. "I didn't mean..."

Starlight looked down at her, blood chilling at the expression on the mare's face. "No..." she murmured, voice rising. "I'm not dangerous! I'm sorry! You were being too loud to hear me! W-What was I supposed to do!?"

The mare finally found her hooves and scrambled away, leaving Starlight standing alone in the middle of the street. Suddenly, the weight of her horn hit her like a ton of bricks, and she staggered. Ordinarily, she would have shrugged it off like she always did... but this time, it felt far more appropriate to collapse, the dust of the road brushing harshly against her muzzle.

"Aaaaagh!" Starlight pounded the ground, covering her face with both hooves. "Now they're probably all afraid of me! Why did they have to be so... rrnngh... why weren't they listening? What did I do wrong!?"

"Starlight." Maple's shadow covered her, and it was clear from the tone that she had to try to keep her voice steady. "I know it's been a little stressful with the things Arambai said yesterday, and I don't blame you. I'll find them. I'll talk to them and make them come around. Okay?" A hoof scooped her off the ground and attempted to set her upright, failing as she slumped over again. "Starlight?" Maple's soft face met her eyes. "Please?"

Starlight finally got up, hugging herself close to the mare. She sniffled and said nothing.

"I think," Maple announced after a minute, "that we should go see Arambai and tell him about this. He said he was going to do something, after all. Maybe he can help."

"I'm still staying," Starlight mumbled, clinging tightly. "I'm still not going to leave, okay?"

"Yes. Thank you." Maple patted her, then began to lift her onto her back. "Now let's get going."

Before they could, a loud rustle of wings sounded from above, heralding a griffon swooping in with a mare on his back. "Err..." Gerardo landed, looking awkwardly at the two. "Did something happen of which we're unaware?"

"Yes," Maple growled, "something did. We just got visited by a mob of ponies who knew where Starlight was from. And before we could explain or learn anything, they ran away."

"Wow." Amber blinked, hopping down from Gerardo's back. "Really? That almost makes what we saw last night look tame."

"It was weird," Maple sighed, "and we're going to talk to Arambai."

Culprit

Three loud knocks sounded on the door to Arambai's house, and it obligingly swung open. "Aha," the stallion muttered, seeing the two mares, one filly and griffon standing in wait. "It's you."

"It's us," Starlight answered, still upset and very much willing to take the lead. "And your village of respectful ponies who don't go poking at others' business just sent a mob to bother me about where I was from, didn't listen when I tried to talk to them and then ran off."

"Yeah." Arambai looked at the ground. "I'm, uh, sorry about that. If it interests you to know, I've actually had quite a few of them show up here already, talking about being stuffed in crystals and wanting to know if they'll be alright."

Starlight bristled. "I didn't have a choice! They were pushing and talking and wouldn't shut up so I could answer them!" She drooped slightly. "But the crystals are safe. I used them a lot on myself in the mountains."

"They'll be glad to know that," Arambai said with a sigh. "...So. I imagine there's a whole bunch of stuff you want to ask, and can't decide where to begin?"

"How they found out would be a good starting point," Maple offered defensively. "You said you were going to spread some rumors to take everyone's focus off of Starlight!"

"That one's easy enough," Arambai replied glumly. "Everyone here says it was the fault of a certain loudmouthed stallion who's a little bit embarrassed about a recent mishap that made him look bad. Can't say I know how he found out, but as best I can tell, this was nothing more than a petty little revenge scheme from a bruised ego looking to pin blame. A reputation for a reputation, you know. That sort of thing."

"Hemlock...?" Maple's ears folded.

"Yeah. Apparently he was stirring up a crowd at the market this morning. Again, sorry there was nothing I could do in time."

"I always knew he was trouble," Amber said darkly, pounding her hooves together.

"So why'd he do that to me?" Starlight pouted, stomping. "It was his fault the crane broke! That's what you're talking about, right?"

"Well..." Arambai shrugged, still standing in the doorway. "The whole episode made him look pretty bad, and you were kind of a hero even if ponies had other things to talk about. I guess, somehow, he figured out that you didn't want attention and went around to grab you a bunch. You know, as punishment for stealing his spotlight, or something. Beats me how his mind works. I just wish I knew how he found all that out..."

"If I may," Gerardo asked, stepping up, "what do you plan to do about this? I'm afraid miss Amber and myself wouldn't be nearly as successful if we attempted a repeat of our last stunt."

Arambai nodded. "I haven't gone out to look for him yet. Although, something tells me you're better at hunting miscreants down than I am..." He sighed and turned to walk into the house. "There might be nothing to do but live with it, I'm afraid. I'll try to take my usual disciplinary actions, but that can only deal with Hemlock. And even then, I'm limited in what I can do. Lock him up? This town doesn't have a jail. Banish him? Much as I'd love to, that's a horrible idea when the crime is spilling secrets. Think you can manage, Starlight?"

Starlight frowned back at him. "I'm not scared or hurt, or anything. I'm frustrated because they were being idiots and don't get it! Do they want me to be better than them? Don't they get that that's a bad thing? Why do they want some ponies to be special or important?"

Arambai sighed. "Some day, you're going to have to get that outlook of yours looked at. Still, at least it's a lot easier to get by being offended by something than it is being traumatized. Anyway, get in here. I've got a bit of reassuring to do, and then we can go look for Hemlock."

"Actually," Gerardo offered, turning to Amber and motioning at the sky, "it doesn't seem either of us are needed for this present conversation. Might we get a head start on that mercenary business while you and Starlight have your talk?"

He was met with nods all around.

"Starlight's here, girls," Arambai's voice boomed through the house. "She says she's done the crystal thing to herself and it's perfectly safe, and she apologized for using it at all and said she only did it because you lot wouldn't let her get a word in edgewise. Everything fine with that?"

A collective sigh of relief radiated through a sitting room, where no less than ten mares were huddled on couches, loveseats and even the middle of the floor. When Starlight came into view behind the stallion, there were instant chattered apologies, everyone tripping over each other until they realized what they were doing. The room fell silent.

"Look," Starlight mumbled, realizing she finally had their attention. "If you really need to know, yes, that's where I'm from. But it shouldn't and doesn't matter because I'm just as much of a pony as you are and there's no reason to treat me any better or worse for it. Okay?"

"But you're not," one mare countered, boldly pointing a hoof. "You must have seen things that are legendary! You probably know more than all of Riverfall combined!" She swallowed, and added, "Why shouldn't that make you special?"

"Because..." Starlight fumbled briefly; no matter how many times she rehearsed this in her head, it was difficult to say it without imagining other ponies poking mercilessly for cracks in her logic. "Because you never had a chance to! I just got lucky, or... or unlucky. How is it fair to make someone special because of luck?" She glared back, hoping she wasn't appearing too threatening.

"Well, I... I dunno..." The mare stared at her hooves, perplexed.

"If you don't mind," Maple interrupted, stepping up close to Starlight, "what really would be best is if we could have our space. Could you simply treat us like everything is normal for now, please?"

A chorus of nods echoed in return, and Maple sighed. "There," she said, turning to Starlight. "We'll probably get strange looks for quite a while, but we'll... we'll live with it."

"Glad to see that's all cleared up," Arambai announced, looking in from a hallway. "Anyway, since it'll probably be a while before those two heroes drag our suspect back in for questioning... and I am very curious to learn where he found that information out... think you two are feeling up to assisting me in an experiment down below? It's something I was hoping to work on before all this mess, but since you're here anyway, why not?"

"As long as it doesn't need my horn," Starlight grumbled, rubbing her head. "It hurts, now..."

"I'll help." Maple glanced around at the mares in the sitting room, some of whom appeared to be leaving, and others settling in to stay for a while. "Err... should we go downstairs to say what it is?"

"Eh, it's not really a big deal." Arambai trotted nevertheless towards a staircase leading to the shop below. "It has to do with that incident the other day when Starlight tried to use my teleporter. Basically, I want to try that again, to see if it was some sort of freak accident or is actually reproducible."

Starlight sighed loudly, pouting as she set hoof on the stairs. "Whatever. I already have a headache. Maybe if I get blown up and knocked out again, I can sleep it off..."

Dangerous

Starlight, Maple and Arambai descended the stairs to the ground-floor basement in silence. Now that they had been that way several times, the mountainous maze of boxes and storage equipment seemed far less daunting, passing in the blink of an eye. Idly, Maple wondered why the stallion kept the room so full when he had access to a network of storage tunnels without even going outside.

Arambai looked over his shoulder as he walked. "By the way, I... wanted to apologize for some of the stuff I said up on that overlook yesterday. Probably weren't the best kind of secrets to let out in company, you know? I just got eager, and forgot why Starlight shouldn't've heard them."

"About there being a boat out of Riverfall?" Starlight droned. "I made up my mind already. I'm not leaving."

"Really...?" Arambai raised a surprised eyebrow. "Even after what happened this morning? Huh. Not that I don't support that decision, of course. Ironridge is a dangerous place for a little filly like you, even one clever enough to survive the mountains. The wilderness is one thing, but desperate ponies are a whole other barrel of troubles to deal with."

"I made up my mind," Starlight answered, seating herself on the teleporter dais and looking firmly at the stallion. "It wouldn't be fair to Maple if I just left. It isn't either of our faults that the ponies are being pushy or bothering me, and I hate it when you lose friends for things you can't control."

"Good, good," Arambai grunted, fiddling with a piece of equipment on his workbench. "At least you're selfless. Always an admirable trait to see in a... pony!" With a heave, he snapped something into place, then straightened up with a chunk of machinery.

"Starlight?" Maple asked, standing nearby and watching as Arambai worked. "If I didn't exist... then... Are you really staying just for me?"

"Then I'd leave," Starlight replied matter-of-factly. "Maybe there's some other place where it doesn't matter who you are or where you're from. Somewhere you don't have to keep secrets because nobody cares anyway. I'd keep looking until I find that."

"I hate to break it to you," Arambai announced as Maple folded her ears in the background, "but even if something were to happen to her, or she wasn't here in the first place, I wouldn't let you leave. Didn't I just say how foolhardy it would be to let you wander unattended around that big city? It's not like I could ask Gerardo to take care of you, either. That bird would probably just fly off the moment he's gotten rid of his precious cargo, or try to find some other family to dump you on. He's not the kind of creature that likes being chained by responsibility."

"It doesn't matter," Starlight hissed, stomping a hoof, "because I'm not leaving and nothing's happening to Maple!"

"Yeah, you mentioned that." Arambai stepped closer, holding a modified-looking helmet. "Here. This one's got extra sensors and indicators, so hopefully we can get some good data even if it gets fried. Wear this the same way you did before, and just do what you did last time."

"You're sure this is safe, right?" Maple asked, standing nearby and steeled for anything.

"It's never hurt a pony before," Arambai answered, waving Starlight on. "Now let's see what happens!"

"Well... okay..." Starlight took the thing nervously in her hooves, the machine already thrumming behind her. Above, the energy rails were dull and dormant, and she wobbled unsteadily from the leftover throbbing in her horn. Reaching up, she set the helmet on her head.

CRACK!

Maple felt Starlight slam into her with the speed of a bullet, sheer luck placing her in the way to catch the flying filly. She staggered back a step from the impact, grunting and holding Starlight tightly.

Above, blue lightning surged through the rails, illuminating the entire room in a cloudy haze for several fractions of a second before vanishing as quickly as it had appeared. An acrid stench quickly filled the room, which Maple realized to be coming from the cables that tethered Starlight's helmet to the machine. She grabbed and threw the thing off, letting it clang and bounce against the floor, smoking lightly.

"Starlight?" She reached down and nuzzled the unconscious filly, unable to see as her eyes struggled to adjust after the flash. "Starlight, are you okay?"

Arambai was hurriedly dashing between consoles, ignoring them. "Interesting... interesting... that's weird... now how do you like that?"

"Starliiight," Maple moaned, worriedly hugging her closely. She licked the filly's scalp, to no effect. Upon examination, however, she was not only breathing regularly but seemed to have a perfectly normal heartrate. "Arambai?" she asked. "Can you turn on a brighter light?"

The stallion kicked a wall switch as he passed, and suddenly the room was bathed in a dull yellow glow. Maple sighed... then gasped when she saw Starlight.

"Arambai!" she screeched, lifting Starlight up. "Why does she look like that!?"

"What the..." Arambai paced closer, squinting. "Is she... see-through?"

"I-I think so," Maple stammered, holding Starlight against a backlight. The lamp was still faintly visible through Starlight's coat, as if she were made of very dark, fuzzy stained glass. They sat there for a solid minute, and as time passed, she gradually went from transparent to translucent and then entirely solid once again.

"Well..." Arambai straightened up. "She's not going to take that well."

"What do you mean?" Maple bristled. "It's permanent? If she's not all right after this, I will-"

"Nahhh." Arambai quieted her with a wave. "She's done this before, remember? I bet she'll be completely back to normal by the time she wakes up. What's really going to bug her is that this is pretty much proof she's different from other ponies. Maybe even metaphysically so. The only thing I can think of is that ponies from the Plains of Harmony are just... different from us."

"How so?" Maple stood defensively, still holding Starlight as Arambai wandered around.

The stallion raised an eyebrow. "You want my best theory? I'm warning you, it's untested." At a nod, he continued. "You see... the way this machine works is by using ponies like... like catalysts. There's all sorts of magic ponies can do that machines can't even begin to approximate, so the idea is to incorporate ponies somehow into a machine. It sounds sinister when I put it that way, but it's really not that different from using yourself to pull a cart. You follow?"

Maple felt sick. "You're saying you tried to... borrow something from her, but somehow took too much, and might have... made her almost disappear? You are, aren't you?" She took a step backwards.

"That's putting it in layponies' terms," Arambai grumbled. "But yeah, something like that. It sure is interesting..."

"Well, you can forget about doing any more experiments on her," Maple hissed. "Who knows if there are permanent effects, or if this could cause her to actually disappear, or something?"

"I wasn't planning to," Arambai replied with a wave of a hoof. "Believe me, if I'd known it would do that, I never even would have tried this time. Sticking the wrong power source in a broken machine to try and fix it is the kind of thing that works in adventure stories, but it's a terrible idea in real life, when lives are on the line. And much as I'd love to learn more about this... doing it safely would require the tools I used for initial research on this type of thing. Besides, where would we get more of her kind to make anything we learned actually be useful?" He shrugged. "Keep an eye on her and bring her back if it looks like anything's getting worse, though I'm not really sure what I'd do about it if it did."

Focusing on calming herself, Maple nuzzled Starlight again. "Okay. I... will. If you don't mind, though, I'd like to go home now and put her to bed?"

"Yeah, that's a good idea." Arambai turned back to the machines, reading over a strip of numbers again. "Let me and your friends deal with the Hemlock stuff. And, uh..." He looked back at her. "Want to not tell Starlight about this? That she really is different from every pony in the northern world? I doubt she'd like it, and it seems like the kind of thing to keep under as tight of wraps as possible."

"Yes," Maple answered with Starlight on her back, "let's do that. Oh, and... if you don't mind..." She hung her head. "I had one other question, about something you said earlier?"

Arambai took a step toward her. "All right, let's hear it."

"I was wondering..."

After

Maple moved to open Arambai's door, Starlight asleep on her back and the tiniest of springs in her step. She reached a hoof out... when suddenly, it blew open of its own accord.

"Well, that didn't take long at all!" Gerardo's smiling, beaked face announced. Next to him, a smirking Amber was guarding a tied-up Hemlock, who was thrashing and probably would have been hurling insults had he not been gagged. Maple raised an eyebrow.

"You... hogtied him?" she asked dubiously.

As Amber nodded sagely, Gerardo answered, "Overkill, perhaps, though considering both of us had prior grudges to settle as well, I can't bring myself to feel bad about it in the slightest. Is, um..." He tilted his head. "Is Starlight taking a nap at this hour?"

Maple smiled awkwardly, before craning around to check on the filly. "Yeah, she is. I'm taking her back home, so hopefully you don't need either of us?" She winked forcefully.

Amber quickly got the hint. "Nah, you're good. We'll handle this crone ourselves."

Gerardo bowed in agreement. "Indeed. The dispensing of righteous justice is always a pity to miss out on, but we'll promise not to have too much fun. Please, do enjoy your nap."

"Kind of a little over the top there, buddy," Amber giggled, nudging him and getting a chuckle in return. "Yeah, have fun. See ya!"

"Thanks, you two." Maple's ears folded gratefully. "Oh, and... I was thinking of making dinner down at Willow's tonight, so you should definitely be there. I'm grilling a pineapple!"

"We'll be there!" Amber waved eagerly, keeping a smile plastered to her face as Maple and Starlight walked out of sight. The moment they were gone, however, she scowled and turned to Gerardo. "All right, now what do we do with this guy?"

"Good question," Arambai's voice remarked from the doorway. "You could start by bringing him inside."

In the high tower room where one wall was made entirely of curved glass, Hemlock's muzzle was finally removed. "I demand a lawyer!" he instantly screeched. "And some refreshments, too."

"Hold up, big shot," Arambai drawled, telekinetically planting him in place. "First, there's some stuff we wanted to talk to you about. Collateral damage from breaking a boat while trying to show off aside, you broke Riverfall's number one rule this morning. Any guesses what that was?"

"I was sabotaged!" Hemlock flailed helplessly, failing to break free of his bonds. "That wasn't my fault, it was hers! Oh, and I still want a lawyer!"

Arambai rolled his eyes. "Fine. Pretend I'm a lawyer. Now tell me you know what this is about?"

"Actually," Gerardo interrupted, raising a talon, "playing devil's advocate can be quite amusing at times. Might I lawyer for the crone?"

"Nah. I want to keep this semi-serious, here," Arambai answered. "Besides, the less we goof around, the faster it gets the crone out of my house."

"I am not a crone!" Hemlock bellowed. "I'm thrice the stallion you'll ever be! Now untie me and treat me with the dignity I deserve!"

Amber stuck her tongue out. "My tail thinks you're a crone. Still think it's that attractive now?"

Realizing the situation was going nowhere, Arambai put his head in his hooves and sighed. "Good grief..."

Starlight slowly snuffled and snorted herself awake, some part of her brain deciding it was time to begin the new day. A fuzziness clouded her head as her thoughts awakened with her, feeling vaguely like she was made of paper... but with each blink of her purple eyes, it lifted somewhat.

"Are you feeling okay?" Maple's soft voice came from beside her, where the mare was curled.

"Huh?" Starlight lit her horn. "Why wouldn't I be?"

Maple's brow creased with worry in the teal light. "You mean you don't remember what just happened?" She hesitated. "What were we doing before we went to bed?"

"Umm..." Starlight chewed her lip. "Not much? You were selling things, and I was reading, and..." Her eyes crossed. "We had oats for breakfast."

"Now that I think about it, you had trouble remembering what immediately happened last time, too, didn't you?" Maple asked, sighing. At Starlight's questioning look, she added, "Arambai wanted to try hooking you up to his machine again to see what would happen, and I let him."

"Oh." Starlight looked down and shrugged, light still streaming off her horn. "Well, I feel fine."

"Do you..." Maple hesitated. "Remember why we were at Arambai's in the first place?"

Starlight's face scrunched. "There was an annoying noise... umm... Mares?"

Swallowing, Amber said, "A mob turned up that had figured out where you were from. It was Hemlock's fault. We went to Arambai to see what he could do about it."

Starlight blinked in disbelief... and then in strange recognition. "Wow." She rubbed her head. "Maybe I don't want to remember that... Are you sure?" She looked up, pleading.

"Yes," Maple said sadly. "Though you did handle it very well. I thought so, at least. Starlight... you also said you were staying here anyway, but only because of me. That if I wasn't here to miss you, you'd leave. Do you still feel that way?"

"Now that I think about it, I can remember more and more," Starlight said glumly. "But it still feels like a dream. Did I really freeze them all in crystal?"

"Yes," Maple repeated. "It was very impressive, but they were just scared. But they were being so pushy, and I'm not really sure what else you could have done..."

"That's weird," Starlight responded, blinking in confusion. She rubbed at her forehead. "Making a crystal that big should have been really hard, but my horn doesn't hurt at all."

"It doesn't...?" Maple breathed, eyes widening. "That happened last time, too! I wonder if Arambai's machine is somehow able to heal your horn when it gets overexerted..."

"Meh." Starlight shrugged. "Maybe. But didn't you also say it makes me forget stuff?"

"And sleep for hours," Maple hummed. "It's late afternoon, almost evening. We're having dinner at Willow's tonight, and will need to get going pretty soon."

Starlight folded her ears. "Were you in here the whole time?"

"More or less, yes." Maple looked around the room, not yet getting up. "I've had some things to think about. But, about what I asked earlier... if it weren't for me... would you leave? On Arambai's night ferry to Ironridge?"

"I don't know..."

"You don't want to make me feel like I'm a burden to you," Maple said gently, putting a hoof over Starlight. The filly shook, and ever-so-faintly nodded. "Starlight..."

Starlight hugged her back. "I'll be fine here. Really. You're nice, and Willow's nice and so are the others. I can live with it if ponies won't stop treating me like I'm special as long as they don't try to take me away. You'll see. I'll be happy." She swallowed, and added, "I started reading Arambai's book."

"That's nice..." Maple stretched. "I hope it's not too dry. Anyway, we should get going. It's a ways to Willow's house, and who knows how many ponies will try to stop us to talk on the way there?"

Together, they got up and unfurled the blinds. The sunlight had turned gray, evidently due to a fresh patch of cloud cover, but it wasn't yet raining. Invigorated by the new reason to hurry, they quickly prepared themselves, grabbed a poncho just in case, and headed out the door.

Pressure

Starlight scurried along at Maple's side, opting not to ride on the mare's back. It took more effort, leaving her with marginally less concentration to watch the ponies they passed in the street... which was just as well, because more than half of them were looking at her.

"It still feels like that was a dream," she muttered, matching Maple's pace. Her ears folded as she looked up at her friend. "They're scared, aren't they? They're keeping their distance..."

"Yes," Maple answered, looking straight ahead, "they are. Would you rather they not?"

"Well... no..." Starlight's head drooped, and her tail with it. "But I don't want them looking at me like I'm a monster. It's the same thing. Whether they think I'm better or worse than everyone else..."

"But none of them are going to try to change anything you don't want them to because of it," Maple comforted. "And if they did, Arambai wouldn't let them. I don't know if you remember, but he said he wouldn't..." She cut off. "Actually, let's not mention that in public."

The street ponies didn't seem to care, though they kept watching, staring, judging. Starlight forced her steps to stay proud, yet she didn't glare back. The last thing she wanted was to challenge any of them, right then. Besides, it was something she would have to get used to, staying in Riverfall.

They kept walking, and they kept being given a wide berth. Around them, Riverfall's vibrant reds and browns were muted by the overcast sky above the canopy, acting as a fitting backdrop to the unblinking eyes that watched them pass. Ponies broke off conversations as they drew close. Some, who wouldn't have cared otherwise, started looking just to see what everyone else was looking at.

Eventually, Starlight couldn't take it anymore, and stopped. "If you have something to say, you can say it," she loudly announced. "I'm listening."

The ponies blinked. One took a step closer. None said anything.

"Well?" Starlight demanded, doing her best to mask her irritation.

"They said you came from over the mountains," a voice came from somewhere in the crowd, followed by its owner stepping forward. "Did you really?" The pony's ears folded. "I wanted to see for myself, if you looked like the type that could survive such a journey. But you're just a filly."

"A filly that turned Palm and twenty others to stone," another countered. "She's probably more powerful than Arambai! I bet she just teleported across!"

"She did save the griffon's boat, remember?" A mare stepped out, nodding in agreement. "Arambai couldn't do that. He even tried! I was there!"

Starlight sighed loudly, lit her horn... and a moment later encased herself in a large chunk of crystal. She waited for the ponies to gasp, successfully remembering not to try to breathe, and dispelled it. "I didn't turn anyone to stone," she said dully. "I did that. And it's completely safe."

The first mare to speak up raised her voice. "So did you really come from across the mountains? Do you have anything that can prove it?"

"If I had anything, I wouldn't want to," Starlight answered loudly enough for everyone to hear. "Isn't this town a place where you don't poke into ponies' pasts? Because I don't need to be reminded why I came here." She raised her ears. "Besides, Arambai said we're not supposed to do things that make ponies not happy to live here. You can't go to Equestria. It wouldn't be fair if I told you about it."

"I've seen you riding her around all day," the first mare prodded, pointing a hoof at Maple. "If you could really walk across those mountains, you should have the stamina to walk on your own. Why do you need a caretaker?"

"Shut up!" Starlight snarled, dropping into a crouch and lighting her horn. "Leave her out of this!"

The mare didn't stop. "I don't get it. You don't seem like the type to make up a story like that about yourself. You're not nearly charismatic enough! Not like Gerardo..." She briefly gave an oblivious smile, then continued. "Did she do it for you?"

Another mare elbowed her harshly. "Knock it off, Mangrove! You're gonna get crystalled!"

"More importantly, you're being rude," another added. "Do either of them look like-"

They were interrupted by a jet of cyan light. Instantly, Mangrove's head became encased in gemstone, leaving the rest of her body to flail in panic. She immediately toppled, yanking at the thing and bashing it against the ground, unable to cry out.

Starlight winced every time it struck, but her horn was completely fresh and it was easy to shrug off. After a moment, she let the mare go... but kept her horn lit, and made sure everyone saw.

"Look," she demanded, "I don't want to be famous or special. I'm not a hero, and I'm not a villain, so don't try to make me one! You can think I'm a secret alicorn or a hobo from Ironridge, I don't care! I'm used to ponies not getting it. But don't you dare do anything to my friends, okay?"

"We'd never!" shouted back one of the ponies who had chastised the now-fleeing Mangrove. "We're just curious! Nothing has happened here for seven years, and now both you and Gerardo showed up a few days apart!" Her ears folded. "We're curious..."

"Please don't be mad at us," another added. "Or freeze us or run away. It's just been so long since we've been able to be excited about the outside world..."

A blue mare nodded. "It doesn't even matter if what you say is true. We don't care. It would be interesting!" She tilted her head. "Like, what's an alicorn?"

Starlight clenched her teeth in a frown of indecision. They wanted to love her... most of them, at least. And letting them do so would make them happier, even if it didn't actually lead to any change in their lives. Unless it would? What if they tried to leave; if she stoked dreams that would then fail them like Maple's failed her? Would that be worth it? Then again, if they never were able to leave, they'd never find out that the outside world wasn't as good as they likely imagined it. But there couldn't be no catch. That would imply that it would be an all-around good thing to let them love her...

"Maple?" she asked, looking to the mare for advice.

Maple, who had been standing by ready to intervene but doing nothing for the whole exchange, simply shrugged. "Who knows what the future has in store, Starlight? If I were you, though?" Her eyes shone with the light of unshared knowledge. "I'd let them. Tell them stories. Be nice to them now. Maybe it wouldn't hurt to hope for something good to happen?"

Slowly... hesitantly... Starlight nodded. "Fine."

Most of the crowd beamed. By that point, the density of ponies had roughly tripled, others from further away being drawn in by the noise and flash from Starlight's spell. As they began to press closer, however, Maple raised a hoof, warding them back.

"Um, sorry," she apologized. "I shouldn't have said it that way. We had dinner arranged with a friend, and were on the way..." She blushed hopefully. "You're welcome to come to my house tonight, though! We'll be there, and can talk until however late you want!"

"We'll definitely be there," a mare at the front of the crowd said, and several others nodded in agreement. The rest of the crowd parted, allowing a path for Maple and Starlight to resume their original trek to Willow's house.

Revelation

A slow knocking preceded the door to Willow's house opening, Maple not bothering to wait for someone to let her in. "Hello?" She tilted her head around the entry, not setting hoof into the room.

"Hey, Maple!" Amber waved enthusiastically from the table, where she sat chatting with Gerardo. Willow was nearby, looking slightly tired, if much less so than the previous day. "Come on in!"

Maple obliged, followed shortly by Starlight. She beelined straight for the table, seating herself between Amber and Willow. Folding her hooves, she smiled, leaving Starlight standing bewildered by the door. "Uhhh..." The filly pointed a hoof. "Didn't you say you were going to make dinner?"

"Oh!" Maple stood straight up, ears folded in embarrassment. "Sorry! I completely zoned out, didn't I? Heh heh..." Apologetically, she rushed to the counter, depositing two large pineapples, hurriedly doing nothing as she oriented herself and prepared to begin working.

Willow's nose twitched. "Starlight?" she asked, a hint of uncertainty in her voice. "The kids are upstairs, if you'd like to go play with them. I'm certain they'd enjoy it."

"I... guess?" Starlight looked apprehensively at Maple. The mare was acting distracted... Did Willow see it too, and wanted her gone to ask about something in private? Maple had, after all, just left her to address a crowd of street ponies on her own. Nodding, she agreed. "Yeah, I'll go."

"Have fun!" Amber waved as she slowly headed for the stairs.

As soon as Starlight left, Amber offered, "We messed with Hemlock for a while at Arambai's. Didn't really hear anything useful, or where he found that information out. I mean, who even knew? All of us, plus Starlight, Faron and Willow's kids."

"It isn't impossible the children let something slip." Gerardo raised a talon. "Still, as Arambai pointed out, Riverfall is ill-equipped with a system for punishing rulebreakers short of public dishonor, and I'm not sure that Hemlock is the type of stallion to possess honor in the community to remove so much as a minimal level of tolerance. Ultimately, we let him go... but who knows what will happen next?"

Amber nodded from where she sat. "He'll probably try and dig up dirt on another one of us in some dumb revenge scheme. As if he didn't start the whole thing!"

"They might've," Willow said, mostly paying attention to Maple. The dust-colored mare was sharpening a long knife in preparation to slice the pineapples. "I asked Faron to tell them not to, but who knows? Either way, it's an open secret now. I don't think there's anything we can do..."

"How is Starlight taking it?" Gerardo asked. "She didn't appear very upset either of the times I've seen her."

It took a second for Maple to respond. "Huh? Oh, she's good. I think. Everyone was looking at her on the way here. She stopped and talked to them. It might be a thing she could get used to."

Willow's hoof came to rest on her shoulder. "Maple," the silvery mare pressed, "you're distracted. No matter how Starlight takes it, it's going to be hard on you as well, I'm sure. Are you doing all right?"

"I'm fine," Maple murmured back, turning on the oven as she chopped the scaly skin from the pineapples. "Just a lot to think about. I guess I still need time to process things and make up my mind..."

"Are you making grilled pineapples?" Willow asked, leaving Amber and Gerardo to watch from the background. "I'm sure you remember the last time you made them. What's going on?"

Amber's face scrunched. "Huh? What happened last time?"

"Yes," Maple sighed, "I do remember. And I'm okay. Like I said, I've just got a lot to think about."

"River filly!"

Starlight was greeted by a pair of enthusiastic voices as Fir and Alder scampered up to her on the staircase landing. The foals bounced slightly, Alder's orange horn letting off a few errant bursts of light. She blinked back at them. "Uhh... hi?"

"Amber said everyone found out that you're from over the mountains," Fir said, smirking slyly. Her ears perked. "Does that mean we can ask you about what it was like, now!?"

"We've just been dying to know!" Alder added, nodding furiously. "Is it true that trees can talk down there?"

"Uhhh..." Starlight took a step back from the force of their inquiries. "I don't think they do?"

"Aww!" Alder swung a hoof, head hanging with a dejected pout. "There goes my number one theory..."

Starlight narrowed her eyes. "You two didn't tell Hemlock just so you wouldn't get in trouble for asking me, did you?"

Fir's eyes widened, and she held a hoof to her chest. "Of course we didn't! That would be dirty!"

"Yeah!" Alder added. "We wouldn't dare do a thing like that! We're not bad guys..."

Starlight sniffed. She wasn't sure whether they were exceptionally bad at lying, or too innocent to know that that was even a consideration. Did she want them to be the ones who leaked her secret? Not really. She already felt like she was putting up with something every time she was around Willow's children, and having an actual reason to dislike them wouldn't help. Not when she should be treating them the same way as any other ponies. Being young and cluelessly happy wasn't a crime. It wouldn't be fair to be anything less than eager and nice back. ...Well, maybe not that eager.

She folded her ears. Did that mean she should lead them on about what Equestria was like? Arambai had told her that it was better if the ponies of Riverfall didn't have any unnecessary reasons to romanticize the outside world. But she had also just promised a large group of ponies in the middle of the road that she would tell them stories. If she couldn't talk to a pair of bouncy children, how would she ever give a speech to that many adults?

With a sigh, Starlight asked, "Alright, fine. What do you want to know?"

Fir smartly raised a hoof. "Are there other kinds of ponies besides earth ponies, unicorns and pegasi? And have you seen them? Actually, have you even seen a pegasus? What did they look like?"

Sighing internally, Starlight began as long and pointless of a monologue as she could muster, hoping to bore the ponies with Equestrian mundanities just as Gerardo had done when he had arrived.

"What happened last time you made this?" Amber repeated, face tilted. Gerardo mimicked her motions, headcrest flopping comically.

Willow closed her eyes. "It was the night I told you two I was pregnant with Alder; that we weren't going to Ironridge. She wanted to make something special to cheer me up. If she's made it since then, I wasn't there. Even the smell is... making me remember..." A single tear leaked out of the corner of her eye, the pineapple slices sizzling pleasantly in their juices and giving off a strong aroma.

"Wow." Amber blinked. "I mean, maybe I remember that? I guess? It's kinda not the first thing that sticks out in my mind about that night."

Gerardo nodded beside her. "Amber filled me in on that episode. A truly tragic event, indeed. Dreams and aspirations were not made to be crushed."

"It's almost ready," Maple announced as the others talked. "Someone will have to go get Starlight. Willow, can you do me a favor?"

Willow reached again for her shoulder. "Anything, Maple."

"Could you find something else for Alder and Fir to do during dinner? I'd... like to be able to talk about things they probably shouldn't hear, if that's all right with you?"

"Of course it is." Nodding, Willow retreated for the staircase, hooves tapping against metal as she climbed.

Starlight, Maple, Willow, Amber and Gerardo sat around the ground-floor table, eagerly eyeing a plate of pineapple still steaming in the middle. Acting as accessories to the meal were carrots with peanut sauce, a leafy salad, a loaf of bread with spreadable cheese, and several ornamental glasses filled with soft cider. Despite the extravagance, all eyes were on Maple.

The mare cleared her throat. "Everypony?" she asked without standing up. "I have an announcement to make."

Nothing moved, so she continued. "Arambai has a boat to Ironridge. He keeps it running. He said it goes every night." She swallowed, coat bristling as if the temperature in the room had dropped.

"Uhhh... Maple?" Amber shifted toward her, muttering out of the corner of her mouth. "Weren't we, like, specifically told not to mention that to Willow?"

Willow, for her part, looked torn between being surprised, suspicious and annoyed. "He does?"

"He does." Maple nodded. "But that's not what I wanted to say. He told Starlight about the boat." She paused for effect, even though all but one of the room's occupants already knew. "She told me she's not leaving, even though she knows it's there. But..." She hung her head. "She also said it's only because of me. That if I weren't here to miss her, she would go. Because Riverfall knows where she's from, now, and it isn't what she's looking for..."

"No!" Starlight protested, putting both forehooves on the table. "I told you, don't think of it like you're getting in my way! I don't want to be a burden!"

"And you're not," Maple said, pointedly looking at her. "Because Arambai also said he wouldn't let her go if she wanted to. It makes sense, doesn't it? If Ironridge wasn't a place where the three of us could go and be safe ten years ago, even when Willow was an adult, it certainly isn't now, for a lone filly. So it shouldn't matter. It shouldn't matter at all..."

"...Maple?" Willow asked, a touch of concern in her voice. "What are you getting at?"

"Well..." Maple blinked. Her eyes were dry, almost awkwardly so. She grinned, though it contained so much anxiety it was halfway to a grimace. "He also said, when I asked him..."

The others watched as she trailed off. A minute passed in silence.

It was Starlight who broke it, narrowing her eyes. "Maple, what are you talking about?"

"Arambai said... that it would be all right, and you could go... if I went with you."

Dreams

Thunder rumbled across the sky in a long, slow wave, proceeded by the beginnings of a torrential downpour. It clashed poorly with Maple's awkward smile as she waited for someone... anyone... to say something, be it encouragement or condemnation. But the house was silent.

...Until a high-pitched eeeee began to fade in, building in volume until its source was identifiable as Amber. "Eeeeeyes!" She flew across the table, knocking Maple out of her chair with a hug, eyes radiating an unstoppable force of personality. "Do it. Don't you dare not do it."

Maple's apprehension melted like a flower springing up from the ground. "Then you think it's a good idea?"

"Wait, what?" Starlight got up, a hoof held defensively across her chest in imitation of the older mares' mannerisms. "Hold on! I told you I wanted to stay here! What are you talking about?"

"Only for my sake," Maple answered, regaining her ability to talk. "Now that doesn't matter."

"But..." Starlight folded her ears, scuffing the ground. "But what about your friends!?"

"I'm inclined to agree with Starlight," Gerardo interrupted, rapping the table. "To be frank, have you lost your mind? You have all the makings of a perfect life right here! Friends, family, peace and stability..." He tilted his head. "Even I, an avowed adventurer to the core, only go to Ironridge on a mission. Whatever do you even hope to accomplish there?"

Amber darted across the table, getting firmly in both protesters' lines of sight. "You two, listen to me. We wanted to go to Ironridge, to see the world outside Riverfall. It was our dream. And if one of us has an opportunity to go... even if it's only one of us... it is worth it. It's worth it all the way."

"We'll see her again, of course," Willow broke in to say. "I don't think you would be moving there. That was never what we planned, ten years ago. Even if you did find somewhere else worth living, I'm sure you'd come back some day?"

"Of course." Maple nodded vigorously. "It wouldn't be goodbye forever. I couldn't turn my back on you for the rest of my life, no matter what I found."

"Erm..." Gerardo's headcrest drooped, the griffon slightly put out. "You can't mean to say you wish to go purely as a sightseeing tour or a vacation..."

Amber grumbled. "When you put it that way, it makes it sound silly."

Maple, however, vehemently shook her head. "It's not about that at all. I don't have anything specific I want to do, and that's the problem! What would I do if I stayed in Riverfall forever, and never left? Sit around and watch Starlight get old? Maybe help some ponies pack a few boxes for moving between houses?" She sighed loudly at the floor. "What I want to do in Ironridge is find something to do with myself. I have a brand... er, cutie mark. It just doesn't make sense that I could have that and yet not have anything to do with my life! Not when they're so rare..."

"Ah." Gerardo sat back down, turning to his abandoned cider. "You want to make a difference in the world, but have no idea how... only the knowledge that you can't do so here. Is that it?"

"Yes. And I'm not alone." Maple's eyes shone back at him, glowing with determination. "That's the way it always used to be in Riverfall. Ponies would come here for peace and quiet, and they would leave when they wanted to do things, to make themselves useful. And right now, I have had it with sitting back and just taking everything that comes my way. I hate being powerless. I want to do something. I always have. And this is my opportunity."

Starlight watched the conversation with narrowed eyes. "So you want to go, then? You're not just trying to leave your friends behind because you think it would make me happy?"

Maple blinked, looking slightly hurt. "Well, I mean... Starlight, isn't this best for both of us? You told me you wanted to leave. Things in Riverfall aren't going to get any quieter or easier for you. I thought this was what we both wanted!"

"But you'll be leaving your friends..." Starlight repeated, tail drooping.

"Real friends want what's best for each other," Amber answered, "even if it means not being side-by-side forever. Even if it means living in different cities for a while."

Willow nodded from where she sat. "Starlight, this was our dream. Last time, we didn't have any plans either. We just wanted to see the city and the world for the sake of it, to make something of ourselves and learn things and have new experiences. When that failed, well..." She hung her head, then raised it and smiled. "If Maple went now, even without me or Amber, it would be like bringing that dream back to life. The dream that's there, on her flank."

Starlight surveyed the room. The three mares were looking at her with identical expressions of hope, pride and thankfulness... and everything they had said made sense, or at least they did to each other. Still, one more question tickled at her brain. "So if we're just going to come back, what's the point in me leaving? Won't that just make me more famous?"

"I..." Maple bit her lip. "I guess I didn't think that far ahead. I mean, at least it'll put it off for a while? You'll be the center of attention now, if we stay here. And maybe you'll learn or do something in Ironridge that will make it not as bad anymore?"

Finding herself unable to continue protesting, Starlight bit back a sigh, brightening to cheer Maple back up. "Okay. When do we leave?"

The mares' faces nearly split from beaming, and even Gerardo Guillaume swatted a speck of dust from his eye. A four-way hug ensued, and didn't stop for at least a minute. When it did, Maple said, "I wanted to see what everyone thought before I made any solid plans. But, I don't see why we couldn't do it tonight?"

"If you do," Willow said, "this is the most fitting goodbye dinner I can imagine. Shall we dig in?"

She was greeted by a hearty roar of acceptance, mostly backed by Amber and Gerardo with valiant assistance from an already-teary Maple. Eagerly, they dug in.

"Rommfff..." Amber crammed another serving of salad down her throat, mouth opening wide to accommodate it all. Willow rolled her eyes at the antics, but did nothing to stop it. A feast deserved to be a feast, after all.

"I imagine," Gerardo said between daintier bites, "that it would be useful to inform Arambai of this turn of events as quickly as possible, so that he might prepare? I can notify him myself after dinner, if you wish to spend your time packing instead, miss Maple."

Maple smiled cheekily back at him, still elated by her announcement and its acceptance. "Well, I imagine, mister Gerardo, that I'm far more packed than you think I am. Still, that would be very useful, if you don't mind?"

Gerardo nodded. "My precious cargo that Starlight saved was left in his care for storage. I'll need, at the very least, to inform him that it is to be moved. On the subject, having additional bodies will make it much easier to transport once we reach the city proper!"

"How much is it?" Maple frowned. "I'm already going to be carrying a lot of weight from our supplies, though I am pretty strong... And I don't want to make Starlight carry anything."

"Hey!" Starlight narrowed her eyes. "I can manage heavy saddlebags!"

"Two crates," Gerardo answered, "each cubical and approximately the length of one pony along each side. Standard issue, the type designed to be easy for earth ponies to carry on their backs. Regrettably, they are not small enough that I can manage both, despite being considerably larger than your average pony." He blinked, and added, "And they're moderately heavy. I don't know what's in them, this being a confidential, anonymous and no-questions-asked type of job."

"Speaking of that..." Maple nodded as she ate. "You haven't said all that much about what you'll be doing in Ironridge besides delivery. Is that really it?"

"Is it really that these two crates were of great enough importance to justify a trip through a long-dead byway that will not be patrolled over sending them through main air transit routes?" Gerardo lifted an eyebrow. "Whoever is paying my compensation certainly thinks so. Of course, we'll be able to talk all you like about the exact details during the ride. If the maps I obtained are accurate, Ironridge is nearly two hundred miles west of here. Upriver, that will likely be quite the lengthy ride."

"What are you getting in compensation?" Willow asked, nibbling at a slice of bread.

Gerardo's headcrest drooped. "I regret to say that I'd rather not say, if it's alright with you? At least, not until it is safely within my talons. Safe to say that I do not consider it a laughing matter, and will feel much better divulging potentially sensitive information once I have what I want and know nothing further can go awry because of it."

"Yeah, sure." Amber shrugged. "If you're still hanging around with Maple and Starlight when they get back, though, definitely remember to show it to me, okay?"

"There is a nonzero chance I will find myself passing back through Riverfall once my business in Ironridge is completed," Gerardo replied. "Granted, that will likely be in a matter of days rather than months or years, and I'm unsure if your friends will be ready to cut their adventure so short. But, consider it a possibility."

Amber slapped a hoof to her chest. "Consider it considered!" Then she dove at a slice of pineapple, attacking it with gusto.

As they continued to eat and laugh, a solitary figure watched from the staircase. Willow was the first to notice him, and waved. "Hello, Faron. Care to join us for dinner? It's special..."

The stallion blinked, and descended to the floor, pacing closer to the table one hoofstep at a time. "You're really leaving Riverfall? And going to Ironridge? And Arambai is letting you?"

"Uhhh..." Maple fumbled with a utensil, caught off-guard by Faron's dull, uncelebratory tone of voice. "Yes, we are. Myself, Starlight, and Gerardo. I asked Arambai, and he said it was okay."

Faron stopped, sighing with a heavy note of bitterness. "Then times must be changing. I don't deserve it, but can I request a favor while you're there? Only if it's convenient, of course."

Amber's eyes narrowed in concern. "What's eating you? You're not usually this talkative..."

"I asked them," Faron replied dully. "They're the ones who are going."

"I..." Gerardo tapped a talon to the table, contemplating. "I don't see why not? Name your boon, sir Faron, and if reasonable, I shall fulfill it to the best of my ability."

"I'm curious what this is about as well," Maple added, leaning forwards across the table.

"In the Earth District," Faron muttered, voice quiet and head minimally raised to maintain eye contact without bowing. "In an area called Gnarlbough. You'll know it by the houses, which look like hills in the ground. Go to this address." He lit his horn, floating over a small scrap of paper with something scrawled on it. Maple caught it and tucked it away. "Find the ponies that live there," he continued. "I don't know if they still do. You'll know they're the right ones if they remind you of someone familiar. And if you do, tell them... tell them I'm sorry."

Gerardo squinted. "No offense, but that is incredibly vague and mysterious. Might I ask for clarification? A motive, perhaps? At least some better means of identification?"

"I can't," Faron said simply. "Again, I apologize. There's one other thing, though. It isn't a request, just advice. If you're in Sosa, stay away from the graveyard at night."

Eyes widened all across the table, but Faron gave no further explanation, retreating to the stairwell and climbing, the sound of his hooves against metal the only break in the silence.

"OoOoOoOoOo!" Amber waggled her forelimbs. "Spooky!"

Gerardo shrugged. "Graveyards at night do tend to be favored haunts of practitioners of foul magic. Grave robbers, as well, and even hideouts for bandits! Once again, would it kill him to be a little less vague?" He sighed, and turned back to his meal with a flopped headcrest. "Ah, well. As a connoisseur of heroic cliches and all the trappings that come with them, I can't say I haven't faced worse. We'll simply have to make a note to avoid any tombs we happen to run across, shan't we?"

"I suppose we shall!" Maple smiled, in a successful effort to lighten the mood. Soon, the room was returned to its former festivity, five friends sitting around a table and talking about the future. Outside, the rain continued. Farther away, above the canopy and above the clouds, the sun began to set, time ticking away until they would be called to the docks to depart.

Advice

Gerardo Guillaume soared expediently over Riverfall, making the most of the still-towering gap between the tallest house spires and the lowest branches of the canopy. His destination was Arambai's house, and despite his lowered visibility from the pounding rain, it soon homed into view.

Alighting on the first floor roof and furling his massive, dripping wings, he rapped hurriedly, desiring to stay outdoors no longer than need be. Fortunately, it quickly swung open, and he excused himself into the house before even checking who had opened it.

"To what do I owe this evening call?" Arambai's growly voice asked from the shadows, before a warm light illuminated the entire room. "Not that I can't make a very good guess, but I'd like to hear it from you. After all, it never does to overextend."

Gerardo nodded, seizing several towels from the door rack in his talons and liberally applying them to his feathery face. "Myself and two others, requesting departure from Riverfall tonight."

"That quickly, huh?" Arambai chuckled. "Sounds like some ponies were eager to skip town. Can't say I blame them. I don't feel up to making offers like that every day!"

"If I might ask, whatever prompted you to make such an offer in the first place?" Gerardo stepped further forward, allowing the door to comfortably close. "Why, just the other day, you were telling us you hadn't even made up your mind on when I could leave!"

Arambai shrugged. "First off, she asked really nicely. And second? I guess I was feeling generous... and maybe a little bad for blowing up that poor filly with another experiment. But what can I say? I've got a good feeling about those two..." He stepped toward the stairs to the ground floor, beckoning. "Come on. Let's talk logistics down here."

Soon enough, they were standing by the teleporter dais, Arambai lovingly rubbing a hoof over a chunk of machinery. "So, you're going to Ironridge."

Gerardo nodded. "Indeed, I am going to Ironridge. That is my intent, at least."

"Well, I hope it works well for you." Arambai turned, and marched across to a stack of cylindrical iron drums. "The first thing to remember about Ironridge is that the higher altitude you go, the less trouble you're likely to run into from rogue types, but the tighter security is in turn. Get too low, and you run the risk of bandit attacks, given that you're carrying something they want. Get too high, and you just might tick off some company security guards and make yourself unwelcome around the place. It's a balancing act, you see?" His eyes flitted across a large, ornate sword framed on an exposed patch of wall. "And make sure you stay armed at all times. Either way, it's a good safety practice."

The griffon patted his belt, through which his own sword hung. "I have every intention of it."

"Good, good..." Arambai leafed through a stack of paper, clearly not reading a word. "The next thing to remember is that basically everyone there has a side, and sticks to it like their life depends on it. It's a good idea to be nice to folks and avoid making enemies, but be careful about being too nice, as well. You don't want to get yourself roped into any obligations should things turn messy for whatever reason. If trouble starts and you can walk away without ticking any ponies off, that's always a win for you. Besides, most everyone there has better things to do than chasing after the unaffiliated. Believe me, they know how to pick their quarrels wisely..."

Gerardo nodded. "Unintuitive advice, but I shall take your word for it."

"Third thing is..." Arambai picked up a part and squinted lengthwise down it, as if it were a telescope. "Riverfall is a secret, and so am I. As far as Ironridge is concerned, I don't come 'round those parts anymore. Now, there's so many bogus rumors about this stuff I've got in circulation that you don't need to worry much about letting anything accidentally slip, but it's still good to be cautious. If you do mess up, audacity is your biggest refuge. Too many attention seekers in that city for anyone to give you half a blink of their time if you look like one yourself. And don't you dare go around trying to prove I'm here, either. Of course, I'll cover this one again at the boat, since it's important for the other two to hear as well."

"I wouldn't dream of it," Gerardo said respectfully, standing at attention.

Shrugging, Arambai put the part down. "There's one exception to that rule. Up in the Sky District is a stallion called Dior. He knows I'm here, and he's a good friend of mine. I'm still in contact with him, sort of. He's very cunning, like me. If you ever get yourself in an extreme amount of trouble... say, the group gets separated, or some such... track him down, tell him I sent you, and he'll do his best to get you out of your pickle. Try not to rely on that, of course. But it is an option, should you need it."

"I'll endeavor to keep him in mind," Gerardo replied. "Is there anything else?"

"Yeah. And this is the most important one." Arambai's eyes narrowed. "As part of my conditions for letting the three of you out there with all the stuff you know, you need to stick together and watch out for each other. So long as you're within the city limits, you're a team. That means including guarding your precious cargo, you have to watch out for those two kids. Maple's never dealt with big-city life before, and as tough as Starlight is she won't be able to stop her from getting taken advantage of by cheapskates and scoundrels. Especially not when she's used to doing everything for free. You follow? If one hair on their heads gets bent out of place and it's your fault for not doing more, you'll be dead where you stand. Figuratively speaking, of course."

His eyes nevertheless wandered back to the sword on the wall. "That isn't saying that I'm not peerless with a blade. And it's worth mentioning as well that this teleporter's fully operational, and with enough ponies hooked up to it at once, I could probably extend the range far enough to get myself to Ironridge in an emergency. Point is, stick to your friends and make sure there's less trouble for all of us."

Gerardo gulped, sweating slightly. "That sounds perfectly reasonable."

"Good, good." Arambai turned back to the stairs and began to ascend. Halfway up, he looked back and said, "Well, that's what I wanted to say. Stick to the Earth and Stone Districts if you can help it, stick to each other at all costs, and never stop watching your back, and you should be right as rain. Show back up here around midnight with Starlight and Maple, and anyone who wants to see them off. And tell Starlight to bring me back that book I lent her; I don't want it floating around in Ironridge for anyone to read. Too many trade secrets in there. Heh... I wonder if she actually read any?"

"I shall inform her," Gerardo said, making for the stairs himself. "Thank you again for your advice. I do hope this expedition turns out profitable and enjoyable for all involved."

"So do I, Gerardo," Arambai muttered, pacing into the foyer of the house. "So do I..."

Contemplation

Maple and Starlight tramped through the muddying streets of Riverfall, the filly once again riding on her new friend's back. The poncho Maple had had the forethought to bring presently shielded both of them, and they afforded a leisurely pace, not being stopped or followed nearly so often now that the other ponies had the weather to worry about. Between the gray chill of the world around and the warmth of being pressed against another pony, Starlight had a perfectly content shell of isolation to slip into while pondering things slightly less certain.

She would be leaving Riverfall. How long had she been there? A week? Probably less. When she had left Equestria, it was simultaneously the hardest and easiest thing she had ever done. In order to sever herself from all the things she had called home, she had needed to harden herself, to forget about them and pretend they were already gone... which had been helped along by the world actually taking them away. But once she had, leaving had been a matter of getting the proper supplies and simply walking away. There hadn't been any fanfare, any heart-wrenching goodbyes, or anything of the sort.

And when she had arrived in Riverfall, she'd been prepared to do the same at a moment's notice. She hadn't wanted the kind of attachments that could keep her in place, should she need to leave again. She had known the kind of tenderness she would be missing out on by keeping her distance from Maple, Willow and Amber... and ultimately chosen them over the ability to leave. She had trusted that Riverfall would be perfect.

It clearly wasn't, looking back. The town's reputation for keeping secrets had crumbled around her, to the point where she could tell her decision to let the mares in was making the difference that kept her there. The situation she found herself in was exactly the kind of thing she had wanted to be able to run from. And suddenly? She could.

Maple wanted to go with her. In fact, Maple wanted to go more than she did. Having stayed in Riverfall through as much as she had already, a part of Starlight felt a stubborn reluctance to go, as if the city was trying to get rid of her and to go after resisting so long would be to capitulate. And besides, after Riverfall had seemed like the perfect paradise and then turned out not to be... what exactly was she still looking for? How would she know it when she found it? Did it even exist?

She might have to settle for living in a place that was imperfect. To do that, she would have to learn to tolerate a place that was imperfect... and would running away from Riverfall now do that? Wasn't she making a start at tolerating, there and then? Maybe leaving would make all her work count for even less than she'd thought.

That didn't change that she still wanted to leave. She'd had to push down reservations last time, too. But what part of herself was she supposed to trust, then? Crossing the mountains had been hard, but so had been staying home. And now, she had friends. One friend in particular who wanted her to leave... and who wanted to go with her. Suddenly, the best thing to do became a lot clearer.

"Starlight?" Maple murmured, breaking the silence. "Are you thinking about whether or not we should leave, too?"

"You mean you are?" Starlight's eyes widened slightly. "I mean, yeah. I am. But I'm going."

"Yes," Maple breathed, rain falling around her. "I am. It's weird, you know? I've wanted to do this for so long, and from such a young age, that now that I can... I almost can't believe it's happening. After all the bad things that have happened to me before, within a few days of each other, both of the things I wanted most and never got are coming true... Part of me thinks it's a cruel joke. If Arambai hadn't been so nice to me in the past, I'd wonder if he was pulling my tail with this. And another part is worried about all the things that could go wrong, going by ourselves... What if I really do never see Willow and Amber again? Or what if we make it there, and all my expectations for what the city is like are wrong? I mean, I've never done something like this before. What if I mess it up myself?"

"What's there to mess up?" Starlight shifted around on Maple's back, wiggling to get more comfortable. "You said you didn't have anything you really needed to do, and we won't be in a hurry."

"I don't know. I guess I'm just nervous." Maple sighed into the evening, daylight already banished by the clouds and now sinking away entirely. "But you must know how that feels, right? Leaving the place you've lived your entire life and going somewhere completely unknown? I've only heard stories about Ironridge, most secondhoof from Willow." Her eyes flicked up. "How much did you know about what was north of the mountains before leaving? Probably not much, huh?"

Starlight shrugged. "I think I've heard of Yakyakistan before, and someone said something about that. Nopony really cares about far away stuff in Equestria. They're always things you hear about and never see. Maybe if I had lived in Canterlot, or something. That's the capital."

"Oh... that reminds me." Maple stiffened slightly as she walked. "We invited those ponies over to hear about Equestria tonight. When I said that, I was thinking it would be one night, so it wouldn't be so bad... I hope you're okay with that. If we promised that and then disappeared, they'd be so sad..." Her tail drooped along with her ears, and only a quick save kept it from being dunked in a mud puddle.

Squeezing her eyes shut, Starlight thought... and decided that if going to Ironridge really was running away and giving in to Riverfall, she would at least have the last word. "Okay. I'll talk to them."

When they reached Maple's house, not a soul was to be seen lurking in the rainy darkness outside. Curious, Maple pushed open the door... and was greeted by bright lights and at least a dozen ponies huddled within the ground floor of her shop. The doorside towel rack that was a staple of every home in Riverfall was completely empty, and the distinctive odor of wet pony filled the air.

Maple's nose wrinkled as she wiggled out of the poncho, aided by Starlight's magic. "Umm... hi? Let me go see if I can find more towels."

"Thanksies!" A gleeful mare waved back at her, jumping slightly. Starlight watched the exchange, standing in the doorway, and decided to prop it open in hopes that some of the humidity and warm air would find its way outside.

"Hi, Starlight," another mare said in a softer voice. "And Maple, too. I really hope we're not being imposing. I mean, I heard about what happened earlier..." Her aquamarine ears folded.

Maple bit her lip, rummaging behind a counter. "I know I know your name from somewhere... what was it... Papyrus, maybe? Something that started with a P..."

"Ponderosa," the mare answered. "Though I did have a second cousin named Papyrus who left when the boats were running... but we're not here to hear about Riverfall history!" Her eyes lit up. "Starlight? We, umm... really don't want to pressure you, but we're really excited."

Heads all around the room nodded, leaving Starlight staring nervously at them. Hopping up on a table so she could at least see all the mares at once, she asked, "How do you even want me to do this?"

Shrugs. "Just talk about anything!" a mare in the back offered.

"Well... okay..." Starlight scuffed at the table surface with a hoof, gathered her concentration, and looked back at the crowd. "So the place I'm from is Equestria, and it's ruled by an alicorn called Princess Celestia. Alicorns are ponies with both wings and horns, and she keeps the sun and moon moving across the sky..."

Exodus

By the time the last of the mares cleared out of Maple's lobby, yawning regretfully and watching over their shoulders as they donned whatever raingear they possessed, the sun had long set and the rain not abated, coating the world outside in pitch blackness. It was through that blackness that a beaked figure stepped, protected from the weather by a cloak of his own.

Starlight sagged, letting all the evening's tension flow out of her. Telling stories of Equestria should have gotten easier once she got past her reluctance to put herself in the spotlight, but she had all too quickly been reminded just how little she knew of her homeland. Between her young age, remote hometown, and tendency since Sunburst left to ignore any attempt at tutelage, she had been unable to answer even basic questions like how big the country was, or why there wasn't a queen.

"Starlight. Maple." A voice from the open doorway interrupted her reverie, and a hood was shrugged off to reveal Gerardo Guillaume. "The optimal time for departure draws near. Are you ready?"

"I am," Maple said softly from the shadows. Her sides were bare, a testament to the power of her cutie mark in packing for trips. Idly, Starlight wondered just how much it could carry. "Starlight's been busy, though. Starlight? Do you have anything you want to pack?"

"Mhm." Turning, Starlight quickly ascended the stairs, rounding the corner into Maple's bedroom. She paused for a second at the sight of the bed; it was late and she was tired, even following her experiment-induced nap earlier. She hadn't even known that was the last time she would get to sleep in it... but it didn't matter. If she could leave ponies behind, she could leave a bed. It wasn't like beds could miss her.

She picked up her saddlebags from where they lay. Blanket... water canteens... her cutie mark kit... and two books. She blinked as Sosa's journal floated in front of her. So far, she hadn't told a single pony she had that. It was the one secret of her journey she had managed to keep... for whatever it was worth. But maybe it would be worth a lot? She shrugged and stuffed it back into her bag.

"All right. I'm ready," Starlight announced, reaching the bottom of the staircase again. Maple nodded from where she was locking the storeroom, and Gerardo stopped pacing in front of the door.

"Excellent. Then we should be off." The big griffon pushed open the front door, looking back. "I would offer to carry you both to save time, but given that the rain shows no signs of abatement, I fear that may be unwise..." Apologetically, he bowed his head. "I've already taken the liberty of speaking with Arambai, and Willow and Amber. They will all be meeting us at the dock for a final sendoff."

Maple nodded. "Thank you. And you..." She grinned uneasily. "Probably wouldn't want to carry me. Come on, Starlight. Let's go."

In the midnight rain that coated all of Riverfall, there wasn't a soul in sight to watch or interrupt the trio as they made their way northward. Maple, Gerardo and Starlight stepped purposefully through the mud, the filly walking on her own and keeping her oversized poncho from dragging with her horn. She also lit the way, albeit dimly to preserve her magical strength. Her horn still felt fresh after being knocked out, and she wanted to keep it that way.

In the teal shadows cast by Starlight's illumination, the town looked almost unimaginably alien, forming a stark contrast to the cheery, bustling streets of red and gold that filled the daytime. Whether they had been called home for a week or twenty-five years, those streets weren't there, and wouldn't get a goodbye from the three friends. Maple guided them more by muscle memory than landmarks, hooves treading muddied, familiar paths for what could be the last time, should she fail to keep the promise she had no intention of breaking.

Gerardo brought up the rear, his blue feathers shining handsomely in the light. He bore no load, having the entirety of his possessions stored in Arambai's house save for a suit and a sword. As the buildings grew taller around them, his head rose higher and higher in response, a combination of pride and eagerness driving him onward.

They reached Arambai's house. They didn't have to knock. The door swung open before them as they reached the roof, the yellow stallion pre-emptively standing in wait. "Good evening, you all," he growled. "Your friends are already here."

"Excellent." Gerardo bowed, and moved aside to let Maple and Starlight in. "Shall we continue?"

No further words were spoken. Amber and Willow emerged from a sitting room as if in a vigil, and the six creatures descended to the basement. Arambai ignored his machines entirely, sliding aside the hidden doorway to the tunnel under the river.

Single-file, they descended and then ascended, the stone walls radiating cold from the depth and the night. Starlight shivered, despite still wearing her poncho. She almost cast the wet thing aside, but remembered she might need it once they were back aboveground.

The second intersection came, and they turned left. The tunnel continued to slope upward. The magical lighting in the ceiling vanished, replaced by strips of glowing gemstones along the ground.

Quickly, the strips widened into two guidelines on either side, accompanied by a dramatic broadening in the tunnel. The ceiling ended entirely, and then the six were walking along a rain-soaked stone pathway, illuminated only by magic in the dark. They kept going.

In silent procession, they wound their way westward, the trail making concessions for crags and valleys in some spots and in others showing signs of outcroppings simply having been blasted out of the way. At times unnaturally smooth and at others nearly obstructed by the forest, it held the air of abandonment and repurposing possessed by so much of the city's northern riverside, now serving as host for the six quietest creatures in the city.

With funeral-like somberness afforded by a mix of excitement, anticipation, and impending goodbyes, they drew out of the forest at last. A single sturdy pier floated amid several ruined ones, and it was empty. But the lights on either railing were lit, and Arambai stepped towards it. "Careful," he muttered, the water on the surface nearly reflective if the rain would stop causing it to ripple. "This is not the kind of place you want to slip and fall in."

"So you had this and never told anyone..." Willow breathed, looking around the dock with slight misgiving in her eyes. "You told me not to go to Ironridge, yet you kept a route open for yourself..."

"Hey, uh... sorry about that..." Arambai rubbed at the back of his neck, which would have been more effective without the heavy poncho he wore. "I still stand by that, though. Sending two adults and a filly to Ironridge when one of them is a veteran traveler is one thing, but sending two fillies under the care of someone who's technically still a teenager? Besides, Ironridge is a lot more stable now. In those days, no one knew what would happen. There could have been a violent revolution at any minute."

"If I may," Gerardo broke in, raising a talon, "where are my crates? I was informed you brought my cargo here ahead of time."

"Just a sec, they're right here..." Muttering, Arambai stepped off the path and pulled a hidden cord. A camouflage tarp rolled upwards, revealing a large overturned metal container lit by gemstones that was mostly empty, save for two moderately large wooden boxes. "There. Happy with 'em?"

Gerardo beamed. "Thank you kindly!"

"Everyone, shhhh!" Amber waved a hoof in front of her muzzle. "Look upriver! Is that the boat? I think I see it!"

To the west, a hazy white glow slid into existence beyond the impenetrable curtain of rain. It approached deceptively fast, appearing not to move at all... and then suddenly being right in front of the ponies. The ship slowed to a stop, expertly hovering in the water next to the dock without any sign of moorings. At about twice the length of Gerardo's boat, every bit of it was sleek, technical, and radiating skilled craftsponyship. Its seamless docking complete, a lone stallion appeared at the railing... and mechanically lowered a ramp, stepping professionally onto the pier.

"Good evening," the stallion said, bowing, much of his dark green coat obscured by a heavy jacket. "Are these the ponies I am to take to Ironridge?"

"Yeah." Arambai nodded back. "And griffon. Though two of them are just here to say farewell." He gestured over his shoulder to the five in wait. "You all, I'd like you to meet Gunga. He's a bit of a higher-up up in Sosa, and is the one who keeps Riverfall's food supply delivered on time and without suspicion. Gunga, these are Maple, Starlight, Gerardo... and Amber and Willow. The first three will be accompanying you."

"A pleasure to make your acquaintances." Gunga bowed again, then fixed his eyes on Arambai. "Shall we proceed with unloading, then?"

"Sounds like a plan." Shrugging, Arambai turned to the other five. "This'll only take a few minutes. It's a long ride to Ironridge, though, and we don't want any delays. So if you've got any goodbyes to say... let's just say that now is your chance."

Maple nodded uneasily, looking around at her two staying friends. "Well, we'd better do that, then..."

Farewell

"It's all so sudden..." Amber whispered, barely loud enough to be heard above the pounding rain. Around her, the other ponies shivered, holding their cloaks and ponchos tight.

"I know..." Maple's voice shook with tension, sorrow and eagerness deeply intertwined in it. "This morning when I woke up, I was just an ordinary pony living in Riverfall. Now, because of a silly little question I asked without thinking, I have a chance nopony in this city has seen for seven years..."

"It almost makes me wonder if it's a good idea," Willow added, subdued. "It's easy to dream about something you have no hope of ever getting. Easy to imagine it as more perfect than it really is... because isn't that the point of dreams? To hope for something better than what you already have? Anything else would be a nightmare." She swallowed. "You've had so little time to really consider this, knowing that it's a serious option. I didn't keep us here because I was forced to..."

"You stopped to think," Amber murmured. "And while you were doing that... then you were forced to. Face it, you couldn't have gone with Alder and kept us safe."

Maple nodded. "But what would have happened if we had gone, then? If we had rushed in, not waiting to see if it was safe? You never would have had Alder then." She glanced aside at Willow. "What would happen if Starlight and I chose not to go, right now? Maybe we'd decide to go eventually, and nothing would be different than if we left now. Maybe we would decide never to go. Or maybe something else would happen to prevent us from ever going..."

"Such as not having a griffon guide to keep you safe?" Gerardo asked from the sidelines. "I'm aware this is not my goodbye to partake in, but it bears mentioning that part of Arambai's conditions for allowing this is my own presence. You may very well have to wait another seven years to find another adventurer such as me bound for Ironridge."

"Aww..." Amber walked up to him, eyes big. "You've got me to say goodbye to, don't you? We're pretty much besties..."

Gerardo bowed. "Indeed. It was a great pleasure, being your partner in crime... as non-serious as every bit of it was. I bid you luck in whatever solo exploits lie in your future."

"Yeah... You too, big guy..." Amber reached out, braving a lack of cover to give the griffon a hug. He returned it awkwardly, and both smiled.

Maple took a step forward. "Hasty decision or not, I've made it, and Starlight has too. Maybe there will be good things that we'd miss out on, staying in Riverfall. I know I'd miss you two..." She took a deep breath, and continued. "But we'd just as likely miss things in Ironridge. It's supposed to be a majestic city, remember? All we have to do is stick to the upper districts where things are affluent, and we'll be perfectly okay! We'll be able to see buildings, meet ponies..."

"And you have my blessing." Willow leaned forward and embraced Maple, just as Amber had hugged Gerardo before. "Have fun fulfilling both of your dreams, Maple. Being a traveler, and being a parent... Too many ponies never even get a single thing they wish for. Despite everything you've been through, Maple, you're lucky. Your life will keep getting better... and I'm happy for you. I'm proud of you, too. And I'll see you again, someday..." She tightened her grip, then released. "Goodbye, Maple. I love you."

"I love you too..." Maple pulled away, then turned to Amber. The yellow mare looked as if she wanted to wipe at her eyes, though with muddied hooves it would have done more harm than good.

"Well..." Amber sniffed. "I guess this is goodbye, huh?"

"I guess so..." Maple sniffed back, standing her ground. "I'm... wondering if I should have asked Arambai to let you come too, huh?" Her ears folded. "I mean, you got your cutie mark for the same reason I did... Going on an adventure, and all..."

"Nah." Amber waved a hoof, trying her best to act casual. "I've got plenty of things left to do in Riverfall. Tons of ponies know me, so I'd definitely be missed, and we can't leave Willow all alone, can we?" A confident smirk grew on her face. "Besides, if I leave, who's going to take care of Gerardo's old boat? He gave that thing to me, you know. I bet I can get it fixed up. It's not like the damage is more than cosmetic... even if it is pretty big. Maybe when you get back, I'll have it done, and we can go on another adventure... together?"

Maple grinned back. "That does sound nice. Awesome, even. And like I said... I'll be back. If nothing else, I promise you, I'll be back. Someday, somehow, no matter what happens... I'll be back."

Starlight stood and watched as they proceeded to embrace, just like the last two times. However, she quickly became aware of a presence beside her, and looked up.

"Hello, Starlight." It was Willow. "Or... goodbye. I enjoyed meeting you, even if it was only for a few days..." She sighed warmly, and added, "You're a very special filly who can do a lot of special things. You're strong, determined, focused, and unstoppable when you need to be. It wasn't coincidence that you managed to get here when so many others have failed."

Starlight stuck out her lip. "Really? Didn't I tell you how I feel about ponies treating me like I'm special?"

"You told me what kind of world you want to live in, yes." Willow leaned down, whispering. "But this isn't it. The world is unfair, Starlight. Many ponies prosper who deserve nothing... and some who fall deserve life. You can give it to them."

Starlight took a step away, face a mask of uncertainty. "What?"

"You have a lot of ideals," Willow murmured. "Very strong ones. And the world doesn't make itself perfect on its own. It's ponies who follow their dreams who make it better... and having a perfect world is a very special dream to follow. Do you want a world where decisions you made earlier in your life are never held against you? A world where friends are never separated, just because they're different? Make it. Not every pony has the chance to follow their dreams. But out there, in the wide world, you could find it... and if you accept that you have this chance, you can change the world. I believe in you..."

"I-I..." Starlight stuttered, looking up at Willow. "You want me to do what? Changing the world? How?"

"Mmm..." Willow hummed back at her. "Change can be good or bad, Starlight. But you can have a say in which way it goes. You get a say, whether you deserve it or not. I don't know what it will look like, or what will happen once you're out there in Ironridge... in the world. But any difference, no matter how small, can be made in a good direction. Can you put yours to use?"

Too busy processing Willow's words to properly think, Starlight nodded. "Okay."

"Good. I have one other favor to ask you, Starlight." Willow took a step to the side, looking at Maple. "Earlier, I asked you to be nice to her. Thank you, for that. She needed it. But now?" She looked back at Starlight, eyes shining. "Protect her for me. Keep her safe. She's eager and will do her best, but you've actually been in danger before, and had to survive... Can I count on you?"

"Uh..." Starlight blinked. "Yeah. Don't worry. I'll keep her safe."

"Thank you..."

"All right, you all!" Arambai's gruff voice interrupted the party of goodbyes, its owner walking dutifully over. "Looks like Gunga's about ready to depart, so I hope you've made your peace already. See, before you go, there are a few last-minute things we need to cover..." He leaned down, checking something held in his aura. "Before I start, any questions?"

Heads were shaken all around.

"Right, then!" Arambai cracked a hoof against the ground. "First off, I gave Gerardo here a brief rundown of some Ironridge survival tips earlier. I expect he'll tell you the whole deal, but here's a general rundown. Stick together, keep to the civilized districts as much as possible, do everything you can to avoid making enemies including getting yourselves roped into alliances, and all that jazz. Maple, Starlight, I don't know much about your combat abilities, but in the event that things go sour, stick with someone who can fight or else get as far away as possible. If any city drama starts happening, get yourselves back to Riverfall as fast as possible. I've also got a friend in the Sky District called Dior, who might be able to bail you out of a really bad spot. Oh, and mention me to no one. Got it?"

Nods. Arambai looked upwards, receiving a facefull of rain, and added, "One other thing: never trust a yak. And by the way..." He raised a soggy eyebrow at Starlight. "Any chance you've got that book I lent you? I'd really rather it not go along to Ironridge, see..."

Mutely, Starlight folded open her bags beneath her poncho. Horn shimmering, she levitated Arambai's science book until it hovered at the edge of her rain shadow.

"Many thanks." The stallion took it in a hardened ball of telekinesis, rain visibly bouncing off the edges. "Anyways, get to boarding. We've got all your cargo loaded and are ready to go at any time."

Gunga saluted from behind him on the pier, the boat's dark shadow illuminated in the water behind by the spheres of light bordering the walkway. One final look was exchanged between the five creatures in means of goodbye... and they broke apart, three sets of legs moving toward the river.

Starlight was levitated aboard in a cloud of purple telekinesis, much to her chagrin. Behind, Maple and Gerardo stumped up the walkway, the former's hoofsteps echoing as if she was made of iron. Together, they turned, seeing three ponies watching from the light of a solitary orb on shore.

A mechanical whirring echoed, and the boat's ramp rotated upward, swinging around until it locked into place on the deck. Gunga bowed from near a door to the cabin. "It will be drier in here."

"Yeah," Maple said hollowly. "Give me a minute. At least until they're out of sight."

The thrum of mana engines intensified below, and Starlight realized the ship's own propulsion had been stabilizing it in place. The dock began to slide back, and soon it was out of reach, the ponies on the shore growing smaller. Amber waved. Maple waved back. "I love you! I'll be back!" Maple shouted, straining, as the ship continued picking up speed, the sound of its wake mixing with the rain on the river in a serious threat to drown out her voice. She leaned out, eyes fixed on the trio on the shore as they retreated further into the haze of rain. "I promise!"

"We love you too!" Amber's voice faintly echoed, piercing the darkness and static of noise. And then the ship rounded a corner, and they were gone.

Interlude

"...And so we left, just like that. Several hours before, I was eating dinner, thinking I would spend my whole life learning to deal with Riverfall... and then there I was, on a boat going west. It was one of the most sudden things that ever happened in my life, right up there with losing Sunburst... and losing my village."

The late-afternoon sun streamed through an ornate stained-glass window, refracting into dozens of colors which refracted again upon hitting a crystalline floor. The shadows they cast silhouetted two ponies sitting comfortably on opposing couches, a glass table set between them decked with the remains of refreshments and cups of cooled tea.

"Wow." Twilight Sparkle blinked, interrupting for the first time in hours. "So you just... left, without even having one day to think about whether it was the right decision?"

Starlight chuckled back, watching as her friend and mentor finally broke her silence. With a voice raspy from a day of nonstop narration, she said, "Pretty much, Princess. But I was... kind of used to it, at the time. And before you try to feel bad for me, keep in mind that I wouldn't be here now if I hadn't gone with them to Ironridge. It was a hasty decision, and maybe not the wisest, but..."

"But you're here now." Twilight nodded appreciatively. "Thanks for offering to tell me all this, by the way. I mean, I always wondered if there was more to your past than what you showed me while we were time traveling, but thought it would be rude to ask..."

"Didn't want to dredge up bad memories?" Starlight raised an eyebrow. "Or didn't want to risk making light of what happened to me if there was nothing more than what I showed you?"

Twilight's ears pressed against her head. "Both, actually."

"Heh..." Starlight looked away. "Believe me, Twilight. Talking this long is a lot harder than having to think about all that again. I mean, I almost considered doing something with time travel again to let the past tell the story for me, there's so much to cover. It's so foreign and exotic, it sometimes feels like a dream... and there were some truly good times I had with those ponies. And griffon. It's nice to remember, and tell someone besides myself that it actually happened."

"Are you sure?" Twilight's ears stayed down, a look of concern on her face. "I mean, I think I would have noticed if there had been a pony named Maple who acted like your mother in your village. I keep waiting for the other horseshoe to drop, and don't try to tell me it doesn't come."

"I know, I know, I grew up to be a dictator, and that doesn't usually come from perfect, happy childhoods," Starlight sighed. "Twilight, you're an alicorn. Shouldn't you be the expert here in appreciating things while they last?"

Twilight flinched. "That's not really something I like to think about..."

"Sorry." Starlight looked away as well, and for a moment both mares were locked in an awkward silence.

Eventually, Starlight was the one to break it. "She doesn't die, if it makes you feel better."

"Huh?"

"Maple. In the story, she doesn't die."

"Oh." Twilight slowly stretched. "I don't know. I think I need a break, anyway. Something to reset my brain..."

Starlight nodded. "You do that. Meanwhile, I need to rest my voice..."

Several hours later, both mares had returned to the repurposed reading room, a fresh tray of refreshments arrayed and the couch cushions neatly fluffed. The sun was sinking lower in the sky, and Starlight glanced apprehensively at it. "Are you sure you want to continue now? The next bit's kind of long. I might not have a good place to stop until well into the night."

Twilight shrugged. "I like the night. It's perfect for reading."

"Well, okay, then." Starlight glanced dubiously upward, as if searching for someone to agree with her that Twilight didn't know what she was getting into. "Actually, before we start, is there anything you need a refresher on, or anything I forgot to explain? I'm kind of figuring out how to tell this story as I go along, so, you know..."

"Actually, I was wondering about Arambai's machine," Twilight said with a nod. "I researched ways to make a non-pegasus fly once, but never looked that much into it. Then when I saw you flying when we were time traveling, I guess I just assumed it was some spell I didn't know, or some kind of trick or... I had bigger things to worry about at the time, okay!?" Slightly frazzled at the admittance of her own scientific shortcoming, she ran a hoof over her bangs, smoothing them. "But in the story, you made it sound really hard. Does that have anything to do with...?"

"With this?" Starlight asked. Her horn pulsed, and a moment later she was enveloped by a shimmering aura, rising a few feet off the ground. "Maybe. How alright are you with spoilers?"

Twilight's eyes went wide with horror. "No! No spoilers! You wouldn't dare!"

Starlight chuckled, returning to the ground. "I just told you Maple doesn't die, didn't I?"

"Okay, we're changing the subject." Twilight's face went rigid, indicating she would stand no argument on the matter. "Other questions! Umm... I assume it did, but since you never said, your horn stopped doing that burnout thing, right? I mean, I can't think of how you could do some of the stuff you've done if it hadn't. Did you ever find out what was causing that? From everything I know about unicorn biology, horns aren't supposed to react that badly to overuse..."

Starlight winked back smugly. "It did. I thought you didn't want any spoilers?"

"Aaack!" Shielding her head, Twilight ran into the next room, calling back, "No spoilers!"

Starlight considered pointing out that she would just tell her naturally as part of the story in a day or two, but bit back the comment. As fun as it was to tease the princess, she was grateful enough to Twilight for sitting and listening through all that that it didn't feel right to push it or risk going too far.

The conversation had started innocently enough. She and Twilight had been discussing magic while working on an experiment, and Starlight had made a casual remark about the differences between cutie mark magic and unicorn magic that Twilight had found interesting. The train of conversation had wound its way to Starlight's own mark, and Twilight had mentioned how ironic it seemed that a pony could have a cutie mark in not having cutie marks. She had asked how it was even possible to obtain such a mark, and if a seething hatred for the icons in general wouldn't just keep a pony blank indefinitely. The silence that had followed had been too awkward to pass without explanation.

Eventually, Twilight crept back, looking like she was preparing to assault an enemy encampment. Starlight greeted her with a friendly wave, as if nothing at all was wrong in the world.

"No spoilers," Twilight hissed warily.

"Then stop asking those kinds of questions." Starlight shrugged, picking up a cookie with her aura and tossing it into her mouth, munching. "Want me to keep going, then, or stop for the night?"

"No, hold on!" Twilight flailed slightly in protest, taking several deep breaths. "I've still got more questions! You mentioned Yakyakistan being known up there, right? I can't remember, were you here yet when the leader of the yaks came to Ponyville?"

Starlight nearly spat out her cookie. "You've met Flame Face? In Ponyville!?"

"Uhhh..." Twilight blushed sheepishly. "Who...?"

Starlight blinked momentarily, then snorted with realization. "Were they a prince?"

"Prince Rutherford..." Slowly, Twilight nodded, as if aware she was being drawn into a trap.

"Twilight, you do know that 'prince' is the title given to yak village chieftains, right? As in... the leaders of every small, outlying settlement ever?"

"Umm... no..." Twilight's embarrassed blush threatened to creep all the way to her ears. "Wait, are you serious? He threatened to declare war on us! Celestia herself said it was a big deal!"

"Beats me," Starlight said with a shrug. "The Yakyakistan I know has... well, no spoilers. But wait a minute." She leaned closer, eyes narrowing. "How much do you know about Equestrian foreign policy?"

Twilight leaned away. "How much should I know?" she asked cautiously.

"Well, you were Celestia's personal student." Starlight grabbed another cookie, taking a bite and speaking through it. "I figured she'd have taught you a lot about the olden world, to the north."

"Not really..." Twilight hung her head, unsure how to feel. "I mean, most of her lessons were about magic theory, and later guiding me to make friends. Wielding an Element of Harmony, becoming an alicorn, that stuff. And it was mostly just pushing me in the right direction. Honestly, I don't think I got an in-person lesson from her outside of mission briefings after I came to Ponyville. She mostly just... let me do my own thing, you know? All the academic rigor I had before that was just me reading."

"Huh..." Blinking, Starlight took another bite. "That's interesting. I guess you'll be going into this just as blind as I was."

"And what's that supposed to mean?" Twilight asked suspiciously.

Starlight smirked. "No spoilers."

"Arrgh! Starlight..." Twilight shielded her ears with a pillow, the peeked out from behind. "Look, maybe you should just start the story?"

"About time." Grinning, Starlight settled back on her own cushions, cleared her throat, and began. "It had stopped raining by the time the boat began to slow..."

Act Two

A catwalk snaked through black air, suspended to a rusty metal ceiling with thick iron chains. In the distance below, a solitary stallion sat in the dark, muzzle pressed to a glowing screen, manipulating the console with magic. A forest of tall, lean drums filled the room, connected by a confusing web of glowing pipes, transporting some sort of luminous liquid at a sluggish pace.

The entire chamber vibrated, whirring from the cylinders filling it with a perpetual mechanical racket. Among the crisscrossing shadows that covered the floor, abandoned desks could be seen, empty pushcarts and toolbelts sitting without wearers. Whether it was sleeping or hibernating, the place smelled of metal and oil, letting any visitors know that it was home to one kind of pony alone: those who lived with industry.

Two sets of hoofsteps sounded along the catwalk, iron-wrought horseshoes clattering against the serrated lattice that provided traction and insulation against spills. A bubble of magic shimmered around their owners, forming an insulated soundspace that allowed conversing despite the noise.

"I've told you two dozen times that if you think I should be in charge of this thing, then I want more security!" the first demanded as he walked. A wiry thing who might have been scrawny had he not been well-fed, the stallion sported a mid-gray coat, dormant horn and curved muzzle that could get him mistaken for a mare. He stood nearly a head shorter than his companion and had a whiny voice that wasn't doing him any favors in being taken seriously.

"Every single time we try to make a shipment," he pouted, "it's blah blah bandits this and blah blah money that. Is it so much to ask to, I don't know, arm our convoys?" He scowled up at his companion. "Sosa is a laughingstock, and having all the stuff we're still paid to make stolen before it even reaches the Stone District is not helping! Dorable, with all due respect you hired me to do what's best for this factory, so let me do my job!"

"At ease, Nimwick," Dorable rumbled. He was a broad stallion, the exact opposite in proportion to his companion's slightness, and had a lighter gray coat that mixed well with the lime aura coming off his horn. "I'm hiring you to do what's best for Sosa, and killing some Sosans in the name of benefitting others is not an acceptable outcome."

Nimwick was shaking with anger. "They're bandits! And our economic situation is not going to improve if we can't control our own goods! How are we supposed to even start regaining our former glory if we can't even secure our supply routes? It's like we're bleeding money!"

"Bandits with families and friends," Dorable calmly responded. "And bandits who have not taken a life on Sosan soil for as many years as they have been organized. It's better to bleed silver and gold than blood, especially when our financial situation is stable. I won't have this be escalated."

"Pfft. Financially stable, my tail," Nimwick grumbled, turning at an intersection. "It's not about money! We don't need money! Have you actually taken the time to go down and talk to all the ponies we're supposed to be leading? Because I have! They have money, Dorable. They don't want money. What they want are meaningful jobs! You think making throwaway trash with a guarantee from management to be stolen by bandits before it reaches anypony who will use it is a good way to cure Sosa's collective depression? Because if so, take your head out of your rear and look again!"

"That's no way to talk to a factory chief, Nimwick," Dorable answered. "We symbolize Sosa to all of Ironridge, now more so than ever. Don't speak of pride with one breath, and then tarnish it the next."

Nimwick growled. "Oh yeah? And how am I supposed to give our ponies something to be proud of if you won't even let me do anything? You want me to stand around and give speeches all the time? Try to give out smiley face stickers and see if that cheers ponies up? You want me to solve this mess with words?"

"Precisely," Dorable said with a nod, as if it were obvious.

"Oh, that's real great. We'll make the bandits go away by talking to them and asking nicely." Nimwick exaggeratedly rolled his eyes, jaw hanging mockingly. "Is that what you want?"

Dorable nodded again. "That would be acceptable."

Nimwick nearly faceplanted, sputtering. "Is that... Ugh! Really?" He looked up to glare at Dorable. "I was being sarcastic! Oh, yes, let's go make friends with the stinking Spirit of Sosa because obviously they're just lonely and misunderstood and only stealing our stuff because they want friends, because that's how all big bandit organizations work! This is ridiculous!"

"Sarcastic or not, I do think it is a good idea," Dorable remarked. "You talk of meeting the individual ponies we serve, but have you met with those who oppose us? You won't be in danger. I will even go with you. It would be a useful learning experience, if you wish to fully take up this post."

"Fine," Nimwick spat. "Then let's get to the terminal. The cart should be leaving in ten minutes."

Nimwick and Dorable stepped through a sliding doorway made of interlocking leaves, emerging on a balcony above a U-shaped chamber with one wall missing. In its place was a sizable body of water, entering the building through a depression in the floor to form a covered docking area. No ships were moored in the bay, and on the concrete loading zone below, an abandoned forklift was parked haphazardly next to a discarded orange vest and a stack of opened barrels. Warm night air drifted in through the open wall, patches of starlight shining through wherever there was a break in the clouds.

They descended a staircase that hugged the wall, careful not to trip and tumble down the painted metal structure. Across the room they walked, coming to a vehicle-sized door blocked by retractable sheet metal. Dorable punched a button with magic, and it rolled open, another blast of night air flowing through from the other side.

There, on a walkway about a meter off the dirt ground, illuminated by floodlights placed slightly too far apart, three stallions in blue suits worked, hoisting crates onto the back of a cart. The vehicle was all wood, and sported three harnesses on the front, suggesting it wasn't motorized.

Nimwick scoffed. "Really? We can't even afford a more armored transport? Forget about fighting bandits, we could just run right past them! If, I don't know, we had something better than that? We're sitting right next to a mana refinery! Why can't we put it to use?"

"Feel free to budget for one," Dorable replied. Turning away from Nimwick, he addressed the three workers. "Gentlecolts. Nimwick and I wish to join you for this evening's delivery."

"Uhh... really?" One of the stallions cocked an eyebrow, then shrugged. "Well, all right. You know the drill, Milord. There's room at the front of the cart."

With a nod of appreciation, Dorable moved to board the vehicle, Nimwick grumpily behind him. Before they could, however, they were interrupted by a confident, female voice from behind.

"Well, well, well," someone proclaimed, "fancy running in to you two here."

The intruder was another unicorn, bearing a vivid orange coat and deep blue eyes. Her mane and cutie mark were obscured by a lightweight suit of armor, and a white, technological-looking lance was strapped to her side. Dorable bowed in respect when he saw her, though Nimwick remained standing. "Lady Shinespark."

She nodded politely in return. "A pleasure as always, Dorable. And you don't have to bow to me. So..." She glanced between the cart, the ponies loading it, and the other two. "May I ask? This is a far earlier hour than usual for factory inspections, or for training the new pony."

"Nimwick is concerned with security," Dorable answered. "Understandable, with the long-standing string of delivery thefts. I am watching as he attempts to parley with the thieves. But what are you doing here, armed for combat?"

"Parley?" Nimwick squawked. "You twisted my tail into this! I told you, the obvious answer is to step up security on the transports, which is obviously what she is here to provide!"

Shinespark shook her helmeted head. "Actually, I'm here because a traveler filed a complaint earlier in the night that someone set up a roadblock in the Earth District and denied him passage. He was a pegasus, so I'm unsure why he didn't just fly over, but it's an obstacle nevertheless. He also claims they threw fruit at him and made fun of his mane."

"That seems awfully suspicious," Nimwick grumbled, pointing a hoof. "A pegasus complaining about a roadblock? What was a pegasus doing down here, anyway? It sounds like a trap..."

"Which is why I'm going armed, and doing this myself instead of sending the ponies I'm supposed to protect." Shinespark patted the spear at her side, levitating it with her horn. "I mostly want to investigate. It's unlike the Spirit of Sosa to bother citizens and travelers, so I suspect this is the work of someone else."

Nimwick slapped a hoof across his chest in salute. "Well, at least we'll have somepony with a weapon on this convoy! It's supposed to be leaving soon, if you'd care to accompany us?" He angled his eyebrows hopefully.

Shinespark gave him a hard stare. "You know the Sosan Code, Nimwick. I will not draw first blood against my kin. It's even more important than ever, now that so few of us are left." She turned to Dorable, and added, "Though, I would appreciate a ride."

One of the worker stallions approached and bowed in means of asking permission to speak. "Milords and Milady, we are ready to depart, if you have no further business holding you..."

"We do not," Dorable rumbled, stepping towards the cart once again. "Come, Nimwick. Show me what you can do."

Entering Ironridge

Almost invisible in the darkness of early morning, a concealed dock slid out of the riverbank to the left, next to an alcove barely big enough to harbor a large boat. Gunga's vessel nosed its way in, piloted by the stallion's expert seaponyship and knowledge of the waters. The rain had ceased only recently, and drops of moisture still pattered from overhead branches with just as much frequency as normal weather. A strange heat cloaked the land, as if it hadn't yet stopped soaking in midday sun for the evening, despite it being an hour before sunrise.

In these conditions, Maple woke, a talon gently shaking her shoulder. "Maple." A beaked face blinked down at her. "Rouse Starlight. It seems we have arrived."

Less than a minute later, the two ponies stood, groggily blinking sleep away as Gerardo looked out proudly to shore. A chain unlatched and coiled around a winch somewhere, and the boat rocked into place, its metal boarding ramp swinging down to the secret dock below.

"Here we are," Gunga said with a bow. "I assume you know what to do with yourselves."

It wasn't a question, and Gerardo didn't take it as such. "I have my directions," he answered firmly. "And my warnings. Unless you have something you wish to add?"

Gunga nodded. "See that road? It leads to Sosa. If you don't have business there and wish to bypass it, cut through the forest southeast and hug the base of the mountain. It's overgrown, but I see you have a sword. Don't worry of wild animals. There aren't any this close to the Earth District, and those that are know to keep away from ponies. I wish you luck in your travels."

Rather than going on his way, he sat down to watch as the trio made their next move. Gerardo pulled down his two crates, inspecting them carefully. "Now, how should we go about carrying these?"

"I'll take one," Maple offered with a shrug. "You can take the other. Sorry, Starlight, but you'll probably need to walk this time..."

Starlight pouted, though the effect was diminished by her lack of sleep. "Just because I ride you around all the time doesn't mean I can't walk."

"Excellent," Gerardo replied, hefting his crate and balancing it with his wings. "In that case..."

Maple nodded, sliding her own onto her back, using the same grace, dexterity and possible magic that all earth ponies possessed to keep it from tipping off. "Yes. Let's get going."

The forest parted as they pressed through, wet leaves brushing Starlight's coat and bringing back uncomfortable memories of rain in the mountains. They didn't soak her all the way through, at least, which was a mixed blessing when it actually seemed hot enough to quickly dry. Surprisingly, it wasn't as humid as one would expect of an area with plentiful heat and plentiful rain, to the degree where it would actually be pleasant if she wasn't busy hiking.

Her horn glowed periodically, lighting the makeshift trail for her two companions. It wasn't needed all the time; the cloud cover had rolled back, and the canopy was both low and sparse enough that occasional patches of her namesake shown down, illuminating the forest floor. Starlight led the group, using her small size to crawl underneath plants and bushes as Gerardo hacked a broader passage in her wake, sword clenched in a single talon. The griffon was careful not to disturb too much foliage, though, thinning his efforts the further they pressed, not wanting to inadvertently lead ponies back to what was likely a closely-guarded secret.

Maple brought up the rear, stumbling and occasionally panting from the heat. She didn't talk, but if she had, she likely would have commented on the meager amount of sleep she had managed on the boat. Her reddish-brown tail drooped behind her, occasionally dipping into the forest mud.

The terrain itself was much less jagged than the rocky pits and outcroppings around Riverfall, and possessed far more soil than the high-altitude coverings of moss and needles that made up the ground in the mountains. This did make the mud a more considerable factor, and even as Maple struggled to manage her tail, Starlight waded at times nearly up to her belly fur, short filly legs doing her few favors in the environment.

Vines hung from trees just as stumpy and gnarled as the ones in Riverfall were straight and tall, and Starlight wondered if they might have borne fruit. After all, it would make sense for such a tree to be low, so creatures could reach and eat their bounty, right? Her stomach rumbled as the thought crossed her head, and she realized it would soon be time for breakfast. Idly, she expanded and thinned her telekinetic field, readying her scanning spell to search for fruit she might pull down... when Maple interrupted with a soft call.

"Is anyone tired?" she asked, looking as if she wanted to set her crate down but thought better of it. "I have lots of food packed, if we need to take a break..."

"Yeah!" Starlight nearly bounded over, but slowed herself to avoid slipping in the mud.

"Shh! Wait." Gerardo held a talon to his beak, looking off into the forest at an angle.

"Gerardo?" Maple asked, wiping a hoof clean with which to withdraw some food items, finally relinquishing her crate to the mud. "I can get some for you, too, if you li-"

Gerardo abruptly silenced her. "Quiet. I can hear shouting, coming from over there. Listen."

That got Maple's attention. As she craned her neck in the direction the griffon had indicated, Starlight climbed onto the dropped crate, using it as a vantage point. Her fuzzy ears twitched, straining... and she began to pick up strains of what might have been a distant shouting match. Or, at least, one pony was shouting at something. She looked down at the two adults, waiting to see what they would do.

"Shouting," Maple whispered, to which Gerardo nodded. "What do we do?"

"I," Gerardo muttered, putting his crate aside as well and holding his sword in front of him defensively, "am inclined to take a look. Stay close behind. Arambai instructed us not to become separated."

"Yeah," Maple breathed, putting her cleaned hoof back into the mud with a squelch. Cautiously, she stepped forward, sparing a glance behind her. "Starlight? Stay by me."

"Didn't Arambai say to avoid trouble?" Starlight asked, waddling through the mud to catch up. "Isn't this exactly what he said not to do?"

"Keep your voice down," Gerardo hissed. "In order to properly avoid trouble, one must first ensure that what they have observed is, in fact, trouble. Rest assured I have no intentions of dragging us into any conflicts in which we do not belong."

Odd Robbers

A bush shifted slightly as Gerardo crept to the edge of a clearing, Maple and Starlight at his back. It seemed to be a wide point in a woodland road, the packed dirt surface elevated so as to be less muddy. A wooden, three-pony cart sat immobile, surrounded by a ring of masked ponies wielding various forms of weaponry, though mostly heavy artillery.

Atop the cart, a gray unicorn with a curved muzzle was ranting furiously. "You idiots have caused incalculable economic damage to Sosa! You think you're saving it? Saving morale!? Regular, hardworking ponies like me have had it with our products being stolen, so get out of our way!"

The two other ponies on the cart, a larger stallion and an armored orange mare, watched the exchange with almost bored expressions, and the three stallions still hitched to the cart watched resignedly as a masked bandit held a sledgehammer to one of the cart's wheels. "You can give us the boxes," the hammer bandit droned, "and go on for free. Otherwise I'll break this wheel and you'll be stuck here, and we'll take everything you leave behind when you walk away. We're very patient."

"No! You... Gah!" The ranting stallion nearly tugged at his mane. "How can you think you're in the right? You're stealing from the ponies you say you're trying to help! It's asinine!"

The hammer bandit stared back up at him, and probably blinked beneath his mask. "Those boxes are full of weapons, and you're taking them to the enemy. Better to keep them here, in the hooves of ponies loyal to Sosa." Around him, the circle hefted their cannons for emphasis.

"Interesting..." Gerardo whispered to himself, only Maple and Starlight close enough to hear. "They steal weapons? That explains why they're so well armed, then, even if those cannons are hardly appropriate for close combat. Does that mean they... bring stolen goods to future robberies as a means of showing off? These bandits have some odd intellect governing them. I wonder what they would do if those ponies fought back."

"The yaks are not Sosa's enemy," the larger unicorn on the cart interrupted. "Their business contracts with Sosa are lucrative and the source of the money keeping the region afloat."

"Yeah! What he... Hey!" The smaller stallion angrily pointed a hoof at his companion. "Dorable, the yaks are jerks and do not need defending! They're the reason we're in this mess in the first place!" He turned and glared back down at the masked bandits. "But this doesn't mean you aren't in the wrong, either! Stop interfering with ponies' work!"

Gerardo eyed his companions. "I don't suppose this is making sense to either of you?"

Maple shook her head, and Starlight followed suit.

"I agree..." The griffon leaned forward, pressing through the bush. "This has to be the most unusual robbery I've ever seen, and at a glance it seems very politically charged... yet among members of the same side. Something tells me the situation in Ironridge is more complex than I would like to get involved in..." His talons itched toward the hilt of his sword. "Yet, going blind may be the more dangerous of the two options. I am highly inclined to step out there and get some information."

"Staying out of trouble..." Maple hissed worriedly. "Running in there is not how to do that!"

"I'm aware of what I said and what was asked of us," Gerardo replied. "The fact remains that something incredibly fishy is going on here. If robberies can be carried out like business transactions, which seems to be the intent of all but that one pony, I need to know why. And besides... if we save that caravan, there is a good chance they will give us a ride."

Maple folded her ears in protest. "I really do not think that's a good idea! Isn't the Stone District supposed to be safe? All we have to do is get there and we can not have to deal with... this!"

Uneasily, Gerardo shuffled, but didn't draw his sword.

"Tell me," Maple whispered, "if you ran in there, who would you even fight? How do you know which ones are good, or if they're both bad?"

Gerardo shrugged. "An unarmed economic convoy is being held up by bandits with sizable guns and full facial masks. What does it seem?"

"I've read a few books," Maple whispered back. "More than a few! And I haven't read a single one where the weapons dealer isn't the villain!"

"Hmmm..." Gerardo tickled his chin. "You have a point. Here, hold this."

"What are you doing?" Maple asked, noting the griffon's offered sword and taking it warily.

Winking, Gerardo retreated toward the forest. "A tried and true method of testing the moral fiber of opposing parties."

"Good evening, gentlecolts," Gerardo loudly announced as he strolled down the road, approaching the circle around the cart. "I was wondering... erm..." His eyebrows both raised in a well-practiced act. "What is going on?"

From the bushes, Maple silently groaned. The bandits and cart ponies looked at him with a mixture of incredulity and suspicion, but he received an answer nevertheless. "My name is Dorable," the larger stallion announced, "and my companions are Shinespark and Nimwick. We are making a delivery."

"And we're presently being held up," Nimwick added, grumbling darkly.

"I... see." Gerardo blinked. "Well, I apologize for interrupting. I find myself lost, you see, and was wondering if anyone could furnish me with directions?"

"Hey." A bandit waved his oversized launcher at Gerardo, trying to get his attention. "Maybe you should leave Sosan affairs to the Sosans, buddy? Whatever your deal is, you'll have better luck looking after yourself and leaving us alone."

"No! No!" Nimwick waved his hooves, flailing. "Don't listen to him! We're under attack and you look tough, so do something because these buffoons won't!"

The bandits ignored him, turning to each other after the first had spoken. "Hey..." another chided. "He's, like, lost, dude. No need to be so harsh!"

"Yeah!" A third nodded vigorously. "Wouldn't be very nice of us to just leave him in need, you know. We should do something!"

"Nice?" another loudly scoffed. "We're here to smite infidels and save the world, not be nice! You kids are too innocent for this line of work!"

"Save the world?" Another's eyes rolled beneath his mask. "Someone's got an overinflated opinion of their own ego, here. Sosa is at the bottom of the barrel! All I want is to give those scumbags up in Skyfreeze a little payback for how they've treated us!"

"Oh, shut up. They probably pay your wages for your day job!"

Another lifted a hoof. "Hey, doesn't he have wings? Why not fly wherever he's going? You can see everything from the air!"

"Hah! Ha ha ha... You think Ironridge is covered in flying address posts? Probably all looks like forest from up there! How'd you like to try finding something from the air?"

"Wow, no need to be rude..."

Gerardo stared, perplexed, as the bandits bickered... and his eyes were eventually caught by Shinespark's. She didn't speak, but her message was clear: don't get involved in this mess. He bowed his head. "Suddenly, I feel I've remembered a route I never tried before! Farewell, and may you have a pleasant morning."

Rather than walking back to the bushes, he spread his wings and lifted off, skimming the canopy in a random direction until he was sufficiently out of sight to loop around and find his friends without alerting the Sosans. In his wake, Nimwick resumed ranting, though his target was unclear.

He settled quickly into the bush behind Maple and Starlight, who were both waiting crossly. "Well, that was uneventful," he sighed regretfully. "Still, it could be for the best."

"It's definitely for the best!" Maple hissed. "What were you thinking? Don't you remember what Arambai said? We're not supposed to look for trouble! That includes walking in on robberies!"

"I am aware." Gerardo's headcrest drooped. " And in case you weren't, I was the only one there who possessed wings. Had I needed to make a retreat, I could have done so with ease. I did my best to act without suspicion and confirm the presence of any reasonable ponies... even if all I found was a pack of buffoons. However, it seems clear that this conflict is and should be none of our business, so let us prepare to depart..."

"Uhh..." Starlight tapped both of them on the shoulder with a pebble held in her aura. "Look."

A short distance up the road, two bandits had emerged from the forest, lugging a pair of muddied crates. "Hey, look what we found on recon!" one gloated to the rest. "Free loot!"

Gerardo's eyes narrowed dangerously, and he drew his sword with a muffled shhiiing. "This conflict has just become our business."

Sosan Welcome

"I believe you have something that belongs to me."

The bandits by Gerardo's crate turned, nearly jumping in surprise when they realized a sword was flicking back and forth, inches from their muzzles. "What the...?"

"Indeed." Nodding, Gerardo pushed closer, and they retreated until he was standing firmly between the two crates. "These are mine. Steal from each other if you must, but when my own belongings are taken I am forced to become involved."

The ponies on the cart watched him intently, Nimwick tensely and the other two with suspicion. From the back of the circle, a bandit called, "Hey, didn't you just fly off that way? What are you doing, laying claim to stuff we just found in the woods?"

"Yeah!" Another bandit smacked his chest. "Finders, keepers! Unless you wanna fight for it?"

One of the bandits being faced by Gerardo's sword nearly panicked. "Dude, shut up! He's got a huge sword! He'd hurt us!"

Nimwick could no longer contain himself atop the cart. "Arrgh!" he shouted, flailing. "We are not a charity case! If you're going to get rid of them, hurry up and spare my ego, would you?"

"No fighting!" Shinespark sharply announced, cutting him off and brandishing her own weapon.

More than half of the bandits turned to her. "And why should we listen to you, huh?" one demanded. "You're a sellout to Yakyakistan!"

"No she isn't!" another protested, shoving his companion. "She's the only good Sosan left among the higher-ups! Don't you get her mixed up in this!"

A third turned to the second. "Wow, are you okay? You sound like you have a crush on her..."

"Who doesn't?" another loudly proclaimed. "She's incredible!"

"Ugh! Seriously!" The third looked up at the cart, almost beseeching. "Please tell me you're, like, in a relationship right now? Associating with these guys is getting embarrassing!"

"Tell me about it!" Another threw down his cannon, pouting. "I just wanna do what's right for our great city! I feel like my dignity got thrown in a centrifuge and then flushed down a toilet..."

"Spare me the rhetoric..." Nimwick moaned. "You guys are all idiots! Sosa isn't great, and Ironridge isn't ours! What do you clods even think you are, loyalists? You're going to, I don't know, enforce a no-fly zone with all this stuff? Or are you just going to hit on the pony you're trying to rob?" He buried his head in his hooves, nearly sobbing. "And you're talking about your dignity? What about mine? I'm getting held up by this... This is so degrading..."

"I feel ya, dude!" one of the bandits who had addressed the cart called back.

"Hey!" a fifth loudly announced. "No fraternizing with the enemy! That includes hitting on them! We've got a job to do, ponies, and we're not gonna disappoint the commander! Now move it and get those boxes!"

"Hey, screw you! You don't get to talk about her like that!"

Gerardo could only stare as the pack of would-be robbers quickly fragmented, the argument spreading and getting more heated. Swiftly, he realized that the coast was clear to take his cargo and run... except that he couldn't carry it by himself, and had no line of sight to the bush where Maple and Starlight still hid from where the crates had ultimately been deposited. On the cart, Nimwick looked on like a loser playing their final coin in a gambling den, drowning in despair while maintaining a possessed grin, with Dorable watching impassively and Shinespark's face twisting in a mixture of shock, disgust and disappointment.

Slowly, he crept closer, aiming to get in sight of the bush... when the first sound of a punch rang out. A stallion carrying a back-mounted launcher far too big for a normal-sized pony toppled.

The griffon readied his sword in defense, hoping none of the artillery would be used and wondering exactly how a group of bandits could be cohesive enough to function while so readily falling apart. Then he realized that the brawl was safely far from his cargo, yet very near Maple and Starlight's hiding place. Hopefully, they would be smart enough to move... but in the meantime, he readied himself to intervene the instant it should become necessary.

Under cover at the edge of the clearing, Starlight's ears flattened. "What are they doing?"

"Don't know, doesn't matter." Scooping her up, Maple stepped backwards, nearly tripping on a root. "We are not staying here. Come on, let's get to Gerardo and run."

She crept through the undergrowth, wet leaves clinging to her coat. Constantly looking sideways as she moved, she stumbled more than once, but both wouldn't and couldn't take her eyes off the brawl. Most of the ponies were incapacitated by their own weapons, the heavy accessories making it difficult to get up once knocked down. It would have been almost comical, had it not been so dangerous. That danger was only accentuated when one pony got far enough away from the group to set up their weapon and begin firing.

SHOOM!

A huge, slow-moving pellet of magic erupted from the nozzle of the device. In almost an instant, Shinespark's telekinetically-controlled spear left her side, skewering the cannon in an explosion that sent its technician reeling. The other bandits, quickly alerted by the weapon's blast, broke up their melee to dive out of the way, leaving the bolt soaring for Maple's place of hiding.

"Oh, that's not good," she breathed, tensing her legs and jumping to clear the magic blast's path. Immediately, her tail snagged on something and she crashed back to the ground, legs splayed.

"Wha...!?" Starlight scrambled backwards, too startled to begin lighting her horn. "Maple!"

The earth pony tried to lift herself upright, but there was no way to move out of the way in time. All she could do was spread her forelimbs wide, as if trying to catch it and shield Starlight. Milliseconds from impact, the filly lunged... and the magical blast disappeared.

Gerardo went rigid at the sound of Starlight's cry... and that rigidity evolved into motion when he saw where it had come from, and what that area was presently in the path of. Abandoning all hesitation, he charged, boosting forward with his wings as he swept through every bandit in his way. Swish! His sword cut a broad, back-and-forth arc in front of him as he plowed, passing seamlessly through the midsections of bandits without a trace of resistance or a drop of blood, the metal visibly fuzzing as it intersected with flesh. Through the eyeslits of their masks, pupils went wide... before they were shoved aside, or simply collapsed of their own accord. Still, despite the desperation of his charge, it was clear that he wasn't going to make it... not that he had a plan of what to do if he did. That he would be late became all the more apparent when something massive and metal erupted from the jungle, sending him crashing to his side.

For an instant after the projectile vanished, the air around Maple was still... and then, with a concussive blast exactly like the original cannonshot, it reappeared, blazing its way upward like a flare. The force of it bowled her over backwards, eyes dilating and chest heaving as her legs pointed up at the sky. Immediately, Starlight leapt to her, clinging on to her shoulder. The filly was speechless.

"I-I just..." Maple panted, not yet trying to roll upright. "I just tried to catch it, and..." She blinked several times, shock slowly being replaced by wonder. "I just stored magic. My cutie mark... works on magic." Blinking again, she slowly rolled over and began to climb to her hooves.

"Nnnnngh!" Gerardo slammed heavily to the ground, rolling with the momentum and quickly getting to his feet. He was too late. The projectile was gone... but his sword was still in his talons, and he had a clear view of what had attacked him.

It was a pony in a thick, full-body suit of armor that gleamed as if it had been polished for days. Plates expertly interlocking, it fitted so finely that not the slightest bit of their coat, face or mane was visible. It was so heavy that the pony stood just as tall as the bandit stallions still standing, despite having the proportions of a mare. A large, golden horn graced the suit's forehead... and, most strikingly, a pair of ornamental folded metal wings adorned the sides.

"Enough," the armored pony demanded in a magically distorted voice, holding perfectly still. "Spirit of Sosa, take your fallen and leave. This display brings shame to your noble cause. Griffon, do not harm my ponies, no matter how poorly they may be behaving."

"I will not," Gerardo answered, shuddering. "Whoever you are, you claim ownership of this street brawl? Because you just-"

He was interrupted by a tremendous bang, and a surge of magical light soared upward from the forest nearby. The bandits turned to look. Gerardo didn't wait to see if the armored pony did as well.

His sword flew forward in a swift, horizontal stab, aiming to pierce the armor and reach the pony's chest. But the pony was ready, rocket boosters attached to their forelegs firing, blackening the dirt below even as they launched their owner swiftly backwards. Gerardo missed, immediately following with a swing as the pony landed safely out of the way.

"Don't fight her!" Shinespark's voice called from the cart, laced with alarm. "She's dangerous!"

Gerardo ignored her, this time prepared. As the pony made to jump again, he readied another horizontal swing, adjusting his trajectory upward... and her hooves couldn't clear the blade in time. But just as it began to bite into the metal, preparing to cleave it in two, she twisted into a backflip in an incredible display of agility for one evidently so heavy. As her hoof turned, the top and bottom of the partially-severed sabaton bit down on the blade like a clamp, wrenching it from Gerardo's grasp and uppercutting him with the hilt.

He shook his head to clear it, eyes widening in alarm as the pony didn't return to the ground. Instead, she hung there in midair, boosters on all four hooves firing to keep her airborne as the sword dangled limply from where it was embedded.

Growling, Gerardo spread his wings... and the armored pony flipped her hoof, tossing the sword out and catching it between the two. A protrusion from the armor likely designed for wielding just such weapons latched around its handle until it was tied to her good hoof, and she held it warningly, waving slightly as she hovered away. "Who are you?" Gerardo hissed, crouching. "And give me back my sword!"

Wordlessly, the armored pony stared back through a pitch-black visor, the sword still held wardingly... then turned, angled her legs, and fired, rocketing away over the trees.

Gerardo had already tensed, preparing to give chase, when Maple staggered out of the forest. "I'm all right," she panted. "I'm all right. Don't do anything... stupid."

From their vantage point atop the cart, Dorable, Nimwick and Shinespark merely watched, some to the deflating griffon, others the distant, retreating forms of the disgraced Spirit, and some the empty space where the armored mare had soared away, Gerardo's sword firmly in her grasp.

Partial Explanation

For a long time, none of the ponies remaining said anything. Then, from Dorable: "See, Nimwick? I told you to talk to them."

"Oh, shut up," Nimwick returned, sulking.

"It seems we'll complete a delivery for once, though," Shinespark observed, before hopping down from the cart in a single bound and snatching her abandoned spear. It was slightly charred from the cannon's explosion and sparked when she hefted it, and she looked at it with disappointment. "So..." She turned to Gerardo, then looked between him and Maple, where Starlight was also cowering.

Starlight looked at Maple. Maple looked at Gerardo. Gerardo swallowed, and said, "Yes?"

"We're going to the upper districts," Maple interrupted, sensing that the griffon wasn't about to say anything useful. "We were advised to stay off the roads to avoid trouble, but we heard shouting and came to investigate. Those two crates were ours, and must have been stolen when we weren't looking."

It was the truth, if not all of it. Shinespark eyed her as if searching for leaks in a balloon, then nodded. "I haven't seen a sword that doesn't cut before. What will happen to those ponies?"

Gerardo shifted uneasily. "It was... special. Purchased from a unicorn enchantress to the north. I'm unclear how it works, but it nonlethally disables the target for several days. The effects wear off on their own, but can be hastened slightly by proper food and rest... I'm rather upset over losing it, as well. And seeing as I acted partially in your defense..."

"You're seeking compensation," Dorable remarked.

"Yes." Gerardo frowned sternly. "I am."

Dorable shrugged. "We have nothing to give, and it was your own fault for getting involved. The Spirit of Sosa, the group who attempted to rob us, is never lethal. Little to nothing was at stake."

Nimwick scratched at his chin. "Nothing to give? Well, it's not like we aren't carrying a bunch of weapon crates or like he just lost a weapon helping us, and we wouldn't even have these if he hadn't! Do you or don't you want to reward those who help us?" He tapped a hoof annoyedly. "Because it's a good way to get us help in the future, as annoying as it is that we've been reduced to a charity case!"

"We've spent too long here," Shinespark cut in. "We need to get going." She pointed her blackened spear at Gerardo. "Sosan business is best kept between Sosans, and we're sorry you got involved. If you're headed for the Stone District, we would be willing to give you a ride."

Dorable glanced uncertainly at her... and she answered him with a firm stare. He nodded. "Very well. There's room on our cart, if you need it."

"Surprisingly generous of you," Gerardo answered with a bow. "Allow me to just get my boxes-"

"No need," Shinespark interrupted. Her horn lit with the same dark, piercing blue as her eyes, and all the way across the clearing the two muddy crates lifted off the ground, drawing themselves to the back of the cart and settling into place. "There's room for you and your friends at the back."

Maple tracked Shinespark's eyes as she led Starlight to the back, where Gerardo helped them up. The mare's gaze followed them in turn, almost seeming to rest more on Starlight than herself. Was it because Starlight was a unicorn? Not impossible, given that that was her general impression of Sosa.

The wooden cart rattled, and began moving again. As soon as the clearing had scrolled out of sight, leaving only winding roadway in view ahead and behind, Shinespark spoke again. "That sword of yours... how valuable is it?"

Gerardo shrugged. "In truth? I have no idea. It's proved itself through utility, and that is plenty."

"How much did you pay for it?" Her face remained static, probing.

"I didn't pay. I bartered." The griffon stared straight ahead, not making eye contact. "From a little filly selling her mother's wares. Supposedly, she enchanted it herself. I got it in exchange for some old exploration equipment I no longer needed. Rations about to go stale, ropes... those sorts of things."

Nimwick raised an eyebrow. "You buy from child merchants? How do you not get hustled?"

Gerardo blinked, staring off into space. "For some reason, I feel I've heard that before..."

"How much would you pay to get it back?" Shinespark asked, rerailing the flow of conversation.

"How much would I what?" Gerardo looked at her sharply. "Exactly what do you mean by that?"

The orange mare shrugged. "There aren't any ways in or out of this city that those bandits have access to. Unless they find a good use for it, it has high odds of winding up for sale somewhere... and I have a good idea of where to look. What I'm saying is, I could probably get it back for you, if you could make it worth my time... and I'm very busy, so my time is worth a lot."

"I mean this in the least offensive way possible..." Gerardo blinked slowly. "But you apparently have enough time to arm yourself and escort a convoy, yet sit idly by while it is robbed. You don't strike me as poor at combat, either. It would surprise me were you unable to handle that mob."

Shinespark shrugged. "They weren't why I came. I didn't need to do anything about them."

"You... didn't need to..." Gerardo tilted his head in confusion. "You were being robbed."

"It's economically sustainable," Dorable answered. "We get hired on contract to build weapons for the yak embassy. The deliveries are stolen by bandits. The yaks hire us again, because they still want their goods. Money comes in, ponies keep their jobs, and everything works out."

Gerardo's brow furrowed. "That makes no sense whatsoever! Why would they continue using an obviously faulty service? Where does all that money even come from? Why does-"

"It doesn't matter," Shinespark interrupted. "What matters is that it works. But we're telling you things you don't need to know." She tapped her spear against a crate. "What I do need to know is, will you make it worth my while if I go looking for your sword? Because I'd have to pay what they want upfront. And I can do that... but I'd need a guarantee you would come for it."

"Hold on," Maple objected, "this is shady. Who even are you? There are so few guarantees here, and..." She looked up at Gerardo with a mixture of hope and frustration. "Is this really a good idea? I feel like I'm walking blind into a canyon. What are we even doing?"

"Business," Dorable said, Nimwick sitting beside him and stubbornly looking away from the conversation. "A common thing, here in Sosa. Notice how we're trusting you, not inquiring as to what you're doing here with outbound goods and little knowledge of the area, when everything that leaves Sosa is made in Sosa." His hairless brows scrunched briefly. "Courtesy and trust are difficult virtues to abide by in these times, yet we've found that a no-questions-asked policy can sometimes prove beneficial to everyone." Sighing, he turned his gaze forward, alongside Nimwick. "But, if you wish to know more, I am Dorable, lord and chief of one of Sosa's three central factories. The beta factory, to be precise... Nimwick, here, is in training to take over the gamma factory. And this is Shinespark."

Maple and Starlight both folded their ears. "You put two leaders on an undefended convoy you know is going to be attacked by bandits?" Maple asked. "But... why?"

"The Spirit of Sosa doesn't fight Sosans," Shinespark answered, rotating her spear. "Aside from themselves, apparently. I suspect that group may have been younger recruits, entirely inexperienced. Their ideals are extreme, but well-meaning. To us, at least."

"What do they even want?" Maple pressed.

"To restore the days when Sosa was the capital of Ironridge. What else?" Shinespark shrugged. "An impossible dream, as anyone who knows an ounce of economic theory will tell you. But it's also an appealing one, easy to follow and fight for, and too many ponies these days need a dream to give their lives meaning."

"And that armored pony?" Gerardo asked. "The one who bore likenesses of both wings and a horn? What of her?"

The cart hit a stone in the road and jostled, but even the sudden motion didn't break Shinespark's composure. "The leader of the Spirit. They call her Commander Braen... It isn't hard to see where she adopted that name, or anatomy. Nopony knows what is really beneath the armor, but it's easy to tell what they want you to think. Everything the Spirit does is to raise their own... spirits."

"Blazing Rain..." Maple breathed. "The magical pegasus hero?"

"Her." Dorable shrugged. "She didn't have a horn, but it's what ponies think of. Ponies born after her time, like all of the Spirit."

Shinespark nodded. "I wouldn't be surprised if there isn't a single pony over thirty in the Spirit. Any old enough to have had jobs before the airships would... well, they would remember."

"Pardon my asking," Gerardo began, "but you can't possibly be that old yourself. What do you remember that they don't?"

Dorable looked concernedly at him, and opened his mouth to speak... when Shinespark interrupted, again. "Stop the cart," she suddenly commanded. "We're getting close."

"Close?" Gerardo blinked in confusion. "To what?"

Her eyes narrowed. "Actually, if you want to get a head start on paying me back for your sword... get off the cart, keep walking down the road, and act like an innocent traveler, exactly the same as you did to us earlier. There's supposedly another holdup in the road, and that one I'm here to check."

Mango Munchers

An old stone wall, crumbling from time and little upkeep, extended from a gate in the road. Broad, squat, and sturdy, it bore the look of something originally intended to be ornamental, before being abandoned and eventually repurposed as an actual wall. Its present crew consisted of three ponies, unarmored and unarmed, who were eating, bickering and snoring.

"Come on, now, Tarfeather," said one guard to the other. "No need to hog all the mangoes. We're all friends here, aren't we?"

Tarfeather, a scrawny black pegasus, reared away with a large stack of mangoes clutched tightly against his chest. "No!" he barked in a voice even whinier than Nimwick's, juice slathered over his muzzle. "Go get your own mangoes! Or eat this melon that nobody wants, or something!"

He kicked at a solitary melon, rolling it towards the first guard, a droopy earth pony with a perpetual frown. "Tarfeather, you know how much I like mangoes..."

"Sure do," Tarfeather answered, popping one of the fruits into his mouth and sucking until he spat away the pit. "Mmm-mm! Too bad you didn't care about protecting favorites when Valey was eating all my bananas, then, isn't it?" He pointed a shaking hoof at their third companion, a charcoal-black mare who lay on her back, loudly snoring, face covered by a black beret. The walltop around her was littered with banana peels. "The only thing I'm doing is returning the favor!"

The earth pony looked dubiously at Valey, eyeing the boxing glove emblazoned on her flank. "Yeah, somehow I don't think that would have worked out for me..." His eyes shifted sharply upwards. "Besides, I wasn't the one to wake her up, and she wasn't eating my mangoes!"

"Hmmph. Well, if Valey gets Tarfeather's bananas, then Tarfeather gets Mudhoof's mangoes. So there! Glorrrmph..." Tarfeather took as huge of a bite as he could manage, grazing at least three mangoes and spraying juices everywhere. Mudhoof winced, then groaned.

"Eeughh... Night watch duty stinks..." Mudhoof put his hooves on the rampart and leaned out, observing the forest floor close below. "Why'd we get dragged all the way out here when there's just as many jobs to do back at headquarters...? This isn't what I signed up to do..."

"So I can... mmrmff... eat all these delicious mangoes," Tarfeather said around a mouthful. "There's still that melon, if you're hungry. Unless you're saving it in case that pegasus comes back?"

Mudhoof's expression darkened. "He better not! It's that weasel's fault Valey woke up in the first place!" Careful to keep his voice down in case the mare showed signs of waking, he continued, "And we should probably save this in case she wants breakfast. Otherwise she'll steal my mangoes..."

"For real, though..." Tarfeather swallowed, munching. "This stinks. It's like they're taunting us, putting us on a squad with a mare... and making that mare be her. Scratch that, she's taunting us! Doesn't even feel right, using her as eye candy when she's sleeping. And I'd certainly rather this than she be awake..."

"If you don't want to wait here, go raid the Earth District again," Mudhoof said with a shrug. Glancing out over the forest around them, he added, "Get plenty of fruit for us both."

"Ohhh ho ho no!" Tarfeather chuckled dangerously, holding the remains of his mango pile as far away as he could. "You just want me to leave these so you can have them all to yourself, don't you?"

As the guards began a fresh round of bickering over their presumably-stolen fruit, Gerardo Guillaume eyed them from a shadowed patch in the roadway. He could hear every word they said with clarity, and had a good idea they could see him if they were actually looking for travelers... which clearly meant they weren't. To his side, deeper in the forest, he was passively aware of Shinespark, waiting and watching to see what would happen when he approached. It didn't seem like the guards would stop any time soon... so he shrugged, and stepped into the moonlight of pre-dawn.

"Hello, up there!" Gerardo called, pacing forward with his wings ruffled to make him seem bigger than he really was. "Is there any chance a weary, unarmed traveler could pass through this way?"

Both wakeful guards were at the railing in a flash, Tarfeather abandoning his mangoes. They squinted. "Is he...?" Tarfeather murmured, fearful.

"Nah." Mudhoof shook his head. "That's a griffon. Definitely not the birdbrain from earlier."

Gerardo blinked up at them, pretending he hadn't just been listening for several minutes. "Well, bird or not, I would very much appreciate passage. Would that be all right with you?"

The guards looked at each other again, and Mudhoof shrugged. "Well, he doesn't look like a Sosan, so he's probably not a bandit. I say we let him through."

Tarfeather thought for a moment. "Yeah. You can pass... on one condition! Be quiet and don't wake up Valey! She'll eat all our fruit and is really annoying!"

Gerardo looked quizzically up at them. "Surely you're making far more noise than I am."

"Conditions?" Mudhoof hummed, ignoring the griffon and thinking as well. "Oh! We'll let you through..." He stared down at Gerardo, frown almost lifting into an eager grin. "If you go to the Earth District and bring me some mangoes! You've got wings, it'll be easy! How's that sound?"

"No!" Tarfeather kicked him. "Bananas! We'll only let you through if you bring us bananas!"

"Err..." Gerardo blinked harder. "I may be a self-styled wandering hero, but that doesn't mean I need to be offered fetch quests. Do you ask every pony you stop to fulfil pointless errands like this? Or do I really look that much like I'm inclined to agree?"

Tarfeather shrugged. "Well, you are only the second, and the first was definitely a bandit..."

Suddenly, there was a disturbance in the bushes at the side of the road... the side where Shinespark wasn't hiding. Gerardo instinctively fell into a defensive stance as a figure leapt out, landing squarely in front of him... but their attention seemed fixed on Mudhoof and Tarfeather.

"Ha-hah!" the pony crowed, flexing a pair of feathery wings. "I knew you were just a pair of ne'er-do-wells, blocking the road for fun and profit!" He jabbed a hoof as if making an accusation in court, then turned to Gerardo and bowed. "Sorry you had to get dragged into their schemes, citizen. But fear not, I'll have this rabble cleared in a jiffy!"

As Gerardo backpedaled, Mudhoof and Tarfeather stared down, faces pictures of dismay. "Not this again..." Tarfeather groaned. "Hurry up and do something before he wakes her up!"

The pegasus glared up at them, wearing a righteous smirk. "Okay, do-badders! It's time for round two! And you better know what that means..."

A silent spark of understanding passed between Tarfeather and Mudhoof. Shrugging, Tarfeather turned to his companion, and said absolutely nothing. Mudhoof was silent as well.

"Uh, hello?" The pegasus tipped his head, looking up at the gate.

Silence.

"Maybe if we ignore him, he'll go away," Tarfeather whispered, just loud enough to be heard on the ground.

"Oh ho!" the pegasus called back. "Sounds like you guys remember me! Well, I may have been polite and accepted your judgement before, but no longer! Not when there are bystanders on the line!"

Tarfeather bit down on a mango. "You think that griffon needs your help? You think he wants it? Who even are you, weirdo?"

"No no no," the pegasus replied, still smirking. "The great Howe doesn't tell his name to scoundrels. So how will we fight this duel for passage? Singing competition? Or dance-off?"

Gerardo steadily continued backing away, entirely unnerved by the display taking place. As he pondered the explanation that all of Ironridge was riddled with that much incompetence, Tarfeather hefted the melon, prompting Howe to squawk and cover his head. "Aack! Not the fruit! That took forever to get out of my mane! Fine, we can compromise and settle this with a rap battle if you need to be that way!"

As he retreated, a hiss from the bushes caught his attention. Shinespark poked her head out, beckoning, and he drew closer. "Is this..." he paused, searching for words. "Normal? Around here?"

Shinespark sighed. "The blockade is obviously a prank. Anyone could walk right past, but will just get distracted arguing with the guards... and that pegasus fell for it earlier tonight and probably wants revenge. Before you ask, there is someone in Ironridge who would set something like that up, and hopefully they won't wake up any time soon. But we can't afford to wait for him to get bored and leave, and if the pony behind it is who I think it is, we're going to need all the time we can get. I'm going back to bring in the cart and demand passage."

Following along behind her, Gerardo merely shook his head. "This is a very strange city..."

"Admiral" Valey

The Sosans' cart rattled around a bend, letting the gate come into full view. In the short time it had taken Shinespark to rally it forward, nothing had changed.

"No means no, kid!" Mudhoof stage-whispered, leaning as far over the rampart as he could. "Now seriously, get lost! All you're doing is hurting your own case, here!"

"Yeah!" Tarfeather added, still clutching his mangoes. "Maybe you could have passed by now if you weren't so dead-set on getting us in trouble! Now pipe down and wait for morning!"

Shrugging, Howe pulled out a megaphone... but before he could use it, Dorable's cart rolled to a stop, capturing the attention of all three ponies. Nimwick hopped off, scowling. "All right, what is this? A police state? Since when do we have blockades in the Earth District?"

"It's an anti-bandit checkpoint designed to keep the area civilized," Mudhoof droned, as if the words couldn't be more obvious.

"Oh. Right. Bandits." Nimwick violently rolled his eyes, then flipped his mane. "Because we look so much like bandits right now. Yes, I'm obviously here to pillage and plunder from civilized ponies because I have nothing better to do with my life. Do we look like bandits to you?"

Tarfeather shrugged. "Well, you're Sosans, aren't you?" he asked, pointing at the emblem on the trade cart. "All Sosans are bandits. Everyone knows that. Even more likely than what's-his-face here."

"All Sosans are...?" Nimwick stomped. "Aaaugh!"

Howe smirked, almost politely. "Me, a bandit? Your intuitions deceive you, almost comedically so! Care to put your money where your muzzle is and put that to..." He paused dramatically before striking a pose. "Debate!?"

"Kid..." Mudhoof sighed, then stared levelly at him. "If a normal bandit took a mirror, stood you next to it, and compared you with their reflection, they'd become so convinced they were a normal citizen that they'd sit down and do their taxes right there in the middle of the road. Have you looked at yourself recently?"

Howe's coat was a girlish shade of purple, periwinkle erring toward lavender under the light of the setting moon. His cutie mark was a megaphone, which he probably considered far more impressive than it really was. He also sported a pointy goatee and black pompadour, laced thickly with jagged bolts of red. Innocently, he stared back up at the wall. "What?"

"You've, uhh..." Mudhoof tapped his own, balding crown. "Got a little something, right there..."

"We don't have time for this," Shinespark announced. "Open the gate so we can pass, or I'll open it myself... and you alongside it." She hefted her spear dangerously, eyes glinting.

"Woah, woah, woah, slow down a minute!" Howe waved his forelegs, giving a small flap and grinning up at the cart. "Listen, guys. And gal. The Howenator may be fine weathering these kinds of abuses on his own person, but to stand by and let others suffer this foolery?" He cast a mock-disbelieving foreleg toward the guards on the gate. "Let me handle this."

As Shinespark and Nimwick watched him with impatience and Dorable looked on impassively, the pegasus turned back to the wall. "Let's settle this democratically," he began, pacing in a circle. "See, I happen to be in a line of work that involves meeting many flakes. I know a flake when I see one." He pointed up at Nimwick. "He's a flake, for example."

Nimwick snarled back, but Howe continued without missing a beat. "But the gal with her, with the pointy spear? Seems pretty straightforward. Same for the griffon dude. Those two in the back..." He squinted, walking closer to look at Starlight. "You know, it's hard to get a read when they're sleeping. But hey, that happens."

Marching piously back toward the wall, he continued, "And the big guy, I can't get a read on either. Now, as I can't really speak for myself without obvious bias, that just leaves you three..." He squinted, rubbing his chin. "And I've got a feeling you two are definitely loons. The sleeping one? Eh. I dunno, I've got a good feeling about her for some reason. Might as well give you the benefit of the doubt."

Shrugging, he finished, "So that means Team Me has at worst, more stand-up folks than you..." His grin turned smug. "Which means it should be us on that wall, guarding Ironridge from you! Hah! Take that, windbags!"

Nobody applauded. "That was a beautiful piece of logic," Mudhoof droned.

Tarfeather nodded sagely. "And we're still not letting you through."

Atop the cart, Shinespark stirred, looking as if she was finally ready to climb the wall and kick them off herself... but Nimwick beat her to action. "You are too letting us through!" he snarled, hopping down from the cart and striding towards the gate. "Now get out of our way, or I'll make you!"

Tarfeather shrugged to his companion. "Even the bad hair guy thought he was a bandit."

Mudhoof nodded sagely. "If he looks like a bandit and smells like a bandit, odds are he's a bandit."

"I do not smell like a bandit!" Nimwick hissed, lighting his horn with a crackle of energy.

Reaching down, Tarfeather hefted the melon and offered it to Mudhoof. "Melon?"

"Melon," Mudhoof agreed, taking and aiming it at Nimwick before firing with a mighty buck.

Smassshh!

The melon impacted Nimwick's charging horn, found it an easy fracture point, and shattered, peppering his face and body with shards of melony glop. Tarfeather snickered. Mudhoof's perpetual frown lifted slightly. Nimwick stood, blinking, silent... and yelled. "Raaaaaauugh!"

A short ways along the walltop, Valey's beret shifted slightly, snuffles and snorts ringing out from beneath... and then a black hoof reached up, reaching for eyes and finding only a hat. Its owner sat up groggily, blinking. "Whuzzat? Something going on? Who dares disturb... urgh."

Mudhoof and Tarfeather instantly stopped their laughing and stared, watching Valey awaken with the same kind of abject resignation that came with being reminded of the world's worst ear worm after somehow forgetting it. Tarfeather clutched his pile of mangoes like a foal's blanket.

Stumbling up next to Tarfeather, she extended a wing, reaching through the darkness, and liberated the remains of the mango stack from his suddenly slack grasp. Rearing back, she buried her face in them, ignorant of everything else, chewing with a series of wet squelches. "Mm! Mmm. There we go. Much better way to wake up. Mrph. What's goin' on?"

"My mangoes..." Mudhoof and Tarfeather whimpered in sync.

Ignoring them, she chucked the mango detritus over her shoulder and off the wall, eliciting gasps of dismay. Mudhoof and Tarfeather both rushed to the site where the fruit had been disposed, leaving Valey leaning casually on the railing, staring at the cart with forehooves folded, her unbrushed emerald mane dangling over her similarly-colored eyes... her slitted eyes. With a pointy wingtip, she brushed it away, straightened her beret, and grinned a fanged grin. "Wow. How'd those bozos manage to hold up so many ponies without getting the wall knocked down? I must be a heavier sleeper than I thought!"

As Nimwick was busy furiously rubbing his mane against a tree, trying to purify it of melon, Shinespark got in the first word. "Valey, on whose authority have you closed this road?"

Valey shrugged with malicious innocence. "Valey? No clue who that is. Titles, please?"

Shinespark gritted her teeth. "Admiral Valey."

"Hey, much better, Sparky! Good job!" Valey winked, voice slightly raspy. "And first off, I'm merely doing my job. If that's a problem, bring it up with Ambassador Herman." She shrugged apologetically.

"Pardon me," Gerardo interrupted, "but did you say admiral? You do know what an admiral is, correct? Because I have a hard time believing that a pony so truly important would be here..."

"Don't take the bait..." Shinespark groaned. But Valey was talking again, and it was too late.

"Well, technically..." Valey leaned back against a crenellation, tale flopping against the stone floor. "Something to do with boats, right? I dunno. I'm important enough I get to choose my own title, and admiral sounds cool and gets others asking silly questions like you. But really, you should see the other guy." She tilted her head back, looking at the cart out of the corner of her glow-in-the-dark eyes. "He's a commissar. It suits him, too!"

"Admiral Valey, we are on a schedule," Dorable broke in. "Please allow us to pass."

"Aww." Valey's face fell. "But yeah, that's the second thing. You're the ones sitting here and arguing with these melon heads. None of us are stopping you."

From over the wall, Tarfeather paused his mango digging to yell, "It's a trap! If you're not being paid to be here, spare yourselves and run while you can!"

Shinespark stared levelly at the gate blocking the tunnel through the stone wall. "The way is blocked. And it's about to not be, whether you cooperate or not."

"It is?" Valey leaned so far over the edge, she had to wrap her tail around the stone to keep from falling off, looking upside-down through the tunnel. "Huh. Well, what do you know?" Hauling herself upright, she smirked. "So that's what this is all about! Those two thought to close the gate!" She gave them a perfectly innocent grin. "And here I was thinking they made this holdup by being so crazy, everyone just had to stop and get a load of it for themselves!" Shrugging, she hopped down behind the wall, calling out across it. "I mean, that's why I put them here. That and they were bugging me. Here, lemme open this for you..."

There was an ancient creak, and the gate trembled open, aided by several shoves from Valey. When it was finished, she strolled through, smiling contentedly. "All right," she chirped, "I've had my fun. I mean, I kind of wish you'd woken me up for it, but that's for next time, you know?" Winking, she hopped out of the way. "Don't want to actually be impeding business. Now get on with your bad selves."

"Hey! Wait!" Howe protested, holding out a hoof as the Sosan cart rolled through the wall gate. "You can't just give up! I haven't even done anything yet!"

Valey turned to him, pursing her lips. "Well, I am kind of bored, if you want to argue with those mango munchers again for a bit..."

Howe's gaze flicked between her and the retreating Sosan cart. "You know what?" He regained his smirk. "No. I'm outta here... just as soon as I show you how wimpy these defenses of yours truly are. Take... this! Hiyaaa!"

Spreading his wings with a rush of air, he leapt, soared straight over the wall... and landed on the other side, preening smugly. "Yeah, take that," he gloated. "Mind-blowing security, that stuff."

Tarfeather and Mudhoof had returned to the walltop just in time to catch the display, and stared at each other, flabbergasted. "That seems like a major security oversight..."

Valey sprung atop the wall after him, not even bothering with flight in a pointless display of athleticism. "Hey, don't feel bad. You tried," she offered, patting the guards' backs as she passed. Eventually, she reached the edge, and looked down, grinning. "So, pegasus, on a scale of you to me, how clever do you think that was?"

"Uhhh..." Howe took a step back, suddenly confused. "Say what again?"

"First off," Valey began, "Sosans are unicorns. They don't have wings. Second, I'm not here to keep anyone in or out, I'm here to annoy pedestrians like you and these two. And third..." She climbed further onto the edge, until she was looming over Howe with precarious balance. "There's no defense better than me."

Howe didn't get a chance to respond, as Valey launched herself into a massive belly-flop off the wall, aimed squarely at his head. The pegasus tried his best to dodge... but Valey's aim was impeccable, and she cleanly squashed him into the ground. "Oww..." he groaned. "My hair..."

Rolling to her hooves, Valey blinked down at him. "Huh. You actually make a pretty good pegasus pancake, Pancake. Anyway, you may be crazy, but you're not a bandit... and if you are, you're a funny one. Go on! Shoo!"

Hefting his prone body, she reared back on two legs and threw him at the Sosan cart like a javelin. Without even checking to see how far he flew, she turned back to her guards and stifled a yawn. "Tarfeather! Earth District, stat. Go steal us some more fruit, I'll want breakfast. Nyup nyup..."

"Well," Gerardo sighed as Howe crashed to the ground behind them, "I, for one, have no idea what that was about, and dearly hope it will not be our continued experience with this city." He raised an eyebrow. "Speaking of that, wouldn't apprehending travelers on public byways be the definition of a bandit? She almost seemed more... bandity than our friends from earlier. How do you know her?"

"She works for the yak ambassador," Shinespark said dryly. "And she wasn't kidding when she said she was only doing her job: she really is paid to be a public nuisance. The less asked about her, the better, including why they would hire someone for that."

"I get the impression these yaks have very strange financial habits," Gerardo remarked.

"As I said, they're not a thing to be questioned when they benefit us," Shinespark answered. "The yaks do what the yaks do. Some of Sosa hates them, for sinking us years ago. Others love them, for keeping us afloat now. Anyone intelligent will take what they can get and hope things don't change."

Letting out a loud breath, Gerardo turned away, moving to check on Starlight and Maple in the back of the cart.

"Starlight? Maple? Are you awake?"

"Nngh..." Starlight blinked up at Gerardo's voice, curled warmly against Maple's slumbering form. "She isn't. They woke me up..."

"Yes, well, I hardly blame you," Gerardo chuckled, peering down from atop a crate as the cart shifted and swayed. "I wouldn't be surprised if we have at least another hour of travel to go, and it will hopefully be less eventful. Best to get as much shut-eye as possible, if you can. I'll leave you be."

His head disappeared, leaving Starlight blinking sleepily back down the way they had come. The gate was still visible in the distance, and she could see Mudhoof's form still moving around in the dim pre-dawn light. But Valey... She shivered. The batpony was standing in the middle of the road, emerald eyes clearly visible despite the distance. Unblinking, Valey watched... and Starlight couldn't shake the feeling that she was staring at her.

Morning Vista

"Starlight... are you awake?"

"No," Starlight grumbled, shifting herself so that her forehoof better covered her eyes. Things were brightening. The sun must have been coming up. And aside from the fact that she was bouncing slightly, jostled as the cart she was presumably still on passed over rocks in the road... she very much wanted it to be true.

"More so than Maple, then, at least. Hmm..." Gerardo's voice drew further away, as if he was no longer speaking directly at her. "I promise you, however, this is a sight worth waking up for."

Starlight lifted her exposed ear, and that was the extent of her compliance. She knew she was only sliding further back into consciousness, but her eyes still stung with tiredness, and she didn't feel like making an effort to open them. She did listen, though, and it took her a moment to discern the steady, distant roar for what it was: a mixture of every sound in existence, carried by the breeze over a long distance and mashed into a single, unwavering rush. She cracked an eyelid.

That eyelid was followed by another, and swiftly she raised her head entirely. Below her was a vast sea of green, a pool of trees of every height, interspersed with occasional towers and buildings tall enough to break the canopy. From groundbound crops to cultivated fruit and nut trees... Starlight breathed, and her eyes came alive.

The verdant valley was ringed by stone on all sides but one, a horseshoe-shaped bowl in the mountains that sent its trees and greenscapes crawling like tendrils towards the peaks. But before they could even approach a third of the required elevation, they petered out, and a band of something else strapped its way around the mountainside: terraces. Architecture of dull stone and glinting metal built its way into and out of the sheer, heavily-angled slope, endless switchbacks leading to main streets formed from the rooves of multi-story buildings. The shelf of civilization stretched nearly to the forest, dipping down with roads designed to connect, and didn't stop climbing until it reached a perfectly vertical face of rock that also ringed the crater, stalling further construction. Starlight's eyes wandered higher still... and then the snow began, and soon after the jagged brightness beyond her side of the mountains' shadow. Above that, the peaks just kept going.

"Is this what it looked like?" Gerardo whispered, checking that the Sosans on the cart weren't paying attention. "From... there?"

It wasn't hard for Starlight to guess where he was talking about. "Sort of," she muttered, gaze torn on what to investigate next. "But I could see farther. A lot farther."

"That is saying something," Gerardo murmured back, "seeing as the Earth District, which encompasses every bit of green between these mountains... has a diameter of over ten miles."

Starlight exhaled back, watching. Eventually, Gerardo stretched. "Enjoy it while you can. I imagine we'll be parting ways with this cart in a matter of minutes. And if you could rouse miss Maple, it would be of great use..."

The earth pony was still snuggled against Starlight's back. She didn't doubt that getting up herself would rouse her... but still wasn't convinced that she wanted to get up herself, either. Then again, was there any chance of her getting back to sleep? She'd likely have plenty of time with the view to ponder whatever the heights would make her ponder. It wasn't like Gerardo would be taking them back to the Earth District any time soon.

All in one motion, she stood up. The mountain air was surprisingly warm for their altitude, ruffling at her unbrushed coat and swirling around her muddy legs. Yet, her experience of the forest floor had been at night, and compared to what it would probably be like in the day... she imagined this altitude, or perhaps slightly higher, would be a perfect temperature to live life with open-air windows and never be too hot or too cold. The decision of ponies to settle themselves higher up on the mountain face, where it would take an hour's hard work just to climb up or down to where the food grew, suddenly made a lot more sense in her mind.

Maple stirred behind her. "Starlight...?" she murmured, blinking groggily. "Bed is... where...?"

"Good morning," Starlight hummed back, looking at her reflection in Maple's eyes. Both ponies were muddy wrecks, Starlight's mane having come undone and Maple largely caked in brown due to falling over during the battle. It matched her coat, at least, but the cracked and flaking texture wasn't pretty. Still, she tapped the mare's ear with her muzzle, and said, "Gerardo says we're almost there."

"He does, does he...?" Maple stretched without getting up, legs reaching off the back of the cart as she extended them to their maximum. "Wow, we're up high. How far have we come?"

"I could try to draw a map," Gerardo offered, appearing again on the crates above them. "However, I presently lack the implements to do so, so an explanation shall have to suffice. The semicircular mountain wall you see to the right... err, the cart's right, that is, opens to the northeast. We have traveled due south since meeting up with this group, and are presently rounding the eastern tip of the mountain ring and beginning our trip clockwise around the entire Stone District. Does that help?"

"Err... sort of..." Maple rubbed her head. "One more moment to wake up, please?"

"Take your time," Gerardo answered, straightening up. "But come to the front of the cart when you're done. There's something very interesting ahead which you may like to see."

"More interesting than this, huh?" Maple said to Starlight, just beginning her survey of the Ironridge valley. "All right, I think I'm awake... urgh. I need a bath. Want to go see?"

Starlight nodded as Maple produced a canteen and emptied part of it on her face, then took a long drink. Once she finished, they climbed the crate stack and went forward, looking for Gerardo.

The cart was small, and he was easy to find. Seated at the front next to Shinespark and away from Nimwick, the griffon stared forward... and at what was instantly apparent.

The road, immediately where they were, was a gravelly affair, sloping sharply up to their left and dropping just as sharply off to their right. Small, rusted metal barricades were all that stood in the way of rockslides and careless stepping, though the road was wide enough that two carts could pass each other without that even being an issue. Ahead, though, the ground fused into cement... and then left the mountain entirely, rising into an elevated bridge. And ahead of that, the mountain ceased, replaced by an unnaturally smooth wall of concrete and iron, curved such that the bridge was fixed to the inside. It towered upwards so far that Maple and Starlight had to crane their necks vertically to see the top, and even that was obscured by distance and a line of blinking, technological lights.

Their brows furrowed, half from the contrast of shadowed wall against brightening sky, and half from the otherworldliness of the structure. "What is...?" Maple began, and didn't finish.

"It's a dam," Shinespark answered, taking their confusion perfectly in stride. "There's another like it on the opposite side of this mountain. Together, they form a deep lake filled by meltwater from the Sky District. It's the reservoir that provides all of Ironridge's fresh water... and coolant for the machines in the mines. In return, steam from the mines is piped to the Sky District, and used through exhaust vents to melt snow and provide more water for the reservoir. We call it the Water District."

"The Water District?" Gerardo raised an eyebrow as the cart passed onto the bridge. "I was under the impression that Ironridge only had four districts: Steel, Earth, Stone and Sky."

Shinespark shook her head. "It has six, though the last two aren't really official. The Water District is one... and the other is the Flame District. That's what we call the mines. Though I doubt you'll need to go there any time soon, and good luck getting in if you do. They're dangerous, and not for tourists. Staying aboveground is a good rule in general."

Maple and Gerardo hummed their acknowledgement. Starlight was silent, looking up at the heights of the dam... and also down. They appeared to be fairly close to the base, which curved outward at a greater and greater angle until it melded seamlessly into the mountainside below. But they were still gaining altitude, and ahead, where the bridge met the end of the dam... there was a gate. A sleek, polished white stone gate, doing a much better job of being ornamental than the one Valey and her goons had commandeered, the pony standing watch looking perfectly well suited for the job.

They rolled to a stop just outside of the gate's arch, and the pony leaned down. "Sosans, eh?" he asked, pulling out a clipboard. "I remember the days when we'd get three, four of your carts per day, and those weren't even the good old days. Heh... Got any papers, or anything to declare?"

Dorable levitated a thick folder in his lime-green telekinesis, open to a particular page. The stallion took one look, made a mark on his clipboard, and grinned. "Well, you're definitely set! Have a nice day, Chief!"

He waved, and the gate rolled open. The Sosan cart passed through without fanfare, and soon, they had properly entered the Stone District.

Starlight wanted to stop and stare at the architecture, now that she could see it up close. Everything was made of some form of rock, bar occasional instances of iron and wood evidently imported from the other districts. But the cart quickly stopped again, and it was time for business.

"...So." Shinespark met Gerardo's gaze for a moment longer than necessary, and he got the hint, moving to disembark. "Your sword," she continued. "I can try to get it back, but I can't make promises. Sosa isn't poor, no matter what the other districts say. Money won't be an object. I'll most likely want some favor from you in return for my trouble... but what I need right now is a promise." Her eyes hardened, fully serious. "If I go to the trouble of helping you, will you come back to get it?"

Gerardo looked to Maple and Starlight, and neither had immediate objection to give. "Very well," he agreed. "I'll need to finish my present delivery before I can do anything else. But after that, and before I leave, I shall return to Sosa and seek you out. Tell me, how shall I know where to find you?"

"It won't be hard," Shinespark said, horn lit, unloading Gerardo's crates without even turning to look at them. "Almost every pony in Ironridge knows who I am, and at least how to find a pony who can find a pony who can point you to me. Or, if you're lost, you can just go to the alpha factory, on the northern bank of the river. I'm often there. But you'll do fine."

"I shall... keep it in mind." Bowing, Gerardo stepped away from the cart, extending a wing as if to ward Maple and Starlight back from it. Shinespark's only reply was a nod, before she turned forward, and the cart set off once again.

"...Well." Gerardo looked around the plaza where they had been deposited, the gate at one end and two roads at the other, one up and one down. "We have arrived, with our bodies and luggage intact. It seems it's time to plan our next move."

Comprehension Issues

"Well, I, for one, need a bath," Maple announced, self-consciously flicking an ear as the eyes of passers-by began drawing themselves to her muddy form. "And you do too, Starlight."

Starlight bowed her head in agreement, a slight shiver running down her body. They were at a strange altitude where the air was warm, drifting up from the valley below, yet the ground was cold; the cobble-patterned road on which she stood still bore the night's chill, and the facing of the mountain to their side meant the sun wouldn't warm it for several hours more. Against her muddy hooves, it wasn't the worst, but there were many pleasanter surfaces to be had.

Gerardo clicked his beak, staring around the Stone District's entry plaza. The buildings inset into the mountain wall might have been homes, or artisan storage areas, but there were no signs or decorations depicting them as merchants. Down the roads, what appeared to be vendor stalls cropped up, most with their backs to the Earth District... and none of them were remotely big enough to house baths. He turned to his deposited crates and hummed. "Well, we'll need some sort of starting point..."

"We could always ask," Maple offered, slightly louder than need be.

As if on cue, a stallion with a perfectly friendly smile came trotting over, his wings tucked neatly beneath a windbreaker. "Well, someone looks like they just rolled into the better part of town. I reckon you're looking for a nice room and a chance to get freshened up?"

"Anything that will get this mud off," Maple muttered, rubbing at her foreleg and watching dried mud flake away. "Ugh. The closer, the better, too..."

The stallion winked. "Lucky for you, this close to the skyport is where all the good inns and hotels are located! Just head up and..." He rubbed his chin. "Well, up. The further away you get from the entrance, the cheaper stuff gets, but the dirtier, too. And between you and me, you don't want to go around looking like Sosans any longer than you have to! Hah!"

Turning his back on the party, he strolled away. Maple and Gerardo turned to each other, and the griffon raised an eyebrow. "Hotels, he says..."

"Well, we have to have somewhere to stay, don't we?" Starlight asked, looking up at the two. "You don't have a house here, right?"

"I do have money," Maple said with a shrug. "Ironridge money. Everything I owned. I'm not sure how much it's worth here, though. But it could probably get us at least a night, and we do need a way to get clean..." She looked hopefully up the cliff, trying to catch a glimpse of any good destinations, and found her view blocked by the immediate row of buildings. "It would also give us a place to leave those boxes while we tour the city, and I would like a room to try some things in private..."

"Out of the question," Gerardo immediately snapped. "I want my delivery taken care of as soon as possible. We'll have plenty of time for sightseeing after, but every moment we spend sitting in public with these boxes I grow slightly more nervous. I would be much more able to enjoy myself knowing that they were gone and my payment in hand. You do know what they say about things that can go wrong..."

Maple bit her lip. "It's not like anyone will steal them if they don't know what they are. I mean, they're two muddy cargo crates. Everyone here looks way to fancy to bother with those..."

"Our recent experience in the forest suggests otherwise," Gerardo muttered darkly.

"Well..." Maple protested, gritting her teeth. "Fine! Where are we taking them, then?"

"It's in the Sky District," Gerardo answered, "and that's all I can say. In fact, it's nearly all I know. Merely the name of a building I am to deliver them to, where there will presumably be someone ready."

"Well, You-Know-Who said that Ironridge gets more civilized the further up you go, and if we look out of place right now, we definitely will up there, so there." Maple stuck her tongue out. "Getting cleaned off isn't just to feel nice, it's a good idea. If you don't want to draw attention to us, don't make us stick out! We'll probably blend right in!"

In emphasis of her point, Starlight tapped their shoulders and pointed down the street, to where a mare was lugging a large box up an incline and into a building. Not a single pedestrian gave the mare a second glance, though the muddy trio were slightly less inconspicuous.

"...Very well," Gerardo sighed. "They're your funds. I have no intentions of leaving these crates, however, and have been bade not abandon you, either. If the purchase of a hotel room that very well may go unused save for a quick bath seems like the best priority, then let us proceed."

Maple nodded with an exhale of relief. "Same as before, then. I've got one crate, you've got the other. He said to go up... so I hope I'm not as tired as I feel."

The group got an idea of just how far up there was to go at the same time they became acquainted with how far they had come. Some thoughtful tourist agency had, at the edge of the road, installed a lengthy plinth with an observation platform at the end. Supported from below with braces and above with sharply-angled cables, it jutted out an entire street-width, providing both the freest view of the Earth District they had had so far, and enough removal from the Stone District's climbing sprawl to see above the nearest tier of buildings. Above that, there was another... and another... and before the count could even reach five, it dissolved entirely due to the mishmash of heights of different buildings, stalls on their edges, breaks in the road for switchbacks, and both the curvature of the rim and the fact that there weren't tiers at all so much as an endless series of interconnecting ramps. But most importantly, there were a lot of them.

"It's so far..." Maple whispered, eyes wide as she shifted her crate to a more comfortable position on her back. "And all that times the width of this entire mountain chain..." She swept her gaze to the side, all the way around the city's curve until she reached the far northern tip. "And that's just for one district. What do they do with all this room? It's so big..."

"Live in it, I presume," Gerardo answered. "Work, play... When an area's population grows, so, too, must the infrastructure of civilization."

A light breeze ruffled Maple's mane as she stared at the city. "I just can't imagine that there could be so many ponies..."

"Tens of thousands," Gerardo said, nodding. "Hundreds, even, more likely. Perhaps even a million, or more."

"One million ponies..." She reached a forehoof out, ancestral knowledge preventing her from even wobbling with the load on her back. "Back home, you could pick out any pony on the street, and odds were, you'd recognize them, especially if you were social like Amber. But here..."

"The world is truly an epic place," Gerardo murmured. "Ironridge is a gem of a city, if the stories are to be believed. Yet, even it is far from the best the world has to offer. Is this what you left to see?"

"I don't know." Maple swallowed. "I can't know; I'm... still not even sure I believe it. How do I even comprehend it? How could I ever get to know one million ponies? How would I remember their names? Who would even name them all? I mean, their families would, but..." She squeezed her eyes shut, having realized she had gone for far too long without blinking and that they were beginning to sting. "So many families, then. So many stories that would never even meet, and that do, I... I can't..."

"Well, you'll have plenty of time to try," Gerardo remarked, stepping back toward solid ground. "Because regardless of our destination, we have a large amount of ground still to cover. Onwards!"

Bath Time

The sun was visible by the time Maple and Gerardo collapsed outside a building in the upper Stone District... though that was more a testament of the sheer amount of height they had gained. A look to the east saw the Water District dam towering in the distance, the bridge they had entered upon visible far below.

"If you're tired," Gerardo huffed, panting, "I think a break could be in order. What say you?"

"I'm not tired," Maple answered, nevertheless throwing down her crate and flopping against it, draining the last of a water canteen and pulling a fresh one to offer to Starlight. "I'm perfectly fine!"

"Well, I'm tired," Starlight muttered, taking the thing in her hooves and pulling the stopper out with her teeth. The sheer amount of walking had caused most of the mud clinging to her to crack and fall off, though there was still a copious amount of dust left in her coat that nearly made her sneeze when she brought her hooves to her face. "How much further is it?"

"I don't know, Starlight..." Maple shook her head, then looked up at the current row of buildings. "Look at the rest of the city. The Stone District doesn't go all the way up, so we can't be that far from the top. We should just have to find somewhere... right?" She looked to Gerardo for approval.

"Indeed." The griffon pulled out his own water and drank, though much more briefly than the two ponies. "In fact, while we rest our legs, I'm very inclined to do a quick bit of scouting. Nothing that would let you out of my sight, of course, just a quick bit of altitude gain..."

"Sure," Maple said with a nod, "go for it. We'll be right here..."

Gerardo took off, soaring straight upwards. Maple and Starlight craned their necks to follow him... until he darted forward and out of sight. Maple frowned. "Where is-?"

She was spared having to finish by the griffon's abrupt return, a pleased smile on his face. "Fortunately," Gerardo announced, "there seems to be a well-off establishment not two tiers from here. It doesn't look the cheapest, but amenities such as baths should be in plentiful supply. Shall we?"

"We shall!" Maple nodded firmly, heaved herself to her hooves, and beckoned for Starlight to follow suit. Grumbling, she did so, and together they stumped their way toward yet another switchback.

"Well, you certainly look fresh off the road," greeted a heavily-perfumed receptionist with a bouquet in her mane, working from an open-air window facing the street. "Dirty work in the Earth District? I can always appreciate a hard worker..."

"Something like that," Maple answered, grinning nervously from the mare's slightly suggestive demeanor. "We, um, need a room. With a bath. Do you have those?"

The receptionist shrugged, showing off her lipstick. "Every room has a private bath, hon. There's an on-site spa, but access to that is extra. You'll be wanting..." She carefully evaluated Starlight. "Two beds, am I right?"

Gerardo raised a talon. "If one is cheaper, I'm perfectly willing to sleep on the floor."

The receptionist grinned harder. "Economical, too! I like it... Just for that, you can have a two-bedder for the price of one. That'll be two gray fours. For extras, you pay when you get them."

"Oh! Umm..." Hesitating, Maple turned away, shading one hoof with the other and sifting through her gems. While she knew the basics of Ironridge currency, she was hardly practiced with it and didn't trust herself to make change. Fortunately, it didn't take long to find a pair of smoky, four-sided ones which were probably what the receptionist was looking for. "These?" She held them out hopefully.

"That'll do it," the mare sung back, turning towards the rear of her booth. While she made a show of shifting and shuffling about, tail bouncing as she looked for something, Maple sniffed.

"I wonder if she's paid to do that, or does it deliberately," she whispered aside to Gerardo.

"To flirt with customers?" Gerardo whispered back. "In my experience, it's usually both."

"All right, here's your room key!" Returning to the front, she tossed a small artifact towards them. Maple easily caught it. "Room two-oh-six. That's the third on your right on the second floor, not counting the lobby. Pleasure!"

She blew them a kiss for good measure, but the trio was already gone. Shouldering their boxes, they pushed through the door into the hotel lobby... and suddenly felt very out of place.

The room was broad and long, likely running the entire footprint of the building save for an indent that was the receptionist's booth. The low ceiling was supported with ornate stone columns that appeared older than it was, the room carved around them into the mountainside when it was first constructed. A shallow reflection pool took up the center of the floorspace; a hearth, the back. The pool's bottom was strewn with colorful rocks and tiles slightly evocative of Riverfall's glass roads, though they were hard to see above the omnipresent, reflected torchlight... magical torches that appeared to burn while lighting the room evenly and giving off no smoke. Doors lined the sides, and to the right was a staircase to the upper floors.

"I believe," Gerardo murmured, staring at the back of a hat worn by a patron on a sofa in front of the fire, "that we are badly outclassed, at least until such time as we clean ourselves up."

"Well, let's get on that, then!" Maple shrugged, already heading for the staircase.

When they reached their rented room, they found it far less ornate than the lobby, lacking carvings, water art, or even a window, but it still had everything needed to be serviceable. No angry staff had approached on their way there to demand they take their muddy boxes off the premise, and the boxes were thus stacked in a corner, waiting as Gerardo took first shift with the bath.

"I'm not sure why he needs to go first... I paid for this, after all," Maple grumbled, sitting on the floor so as not to dirty the beds. They were circular, more resembling nests than anything else, with just enough room that two large ponies could cuddle and not feel they were too small. Since she was average-sized and Starlight was a filly, it didn't seem that would be a problem.

Fortunately, the griffon didn't take long, and soon emerged with his uniform wet and folded and the mud carefully scrubbed from his feathers. "Much better," he hummed. "Help yourselves."

It didn't take long for Maple to fill the tub. Beckoning to Starlight to follow her, she left the drain unplugged as she climbed in, the tap still running. "So the water doesn't stay muddy," she explained.

Starlight paused at the edge of the tub, examining the miniature sluice gate through which it filled. "Come on," Maple offered. "In. You're dirty too."

"Huh? Oh..." Starlight blinked, and followed, but remained quiet after settling in.

Several moments of silence passed, during which Maple was content to soak and cleanse her legs. Eventually, she asked, "Starlight? What are you thinking about?"

"Shinespark," Starlight answered simply.

"Her, yes..." Maple took stock of a giant sponge affixed to the wall, in a perfect position for washing the back and ears and other numerous spots pony limbs had trouble reaching on their own. "I think I liked her the most of those three. How about you?"

Starlight scowled. "I don't trust her. What she said didn't make sense. I think she was lying."

"Well..." Maple reached harder, scrubbing the back of her head against the sponge. "Let me know if you can't reach this, by the way. But all the Sosans were kind of funny. Why did you think Shinespark in particular was bad?"

"I didn't say bad," Starlight grumbled. "But you wanted me to trust Arambai, and she said and did some stuff that Arambai said doesn't work that way."

"Oh?" Maple's ears perked, swiveling backwards towards Starlight as she rubbed at her shoulder.

"Yeah," the filly grunted, rubbing at her own muddy legs. "I've been trying to remember. It was that first time I went to his house. I don't think you were there. He was telling me about Sosa."

"Oh?" Maple repeated, still digging at her ears with a hoof. "What did he say that contradicts her?"

"For one," Starlight answered, "she said Ironridge had six districts, and he said it had seven."

"Hmmm..." Maple tilted her head. "Well, he was last here years ago. Maybe one just doesn't exist anymore?"

"No..." Starlight hummed in thought. "He hears from all the Sosans who show up, remember? Like Faron! Didn't you say Faron only came to Riverfall a year or two ago?"

"It would be... let me think..." Maple bit her lip. "I lived in that house for... umm... Yew was..." She closed her eyes. "It was between a year and a half, and two years ago. So much has happened since then, though, it feels like forever. Like I was a completely different pony back then..."

"Yeah!" Starlight nodded. "So he should know. And you wanted me to trust him. But that's not the only thing." At a prompt from Maple to continue, she said, "He also said Sosa is an all-stallion society, like Riverfall and mares. That all the ponies live with their families in the Earth District. But she was there, and she acted important. Almost like she was more important than those other two."

"Now that you mention it," Maple hummed, "when they were introducing themselves, Dorable and Nimwick had big titles for themselves, but she didn't. But you're right... She didn't sound like she was their subordinate, did she? I wonder what her story is... Now hold still and let me get your ears. Maybe she was Dorable's daughter. She definitely looked young enough."

Starlight sighed. "And now we're probably going to run into her again because Gerardo wants to go back to get his sword. Mmmmrmph..."

"Hey!" Maple nudged her. "Maybe she'll turn out to be nice and helpful though, like Arambai?"

"Yeah... I guess..." Sighing again, Starlight waited as Maple finished with her ears. "I'm cold. This bath is cold. Can we go dry off now, and then lay down?"

"Depends on whether we're going anywhere else," Maple murmured, shutting off the water flow. "But we'll rest a bit, and hopefully we can leave those crates here, so you can ride on me again if you want. I know I don't want to carry one just after getting clean..."

Climbing out of the bath, Maple shook, spraying the stony architecture with droplets, then paced off in search of a towel.

Discussing Shinespark

"I have to agree," Gerardo muttered, once all three were dry and seated in their room, "about Shinespark. I noticed her doing some things myself I had previously associated with Arambai, and now wonder if extend to all Sosans. Well..." He closed his eyes. "Except Nimwick. Him, I don't understand."

"Go on," Maple offered, curled in a bed with Starlight huddled against her for warmth. Though the mountain air carried a pleasant warmth drifting up from the jungle, the hotel's all-stone architecture conducted heat well, and freely drained any they had to offer into the core of the mountain.

"Well..." Gerardo strummed his talons along the floor, suit drying behind him. "It was in her manner of conveying information. She said a great deal, much of which we didn't need to know, some of which we possibly shouldn't have known. And every bit of it was said such that it felt she was imparting some deep secret, as if she trusted us deeply... or wanted us to feel that way and trust her in return."

Maple nodded. "Now that you mention it, Arambai did always talk like he was telling secrets..."

"He did," Gerardo agreed. "And doing so can be a very effective strategy, both before and after your audience catches on. It's difficult to hold it against them when they truly do tell useful things, yet one can't even be sure why they do it. Is it to obscure the existence of real secrets, or to provide cover should something truly sensitive come out by mistake; for us to be... desensitized to it?"

Starlight blinked and furrowed her brow. "What?"

"Pretending to tell us a lot of secrets makes us want to trust ponies like Shinespark and Arambai," Maple explained. "And makes it so we don't wonder what they're not telling us. Right?"

"That is the gist of it," Gerardo answered, strumming again and looking toward his crates. "That said, what we should take from it is completely up in the air. That she has something to hide? Who doesn't? I know I have my share of secrets I would fight tooth and claw to keep from seeing daylight. Perhaps Sosa is merely that way in general, for some reason or another. Or, perhaps Arambai and Shinespark knew each other in times passed, and she picked up on his mannerisms. Who can say?"

"We were wondering earlier why Shinespark was on that cart," Maple said, adjusting her hooves beneath her. "She didn't have a title, or apparently a job, but it sounded like she and Valey knew each other. We thought she might be Dorable's daughter. What do you think about that?"

Gerardo shrugged. "You may be on the right track. Given what we just discussed, however, I can think of another pony perhaps more suited to be her sire..."

Maple's eyes widened. "You mean...?"

"Indeed." Shifting himself, Gerardo stretched his wings and lay them out, so as better to dry. "I also observed that the stallion Nimwick was supposedly 'in training' to become a factory chief alongside Dorable. It isn't impossible that our yellow benefactor was once one of the leaders of Sosa himself."

"Starlight said Arambai said Sosa was a stallion-dominated society," Maple said with a growing look of self-confidence as her brain put the pieces together. "What if he left her behind, but because she's a mare, she can't have his old job, but she still knows how to do it so she's tagging along while they find someone else to do it? Do you think that could be it?"

"Assuming Sosan societal roles are hereditary, it is a good bet," Gerardo answered, rubbing two talons together. "All we know for sure is that she told me to meet her on the northern bank of the river, at..." He frowned and hung his head. "Alas, I can't seem to remember the names they used for their factories. I know she had one. Most unfortunate. However, that brings us to the next topic..."

"You want your sword back," Maple sighed. "And we're going to have to go to Sosa to get it."

"We may have to do even more," Gerardo sadly corrected. "Considering she wished to discuss some form of payment... and I have no goods to offer. I imagine she has a service in mind, instead, and those take time. More importantly, however, I'm concerned by her apparent certainty that she could recover my weapon, as well as the speed and deliberateness with which it was stolen. Few honorable warriors would keep their foe's weapon as a prize for a battle they retreated from."

"Well, these were thieves and bandits," Maple pointed out. "But are you saying you think she knows a way to talk to them and make sure she gets it back? That she might be working with them?"

"It would make sense, from multiple angles." Shrugging, Gerardo elaborated, "She was armed, yet reluctant to fend off their attack save for when it showed signs of turning lethal. If she is, in fact, effectively cheated out of a high title due to her gender, she may harbor resentment against the existing system for that and wish to undermine it. And we know for sure she has something to hide..."

"Well..." Maple exhaled heavily. "Does it matter? You're still going to try to get your sword."

"I am, yes." Gerardo nodded. "I'm aware that this seems shady business, but once we clear this job we will have few possessions save for our lives and my payment... and I doubt the former will be in danger. At least, that is my hope. They did seem very reluctant to take lives during that skirmish..."

Maple looked carefully at him. "But we're not Sosans. What if they need us to do something risky without breaking their own code of honor?"

"A risk we'll... have to take," Gerardo said, a slight awkwardness to his voice.

"And what about your reward for this delivery?" Maple pressed. "How would you keep that safe? Won't it be just as valuable to you as these crates we're lugging around? What about that?"

Gerardo smiled. "Well, you seem to possess a very useful way of storing objects..."

Maple reached and looked at her flank. "This?"

"Indeed," Gerardo said. "The utility of that brand of yours has already spared us from needing a bag carrier. I'm very curious to know the full extent of what it can contain, though from the trinkets you've stored so far I doubt my reward will be of much trouble."

"Well, as best I can explain..." Maple took a deep breath. "I haven't found any specific thing it can't store, though I haven't tried a lot. There's a total size limit at the size of my body, and as I approach it it just gets harder to carry things until I start dropping them when I lose concentration. And the weight of things I'm carrying is added to my own."

Gerardo's eyebrows both rose. "Really...?"

"Mhm." Maple nodded. "I actually carry ballast, most of the time. It takes up room, but it makes me heavier..." She closed her eyes. "And stronger, as a result. It's like those sailors, back when the boats ran, who would put iron gauntlets around their hooves just to make themselves used to living with them, so when they needed to move cargo, they could take them off and be able to carry all that extra weight with ease. I've never fought anyone, and I hope I never have to, but..." She sighed. "I've wanted to go on an adventure my whole life, even if I never really thought it would happen. This is what I still did to prepare."

Starlight shifted away, suddenly uncomfortable. "You what?"

"They're just a few old iron ingots," Maple said with a shrug. "And don't worry, I always take them off before bed so I don't wear the bed out, or crush you by accident. I'm very careful."

Sighing in relief, Starlight wriggled closer again. Gerardo's curiosity, however, remained. "Most interesting. I can't say I would have guessed that, observing you before."

"It's not something I showed off," Maple answered. "Like I said, the point is to be able to do it and have everything stay normal. And remember, I still don't know how to fight."

"Nevertheless, this could be a considerable tactical advantage," Gerardo breathed, thinking.

Maple shrugged, then settled her chin onto the bed. "If you want something that could really be a tactical advantage, just this morning I learned that my cutie mark can store magic."

"More and more interesting," Gerardo continued. "I presume testing the precise functionality of that is in order? Perhaps now that we have some downtime?"

"I do want to find out how it works," Maple agreed, nodding. "I'm still not sure what we're doing now, though. I just want to enjoy the city, and I think Starlight wants to sleep."

Gerardo continued his thought... then suddenly stopped, an idea lighting his eyes. "As an aside..." He glanced at Starlight, staring without looking directly at her. "Have you tried pocketing her?"

Maple flinched, hard. "I... don't really want to. I still haven't forgotten what happened last time I had another pony inside me..."

Instantly, Gerardo backed away, holding a talon to his chest. "My sincerest apologies. I..." He hung his head. "Admittedly did not remember, myself. But that is most understandable."

"Sorry," Maple sniffed. "I might need a minute, if you don't mind."

"Of course." Turning away, Gerardo paced towards the room door and settled in wait. "Take your time. I'll be right here, whenever it comes time to discuss our plans going forward..."

Even Odds

"All right," Maple said after a few minutes. "I'm all right. What else do we need to talk about?"

Gerardo turned back to face her, a lone eyebrow raised. "Namely, we need to decide our present course of action. At my last check, you wished to leave my cargo here and explore the city, whereas I would like to see it delivered with all due haste... and splitting up is out of the question. Does that adequately describe the situation?"

"It sounds like it to me," Maple sighed. "So how do we decide who gets their way?"

"A good question." Gerardo began pacing, walking back and forth in front of the spot in the wall where a window would likely be, were they not technically underground. "I'm sure I don't need to relay to you my concerns about vandals and thieves, despite the unlikelihood of such a thing transpiring here. And yet, did you come here solely to work for me?" He shook his head. "We could argue for hours, and attain nothing more than a more strenuous relationship among our team."

Maple hummed. "How were you planning on moving them before me and Starlight joined you? Maybe you could do that, and let us be free?"

"My boat," Gerardo replied with a sad smirk. "I intended to trade it for a cart upon arrival, and use it to haul the crates myself. Then, I was to sell it upon completion of my quest and purchase an airship ticket out of the city. A flimsy plan at best, considering as none of the ponies here have any need for boats, but it was my best... and now outright impossible due to my no longer having a boat."

"Oh." Maple hung her head. "Well... I still don't know how much money I really have..."

Gerardo nodded. "I can't imagine it would be a small expenditure. There's always the possibility we could rent one, but that would provide no return on investment when we no longer need it. And regardless, it was my own carelessness in trusting that buffoon of a stallion that cost me my ship in the first place. I can't rightly ask you to compensate me for that, in addition to everything else you've done."

Maple looked up. "But that still doesn't help with what we do next..."

"You could flip a coin," Starlight offered. "Winner gets their way."

At that, both adults paused... and Gerardo looked levelly at Maple. "Have you any interest in such a solution? I can't say I'm entirely comfortable trusting my fortune to luck, yet it would be fair..."

"I, um..." Maple hesitated, staring distantly. "I'd need something to flip... but that does sound fair."

"I'll do it," Starlight said. "Give me two gems with different colors. Small ones."

Maple deposited two in her hooves, one blue and one green, and got up, moving to stand next to Gerardo so Starlight would have room to work. "Okay," the filly eventually said, "pick a hoof."

"How exactly are you doing this?" Gerardo blinked. "You have one gem under each, and...?"

Starlight nodded. "I like the blue one best, so if you guess it, you win. Who's going to guess?"

"I... might as well..." Gerardo shrugged. He squinted down at the filly's outstretched hooves. The bed around them was too cushy to even tell there was anything beneath them, so it truly would be up to luck. He sucked in a breath... and pointed at her left. "That one. That is my pick."

Starlight lifted her hoof... revealing the green gem beneath. She bit her lip, staring up at Gerardo as if to say sorry. Her right rose too, the midnight-blue winning stone tucked away in its depression.

"Well," Gerardo admitted, drooping, "fair is fair. It seems I must forfeit. Which is very much a shame, but as I did agree..." He glanced forlornly at his crates, sitting in the corner. "I suppose I shall have to trust the hotel staff in their competence at thwarting burglars."

"And trust that nobody would even want to steal them," Maple said with a shrug, moving towards the door. "Even the bandits didn't know what they were. If somepony broke into a hotel like this one, they'd be looking for money, right? Not things that are big and hard to carry..."

"I suppose you are right," Gerardo muttered. "I still shan't stop being on edge until we return, however. That said, I see no further reason to dawdle here. Shall we?"

Maple nodded eagerly, beckoning to Starlight. "We shall!"

Minutes later, the trio stood outside, the hotel to their backs and a host of ponies passing in both directions ahead. The sun had risen over the peaks of the Water District during their time indoors, and now blazed down through a cloudless blue sky, warming their necks and sides against the cool, pleasant mountain air. Starlight had regained her spot astride Maple's back, and Gerardo's crates were nowhere to be found.

"It just occurred to me..." Gerardo announced, watching the wandering crowds. "Before we stray too far from our room for the night, how are we to remember our way back here? I doubt I can carry both of you, and searching by leg could be exceedingly slow. Should we not establish some form of landmark to aid in our return?"

Maple shrugged. "That sounds like a good idea. Maybe you can see something if you fly high enough, like how you found the hotel earlier? Then you could scout again when we're coming back..."

With a nod, Gerardo's wings swept out, and he took off straight upwards. Maple and Starlight watched him ascend, observed as he pivoted and stared about, continuing to climb... and then suddenly faltered as if hitting a wall, dropping several meters before catching himself and returning to the ground.

"Well," he answered upon landing, moderately flustered, "that was some unexpectedly sudden turbulence. I am, however, all right. Additionally..." He beamed. "Not only do I have a good bearing on what to look for to aid in our return, but I believe I've sighted our next destination!"

"Oh?" Maple's ears perked. "Where is it?"

Gerardo pointed a wing further clockwise around the mountain wall. "Should we continue our present course of upward in that direction, there is a significantly large convergence of both roads and equines at the very top of the city, centered around what looked to be an entrance into the mountain. While this is just a hunch, I would give that entrance at least ninety-percent odds of being a route into the Sky District. Would that not suit both our needs?"

"It sounds good," Maple said with a shrug. "If that's where the airships land, and where everypony normally enters Ironridge, there's probably some good things to see there!"

"And it will take me closer to my destination as well," Gerardo muttered. "So long as we're out and about, there's no sense in wasting a potentially informative scouting trip. Onwards and upwards!"

Elevator Talk

"You keep talking about scouting, and your destination..." Maple remarked, steadily climbing a textured street with Starlight on her back. "How much do you actually know about where we're going?"

Gerardo shrugged, the vast landscape of the Earth District spilling out to his right. "I have the name of a building, supposedly located near the top of the city. I take that to mean the Sky District, though I suppose it could also be closer to our present location. So, as we are presently headed to this city's nexus of travel..." He shrugged again, gesturing forward with a wing. "It seems like an opportune place to innocently ask for directions. I'm sure there will be dozens of information booths about." He paused, and added, "To be clear, the Sky District is where you wish to go, yes? I'm not merely commandeering your sightseeing tour because I feel it would be a useful destination?"

"I guess I don't care that much." Maple nodded an assent. "I would like to stop somewhere and get lunch, and the Stone District probably has a lot of good places to see. But let's go to the Sky District!"

Ahead, the road merged into another at an angle, and the crowd of passing ponies dramatically thickened. Inwardly glad that Starlight wasn't on hoof and thus wouldn't be able to be swept away, Maple suddenly found herself missing carrying a box: if nothing else, it made ponies want to get out of one's way. Bravely, she lowered her head and pushed into traffic, ears folding under the pressure of indistinguishable chatter from both sides. She winced, steeled herself... and suddenly, the crowd's noise was drowned out by a colossal roar from above.

Every pony stopped and looked up. Overhead, a huge metal oval soared out from behind the peaks of the mountain wall, casting a blinding reflection of the sun down from its curved surface. The crowd collectively flinched and covered their eyes... and in a matter of seconds, it had accelerated to the point where it was far out over the Earth District, jets of magical flame surging from cylindrical engines placed strategically over its body. Yet more seconds later, it was gone, out of sight to the west. The crowd had already resumed their motion, moving around Maple like a log stuck in a river.

"What... what was...?" she breathed, still gazing at the western horizon.

"An airship," Gerardo smoothly answered, somehow able to hear her... or merely accomplished in guessing what she was about to say. "And quite an advanced one, at that. Only the newest and best have graduated beyond the 'propellers and dirigibles' variety, and they still suffer from exceedingly high operating costs and short ranges. That one is bound for Yakyakistan, I'm sure."

"Let's, um..." Maple turned back to the road, beginning to weave her way upward once again. "Go somewhere easier to hear, maybe..."

As they progressed, it didn't get easier to hear.

The road widened, and the crowds swelled, and suddenly the hill stopped and it was as if they were in an open plaza more than a route of travel. Almost every pony had a direction they stuck to, and for at least half of those ponies, the direction of choice was towards the wall... towards a great, arched gateway in the wall, supported by ornate pillars carved into its sides and easily wide enough to accommodate a large boat, were it filled with water. Over it hung an etched sign, proudly describing the gateway as the Ironridge Skyport - C Terminal.

Staying close enough that they could reach out and touch each other at all times, Maple and Gerardo were pulled into a rush of equine bodies all headed into the tunnel. So many ponies rammed and jostled into Maple that Starlight stood all the way up on her back, climbing closer to her head, and she was unsure whether her staying upright was more thanks to her heavier weight or merely that there was no room to tip over.

Daylight faded around them, as did the stone walls of the tunnel interior, replaced by seamless plates of polished metal and even magical illumination. Unlike the enchanted gemstones with which Arambai used to light Riverfall, the Ironridge lighting seemed to emanate from the walls themselves, leaving no visible point sources and a light so smooth that had a pony stood alone in the hall, they wouldn't have cast a shadow.

Despite the slow rate at which the crowd moved, it only took a few minutes for the tunnel to change. Abruptly, it angled upwards, at an incline far too steep to climb. A system of belts and pulleys whirred along its surface, and attached to them were several giant, grated platforms, moving up and down along tracks to form an escalator. The ground in front of it was a grate perfectly matching the platforms, and every so often one would arise from the floor, lifting all the ponies standing on it and carrying them up the tunnel. The left side was identical, but worked in reverse.

Soon enough, the crowd pushed them onto the grate, and their turn came to be lifted. Maple buckled slightly from the change in momentum, then straightened up... and suddenly, she could hear again. The lift was only wide large enough to accommodate her and Gerardo plus six others, and of them only one pair seemed to be at all chatty. Sighing, she relaxed her posture, reached back to check on Starlight... and decided to listen.

"...doesn't make sense!" a mare in a business suit was complaining. Snorting, she fluffed her wings and pouted, "It's a huge and obvious waste of money, but every time I try to bring it up to the council they won't even hear my case! And now, I get a letter of rejection from the Chancellor! The Chancellor, Brightcoil! My request made it all the way to his desk and he just... rrrgh..." She kneaded the ground with her hooves, tail flicking violently.

"It was probably a secretary, Sharpie," the mare standing next to her said with a shrug. "Still, their loss, ignoring your talent. Ironridge is rich. Maybe they can afford not to care. As long as they can pay your salary, I certainly don't care..."

"Well, you should care, because it makes me feel worthless," Sharpie grumbled, sitting and staring miserably at the ground. "Why even have an investigator into transactions between the government and the embassy if nopony ever listens to what she has to say!?"

The last words were practically chanted, bitterness seeping from every syllable. Brightcoil leaned close, draping a hoof around her neck. "Well, at least it's not like Sosa, where everyone gets paid to sit around and do nothing..."

"Heh... yeah..." Sharpie lifted a hoof and wiped at her muzzle. "At least I get to do what I'm good at, even if nopony listens..."

The conversation ended. Maple and Gerardo met each other's eyes... and the message to wait until the two mares were out of earshot to make any comments was clearly reflected.

Handsomeness Perks

Light broke around Maple, Starlight and Gerardo all at once, as the lift they were riding on emerged from the surface... and continued going up, shielded from the chill by a thick tubing of reinforced glass. Despite the mild temperatures of the Stone District, the land around the escalator's exit was caked in a near-glacial field of snow, freshly whipped and spread as if a storm had passed by not two nights prior. In the distance to the left, a path could be seen leading to a thin, gleaming metal spire, somehow kept clear of snow by jets of steam from roadside vents, and to the rear the white plateau dropped off, the distant fringes of the Earth District visible far beyond. And ahead... ahead lay the Ironridge Skyport.

It looked from a distance like a forest of glass mushrooms, buildings large and small with habitable domes set atop sturdy central pillars, as if they were docks designed to weather the snow drifts rising and falling like a tide. The mountain plane was surprisingly flat, at least for the immediate area, breaking up into more jagged peaks if one went too far in either direction. Another terminal complex loomed far to the right, and all around them, the outlines of dirigibles drifted. Far, far in the background, beyond all of the industry and technology and wealth, a sheer, horizontal black line marked the start of the real mountain range that Ironridge was merely a foothill for.

Maple was speechless, staring. Starlight had nothing to add. Gerardo left them to their awe and silence... and the platform leveled out, sliding further down its track to the skyport.

The sun was high in the sky when the lift platform docked, sinking beneath another grate and leaving its group of passengers standing in an unloading zone. A warning light flared, prompting them to get off before the next platform arrived... and once they did so, they had arrived.

Maple and Gerardo moved to the side, several steps away from the entrance. The interior of the skyport was pristine, polished, and decorated primarily in whites and blacks, a smooth marble flooring stretching between dark iron supports, but its most striking feature was the relative lack of ponies. The massive crowd from the Stone District entrance had dispersed, bottlenecked and strung out by the lift tunnel, and aside from a lengthy line of ponies waiting to use the outgoing transit, there was room... room enough for personal space, room enough to talk, room enough to breathe. Relaxing, Maple let out a breath she didn't know she was holding, and turned to see Gerardo doing the same.

"Well?" the griffon prompted. "I'm starting to wonder if this area of the city isn't slightly too official for what I had hoped, but-"

"I love it," Maple countered, silencing him. "Just... let me enjoy it. I'm glad we came here."

Shrugging, Gerardo paced forward, and she followed. They appeared to be in some sort of atrium, a series of successively higher, wider ringed walkways forming the outside of the room, and a plaza at the bottom filled with carefully-curated greens and even a small artificial river, complete with bridges. They were one tier from the base. "Should we find a way down there?" Maple asked.

"Hold," Gerardo instructed. "We'll do that, but at present I see a sign pointing us to the whereabouts of an informational kiosk..."

Once again, he took the lead, not-quite-prowling around the walkway, hugging the railing so as not to run into any of the pedestrians entering or exiting the numerous side passages. Eventually, the desired kiosk scrolled into view... with an accompanying line of ponies so long, it had to be cordoned off with strips of retractable tape. Gerardo drooped. "Well, it seems that's out of the question..."

Maple shuffled. "If you want to wait in line, Starlight and I can go sit by the water downstairs..."

"Appreciated, but..." Gerardo smiled awkwardly. "We've already abandoned my cargo to a potentially lonesome fate. Let's not get carried away with splitting up, now."

Minutes later saw them sitting on what might have been some artist's representation of a bench, listening calmly as a fountain fed the stream of water winding through a shallow cutout in the floor. They were in an alcove that, while hardly private, was still shaded by nearby plants and the overhang of the next tier. It felt out of the way, and that was enough for Maple's eyes to be closed, lungs steadily breathing air that had undoubtedly been ran through dozens of filtration systems, or possibly taken straight from the pristine mountains themselves.

"That was certainly an interesting conversation we overheard coming in," Gerardo remarked.

Maple merely sighed, but Starlight answered for her. "About the embassy investigation thing?"

"That one." Gerardo nodded, staring toward the middle of the plaza. "I can't say it's any of our business, but it sounds as if intrigue is a daily occurrence in Ironridge. You don't suppose this embassy that pegasus spoke of investigating belongs to our friends the yaks, do you?"

Starlight shrugged. "Maybe. Why? What if it does?"

Gerardo shrugged in return. "I recall it being mentioned earlier that they were funneling currency into Sosa in exchange for deliveries that were... never being delivered. A connection, perhaps?"

"Umm..." Starlight squinted. "Why would she care if the yaks were wasting their own money on weapons?"

"It isn't impossible that such could be an issue." Gerardo clicked his talons against the marble flooring in thought. "Currency imbalances, trade deficits... economic things like that which I am not professionally versed in. She hardly said much for us to speculate on, either. For all we know it could merely be bureaucracy it its finest and she was having a very bad day. Whatever the case, I pray it doesn't concern us any time soon."

Starlight narrowed her eyes. "Talking like that is asking for trouble."

"Heh. Yes, I suppose it is..." Gerardo chuckled beneath his breath. "You're spending too much time around me. Usually, I'm the one to point out the cliches of life like that."

No reply came.

The conversation drifted into a lull, all three sitting in a mixture of heavy thought and mere appreciation. That silence lasted for several minutes... until Starlight noticed a passing pink pegasus who appeared to be staring at them out of the corner of her eye. She blinked, waited... and the pegasus strolled on, out of sight. Minutes later, she returned, again walking past at the speed of no hurry and seemingly intent on stealing as many glances at them as possible.

Gerardo noticed, and beckoned. The pegasus faced them properly and took a step closer. "May I help you?" Gerardo queried.

"Not really," she answered, drawing into a comfortable speaking range. "I just wanted to let you know that your wings are really handsome. Hope I'm not interrupting anything?" Her manner had a certain survivor's confidence to it, as if she were regularly screeched at from behind a cage she knew to be impermeable.

"Why, thank you," Gerardo replied with a blink. "Unless the act of doing nothing counts as an occupation in and of itself, you are, in fact, interrupting nothing. Initially, we were intending to visit the information kiosk up one floor, yet our need was not as pressing as the line was long."

The pegasus brightened considerably, adopting a warmer tone. "Hey, what a coincidence! I just got off a shift there!" With a wing, she pointed to the official-looking shirt she wore. "Would you mind if I bought you lunch, then? I'd love to answer whatever it was you were going to ask there..." Hopefully, pointedly, she ignored Maple, who was watching her with a mixture of curiosity and suspicion.

Gerardo nodded at the two who shared the bench with him. "That would be very generous of you, and I'd be happy to accept. Though, might it be permissible for my traveling companions to join us? I feel it would be unfair to accept gifts for myself only."

"Traveling companions?" The pegasus looked sideways at Maple, evaluated her again, and breathed a sigh of relief. "Of course they can come." She extended a wing to Gerardo. "I'm Slipstream, by the way. It's not often we see griffons around Ironridge. Nice to meet you!"

"Gerardo Guillaume, griffon adventurer extraordinaire," Gerardo said, bowing, "and likewise. My companions are miss Maple and Starlight. Now..." His eyes scanned the heights of the atrium dome. "I imagine you have a destination in mind?"

"There is a food court," Slipstream replied with a nod. "It's very good. Please, follow me!"

Free Lunch

Maple, Starlight and Gerardo sat with their impromptu host at the edge of a building, looking down through a glass wall at the landscape below. It was a tower much slimmer and higher than the initial lobby, connected to it with a glass bridge tube and positioned just so that patrons seated near the edge could look down into the atrium, observing ponies scuttling about below as they ate. The center formed a wheel of restaurants and eateries, with free seating lining the entirety of the outer rim.

In the distance, a massive zeppelin drifted by, framed against a background of snowdrifts and distant mountain peaks. Gnawing on a fruit kebob, Gerardo opened conversation. "Quite nice of you to do this, if I haven't said so enough already."

"My pleasure," Slipstream answered, biting into a gourmet sandwich with visible satisfaction. "What else am I supposed to do with my breaks? You looked interesting. And, well... I completely agree about the lines. Granted, there were a few big flights that got in at once today, but still..." She brushed her mane back. "It gets kind of hectic when ponies think they're running late and take it out on you, you know? But anyways, what were you going to ask?" She blinked innocently. "I'd love to help, if I could."

Gerardo shrugged. "Nothing pressing. We've been in for the better part of a day, ourselves, and are still getting a feel for the lay of the city." He took a breath, closing his eyes and sighing pleasantly. "I did hear from a kindly passer-by that a place known as Warehouse W-28 was well worth visiting, though they neglected to mention where it was."

Slipstream snorted so hard that she had to cover her mouth with a wingtip. When she recovered, she giggled and said, "Sounds like you got pranked, Gerardo. That W means it's in the Water District, which is pretty much the least touristy part of Ironridge! Well, except for Sosa. That place is a dump." She giggled again and blushed. "But most of the Water District is just empty warehouses left over from the building of the dam, and then from the days before the skyport was built. These days, they have better places to store things."

"It sounds as if I have, indeed, been had," Gerardo agreed with a self-depricating laugh. "Would you say anything else in the Water District is worth visiting? I did happen to see that very impressive dam during an earlier excursion to the Stone District..."

"Not really." Slipstream shrugged. "I mean, the dam is very cool, but it's supposedly dangerous. I've never been up top myself. Very few ponies get to. Maybe they'll open it up later as a tourist attraction, but... who knows?" She took another bite of her sandwich. "Oh, I guess the other thing that's there is the Defense Force base. When they were established, Skyfreeze kind of went 'meh' and found some out-of-the-way land that nopony was using to hide them in. So that's what they got."

"Skyfreeze?" Gerardo asked, lifting an eyebrow. "Defense Force? Pardon me if my memory is slipping, but I can't say I'm familiar."

"No biggie." Slipstream shook her head. "Skyfreeze is the big administration tower between here and the reservoir where all the airline companies have their local headquarters. It's also where the Ironridge economic council meets, and where Chancellor Dior has his office. The yaks want their embassy moved there, too, but that hasn't happened yet. And the Stone District Defense Force is-"

"One moment," Gerardo instructed, lifting a talon. He peered keenly at the pegasus. "Did you just say Chancellor Dior?"

Slipstream nodded. "He's been the leader of Ironridge for more than four years now. They say he's a prodigy, and he's the youngest Chancellor Ironridge has ever had..." She squeezed her eyes shut. "Which doesn't count for very much when he's also the second. He's also very private, which is a shame because he could easily be a celebrity if he wanted. Where did you hear about him?"

"A friend referred him to us as a trustworthy stallion," Gerardo said with a shrug. "That he runs Ironridge is certainly news to me. How much power does a chancellor have?"

"I don't know," Slipstream limply admitted with a hint of exasperation. "I didn't go into economics. I know about local history, maps, flight schedules and how to get past bureaucracies."

"Ah, well, my apologies." Gerardo bowed neatly. "Please, do continue. The Defense Force...?"

"Mhm!" Slipstream perked up. "Since the skyport was built, Sosa went into a decline, and now there are bandits everywhere who steal goods and cause trouble." Nodding eagerly, she said, "The Earth District isn't very safe. I bet you could handle it, but I haven't been there in years... however, the Stone District didn't want to deal with that, so they went and asked Skyfreeze to do something about the problem! Ultimately, what they came up with..." She hung her head. "They couldn't find a way to make the Earth District safe, so instead they authorized an armed guard in the Stone District to protect caravans and make sure no bandits came up the mountain. I kind of feel bad for the bandits, myself. It must be hard, having so little that you need to steal to survive..."

"Indeed." Gerardo twirled his empty kebob stick between two talons, musing. "I doubt the presence of such a military organization would make a good destination for viewing, then, in either the Earth or Water Districts. What do you recommend we make our next stop, if our aim is to stay safe, enjoy the city and return to our hotel in time for dusk?"

Slipstream thought for a moment. "On the third floor of the lobby," she began, "there's a tunnel to a high-speed transit. It goes between the A, B and C terminals and Skyfreeze tower. Terminal A is for cargo ships only and is off-limits, but if you ride it to the B terminal, they have a museum of airship history there. I've been through it many times, and still love to go there on breaks... You'd probably enjoy it, too."

"Well..." Gerardo slowly got up, pushing in his stool. "This was quite enjoyable and informative. Thank you for your time and generosity, miss Slipstream."

Slipstream blushed. "Thank yourself for looking cool and unusual. I work here, I've got the money to spare. Speaking of which, I'm on evening shift tonight, so say hi if you're coming back late!"

"And the lines aren't too long, I presume," Gerardo added, earning a chuckle from both.

The pegasus departed with a final, cheery wave. Moments later, Maple spoke for the first time in the entire conversation. "How often does this happen to you?"

Gerardo's eyebrow rose. "Being generously offered lunch, potentially flirted with by unknowing fans, or finding a shortcut to exactly what I need immediately after being denied the normal way?"

"All three, I guess," Maple said with a shrug.

"In that case..." Gerardo grinned. "More often than you would think, yet not quite often enough to make up for all the stores and shops that somehow expect me to adventure without so much as a discount. Let's leave it at 'I'll take what I can get.' And speaking of getting, that was a fine lunch indeed."

"It was," Maple agreed, licking her lips and glancing up at Starlight. "So? A museum of airships sounds interesting, right? Shall we go there next?"

"I don't see why not!" Gerardo stepped toward the food court's exit, and both ponies slowly got up to follow him.

The Museum

From Slipstream's description, Maple had expected the 'high-speed transit' between the Skyport's various branches to be something akin to the lift platforms that had carried them up from the Stone District. What she hadn't expected was a long, horizontal box outfitted with heavily cushioned seats and walls to lean on in periods of rapid acceleration... and she eventually found herself standing in such a box, hurtling over the surrounding snowscape through a larger tube at speeds faster than freefall.

When she finally disembarked, following an alerting siren and a perhaps-too-rapid deceleration, it was on shaky legs and with Starlight at her side. "T-That was..." she breathed, straightening her mane.

"Unanticipated?" Gerardo grinned. "Certainly an effective mode of travel, if nothing else."

"I was going to say 'exhilarating'," Maple answered, shaking herself. "Though a warning might have been nice. Is that what flying feels like?"

"Yes," Starlight muttered before the griffon could speak. "Falling, at least. But with more wind."

"When did...?" Maple's brow furrowed. "Oh. You told me, with the waterfall..."

Starlight nodded and climbed onto her back.

"I wouldn't be opposed to ferrying us somewhere myself," Gerardo offered, turning away from the boarding platform. "Provided, of course, you weren't too heavy. That said, I've been informed that the experience can be somewhat disorienting for those born without wings. I can't promise it would be anything more pleasant than a tactical maneuver in a time of need."

"That's okay," Maple assured as she followed him towards the nearest tunnel. "For now, let's just find that museum she told us about."

They emerged in an atrium similar enough to the previous terminal's that they could have shared blueprints. A quick glance around by Gerardo found a sign hanging with navigation instructions, which he quickly paraphrased, holding his chin in thought. "It seems our recommended target is this way," he said, pointing a talon.

One staircase and two glass bridges later, they found the entrance. A stallion who looked as if he was paid to smile sat outside at a booth, waving them in. Gerardo raised an eyebrow. "Are you here to collect admission, or...?"

The stallion shrugged. "Dude, the thing's free. It's here so ponies don't get bored while they wait for their flights. If you want a cash grab, just go look at all the hotels in the area."

Maple glanced uneasily at Gerardo at that, but he didn't return the stare. Instead, she walked through the museum gate... and immediately stopped, squinting at the statue immediately inside, clearly positioned to catch the attention of all who entered. "Is that...?" she murmured.

It was a pony, wrought in bronze and staring proudly down the hall. A unicorn, more specifically, and a mare at that... with a very distinctive, familiar manestyle.

"It looks like a much younger version of Shinespark," Gerardo observed, confirming her suspicions.

Strolling forward, Maple checked the plaque on the statue. "Shinespark of Sosa," she narrated. "In the year 965 A.B., became the first pony to be..." Her brow scrunched. "Born on an airship?"

Gerardo peered over her shoulder. "Now that's an interesting title. From what I've gathered of the Steel District, it doesn't seem like it would be an honor, however."

Maple rubbed her chin. "And didn't Ar... er, You-Know-Who say airships were only invented ten years ago? This is a lot older than that. I wonder, why wouldn't he have mentioned this...?"

"Wait," Starlight commanded. "What did you say? About the year? What year is it now?"

"Hmm?" Gerardo tipped his head. "That would have been twenty years ago. It's presently 985. Why do you ask, if I may?"

Starlight blinked. "Huh. You have the same date as where I'm from."

"Really?" Maple nearly sat down in surprise, before remembering to avoid dislodging Starlight from her back. "You do? That's an interesting thing to carry over..."

"Not really," Gerardo answered, checking furtively to ensure no other ponies were listening in. "After all, A.B. stands for After Breakup. The present calendar was started during the greatest period of global upheaval since the Plains of Harmony were established, in which they cut themselves off from the rest of the world. I don't doubt it would have been as big of an event there as it was here, if not bigger."

"They cut themselves off..." Maple mused. "How does that work, even, when they're protected by a giant mountain range? It's not like the mountains weren't there before, or that they made them..."

"There are ways," Gerardo said with a shrug. "Passes in the mountains which remain sealed through other means, even if the terrain is gentler. However, I believe we came here to be fascinated by air travel, as I can tell my own myths whenever I please." He pointed a wing. "Over there, I see what appears to be a timeline of aviation history. Might that be a good place to start?"

Maple paced toward it, curious. "957... This goes back almost as old as Willow is. This really is older than I thought..." Reading aloud, she skimmed the beginning of the timeline. "Two unicorn engineers, who dreamed of flying, figured out that you could fill a balloon with heated gas and attach a basket... They stored it on a boat and traveled the coast, powering it with their magic and selling brief flight trips, while trying to make their balloon better, and... eventually came to Ironridge..."

She stepped back, blinking. "We were right. Arambai was a Sosan factory chief. Look, he's right here!" Pointing a hoof, she indicated a portrait of the yellow unicorn, many years younger, standing next to two other middle-aged stallions they didn't recognize.

Starlight leaned down, reading their names for herself. "Mobius and... Arad?"

"This certainly predates our friends Dorable and Nimwick's time, then," Gerardo observed. "Interesting. This makes it sound as if Sosa embraced the new technology, and attempted to create air travel as a market themselves. Look at these diagrams..."

"Project Aslan," Maple narrated. "To create a ship that could sail both the skies and the seas... that's what they were doing. That's what Sosa wanted to be the ones to do."

Impatient, Starlight hopped off Maple's back and plodded further down the timeline. Technical graphs were all well and good, but she had no intention of building an airship any time soon. She was sure enough Maple knew how she felt on the issue that she didn't repeat it every chance she had, but that was the kind of pursuit one had to dedicate their life to, and that was far too close to the realm of earning cutie marks for her taste. Eventually, figuring she had wandered far enough, she turned to the nearest panel and began reading.

Summer, 964: the Spirit of Sosa was completed. Her maiden voyage was attended by important creatures from around the world.

Starlight's eyes skimmed across a panorama showing a number of ponies and other creatures gathered proudly in an assembly hall, and continued.

However, on the day of the launch, tragedy struck. The ship exploded and fell from an altitude of more than five hundred meters. All 35 crew members and passengers on board died in the crash, including Factory Chief Arad and the ambassador of Yakyakistan. In the following days of turmoil, Project Aslan was shuttered and the Sosan research was locked away. Ironridge promised never to repeat such a catastrophe. Water travel would remain the dominant and only method of world shipping. The cause of the crash remains one of the greatest unsolved mysteries in aviation.

"...Huh." Blinking, Starlight sat back on her haunches. The next picture could have been mistaken for a normal, sunny sky from far enough away... but a single look revealed the 'sun' to be a ball of fire engulfing all but the very ends of a ship in midair, debris launched in all directions by the blast. Some of that debris, if she squinted right, looked almost like falling ponies...

"Starlight?" Maple's voice called, accompanied by the sound of hoofsteps wandering nearer. "What did you...?" A small gasp, barely audible. "Oh."

Fiery Fate

A foreleg reached around, pulling Starlight close. "Well, that explains why we never heard about this," Maple's voice said lowly. "He... probably felt responsible, somehow..."

"What have you found?" Gerardo asked, striding over. "Is it, perhaps-?"

"Shh." Maple cut him off, and for once the griffon was silent. Starlight appreciated the silence. It wasn't something she had fully realized she was missing... but the difference was undeniable.

Above and beside her, Maple was still reading the description, eyes moving silently around the picture of the explosion. It seemed appropriate that Starlight do the same... but when she tried, it was as if her eyes simply bounced off the timeline plaque. She furrowed her brow. Thirty-five ponies had died. Ponies and yaks and griffons and who knew what else. Maple was silent, contemplative. Gerardo was silent, doing who knew what. She was silent... but as important as the crash seemed, her thoughts simply didn't want to focus on it. Instead, she found herself enjoying the silence and absence of chatter. She found herself recollecting the mornings she had spent in Riverfall, waking up to find Maple cuddling her or else making breakfast, completely content to let the day go by as slowly as it pleased... and she enjoyed it.

Why? Wasn't she supposed to be sad? It seemed like the kind of thing most ponies would do, but when she tried again to force her thoughts onto that track, the rational side of her brain protested. Those ponies had died over twenty years ago. Her tears wouldn't bring them back, or change anything whatsoever. So why cry?

Gerardo snapped her from her thoughts by opening his beak and making noise once again. "Hmm... After that incident, it seems the more obvious Sosan innovations, such as a sealed dirigible and propeller propulsion, were copied by the world at large and air travel once again passed into the realm on single entrepreneurs. The kind who would build and operate one ship, by themselves..."

Maple joined him, and to her relief Starlight couldn't hear any hint of wavering or sadness in her voice. Apparently she was overthinking her own reaction to the crash. "Let me see... huh. Here's 965, but there's no mention of Shinespark."

As the two adults proceeded, Starlight ignored them, sitting and leaning against a pedestal that held a miniature replica of some obscure ship. She kept her ears swiveled backwards, making sure Maple and Gerardo didn't leave her behind or wander too far away, but for the most part let herself become lost in three thoughts. Usually, Gerardo never stopped talking. It was as if the griffon saw conversational silence as an offense, and took it upon himself to banish it wherever it occurred, at all costs. But he had, for a moment, stopped and allowed her to hear herself think... and she had enjoyed it. And finally, depressingly, he had been personally bade protect her and Maple, which likely meant he would never shut up and she would never get silence. That the only way she could be as alone as she was now was to-

In the shadows of a nearby trophy case, a pair of slitted, emerald eyes stared up at her from the ground. She wasn't alone.

"Ah!" Starlight scrambled backwards, wincing as she banged her head against the wall behind her... and the moment she focused again, the eyes were gone. It was just an ordinary shadow.

"Starlight?" Maple came bounding back slightly faster than museum ettiquite would usually allow, concern evident in her voice. "Are you okay? What happened?"

"Hit my head," Starlight grumbled, rubbing a hoof against her sore scalp. "Probably... fell asleep and woke up too fast..." She stifled a fake yawn for emphasis, though it wasn't hard to do. She was still tired from the night before, after all.

Maple bit her lip. "Gerardo? How much longer do you want to stay here before we go back to the hotel? Starlight's getting tired."

Starlight felt her eyes widen. It wouldn't do if Maple cut her own enjoyment short on account of her, especially since she really was fine. "No, no," she protested, "you can stay. I'm fine."

"Hmmm..." Gerardo scratched his chin, staring out through the glass wall at the snowdrifts outside. "It does appear to be getting later in the afternoon. Not what I would call evening yet, though it would be wise to return within several hours if we are to hope to complete my delivery tonight. To postpone it until tomorrow would be..." He closed his eyes. "Well, it would require renting another hotel room if you wished to wash yourself again, after carrying the crates."

"I guess," Maple agreed with a shrug. "Honestly, I read the timeline, but most of the stuff here is more technical than that and goes over my head. And all the rest, I could have guessed anyway. Airships go back into single, private use... contractors arrive... companies form and the skyport is built here, when Sosa doesn't think it will happen and isn't prepared. But the details? It's like this was made for ponies who... well..." She blinked. "Have seen an airship before today, I guess. I guess I'm kind of an outlier?"

There wasn't a hint of self-deprecation in her voice, but Starlight took two steps closer nonetheless. "So...?" she asked slowly. "What are we doing?"

Gerardo raised a talon. "One vote for returning to our room and calling this outing a success, provided nothing negative has transpired while we were away. Do note that I left unguarded my cargo..."

Maple nodded. "Make that two. I wouldn't mind just laying down for a while..."

"Okay." Starlight scrambled up on Maple's back again, and leisurely settled in. "Let's go home, then."

"Home..." Maple sighed as they began walking. "I wonder what my home is now. I haven't really thought about it, yet. I wonder if I could ever truly call Ironridge home..."

"Well, do you like it?" Gerardo queried.

"I don't know." Maple shook her head. "It's pretty and impressive, but I haven't really felt it... you know?" She looked up hopefully. "I'm used to things going so much slower than this, and it feels like all we've done so far is hurry, hurry, hurry to see this or find that."

Gerardo shrugged. "There is no rest for the adventurous. The day I lose all urgency will be the day there is nothing left to learn or experience in the world."

Maple didn't answer, instead drooping slightly. Riding on her back, Starlight was acutely aware.

They paced away, past the giant statue of Shinespark and through the gate of the museum, around bunches of colorful equines probably out on day trips just like theirs. Gerardo got some looks for his species and size, but for the most part, they went unnoticed and unbothered.

The spot where they had stood moments ago, next to the timeline showing the rise and fall of Sosa's air program, was left vacant... and then became occupied by the one equine in the room who seemed to take more than a passing interest in the trio. The pony blinked, adjusted her black beret, and watched until her line of sight was broken by a passing couple. By the time they had moved out of the way, she was nowhere to be seen.

Unfiled Complaints

The sun was beginning its descent to the horizon as Maple, Starlight and Gerardo looked on, all astride a lift that would return them to the Stone District. The valley below was likely already bathed in the mountains' shadow, and the eastern Stone District would soon join it, if it hadn't already.

Nothing of interest had happened during their return journey. Gerardo had been unable to find Slipstream... though, admittedly, it didn't seem as if he was trying. It was a setting that might have demanded a note of somberness to the air, or tension, or even peaceful relaxation, and Starlight would have been fine with any. Predictably, however, Gerardo was talking.

"Indeed, the construction of the skyport over a three-year period was what sent Sosa into its decline," the griffon rambled, re-iterating things he had probably gleaned from the timeline after she had stopped reading. "I imagine the happenings prior to that were too mundane to be worth mention."

"I read it too, Gerardo," Maple said with a weary smile, sitting down on the platform they shared with three other ponies. "It's not that hard to guess. You don't need to explain it again."

"Well, I..." Gerardo looked away.

He continued, but Starlight nevertheless felt a small rush of appreciation for the mare... followed by concern. Maple hadn't tried to make any small talk with her like she usually did since they had reached Ironridge. She was up and about, friendly, seemingly trying her best to be useful and conciliatory... and those were normal, for her. But it felt as though other things were missing, like her penchant for routines. She had one of those, right? Starlight hadn't properly been around her long enough to know for sure, but it felt like it. And none of these changes felt like her choice so much that she just hadn't had a chance. What if she was constantly being stressed or annoyed, but just hadn't noticed it yet? It had taken Starlight until the museum to realize it herself, after all.

Her eyes turned back to Gerardo, who was saying something else, and she didn't care to listen. More pressing was her worry from earlier: they were told to stick together, and would until they had left Ironridge. When she was on her own, in the mountains, it had been difficult, but she had survived. She had made it work. With Maple, she had initially tolerated the mare because Willow had requested that she do so, but eventually come to enjoy certain aspects of being around her. But with Gerardo... would that be a good thing? He was tasked with keeping them safe, but his constant presence would quickly become tiring. In doses, he was entertaining, but constantly talking...

It could become a problem. She didn't want it to become a problem. She would have to do something to ensure it wasn't... and that involved figuring out exactly why he was bothering her. Talking too much? Amber had been happy to talk, too, and she had never had a problem with the mare. Inconsiderate of when he was talking? Much more possible. So was he clueless, or did he just not care?

She was just a filly, not special in any way, with a possibly-defective horn and no special talent. She didn't like it, but the growing difference between what was practical and what was ideal had been made all the more apparent in her mind since reaching Riverfall... and especially since leaving it. With those credentials, why did he insist on protecting her? Honor? Because of a promise? Was that all she was worth? A deep-seated instinct screamed out, telling her all ponies and lives were priceless, no matter what, but it wasn't as if everyone believed that. Yet, he still kept her around. He had to care... right?

She tried to remember the last time the griffon had even tried to open conversation with her. In the skyport atrium, about the investigator mare's conversation... No, that had been her responding to something he had said. Same for when she had suggested choosing randomly who got their way in the hotel room. And before that... she couldn't remember. Maybe he had in Riverfall. To apologize after she had shown off her magic, maybe. All of one time. Lovely.

It didn't make sense that that would bother her, though. Technically, he was respecting her wishes. He was treating her the same as the other thousands of ponies living in Ironridge. He was treating her and them as complete equals... by only speaking to them when necessary or if they could do something useful, crossing paths without so much as an acknowledgement, and carrying on with his own ways regardless of how she felt about them. So why did that bother her? Why did it? Why?

...Her train of thought derailed, falling through the floor and landing in a deep lake of sadness and loneliness that welled up out of nowhere, catching her completely by surprise. Suddenly, she realized she was pressed tightly into Maple's side, barely breathing so as not to accidentally sob. The leftover thoughts swirling in her head coalesced into one question: it wasn't whether he cared, but why she cared. And no answer came.

She could put up with what she didn't like, as she had done until she snapped and left back in Equestria... or she could take Willow's advice and try to change things, to make her situation tolerable. It wasn't much of a choice. In Riverfall, she had known what she would be giving up by opening up and letting the mares love on her: the ability to go it alone, to ignore and block out and pretend she wasn't missing out on anything at all. She had decided it was worth it for that one taste... and because she had made that choice then, she didn't have one now. She couldn't go it alone. Something had to be done, and a fiery determination rose in her to figure out precisely what.

...Maple was what. She cared about Starlight. They could get along. They would; they already did. She would just talk to her whenever they got some time, quiet and alone... which would never happen, because someone never left them alone.

Suddenly, her earlier annoyance with Gerardo bubbled up into an intense dislike, and she had to immediately clamp it down to prevent herself from growling. This was why she cared. He wasn't just ignoring her, or annoying her, or treating her the same as every other pony he met. He was separating her from her friend and that was unforgivable. He probably didn't even notice. Sunburst's parents probably hadn't noticed, either. It was happening again right before her eyes, and it was all she could do to keep her horn from igniting then and there and-

Maple was still there. Touching her, even. And Willow's final advice flashed through her head: the world is unfair, but you have the power to change it.

Nothing had happened yet. She could still do something. Everything could go right back to normal... so what should she do?

There was always the possibility that she could somehow get rid of Gerardo, but that wouldn't be fair. It wouldn't be fair to treat him differently, just because he was in her way. He was still standing there, across from them on the lift platform, yapping his head off about something or other... no, talking about something. Deep breaths. Just because he had managed to accidentally offend her didn't mean she had to treat him poorly back. But where did that leave her? Making him change? Making him be different than he was? Wouldn't that be just as antithetical to her ideals? And how would she do it, anyway?

She couldn't tell. There had to be a long-term solution. Something in Riverfall had worked, hadn't it? He had been there for several days, and not grated on her any more than... no, he had caused her to show off her magic in front of the entire town and probably been indirectly responsible for her origin getting out. Maybe there wasn't an answer in that, after all.

What she did know was that, until she found something permanent, she had to deal with it. She couldn't take it out on Gerardo or treat him unfairly, couldn't break up or sabotage the group, and she needed to do something to help Maple. Maybe if the griffon left them alone for a while, then came back? That sounded difficult, but it could be a temporary fix. It was worth trying, at least. With some effort and reluctance, she dragged her attention back into the real world.

"...and that brings us to tonight," Gerardo was saying. "I still think we have time to complete my delivery, though we'll have to be quick about it. After all, we are bound for the Water District, and what we learned about it doesn't seem to be of much use."

Maple shrugged, sounding slightly more lively than she had when discussing airships earlier. "Well, you know where in the city it is, at least."

Gerardo nodded. "Indeed. I also have little clue how we are supposed to approach that place. We could go through the Sky District and walk across the mountain plane, but I fear that would be unpleasant and difficult to begin. Did you even see a public access point in those terminals?"

"No, I didn't," Maple admitted, shaking her head. "You say that like there's another way?"

"Well..." Gerardo hummed. "The existence of a Stone District Defense Force carries certain implications..."

"...Of course!" Maple's eyes lit up. "So there might be an entrance in the Stone District..."

"That is what I was thinking," Gerardo confirmed. "Of course, I neither know where that is nor am free of reservations bringing the two of you through the lair of a paramilitary organization. Being authorized by the government, I would imagine it contains at least some modicum of decency, but with these types of things..."

Maple's brow furrowed, but she had no counterpoint to make.

Starlight saw her opportunity and pounced. "Hey," she announced, consciously avoiding calling Gerardo by name. "You could leave us at the hotel and go looking for it yourself, and see how dangerous it looks and where it is, couldn't you?"

"I was..." Gerardo hesitated, looking conflicted. "Instructed to prioritize your safety, you know..."

Starlight shrugged. "You're willing to leave your crates back there alone, right? Why not us with them? We won't go anywhere. I promise. Please?"

Gerardo sighed. "Normally, I would say let it be so, and that anything negative that transpired as a result would be upon your head... but so that that might not be the case is precisely why I insist on accompanying you. Nevertheless, I suppose I shall... think about it."

"I second this plan," Maple broke in, causing Starlight to beam: it seemed like she had at least read the situation right. "We'll be fine on our own, Gerardo. You don't have to worry about us that much, especially if we just sit in the hotel room. How long will you even take?"

"Unknown," Gerardo answered. "Though it appears I am outvoted once again. First, however, let us ensure that my crates are indeed untampered with. Should anything have happened to them, I fear both your reassurances and the point of scouting will become moot."

The lift abruptly plunged below the snowline, the tunnel's darkness heralding the nearing end of the ride.

Brief Respite

"And you're sure about this?" Gerardo asked from the safety of their hotel room. "Truly and absolutely? To even consider this feels like a breach of my word..."

Maple waved a hoof at two crates, stacked exactly where they had left them. "Gerardo, we'll be fine. Nothing bad is going to happen to us while we're alone in this hotel. Go look for a way up!"

"Mhmm," Starlight agreed, nodding. "You left us alone while you were flying around earlier!"

"But... that was for... much less..." Gerardo protested weakly. "Fine. Very well. I shall endeavor to return as swiftly as possible. For all of our sakes, please keep yourselves safe." Straightening his shoulders, he marched to the door of the room, opened it, threw one last glance over his shoulder that insisted that this was a bad idea... and the door closed behind him, leaving the room in silence.

Starlight's ears tracked the clicking noise of his talons along the stone hall floor until they vanished around a corner. Two seconds later, Maple sighed happily. "Hmmm... I don't know about you, Starlight, but I'm tired. That griffon is not easy to keep up with. Thanks for pushing to get us a break, there."

"You feel that way too, huh?" Starlight probed, trying not to let her earlier worry show.

Maple immediately moved toward the nearest bed and curled up, tapping a hoof in invitation. "I don't know if I'm made for following him around this much. It's kind of exhausting."

Accepting, Starlight climbed onto the bed beside her. She said nothing, less because she had nothing to say and more because she had too much. What would be appropriate? Where should she start? Or should she at all, and merely enjoy the tranquility while it lasted?

"I can see why he and Amber were such good friends," Maple continued. "They can actually keep up with each other. When I try, I think I'm doing all right, but I just..." She sighed. "It tires me out, and makes me feel like I have no time for anything else." She reached down and nuzzled Starlight. "Like talking to you. How are you doing? What do you think of it here? How does it compare to Equestria?"

Starlight shrugged. "It's nice, I guess. A lot bigger than where I grew up. Umm..." Closing her eyes, she swallowed and made up her mind. "What happens if we don't get along? With Gerardo? If he keeps making you tired?"

Maple was silent for a moment, apparently detecting something in Starlight's tone. "You were thinking about this before I said that, weren't you?"

"The whole way back," Starlight admitted. "Since the museum."

"Well..." Maple paused. "First, we get rid of those crates. They're worrying him, I can tell. And then, we see what happens and decide what to do next. If worst comes to worst, we can always find Gunga and ask him to take us back home... but I don't think things will go that far." She blinked. "I know what I want, but what do you want, Starlight?"

"I don't know," Starlight mumbled glumly. "I just don't want things to change again."

"Well, we just went to Ironridge, which is a pretty big... change..." Maple hesitated for a moment, and then her eyes widened... and subsequently softened. "Do you feel like he's been taking me away? Like I have less time for you? Like you're losing a friend?"

"Y-Yes..." Starlight sniffed. Maple was right. She couldn't make herself really think through the response, so she went with what came first... and what came first were tears. She buried her face in Maple's shoulder.

"Then I'm glad that I mean that much to you." Maple rested her head on top of Starlight's, brushing her cheek against Starlight's horn. "But it's only been a day. Some days are bad days with good parts, and others are good days with bad parts. But I promise, I love you and will always find a way to make time."

How much she meant... How much did Maple mean to her? Now that Starlight thought about it, it was a lot... just like her tolerance of Gerardo had remained completely passive until she had noticed it, there in the museum. When had that happened? At first, Maple was someone she accepted because of a request. But now, she felt like a friend... or maybe something more.

As if she could read her mind, Maple asked, "Do you think of me as your mother?"

There. That was it. "Yeah," Starlight murmured, not lifting her head.

"Well, I hope I'm doing a good job." Maple sighed and adjusted her position. "I'm glad we got to talk right now, alone. I know I want more of this. Somehow, it's... better... than just going on an adventure. Once we finish Gerardo's delivery, I'll find some way to get us more." Blinking, she stretched again. "But while we're here... what do you want to talk about?"

"I dunno," Starlight mumbled. Then, suddenly remembering, she said, "Someone was watching me, earlier."

"Hmm?" Maple tilted her head downwards. "Watching us?"

"In the skyport," Starlight elaborated. "At the museum. I think it was the pony from the gate, with the green eyes. She was looking at us. I saw her, and then she left."

"The gate...?" Maple mused. "The one who let us into the Stone District this morning? Wasn't that a stallion? I don't remember him very well..."

Starlight shook her head. "Before that. In the Earth District. Valey. I was sort of asleep..."

"Well, I was more asleep than you were," Maple sighed. "Gerardo might remember... but I don't want him to worry and insist on never leaving us alone." Settling so she was laying fully on her side, she continued, "Maybe I should speak to him. I don't know..."

Sensing that she was making Maple worry, Starlight bit her lip, then blurted, "I will. Can you tell me a story, instead?" She looked up, hopeful. "Any story. Please?"

Maple perked up, proving her guess of what to do accurate. "Well..." she hummed. "Let me think... hmm... What would you like to hear about...?" It was more of a question to herself than to Starlight. "Oh!" Her ears rose. "I've got a good one. Would you like to hear about how I decided I wanted to have a foal of my own?"

"Okay." Starlight shrugged. Truth be told, she more wanted to give Maple something more stress-free to talk about. Her own enjoyment wasn't an important factor.

"Well..." Maple stared off toward the brown, stony ceiling. "I was a teenager. It was about the time the final boats stopped coming from Ironridge. Alder was getting old enough to start trying to talk, though he wasn't good at it yet. But he was walking, and that foal got everywhere. Amber and I thought he was really cute. It might have been because we really wanted to see something good come from us not going to Ironridge... but that was more than two years ago at that point. It was mostly because he actually was that cute."

Pausing for a moment, she eventually continued. "Anyway, he was getting faster and faster. And at that time, Willow was getting ready to have Fir... and that slowed her down a lot, enough that she stopped being able to catch him at all." She closed her eyes, imagining. "It was actually pretty funny, watching her getting winded waddling around chasing him at times. He must have thought it was a game. I remember him laughing almost nonstop when that happened..." She sighed pleasantly.

"The point is, she made us watch him a lot, because we were younger and could actually catch him when he got too adventurous. Amber especially enjoyed it. She was good at roughhousing with him without making it unfair, boring or dangerous. She knew how to tire him out so much, even he would stop running around. But there was one night where she was occupied with something... I don't remember what, maybe she was sick, or at a friend's house. Either way, I wound up watching him alone, for a whole night. I sat up and played with him past his bedtime. I wanted him so tired, he'd sleep the entire night through and let me wake up on my own terms."

Maple glanced away, failing to hide the smile growing on her dusty-brown muzzle. "But when I woke up the next morning? He had somehow climbed out of his crib, made it all the way into my bed, and was tucked against me, snoring his little head off." She shook her head. "I don't know how or why he did it, but when I woke up there and realized that, I just decided I didn't need to get up, or make breakfast, or do anything important except lay there and enjoy it."

"Huh," Starlight interrupted, sensing the story was nearly done. "Is that why you're so cuddly?"

Maple snorted, then blushed. "Is that a problem?"

"No." Starlight shook her head. "It makes it easy to make you happy."

"And what about what makes you happy?" Maple looked concernedly at her.

Starlight blinked. That was the response, she realized, she'd given, or at least thought, when she had first noticed the trend in Riverfall. How much thought had she given it since then? None at all, actually. It wasn't something she even noticed happening, for the most part; just part of her new normal. But... what was wrong with doing something you didn't mind for someone else's benefit? And riding on Maple's back during travel was an act she did almost by instinct. Besides, it was good for warming up if she was cold.

"Yeah," she answered, having decided that the specifics didn't matter. "It makes me happy."

"Hmmm..." Maple sighed, and nuzzled her again. "Well, back to the story. I enjoyed that morning... but what really made me stop and think was the next morning. I woke up then, and Alder was back with his mother where he belonged... and I just sat there for almost an hour, by myself. I didn't get up. I just sat and thought about how nice it would be to start every day that way, with someone by my side like that, and enjoy the company... and so I started wanting a foal of my own."

Starlight's brow furrowed. She knew what she was about to ask was risky... but decided to go for it anyway. "Isn't that what getting married is for?"

"Huh?" Maple tilted her head in confusion. "Mmm... they are always there, I guess. It does happen, sometimes. That... actually sounds kind of nice." A wistful smile spread across her features as she imagined, and then slowly turned sad. "Is that how it is in Equestria?"

"I dunno." Starlight shrugged. "I didn't care much about my parents there. They enjoyed being around each other, I guess. But I think that's supposed to be how it works."

"In Riverfall, it's..." Maple stopped, swallowing. "Well, not entirely. There are ponies who really, truly do enjoy being married. It's something you hope for, I guess. I hoped for it. But it isn't why we marry. In Riverfall, if you want foals, you can either have them yourself, like Willow's first two... or find someone who will stay with you. A husband. So that they all have the same father." She looked away. "If you're friends with them, or something more... it's wonderful, but it's a bonus. It isn't why." Hanging her head, she finished, "It's not something I try to think about anymore."

Starlight was about to say something comforting, and considering questioning Maple's viewpoint further, when the door loudly banged open and Gerardo Guillaume stuck his head in. "Good news, friends! I have located the nearest..." He blinked, evidently seeing the looks that were being shot his way. His headcrest drooped. "Erm... am I interrupting something?"

"Yes," Maple answered coolly, seeming to instantly can her previous emotion. "You are. Starlight and I were having a conversation, which seems to be over now. Gerardo..." She hauled herself to her hooves, stretching without taking her eyes off him. "We need to talk, eventually, about how we work as a team." She glanced toward Starlight, and Starlight returned it. "But it would be better first if we got your boxes taken care of. Did you say you found where to take them?"

"Well..." Gerardo began awkwardly. "I found an entrance to the Defense Force fort from quite nearby, and upon friendly discussion the posted guard seemed quite open to allowing us to traverse it for our purposes. The sun is setting, but we could easily complete the delivery before it is too late."

Maple stared upwards and sighed. "I'm tired, but I suppose we should. Starlight? Do you want to come? I doubt it will be very exciting, but-"

"She comes." Gerardo cut her off, holding out a wing. "I'm glad to see you both unharmed, but I have every intention of taking Arambai's warning seriously, even if I have recently been forced to break it. Now, I do believe it would be best to depart sooner rather than later, and as such..."

"I know." Maple sighed again, moving to the corner and taking up a box. "Let's get going, then."

This Again

To Maple's dismay, the journey to the Water District entrance Gerardo had located was once again uphill. She was hardly out of shape, and had the natural good stamina inherent to earth ponies, but a full day spent on her hooves, constantly carrying either a heavy crate or a large filly in which breaks were minimal and she had ascended the better part of a huge mountain proved taxing. Panting lightly, she forced herself to keep pace with an eager Gerardo, trying not to stumble.

If the griffon himself was tired, he didn't show it, proudly and efficiently leading the way through the city streets. The crowds began to die down as they passed, thanks to a combination of the late hour and the approaching outskirts of the city.

Most families would be inside, eating their dinners together. Maple's thoughts on the matter still hadn't settled from her conversation with Starlight, though the rational side of her brain knew dwelling on it wouldn't prove useful then and there. Hopes and goals for the future were fine, but she had enough on her plate as it was, first and foremost making sure her two friends didn't wear on each other. After the delivery, she told herself. In the event that Gerardo's crates truly were urgent, it would be best to get them out of the way as soon as possible, and if they weren't, doing so would still be an act of good faith. They could discuss everything once they lost this excuse to be busy.

Suddenly, a shadow flitted over her eyes, causing her to blink and pull up... and realize that Gerardo had stopped immediately in front of her, and was looking around. "My load feels oddly heavier," the griffon remarked. "Can any of you..." He looked up, and Maple followed suit.

Lounging atop Gerardo's crate, where there definitely hadn't been one before, was a pegasus... if pegasi had featherless wings, leafy ears, and slitted eyes, that was. "Woah, look who it is!" She grinned down with a fanged smile, green mane kept out of her face by a black beret. "You guys are those bandits from earlier!"

"Who...?" Maple squinted up at the crate, drawing a blank.

Gerardo met her gaze more evenly. "Please get off my crate, Admiral Valey."

"Hah! Wow." Practically slithering down the side of the box, Valey landed on all fours, blocking the road with her posture. "You actually remembered my name without me asking. Good job, Birdo."

Gerardo's brow furrowed. "Ignoring the irony of that statement, to what do we owe this meeting? By my own last check, you cleared us to travel in this district yourself."

"Bad luck." Valey shrugged, taking a step around Gerardo, closer to Maple and Starlight. "I spent most of the day haunting that wacky pancake pegasus, but he eventually got kinda boring. Then I happened to run into you guys, and thought, 'hey, cool bird! Maybe I'll go bother it instead!'"

"I am a griffon," Gerardo imperiously began, before Starlight cut him off.

"No you didn't," she accused, pointing a hoof. "You didn't just find us! You were following us in the museum! I saw you watching me!"

"In the..." Gerardo blinked. "What? And I was not informed?"

"Meh. You got me." Valey spread her forelegs wide, shaking her head and hovering. "I lied. Pancake got boring hours ago, so I tracked you down. Pretty easy, when you can smell the kid from across the city." She pointed a rear hoof at Starlight, keeping her forelegs folded in front of her.

"Hey!" Maple defensively set down her crate and moved in front of Starlight, shielding her from view. "She doesn't stink!"

Valey shrugged. "Hey, whatever floats your boat. For real, though, I did see him lurking around this place not too long ago, so watch your backs. I don't trust that guy any more than you should trust me."

Maple scowled, but Gerardo tilted his head. "Would the implication of such a phrase not be that we should trust that pegasus, should we happen to see him...?"

Ignoring him, Valey did a backflip in midair. "So, are you gonna tell me your names, or do I get to name you myself like Birdo?"

"If I may..." Gerardo raised a talon, looking somewhere between wounded and annoyed.

"I'm Maple," Maple answered, glaring defiantly at the batpony, "and this is Starlight."

"Cool, cool." Valey nodded. "So... what's in the boxes?" She prowled around behind Gerardo, nosing at the crate Maple had dropped and making a face. "Ew, mud. You guys are weird."

Gerardo puffed up defensifely. "For your information, mud appears to be a regular occurrence in the Earth District, and I would strongly expect you to know that. Furthermore, the contents of these crates is classified, and I'm afraid I cannot tell you."

"Eh. I know there's mud." Valey shrugged again, flicking her tail at Maple as she turned back to Gerardo, running a wing over the crate. "I know a lot of things. Basically everything, actually, since I get paid to stick my nose where it doesn't belong." She turned again and glared at the box. "Except what's in here. And I really wanna know."

"As I said, I would very much rather you didn't ask," Gerardo insisted, far more force in his tone than his word choice. "I'm not going to tell you!"

Valey squinted sideways at the crates, tilting her head so far her beret nearly fell off and she had to catch it with a wing. "Can't ask, huh? Well, since you didn't say anything about guessing... is it contraband? Contraband..." She hummed, holding her chin. "Snails. Yup. That's my guess."

Maple's eyes crossed. "Why would anyone even try to smuggle snails? That makes no sense."

"Neither does hiding something from someone who can kick all your rears into next week, or have you arrested on the spot," Valey countered with a shrug. "It's like you actually have no idea who I am. To be honest, this is the most refreshing thing that's happened to me all day."

"You're welcome?" Maple gave her an odd look, but didn't press. The words didn't seem hostile.

"So, random question!" Valey perked up, jumping on the box and flopping lazily, one foreleg dangling over the side. "Mangoes or bananas, which do you like more? Or any other kind of fruit."

Gerardo looked suspiciously at her, but Maple shrugged. "Mangoes, I guess? Pineapple is kind of special. Why do you ask?"

"Well..." Valey stared off down the cliff wall, the emerald canopy of the Earth District looming in the distance. "I was going to go steal some fruit for dinner, but lately there's this new accountant working for the higher-ups who has a really short fuse when it comes to robberies, and he's so fun to mess with that I've been getting carried away and bagging more than I can eat just to make him blow his stack. Mind if I dump the excess on you guys instead? There's no need to be wasteful..."

"What value of 'dump' are you referring to?" Gerardo asked, narrowing his eyes.

"Hah! You're good." Valey pointed a foreleg at him, backstroking through the air. "Anyway, I'll take that as not minding. Smell ya later!"

She flipped into a dive, soaring off toward the trees so fast that the tips of her wings left minute vapor trails in her wake. The trio peered over the street edge, watching her depart, and in a matter of seconds she was gone.

Gerardo shrugged. "Well, that was acceptable. The entrance is just ahead. Let us make haste!"

Behind him, Maple hoisted her own crate back onto her back, checked to ensure Starlight was still by her side, and stepped onward, following the griffon further up the stony road.

Competent Guards

The 'entrance' Gerardo had found was at the utmost top of the Stone District, where the mountain slope became a mountain wall and further construction was impossible. Their road hugged the cliff face, growing narrower and gravellier until at last it ended entirely, a glacial waterfall trickling past just beyond the edge.

On the small bit of flat land at the end of the road, the entrance sat, entirely small and unglamorous compared to the majestic arch of the Skyport. It was round, jagged, and looked more like a naturally formed cave than anything else, with room for two large ponies to pass each other and not much more. A pair of guards flanked the entrance, clad in thin armor that sported wing-and-pickaxe insignias and looked designed not to interfere in flight. They blinked, spotting Gerardo.

"Good evening, gentlecolts," the griffon announced once they were safely within earshot. "Myself and my comrades were contracted to make a delivery to the Water District, and were informed that we could receive an escort through your base to reach there? Our destination is Warehouse W-28."

A guard blinked back at him, slowly and deliberately. "Night shift started twenty minutes ago. How urgent is it?"

"Err..." Gerardo glanced back to the western mountain peaks, behind which the orange glow of the sun still permeated the sky. "I would very much like to have it taken care of now, if at all possible."

The guard shook his head. "I don't know the policy. Stay here while I go get someone more important..." He turned, tramping back into the corridor, at which his lone companion took up defense.

Minutes passed in tense silence, until two sets of hoofsteps sounded down the tunnel. The guard re-emerged with a unicorn, who sported an off-white coat and slender horn. Muscular yet slender, he eyed them, jaw twitching with overconfidence.

"My name is Selma," he announced proudly, looking as if he were straining his neck to stare down at the clearly taller Gerardo. "Leader of the Stone District Defense Force, if you care for titles. Who..." His sharp eyes narrowed. "Are you?"

"I am Gerardo Guillaume, griffon adventurer extraordinaire," Gerardo proclaimed, "and these are my companions, Starlight and Maple. I take it you have been briefed on our situation?"

Selma smiled dangerously. "I've been informed that you're trying to take undeclared goods into the upper districts. Since you didn't catch on earlier, allow me to repeat myself: who are you?"

"I told you," Gerardo answered, a touch of nervousness in his voice. "We are independent contractors performing a delivery. We were informed we would be allowed to pass."

"I'm sure you are." Selma shook his head, still grinning. "See here, Gerardo... this is my fortress, and where I'm standing, you're making this delivery from..." He raised an eyebrow. "Where, again? Not the Sky District, oh no, or you'd be coming from there. Is it..." He tilted his head, staring owlishly at the griffon. "The Earth District, perhaps? Or maybe those ingrates down in the Steel District who never deliver anything, ever? No... heh... Where I'm standing, you three are bandits with bombs, and you're not getting in my fort without a full inspection of your cargo."

"Opening the crates is against the terms of my contract," Gerardo insisted. "I cannot do that!"

"Your contract, you say..." Selma tapped his chin, lit his horn, and levitated several pebbles, flicking them at one another in midair as he made a show of thinking. "Did you perhaps miss the part where I said this was my fortress? As in, me who is in charge? Because if someone truly did hire a buzzard like you to deliver unmarked crates, they would either be me or work for me, that means those are technically mine." He beckoned with a hoof. "Open them."

Gerardo took a step back. "Would you allow me a moment to converse with my team, please?"

Selma shrugged, stepping back into the entrance. "As you will."

"Well, this is an unfortunate obstacle," Gerardo observed the moment they were out of earshot. Keeping his voice low, he added, "It's especially troubling because the points he makes are legitimate. If this is his fortress, he would indeed know about my quest, or perhaps be my employer himself."

"How long ago did you get this job?" Maple hissed back. "And when was the last time you heard about it? Who gave it to you, even?"

Gerardo sighed. "If you must know, I obtained both the job and crates while in Yakyakistan on unrelated business, with explicit instructions to use this roundabout route and avoid air travel. From an agent of the government, specifically. This would have been... many months ago. Almost a year."

"How would they have had someone waiting to accept it, then?" Maple asked quizzically. "I wonder if the crates contain some sort of magical beacon. Is that even possible?"

"I imagine so, but..." Gerardo shook his head. "Now that you've drawn my attention to the subject, I cannot remember if we know when this Defense Force was established. It is very possible that the Water District was turned over to their control after I was given the job."

"Isn't there a yak embassy in Ironridge?" Maple asked. "We could go there, then... Especially if your job came from the government. Maybe the ambassador could just take the crates there."

"It's seeming like that's the wisest course of action..." Gerardo admitted.

As they talked, Starlight sat off to the side, horn shining. They could talk and plan all they wanted, but she was doing. Her telekinetic field was expanded to its thinnest, resting over the tunnel entrance at the edge of her range, and she gently jiggled it back and forth, feeling for obstructions. Three ponies were in the way, and she could feel the cave walls... more than one set of cave walls. There was some type of room right next to the entrance, and the mountain wall in front of it was thin. Tightning her focus, she probed it more. How sturdy could a wall like that be? It wouldn't be feasible with the guards right there, but it might be possible to break through with enough force...

"Starlight?" A dusty brown hoof tapped her on the shoulder. "Come on. Let's go back to the hotel, so we can find the embassy tomorrow..."

"Okay." She nodded, letting her horn rest and grow dim. Pulling herself to her hooves, she prepared to follow Maple and Gerardo back down the roadway... when a burst of air nearly knocked her back down. "Waah!"

A pegasus straightened up, sporting a goatee and a still-slightly-flattened red and black pompadour. "Hey there, friends," he greeted, slicking back his mane with a wing. "It's your old friend, the Howenator! Miss me?"

Very Helpful

The trio blinked, processing the newly-arrived pegasus. Eventually, Maple asked, "Who are you?"

"I concur," Gerardo added. "You look vaguely familiar, but I've been doing quite a lot of new-pony-meeting today and my memory is slightly overtaxed at the moment. Do we know you?"

"Aww." The pegasus drooped. "Come on, you don't remember old Howe? We totally had each other's backs down there this morning, with the gate and the guys with the fruit and that one scary lady! Remember?" He looked up beseechingly, which didn't mesh with his goatee or manestyle at all.

"I was asleep," Maple immediately announced, as if it excused her from all further dealings with Howe. Starlight could see why; his sense of fashion was appalling and there was something about his demeanor that put her on edge.

"Ah. Yes, that does seem to ring a bell," Gerardo admitted. "Pardon me, but my friends and I are currently very busy and have somewhere we need to be, which namely is not here. Is there something you need?"

"A friendly face," Howe said with a slightly cheerier shrug. "Seriously, you get thrown out of one establishment..."

"Then you will have to take what you can get, I'm afraid." Gerardo neatly shook his head, bouncing the crate on his back for emphasis. "The hour for being social with strangers is long over, and as I said it would not be prudent for us to dawdle. And I hate to be rude, but you..." He raised an eyebrow at Howe's red and black mane.

Howe looked up and frowned. "Hey, don't knock the 'do, bro. Do you know how hard it is to find a stylist who will put up with specs like these? I'll have you know, my clients can be very demanding!"

"If you please..." Gerardo narrowed his eyes. "My patience has been tried enough already by this day. Maple, Starlight, we are leaving. Howe, much as I hate to be impolite, please do not follow us. You will find yourself having much better chances with impromptu social calls in the daytime, and when your targets are not busy doing things they are paid to do."

"Having a rousing discussion, are we?" Selma's voice sounded from further up the road, and everyone turned to see him marching down toward the group. "I'm interested to hear what you've decided."

"We're leaving," Gerardo announced, standing with his crate in the middle of the road. "We have no quarrel with-"

"Woah woah hold on a sec!" Howe's eyes widened, and he jumped around so that he was facing both Gerardo and Selma. "You guys were trying to get through another checkpoint? They made you give up, didn't they?" He stomped a hoof. "Well, this cannot continue! Watch out, guard guy, because my friends busted me through a checkpoint earlier, and now it's time for Howe to return the favor! Hiyaaa!"

He did a midair fighting dance, punching and kicking at nothing. "What kind of fruit have you got this time, eh? Eh? 'Cause it's gonna take more than melons and mangoes to stop this pegasus, oh you better believe aaack! Hey, leggo!"

Selma had seized him in his ice-blue aura, completely immobilizing him and holding him in the air. He squinted, inspecting his catch with the same kind of eye used by insect collectors. "This is a very suspicious pegasus, wouldn't you agree?" he mused, directing his gaze at Gerardo.

"We are unaffiliated," Gerardo quickly assured.

"Yes, quite. Because complete strangers simply stop to talk to each other at the ends of unpopulated roads," Selma countered, his smile betraying his intentions. Sparing Howe a final glance, he fired the pegasus like a javelin off into the distance of the Stone District, and turned entirely to Gerardo. "Tell me, what were you conspiring?"

"We," Gerardo said forcefully, "intend to leave. It is clear that staying would be unproductive for everyone, and we bid you no ill will. Would you stop us from even that?"

Selma put a hoof to his chin, the two pegasus guards fluttering up behind him. "Have you forgotten the role of my Defense Force? It is to protect the upper districts against all threats, including the titular Stone District. And when I not only have reason to suspect you lot of being up to no good, but you won't even take the simple step of proving those crates to be harmless..."

Gerardo tensed, taking a step backwards. Maple pulled closer to him, Starlight tucked between her forelegs. "What are your intentions?" Gerardo hissed.

"Ironic, that it would be you asking me that," Selma said, shaking his head. Then he looked up, gaze boring into the griffon's skull. "Open the crates, or surrender them to my custody."

"I told you," Gerardo insisted, "we cannot-"

"Fine." Selma shrugged. "Guards? Arrest them."

"What!?" Maple gasped, moving tighter against Gerardo. "But why? We're trying to leave!"

"Clearly," Selma began as if reading a court verdict, "you have something to hide. I am not merely the lord of this fortress, but the protector of all the Stone District. Whatever danger you think you can get away with is only as suitable for my city as it is for my sight. Arrest them."

Gerardo reached for his sheath as the pegasi approached... and found it empty. Growling, he deposited his crate roughly to the ground and tore the sheath from his belt, desperate for any kind of weapon. "Maple," he hissed, "Starlight. I shall handle this. Run."

Maple started to back away... when Selma stomped a hoof, causing the two pegasi to soar overhead and block the road with their spears. She cringed, looking back to Gerardo.

Selma raised an eyebrow, expression growing eager. "Assaulting an officer? Interesting. I wouldn't have expected that from someone cowardly enough that their first reaction to trouble is to flee. Do you realize that being suspected of committing crimes and actually committing them are two different things? Jumping to such a last resort isn't painting any better a picture for you, Gerardo Guillaume. Although, this does give me an idea..."

"Nngh..." Cringing, Gerardo hesitated, lowering the sheath slightly.

"Don't be so hasty to back away, now," Selma added, grinning like a shark. "It's only illegal because I say it is. I don't make these laws, but I do decide which ones to uphold. Arm yourself." Horn flaring, he yanked a wingblade free from one guard's armor and levitated it in front of Gerardo.

The griffon stared at it, squinting. "What are you...?"

It butted him dully in the chest. "Take it," Selma announced. "Guards, move the crates over by the entrance. You two..." The glow of his horn brightened, and Maple and Starlight were seized, floating out to a better vantage point and hovering in the air. "...get to be the audience," he continued. "Cheer, or don't."

Gerardo continued to stare as the blade poked him again. "What in the world are you doing?"

"Proposing a trade," Selma answered, standing alone and unarmed in the center of the clearing. "Those crates of yours are mine, but if you make this entertaining enough, I'll forget about anything else you may have done... and just might decide you're not enough of a threat to be worth holding. Fight for your freedom, swine! Amuse me!" His eyes glinted dangerously.

Not waiting to see if he had anything more to say, Gerardo lunged, grabbing the blade as he passed, preemptively throwing himself to the side in preparation for an attack. Right where he would have landed, the ground boiled blue, and a storm of gravelly pebbles surged upwards like bullets. Selma nodded in approval. "Good! Don't waste your time waiting for monologues, and always anticipate-"

He didn't have time to finish, as Gerardo had made it close enough to close the remaining distance with one charge. The griffon pounced... and abruptly screeched to a halt when Maple was flung in front of him, acting as a shield. That moment's hesitation proved to be a mistake, as a small boulder levitated and hurled itself from the roadside, impacting Gerardo's side and sending him crashing painfully to the ground.

"A rookie mistake," Selma lectured, moving Maple above him and out of the way. "When a friend on the battlefield is between you and your opponent, you go through them. A liability is-" CLANGGGG! "Ow!"

He staggered, and his aura fizzled out, his horn having been impacted by a sizable iron ingot from above. Maple landed roughly, struggling to her hooves. "Unngh!" she panted, readying to jump away...

Flash! Once again, everything was immobilized by Selma's telekinesis. "Where did that come from!?" he snarled, glancing in every direction. "Raaaugh!"

A violent aura of blue seized Gerardo, flinging him up into the air... and piledriving him back into the ground with enough force to render him barely conscious. Starlight was flung against him, his feathery coat largely cushioning the blow.

Maple wasn't so fortunate, being dragged immediately before Selma's snarling face. "You were the only thing up there!" he hissed. "You dropped that!"

"I-I don't-" she protested weakly, before a telekinetic clamp locked her mouth closed.

"You two," Selma snapped at the pegasus guards, "bring the crates! Leave the idiot and the filly, they're useless! But this one is... is..." He glared up at Maple, floating along in his aura. "I don't know, my head hurts! Lock her in a storage room and figure something out tomorrow. I need to lie down..."

Staggering briefly, he lead the march into the fortress tunnel, Maple and both crates in tow.

From Gerardo's side, Starlight stared at the departing ponies in disbelief. Her head was swimming from the impact, but not enough to stop the tears. Maple was being taken away.

The world isn't fair, but you have the power to change it.

Her horn lit. Nobody was looking at her, and if they had been, they probably would have assumed it was meaningless. And they would have been right... because she was just a filly with a possibly-defective horn and no training. There was nothing she could do... but she had to do something.

A telekinetic field expanded, stretched so thin it was invisible, reaching all the way to the retreating ponies. It was one of the few spells she knew, and maybe, just maybe, it would find something she could use. She wiggled it back and forth, feeling for drag, closing her eyes and concentrating as hard as she could on the shapes of the four ponies and two crates. There had to be something...

...She could feel the contents of the crates, and the revelation almost shocked her eyes open. It wasn't so much that what was inside was unusual; on the contrary, it felt rigid and metallic, likely parts for some sort of device. But in one of the crates, under a section of curved plating that didn't seem as broken up as it could have been, there was a crevice... a pocket of air where a very cramped filly might fit.

There was nothing she could do there, but there might be later, if she followed. Taking a deep breath, she let her magic surge, uncaring of the consequences of letting loose her full power. Her mind flooded, focusing all of her overwhelming emotion on the desire to be anywhere but where she was right then... and instead, to be inside that crate, following her new mother.

In a teal burst, Starlight disappeared.

Backup Plan

Two pegasi and a unicorn tramped through a sparsely-lit stone corridor, carrying with them Gerardo's crates and an immobilized Maple. Selma's horn aura almost provided better illumination than the glowing crystals studded too far apart in the walls, though it still sparked and flickered on occasion.

The tunnel had shifted in style, transforming from a natural-looking formation to something obviously and hastily excavated, a rectangular passage of uniform height and width that lacked any sort of sealant around its corners. As such, the cracks that formed there occasionally bled with water, staining the dark blue stone of the walls darker than it already was.

Aside from Selma's angry breathing, the journey was silent, hoofsteps intensifying in volume whenever the guards passed over metal grates designed to drain any water that accumulated in the tunnels. Frequently, corridors branched off to the side, and occasionally, Selma took those branches. Their course was generally downward, however, the slope sometimes as steep as the roads outside.

Overhead, a collection of pipes filled the ceiling, increasing in density the lower they went. Silently, they performed their job, carrying whatever they were meant to carry without so much as a thought for the mare held captive below.

For her part, Maple could barely think... yet thinking was the only thing she had the freedom to do. She had dropped an iron ingot on Selma, one of the two she always carried to make herself heavier. Gerardo had been in trouble. What else could she have done? She had to have done something... right?

Anger bubbled inside her, trying its best to protect and distract her from the fear and hopelessness it knew she was vulnerable to. It was effective, though its targeting was sporadic at best. Gerardo... She fumed. Wasn't this why he had scouted ahead? Why she had pushed him to do so? Had he known his journey with those stupid crates would invite so much trouble? Shouldn't he have gone all the way in contacting his employer first, before getting them involves?

...And then there was Starlight. Her new filly was back there, now, with him. What would they do together? Would the griffon give up on his mission and leave? If he did, would he take her with him, or would he leave her on her own? And if he tried to save her and his crates, would he drag Starlight into more danger to do it? The worst part was, she couldn't even decide what she wanted him to do.

Engulfed in blackness, Starlight huddled. Cold metal was jamming into her back and side, making breathing difficult and stretching impossible. A sack of something lumpy, like bolts or wingnuts, was pressed so tightly into her belly that she was infinitely thankful she hadn't eaten yet for the night. Her legs were tucked firmly against her body, and one had already started to fall asleep. Her head was forced into her neck in an even more awkward position, something bending one of her ears back and something else putting pressure on the tip of her horn. But, all things considered, she was surviving.

The crate she was inside of jostled on a stallion's back, its bearer clearly inexperienced in carrying delicate cargo. With each bounce, there was a small prick of fear that she would be crushed, and every time the motion subsided with only a bit of unpleasant rubbing against her ribcage.

Her mouth was open, pressed against the wooden crate wall. It was old, dry, and slightly porous, the miniscule gaps between the boards allowing air in... almost no air, but just enough that she was able to breathe. She considered encasing herself in crystal, as it would lessen the pressure and she never had trouble with air when she was in it, but her horn still throbbed slightly from her teleportation earlier and she didn't want to push it. Whenever the time came to leave the crate and free Maple, that would take another teleport at the least... and after that, who knew how much magic to escape the fort. She wasn't even sure she'd be able to do it at all, in her current state.

Still, that was for the future. Stowed away as she was, the only thing she could do was wait... and so she waited, bumping up and down with the rhythm of the crate.

Slowly, Gerardo felt his vision focus and his thoughts become coherent. Taking stock of his situation, he registered the most important thing first: he was alone.

That meant he had time to think, and wasn't in any immediate danger. It also meant that Maple and Starlight weren't present... which meant they likely were in danger. And finally, his crates were gone... which boded poorly for his mission. He coughed, growled, and pushed himself upright slightly faster than his head was willing to take, immediately sitting back down.

"Hey, bro! Welcome back to wakey-land!"

...He wasn't as alone as he thought. And, annoyingly enough, the pony who was there was the last pony he wanted to see.

Surging into action faster than should have been possible, given his condition, Gerardo whirled, a talon expertly closing around Howe's throat. "You," he hissed, "have, through your interference, just caused priceless amounts of damage to my cause and endangered two friends whom I was charged with protecting!" Exerting his superior weight and taking advantage of the pegasus's surprise, he twisted, slamming him to the ground in a suplex. "What have you to say for yourself!?"

"Um... ow?" Howe blinked innocently. "Hey, careful with the 'do, bro. I told you, this thing was expensive. Don't wanna go all dragging it across the ground now, huh?"

Gerardo shoved him aside and stepped away, shaking. "I could care less about your mane, Howe. Now leave me be while I think of a plan!"

"Hey, hold up!" Howe protested, holding out a hoof in defense as he righted himself. "Did you get trashed by those guards or something while I was gone?"

Feathers tattered and dusty, with a slight tear in his new uniform, Gerardo stared levelly at the pegasus. "What does it look like?"

Howe raised a limb and opened his mouth in protest... but put it down, saying nothing. "Yeah, actually you look like you got whupped," he admitted. "Sorry for getting taken out first, bro. You know, given what those last guys were like I thought for sure we would've had them. Good guy advantage and all that, you know?" He shrugged innocently. "So, what do we do now?"

"Be quiet," Gerardo commanded. "I'm thinking, and don't need any more of your help. We are not a team, and wherever I go next, you are not going to be a part of it!" In emphasis, he spread his wings, flapped shakily... and took off, soaring straight upwards.

Howe watched him ascend, raising an interested eyebrow. Gerardo didn't even bother looking back, flapping to power his altitude gain... until a torrent of wind slammed into him out of nowhere, flipping him like a pinball until his wings were useless and he spiraled out of control. He plummeted, righting himself just in time to avoid a crash landing, though it was anything but dignified.

"Yep," Howe announced, "that right there is some grade-A 'I can do it on my own.' Best I've seen all week. Bro..." He leaned forward, face exaggeratedly skeptical. "You do know about the whole wind thing Ironridge has, right? The reason airships dock in the Sky District...?"

"If you have an explanation," Gerardo grunted, straightening his feathers, "be direct about it."

"So, basically..." Howe proudly grinned. "Down there, it's all super hot... and up there, it's all super cold... and where they mix, the air gets wild. It's a nonstop whirly-whirly of fun, and covers the whole Earth District. Makes flying upwards pretty much impossible."

Gerardo sighed, trying to seek out the distant entrance to the skyport along the district rim.

"Really though, doing a good job of convincing me you don't need a guide," Howe added, leaning casually with his forelegs crossed. "Come on, I owe ya! Twice, now! Don't be a guy to cheat a bro out of fulfilling his debts. I can totally help you, just like that!"

"I'm not going to be able to get rid of you, am I?" Gerardo growled, flexing his wings again.

"Nope!" Howe smiled smugly. "It's a pegasus's honor! The Howenator will be your sidekick until the day it is no longer necessary!" He waggled his eyebrows. "And if it's fun, maybe we can get a permanent gig going, you know? I've got this good feeling about our dynamic."

"Just... keep silent..." Gerardo sighed, closing his eyes. "I am doing nothing until I think of something to do, and thus far, you haven't given me a moment to think about it."

Howe drew a wing across his muzzle. "My lippers are zippered!"

Gerardo exhaled in relief, taking a few precious moments of silence just to bury his annoyance at the pegasus. On his own personal scale, matters were a 'last resort' level of dire, and still prone to escalation, which meant he needed a last resort. Fortunately, Arambai had provided him with one... provided he could use it. The Defense Force, supposedly, was authorized by the Sky District, and he had been given an inroad. It was time to seek out Chancellor Dior.

"I am going to the Sky District," he announced, spreading his wings and preparing to take flight. "I can't stop you from coming short of methods I am not willing to resort to, but I will be watching you." His eyes narrowed dangerously. "If you attempt to sabotage me again, be it deliberately or accidentally, I will do nothing to bail you out. If you interfere at all with my mission or do anything to my detriment, I will be far less inclined to hold back in incapacitation than I am now. Understood?"

"Stood under!" Howe saluted with a wing. "Let's get this show on the road, bro!"

"And stop calling me that," Gerardo sighed, before kicking off the gravelly road and soaring south, aiming for the distant road to the Sky District.

Sky District

Gerardo Guillaume stood tensely on an escalator platform, waiting impatiently as it carried him closer to the skyport terminal. It felt half the speed it had been before, and while the rational side of his brain told him it was just his nerves, that didn't prevent his wings from ruffling, itching to take flight.

He stayed groundbound, however, the memory of no ponies soaring overhead during their earlier pass despite the high traffic volumes hinting that such an act was forbidden. Since more trouble was the last thing he wanted to incur, he waited, talons digging into the grate of the nigh-empty platform beneath him. Empty, that was, save for Howe.

"This place sure is emptier at night," the pegasus observed, resorting to stating the obvious to keep conversation going. "The moment the sun sets... boom! It's like a light bulb of ponies!"

The sun hadn't even finished setting. A few golden rays still shone out across the western mountaintops, though Gerardo wasn't looking their way. His gaze was fixed to the east, where a distant metal spire shone... Skyfreeze, if he had been correctly informed. The seat of government in Ironridge, and where he would hopefully find Chancellor Dior. That was based on a whole host of assumptions, of course, not least of which that the stallion would still be in for the day.

His plan for getting there as well was hazy at best. In fact, it was less of a plan and more of 'ask every pony you see until one of them proves helpful or throws you out,' and that was only one step up from hoping for the best and running in blind. But Arambai had said it would be possible, hadn't he? And perhaps Howe would make himself something other than a liability for a change. The odds weren't good, but they were what he had, and he would have to make do. Slowly, the platform slipped into its station, and he prepared to disembark.

"So? What's the plan, brother bird?" Howe asked, sticking to Gerardo's side and just out of his line of sight as they entered the atrium. "We're in the Sky District! Time for phase B..." He rubbed his hooves together eagerly, cackling under his breath. "What's phase B, again?"

"For you to be quiet," Gerardo instructed, "and not speak under any circumstances. Please."

Howe shrugged. "Whatever you say, bro. But don't complain when it makes me less helpful!"

"I have little worry of that," Gerardo whispered, scanning the atrium for an ideal first target. Like the ride in, it was much emptier than the previous afternoon, with very few ponies actively involved in going places. Those who were there stood idly, some yawning, others leaning against walls or laying on benches, trying to sleep. A lone passage on the far side of their level emitted a decent flow of ponies, likely passengers disembarking a single late arrival. And to the left, an information kiosk stood, lit with attractive blue lighting and sporting no line whatsoever. Gerardo blinked and stepped closer.

In the first stroke of good luck since the encounter with Selma and his guards, a perky pink hoof waved at them from behind the counter, and a pegasus quickly hopped out and strolled across to meet them. "Hey, Gerardo!" Slipstream greeted cheerily. "Didn't think you'd be here this late! What happened to your traveling companions?"

"They have been..." Gerardo flinched slightly. "Detained, I fear. If at all possible, I need to speak with Chancellor Dior, whom you told me about. Is there anything you can do to help me reach him?"

Slipstream's expression went from cheery to grave in a heartbeat, and her wings flitted outward in shock. "Wait, what happened!? I mean... you need to see the Chancellor?"

"I do," Gerardo answered with a nod. "I was referred to him by a friend for times of great need. If I can get his ear, he can help me, I am sure. Please, if there is anything you can do..."

Biting her lip, Slipstream glanced around the mostly-empty atrium, the sky above just beginning to show stars. "The Chancellor lives in Skyfreeze. His work is his home, and he almost never leaves, so you'd need to get over there. Umm..." She scrunched her eyes shut. "The transport between the terminals goes all the way to the tower, but to ride it that far, you need an employee's clearance. Everyone has one because it's where they payroll office is, but mine is only valid on payday and that's not for two more days..."

Howe mimed saying something, but no sounds escaped his mouth. To Gerardo's relief, he was taking his commandment seriously, if being unnecessarily dramatic about it.

"So we would need to find someone with a security clearance that is always valid," Gerardo mused, finding himself with a more immediate goal to work toward. His mind flickered through the list of ponies he had met so far in Ironridge, scanning. Slipstream had said she didn't have one. Howe, he didn't even have to ask. Anyone affiliated with the Defense Force was out of the question, as well. The Sosans... The Sosans. Particularly Shinespark. They didn't like the Defense Force, and he had been given a free invitation to return. He would likely get his sword back, and would have a high guarantee of help... and if anyone could get the required clearance, it was a factory chief, or someone who had their statue in a nearby museum. Unfortunately, Sosa was all the way on the other side of the city.

"That's just for the transit, though," Slipstream interrupted. "Once you're inside, it's fairly open. You know, because security is ugly? Skyfreeze is a show of wealth for the ponies who work there. So you could walk or fly, and maybe get in. Or course, it is night..."

"You say that like there is a road?" Gerardo asked, tilting his head.

"Well..." Slipstream hummed to herself, crossing her forelegs and looking away, embarrassed. "You could call it that... Follow me and see for yourself, though!"

"This is..." Gerardo swallowed, searching for words. "Certainly a way forward..."

Howe mimed something, which he paid no attention to.

Slipstream shrugged, hugging herself with her wings and shivering. "I'm sorry, but it's the fastest way!" Her mane moved slightly in the cold breeze, and she stepped back so that she wasn't taking the full brunt of it. "You asked for options..."

The 'way' she had led them to was an out-of-the-way waiting room nobody seemed to be using. One of the glass wall panels had, with some force from her, been propped open. The purpose of designing windows in such an environment to be opened was nebulous at best, but there it was, an exit to the world below preceeding a lengthy drop to a night-covered snowscape. Gerardo shivered. Howe mimed. Slipstream stood well out of the way, blowing on her wings to keep warm.

"Well, I suppose I have no choice," Gerardo admitted. "Flying in such conditions will be dubious at best, but I shall manage. Howe?" He looked sternly at the pegasus. "If you follow me and succumb to the weather, I am not carrying you. Understood?"

Howe nodded resolutely. Slipstream gulped. "Isn't that a little bit cold?"

"An amusing choice of words," Gerardo deadpanned. "However, this pegasus is largely responsible for getting my friends in the trouble they are in, and I have almost no sympathy for him at present. He and I have already discussed this, and there is nothing more to be said."

Slipstream stared again at Howe, taking a step away... but before she could respond, there was a gentle swish, and Gerardo's tailfeathers disappeared out the window.

Whump!

With a griffony impact, Gerardo hit the snow. His wings flexed mechanically, hitching several times as if rusted and in need of oil. Fortunately, it was somewhat dry and easy to brush off, but when he sank up to his chest merely trying to stand, there was little point to that. He puffed his coat, trying to keep the stuff as far away from his body heat as possible. Less worrying was the immediate coldness, and more the prospect that it could melt, soaking into his feathers. Finally wading to the top of a crest and getting a decent percentage of himself above the drift, he spread his wings fully, giving a few more experimental flaps in preparation for takeoff.

Whuddd! A dark shape hit the snow beside him, and he turned to see Howe. "Gah! C-Cold!" the pegasus exclaimed, before recoiling as if he had swallowed a lemon. "Er, shutting up again!"

Gerardo sighed, nearly acclimated to the cold enough to fly. Would he wait for Howe? It didn't feel right to strand the pegasus, even if he deserved it... but the night chill would only increase, and the lights of Skyfreeze shown in the distance in vertical golden strips, beckoning him closer.

Before he could make up his mind, there was a disturbance in the mountain breeze, and a third body hovered to a stop above him just before impacting the snow. His eyes widened. "Slipstream?"

"Brrbrrbrr..." The pink pegasus shivered, forelimbs tucked beneath her flimsy kiosk shirt and tail wrapped around her hind legs. "I hope I don't regret this. Let's go!"

"You're coming too...?" Gerardo asked, eyes widening as far as they dared in the chill air.

"You need a guide," she pointed out, pulling her head down against her body. "And I've never done something like this before! Maybe it will be interesting! But can we hurry?"

Hesitating slightly longer, Gerardo commanded, "Howe, let's go!" and took flight himself. His large, powerful griffon wings cut through the cold air with much greater ease than the two pegasi, and it only took a slow, steady rhythm of pumping them to stay airborn. In a way, he was disappointed, because it meant less work and thus less warmth... but they were hardly in the place to complain. Only slightly wondering how he was somehow indebting himself to most of the ponies he passed and when Slipstream would want something in return, he knifed eastward, making a beeline for the distant outline of Skyfreeze.

Warm Reception

The night was clear and cold as Gerardo pressed forward, leading his companions by a considerable margin. Howe, surprisingly, was nearly able to keep up... but Slipstream was validating all his concerns and more, moving at nearly half the pace he could set on his own. He still couldn't be sure exactly what had compelled the pegasus to follow him, but unlike Howe, letting her suffer for it was something that would weigh on his conscience.

"Are you sure you're alright?" he called back, pausing and allowing Howe a break as Slipstream struggled to catch up. Not that there was much he could do if she wasn't...

"Maybe," she rasped, dragging herself limply through the air. "I d-don't usually come outside l-like this... Whoo..."

Fortunately, so long as she stayed airborn, the high visibility meant it was easy to keep her in sight. If she fell, though... the surface was a flat, nondescript sea of snow drifts highly reminiscent of the actual ocean. Troughs formed between peaks of snow, and anyone landing on, or falling below the snowline would be instantly impossible to make out. The drifts gleamed white beneath the black sky, bathed in their own shadows from the light of the rising moon, creating many pockets of darkness where fallen bodies would be invisible.

Still, she only had to keep it up a while longer, as they were almost there. Above a final ridge, the base of Skyfreeze sat, the sporadically-supported transport tunnel running inside a great distance up. Ascending high enough, Gerardo could make out a cleared ground road to the left, running from the tower off into the distance.

"That looks like it could lead to a door..." the griffon mused, rubbing his talons against themselves for warmth. He turned back, checking on his companions again. "It is not much further!"

"I can..." Slipstream huffed, shivering violently. "See that..."

To her side, Howe mimed something, though it was interrupted by his own chattering of teeth.

Seeing that they had not yet collapsed, Gerardo held back, hesitating a moment and allowing them to get a head start for the final stretch.

Slipstream gasped, slumping to a stop underneath the metallic archway of the entrance. It was blocked by a heavy, gleaming door... but as if reacting to the presence of outsiders, it shifted and began to part. Howe hovered beside her, and Gerardo arrived last, determined to keep an eye on his would-be companions. There was a slow grating, and then with a swift, seamless rush, the door opened.

Everyone stumbled, some with more dignity than others, into the antechamber. It was small, featuring only a glass door further into the tower, most likely as an airlock of sorts. That theory was confirmed when the door behind them slid shut, and the air began to heat as further passage was given.

The next room was long, with a shining, gold architectural theme. Gerardo didn't stop to take it in, too focused on finding a way to further his goals.

"Hello, and welcome to Skyfreeze," a voice announced to his right. "What can we... oh my..."

It was a bespectacled mare sitting at a reception desk, old enough to have streaks of gray in her mane, but not enough to be elderly. She stared at the trio, lifting her glasses with a hoof. "You three don't look like you're in the best shape. Are the roads that bad tonight?"

"W-W-We..." Slipstream tried to begin, ultimately failing.

"We flew from the nearest skyport terminal," Gerardo announced, speaking for her and flicking an errant bit of snow from his feathers. "We would have used the transport, but lacked authorization that would be valid tonight."

Howe mimed something moving quickly, swinging a hoof past his head with a silent whistle. The receptionist blinked and pursed her lips, eventually stepping out of the booth and closer to the group. "Well, come this way," she beckoned. "I don't know what's so important that you had to do a stupid thing like that, but nobody's using the break room at this hour. We'll find something to get you warm."

"As a matter of fact, I do have urgent business," Gerardo replied, falling into step behind her. "It is imperative that I speak with Chancellor Dior as soon as possible."

"Flying here at night because you're not important enough to take the transit, but thinking you can just get a meeting with the leader of Ironridge, hmm?" The mare looked back over her shoulder as she walked, face somewhere between chastising and amused. "You're nothing but guts. I don't know whether to feel happy or sorry for your friends, here."

Slipstream didn't respond, but Howe did a little jig, flashing her a winning smile.

"Well," she muttered, pushing open an out-of-the-way side door that led to a slightly less decorated corridor, "no matter how you slice it, he's still in a meeting and won't be done for thirty minutes. No matter how urgent it is, you've got time to sit down and make sure you don't kill yourselves. Never underestimate the power of the mountains."

She shook her head, turning again to the side and opening into a small room furnished with plush benches, a large stock of cupboards and space for preparing food. "Wait here," she added.

Gerardo uneasily sat. While the mare's words weren't encouraging, and she had more or less said he wouldn't be able to see Dior, they were being treated with a surprising amount of hospitality for effectively bypassing a system designed to limit access. Granted, there had been a road leading away from the tower, but who knew where that went? The griffon was all for accepting good luck as it came, but there were too many potential catches, too many conditions and asusmptions that might fail.

In no time at all, the receptionist was back, three steaming mugs balanced on coasters on her back. "I hope you're fine with cocoa," she said, positioning herself so that they could be easily taken.

Greedily, Slipstream seized hers in trembling wings and hugged it to her chest fluff, absorbing as muh warmth as it had to offer. Gerardo merely appreciatively sipped his. "Thank you, miss...?"

The mare shook her head. "Marin. And don't fret it. Your friends looked cold, and it wouldn't do to let that go unhelped. Speaking of help, the Chancellor's workday is officially over after this meeting, but since you were so stubborn about getting here, I can ask him to take pity on you, if you like."

Gerardo's eyes widened. "In truth?"

Marin shrugged. "I've had a good day, and am in a good mood. Is there anything you'd like to say that I can tell him?"

"Erm... yes..." Gerardo hesitated. "Might I have paper and a quill? It is somewhat confidential, but I was assured he would understand. I would write this down, if at all possible..."

A quick trip to a cabinet drawer by Marin produced the required items. Neatly, Gerardo tore off a section with one talon, took up the quill, and wrote, 'Arambai.' Folding it thrice, he offered it to the mare. "If possible, this is for Dior's eyes alone," he added, hoping it wouldn't matter if she looked.

"Whatever you say. Wait here, again," she commanded. "Unless this meeting goes fast, it'll be a while." Turning, Marin exited the room, the door swinging shut behind her.

"Mmm..." Slipstream purred in her wake. "Hot cocoa..."

Gerardo was content to savor his, though a quick glance at the others told him they were doing a much better job of going slowly. Nervousness, he supposed. While the flight to the tower had been unpleasant and hardly his idea of a vacation climate, it was hardly intolerable, either. During the day, he could likely be outside for hours at a time with few ill effects. During a storm, though... he shuddered, and took another sip from his cocoa. Almost gone. Unfortunate.

Suddenly, Marin bustled back in, looking somewhat surprised. "The Chancellor says he will meet with you immediately," she announced. "You alone," she added, when Howe made to get up. "I don't know what you wrote in that paper, but congratulations, it has his attention."

"Well, this is unexpected." Gerardo drained the last of his drink, standing up. Really, it was perfectly expected, given what Arambai had said as they were leaving... If anything, things going well was what was unexpected. He set down the mug and turned to Marin. "After you, then?"

She nodded, and pushed her way back out into the hall.

Rejection Buddies

Marin led Gerardo through several more corridors, coming to the base of an elevator. As its immaculate golden doors closed behind him and the ascent began, he let out a sigh of relief, only half because he was on his way to a guaranteed meeting with Dior. He had managed to ditch Howe... been given an excuse to, no less. If at all possible, he had no intention of returning through the lobby, leaving the pegasus to do something other than follow him.

That also meant leaving Slipstream, of course, and it hurt somewhat to repay her loyalty, pointless as it was, by leaving without an explanation. Hopefully she wouldn't hold it against him. Perhaps he could ask Marin to apologize for him...

The elevator slid to a stop, opening near the edge of the tower wall. It was another lobby... or perhaps a pointless show of space, dominated by a curved, crystalline window that stretched seamlessly from floor to ceiling, following the outer shell of the tower. It was reminiscent of the room high in Arambai's tower in Riverfall, with its panoramic view of the town, only this one faced all of Ironridge. High enough to see over the rim of the mountain wall, the lights of the Stone District glimmered below, and beyond them sporadic clusters in the Earth District, likely living settlements. Beyond those, Sosa.

His wing brushed against a plant that had been placed next to a cushy bench. It was warm enough in the tower for such things, almost hot, as if some planner or architect had decided that night should be just as warm as day. The wedge-shaped lobby was certainly well-lit, with the same kind of even, sourceless lamps that brightened the Skyport. Whether a property of the lights or an enchantment on the glass, no light was reflected, ensuring that the well-lit tower and dark nightscape provided optimal contrast.

Marin indicated a door to the side. "In here," she directed. "The Chancellor should be waiting for you. When you're finished, he'll have someone escort you back. I need to return to the entrance, now. Good luck, whatever your request." She turned, stepping back into the elevator. Quickly, the doors blocked her face from view, and a low hum announced her departure downward.

Gerardo shrugged, raised a talon, and rapped on the hard metal door.

"Come in."

The door slid open of its own accord. It wasn't an office, as Gerardo had been expecting, but a conference chamber, a long, rectangular table positioned with one end to the window, which continued for the width of the room. A single pony occupied it, sitting near but not at the end. He was small, with the chin and countenance of a mare, and a dark gray coat and orange mane and eyes that burned into Gerardo with their intensity. "Chancellor Dior, I presume?" Gerardo asked hesitantly.

"I am," Dior replied, lighting his horn with a golden aura and pulling out a chair across from him as an invitation. "And you're Gerardo, the griffon from Riverfall. I was told to expect you, though I didn't think Arambai meant so soon."

Sensing the stallion wanted to get quickly to the point, Gerardo wasted no further time with pleasantries. "My companions," he began. "Starlight and Maple, who recently joined me. While we were attempting to fulfill my delivery, we were attacked by members of the Defense Force, including a captain by the name of Selma. I was incapacitated, and I strongly believe them to have been taken captive."

"I see." Dior nodded slowly, keeping all four hooves beneath the table. "Where and why did they attack you?"

Gerardo gulped. "At the entrance to the Water District. I had been instructed to go there as a part of this job. Unfortunately, despite my best efforts we encountered some... hostile resistance."

Dior closed his eyes. "Arambai already gave you a speech on why you shouldn't put those two into danger, didn't he?"

"He did," Gerardo hesitantly admitted, "and I assure you, I took utmost care to-"

"You didn't." Dior stood, interrupting him. "I don't know the details on this job you were doing, but you didn't need to involve them. You could have done it on your own. I won't waste time telling you off, however. I have the safety of two ponies to see to. Good night."

The stallion paced around the table, heading for the door... though limped would be more accurate. As Gerardo watched, he heavily favored a foreleg, not carrying it but putting no weight on it either. The griffon was still blinking when Dior's horn flashed, prompting the room's door to slide open. The lights dimmed and went out as he left, and the door stayed open, waiting for the room's last occupant to exit.

"Well, that was certainly brisk," Gerardo muttered to nobody in particular. Getting up, he straightened his feathers and marched toward the door himself, rapidly sinking into thought. Dior had said he would handle things, and Gerardo had no doubt he could... but was it wise to trust him? For that matter, Selma had seemed like a less-than-legal pony. What if he was able to hide the existence of the incident? And precisely how long would Dior take, helping Maple and Starlight? Most importantly of all, there was almost no way he would recover the crates, and that was a problem. A problem that would require Gerardo's own intervention to solve...

He was abruptly shaken from his thoughts when the sound of sobbing reached his ears. Peering around, he stepped further into the windowed lobby, the conference room door sliding shut behind him. The sound told him to look backwards, and eventually he saw the source: on a bench closely guarded by two potted ferns, a unicorn awkwardly lay, a professionally-clad pegasus crying quietly into her chest. She stared blankly, looking through Gerardo, apparently just as deep in though as he was.

Blinking, Gerardo stopped, staring back. Something about the couple felt familiar, though he couldn't quite place where...

The unicorn's eyes focused in recognition. "Hey, Sharpie, look," she said cautiously, patting her companion's back. "I think it's that griffon we saw on the elevator on the way in, remember?"

"I wasn't paying attention..." Sharpie whimpered from the unicorn's fur.

"...Ah. Yes." Gerardo quickly composed himself, ensuring he was presentable. "I believe I recall you as well, now that you mention it." Bowing, he added, "My name is Gerardo Guillaume, griffon adventurer extraordinaire. A pleasure to make your acquaintances."

He wasn't entirely sure what purpose talking to the mares would serve, but Dior had left him on his own without so much as an escort, and it was this or return to the company of Howe. Besides, they had opened conversation and it would be rude to simply walk away.

"I'm Brightcoil," the unicorn replied with a tired look in her eyes. "And this is Sharpie. Nice to meet you, I guess. Sorry, but we're a little down right now..."

"You think?" the pegasus jabbed, raising her head just enough to stare at Gerardo with one pink eye. Sniffing, she added, "Had a productive meeting with our wonderful, almighty Chancellor?"

"I..." Gerardo hesitated. "Can't say that I got what I wanted, but..." He tilted his head. "Are you all right? It's somewhat unusual to see a grown mare crying so, after all, and much as I hate to intrude..."

Sharpie didn't answer, burying her face back in Brightcoil's coat and shaking anew. Brightcoil looked sadly down at her, then up to Gerardo. "She's an inspector for the government," she explained softly. "For the past two years, she's been building a case that the yaks are stealing huge amounts of money from Skyfreeze, and recently finished... but she's been trying to present it, and nobody will hear her. Every letter gets rejected, everything..." She hung her head. "Today, she got a meeting with the Chancellor in person, and I came with her to support her. We waited in line for over six hours... and he just dismissed her without even hearing the full story, like always." She rubbed Sharpie's back again as the pegasus heaved another sob. "It's a good thing I came. Two years of work, wasted..."

"I dedicated everything to this..." Sharpie hissed, lifting her head. "And they just threw me out like garbage... They deserve to lose that money! Screw them! Screw all of them!"

"I have some inkling of how you feel, myself," Gerardo replied, seating himself across from them. "A... project I have dedicated the last year of my life to has recently run into an untimely end at the hooves of the Defense Force, and all I got upon going to Dior for help was a rebuke. At best, he will clean up the fallout and leave me back where I began. At worst, well..." He sighed.

Sharpie sat up, smiling darkly. "The Defense Force, huh? If I had my way, I'd wipe that sham off the face of the district, just to spite them."

"Really?" Gerardo raised an eyebrow. "You have an issue with them as well?"

Clearing her throat, Sharpie sniffed one more time and launched into speech. "What I was investigating involves a weapons contract used for arming the Defense Force. It was set up to be funded by Skyfreeze and administered by the yaks, who chose to source Sosan goods. But the Defense Force is just an excuse. The weapon deliveries keep getting stolen before they reach the Stone District, and every time it happens, the yaks ask for the contract to be renewed, and Skyfreeze accepts because it makes work for Sosa and they don't want to stand up to the yaks. It's nothing but an endless cycle of waste, and nobody will lift a hoof to stop it..."

As she slumped back into Brightcoil's embrace, Gerardo took a moment to process the information, reconciling it with what he already knew. Most of it was merely assembled puzzle pieces he already possessed, but... "What do the yaks have to do with this? Isn't the Defense Force administered by the Sky District?"

Sharpie didn't speak. Brightcoil answered for her, saying, "When they first made the Defense Force, it was a community effort organized by the yaks because Skyfreeze wouldn't do anything about the bandits in the Earth District... real bandits, who stole food and money and hurt ponies, unlike these new ones. Eventually, they recognized the effort and officially sanctioned it and took it over. Chancellor Dior is the Defense Force commander in name, now, but it's just for show. Everything is still handled unofficially by the yaks. The real commanders are two ponies called Selma and Valey, who are paid by Skyfreeze but hired by and answer to the yak ambassador, Herman."

"Selma and Valey..." Gerardo whispered, feeling his eyes widen. "Most interesting. If I may, though, how does this profit the yaks? It sounds as if it merely results in Sosa becoming filled with weapons."

"It's obvious, if you look at the city's import-export charts between districts," Sharpie grumbled. "There's a lot of money going into Sosa because of this contract, but when the shipments never leave, you can't verify that they have the same net worth. It's a black spot on the records, a perfect place for criminals to smuggle money out before it even goes into production. And I've seen the Sosan trade carts; they make no effort to defend them. They're obviously complicit. But the yaks..." Her face tensed in a snarl, and she held it for nearly a second. "They set it up, clearly know what's going on, could stop it at any minute and have no other obvious benefit. Either Sosa's bribing them to keep this going, or they're getting extorted, and I hate it."

Blinking, Gerardo straightened his posture. "I... see. That does match my own, limited experience of Sosa. Well, seeing as I have nothing better I am capable of doing with my time, and we seem to have the kindred experience of being brushed off by the Chancellor, would it interest you to know that my own quest was interrupted by a run-in with Captain Selma in which he detained myself and my companions, stole my lawful possessions, attacked me for sport, and ultimately left me unconscious in the middle of the road?"

"My case is dead! It doesn't..." Sharpie started to sigh, then stopped, growling. "You know what? I don't care anymore. If you want to try catching the yaks and their stupid Defense Force money sink doing something illegal, go right ahead. There's no way you can put together anything that'll even scratch them... but if you want to try anyway, we'll help you, just to spite them."

Gerardo nodded. "I very much do wish to do something about this. What does your help entail, exactly?"

"Our residence is in the embassy compound." Slowly, Sharpie pushed herself away from Brightcoil and got to her hooves. "The offices are closed for business at this hour, but you can stay the night with us and meet with Herman first thing in the morning. We can get you a meeting for sure, at least."

"Sharpie, are you sure...?" Brightcoil hesitated, placing a questioning hoof on her shoulder.

Sharpie looked back. "You want to see them ruined too, don't you?"

"About staying with us, I mean," Brightcoil said, shuffling her hooves. "We only have one bed, and after today, well..."

Sensing where the conversation had the potential to go, Gerardo intercepted. "I am perfectly able to sleep on the floor, or even the roof if need be. Either way, your generosity is appreciated."

"You can sleep inside. We'll be fine." Sharpie straightened her outfit and looked toward the elevator. "It's getting late, and it's a long walk back through the skyport. We should be going if we want to be up before everyone else tomorrow. Come along."

Gerardo hesitated, falling into step regardless. Hopefully Slipstream wouldn't try to wait all night for him. Howe, he could care less. All night... "I do wish we could act earlier than morning, though," he remarked. "The less time elapses between now and when my friends and cargo are safe, the better."

"Too bad," Sharpie answered, a note of dryness to her voice, "because waking Herman at this hour is not a good way to get what you want. Besides, nothing ever happens during the night, anyway."

Going Down

After an eternity of marching, Selma's guard convoy came to a halt. Maple shook herself back to alertness; he was carrying her at an unfortunate angle that caused her blood to rush to her head, making focusing hard. Nobody was speaking. Instead, they stood at a doorway, the blue stone of the corridor's natural walls abruptly parting before a slab of metal. A security console stood to the side, and Selma approached it, pulling out a card and sliding it into the machine. There was a click, a hazy green light lit up, and the door slid open.

The guards with the crates moved through first, Selma watching them lazily. Maple stole a glance at him, ensuring he wasn't looking her way, and then stared hungrily at the card key in its slot. A thing like that would be invaluable in an escape attempt, and half of it was sticking out of the machine...

Selma turned, subconsciously moving Maple along with his head's motion. She licked her lips as she passed the console, and stretched as hard as she could... and felt the tip of her tail brush along the surface where the card was. Success. So long as he didn't blame her when he inevitably noticed...

His aura tingled along the slot where the card had been, and out of the corner of her eye saw him stare suspiciously at it... and then at her. Pretending to be just as defeated as she had been for the duration of the trip, she slumped, acting as if she didn't even register the change in terrain. Two seconds passed, and then three... and he shrugged and looked away. Maple kept herself from breathing a sigh of relief as he moved through the door with her and let it shut behind him; apparently he was too proud to even ask the guards if they had seen it. Served him right.

The fortress was all metal from there, a grated floor covering a trench for pipes that no longer had to run along the ceiling. It really looked more industrial than military, almost like a control room or what she imagined to be the inside of a giant ship. Cool air rushed through the corridor with enough force that Selma tightened his aura to prevent her from blowing out; either the tunnels were excellently ventilated or were ventilation ducts themselves.

On the walls, occasional support beams ran vertical, a mixture of pipes and reinforced crinkles in the metal plating designed to keep them from buckling. Maple's tale swished against several, and she entertained the idea of grabbing hold and yanking herself out of the captain's grasp. It remained a fantasy, however, as the reality was there would be nothing she could do even if she succeeded.

Several turns and a few more open rooms later, they came to another door, this time not requiring a card reader.

Selma flicked a lever, and it slid open. Beyond, a dim, tall natural cavern formed, a forest of pipes running floor to ceiling. "Leave the crates here," he commanded. "And then do whatever you will. I have some words for the prisoner I want to share in private. Make it quick!"

The guards hastily deposited the crates at the back of the room, where they blended in with a host of other random materials likely left in storage. Then they scuttled out... and with a pulse of magic from Selma's horn, the door slid closed, and he and Maple were alone.

"I see the way you're looking at me," Selma said lowly, the light of his horn the only source of illumination in the room. Turning Maple so that she faced him, he continued, "Unfair, you think. Cheater. Lawbreaker. Scoundrel, even. Amusingly enough, what I don't see is liar."

Sturdy ropes snaked out of the shadows, led by his aura, and Maple quickly found herself vertical, back pressed to a pipe, hind hooves barely able to touch the ground. "Because," Selma whispered, "I lied. I knew Gerardo was coming, sooner or later. I knew about his job, his delivery. And I have a very good idea of what's in those precious crates... and their contents are dangerous." He shook his head. "Think I was unfair, aggressive, or picking a fight all you want. But what I am is the protector of all of Ironridge... and this was a threat that had to be dealt with."

He leaned in closer, the illumination of his own horn casting unnatural shadows on his face. "You're obviously not from around here, so I'll let you in on another secret. Ironridge isn't like the rest of the world. In Ironridge, it's kill or be killed... and I am not afraid to play dirty to win. Nobody cares how nice you were after you're dead."

Maple gasped as the ropes constricted around her chest. "If you knew it was just him, then... ugh! Then why did you arrest me?"

"Because you dropped a brick on my head," Selma growled. "I didn't say I wasn't petty and vengeful. Now you're going to stay down here until those crates are no longer a danger to me and my city... and then I just might let you go." He smiled in the dim light. "I do have a soft spot for pretty faces, after all. Such a shame you had to get caught up in the wrong crowd. In fact... how did you come to be associated with that griffon?"

Maple glared back at him. "Leave me alone! I don't care what your reason is, and I'm not telling you! You're a jerk!" She wanted to add and my filly is out there, but strongly felt his attention didn't need to be drawn to that.

Selma shrugged. "I can do that, too. In fact, until this random headache clears, I might just forget about you altogether. But that won't be a problem." He prodded twice at her exposed belly with a curious hoof. "You look well-nourished. I'm sure missing a meal or two won't hurt."

"Don't touch me!" Maple hissed, trying and failing to lean away.

"Once again, your loss," Selma said, turning away. Freed from his aura, Maple sagged in her restraints. "Warning you about your griffon's goals... giving you a free excuse to part ways with him... you could always see this as an act of favor, or generosity. If you benefit nothing from this, you have only yourself to blame. Good night, pony."

The door closed behind him, sending the room into total darkness. Maple's fuzzy ears twitched, listening to the echoing vibrations of his retreating hoofsteps... and then her cutie mark activated, pocketing the ropes that bound her to the pipe. She dropped back onto all fours, plus one rope and a card key, briefly massaging the spot Selma had jabbed as if his touch left a stain that could be wiped away. It was time to find her filly and make sure she was safe.

Missed You

Within the darkness of her crate, Starlight huddled. The stallion carrying her had set her down - roughly - and everything was still, except for Selma's muffled voice which she could somewhat make out. It probably would have been easier if her ears were in workable positions instead of mashed against her head, but she could get tone, at least.

There was a faint hiss... and suddenly, the voices stopped. Carefully, Starlight lit her horn, feeling it buzz against the metal pressing on it. Her field expanded, stretching outside the box, using the same scanning spell she had used to discover the cavity outside. There were many tall, hollow objects... pipes? And assorted junk, laying on the ground... but no ponies. No, that wasn't right. There was one pony, or at least something soft and breathing, in a very un-ponylike position against one of the pipes.

Maple. It had to be. Closing her eyes against the blackness, Starlight's horn shone harder, until with a flash, the interior of the crate was pony-less once again.

She materialized on the floor, head swimming, horn instantly going dim. The stone floor clacked against her old horseshoes, refitted for the journey after not being worn in Riverfall, and she staggered to catch her balance. Shaking her head, she blinked once... and again. It was just as dark as it had been in the box. Had she somehow gone blind, or were there just no lights? Struggling, she lit her horn.

Flash! It strobed slightly brighter than she had expected, causing her eyes to be forced closed and her headache to worsen. But as she shook, waiting to recover, she heard a gasp... and the sound of hooves running over. "Starlight? Starlight, was that you!?"

Was that Maple's voice? Forcing her horn to the bare minimum level of illumination, she cracked an eye... and her newly-adoptive mother was carefully running toward her, on the ground and completely unrestrained. She blinked, headache momentarily forgotten. "Huh?"

"Starlight..." Maple reached a hoof out as if testing to see that the filly was really there, shock and gladness mingling in her voice. "How did you get here?" she whispered, drawing a hoof around Starlight's back and pulling her into an embrace. "I thought they abandoned you with Gerardo..."

"I teleported..." Starlight moaned, slightly nauseous and once again glad she was hungry. "There was room in one of the crates, so I hid and came out when I heard them leave. My horn hurts..."

"Then put it out," Maple said gently, tapping it with a hoof and immediately flinching. "Ooh, that's hot. I can't imagine how it feels..."

She obliged, and the room went dark. Dark, but not cold, because Maple was hugging her... and as the seconds ticked past, she could feel the mare beginning to shake. "I was going to come find you," Maple eventually sniffed. "I was going to tear this fortress apart if I had to. I wasn't going to leave either of us alone... But now that you're here, what can we do? We have to get out, but I don't want to take any more risks. Anything that could get you taken away again..."

"Then don't do anything," Starlight mumbled. "I need to rest first. I can sneak past anything when I have magic, but right now my horn feels like cheese."

"Hmmm..." Maple exhaled, softly holding Starlight against her. "Did you hear what that villain was saying, while you were in the crate? When he was talking, right before he left?"

"No..." Starlight groaned.

Maple sighed. "He tried to convince me that Gerardo's delivery was something that would harm Ironridge, and that he was doing me a favor by getting me away from him. I think he wanted to win me over, but he was terrible at it. But either way..." Starlight felt her tense in the darkness. "Starlight, I don't... I don't know if it's safe here, any more. What happens if we do escape, and then have all of the Defense Force thinking we're criminals? We could run into them again, and... I think we should go home. Back to Riverfall, where it is safe. I know things got a little tense for you there, at the end, but..."

"We shouldn't have to leave because Gerardo got us in trouble," Starlight protested. "Not if you want to stay! We're just normal ponies. Why should they have anything against us?"

"Because we got involved in something we shouldn't have gotten involved in," Maple said bitterly. "I don't know, maybe I should have gone along with Selma and done whatever he wanted. If I had known you would be safe, I would have for sure... and who knows what Gerardo's up to now, by himself? He's probably getting himself into even more trouble, and if we want to associate with him at all we'll be in it, too. And that's not counting ponies like Howe..."

Starlight thought for a moment, which grew easier as her head progressively cleared. Her horn still hurt, but it was no longer debilitating. "We could go to the Earth District," she offered. "That pegasus we had lunch with said the guards don't go down there. I bet a lot of ponies live there."

"We could..." Maple mused, shifting so that she was sitting beside Starlight instead of across from her. "Of course, we'd go there anyway if we were going back to Sosa to look for the boat. But instead of just passing through..." She paused. "Okay. Once we get out of this place, we go to the Earth District, and if things get better, we can stay for a while, or keep going and find Gunga and his ship."

"We have something to do in the Earth District anyway, remember?" Starlight added. "When we were leaving, Willow's husband asked us to go find some ponies."

"I didn't remember..." Maple slowly gasped. "He gave me an address, didn't he? I still have it in here somewhere. He wanted us to apologize, that's right... Didn't he say something else, too?"

"Something about staying away from graveyards at night," Starlight recalled. "I think? In Sosa?"

"Mmm... that sounds familiar..." Maple murmured in agreement. "How's your horn feeling?"

"It still hurts." Starlight sniffed in emphasis. It wasn't that bad, but if it was a question of whether they should leave yet... "Shouldn't we wait here a while, for all the guards to go to bed?"

"I'm not sure how long that is, though," Maple admitted. "Hmmm... I don't want to fall asleep to pass the time. After all that, I'm not even sure I could. How about you?"

"I'm not tired," Starlight lied. Maple couldn't see it, but her eyelids were already closed, and she desperately wanted to imagine that they were laying together in a fluffy bed instead of a cold stone dungeon. "We should wait longer."

Maple shifted slightly against her. "What did being in those crates feel like, anyway?"

"Cramped." Starlight's ears burned from the memory... or more likely, they were still bruised from being mashed at such heavy angles. "Hard to breathe. It made me glad I was small."

"No, I mean..." Maple hesitated. "Did it feel dangerous? Like something that could hurt an entire city? I kind of want to open the crates to see what's inside, since it didn't seem to hurt you..."

"Parts. Machine parts. Metal ones."

"That doesn't sound dangerous," Maple commented. "Unless they were for a weapon, or something. Or maybe it's an economic danger, like how the airships replaced water ones."

"Or maybe he was lying," Starlight dryly retorted. "Should we try to take the crates with us when we leave? I might be able to carry one in my magic..."

"Now that sounds dangerous," Maple said softly, tail twitching against Starlight's. "Wouldn't it be hard on your magic? They're heavy enough that I get tired, carrying them myself."

Starlight frowned. "Well, if they're that dangerous, we can't just let these guards have them, and if they aren't, we need to get them back to Gerardo!"

"Do we?" Maple asked sharply. "Think about it, do we? I'm not very happy with him right now, since he brought us along for this instead of leaving us sleeping in our hotel room! And you were worried about him earlier, weren't you? He's our friend, but... I'm not sure if I want to go that far out of my way to help him now. Or more importantly, put you through that much. And if we do get them, he's just going to have us try to deliver them again..."

"Well..." Starlight bit her lip, thinking of a counter. "But what about the guards, then? What if they are dangerous, and he wants them for something?"

"He said he wanted to destroy them," Maple said hesitantly. "I think... But maybe... I don't know. I'm sorry, Starlight, I don't know what to do..."

"Use your cutie mark," Starlight offered. "We open them, find the piece that looks the most important, and take just it and hide it. That way, if they're bad, they won't work. Right?"

Maple slowly inhaled. "That... actually could work. Do you know how to open them? Usually, I use a crowbar for supplies for my store, but I didn't pack one of those..."

Starlight nodded. "I've opened crates with my magic before. I just need to wait for my horn to feel better. It shouldn't be too long."

"Just don't push yourself," Maple gently cautioned. "We have all night, if you need to sleep, and can. I won't be going anywhere. I'll be right here, by your side..."

Robbing Robbers

"...All right," Starlight said after a lengthy wait. "My horn doesn't hurt as much. Should we open the crates now?"

Maple yawned. "If you think you're able. But please don't push yourself, okay?"

Starlight's horn lit, providing the first illumination either pony had seen in over an hour. As it brightened in intensity, she winced, a single errant spark flying off into the distance, but she held solid. Her aura filled the inside of the first box, pressing up against the top from within, the same as she had opened the crates in Sosa the explorer's camp in the mountains. There was a dry creaking, accompanied by the bending of nails... and the lid cracked. With the tension in the air as Starlight slid it off, it would have been entirely appropriate for the box to give off a shower of dust as the contents were revealed, as if it was an ancient relic unearthed by an archaeology dig.

She hopped up on the rim and peered in, and her face scrunched. "What is this?"

Maple trotted closer, craned her neck, and joined her. "I don't have any idea..."

The contents of the box did resemble machine parts, true to Starlight's earlier prediction. But rather than any sort of metal she had ever seen, large areas of them were hewn from what appeared to be black glass. As her hoof passed over them, they briefly lit up with faint, complex blue runes that seemed to be shining from within the substance. She reached in and pulled one out.

"These are strange," Maple whispered, examining the object in Starlight's grasp. "They look kind of like... mirrors? Magical ones... I wonder if they reflect magic."

"This one's curved," Starlight commented, holding another out. "And this one looks like a lens..."

Maple leaned over the edge, rummaging further. "There are some normal-looking things in here too, but not many. It's mostly these weird black things, and packing to keep them from breaking in- oh!"

She straightened up, clutching an orb roughly the size of a newborn foal's head. It had a vaguely geometric surface, and was clear all the way through, save for a teal prism at the very core. Suspended throughout the outer shell were flakes of gold leaf, oriented as if the sphere was constructed of infinitely many layers and they were sandwiched between, large enough to have more tiny runes burnt into their surfaces but not so large as to obscure the view of the center. "This looks important, don't you think?" Maple asked, beaming.

"Yeah..." Starlight slowly nodded, mouth suddenly filled with an unpleasant taste. No matter what angle she tilted her head at, it felt as if there was something important about the ball she couldn't quite see, as if the shininess was merely a distraction, or that it was lying to her and enjoying it. "It looks important."

The orb disappeared. "Well, it's what we're taking with us, then," Maple said, straightening her shoulders and giving a satisfied sigh. "Now, should we try to make it look like we haven't been in these?"

Two pulses of magic were all it took, one to float the removed parts back in, and one to hammer the lid carefully back in place. Starlight snorted and turned around, the door to the chamber standing temptingly on the other side. "Are you ready?"

"Ready?" Maple asked with a grin that was half nervous, half eager. "To escape from this awful fortress and do something normal with my life? You bet I'm ready."

In an abandoned fortress corridor, blowing with ventilated wind and lit brightly should the night shift deem it worth a visit, a teal aura flickered. It stretched, expanding, feeling for signs of traps or ponies... and, finding none, homed in on an inconspicuous lever on the wall. Flick! Swishhh! A door slid open.

Maple stepped out, Starlight tensely astride her back. The duo carried no crates, immediately looking both ways to ensure the magical scan hadn't missed anything. Eventually, they silently selected a direction, and Maple took off, moving at a swift walk with silent hooffalls.

Ceiling lights occasionally strobed, due to age, faulty wiring or something else. They blended with the flickering of Starlight's horn, the filly constantly recasting her detection spell, a single bead of sweat running down her brow. No ponies ahead. Don't turn right. Keep going. She wordlessly guided her steed with nudges and tugs, focus taut and unwavering.

They pulled to a halt at a T-junction, Maple pressing herself upright into the cover of a wall pipe as two guards lazily wandered past. Undetected. Success.

Starlight steered them right; the direction from which the guards had come. Momentarily, the passage widened and they entered what seemed to be an empty break room, furnished with several posters, a bean bag chair, a refrigerator and a table holding an unfinished game of cards. The filly sniffed, pointing to a used coat rack. "There's money in the pockets of the green one," she whispered.

Maple adamantly shook her head. "We are not criminals," she whispered back. "Actually robbing them will just make it harder to get our names cleared if we ever get the chance. Opening those crates was bad enough! Now which way do we go?"

Scanning again, Starlight pointed to an empty doorway. "That one. The other's a bathroom."

Rushing onward, they rounded a bend and immediately encountered an incline. "Good," Maple whispered, beginning her ascent. "The guards went down a lot taking us there. This is the right way."

"Be careful," Starlight warned as they charged upwards, "the next room's big. I can't feel it all."

The next room was, as she had predicted, very big. Fortunately, it was another storage room, and the mess of crates covering the floor provided almost constant cover, if Starlight kept her scanning active. It had such a low ceiling, though, that it was impossible to see how far it truly stretched, or to pinpoint exits. A crystalline column that might have been an elevator shaft stretched some distance away, and numerous support pillars in uniform arrangement kept the metal ceiling from falling in.

Slowly, one at a time, they darted between crates, keeping the wall constantly at their backs so as not to be flanked. After ten or so jumps, by the time their entrance had faded from sight, Starlight called a halt. "I need to stop," she whimpered. "My horn hurts again."

"Okay..." Maple bit her lip. "Let's just find a place to hide, then, and we can rest. Hmmm..."

Her eyes scanned the room manually, quickly spotting a large crate placed at an angle against the wall. Perfect. The crevice it provided would cover their sides and back, leaving them only one direction to keep watch in, and nobody could see them without nearly touching the wall. Eagerly, she trotted toward it, pausing just long enough to ensure that it was empty... and it was. With a sigh of relief, she trotted in and lowered herself to let Starlight down.

The filly slipped off. "Okay," Maple whispered, "okay... I think we're good to rest here for-"

"Who's there!?"

Maple froze, pressing herself as far against the wall as she could while still staying in front of Starlight. But Starlight slipped in front of her regardless, horn lit violently even as the action made her eyes water.

"Who's there?" the voice repeated, closer to pure alarm than aggression. "I-I-I mean it..."

Hesitation. A newer guard, perhaps? Maple crouched as well, readying to produce her remaining ingot as a weapon at an instant's notice if need be.

"Dry, if you're trying to bust me again for slacking off, I swear I will-" The guard trotted into sight, well out of ingot range, confusion suddenly spreading on his face. "What the...? Hey, you girls aren't Defense Force..."

Before Maple could even move, Starlight's horn went out, and the filly gasped. "A guard!" she squeaked, voice sounding uncharacteristically helpless. "Mister, w-we've been... we were invited on a tour, but we got separated and lost, a-and..." She darted forward, wrapping her forelimbs around his armored leg, much to his surprise. "Please help us! The last two ponies we saw just ignored us, and I'm tired and hungry and we might never get out!"

Maple watched Starlight's uncharacteristic display in silence, nodding along, the shock from seeing her filly acting like that the only thing strong enough to keep her from accidentally breaking the charade. Starlight was staring up at the big pegasus with wide, teary eyes, still freshly wet from focusing her horn the instant before, though in the moment they looked anything but.

"I, uhhh..." The guard hesitated, taking a step back and freeing himself from Starlight. "You guys sure about that? You're not spies or anything, trying to catch me doing... uhh... what I wasn't just doing?"

"We're lost," Maple added, working up the confidence that she wouldn't say something ruinous to Starlight's act. "Please, at this point we're just desperate to get outside. Can you help us?"

The guard wasn't arresting them on the spot, and his suspicion of them had nothing at all to do with why they were actually there. Maple seized onto the kernel of hope that came with it, refusing to let it die.

"Uhhh..." the guard repeated, scanning them up and down with his eyes, a pair of wingblades hanging folded at his sides. "So you two were on a tour... and you got left behind... but I don't remember anything about us giving tours, especially to unicorns." He pointed a wing at Starlight. "Might be Sosans, trying to sneak in for an attack. That's what they say, at least. No Sosan would actually be that dumb. They're smart little rats, they are..." Suddenly, his eyes lit up. "Hey, this tour of yours didn't have anything to do with a pony called Valey, did it?"

Maple glanced at Starlight, and was barely able to stop herself from cringing. The guard saw it anyway... and smiled gently. "Oh, well, that explains everything, then! She probably brought you in off the record and ditched you as a prank. Don't feel bad, she's like that to everyone." He reached out and patted Starlight's head. "Sure, I'll help you out. Dunno why we even keep someone like that around in the first place, let alone let her do whatever she wants. That menace is even worse than the Sosans. Oh well. Keeps us on our hooves, at least..." He sighed heavily. "Closest exit's this way. Follow me, hope she's not haunting you now, and you'll be just fine in no time."

Gratefully, Maple fell into step behind the guard, ever so slightly in awe of Starlight's emergency acting. That was the kind of thing she should be doing to keep the filly safe, not the other way around. Making a mental note that once her shock and adrenaline wore off, she would almost definitely have a panic attack, she let herself draw away from the wall, entering back into the maze of crates and boxes.

Erratic Elevators

The guiding wall faded from sight as the guard led Maple and Starlight deeper into the maze of crates that made up the storage room. Unlike their earlier prison, it lacked a high, natural ceiling, reducing visibility to nearly zero. It wasn't incomparable to walking through fog, if that fog was made of boulders.

Maple and Starlight scurried side-by-side, the filly no longer choosing to ride. Her horn was at its limit, and if the guard turned out to not be as helpful as she hoped... well, if there were two of them, at least one would be able to get away. The thought was morbid to the point of being unusable, but it wasn't doing what felt nice that had gotten him to help them in the first place. Fortunate, she thought, that she had come to accept long ago how rarely her comfort could be a priority.

Weaving right and left, they passed crates that had been unprofessionally deposited without rhyme on reason, a strange job for an elite military organization... but exactly what she would expect from a militia held together by a common cause and a leader's charisma. It didn't take Starlight long to decide that was where the Defense Force belonged, and her lip nearly curled at the thought of being abducted by such ponies. Without adherence to rules, things became unfair. And while unfairness was too common for her not to tolerate, it would never, ever be accepted.

The guard wandered through the storage room as if he had lived his entire life among the crates, however, displaying the same kind of navigational ability that had fascinated Starlight when she first moved to Riverfall. Soon, the crystalline shaft she had seen when they first arrived - or another exactly like it - faded into view.

"Elevator," the guard casually explained, confirming their initial suspicions. "You girls want the shortest way out, right?"

Maple nodded gratefully. "We'd like that very much!"

"Guess we're going up, then," the guard said, sliding open the door and waving a forelimb. "After you."

They stepped in, and he followed, pressing a button that caused the elevator to begin its ascent. The ceiling quickly scrolled past, and then they were surrounded by blue stone, the only illumination a tiny manalight at the top of their cylinder.

The guard hesitated as they rose, looking as if he was pondering whether or not to make small talk. Starlight hoped he wouldn't. He did.

"So, uhhhh... what were you girls doing?" he asked slowly. "That led to getting a bad tour?"

"We're tourists," Starlight answered, hoping to say enough to dodge the question without making anything more up on the spot. "Here visiting a friend."

"Oh. Huh." A floor slid past, and they kept rising. "Where are you from normally?"

"A city of llamas," Starlight lied, stealing a story Gerardo had told in Riverfall and hoping it was accurate. "I don't know what it's called, because they change the name every day."

"Really?" The guard raised an eyebrow, and another floor passed. "I heard about that once. Is it really-"

BRRRRRNNNG! BRRRRRNNNG!

He was interrupted by an ear-splitting siren that caused both Maple and Starlight to cower in panic. A second later, the pale blue manalight illuminating the elevator turned blood-red, and a magical voice blared to life on a hidden intercom. "Armed intrusion detected on B87 floor. All guards report."

The guard's ears folded, and he glared up at the discolored lighting. "Oh boy, whoever pulled that alarm is in a world of hurt. Don't worry," he added, nodding down to the stricken Maple and Starlight. "Selma outlawed drills after midnight, so it has to be someone fooling-"

"Repeat: armed intrusion detected on B87 floor. All guards report. This is not a drill. We are under attack."

"Well... icicles," the guard spat, immediately punching another button. The lift jerked to a halt, stopping flush with another floor, its door sliding open. "I have to handle this," he grumbled, pointing outward, wingblades at his sides rattling. "B87 floor is far down from here, so you girls aren't in danger; don't worry. Wait here until you get the elevator, then go three floors up. Get out, take a right at the first intersection, and you'll be outside in the blink of an eye. Now hurry up, I have to go!"

He shoved them hastily, if gently, out of the elevator, and it immediately closed behind them, dropping out of sight. An In Use sign flickered on the console beside the entrance.

Starlight and Maple both tripped, landing on their chests in front of the shaft. "Oomph!" Maple grunted as she impacted the ground.

Starlight hissed, more from annoyance than pain, though she was hardly comfortable. Scrambling to her hooves, she glared at the console, then the empty shaft, the chain running through it descending at a rapid rate. "Hey!" She banged on the glass. "Don't... ugh!"

Dejected, she slumped, eventually feeling Maple's hoof on her shoulder. "What?"

"I..." Maple bit her lip. "I don't know. I don't know what to do..."

The red emergency lighting that flooded the room shone darkly on her coat as she stood over Starlight. Around them, the room seemed largely disused, one dilapidated steel panel partially detached from the ceiling. A few metal-lined corridors and one of bare stone snaked away, but most of the room was filled with old foals' toys and discarded medical equipment. At least half of the lights weren't working, period.

Behind them, the elevator chain stopped moving for several seconds... and then began its descent again. It had stopped to let more guards on, presumably.

Maple's stomach loudly growled, causing Starlight's ear to flick, and she hugged herself. "I wish I had brought food..." she whimpered. "Who knows how long we'll have to wait for this thing...?"

Starlight was hungry too, but she said nothing, sensing that it would make Maple feel even worse. The chain stopped again, and she snorted. Was it really smartest to sit around doing nothing? It wasn't like there were any guards left that high up. If there had been, they would have ran into them waiting for the elevator already. Still, it might have been wise to hide... but that was doing nothing, too. Hooves moving of their own accord, she wandered toward the corridors leading away, instinctively drawn to the single stone one. Perhaps there was something useful she could find.

"Starlight?" Maple called softly, watching her go.

"I won't go far," Starlight answered. "Not out of sight. But maybe there's something I can find."

She could feel the reluctance radiating off Maple even with her back turned, and almost considered it would be a better use of her time to stay and comfort the mare. But danger wasn't abolished through hugging and hiding, and neither was being lost, hungry, or possibly hunted... even if their hunters did have bigger things to worry about. Following her hooves, she trotted down the long, straight corridor, until in the distance... She squinted. Was that another elevator shaft?

"Starlight!" Maple's voice called softly from behind her. "The elevator is coming back up!"

Whipping around, Starlight kicked into a canter. Of course they would get a chance the moment she left. Wasn't that how the world always worked? Maybe she should have left sooner.

"Starlight, look!" Maple was beckoning at the chain as she re-entered the room, and it was definitely rolling its way up. But even as she watched, it stopped... before moving downward once again. "The elevator is... Oh."

"There's another one over there," Starlight snorted, pointing a hoof down the stone corridor. "I didn't see if it was in use. We could try it?"

Maple shrugged. "Well, it's better than not trying?"

Starlight nodded. "Let's go!"

The elevator shaft stood empty, its console looking older than the sleek, previous one. It was rectangular instead of cylindrical, and significantly larger, enough that it was likely meant for cargo instead of personnel. Why anyone would turn a room directly connected to a pony elevator into storage space when something like this was so close by was beyond Starlight, but it didn't matter. What was important was that no dangling chains were visible, and there wasn't an In Use sign anywhere to be seen.

Maple peered at the console, and Starlight looked over her shoulder. "These buttons..." Maple mused. "I've never used anything like this, but I bet this one is 'up'..."

"This one is in the middle," Starlight pointed out, hoof hovering over another. "Maybe it makes it come to you?"

Maple pressed it. "Well, let's find out!"

Seconds passed. They would have given up and tried another, if not for the sudden, delayed presence of the usage sign... and then, after a heraldic grinding of gears, the large, boxy elevator car descended into place, its double-doors sliding open.

"Yes!" Maple beamed. "Good job, Starlight!"

Starlight nodded, moving to stand in the elevator. "So we go up three floors," she recited.

"Hmmm..." Maple rubbed her chin. "Do you think that means we press up three times? Let's try it..."

After a quick succession of jabs, a warning light lit up, and Maple scurried into the elevator after Starlight. A short moment later, the doors closed, and the elevator began to rise.

"Well, that worked," Maple said, wiping her brow as the previous floor disappeared from view. Another soon scrolled past, and she beamed when the elevator didn't stop. "We did it!"

"Yeah," Starlight said dully, not wanting to waste energy chatting now that waiting was actually productive. She did move to sit by Maple, however, leaning into her soft, if dusty, coat. "Almost there..."

The second floor passed by, and Maple nudged Starlight's horn. "How are you feeling?"

"Mmph."

"Any better? Anything I can do?"

The third floor moved into view... and the elevator didn't stop, continuing to rise. Any serenity that had allowed itself to build up was instantly lost as Maple flew to her hooves, looking for a way to stop the ride. Unlike the earlier one, however, it completely lacked an internal control panel, and their ascent continued unabated.

"Starlight..." Maple whined, shaking. "Starlight! I set it wrong! I don't know what to do!"

Starlight's eyes were fixed on the elevator entrance, where a fourth floor should have been passing by... but instead, there was only blue stone, flowing downwards like a waterfall. As Maple's breathing sped up behind her, she flicked her tail once against the ground. "I think," she said as the next floor continued to fail to show, "we just wait..."

A Difference

The elevator slowed.

Starlight had lost count of how many exitless floors had passed by. Ten? Thirty? A hundred? The rational side of her brain knew that, when traveling upward from below the ground, one would eventually reach the surface, but she was a unicorn, not meant for flight and unused to thinking in vertical distances. For all she knew, they were nearing the peaks of the mountains.

Crawling to a stop, its double-doors slid open, revealing more blue stone. The chamber was jagged and cavelike, massive iron bulwarks reinforcing it where it might otherwise crumble. Rather than doors and passages, some of the walls simply melded into adjacent rooms, as if someone had carved house-sized pockets in the stone at random and they had happened to intersect. The only light came from blue-burning iron torches set into sconces high on the walls, and a deep chill permeated the stagnant air, causing Starlight to flinch and move slightly closer to Maple.

"I don't think we should be here," she murmured, put on edge by the area's ominous architecture. "Maple? This place is creepy."

Maple nodded mutely.

Sticking her head out around the edge of the elevator doors, Starlight saw another control panel, and perked as hard as her tired body would allow. "Should we go back down and try again?"

"N-No!" Maple shot a hoof out to pull her back, stammering. "Starlight, what if it takes us back down even further than we started? We don't know how the controls work, and there are a lot of guards down there...!"

"And somepony attacking the fortress," Starlight muttered. "But what should we do, then? We won't find any food in here and we're just going to get even more lost wandering around! Does this look like a maze or doesn't it?" She folded her forelegs. "It's cold, too."

"I'm sorry..." Tensely, Maple nuzzled her, eyes moist. "I don't know why I didn't think to pack at least some food! It's big, heavy and spoils quickly, and I thought we could buy some when we were here..."

Starlight raised an eyebrow. "What do you have?"

"Umm..." Maple hesitated. "Money, raincoats, some ballast, a few small things like our hotel key, a rope, and Selma's card key. I stole the last two." She hung her head. "And the card, I don't even know how to use..."

Starlight sighed. "So you just want to walk around until we find some stairs back down?"

"Yes. I..." Maple shuffled her hooves, standing up and taking one step toward the elevator door. "That might be the safest..."

Frowning, Starlight watched her take another. Very likely, they were up so high that there wouldn't even be a staircase back down, and all they would succeed in doing was tiring themselves out more. Her horn was useless, maybe good for one concentrated burst of magic at best, and that would probably knock her out for the rest of the night. They had no food, no bedding, and to say the catacombs they stood in looked poorly-traveled would have been a generous complement.

At the same time, Maple seemed to be giving up. Starlight was used to surviving on scant resources in poor conditions, and if nothing else knew how to hang on to her determination and grit. Her adoptive mother, though, especially given her history...

They might have to take a gamble, more for Maple's sake than anything. Starlight strolled out of the elevator, peering carefully at the control panel. It looked ancient, and every button was unlabeled, but if they were going to try again, better to be as prepared as possible. She was just looking sideways, trying to figure out if a cross-shaped button meant 'add more floors', Maple peering worriedly over her shoulder... when with a mechanical rattle, the elevator doors slid closed, and it descended of its own accord, having been apparently summoned from below.

"Well," Starlight grumbled dryly, "it looks like we're looking for stairs."

Starlight led the way through the dungeon-like caves of the upper Water District, her earlier predictions of the place being a maze having been proven sadly correct. Exacerbating the random placement of side paths and empty rooms was the overwhelming sameness of it all: everywhere she looked, the same jagged, stalactite-ridden midnight-blue stone, with the same massive, black iron support structures and utter lack of furnishing. Worst of all, the elevation remained so constant, it was as if the cave floor had once been liquid and left to cool in place. They were making no headway up or down, and that showed no signs of changing.

"I think we might be lost..." Maple whimpered for the tenth time. Starlight's ears folded.

"Ohhh, we shouldn't have stayed up here..." Fretting, she following closely behind the filly. "I should have let us go back down! I shouldn't have been impatient to wait for the first elevator! And why couldn't I have packed food? What was I thinking, why-"

"Stop." Starlight spun, lifting a hoof to the mare's mouth, an easy feat when she carried her head inches from the ground. "I'm fine. I've done this before. Don't worry about me." Her stomach gave a treacherous growl, and she ignored it. "You should be worried about yourself, instead! I'm worried about you! Because you're worrying instead of trying to survive!"

She looked away, and continued. "Maple... M-Mom... It doesn't matter whether we will or won't find our way out, because that hasn't happened yet. Right now, you can't think about what's going to happen or what already happened, or you'll stop thinking about right now and then you won't make it!" Expending precious energy stomping a hoof, Starlight lowered her head and added, "And I don't like seeing you give up..."

Maple stared at her, mouth slightly ajar. "Starlight..."

Starlight felt her cheeks burn. Had she really just yelled at Maple? More importantly, had she really just presumed to know better? To be her superior? For them to be different, just because she had crossed the mountains and Maple hadn't? Besides, it wasn't a thing she liked to think about, but the memory of Amber's stinging hoof from the last time that had happened...

Wait. She took a deep breath; something was off. It was hard to be sure, thanks to her emotions and body getting in the way, but it had felt as if the tiniest gust of warm air brushed against her. Sniffing heavily, she thrust her brain into the coldest focus, tuning everything else out in the name of detecting heat. Because where there was heat...

She sniffed once, then again in a different direction, head held high. That was a lesson she had learned long ago, when she still attended school in Equestria: warm air rose, and cool air sank. There, in the high-ceilinged caves, it would be hard to feel anything warm on the ground, but if there was... it had to have risen from somewhere, which meant a way down. She took a few paces and sniffed again.

"Starlight?" Maple asked, voice slightly more sober. "What are you doing?"

"Finding a way out," Starlight answered confidently, locking on to a passage and striding forward, constantly sniffing the air and searching for any traces that didn't burn cold against her tired lungs.

"Well," Maple said nervously, "this is certainly a way down..."

They had come across their first real door in ages, completely unblocked and radiating warm air. Though likely little more than room temperature, it felt like a furnace against their chilled coats, and they had both stopped for a moment to bask before proceeding. That rest swiftly proved unnecessary, as they were stalled again, staring at what lay beyond.

It was a tunnel, if something of its size didn't deserve a bigger word. Broad and tall, it bored its way downward at a forty-five degree angle, a railinged observation platform at the edge of the incline providing a safe view down. Lit by periodically-placed floodlights that weren't even half bright enough to do their job, the bottom was lost to shadow, far beyond the vanishing point of the stark, boxy dimensions. Along the ceiling, two identical pipes ran, so massive that the Sosan trade cart they rode in on could have trundled through them with ease. A low, rumbling din filled the room, permeating upwards from the depths, soft enough to become inaudible outside the immediate chamber but deep enough to be heard with the chest, not the ears.

Parked at the top of the incline was a square platform with enough space to fit Maple's old house. It was fitted to a track that extended down into the depths, and to one side, a sizable conglomeration of engines and machinery sat, undoubtedly designed to power the ride.

Starlight nodded. "It's an elevator. I don't think it goes back to the Water District."

"But it goes down," Maple countered. "And maybe, if there are any ponies at the bottom, they'll help us..."

"Then let's take it." Starlight wasted no time stepping over the clearly-marked warning strip that separated the platform from solid ground, and Maple quickly followed her. "Where are the controls?"

Maple pointed to a panel next to the machinery. "Two buttons," she observed. "It's probably easy to guess what they do, but maybe you should..."

With a sigh, Starlight punched the lower of the two buttons. Immediately, there was a hiss, and a warning light flared as a gate rolled across, separating the lift from the exit. With a deep churning of gears, the elevator rumbled to life... and slid away from its dock, beginning its journey into the hazy blackness.

Starlight watched as the edge rolled away, then turned to Maple, sat, and curled into a ball. "It's probably going to be a long ride," she murmured, closing her eyes.

A moment later, she felt Maple coil nearby, wrapping a foreleg around her. "I'm sorry," Maple whispered.

"Don't be."

Maple ignored her. "It was a mistake, coming to Ironridge. I got excited, saw my chance and took it. But I didn't know what I was getting into, I... I thought it would be a fun adventure. And then we left that very night, without any time to think about it at all..." She sighed deeply, chest expanding against Starlight's back. "I wish I had waited. I wish I had thought about it more. There shouldn't have been a hurry; Arambai would have made Gerardo wait if I said I needed time. I should have asked them more about what I was getting into. I should have asked you..."

Her chin rested itself against Starlight's head. "I'm sorry," she repeated, the movement of her mouth slightly dulled by the filly's mane. "They warned me, didn't they? I wish I had listened. I wish I had made Gerardo leave us out of his delivery. I wish... I wish I hadn't come alone, and left my friends. I miss them..."

"Don't blame yourself," Starlight mumbled. "You didn't know better. Please."

"I didn't, did I...?" Maple answered, a strangely bemused tone in her voice. "I don't know better. I don't have any reason to, because I'm so new at this. And since I don't, I should be blameless..."

Something that might have been a tear landed on Starlight's ear, and it flicked. "It works, sometimes, when I think of it that way," Maple whispered, voice tightening. "That I'm not responsible for anything I do. That I can't be blamed for it. That I don't deserve to be blamed for it. That nothing I do matters." A sniff. "And every time I do, I decide it's horrible, and I would rather be guilty than meaningless. At least then, I'd have a chance... to do things right. I want to matter, Starlight. Please..."

"That's why you came to Ironridge."

"That's why I brought us to Ironridge, yes..." Maple took a deep, rapid breath. "Part of it. Starlight, my life was... I thought... It wasn't easy. It still isn't, sometimes, like now. I'm... I'm scared of not being able to do anything for the ponies I love."

"Well, you did something for me," Starlight said softly, feeling Maple relax around her. "So thank you."

"You think that...?" Hesitantly, Maple sighed. "Thank you, then. For... for being somepony I could..."

"We'll do something else, too," Starlight added resolutely. "We're getting out of here, and there's no point in thinking otherwise! And then we're going home... to Riverfall. But on our way, we'll do something. We'll find somepony to help, and make a difference for. I promise."

"Promise..." Maple whispered.

By the time the lift slowed into its dock at the bottom of the incline, both mare and filly were soundly asleep.

Whatever Works

Hot air was blowing on Starlight's face.

Restless as her sleep was, she grumbled, shifted, and cracked her eyes... and yelped, sitting up in a flash. A pair of green, slitted eyes were inches from her own, close enough that she could smell their owner's breath.

"Aah!" She struggled back, bumping up against Maple, who was clutching her tightly. "What...? What are you...?" she panted, gaze flicking wildly.

Valey stared back, unblinking, still well inside of Starlight's personal space. "Hi."

Behind her, Maple grunted, squirming in her sleep. "Aspen... nngh... no..."

"Maple..." Nervously, as patiently as she could, Starlight shook the mare. There were things she could deal with on her own, and the batpony was not one of them.

With a gasp, Maple woke. "What!? I... I..." She put a hoof to her chest, and then her face fell. "Ohh..."

"You know, you two don't look so hot," Valey remarked, standing in front of them with a large sack slung over her back.

"Valey?" Maple paralleled Starlight's gaze, staring at the mare.

"That's my name." Valey nodded. "So, why did I have to come all the way down here to find you guys? You hiding from me, or something? Because I didn't take you for hobos."

Maple tensed. "You were... looking for us?"

"Well, duh!" Valey jostled her bag, pulling the top open with a wingtip. "You promised to take these off my hooves when I was done, remember? Although, I, uhh..." She glanced around. "I figured you would have someplace more respectable to put them..."

The lift had docked during their slumber at the bottom of its incline, furnishings sparse save for walls of sheet metal and occasional crates that looked to be in storage. To one side, a large, sliding cargo door was padlocked shut. The only thing that separated it in aesthetic was a metal archway, styled after gears and looking deliberately ill-fit and half-melted, set in the far wall, fiery red light pouring from the corridor behind.

"Not to knock your house, or anything!" Valey hastily continued. "I mean, metal floor, metal walls? Looks, uh, sturdy. And a very short commute, if you work in the Flame District. A little lacking on the privacy side, though." She tapped the side of her hoof against the ground, musing. "No beds, either. Kudos to you for trying that, by the way. I couldn't live without something nice and fluffy! I hear it might be going into style, too..." She winked. "After a year or two of extreme poverty. Seriously, how much did you guys pay for this place? It's a dump."

"Is that a bag of fruit?" Starlight asked, skipping all but the most important detail. Beside her, Maple nodded, a repressed spark of hope in her eye as if she were on the losing end of a battle against the fear of being pranked.

Valey stuck her head inside. "Yeah, something like that. Here, have a pear." Reaching a wing out, she lobbed the object at Starlight. "So, what are you doing down in the Flame District at two in the morning?"

"...We're lost," Maple admitted, hanging her head. "And we've had a terrible day. Just, whatever you're going to do... please don't separate us..."

Looking up, Valey bit her lip, eyes shining with suppressed eagerness. "Terrible, huh? Ooh, spill the beans!"

Wincing, Maple started, "I-I don't..."

"Gerardo," Starlight interrupted, already stuffing her face with the pear. "He had us take those boxes we were carrying to the Water District, where we got attacked by the guards and Maple got stolen! And I followed her, and we almost got out, but got trapped by the elevators, and..." She trailed off. "And give Maple one too."

"Huh!" Valey beamed. "Look at that, you guys were honest. I know everything, remember."

"Then why are you here now?" Maple asked, voice steady.

"I just told you." Valey looked mournfully at her fruit bag. "Because I got all this delicious fruit and need something to do with it, and no way am I sharing it with the guards. I forget, what did each of you say you liked, again...?" Rummaging with her head entirely in the bag, she stretched a wing back, holding an offered peach.

Maple's eyes widened, and she stared at the tantalizing fruit. "We are hungry..."

"Well, take it!" She wiggled it under their noses for emphasis.

Relenting, Maple followed Starlight's lead with the peach, spraying juices in her eagerness. "So, about that being lost..." Valey closed the sack and slung it back on her back. "What're you gonna do? Try to find old Birdo? Hide out here and play it safe?"

"We do not want to stay here," Maple hissed around her fruit. "We're trying to get out as soon as possible!"

Valey rolled her eyes. "Should've stayed put, then, I could have found you faster. Still not as fast as I'd like, since the entire Defense Force got themselves into a pickle and needed me to bail them out..." Pouting, she puffed her cheeks and looked aside.

"You mean that siren?" Maple asked, slurping down another mouthful of peach. "We would have gotten out by now if not for it. There was a guard, and Starlight got him to help us before he kicked us out of the elevator to go deal with that."

"Yep." Valey stood up, pacing. "It was crazy. Pretty much what happened was the Spirit honcho - calls herself Braen, nasty strong unicorn in armor, small chance you've met her - just strolled right in, all alone, and the guards picked a fight with her because she's who the Defense Force was made to fight and it was home turf and a hundred versus one and all that, and she completely creamed them without lifting a hoof. She had this weird magic sword that made them go all noodly when hit, and just stood there waving it around in her magic. Complete no-sell, since those pegasi are dumb and have no decent weapons."

Grinning harder, she added, "On top of that, whatever nutjob designed the invasion response policy completely forgot that noodle-guards block the hallways and make it impossible for reinforcements to get past. I mean, everyone knows that you don't deploy full armies in close combat situations! Kind of hilarious, actually." Cupping a hoof around her muzzle, she whispered, "Spoiler alert: that was me. I thought it would be funny to see everyone standing around in a crisis with nothing to do, not that they'd be much use anyway. Anyway! So I had to go clear that out and tell her to get lost before coming to find you. Sorry." She shrugged, only half-apologetic, and straightened her beret.

Maple blinked. "O-Okay. And thank you very much for the food, but... could you please show us the way out of here, now? Please?"

"Yeah, sure." Waving them along, Valey strode confidently toward the glowing, reddened entrance to the Flame District. "Follow me!"

So Tired

Hooves drummed against metal as Maple stepped wearily forward, Valey's peach and her brief, restless sleep providing enough energy to carry on... but only just. Starlight plodded close at her side, head held proudly but exhaustion showing through, evident in the little things like how her tail hung lower, or how her legs rose a little slower than they went back down. At some point, the filly's hairband had came undone, leaving her mane lying limply across her back, its ends slightly straighter and more ragged than normal.

Maple's own coat felt sticky, as if the constant wind of the Defense Force tunnels had contained something particulate and clingy. It didn't help that she was beginning to sweat, the present tunnel obviously the source of the rising heat they had felt together in the shaft. The fiery glow that poured out of the entrance was all around her, endlessly reflecting itself off burnished metal walls, and it penetrated effortlessly through her dusty fur as if the light itself was heat.

The source of the glow became readily apparent when the corridor ended. Across a chamber constructed of so much steel grating and mesh that it would be harder to slip than to tear one's hooves off, a broad, heavily-reinforced glass wall stood... and beyond it, oblivion. They faced a vertical cavern the size of a mountain, looking down from a window near the top past the red, smoke-stained rocks to the mechanized metal beyond. A pillar of composite machines, covered in ladders and catwalks and enormous pipes of ventilation and coolant, hung from the ceiling, dominating the view. Exhaust vents belched jets of flame, obscuring the true extent of the depths with an impenetrable haze of smoke, great black shadows of moving things projected on them by brighter lights from below.

"You like?" Valey asked, shifting the weight of the fruit sack on her back and peering down through the glass. "The mines of Ironridge, mostly known as the Flame District. And they really do their best to look the part! That thing in the center is one massive drill that sends arms out sideways, letting them stripmine without having to do anything but rotate it every once in a while."

"It's... certainly impressive..." Blearily, Maple glanced down into the mines, then back up at Valey. "We're too tired for sightseeing, though. Can we please get out?"

"Yeah, yeah..." Grumbling, Valey turned to a side passage and pressed on.

If the corridors of the Water District were lined with steel and shared space with pipes, the ones in the Flame District were made of pipes, surrounding a metal mesh cage of a tunnel in which ponies could travel. It was impossible to make out the walls beyond the nest of tubes through which they walked, and the porous ceiling made Maple thankful none of the overhead pipes were leaky.

For several cycles, they pressed on: a tunnel of pipes, into another observation room and so on, gradually making their way around the circumference of the drilling pit. The entirety of the journey was done in a dry, uncomfortable heat, suggesting that at least some of the pipes around them were carrying something well past its boiling point.

Occasionally, they passed other ponies, mostly vest-wearing stallions plucking dutifully away at consoles with their wings, horns and hooves, focusing on broad console screens flashing with numbers and data. They barely gave the party a second glance, and many times not even a first... and when they did, it was fixed on Valey and accompanied by desperate innocence and blatant dislike.

The chain of rooms continued, slowly and gradually curving. Looking out the windows to the central mining pit, more were barely visible on the opposite side, tinted dark against the light welling up from the depths, likely in a complete ring. Finally, after what felt like several revolutions but was probably only a quarter lap, a wave of cool air kissed Maple's cheek. "Are we there?" she asked in eager relief.

Valey raised an eyebrow. "Depends where 'there' is. We're here, certainly. Exit's just a bit further. But unless you plan on sleeping in an alley or on a roof or something..." She shrugged preemptively, as if expecting them to say yes. "I mean, Ironridge is kind of a big city."

"We do have a hotel, but..." Maple's ears drooped. "Gerardo was the one who knew how to get there. Everything looks the same to me in the Stone District, and I can't remember any landmarks..."

"You have a hotel?" Valey blinked. "Well, why didn't you say so?" She looked back guiltily at the sack of stolen fruit, and added, "Sounds like a way better place to enjoy these than this smelly cave. Let's go find it!"

They turned right, down an upward-slanting corridor leading away from the ring. The light became progressively more natural as they passed lobbies and break rooms, the red glow fading as if by design to be replaced by bright greens, yellows and whites. Eventually, the tunnel widened... and the surface came into sight.

At least halfway up the Stone District, they stood in a broad, lowered plaza cut into the face of the mountains, bearing tiered, concentric benches and the design of an amphitheater. Valey led them along a decorated path to the rim, the moon shining brightly overhead, well past the peak of its arc across the sky. Starlight stared at it, and it glowed back, its cool light ruffling her mane like the affectionate hoof of a familiar parent. Deeply, her lungs breathed, flushing themselves of the stale, cold air of the Water District and hot, oily air of the Flame District, the long-overdue freshness doing almost more for her fatigue than the nap and the pear combined. It was good to be outside.

Far enough west that the Water District dam was cleanly visible in the distance, the trio stopped, Valey still in the lead. "So..." she mused, leaning on one hoof. "This hotel, right? Where is it?"

"If we knew, we'd be there," Starlight mumbled, too grateful at being outside to be properly grumpy at still being awake.

"No, uhh..." Valey sprang into a hover, tail flicking. "Like, better question: do you remember anything about it? Anything I could use to find it? It doesn't take much, but nothing is nothing, and it's a pretty big district. Stuff you could see, stuff it was near..." She blinked. "Whether the receptionist was particularly hot?"

"She did seem interested in Gerardo," Maple recollected. "But I'm not the best judge of that..."

"It had a pool in the first room," Starlight offered. "It was dark. Before the skyport entrance."

"Okay..." Valey licked her lips. "That isn't too far from here. Let's skedaddle, and then when we get closer I'll fly up and take a look around. Think you could recognize it from above, kid?"

Maple hissed, moving to block Starlight from Valey's sight. "If you're saying you want to take her flying, I don't trust you nearly enough yet for that. Starlight is not leaving my side!"

Grinning broadly, Valey floated backwards out into the street. "Wisest thing you've said all night. Now come on!"

"You can find it just from that?" Starlight plodded forward, deciding to waste her breath on the question.

Valey looked back over her shoulder and shrugged. "Like I said, the more info, the better. Anything else? Anything at all?"

Starlight's eyes scrunched in thought. "The mare at the front was flowery. I think she smelled like them, or had them in her mane..."

"Flower mares, flower mares..." Valey unfocused, slowly spinning upside-down and then back upright without appearing to notice. "Wait a sec. Is there any chance she was pink with a green mane, pretty well-endowed and wore a gigantic vase in her mane?" She blinked. "Or maybe just a bouquet. Enough to look ridiculous."

"Maybe?" Maple offered with a shrug. "I think I recall something like that."

"Yeah." Starlight nodded. "That sounds right."

"Huh!" Beaming, Valey did a backflip and landed on her hooves. "Her husband works for me! I asked her out once to annoy him. She didn't say yes. But she works in a hotel, so... why not check there?"

"There's a hotel," Valey said, pointing over her shoulder as she hovered along. "There's a hotel. There's one. And another. Ringing any bells?"

"I don't, no..." Maple huffed, winded from the altitude constantly shifting. "I thought you... said you knew where it was?"

"Eh." Valey shrugged. "I know the general location. It's somewhere around here."

They came to an intersection, both options leading downhill. Starlight frowned, glancing between them. "I think we should go that way," she eventually declared, pointing back close to the way they had come. "It feels better. We're too far this way."

Valey raised both eyebrows. "You sure? If you say so, I guess."

Starlight nodded. "When we found the hotel, there weren't any right below it. If we're seeing them now, and they're mostly in the same place, that means we're above it, but if we keep going, we might go too far. I think." She swallowed, hoping she was right. Maple was clearly flagging, and it wouldn't do to keep her on her hooves any longer than necessary.

"Hotel?" Valey asked, repeating a tried-and-true procedure that had been uninterrupted for at least thirty minutes. "Hotel... hotel..."

"Wait," Maple instructed, eyeing a building to the side. "I think... Starlight, does this one look familiar at all? I think this might be it!"

Starlight squinted, inspecting the building by the light of the moon. Her bleary eyes didn't make it any easier, but eventually she snorted. "Don't you have a key to check if it's right? It looks good..."

"I do..." Hesitantly, Maple pulled out a small object and slotted it into the front door. With a well-oiled creak, it swung open.

"Slick!" Valey stomped a hoof, her normally-raspy voice slightly rawer from the nonstop hotelling. "Now let's go eat this stuff in peace!"

Maple raised an eyebrow. "You're coming too...?"

"Well, duh!" Valey bounced the bag on her back, stepping through the door ahead of Maple and Starlight. "After all this walking? Why wouldn't I? You guys are fun!"

"Because we're tired and want to go to sleep," Starlight announced, well aware that she was past her limit for the day and would feel the consequences in cramps when she woke. Maple would only have it worse.

"Oh." Valey's face fell. "Well, at least let me get this stuff up there. But if you think this is the last you'll see of me, though..." She shook her head and winked. "Well, you've got another think coming."

Good Night

Starlight looked up, lifting her head from a cantaloupe slice as the bathroom door swung open. Maple trotted out, coat damp, cheeks rosy and looking slightly less exhausted than she had before bathing... but still ready to collapse. She made a beeline for the nest-like bed where Starlight lay, nudging the filly aside with her nose. "Move over, you. I need to lie down..."

"Careful with those," Valey remarked from where she lay prone on a table, pointing a wing at the open fruit sack. "Gotta remember to only drip juice on the bed. Makes it more of a headache for management to clean up."

The hotel room was perfectly untouched since they had left the previous evening, with no evidence that anyone had entered. Its normalcy was almost shocking after the night's events, but it was a shock that ended in serenity, not panic or fear. Granted, it wasn't nearly serene enough to go to sleep, despite Maple and Starlight's overwhelming exhaustion. Valey made sure of that.

"Gerardo isn't here yet, is he?" Maple asked, sighing, ignoring Valey's bad advice. "I mean... I suppose it's hard to be late at this hour, and he more likely came and left already, but..." She stared forlornly at the door, and Starlight had to offer her a banana to get her to look away. "He doesn't have a key. Right..."

"Haven't seen him." Valey slithered closer to the table edge, head hanging off and staring at them at a bizarre angle. Her beret was on the hat rack by the door, and and her emerald mane hung free, nearly touching the floor. "Probably bailed. It's not like I can follow everyone at once, you know."

Starlight shot her a glance that might have been reproachful, but was tempered by the presence of donated food. "If you were following us, then why didn't you help earlier?"

"Huh?" Valey blinked. "I wasn't following you. Where did you think I got all this food? And didn't I tell you about the mess in the fort?"

"Then how did you find us?" Maple asked, swallowing her mouthful. "The Stone District is huge, and we were hidden!"

"I told you that too: she reeks." A leathery wing pointed itself at Starlight. "I can smell her for miles."

Both ponies shot her a dirty look. "What?" Valey shrugged. "You asked, and it's true."

Maple pressed her nose into Starlight's side, inhaling deeply and causing the filly to squirm. "Well, I think she smells wonderful," she countered, eyes narrow, "so there."

"Meh. I didn't say it was a bad smell." Valey rolled herself upright, folding her forelegs. "Though now that you mention it, something does smell a little funky right now, and not in a good way." She raised her muzzle and took several sniffs, then shrugged again. "Eh, maybe the neighbors had a fight, or something."

For a moment, nobody said anything, and the room was silent save for the sounds of chewing and slurping. Then, Starlight said, "Why are you helping us?"

Valey patted her stomach and burped. "I told you, because I can't eat all that by myself."

Starlight frowned. "No. The guards in the fort hate you. The one who helped us only did it because he thought you got us in trouble there, and you keep doing weird things like blocking roads and telling me I smell. So why are you being so helpful, and why to us? Don't you have other things to do?"

"Wow, you need to pay attention more." Grinning, Valey rolled back upside down. "I told you that too! I get paid to do what I want!"

"So why do you want to help us?" Starlight narrowed her eyes. "What are we to you?"

"Well... eh... fine." Valey deflated somewhat. "Maybe you haven't noticed, but..." She extended a wing, examining it and then displaying it to the two in bed. A fanged grin followed, though there was no mirth in it. "Get it?"

"I... don't, no..." Maple blinked. Starlight stayed silent beside her.

"Precisely." Suddenly dour, Valey looked at them, eyeslits thin and constricted. "Because I've been watching you, and if you had noticed anything, you would have done something by now. But you don't get it, and that both makes you the stupidest, naivest things in this city and some of the only ponies worth being nice to. It's... selfish, I guess."

Leaning forward, Starlight asked, "What are you talking about?"

"Everybody else?" Valey examined her wing again, carefully displaying its featherless, leathery texture. "They see these, and they think oh bananas, here comes trouble. Never even give it a second thought. My kind have a bit of a bad rap around here, in case you hadn't noticed that either."

"What... What are you, anyway?" Maple blinked. "I've been meaning to ask..."

"Batpony," Valey replied, shrugging limply. "Ever heard the saying 'never trust a bat'? That's us. Good advice, too. And ponies listen." Slumping, she let herself droop slightly further off the table. "Mean, nasty pranksters, the lot of us. Can't escape it whether you're a felon or an angel, if the latter is even possible."

Maple sniffed, setting aside her food. "That... Really? That sounds so lonely..."

"Hey." Valey frowned, pulling her wings back to her sides. "Before you go throwing a pity party, I'm hardly deserving of sympathy. Maybe if I wanted to sit back and do nothing but whine about the world being unfair, but I give as good as I get. Ponies want to blame me for all sorts of stupid stuff?" Her grin returned. "Way I see it is, might as well have the fun of doing it. So I do my job and keep the city safe when it needs it, and spend the rest of my time haunting pedestrians and screwing with paperwork to annoy bureaucrats. It's no paradise, but I don't wanna even think about how much worse it could be."

"You work for the Defense Force," Maple noted. "Are you a detective, or something?"

Valey shook her head, still grinning. "I lead the Defense Force, much as Selma hates to admit it. Of course, that doesn't really mean much, with how poorly the top is organized. I have no requirements, no duties, no nothing except bossing ponies around on random whims, and neither does he. You probably couldn't design a more corrupt, dysfunctional system if you tried, but I do keep the district safe, and with this many enemies, the threat of an army at my back is kind of something I really don't want to live without."

"That sounds too good to be true..." Starlight said dubiously, ears folded.

"Eh. Well, I didn't mention the downsides." Valey snorted. "If I didn't have all of Ironridge hating my guts before, this would be great for making enemies. I hardly deserve the post, and only got it through blatant favoritism. I've stepped on the hooves of most everyone there, and everyone, especially the dangerous ones, are jealous someone like me gets the post instead of them. And then I have to answer to an even worse boss than I am..."

"In the Sky District?" Maple asked, blinking.

"Nah. It's the yak ambassador, Herman." Valey gritted her teeth. "Herman is pure evil. He always gets his way, and then acts like he never even noticed you wanted something else to happen, or at best like he allowed you to lose. He makes all his plays by doing things that have nothing to do whatsoever with his goals, and somehow always gets them to work out in his favor. It's... unfair!"

She tensed, rolling upright again on the table. "Like, look at me! I'm literally paid to do whatever I feel like, and have all the power in the world! I should be the best wild card ever made, the definition of impossible to manipulate!" She pointed both hooves at her chest in self-indication. "But the more I use this job, the more I need it. The one thing I can't do is not play. I'm on the board and can't get off, and that works in his favor every single time..." Kneading the table with her hooves, she drew in a hissing breath. "I hate him so much, and there are so many ways I could end him. So many secrets I could spill that would obliterate his career and smash his stupid yak face into melon paste... but then I'd lose this job because no sane successor would hire me, and that would be suicide and he knows it!"

Her wings flared, and she stood up, panting. "I think I need to go ruin someone's morning," she huffed, red and disheveled. "Bye."

Valey blasted out the door, executing a perfect right-angle turn in the hallway, letting it swing closed behind her. Her beret remained unclaimed on the hat rack, swaying slightly in the breeze from her wake. Maple and Starlight looked at each other in the silent aftermath, blinking.

"She sounded like she really needed to vent," Maple eventually whispered. "And if all that's true, I still feel sorry for her..."

"Yeah," Starlight muttered under her breath. "And I'm tired."

"And I'm full," Maple happily groaned, pulling over the fruit sack and peering inside. "Looks like she left us enough for breakfast, too... or lunch, with how late we're probably going to sleep in."

Starlight nodded contentedly, her own hunger thoroughly alleviated. For all Valey's quirks, she had certainly brought them quality food. Curling up tightly, she tucked herself tightly against Maple's side, listening to the sound of the mare's slow breathing as she drifted off to sleep.

Ditching Pegasi

The entrance plaza outside the skyport was empty when Gerardo Guillaume emerged from the lift tunnel, Sharpie and Brightcoil at his side. A few lonely equines paced stiffly by, eyes fixed forward, interest locked on their unknown destinations.

A distant rush permeated the air, which Gerardo soon realized to be the eternal windstorm that blocked flight directly into and out of the valley. It sounded more like a waterfall than anything, though no rivers of meltwater made their way through the district anywhere near him.

He shot a glance northward, where the hotel room Maple had booked lay empty. A small part of him clenched at the waste of money, but it was quickly overridden by more important concerns. Wherever Maple and Starlight were, it was in far less comfort and safety than they deserved... and than he had been charged with providing. All he could do was hope his mission to the yaks would prove successful.

Howe and Slipstream lingered in the back of his mind. The former still rubbed him the wrong way, and it was hardly a sad parting on Gerardo's side. From what he had learned of the pegasus, it likely wouldn't be their last... but that was a bridge to be crossed when it came. Slipstream, on the other talon, he hadn't even gotten a chance to ask anyone to say farewell to. Hopefully she wouldn't remember him poorly, and would be fine stuck with Howe. Most of his thoughts were consumed with Dior, however, their brief encounter playing over and over behind glazed-over eyes. The stallion had said he would see to Maple and Starlight's safety. Had he acted yet? He spoke and left with urgency, yet what could be done on such short notice, and at night at that? Short of walking into the fortress himself and demanding their release...

If he had acted, then Gerardo's friends were likely safe, though he couldn't even begin to guess where. Skyfreeze, most likely. The hotel? No sane guardian would leave them on their own. The Earth District or Sosa? Hardly likely. Few options seemed even remotely reasonable, and if they had been taken care of, his own presence shouldn't be needed to ensure their safety. No, he had time to pursue his crates. Those were equally if not more so important, for unlike the ponies, Dior certainly wouldn't help with them.

A loud sigh from Sharpie broke him from his thoughts. "It's a twenty-minute flight from here to the embassy. We shouldn't waste time standing around."

Gerardo raised an eyebrow. "Flight...?" His eyes flicked to Sharpie's folded wings... and then to Brightcoil, standing demurely with her horn dull on her forehead. Unicorns couldn't fly.

Crouching almost low enough to the ground for her business suit to scrape the roadway, Sharpie ignored him, beckoning to Brightcoil with a wing. The unicorn strode closer, before climbing onto her friend's back in a well-practiced series of motions, forelegs locking tightly around her neck.

"I see..." Gerardo mused, bringing a talon to his chin as Sharpie flapped, face scrunching in exertion as she gained altitude and hovered out over the cliff edge. Flying for two, the pegasus' progress was hardly going to win any races, and Gerardo stood for a moment before spreading his own broad wings and taking off.

In a matter of seconds, he had eclipsed Sharpie and Brightcoil in distance, and pulled to a halt, not wanting to embarrass the pair. Sharpie's suit made it impossible to tell how toned her muscles really were, but it was at least clear she wasn't an athlete. Her flaps were broad and desperate, lacking some of the finer wing control displayed by any flier used to performing professional maneuvers.

Having allowed them time to form another lead, Gerardo sped up... and immediately passed them once again, despite his best efforts. "Would you stop?" Sharpie snapped. "You're literally flying in circles around me! I don't need another reason to feel bad about myself tonight."

"M-My apologies!" Slightly shaken, Gerardo bobbed backwards. "Although, if it would be of service, I could always carry her myself..."

Upon receiving the biggest stink-eye of his time since entering Riverfall, which was saying something as he had managed to make an enemy of Hemlock, Gerardo instantly backed off, resolving to stay firmly behind the slow pegasus for the duration of the flight.

"There's the yak embassy compound," Brightcoil narrated as they neared the Stone District once again. Even in the moonlight, it was easy to see what she was referring to: set in a break in the switchbacks and roadways that made up the district's walkable space, a walled area sat, taking great care to remain flat despite the steepness. In the back, it carved itself into the mountain, and in the front extended in a platform all the way to the walltops, gargoyles and crenelations acting as architectural staples. Inside the courtyard, several buildings stood... but it was the outer gate where Sharpie finally stumbled to a landing.

"Urgh..." Panting, she brushed her suit off and blew a stray mane hair away from her mouth, produced a card key from a pocket, and strode up to the gate. It was unstaffed, a sleek console accepting the identification instead and beeping as a wrought iron grate rolled aside. Brightcoil quickly stepped through, and Gerardo made to follow her, when he was stopped by a hoof. "Hold on," Sharpie muttered, punching at the console. "Give me a minute..."

There was a ding, and something printed itself out from a slot at the bottom. Sharpie reached down and took it. "Visitor badge," she mumbled around the scrap. "Take it. You need it in here, and it's not my fault if you get in trouble without it. This isn't Ironridge anymore."

Gerardo nodded, affixing the card to his lapel. "Completely sensible. I shall endeavor to keep it as safe as safe can be."

"Suit... suit yourself..." Sharpie bit back a yawn. "Our quarters are this way. I'll handle things in the morning. And now, I'm tired, so don't bother me until then. At all."

"Of course," Gerardo replied, nodding once again and slipping in behind them in silence.

"I... seem to see what you meant about only having one bed," Gerardo remarked, standing in the entrance to Sharpie and Brightcoil's generously-named house. It wasn't so much a statement about the number of beds in the room as a testament to the lack of anything besides that one bed. Two suitcases lay open against a wall, a closet-sized room sat in a corner that likely had no space for a shower, and there was a tiny table with standing room only. The walls were undecorated and predominantly gray, as was the floor, ceiling, and single window. There was a small mirror, a half-unpacked bag of groceries, and that was it.

"It isn't much," Brightcoil admitted, standing next to Gerardo as Sharpie shrugged her way out of her suit. "It's less that we're poor and more that it's hard for the yaks to be fond of ponies in a profession like hers, and we only live here because Skyfreeze makes them let us. Some day, when Sharpie can retire, we're going to buy a nice Stone District mansion with plenty of room, and live more happily there. Or maybe we'll even go to a nicer part of the Earth District, and never have to deal with upper-district problems again. Everyone talks about it like it's a slum district, but almost all of them have never actually been there. Really, parts of it are very nice..."

Finished with her suit, Sharpie slithered up between the bed and a titanic mound of blankets, disappearing completely. A single hoof stuck back out, patting in invitation. Brightcoil looked at it, then back at Gerardo. "You can sleep on the floor, or... wherever, I guess. I really do hope in the morning we can help each other, Gerardo."

"As do I," Gerardo whispered back as she joined her companion under the covers. "As do I..."

Second Day

Starlight didn't need to crack her eyes to regain consciousness, floating pleasantly in the black haze of sleep that could be banished with so much as a thought. It warmed her and wrapped around her like a comforting blanket, preventing her from feeling the limbs that would likely cramp with pain as soon as moved. Maple was against her, and so was their bed, but the feeling was so proper and normal that her nerves registered nothing save for peace.

No light shone on her to warm her coat, but an internal sense born of days in the wilderness told her it was mid-afternoon. She felt she could sleep all day, if she willed it, and after the previous day of exertion, it would be more than welcome. At the same time, the sooner she got herself back to normal, the more useful that rest would be. Who wanted to wake up, ready to face the day, and be greeted with sunset?

...She might, if she was honest with herself. There was always something about the night that felt welcoming to her, as if the black sky and bright moon liked seeing her under them. But Maple wouldn't want to do that, and she couldn't afford to make herself her own first priority when the mare was around. Maple loved her and accepted her, and that meant Starlight had to keep her happy and safe when she needed it in turn. And right then, that meant letting her decide when they would wake up. Not blinking or even swallowing, she rubbed and rolled her head deeper into her new mother's coat, rearranging her legs just slightly, and settled in to wait in peace.

Maple snuffled from the movement. Without lifting her head, she asked, "Starlight?"

"Mmph," Starlight mumbled, mouth tasting of sleep.

"Last night feels like a nightmare," Maple whispered, curling around so that her cheek was right next to the filly, resting her chin on the edges of Starlight's hooves. "I wonder what will happen today..."

"Nnnn..." Starlight agreed, flicking an ear. Apparently, Maple wanted to wake up right then, which was maybe a bit too soon. It wouldn't hurt at all to lay there for a while, like they did in Riverfall. Hopefully Maple would feel the same without her having to say anything.

"My... nngh..." Starlight felt Maple's muscles tense, shake briefly, and go limp. "My legs hurt... Ow." She exhaled softly. "Ohh, I hope we don't do too much running around today. I'm not sure how much I can take." Silence. "Starlight, I..." Her voice lowered even below a whisper. "I'm sorry," she breathed. "I wasn't myself last night. I got scared, and I panicked and lost hope... even when I know how important it is never to do that. But today will be better. You'll see. I can already feel that today will be a good day, and we'll be able to help ponies and make progress and do something good."

"Mmm." Starlight didn't particularly care what she was saying, only that the more awake she grew, the more aware of her cramps she became. Going back to sleep was definitely the best option.

"I still don't want you to be in danger, of course," Maple murmured, seemingly having no intention of allowing that. "We'll stay safe. I think our plan from last night is still good; to go to the Earth District where the guards won't recognize us and start again. Maybe we'll go back home, or maybe Ironridge will still work. But we'll be all right. Things will get better. We can still have a good time and make this a fun adventure, Starlight. I promise..."

As Maple talked, Starlight swiveled her ears, going about the process of sorting background noise into sounds she knew, familiarizing herself with her surroundings still without opening her eyes or surrendering the last traces of comforting fog in her mind. Maple's talking. Maple's breathing. A set of hoofsteps clumping down the corridor beyond their door, likely a stallion from the heaviness with which they struck. Distant vibrations, perhaps echoes through the rock. And from behind them: "Shhwonk... nyup nyup... Shnorrrrr..."

Starlight pried her eyes open, leaning up and looking over Maple's side at the same time as the older mare lifted her head to look back for herself. In the second bed, where Gerardo once intended to sleep, lounged Admiral Valey, sprawled upside-down and sound asleep. Her eyelids were cracked from the force of gravity, and her mouth was open with a tongue and small thread of drool hanging out. Her wings were spread, her hat was missing, a banana peel rested on her belly and her legs stuck straight up in the air, one occasionally twitching.

"Is she...?" Starlight muttered, voice grumbly from just waking up.

"I wonder how long she'd been here," Maple mused. "Didn't she leave, just before...?"

As if detecting the presence of eyes on her, Valey blinked awake, and her twitching froze. "Oh hey, you're up," she remarked, moving as little as possible. "Uhh... huh. Hey, do I look as cute as I feel right now?"

"I might not be the best judge of that," Maple admitted hesitantly. "You look... peaceful?"

"Nyeugh." Valey flopped upright in a single motion, dropping the banana peel and flipping her mane. "You ever dream about busting up every single thing that's ever ticked you off and having superpowers that make you look flashy and do epic charge-ups and transformations and lasers and stuff? It's the best. Definitely recommend." She yawned massively, showing her fangs, then shook and blinked rapidly. "So, I feel like tagging along with you guys some more, today. What's the plan?"

"Why are you in our room?" Starlight asked, ignoring the question. Her voice was successfully not hostile, but she hoped Valey would get the point that it was rude and uncouth to spend the night in someone else's room, unannounced and uninvited.

With a shrug, the batpony answered, "'Cuz I felt like it. That fluffy bed beats whatever random roof or tree I'd usually hide on, and if you're somehow in more trouble than I'm aware of, it'd be dumb to turn down an excuse for a free fight. Besides, it's not like I was interrupting anything."

Maple squinted. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"Nothing! Nothing." Valey looked away innocently. "By the way, you guys are, like... what, siblings? I mean, you act like mother and child, but look just a little close in age for..." She cringed.

"I adopted her," Maple answered firmly. "I mean, we don't even look that much alike..."

Completely different would be a better way to put it, Starlight thought, looking over herself and her coloration. Maple's dusty tan coat shared no similarities with her own pale lilac, and the mare's reddish-brown, neither-straight-nor-curly mane and ruby eyes were both far away from hers as well. They were even different races, which was made ironic by the fact that Maple was the better magician of the two. Her cutie mark was strong and versatile, and Starlight still felt the vague buzz in her head that told her magic was in emergency-only mode.

"Eh. Makes sense." Shrugging again, Valey wandered over to the fruit bag, pulled out a banana, and dangled it over the pair with a wing. "Catch. So, what's the plan, again?"

As Starlight took and peeled the banana, Maple answered, "We're going to the Earth District. We'll be less likely to run into trouble there from that captain finding us and remembering us, and there's a pony there we're looking for as well."

Valey raised an eyebrow. "The Earth District is a pretty big place, you know."

Maple nodded. "We have directions. Or, an address, at least."

"Well, suit yourselves!" Valey closed her eyes and pranced toward the door, marching with a spring in her step. "Luckily, I'm pretty good at that place, myself. And don't go worrying about the Defense Force; I'll take care of that. Come on, let's get started!"

"Wait a minute!" Slowly, Maple scrambled to her hooves, wincing every time she moved her legs. "Ow, ow, ow... Last night was not good on my body. All of yesterday can go jump in the river, actually, and... owww... Ah! Okay. Phew," she panted, "I'm good. Just give me a minute to pack this fruit, okay? And Starlight, you should stretch now, since I don't think I feel up to carrying you today..."

Starlight carefully moved her legs, testing them before relying on them to stand. Her muscles were knotted and her hooves were sore, the latter of which was partly her fault for being too tired to remember to take her horseshoes off before bed. Still, while it was a degree of uncomfort she had done her best to avoid pushing herself to in the mountains, it wasn't debilitating. She would be able to walk, and maybe run, and at least trust her legs more than her horn... and hopefully have a short recovery period, as well. Just as long as they didn't have to walk several dozen miles that day...

"Don't bother taking the whole thing," Valey advised, pointing a wing at Maple and the fruit sack as she straightened her beret with a forehoof. "Just eat what you want now and dump the rest. We'll get more later. Trust me, it's the funnest thing in this city."

Shrugging, Maple pocketed several fruits regardless as Starlight looked on. "I am not traveling without food nearby again," she resolutely stated, finally coming up and taking a breath. "Shall we go?"

Valey nodded, extended a foreleg, and pushed the door open.

Valey's Detour

The sun shone down from straight overhead as Maple, Starlight and Valey stepped out into the world, mixing warm light with the cool winds of the altitude to provide a pleasant, refreshing contrast to the interiors of caves and buildings. The heavy breeze teased at Starlight's mane, prevented from sending it flapping about only by her ponytail, which Maple had seen fit to fix before they left. As she breathed, filling her lungs with the scent of the mountains, Maple passed their room key back to the receptionist, then strode forward to stand beside her.

"We don't need the room any more?" Starlight asked, looking up and shading her eyes with a hoof. "What if Gerardo comes here to look for us?"

"Well, then he'll ask at the desk and they'll tell him we left, which will tell him we're all right," Maple answered confidently. "And we're not planning to come back here, are we?"

Starlight shrugged. "I guess..."

"Good," Maple exhaled, straightening her shoulders. "So... I suppose the fastest way to the Earth District is down, right?" She looked to Valey for approval.

"Huh?" Valey blinked as if distracted. "The Earth District? Oh, yeah, we'll get to that in a bit. Something else we gotta do first that's a little more important. This way, though. Follow me."

She led them down and to the right, retracing the direction they had come when first entering the Stone District. The dam loomed ahead, gradually turning into a thinner and thinner vertical sliver as the angle they viewed it from narrowed with proximity. It was far easier going than on the way up, though still not completely free: ponies possessed far-forward centers of gravity that aided in climbing and running, but made faceplanting on downward slopes a constant threat.

"So we're going through the bridge by the dam?" Maple asked as they passed a cart, a faint cloud of dust in its wake causing her to stop and cough. "We've been there once before..."

"Nah. I told you, there's something else we need to do." Valey ruffled her wings, walking in the lead, and now that Starlight was watching she saw far more signs like ponies averting their gazes or shooting dirty glances at the mare. "Don't worry, it'll be quick."

Starlight wasn't thrilled by her lack of transparency, though there was little she could do about it, and it was hardly unexpected. If Valey's importance was all she had touted it as, she could do whatever she liked with Starlight and Maple, and they would be forced to go along with it. Unless she was being manipulative, and her preferred way of making ponies do things was making them want to...

In fairness, she had outright warned them that she wasn't trustworthy. What was the point of that? It was the classic I'm lying paradox: were Valey trustworthy, warning them about her would be a lie in and of itself, if a justified one. But were she rotten, she never would have been up front about it. It felt like there were several easy explanations she was missing, but the logical side of her brain refused to drop the issue and let any others be considered.

Then there was Herman. Valey had spoken loudly against him, including showing the first trace of any emotion besides confidence, smugness and nonchalance she had seen. Was Yakyakistan's ambassador to Ironridge truly psychotic, or had Valey been lying? Or perhaps she was projecting, and was truly the manipulative one herself. Starlight had to admit, she was likable, even if she seemed to go out of her way to be so. There was even the possibility that Herman was a good, fair leader whom Valey had a personal grudge against. After all, she hadn't mentioned him doing anything wrong.

"Valey?" Maple called, snapping her from her thoughts. "Why are you going in there?"

"Huh?" Valey looked back, standing in the square stone entrance of a windowed building that seemed recessed from the rest of the street, likely built mostly underground. "'Cuz this is where we're going. Are you coming, or aren't you?"

Starlight surveyed the entrance, instantly suspicious of caves and anything remotely resembling them. Her eyes eventually flitted upward, and widened... and then narrowed. Above the door was broad lettering that read, Stone District Defense Force. "That's the place we just spent hours trapped in."

"Pretty much!" Valey said with a grin. Stepping back out, she opened her eyes and her face straightened. "Look. You're probably still spooked about last night and yadda yadda yadda, which is why we're here. I'm gonna officially hire you guys and make you part of the Defense Force, then do up the papers so you answer directly to me for everything. That way if anything bad happens or we get separated or whatever, you'll get brought to me and Selma won't be able to touch you. He knows to stay off my turf."

"That's..." Maple blinked. "That's actually a really good idea. Er, assuming we can trust you. I'm..." She looked away. "I'm still not completely sure that's the best idea..."

Valey put a hoof to her chin. "Right, I'll have to give you an easy out... Uhh... I could let you carry your contracts around yourselves, but then you'd have to risk putting them in danger if you needed them as proof... Still though," she mused, "you guys are screwed if I decide I don't like you no matter how many lawyers take your side. You can't ditch me, so you kind of have no choice but to put up with what I want. So yeah, I think standard policy will be just fine."

Unfortunately, Valey was right, and the look in Maple's eyes told Starlight she knew it too. The batpony was all over them, and with the skills and resources she supposedly possessed, very little could save them if she decided to actively be a traitor. There was no good course of action left save for one, and that was to try their hardest to remain on good terms with her. "Okay," Starlight responded, "we'll do it. Please don't make this take long."

"All right..." Maple agreed, still clearly unhappy at the sight of the entrance. "I guess you're right. Sign us up. Just as long as we won't have to do any actual fighting work?"

"Nahhh. Of course not." Valey emphatically shook her head, stretching her wings and brushing the sides of the door with their tips. "If we get in a scrape, no hogging my fun. All you've gotta do is what I say, and I'll be nice. Oh, and you get paid, too."

Instantly, Starlight perked up. "We get paid?"

"Well..." Valey shrugged. "It's not the best money, but stallions can support their families on it. Dunno what you'd do with it, yourselves. Get some fancy eats or hotel rooms, I guess, though really, fruit and trees work perfectly well. You could probably save up for airship tickets, too, if you ever get fed up with this place and want to bail."

Starlight and Maple turned to each other, the same thought simultaneously crossing their minds as Valey beckoned them into the fortress.

Completely Ruined

As Starlight crossed the threshold into the fortress, her first realization was that her expectations - for the place to be a dank maze of blue stone and leaky pipes like the outer reaches of the upper fort - were completely incorrect. The door opened immediately into a broad, naturally-lit room with several windows, painted walls, and a dated-looking light fixture on the ceiling. Aside from a rack of simple weapons on one wall and a few maps covered in arrows and tactical things, it could have been an eatery, or even a house.

A group of stallions seated at a round table in the corner immediately looked up on their entry, and one scowled. "Bah. Party's over, boys, it's you-know-who. Time to get back to work..."

Valey grinned back and waved a wing, making sure to show off her fangs. "Hey, don't feel bad. Getting back implies you were there in the first place!" Her eyebrows rose suggestively. "Don't worry, I won't tell Selma. Keep those expectations low!"

Muttering something about working for the good of the city, the guards abruptly vacated their table and shuffled out, sparing neither Maple nor Starlight a second glance. Valey happily waved them on, then winked as soon as the last one had disappeared. "Guess you guys didn't cause too big of a splash, huh? Those clowns sure didn't care!"

The only other occupied table in the room held a gaggle of younger stallions, all leaning together intently and whispering excitedly about something. Valey stared longingly at them, a prank twitching in her eyes... and eventually snorted, spinning about to face Maple and Starlight. "This way," she said, walking toward a doorless entrance in the back of the room. "We don't have to go too far."

Two bends, a staircase and another hall later, they emerged into a second window room, presumably right on top of the first. A massive billboard covered one wall, and several desks were strewn against the other. A lone, sandy yellow pegasus watched them enter from a stool at the central table, working his way through a pastry. "Admiral," he said with a respectful nod. "I wondered if you'd show up today. Who's earned your ire on this fine afternoon? Here, by the way."

He lifted a wing and flung a small bag at Valey, who caught it expertly and slipped it beneath her hat. "Yo, Sandybutt. Got some new recruits, so I was thinking of heading down to the Earth District and messing with D.K. for initiation. This one's Maple, and this is Starlight. They need better names, I know. Anyone else I should annoy while I'm there?"

"Maple and Starlight, hmm?" The pegasus raised an eyebrow, not getting up. "Lieutenant Sand Stream, not to be confused by the Admiral's insults. And don't you look a little young for this?" He tilted his head. "Not to mention both being mares?"

Valey stuck her tongue out. "Didn't stop me, did it? Besides, Selma makes laws and I break them. If he's got a problem with this, it's his own fault for baiting me."

"Umm..." Maple hesitated, raising a hoof. "Sorry, but what did you just give her? Something about that looked illegal..."

"A bribe," Valey answered smugly. "Sandybutt here is the smartest pegasus on the Defense Force, and the only one at all who's figured out it might be a better idea to find a way onto my good side. And it turns out, he's got a marefriend with a brand for making toffee!" She reached under her hat with a wing and pulled out the bag, shook it, and deposited a carmelly cube onto her tongue, then put it back, chewing loudly. "Mmm-mm. So he gives me candy, and I'm slightly less annoying and maybe occasionally bother ponies he doesn't like. I've got a sweet tooth, in case the fruit didn't tip you off."

Neither Starlight nor Maple had anything to say, and Sand Stream merely offered a shrug. Returning the gesture, Valey strode to a nearby table where several stacks of paper sat in bins, and inspected them, biting her lip. "Hmhmmm... We'll need some of these, and a few of these..."

Gathering a ream of documents under her wing, she quickly spread them out on a table and set to work with a pen. Starlight tried climbing up to look over her shoulder, but the detail and complexity of the forms lost her before she could even begin reading.

Valey, meanwhile, skimmed over them like they were nothing. "Weight... eh. Height... eh. Distinguishing physical traits..." She tapped her chin. "I'm gonna say your age is forty-two and your favorite flavor is garlic/curry, so hopefully those are false. Have you guys ever fought a water buffalo?"

"Are you making stuff up?" Maple asked sternly, trying to see the papers as well.

"Sorta," Valey answered, flipping a paper and grabbing another for reference, talking around the quill in her teeth. "Sandybutt was right earlier. Mostly I'm messing stuff up so the clowns in the Sky District who track this stuff will have bigger things to worry about than wondering why I'm recruiting a mare and a filly, or will just give up and not vet this so I get you on my roster no matter what. I could also just pull rank if anyone tries to call me out or even beat them up, but this way is way more fun."

"But you're a mare too," Starlight pointed out, frowning. "Why does it matter?"

Valey shrugged, quill scratching. "I also was pretty young when they first made the force. Way older than you, but still. I told you I only got the job because of blatant favoritism." She crossed something out and re-wrote it. "It's a mix of what everyone expects and what Selma says."

"It does seem strange to let a filly do guard duty," Maple agreed.

"Yeah. And something something protecting pretty faces." Valey bent down and licked a spot on a form, causing the ink to smudge and become illegible. "Every time I ask him if he means that rule to be about me, he gets pretty steamed. Selma's way too obsessed with looking good in public."

"Didn't seem that way to me," Starlight muttered darkly.

"Hey, you can't have a reputation built around stopping villains without villains to stop." Holding up and comparing two forms next to each other in the light from the window, Valey put one over the other and carefully began to trace an existing signature.

"That's impersonation..." Maple worried, shuffling her hooves. "Couldn't you get in really big trouble if you got caught doing that...?"

"Oh, this?" Valey squinted, not looking away from her work, tongue stuck out the side of her mouth. "Nah, my signature's good enough to authorize anything. I'm just copying some nobody cadet's to make sure this form gets thrown out. That'll wreck the paper trail somewhere else. Hey Sandybutt, has that embassy inspector been poking around here recently? You know, the hot one?"

"She was here early this morning," Sand Stream remarked disinterestedly, sipping from a ceramic mug as Valey added countless hours to an unfortunate administrator's workload. "With a griffon. Seemed happier than usual. Selma was in a bad mood, by the way."

"That's a shame," Valey mused, reaching back for another form. "He's too easy when he's already mad. That inspector, though... Let's, uhh... hmm... Let's send an order for D.K. to ship two dozen crates of marmalade to the embassy, with the Defense Force fund key written all over it. That'll give her something to find a conspiracy in."

"Yes, you do that," Sand Stream sighed, getting to his hooves. "I need to get back to work. You two..." He looked closely at Maple and Starlight. "She seems to like you, but whatever your business is with the Defense Force, I sincerely hope you're all right. I've seen just as many promising careers fail as take off, and knowing the Admiral, this is an ideal start for the former. Stay safe, please."

"Go jump in the Yule, fatty," Valey retorted, not bothering to look up. "Promising careers taking off? Here? I'd never let such a thing slip by."

The lean pegasus rolled his eyes, ruffled his feathers and snorted, turning and walking out of the room. Valey made a few more quick strokes before finishing as well, proudly depositing her forms in outbound boxes. "Right! All taken care of. That's this week's efficiency in the system, completely ruined. So, ready to hit the Earth District?"

Maple shook her head. "I don't know how you're able to keep the city safe when you try so hard to sabotage your own army. What if something actually happened and you needed to move fast?"

"Meh." Valey shrugged, popping another toffee from her hat into her mouth. "If anything did, it would be better with them out of the way. Less potential for escalation, and all that. Right now, I can protect the Stone District all by myself with one wing tied behind my back, and with the crazy stuff the Sosans are doing, the fewer competent fighters in this city, the better. Remember, I need Ironridge not to explode so I can keep my job. I'm a jerk, not a maniac."

"We should go, then," Starlight announced. "That unicorn might come back, otherwise."

Maple shuddered in agreement. "Yes, please. Every moment we stand here, I keep feeling like something is going to go wrong..."

"Yeah, yeah. Right this way..." Shuffling, Valey walked to the door, leading the way back to the entrance of the fort.

Close Shave

"I'm really, really nervous..." Maple whispered to herself as Valey led her and Starlight out of the fort. "Things have gone too right today, and after yesterday, I don't trust it to keep up..."

"Didn't you say you were going to hope for the best?" Starlight gently prodded, walking at her side.

"I did, yes," Maple sighed, biting her lip. "...Still. What would Gerardo call it? Dramatically appropriate, or something?"

"Talking like that, you're just asking for something to happen," Valey chuckled from the lead. "Life is ironic."

Starlight furrowed her brow. "That sounds superstitious."

"And you don't have a bunch of legends wherever you're from?" Valey raised an eyebrow. "Come on, superstition is fun! Except when you want to run into trouble. I'm bored and need a fight, and asking for it is just gonna make this even blander. I can't wait to get down to the Earth District."

"Would you mind asking for something to happen, then?" Maple asked with a crooked, hopeful smile. "I really am trying my best, but if there's anything you can do to help..."

"Fine, fine." Valey rolled her eyes, then tipped her head to the ceiling and loudly announced, "Wow, I sure hope I run into someone important! I totally want to sit down and have tea with them and share my amazing toffee and wouldn't even dream of beating them up!"

"You like that?" she finished, tossing her mane. "Now there's no way we'll oh bananas!"

At that instant, they rounded the final corner to the lobby room, and Valey nearly crashed head-on into an unfortunately familiar white unicorn.

"Captain Valey," Selma lectured, not even sparing a glance toward the petrified Maple and Starlight, "did I just hear you picking fights with employees?"

Valey pursed her lips. "You really need to get better at names, Commsy. It's Admiral! Even Herman says so!"

"Eugh..." Selma shook his head as if realizing he had stepped on a slug. "I am a captain, not a commissar. I doubt you even know what that means. Now answer the question."

"Depends," Valey said with a shrug. "Are you volunteering?"

"What I'm volunteering," Selma sneered, "are some popularity pointers you as the face of the Defense Force cannot afford to ignore, and will inevitably do so anyways. I don't know why I even bothered to waste my time."

"Hey, uhh..." Valey pointed behind her with a wing, indicating Maple and Starlight. "That won't interfere with me training my new recruits, will it? Because it sounds like work."

Selma's gaze slowly drifted across the pair... and somehow failed to widen in recognition. "You look nervous," he observed. "I take it you've already had a taste of what she can do."

Silence, from both Maple and Starlight. Selma tilted his head. "Well?"

"Hey, shove off, you." Valey elbowed him to the side, pushing with her wings. "Go get your own recruits. These ones are mine."

A full second passed before Selma snorted. "I have better things to do with my time than oversee cadets who are clearly part of a disposable prank. However, my day is going swimmingly, thank you for not asking, and there are better ways I can spend my time counteracting her damage to our reputation than educating you on how to obtain a proper commanding officer."

Valey blinked, eyes focusing as if for the first time. "Hey, has anyone ever told you your mane looks like a pineapple?"

Selma blinked back, then growled. "You're incorrigible. I can't believe Herman thinks your presence is somehow beneficial to our great district. You two." He turned back to Maple and Starlight. "I don't know what you're doing here," he continued, still showing no outward traces of recognition, "but you don't belong. Wherever you came from, go back and live in peace, and don't get caught up in our affairs. After all..." He lowered his voice, staring directly at Maple. "It would be a shame to waste such a pretty face."

"Helloooo?" Valey waved a hoof in front of his eyes. "Ironridge to Mister Creepy Stalker? What about my pretty face?"

Grimacing, Selma closed his eyes and stepped down the hall, giving Valey a wide berth. In a matter of seconds, he was gone.

"Speaking of hoping for good outcomes," Maple panted, finally allowing herself to breathe. A hoof to her chest, she added, "He knew. He definitely knew, and he didn't care..."

"Eh." Valey shrugged. "His opinion of me is low enough that he probably thought if he wanted to punish you, there'd be no better way than standing back and not intervening. Too bad for him it's the Earth District getting pranked today! Now let's get out of this place."

Sun broke over Starlight's head as she exited the fortress door with almost as much intensity as Maple's sigh of relief. "Whew," the mare panted, "I can't believe our luck held through all that. When he showed up, I..."

Valey pouted, bringing up the rear. "You know, I say I'll help you and chase off all the loons and goons and bad guys, and somehow, you still act surprised when I come through. It's like you don't trust me!"

"Um-!" Maple fidgeted. "I didn't mean..."

"No no, that's good!" Valey shook both forehooves, hovering. "Never trust a bat. Means you're learning."

"That's not really what I meant either..." Maple looked away, as if regretting opening her mouth.

"Should we start going?" Starlight asked, sticking close by Maple's side. "The faster we get away from the guards, the better. And he did tell us to leave..."

Valey licked her lips. "Well... it is the hottest part of the day, and the Earth District gets pretty nasty if you're not used to it. Which I'm guessing you're not, since your coats are a little long for around here. You really want to leave right now?"

"What else would we do if we stayed?" Maple asked, straightening up and wincing slightly, evidently still cramped from the day before.

"Beats me." Valey strolled across the street and looked down, staring out over the Earth District. "All the fun stuff is down there, like stealing fruit and messing with D.K. and the Sosans. Hey, wanna go sit on that wall and pretend to be a checkpoint? That's a good pastime."

"Who's D.K.?" Starlight interrupted, slightly lifting a hoof.

"Dangerous Karma," Valey explained, a far-off look in her eyes. "What his mother was thinking when she named him that, I really want to know. He's the richest pony in the Earth District, and owns a lot of plantations and growers' complexes, and even a town. If you think of the Defense Force as the Stone District's government and the Sosan factories as Sosa's, him and his army of infrastructure and organization wonks are that for the Earth District. Generally, the assumption is that if you're stealing fruit, it's coming somewhere from him."

"I don't know..." Maple shuffled her hooves, wiggling them in a futile attempt to loosen her muscles. "Part of me is nervous and wants to hurry to go find that pony we're looking for. The other part of me is tired of hurrying and wants to do something safe and relaxing. Is there anything to do that doesn't involve... doing anything?" She tilted her head hopefully.

Shrugging, Valey scratched at her ear with a wing. "I mean, you could always sit in the audience while I start a bar fight, or something. Or just watch me do my thing in general."

"You seem really obsessed with fighting ponies," Starlight warily observed.

"Well... yeah!" Valey's eyes widened with legitimate surprise, and she reached back and tapped her rump. "What else did you think a brand like this was for? Making gloves?"

Starlight stared back, eying Valey's red boxing glove dubiously. "I don't care about cutie marks."

Valey blinked. "A whattie mark?"

"It doesn't matter," Starlight snorted, turning away. "You shouldn't have to do something just because you have something like that that says you should."

"Uhhh..." Valey eyed her as if she had just proclaimed herself to be a tomato, then turned into a toad. "I don't have to do anything, because I'm me. I'm just bored and want to do what I like. Is that a problem? Because I think I've been pretty nice and helpful so far."

Maple stepped between them, waving nervously. "Maybe we should just get on the the Earth District then, and think of what to do once we get there?"

"Good call!" Valey relaxed, shooting her a wink. "So, should we do this the fast way, or are you still scared to try flight?"

Starlight looked at her hooves. Lifting a foreleg, she could practically see the knots in her muscles, and if it was just her she knew she would be willing to take Valey up on her offer. Since it was Maple who objected last time, however, she held her silence.

"I'm still not sure," Maple answered. "I'd rather not, though, if it's all right with you."

"Eh. Suit yourselves." Valey shrugged, hopping into the air and hovering. "It's kind of a big district, so don't blame me if you get tired."

"Getting tired?" Maple exhaled heavily, looking at the sky. "I wish I was only tired. These cramps do not feel very nice."

Starlight bit her lip. She had suspected Maple had it worse than her, and the protest hardly reassured her about the mare's condition. Still, if she said she was good... "I'm ready," Starlight declared. "Where's the road to the Earth District?"

"Heh..." Valey chuckled. "Downhill. Unless you're made of helium, it's impossible to miss. Let's get going!"

Gerardo's Dawn

The first hint of rising sun was all it took to rouse Gerardo from slumber, shining through Sharpie and Brightcoil's lone window and illuminating a patch of slate-gray concrete that was part of the far wall. It was a welcome awakening, his sleep having been less than pleasant thanks to the hard stone floor serving as his bed. Still, as an adventurer he had dealt with much worse, and rose with several degrees more grace than could reasonably have been asked.

Nearby, a bulging mound of quilts and blankets covered the room's single bed, stacked so high that it was impossible to tell if there were any ponies beneath them. Taking stock of the temperature as he preened, Gerardo judged the night to have been pleasantly cool and no colder, implying that at least one of the mares was used to a much hotter climate. Brightcoil, he supposed. As a unicorn, it was fairly likely she was from the Earth District.

Carefully, he coughed, impatience to get on with his mission clashing harder and harder with his desire to be a respectful guest as his brain tuned its priorities for the day. The guest identification Sharpie had printed the previous night was still affixed to his uniform, so leaving to explore on his own was always a possibility... but since he needed Sharpie's help to meet Herman, soloing wouldn't do anything productive. Finishing one wing and moving on to the next, he settled in, resolving to wait.

About halfway down his inner feathers, he heard a rustle from the bed and looked up. A pair of pink eyes blinked out from a gap in the covers, eventually followed by Sharpie's face and then the rest of her body. She slithered disgruntledly onto the floor, sitting up and digging in her ear, cheek puffing as she ran her tongue around the inside of her mouth.

"Ah!" Gerardo beamed. "You're up!"

Black, uncombed mane plastered messily across her face, Sharpie took several seconds to respond. "Not until I get coffee and a shower." Getting to her hooves, she staggered past him, eyes unfocused, completely oblivious to personal space, and squeezed her way out the door, opening it as little as possible to get through. Gerardo blinked.

A wistful sigh echoed from the blanket stack, and Gerardo turned once again to see Brightcoil's head also protruding from the pile. "Good morning..." she said tiredly, not making any move to crawl further out.

"Indeed." Gerardo nodded, bowing deeply. "Let us hope the rest of the day is as such. Did you have a pleasant sleep?"

"I should probably be asking you that..." Brightcoil mumbled, looking away. "Since I'm your host, and all, and you were the one sleeping on the floor. Um... did you?"

"I have had much worse," Gerardo truthfully answered. "In my line of work, one can rarely afford to be picky. Last night was at least spent with the presence of a roof, and I did not wake to find myself surrounded by brigands or wild animals. Of course, I trust we still have a plan?"

Brightcoil exhaled. "You'd have to ask Sharpie. You've probably noticed, but she's the one who's in charge of things. She feels better when she makes things work to help others. She really needs it..."

"Mmm. Forgive me for saying, but she doesn't seem to be in the happiest place."

"It didn't used to be like that," Brightcoil sighed. "Years ago, before she got promoted to this job, things were different. She used to work as a low-level manager for airship maintenance at the skyport. Not quite low enough to get grease on her hooves, but she was directly responsible for the ponies that did. Making sure they did their jobs, stayed safe, and kept others safe by making the system as efficient as it could possibly be. She'd say it was worth it, every time a ship left and completed its flight without issue. All she ever asked was for someone to thank her when she was done."

Gerardo nodded along as she talked, but eventually raised a talon. "Are you sure these are things I need to hear? They seem somewhat... personal."

"Oh." Brightcoil's face fell. "No, you're probably right. I just... I don't know. I've felt for so long like things are just going to keep getting worse until something else happens to make a change, and then you started talking in Skyfreeze, and... sorry."

"Hmm. Well, there's no need to apologize for hope," Gerardo countered, firmly silencing any possible continuation. "And I suppose I did ask, so there's always that. However, while I'm flattered you trust me so, perhaps stories of your clearly tragic past should wait until at least formalities have passed? At present, we are allies, and I'd prefer that to become friends before we tell tales of emotion and drama."

"I..." Brightcoil blinked, face scrunching in confusion. "Sorry. I'm not awake enough yet for that many big words, and that went right over my head."

"Ah. My apologies, in that case." Gerardo bowed again, turning away without breaking eye contact. "Being unnecessarily verbose is an unfortunate habit I can't quite seem to shake... Err... that is, yes, I talk too much. To paraphrase: let us have breakfast before any more of that talk."

Brightcoil's horn lit, projecting a green aura the color of her mane out over the room. Without moving an inch further out from under her covers, she hovered over a jug of water, drank deeply, then unwrapped an oat cake and held it to her muzzle, chewing.

"That... is one way to have breakfast, yes," Gerardo admitted, left feeling slightly awkward from the display. "I don't suppose there is anything for me...?"

When Sharpie returned, coat still ruffled with dampness and mane tied in a cord to dry, Brightcoil had finally risen, sleepily sitting next to a table as Gerardo chewed daintily on a mango. "Morning, Sharpie," she offered limply.

"Aha," Gerardo exclaimed, "You're back! I take it we are nearly ready to depart?"

"Coffee," Sharpie demanded. "Later. Wait."

"I started it already," Brightcoil interrupted, pulling over a small press in her aura along with a kettle of boiling water. "Here."

Seizing a mug in her wing and holding it in anticipation, Sharpie watched dully as the unicorn squeezed. A moment of dripping later, and she lifted it for a sip, steam still rising in curtains... and sighed. "I needed that. Where were we?"

"Myself," Gerardo announced. "Last night in the Sky District, we agreed to join forces as I attempt to recover my friends and cargo from the Defense Force. You thought it would be prudent for me to take my case to Herman, if I recall correctly."

"Right." Sharpie took another gulp. "You're the optimist who thinks he can do something about them." Setting her mug down with a clank, she rubbed one wing against the other, then bent down and began licking her fur, trying to straighten it back into place. "And I said I'd help you, because why not? It's not like I have anything left to lose."

"Technically, we do still have a lot of good things..." Brightcoil whispered to the side. "Sharpie, want me to get your mane?"

"Not relating to defeating the yaks," Sharpie grumbled. "And fine. I assume you want to leave as soon as possible?"

"That would be ideal, yes." Gerardo nodded, standing up. "How fast are we referring to by 'as soon as possible'?"

"I will not be happy or pleasant without something to eat," Sharpie muttered, moving to inspect a still-packed bag of food as Brightcoil's aura followed her around with a comb. "Two minutes."

"Very well..." Impatiently strumming his talons against the floor, Gerardo settled in to wait, counting off the seconds in his mind until he could get another shot at helping his friends and saving his cargo.

Yak Embassy

Gerardo stepped out into the morning sun of the yak embassy compound, Sharpie and Brightcoil leading the way. He blinked several times; first to adjust to the sudden brightness and second at what he saw. "For an embassy of yaks, this facility certainly has a lot of ponies."

At least seven equines were visible within the walls, discounting his companions, some engaged in conversation and others walking between doors and entrances. Most wore saddlebags designed for paperwork, and all dressed smartly or else not at all.

"Yakyakistan has a pony population, too," Brightcoil narrated. "Most of these are citizens. The yaks just like using pony diplomats because it makes them seem more relatable."

"And because they're small," Sharpie added. "Yaks are big, so accommodating them takes up more space, which means they would need a bigger, more expensive compound for the same level of output. Herman makes an exception for himself, of course, but usually they're too stingy to even represent themselves properly."

"Herman is a yak, though, I take it?" Gerardo raised an eyebrow.

"Yes," Sharpie said stiffly, her wet mane clinging to itself despite the breeze. "You can see for yourself soon enough, provided he doesn't ignore me and shove me down his schedule."

They entered a doorway at the rear of the compound, backed by a wall that was carved into the mountain. After a short tunnel while the ground rose overhead, the ceiling opened up as well.

Though the walls were stone, as always, they were cracked, cobbled together from smooth-faced boulders of all different shades of blue and gray. Dark wooden trim hung along the floor, walls and ceiling as support beams, or perhaps in imitation of them, being too thin to hold any real weight. Instead, they were covered in red-painted runes and patterns, occasionally studded with hooks from which large, tribal-looking yak masks hung, staring with perpetual frowns and empty eyes. A rotary clock was mounted at the far end of the room, embellished with careful but blunt carvings and designed without hands, such that the entire panel rotated loudly with the passing of time.

"Hi," a candy-colored mare behind a low desk droned in an extremely thick accent. "What make ponies come by yak headquarter this day?"

Sharpie hissed through her teeth. "Spare me, Maia. My job stinks enough already without having to parse you."

Maia looked up, lidding her eyes and dropping the accent. "What, so I shouldn't be able to do mine either? I get paid too, you know. Now are you going to tell me what you want, or what?"

"This griffon needs to meet with Herman," Sharpie quickly commanded. "He has something important to discuss regarding the Defense Force."

"Hmmhmmhrrrrmmm..." Maia gnawed her lip, skimming through an appointment book that out of the corner of Gerardo's eye appeared nearly blank. "I can pencil you in two weeks from now. How's that sound? We could also push it back later..."

Deciding it was better to interrupt early than let the situation continue in its present direction, Gerardo raised a talon. "I'm detecting a significant amount of animosity in this room, which is very unfortunate as I would very much rather act as soon as possible." Straightening his posture, he added, "Please, I have no wish to get swept up in internal politics, and mean you no harm or ill will."

Sharpie shot him an unhappy look, then sighed as if used to being thrown under the cart and held her tongue, backing away from the conversation.

"You do, huh?" Maia blinked up at him from her tiny little stool. "See, by picking their side, you're getting as politicky as possible, mister catbird. You've got 'here as part of a scheme' written all over you, and Herman doesn't have time to deal with that! Go find someone else to accuse of wasting money protecting your ungrateful little city!"

"On the contrary," came a voice from the corner, "involving himself in the schemes of others is what our glorious leader does best."

In a rocking chair, gently swaying, half-hidden by a tall potted fern, an elderly stallion sat, traces of green in his mane and a dark, mottled coat the perfect shade for blending in. "Your trust in the Ambassador is too thin," he lectured in a small voice. "Let him decide what pieces are useful and which should be cast away. After all, in the great game, he plays for both Ironridge and Yakyakistan."

"Uurrrgh!" Maia reached up and tugged on her mane, which was rolled into two buns. "I've been here for a while now! Stop treating me like I'm new!"

"Then stop pretending to have so little faith," the stallion softly said. "Our Ambassador was appointed by the Bishops themselves. Besides, I know your planner is empty for this morning."

"Don't you... they're using... aaagh!" Maia slammed both forehooves against the desk, causing it to rattle woodenly on its supports. Lips drawing back in a scowl, she flipped the appointment book back open. "Herman have time for catbird after present meeting. Catbird wait in lobby and not go anywhere. I'm taking my break!"

With a huff, she threw down the planner, stood up, and exited the room through a side passage, tail flicking violently. Gerardo shrugged, looking to Sharpie and Brightcoil. "I hope that doesn't return to bite me. Such a temper could prove to be an unfortunate and volatile obstacle."

"I wouldn't fear too much, catbird," the stallion in the corner reassured. "Our ambassador is used to never letting his staff get in the final say. You'll get your chance for him to judge your cause, rest assured." He raised an eyebrow at Sharpie and Brightcoil, still rocking. "Although, that's no guarantee he'll take your side. Some ponies are quick to forget that Herman is the savior of the Stone District, and blame instead of thank him for their livelihoods. You two, for instance, would be much happier if you put your ambition aside and worked to make the world a better place. And don't try to pretend you're happy now. I know the signs of stress and anger when I see them."

Sharpie fumed, and Brightcoil laid a comforting hoof on her shoulder. Meanwhile, Gerardo tilted his head. "I'm sorry, but who did you say you were, again?"

The stallion nodded in time to his rocking. "You can call me Emil. That isn't my full name, but it's much simpler than the explanation. And I've been working at this embassy since it was founded, for nearly forty years."

"I... see," Gerardo said, eyes unfocused. "I did spend some time in Yakyakistan, but can't say I have a particular memory of the workings of their naming conventions..."

"Well, don't waste your time worrying about her." Emil nodded toward the door Maia had left through, shrugging slightly and revealing a pair of decrepit wings. "She was born and raised in this embassy, and has never seen the homeland. I have faith she'll grow into a good mare in time, though who can say how long that will take? She never has taken her virtues seriously..."

"Forgive me if this lacks tact, but my memory of Yakyakistan consists entirely of rock and ice," Gerardo remarked. "I have been considering returning there some day, however. When you speak of that mare that way... what places do you recommend I not miss out on?"

"You're asking the wrong pegasus," Emil wheezed sadly. "I've been here since this embassy's modern inception, which was just after the war. There've been so many progressions and revolutions since then, I imagine even if I went back I wouldn't recognize a thing. Who knows what the Yakyakistan of today looks-" His ears twitched. "Oh?"

A door on the far wall clicked, its lock being undone. "That's the Ambassador," Emil announced. "Whatever you want with him, I hope it benefits both of our nations."

"That would be most beneficial, yes," Gerardo said, striding toward the door. "I-"

The door swung open, and Gerardo's face fell like a fruit smashed against the ceiling when he saw the ugly manestyle waiting behind.

"Oh, hey, bird-bro!" Howe grinned, beaming, acting for all the world as if he hadn't been ditched miles away less than eight hours earlier. "Fancy meeting you here, heh heh!"

"I really would rather not deal with this right now," Gerardo softly remarked to no one in particular, looking as if he had been robbed thrice in one day. "Howe, whatever your business here, I-"

"Whoa. Whoa. Whoa." Howe held a hoof out, confidently interrupting. "Look, bud, you feel that we've got some bad blood, and I get that. I mean, I might have oversold myself back with those guards just a little, but hey, a guy's allowed to make mistakes, right?" He raised a challenging eyebrow. "It ain't like you didn't leave me in a pickle yourself, you know. Or... I dunno... just wandered off without saying a word to your poor pal? Look, I like you, brother bird, but it's almost like you don't want the Howenator around."

"That is the point, Howe," Gerardo sighed. "Despite, and often because of your best efforts, you've done nothing but be a hindrance to me and my causes. Now please, get out of my way. I have a very important meeting to attend to, and you are not a part of it."

Howe opened his mouth to protest, but was cut off by Sharpie. "Excuse me?" she asked, wearing an uncharacteristically-pleasant smile. "You said your name was Howe? I feel like I know you from somewhere!" Leaning across one foreleg to match his posture, she continued, "How long have you been in Ironridge? More than a month? I kind of feel like..." She trailed off, putting a hoof to her chin.

"Who, me?" Howe turned, immediately gravitating to the pony actually willing to pay attention to him. "Nah, I just rolled in real recently, like a few days ago. I've been here before though. Gotta go where the work takes you, yeah?"

"That's it!" Sharpie snapped her feathers, jumping in place and grinning broadly. "I do remember! You're that public speaker, aren't you? Who gave a speech here a year ago?"

"Heyyy!" Howe grinned back, then blew a raspberry at Gerardo. "Looks like someone here can appreciate a pegasus with talent! Lucky for me, she's a hot babe, too! We should hang out. Feeling up to lunch with little old Howe?"

Sharpie only missed half a beat, keeping her expression pleasant even as it faltered. "I-I'm not... eligible," she managed, to Howe's clear dismay. "But we can talk?"

"Excuse me, but I don't-" Gerardo began, but was suddenly cut off.

A green magical aura clamped itself around his beak, and when he looked to Brightcoil, she minutely shook her head. "She's distracting him for you," she whispered. "Go see Herman!"

Pausing only slightly to marvel at Sharpie's ability to repress her general bitterness in the name of furthering their mission, Gerardo nodded, slipping through the door and into the corridor beyond.

Ambassador Herman

Gerardo rapped thrice on the ornate wooden door separating Ambassador Herman's office from the rest of the back hallway beyond the reception room. The corridor was poorly lit, just bright enough that one could make out the paint etched into the wooden trim, but not so much that he could see the color of the sturdy, carpeted floor. The mechanical, rotating ticks of another clock echoed in his ears as he waited for a response, silently adjusting the collar of his uniform.

"You may enter."

Preemptively bowing, Gerardo pushed the door open and stepped inside.

Immediately, his vision was assaulted by whiteness. It was mixed with just enough gray not to be blinding, yet retain every bit of purity the color was associated with. Everything was white and geometric, his eyes tracing their way around the floor, the walls, the ceiling and down across the room's cubic furnishings in search of a place to rest his eyes. Each flat, unblemished polygon that made up a portion of the interior was slightly offset in shade from its surroundings, emphasizing the edges and seams between them. Like water flowing down a drain, his eyes were drawn along the lines of difference to the center of the room, where a nine-sided prism served as a desk. A muscular yak sat behind it, silently observing as he tried to take in his surroundings.

The first thing he registered was a massive horn. Where most yaks had a broad, thick rack nearly as wide as the length of their body, Herman possessed only one side of one, the skin to the right of his face gnarled into a hairless scar, as if his had been cloven at the base long ago and never grown back. Where his coat did grow, it was the same shade of whitish-gray that made up the architecture, or otherwise insulated by an ice-blue uniform that seemed to make him radiate against the background. In fact, if the room hadn't lacked shadows already, Gerardo would have taken him for its light source.

"Good morning," Gerardo began, breath visible against the cold air of the room's interior. "My name is Gerardo Guillaume, griffon ad-"

"Introductions are time-consuming," Herman interrupted, completely impassive. Then, breaking into a smile that stretched the full distance across his broad face, he continued, "After all, you must be in quite a hurry to request a walk-in appointment at this hour. Is not your task at hoof far more necessary?"

"I..." Gerardo swallowed, blinking. The top of Herman's desk was completely empty save for a rune, nearly half the width of the polygon, shimmering slightly beneath the surface. It consisted of nine points interconnected by a web of lines, and as he watched, bewitched, it changed, rotating around itself, ticking. His only guess was that it was another clock.

He shook his head, trying again to speak. "Yes, well, you see. Myself and my friends were unjustly attacked and robbed by the Defense Force, and urgently require your assistance."

Herman nodded, the corners of his mouth rising slightly less than they had a moment ago. "Do go on."

"Yes..." Attempting vainly to calm his nerves, exacerbated by the cold and the room's otherworldly appearance, Gerardo began pacing, ruffling his wings as he walked. "I was hired over a year ago in Yakyakistan, to perform a delivery of two unmarked crates to a location in the Water District, avoiding all manner of air travel. However, when I attempted to enter the Water District in completion of the last leg of my journey, I was accosted and attacked for sport by a captain named Selma, who confiscated my cargo and abducted two dear friends with whom I was traveling." Steeling himself, he stared Herman straight in the face, unnerved by the slight angle the yak's head hung at due to the weight imbalance of his horns. "As you are both a representative of Yakyakistan, whose government requested my delivery, and the alleged protector of the Stone District, where my friends were taken hostage, I was hoping there was something you could do about this situation."

Herman's smile grew in warmth, though it failed to counteract the icy chill in the air. "I see," he rumbled, "I see..." Breaking eye contact with Gerardo for the first time since the griffon had entered the room, he stared downwards, as if expecting answers from the swirling pattern on the desk. "I apologize for the treatment my Defense Force gave you and your friends," he eventually answered. "I can offer you a job, if you wish it."

"A..." Gerardo blinked. "A job? I assure you, while obtaining the compensation for my delivery would be very much welcome, I hardly need a new-"

"The Defense Force," Herman interrupted, "has been without an official facilities inspector since the Water District was approved for its use more than five years ago. I have asked Skyfreeze to hire one, but they have declined my requests for funding time and time again." He shook his head sadly, smile maintained. "As inspector, you would have full access to the facility and be free to search for your friends at will."

Gerardo's beak dropped. "That is... surprisingly generous of you, sir. Though I must admit, authorization or not, were there to be criminal practices at large in the force, my safety would still be in jeopardy. I am presently unarmed, and would... very likely meet an untimely doom."

In answer, there was a small clink... and a gemstone rolled onto the desk surface. Small, octagonal and smoky gray, it came to a stop just in front of him. "What is this for?"

"The smallest unit of currency Ironridge has to offer," Herman answered warmly. "Worthless on its own, but compensation enough to be considered an employee of the embassy in the eyes of the law. I think diplomatic immunity will suffice for your safety. The Defense Force knows they owe their continued existence and stability to Yakyakistan. Us, they cannot and will not attack."

"Of course..." Gerardo whispered. "Are you really willing to threaten to abandon Ironridge on my behalf? That seems tactically unsound."

Herman shook his head. "Many threats would be so if they required willingness to be proven. That is the essence of a threat; a gamble of whether one will follow through. I know my subordinates, and they were chosen in part because it is a gamble they are unwilling to take."

"I see..." Gerardo fidgeted. "And what do I do if they learn of my impending presence and further hide my targets?"

"Then I will request Captain Selma accompany you at all times." The rune in front of Herman continued to swirl, the unclaimed gray gemstone sitting like a blemish on its flawless surface. "If he never leaves your sight, you will be aware of every action he takes. Is this suitable?"

Gerardo stood, thinking, next to a cubic bench. "That may very well work, yes... Of course, you could order them to return my cargo and friends, but there is always the chance they would refuse, so brute force remains the next best option..."

"Of course," Herman said, still smiling, "An order would not benefit me, as well. Recall that the Defense Force has lacked a facilities inspector for quite some time. In exchange for this aid, I trust you will return to me upon completing your mission and give a report on anything you find? After all, if my Defense Force has sunk to abducting innocents, proper maintenance may be beneath them as well."

"That sounds perfectly reasonable," Gerardo hummed, feathers settling. "One other thing; I have... friends in the lobby. An inspector pegasus named Sharpie, and her friend Brightcoil." Part of him cringed at willingly acknowledging his relationship with ponies who were likely on the yaks' bad side, but Herman would inevitably be able to figure it out regardless, if he didn't already know, and being forthcoming could be seen more favorably. "Would it be at all possible or permissible for them to accompany me to the Water District?"

If he stiffened at their mention, Herman didn't show it. "If you require it as a show of good faith, I will not intervene. Sharpie already has her own clearances. Though do beware..." He briefly frowned, then returned to his smile. "Perception can be tainted by bias. Keep your mind open to possibilities, and do not be quick to draw conclusions. Now go and see to your quest. I will summon Selma here, and he will accompany you as long as you require it."

"I thank you for your assistance." Gerardo bowed, taking a step backwards. "It was refreshing to ask aid of someone who felt I should be part of the solution."

Herman merely smiled, pose as warm as ever in the chilly room. Of its own accord, breaking from the seamless white wall behind Gerardo, the door swung open, inviting him back to the main embassy lobby.

Plan B

Howe was still talking excitedly at Sharpie when Gerardo re-entered the lobby. The growing signs of stress beneath her cheery demeanor were all the indicators the griffon needed to tell that Brightcoil hadn't been lying. Watching the stiffness with which her tail hung, he quickly decided to return the favor.

"Excuse me," Gerardo announced, loud enough to interrupt whatever Howe was yammering about, "but my meeting has adjourned. Fortunately, it was highly productive, and we have been granted entry to the Water District to search for any evidence of wrongdoing myself. Er, that is, I have." He nodded at Sharpie. "I was informed you already possessed your own? Regardless, we are free to make a surprise inspection and poke our beaks and noses into whatever we deem of interest."

Sharpie snorted derisively, her fake cheer entirely evaporated. "He knows my case is dead. He's going to let us in there and either show us nothing, taunt us with things we can't use, or plant fakes for us to find and waste our time on. It's how he works."

"Still..." Gerardo tapped a talon. "There are no limits he laid down. And if there is wrongdoing, which I know there to be, it is only a matter of sticking our heads deep enough to find it."

"You kids know you're in public, right?" Emil's quiet voice came from the corner, where he still sat, rocking. "I've seen a lot of conspiracies in my day, and it sounds like you're planning one right now!"

"For the record," Howe loudly proclaimed, "this pegasus is down with a conspiracy or two. Gotta spice up the old life somehow, you know?" He waggled his eyerows hopefully at Sharpie.

Gerardo swallowed awkwardly. "If you must know, sir, the conspiracy was executed against us, or myself in particular. I was unjustly robbed by the Defense Force, and Herman has given me clearance to steal my belongings back. Dramatic, perhaps, but nothing more than fighting illegal with questionably legal."

"Heh. I wasn't going to turn you in," Emil chuckled. "Seems everyone's planning something or other, these days. Who knows, maybe you'll be good enough at it for the Ambassador to consider worth playing with!" He threw back his forelegs, stretching, until one popped and he winced.

"You... seem to have a very interesting policy on workplace honesty," Gerardo hesitantly said.

"I'll say!" Howe pumped a hoof. "To be fair, I've seen some pretty messed-up liars myself. Once visited a town where every pony only spoke in lies, so they always knew what each other were saying but outsiders were obvious! Hah!"

Emil shrugged, favoring his shoulder. "If everyone were honest, that would even the playing field and prevent the Ambassador from truly showing his worth. A real leader cannot assume everyone they deal with has no hidden intentions of their own. Why not embrace reality and thrive?"

"In that case, you hold Herman in extraordinarily high regard." Gerardo blinked, looking back to the hallway door, eyes still seeing a faint impression of whiteness.

"It's a Yakyakistan thing," Sharpie interrupted, narrating quickly. "Their highest level of government is revered on an amount approaching worship. Anyone directly appointed by them, like Herman, effectively has the citizens under mandate to believe in them to do their job."

"The Bishops of the Nine Virtues," Emil added, nodding sagely. "There is a long history of-"

Flash!

In a burst of ice-blue magic, a white stallion materialized to the side of the room. Lowering his head and blinking slowly, Selma announced, "I have arrived."

"Uhh huh huh heh heh..." Howe rubbed the back of his neck nervously, choosing himself to be the first to speak. "Fancy meeting you here?"

Selma brushed him aside, ignoring him entirely and focusing on Gerardo. "Hello again, griffon. Forgive me if I've already forgotten your name; I don't believe you said it with enough flare last time. I've already received my instructions." He nodded to Howe, Sharpie and Brightcoil. "Who else is coming? We'll be teleporting to save time, and I prefer to only take one passenger at a time."

"She is," Gerardo said, quickly indicating Sharpie. "Er, that is... assuming you wish to?" Apologetically, he added, "Your arrival was somewhat swift, and we hadn't the chance to discuss this as a team before..."

"I'm coming," Sharpie answered stiffly, pointing a hoof at Brightcoil and then Howe. "She isn't; he is."

Gerardo did a double-take. "Pardon, but did you say we do wish for Howe to come?" He glanced across to Selma. "Is that even permissible?"

Howe gripped both of his cheeks tightly, squealing to himself in delight. "He said my naaame..."

"I've... said it many times, Howe..." Gerardo sighed in confusion with an underflow of annoyance. This wasn't how he wanted Selma's re-introduction to go.

Selma's horn briefly flickered, effect unseen as he closed his eyes. Eventually, he looked up. "He has permission, if not from me. He shouldn't expect his stay to be hospitable."

"I meant what I said," Sharpie affirmed. "We've been having an interesting talk, and I'm not ready to end it just yet. We won't get in your way." She glanced aside to Gerardo. "I'm reading this right, right? Herman asked him to escort you? Something about you mutually preventing each other from doing anything he doesn't want happening?"

"Something like that," Gerardo said, swallowing.

"Well then, let us not waste any time." Stepping toward Gerardo, Selma held out a hoof. "You first. Hold tightly. I will not be responsible for any failures of yours to observe magical safety protocols."

"And I have no intention of doing such," Gerardo reassured, reaching out and grasping Selma's muscular limb. "I am ready."

Another flash of magic, and they disappeared.

Gerardo blinked, eyes adjusting to the low lighting of his destination. The yak embassy had been poorly-lit, too, but teleportation was bright and Selma's magic was a harsh color and his pupils still needed to finish dilating one way before they would even consider going in the other.

The floor was stone, at least, red and cracked and slightly warmer than should have been the case for a cold mountain fortress built underneath a glacial lake. He was closely surrounded by three walls and a ceiling, made from the same substance. And in front... bars.

Black, rusted iron bars, stretching floor to ceiling and causing Gerardo to jump in alarm. "This is...!" he yelped, before catching his tongue. "Selma!?"

"I'm aware," Selma answered, sitting just on the other side. There was a door, Gerardo realized, and it held a sturdy black padlock that looked like it hadn't been opened since the application of its last coat of paint. Evidently, Selma had teleported them both into the cage, then warped himself out before Gerardo regained his senses.

"Before you run your tongue and accuse me of tricking you, listen," Selma continued, voice colder than Herman's office. "I have no intention of keeping you here. I had no intention of seeking you out, but it seems you came back to me. Now, I'm going to have to deal with you, and because you insisted on sticking your beak where it doesn't belong, you have to deal with me. In short, we will have to tolerate one another."

His voice dropped even lower. "Your friends you claim to care so much for are safe, for a given definition of the word. Free, above ground, no longer part of my jurisdiction. You can forget everything you've tried to do this morning and seek them out, and live innocently ever after wherever you please. Or, because you've caught me in a hard place and I have no choice but to cooperate, you can continue in your misguided quest... but I don't advise that. Make your decision."

"...What are you saying?" Gerardo asked, brow furrowed. "You robbed me for sport! Of course I want my cargo back; it is valuable!"

"Very well. Then we will go on your inspection," Selma answered. "I'll even go back for your friends. But first, we're going to talk, here in the most secluded, abandoned, private part of Ironridge, because what I am about to say is magnitudes more illegal than any police brutality." He leaned closer to the bars, far enough that Gerardo could have reached out and seized his neck had he wanted. "Tell me, griffon. Do you know what was in those crates of yours?"

"My job instructions were to keep them unopened and confidential," Gerardo said stoically. "I never deviated from them. The knowledge of their contents was for my employer alone."

Selma nodded. "And I was the one waiting for them."

"What!?" Gerardo hissed, taken aback. "Then why would...?"

"Would I confiscate them myself, instead of allowing you the dignity of your completed journey?" Selma's eyes bored into Gerardo, his gaze freely covering the entirety of the prison. "Because I had no intention of turning them over to my superior."

He stood up, began pacing, and continued. "In Yakyakistan's government, the highest existing security clearance is rank SS. It is so exclusive, no yak or pony who lacks it has ever seen or even heard of information containing that classification. I am one of four in Ironridge who possess it... alongside Valey, Herman, and now you. There is only one thing that has that classification: the knowledge of the existence of rank SSS, the rank given only to the nine Archbishops... and that it does contain certain projects."

Gerardo sat stiller than a glacier, listening. "For forty years, ever since Blazing Rain and the great restructuring, Yakyakistan has had an interest in Ironridge. A project they wished to complete, under that designation... a project worth dedicating forty years to bringing about. It was one of the first projects conceived under the post-restructuring government; one of their most important national priorities. A project that can only be completed in Ironridge."

Eyes narrowing in frustration, Selma narrated. "It is this project that keeps Yakyakistan in Ironridge, even as the city's stability hangs by a thread. It is this project that drives Yakyakistan to do everything in their power to preserve that stability... whether it means organizing private, ill-disciplined defense militias, or protecting Sosa from further economic collapse by funneling vast amounts of currency into them under the guise of a weapons contract; something your inspector friend has been torturing herself for years trying to figure out."

He nodded, scanning Gerardo's eyes for comprehension. "Herman and his superiors in Yakyakistan know how volatile this city is. They know they are playing with fire, and that despite their immense influence and power, anything could go awry. Today, they are heroes, but public sentiment is a fickle toy. Were they to fail... were they to become vilified in Ironridge's sight, to be banished from the city before they could complete their project... they created a backup. A Plan B, a package that would survive such a doomsday scenario and allow them to eke some semblance of payoff out of their decades of work. A meager closure, but far better than a complete loss... They sent that package through as obscure a route as possible, forbidding it from being carried by air in the name of delaying its arrival."

Bowing his head, Selma gave no indication that he was anywhere near finished. "Knowledge of Plan B, and the SS rank that came with it, was entrusted to me, a pony who would be believably loyal to Ironridge in the event of catastrophe, who could remain in the city and see the project through at all costs... and now the backup has arrived. However, they made one mistake."

His eyes glinted dangerously. "I am loyal to Ironridge over Yakyakistan. Plan B was in vain; a rebellion never came to pass. But now that backup is here, and with it, they could finish everything. Yakyakistan has been in this for the long haul. It has always been a large and dangerous investment for them to make. Now, their backup is no longer in transit, and every day the Spirit of Sosa and their accursed commander wind this city tighter and tighter and will not stop until it explodes from the strain. What do you think they will do, griffon? Will they sit still and keep playing their long game, knowing that time is their enemy and their insurance is gone? Or will they settle for a middle ground, use their last resort while it's here and then take what they get and leave? I know what I'll be doing. As the protector of Ironridge above all else, I cannot allow the yaks to leave, and thus your delivery cannot be completed."

Sighing, Selma turned away, tone softening and spent. "I apologize for any necessary brutality at the district border last night, though I won't pretend not to have enjoyed it. As I said, your friends are already safe. Now. We are going to the Water District, and you will conduct your inspection. You won't find your crates; I've already taken care of them. You will catalog our broken lights and leaky pipes and return to Herman, as he asked you to do. And then, you can return to your friends and go about your way... or, if you prove trustworthy, you could stay and obtain a job under me. I can always use more trustworthy confidants. Have I convinced you of the importance of my cause?"

Gerardo swallowed, taking a moment to allow the silence to ring in his ears. "I... do have many questions, but... yes, I believe I understand where you're coming from." As Selma visibly relaxed, he added, "The safety of my friends is my utmost concern, and while I will not rest until I have seen them well in person, it is heartening to know they were released. I imagine you only took them in the first place because of the brick?"

"There are many things I've done because of that brick," Selma growled. "Being forced to teleport you one at a time not least. But yes, her incarceration served no point beyond vengeance."

"I see..." Gerardo deflated. "Then there's only one other thing I must inquire as to. I poured a considerable amount of time and effort into completing that job, so to voluntarily forfeit it at the gates of completion... What will become of my compensation?"

"What were you promised?" Selma asked, voice level.

"A..." Gerardo hesitated, mulling over the wisdom of answering. "A Writ of Harmonic Sanction," he finally admitted. "Permission to use Yakyakistan's pass to the Plains of Harmony."

Selma's eyes shone greedily. "Now that is interesting..."

Gerardo blinked. "You just said this plan has been in motion for forty years, yet such an amount of compensation surprises you? Have there been developments in the world I am somehow unaware of?"

"I may have to re-evaluate certain ideas I had discarded earlier due to feasibility," Selma announced to nobody in particular. "I shall see what I can do. Your odds of getting your writ will significantly improve if you cooperate fully with my plan. Now, I imagine your friends back in the embassy are getting restless. Shall we get to work?"

"That would be very much appreciated," Gerardo said with a nod. "If I may, though... the way you spoke of Herman's clearance implies that he does not have SSS. Is that the case?"

"...Yes." Selma nodded. "Nobody in Ironridge knows the exact nature of Yakyakistan's project, nor what lies within those crates." Instantly and without time for further questions, he teleported into the cell, grabbed Gerardo, and vanished once again in a burst of light.

Inspection Begins

With a flash, Selma and Gerardo appeared in a sparsely decorated, if slightly homely lobby surrounded by round wooden tables and a smattering of pegasi nursing thermoses of coffee. "Wait here," the unicorn instructed, stepping back. "This won't take long."

As quickly as they had arrived, Selma vanished, leaving Gerardo blinking and adjusting to the fresher air. He paced to a window, natural light streaming through, and inhaled deeply, stretching his wings while watching to ensure he didn't hit any ponies through his broad wingspan. Between his meetings with Herman and Selma, he had a lot to think about, and then was as good a time to wade through it as any.

Herman was helping, and for that he knew he should be grateful. The tools the yak had offered him would be useful under any circumstances, no matter the intent, and he had already seen them force Selma into a more desperate state. The help was real... and yet he couldn't shake the feeling that it had been too easy. Perhaps he was still unnerved from Herman's bizarre white office, or too much on the lookout for any possible source of things going wrong, but it was as if he had jumped to his aid without so much as questioning Gerardo's own credibility. Was it?

It was entirely possible that Herman was waiting for him to show up; that he knew already what had transpired at the gates of the Water District and had decided on his plan before they ever met. But if so, he would certainly know about the delivery, and not want to wait for a slow, lone griffon to stand a chance of reclaiming it.

Selma had said that Maple and Starlight were no longer in the fortress, after all, which unless he was lying lent credence to the theory that Herman had already acted. But then, assuming he had, and controlled the situation previously... why go to such lengths during their meeting? Surely, granting anyone diplomatic immunity was a colossal risk, as was unrestricted access to a military facility...

His train of thought was interrupted by another flash of magic, Selma depositing Sharpie. "Ah!" Gerardo broke into a polite smile. "It seems you're here."

"And now for your other," the unicorn droned coldly, blinking away once again.

"Before you apologize and explain for what took you so long," Sharpie rapidly said, putting a hoof to Gerardo's beak before he could continue, "listen. Howe is lying about something important and I don't have enough information yet to say for sure what it is but it probably involves the Defense Force and that's why I'm bringing him along and keeping him talking; so I can keep an eye on him. I'll tell you more once we have more time and they won't be back any second, so for now just do your thing and-"

Flash!

Selma reappeared, Howe at his side, and Sharpie stopped talking so fast she didn't even have time to inhale. Gerardo's eyes were wide as he watched the pegasus recover.

"Ho-hooo!" Howe scizzored his wingtips behind his back, stretching cracking his neck. "Teleportation sure is something, huh, brother bird?"

"Yes, it..." Gerardo blinked absentmindedly. "I suppose it is..."

His thoughts weren't on Howe's yammering. In fact, they weren't on Sharpie's explanation-warning either: they had slipped back to Riverfall, to a one-sided conversation he and Arambai had had concerning how to thrive in Ironridge. And one particular piece of advice from that night rose up, haunting his mind...

The next thing to remember is that basically everyone there has a side, and sticks to it like their life depends on it. It's a good idea to be nice to folks and avoid making enemies, but be careful about being too nice, as well. You don't want to get yourself roped into any obligations should things turn messy for whatever reason...

As Howe ran his mouth and Selma prompted him to begin his investigation, Gerardo suddenly realized just how many sides he had already managed to get tangled up in.

"I think," Gerardo began, choosing a door at random and pointing to it with a talon, "that this is as good a place to begin as any. Shall we?"

Selma took a single step away from him. "That is a bathroom."

"Oh! Err... well, then..." Glancing around the room, Gerardo sized up the other three exits, two in the back and one that clearly went outside. "Regrettably, I find myself with no idea where to begin."

"It would seem counter-intuitive to your goal to come to me for directions," Selma coolly said, eyes wandering. "Weren't you going to be nosy and look everywhere you weren't supposed to?"

"This is a lobby," Sharpie helpfully interrupted. "A break room, mostly. You'll want to go deeper into the fortress."

"If you're looking for an elevator, consider going right," Selma mentioned, observing Howe with faint curiosity as the pegasus sniffed the underside of a table. "It can take you to most anywhere in my fortress."

Chancing a grin, Gerardo stepped toward the corridor, hoping against the faint possibility that it was a trap. "Well, going most anywhere hardly can hurt, can it?"

Pacing through the corridors and directed by Selma at intersections, the residential aesthetic of the Defense Force base quickly faded, its look changing from that of an office or house to that of a basement and eventually a well-maintained mineshaft. A steady flow of air along the length of the hallway became noticeable, and at one point they passed under a large ceiling grate beyond which a fan with blades bigger than Gerardo himself thrummed ceaselessly.

"We should begin by going up, I feel," Gerardo announced as the elevator drew into sight. "The area where my friends were captured seems a prudent place to search first, and as it was at the top of the district going down seems a counter-intuitive way to reach there."

Selma nodded, touching the control panel with a brief flicker of magic and making no comment as the elevator thrummed to life.

Hissssss! The elevator doors slid seamlessly open with a rush of air, and the three ponies and griffon filed inside. Selma hesitated, making a second adjustment, and they began to rise as the doors slipped closed behind them.

The elevator was cylindrical and made fully of glass, allowing its riders to see the damp blue rock of the Water District whizzing by at impressive speeds. Gerardo's legs buckled from the combined pressure of gravity and acceleration, and it was only with a significant effort that he stopped himself from staggering... though one look to Sharpie and Howe told him they were hardly in a position to care.

"Let me guess," Selma droned as the elevator rose, leaning against its wall as if he were weightless. "Next, you want to find the room where I put them."

"That... was my plan, yes," Gerardo admitted, slightly embarrassed at being so transparent, even if his course of action was obvious for a reason. When conducting a search, it was best to start at the source, after all. All he had to do was find it.

"In that case..." Selma paused for a single second, and that was all it took for the elevator to slow to a jarring stop, granting its passengers the briefest instance of weightlessness before a final spike of pressure to the legs. "Right this way."

The elevator opened into a cavernous storage room, littered with crates stacked like partitions in a maze on a metal-tiled floor. Gerardo swallowed. He was just tall enough to see over all but the largest, and the endless sea that he saw was exactly the kind of place he would choose to hide two unmarked, stolen boxes were the roles reversed. If that was what Selma had done, he was screwed.

"Are you coming, or aren't you?" Sharpie's voice called from behind him, and with a whirl he realized Selma was leading the two pegasi off in a different direction.

"Takin' the old detours, eh, bird-bro?" Howe pumped a wing in support, calling back over his shoulder. "I dig it! Don't forget to write!"

Sputtering, Gerardo flapped his wings, propelling himself forward and instantly catching up.

Inspection, One

They followed Selma further, leaving the crate room behind and returning to narrow, metal-lined corridors of pipes and grating and harsh manalights that did their best to flicker the moment someone stopped staring directly at them. Gerardo's headcrest swept back, blown by the ventilation to the point where he was ready to sue to have the place's name changed to the Wind District. Sharpie fared even worse, her long, flowing black locks billowing loosely in every direction and frequently sticking to her face. Selma's mane wasn't long enough to garner more than an unkempt frizz, and Howe's was loaded with so much gel and conditioner that it held its shape like a boulder.

"Gah, I h-hate how cold it is in here..." Sharpie shivered, wrapping her wings around herself as she walked. "It's like you keep those stupid fans that high just to keep ponies out!"

Selma nodded as he walked. "They do serve as a defense mechanism, yes. I am from Yakyakistan and thrive in wind and cold. The rest of the Defense Force is comprised only of pegasi, and they tend toward natural resistances to these things." He let one eyebrow rise, eyeing her shuddering form, and added, "Apparently, that does not extend to all. But as the Sosans are used to the heat of the Earth District, they will surely feel it much more than we do."

"Interesting." Gerardo's talons curled around the grated metal floor as he walked, providing ultimate traction against the winds. "As inspector, however, would that not be a potential security vulnerability, if someone were to reach and shut off the fans?"

"Negative." Selma turned a corner, continuing his march. "If the fans were off, it would merely even the field, not act as a disadvantage. And the control room is placed at an easily-defensible choke that would cost any invaders a large amount of resources to break."

"I might like to see this control room later," Gerardo mused, slipping gently into thought.

As he trailed off, Sharpie hissed, "You know, I once wanted to be in the Defense Force to do my part for Ironridge before I was disillusioned and took this job instead. It's your own fault for that pegasus stallions only rule that I'm not a thorn in your side. Ever thought about how much talent you're wasting by being arbitrarily exclusive?"

"You?" Selma chuckled. "A thorn in my side? Don't make me laugh." As Sharpie's face stretched in a snarl, he added, "I've thought about it a lot, and that's precisely why the rule is there. A basic rule of combat is that pegasi beat earth ponies through superior speed and mobility, earth ponies beat unicorns through greater strength and resilience, and unicorns beat pegasi by blasting them out of the sky, as a certain griffon is undoubtedly familiar with. Now, observe who the sole unicorn in the Defense Force is."

Gerardo's eyes widened. "That is... quite devious. You constructed your army specifically with the intent of winning a one-on-one with each and every one of your soldiers? Engineered it with a critical flaw you could exploit to save your own skin in the event of betrayal? How many of them even know that was the reason for that factor in their hiring?"

"I'm a pegasus too," Sharpie grumbled, pushing her mane out of her face.

Selma didn't even look back. "Ah, yes. The No Mares rule. Stallions only are so the fortress doesn't contain anyone for Valey to flirt with."

Sharpie and Gerardo sighed at exactly the same time. "That is the pettiest excuse for discrimination I have ever heard," Gerardo muttered. "Though, I suppose, it is your militia."

"Pettiness is the lesser half of it," Selma answered, still marching straight ahead. "Valey is toxic to the structure of this organization. I can't fire her, so by giving her as big an incentive as possible to occupy herself elsewhere in the city, her interference is minimized instead. Any step that can be taken to keep her out is a step toward granting the Defense Force some semblance of efficiency so we can respond to crises as needed, fulfill our obligation to Ironridge and not have a repeat of last night."

Straightening his neck, he continued marching. "It wasn't always like this. When I implemented that rule three years ago, the difference was one of the biggest I have ever seen in my career."

"...Your internal politics are very strange," Gerardo admitted, blinking. "Where's Howe?"

"Right here, boss!" Howe piped from the back of the procession. "Figured I'd let you important types do the talking on this one, and all. Did you miss the sound of my lovely voice?"

"'Miss' is very much the wrong word, but yes, I did notice your unusual silence," Gerardo replied. "It was a welcome change. Please, do carry on."

"No need," Selma interrupted. "We are here."

With the swish of a card key and a hiss of moving metal, a door swung open, bathing the room beyond in light. Selma entered first, horn brightening in intensity until the entire room was lit.

Gerardo's eyes eagerly swept it, tracing the forest of thick pipes rising from the floor as they threaded their way into the stalactite-laden ceiling. The walls were all bare stone, with the roughness and shape of a natural cave, the metal-framed door in which he stood the only link back to the industrial fortress. A smattering of half-opened crates and discarded tools lined the walls, and he instantly stepped forward, beginning to search.

"They aren't there," Selma droned as Gerardo poked at a box and discovered a logo.

"I am well aware..." Gerardo hissed to himself, brain clocking into overdrive. This was what he should have been thinking about on their walk from the elevator: he was a detective, and needed to detect. Up until then, his plan of action had been pitifully obvious to the point where it was Selma doing all the work, and without being proactive that would never end in success. He needed to find a card to play, and he needed it soon.

The sound of wings fluttering passed overhead, and he momentarily noted Sharpie's suited body flitting around the pipes. Instead of looking up after her, he began to check another crate, pretending not to notice when Selma spoke again. "Do you really think I would leave your things in the first room you would have me take you to? This inspection is going nowhere fast..."

"Up here!" Sharpie suddenly chimed.

Gerardo looked up to see her hovering by a pipe, indicating something attached to the surface. Spreading his own wings, he kicked off the ground and drew level beside her. "What have we here?"

"See for yourself," she said, poking at what appeared to be a darkened glass dome with a metal base, bolted onto the pipe and leaving a braided wire running off to the shadows of the ceiling.

"This can't be..." Focusing hard, Gerardo stared into the surface, and thought he made out a darker spot beneath the glass. "Is it a security camera?"

"The entire facility is constantly monitored," Selma remarked. "Real-time video is available anywhere, and recordings are kept for twenty-four hours."

Gerardo's eyebrows rose. "Is there any chance we might be able to see such recordings?"

With a wordless nod, Selma turned and exited the door, beckoning them to follow with a hoof.

Inspection, Two

Silently, Selma led the procession back to the elevator, where they continued to ascend. As it rose, Gerardo tried to force his thoughts onto a productive track. There was a security camera, and they were going to inspect the feed. Evidently, Selma didn't care much that he was showing it off for free... even though with access to such a monitoring system, Gerardo could see veritably everything in the facility. Then again, the unicorn didn't seem much for secrecy in general, since his meeting with Herman.

What was it that had caused him to reveal such apparently-sensitive information? He had dramatized it even more than some of Arambai's non-secrets, and been fairly thorough in his explanations... as far as Gerardo could tell, at least. But why had he revealed them in the first place? For a cold, threatening officer-type, a simple 'You won't find your crates' would have sufficed as a warning. Why explain why...?

His best two guesses on the matter were either that Selma sought to have him as an ally... questionable, given their brief history and Gerardo's own limited utility... or that he had panicked and not chosen his strategy with sound mind. Down his weapon and weighted with numerous obligations, Gerardo would be the first to admit that he was a borderline liability even without his limited knowledge of the situation. If Ironridge was one massive, ruleless game, as had been stated at the embassy, then he was playing with an empty deck.

The elevator slid to a stop before he could reach a satisfying conclusion, its doors cleaving open with a whoosh. Selma stepped out, taking the lead once again, and beckoned for them to follow.

At least Howe was holding his tongue, Gerardo thought, walking past walls laden with data displays and instrument panels that glowed electric blue on black. The silence was both welcome and unprecedented, and he half-wondered if Sharpie had said something to convince him to shut up.

...No, not unprecedented, he realized. For the entirety of their Sky District sojurn the previous night, Howe had been mute to the point of resorting to mime. While he had left strict silence behind, he was also no longer risking his life to fill dead air. It was as if he had... listened.

Gerardo found a slight rush of appreciation for the pegasus, which he immediately regretted. Howe was still responsible for getting them into their predicament in the first place... only he wasn't that, either. Selma had openly admitted to ambushing Gerardo with intent of stealing his crates, regardless of Howe's intervention. He certainly hadn't made matters better, but it was fully possible that the incident wasn't his fault.

Blinking, Gerardo resolved that some time, once their present danger was resolved and his friends, sword and delivery reward were safely by his side, he might owe the pegasus a second chance.

"Here we are," Selma announced, rounding a corner into a circular, dimly-lit room ringed by chairs and stools all facing console screens. Each and every one of them was further subdivided into windows, and each of those showed a single video feed, positioned through awkwardly blown-up lenses and showing abandoned metal corridors, blank stone walls and rooms, guards occasionally pacing or lounging about.

He walked to a slightly larger screen directly across from the entrance and knelt down, inserting his long horn into a hole directly beneath it. "Job security," he muttered as it pulsed, evidently anticipating a question. "Nopony in a high enough position to benefit from usurping me would want to deal with all the personal locks I'd leave behind."

Gerardo shrugged as the screen flickered to life. "I wouldn't put it past you."

Nodding, Selma stepped back. "Sit. Give me rooms and times and I can connect to any camera in the Water District. It also accesses those in the Flame and Sky Districts, but your clearance does not cover those."

"Fair enough," Gerardo answered. "Take me to that storage room where my friends were housed, around dusk of last evening."

Selma's hoof flew against a flat, sensitive surface, and images flickered by like mismatching bandwidths. Eventually, a red-on-black image appeared, showing what Gerardo quickly realized was a high-up view of the entrance to the captive room, several other pipes stretching vertically to the side.

"Is it... are the colors...?" Gerardo asked, pointing a talon.

"Because there are no lights in that room," Selma coolly said. "I presume you want me to fast-forward until I arrive with your friend?"

"Friend, yes..." Gerardo muttered. "Friends. There were two of them. Didn't you say as much earlier? I have a distinct recollection of..."

"See for yourself." The red flickered out of the image as the door slid open, and two grainy pegasi strolled in, crates balanced on their backs. Gerardo leaned forward eagerly.

Behind them, Maple followed, floating in Selma's icy aura. She looked limp and defeated, though the recording's resolution wasn't enough to make out her finer details, and the only source of light being behind her made the problem even worse. Still, there was no doubt it was her, her messy, half-braided mane hanging off to one side and her brand briefly glinting as she turned.

They watched as Selma's video self stepped up to a pipe and forced Maple up against it, ropes streaming out to wrap around her in his aura. In the background, the guards set their crates aside, bowed, and left. Selma's mouth moved, uttering some command at them, but the feed was silent.

"...There's no audio?" Gerardo asked, headcrest drooping.

"There is not," Selma answered, standing stock-still. "Adding such was deemed unnecessary, as the purpose of this system is to monitor hypothetical invasions and search for slackers. The recording functionality was added later, and the cameras lacked sound receivers."

On the screen, Selma prodded Maple's belly with a hoof, and Gerardo's eyes narrowed. Several more wordless phrases were exchanged, before he turned tail, marching out and sliding the door closed behind him. Plunged into darkness, the room turned pitch-black for several seconds, before the red lines resumed.

"Well," Gerardo began, watching Maple's upright form tied prone against a pipe, "I believe we should continue our fast-forward until-"

Suddenly, Maple dropped free, landing shakily on her hooves, her bindings seeming to have disappeared. Gerardo leaned forward, and even Selma gasped in surprise. At that, Sharpie raised an eyebrow. "You didn't watch your own security tapes before showing them to two inspectors?"

Selma growled, head low. "I was too preoccupied sleeping off a headache from a certain brick of metal..."

Gerardo's interest redoubled. If Selma hadn't seen the recordings, and his admittance was almost certainly candid, that meant they were guaranteed not to be screened... and could contain any amount of valuable, verifiably-true information. If Ironridge was a game, he might have just found his first card.

Just as abruptly as Maple had freed herself, there was a bright blast of teal, and the camera's night vision switched itself off. Several more seconds elapsed, during which the screen maintained its pitch-black uselessness, occasionally teased by a faint teal flicker... and eventually, the red light turned on again, revealing the mare leaning down and hugging a small, possibly-horned filly.

"Where did...?" Gerardo blinked. "Where did she come from?"

Selma didn't answer, and neither did Sharpie. Howe was leaning toward the screen with almost as much interest as Gerardo's own, eyes constantly flickering around the virtual room.

The room was still dark, Maple and Starlight largely unmoving as the minutes ticked by. As Gerardo continued to baffle over Starlight's appearance, pondering if a filly could really teleport that far, and if so how she would target it, a slow tapping began, intensifying in speed.

"They've got your crates, brother bird..." Howe said nervously, craning his neck, leg twitching against the floor to create the din. "Those are the ones I totally owe you a hoof getting back!"

"I'm well aware," Gerardo whispered back, waiting for Selma to move forward. He didn't, and time continued to flow by at a snail's pace.

Just when it got to the point where Gerardo began wondering if Selma was deliberately stalling for time, the screen lit teal again, Starlight's horn glowing. "Hmm," the griffon muttered. "I was under the impression you said you released them, yet they look like they're about to try something escapeish."

Selma massaged his temple. "I was briefed on their whereabouts during my morning Where's Valey report. She was seen with them leaving the Flame District. I assumed she let them out..."

Suddenly, the screen flared brightly with magic, and with a wave of telekinesis, the top of one of Gerardo's crates popped clean off.

Inspection, Three

The shock in the surveillance room was palpable as the lid of Gerardo's crate hit the floor, the camera at a perfect angle to observe as Starlight and Maple leaned up, peering into the box. Selma looked as if he had fallen for Maple's brick drop a second time in a row, while Howe's wings shot out in excitement, nearly knocking Sharpie over, who was frowning in confusion. Gerardo merely sagged.

"How...? What...?" he stammered, watching the camera's dim teal lighting and blurry resolution as indefinite shapes hovered out of the box and into the air, Starlight and Maple both rummaging eagerly. "What were they thinking?"

After a solid minute of watching in rapture, Maple withdrew from the crate, clutching something vaguely round and sparkly that seemed to command her and Starlight's attention. Several more words were exchanged... and then it abruptly disappeared. Immediately, the rest of the objects removed from the crate flew back into it, and the lid hammered itself back into place.

As Maple and Starlight forced open the door and exited, nobody stepped up to change the camera. Instead, Selma hissed, then growled, face contorting so heavily that his mane clung more tightly to his skull. "Rrrrnngh... I..." He abruptly stood up, stalking toward the room exit. "Excuse me. I need to adjust some plans..."

Swooooosh! Gerardo recovered far faster than he, and with a mighty wingstroke soared across the room, landing in the doorway and cutting Selma off. "I think not," he demanded, wings remaining spread in obstruction. "Is this not precisely why Herman demanded that you accompany me at all times? To ensure you wouldn't run off and alter something the moment I make a discovery?"

"Out of my way, griffon," Selma growled, horn lighting. "We both lose if the contents of those crates escapes, if you haven't forgotten. What happened to getting your important reward?" He scuffed at the ground as if preparing to charge.

"No," Gerardo forcefully countered. "You'll send your army to collect them, and I cannot permit any more harm to befall my friends. On this, I will not budge."

Selma seethed, but didn't teleport or attack. "I told you what would happen if those crates were tampered with. Would you really risk something so monumental?"

"Hey, uhh..." Howe lifted a forelimb. "I don't actually need to be here, so... want me to go find your pals and give them a little old heads-up?"

"You certainly have a knack for running into us," Gerardo breathed, preparing to take a risk that would have been almost unfathomable several minutes ago. "If you truly mean that you wish to make amends with me... find my friends and warn them that the Defense Force may still be pursuing them. Hurry!"

Howe gaped, then beamed, then grinned a stupid grin, saluting heavily with his feathers. "I will not fail you, Brother Bird!" With a powerful flap, he scooted past Selma, who did nothing to try to stop him, and soared down the fortress corridor.

With an angry flash, Selma's horn glowed brighter... and an icy-blue shield mushroomed out, settling around him and Gerardo like a dome. "Soundproof," he explained, voice nevertheless at a whisper that was far calmer than his features. "You caught on faster than I expected. Impressive."

"What?" Gerardo whispered back, brow furrowing in confusion. "Whatever do you-?"

Selma's face remained perfectly serious, inches from Gerardo's own. "Keep your fighting face on. This room is under recorded surveillance, as well."

Gerardo was too taken aback to respond, though he still managed to comply, listening as hard as he could for the unicorn's next word.

"Here's the new plan," Selma growled, teeth gritted and eyes hard. "I've sent Yakyakistan a missive informing them the crates have arrived. They are sending someone to complete Plan B, who will be bringing your reward. This has already happened. Understood?"

"Indeed," Gerardo growled back. He couldn't tell if Selma was being honest or telling him a lie that must be perpetuated at all costs, but at that moment it didn't matter.

"Excellent. Now." Selma's face didn't move as he spoke. "My hooves must be innocent in this matter for this heist to work. It is your responsibility to buy your friends as much time as they need to take what they stole - and I know they stole something - and get somewhere we will never, ever find them. Continue your inspection. Stall as much as you can. Because the moment I'm free, I will have no choice but to hunt them down with every resource available."

The shield dropped before Gerardo could respond.

"You know," Sharpie sighed from the console, ears twisting backwards at the sound of magical dissipation, "a less-cynical me would try to arrest you for assaulting a diplomat right there. Now, I'm just wondering why I'm the only one of you idiots who cares what happens to these poor girls."

Gerardo stepped back to the console, which was focused on a poniless view of the crate storage room with the elevator. "...Where are they?" he queried, tilting his head and trying to solidify his composure.

"I've lost track." Sharpie sagged, flitting between several different cameras. "That room isn't completely covered, so I can't follow them any more."

"Focus on the elevator," Selma droned, standing to her other side and not looking at Gerardo. "It is unlikely they would have reached the Flame District without it."

"Nnngh..." Sharpie scrolled to a camera positioned within the elevator, face tensed and lip bitten. Reaching a hoof forward, she tapped once. "Fast-forward..."

In a flash, the doors were open and three pony-shaped whirls of color were outside. She swiped it back to speed just in time to see Maple and Starlight step in, followed by a guard.

Gerardo's beak clenched as the doors slid shut and the elevator rose. The ponies were close enough to the camera to get a better look despite the resolution: Maple's face was split between shock, worry and relief, and she was panting. Starlight, to her side, was completely blank.

"I don't remember assigning him to a patrol route involving that room," Selma sniffed. "It seems this system catches slackers even when it's being used for other purposes."

They continued watching silently as the elevator rose... until it suddenly stopped and opened, the guard punching a panel rapidly as the lights turned red around them.

"What...?" Gerardo leaned closer, squinting as Maple and Starlight rapidly, unhappily shuffled out of the elevator, its doors closing behind them. The guard remained inside, and abruptly began to descend.

"He's responding to last night's invasion," Selma said with a shrug, tone bored and dour.

Gerardo's beak dropped. "An invasion? Forgive me, but what exactly does that entail? I was... under the impression that your defenses were more of a deterrent than for actual combat."

"Usually." Selma straightened his back, turning to glance at the exit. "Last night was an exception. The Sosan commander, alone, entered my fortress and attacked the good defenders of the Stone District. Eventually, she was overwhelmed by our numbers and forced to flee. I imagine you will be taking your investigation and looking into this unusual event?"

"That," Gerardo said, standing up, "sounds like an excellent plan moving forward. After all, I am in no hurry whatsoever! Lead the way, if you please."

Inspection, Four

"So this is the remnants of a fight scene, you say," Gerardo mused, standing in a mostly-ordinary metal corridor many floors down from the control room. He didn't have a perfect grasp on how far up it was, but it was definitely below the level where Maple and Starlight had been held captive. "I'm not sure what kind of damage I was expecting, but it involved more burns and less... brute force."

Selma raised a hoof, placing it against a vertical pipe on the wall. He flexed his muscles, pushed... and with a creak of metal, the pipe moved, its bottom half bending out to reveal that it had been severed down the middle with the most hairline of cracks. His hoof then traced alongside a wall, dipping slightly in places where it had been bashed in, the thin metal plating shredded and the rock chipped beneath. "Thanks to the failures of a certain weapons contract, we have little weaponry that does not rely on pure barbaric force," he said coldly. "And the Sosan chose not to bring any."

Sharpie sulked. "If you wanted better weapons, you should have helped with my case while it was still alive, instead of being an obstructive yak hugger and refusing everything I asked."

While they bickered, Gerardo closely inspected the floor, quickly coming to a hypothesis that needed testing. "For a battle fought with weapons that do this much damage to metal and walls, there seems to be a remarkable lack of residual blood... and not because these floors have been recently cleaned, either. What really happened here, Captain?"

"You say that..." Selma slowly droned. "Yet the casualty report I was given this morning listed twenty-seven injured." He leaned down, sniffing the floor for himself without taking his eyes off the griffon. "And yet, you are correct. Interesting."

Gerardo frowned. "A weapon that could injure that many without spilling a drop of blood... Might there be an infirmary within this fortress where the victims are being treated? I would very much like to see as to their conditions..."

"There is," Selma answered coolly. "Once again, follow me..."

After a roundabout hike that included more than one trip in an elevator that had Sharpie flying to stay off her hooves and Gerardo questioning whether Selma was doing stalling of his own, they arrived. The infirmary was a series of white-lined rooms with gentle ventilation, cleen sheets draped everywhere and hung from the ceiling like curtains. A unicorn with a test tube on his flank walked past, pushing a cart with his forehooves and not even glancing as Selma entered.

"Hey, boss," said a pegasus with incredibly sunken eyes from behind a counter. "Was wondering when you would show up to see the damage in person. Everyone's signs are stable, but... they could really use a morale boost. I could too, knowing the enemy has a weapon like that."

"I am temporarily off-duty," Selma answered, earning a slight recoil from the darkly-colored pegasus. "But we are here to assess the damages. Take us to the patients."

The pegasus nodded slothfully back, slumping one limb at a time out of his chair as if he was up three hours before his preferred wake-up time. Tail limp, he shuffled to a sterile-looking metal door that hissed open as he approached. "In here," he muttered. "Had to get some of the beds out of storage. Not often we need them all at once. Should probably keep them out, just in case..."

Gerardo followed Selma into the room, and his eyes widened at what he saw. A full compliment of beds held pegasi, most unmoving, whispering and glancing at the newcomers with only their eyes as if paralyzed from the necks down. Several managed louder words and noises, and a few even sat up.

"Private," Selma announced, approaching one of the sitting pegasi, composure iron. "Report."

"Ohhh Commander..." the pegasus breathed, laughing nervously. "It was the spookiest thing ever! She just stood there like a demon, and we were throwing spears at her but she kept advancing one step at a time, and it didn't even matter that she had armor because she blocked all of them with her sword! And I know you said to always stand your ground, Sir, but she was so scary and I tried to run, and then she hit my shoulder because the others were pressing us closer, and... oh boy..."

He held up a forelimb... or tried to, at least. It dangled limply, like a noodle, barely even indicative that there was a bone inside at all. With his other, he tapped a sling that pinned one of his wings to his side. "Can't even feel them, Sir. I think they might be dead. I..." His smile broke, turning to one of denial rather than relief. "I was one of the lucky ones, Sir. Most of the others, she hit their necks or bodies, and they... they're like zombies..."

The chorus of whispers from the immobile ponies intensified, many single eyes staring at unnatural angles to see Gerardo and Selma. Sharpie's mouth was covered with a wing, and her cheeks were slightly green. "I might... go back outside..." she murmured, mane askew.

"Fear not," Gerardo interrupted with a commanding voice, catching the entire room's attention. "I've seen magic like this before," he narrated. "It isn't permanent... at least, not the variations I've discovered. Rest, eat well, and it wears off in less than a week. It's designed as a nonlethal combat solution, so none of you should be in danger."

The room gasped louder, and several voices asked hopeful, disbelieving questions, but Gerardo's mind was elsewhere. It was blatant what had happened: Braen had attacked the fortress using his stolen sword. His own experience with the weapon suggested that his advice was true. Though, there always was the sinister possibility that Braen had somehow changed it... and her continued possession of the sword didn't speak well for Shinespark's odds of recovering it.

Selma jabbed him, snapping his attention back to the room. "How do you know that?" the unicorn asked, frowning.

"I, Captain, am a Griffon Adventurer Extraordinaire," Gerardo proclaimed, holding an imperious talon to his breast. "Running across unusual things such as these is in my job description."

"Whew..." The guard with the limp foreleg sighed noisily, then lay back. "If you're telling the truth, that's the biggest relief of my life. I can't fight with three legs and one wing! I could probably barely walk! Imagining going home to my wife after all this and telling her I was permanently unemployable... That would just be the worst. I mean, she knows I do night shift, but this is still past the time I usually get home, so I'm a little late already and she's probably already worried..."

"Yes, yes, indeed," Gerardo agreed, bobbing his head. Surveying the room, he asked, "Could any of you tell me if there was a known motive for the invasion? I am presently an inspector, after all, and anything you could tell me would be of great use."

"Oh, yeah, that's easy," the noodle-legged pegasus answered, nodding hopefully. "She was going on about how we had captives we needed to return! Which is completely false, by the way, because that's something only the Sosans would do, but you can inspect that, too! Something about a mare and a filly. Really, who foalnaps a cute little filly? A complete scumbag, that's who."

Oblivious to Selma's sudden glare, he continued. "But she thought we had them, anyway. She kept saying their names. Maple and, uhhh... Twilight."

"Starlight," another nearby guard helpfully corrected.

"Yeah, yeah, whatever." The first guard shrugged a one-shouldered shrug. "Pretty much the same name. New parents these days need to be more creative when naming their kids." He blinked, eyes unfocusing. "I had a friend once called Poncho. See, that's a name that's both unique and creative. I bet nobody ever confused him with anyone else."

Gerardo wasn't listening. He couldn't listen, because his mind had just been seized by an idea... an idea that wouldn't stop growing. He had gone to Dior late the previous night to request aid for his friends, and received a blunt reassurance and nothing more. Then, an armored pony had appeared to demand his friends' release... but the guards said nothing about the crates, and Dior hadn't vouched for those, either. It couldn't possibly be a coincidence, could it? How else would the Sosans even have known his friends were in the Water District, let alone in need of saving?

"How was Braen defeated, again...?" he asked, mostly to keep the guards busy while he thought. Braen was a mare... as evidenced by the proportions of her armor. Thanks to her magically-distorted voice, though, there was nothing else by which to tell. His mind silently conjured up an image of Dior next to her, and the stallion suddenly stood out for his slight proportions and curved muzzle...

And his limp. When Dior left the meeting, he had been reluctant to put weight on his right front hoof. With a flash, Gerardo's mind spun back to the battle in the Earth District where Braen had stolen his sword... and had done so by lodging it in her armor after it partially penetrated her right front hoof.

"It couldn't be..." he breathed, which was thankfully covered up by the guard's continued talking.

"...because Valey is scary." The guard hugged himself with one limb. "I mean, if you can spook the baddest bandit in Sosa with just a bit of mumbo jumbo and a glare, nobody wants to mess with you. I sure don't! Besides, she's weird, kind of mean and is constantly playing tricks."

Gerardo blinked. His mind wanted to make a connection between Braen's presence in Sosa and the fact that Arambai was somehow still in touch with Dior, but he had to focus... that or get somewhere where taking time to think was more reasonable. "Selma!" he uttered. "I've recalled that we were going to... visit the ventilation systems control room. If there is further work to be done here, I have no qualms with waiting, but otherwise it seems we have no reason to dally."

Selma shot him a look that appeared to have its intended meaning be quite obvious, though Gerardo had no idea what it was. Shrugging, he turned to the door and began to march. "Onward, in that case. Let us inspect some ventilation."

Inspection, Five

In another elevator, riding to another part of the fortress, Gerardo stood still, deep in thought. Now that he knew Shinespark had failed to recover his sword, it was time to deeply reconsider his priorities... a list that constantly appeared to be shrinking.

He had three goals, in a best-case scenario. The first, and most important, was the safety of his friends, because actual lives and trust and other creatures besides himself were on the line. The second was to recover his sword; the most useful and potentially irreplaceable tool he possessed. The third was to obtain his writ of entry into the Plains of Harmony, which he had been promised as a reward for completing the Yakyakistani delivery... a task that was progressively becoming more tangled and convoluted by the minute. The ultimate goal underlying all three of those was to escape the city with his life intact and in possession of as many of the three as possible.

Every one of those required him going out and hunting down something he didn't already have; finding something that was lost in the city. For a moment, he imagined what it would be like to have a brand like Maple's that would allow him to guard his possessions from theft at all times... and shook his head. Wishful thinking wouldn't be practical.

Finding Maple and Starlight was the most important of those goals, because they would be helpless and vulnerable without him and would soon come under attack, assuming Selma wasn't lying. But without his sword, he would be powerless to defend them, as Selma had painfully taught him the previous evening. Furthermore, neither of them could fly, and while they weren't pushovers physically they couldn't match him for fitness and endurance. Unless he could establish a guaranteed safehouse to hide them in, finding them before the sword would only weigh him down... and so long as he stuck to his present task of pursuing the crates and the writ, they would be safe from pursuit. Logically, then, they would have to be the last thing he found before leaving the city.

That left his sword and his writ. As much as it pained him to admit it, neither was truly essential: once he left Ironridge, having a weapon would no longer be of as critical import, and Starlight herself could function as a key into the Plains of Harmony, having somehow found a route out. But if he were to get them...

Stalling Selma would have to be his top priority, as that would buy him more time to act later, and that hopefully was moving him closer to the writ. His sword was a mix-up: he could go to the Steel District as requested and hope that Shinespark had managed to obtain it over the course of the night, or go to the Sky District and confront Dior with what he suspected about Braen's identity. A mistake in either direction would be a costly waste of time.

Quickly, he took stock of his tentative alliances; the greatest asset he still had. Sharpie? Motivated by revenge and working with him out of shared mutual interest. Slipstream? He was already indebted to her before considering that she might be mad at him for ditching her at Skyfreeze. Howe? Ironrically, his most trustworthy ally. For all the pegasus's incompetence and bravado, he seemed to have a legitimate interest in helping Gerardo. If only trustworthiness extended to reliability...

Then there were Selma and Herman. He wasn't sure why he was lumping them together when they seemed to be on opposing sides... or, at least, Selma was plotting behind his superior's back. Likely, it was because they were both the most suspicious: Herman had been overly helpful without a clear motive, and Selma had said too much, too quickly. Gerardo wished he could rewind his conversations with the unicorn to analyze what had been said for clues and contradictions. In the heat of the moment, it had seemed reasonable enough, but the mere fact that Selma always chose to discuss important things during moments of extreme tension wasn't a strike in his favor.

None of those ponies, he suddenly realized, he could properly confide in about everything he knew. If Herman assigning him to work against his own underling wasn't enough, Selma had told him, with the barest sliver of consent, information that was both extremely sensitive and extremely useless... making him dangerous to talk to. The only ponies he could fully trust in Ironridge were lost somewhere, being chased by Howe and soon the rest of the Defense Force. He was isolated by his knowledge, unable to trust any minds but his own to aid in parsing it. He was stuck thinking through the things he learned and observed on his own, and that made it extremely easy for his perception and agenda to be manipulated. That was dangerous.

As the elevator slid to a stop, Gerardo quickly resolved to set his plan in stone: get the writ if possible, get the sword if possible, get Maple and Starlight, get out. Any changes to that agenda caused by anything he found that Selma or anyone else could possibly have anything to do with had to be questioned under utmost scrutiny, because he was a sitting duck to misdirection. No matter what he found while stalling, he couldn't make any hasty, influenced decisions.

...And the act of stalling and dragging out the inspection rather than hurrying back to his friends was just such a decision.

"Selma," he immediately probed, "once we are finished here, how am I to proceed?"

"With?" Selma lifted an eyebrow. "You're going to make your report to Herman, unless you decide otherwise. I could care less what you do, myself."

"That's rubbish," Sharpie grumbled, pacing out of the elevator at Gerardo's side. "The way you were talking when we watched those kids open the crate, you both obviously talked about it beforehoof, and I know you're not in this together because I listened to him complain about being mugged earlier." She jabbed a wing at Gerardo. "And don't think I didn't notice how long you were gone for that first teleport. Selma, you've clearly got something on him, so don't pretend to be ignorant for my sake."

Selma's face fell into a frown. "I'm perfectly serious; I could care less what he does when this inspection is over." Huffing, he quickened his pace.

"I imagine you could," Gerardo whispered under his breath, falling into step behind the unicorn. It was blatantly obvious that Selma did care... or, at least, wanted Gerardo to think he cared. But he had only started caring once Gerardo mentioned what the reward was...

The writ, he realized, was likely a lost cause. He had just witnessed a bold-faced lie in some capacity, and Selma had openly conspired with him earlier to attempt to con an unknown representative of Yakyakistan... and a pony like that would hardly consider him a perfectly trustworthy ally, either. If something didn't collapse and trap him in the remains of a scheme, whether through treachery or merely being caught, it was almost inevitable that Selma would just take the writ for his own purposes, whatever they were. And Sharpie was smart and hard to shake, so if there was anything to catch...

It was time to call quits to his fake inspection. He would ditch Selma, not return to Herman, and track down his friends as quickly as possible... and see where he could go from there. All he needed to do to start was find a way out of the tunnels.

Inspection, Six

"We're approaching the ventilation room," Selma announced, turning a steel-lined corner lit by overhead strips of energy.

Sharpie furrowed her brow. "What exactly do you plan to do there, Gerardo? The fortress's air conditioning has nothing to do with your crates, and we left the surveillance room before even losing track of your friends!" She huffed. "I can't see what this has to do with anything."

"Do you have any better ideas?" Gerardo quirked his head. "In absence of leads, the best I can do is look into anything and everything I come across. Although, it may be time to call this inspection quits..."

"Giving up so easily?" Selma asked, looking back. "Interesting. I thought you were stubborn."

Gerardo sighed under his breath as he walked. Whatever the reason, there was all the proof he needed that Selma was vested in his drawing things out as long as possible. He cleared his throat and continued moving, talons clicking against the sturdy metal floor.

The corridor widened out into a funnel shape, entering a high-ceilinged room with sparse furnishings and a central metal tower. Along the floors and roof, gigantic conflagrations of pipes and engines sat like massive metal spiders, housed within cages that constantly thrummed and beat with the sound of spinning. Like a brain stem, or the roots of an upside-down tree, pipes radiated out from the top of the tower, its highest level ringed with outward-leaning panes of clear blue glass.

Sharpie whistled. "Can't say I've seen this part before. It looks like a guard tower."

"It is," Selma answered with an indifferent shrug. "I told you, the ventilation system is counted as a military asset and thus its core controls were made to be easily defensible."

Rubbing his chin, Gerardo looked around the room. Evidently, the Water District predated the Defense Force by quite some time, which meant any defenses in place were either new or had been built into a recent upgrade of the system... and the level of protection present seemed far more than adequate when the system's importance was as low as Selma had made it out to be. Especially for a force apparently incapable of obtaining real weapons, why choose to protect this part so heavily? It wouldn't come as a surprise if there was more to the room than just ventilation.

"I think," Gerardo announced, wandering off at a slight angle to the ponies, "that here is where I wish to do some poking around of my own."

Selma shot him a measured glance... and nodded. "As you must."

Gerardo spread his wings, flapping through the heightened airspace of the outer ventilation chamber. Alighting on a lumpy, black box that appeared to be sculpted to the shape of moving parts within, he took several seconds to regain his balance against the thrum. His eyes scanned the room from on high, noting periodic fixtures on the octagonal walls... Turrets, perhaps? Unlikely, given the Defense Force's lack of conventional mobile artillery, but they certainly seemed positioned to be useful. The room's donut-shaped floor plan was largely covered in machines, though they were arranged such as to provide poor cover for any hapless invaders.

Soaring again to the back, he noticed a tightly-sealed steel door set into the tower's base, and landed to investigate. A card key slot sat next to it, glowing internally with a dull red light.

"Allow me," Selma's voice requested. Gerardo whirled to see the unicorn standing behind him, brandishing a thin key in his aura. Stepping aside, he allowed Selma forward.

Chink! The card slipped into the slit of metal... and was rejected with a resounding beep, the red light growing briefly more intense. Selma frowned and tried again.

BEEEEEP! Again, the door refused to budge, red light glowing angrily. Gerardo raised an eyebrow. "Captain? I take it this is an unexpected occurrence?"

"Apparently," Selma growled, "the permissions on my key are not properly set following a recent... incident. Unless you have your own, we will have to skip this tower."

"Let me try," Sharpie interjected, landing with a flap of her wings. Coiling them, she pulled a card of her own out of her suit and held it, clasped in her teeth, to the card reader.

BEEEEEP! Rejection, once again. She snorted and shook her head, pocketing the card.

"My apologies for the inconvenience," Selma said dryly. "I imagine you'll want to turn your investigation elsewhere, now? The barracks, perhaps? The upper levels?"

"Not so hastily," Gerardo instructed with a talon. "I don't think I'm done here yet."

Staring at the door, he wracked his brain. Would Selma really not have access to parts of his own base? That seemed suspect. He had seemed hasty or impatient to move on, as well... What if there was something in the ventilation room beyond security and fans? It didn't make sense to invest this heavily in security over a paltry asset, as he had pondered earlier, but if the room contained something more important, the air works could serve as an excuse...

With a blink, Gerardo realized that if his crates were still in the fortress, the ventilation control tower could very well be where they were.

He spread his wings and kicked off, hovering up to the glass pane windows ringing the top of the tower, just below its root-like mass of pipes. Inside, the walls appeared ringed with consoles, chairs, sets of buttons, levers and switches... and in the middle, there was a table. It had a pristine surface that glowed pale white, and above it floated an ethereal nest of lines, paired into sets of four, that could best be described as a tumbleweed with vertebrae and only right angles. It was a hologram, he realized... a projected map of the interior of the fort.

Blinking again, he returned to the ground. "Where are we right now?" he politely asked. "Relative to the fortress. The top, the bottom, the sides...?"

Selma nodded. "This is the lowest floor in the Water District, about ten stories beneath the base of the mountains. You're looking at the map, aren't you?"

"I hope that isn't a problem," Gerardo answered, soaring back up before Selma could reply.

Looking at the map with fresh eyes, he quickly overcame the fact that it was tilted - a pony actually in the room would be able to manipulate it, of course - and pinpointed their location as a large room on the lowest floor of the structure. Halfway through trying to count the levels, his eyes gave up from the monotonous sting and he blinked, losing his progress, but at least one hundred was a good estimate. Perhaps more, but they weren't spaced consistently, making counting by chunks impossible.

He quickly narrowed in on the map's extremities, where three paths somehow left the tangle and snaked off far in their own directions. One departed from the very top and slanted downward and away; a straight forty-five-degree slide into oblivion. Another also left from near the top, in exactly the opposite direction, flat end level yet gently curved, unlike the rest of the fortress's straight, boxy corridors. The final one mirrored the second, only halfway down.

"What are these?" he queried, glancing down without landing. "These three spinoff passages?"

Selma gazed back up at him with an expression that would have been identical were he the one looking down. "Major exits," he replied boredly. "One to the Flame District, one to the top of the dams, and one to a... 'maintenance' platform halfway up the eastern dam. They would..." His voice grew slightly terse. "Take significant time to investigate, and turn up nothing of interest."

Gerardo glanced to Sharpie, then to the unicorn. "I think," he began, descending, "that I would very much like to inspect this dam, if at all possible."

"The lower platform is closest," Selma slowly answered. "It is also presently closed for maintenance."

"Most interesting." Gerardo gave a vague nod. "It sounds like a perfect place to start."

A resigned gaze from Selma told him he would mount no objection. More interestingly to Gerardo, however, was that dam tops and maintenance platforms implied being outside... and that would give him the perfect opportunity to escape, no matter how much Selma wanted him preoccupied.

Inspection Concludes

At Gerardo's insistence, the group flapped and strode down a long, narrow corridor with a floor far finer and less worn than most... likely an indication of sparse usage. They were en route to the middle observation deck before the top of the dam first, as it was closer, and he had seen no reason to object. A way out, after all, was a way out.

Silently, he nursed his plans as he walked, the last elevator of the journey behind him. Get outside. Fly away. Find Starlight and Maple. Get back to Riverfall... and if he could obtain his sword with little hassle on the accompanying trip through Sosa, take that with him. Get outside. Fly away. Find Starlight and Maple...

A hairpin turn in the corridor startled him back into alertness. Looking behind, he saw Sharpie navigate it with utmost grace. She met his gaze, some question unspoken on her lips.

"Here we are," Selma announced, breaking into a broad, stout room with a thick metal door at one end. He nodded to the door, a perfect square that looked like it would retract into the ceiling.

Next to it, rather than a card reader, sat a large breaker switch, flipped to the off position. Selma said no more, and Gerardo took his silence as an invitation. Stepping forward, he extended a talon, preparing to grasp the switch and see if it opened the door.

"I imagine you think this room is out of the way," Selma interrupted, "and thus a place someone might put something they don't want to be found. A good idea, were it not shared by every single guardpony who believes they can get away with something they don't want to be found doing."

Gerardo pulled his talon back an inch. "Are you saying this switch is booby-trapped?"

"I'm saying this is one of the few rooms in the fortress not connected to the surveillance network," Selma replied. "A honeypot, to compare troublemakers to flies. Instead, we patrol it regularly by hoof. It's surprisingly effective at catching such miscreants."

"...What are you saying?" Gerardo asked, talon hovering in midair. "I can't quite see the point..."

Selma nodded. "I am saying that this would be one of the worst places in the fortress to hide something, when it is regularly patrolled by both the dishonorable members of the force and those who bring regulations. Anything that did not belong would be stolen or confiscated. In short, you're wasting your time here. There are other places far more useful to search."

"Well, there is such a thing as hiding something in plain sight," Gerardo answered with a shrug. "And you did say this room is presently closed for maintenance."

Sharpie frowned, pivoting her head around the room. "Yet you wait until after we lugged our tired carcasses here to mention that. Thanks, pal. Are you trying to waste time?"

Gerardo just had time to see Selma's half-smug glare out of the corner of his eye before he wrapped both talons around the breaker and threw it. CH-TUNNGGG!

Nothing happened.

He blinked, pushing it back up and throwing it again. There was the barest flicker in the ceiling lights, and the door remained solid. "This does do what I expect it to do, correct?"

"I told you," Selma growled, "this room is under maintenance and has been since yesterday morning. It's presently off-limits to all but those with proper clearances, primarily because lesser ponies aren't smart enough to understand that when things are broken, they don't work."

"That is... unfortunate," Gerardo answered, crouching at the door. It had no insulating strip at the bottom, and faint traces of sunlight and fresh air filtered through, confirming his hypothesis that it led outside. "I don't suppose there's any chance we can open it another way?"

Selma stared levelly at him. "Brute force, provided you're willing to explain why a maintenance inspector would tamper with repairs that are already under way."

Gerardo hesitated, scratching his chin. That wasn't as strict of a no as he would have expected, were there something truly important behind the door... or if Selma had caught on to his plan to fly away. In turn, that likely meant there was nothing behind the door. But there was a chance it was a reverse-psychology bluff and Selma intended him to reach that conclusion, and regardless he needed the door open to fly out. "Open it," he requested. "I desire to see what is behind."

With a single nod, Selma's horn flared icy blue. His aura surrounded the door, and there was a crunch, followed by a brief grinding of gears that sounded like they were being spun the wrong way... and the door rattled upward into its slot. Selma stood still, horn still aglow. "It won't hold itself up on its own. Conduct your inspection as you please, and I will hold it up and wait for you."

A thought triggered in Gerardo's mind that Selma was instructed to follow him at all times, never to wait behind. It was followed by a second thought that the door was something Selma could have guaranteed nobody but him would go through... as the area was blocked off, and he had effectively been goaded into searching it, from the unicorn's point of view. It could very well be a trap... which was why he tensed when Sharpie proceeded through ahead of him, reaching out a talon to grab her back.

He was too slow. She reached the platform beyond, a railinged deck of red wire mesh that looked out over a peaceful, undeveloped valley with a mountain range looming close beyond. A smattering of junk lay to the side, including an abandoned folding chair, a weighted-down magazine with a mare on the cover and an empty crate of some type of drink. For a moment, Gerardo watched as she gazed around, positioning himself halfway through the door... and then she looked back, and her face paled.

"What in the Seventh District is that!?" she hissed, jumping so far away her backside collided with the railing, eyes fixed on something evidently above the exit to the door.

"What is what?" Gerardo murmured in alarm, taking a step closer.

"Out of my way." Selma pushed past him, walked out on the platform, and turned to follow Sharpie's gaze. His face quickly melded in a mixture of shock, confusion and anger.

Gerardo followed them, looking up. Something that looked like a manacrystal was bound to the stone face above the door, only rather than being a single enchanted rock, it consisted of three or four in slightly different shades, all glowing and bound together awkwardly using liberal amounts of thin wire. To his right, facing the mountain, the dam extended like a vertical sea of gray, and more of the devices could be seen placed in a straight horizontal line along its full length, all wired together, twinkling cheerily and with a slight undercurrent of menace.

Selma stared thunderously at the nearest device, its colors alternating as parts of the core periodically flashed brighter than the others. "I last inspected this area myself the day before it was closed for maintenance," he ground, face iron. "These were not here then. I read the reports of both the door malfunction and the process to fix it, and these were not involved. And these. Look. Like. Bombs."

"Bombs?" Gerardo's mind whirled. This was the eastern dam, the far-side twin to the one he and the Sosan trade cart had traveled along that could be seen from all of Ironridge. A string of explosives, rigged halfway up at a place and time where nobody would see them... "What would be the meaning of this?" he asked, confused. "To destroy the reservoir, perhaps?"

Sharpie shook her head, and pointed north into the distance, where any floodwaters would inevitably rush from the shape of the topography below. Beyond a dense treeline, a faint cloud of smog hung in the air, accompanied by a forest of black smokestacks and the outlines of taller buildings.

"Sosa..." Gerardo whispered, feathers standing on end.

"Sosa," Sharpie breathed, standing next to him. "A cheating, no-good, freeloading district that's working with Yakyakistan to rob Ironridge..." She swallowed. "But still ponies. Whatever this is supposed to do, it... it would be genocide. A war crime. And Ironridge isn't even at war. Who could possibly hate them enough to erase their district?"

"Nobody from the Defense Force," Selma growled, horn glowing and enveloping the first bomb in an aura. "We are an organization that keeps the Stone District safe, and starting a war would be the most counterproductive act possible. Of that, you can be sure."

Gerardo's spine crawled. "But who would you go to war with if your enemies were gone?"

"...I'm going to warn Sosa," Sharpie announced, spreading her wings. "I don't care how little they trust me, I'll think of something. I'll- hey, leggo!"

A fragment of Selma's aura attached itself to her tail and grounded her in place, expertly splitting itself between three tasks at once. "Not so fast," he grunted, still staring at the bomb. "I was going to suggest that myself, but first let us be on the same page."

Sharpie relaxed enough for him to continue. "These bombs," he began, "are linked together in such a way that their trigger is being removed from the wall. If one comes off, they all explode. If the wire is severed, they all explode. So far, I haven't detected any alternate triggering mechanisms."

Gerardo gulped. "I suppose magical neutralization is off the table?"

"Not quite." Selma shook his head. "One of them... this one... is outfitted with an additional component that can forcibly detach it from the wall, which in turn is connected to a short-range unique key manatransceiver. In short, whoever has the trigger... and there is only one... can forcibly disconnect it from the wall and set off the reaction, provided they are close enough."

"How close is close?" Sharpie asked, wings and tail rigid in anticipation.

"Some areas near the middle of the fortress, and the top of the dam." Selma glanced straight up, where the afternoon sun was a sliver against the vertical mountain precipice. "As I said, this component's range is limited. Now, what I can do..." His horn glowed brighter, and a bolt of ice-blue mana surged at the bomb, shimmering around its base. "Is that. An adherence spell. It should maintain its maximum strength for at least thirty hours... likely tomorrow night. So long as it is in effect, I doubt the remote detachment mechanism will work. And I can refresh it myself as needbe."

Gerardo flexed his talons. "As it happens, I may have business that takes me near Sosa as well..."

"Very well." Selma nodded. "I'll excuse your report to Ambassador Herman. See to your friends, and whatever warnings you wish to deliver. I have a Defense Force to comb without end until I catch the one responsible for this." He lifted an eyebrow. "In the meantime, I recommend convincing them to evacuate. Sosa is not a residential district, so it should be possible. And I would certainly rather see Ironridge replacing loss of property than loss of life."

Sharpie paused. "Where will you start? Who do you think it is?"

"Who do I think?" Selma turned his head, already facing back into the door. "I haven't a clue. The usual prime suspect is out, as Valey is a creature of ruining lives, and that means she needs lives to ruin. But rest assured, I will find them."

He took another step back, and his aura faded, the door slamming down behind him, effectively locking Sharpie and Gerardo out. "Well," Gerardo muttered, "this is a twist."

"I told you... I... ugh." Sharpie sighed loudly. "I know how much you trust him, you know how much I trust him, and we both know how much each of us needs allies. We have to do something, unless he somehow made all that up just to make us make Sosa panic. What do we do?"

"If he's telling the truth..." Gerardo mused, "it seems we aren't in the world's greatest hurry. Only... second greatest. And as you said, he could be being dishonest, but this seems like an incredibly unproductive thing to do so about. Regardless, acting on this is in line with my previous plan."

"Which is...?" Sharpie's brow rose, the pulsing light of the bomb reflecting in her eyes.

"I need to see to the safety of my friends, first and foremost," Gerardo answered. "At the very least, that will involve checking the hotel we reserved. Ideally, they are already making their way to the Earth District, where they should be safer from the Defense Force. Then, I have business of my own in Sosa, which should be easily accomplished while telling them what we found."

Sharpie sighed again. "My first instinct is to take Brightcoil and all our money, board an airship for who knows where, and show this city just how much loyalty its treatment of me has bought. But then, if anything did happen, I'd have to live knowing I could have prevented it... even though the world doesn't work that way and anything I do try to help is just going to be a failure."

"...Admittedly, I'm doing much of the same." Gerardo hung his head. "I merely happen to be broke, and Sosa involves my ticket out. Not the most heroic of actions for a self-styled hero, but at this point I too have had my fill of this city's antics. I'll do what I can, and no more."

"Well, he wouldn't tell us we have fewer hours than we really have." Sharpie stretched, got to her hooves, and spread her wings. "Let's go find your friends and go to Sosa. But remember, the moment this city takes one step closer to eating itself alive, me and Brightcoil are gone."

"Fair enough." Gerardo nodded, spread his own wings, and leapt into the air. "To the Stone District!"

Earth District

WHUDDD!

Three ponies impacted a broad dirt road with a meaty thump, Starlight tumbling like a bowling ball until her momentum finally met its end at the base of a tree. Upside-down, with her spine to the bark and her horn digging into the ground, she groaned and went limp. "Owww..."

Valey was already on her hooves, if shakily so. Wobbling, she picked up her hat with a delirious smile and said, "Hey, that was fun. Who's up for round two?"

"This is why I didn't want to try flying..." Maple whimpered. Growling, she hauled herself one hoof at a time out of the roadside ditch where she landed, wincing and glaring at Valey.

"Woah, hey!" Valey raised her forelegs in self-defense, staggering and catching herself as a result. "You were the one who eventually agreed to my bad idea!"

Maple harrumphed, tending to her ruined mane. "It was your bad idea in the first place."

"Hey, I know my limits," Valey said, shrugging and examining her wings. "I can carry a grown stallion and maintain altitude. A normal mare and a filly shouldn't be too much harder to do at once..." She licked a scrape and brushed some dirt from a fetlock. "Emphasis on normal. You should've warned me that shapely rump of yours weighs as much as a boulder."

Maple's ears folded, and Starlight could tell she didn't have a response. Sliding down the trunk, the filly rolled herself upright, ignored her own wrecked mane, and took advantage of the silence to survey just where they had landed.

In all directions, squat, gnarled trees rose up with thick, twisting trunks and broad canopies, shading out the sun and providing slight relief from the heat. The air felt like a blanket that had been worn slightly too long; having come from the mountains where the air was cool, its warmth was pleasant, but with no way to cast it off Starlight knew it would quickly become oppressive.

The roadway itself was gently sloped, still descending through the foothills, and made of packed dirt that rose nearly as high as her chin off the forest floor, evidently to provide drainage and prevent puddles from forming when it rained. The road twisted such that it wasn't possible to see more than a short distance in either direction, and its width rippled randomly in a series of passes and clearings.

"Welp!" Valey sang, completely recovered. "Welcome to the Earth District, kiddos." She blinked at Maple. "Even though you've been here before. And I'm pretty sure you're older than me. But who cares, let's go annoy some farmers!"

Maple grunted, massaging her sides. "As long as it doesn't involve running. Now I'm cramped, bruised and sore... Where exactly are we going?"

"Mmm..." Valey squinted at the sky. "Our big target is a place called Grand Acorn. It's kinda north-northeast. Not from here, in the Earth District in general. Straight north from here. That's where Dangerous Karma has his headquarters, which is where we need to be if we want to watch him get ticked off by us stealing stuff. But the closest town is Blueleaf, which is right nearby. It's... not exactly the least shady place ever, so hey, it'll probably be fun! Where were you two going, again?"

Maple hesitated. "I think it was called... Gnarlbough? Starlight, that sounds familiar, right?"

"Yup," Starlight answered, in truth having no idea and more focused on preventing her tattered ponytail from itching at her neck. It would have been easier if she used her horn, but that was still sore and resting from the previous evening, too.

"Yeah, that's not too far from Grand Acorn." Valey licked her lips and began trotting downhill. "A little further northwest. Still, that's a lot of walking and you two look kind of dead right now. Let's get to Blueleaf first, and you can snooze a bit while I trash some bozos. Sound good?"

"The further we get from the Stone District, the better," Starlight grunted, flicking her tail and falling into step. "We'll just have to walk this way eventually."

"Agreed!" Maple emphatically nodded, then winced and rubbed her neck. "Ow. I really could have done without that crash landing after overdoing it so badly last night..."

"Hey, no hard feelings." Valey's emerald eyes lit up from beneath her hat. "Although... I think I'm gonna call you Ironflanks from now on. You needed a good nickname, anyway!"

"Hey!"

Half an hour into their trek, the road wasn't nearly as peaceful as it had first appeared. They passed a fairly constant stream of outbound traffic, teams of two or sometimes three ponies of all races hauling sturdy wagons filled with crates, barrels, fruit, lumber and all manner of tradeable goods. There were slightly more mares than stallions, Starlight noted - interesting, after the Defense Force and its base being almost exclusively male pegasi.

The ponies they passed kept carefree, yet steadfast and determined expressions, hauling their loads without bothering to speak to or even acknowledge anyone else. Whether because they were too focused on escaping the heat after a long journey or recognized Valey and didn't want to draw her attention, they marched stoically, smelling of sweat under the midday sun.

Starlight was starting to roast. She relished every time the road narrowed, as it provided a broader canopy of shade that was almost enough to make things bearable. Pacing as close to the side of the road as she could already, she frequently drank from the water flasks in her saddlebags, always resisting the urge to lick at her dry lips. Her hooves weren't as sore as they could be, thanks to careful re-application of her horseshoes, but her legs weren't doing her any favors and the heat was only intensifying the residual headache from her overworked horn.

No fruit that she could see hung from the trees, though she wasn't particularly hungry. Mostly, it was nuts... and frequently, nothing at all. She imagined Valey trying to repel a convoy by instructing her guard to throw hard, pointy nuts instead of melons, and quickly wished she hadn't, wincing as if struck herself by a walnut to the ribs.

Eventually, the road straightened, then widened, and the horizon became obscured by a solid wall of brown lumber that might have passed for a building. Starlight stopped, blinking. It was built at such an angle that it looked to be perpetually sagging, was at least three stories high, and had a shadowed gap in the middle through which the road continued. "What is that?"

"It's Blueleaf!" Valey happily shrugged. "Just as lopsided as it was yesterday. Good to see it hasn't suddenly grown an architecture code. My advice? If you see an overhang, stay under it. Helps avoid nasty stuff ponies like to toss out their windows."

Undaunted by the town's appearance, she proceeded, Maple and Starlight warily following.

The Sunken

"Well, here we are!" Valey announced with a grin. "Blueleaf! Hooves crossed for a nice brawl!"

Maple grimaced. "I'd really rather the other way around..."

The town rose vertically around them, architects throughout the ages having decided that building on the roofs of existing structures was far less hassle than cutting down trees to expand outwards, and the laws of gravity having somehow agreed to play by their rules. Structures upon structures were stacked, all made of the same dark wood but with dramatically different levels of craftsponyship and no adhereance to floor plans whatsoever. The result was a shadowed maze where jutting overhangs were just as common as alleys two stories in the air, the thin gaps of sky visible from the ground only letting sunlight in at the height of the day... and only then when they weren't blocked entirely by bridges or clotheslines. It was a chaos akin to Riverfall, only wilder and ridden with danger.

"So where are we going in here?" Starlight asked, dubiously squinting down the main street they had entered on. It ran straighter and wider than any of the side roads she looked down, but eventually met its end somewhere beyond the crowd of ponies that blocked out her view of the ground.

"Hmmm..." Valey adjusted her beret, thinking. "I still like my idea of starting a bar fight best. But if you're feeling chicken, I guess we could just wander around and wait for trouble to find us."

"I'm not sure I like the look of this place," Maple understated, standing protectively near Starlight. "The ponies here look... desperate. Why aren't we passing straight on through?"

Valey shrugged, peering hopefully down a dark alley as they walked by. "One, because I'm bored, and two, because it's six miles to Grand Acorn and you two are basically dead. Can't have you guys collapsing from exhaustion. I don't even do that to ponies I want to mess with. Being unconscious makes you boring."

Starlight's eyes wandered as they talked, looking over the other ponies in the street. The ones that caught her attention first carried themselves with an air of slight tension and importance, or else confidence with their setting, all suited with nothing or clothes that weren't the finest, stallions allowing a day's worth of stubble to grow on their chins and mares wearing manes that had gone a day without washing. It was as if they were giving the town their second-best, and wanted it to know it.

But there was a second class of ponies about too, who stuck to the shadows more and had longer, less-kempt manes and scruffy coats that hadn't had a proper grooming in much longer. They only talked to each other, and they constantly stared at the first group of ponies, and did their best to be less noticeable than others. Had the weather permitted it, she was sure they would have worn heavy, well-used cloaks to compliment the aesthetic, and when their mouths moved she imagined their voices were gruff, even the mares. Very few of them were unicorns.

There was also an unusually large number of unattended colts and fillies, going by both her sensibilities and her experience with Riverfall and Equestria. She watched them curiously, tuning the rest of the ponies out and touching Maple with her tail to ensure she didn't get distracted and separate herself. Most of the foals moved in quick, darting bursts, never going for more than a second without being next to a wall. Some carried saddlebags gripped in their teeth, while others used cruder methods to haul their belongings and others carried nothing at all.

One colt managed to pull over a better-dressed mare and withdrew something from his sack, offering it to her with two hooves, evidently trying to sell it. She shook her head and continued, and he chased after her for several steps before looking down, dejected. Starlight's heart sank with his spirits, and she looked away.

The next filly she looked at returned eye contact. Sitting alone in front of a dark, open door, she had a short mane and tail and stared back with sharp, burning eyes that refused to let Starlight go or even take a breath. Her insides crawled after several seconds of the filly's determined gaze. It wasn't natural, seeing a pony so young who had anything to care about that much. Every youthful face her mind could bring up was innocent, happy and carefree, yet this one was so devoted to some unspoken goal Starlight considered the possibility that the filly was willing to kill to get it. No pony should ever look like that, young or old.

...She wondered if she looked that way when talking about cutie marks.

"Maple?" she whimpered, voice shaking more than she had hoped. "I don't like it here."

"Neither do I," Maple whispered back, then kissed the top of Starlight's head. Then, to Valey: "I hope the entire Earth District isn't like this. It doesn't feel nice."

"Eh, don't worry about it," Valey said with a shrug. "Blueleaf is a bit of a special case. Granted, towns further north have a lot more Sosans, especially Gnarlbough, where you wanted to go. The thing is... Ironridge has a bunch of districts, but most of them are only for work. The only residential ones are the Earth District and the Stone District, and the Stone District is way nicer because it has a view, is close to the Skyport, and isn't stupidly hot all the time. So it kinda costs more, and any economy's gonna make floaters and sinkers. And since this town is right next to the Stone District... it's where a lot of the sunken wind up once they can't afford to live up top anymore. Some of them get back on their hooves and work with a commute, and dream of moving up some day. Others realize they don't have to work to survive, since food is pretty much free down here, so they wind up doing nothing... and then they wander around, wondering why their lives are so meaningless and being depressing."

Starlight's thoughts flickered back to the colt, trying to sell something to support his family, and she gave a frustrated snort. "That doesn't sound very fair."

"Hah! Ya think?" Valey laughed bitterly. "Didn't I pour my heart out to you last night about how dirty the world plays and you you've gotta play dirty back, or something? Look at me!" She flexed her leathery wings and gave a fanged smile. "Walking, talking, cuddlier-than-a-cactus proof that fair doesn't exist. Now come on, this way looks promising."

With a flick of her tail, she darted to the right, and the mid-afternoon sunlight disappeared as they were enveloped by a narrow alley.

Back Road

Starlight stepped through the perpetual dusk of Blueleaf's back streets, blue sky shimmering tauntingly through blocky cracks in their wooden surroundings high above. Maple pressed close to her, and she to the mare, and they both followed Valey's confident hooffalls in an aimless search for trouble.

"Mmmm..." Maple murmured uneasily. "Weren't we going to stop somewhere and rest? You said this was a break, but if we're on our hooves the whole time it won't do much..."

Valey nimbly sidestepped a pile of garbage. "Oh, yep. We just gotta find the right place first."

"And what kind of a good place do you think you'll find here?" Starlight complained, shortly waving a hoof at the dimly-lit entrances that lined the road, some open and some boarded up and precious few with actual, functioning doors. "This street is so not-straight you can't even see where you're going! If anypony wanted to make a place where we were welcome, they'd put it somewhere easier to find." Snorting, she craned her neck to see around the back road's gradual bend, finding nothing but more dusk.

"Who said anything about the place being good?" Valey asked with a dangerous grin. "The only ponies who live in a place like this are ones that don't want to be found or can't afford to be found. I've told you like three dozen times, I need my exercise before I go and loaf around."

With a grumbly whine, Starlight lowered her head and continued her pace, eyes constantly scanning the doorways for threats. The street itself seemed to be a place nobody wanted to be, the few ponies they saw hurrying past with nothing more than wary glances.

One door was dark, a frame of blackness surrounded by the shadows of the street, ambient light extending just far enough to reveal a worn plank floor. The next was lit orange, a mare within laying on a cushionless chartreuse couch, a foal pressed against her while her hooves busied themselves with a book. Her mouth was moving, reading aloud words that didn't carry past the door, and then she slid past Starlight's line of sight and was gone.

The filly blinked, and looked onward. A door that was boarded up, and then another dark one through which she swore she saw something moving. Then there were none for an extended stretch, and the snaking pathway split in an intersection.

"Meh, meh, meh..." Valey mumbled under her breath, hoof flicking between the two directions as if trying to pick one randomly. Eventually, her emerald green eyes lit up, and she focused. "Right!"

They turned and turned again, Starlight nearly tripping over a discarded board that was invisible in the dim light. The streets were such narrow canyons that she doubted if sunlight met the ground for more than ten minutes every day. The ground attested that it didn't, squishing slightly between her hooves despite the presence of a drainage ditch dug directly into the middle of the street. The usual jungle heat had dissipated as well, giving way to a clammy dankness she associated with caves with occasional wisps of hot air adding to the unnatural feel of the place.

Maple, evidently, was having similar thoughts. "How does this stay sanitary?" she asked. "There's so little ventilation or drainage, it seems like it would be really easy for disease to spread. Or mold, at least. This entire town is made of wood!"

"Huh." Valey rubbed her chin. "You know, that's actually a kinda good question. I feel like they had some sort of special manalights that dried stuff out and could keep a constant temperature, but I don't see any. On second thought? Let me go check."

Hovering, she flitted to a low overhang where one building jutted out above another. A moment of poking and prodding followed, and then she flew back with a shrug. "Yup. The lights are still there," she explained. "I guess they decided they like it darker for some reason. Suits me just fine!"

"They just decided?" Maple repeated dubiously. "That sounds strange. Why would they get rid of something that's obviously so important? How long ago did it even happen?"

Valey shrugged. "Beats me. I usually fly past this place. Besides, I like the dark, so I didn't think too hard about it. When life cuts you a break, you take it, you know?"

"Either way..." Maple's brow furrowed, and she glanced at Starlight. "I'm tired and sore enough already without getting some sickness here, and that goes double for Starlight. Valey, can't we do this somewhere... I don't know, cleaner?"

"Thought you'd love the cold," Valey answered, flicking her ears. "I mean, this is one of the only places in the Earth District that isn't roasty-toasty. If you insist, though. Come on, let's start looking for the way up."

"...You mean you don't know?" Maple and Starlight whined in sync.

"Hey. There are two things I'm good at finding." Valey twirled her beret and set it back on her head, gently flapping backwards ahead of them. "Trouble, and food. Trouble's everywhere here; this place reeks of despair and nastiness and stuff. But if we want to find food, it means getting out of these back alleys, and I can totally do that. Trust me on this." She blinked. "Oh, I can smell the kid too."

Starlight pouted, scuffing at the mud. "What is it with you and saying I stink?"

"I didn't say that!" Valey protested as Maple gave her a quick glare. "It's a nice smell! Seriously."

Neither responded. Instead, they rounded one more corner... and Starlight gave a soft gasp, pointing forward with a hoof. "Look at that," she whispered.

The boxy, winding road opened into a small square clearing, wooden support pillars holding up the edges of the surrounding buildings to allow for a plaza slightly greater in size than otherwise. Boardwalk floors covered the edges, leaving a patch of dirt in the center where the road continued... and like a merciful hoof held down from the sky, a pillar of light descended, bathing the middle of the patch in warmth. Short, scraggly grass huddled all the way to the edges of the lit area, forming a small hummock of color, and a few flowers stood in the center, delicate and reaching.

"I kind of want to eat it," Valey belched.

Instinctively, Starlight stepped in front of her, blocking her path. It wouldn't do much good when the mare could fly, but the intention was clear enough. The clearing was built like a shrine around the grass and flowers, and taking that away felt wrong, somehow.

Above the grass, the tunnel down from the sky was lined with reflective mirrors, she realized, bouncing sunlight on its way down to allow it to reach the ground for more than minutes a day, allowing the flowers to bloom. Someone had done that very deliberately. It was like the plants were a gift, the ponies who lived higher up showing the ones below that good things could grow on the bottom... or maybe she was reading too far into it. It was a flower garden, sitting where it didn't belong. It didn't take much to form a high contrast when the rest of the world was so dull.

"We should leave them alone," Maple added, voice soft and respectful as if she could tell that this was a place where ponies came to hope. "The ponies here need them more than we do."

Starlight mutely nodded her agreement.

"That was kind of the point," Valey grumbled, but nevertheless obeyed. "Come on, then. Let's find some stairs and get up top where it's nicer. If you want out that badly, hoof it!"

"Oh, I do." Maple nodded emphatically, then stopped to rub a cramp in her leg. "Ow..."

No sooner had they taken three steps, however, then they were interrupted. "I really thought you'd eat it," a voice called from the shadows, under an overhang. "I guess you are decent ponies!"

They all whirled. A small shape paced haughtily out from where it had blended with a support pillar, and drew nearer to the light until Starlight recognized them as the sharp-eyed filly from the main street. Strong, lithe and looking properly nourished, her coat was a vibrant, shocking red, and her mane and tail darker accents thereof. She stood still, as if waiting for them to speak.

Fighting Eyes

"...Can we help you?" Maple asked uneasily.

The red filly stared back at them with every bit of complexity and emotion in her eyes Starlight had seen on the main road, and didn't answer. To Starlight's side, Valey grinned innocently. "Aww! What a cute kid."

That was impetus enough. "You have bat wings," the filly pointed out, standing her ground.

"Sure do!" Valey winked. If she was unnerved by the filly's demeanor, she did a perfect job of not showing it. In fact, the uneasy tension seemed only to excite her, tail twitching predatorially at the very tip. "What of it?"

A second passed, and the filly dropped part of her guard. "Can you help me, then?" she asked, glancing nervously around, ears having gone from rigid to flat in a heartbeat. "The staircase broke and I need to make sure Ma is alright, but I can't fly and it's really hard to know if you can trust somepony here..." She turned shyly, showing off wingless sides and a cutie mark of a hoof ladder.

Starlight watched Maple's face soften, the mare giving a sigh of relief, and frowned. That frown intensified when Valey eagerly agreed. "Oh, absolutely! I can always..." She stretched her wings, cracking them audibly at the joints. "Make some time for a little public service! Lead the way, kiddo!"

The filly turned and nodded to a dark, doorless entrance in the far shadows of an overhang, low enough that a grown pony's ears would have brushed the top. "Oh, thank you!" She pleasantly smiled, eyes unchanging. "It's in here. It's a little dark, so watch your step and follow me."

"This has 'trap' written all over it," Starlight muttered under her breath as Valey cheerfully followed the filly. "I don't like it..."

Maple suddenly paled, her own smile sliding away over the course of a very long second. "Oh... Oh it does... I didn't think a filly would..."

"I would," Starlight countered, "if I was desperate enough. And she wants something."

"...But the only thing we're carrying is your saddlebags," Maple protested, whispering. "Valey doesn't have anything to steal. And it's just one filly!"

"If they know who she is, and she's as good at fighting as she says she is..." Starlight straightened her posture and took a step forward. "Then the filly wants to distract her from us."

Maple grimaced. "I'm more worried that she's as good as she says she is, and that poor filly doesn't know." Hastening her stride, she followed Starlight into the darkness of the building.

Valey stepped around a pile of broken glass, deftly navigating the pitch-black interior. Maple and Starlight were following her, silhouetted in the gray light from the door, which earned a slight huff but was probably for the better. No reason for them to get ambushed while she was having her fun. Admittedly, fighting fillies for sport was hardly her best idea of a good time, but the lack of concern wafting from her red coat indicated it was definitely a trap. So long as the filly wanted to play dirty, who was she to refuse?

"So, uhh..." she began, putting her forehooves on a staircase that seemed intact, if rickety, not flying due to the low ceiling and copious amounts of dust that would be stirred up. "Where's this broken thingamajig you can't get past? Because this one looks fine to me."

"It's up ahead!" the filly's little voice called from the top of the staircase. "Hurry!"

"Yeah, yeah, one sec..." She paused on the stairs, stalling and watching the others. Just because she could see in the dark didn't mean they could, and giving them her voice as a beacon would be a lot less work than letting them get injured or lost and making up for it later.

"Valey?" Maple's voice hissed behind her, the mare almost in reach of her tail. "Are you sure-"

"Oh yeah." Valey flashed a smirk, though she knew Maple wouldn't be able to see it. "Careful with these stairs, by the way, Ironflanks. I think they're built for normal ponies."

Hoping she had earned a blush and unable to check, Valey coiled her hind legs and sprung, clearing the entire flight without even using her wings. She skidded to a gentle halt at the top, expertly catching her balance and kicking up a cloud of dust in the process. Her muzzle scrunched, sniffing.

...There was more than one pony in the room with her. Enough that she had trouble counting, even. Their emotions ranged through tension, apprehension, excitement, and a hearty dose of fear, but any despair was at least an hour stale, not fresh. What there was was a palpable scent of dislike bordering on hatred, varying intensely by body but especially concentrated in at least three points. A middling level of danger tingled on her flank to cap it all off, just low enough to tell that no weapons were immediately pointed her way.

Breathing deeply, Valey let out a contented sigh as Maple and Starlight arrived at the top.

"All right, kiddo! Let's get this party started! Where's your broken stairs?"

"Here." Shhhunk!

There was a swish of a blade embedding itself in wood, and with a clatter, something large and flat fell from a wall where it was suspended, landing and completely covering the stairs back down. Colored lights lit sparsely around the room's edges, revealing themselves to belong to unicorn horns as no less than fifteen colts and fillies stepped out from behind boxes and broken furniture.

"I'm Redshift," the filly she had followed announced, positioning herself as the group's leader, demeanor suddenly haughty and antagonistic. "My mother isn't here. She's up living in a nice house at the top of town, because she's lucky. But you know who is here? Them."

She swept a hoof angrily, indicating three of the foals, all pegasi, who stepped stubbornly up to stand beside her. "I know you," one declared, pointing a hoof.

"Yeah," another added more meekly. "You're Commander Valey. My dad used to say nasty things about you all the time."

"Admiral..." Valey hissed under her breath, keeping her smile eager and calm.

"Used to," the third emphasized. "Until you fired him. Mine quit because he hated you. And because you messed up all their paperwork, they couldn't get jobs anywhere else, and we were having hard times already! We had to move, and now we're stuck here!"

"And it's your fault," the first pegasus accused. "And this city is a dump! Nopony wants to live here, especially when you and your government won't help us fix basic problems!"

"We," Redshift finished, taking attention from the pegasi, "don't like you, Valey. So when-"

"Woah, woah, hold up." Valey waved her forehooves for them to stop, then butted in regardless. "First off, to set the record straight? I don't fire ponies. That's like throwing away your toys. You're probably just confused. And second...?" Ignoring the roomful of scowls, she clutched her cheeks in bliss. "You kids set up a mob ambush just for me!? It's like it's my birthday and someone remembered!"

The three pegasi's confidence abruptly wavered, and they stepped back. Redshift stood firm, though her mask was pointless when Valey could smell the nervousness behind it. "No, no, don't let me scare you off," Valey reassured. "Trust me, I've been looking for a fight. It's why I'm here. Your traps need work, by the way. Super easy to spot. But don't worry, I'm generous."

Redshift's face twisted in anger. "You came here to...! You came to Blueleaf looking to attack our ponies? You're evil! Everyone, get her!"

As the ring of foals surged uncertainly toward the batpony in the center, Valey's eyes lit up. Tongue lolling in anticipation, she spread her wings and readied her empty forehooves, lacking anything to use as a weapon. "Oh boy let's go!"

"Valey!" Maple protested urgently as the foals flowed past her, utterly ignoring her and Starlight, who was crouching beneath. "They're just children!"

"Buh?" Valey looked up instants before the wave reached her, breaking off to nimbly flip over a colt's head. "But they want a fight!" she complained, strafing towards the nearest wall. "And so do I!"

Starlight held her tongue, Maple's dirty chest fluff tickling the back of her neck. "But..." Maple extended a forelimb. "But they're kids!"

"Look, Ironflanks," Valey grunted, nevertheless obeying the commandment not to strike, dodging and skirting around the room as she was chased by an uncoordinated mob of large heads and flailing hooves. "This is like, my dream arena right here, I haven't gotten to let loose in several days, and these little lemon bags asked really nicely for it. Will you please not be offended if I knock just a few blocks off? See, I'm even asking nicely!"

"Arrrrrgh!" a foal howled, leaping forward with a punch that Valey deftly dodged.

"Knocking blocks off?" Maple gritted her teeth. "No!"

"You won't be offended?" Valey bobbed her head, using half a chair as a shield. "Slick!"

"Hey! Hey!" Redshift shouted from atop a broken vanity. "Don't forget our strategy, you guys! You have to corner her, or she'll wear you down and pick you off one by one! Don't go for where she is, split up and cover the whole room!"

"Oh, come on!" Valey pouted, gently running backwards and flapping her wings as if to blow the foals away. "I'm not fighting right now! Don't take all the fun out of this by admitting you're trying!" Grunting, she tipped over a rack in her wake, leaving it as an obstacle.

"All right," Redshift called, "Change tactics! Take her friends as hostages!"

The foal mob changed course, and Valey's face fell. "Hey, wait!" she protested. "I hadn't even-"

"I'm done with this," Starlight abruptly growled, stepping out from under Maple to face the incoming ponies, horn lighting and crackling with energy. "We can talk later!"

Flashhhhh!

A teal laser flew at the mob in a concentrated beam, and crystals spiked around them, melding into place until every combatant sans Redshift was immobilized, looks of shock and fear plastered on their faces. Valey hung upside-down in the crystal too, looking vaguely amused.

"Listen up!" Starlight shouted above the buzz of her horn, eyes squinting from the effort. "I don't know who or what happened to all of you in the past, and I don't care! I'm sorry your town stinks, and I'm sorry life hasn't been fair to you, but apparently that's the way things are and there are better things you can try to do to change it than getting revenge! Now all three of us are going to leave, and we're not going to cause trouble, so leave us alone! Right, Valey!?"

"I-I-I..." Redshift stammered, the giant manacrystal reflected in her wide eyes. "Who are...?"

"Zoop!" The moment Starlight took her eyes off the prison, Valey's voice crowed in her ear... and she turned around and blanched. The mare was standing right there, completely free.

"How did you get out?" she demanded, brow unable to furrow further.

"Meh. Magic." Valey dusted her shoulders and moved to the closed trapdoor, bending down to pry it open. "Killjoy. Oh well. They're probably too scared now to fight any more, so no point in sticking around. Let's blow this dump."

The stairs clattered open as she shoved the blockage aside. Starlight's aura finally faded from her horn, and she slumped with a gasp, Maple barely catching her before her head hit the ground. "Starlight!" She wiped Starlight's brow worriedly, no longer visible in the darkness. "Are you all right?"

A single unicorn in the pile where the crystal had vanished managed to light their horn, giving the room some semblance of illumination once again. Redshift stayed still on her perch, eyes unblinking and mouth slightly ajar. Starlight's head swam too much to tell if she was saying anything, but she quickly vanished from sight as a strong foreleg grasped her, carrying her down the stairs.

Something Familiar

"So your horn is pretty much exploded now, right?"

Valey looked back over her shoulder, slipping her way through a narrow, shadow-ridden passage as Maple and Starlight followed, leaning on each other for support. Starlight panted, dizzy and slightly nauseous. "It'll... It'll wear off..." she growled, closing her eyes. "It's not broken. It just works differently."

"Works differently. Right." Valey nodded slowly. "Well, hey, that's good! I thought you might'a been in pain, or something. It would stink if you hurt yourself being flashy, because I could totally have gotten us out of that way easier. Oh well!"

"Nngh..." Starlight grimaced. In hindsight, it was stupid; both unnecessarily exerting herself and trying to steal the batpony's show when that was the reason she walked into the fight in the first place. If it could be called a 'fight,' that was. Despite Redshift's seriousness, and Starlight had no doubt she was serious, Valey had made it look like a circus act. Laughing at danger was one thing, but disrespecting ponies just trying to get back at the world for their own bad luck? To say it was disrespectful would have been redundant, but her brain was too wracked with pounding to think of anything better.

"Sorry I can't carry you," Maple whispered aside to her. "Ugh, why am I so beat up? Why are we so beat up? This city just wants to teach us that adventures are dangerous over and over..."

"Not that you didn't steal my thunder, of course," Valey was rambling. "I mean, I have this really cool exit I've been planning pretty much since I met you, but its like every problem we run into takes care of itself before I can do anything!" She snorted. "Remember how we ran into Selma back when we were leaving the fort? He didn't even try to pick a fight. Rude. ...We should run into more problems."

"Or, we could run into fewer..." Maple offered, a note of strained hope in her voice.

Valey sniffed and turned a corner. "Hi boring, I'm me. Nope nope no- oh hey look, stairs!"

Her emerald eyes lit up, smiling in the darkness even when her mouth was hard to make out. Around the bend, a narrow staircase sat, tucked against one wall and supported by a single crossbeam on its way up to a bridge crossing the street one story up. Valey jumped, landing smoothly atop it and looking both ways. "It's good!" she called. "Doesn't look like a dead end! Come on up!"

Starlight's hooves parted from the cooling mud as she stepped onto the first stair, and she instantly couldn't tell if she missed it or not. On the one hoof, it was sticky, annoying, unpleasant and a part of the lower city's oppressive atmosphere that she couldn't wait to be rid of. On the other, it was a constant cooling touch, and that made her head feel slightly better. She staggered once as her horn gave off an errant shower of sparks, catching herself and continuing to the top.

"...But for real, though," Valey said as she crawled up the final step and collapsed on the bridge. "Your magic hurts you to use? That's kinda a fatal flaw, even if you are a filly as strong as some adult mages. Weird, too. Usually it's a brand that gives ponies unique quirks like that."

"I'll make it work," Starlight hissed, laying on her side with her head to the ground. "I don't need a cutie mark! Nopony does! Nngh... ow! You'll see!"

Valey awkwardly shuffled her forehooves. "Uhh... suit yourself, but I'll take my chances keeping mine. Those kids back there were loons, but what they tried happens all the time, and others are way better about actually getting the drop on me. Without mine, I'd be toast." She winked, and added, "I still think cutie mark is adorable, by the way. Where'd you get that?"

Starlight clamped her mouth shut, and remained that way until Maple slowly crested the stairs, taking each step gently so as not to risk damaging it with her weight.

"...Right." Valey blinked down at her, then at Maple. "Hey, Ironflanks, you mind if I carry her? She looks kind of like a puddle and is slowing us down, and I do wanna find some place where you two can put your hooves up for a bit. You're, like... doing a bit too good a job at beating yourselves up, here."

"Be gentle," Maple sighed, "and fine. And do you really have to call me that?"

"Well, what else am I going to call you? Tree sap?" Valey asked, hefting Starlight's frowning form and slinging her crosswise over her back, the filly's head dangling over one side and hindquarters the other. "I'm bad with names unless I make them myself. Still need something for this kid, too. Something like, uhh... Something small and cute. Eh, I'll think of a good one in time. Now let's go!"

"Slow down!" Maple halted her with a hoof, then walked over to Starlight. "You carry her like this," she explained, dragging one of the filly's forehooves across Valey's black neck and turning her until she lay evenly on her back. "Better. Now we can go."

Valey grinned. "Aww, this feels like a hug! Now I see why you're always trying to cuddle her!"

"I have reasons for the things I do," Maple mumbled, ears turned down. "And be nice! I haven't had an easy life either, okay?"

"Nice?" Valey's face scrunched. "First off, who gave you the idea I could do that, and second, I was complimenting her. That's perfectly nice! Silly pony." She stuck out her tongue. "Nyaa."

For her part, Starlight slumped lethargically on Valey's back, trying to sort her head into productive thoughts... or at least any thoughts at all, aside from how many better options she had than wasting her magic on the foals. Her ride felt different, she noted. Looking at them side-by-side, Maple and Valey had the same proportions, both fully-grown young mares with the standard body type and no unusual physical traits. But in that much contact, and after spending so much time using Maple as a personal taxi, she could feel a world of change just in how they walked. Was it demeanor, and the way they stood? Did Valey have different muscles due to having wings? Or was she merely in better shape? She could just be smaller. Her coat was different, at least, short and silky next to Maple's long winter fur.

As she breathed in, Valey's green mane got in her face, earning a cough and several blinks and a failed attempt to wipe it away. But with it, delayed in recognition by several seconds, she caught a scent she couldn't quite parse. Subsequent sniffs confirmed it was definitely coming from Valey's mane. It was familiar, somehow, but she couldn't place what it reminded her of, or where she had smelled it before.

"...You know..." Valey broke the silence, humming to herself. "Speaking of brands and not having them, I just remembered this spooky old story that says if you lose yours, you turn into a scary monster. OoOoOo..." She flexed her wings. "Better not be too stubborn about them, huh?"

"That's bogus," Starlight grumbled, her head reminding her that she was, in fact, presently miserable. "And you said lose, not decide not to gain. And aren't there tons of ponies here already who don't have cutie marks? They're not monsters."

Valey frowned and gritted her teeth. "That depends on your definition of monster..." In a flash, she lightened up. "But yeah, I didn't say it was a true story, either. And whoever managed to lose a brand? You get one, it's on your butt for life. These things aren't exactly transferable."

"I'm well aware," Starlight deadpanned.

"You know..." Maple hummed warily to herself, as if searching through memories she knew were best left alone. "I did hear a story once, about a pony who lost their cutie mark. It said so many terrible things happened to them that they lost all hope for the future, and when they did, their mark just disappeared... but I don't know if it's true. I wasn't in a very good place when I heard it. It might have been made up to try to push me to keep going, I don't know. And there definitely wasn't anything about a monster, either..."

"Huh. Weird." Valey's ears swiveled, scanning down a passing side road containing several discarded, broken crates and a flickering light somewhere beyond a door. "Wow, though, now I feel like being in a spooky mood. This city sure isn't helping, huh?"

Around them, the path contained the same jagged, cubical aesthetic that had defined it on the ground, only the mud floor had been replaced by roofs of varying heights and occasionally unsound construction. Valey leaned in eagerly every time there was a hole into someone's house, though nine out of ten rooms were dark and disinteresting. The gaps, holes and steps were covered by bridges and ramps of plywood and corrugated aluminum, except in places where the material had been co-opted for use as doors instead. At least the doors, however ramshackle, had a better rate of existence than below.

"So, more spooky stories..." Valey's voice was an exaggerated, quivering whisper, as if she was a songbird trying to warble three octaves too low. "I'm not a normal pony, yeah? Pretty much the whole city already thinks I'm a monster, whether it's from how I look or how I act. And those kids were right, by the way; I'm a jerk. Should've given them a pat on the back for remembering to never trust a bat. And just between you and me... I heard that story from another like me. So if we're already monsters... what's a monster to us?"

Starlight's spine crawled, mostly thanks to Valey's theatrics. If she hadn't been on the mare's back, she could easily imagine her putting on a magical minstrel show, sliding in and out of the shadows while talking and projecting her voice from every direction, finishing things off with a jump scare and a whisper in the audience's ear. She was so wrapped up in the sudden idea, she almost forgot to process what Valey actually said.

"I don't think I want to find out," Maple answered for her. "Really, this place is creepy enough already. Do you have to go and tell horror stories now? I'm on pins and needles as is, and you're not helping. Couldn't we talk about something... nice instead? Or even nothing, so we can at least hear if anyone tries to sneak up on us? For a city, this place is too quiet..."

"Something nice?" Valey's grin split so far sideways, Starlight could see it without the mare turning her head. "Ironflanks, did you miss the bit where I'm a mean little gremlin who plays with everything? Seriously, stop expecting me to be nice. It's naive and kind of turning me on."

"U-Umm..." Maple drew a step further away. "No offense, but I'm really not interested in that. Bad... Bad personal experiences. Sorry."

"Meh. Not a big surprise. I didn't peg you as a mare's mare, anyway." Valey stepped forward, staring straight ahead. "And by the way, I was being nice, just for you. If I really wanted to get spooky, there are dozens of better stories out there for that. I could talk about the Yak Civil War... The Tale of the Three Dragons... The Mare in the Moon... The... oh, er, probably would count as being mean to say the name of that one. And don't worry about us being snuck up on, either." She winked back at Maple. "I can only smell one of them following us."

"That," Maple began, suddenly drawing close enough to Valey that they were nearly touching, "is really not the best way to go about being reassuring or nice..."

Don't Panic

Maple, Starlight and Valey stood at the bottom of a valley of shadow, the distant sky only marginally closer than it had been from the ground. Their second-floor alley and the wooden roofs that formed its surface was only a single step less dismal than the one below, doors more often in existence and slightly more light trickling down from on high. Bridges and entire platforms still crisscrossed above, and the amount of light filtering down was barely enough to watch their hooves for debris. Overhangs were rarer, at least, but the roads were narrower and frequently lead to visible dead ends, and there were still no lights working to counteract the gray gloom.

Valey's recent announcement made matters no better.

"So they're following us..." Maple gulped. "Really? The foals from before?"

"Eh, relax." Valey shrugged, slightly jostling the dazed Starlight on her back. "I said only one of them. Besides, you saw how harmless they were! Probably just wants to come get my autograph."

Maple frowned. "Last time, they tried to trap you and beat you up, and were willing to take hostages. I don't think they'd have turned into your fan club just by chasing you around a little..."

"Hey, a girl can hope, right?" Valey grinned stupidly, then glanced into a dark corner as if expecting a foal to leap out in want of a hug. "Besides, it's that or they want a rematch, and I'm down with both. Not to be passive-aggressive, but I did kinda get my time cut short, there..."

"It's the red one," Starlight dizzily muttered. When Maple looked questioningly at her, she added, "She's the leader. I saw her on the main road. She was following us that far, so why not now?"

As Maple bit her lip, contemplating, Starlight groaned and sank further into Valey's mane and coat, wishing fervently she had a proper, non-moving bed.

"Well..." Valey sighed, then looked to an opening in the wall. It led to a balcony overlooking a larger ground-floor plaza, and she paced through, beckoning for Maple to follow. "I guess if you're that worried about it, we can deal with it now. Hey, kid!"

No response.

Valey smugly smirked. "Come out and play with me, or I'll do that whole eeee-eeee-eeee bat-shriek thing that's really loud and annoying and will break any glass still intact in this place!"

"No!" Starlight hissed, yanking hard on one of Valey's ears. "My head hurts!"

"Ow, hey!" Valey flicked the affected ear heavily, knocking her hat askew and requiring it to be fixed by a wing. "Fine, then. Uhh... Hey, kid! Come on out, or I'll insult everything in this place until I find something that mortally offends you! Yeah!"

"You're rude and obnoxious," replied a voice from the shadows. "Everything my dad and friends said you would be. Everything the whole Sky District is, and the Stone District, too!"

After careful focusing, the filly-shaped outline of Redshift came into view, sitting on what might have been intended as a railing. She was balanced on her hind legs, forelimbs crossed in front of her chest, and her expression was given away by the tone of her voice.

"Eh, that's cool." Valey nodded. "I dig being rude. Ponies do funny things when they're mad. Kinda like you!" A smile slashed across her face.

"Laugh while you can," Redshift said darkly, immobile atop the railing. "The Spirit of Sosa is going to come and take back Ironridge, and make everything right again, and then you'll be gone!"

Valey raised an eyebrow. "You're having an entire revolution just to fire me? Wow. I'm actually flattered."

"You're just a symptom," Redshift sneered. "Ironridge is broken from the top! Everything was fine ten years ago, and they're going to put it back the way it was! All of it!"

"You know..." Valey took a step forward, leaning casually and slightly unbalancing Starlight. "You sound an awful lot like you're just repeating propaganda someone else shoved in your cute little brain. That's a shame. I had you pegged for an independent thinker, but parrots are way less fun."

"Hold on," Maple interrupted before Redshift could answer. "That was ten years ago. You don't look that old... How do you know for sure what it used to be like? Change makes everyone talk about the past more fondly, usually."

"I'm eleven, actually," Redshift responded in a slightly more civil tone, completely ignoring Valey. "But it doesn't matter when things are still changing and I can see them with my own eyes. Every time another family moves here, I see it. Every time me and my friends catch another robber and see they only stole because they needed to, I feel it. Every time the lights go off and the Sky District refuses to even hear about our problem, I know it!" By the end, she was shaking, having climbed down from her perch and walked far enough into the light that her face was visible. She had been crying.

"Oh my..." Maple whispered, holding out a hoof.

"Hold up," Valey belched, "you mean the light thing wasn't just a welcome party for me?"

"...No," Redshift spat with a glare. "The managenerator for the Blueleaf power grid has been failing for three months now. It goes on and off whenever it wants to, and it's getting worse. It's been off for a week solid right now, and none of us have any idea how to fix it or even get inside because the Sky District won't send any of their stupid technicians! It's making the bottom floors dangerous and completely unlivable since almost no one there can afford their own portable lights and we don't have room to move them up, and some ponies are staying there anyway in the dark and we can't find them and don't even know how many ponies are living like that!"

The tears on her face had resumed by the time she finished talking, though they did nothing to dull the burning intensity of her eyes that shone from behind scrunched lids. "I hate you," she hissed. "I hate you all! And some day, the Spirit of Sosa is going to win, and they're going to take back Ironridge, and they'll fix our city or let us move somewhere better! They'll make the Earth District as good as it once was, not some fruit place where nobody wants to go because it's hot and has no power! See how much your airships and your yaks do for you then, you jerk!"

"Hey, uhh..." Valey looked to Maple as the filly sobbed. "Anything about this not making sense to you, either? Because it's my job to know everything, and I legit didn't know about this generator thing. And I read my reports like comic books! You'd think if there was some issue that was causing part of the Earth District to become super radical and unstable, someone up in the Defense Force would consider it a major security threat, especially since this is the closest city in the district to the HQ."

"Go on," Redshift gasped around a sob, "say you think I'm lying. That's what they all say! Or say you're going to take care of it, and then do nothing! Just t-to get us to like you and leave you alone, which isn't happening! Say you're going to run back to your wonderful council and tell them all about it, so they can brag about how little they care and do nothing just to taunt us!"

"...Okay," Valey growled, shifting and setting Starlight aside, breaking into a swift trot toward Redshift. "I'm actually legit curious here and there's a pretty good chance of me helping, or at least investigating until I know what's going on, because I'm an untrustworthy jerk but I do do my job. But first?" She stopped in front of the hyperventilating filly. Redshift looked up... and her head was abruptly seized by Valey with a single hoof. "You need to chill out."

Maple and Starlight both gasped, stretching to do something as Valey reared back, preparing to slam Redshift's head into the ground... but instead of a crack and a cry of pain, she fell through the floor, as if the ground was a projection covering the surface of a lake. Valey tipped forward and followed her, and in a blink there was empty blackness, the omnipresent shadow rippling like disturbed water.

A second passed, and then... Fwoooshh! "Gahhhhh!"

Redshift shrieked as she plunged back above the surface, still in Valey's grasp. The batpony hovered half in and half out of the ground, bobbing slightly, the shadows around her body distorting rapidly and unnaturally like waves. "All right," Valey announced, "we're going to do that as many times as it takes for you to stop freaking out, because that isn't productive for anyone."

The filly's mouth instantly snapped shut, eyes wide and pupils constricted, an obvious question hammering at her teeth and held in by fear. Maple asked it instead. "What was that!?"

"Oh, this?" Valey grinned, and pointed to her barrel, apparently bisected by the floor. "Batpony magic. It's called Shadow Swimming. The title is pretty self-explanatory. Very good for spying, too!" With a wink to Starlight, she added, "Feels a lot like being put in your crystals, by the way, except you have to hold your breath the old-fashioned way. Dunno if you've ever tried that on yourself, but it's gotta be the freakiest thing ever for newbies. Good at making them shut up, though!"

Maple gulped. "That's what you were talking about when you said you had a better way of escaping that room, wasn't it? You wanted to... take us through the shadows?"

"Wow, you're quick!" With a nod, Valey poked at Redshift. "Hey, uh, didn't mean to make you catatonic, little filly. I'd been saving that one for a while, and at this point I was like, 'meh, I really wanna show this off,' and might have gone a little overboard. Still spunky in there?"

The smallest bit of fire returned to Redshift's eyes. "I'm telling my father," she mouthed.

"...Right. You do that." Valey climbed all the way out of the shadows and set her on the ground, posing her in a comfortable sit. "So, I wanna do something," she announced to nobody in particular. "I feel like we should go check out that generator thing, but I actually have no idea where it is or where we are now. And unless miss sobs-a-lot repossesses her faculties, something tells me I'm about to be stuck carrying another comatose kid, because leaving her here like this would just be dumb. So, team, what do we do?" She winked at Maple. "And by team, I mean you, Ironflanks."

"Wow, thanks," Maple deadpanned, rubbing a still-sore leg. "You're never going to let that drop, are you...? Anyway. I think you know what I'm going to say, but we should find somewhere to rest. Just me is one thing, me and Starlight is another, and now you've managed to scare a local senseless yet for some reason are actually taking responsibility for it and not leaving them behind in a dark alley."

"Hey, I clean up my messes!" Valey held an indignant hoof to her chest. "...Sometimes. When it sounds like fun. Or is actually important to my job. Really, keeping these districts from fighting is a pretty easy catch for getting to do whatever I want. Besides, how was I supposed to know she'd be such a wuss about a little dunking? I do that all the time; it's easy!"

"...Really." Maple glared levelly at her. "Prove it. Give me a 'little dunking.' I want to know what you did to her, and if it's something you're considering having us use later, I want to be prepared."

"Suit yourself." Checking over the two fillies one last time, Valey shrugged and reached for Maple, grabbing her with both forehooves. "Take a breath beforehand, since you won't be able to breathe. I can swim anywhere there's shadow, but you can't and will just be dragged along. Prepare to feel helpless, drowning and really, really strange."

With a dark splash, Maple plunged toward the ground, thrust by Valey's hooves... and the impact never came. Instead, her perception shattered so completely that she had to close her eyes in order to remember that she had eyes to close, which in turn reminded her that she had lungs that needed to breathe and couldn't. Fortunately, she couldn't exhale either, and suppressed her panic well enough to think without losing any air.

She inched open her eyes. The arrangement of grayscale shapes and angles bent her mind, an impossible and confusing cloud of chaotic nonsense with no resemblance to anything in the real world. She squeezed her eyes shut again... and eventually reopened them.

This time, she completely gave up on trying to make sense of her vision, which strangely made it that much more bearable. Everything was fuzzy, with ill-defined detail and shapes that were as easy to identify as clouds. They reminded her of something a friend in Riverfall had once called 'cubist paintings,' which apparently worked the same way. There was motion, but less that of a sliding object and more that of a patterned screen being slid across her face. Her curiosity was just getting strong enough to overcome her fear and adrenaline when she surfaced.

"Ah...!" she panted, bringing a hoof to her heaving chest, drawing in and gulping down air furiously, slightly hesitant to open her eyes. "That was..." she eventually managed. "Bizarre."

Valey shrugged beside her. "Hey, I warned you. But anyway, were we going to find somewhere to rest up and wait for sobs-a-lot to wakey wakey? So we can, like... make this place a bit less of a fanatic haven and all around dump? There's misery and annoyance, and then there's despair, which I hate. Blueleaf is just begging to get someone hurt."

"Yeah," Maple agreed, finally getting her breathing under control. "Let's do that."

Level Three

A hoof crested the final step of a flight of stairs, and Maple dragged herself onto a new street, panting. She took a moment to lean against a mostly-intact wall, head and tail drooping as she caught her breath. Behind and above her, Valey flapped, a groggy Starlight resting on her back and a still-shocked Redshift dangling by her barrel from the mare's forelimbs. Redshift's eyes were unblinking pinpricks, neither focusing nor moving, ears pressed flat against her head.

The third level of Blueleaf was another shade lighter than the two below it, sunlight still hesitant to make its way to the floor but occasionally visible in bright squares and polygons against the walls. It was still gray, bright enough to read by, and safe enough that they finally weren't alone.

While by no means a healthy crowd, ponies stood in the streets, forgoing scarves or jackets as the jungle heat began to exert its presence again. The air was pocketed and a mix of extreme hot and cold, hardly a pleasant conglomerate but much more tolerable than either extreme on its own. The road had slightly fewer holes, and the wood and sparse metal used to make it was significantly newer than the misshapen, recycled sheets below. Bridges still crossed overhead, but with far less frequency than they had before, and Maple even spotted a mare wearing something that to a particular income bracket would qualify as nice.

The rise in quality of living as they climbed was palpable, exhibited by the presence of functional doors on nearly every entry, but it was most apparent in the ponies themselves. For the first time since the wide main street at the town's entrance, ponies talked to each other, and looked forward with eyes that could think about more than where their next source of light would come from. Manes were still dirty, coats were still patched or ungroomed, but the ponies of the third level had enough hope to get up, go outside and do things with their days. It made a world of difference.

"It's like a tiny version of Ironridge..." Maple whispered as they passed a pony, favoring a hind leg, who was meekly pushing more-identifiable trash into a bag. "The higher up you go, the better things get. I bet the top level is full of aristocrats and private mansions. I wouldn't be surprised if it's guarded and we can't go there at all..."

"No fur off my back," Valey replied with a shrug as she flapped along, careful not to jostle either of the fillies. "I'm kinda liking where we are right now, personally. Seedy enough for ponies to want to be up to something, rich enough for there to be things for them to be up to. Let's find somewhere we can sit down, put our hooves up and wait for these two to unscramble their brains."

Starlight groaned in response, horn dim and eyes dull. "I'm not scrambled! I just hurt and have a headache and want to lie down!"

"Yeah, yeah, same difference." Valey shrugged again, fortifying her grip on Redshift. "But this other one's a potato. I mean, I'm flattered that she thinks I'm so scary, but this is kind of getting annoying, you know?" She bounced Redshift and craned her neck, trying to look into the filly's eyes. "Wakey wakey, kid! You're being boring!"

Something shifted in Redshift's eyes, but she made no response. "Eh," Valey dismissed, holding her normally again and flapping forward, "she'll come around. Hey, Ironflanks!" She nudged Maple heavily. "Go ask some ponies if there's a bar around here, or something. I'll back you up if things get hairy, but if I ask myself they'll just lie. I am infamous, after all."

That infamousness, Maple reflected as she approached a middle-aged mare with a threadbare tail and a coat one size too big, only translated into the same mistrustful looks the ponies already gave each other, a smattering of acquaintances aside. After all, why trust a notorious troublemaker less than a complete stranger when there was a good chance the stranger was worse?

"Hello?" she asked, trying to conceal the cramps and aches spread throughout her body. "Do you know if there's a bar or food place nearby? I'm slightly new to this part of town, and, well..."

The mare just stared at her like a cow chewing its cud. Maple half-expected her to moo.

"Umm..." Maple blinked, considering how to best get the mare's attention, stepping backwards so she didn't just walk by. "I asked if-"

"Get lost," the mare grunted, roughly shoving Maple aside with a forelimb, not even looking her way as she staggered and very nearly avoided falling over.

"Ah..." Maple hissed, rubbing the spot on her chest gingerly where she had been punched, another ache added to her collection. "Ow..."

She chanced a look to where Valey was, preparing to ask if she really had to do that again... only to see Redshift sitting dazed on her own, Starlight standing uncertain guard over her. "Where...?"

Maple's eyes quickly scanned the surrounding area... and as they passed the mare who had shoved her, she saw a hoof dart out from the shadows beneath her, sharply prodding the bottom of her barrel and vanishing immediately after. Her eyes widened in interest.

"Huh?" The mare took several sharp steps backward, staring wildly for what had touched her. "What the...?"

If Maple hadn't been expecting it, she wouldn't have seen the shadows rippling along the ground where the mare stood. But she was, and it made her jump considerably less high at what happened next.

"Blaaaaaughhyuckhyuckhyuck!" Valey's face appeared on the ground like a ghost, poking just out of the shadows, expression twisted into a maniacal cackle, eyes glowing malevolently. She shook, still laughing, mouth changing dozens of times per second as she ran her looks through the equivalent of drawing a hoof along the edge of a book and watching the pages fly by. It was equally incomprehensible, a lot more terrifying, and for the unexpecting mare, impossible to see coming.

"Aiiiieeee!" She backpedaled frantically, only to have Valey's flailing limbs erupt from the shadows like tentacles on a sea monster, grasping at her own. Several times, Valey wrapped a forelimb around the fleeing mare's hooves, pulling her partway down into shadow, grip deliberately loose so the mare could free herself and be grasped at again.

Eventually, Valey gave up her chase, leaving the mare fleeing into the depths of the city at racehorse speeds, shrieking like a banshee, Maple blinking in her wake. "That was... savage..." she breathed, holding a hoof to her chest both to still her thumping heart and because it still slightly hurt.

"Are you kidding?" Valey cackled, standing up, wiping her brow and fixing her hat. "That was awesome! Argh, I needed that." She stretched, arching her back and cracking her wings. "Seriously. Made my day right there. Almost as good as flattening someone. Whew... heh heh heh..."

"She deserved that," Starlight muttered darkly from her vigil by Redshift, looking at Maple with concern. "That's what I should have saved my magic for."

"Starlight...?" Maple began hesitantly. "Wasn't it a little disproportionate, though? I mean, she was rude, but probably had a reason to be mistrustful. Wouldn't you say it wasn't fair?"

Starlight's eyes narrowed. "You and Willow spent all that time trying to convince me that the world isn't fair and what I want isn't how it works. If you want me to be selfish or unfair, why is when you're in danger not a good time to agree with you?"

"That's... not the healthiest way of looking at it..." Maple cringed.

"If the world is unfair," Starlight said with a shrug, "fine. I want to protect my friends."

"Violence, violence, violence..." Valey happily cackled in the background... before noticing at least five other ponies were staring at her. "What?"

Like water draining from a tub, Maple's sense of privacy evaporated as she realized they had attracted a crowd, standing very safe distances away and occasionally checking the ground beneath their forehooves.

"Uhhh..." Valey blinked. "Hey, citizens!" She waved cheerily. "Enjoy the show?"

A nervous stallion was pushed forward, elected by his peers to speak. "Ehermmm..." he began in a tone that perfectly matched his thick gray beard. "W-What was the lady's question, again? We don't want no trouble, Miss, really..."

"I was..." Maple gulped and tried to regain her composure. "Trying to ask directions? We're looking for a bar, or some place we could rest and get food..."

The stallion smiled like a death row inmate being told their execution had been postponed. "Go thataway, then left, straight until you find the intersection after the big bridge, turn right, and it'll be a few doors down on the right! There's a sign, so it's easy to see!"

"Hey, thanks, Mister!" Valey gave a nod, stepping forward and reaching beneath her hat. Her hoof probed for a bit as the stallion smiled in apprehension... and she produced a banana peel and held it out. "Here. Take this as a reward."

The stallion didn't hesitate to accept. "I shall cherish it always!" he assured, before backing away and breaking into a run, undoubtedly to dispose of the item the moment he deemed it safe. The rest of the crowd quickly dispersed as well, looking for all the world like they had never met Valey, and never intended to if they could help it.

Behind them, Redshift stirred, but still didn't snap out of her shock.

"Well..." Valey paced over, preparing to grab the fillies in the now-abandoned street. "I suppose we should head over and find that place, huh? I've had a bit of fun, so I can rest easier while we wait for these two to get it together. Right?"

Maple nodded, standing gingerly as Valey picked up Starlight. "I wouldn't mind that at all..."

"Slick." Valey nodded, preparing to grab Redshift... when the filly's eyes suddenly focused.

"Gah!" she panted in alarm, staring frantically about. "What...? Where...? You!"

"Hey. Chillax." Valey pinned her to the ground with a forehoof to the back. "You were freaking out over your generator thing and how evil I was and randomly passed out. It was a really strange coincidence." Innocently, she rubbed the back of her neck, looking away. "But believe it or not, I actually kinda sorta felt like helping you, because I'd rather not have a big fat beacon for the Spirit of Sosa sitting on my doorstep, and because you're super cute. Savvy?"

"You did..." Redshift trembled. "Something dark... with shadows and shapes and I couldn't breathe, and I... I..." Her eyes threatened to unfocus again.

"Hey, buck up, you!" Valey patted her roughly on the head, her dark auburn mane laying flat. "It's not that bad! I do that to myself all the time. Whatever happened to being all 'arrgh I'm gonna get my revenge' from down there in that little funhouse?"

Redshift's eyes flared in recognition. "You!"

"Yeah, something's wrong with your noodle," Valey sighed, rolling her eyes and turning away. "Seriously, take twenty until you can focus on a conversation, or I'll dunk you again because we're more productive that way. Last chance to get it through your head before we move out: I want to look at your generator. Got it?"

Redshift stared blankly at her. "This is a good thing," Valey emphasized. "For you. Right?"

Several more seconds of staring followed... and the filly's eyes went blank, slipping back into a shocked stupor. She maintained her stance, posed fiercely and ready for a battle that wouldn't come.

"...I don't get it." Valey shook her head blankly at Maple, mouth questioningly ajar. "You're the mom, Mom. What am I doing wrong, here?"

Maple frowned. "Technically, I'm not... never mind. But what you're doing wrong is using creepy magic on children and scaring them, whether you're trying to or not. Next time she wakes up, just... don't say anything and let me try, okay? In fact, I'd carry her entirely myself, if I didn't ache so much!"

"Sure thing, Ironflanks." With a shrug, Valey turned to Redshift and scooped her up, the filly melting into her grip with a thousand-mile stare. "...Anyway." She faced down the road, squaring herself and flapping slightly harder. "Let's go find this bar."

"As long as you don't start any fights," Maple insisted. "Please. I know you said something about bar fights earlier, but I really need to rest!"

"Yeah, yeah, yeah..." Valey droned into the distance, a filly on her back and another in her arms as she drifted steadily down the abandoned streetway.

Blueleaf Bar

"Well... I guess this looks like a bar?"

Valey dug in her ear with a wing, standing on three hooves and holding Redshift with the fourth, staring at an ordinary, closed door in the wall. It was where the stallion had directed them, there was a sign proclaiming it as such, and a healthy din emanated from behind the barrier, yet... "Who leaves the door closed on a place like this?" she protested. "Bars are supposed to be inviting!"

"Remind me," Maple said tiredly, sitting beside her, "why are we going here, exactly, again? I mean, me and Starlight are exhausted and we need to rest, but is a bar really-?"

"Hey, relax!" Valey shrugged. "We're going to a bar because they're usually no-questions-asked with enough leniency that everyone will love it if we have to solve a problem by force, and because this is the middle of the day and most ponies will have finished their lunch breaks so there'll probably be a ton of room for us to sit around and rest. We can also get food, and places like these are notorious for having interesting characters so we might even run into someone cool. See? Watch."

She pushed the door open... and her ears quickly fell. "Oh. Wow. That's weird."

The interior of the bar was filled with warm, orange light, and even more filled with ponies. At least two dozen round tables were spread across the floor, each intending to seat six and some seating more, with few less than full. Behind the bar, a fat stallion polishing a mug gave them no notice, which was just as well as the bar stools themselves had no vacancies either. So little room was there that some ponies even stood or sat on the edge of a stage where a raggedy band was playing a poor harmony of a bagpipe, drum and accordion. A pegasus stumbled past them on her way out, muzzle dripping with foam, as a gray-bearded stallion raised a mug and shouted something obscene in her wake.

"Lunch break..." Valey's jaw stayed where it had fallen. "Not over yet, I guess. Huh. Maybe these all are slackers. Wow, there might be close to two hundred ponies in here. Wow. Oh well!" she chirped, perking back up. "Time to start some minor altercations until this place clears out a little!"

A pair of leafy ears rose from the ground like cute dorsal fins as Valey swam through the shadows, breath held and muscles loose, in search of ponies who could be persuaded to make themselves excusable. Maple and the fillies waited just inside, left against the inner wall rather than the doorway as it made them that much less conspicuous. Bits and bursts of speech floated through the batpony's head, and she snaked left and right, constantly waiting for it to make itself intelligible.

"Pwaaah! Your momma couldn't even keep down twenty of..."

"...so she said - urp! - she really liked my mane, and I..."

"...and that filthy cheater totally ripped me off! Can you believe it!?"

Valey slithered to a halt, her interest suddenly caught. Complaints followed trouble, and at the very least if some stallion was already having a bad day, it wouldn't make too much of a difference if she ruined it further. Not stopping to consider that that might have been a con, she took up residence beneath the offender's table, ears swiveling like radars, pleasantly noting that only three sets of legs dangled from the stools around her.

"So wait, where was this again?" a husky mare's voice asked, probably belonging to a pair of dark green legs that swung freely, not quite touching the ground. Valey sized them up, trying to guess what the rest of the mare looked like, and eventually decided they weren't worth ogling.

"It was just over in Copsewood!" the stallion's squeaky voice chirped back, in a tone that was a single note too high. "Cute place, thought it couldn't hurt to give it some business. Ohhh ho ho boy was I wrong. Tip from a pro? Mercenary work is garbage. We got into way more than we could handle and I had to bail, and now my moral fiber has been, like, stained. Feels like stepping in peanut butter, or something."

"Copsewood?" The mare's voice took on a note of disgust. "Mercenary work? You weren't messing around with the Spirit, were you?"

"Mweeeeh," another voice broke in, slurring. "Moral fiberr... Yyyou shays that while... Urp! While shharing drinks wif ush in... dish plashe! Heh heh hee!"

"Shut up, Randall," the mare droned. "Pickle Punch is enjoying his rant. If you're going to make fun of him, do it creatively. And go rain on your own parade, I want to hear this!"

Beneath the table, Valey resisted her urge to snicker at their names. Sosans got to pick new names for themselves if they ever earned a brand, which meant they might even have been deliberate.

"But Missh... Peanut b-butter! Have you ever heard shuch a bad anacrogy, eh? Eheheh?"

"Grrr... It's called a metaphor!" Pickle Punch broke in. "And you try making one that works, let alone isn't a stupid pickle joke! It's harder than it looks, you know!"

"Relax, Pickle, we're all proud of you," the mare reassured, possibly sarcastically. "Even Randall, when he's not drunk. Which was at least a week ago, but still. You've got a three-day streak going! Maybe some day, you'll stop being a stale joke."

"Wow, thanks for the vote of confidence," Pickle Punch deadpanned. "I really hate this name, sometimes. Like, thanks, Mom. Way to tell your kid you believed in him."

"Hhhey, Pickle Punshh..." Randall began, what might have been intended as a lecherous tone in his voice. "Dat'sh Lilac'sh wayy of shaying your pickle jokesh are sheckshy hicurrrrp! And shhe wantsh you to make more..."

"Put a pickle in it, Ran-" Pickle Punch's voice was interrupted by the sound of a forehead hitting wood, followed by the clatter of a mug tipping and a peal of uproarious laughter. "Not again..."

"Ahahahaa..." Lilac cackled, banging the table. "Sorry, Pickle. No more streak for you."

"Oh no..." Randall's voice drooped in disappointment as something golden and frothy began pouring over the side of the table, dripping its way to the already-stained wood floor.

Valey frowned up from the shadows. As much fun as the table's poor attempts at pettiness and humor were getting them, they had distracted themselves from whatever they were complaining about and were making poor progress getting themselves kicked out of the bar.

She shot a glance through the forest of legs to Maple, still tucked safely with the fillies by the entrance, and bit her lip. If the table of ponies wouldn't give her an easy excuse to get them thrown out, she would make one... or perhaps just invite herself and Maple as it was, and see who got awkward first.

Three Stooges

Pickle Punch, Randall and Lilac blinked at the sudden presence of a batpony on the stool across from them. Valey's eyes were closed peacefully, until she opened them with a cheery grin. "Heya!"

Slowly, the two more sober ponies' eyes constricted in recognition and fear... and Randall's lit up with something else. "Hey therre..." he slurred, dropping into a lidded smile and extending a thick, shaky forehoof, spilled drink forgotten. "Are you shhingle, hot... hot ponyyy?"

Lilac decked him with a giant punch from across the table, knocking his jaw askew. "Shut up, you idiot!" she hissed, eyes frantic. "Don't you have any idea who that is!?"

"A marre with a hot bod, that'sh whoo..." Randall groaned deliriously, drooling.

Heartened and slightly disappointed by their complete unwillingness to contest her presence at their table, Valey waved a wing, beckoning Maple over. For the three at the table, she held her silence, smiling with just the wrong amount of innocence and betting Pickle Punch would leave first.

"Please don't take him personally!" Lilac begged with a beseeching demeanor that didn't at all fit her looks or earlier behavior. "We do not mean offense or trouble, Ma'am! Really!"

Pickle Punch cowered, holding his forelegs on top of his head. "Ohhh she's come to arrest me for that stupid work with the Spirit and now my last act as a free pony is going to be being laughed at for making a stupid pickle joke and what is wrong with my life that that is what I'm most concerned about?"

"Mehhh." Valey sighed, pouting. "Arrest you for wrongdoing? That would imply that I was fair, which if you know me, you should know I'm not. Besides, the Earth District technically isn't my jurisdiction, so I'd probably just beat you up instead, but you look kinda wimpy and I'm also here for some downtime so maybe I won't do that as long as you're funny. M'kay?"

"Yes! Yes!" Pickle Punch nodded as if his life depended on it, furiously agreeing. "Way too wimpy to lock up here! I'd just do nothing but fill your jails with bad jokes and metaphors and make all the guards depressed and hate themselves because their outside lives couldn't possibly be as fulfilling as laughing at me and I don't wanna get beaten up!"

Valey felt a smile tugging at the corners of her mouth as Maple drew up next to her, both fillies in tow. "Valey?" she asked, blinking. "Who are these?"

"They're... bystanders," Valey replied innocently, stretching and ignoring the table's previous occupants. "Or maybe entertainment. I dunno, really, they're just some random saps unfortunate enough to already be here. Hope for the best, though, you know? It sure would be a shame if anything bad were to happen to them." She jabbed a wing at Randall. "He's drunk, by the way."

"Y-You shay that like... hic! Like it'sh a bad thing!" Randall smiled with a surprisingly intact set of teeth, letting out a puff of breath that smelled of garlic and vinegar.

"Right..." Maple mumbled warily, taking a lone stool between Valey and Lilac, as far from the drunk stallion as possible. There wasn't room on it for the fillies, so Starlight remained on the floor, guarding a still-dazed Redshift.

Pickle Punch sized Maple up, weighing his words carefully. "Uhh... So, you're like her-"

"Hey, idiot!" Lilac jabbed him, hissing out the side of her muzzle. "Tell the Defense Force Commander about that bad run-in with her sworn enemies and build us some favor points!"

"Admiral..." Valey whispered inaudibly, not twitching a muscle.

"Oh! R-Right!" Pickle Punch jumped to attention, slightly too eager to please. "I was... uh... t-telling a story when you showed up, about... the Spirit! And don't get the wrong idea, now, because even though I was trying to help them I'm definitely not now! I've changed my ways, I swear! Go... Go Stone District! Yeah!" He nervously pumped a hoof.

Valey smiled, making sure to show off the sharpness of her teeth.

"So anyway..." Pickle Punch gulped, slightly improving his composure. "I was in Copsewood, okay? The northeastern place? Really close to the, uh..." He hissed aside to Lilac, "Which factory was it, again?"

"The Alpha Factory is on the north bank of the river," Valey helpfully offered. "The Beta and Gamma ones are on the south side, and Gamma is east of Beta."

"Right! Thank you!" Pickle Punch nodded furiously. "So I was just south of Beta! Anyway, as we all kno- err, as the Spirit says and I definitely don't believe because I was only there for the money, the yaks are pure evil and are trying to arm their army to invade and take over the Steel and Earth Districts, so what the job was for was to go in there and rob a delivery cart to stop the weapons from arriving! Easy, right? Right!"

He banged the table, babbling without pause. "So we're there, and we find the cart totally alone and undefended except for Shinespark, who we know won't fight back because she's too honorable or something. Actually an excellent mare, if only the times didn't call for playing dirty."

Valey's brow creased at his praise for Shinespark, and for a second, she bit back a sigh. It no longer mattered when Randall interrupted, loudly belching, "And shhe'sh shhingle, too!"

"Shut up, Randall!" Lilac threw him a glare. "She's like half your age and is a hundred times the pony you'll ever be! Pickle?" She turned to the meeker stallion. "Keep talking."

Valey listened as he continued, smile set in stone and ears still forward, but with teeth clenched together slightly harder and slightly more edge to her gaze than needed.

"Right... uh..." Pickle Punch flailed slightly, getting his groove back. "Anyway. We made it to the cart, it was totally undefended, and we even had all those awesome toys to play with from other raids... and then it was so weird. There was this griffon, and then someone started a fight but we were fighting each other and I honestly was just trying to protect my tail so I hid behind the wagon. But then the griffon charged, and he had this sword, and it was... it was..."

His eyes thinned with recollected shock. "He had this sword. And Braen stole it, because she was there, but not before he had used it. And then after they all left and it was just us in the clearing, it was like..." He swallowed, trembling. "There was no blood. Not from the sword. It didn't leave cuts. It must have been cursed, or something. But you could see the ponies who had been hit by it, and they were..."

A minute passed. "I don't even know what to say," he managed eventually. "They had fallen down. It was like they were asleep, but with their eyes open and they could move their eyes and look at you and nothing else. They were scared. Like they wanted to scream and couldn't use their mouths. They had just as much of an idea what had happened as I did, only it had happened to them. And I couldn't take it. I didn't help drag them back to safety, or see if there was anything that could be done. I just turned around and ran for my life. Didn't expect any pay, not for that. Didn't get any, either."

"And that's why I stay out of stuff like this," Lilac hummed darkly. "Things like this happen all the time. Going looking for them is suicide. I'll take existence, thank you very much."

"Easy for you to say," Pickle Punch answered sadly, hanging his head. "You're not even from Sosa. You've got no loyalty to it. You're just content to ride out your level-three existence and never do anything worth doing for yourself."

"Level four," Lilac corrected with a shade of confidence. "With how many bottom-two refugees they're moving up, I bit the shovel and paid to move up. Dunno why, when I'm back here now with the likes of you two idiots. Besides, you're not a Sosan either, flat-head."

Pickle Punch ran a hoof self-consciously over his bare forehead, brushing aside a chewed lock. "My dad was! It's not his fault my mom was an earth pony, or that he got out before he could be fired!"

Lilac smirked. "Technically, both of those were his fault. And after calling Sosans filthy cheaters, don't be so hard on us earth ponies, now. We might be all that's left you can get."

"Hey!" Pickle Punch shouted in indignation, banging the table. "I would never insult Sosa! And just you watch, some day I'll get a cute unicorn who likes-"

"You were just complaining about how they hired you for a dangerous job and you didn't even get paid," Lilac droned, still cocky.

Valey leaned back, watching. Both of the arguing ponies seemed to have forgotten about her entirely, and while Randall was staring at her unscrupulously, he didn't seem inclined to act on it. It was just as well, as the petty altercation was somewhat amusing and Maple was also left out of it. She slumped tiredly on her stool, which was significantly less comfortable than a bed or couch but hopefully adequate, with Starlight and the still-shocked Redshift under the table. ...On second thought, none of them seemed to be getting much rest. Perhaps it was time to be more proactive in clearing the table for themselves. With a cough, she drew everyone's attention.

"Ah!" Lilac shot bolt-upright, silencing Pickle Punch with a hoof. "You idiot! You were supposed to be complaining about how bad Sosa was for her, not praising it! And, uhh..." She relaxed her brows in what was probably supposed to be a sweet, hopeful expression. "Would you like a drink? Can we buy you anything? To be good hosts? Please?"

"Mmmm..." Valey stretched. "Nah. I don't drink. Need to keep my brain at one hundred percent, all the time. Do keep talking though, this is interesting."

"So as I was saying," Pickle Punch began, "don't you judge my dad for taking a wife from that one place! It was, uhh... I don't remember the name, the place on the river when you're sailing out east? Before you reach the sea?"

"Riverfall!" Randall belched eagerly, the haze of drunkenness lifting slightly from his eyes. "Now that wash a plashe! Shtopped there on every shhingle voyage, both in and... hic! Out! Hah! In an' out... Eheheheh... Urp. A whole... plashe full'a maresh who all treated you like the besht thhhing ever! It wash like the Sheventh Dishtrict, and only we got to shee it! The world ishn't... ishn't like it ushed to be..."

"Hey Pickle Punch..." Lilac slyly poked his foreleg. "I think Randall is saying he wants to be your father..."

"What?" Pickle Punch's eyes screwed up in confusion.

Valey's wings shivered in alarm as she saw Maple's expression cloud with anger. It was time to change the conversation. "So," she interrupted, "enough with the mares. Keep talking about how awesome this place that ripped you off is."

Pickle Punch blushed sheepishly. "Look, Braen and her tactics can go lick a cactus. I just know there's a war coming, and I chose my side, okay? Sosa's still the ones trying to fix this dump Ironridge has turned into, and that's enough to earn my loyalty!"

"I'm sho confushed..." Randall mumbled. "Why wash you attacking your own shide, then?"

"It's... but...!" Pickle Punch sputtered. "Because of the yaks! We have to purge Sosa of this yak influence and make them give up on the contract so the yaks don't get any of our weapons!"

"Why do they have it in the first place if they're so self-righteous and pure?" Lilac quizzed.

"Hey, I never said that!" Pickle Punch pulled his hooves to his chest in protest. "I mean, I just said they weren't, because they gave me that dumb job! But, uhh... they're, like, playing the yaks against themselves by taking all their money and then never delivering! Yeah!"

"Then why are you trying to sabotage them?"

Pickle Punch's eyes constricted. "Uhhhh..."

"Sounds to me like you have no idea what you're actually fighting for," Lilac pressed.

"That's not true!" Pickle Punch gasped. "I do too! I have... I mean..." His eyes met Valey's. "You know what? Never mind! I fight for money. I'm a greedy sellout! Please don't beat me up!"

At that moment, Starlight's voice piped up, and her head appeared above the table, standing on Maple's lap. "What's the Seventh District?" she grumbled, eyes bleary.

The conversation halted. Eventually, Pickle Punch pointed a hoof, mumbling, "You have a filly?"

"Yes," Maple said, still bristling slightly from Randall's remarks earlier. "I do. Is that a problem?"

"What's the Seventh District?" Starlight repeated, insistent. "Ponies are always mentioning it, then always saying there's only six. You're not making sense."

"The Seventh District is a myth," Valey droned.

"What!? No it's not!" Pickle Punch quickly protested. Then, realizing that Valey was still present, he shrank. "I mean, actually, it probably is..."

"The Seventh District is anywhere better than where we're at now, kid," Lilac said with a sigh. "For some ponies, that's moving up the mountain. For others, it's that old Riverfall place Mister Drunken Bozo was talking about. Some think it's wherever you go when you die, others say it's the past, while the most realistic of us don't believe it exists at all." Her head lowered slightly closer to the table. "Would be nice of someone to prove us wrong about that, some day..."

"If you ashk me," Randall interrupted, "the Sheventh Dishtrict ish inshide... inshide Shhineshpark'sh bed..."

"Hey!" Pickle Punche shouted, shooting to his hooves. "I thought we agreed that she was a wonderful mare and you weren't allowed to disgrace-!"

"And I think," Lilac whispered urgently, covering Pickle Punch's mouth and pointing at Valey, "that she just said no more talking about mares!" She turned fully, as apologetic as it was possible for a pony to be. "I'll be getting out of here now, if you don't mind, before I wind up in jail or at the bottom of the Yule!" Whispering loudly, she added, "And I strongly recommend you two idiots do the same!"

Pickle Punch needed no second bidding. "Yeah, I'm out of here!" Nearly slipping on a gross, chunky patch of spilled something, he bolted for the door, vanishing before Lilac had even left the table. She shot a forlorn glance at Randall, then left herself, not looking back.

Alone with Maple, Valey and the fillies, Randall blinked, still processing his friends' departure. "...Sho," he began after a long silence. "You never did shay if you wash shhingle..."

Some Break

"All right!" Valey blinked, stretched, and dusted herself off, stepping away from the wall where she had unceremoniously deposited Randall's unconscious body. "Everyone sees, nobody cares. This table is ours."

"You just punched out a drunk stallion," Maple observed, watching Starlight climb onto a stool of her own. "In the middle of a crowded bar."

Valey shrugged. "Eh, he had it coming. You hit on me, I hit you, you know? And it was a soft hit. Meant to stun. Besides, don't tell me you wanted that sleazebag making commentsh like thish about our buttsh while we were having our down time, did you?"

"Well..." Maple looked away. "He did just get abandoned by his friends, right? I don't know, it just seems a little... much."

"Eh. Look at it this way." Valey nudged the stallion's abandoned tankard, causing it to roll off the table and fall to the wooden floor with a clatter. "If I hadn't done that, he'd probably be going back for another one of these right now. I was doing his brain and liver a favor! And it's not like this is a strange place to be passed out, or anything." She raised an eyebrow. "What's with you and being so kind to ponies, anyway? First you were all 'No, don't beat up those foals!' and now there's something wrong with me giving an old stallion a nap?"

Maple grimaced, as if something was caught in her teeth. "Well..." she stalled, then pointed a hoof. "You wanted to help Redshift."

"Huh. I guess I did..." Valey leaned back with a casual smile. "I guess you're rubbing off on me, Ironflanks. So hey, while we're here, feel like some grub?"

"If you mean food..." Maple's nose traced through the air, being told a tale of grease, soot and poor hygiene. "From this place? I think I'll pass. I saved some of these, though." Her hoof reached out, holding a bunch of perfectly ripe bananas.

"Aw, sweet!" Valey seized them, instantly beginning to peel with her teeth. "You're a... mmrf... real lifesaver, Ironflanks... Oh, goodie goodie goodie sweet bananas..."

Maple smirked wryly. "You're never going to stop calling me that, are you?"

"I feel like we've covered this before," Valey mumbled around a bulging mouthful of banana. "My brain?" She tapped her head. "Bad with names. When I don't make them myself. Sorry."

"And you're sure that's not just an excuse?" Maple asked, taking a bite from a mango.

Valey put her forelegs up. "All right! You got me. I secretly have a perfect memory and just do it to bug ponies. Almost as shocking as... ommph... how much I love fruit." She leaned forward, swallowing. "Really, though. While we're asking the hard personal questions, you alright? You looked kind of offended back there by some of those loons' hot air."

"...It's nothing," Maple sighed. "Past problems. We're supposed to be resting, right? Not talking about things that make us unhappy?"

Despite her insistence, Maple had to force her mind off track to prevent it from dwelling... and even then, her train of thought was like a boomerang. Riverfall. Sosa. Randall talking so carelessly and drunkenly about the mares she had grown up alongside... or her parents' generation, as if they were a fixture of a mythical place rather than actual ponies. A gift given by no one, a fleeting pleasure to be taken and then abandoned... just like...

Pacifistic feelings abruptly gone, Maple suddenly, fervently wished she had beaten Valey to the punch of knocking out Randall. Her heart clenched, shutting off all further thought, and she whimpered almost audibly. Hoping to break out of her stupor, she nudged Starlight, who was rock-still. "Hey, you. How are you doing?"

"This isn't very restful," Starlight plainly stated, breaking Maple's mood like a battering ram. "The stools are hard, it smells terrible, and it's so loud that I'd have a headache even without my horn. This place is a shrine to ponies pretending their bad lives don't matter instead of trying to change them for the better and I hate it. Why are we here?"

Maple paused, mouth lowered... and the bubble she had been using to block out the true extent of the room's din abruptly collapsed. They were one table out of many, afforded the scant mercy of a wall to one side yet fully exposed every way else. Behind her, within hooves' reach, a fat gray stallion laughed uproariously, his tail spilling dangerously close to hers. Further in the distance, a sharp crack rang out, and whether it was accompanied by a cry of pain, dismay or even victory was lost to the identical din. Everywhere, ponies were bellowing, guffawing, bawling, hooting and jeering, occasional intelligible strings drifting into her ears that she really wished weren't things she could understand. Through the dimly-lit, constantly shaking forest of heads and manes, nothing stood out save for the musicians on their raised stage and a stallion on a table at the far side of the room, balanced on two legs as he beat his chest and roared.

She squared her jaw. "Starlight's right. Some break this is. I'd rather be laying in a corner of the road than here."

Orange manalight glinted off Valey's slitted eyes, tinged dull brown by the contrast. "Well, excuuuse me," she cackled back. "How was I supposed to know that this place would be jammed an hour after lunch break? I thought it would be nice and empty and we could have half the room to ourselves!"

"I'm sorry," Maple mumbled. "I know you wanted to keep going, and we're slowing you down-"

"If you're about to say but," Valey interrupted, "can it. We just kicked those clods out and stole their table, and if you want to rub it in their faces by leaving right now and throwing it away?" She winked. "Then I guess I'm rubbing off on you, too!" A pause. "But seriously, if you wanna bail, I'm so down. This place is really not loving my ears back, and every time I have to hope I heard something wrong, I get this much closer to wiping the walls with every last pony here. Except you guys, of course."

"As long as we can find another place to get off our hooves," Maple sighed. "I have more food, and water too. We'll not starve for want of whatever this smelly bar has to offer."

The moment the words had left her mouth, the bar pressed back in around her, as if taking offense to being called smelly. Her eyes flickered, unable to settle... and landed on Randall. Had he known where she was from, when he said what he said? Of course not. If he had, would he have changed his words? No, he was drunk. If he hadn't been drunk...?

She shivered, unfocused, aches from walking and bruises from landing coming into sharp relief. If she was heading to Sosa, to find a boat out... how many more ponies would she encounter who felt that way about her home?

"Hey!" A leathery wing poked her twice in the side. "Ironflanks! Wakey wakey!"

It was Valey. "You coming?"

"I, umm..." Maple blinked, focusing. "Yes! Yes I am..."

To her side, Starlight lifted a hoof, signaling for them to hold. "Wait," she announced, staring under the table where Redshift had been deposited. "She's waking up."

Filly Fracas

"Huh?" Maple followed the Starlight's gaze down, under the table... to where Redshift was shivering in the heat, back to the table's central leg and taking in her surroundings with a fragile, newly-restored composure. "You're awake down there?" she asked, poking her face down under.

Redshift glanced frantically her way, and just barely managed to keep her mask of defiance from shattering. "W-Where did you take me?" she hissed, trying to sound menacing.

Maple raised a hoof above the table, hoping Valey would take the hint and not interfere. "In a bar on the third level. You're not in danger."

For a long moment, the filly glared back at her. Maple kept eye contact, but remembered to blink, hoping it would make her less threatening. Finally, Redshift managed, "And where are you taking me?"

"To wherever we were when you woke up," Maple answered.

Redshift stared at her for clarification.

"You... um..." Maple bit her lip. "Passed out down below, and we didn't want to leave you there like that, so we carried you with us. We just wanted to make sure you were all right. Now that you're up, you can go wherever you normally would. Really."

"...I don't believe you," Redshift eventually stated. "I set a trap for your friend. You made my friends look like fools because our trap wasn't good enough. We got what we deserved for not being better, but we're your enemies. Why would you want to help me?"

"Because you're a pony?" Maple shrugged. "Because it was our fault that you were unconscious? Because it's a decent thing to do?"

Redshift sat... and snorted. "Fine, then. You're a fool too. Decency doesn't get you anything in Ironridge, and if you believe that, you must not be from around here. Even the pampered Stone District isn't that naive! If you want something, whether you deserve it or not, you take it by force. That's how it works."

"But you don't seem to be leaving," Maple countered with the premonition of a smile. "Something tells me you want it to work this way, even if you don't believe it can."

"Don't give me that," Redshift pouted coldly. "You're keeping me captive. That evil bat is on top of this table, and the moment I come out she'll jump on me and use her dark mind magic again."

Starlight loudly cleared her throat, having jumped down to the floor herself. "If you can get what you want with force, why don't you go make this city a better place? Force it to be a world where being a good pony makes good things happen, and where no one has to lose because of bad luck?"

Suddenly ignoring Maple, Redshift matched Starlight's stare. "You're the filly with the crystals."

Starlight tapped her horn with a hoof, and it let off a faint shower of teal sparks. "Not right now, I'm not. Answer the question."

"...Hmmph." Redshift snorted and turned away. "You've seen the state Blueleaf is in, unless you're blind as well as dumb. One pony can't do anything, not even my dad!"

"You're not just one pony," Starlight countered, growling. "You have a whole pack of friends who were willing to fight a mare who could have killed you all in her sleep for you! When you can't do anything by yourself, try fighting with your friends!"

"We have," Redshift snarled back, face inches from Starlight's own. "Didn't you hear me down there? Me and my friends spend every day going down and patrolling the dark, when the power is on and when it's off, looking for stragglers and trying to convince them to move! We've stolen and made and sold things to get money to buy lights for ponies who are too stubborn to leave, and we've carried up on our backs ponies who wanted to and couldn't! A stallion who fell and broke his leg in the dark, and couldn't even get up to get food! A mare who was having a foal in an old bedroom that we only found because of her cries! And we've found bodies, too! Three of them, that I touched to close their eyes because they spent their last moments trying to see something before they died! So don't you dare tell me I'm not trying."

Starlight took a step back, expression faltering, and Maple pressed back an urge to hug the red filly. "Well..." Starlight recovered shakily. "You haven't fixed your generator, have you?"

Redshift took another step, giving Starlight no quarter. "If we could, we would have. It's blocked by a door only Sky District technicians can open, and even then we have no idea how to fix what went wrong!" She hesitated slightly. "And we were trying, too. After we got our revenge on that bat, we were going to see if she had a card key we could use to open the door. Then we could at least see what was wrong and maybe find somepony here who could fix it. If we could fix this emergency, we could get back to doing what mattered and trying to help Blueleaf with other things..."

Immediately, Starlight pressed back. "She's right there. You can ask her."

Redshift snorted. "No. I told you, Blueleaf doesn't work that way!"

"But it's what you want, isn't it?" Starlight drew herself up to match Redshift's height - they were perfect equals. "A world that's fair? Where ponies help each other just because they can? She said earlier she wanted to see your generator. Go show her! Or do you have not enough faith that good things can happen that you won't even accept one when it shows up in your face with your name on it?"

"If I could trust ponies like her and not expect anything bad to happen, Blueleaf wouldn't need fixing!" Redshift sneered, not backing down. "If I trust you three now, that's just a recipe for losing!"

"Is it!?" Starlight was shouting. "You were a zombie! If we were evil, we could have thrown you off a cliff or tied you up in an abandoned building or any number of bad things, but we didn't! Instead, we helped you! So are you going to get it together and take a chance to help your ponies, or are you going to be a coward who wouldn't solve a problem because she was afraid of working with ponies she didn't like? Huh!?"

"Starlight," Maple hissed, breaking back into the conversation, "remember, we only were keeping her safe while she woke up! Now that she can take care of herself, we don't need-"

Thwack!

"Aaaaugh!" Starlight fell back, both forehooves to her cheek where Redshift had punched it. Her eyes burned, and her horn sparked, struggling to life, when...

"All right, playtime's over!" Valey erupted from the floor between them like a barricade, forcing both fillies back. Her wings lashed out, grabbing Redshift by the barrel, and dragged her half into the shadows, impervious to the thrashing of tiny hooves. "Listen, you little punk," she growled in Redshift's face. "You've seen bad stuff, I've seen bad stuff, we've all seen bad stuff. I get it. Being a little mistrustful of everything, I get too. Especially me; never trust a bat. But the moment you pick a fight with my friends while I'm around, you go from being a rude dude to a screwed dude." She leaned in closer to the filly's terrified face, frowning. "Now, there's two things I'll accept out of you for that. One involves a lot of groveling and hoof-kissing, and the other begins with 'en garde.' Make. Your. Choice."

Maple's eyes widened, and not only because of Redshift's impending fate: that was the first time she could remember Valey calling them her friends. Her musing was instantly cut short by Starlight appearing at her side, stiff and tense and nursing a swelling cheek.

She stepped forward, determined. "Valey," Maple demanded, "let her go."

"Buh?" Valey's eyes crossed. "She just walloped your kid. What do you mean, let her go?"

"I meant what I said," Maple insisted. "It's not worth it. We don't gain anything from hurting her. Let her go. Please." She hesitated, meeting Redshift's quaking eyes... and the filly seemed to be pleading with her, silently begging that she do anything possible to call the batpony off. Maple returned as reassuring of a gaze as she could, then looked back to Valey. "Now."

For a moment, Valey was still, forelegs like tombstones around Redshift's tiny body. Then, she relaxed ever so slightly... and the filly seized her opening, slithering out like a greased eel and darting off beneath another table, losing herself in the forest of legs. Another second passed, and Valey laughed.

"Wow, Ironflanks," she chuckled, wiping her eye in a gross exaggeration as she got back up on her stool above the table. "What a goodie four-shoes. That wasn't even your revenge to call off. It was the kid's!" She flung a hoof at Starlight, who was also scaling her stool. "There's being merciful, there's being pointlessly merciful, and then there's sparing a kill that isn't even yours, which is also the kind of thing I do. Seriously..." She exhaled loudly. "You all right, kiddo? You didn't want to beat that brat up yourself, or anything?"

Starlight tensed... and shook her head. "No," she sighed. "Like Maple said, there's no point. She's had a hard life. It wouldn't be fair to make it any harder."

The atmosphere calmed enough for Maple to remember the bar's regular shouting in the background, and she decided it wasn't a pleasant change. The thought briefly crossed her mind of how strange it must have looked, her on her stool with her head under the table and three other ponies also down there, none using the table for its intended purpose... until she also remembered that, being a bar, strange happenings far odder than that were likely the norm. Eventually, Valey spoke again.

"...So." She fiddled with Randall's discarded mug, which she had picked up off the floor. "What was so important about making friends with her, anyway? All I wanted was for her not to get ran over or foalnapped or something terrible. Why try to convince her to like us, too?"

Maple hesitated. "Because... she looked sad."

Valey sighed heavily, blowing on her loose bang. "You're crazy, Ironflanks, you know that? I hope you do. Anyway, this place is a dump. We should've gotten out of here long ago." She stretched, standing up, and glanced at Starlight. "Kiddo? Need another ride? I have to admit, the whole fuzzy-cuddle aspect is something I can't say no to..."

"I think I'm fine," Starlight answered, looking at the floor. "So where are we going next?"

"To find that generator, I imagine." Maple gingerly got to her hooves. "Assuming we still want to do something about it? I know I do. That filly may have been angry, but she was as honest as I've ever seen. I don't know that I'd ever be able to forget it if I left without at least trying to do something..."

"Eh, yeah, we'll do that." Valey stretched, spreading her wings. "Mostly for the Spirit, though."

"Right..." Maple nodded. "Because if the town is miserable and blames it on the Sky District, they might like the Spirit more... Well, let's get going, then. Starlight?"

Scrkkkk!

With a dramatic flicker, the lights in the bar shut off, bathing the entire room in inky gray. Silence fell just as quickly, and for a second all was still. Then one panicked voice rose, and then another... before a white spotlight switched on, aimed squarely at the stage, which was now clear of musicians. "A-hemmm!" a too-suave, magically amplified stallion's voice boomed. "Ladies and gentlecolts..."

Neon Nova

With a glare of white-on-black contrast reflecting off the eyes of every pony in the room, a spotlight focused on the no-longer-occupied stage, stealing the attention and breath of the entire bar. A ratty, purple curtain at the back rustled... before parting, a lanky stallion with dark shades, a trench coat, and a greased-back multicolor mane strolling slowly forward. He stopped, aloof, and surveyed the crowd with an upturned chin... before firing off a dazzling gleam simultaneously from his horn and his smile. He flipped up the lenses of his shades with a hoof, revealing a pair of bright yellow eyes. The tavern erupted in applause.

Valey tossed the tankard she had been playing with over her shoulder, giving him a bored expression. "Who's this lemon bag?" she muttered, folding her forelegs across her chest.

"Hello, ponies, one and all!" his voice theatrically blared, magically amplified by a small red megaphone he pulled from his coat, the swish of fabric revealing a fancy white suit beneath. "You should probably already know who I am... but if you're somehow not that fortunate, I'm Neon Nova, your official Blueleaf branch of the Spirit of Sosa! Here to take some names, make some fame, kick some tail and make that awful, awful Sky District totally bail!"

Maple shrunk, ears flat against her skull. "This is completely different from the Spirit I'm familiar with," she whispered during a gap in the talking, trying to make herself heard above the crowd's din. "It's so... showy."

"Eh." Valey shrugged disinterestedly. "He's obviously a propaganda pony. Kind of-"

She was cut off when Neon's voice resumed, bombastic and reverberating. "So here's the scoop, my little ponies: I've just gotten back from the city core, and we're midway through our eighth day straight of no power! That's right, for more than a week now, we've seen nothing but sparks from our wonderful technology! As the crowd would put it: booooo!"

He took a step back, holding his tongue and allowing the bar to boo uproariously. Maple winced again. "I honestly preferred the arguing and vulgarity..."

"This clown is like a bigger Pancake." Valey licked her lips. "I kinda want to lock them in a room together and see what happens."

"Who?" Maple whispered aside.

"Agh, you know...!" Valey fidgeted. "Crazy hair, pegasus, kinda loud... I kicked his rear yesterday at that wall?"

Neon Nova's horn and smile flared in tandem again, recapturing the room's attention. "You're probably all getting tired of me reminding you this, but it does bear repeating, folks: that generator is Sosan tech! Now, our stuff's pretty sturdy, but when it does break, there's nopony like a Sosan to fix it up again! So, quiz time! If the Sky District and their twisted council knew that, why ever would they put that obstructive locked door on your generator? It's a mystery... except the answer's obviooous!"

"I think I know who Redshift spent too much time listening to," Maple muttered to Valey. "If he actually cared about this problem, he'd be trying to fix it, but he's just using it to become popular!" She glanced around. "If she's still in here, I bet she's eating this up."

Popular he was, because the crowd roared back an answer with such ferocity it was completely unintelligible. The cloaked unicorn on stage pretended he had heard it perfectly. "Right you are!" he crowed back, randomly pointing a hoof into the sea of drunk, rowdy ponies. "Is it because they're a bunch of bad ponies who think the Earth District is beneath them? Yes it is!" He cupped a hoof to his mouth, adding in a stage whisper, "It's also because they're totally jealous of our superior Sosan technology! What a scam! What a sham! What a bucket of something not suitable for mention in the presence of ladies!"

"Mrrrmph," Valey pouted, puffing her cheeks and burying them in folded forelegs. "If I went up there and tried to arrest him right now, think of the size of the brawl that would cause! But then he'd be a martyr or something stupid and there'd probably be a billion more fanatics right as a result..."

Neon held a hoof to his chest. "Tragically, there's little we Sosans can do as a result. The Sky District says we're all criminals, guilty of the heinous, truly atrocious crime of telling the truth! But let Neon Nova tell you what's what! Here in Blueleaf, we appreciate the truth! Here in Blueleaf, the Spirit of Sosa will stand by you in spirit, even when all our other hooves are bound and the Sky District says we're heretical to their cult of lies! Well, guess what!?" He jumped to the edge of the stage, legs spread wide. "This citizen of Ironridge is proud to be a heretic! Now let's hear it for the truth!"

As the crowd roared once again, Maple drew Starlight close, the filly's ears just as flat as her own. "Come on," she hissed at Valey, "let's get out of here. This is hurting to listen to."

"You're telling me," Valey grumbled back. "This is the exact opposite of smoothing tensions and keeping things peaceful, and I can't even go take him down without getting these chumps even more fired up! Maybe we can try to abduct him in secret on his way out, or something..."

Starlight said nothing, sticking like glue to her side as they wove their way through the crowd, dodging hooves and spilled drinks and careless revelry. Unfortunately, the route to the door also took them nearer to the stage... a predicament that became far worse when Valey stopped them with a hiss. "He left the stage!" she warned, spreading her wings as a barrier.

"So, who's going to be the lucky pony?" Neon's voice crowed from within the crowd, emphasizing nearly every other syllable with more dramatic flair than reasonably possible. "Will it be you? Or how about you? Show me the fire in your eyes, ponies! Bring it ooooon!"

With too little warning for her to do anything but cringe, the crowd broke... and Maple found herself standing mere paces from the Sosan performer. He looked down at her, then Starlight and Valey, yellow eyes shadowed with something other than enthusiasm.

"Woah, there, little lady," he said, briefly moving the megaphone away from his muzzle. "You look smashed, trashed and way too tuckered out. Do me a favor and chillax some time, okay? Oh, the suspense is just killing me! I can't wait to find out which pony here wants most to tell..."

His voice grew distant, amplified once again as he drew back into the crowd, and Maple let out the longest breath of her... last ten minutes. She groaned; when had her life become so stressful?

"Hey, that was close!" Valey grinned. "You just had a one-sided conversation with a real, live probably-a-con-artist! And now we're here. Let's get some fresh air."

"Silence," Maple gasped, gulping down breath after breath of fresh air, "has never sounded so good! Ahhh, that bar was terrible. I don't feel refreshed at all..."

"You're telling me," Valey groaned, rubbing her muzzle with a grimace. "That speech made my nose hurt. I wonder if that was scheduled, or if he just randomly showed up?"

"If it was planned," Maple said dryly, "that would explain why there were so many ponies."

"Isn't the city overcrowded because they're all having to move up?" Starlight grumpily massaged her ears and forehead. "This doesn't look like a place that would have spare room, in the first place."

Maple stared off down what was visible of the street in the gray light. "You're right... Blueleaf looks like it has an extremely high population density, but wasn't built from the top down with that in mind. And if the bottom was the densest, and they really are trying to move everyone out of there with this failing generator, there might just be so many ponies that the bar is less crowded than anywhere else they could be..."

She strode down the path, its regular inhabitants having returned after being scared away by Valey earlier. Pausing atop the most recent bridge they had crossed on their way there, she allowed her gaze to wander, judging the buildings and wondering just how many ponies they really contained. The canyon it spanned cut all the way to the muddy bottom floor, shadows along the walls deepening as her eyes slid downwards. The houses that formed the walls had windows, mismatched squares at all elevations separated by crossbeams and supports seemingly tacked on for decoration.

Those windows probably constituted prime real estate in a city like this, Maple realized. Craning her neck while staying carefully back from the edge, she peered through a few... empty. Lights off. A counter, possibly for food preparation. A vacant bed. Curtains. A window higher up was open, and a private manalamp flickered against the ceiling.

"...Hey Ironflanks?" Valey called uncertainly from the direction of the bar. "You coming, or what? Because the city core is this way!"

"Oh! Right!" Maple jumped to attention, her stiff, cramped legs instantly reminding her why that was a bad idea. "Ow! I mean, sorry! I'm coming!"

A ragged, purple-and-gray curtain swished, parted, and closed again, blocking out sound in its wake. In the back room behind it, next to a sparse pile of stored musical equipment, Neon Nova stood, brushing off his trench coat and replacing his megaphone, cheers of thanks and demands for an encore still echoing in the shadows of the room.

"You're the best for business, you know that?" said a short mare, standing in the exit to a hallway and wearing a faded, outdated dress with a dangerously short hemline.

Neon winked, then flipped his shades down. "Well, it's not like you can own the Sky District without helping local business owners, is it?"

The mare tittered. "And you never break character, either. Thanks again, Neon. I mean it."

"Well, I wouldn't want to disappoint. It's important work, you know, and they put me here for a reason." Smile morphing back to a slightly serious frown, he stepped toward the door, moving to walk around the mare.

She hesitantly shifted to block him. "You do know, if there's anything we can ever do to repay-"

"Said you and every mare ever!" Neon interrupted with a dazzling smile. "Some stallions too, but I prefer not to let them get their hopes up. Anyhoo, mind if I take a rein check on that eternal gratitude of yours? Spirit duty calls, and I must answer. Literally!"

Blushing furiously, the mare wrapped her tail around her legs and retreated. "O-Of course..."

"Dandy. I'll be sure to drop by again soon!" Neon waved her off, then closed the door in her wake. Kneeling, he pressed an ear against the ground, listening... and after a minute, stood up, seemingly satisfied.

His horn lit with a white aura, digging inside his trench coat, and eventually a large gemstone floated out, about the size of a filly's hoof. It glittered with residual enchanted energy, and he raised his horn, tapping it with a shower of sparks.

The stone lit up, pulsating, a miniature magical vortex spinning inside. Holding it close to his head, Neon said, "Hat trick."

A second later, the stone changed color, its internal vortex flipping to spin the other way. A voice echoed back, confirming the password.

Neon's face lit up. "Yo, boss! First off, just thought I'd let you know that I totally blew off a smokin' mare to make this report! Between you and me, I think she wanted to give me a big old smoocheroo."

The stone flipped again, and the voice sounded back on the other end.

"The point, you ask?" Neon grinned beneath his shades. "You mean aside from how much better than you I am with the ladies? I'm pretty sure I just spotted those two ponies you asked me to keep an eye out for!"

A response, mixed with static.

"Cute little pinkish filly with a horn and a messy purple mane? Check!" Neon grinned into the stone. "Grumpy tan mare with her in her twenties who ain't too much of a looker but is still way out of your league? Double-check! Even spoke to her once. Want me to keep an eye on them until you get here?"

More words.

"Yeah, lilac. That's what I meant to say." Neon's lips pursed. "Nope, no griffon with them."

Another response, long, low and conspiratorial.

Neon frowned, mouth open, shades sliding slightly down his muzzle. He fixed them with a hoof, staring past the enchanted stone. "They what?"

Muffled affirmation.

"Well, I better get on that, then!" Neon levitated the stone away from his head, then gave it one last look. "Anything else? No? In that case, toodles!"

With a pulse of magic, the stone went dim, and he stowed it back in his coat. A slow breath followed, and when Neon Nova swung open the door to the back halls, it was with a whistle and an almost giddy smile. He didn't notice the swish of curtains behind him, or the small red filly disappearing back toward the empty stage.

Small Wager

The lighting of Blueleaf's Level Three didn't change much as time progressed, even after nearly an hour of walking. Maple stumped along in the perpetual gray twilight, telling herself she wasn't that tired and trying not to think about how badly her legs would hurt the next day. The pony population around her served as impetus for her walk, some obviously displaced who clung to the shadows or sat in a daze, looking lost, and others level natives who moved in groups, watched each others' shoulders, and kept a constant air of tension and unease. If she was uncomfortable... what Redshift had described was worse.

"There's a staircase," Starlight observed from Valey's back, the batpony only marginally in the lead. "We can go up a floor."

"Nah." Valey shrugged as she walked. "I told you, I like it here."

Maple sucked in a humid breath. "I think we're more concerned about covering horizontal distance. Right?"

"Pretty much," Valey replied, looking straight ahead. "This city's kind of big. Not too big, but big enough that when you've got nothing but windey roads, it's hard to make progress. I wish you weren't so fat, so we could fly there. The generator's an obvious landmark and easy to see from the sky."

"So it's on the top level, then?" Maple asked.

"It's a tower." Valey kicked a discarded can off a bridge as they crossed, pausing to watch it fall. "All the way from the ground up, and below ground too. Something to do with the way mana stuff works. I know a bit of the basics, but I'm not an engineer. All I do is stay ahead of politicians and bureaucrats, and fight stuff for a living."

Starlight frowned. "So how do you know we're heading in the right direction?"

"Easy!" Valey straightened her hat and flashed a grin. "If we weren't, that kid who socked you in the bar would come out and be all 'Hah, you aren't going there after all, I told you so!'"

Maple's ears fell flat against her head. "She's still following us?" she murmured.

"And she's good at it, too." Valey eyed a passing crevice, far too dark to see inside. "We ditched her for a minute or so at the start, and she caught up. Makes me wonder if she's got a brand in tracking. Either that, or she knows this place so well she can automatically tell which way an outsider would go. Probably has a bunch of friends lurking around and being spies, too."

"How can you tell where she is, anyway?" Maple asked, taking a short stride so they were walking side-by-side. "That's the third time you've said that, I think."

"Eh. I told you, it's her smell." Valey licked her lips. "Well... not hers, but the one she has. Let's be generous and call it... intense dislike. So long as she's close enough and no other ponies smell that way, easy peasy."

Maple could have replied, but held her tongue, suddenly intensely focused on a twinge building up in her right foreleg. "I have to stop," she said instantly, pulling to a halt and holding the leg limply. "I think I'm about to cramp a whole lot worse..."

Valey sniffed, but didn't keep going. "Wow, you two are really out of shape," she eventually remarked as Maple sat, relaxed, waiting for her muscles not to feel on the verge of inventing a whole new class of knot to tie themselves into. "It's still like, uhh... six miles from here to Grand Acorn. I mean, I do stuff like this every day, but if you can't even manage this much you're toast."

"She was walking for ten hours yesterday," Starlight grumbled in Maple's defense. It was probably accurate, at that. "And carrying a heavy crate up a mountain for most of it. That's not being out of shape."

"Says the filly I've been carrying." Valey stuck her tongue out. "Nyaa. It's a shame, too. If her fat rear didn't weigh so much, I could fly us there in seconds."

"Valey!" Maple simultaneously blushed and frowned. "Would you stop? Really..."

"She's not fat," Starlight added. "Her cutie mark makes her weigh more."

"Is that a fact?" Valey asked, grin widening. "I guess Ironflanks is a better name than I thought!"

"Please don't..." Maple sighed. "Look, I know I'm not an athlete, and I know why it's important that we hurry. I just... nngh..." Growling, she looked at her hooves. "I guess this is what I wanted, isn't it? The chance to do something bigger than myself, or Riverfall? Something like helping this place. So I guess I really don't have a right to be tired or..." She narrowed her eyes at Valey's expression. "What?"

Valey whistled. "That place, huh?" she said quietly. "I knew there was a reason you looked so offended by that old stallion back at the bar."

"Ah!" Maple pulled back, stricken. Atop Valey's back, Starlight was gritting her teeth. "I-I didn't say..." she panted, chest beginning to heave.

"Can it, can it, can it." Valey put a gentle hoof to her muzzle. "I was pretty sure already, am not going to do anything about it, and we're in public so freaking out is a great way to draw attention to yourself and maybe let something slip to ponies who weren't listening then but definitely are now."

"I... I..." Maple's eyes slowly returned to normal, along with her breaths. "You're right..."

"Ponies like her." With a nod, Valey deposited Starlight and zipped upward, punching a shadowed overhang and causing it to rattle... and dislodge an angry, red filly.

Redshift tumbled to the ground and landed on her hooves, bristling like a cat. "Hey!"

Valey shrugged. "What? You were stalking us; it's your fault if you get caught."

"You're still following us?" Maple asked, eyes going back to wide. "After all that? Really?"

As she spoke, Valey made a show of sinking into the shadows, saluting as her head passed through the floor. Starlight stared dubiously at her. Redshift glared, then smirked. "I don't want anything to do with you. I'm just here to watch the Spirit beat you up."

Valey's eyes and nose remained at the surface. "That's cute," she mumbled around the floor. "They're really gonna do that? I wouldn't want to get my hopes up for nothing..."

"Yes." Redshift stepped forward victoriously, her short mane waving slightly as she shook her head. "I waited to talk to Neon after the message, so I could tell him a yak commander was here for them to take down, but he already knew! I heard him talking to someone with magic. He said he'd been watching for you, and that Braen was coming to back him up, so there!"

Effortlessly outdoing the filly's confidence, Valey swam forward, causing her to waver. "You must have a pretty high opinion of these loons to think they'll be a-okay with you spoiling their trap like that," she said with a shark-like grin, extending a hoof and booping the petrified Redshift's nose.

All of two seconds passed, and Redshift spat out a laugh. "You could set a trap for them and they'd still win! Braen is invincible, and you're just a dirty bat!"

"So that's why you're following us, then?" Valey quickly asked, adopting a perfect poker face. "To watch us fight?"

Redshift didn't suspect a thing. "Yes. And don't you try and stop me!"

Maple watched warily as Valey continued, Starlight by her side. "In that case..." Valey's mouth was stable, but her emerald eyes were gleaming. "Care to make a wager on the outcome?"

"A bet?" Redshift stood a little taller. "Anything."

"Fine!" Valey broke into a smirk. "Name your terms."

Redshift's eyes hardened. "If you lose, you have to stop working for the Defense Force, punch Herman and Dior and the whole Sky District council in the faces, and then leave Ironridge forever and never come back. Ever."

Teasingly, Valey hovered with her face so close to the filly that Redshift couldn't even see her grin. "If I lose as hard as you think I will, I'll hardly be able to do all that, now, will I?" she breathed predatorially. "Let's change this around a bit. I win if I wipe the walls with Braen and everything your team has to throw at me. You win if I lay a hoof on them doing it. Better?"

"Valey..." Maple held out a hesitant hoof. "Are you sure that's a good idea? What if-"

"Deal," Redshift interrupted. "Now what do you want if you win?"

Valey hesitated. Her eyes flickered to where Maple and Starlight were standing... and her face lit up. "If I win, you have to kiss Starlight."

"Hey!" Maple ferociously stepped between Starlight and Valey, watching the batpony's mischievous expression. She registered that Valey had used Starlight's real name, but couldn't point it out without distracting from the main issue... which was something Valey had probably calculated. Devious. "You will not," she insisted. "That's hardly a fair thing to gamble with!"

"Meh." Valey shrugged. "You think this bet is serious? She's got no way of making me hold up my end if I accidentally land a few headbutts, and when I win, the look on her face will be reward enough."

Maple opened her mouth to admonish her further... but Redshift beat her to it. "Still deal," she insisted, holding out a hoof.

Valey bumped it. "There we go," she belched. "Fun times ahead."

With a sigh, Maple relented. "Well, I guess that's that..."

Behind her, Starlight was silent.

"...So," Valey eventually said. "Since apparently they're coming to me... they are, right? I guess I'll just keep doing what I was doing until they get here! You're good to go, right, Ironflanks?"

"I guess," Maple admitted. "Let's take it slow, please?"

"Right." Valey nodded at Redshift. "As I've told you a billion times, I'm going to take a look at your generator, which is apparently what you've been wanting all this time? Dunno why you're even at my throat over this. Seriously. Anyway, tag along or whatever, and try not to have any panic attacks because it'll be really awkward for you to root for someone to get beaten up while you're riding their back. Cool with you?"

"Fine," Redshift snorted.

With several sighs and no further objections, the four ponies trotted further into Blueleaf, afternoon shadows shifting around them.

Reconsidering? Nope

Starlight's pace was slow, constantly sticking by Maple, who was the group's main bottleneck. Part of her wished she could do something to help, as a means of repaying all the time the mare had spent carrying her when she could have walked perfectly fine... but her headache was only just clearing, and she knew it was favor enough to be able to take care of herself. So she spent the walk staring at Redshift, who was vehemently disinclined to stare or even glance back.

The filly was her equal in height... nearly, because Starlight had a horn and that made a difference. She walked with a righteousness born of having absolute trust in something bigger than herself, despite knowing that she was just as absolutely outclassed on her own; something Valey's constant presence made sure of. Her eyes still burned, in the few times Starlight managed to catch glimpses of them, and she found her gaze wandering to Redshift's cutie mark.

It was a ladder. Before, she had suspected the filly might be a carpenter, or window-washer, or pony who specialized in working with roofs. But after their debate in the bar, Starlight wondered if its meaning might have been far less literal: her mark was the social ladder, and her passion was for taking as many ponies up it as possible. Fitting, for someone so driven by the state of their home.

That drew Starlight's gaze to her own, blank flank, and with it came a slight pang of shame. When her own home had proved rotten, did she dedicate her life to changing it? Far from it; she did everything in her power and more to avoid letting it change her.

She took a deep breath, Willow's parting words swimming through her mind. The world wasn't fair, and she wouldn't find a paradise suited to her ideals just by looking. Riverfall had been impossibly close, yet proven far enough away that Maple's dream and a single boat had been enough to make her abandon it like sand, dry and useless. Swallowing, she wondered if she would still make the same decision, if it came to it then and there and with everything she had seen. Would she?

With a tremble, Starlight realized she would. Committing to building a perfect world would mean admitting that it didn't already exist, and while she knew that on a factual level, facts had nothing to do with hope. Keeping faith in an impossible goal was the kind of challenge she felt like doing, just because she could.

Faith and goals and hopes and dreams... Starlight mentally slapped herself. Her other goal was to keep her flank clean in the first place, and those were exactly the kinds of words talked about by ponies who had theirs. In the long run, it might not have mattered: whether she found or made a place where marks changed nothing, being blank and having a mark would mean exactly the same thing. The only difference would be before she reached there, where it was a choice between being an outcast, a rejected nonconformist who constantly earned strange stares, or giving up her morals and changing who she was.

...She blinked. If, hypothetically, she got a cutie mark in making a place where cutie marks didn't matter, that wouldn't change her goals at all. And if it came with a power that would be useful for-

Stop. She slapped herself again; that it would be beneficial to gain a mark was an outcome given to be false, so her logic had to be flawed. She had to have messed up somewhere. Her face scrunched, thinking... until she found it.

She wasn't being rejected for her lack of a mark. Not in Riverfall, not in Ironridge. She earned stares, but always for different reasons: having a horn, keeping the company of a griffon, doing feats others deemed heroic and getting mixed up on the wrong side of law enforcement, as well as looking like a total wreck and wielding powerful, exotic magic.

That brought up a completely different question. In Equestria, cutie marks were an integral part of society, because everyone could be expected to have one. In Ironridge, they were apparently rare, a sign of exceptional ambition and motivation, and when useful powers were involved... why didn't society care? Valey had yelled at her a few times about it, sure, but only after she had insulted the mare's obsession with her talent. For everything logic suggested, the ponies would have divided themselves into castes, if for no other reason than the ponies with marks having enough drive to go about making a point of being the best. It was how equines worked.

She had no idea. And so, she asked.

"If... brands are so rare here," she began, choosing her words carefully, "why aren't the ponies who have them far more important than the ones who don't?"

Maple looked at her like she had just asked why trees grew leaves, and then realized she didn't actually know. Valey, on the other hoof, stopped in her tracks. Gritting her teeth, she sucked in a hissing breath as if having collided with an invisible wall. "That," she exhaled, "is not a story for kids like you."

Starlight frowned. Of all the possible answers, being told she wasn't allowed to know wasn't high on her list of expectations. Fortunately, Redshift chimed in.

"Our society evolved past that," the filly bragged, adding extra emphasis to her marked rump as she walked. "My father said so. Being branded gives us an extra burden as public servants."

"Yyyyyou know what?" Valey grinned uneasily. "That's a totally correct answer. Let's go with that." Her eyes narrowed, and her tone hastened. "So, change of subject. You sure hold your dad in high regard, kiddo. What is he, a lumberjack?"

Redshift smirked haughtily, leaving Starlight no time to parse Valey's unfiltered unwillingness to discuss an apparently important segment to Ironridge's past. "The mayor," she gloated.

"Pfft. No, really?" Valey snorted. "And let me guess, your mom is Braen? Or wait!" Her emerald eyes lit up. "Better yet: your mom is that creepy dude from the bar who apparently wants me to take Braen on in a fight? Nailed it, didn't I?"

"I was being serious," Redshift muttered, frowning. "Not that it would matter to you. I still can't wait to see the Spirit give you what you deserve."

"Neither can I!" Valey grinned, flexing her forelimbs as she hovered. "I sure do deserve a good workout after all I've been putting up with. Wanna make another bet on how long they'll last? Starting at ten seconds..."

Starlight sighed, tuning out their bickering, and turned to Maple. The mare was biting her lip, either thinking about what Valey had clumsily avoided saying, trying to press herself to keep going, or both. It was easy to feel sorry for her; Starlight's hooves were sore and legs tired after the previous day's lengthy hikes around the Stone and Water Districts, and she had the advantage of being in shape from a recent month-long cross-mountain trek. Not to mention Maple's heavy load...

Hopefully, helpfully, she drew a little closer, and Maple responded warmly. "Hi, Starlight," she puffed, slightly apologetic for not perking up more. "How are you... holding up?"

"I don't know how we'll reach Sosa today," Starlight answered with a shake of her head. "We need to stop and rest. For real, not that bar. And for more than an hour."

Maple nodded. "Redshift said her father was the mayor. Of Blueleaf, do you think she meant?"

"Mmph." Starlight slouched, pouting. "Yes."

"Well..." Maple looked overhead, scanning the further gloom of Blueleaf's lower levels. "I hope she warms up to us, because that sounds like someone who would have a very nice, safe house. But I can't see how that will happen, unless we manage to get inside the generator and then actually fix it..."

Starlight frowned again as they continued their walk through the shadows.

Aggressive Marketing

As time passed and the four ponies progressed, there began an almost imperceptible shift in the architecture of Blueleaf. Like the movement of the sun, it was invisible to the naked eye... but a look back minutes later revealed slightly more gray, slightly more metal, and slightly fewer sagging corners than before. The town had grown from its center upward and outward, and they were reaching the area that was old enough to have been made with some manner of purpose. That, or it had collapsed entirely and needed to be rebuilt.

Still in absence of powered lights, the party trekked past wood reinforced with steel, iron beams forming the corners of buildings and braces beneath jutting overhangs. More than one grate passed underhoof, though they were still rare, randomly placed enough to be less by design than whatever material was available at the time. Doors were closed, windows didn't exist, and ponies passed quickly with wary glances at strangers, cracked from the pressure of being native to the lowest habitable floor at a time when a mass exodus upward was at hoof. A thin, markless mare with a long mane warily shepherded two foals past a stallion with stubble and a torn hat, while a unicorn held a horn to the door they were exiting, carefully enchanting its lock. There were ponies that had little, and ponies that had less, and the ones with little looked at their brethren with the same eyes that would be used on them if they ever climbed up to the Stone District.

"Here," Redshift announced amid the tense silence, coming to a stop next to a broad, straight staircase that sat beneath a clear view of the sky.

Valey's ears swiveled. "What, that thing?" She turned up her nose. "Meh. I like it where we are. Not too dark, and not too bright, and not too many respectable ponies who would be offended by anything we do..." She stopped and blinked. "Wait, that's a con."

That earned a frown and stomped hoof. "I thought you said you were going to see our generator," Redshift huffed. "Are you admitting you lied about that, too? Because you've been taking the long way this whole time and your minions look like corpses, and this goes right there."

Maple exchanged a glance with Starlight. The filly was right, if rude: riddled with dirt scuffs from their hard landing, manes in disarray and posture sent down the drain by exhaustion, they both looked like things that had been hit by a cart, then shoved in a ditch for hiding.

"If there's a faster way," Maple sighed, head drooping, "take it. I trust her. I'm just tired..."

Redshift looked at her as if she'd just said something very stupid, face scrunching through implications. "No you don't," she eventually objected. "You don't trust me. Otherwise you wouldn't be traveling with her, because she's evil." A jabbed hoof found its way in Valey's direction, and was met with a flattered grin.

"If you don't think we should trust you, why are you giving advice?" Starlight grumbled to no one in particular, looking up from her march.

No answer.

"Probably 'cause she's bored and wants something to happen just as much as I do," Valey replied, leaning casually on the bottom stair as a train of stallions climbed past. "Kinda creepy how much we have in common, when you think about it. Only difference is she trusts others to win her fights, and I only trust myself." She shot Redshift a wink, and added, "I mostly fight for myself, too."

A frown tugged at Maple's lips, and she gritted her teeth. "And you also fight for the sake of fighting, apparently. I just..." She hesitated, and glanced at Starlight. "Why is it we keep getting stuck following others who insist on walking into trouble? Valey, would it hurt you that much not to make dangerous bets or go looking for duels for the very short time we're with you?"

Starlight had other ideas. "If you trust yourself so much, why do you keep telling us never to trust batponies?"

Valey blinked. "It's a turn of phrase, kiddo. Ever heard of them? Usually means I'm a selfish jerk with things higher on my priority shelf than you? I mean, you're cute and all, but sorry." She shrugged.

"Then why batponies and not just not to trust you?" Starlight pressed.

Ignoring her, Valey turned back to Maple. "Oh yeah, it probably would hurt that much, by the way. But come on, we'll be fine! Remember, Braen trashed the entire Defense Force with that sword thing last night, and I still whupped her without a single blow. The odds of me losing are literally zero percent. And mostly, I just wanna see the look on this shrimp's face when I make her champion turn tail and run."

Starlight frowned. "So now you want us to trust you that you won't get us into trouble, but you still don't want us to trust you? Make up your mind, already!"

Valey stiffened, then leaned forward with a predatory grin and ruffled Starlight's already-ruined mane. "Keep that up, and you'll be just as annoying as me some day. And come on, I shouldn't be that hard to read; I just want a brawl. How's that saying go, again? 'You can always trust an untrustworthy mare to be untrustworthy...' or something. Seriously, learn to tell what ponies are going to do from what they want, not what they say. It's a skill that'll get you a long way in life."

As Starlight and Valey bickered, Maple watched them carefully... and soon became aware of Redshift watching her, in turn. "Hmm?" She looked up.

"Why are you with her?" the filly asked plainly. "You care more than she does, even if you're clueless. Is she blackmailing you?"

"No." Maple frowned. "If you want to know, we had bad luck in the Stone District and were with someone who got in trouble with the Defense Force and got dragged in ourselves. Valey got us out and offered to protect us from them, and we were too desperate to refuse the help. We still are."

"You should join the Spirit," Redshift said matter-of-factly. "The Sky District can't touch them. They have food and weapons and money and an awesome commander who cares about all of Ironridge, and are always fighting to make this city a better place. They wouldn't care who you are and what you can do. They'd protect you, and anything you did would help."

"Thanks for the offer, but..." Maple hesitated. "Really, there's just a thing or two I need to take care of, and then me and Starlight are trying to get out. It's too dangerous for us here, even if we have ponies trying to protect us. We don't want a side; we want to live in peace."

"Once the Spirit wins, there won't be any more sides," Redshift huffed. "They'll fix everything that's wrong with Ironridge and let everyone be happy and work together again, and we won't have to live in places that are broken and no one will fix any more."

"Speaking of which..." Maple looked slowly at the staircase, unable to see anything over the crest. "I think she really does want to fix your generator, you know? If the Spirit is her enemy, and the broken lights are making this town like the Spirit more, then wouldn't it be in her interest for that not to happen? Forget about being nice; it's practical..."

Redshift snorted. "So she can open the door, then what? If that's true, would she let the Spirit go in to fix it? They'd still get the credit. And she sure isn't educated with Sosan technology!"

"Yes..." Maple hummed. "But that would still be better for her than letting that Neon Nova pony keep riling others up, wouldn't it?"

"Hey! Neon is great!" Redshift protested, holding a hoof to her chest. "He's one of the best Sosans out there! He dedicates all his time to living in Blueleaf, so we always have someone from the Spirit here when we need them, and does more than anypony else to keep the citizens from giving up! He inspires them, and they need it!"

"He's good at inspiring, all right," Maple said with a frown. "He's probably going to start a mob with his tactics..."

"You take that back!" Redshift pouted. "He says what he has to to give them energy and hope! That's much better than letting them live meaningless, futureless lives turning their brains off with alcohol with nothing more to look forwad to than what leaky roof will be over their head the next night and whether they'll be hurt or attacked in the dark!"

Her face shadowed, and she turned away. "He's probably even more important than Braen... to Blueleaf, at least. Most of the other Spirit ponies don't even come here, because it's too close to the Stone District and we don't have anything worth coming here for. Just a bunch of ponies who lost their jobs, homes or families..."

For far from the first time that day, Maple held back the urge to hug the prickly filly.

Redshift wasn't finished. "Braen's important too, though. You wouldn't understand if you haven't seen her. And then there's Shinespark, and-"

"Hold on," Maple interrupted. "I keep hearing ponies talk about how good Shinespark is, but they never explain at all. Why do you like her so much?"

"Because..." Valey entered the conversation with a belch. "She was born on an airship, or something. Ain't that the best? I mean, wow, what a special pony." She shot Maple a sideways glance. "Remember that statue you were checking out up in that museum? That's pretty much it."

"Wait..." Maple's brow furrowed. "How did you know about...?"

Valey sank halfway beneath the ground and saluted, grinning wordlessly.

"That's not the only thing special about her!" Redshift protested, stomping a hoof. "She's next in line to become a factory chief, and worked her way up there from nothing! In fact, they should have given her Arambai's old factory! She's smart and honorable and protects both Sosa and the Earth District, and can stop ponies from fighting just by looking at them! No matter how many bad or dumb things Sosa does that the Spirit has to save them from, Shinespark never gets caught in it and always helps to make it better. She's the only pony in Ironridge who doesn't have a side, because she fights for everyone and is inspirational to everyone! She's also the only pony who both the Sprit and even the Sky District will listen to! Just you watch, the day the yaks and the Council are overthrown, she's going to be the next Chancellor of Ironridge for sure!"

"You know what they say about ponies who look perfect..." Valey muttered, emerald eyes glinting. "Besides, that's awfully vague. You realize how many of those things you could say about me, too, don't you? I'm on my own side, can make the Defense Force and the Spirit do whatever I want, and rally every pony in Ironridge... against me, but still." She swam closer, head poking dangerously above the ground. "It sure would be a shame if anything were to tarnish your idol's reputation."

Redshift blanched. "What are you talking about? The Spirit don't take orders from a thug like you." She frowned and stood her ground. "Forget about our bet earlier. I just want you arrested."

"Buh?" Valey backpedaled. "Hold up, kid, you don't get to call this off. I haven't had my fun yet!"

"Yes she does," Maple forcefully interceded. "I don't like all this escalation and would be much happier if you weren't gambling with your ability to keep up safe."

"Or with me," Starlight muttered from the side. "Dare her to kiss yourself, or something."

Valey frowned. "I'm like twice her age or something. That would be creepy."

"And that's a concern of yours now?" Maple snorted, tossing her gnarled mane. "You know what? I think... I think we should get going. Whatever we're going to do, I just want to get it over with."

"Fine. And she is right, for once." Redshift climbed two metal-reinforced steps, then looked back down at Valey. "There's nothing I could do to make you keep your end when you lose, so it never mattered anyway." Her gaze hardened. "Shinespark could beat you in a fight, too."

With a roll of her eyes, Valey followed. "Sure thing, kid. Whatever helps you sleep at night."

Breaking In

A wall of sunlight hit Starlight with a blast as she stepped past the edge of the city, leaving her instantly panting from the heat. Behind her, Blueleaf's fourth level sprawled, high enough to occasionally be warmed by the sun at corners where streets intersected and paths widened or turned east-to-west, and light enough to offer heat, and more colors than gray. Ahead of her stretched a long iron bridge, with thick pipes for railings and a transparent grate floor, reaching out over a sun-baked pit that yawned like a dry lake. Cracked brown earth sat four stories below, in a hollowed-out circle free from buildings in the center of the town. And in the center of that...

Starlight's eyes widened. "That's what the generator looks like?"

A gray metal tower stood, tapering to a cone that ended several stories above the rest of the blue, cloudless skyline. Covered predominantly in large vertical pipes, it looked like a weapon designed to fire or be fired straight up, like the head of a massive spear. Inert exhaust vents filled it surface, and it was ringed by catwalks and ladders for outer maintenance, were any ponies there to provide it.

"Nah," Valey shrugged, swaggering forward. "It's a giant moon laser. The generator is that tiny pebble down there in the dirt."

"This is too the generator," Redshift huffed, scurrying alongside her, determined not to let Valey be the first to the core. "You're just jealous you can't make anything this cool."

Valey raised an eyebrow. "How cool can it be if it keeps breaking all the time?"

Starlight and Maple followed them, Starlight taking note of more bridges spanning out to the city in other directions... the pipes attached to them must have contained power conduits, she realized. Hooves clattering on dusty grates, they quickly reached a central catwalk ring, and began skirting right under Redshift's direction.

"If Braen comes and fights you while we're here," she growled as she lead, "you better not break anything while you fight, got it? We don't need an even bigger mess!"

"What's that?" Valey belched. "An invitation to cause collateral... Oh hey look a door!"

Redshift nodded, coming to a stop in front of an ironclad portcullis with rounded corners, set deeply into a recessed entry tunnel. Valey sniffed at it, thinking. Eventually, she pulled back, and said, "Yup, this thing was definitely added after the generator was built. Sosans are obsessed with their sliding doors, and this one swings outward. Look at the size of this hinge!" She pointed to a thick metal bar on one side. "Only reason for that is if they never made room for it to open their way. I bet Sosa even needed special equipment to make this, or at least couldn't mass-produce it. That, or it was left over from a boat."

With a snort, Redshift kicked a card reader with a hind leg. "Desecrating a boat is exactly the sort of thing the Sky District would do. Now open this so the Spirit can get in and let's leave!"

"Easier done than said!" Valey reached a webbed wing under her hat and popped out a glittering card key, and swung it through the terminal. "Zoop!"

A red light flared in her face, reflecting brown off her eyes. Valey frowned a fanged frown and tried again.

Again, the console beeped red, and Valey kicked it. "What gives?" she growled. "I've got a triple-S clearance on this thing! Open up, stupid door!"

"Hah!" Redshift laughed, pointing. "You're a fraud! Are you sure you're not accidentally using a stolen card, or something?"

"Speaking of stolen cards..." Maple moved forward hesitantly, and produced something flat in her hoof. "I took this from Selma while he had captured me in the Water District..."

Valey's eyes narrowed beadily as she took in the stolen artifact. "That's his key, alright. Wow, Ironflanks. I didn't know you were the type of pony to get away with stuff like that!" She happily nudged Maple's side, taking the stolen card and whipping it through the terminal. "Take... that!"

Red light.

"Oh, come on!" Valey stomped, pouting. "Now that's just rude."

Redshift smirked. "I guess even the Sky District is smart enough to keep you on a leash."

"Can it," Valey muttered, brow furrowed at the console. "I'm thinking... What did you say happens every time you try to get the Sky District to fix this themselves, again?"

"They don't," Redshift grumbled. "Our requests get lost, or denied, or something in their pile of paperwork. We can't trace them except that we either get no response or a 'no.' Once, my father went up there himself and got an appointment to talk to the Chancellor, and as soon as he made it up there, he learned it was cancelled without notice! That jerk just completely ignored him!"

Valey's brow furrowed dangerously. "Sounds to me like if they did send a technician, they wouldn't be able to get through here either, and the council knows it... which means there's something else behind this door besides a broken generator, and it's something they don't want anyone to find."

"Really...?" Redshift tilted her head, processing... and her mouth dropped in shock and suspicion. "They did!" she pouted furiously. "They probably are hiding something! That's stupid and selfish! So they know about our problem and care more about whatever's in here than us, do they?"

"Furthermore..." Valey tapped her chin. "I didn't know about this, which is kinda annoying but mostly suspicious because it's my job to know every last thing that happens in this city. That means whoever's behind this is either so small-time I didn't care about them, or so big-time they can hide stuff from me. If you got to Dior and he said no, small-time is out of the picture, and that doesn't leave many options. My money's on Herman, I think. Though... do you know for sure Dior did the cancelling on your appointment thing?"

"Yes," Redshift insisted. "My father was in his office and everything."

"And your dad also made all these requests, I suppose?" Valey raised an eyebrow.

"Yes..." Redshift nodded sullenly, apparently sensing a trap.

Valey sighed, shrugged, then grinned. "Well, we better add him to the list of suspects too, just in case he's lying about sending all those reports and has his own reason to keep this thing closed. So, who wants to go see what's inside?"

"But you just said it's locked and you can't open it," Redshift protested. "And my dad's a good pony!"

"Not from this side, maybe," Valey said, answering both statements at once. She cracked her wings, pacing to the edge of the catwalk and looking off. "But there sure are a lot of vents on this thing, and I'm willing to bet at least one of them leads inside... or at least could be convinced to with a bit of violence. Here I go!"

She dove off the railing, wings spread... then froze in midair, turning and eyeing Redshift dangerously. "And don't you try anything while I'm gone, now. Do anything sneaky to those two and I'll know before I'm even back. Savvy?"

Redshift stared. Slowly, never breaking eye contact, Valey sunk into the shadowed side of a pipe and was gone.

"...Huh," Maple said after a silence. "I suppose that technically makes her flat, so she can fit through a lot of spaces she wouldn't normally..."

Starlight grumbled indeterminately in agreement. Redshift said nothing. The silence resumed.

A minute passed, and then another, all three ponies looking uneasily between themselves, with more than one degree of impatience. Judging from the sun, they were on the southeast side of the reactor tower, standing on a relatively small portion of the bridge that was shaded, and keeping a far-too-close proximity to each other was preferable to baking in the jungle heat. Starlight sniffed, nose dry. Maple coughed. Redshift tapped her hooves.

Then, with a grinding of metal, the door swung open, and they had to jump to get out of the way. Valey's face poked through, perky and smiling. "Looks like nobody put a lock on the inside of this thing!" she crowed, stepping aside and waving a hoof. "Come on in, girls. It's nice in here."

Generator Core

Starlight stared around the entry chamber to the Blueleaf generator, eyes reflecting countless sheens of bronze and silver. The place was harshly lit from below, sharp blue light stabbing up through the grated floor and casting their shadows against the domed ceiling. Pipes and valves covered the walls, obtrusions that made the room feel much smaller than it really was.

"Sure is bright in here for a place without power..." Maple mumbled nervously, standing close by Starlight's side.

Valey shrugged. "As long as we can get below the light, I'm good. More light means more shadows cast. Should we go down, or what?"

There was a staircase at the back of the room, hugging the wall in a spiral as it descended beneath the floor. Starlight's hoofsteps were slow and safe as she climbed; it was obviously intended for grown stallions and she was strongly tempted to take it one step at a time. Dangles of wires passed to their open side, and at one point a rotating belt moved by, the shaft humming with the rattles of machinery.

After three full revolutions, they reached the source of the light. Seated upon an iron pedestal and suspended in a mesh cage, a massive crystal floated, nearly steaming with energy. The edge of the room was lined with spiked apparatuses all pointed to the core, and below the floor a twisting trunk of cables descended even lower into the depths. Their staircase passed along the outside of the chamber, running behind the ring of devices.

"What is that?" Maple asked, eyes huge. Starlight leaned forward, curious as well.

"I dunno." Valey scratched her chin. "Like I said, I'm not a scientist. As best as I understand it, mana comes from the ground, or something, so maybe this is like a pump or reservoir? Beats me why it's glowing, though. Usually that's a sign that something's turned on and going just fine."

To the side, Redshift was pouting. "If you don't know what you're doing, why are you in here? I told you to open the door and let the Spirit handle it! Now you'll either break it harder on purpose, or they'll follow us in here and it'll break when they fight you!"

"Fat chance." Valey smugly turned away, cheeks puffed from the weight of her smile. "I locked the door behind us when we came in, just so that wouldn't happen. Besides, the inside of a giant machine feels like a pretty sketchy arena, anyway." Her eyes glinted in the blue manalight. "Sure would be cool, though. So many moving parts to use as platforms..." She blinked and shook her head. "Wait, I said I was gonna take Braen down without landing a blow, didn't I? Ah, bananas. Me and my big mouth. No epic machine fights for us, I guess..." She sighed sadly and looked on. "So these stairs keep going."

Redshift merely glared. "So you're just here out of cowardice, then? Is that it?"

"Okay, hold up." Valey spun, sat down on the landing, and bored her gaze into Redshift. "Maybe you missed all the spooky theorizing we were doing up top by the door, but I think there's something other here than a busted power plant and I wanna know what it is. Odds are you should too, 'cause it's probably the reason why nobody's coming to fix your lights. We are here to snoop around and stick our noses where they don't belong... which is totally where mine belongs, by the way, and that's good for me and you and everyone. That's why we're here. Do you want to hear what I said again?"

Unhappy at being called out, Redshift scowled, but said nothing. Valey frowned, flexed one wing... and grinned. "I'll take that as a yes, then! Okay, hold up," she repeated happily. "Maybe you missed all the spooky theorizing we were doing up top by the door, but I think..."

The stairs wrapped around for three more turns after the crystal room, the temperature plunging as they delved into the ground. Fewer pipes and apparatuses littered the walls, with the shaft's dominating feature instead being the snarl of massive cables feeding upward into the core. For the last revolution, the walls dissolved entirely, replaced with more steel mesh beyond which a vast cavern was visible, the bottom of the shaft hanging into it like a sack attached to the ceiling.

Starlight's eyes flickered from wall to wall as she stepped onto the solid floor, suspended at least two stories above the bottom of the room beyond. It was dimly lit, but not so much that she couldn't see the edges. Spread beneath them was a five-by-five array of rectangular pillars, laced with crystals and wires and protruding like spikes from the rough-hewn stone floor. She had little doubt that they were spikes, driven far below the surface as some kind of probe. If Valey's explanation was accurate, they would be what was drawing energy up from the ground.

From the top of each, a thick cable snaked, coming together in a knot that fed up through the shaft floor, through another podium, and upwards to the crystal in the room above. Starlight stopped, staring, mostly because Valey had stopped too.

"So..." Valey licked her lips, then pointed to a small door at the side of the shaft, leading to a ladder to the stone floor below. "Looks pretty dark and creepy down there. Who wants to bet there's a hidden door at the side of that room, or something?"

Redshift snorted. "If the generator is locked to keep ponies from finding something, why would it be hidden now that we're inside? I don't see anything at all."

"I do," Maple softly said. "Look at this."

She trotted around the podium where the twenty-five columns' cables were bound into one, pointing to its far side, where a massive breaker switch sat. Valey squinted at it. "Looks like some sort of master power switch," she mused. "Since it's on the main cable, and everything..." Her eyes narrowed suspiciously. "And it's off."

"Well, if the generator is broken-" Redshift began, before Valey cut her off.

"Nope!" The batpony raised a hoof. "If nobody could get in here after it was broken..."

"Then nobody should have been able to turn it off," Starlight growled. "Which means it's probably not broken."

Redshift blinked. "Huh?"

"She's right," Valey said, nodding to Starlight. "Think about it. Main power switch is off, right? Implies someone came in here to turn it off. You said this thing has been failing, not completely dead, which implies that it can't have been off for longer than whenever you last had power. I mean, that crystal up there still had some juice in it! So why would someone turn it off?" She took a step closer. "Could be that they're maintenance, and needed it off to work on it. But that door doesn't open for maintenance, and if someone was fixing this, Spirit or Sky District, they'd be letting the city know. The only other explanation..." She reared up, seizing the lever in two hooves. "Is that it's not actually... broken!"

CH-TUNNNGG!

"Valey wait-" Maple held a hoof out to stop her, but it was too late. There was a shower of electric-blue sparks, and with a tremendous thrum, the central cable shook visibly. The room rushed, then whirred, then settled to a soft humming. Three seconds later, a soft orange glow faded into existence, dormant strips of lighting coming to life.

Valey smirked proudly and thumped a hoof against a stunned Redshift's back. "Well, that worked. Congrats, you've got power again, kiddo! Go me, right?" Her smile held at first... and then slipped away. "Oh, hey, I bet that's what was in here that someone didn't want anyone to find."

At that moment, they were interrupted by the clatter of hooves against metal, coming from the staircase. They stopped once the owner reached the bottom. A second passed, and then a loud, slack-jawed voice managed, "Well well, this sure is a shocking twist! How ever did you kids get in here!?"

Guess Who

Maple, Redshift and Starlight stared as a tall shape stepped from the shadows. Valey stood one step forward, wings spread protectively, halfway between a grin and a growl. "Y-You're..." Redshift stammered, jaw dropped. "How are you here?"

"The same could be said from me to you," Neon Nova replied, equally flabbergasted. "Whatever could you kids be doing in this generator!?"

"Defense Force," Valey confidently stated. "My credentials are more than enough to be here, and if they weren't, I'd be here anyway. What about you, Mister Sky-District-Locked-The-Door?" Her eye twitched eagerly, and her hat slid slightly to one side. "Steal some sap's card key to come in here and fix it yourself?"

Neon Nova hesitated for slightly too long. "Thought not," Valey continued, stepping forward while staying between him and the others. "Otherwise you'd have done that long ago, especially with how good you Spirit ponies are at robbing others. So what's really the game, here? I can guess..."

"...Be that way, then!" Neon Nova snorted. "Looks like someone's just about figured it out anyway, what with all the lights back on. Several months ago, I hacked that door and deleted all its recognized credentials so it can't be opened from the outside. Since then, I've just teleported past it whenever I feel like coming in, something nopony else in this town has had the horn, the skill and the idea to do! The plan was to just toggle it on and off every now and then... to let the ponies down easier than a total blackout, you know? Safer and gentler. Give 'em time to move up or do something about it. And, well, if any had figured out how to get past the door and fix it, they'd've been a hero."

Redshift looked ready to vomit, ears so close to her head it was a wonder she could hear at all. Face pasty and legs shaking with a mixture of despair and rage, she managed, "B-But... But why?"

"Oh, did I not say?" Neon's brows arched in spectacular concern. "Here's the thing, kid: your town's a doormat, full of bigger doormats. They left their fire at the door, dropped their spunk down the river, and hope ain't even in their vocabulary. What they need most of all is to think things can get better... and that is totally what I came here to provide! But no ponies have ever rallied around being sad in the sad sack before. You need to have something for them to get together against, and they already had that in a Sky District that doesn't do anything! There was nothing fake about that part; they really couldn't care less about you upper-district dropouts. All I did was show them a reason why being ignored from on high is the worst thing ever!"

"I spent weeks in the dark..." Redshift murmured, eyes unfocused and haunted. "Trying to save ponies that you trapped down there!" She flew into a crouch, suddenly burning. "You tricked everyone! You tricked me! You made me like you and believe in you when you were my worst enemy all along! You're evil!"

"Life lesson?" Valey whispered to the side. "If someone ever tries to get a crowd too excited to think straight, they're probably up to no good. Trusting them? Bad idea, right there."

Neon flashed his smile. "Okay, my tactics were a little bit dishonest and sacrificial, I'll give you that. But a drop in the bucket when you've already got a waterfall is a small price to pay for giving everyone else the drive to survive, don't you think? Besides, my work's showing visible dividends, and my motives have your best interests at heart! On the other hoof, check out which side of the room you're standing on..." He gestured unsubtly to Valey. Valey grinned back.

"That's right!" Neon continued with an exaggerated nod. "I've heard plenty about you, Missy, but I believe this is the first time we've met in person. Want to take a guess at how many poor stallions and mares are stuck in this hole of a town because of you? I sure don't, because the results would probably depress me really really bad!" He hugged himself and shuddered, frowning for all to see.

"Y-You..." Redshift blinked, looking between Valey and Neon, suddenly trying her hardest to appear small. "I'm only following her because I wanted to see her get beaten up by Braen..."

Valey nodded slowly, latching on to Redshift's sudden fear of being caught in the middle. "You might wanna decide which one of us you hate less, kid. Really fast."

In a snap, Redshift was at Valey's side, so close they were almost touching, glaring daggers at Neon Nova. Valey clicked her tongue, smirking. "Huh. Being the hero feels kinda fun for a change!"

Neon's jaw fell, and he lifted his shades to blink... but only for a moment. "Well, this sure is a disappointing turn of events," he proclaimed with more gusto than his words merited. "You know, if we hadn't run into each other down here, everything would've been perfectly fine! You could've fixed your little power crisis, been a hero, and no one would've been a hair wiser!" His mouth gave a short, semicircle frown. "And I was only here for a good deed, too."

No response from the opposing side. Maple and Starlight stuck together, several paces behind the aggressive wall of Valey and Redshift.

"Those two, back there?" Neon gestured over Valey's head at the duo, taking a step to the side. "A friend asked me to give them a hoof if I saw them, so when I ran into them at the bar, it seemed logical to turn the lights on for the duration of their stay! Figured I'd give them the best Blueleaf has to offer, you know? It's a shame, really. We've got a friendly connection and everything! Maybe we could've been friends if things had turned out slightly differently..."

"Like anyone would want to be friends with you," Redshift huffed. "You're evil!"

Neon Nova smirked. "That doesn't stop the rest of the town, now, does it?"

"So who is this friend?" Valey asked, keeping her stance relaxed while functionally defensive.

"Mmm..." Neon sucked his cheek, thinking. "Seeing as we're enemies now, I think it's best if I keep that a little old secret. When in doubt, protect your friends' identities! And make sure to have friends to protect!"

"It's Braen," Redshift growled, still clinging to Valey like glue. "I heard you talking in the bar. You had a magic stone. She said she's on her way here." She paled slightly, then looked up at Valey. "What are you going to do when she gets here? She wouldn't be in on this, would she?"

"Take a chill pill, little filly!" Neon urged, waving a hoof. "All Miss Braen knows is that Blueleaf's got a power problem and I am doing my best to keep everypony's spirits up! No need to think trash about all your heroes, now! The whole point here was to give you someone to cheer for, after all!"

Redshift started to reply, but Starlight cut her off with a loud cough, speaking for the first time since Neon Nova had arrived. "You two realize he's stalling for time, right? He's also between us and the stairs. Whatever you're going to do, do it, because this is probably a trap!"

Valey nodded appreciatively, tipping her hat with a wing. "Smart kid," she acknowledged. "So then, Spirit guy, what'll it be? I know how I'd like this to end..." She licked her lips, polishing hoof against her chest in anticipation.

"The only thing it can be," Neon tossed back, grinning confidently. "Here's the facts, ponies... and weird bat-creature. Up there, every last citizen positively adores me and my mane, and at least one of you is a known criminal, despot, tyrant, jerk and all-around slice of cow pie! The other two are complete strangers, and one is just a kid! So all we have to do is go up there with the lights on, and it'll be a battle of your words against mine! And no offense, but you'd kind of be pushovers, even without my awesome PR." He tossed his head, smile flashing again.

"But I... no..." Redshift paled again as the reality of his words washed over her. Suddenly, her fire returned. "My father will trust me over you. He's the mayor! The ponies will listen to him over you! They chose him in the first place!"

"I'm afraid it won't be that easy," Neon answered, turning and showing off his black cloak. Yellow eyes flashed confidently from underneath his shades, and he continued, "You see, when you hold office for months without doing anything about a town's number one problem, your popularity goes doooown." He punctuated his words with a long, vertical sweep of a hoof. "I could challenge him for his job and win by a landslide. He can't touch me! And of course, if I ever needed even more leverage, I could always stoop to spreading sensational stories... about your mom!"

Redshift blanched. "You leave my mother out of this!"

Valey's lips pursed. "Your mom has a penchant for trouble? Filing that away for later..."

"Point is, you can't touch me." Neon Nova swaggered, turning fully and putting a hoof on the spiral staircase back to the entrance. "Anyhow, the generator's all fixed, so I better go tell everypony the good news. You know... the little story about how I tricked the big bad bat into opening the door, then snuck in and fixed everything myself! See ya!"

Only an instant passed before Maple whispered, "What do we do? Wait here until he's likely in the middle of talking, then turn off the power again to cost him credibility?"

"No," Starlight shot back, also whispering to stay out of Neon's earshot. "He'd just say we were still down here and blame it on us!"

Valey bonked her forehead with a hoof. "Wow you guys are dense. Use your brains! What have I wanted to do since pretty much the moment you met me?"

Neon stopped on the staircase, less than a quarter turn up, staring down curiously.

"Hey. Kid." Valey nudged Redshift, who was looking on, confused. "That bet we had is off, right? Or at least doesn't apply to him?"

A moment's pause... and then Redshift's face twisted into a smirk, then kept going. "No. It. Doesn't."

Neon leaned over the stair railing, blinking. Valey's wings snapped out. She spun to face him so fast, she could have teleported in place... and she kicked off, streaking toward him in a flash, leading with a pummel-hungry hoof.

Dazzling Gleam

POWWWW!

Valey rocketed into Neon Nova at an upward angle, hoof striking with such force that the stallion was lifted clean off the staircase, falling several meters to the floor below and landing in an undignified heap. "Unnngh..."

"Uh-oh." Valey's face fell in quick dismay, and she landed, prodding his cloaked form with the very tip of a hoof. "Hey, please don't go down that easily! I'm sorry I went too hard, I wanted to savor-!"

Only a well-timed backflip saved her from Neon's get-up attack, hind legs lashing out low to the floor as he flipped upright, somehow not tripping on his massive coat. He fixed his crooked shades with a dizzy hoof, shook his head, and staggered into a fighting stance.

"Oh yeah!" Valey spread her wings, crouching between him and the other three with a lunatic smile. "That's better! Here we go!"

She pitched forward, diving facefirst into the ground in a ripple of shadow. Beating a zigzag path toward him amid the dim orange lighting, she closed the distance quickly, before...

"Dazzling..." Neon's horn sparked white. "Gleam!"

A burst of harsh light that seemed to blacken everything else in the room twirled from his horn and polished smile in sync, reflecting in stripes across his shades and causing Maple, Redshift and Starlight to wince. Valey was forcibly ejected from the floor as her shadow swept away, landing with a thud and a tangle of limbs. "Hey, that's rude!" she lifted her head to complain.

"Mmm hm hwa!" Neon laughed, flicking his forelegs out of the sleeves of his coat. "Apparently, that counts as an attack back in bat-land! But here's the truth, Missy! It was just a pose!"

His horn flared again, summoning an invisible gale that barreled into him, flapping his coat back like a heroic cape and revealing a gem-studded, gold-trimmed, white faux-leather suit beneath. "Aw yeah! It's go time!"

A hoof erupted from the ground beneath him, punching him in the gut and earning an arched back and a hearty wheeze. "Ooooof!"

"Nyaaah!" Valey blasted out of the ground at an angle, kicking him to the side as she rose. "You gotta take advantages when you get them!" She landed, once again facing him a safe distance away. "Not sit around preening! Try again!"

Neon stood his ground. "You're one to talk! I am in top condition, and also know your weakness! Take... this!"

Another surge of white light, though this one was scaled back slightly... and also didn't fade. He held the glow, eye twitching slightly from the strain. "Be weakened, foul foe!"

Valey rolled her eyes. "Light doesn't hurt me, you blowhard! I just like shadows! Now knock that off before you overexert yourself and cut my fight short!"

Neon held his grin, and his spell.

"Fine, fine..." Valey sighed and spread her wings. "Guess I'll have to turn your lights off my way."

She flipped forward, soaring into the air, eyes constricting against the shine of her opponent's horn. Suddenly, her flank tingled with danger... and she focused. There. He was hiding a telekinetic cloud in the glare, performing two spells at once, undoubtedly to catch her and slam her groundward.

Fat chance. With an easy smirk, Valey pulled up, watching as the telltale signs of the cloud followed her... then did a backflip, dropping into a loop and gliding effortlessly under in a burst of speed.

Biff! She collided with her target's slack-jawed face, bracing against the ground and uppercutting his chest.

"Yeowch!" Neon managed as he went flying, rolling to a stop on his back. Features drooping, he inspected the circular hoofprint where Valey had struck his suit. "Kindly keep your muddy hooves away from-"

Valey was beside him in a flash. "You were saying about weaknesses?" With a dastardly smirk, a sharp, webbed wingtip reached out... and tore a clean gash in his his suit, nearly two inches long.

Neon's eyes went pinprick. "Nooooo!" His horn lit. "You will pay for that!"

Suddenly, Valey's flank stabbed with danger, and time slowed to a crawl.

Suspended in slow-motion, Neon's words drifted inaudibly past her, his lips moving at a comical speed. Normally, it was a sight Valey would find funny, but this was a sensory boost for only the most dire circumstances. Her eyes flicked back and forth over his entire body, scanning urgently for whatever had triggered her brand, legs already coiling for a leap to safety.

There! Curled in his telekinesis, a knife was floating out of the folds of his trench coat. Knives were for cheaters.

Scowling, Valey simultaneously slammed out a forehoof and hind leg. Time returned to normal as she struck Neon's horn, extinguishing his aura in a shower of sparks, at the same time kicking his knife to the far corners of the room. She pummeled him once more for good measure, then took off, soaring out of his range.

"Guh... Someone's... hasty on their hooves..." Neon mumbled, getting up and massaging his head. "You think that's funny? I'll show you the funniest joke in the wooooorld!"

Valey scoffed, not sensing immediate danger. "You're the one who was playing dir- Hey!"

With twin bursts of teleportation, the stallion appeared at her side, swiped her hat, and left before she could react. Valey snarled.

Neon frowned innocently. "Ohhh, that strikes a nerve, doesn't it?" He hovered the black beret over his head, another knife snaking out from his coat and flickering dangerously close to the fabric. "See how you like having your trademarked appearance disrespected. Count of three... or maybe not!"

Splorp.

Before Valey could react, before Neon could slash the hat, a banana peel tipped out, landing wetly atop his head and plastering its leaves over his eyes like a tiny yellow octopus. "Buh-waaaugh! What the...?"

Valey was at his side again in a flash. "Mine!" Seizing the beret and slapping it in place over her bare green mane, she bicycle-kicked the back of his head, striking twice before landing and driving his face into the ground.

"Now then..." Wrapping one foreleg around his neck and the other against his back, she lifted him in a suplex, flinging him over backward. As he flew, she yanked back hard on the coat... and it snapped clean off, settling limply in her hooves.

"Nice!" Valey shook it, ignoring the discombobulated stallion behind her. It jingled with lumps of weight, laden with hidden things of all kinds. "Yeah, I don't think you need this," she muttered, before tossing it to the edge of the room.

"Y-You..." Neon Nova staggered to his hooves, wiping banana paste from his eyes.

"Me!" Valey interrupted, excitement returning. She glanced to Maple, Redshift and Starlight in the corner... and after a second's hesitation, flung her hat at them like a boomerang. "Hey, hold this! Hats are off for the next round!"

Maple caught it, and it vanished. Valey nodded appreciatively. Neon looked frantically around, quickly realizing that Valey was standing between him and his primary advantage, fully confident.

"You ready?" Valey scoffed, licking her lips. She tossed her freed mane, its messy green strands falling nearly to her shoulders.

"Dazzling..." Neon's horn flashed, smoking. "Gleam!" he managed desperately.

Valey looked on, unimpressed, as the twin surges of light flashed by her ineffectually. One of Neon's lenses was cracked, dampening the effect even more. "Eh." She shrugged. "If that's your battle cry..."

Wings whizzed, and a cloud of disturbed air swirled where Valey had once stood. Four black hooves landed in front of Neon with a smash that shook the room, and Valey crouched, ready.

Pow! Neon's hoof flashed out in a pre-emptive strike... and Valey countered with a punch of her own, sending shock waves that caused the stallion's leg to buckle. She struck again with her other, and it was all Neon could do to block it with the flat of his leg, taking a step back to avoid overbalancing.

Smash! Valey reared up, taking a step forward to counter, a hoof meeting Neon's chest with another impact. Seeing her occupied, he swung out of his flinch with a right hook, aimed squarely at her head... and she swept her foreleg sideways, knocking his away and forcing him to stumble.

Crack! While his head was down, she punched his horn, which had begun to light, sparks landing harmlessly on her tight black coat. Neon pitched forward, gasping, and was met with an uppercut, forcing him back upright.

Bam! Wham! Biff! Valey took another step, and then another, blows increasing in speed as he lost all ability to counter. Every third or fourth was aimed at his horn, keeping his magic at bay, and she occasionally batted back flailing forelegs, driving him closer and closer to the wall.

Hoofprints peppered Neon's body like the tempo of a storm, frequency rising even faster as Valey's forelegs morphed into a blur. They never struck the same place twice, each thrown at a single percent of her power, as if he was a dinner that needed to be evenly cooked and not overdone. His eyes shook in his skull, jaw rattling incoherently as Valey spun him around and around, not sparing his back or sides from her wrath.

Suddenly, her head dropped, an upward gust from her wings propelling her down and forward. Valey lunged off the ground with a massive headbutt, flinging Neon's helpless body high into the air, and flipping up after him.

Her wings pumped as she chased him upward, launching more punches to boost his momentum. The rocky ceiling approached, twirling blackly... and Valey grabbed him, flapping to the side and spinning like a tornado.

As they met the roof, she yanked her wings out, drawing their momentum up so that he was below her. Firing with all four legs and bracing her wings against the top, she launched him downward like a cannon blast, flipping and kicking off it herself in pursuit.

With a tempestuous explosion of air, they landed as one... and Neon Nova didn't get up.

"Bluh-hurrrrgh..." His yellow eyes rolled back in his head, and he was still.

"Well?" Valey looked up, grinning, as the three spectators crept out from behind the power switch, slack-jawed in awe. "How'd you like it? I told you I'm good!"

"H-Here's your..." Maple stammered, trying to look at Valey and Neon at once. "Hat back..."

Valey slapped it in place. "Much obliged." She turned to Redshift and smirked. "So that's what it looks like when I draw something out for fun. If I needed to... say, break through some armor, those punches could've been a lot harder and gone for a lot bigger of weak points. Still fancy Braen being able to trash me now?"

Next Stop

Silence swept around the generator room like a wraith, aided by Valey's light panting and several coughs and false starts from the other three. Neon Nova was out like a light, sprawled on the floor at a strange angle with his suit covered in so many scuffs and tears it barely even counted as fabric. His shades were gone, his horn sparked occasionally, and his tongue hung out, tasting the metal floor.

"Well..." Redshift finally managed, tone firm. "He deserved that."

Valey stretched happily, flexing her well-used forelegs. "Not as much as I did!"

"So what are we going to do now?" Maple asked, stepping forward in concern. "He might need medical treatment, and I doubt we'll find any of that here. And this doesn't change that it's his word against ours. If he has injuries from you, that'll just help his case!"

"Hey, I was gentle!" Valey protested. A second passed, and then another, before she finally relented to the host of incredulous stares thrown her way. "...Sorta. Gentler than I could have been. He's still alive, probably didn't break anything, and will only feel like a meatbag for a month or two, tops. Seriously!" She shrugged, then glanced down at his prone form. "As for what we'll do... that's the thing with good-PR types. They know they can take you to the shed if everyone talks, so the best thing to do is shut them up and then keep your own mouth closed."

Maple frowned. "You don't mean...?"

"Kill him?" Valey straightened her hat. "Nah. I want him to wake up so he can remember that awesome thrashing I gave him. But arresting him and taking him back to the Stone District is totally possible."

"We just were there," Starlight pointed out. "That would be going backwards."

"Eh, I'd figure something out." Valey nudged Neon's shallowly-breathing carcass, then got bored and wandered closer to the other three. "Anyway, the problem's gone. Once he's gone too, ponies will probably just forget about him and find something else to talk about. A place like this probably generates a lot of good gossip, huh?" She shot Redshift a glance.

The filly remained silent, and Valey's eyes narrowed. "So. You. What do you think of all this?"

Redshift's brow softened, and she looked through Valey, a slight tremble to her voice. "I don't know," she said, slightly close to a whisper. "I looked up to him, and he just admitted all that... right here..." She swallowed, eyes getting part of their spark back. "And you. What's with you, anyway? Every pony who's ever met you has nothing but bad things to say, and you have stupid shadow magic that messes with my eyes. So why did you help us?"

"Why did I help you...?" Valey stretched again. "You mean, why did I break in here, turn the lights on, trash that bozo, and also constantly put up with you being a rude little twit who's well on your way to becoming just like me?"

"I..." Redshift trailed off, torn between agreeing and protesting.

"I know what you mean, though," Valey interrupted, answering for her. "And it's just a perk of being on your own side. You can decide who to fight for, what to fight for, when to fight for it, and never need to worry about silly things like codes or laws in your way." She licked a hoof, and used it to straighten the fur on her leafy ears. "Granted, I did have stuff to gain by doing that. Blueleaf is right next to the Stone District, so if it becomes a haven for clowns like him who make everyone hate us, that quickly becomes my problem. I finally got to beat someone up, too. Aaand I felt like it." She winked at Maple and Starlight. "Maybe goodie-goodie Ironflanks is rubbing off on me. Hah!"

Redshift narrowed her eyes. "So whose side are you on now?"

"Didn't you listen?" Valey chuckled softly. "My own! But don't worry, I'm not about to stab you in the back and blow up this generator, or something. Honestly, we've got a lot of ground to cover today still, and if I go looking for any more trouble that'll just slow us down. Besides, I got my exercise. I'm good for a day or two after that show, at least."

"You're right," Maple added, wearily examining her own forelegs. "I'm still not feeling so well, but there probably isn't anywhere here it would be safe for us to rest, especially if you wanted to leave us behind while you take him to the Defense Force. You can fly him, right?"

"Oh, sure, sure." Valey strolled away from them, pumping a hoof experimentally. "Actually though, now that you mention it, wanna know the safest place in the whole Earth District I could leave you if I wanted?" She turned back and winked. "Right here. No one but me can get in, you can always open the door from the inside if something happens and I can't get back... which won't happen, but just in case. It's pretty much perfect!"

Starlight grumbled, lowering her head. "It's also full of hard metal floors. Resting here wouldn't be very restful."

"Well..." Redshift broke in, hesitant. "If you're really serious about helping us..." She stared Valey in the eyes, daring her that if she was going to turn her cloak, to do so then. "I could take them."

"Buh?" Valey tilted her head.

"My family is well-off," Redshift explained. "Mayor, remember? They're in the safest part of town, have a big house, and are used to me bringing back ponies for a day who look like they need it. And you..." She wrinkled her nose at Maple and Starlight. "You don't smell like it yet, but you look like it. So if you promise to make sure he never comes here again, they can come with me for a while."

"...Huh." Valey blinked. "That's actually pretty generous of you, kid. How do I know you'll keep your word, and not just leave them in a ditch somewhere?"

"How do I know you won't just let him go, or even try to hire him?" Redshift countered. "In fact, how do I know he wasn't working for you in the first place, trying to make this city a worse place?"

Valey stuck her tongue out. "Well, then, I guess we'll just have to trust each other, won't we?"

Redshift stared.

"I trust her, if it helps," Maple offered. "Both of you, that is. Go take Neon to prison, and we'll stay with Redshift until you're back. It'll be better than pushing on without rest, for sure..."

"Tsk, tsk..." Valey shook her head. "Remember what I always say about trusting bats. Still, if you're fine with this, I guess we better get going?" She shrugged, turning to hoist Neon's body.

"What about this?" Starlight's voice cut in from across the room.

"Huh?" Everyone turned to look at her. She was standing by the fallen stallion's trench coat, discarded where Valey had left it when she tore it from him mid-fight. Thick, black and sized for his long legs, it looked huge next to her, like a sleeping animal slumped on the ground.

"It has a lot of things in it," Starlight explained. "It could be useful. Should we take it?"

"Hmmm..." Maple wandered over, carefully inspecting it with Valey by her side. "It looks pretty big, but I think I have room to carry it. I'm running light, too, after dropping that ingot on Selma, but I'm tired enough that I don't know if I want to take more on..."

Valey shot her a strange look, and she shrugged. "I guess I'll take it," Maple decided. "It's only a few flights of stairs and then however much longer to your house." She nodded at Redshift, then extended a hoof, wrapping the garment toward her. It vanished against her dusty-tan coat, and she leaned forward slightly, exhaling hard. "Okay, I'm full. Now let's hurry up!"

"You realize you have no idea where that thing has been, right...?" Valey muttered uncertainly, before shrugging and moving on. "Whatever. It's your... space-pocket thing. Suit yourself!"

With a brief grunt, she hefted Neon's body, slinging him unceremoniously over her back. "All right!" she crowed, starting up the staircase to the exit. "Time to get this nutcase back to base before he wakes up! Oh boy, Selma's gonna be jealous at this find..."

Level Five

Valey paused near the door to the generator tower, Neon Nova's unconscious form slung carelessly over her back. Below, visible beneath the grated floor, the crystalline power core was pulsating vibrantly, the array of machines around it firing alternating streams of lasers that might have served as pumps... or could have been there just for show. The room's metallic interior was lit with the dull orange glow of safety lights, and the hum of operating machinery filled the air.

"...So," she said, staring at the locked portcullis. "We've covered all we need to cover? You two are just going to hang out with this kid while I take care of business, and eventually I'll be back and we keep going. Right?"

Starlight, Maple and Redshift blinked back. "Right."

"Okay then! Try not to..." Valey grunted, adjusting Neon's weight on her back and moving to push the door open. "Miss the sound of my voice! Buh-bye!"

It swung open with a disused creak, daylight and fresh air flooding in. Valey slipped out the moment the entrance was wide enough, kicking off the bridge and winging away in a green-and-black streak. A slight breeze followed her, and she was gone.

The remaining three stepped wordlessly out after her, the door swinging shut with a clang after them. The bridge was deserted; no spectators were in sight to witness them leaving the generator. Valey was a speck on the horizon, and save for the jungle heat and each other, they were alone.

"...Huh," Maple eventually said, staring around. "I almost expected there to be a crowd waiting for us, or something else dramatic that would get us in more trouble. Where is everyone? Do they not care that the lights are back on?"

Redshift stepped to the edge, peering down into the pit of cleared land around the generator. Entrances to bottom-level streets were visible below, and they glowed faintly with orange light. "They care. But why would they come here? For all they know, it'll just go out again in a few days or hours."

"I guess you're right..." Maple breathed.

"Look," Starlight interrupted, pointing a hoof at the mountain peaks to the south.

Everyone's heads turned. An ugly mass of gray clouds were building beyond the ridges of the Sky District... which were alarmingly close, as Blueleaf sat at the very base of the mountains. Maple frowned. "That doesn't look pretty..."

Redshift shrugged. "It's just rain. I've been out in much worse. Now are you coming, or what?"

Starlight's hooves beat an impatient stanza through the fourth-level streets of Blueleaf, tapping against metal reinforcements as she passed by windows and closed doors. With only one level above her, sunlight was somewhat common... as were views of the sky. The storm clouds bore down fast, and every pony who had somewhere better to be was either there or in a very swift hurry to reach it.

Her pace was hindered by Maple, weighted and panting in the heat, and multiple times she almost opened her mouth to ask if she could help. She knew better every time, though: her own hooves and legs were only slightly on the better side of laden with aches and cramps, and only because she had pushed herself through far worse crossing the mountains. A day full of hiking up the Stone District, through a museum, then endlessly around the Water District and followed by another day's trek through the Earth District wasn't something that was past her limit, but it was close enough to it that doing anything unnecessary or wasteful could easily break her stamina.

"Are you really that tired?" Redshift asked over her shoulder, leading the two ponies by a considerable distance. "It's not that much longer. We can slow down and still not get rained on."

"That would be nice," Maple huffed, dropping her pace instantly. "Ooh... I'm really not as in shape as I thought I was. I don't know how we're going to walk all the way to Gnarlbough after this..."

Starlight frowned. "You were carrying a heavy crate up an entire mountain, and then did a bunch of other stuff. That would tire anypony out."

"Doesn't... change the fact that I'm the one slowing us down..." Limping with all four legs, Maple slowly caught up with the fillies, and the group started moving again as one. "I think stopping for a few minutes there just made it worse. Gave it... more time for the cramps to set in..."

"What even happened to you?" Redshift asked. "I still don't like or trust Valey, but you're nothing like her. You're beaten up, you follow her around... you said you're wanted in the Stone District and she was helping you get away? Why?"

"I don't really know," Maple sighed, stumping along. "She just said she took a liking to us. When you're desperate enough not to care where help comes from..." She shrugged. "Besides, she's been nice to us, at least. She's strange and sometimes rude, and constantly calls me Ironflanks and talks about Starlight smelling bad, but I don't think she means anything by it. She might just like having others who are nice to her. Maybe that's all there is to it."

Redshift exhaled. "You know what they say about her, right?"

"Aside from constantly grumbling about how bad she is?" Maple lifted an eyebrow.

"Yes," Redshift growled. "They say that in the Defense Force, she has some kind of rivalry with the other commander, and they try to get at each other by doing stupid things like making rules about what kind of ponies can work for them, or messing up paperwork, and it makes all the ponies who do work there's jobs be jokes! Nobody knows anything about her past other than that she's from Yakyakistan, and she's been in charge for as long as she's been in Ironridge. She's never had to do anything to earn or keep it, and every time anyone tries to complain to the yak embassy about her, the ambassador won't even listen! She acts like Ironridge is her playground, has never had to work for or earn any of the things she has, and is constantly treating everyone else like jokes and making their lives more difficult. It's not fair!"

"Earlier, she told us she hated Herman," Starlight remarked. "The yak ambassador. Even talking about him made her really mad."

"...Whatever," Redshift muttered. "We're here."

She had stopped in front of a slightly-decorated fourth story door, and knocked thrice with a hoof. Maple leaned closer. "I thought you lived on the fifth level?"

"I do," Redshift answered. "Watch."

The door swung open, a meaty stallion with a bushy black mustache eyeing her beadily from within. He stood stock-still for two seconds... then smiled, facial hair moving as he spoke. "Afternoon, Miss Redshift. These two are with you?"

She nodded in return. "They are, yes."

"Go on through, then!" The stallion stepped aside, opening the door wider. "You've seen, of course, but the power's back on, and there's a storm brewing! As good a time as any to finish up your business and get home, isn't it?"

"Yeah... yeah..." Redshift paid him half a glance in respect, then walked past, motioning with her tail for Maple and Starlight to follow.

The door lead only to a small room, two chairs and a counter for ponies to sit at and a carpeted staircase along the back wall. The wooden walls were shiny against the orange light fixture, boasting an old coat of varnish and a musty, dusty scent. A hefty mat at the entrance served for wiping hooves, which the filly stopped to use liberally.

"This is where you live?" Maple asked, gazing around the dark interior. It wasn't foreboding or poorly lit, just themed with black and brown, as if dwelt in by something very old that had gotten bored of daytime long ago.

"No," Redshift answered, making for the staircase. "Up here. You'll see."

Maple and Starlight followed. "This," Redshift explained, "is the way to level five. Only the richest families can afford to live at the top, so there are no public ways up. All the staircases from level four have guardposts, like this one. Part of what your money gets you is privacy..." Her face darkened. "And not having to look at proof each and every day that you're literally living on top of hundreds and hundreds of suffering ponies."

At the top of the flight, she pushed open another door to the side, and daylight spilled in once again. Swiftly at her side, Maple and Starlight's eyes widened. As much of a leap as the third level had been from the two below it, and then from the third to the fourth, level five was twice the difference and then some.

An artificial enclave in the sky, it boasted a meandering, cobblestone street that wiggled naturally like a river. Beds of dirt on either side held grass, flowers and occasional exotic plants, divided by dainty walkways to houses that stood not wall-to-wall, each having their own space on all sides. Behind them, a fence wall rose, mostly obscured from sight and designed to obscure them in turn, preventing the luxury from being obvious from floors below. It was a hidden jewel... that in turn hid everything it was built on.

Redshift didn't pause to stare, both because she didn't care and because raindrops were beginning to fall, appearing as dark spots against the ground. Instead, she set off at a brisk pace, marching stiffly down the whimsical road, leaving Starlight and Maple scurrying to keep up.

"I have to wonder..." Maple panted as she walked. "How does Blueleaf not collapse under its own weight? All this stone and dirt must be heavy, and to have it all held so high up with no building code..."

Redshift shrugged. "It's been reinforced. Parts of the city are often torn down and rebuilt, and we rebuild it a little better each time. That hasn't happened lately with the generator out, though."

"I see..." Maple licked her lips, still dubious, and followed, Starlight at her side, further through the maze of the fifth level.

Cold Shower

"...A river?"

"A river."

Maple and Starlight stood, stopped, before a small rounded hoofbridge made of rustic stone architecture, providing dry passage across a stream of water that gurgled freshly, tracing its way across the landscape... the landscape that was constructed on the roof of a four-story city. Some rich family, it seemed, had seen fit to build a river in the sky.

"Maybe you can see now," Redshift grunted, unceremoniously crossing the bridge, "why it bothers me so much that there are ponies living with nothing down there. Blueleaf does have some money. Things like this are where it goes."

"I think I can see..." Maple breathed, the surface of the river disturbed by raindrops as she crossed. "It's pretty, at least, but that somehow makes it worse..."

"How old is this?" Starlight asked, close by Maple's side. "They didn't make it while the power was out, did they?"

Redshift shook her head. "Blueleaf's top level has always been for the richest. My father says it used to be a lot smaller, years ago, with just a few houses built on roofs and the fourth level as the real top. They started building it when the Sky District stole being Ironridge's capital. A lot of important ponies from the Earth District got together and wanted to show the Stone District that they could be just as high up as them, but still in their own district. But now, they made... well... this."

"How many ponies below even know about this?" Maple asked, frowning openly, the bridge quickly being left behind.

"That the fifth level is better than anything they'll ever have? All of them," Redshift answered, turning at a three-way intersection. "What it actually looks like? They aren't allowed here, usually." She paused and thought. "Well, some of them work here as cleaners, builders, servants and other things. Those ponies regularly see it, I guess. But that means having a stable job, which isn't something you want to brag about down there. When everypony has that little, it's easy to get jealous and..."

"So very few, then," Maple sighed. "I wonder, if they all knew exactly what it was like up here, what would happen."

Redshift shrugged. "I don't know. They might try to get in by force. Or maybe they wouldn't care. It depends if they would have someone like Neon telling them wha to think."

A silence passed, filled with the pattering of early raindrops and the hurried tromping of three sets of hooves. Overhead, the clouds covered exactly half the sky, signaling that their time of relative dryness was nearing its end. "We should hurry," Redshift said, looking back down. "It's not far."

A spire scrolled into view, the top of a palace among mansions. Stretching three stories above the already-lofty ground, it boasted carved wooden trim around the windows, a raised balcony, and slightly curved roofing paved with real shingles. While the rest of the fifth-story dwellings were reminiscent of Equestria's quality of living and rich only by contrast, this house could have qualified as opulent even in a city that was reasonably well-off.

Redshift nodded. "The Governor's Mansion," she explained disinterestedly. "I don't spend much time here, but it is nice."

"I thought you said your dad was the mayor?" Starlight's face scrunched in confusion.

"Never mind that!" Licking her lips eagerly, Maple hobbled forward, aiming for the covered entrance... when the storm finally broke, immediately flattening her mane with a wall of water. She blinked, growled, and shook, halted in her tracks by the shock of the sudden cold and extra weight that came with being soaked. "Rrrgh..."

Starlight disinterestedly plodded past her, then turned and beckoned when she stayed still. "Come on!"

"R-Right!" Snapping from her stupor, Maple's legs unlocked and she charged forward once again, nearly tripping in her dash for the entrance.

Though they were exposed to the storm for less than a minute, the trio was still fully waterlogged as they stood outside the wooden double-doors to the mansion. Redshift was the best off, having darted for cover immediately, and her short mane still dribbled at her hooves as she reared up, reaching with her nose to use the huge iron knocker. It swung against the door with a wooden thump, and she stepped back, waiting.

Maple's tail swished limply, still managing to spray a shower of droplets. Starlight reached behind her neck, wringing moisture from what had once been a ponytail - the hairband Maple had given her had gotten itself lost once again, likely when Valey crash-landed them into the Earth District. She would have to remember to tie it tighter, if she ever got another one.

Suddenly, the door swung inwards with a well-oiled creak, and a cream-colored pegasus stallion who looked to still be in his teens peered out, just young enough that his muzzle was only halfway squared. Face very slightly shadowing with surprise, he said, "Huh. You came back for the storm. Looks like you didn't make it in time." He stepped forward, blocking the entrance, adding, "The power's back on. The twins were taking bets on whether that meant you'd be back or stay gone. Ribbon will be disappointed."

"Good for her," Redshift pouted back. "These are my friends, and we're wet. Where are the towels?"

The stallion blinked at Maple and Starlight. "More vagabonds, huh?" he asked, as if they weren't even there. "They might need a little more than a towel..."

"Perfeeect," Redshift whined, trying and failing to push past him into the house. "That's what the bath is for!"

"Uh uh uh," the stallion interrupted, pushing her back with a wing. "Your dad was pretty unhappy last time you clogged the drain with mud doing that. It's raining right now, go pre-wash! All of you!" With that, he pushed the door closed in her face, locking it with a click.

Redshift snorted. "He's not going to change his mind. Back into the rain!"

Starlight obliged without so much as a word. The rain itself was icy, having come straight from over the mountain peaks, but it hadn't managed to banish the heat from the jungle air, creating a strange sensation that didn't quite chill her to the bone.

Maple, on the other hoof, shivered violently in anticipation. "Really... We hurried to b-beat the rain and now he wants us to stand in it? Who even is he? Your brother?"

"Half-uncle," Redshift corrected, moving out from under the balcony in solidarity, exposing herself to the elements alongside Starlight, who was frantically scrubbing at her muddy coat. "On my mother's side. And you do look like you could plug the drain."

"But that does mean you have a hot bath we can use afterward?" Maple asked hopefully, taking a step out into the wet.

Redshift nodded, and Starlight secretly huffed. What was it about being north of Equestria that had her taking so many baths?

House Redshift

A full hour later, Starlight was finally dry.

Soaked first by cold rain, then a hot bath, she sat in a fuzzy, filly-sized robe on a dull red couch in a room trimmed with wood and shiny metal, reflective glass everywhere in the form of display cases, protected paintings, and a high-up window to the gray outside. The cream-colored pegasus who had insisted they stand in the rain leaned against a doorway, watching.

Soon, Maple returned, evidently leaving Redshift the last turn in the bath. Stiffly, she walked across the carpeted floor, around a low table with a vase of green flowers, and deposited herself next to Starlight on the couch with a massive sigh. "I needed that," she hummed, looking straight ahead. "I really hope we don't have to leave immediately. It's still raining, and I'm so tired..."

As she snuggled contentedly into Starlight and invited the filly to do the same, the pegasus in the door spoke up. "My niece usually keeps her charges for around a day," he explained. "Until she gets tired of being here and runs off to the slums again. She'd probably keep them all indefinitely, if she could. Our family seems to have a predisposition to that..."

"Huh?" Starlight looked up.

The pegasus ignored her. "You cleaned up much better than the usual kinds of ponies Redshift brings home. You don't look as desperate, or as untrusting. What did she see in you?"

Starlight hesitated. Were she to lie, there would be no way to safely bring Redshift in on it, and that could get them in trouble. But the full story would serve them no better... so she went with half of it. "We found her on the bottom level and traveled together for a while. Then it started to rain and she offered to let us stay here while we wait for a friend to finish an errand so we can leave. We don't live in Blueleaf; we're just passing through."

"...Makes sense, I suppose." He leaned back, taking a breath. "I won't say 'make yourself at home' because ponies tend to take that far too literally, but it's good to see someone with slightly more class. So far, you seem to know how to be good guests, at least."

Maple frowned, looking up from Starlight. "You don't like the lower-level ponies as much as your sister, do you?"

"Niece," the pegasus corrected. "And don't confuse not liking someone with not feeling sorry for them. But Redshift only goes below because she can... To her, it's a game where she is the hero, and she always has this home to return to when she needs it. I was born there, and even a decade later have more than had my fill of ponies who smell and need more than a fancy room for the night to get their lives back on track."

"You were born on the lower levels?" Maple's eyes widened, then her face scrunched in confusion. "But... hold on, aren't you related to the mayor?"

"His is an elected position." His face darkened, and he added, "There's no such thing as inheriting power from your parents, anyway. And even if there was, he's my brother-in-law. We aren't actually related."

Alarm bells went off in the back of Starlight's mind. The pegasus' statements reeked of drama and intrigue just below the surface, and getting into that with Gerardo's delivery was exactly why they were trying to leave Ironridge in the first place. Whatever was prompting him to be upset about hereditary positions, whatever had brought him up into the mayor's household, she wanted no part of it. The only thing that mattered was to rest, enjoy the peace, and eventually move on without anything bad happening, and that meant ending the conversation then and there.

"I'm tired," she suddenly grumbled to Maple. "Can we talk about this later? I want to sleep."

"We probably should..." Maple smiled sadly. "I am curious though, but..." She fought back a yawn. "We've had an exhausting last couple of days, with a lot of walking and travel, and..."

"Of course." The pegasus nodded. "Sleep as long as you like. I'll inform my niece when she's done in the bath that you're resting."

He backed out of the room, closing the door to a crack... but Starlight could still see the fur of his back, him seated watchfully outside.

"Ohhh I'm tired," Maple sighed, nuzzling Starlight's ear. "I'm so glad we're somewhere safe at last... mmm..."

Starlight nodded minutely, leaning back into her in the darkened room, thick raindrops audibly drumming on the roof and giving her a slight chill with their noise. She didn't need to respond, only rest... and in a matter of seconds, she had slipped away into a well-deserved sleep.

The shimmer of magic and thundering of little hooves illuminated Starlight's sleepy ears, and she stirred.

"See? I told you she brought someone back. Look at them!"

A raspberry was blown. "Yeah, but these don't look like hobos, and you specifically said 'from the lower levels!' So nyah!"

"You can't prove that. Maybe they spent all their money looking nice and that's why they had to move down there."

"Hey, Redshift! How sure are you they aren't hobos?"

"Fernand! Make them leave Maple and Starlight alone!"

"That would be..." More magical shimmering. "Easier if I could move my body..."

Growling softly, Starlight cracked her eyes. A pair of rust-red fillies, both unicorns at the very start of their growth spurt, leaned excitedly over her with glowing horns. Their grins broadened when they saw her wake. "You're up!" one exclaimed. "So we need to know: are you a hobo?"

"Please say no," the other added, nodding sagely. "I have my whole allowance bet on this and you can have half the winnings!"

"Say yes!" the first demanded. "I'll give you three quarters of mine!"

Starlight's teeth bared, and her own horn lit with a swirl of teal. The fillies both stepped back in shock and dismay, revealing the pegasus from earlier suspended in midair in a combination of their auras, limbs locked as he looked on helplessly. Sighing, Starlight let her horn go dim, head already twinging as a reminder that it wasn't ready to be used yet. "This isn't a nice way to wake up."

To the side, Redshift hung her head, standing in a fuzzy robe of her own. "I know. Sorry..."

"I completely agree!" the pegasus exclaimed from his magical prison. "Twins, let me go at once! This is not a question! I will tell your sister!"

The unicorn twins both paled, turning to look at him... but didn't dispel their yellow auras. Maple grunted and snuffled, shaken from her own slumber. "Starlight...? Wha..."

"That's it!" the pegasus snapped. "Redshift, go tell Elise the twins are being poor hosts."

Redshift was gone in a flash. Slowly, the shine of magic in the room went out... and the pegasus freed himself, gliding to the floor and folding his ruffled feathers. "Thank you very much," he grumbled. "Copper Cable, Ribbon Cable, apologize to our guests. Now."

The twins pouted as one, drooping. "Sorry, Fernand..."

"Not me. Them." Fernand pointed a cream-colored hoof at Maple and Starlight. "It's our duty and tradition as ponies of the Earth District to be good hosts, within reason, regardless of the origin of our guests. It's also rude to place bets on who Redshift inevitably brings back. Don't make fun of ponies who mean well."

"Sorry..." Copper and Ribbon repeated, turning back around. One hesitated. "So are you hobos, though?"

"No," Starlight grumbled as Fernand brought a hoof to his head. "Are you?"

The twins looked uncertainly at each other, and then one smirked. Maple interrupted, asking, "Sorry, what's going on here? I'm still half asleep, but..."

Fernand sighed. "My easily-excitable siblings here ambushed and incapacitated me while I was guarding your room. Curiosity is their vice and virtue, unfortunately..."

The filly who had lost the bet rolled her yellow eyes. "You're just jealous you don't know how to be happy now that the lights are back on. We can actually stay up reading again, so ha!" She stuck her tongue out at him, then turned back to Starlight and Maple. "So I'm Ribbon Cable, but you can call me Ribbon. That killjoy is Fernand, this is Copper, and who are you?"

"The lights are just going to go back out again in a few days, you know," Copper grumbled.

Maple blinked at them. "Sorry, I've... met so many ponies within the last two days I'm almost definitely not going to remember all of your names. But I'm Maple, and this is Starlight."

"Cool, cool..." Ribbon nodded nonchalantly. "That's kind of the point, though."

Copper backed her up. "Even Fernand can't tell us apart. If he could, he'd know that I'm actually Ribbon."

The other filly blanched. "Says you! I thought we agreed to use or real names today! Dad was getting angry after we messed with that contractor from Grand Acorn yesterday, remember?"

"Fine..." the first pouted. "I really am Copper."

Maple bit her lip. "I'm not even going to try."

"Don't bother," Fernand added from the background. "It's not worth it. These two are incorrigible, and I've lived with them since this household was established."

"...Okay, then," Maple said, sighing and relenting. "You two are Redshift's sisters, then?"

The twins shook their heads in sync. "Aunts," one said.

"Half-aunts," the other corrected. "But it doesn't matter. Elise is like everyone's mom, even though she's actually our sister. Even to that crab over there." She pointed to Fernand.

"Speaking of which..." Fernand huffed. "Maple and... Starlight were sleeping when you so rudely interrupted. I think it would be a good idea if you made yourselves scarce so they could resume their rest. This rain doesn't show any signs of letting up soon so you'll get your chance to interrogate later, if they're willing. Now shoo!"

"Actually..." Maple shuffled slightly on the couch, Starlight pressed into her side. "We did sleep for a while last night. Mostly, we just need to get off our hooves, so..."

Fernand raised an eyebrow at the exact moment the twins' smiles returned. "If you're sure about that. It's your funeral."

"Sweet!" The twins flopped onto an empty, opposing couch, sprawling massively to hog as much room as possible, preventing Fernand from joining them. "So, if you're not hobos, where are you from?"

Maple skipped a beat. "Umm..."

At that moment, the door swung open, and Redshift strode through imperiously. At her back was a grown mare, old enough to conceal signs of age yet young enough to do so flawlessly. Extremely short, she was lithe and supple with a muzzle a hair longer than normal and perfectly curved ears. Her sky-blue mane was heavy and full, pinned back with a hairclip shaped like three triangles in a pyramid, her coat was a slightly lighter shade of brown than Maple's, and a fluted horn sat proudly on her forehead. Her cutie mark was an arrow, folded violently back on itself in a sharp reversal.

Both twins gasped and sat bolt upright. "Mom!"

To the side, Fernand looked at his hooves. "My apologies, Sister. These two were getting out of hoof, and I didn't-"

"It's okay, Fernand!" Elise reassured with an airy, regal laugh, mane bouncing slightly as she talked. "Redshift told me the twins were being rowdy, and that's hardly cause for alarm!" She looked importantly at Maple and Starlight. "You two aren't offended, are you?"

Starlight wanted to say maybe a little, but Maple shook her head. "We're fine."

"Good," Elise replied, walking across with fluid grace and seating herself between Copper and Ribbon. "Because now that I'm here, you're stuck with me. I wasn't doing anything important, anyway." She looked across at Fernand, who was still standing awkwardly near the doorway. "Fernand? If you could bring tea, that would be wonderful. Redshift, darling, have a seat." She patted the cushion next to her, smiling warmly at Maple and Starlight.

"So..." Maple paused, humming. "You're Redshift's mom, then? And their sister? Sorry, I'm..."

"Trying to get a sense of our family tree?" Elise smiled back. "It confuses most ponies, but that's right. Everyone here is my sibling, except Redshift, my daughter, and my husband, who is out today. And since everyone asks, I'm thirty-six."

"Huh." Maple blinked. "Isn't that a pretty big age gap? I mean..."

Elise shrugged, shoulders shifting against her flowing mane. "It's strange, but not impossible. If you're curious, I have nothing but time, and nothing better to do but tell how our household came to be to whoever will listen. Are you interested?"

Maple opened her mouth to agree... but Starlight cut her off. "Hold on," the filly objected, "we've been in a whole lot of trouble because we keep getting mixed up with others who want things from us and give us obligations that get us in bigger messes." She narrowed her eyes. "We won't have to take your side in any sort of war, will we?"

"I'd never ask that." Elise graciously shook her head. "Everything that happened here is in the past. The last thing I would want is strangers getting caught up in issues of ours that have already been resolved."

"...Fine." Starlight relented, and leaned back into Maple. "Then what is your story?"

Seeking Birthrights

Elise hesitated, as if she hadn't expected Starlight to agree to listen so quickly. She opened her mouth, paused... and said, "Well, then. The shortest way to put it is that in the Steel District, Factory Chief Mobius has had many lovers, and never taken a wife."

Another silence passed, this one to allow Maple and Starlight to think through the implications. "Wait," Maple began. "You don't mean... he's your father? That you're all children of a Sosan leader?"

"She did say half-siblings," Starlight added, nodding at Redshift. "So what's the rest of the story? You made it sound like it would be long."

"That is just how we're related," Elise said with a gentle smile. "From there, and how we got here, the story gets a lot longer..." She sighed, and looked up to the vaulted ceiling.

Maple nodded, shivering slightly. "I'm not very fond of ponies who... you know..."

Elise's eyes flicked between Maple and Starlight, watching them nestled together, and softened in understanding. "Who leave mares to raise children on their own? Neither am I, my little pony. It happens all too often, especially in times and places as desperate as these. And when deceit or coercion is involved..." Her eyes closed in a grimace. "Mobius didn't do that, at least. His reputation preceded him, and not in a bad way. He was sought after. And those were wealthier, more prosperous times, when it was easier to raise a family on one's own..."

"There's a 'but' coming, isn't there?" Maple asked, swallowing a lump in her throat.

"There is." Elise's smile returned. "The 'but' is that eventually, the foals from those hasty unions grew up... and began to ask why if their father was so important, they couldn't be too."

Maple and Starlight sat silent in rapt attention. Elise continued, "I was one of the oldest, if not the. It's difficult to tell, when so many mothers never tell their children their heritage, or don't even know for sure. But I was the first to ask. I was fourteen, and it remains one of the clearest memories of my life."

She bit back a sigh. "My mother had told me stories about my father. I bothered and pestered her to take me to Sosa, so I could meet him and ask if I could be important as well. I was eager, ambitious, and optimistic, just like all of Ironridge. Those were the days of Project Aslan, when we thought we could construct a ship that sailed both the skies and the sea and lead the world in a new technological revolution."

Maple's eyes glazed over slightly, thinking back to the museum timeline and the fiery explosion Starlight had found. Project Aslan, shuttered when the maiden voyage dramatically crashed...

"There was nothing to stop us from seeing him," Elise continued, likewise staring into space. "Ironridge wasn't worried about anything, then. The workers thought we were a curiosity, a mare and her filly wandering through construction yards and complexes of factories and docks. They were polite and helpful, and extremely surprised when I told them why we were there. I don't think the fact that Mobius had children had ever crossed their minds."

Sadly, she looked to the gray window, rainwater that missed the gutters tracing its way down in rivulets. "My mother hadn't seen him since their stand fifteen years ago. He remembered her, somehow. She remembered him, too. We stood there in his office, and they talked, and..." Her head turned down. "He didn't even acknowledge my presence at first. When I tugged on the sleeve of his suit, he flicked me away. I got louder, and the most he ever said to me was that children couldn't do anything useful for him."

A bitter sigh passed. "We left, after that. He told my mother he'd like to see her again... without me." Her face darkened, sky-blue mane shadowing her eyes. "Two days later, she went. I didn't care to find out what happened. I was too upset. I just left, and went to make my own way in the world. I..." She shivered. "I wasn't a filly any more, and had a strong horn. Times were prosperous. And I did fine. Well, even. Because I was ambitious, and told myself that if a pony selfish enough to be my father could hold that respected of a job, I had to do better."

"You ran away," Starlight interrupted. "Because the world you were in was rotten and you knew there was something better." She hung her head. "I know what that feels like."

Elise bit her lip, looking like she wanted to skip straight to a valuable life lesson. "As I said, I did well for myself," she murmured instead, continuing. "I moved to the Earth District, to Grand Acorn. My mother still lived in the Stone District, in the house where I was born. She may very well still be there. But I vowed that I would once day take Mobius' job and become a factory chief in his place, and share it with any offspring I ever had."

At that moment, Fernand pushed through the door with his head, a tray of teaware balanced on his back with outstretched wings. "Here you are, sister."

He deposited it nobly on the table, and Elise gave him a smile. "Thank you, Fernand. We're just getting to the part where you come in."

Fernand smirked good-naturedly back. "Are you, now?" He turned and nodded at Maple and Starlight. "Sometimes I think she has nothing better to do than make sure as many ponies hear her life's story as possible. Then again, there aren't many better things to do in this city. Carry on!"

"As I was saying..." Elise cleared her throat. "I set my sights on becoming a Sosan chief. Chiefs choose their own successors, so I needed Mobius to acknowledge me... and went about that by becoming a regular presence there, in the construction yards. Sosa has few mares by tradition, not rule, so nopony stopped me. I made friends with the smiths and carpenters and technicians, brought them food I prepared myself, never got in the way, talked with them for hours both to know them and learn their jobs and how everything in the factories was managed. I showed them I cared, and it worked. They grew very fond of me, without ever being told why I was there. I'm sure some remembered I was their leader's daughter from my first visit, with my mother, but they didn't care. I was just me."

She nodded at Fernand. "I became enough of a Sosan myself that when another mare showed up one day, I was just as interested as the rest of the ponies. She was a pegasus who worked as a housekeeper here in Blueleaf... and was carrying another of Mobius' foals."

"Myself," Fernand added.

"Yes, you," Elise confirmed. "She had the same idea I did, I learned, wanting some of Sosa's greatness for her unborn foal. We became good friends, even though she was half again my age or more. After that day, we decided to work together. I had the idea that if we found as many of my siblings as possible, I could ask on behalf of us all, and perhaps rally ponies beyond Sosa to our cause. It has a feel to it, does it not? Scattered siblings, all come together in search of their birthright, working as one?"

She sighed wistfully, closing her eyes. "Fernand's mother quit her job and devoted her time to searching for more possible siblings, first in Blueleaf, then moving in with me in Grand Acorn when her funds ran out. I kept going to Sosa and talking with the workers, and eventually started telling them my plans, one by one in secret. They..." She swallowed.

"They loved it. They thought it was poetic and inspirational, that I was an accidental outcast, an exiled princess back to reclaim my throne. They treated it like something from a storybook." She wiped the corner of an eye with a forehoof. "I don't think any of them wanted me to depose him then and there, of course. I wasn't even fully grown. But they supported me. They wanted to see me succeed. I was so close, and it should have been easy. But then..."

A pause. Elise regained her composure, kind and regal as ever, and continued. "That was when the crash happened. You've heard the stories about that, haven't you?" She inclined her head.

"Sort of," Maple answered, rearranging her fuzzy robe. "We read about it in the Sky District museum, but it's been a while since then and I've had more important things to remember..."

Elise didn't even hesitate. "Then you probably know the important parts. It was the biggest shock Ironridge had ever received. Chief Arad, the oldest chief and the program's biggest supporter, was killed. Mobius wasn't even there. He had left the celebrations early after the launch, before the crash occurred. Arambai, the third chief, was there and watching when it happened. I was there too. It was the first taste I had of how much weighed on the chiefs, and just what could happen if they failed."

Her horn lit with a gentle shimmer of blue, and drew a line of magic down the center of the coffee table. "Before that, Sosa had three chiefs. After, it had two. Arambai wanted to try again, and continue the program at all costs." Her aura shifted the teapot clearly to one side of the line. "Mobius wanted to close it; to keep Sosa's focus on water travel. He always had, but not as strongly, and when Arad was alive, he was overruled two to one." She shifted a large saucer to the side opposite the teapot. "But then, it was a balance of two sides... and ponies were scared."

Looming large over the table, Elise's glow brightened, and the cups began shifting themselves away from the center line, some to the side of the teapot, others to the saucer, crowding together in an effort to escape the middle. "Suddenly, I realized, there were ponies who wanted me to take over... no, to usurp Mobius then and there, in hopes that I would break the stalemate and let their side win. Just as many wanted to defend their side at all costs, and saw me as a threat. My name was the one whispered in passing, used in gossip, rallied around or against and spread underneath the city. There were ponies too who didn't care what I did so long as Mobius was gone. That he wasn't present for the crash... caused some controversy, and some even suspected him of causing it. But I was practically a filly, and I was terrified."

She swept the table's contents out of focus, one tiny plate sitting exactly on the wavering magical line, a bigger one at its side. "I sold my house in Grand Acorn. I considered going home to my mother, but didn't know if she was still there, or if she would speak to me after I ran away, or if it would be right to bring my own attention and danger onto her. Instead, I adopted a permanent disguise, learned how to defend myself in a fight, and went with Fernand's mother to the ground floor of Blueleaf, where we found a place to live. We hadn't found any more siblings or relatives in the short time we had been looking. It was just the two of us... or three."

Elise looked sadly at Fernand, horn dimming and arranging the table back to normal. "Your mother managed to get her job back. She really should have been on leave. I had enough money of my own, given in secret by supporters before I disappeared and left over from my time in Sosa, and she was far enough along to stay at home, resting. Eventually, you were born, and then she was forced to stop and live off my money. And for many months, we lived like that. I did what I could to support us. Somehow, I was never attacked and never found, even as I heard whispers of my own name everywhere I looked. Everyone said I would return one day, a destroyer to some and a savior to others. It was... hard."

Starlight's brow furrowed. "Kind of like how everyone's obsessed with how great Shinespark is, even though she never actually does anything?"

"It's interesting that you bring her up," Elise hummed, triangular hairclip glinting as her expression grew bemused. "I wonder what you'll think of what happens next..."

I Remember

The rain continued its steady gray rush against the roof of Redshift's house, providing a peaceful backdrop that served to remind Starlight how glad she was to be indoors and off her hooves. Thinking back to Riverfall, she wasn't sure if Maple had a particular aversion to rain, but the mere scent of it reminded her of when she had been caught out in the mountains; her subsequent scramble for cover and week spent recuperating from catching cold. It wasn't traumatic, at least... but it left her with a healthy respect for the elements and a shiver in her spine.

Fortunately, she had cover, and not just the meager roof of a drafty cave but a mansion in the sky, with a warm robe and Maple's warmer body at her side. The ponies around her weren't overtly hostile and seemed to be doing their best to be accommodating, and much as she agreed with Redshift about the unfairness of having so much when the city below went empty-hooved, she knew better than to complain. She knew her limits, and the rest was sorely appreciated.

So, laying on a couch under high vaulted ceilings trimmed in dull reds and golds, she made the most of their hospitality, keeping her legs off the ground and her ears tuned to the gentle sound of Elise's voice. "I was living in Blueleaf," the small mare narrated, "at fifteen, and supporting myself, my friend, and my newborn brother..."

"For months after he was born, we went on like that, me living in disguise and doing what I could to support my new family. It wasn't as hard as it would have been now, of course. Times were still plentiful. Food was cheap, there were no lighting crises, the streets weren't yet filled with ponies who had fallen from the Stone District. There were fewer desperate enough to turn to criminal acts to get by, and the ponies who stood on corners and preached doom had only politics to talk about, instead of where they would find light for the night. But it wasn't easy, either."

Elise sat still on her couch, mane flowing around her, filling the orange-lit room with presence despite her small size. "It lasted for half a year, or maybe more. Sosa was stalled during that time, unable to do anything important at all. Arambai kept his scientists working on theoretical improvements to Project Aslan, though they never built or tested anything. Mobius did what he could to block him, while defending himself from accusations that he had had something to do with the crash. He was a naysayer, after all, who had disappeared hours before it happened. I had given up on my ambitions of becoming chief, or uniting my siblings, or doing anything except surviving until my name passed out of legend. And then... I found another."

Starlight stared attentively as Elise continued talking. "She was another young mother with a newborn. She had just arrived in Ironridge, I learned, and knew nothing of our city's situation... but her foal was in the exact same place as I was, another of Mobius' abandoned children."

"Hold on," Maple interrupted, "aren't you going to tell us their names?"

Elise blinked, as if having been asked the most obvious question in the world. "Oh... of course. Fernand's mother is Pearl. This new pegasus was called Matryona." She cleared her throat and continued. "When I found out why she was here, I brought her home and told her everything, and how it would be both so easy and so hard to take Mobius' job from him. But first, I listened to everything she had to say..."

She paused, recollecting. "She told me she had been a dancer, once, in a traveling troupe of performers who had come to Ironridge for that fateful launch nearly a year ago. That very night, even, was when the two of them had their stand... That was where he was, even, when the crash occurred. Her troupe left on a boat the very next day, before she even got to see him again, because there was no longer anything to celebrate in Ironridge."

Sighing bitterly, Elise sipped from the tea set with a graceful swallow. "It wasn't until she was all the way back to civilization, at the northern ends of the world, that she learned he had left her a foal. That would cost her her job, and perhaps even more. She set her sights on returning to Ironridge at all costs, not because she wanted power or prestige but because she wanted someone to take care of her. That had always been her dream, she told me."

Another sip. "She didn't know about his reputation, of course; that he never wanted children or committed relationships. She couldn't have. And when I told her what had happened to me; what was in store for anyone hoping Mobius would recognize them... it broke her. She laid on my floor and cried for an entire day, to the point where Pearl had to take care of her foal. She had worked so hard to get here, and to find that..."

"How did she make it back?" Maple asked, sitting warmly in her robe.

"In those days, the world's more ambitious ponies were starting to realize that Ironridge wasn't going to put itself fully behind making airships a mass reality, and decided to create their own," Elise answered. "They were amateur, unsafe and understaffed, but they existed. Matryona..." She refilled her teacup as she talked, kettle held gently in her aura.

"She rode in on such a ship. The captain had landed in the wilderness and was digging a mana well to recharge his power core, when she found him. She had grown desperate enough to attempt to fly to Ironridge using nothing but her own wings..." Elise squeezed her eyes shut. "A journey the strongest endurance fliers undertake in teams to challenge themselves... and she was alone, without any sort of practice or training, and carrying a full-term foal. It was a miracle she encountered him, and that he took pity on her, because otherwise she would have likely died. Yet, still, she tried it. That's how badly she wanted to make it back." She paused briefly, and swallowed. "Her foal was born on the way, on board that ship."

Maple's eyes widened, harkening back to the description on a certain statue at the gates of the Sky District museum. "Wait... so her foal was Shinespark?"

"Correct!" Elise beamed, then turned somber once again. "Now, as I was saying... after everything Matryona had risked to get here... learning about Mobius and I ruined her. And seeing her like that, part of the family I had given up on looking for... it pushed me to get back on my hooves, start taking risks, and use what influence I had to do something, if not for Ironridge then for my family. So I comforted her as best as I was able, and the very next day, all five of us set out and went to Sosa. It was the first time I had been there in nearly a year..."

Around the room, the twins lounged boredly to either side of Elise. Redshift sat attentively beside her, and Fernand lurked dutifully in the background. The rain continued its hammering outside.

"We didn't go to Mobius," Elise continued. "Instead, we went to Arambai. I knew that almost whatever we did, we would need his support, because without some kind of leverage we couldn't do anything. All I had was a claim, and if ponies backed me not because of who I was, but who I wasn't... that would only lead to disaster. The next few days..."

She smiled softly. "It's far easier to tell how it ended than everything that happened, but it made me wish I had asked that stallion for help long ago. He found a way to use Matryona and my stories to save my father from the accusations that he had been responsible for the crash, then publicly changed his stance on the airship program to agree with him. It left a lot of ponies worried and scared, feeling their champion had abandoned them, but also brought Sosa back together enough to function again. It was the most self-sacrificing attempt to unify so many ponies I've ever seen."

Her face clouded with guilt. "As for whether it was the right decision... Ironridge now has no airships, is all but ruled by Yakyakistan, suffers from worse division than ever before, and Arambai vanished nearly a decade ago. But I know beyond a shadow of a doubt it was made with the interests of every pony in this city at heart. And he helped me, too."

The table glowed again as her horn came back to life, the rest of the room darkening in contrast. She chose three pieces of teaware for props once again, and began. "Pearl and Fernand had never put themselves in the spotlight like I had," she explained, maneuvering a plate and small saucer to one corner. "All they needed was money to live off of, and a way to stay off the stage. I left them all of my money. I wanted to see to their safety myself."

Another set of moved to the center. "Matryona and Shinespark, he promised to personally take care of as long as he was able. And myself...?"

The last, lone teacup flew off the table and vanished into a shadowed corner of the room. Elise watched it go, eyes growing slightly wet. "The best gift he could give me, he told me, was to leave. A ride on a boat out of Ironridge, a one-way ticket to a world where I didn't have to bear any of the burdens of such a fracturing city and could live out the rest of my childhood in peace."

Her head turned down. "When the world is a mess, and those of us who are adults fail to leave it intact for the next generation... it falls to the young to grow up fast and fix it for themselves, or fight for what they believe in. I almost did. I started to, but escaped instead. But there are influential ponies in Ironridge now who did start their careers that young, or younger... Chancellor Dior. Shinespark herself. A Defense Force commander in the Stone District called Valey. I don't envy any of them. Times are tragic when ponies need to take up a cause that early and defend it with their lives..."

Again, the table returned to normal, and she gave a deep sigh. "I left, and I didn't look back. For a long decade, I made a way for myself in the outside world, became well off, and watched as technology was pushed along by individual ponies working together because Ironridge wouldn't. I saw other governments with their own petty squabbles, and never got involved because I once again had nothing to fight for. Eventually, I found love, and my husband, and had Redshift. And one day..."

She sagged slightly, leaning forward with her shoulders pushing up against her back. "I learned that Ironridge was building a skyport. I wondered if my hometown had finally decided to lead the world like it should have been capable of... so I took my family and boarded a ship home to find out."

Wryly, she continued, "I didn't find anything of the sort. Arambai had recently vanished. Sosa's government had all but dissolved. Mobius was still there, but his sway had never fully recovered after the crash. There was a new chief, Dorable, who I knew nothing about. Instead, there was something called an economic council, made up of representatives from companies from other nations."

"They shifted power from Sosa to the Sky District," Maple breathed. "Yeah. We heard."

"Then you probably know how the story ends," Elise answered. "I went back to Mobius once more. He didn't even recognize me. I talked to the ponies once again, and my legend was dead on their lips. They were too jaded to believe in a pony who hadn't been heard of in over ten years, by then. The only upside was that I was free... so I returned to Blueleaf and once again began trying to rebuild my family."

She raised a hoof, gesturing to each of the ponies in the room with her. "These are them. Fernand and Pearl were still here, having stayed in the same place for twelve, thirteen years. I found the twins, too. There were others, but far enough away or well enough off that they didn't need or want to come live with me. Now, we're public servants, doing what we can where we can..." Her eyes closed in a final sigh. "But mostly, I sit here and remember this city's history. I watched it fall from unity and greatness. I know things about it known to almost no other ponies, not because they're forbidden but because no one will listen. I was the chosen one, once, and could do nothing but watch and hide. It's still all I do. Watch and wait as this city falls further and further into chaos, and wish someone could come to save us all."

After a long silence, she opened her eyes, and once again smiled warmly. "Thank you both for humoring me. I know it was a long story, somewhat disorderly and not all that happy or important, but I have this silly idea that somehow, all the things I've remembered will help someone else bring harmony back to Ironridge. It's my own comfort, knowing that I once could have fought and didn't, because I was afraid to choose a side. The two of you are welcome to stay here as long as you need, and if you have any other questions, I'm happy to answer."

Maple shook her head, smiling back and wrapping a hoof around Starlight. "No, I didn't mind! I like stories. They're certainly better than getting chased around tunnels and mountains and walking for dozens of miles."

Elise hummed, and for a moment, the room was at peace.

Other Questions

The soft orange manalights of Redshift's house were shaped like candles, set in chandeliers that hung from faintly glowing conduits of power. Between them and sconces that sat unobtrusively across the walls, they filled the room with a warm, even light, illuminating corners that otherwise would have been cast into the depths of shadow. Starlight stared up at the high window and streaking rain beyond, and was momentarily blinded by a flash of lightning.

How would that look with the power out? The window and its gloom would suddenly seem bright, casting dim gray light into the room that could change at any second, leaving sharp, long shadows on every surface and robbing objects and ponies of their color. It wouldn't feel safe, as she felt then. It would feel like being at the bottom of a hole, constantly looking up for fear that water would flood her and leave her to drown. For all the luxuries of being on the top level of Blueleaf, Starlight almost thought she would prefer to ride out a storm in the mid-levels if the power was off, clustered around other ponies for light and warmth. There, at least, the rain would be a mile away.

In the silence of their insulated sanctuary, one of the twins shuffled, then spoke up. "I'm bored," she proclaimed. "I'm gonna go read that forklift manual we found yesterday while the lights are on. You coming, Ribbon?"

"Yeah," the other grumbled, getting to her hooves and sliding down from the couch. "It doesn't look like they're going to say anything interesting, anyway."

Elise shot them a watchful glance. "Girls, be careful. Just because the lights are on now doesn't mean they couldn't go out again at any moment."

Starlight caught the frustrated, wishful look that crossed Redshift's face as the twins ignored their elder and bounded down the hall, hooves thumping on carpeted wood. Fernand shook his head and sighed. "Sister, shall I keep an eye on them? I recognize how easy it is to get excited at a time like this and throw safety to the wind..."

"Thank you, Fernand," Elise answered with a nod.

"Of course." Bowing, Fernand trotted to the door with far more dignity than his siblings. "Give a call if you need me. I shall return immediately if the power fails, either with them or having ensured their safety."

He left the door slightly ajar behind him, and Redshift eyed it, considering. "I'm sort of hungry..."

"Then go eat," Elise huffed, giving her a push toward the door. "You need to take care of yourself! Knowing you, that means you've been starving yourself to spend more time down below, or something! I appreciate how much you care for our ponies, but you have to care for yourself, too."

"I said sort of!" Redshift muttered back, fast on her way to the door. She closed it fully behind her with a click, and the lights stayed even as silence returned once more.

The gray static of pounding rain filled the room as Maple and Starlight looked at Elise, and the unicorn back at them. No words passed, and it was pleasant.

"If you're tired, I can leave you to rest," she said eventually. "Though I don't mind this, either."

"We don't mind," Maple answered, quickly shaking her head. "It's not lack of sleep that's getting us. Just..." She lifted a hoof uselessly, giving an awkward smile. "Too much walking, you know?"

Elise nodded. "I can sympathize," she replied, holding up her own hooves. "When I left Ironridge, walking was my own primary mode of transportation." Giggling softly, she added, "I learned how to tell good horseshoes apart from bad in a hurry, then. I also learned having short legs means you have to take a lot more steps to get where you're going. Hah!"

"Maybe I should look into getting those, then," Maple hummed, softly massaging the bottom of one of her forehooves. "I doubt they'd help with the cramps, but anything would be welcome..."

"Where are you going, if you don't mind me asking?" Elise tilted her head.

"To Sosa," Maple answered with a slight bit of resignation. "And before that, to Gnarlbough. There are ponies there we need to see. We'd really like to make it tonight, if possible..."

Elise thought for a moment. "That will be difficult," she said eventually. "Unless you're willing to travel under dusk, and even if you were to leave now. Depending on where you want to go in Sosa, Gnarlbough is near the very northwestern tip. All there is up there is a few warehouses that were abandoned when they rerouted the flow of the river several years back. If you go through Grand Acorn, which is the fastest way from here, Gnarlbough and the three factories are in completely opposite directions."

Maple sighed. "Well... I trust our guide knows what they're doing."

"Mmm." Elise nodded, and didn't press. The tea set remained on the table, and she stared at it, aura forming and disappearing repeatedly around the handle of a cup. "What did you say your names were, again?" she finally asked.

"I'm Maple, she's Starlight."

"Maple..." Elise stared up at the ceiling. "That sounds like a Riverfall name. My mother was from there, actually. I passed through when I was leaving Ironridge, as well. It was a beautiful place. I almost considered stopping to stay there, but felt it was still too close and wasn't fond of the idea that if I ever had children there, they would likely never know their fathers just like me... Did you once live there, too, before the shipping stopped?"

Maple looked like she had suddenly found herself in a cage. Elise quickly noticed, and sucked in a breath of concern. "If it's a sore subject, never mind that I asked. I don't want to pry into any sensitive histories."

"Thank you," Maple sighed. "I'm just... we've been in a lot of trouble lately, up in the Stone District. All we want is to finish what we're doing and get out of Ironridge, and it feels like any time we become anything more than complete strangers to somepony, they either become our enemy or want to get us in trouble... It's nothing against you, but we're scared and want to stay as close to unknown as possible. Again, I'm sorry."

"I completely understand," Elise answered gently. "I know myself what it's like to have the world breathing down your back the moment they know who you are. If it helps, my house is a haven for all. We are in private, and I won't act on anything you say, if you have things to get off your chest."

Maple sniffed and wiped her eye. "Thanks again, but... I think we'll take our chances. I can manage for a little while longer, I'm sure."

"As you wish." Elise nodded and sipped at her tea.

"You said you'd answer more questions if we had them," Starlight interrupted, changing the subject. "What's with your hairpin? The triangle one? I think I've seen it before."

"You mean this?" Elise asked, turning slightly to show off the silver clip.

"Yeah." Starlight nodded. "That."

"An interesting question." Elise smiled bemusedly. "I haven't been asked about it in a long time, actually, mostly because here in the Earth District, there aren't very many ponies who know what it means. This symbol, three triangles forming a single greater one, is Chancellor Dior's brand."

"Really?" Maple leaned forward in interest. Then she whispered aside to Starlight, "When did you see it?"

"Doesn't matter," Starlight replied. The symbol, she recalled, had been on a pendant Arambai owned that she saw the first time she went to his house, but she wasn't about to say she knew the former Sosan chief so soon after Maple had declined to tell Elise her own tale. "So why do you have it?"

"Nopony knows for certain what it means," Elise answered, the room softly darkening in contrast as her horn lit again. Light traced its way across the table, forming the gently rotating glyph around the teapot. "Or what it does. There are theories... Some ponies think it bears a passing resemblance to to a symbol the yaks use called the Emblem of the Nine Virtues. Others think it represents balance; a leadership trait that would help explain how Dior managed to get and keep his job while he was so young. Between the three races of ponies, some would say... though they can't agree on what the empty middle means, if anything at all. However, without any explanation, what it ultimately means is what ponies see it as, and that is the symbol of the leader of Ironridge."

The burning pattern lifted off the table, breaking into three pieces that swirled and danced around each other like colored fire in the night, the room's normal manalights mere pinpricks shining against the blanket of Elise's projection. "As such, anyone who claims they have a right to rule the city wears it as a statement of defiance," she continued, horn glowing softly against the darkness. "In the Spirit of Sosa, Braen has it emblazoned on her armor. Shinespark has a clip much like mine she often wears, as an acknowledgement of what her ponies expect of her. And as for me?" She adjusted the clip slightly in her magic, and turned her head to hide it from view. "I wear this as a reminder of what I could have done, had I found a way to act twenty years ago."

"...Huh." Starlight sat still, pondering. How did Arambai say he came by his triangle pendant, again? Was it a gift from a friend? Elise had said she left Shinespark and her mother in his care. Maybe it was her... "What happened to Shinespark after you left her with Arambai?"

Elise shook her head. "I didn't learn that for nearly thirteen years, until I returned to Ironridge to find him already gone. When I got back, her mother, Matryona, was one of the first ponies I sought out. I found her amid the Sosan elite, well-dressed and groomed. She told me after he had agreed to take care of her, they fell in love, and he took her as his own wife..."

Maple's eyes widened. "So that's why he never showed any interest in other mares..."

"Hmm?" Elise looked up. "Pardon?"

"I didn't say anything!" Maple quickly gasped.

Elise watched her with a mix of pity and worry, then continued. "I offered to let them come live with me, and told them me and my family were going to re-establish lives here in Ironridge. They politely declined. Matryona was well-off, and while her history with the chiefs made her interesting to the local ponies, she didn't lead a bad life. If she had, I would have been ill-equipped to protect her."

A far-off look grew in her eyes as she continued. "Shinespark, though... she was an intense filly. She reminds me of how Redshift is now, only she had no brand, and aimed even higher. It's been interesting, watching her grow over the last seven years. She's taken the legend I had, as Mobius' lost daughter, the returning heir to Ironridge, and made it so much more than I ever did. She doesn't split the city like me; the Sosans want her to bring back their glory and the Stone District sees her as the voice of reason next to the Spirit. She has a middle ground, and somehow truly manages to please everyone."

Lightning flashed again outside the window, and the rain redoubled in strength. "Part of it is because she doesn't do very much," Elise narrated. "Before the crash, everyone in Ironridge truly was optimistic about the world. During my time, they were too jaded and scared to rally around any kind of symbol of peace, because the memory of having those kinds of aspirations and seeing them destroyed was too raw, and there was too much tension between those who rejected it and who clung to it. Now, the ponies are even more scared and desperate... enough that they're ready to believe in anything, even if it is too good to be true."

She lowered her muzzle and sighed. "That is what happened to Shinespark. She became Ironridge's symbol of hope and justice. She doesn't do, she inspires. She gives the ponies the strength to face another day, knowing that there's an entire district just up or just down the mountain who fears and sometimes hates them and the divide just keeps growing. Is she lying to them, that there's some old ideal worth fighting for? If there isn't, does it matter that she is? It truly is a sign of these times that a pony like her can do so much for the soul of such a city and not even have a brand..."

Starlight looked at her own flank, lilac and smooth, unmarred by sigils of any sort. Her mind flashed back to a time, far away, when she carried a box of ashes and a dusty cutout mask... and suddenly, she asked, "If having one would mean so much, why doesn't she make a fake one?"

Elise blinked. "What?"

"I mean..." Starlight blinked back. "I used to want ponies to stop pestering me about not having one of my own, so I made a filter and painted one on using ashes..."

"Oh..." Elise visibly relaxed. "That's good. I thought you were talking about the... never mind. I suppose because it wouldn't be very honest? She's supposed to be a role model. And then if she ever did get a real one, she would have a lot of explaining to do..."

"The what?" Starlight leaned in curiously, suddenly remembering how Valey had reacted the last time she had asked about ponies who didn't have brands. She almost pressed further, but the uncomfortable look on her host's face made her reconsider. She didn't want to be rude to the pony who was keeping them out of the rain, after all.

"Right." Maple nodded, then broke off into a yawn. Sighing, then stretching, she said, "If I don't get back on my hooves, I'm going to cramp even worse, but I don't want to... Ugh. I suppose we just wait here until our friend gets back?"

"I assume so," Elise answered. "That is what was said. I can get something to eat, if you like, or leave you to rest? We also mentioned horseshoes earlier?"

"Something to eat would be nice," Starlight announced, untangling herself slightly from her robe. "I'm kind of hungry too."

Elise beamed. "Well then, right this way..."

Yak Intrigue

With a meaty thump and a delirious groan, Neon Nova's unconscious body hit the cobbled streets of the Stone District, landing right in front of the entrance to the Defense Force headquarters.

Two seconds later, Valey landed beside him, furling her wings and casually blowing her bangs out of her eyes. "Whew!" she panted, straightening her hat. "Fatty. Should have just launched you here with a catapult, or something. Off to jail, off to jail..."

Humming merrily, she dragged him by a hind leg into the building, maximizing scuffs and damage to his already-ruined performer's suit. A host of pegasi looked up from tables where they were sipping coffee and chatting around hands of cards, several opting to instantly leave, and the pony tending to the drink counter instantly rolled down the cover on their window, signaling that they were closed.

"What?" Valey gave them all a peeved look. "I'm picking on this guy today. You can all... have a vacation, or something." She hoisted Neon slightly for emphasis, then dropped him back to the ground and continued dragging, grumbling slightly.

That was the biggest problem with doing things that helped ponies in ways that let them know she was actually helping, Valey reflected as she walked. The moment someone thanked her for what she'd done, if what Redshift had said even counted as thanks, completely spoiled her. Dirty glares would come her way whether she was naughty or nice, so she had little choice but to relish them... and that was a whole lot easier when she could convince herself nothing else was possible. Silently, she resolved to pull some sort of prank on Maple and Starlight when she got back; nothing that would hurt them but just enough to make them annoyed with her, to keep them from getting too cozy and making her complacent in turn.

She was so busy brooding that she almost missed the sound of approaching hoofsteps coming toward her in the hall. Dropping Neon's carcass at the last possible moment, she faded into the wall... and watched with a silent chuckle as Selma rounded the corner, stopping with wide eyes to avoid tripping on the passed-out unicorn blocking the way. Two pegasi accompanied him, and both collided with their captain, unprepared for his abrupt halt.

Selma's mouth twitched, and he turned to his guards. "Whoever this is isn't on my payroll. Get them out of this fortress!"

"Oh, him? That's my fault!" Valey stuck her head down from the ceiling, taking care not to let her hat fall off as Selma's guards stepped back in a panic.

Selma himself took a full second to find her, then frowned. "Fault?"

"Yeah." Valey grinned. "I was going to leave him in your office, but was feeling lazy and figured here was as good a place as any. I have good tastes, right?"

"No comment," Selma droned. "Now, what has this citizen done to earn your affections?"

"Him?" Valey asked, sliding down the wall, half-in and half-out of the shadows. "He was actually a legit troublemaker. I caught him down in Blueleaf. You should be proud of me." She licked a hoof and ran it over her ears. "Confirmed responsible for the misery and suffering of probably thousands. I couldn't let him outdo me, so I had to take him down! Figured I'd lock him up before getting back to business, you know?"

Selma nodded. "I wondered what brought you back after you said you would be gone for the day. Very well. Allow me to take care of his incarceration for you so as not to delay your return. Will the flame barracks be sufficient?"

"Aww, that's swell, Selmey-Welmey!" Valey blushed, waving a hoof in front of her face.

"...What are you doing?" Selma's eyes narrowed, stepping forward so his guards could reach Neon's body.

Valey's cheer evaporated, and she climbed onto the floor. "Right there? Protesting you firing that cute barista from the front counter a week ago and replacing her with a fat stallion. But if it's not gonna make you feel awkward, I guess I'm wasting my time. Believe it or not, I actually am in a hurry."

"In that case..." Selma smirked back. "I'll have you know my day is going much too perfectly for anything you can do to ruin it. That noisy griffon with the crates was in here earlier, and all it took was a bit of acting, patience and running in circles to get him exactly where we wanted."

"Don't challenge me. I live for breaking those." Valey pointed a hoof at Selma's chest. "And you do know that whatever you and Herman are planning, he's got twice as many plans to screw you over behind your back, right?"

"Silly Valey," Selma tittered, "that's you he has plans for. Of course, you're probably right, but more than one can play at that game, and I assure you I'm up to the task. Speaking of Herman and days going swimmingly, I have something that will completely make yours: he's in the upper conference room right now, and would very much like to speak with you."

Valey froze, scanning his eyes for signs of deceit. Then again, did it really matter? If Herman had specific orders for her, he had more than enough ways of making her regret not jumping to them. She didn't have much of a choice... but dealing with both him and Selma at once would be even worse.

Suddenly grinning, she seized on the only option she had. "Race you!"

Her green-and-black trail raced off down the corridor, leaving Selma choking in a cloud of dust.

Valey burst through the conference room doors, skidding to a halt in front of the central table. Herman stood behind it, ignoring the flimsy metal chairs that were many sizes too small for his yakkish girth. His face was impassive, framed by the west-facing window that gave a perfect view of the late-afternoon sun. Several dusty vending machines stood in one corner, and an empty weapon rack adorned the other. In front of him, on the table, sat a large, lumpy object covered by a tarp, and aside from that, the room was empty.

"Bosssssss!" Valey grinned broadly, with all the fake cheer in the world. "What can I quickly get over with for you today so I can get back to my routine of being an admirable admiral and citizen?"

Herman nodded imperceptibly, cutting straight to the chase. "I need you to make a delivery to the project room," his deep, distant-thunder voice rumbled.

"The proje..." Valey's brow furrowed. "Why can't you do it... Oh, you mean that project."

Herman's gray, one-horned face stared back at her. "Indeed."

"Heh heh..." Valey chuckled nervously, rubbing the back of her neck. "Wow, it's been so long since you asked me to go down there I was wondering if you had forgotten why you hired me." Her tone became slightly more serious. "But like seriously, I'm actually doing something kind of important and that's a really long way to go just for an errand. Do I have to? Or, I mean, can I do it later? Like tonight?"

"You cannot." Herman shook his head, then pulled off the tarp, revealing two muddy, unmarked crates on the table, one looking as if its lid had been removed and hastily reapplied. "These crates have been the object of some contention recently, and I want them placed where they belong before they can cause any further drama. Ideally, they will not factor into things at all, but it is always wise to have a backup. Deliver them now."

"Uhhh..." Valey squinted unhappily at the crates. "You know, those things are bigger than I am, and if I try to carry both at once something's probably going to break... and no promises it won't be any doorframes I pass through. Can I at least get some mooks to help me lug them to the elevator?"

Herman smiled broadly. "Make two trips!"

High above the Earth District where Starlight and Maple sat listening to Elise tell stories of the past, above the Stone District caves and tunnels where Valey grumpily lugged crates one at a time and pegasi with shabby spears sat and talked and wondered when they would get to fight for their city, above the barrier of wind where hot air and cold collided and flurries of snow turned to rain on their way to the jungle below, big dark clouds billowed, flowing down the mountains from the south and the east, sweeping across the Sky District and burying it in white. They poured like a river from an origin nopony knew, reinforcing the glacier that served as the headwaters of the Yule and blotting out the sun.

White specks hammered against the magically-reinforced glass domes of the skyport, rising above the snowdrifts on stalks like metal mushrooms. Eagerly, the snow tried to coat them, and slid off every time, unable to stick to the masterfully-crafted materials, iron crossbeams that acted as supports providing scant purchase against the wind.

Within the biggest dome, a pair of pegasi sat in a neon-glowing kiosk, watching and waiting as ponies paced or ran to their destinations. One huddled within a thick, patchwork quilt, nose slightly red as she sipped from a warm thermos.

"Wow, Slipstream," her friend said, staring up at the dark sky through the central atrium's glass roof high above. "Sure is a good thing you weren't caught in this while chasing that handsome griffon around, you think?"

"Give it a rest, Updraft," Slipstream mumbled past swollen sinuses. "I told you I don't regret it. All it is is a little... Snrrk! Little cold! Besides, maybe he'll be back to thank me."

"Eh. It's not like we've got anything else to talk about." Updraft shrugged, tossing her orange mane. "All the flights are getting delayed because nobody wants to land in this storm, so there are no ponies to ask questions." She pointed at their empty line, stretching and spreading her wings. "It'll be bad when they all land at once, sure, but... Nngh..." She yawned. "I just think it's cool you have a thing for griffons. Wish I could've seen him, the way you're going on."

"Well..." Slipstream blustered, trying to change the subject. "What about the ponies who want to leave and can't? Hmm?"

Updraft stretched massively, back arching and wings tingling as they reached for the sky. "Probably all on their ships waiting for takeoff. Or looking at that huge screen at the entrance telling everyone what the times are like so we don't have to." She leaned down to a monitor, eyes scanning across changing shapes and text. "Oh look, the comms tower says one is actually landing. I wonder if it's a big model, the storm's letting up, or they're actually in a hurry enough to take the risk?"

"Really?" Slipstream leaned in next to her, their ears brushing as they both tried to read the tiny text. "Huh. It has a Yakyakistani certificate, so I guess they're just familiar enough with cold weather to try it."

"Yeah..." Updraft breathed, not pulling away even though her friend had a cold. "That's weird. They don't have a chartered flight number."

"Not really," Slipstream answered, pulling back and sneezing into a corner. "Yakyakistan has part of their fleet on permanent sky duty. They just go wherever they please, or where their leaders direct them. I think there are two near Ironridge. They just land every few weeks or so to resupply and give the crew some land time. It's probably one of them."

Updraft's ears perked in interest. "Really? A job like that actually sounds kind of cool."

"Watch," Slipstream said, nodding. "One of those gates, a whole bunch of ponies will come out of who look really glad to be on the ground. I think you weren't on shift last time it happened?"

They both sat, watching. True to Slipstream's predictions, a herd of slightly-dazed-looking ponies tumbled out of an entrance on the far side of the room, wearing thick fluffy coats and happily beelining for the exit to the Stone District. Updraft pouted. "Doesn't look like any of them are coming to talk to us. That's lame."

"No... look..." Slipstream pointed a hoof, reluctantly poking it out of her blanket. A lone figure had broken off from the group and was making its way around the room toward them, rather than targeting the exit. She squinted. "I can't really see what they look like."

"They're wearing a cloak," Updraft announced as they got closer. "A full-body one. Spooky!"

The pony slowly made their way to the counter, as if taking care not to walk with audible hoofsteps, a long black hooded traveling cloak wrapped around them and tightened at the face, completely obscuring them from sight. There was a point in the hood where a horn might be, and a shadowed pair of eyes looked out over a rounded muzzle. In a mare's voice, the pony hesitantly spoke: "Is... this the information desk?"

"It... it..." Slipstream sniffed back a sneeze that wanted to come at the worst time. "It is..."

"You're certainly dressed for the weather," Updraft proclaimed, folding her forelegs across her chest in a complimentary manner.

The cloaked pony stared back at them. "So are you," she said, evidently addressing Slipstream, though her eyes were hard to see. "...My coat attracts a lot of attention," she eventually explained. "Showing it off doesn't usually get me where I'm going any quicker."

Her cold making it easier to force down the curiosity the mare's words piqued, Slipstream asked, "So then, how can we help you?"

"You're not going to press?" The mare stumbled over her words, as if legitimately surprised they hadn't asked. "Interesting. I... haven't been here before. Can you tell me how to find the yak embassy? There's something important there I need to do."

"Uhh..." Updraft blinked. "Sure thing! Let me get you some paper for a map and directions..."

Catching Up

A large shadow swept across the streets of the Stone District, Gerardo Guillaume's powerful wings carrying him smoothly between the sun and the ponies below. Sharpie flapped along behind him, panting, the inspector's gray body suited more for other things than rapid flight. He restrained himself slightly so she could keep up; she was the closest thing to an ally he had at the moment, and that was something he desperately needed.

"I believe we're almost to the hotel!" he announced, turning his head back over his shoulder. He meant it to be reassuring, but the strained glare on her face told him he was merely showing off his ability to talk while keeping that flight speed. Embarrassed, he locked his beak and looked straight ahead.

They landed shortly, Gerardo touching down with grace and padding smoothy to a stop, turning back to straighten a single errant feather. Behind him, Sharpie hit the ground hard, red-faced from exertion and panting heavily. Her wings took several seconds to fold, and if she were to try to talk, it wouldn't be hard for Gerardo to guess what she would say.

He would have to try even harder to go slow, he resolved, since the alternative - offering her a ride - would be thrown back in his face faster than a runaway cart on Ironridge's steep roads. Still, he couldn't be too hard on her. A partner with a badly-injured pride was better than none at all, even if she was also painfully slow, and he had been pressing to go fast.

While she recovered, he set his sights on the hotel that was their target, hoping eagerly Maple and Starlight would have found their way back after the previous night... assuming Selma had been telling the truth. He didn't trust the military unicorn one bit, but his words and the video feed he had seen on the security cameras were all he had to go on, and it was best to hope for the best.

Surrounded by dusty cobbled streets with busy ponies passing in both directions, Gerardo marched up to the hotel's outer desk. "Excuse me," he began, "can you...?"

The mare squinted at him, then interrupted. "Hey, I remember you! You were... oh! Excuse me, where are my manners? You were asking?"

"Erm... yes." Gerardo coughed; at least it was the same receptionist from before. "You may recall I had two friends with me, and we reserved a room together. Can you possibly tell me if they returned for the night? We have... become separated, and I am trying to find them."

"They sure did." The mare nodded. "Let me see..." She turned to a technical-looking terminal covered in brass pins, then looked up. "Their door was unlocked a little past midnight this morning, and then they checked out about one, one and a half hours ago. They had a message for you, actually. Said if you came asking for them that they were making their way toward Sosa." She shrugged, curling her lip. "Personally, I don't know what you'd want with ponies who are going to Sosa, but it's your life, not mine. They were with that Valey, too. Careful around her, she's rotten to the core."

"I... see. Many thanks." Gerardo nodded, then stepped back. "Well, it seems my business here has concluded, so farewell!"

He turned around and nearly bumped into Sharpie. "Well, this is fortunate!" he proclaimed. "It seems my friends are not only safe as of several hours ago, but are moving in the direction we need to go. I believe it would serve us best to be on our way to Sosa, then? So long as we follow the roads, we should see them if we pass them, and otherwise draw closer to our final destination."

Sharpie had managed to control her breathing enough to talk. "So you want to have another cross-country race all the way to Sosa. Is... is that it?" she puffed, face still red.

"Well..." Gerardo shuffled on his talons, pleasant mountain air stirring around him. "Now that we have confirmed my friends' recent safety, I should think we are in considerably less of a hurry. So long as we reach Sosa before sundown..." He blinked at the sun, more than halfway across the sky. "I imagine everything will be fine. And we don't want to miss anything by going too fast, of course."

Her pink eyes glared back at him, torn between frustration at her own slowness and his implication of it, but in the end, there was nothing she could do. "Thanks," she finally admitted. "Let's... go, then."

She took off at a slow walk, not even spreading her wings. Gerardo blinked, then followed, figuring he could press later. "Well, all right. I suppose we can walk. Though it will mean considerably longer until we catch up..."

Over an hour later, having scoured the roads of the Stone District and reasonably sure Starlight and Maple were ahead of them, Gerardo glided slowly along the surface of a dirt road as it wound into the Earth District, Sharpie flapping slightly more comfortably at his side. The pegasus was still getting worn out, he could tell, and his primary concern was thinking of a way they could stop to rest without triggering her dislike of feeling useless.

Get to Sosa. Find Maple and Starlight. Get his sword, if possible. Warn someone important of the bombs they had discovered attached to the dam... and let them decide what to do about it. And then, find Gunga the ferry operator and get a ride back to Riverfall. Hopefully Amber had found a way to repair his boat... and from there, he would see where life took him. Gerardo rolled his plans around in his mind as he drifted, solidifying it with each turn. There was enough flexibility and enough goals he could drop that it should have been foolproof... though he was too smart to really believe in such a thing.

Suddenly, he squinted and slowed to a halt, a towering wall of wood and occasional bits of metal looming out of the forest, a jagged, blocky and dimly-lit canyon cutting through it where the road continued. "What have we here? A settlement, of some sort?"

"Blueleaf," Sharpie narrated at his side. "It's the place where most of the economic dropouts from the eastern part of the Stone District end up. I used to keep a loose eye on it because it seems like a good place to do off-the-record business, but haven't checked for a long time. If your friends were smart, they wouldn't have wasted any time here. It isn't a very safe city."

Gerardo nodded. "Well, I have full faith in their intelligence. Shall we fly over? We can't have caught up to them at this rate, assuming they are on hoof and didn't dally."

Sharpie shrugged, squinting into the city street herself. "It looks far too dark in there. Sure."

Once again regretting that he wasn't armed, Gerardo took wing and soared up and over the ramshackle wall of building edges, gaining height swiftly. He leveled off at the top... for a given value of top, that was. The city roof was uneven, in some places spiked with random spires, in others depressed in valleys for plazas, and largely supporting a maze-like, walled in structure of brighter colors and neater roofs that might have been a gated community.

"I can't fathom how all this doesn't come tumbling down," he muttered, winging forward across the chaotic architecture.

"Probably magic," Sharpie grumbled back. "Huh. Look, they're turning the lights on."

Gerardo looked, and just as she had said, the city was rapidly coming aglow with flickering, orange energy. He shrugged. "Perhaps it grew late enough at night?"

Sharpie shrugged back. "I heard something about them having power shortages recently, but don't know the details. But..." Something compelled her to turn around, and her coat completely bristled. "Maybe we shouldn't sit around talking?"

"Hmm?" Gerardo turned as well... and likewise recoiled. A hefty wall of clouds was pouring down from the mountains, its haze of rain already visible, threatening to overrun them in minutes. "...Ah. Yes, that could be something we don't wish to get caught out in..."

"I don't want to look for shelter here..." Sharpie hesitantly grumbled, an unspoken but on her lips.

Gerardo nodded. "And my friends would not have doubled back to find it. If we stop, they will undoubtedly get further ahead. I nominate that we proceed with haste, and try merely to outrun the storm."

A smile and a grimace fought for dominance on Sharpie's face. "You aren't very familiar with Ironridge weather, are you?"

Shooting Past

"This," Sharpie growled, fat raindrops drumming on the ground around her, "is extremely embarrassing."

"However, it is certainly effective," Gerardo shot back, shaking his wet, windblown crest away from his eyes. "And you did agree to it. Furthermore, at a glance I would say you are benefiting far more than me."

Sharpie said nothing, her dry mane and suit excellently proving Gerardo's point as the muddy road whizzed by below. She couldn't argue with that.

"Furthermore," Gerardo continued, wings beating periodically to power their glide, "were we to stop now, there wouldn't have been much of a point to doing this to begin with! And as generous and self-sacrificing as I fancy myself, that does seem the slightest bit wasteful of my efforts."

Below the gliding griffon, Sharpie dangled unhappily, two talons clutched around her barrel and holding her as close in Gerardo's rain shadow as possible. In the windless forest corridors of the Earth District, there was no wind to blow rain in from the front or side, and the formation proved effective for both dryness and speed. The cost, of course, was that the pegasus hated being treated like cargo, and Gerardo was having poor luck trying to make her take it better.

"I suppose we could always have stayed in that last town," he chirped, far too upbeat for the pounding rain. "We would at least be certain my friends would still be ahead of us, doing that!"

"Blueleaf is not a vacation town," Sharpie grumbled back, bad options milling around her like sheep. "I did agree to this, okay? Now stop rubbing it in!"

"My apologies!" Wisely, Gerardo closed his beak, letting the rain hiss down in silence as they passed.

"So..." he said eventually, eyes flicking through the dimly-lit foliage. "I presume the weather is a safe topic of conversation? How exactly does a storm of this size manage to come down from the mountains? In more northerly parts of the world, the rule seems to be that it rains when the clouds are going up, not coming back down. I'm foggy on the precise details, but was expecting something a little less..." He chanced a glance at the heavy, dark clouds, showing no signs of letting up on all horizons.

Sharpie shrugged stiffly in his grasp. "Maybe the storms are so big that this is what survives making it up. Maybe the mountains are cursed. Nobody's ever made it far enough to see where they come from and lived to talk about it."

Nobody... except one little filly. Gerardo bit his tongue, letting the conversation die the death it wanted and thinking about Starlight. In exchange for his delivery, the yaks had promised him a writ of passage to the Plains of Harmony... a delivery that was beyond the realm of possibility, or at least too shrouded in risk and mystery to even consider pursuing further. Suppose he succeeded in everything else, in recovering his sword and friends and making an escape unharmed to Riverfall. What then?

Starlight didn't seem inclined to go back, from absolutely everything he had gathered, and he had no intentions of forcing her, but were he to attempt retracing her steps, he would need a guide. How would that work? Would it work? Did it even matter?

It didn't, he decided. Nothing was more important than the immediate goals of staying safe and leaving Ironridge. There would be plenty of time later to find a course of action everyone found fair.

With Sharpie still dangling in his clutches, he soared off down the rainy road, keenly intent on making progress as fast as possible.

"Well, this certainly seems to be a bother."

Gerardo hovered before a crafted archway made of bamboo, carved imagery of acorns adorning both posts. Beyond, the road proceeded straightly, a continuous wall of wooden buildings lining either side, far lower and much further apart than the ones in Blueleaf. He stared down the main street, resisting the instinct to scratch his chin and thereby drop Sharpie in the mud.

"It's Grand Acorn," Sharpie grumbled back, struggling to get more comfortable. "The richest town in the Earth District. Can we find somewhere to wait out this rain? Please? Or at least put me down?"

Gerardo frowned. "Well, yes. But the issue here is that we haven't found my friends yet, and as they surely weren't past this city when the rain began, it means they must now be here..."

"Yes, yes, and we don't want to pass them." Struggling faintly against his hold, Sharpie huffed. "They aren't going to leave before it stops raining if they're here, so we should stop too!"

"...How long do rainstorms like these usually last?" Gerardo asked, hovering in place against the rain.

Sharpie looked at the ground. "Between several hours and two weeks."

"Ah. Well, then, I suppose waiting is out of the question." Gerardo darted forward against her protests, into the city. "Selma informed us we had thirty hours perhaps several hours ago, and I hardly imagine my friends have the means or the desire to stay in one place for that long, especially if this city is indeed affluent. Let us press on to Sosa, and await them there!"

"No!" Sharpie kicked. "We're stopping and you're going to put me down! I need some time to myself or I'm going to freak out! Please..."

"Very well, very well!" Gerardo carefully maintained his grip on the thrashing pegasus, soaring upward and adjusting his course slightly east. "We'll find an awning and camp the exit, then. At the very least, will that suffice?"

"Yesss..." Sharpie whined, eager to be free.

Pow!

Sharpie exploded from Gerardo's grasp the moment the town's eastern exit drew near, zipping under the eaves of what looked like a plumbing store with far more speed than she had exhibited while traveling earlier. Huffing, she sat, putting her back to the building and meticulously preening, straightening the crumples in her suit and furrows in her fur where the griffon's talons had grabbed her.

"...You are all right, of course?" Gerardo asked, gliding up beside her and landing a safe distance away. "I'm sure you were able to see the necessity of-"

"Leave it. Please." Sharpie didn't raise her head to look at him. "I know I have issues, okay? You're not the only one who has to deal with them." She heaved a fast, noisy sigh, and massaged her temple. "I need a vacation so badly... All I want is to do one thing that lets me feel like I actually helped this miserable, forsaken pit of a city and me and Brightcoil are out of here. One more thing... one more thing..." She started mumbling, shivered, and continued. Gerardo frowned sympathetically.

He didn't dare do anything, though. So, leaving the pegasus to her sulking, he took up an eastward vigil, watching the gate to the road to Sosa like a soggy sentinel and hoping against luck that his lost friends would walk by.

Sosa's Gates

When the rain let up, it was with a red tinge to the clouds in thin spots where the sunset shone over the mountains. The Earth District valley was already bathed in dusk, making the backlit stormclouds' illumination all that more apparent.

"...Hmm," Gerardo mused, sniffing at the petrichor that filled the air. "I'm no pegasus, but I would hazard a guess that this break will be long enough for travelers to dare press on?"

Sharpie had recovered as much as she was going to, and sniffed beside him, tasting the air on the back of her mouth. "Probably," she agreed with a nod. "Are we waiting or going to Sosa now? It's late, and your friends might be stopping for the night."

"If I'm not mistaken..." Gerardo clicked his beak, thinking. "Some time shortly after sunset would be when it is most optimal to find ourselves in Sosa. Seeing as we haven't seen them pass by yet, it is very possible they opted to press on ahead of us in the rain, and we never truly caught up. I'm inclined to suggest we press on ourselves, and if we did indeed pass them, so be it. There doesn't seem to be anything here outwardly suggesting this town is not safe, at least."

"This is Dangerous Karma's town," Sharpie added, flicking a wing. "I've investigated him before to look for connections, but as far as I've seen he's a legitimate businessstallion who is neutral to the Stone District and dislikes the Spirit. That means they're not welcome here, so it should be one of the safest places in the Earth District."

"Dangerous Karma?" Gerardo blinked, grinning despite himself. "Now that's quite the interesting name. Have I heard it before? It sounds... difficult to forget."

Sharpie shrugged. "Maybe," she replied, staring down the east-west boulevard at the dim signs of the sunset. "He owns most of the Earth District's means of production. Almost all of its money goes through him. He's strange, but showed me his ledgers himself. You can't deny that his methods work."

"And neither do I care to." Gerardo shook his head, still damp from the flight from Blueleaf. "Ponies who are not my enemies I would very much like to keep that way. Although..." His eyes narrowed, in the process of forming a plan. "I wonder, would attempting to get him as an ally prove beneficial? If his influence is as great as you say..."

"No." Sharpie instantly shut him down. "He isn't like Stone District ponies, or the yaks. Getting involved in every last thing that sounds interesting is like candy to them, but he knows how to keep his hooves clean and far away from string and ropes. If he thinks you're trouble, and he will, he won't help. And aren't we supposed to be going to Sosa to warn them of a bomb attached to their dam?"

"Yes, yes... quite..." Gerardo hung his head. "Alas, it was worth a shot. Set the pace, if you would?"

Sharpie soured slightly, but thankfully took up the lead, flapping her way over the muddy ground and out the eastern gate of the city.

The tree trunks got straighter as the sky darkened and the road progressed, the ground having leveled to flat long ago. There were no travelers walking against them; apparently any Sosan workers who dwelt in Grand Acorn had already returned home for the day. At least their hours weren't unreasonable, Gerardo thought... unless the truth was that the workers hadn't yet begun their return, or the even more morbid scenario that there simply weren't any workers to return in the first place.

He shook his head, clearing his mind of jungle shadows. Even the Earth District night was warm, though it was still considerably cooler than the roads earlier in the day. The road they traveled was closed in on both sides by a thin, metal fence, and straight enough that sticking near the ground was just as fast as winging through the sky.

To one side, across the fence, a set of wooden poles ran, wires strung between them likely as a long-distance energy relay. Communication, perhaps? Gerardo watched them rise and fall in arcs between the poles, his mind idly counting the number of bushes growing between each pair as a means of passing time.

To the other, a largely overgrown field stretched, covered in young saplings, hefty shrubs, and tall, wild grass. He got the impression that both sides of the road had been cleared, once, and left to go wild many years ago. How far back had these been abandoned? Ten years? Or perhaps more, following the airship crash he had read about with Starlight and Maple in the museum?

"I hope," he murmured, breaking the long silence, "that there are no planned deliveries the Sosans are making tonight which the Spirit intend to rob. It would be rather unpleasant to be held up by two of those in two days."

Sharpie said nothing back. Gerardo didn't know what he wanted her to say; on a practical level his words had been true, yet part of him was eager to confirm whether Braen still possessed his sword. But in the distance above, clouds continued to push each other on, and as he pushed on himself the road continued uneventfully without signs of delivery or attack.

Eventually, they came to a fork in the road, a branch that looked even better-used than the way to Grand Acorn splitting off to the right. Gerardo turned his head to look down it, careful not to pass Sharpie while he was distracted.

At some point, he realized, the roads had become paved, because the southern path was made of concrete, shiny with water and split frequently so it could drain. He blinked, looking up. "Are we-?"

Ahead, the road broadened, proceeding through a massive metal arch higher than the domes in the Sky District before splitting into a plaza, empty and wide and covered in miscellaneous guiding lines and markings. Forming its back was a wall of corrugated aluminum, crisscrossed with dirty glass windows and forming the side of a warehouse at least five stories tall, its base lined with large retracting doors atop a dock high enough above the ground to easily load or unload materials from docked carts. Several of those carts sat at their docks, free of ponies to pull them, wooden and high-fronted and identical in design to the one Gerardo had rode to the Stone District on the previous morning.

He swallowed, craning his neck. "I take it we have arrived at Sosa, then?"

Sharpie nodded, not at all impressed. "Yeah, this is Sosa. Now, where are we going from here?"

Reckless Approach

Gerardo landed on the concrete of the Sosan loading plaza, paws and talons splashing slightly in water that hadn't fully drained. His neck wanted to look up, at the distant edge where the giant warehouse's roof finally stopped climbing, but he knew the route forward would be lower down and forced himself to scan the ground instead. Several abandoned carts, left docked until morning... cargo doors to the warehouse, all closed for the evening... there!

He perked up and strolled forward, aiming for a smaller, ground-level door at the far edge of the wall. Sharpie flapped alongside him, pink eyes off in a world of blankets, coffee and corners that didn't have conspiracies lurking beyond.

"Well, this seems as good a place as any to begin..." Gerardo reached for the door handle, designed with unicorn telekinesis in mind but just as easily serviceable with griffon talons. It clicked, began to swing open... and immediately halted with a rattle of chains from beyond. He frowned.

"Locked?" Unhappily, Gerardo wedged his eye into the door crack, peering through in a manner only a bird could, and spied several thick chains and shackles stretching between the wall and the door. Disappointedly, he plucked at one with a talon, and it gave a metallic rattle.

"This is a shame," he pouted, withdrawing. "It is at times like this I sincerely miss having my sword. It would be able to slice through this obstruction nigh instantaneously!"

Sharpie gave him a look, and he blinked. "What?"

"Ugh..." she huffed, flapping to keep her hooves dry. "We want Sosa to take us seriously about an incredibly important manner when you're already a nobody and I'm someone who has spent the last few years unsuccessfully accusing them of laundering money to Yakyakistan, and you think it will help our case to cut a lock and break in to their factory?"

Gerardo blinked again. "Oh, yes, I suppose that would be easy to take the wrong way... My apologies. Shall we search for a less-illegal way in? I believe I see one of those windows above to be broken..."

Thunk. Sharpie's hoof met her forehead, and she groaned.

"Look," Gerardo said impatiently, beginning to grow flustered. "It is imperative that we meet with someone, and it is preferable that that someone be Shinespark. In order to do that, logic dictates that we find someone to take us there, does it not? So our primary concern should be running into more ponies, and that involves getting inside!"

"Shinespark mostly stays in the Alpha Factory," Sharpie pointed out. "On the northern bank of the river. So why are you trying to get in here?"

"...I knew that." Gerardo turned away, muttering. "I knew that, I knew that... Very well! In that case, let us take wing once again!"

Once again, Gerardo and Sharpie winged their way north, across desolate Sosan courtyards and empty or abandoned construction, this time in search of the Yule. Above, the clouds were thinning, allowing the air to actually brighten for the last few hours of daylight before the sun set for real. It had still passed below the mountains, however, so even as the sky grew lighter, no shadows were cast and gloom seeped through every bush, fence, empty shed and dormant kiln they passed. Before long, the southern bank unfolded into sight, fringed by tall grasses and rusted machines leading up to a well-reinforced shore, erosion held at bay by carefully-stacked boulders.

They soared out over the water, broad enough to be considered a lake and edged on both sides by open-back warehouses, docks with roofs and heavy maintenance equipment that could be entered without leaving the river. Some were lit, revealing interiors laced with support girders and beams, and all were empty, their docks waiting for seafarers that would never come.

"Odd, isn't it?" Gerardo muttered. "You'd think that if they have no cause to set sail, the boats would still be here, as they have nowhere else to be. Was it a sensitive subject, perhaps, and they wanted them out of sight?"

"There's a shipyard to the west," Sharpie answered, flapping hard to keep up with him, the night air chilling further as they began to leave the protective mountain bowl of the Earth District. "Once the skyport opened and everyone who was going to leave left, they took all the remaining ships and moored them there, then redirected the river to drain that area so the ships wouldn't take water damage from years of disuse, in case they were ever needed again. It was Shinespark's idea, I think."

Gerardo slowed down, letting her pass him, and she continued. "I've never been there and don't know a lot about it."

That was apparently all she had to say, because the only sound that met his ears was the whistling of the passing air. He checked, and she was still ahead... and hadn't seemed to have seen anything unusual. Silently, he added the shipyard to his list of potential conversation starters, figuring it likely had a few more interesting stories tucked inside.

Focusing his attention, he homed in on a cavernous brick building with its roof slanted toward the water, covered by rows of yellow-lit window crosspanes so grimy that they were completely opaque. A single exception shone jaggedly, the far wall visible in clearer detail beyond.

"...What are you doing?" Sharpie asked as he zoomed toward it. "Didn't we just establish that-"

"That where there is light, there are ponies?" Gerardo called back. "Our primary objective is to find someone who will take us to Shinespark!"

"At least..." Sharpie huffed. "Try to..." She flapped frantically, attempting to get in front of and block the griffon. "Enter the right way, please? From the ground?"

Just as she said that, the lights switched off, one by one, until the building was black and dim.

Gerardo nodded. "I do believe we stand a great danger of missing whoever just turned off those lights by taking anything but the most direct approach. Speed is of essence, and after all, I presently have nothing to lose!"

Folding his wings and tucking into a dive, he streamlined his body and shot forward, cleanly passing through the dark, windowless hole and into the building's cavernous interior. Sharpie shook her head, groaning. "You're such an idiot..." she mumbled to herself, flicking her fuzzy gray ears against the cold. "I think I see what kind of recklessness got your friends captured..."

Gerardo unfolded his wings, braking sharply before he could collide with the warehouse's far wall. Silently, he hovered, gray light from outside illuminating the silhouettes of giant chunks of machinery covering the floor. Idle pistons, concrete motor blocks, hoses thicker than he was and turnwheel valves rested atop a darker technological mass, with walking isles barely visible below. He momentarily hesitated; aside from necessity, the primary reason he was being so brazen was the guarantee that he wouldn't run across any fliers who could chase him should trouble appear, and in quarters like those taking off would be a distinct risk itself.

Frowning, he looked back at the window, and saw Sharpie hadn't followed. It was almost enough to convince him to go back... until his peripheral vision was lit by a spotlight, cast by a unicorn horn. That was it.

Leaving and searching for a more polite manner of entry was certainly on the table, but ultimately there was no polite way of saying one's district was at risk from bomb-induced floodwaters. So, he dropped to the floor, placing himself squarely in the unicorn's path, and prepared to introduce himself to Sosa.

Evening Guards

"Hey! Who goes there?"

The flashlight unicorn's voice was jumpy, as if Gerardo had scared him slightly more than intended, his beam of light searching for the source of the sound of the griffon landing.

"Egil, if this is a prank..." The unicorn sighed, rapidly calming. "All right, har har. Now if-"

"Ahem." Gerardo stepped squarely forward, intent on introducing himself. "I am Gerardo Guillaume, griffon adventurer extraordinaire. Pardon the intrusion into your very nice warehouse, but I very much need to talk to someone important. Can you, perchance, take me to Shinespark?"

"What the..." The unicorn blinked, horn flickering, jaw slack against his gray uniform.

Gerardo nodded. "Once again, I apologize for this somewhat awkward and hasty meeting. If at all possible, might I see someone important?"

The unicorn took a step back. Then, he called over his shoulder: "Egil, get your fat rear over here! There's a giant griffon standing right in front of me!"

"Seriously?" a distant voice called back, accompanied by the clatter of hooves. "No way! Be right there!"

"A... giant griffon..." Gerardo shook his head. "I can't tell whether to take that as an insult or a compliment, but please!"

With a burst of teleportation, a very round stallion appeared by the first's side, sporting a beard and a uniform that might have been custom-tailored. "Whooo," he breathed, whistling. "Well, I'll be. It's a griffon." He nodded in appreciation. "And it's a big one."

Gerardo's words caught in his throat, torn between what he wanted to say and what needed to be said. "Actually, as far as griffons go my size is quite average," he hastily interjected. "But that is beside the point. Once more, I very much apologize for barging into your domain, but it is imperative that I talk with someone and..." He frowned. "Are the two of you even listening to a word I'm saying?"

"Think he's with the Spirit?" said the first stallion to his partner, who was apparently named Egil.

Egil shook his big head. "What would give you that idea? You know of any griffons in the Spirit? Besides, what if he is? The Spirit think they're on our side." He eyed Gerardo beadily. "It's not like stuff to actually happen on night shifts, though, let alone when it's still evening. What even is his story, you think?"

"Hello?" Gerardo suspiciously waved. "I am right here!"

"Well, then..." The first stallion looked at his friend, then Gerardo as if for the first time. "A couple questions, if you please. Friend or foe, how'd you get in here, and if those answers aren't nefarious, how interested are you in being really popular?"

"I..." Gerardo cleared his throat. "Friend, I assure you. I flew in through that window there, which was already broken when I arrived, and while I'll never say no to friends and allies my number one goal is to speak with someone important, namely Shinespark. Is that at all possible?"

The stallions sized him up, and eventually the first extended a hoof. "Name's Bardal," he informed with a nod. "You don't seem like a saboteur, though I can't really say what you do seem to be. What's this you want to meet with the chief's daughter on?"

Egil rolled his eyes. "Buddy, it's not gonna make her like you any more whether you say her name, don't say her name, use a ton of honorifics or what, so just say Shinespark like the rest of us! Seriously..."

"...Important matters," Gerardo managed. "I've come from the Water District with information relating to this district's security, as the recently-appointed facilities inspector for the Defense Force who has presently felt the need to change sides, as it were." His eyes narrowed. "In short, I have things to say your superiors would very much benefit from knowing."

"So you're big and important. What do you know?" Egil laughed like a drum. "Should we take him to the Oasis?"

"Hmm... I sure want to..." Bardal hummed. "We did just start our shift, though, and nopony'll want to cover for us if we turn in with an excuse like this."

Gerardo tipped his head. "Pardon?" he queried, looking between their hairy faces. "The Oasis? That sounds less like the name of a leader's office and more a bar of some sort."

"...You could say that," Bardal said with a shrug.

"You couldn't, if we didn't have Shinespark," Egil added. "I'm getting a feeling you don't really know her so well, do you?"

"That..." Gerardo grimaced. "Technically didn't answer my question..."

"Question?" Egil's thick, conjoined eyebrows rose. "You made a statement, bud. And what I say is that evening shift can be done by Mobius, if it's so important." He turned to leave, waving for Bardal to follow. "You two coming, or what?"

Suddenly, there was a disturbance in the air behind Gerardo, and Sharpie softly landed. "That was reckless," she whispered, stiff-faced. "You're lucky they didn't impale you."

Egil turned back around, and his expression rose. "Well, I'll be. It's a mare." He whistled in appreciation. "And it's a hot one!"

Gerardo and Sharpie groaned, each for different reasons. Wisely, Gerardo stepped back, just in case things got violent... but his precaution was fortunately unnecessary.

"I'm not eligible," Sharpie grunted, "so don't waste your time. He's telling the truth." She pointed a wing at Gerardo, who stared back in uncertainty. "We know something important to the Sosan leaders that we can't tell just anyone. So if either of you two could take us to someone's office, rather than this Oasis place... it would be appreciated."

"...The Oasis kind of is the chief's... Shinespark's office, though," Bardal offered awkwardly.

"Oh." Gerardo blinked. "Well, I suppose that is a sensible destination after all, then! If you wouldn't mind leading the way..."

Egil nodded, jowls swaying, and began a long march outward and to the side of the room. "The only way I'd mind it less is if you made me go back on duty once we get inside! It's been far, far too long since we've had anything new to talk about down there..."

"Hold on. Are you okay with this?" Sharpie halted Gerardo with an outstretched wing before he could follow. "This doesn't feel too easy? Like you're in danger? My job was to know when things don't smell right, and right now, you just broke into a warehouse, ran into two guards, and now they want to take you to a hidden, underground location with a code name that could either be Shinespark's office or a bar. Are you okay with this?"

"Well, when you put it that way..." Gerardo muttered, looking closely at the guards once again.

"Lady, please." Egil waved a hoof. "Have you even heard of Sosa? There's so much nothingness and depression here the last thing anyone wants is to make others feel bad. The Oasis is about having a good time even when the world's buried your dreams under the number of dumps it's taken." He sized her up, eyes wandering over the stress lines all across her face. "Something you kind of look like you need."

Sharpie's pink eyes gazed back. "How do I know your definition of a good time isn't the complete opposite of mine?"

Bardal frowned. "We're trying to be friendly, here! This is the best Sosa has to offer, and frankly, you're right about yourselves. You did just trespass on a technically-closed part of the factory without any clearance whatsoever." He huffed, and looked away. "Earth District hospitality, and all that? You know? Do other ponies just not even want us hoping for the best?"

"If I may..." Gerardo raised a talon, interjecting. "Shinespark did tell me more or less any pony I ran across here would happily take me her way. And if we can't trust ponies who seem friendly and willing, how precisely are we to find her?"

"This guy gets it," Egil belched, pointing a hoof.

"...Fine," Sharpie sighed, relenting. "I..." She gritted her teeth. "Apologize for being less trusting than a complete and utter optimist, and don't expect me to stay any longer than I have to."

Bardal whistled. "With an attitude like that, once you see it, you might find yourself changing your mind in a pretty quick hurry..."

Steel District

As Gerardo, Sharpie and the two guards pressed further into the factory complex, it slowly came alive with automation that hadn't yet shut down for the night. They crossed outdoor bridges over fields laden with moving machinery, under conveyor belts halted with chunks of ore still sitting atop, on catwalks through chambers containing pistons that turned gears the size of houses, and past iron pipes that had boiled their paint away and glowed green at the seams. Chains moved up and down in the distance, raising and lowering lifts and buckets and empty hooks that sometimes grew close enough to touch.

And yet, for every device they passed that showed signs of operation, there were just as many metal walls bearing empty bolt holes around slightly less-weathered rectangles, places where equipment had been used and removed countless days before. Spider webs existed in corners just out of the way, high-up windows were missing panes, chunks of rusted pipe connected to nothing sat in space from the past that had yet to be reclaimed.

"This is... a startling amount of activity," Gerardo observed, watching the indeterminate machines doing their jobs. "I was under the impression that Sosa found itself without much to do, as of late. What all is this being used for?"

Bardal shrugged. "Can't say that you're wrong. We do have nothing to do these days. As for this stuff, most of it is for materials processing... you know, turning the stuff from the Flame District into other stuff we can export, or making things for those weapons the yaks keep getting us paid for. A good amount of energy production, too. And then some of it is just on because it still works and ponies feel better when it feels like stuff is happening. How much of it does that, heh..." He wiped his brow. "Please don't make me think about that."

Gerardo eyed a noisy centrifuge closer, squinting. "You operate machines purely for the sake of operating them, without a single goal but to make the area look... industrious?"

"Sure do!" Egil answered from in front. "The good old days were beyond my time by a bit and a half, but all this did do something, once! Some of it used to reinforce metal for ship hulls, back when we did that. In fact, there's probably still things around from the days of Project Aslan. These machines are even older than Shinespark!"

"Project Aslan..." Gerardo mused, recalling. "Ah, yes. That was your ill-fated endeavor to build an airship, yes?"

Sharpie rolled her eyes. "Way to be sensitive about it..."

Egil ignored her. "That, my friend, depends on your definition of 'ill-fated'. The politics around it at the time were pretty revolting. As for me? I'm just glad I wasn't part of it!" He gave a full-chested laugh, then scratched his chins. "Shinespark thinks it was a great idea in hindsight, though she wasn't even born yet when it happened. Still, she's the one who keeps most of these machines in shape when they go and break down. Just some of the little old things she does to clean up around here, you know? Up in the Stone District, it would be like hiring a public artist to draw murals or something!"

"Interesting..." Gerardo paced onward. "I take it these don't require a lot of oversight, then? There seems to be a lack of ponies tending to them..."

"Aside from turning them on and off, I'm not even sure what an overseer would do," Bardal replied. "Like, see this one here?" He tapped on a big, whirring drum that lay on its side, pipes disappearing into the floor on either end. "I see a control panel with a few indicators, fifteen-something years old going by the standards it meets, and all of one unmarked lever. That's called automatic. It just does its own thing."

"And that thing it does may very well be nothing," Gerardo finished, shooting a look at Sharpie. If the pegasus was bothered by the blatant wastefulness and inefficiency, she didn't show it... or perhaps made a point of not showing it.

Idly, he filed away the information that a large number of production-oriented machines were doing something, seemingly nothing, primarily at the behest of one pony, yet no one could be bothered to find out what that something actually was, and continued down the automated hall.

As gradually as the factory had awakened around them as they entered, its din soon began to quiet, Gerardo and company drawing into dimmer, darker reaches that were farther away from the heart of the complex. He had lost much of his sense of direction aside from a vague idea that they might be going east, though if someone had told him it was west he would have nodded his head and told them they made perfect sense. Above, strips of mana lighting glowed with luminescent energy, opting to use exposed power conduits framed in glass as opposed to conventional crystals.

"We're, uhh..." Bardal blinked at an intersection, then turned left, the metal walls bluey-black around him. "Almost there. This is more the administrative area. Lotta offices and paper pushers around here."

One wall of the corridor was replaced by glass, offering a proud vista of an empty courtyard bathed in what light from the setting sun managed to seep over the mountains. Below, grass and weeds grew in cracks between broken concrete flooring slabs, a forklift sat parked, and in the distance a weathered metal statue of a stallion looked proudly out over a dusky road into the forest.

A right turn and a long, steep staircase later, and they were back to the ground floor, inside a mostly-empty warehouse that faced the open courtyard. Instead of heading to the open the doors that lead outside, Egil wandered to a far corner of the room... and his telekinesis flicked open a lone, nondescript door that could very well have been a storage closet.

Gerardo blinked. "That seems like a somewhat out-of-the-way place to put an important pony's office..."

"Heh. Bear with him," Bardal chuckled. "That's probably what Mobius thought when he first gave her the space. Just wait until you see what she's done with it!"

The door lead immediately to another staircase, descending in a series of switchbacks below the earth. Its steel frame hung in a smooth-walled, rectangular shaft, as if it had originally been an elevator and had the stairs installed retroactively, much later. They were certainly newer, Gerardo reflected, running a wing feather along the shiny metal.

Eventually, the stairs bottomed out, at least three stories below the ground in an octagonal chamber lit by a single conduit, round and dark and completely empty save for a few scattered boxes and a single door set into the edge. It swung open of its own accord, moving seamlessly on well-oiled hinges.

Sharpie attempted to follow both close to Gerardo and at a distance, but was forced along when Bardal insisted on bringing up the rear. Past the door was another chamber just like the first... and when the door forward from that one began to move, bright daylight spilled through.

The Oasis

Gerardo blinked heavily in the sudden influx of daylight. Wasn't it evening, with heavy cloud cover, and weren't they three stories beneath the ground?

The door swung wider, and he pressed through it, intensely curious. Staring upward as he walked, he took in broad, rectangular metal walls that stretched upward before fading into a haze of blueness, exactly the same shade as the summer sky. Shadows of pipes and ventilation ducts were faintly visible through the fog, like an illusion that didn't want to be dispelled, and a chartreuse point-source hung in the middle, mimicking the sun.

He felt something press against his chest and stopped, neck still craned to the sky. "Is that... an enchanted ceiling?" he murmured, trying to make out the true extent of the heights.

"Sure is," Egil gloated from the side. "Something tells me you don't really need me to tell you who done it. But if you like that, maybe you'll want to have a look around at the rest of the place?"

With some effort, Gerardo managed to look down. The object he had bumped against was a guard rail, belonging to a catwalk which ran halfway around the edge of the room, about a meter off the floor. Said floor was clean and tidy, sporting a selection of well-populated round tables with a staffed counter at one end and a raised speaking platform at the other. The sounds of stallion laughter filled the air, though it was beginning to die down as more and more ponies noticed the newcomers' presence.

Gerardo snapped his talons. "I knew this sounded like a bar."

"We didn't say it wasn't!" Bardal shrugged with a grin. "It's just also Shinespark's office. Granted, it's also one of the cleanest, safest, most professional bars in Ironridge, so once you've finished whatever your business is, stay as long as you like!"

"That's... very nice," Gerardo answered. "I can't say I'm the world's biggest drinker, but I have been known to indulge in a celebratory glass every now and then. However, now is most definitely not the time for that. Might I see Shinespark immediately?"

He stopped and blinked, brain catching up with his words. "Also, do you mean to say that Shinespark, renowned across much of Ironridge for whatever the reason, is... headquartered in an underground bar? What could possibly possess a pony to choose a base of operations so odd?"

"One question at a time, bud!" Egil interrupted. "Sloooow. She's around here... More specifically, this is around her because she likes being accessible and near us all the time! What better thing to do with your place than make it welcoming?"

Gerardo nodded. "Fair enough, but when might I-?"

He was interrupted in turn as the room's crowd finally got around to speaking for themselves... with varying degrees of eloquence. "Dude!" A younger stallion pointed a hoof. "You're a griffon!"

"Yes. I am, in fact, a griffon." Gerardo blinked back. "Now-"

The crowd instantly cut him off, multiple ponies getting up and walking to the balcony, eyes shining with interest. "Are you-?" one began, only to be silenced by three others.

"Who-?" another cut in, before being interrupted himself.

"I cannot hear you all over this din!" Gerardo bellowed, failing to halt the crowd's noise. Sharpie covered her ears with her wings and Egil belched thunderously, and neither had much of an effect.

Then, from the middle of the room, someone cleared their throat... and everyone fell silent.

"It's not very hospitable to bombard your guests like so," came a feminine voice from a lone, hooded pony with her own cup, own table and own circle of space that none of the others seemed to violate. "If you attack anyone who walks through your door, whether with attention or spears, it won't make them want to come back."

The rest of the room didn't make a sound. Making the most of the silence, the hooded pony looked up at Gerardo with deep, orange eyes, and said, "Please forgive them for acting like children. They do mean the best, I assure you."

"Err..." Gerardo clicked his beak. "No offense taken. However, might I speak to Shinespark as soon as possible? I came here because I have something of very great import to discuss."

"We have something important to discuss," Sharpie corrected, some of the ponies below seemingly noticing her for the first time.

"She isn't here right now," the cloaked mare responded, not taking her eyes off Gerardo. "I can call her back, if it matters, and anything suitable for her ears is also fit for mine."

Judging from the other ponies' reaction to her, Gerardo presumed she wasn't lying about her importance. "That would be greatly appreciated," he said, bowing from on top of the catwalk. "Is it possible we might go somewhere more private to talk, however? This is... not suitable for most ponies."

Wordlessly, the mare rose, her figure tall beneath her robe, and seemingly glided across the ground to a door in the far wall. When she noticed Gerardo wasn't following, she turned over her shoulder and called, "This way."

"O-Of course!" Quickly, Gerardo stepped down a small staircase to the floor, Sharpie close behind him. As he waded through the sea of tables, the eyes of the ponies around him bored in eagerly, wanting very badly for him to stay or talk or do anything but leave. Bardal and Egil followed hesitantly, but soon fell behind, seeming to detect that if they were meant to be a part of the following conversation, someone would have said something first. Then, the door closed behind him, and save for Sharpie and the hooded mare, he was alone.

They were in a tunnel, tubular in shape, with wooden wall paneling and soft, natural-colored lights placed in knots all around them. The floor was a series of rugs, and looked like it would have been carpet were that not annoyingly difficult to clean. It wound its way around and upward out of sight, and a gentle ventilated breeze moved by, keeping the air from growing stale.

The mare shrugged her hood off, gray with purple stripes, and revealed an elegant square muzzle in front of a snow-white coat and long orange mane. She sized them up for a moment in the privacy of the tunnel, before nodding. "Let us get to my daughter's office to talk. It's much more comfortable than standing around here."

"Your daughter?" Sharpie stiffened, as if remembering she was supposed to bow. "Then you're Matryona?"

That earned a smile in return, though it was tarnished with a wistfulness that seemed embodied in her cloak. "I'm not nearly as famous as Shinespark, but it is good to know ponies remember me, sometimes. Depending on what I'm remembered for..." She turned away with a swish of fabric. "Come."

Matryona, Shinespark

The journey through the dim, homely corridors behind the Oasis was a short one, around twists and over hills and past several intersections on ground that was always going up or down, and never flat. It felt like walking through hollowed roots of a tree the size of a mountain, organically constructed rather than the rivet-studded, right-angle architecture of the rest of the Steel District with concrete and metal.

"This is Shinespark's office," Gerardo and Sharpie's leader, Matryona, finally said, pushing inward a round wooden door with a green coat of paint and a three-triangle emblem. Behind, a small room with a low ceiling sat, decked in just as much Earth District livery as the previous passages, much of the floorspace occupied by a tidy desk and several chairs. A portrait of Arambai adorned one wall.

Gerardo nodded. "It appears quite cozy. Though..." He tapped the thin, swinging door with a talon, producing an audible knock. "How private would you say it is? This door seems rather thin."

"There is an insulated conference room through there, if you need." Matryona indicated a door in a back corner, styled to blend into the wall and appear invisible at first glance. She frowned in concern, and added, "Is this truly so important?"

"It is, yes..." Gerardo hesitated, then spoke more firmly. "Although, I have spent the greater part of today traversing nearly all of Ironridge, and am more than willing to say my piece here and now. Traveling gets... tiring, after a time, when one's goals are pressing."

"I'm well aware..." Matryona deposited her cloak on a chair, revealing a pair of wings fuller than most pegasi, and an orange streak that resembled a hilted sword on her snow-white chest. Gently holding a wing over her heart, she said, "Please, do not hesitate. Whatever you require Shinespark's help with, I may be able to assist until she returns."

"Well, then." Gerardo swallowed, looked to Sharpie, and wasted no more time. "I'll cut to the chase: the eastern dam of the Water District, overlooking much of Sosa, appears to be rigged with bombs. We both saw them ourselves, along with Commander Selma of the Defense Force, and mutually agreed that somepony or someone seems to intend to flood this district, or else wash it away entirely."

The color of Matryona's coat made it hard to tell if she paled, but it took nearly three seconds for her to respond. "...I should summon back my daughter," she eventually said, rising quickly and striding fluidly to the back door to the conference room. "I imagine there is more to this story?"

"Indeed, there is." Gerardo bowed, and moved to follow. "And I imagine you'll listen?"

The room beyond was long and wide, with a carved oak table large enough to seat eighteen ponies plus room to squeeze. Display cases lined the walls, most containing things technical or magical or even like ordinary rocks. A spear hung from two hooks behind the head of the table, its prong crystalline and a manacore encased in its hilt, and on a pedestal in a corner sat a half-suit of armor reminiscent of the one Shinespark had worn on the convoy when Gerardo had first entered Ironridge.

Matryona eased the door shut behind them, its back covered in triangular spikes of foam that could only have been a noise dampener. Sharpie gazed around beside him, awkwardly doing nothing as their tall host glided to another corner, where a black, metallic tower sat, glowing with tiny lights and indicators.

"...There," Matryona said after a minute, standing up and turning to face them. "She will be coming soon. Shinespark is very punctual. In the meantime, please, be seated."

"Much obliged." Gerardo picked out a cozy chair on rolling wheels, feeling slightly bad for the dampness still clinging to his uniform. "Now, then... I suppose the most important thing to mention first is that, according to Selma, the danger is present but not truly immediate. He claimed to have placed a spell blocking the triggering mechanism that would last through tomorrow night, and I fail to see the motive in lying about such a thing."

Matryona visibly relaxed. "That is good to know. What else?"

"In this case, I suppose it is best to start at the beginning," Gerardo said with a shrug. "For starters, as we have not yet been formally introduced, my name is Gerardo Guillaume, griffon adventurer extraordinaire, and this is my ally and traveling companion, Sharpie. I came to Ironridge about two days ago, seeking to deliver two mysterious crates of high value..."

Over the next indeterminate period of time, long enough for Sharpie to begin fidgeting in her seat but not yet to the point where Gerardo's voice became scratchy from overuse, the griffon narrated his trials and endeavors in Ironridge to Matryona. He tactfully omitted any information pertaining to Riverfall or Arambai, relived the encounter with the Spirit in full detail, expertly bemoaned the loss of his sword, and vaguely hinted that Shinespark had offered to get it back. He glided over the holdup at Valey's checkpoint, memory muddied by the sheer amount of fruit throwing and new names present, then pressed on to the Stone District, forgetting entirely their excursion to the Sky District and its museum. He loudly derided the Defense Force's robbery of his crates and kidnapping of his friends, heroically depicted his night-time traversal of the Sky District snow fields, casually slandered Dior for blowing him off, glossed over his meeting with Sharpie, and finally stopped to breathe.

Matryona's face remained impassive throughout it all, acting the perfect audience, though her expression clouded slightly when he reached the part about Dior. Sharpie, by contrast, looked downright uncomfortable, and more than a little annoyed for having come all that way and contributed a grand total of zero words to the cause. In fairness, neither she nor Gerardo had expected to get any sort of audience without a long, drawn-out slog of requesting, but there she was, and there she pouted.

Then, just as Gerardo was wrapping up his explanation of the first day, the door burst open and a unicorn skidded through, coat the same vivid shade of orange as Matryona's mane. "Whoo!" she panted, breathing heavily. "Nine minutes and... thirty-seven seconds from... Grand Acorn, plus finishing what I was already doing." She wiped her brow, brushing aside short, ruby-red bangs with a lone teal streak. "Hi, Mom. Please don't tell me we... we..." Swallowing stickily, she blinked at Gerardo with deep blue eyes, then looked to Matryona again. "Huh. I told you he was coming?"

The three already in the room blinked back, and Gerardo frowned. "That was an entire ten minutes? My sincerest apologies, I... was not expecting to spend nearly so long covering-"

He was interrupted by Sharpie banging her head against the table. "All that wasn't even ten minutes?" she groaned, wings dangling limply from her sides.

Matryona shook her head, paying attention to the actual question. "I don't think you did, no."

"Ugh." Shinespark stretched, a locket that served as her only piece of clothing bouncing on a chain around her neck. "Well... next time, if it's just guests who want to see me, could you... not use the highest-priority alarm, please? I thought we had a major security breach, or something." She bounced the locket in a hoof, adding, "Can't wait until dad gets... uhh..." Her eyes focused on Sharpie, suddenly acknowledging the pegasus. "You're the finance inspector for the embassy, right? What are you doing here?"

"The former inspector," Sharpie corrected. "I quit. And I don't know what I'm doing here, either." Pausing, she added, "You actually remember me?"

"Mhm." Shinespark corrected her bangs again before collapsing in a chair opposite from them. "Hey, mom?" She looked up. "I'm probably who they're here for, right? Could you go and get refreshments, please? I'm... ngah... really thirsty."

Matryona stood, but looked down at Shinespark with careful eyes. "They're here for more than just talk, but I'll do that."

"Right!" Shinespark lounged, showing off her un-marked, orange flank, then straightened up slightly as her mother disappeared and shut the door. "So, about that sword of yours..."

"As a matter of fact, as much as I'd appreciate having that back we did come here with something different to discuss," Gerardo sadly interrupted. "You see... we discovered bombs planted on the eastern dam of the Water District, and felt obliged to warn you."

Shinespark's cheer instantly vanished. "You what."

It wasn't a question.

"I'm sorry to say it appears that way," Gerardo continued. "Though before you make any rash decisions, please hear me out: the danger is not right-this-second imminent and in every scenario will require much thought and investigation. The bombs were discovered by myself, Sharpie here, and Commander Selma, and he placed a spell..."

For the second time that evening, Gerardo began the long, slow process of narrating what he knew, Shinespark listening intently.

Rambling Card

Matryona returned about the time Gerardo finished narrating to Shinespark the events of the first day, a tray of fruit balanced on her back. It was a good point to break, and conveniently where he had been interrupted the first time, meaning both Sosans were on the same page.

It also meant Sharpie was even more unhappy than usual, being forced to sit through the long, tangentially-relevant details of Gerardo's tale for the second time in one hour. She sat, slumped, and only marginally lifted her ears above folded when Matryona set her tray down, indicating with a wing that everyone could eat. Wordlessly, she took a melon slice and bit down, taking care to avoid dribbling juices.

Shinespark opened her mouth to say something... then stopped herself, before turning and tilting her head at Sharpie. "You know... as fun as this story is and as long as it's taking to get to the point... what's your part in it? You haven't said a word all night, and look even more miserable than the ponies I'm regularly saddled with cheering up."

"I don't know," Sharpie grumbled around a mouthful of melon. Swallowing, she added, "I was there when we saw the bombs. Neither of us knew how easy it would be to talk to someone important, and I wanted to pretend my job actually had any influence."

"Hold on a moment," Gerardo interrupted. "Was I not still telling my tale? This is rather urgent, as you are no doubt well-"

A blue aura gently clamped his beak shut, and Shinespark raised an eyebrow. "You said until tomorrow night, and if it was that important you'd get to the point faster. You've had your share of the conversation, now let me do what I need to do. I'll hear you out in a moment."

As Gerardo lifted a talon in futile protest, she turned back to Sharpie. "So, it sounds like you're not very happy with your job."

"You think?" Sharpie glared. "You said you know who I am. You should know what I've been accusing your district of. Is this seriously the best time to talk about why we shouldn't be on the same side?"

Shinespark sighed. "Yes, I do know. I'm sorry it worked out that way, and never intended anything personal."

"You never..." Sharpie faltered. "Are you saying this is your fault? To my face? Are you trying to taunt me?"

"Assigning fault isn't useful," Shinespark said with a shrug. "You're trying to track the money from the Defense Force weapon contract, right? Trying to keep things accountable, make them make sense?" She shook her head. "Ironridge doesn't work that way any more, for anyone. It's all about who can hide the most and outplay everyone else, now. The only thing to blame is everything at once, for having fallen so far... or else the past, since trying to do things the way they once worked isn't working. But yes, I do know where each and every gem of that money is going."

Sharpie sat back, looking dazed. "What?"

"Here's a different question." Shinespark straightened her back, then paused to drink deeply from a jug. "If you could have one wish and get it granted... anything at all... what would it be?"

"One wish?" Sharpie's eyes narrowed around her slice of fruit. "Why should I tell you that?"

Shinespark shrugged. "I'm good at granting wishes."

No response, save for the squelching of the melon slice against Sharpie's jaw.

"...I can guess," Shinespark offered after a while. "You want what you do to matter."

Sharpie's eyes widened slightly. She didn't need to ask how the unicorn knew.

"It's because that's what every pony wants," Shinespark answered, standing up and pushing her chair back. "When the world is so chaotic and you can't put logic to the things you see happening, when you're out of control and can't see the difference you make. I've seen it time and again across countless Sosans who can't understand why or how their world moved on from something that worked for them, and you're no different. You want Ironridge's money to make sense, because it used to... don't you?"

"...And?" Sharpie glared protectively, wary that Shinespark would probe open wounds.

"And I can give you a choice. One where the options are exactly what they look like, where if you say yes it will be your decision and not a product of chance, and will lead to your own impact on your life. Can I?"

Sharpie hesitated. "Go on..."

"Tonight," Shinespark said. "There's a way out of the city that leaves tonight... very soon, in fact. It goes somewhere where there are no sides working against one another, where there is no poverty, where the world is small enough that anything you do can make a difference for everyone. It's a haven, built for ponies who never wanted to play by Ironridge's new rules and would lose whether they played or not. There are a few rules to follow to keep it that way. You can decide if it's worth it."

Sharpie blinked. "I was already going to buy tickets on whatever airship goes as far away from here as possible first thing in the morning. I'm not broke."

"In that case..." Shinespark clenched and unclenched her muscles. "Thank you. For coming here to warn us about what you found, even though someone else was too, and even though you don't trust us or like us or think your word will amount to anything. It... means something."

"What does it mean?" Sharpie's ears were flat.

"It means you hadn't given up." Shinespark turned away, speaking into the corner where her armor sat on a pedestal. "Just because you try to make something better doesn't mean you're guaranteed to succeed. But when you stop trying, then you're guaranteed to fail, and when you stop even believing success is possible you won't know what to do with a better world even when it some day arrives. That's what I do. Some day, I'm going to fix all of Ironridge and make everything right... some day soon. But until then, my job is to keep the ponies' hope alive at all costs, so that when things do get better, it matters."

She turned back, sapphire eyes shining. "That's what it means. It means one more pony... you... were ready and waiting. So thank you."

The silence held for nearly a minute... and then Sharpie said, "That's your way of telling me thank you very much, I'm no longer needed, isn't it?"

Shinespark's smile faltered. "I meant every word of it," she corrected. "But if that's your way of asking if you can go..." She looked up at the ceiling, and sighed. "It's night out, isn't it? The Steel District isn't a residential district, but I've furnished this place with quite a few sleeping chambers, and tried to make them as nice as possible. Both of you are welcome to stay the night here, if you please. You can stay and talk as long as you want, or turn in whenever you like."

"I'm staying here until we're done talking," Sharpie said flatly. "I did not come all this way to go to bed and let someone else do everything on their own."

"Okay!" Shinespark relented, suddenly cheery. Flipping back into her chair, she made herself comfortable, and said, "Well, that's what I wanted to say. Gerardo, feel free to continue, and don't skip anything important or worry about the time." She nodded at a wall clock. "I take a lot of naps, so can be up until whenever."

Instantly, Sharpie shot a disgruntled hoof out. "Actually, I think I might just go to bed..."

With a straight face that might have been practiced, Shinespark nodded at Matryona. "Hey, mom? Could you...?"

"Of course." Matryona nodded in turn, getting up and proceeding to the door. "Please, come with me."

A minute later, the door creaked shut, both pegasi having vanished behind, leaving Gerardo and Shinespark alone in the conference room. The griffon drummed his talons. "If I'm correct in seeing what you did there, that was quite devious."

Shinespark shrugged in return. "Well, she wasn't wrong. I've had to hold my tongue about sensitive topics one too many times tonight and had to do something about her. Still, I meant what I said."

"Topics like Riverfall," Gerardo added.

"Like Riverfall..." Shinespark sighed. "Yes..." She opened her eyes. "Thanks for being so long-winded there, by the way. It turned out the threat of a rambling griffon was the perfect card for that situation. Though, now that it's just us... maybe you could skip to the important parts? I already know a lot more than you think."

"Thanks for being long-winded..." Gerardo muttered. "Well, I can't say that's a phrase I usually hear as a compliment, but I'm glad to finally take it as such! Now, where was I...?"

Sosa's Hero

"...And that is the long and short of it," Gerardo finally finished, folding his talons. "My friends, at present, I believe to be safe. I can't judge Selma's intentions beyond the obvious fact that there is a complex situation in the Defense Force I know all too little of. And there are what he claimed to be bombs attached to the eastern dam."

"Your friends are safe," Shinespark said, her short red mane bouncing as she nodded. "I can confirm that. Now, as for these bombs-"

"You can?" Gerardo cocked his head. "Pardon the interruption, but may I ask how?"

"Because they were in Grand Acorn as of when I left for here." Shinespark folded her hooves, mirroring Gerardo's pose, and grinned slightly. "Something you summoned me away from, by the way. And don't worry about them; they're fine. They're being watched over by somepony I greatly dislike, but do trust, and nothing bad is going to happen to them overnight."

"That is... a significant relief," Gerardo admitted, wiping his brow. "At this point, all I want is to see them safe and sound and reunited here so that we might catch a ship back to Riverfall. Though... heh..." He laughed weakly. "I suppose that ship has sailed for tonight? Literally, as it were?"

Shinespark nodded. "It will have by the time you could get to its downstream dock. But don't be too hasty to plan on leaving. At least wait and talk it out with your friends."

Gerardo raised an eyebrow. "Are you implying you know something I don't?"

Wordlessly, Shinespark got up and paced to a long display case at the side of the room. Her horn shone briefly, and a darkened compartment at the bottom swung open. Enveloped in her aura, a long, dark sword floated out, a distinctive triangular hole in its hilt.

"You managed to recover my weapon?" Gerardo perked up.

"I did," Shinespark responded, laying it gently on the middle of the table. "I told you it was possible. What I haven't decided is what I want in exchange for giving it back. It's... a very interesting sword, after all, and if you don't want it, I wouldn't mind keeping it myself."

Gerardo's headcrest drooped. "Somehow, that sounds like more and yet more trouble..."

"It could be." Nodding, Shinespark walked back to her chair and seated herself formally, not lounging or slouching. "Or, it could be nothing at all. Look at it this way." She slid one hoof across the table, as if pushing pawns on a strategy map. "You want to get back to Riverfall. I know how to find that boat, and odds are you're going to have a pretty lousy time getting on yourself without my help. The next boat isn't until tomorrow night... so stick around for a day. You need my help, I might be able to use yours, you've got nothing better to do and I could use the time to think of something. Deal?"

"I... suppose that sounds workable," Gerardo admitted, not reaching to shake Shinespark's proffered hoof, eyes fixed on his sword. "Surely you don't need me to repeat why I am on edge, of course."

"No, I get it. I really do." Shinespark leaned back, putting her forehooves behind her head. "Ironridge doesn't work like anything you've ever seen, and no matter how much you try to plan or think you know, you're at the mercy of the few ponies who really understand what's going on, myself included. And even if one of us offers to 'tell you everything,' we're almost definitely lying. Being powerless feels nasty, doesn't it? It just hasn't had as long to break you as it has that finance inspector."

Gerardo blinked. He had omitted his entire conversation in the distant jail cell Selma had teleported him to from the tale he told, and was wondering more and more exactly how much of it had been calculated. "That is... certainly an accurate summation..."

"You know..." Shinespark began, staring off into space. "I once felt that way too, actually. It was around eight years ago, when they were building the skyport but not yet done, when Sosa was getting scared but hadn't quite lost its grip on power. A friend and I walked, on hoof, all the way up the mountain, snuck past the one guard we found, strolled into the construction's mobile command center, and demanded to know what was going on in the way only a naive, innocent pair of kids could. They didn't throw us out. They didn't yell at us, or tell us off... and they didn't give us an explanation, either. They just completely, utterly ignored us. I was pretty mad, to say the least."

She smiled fondly, as if the memory didn't bug her all that much. "The point is, that's when I started getting serious about figuring out how the new Ironridge would work. There were a lot of things I wanted, but being able to thrive there and guide my ponies in turn was one of them. I figured it out eventually, and... now look at me."

"And how does it work?" Gerardo probed, leaning in.

"Really?" Shinespark shrugged. "It's simple. Things work out in the favor of whoever has the most information. If you want to weaken a side, find out what they're hiding and threaten to exploit it. If you want to get stronger, find something yourself to hide... something useful. And then never tell anyone anything where you'd lose more from them knowing it than you would gain by knowing they know it."

Gerardo's eyes focused keenly. "I suppose that applies to this conversation as well, then? Namely, that last statement? That in telling me something like that, you've somehow come out ahead merely by the knowledge that I know it?"

Shinespark smirked. "You learn fast! And that's right. Here's an instance of how it could play out: you know the rules. Anyone who doesn't know you know them... say, the Defense Force... might try to cheat, or do something riskier than if they knew you were a level opponent..."

"I can see where this is going," Gerardo finished with a nod. Then, ruefully, he added, "...To a titanic migraine. Parsing all of this I-know-you-know-I-know business sounds like it could easily become unreasonably infeasible."

"Then let's talk about something you know about, instead." Taking another drink, Shinespark went back to lounging in her chair, exhaling heavily. "Something far away from Ironridge and its troubles. Let's talk about Riverfall. How's my dad doing?"

"Pardon?" Gerardo blinked.

"My dad? Arambai?" Shinespark shrugged. "I mean, technically, he isn't my biological father, or the one who gave me an old maintenance tunnel under his factory to turn into a base, or even the stallion I see and interact with on a daily basis, but he still raised me, and he and mom were... close. He writes me all the time, mostly to talk about science and his research, but he can't leave Riverfall and I can't leave Ironridge, so I haven't actually seen him in years, and..." She sighed bitterly. "Aside from Gunga, nopony ever leaves Riverfall, so you're the first I've talked to who's recently seen him in just as many years. Your friends don't count, since we never got around to it. So how is he?"

"He is..." Gerardo hesitated, brain clicking into place. "Charismatic. Imposing. Well-loved, slightly eccentric, and doing what he feels best for the ponies of Riverfall... his ponies, he says. He loves mystery and is dishonest by omission, but never did anything to make me suspect he wasn't trustworthy or fully on the side of good. I would not at all mind someday meeting him again..." He gulped. "Provided it isn't at the end of his sword, which he threatened to do should I allow my friends Maple and Starlight to come to harm."

"Heh... That sounds like him, all right." Shinespark smiled serenely, eyes closed. "Some ponies never change. Some day, I wish I could see the town he's devoted so much of his new life to. I guess that'll be my reward for when I finally save Ironridge and make everything right again." She glanced aside at Gerardo. "And don't worry about getting hunted down. He wouldn't return to Ironridge unless the stakes were a lot bigger than... well, unless they were big. Besides, he's got others looking out for them, too. Like me, for instance."

"Is that so?" Gerardo drummed his talons on the table, curious. "When we met you that first time, at night on the convoy..."

Shinespark raised a hoof, halting him. "If you're going to ask why I didn't tell you to come stay here where it was safe and not get in trouble in the Stone District, it's because the safest you can be in Ironridge is by not drawing attention to yourselves. I wanted to leave you hidden, to let them enjoy Ironridge... because really, the districts are just as pretty as they once were. As long as you can stay far above the politics and fighting and spider webs, you're fine. And once you got caught..." She hung her head. "Well, it isn't like Sosans can just march into the Defense Force headquarters and do something about it. Your friends came back on my map in Grand Acorn, and that's why I was there."

Gerardo opened and shut his beak several times, before chancing, "With all due respect, Braen marched into the Defense Force headquarters and reportedly caused quite a scene. With my very blade, nonetheless. I witnessed the aftermath myself. It... took some doing to reassure the afflicted that the sword's magic does, in fact, wear off."

"It wears off completely, then?" Shinespark tilted her head. "That's good to know. It's starting to do so on the Spirit ponies from two nights ago, but I wasn't sure if..."

"Hold on," Gerardo objected, lifting a talon. "You are in regular contact with the members of an organization that regularly rob and pillage the products of your workplace?"

Shinespark shot him a deadpan stare, and her hoof pointed to the sword on the table. "How do you think I got this?"

"Ah... Right, I suppose..." Gerardo wilted, talon curling back in on itself.

"There is more to it than that, though," Shinespark continued. "The Spirit ponies have lives beyond what they do at night. All of them are Sosans, plus some Earth Districters who got caught up in the cause. And when you have a higher-than-usual number of ponies all calling in sick to work at the exact same time and none of them will describe what's wrong, you investigate."

Gerardo squinted. "So you're fully aware that not only are your own employees working against you, but you know exactly which ones... yet won't lift a hoof to stop it?"

Shinespark hesitated, holding a breath that eventually came out long and hard. "There are a few things you need to understand, first about what the Spirit of Sosa is to the Steel District... and second, about what all the ponies of Ironridge, including the Spirit and its every last member, are to me."

She stared Gerardo deeply in the eye, sapphire gaze boreing into his. "What the Spirit wants is for things to go back to the way they used to be... where Sosa was on top, and the Stone District was just a nice place to live and the Sky District was a bunch of snowfields and some coolant systems for the mines. What I want is to bring Sosa back up on level with everyone else... to restore it to its former glory, without making losers of any other districts in the process, or any other ponies. I want it to not matter what district ponies are from so much as that they're from Ironridge, and that extends to everyone here. Even the Spirit. They're still Sosans, and I'll treat them with just as much dignity as the old codes say they deserve."

"That is perfectly noble." Gerardo bowed. "Go on."

"What the Spirit is to our factories is more complicated." Shinespark folded her hooves again, straightening slightly. "On the one hoof, nopony here wants to be making weapons. They'd rather make boats, like in the good old days. Or... at least not something used for dividing ponies. And when what they make gets stolen anyway, that really doesn't help them feel like there's any more point to their jobs. It's why what I do here is that much more important: they know their jobs don't matter, they know I could stop it... or at least see the deliveries ensured, and they don't even know if that would help."

She swallowed, continuing. "But on a practical level, the money involved... That inspector was one hundred percent right. We're being paid exorbitant amounts for what we do, and then we get paid again and again even when we don't do it. There's a lot of things we do with that money, like sending food to Riverfall... and creating a safety net that ensures every Sosan, even those who can't have jobs because there's nothing for them to do, don't have to live in poverty."

"I see," Gerardo interjected. "So when you say hope is the most valuable commodity in Sosa; that feeling as though one does not matter is the greatest problem... you say that from a perspective that none of the ponies here want for any physical need?"

"Precisely." Shinespark nodded. "They don't live in luxury, but they never have to worry about where their next anything will come from. We've found a system that ensures Sosa will survive... and I won't deny that myself and Chief Dorable are complicit in it. Again, that's part of why I take this so seriously: I'm part of the reason why their jobs are meaningless, and it's my duty to compensate for that. But we've secured survival. The next step is to allow Sosa to live."

"Ah, Dorable." Gerardo nodded too, sifting around in his memory. "He was the chieftain present along with you on the convoy, yes?"

The nodding continued. "Along with Nimwick, who is a candidate for filling Arambai's factory." Shinespark sighed loudly. "It's been seven years, nearly eight, and that post has never been filled. Multiple ponies have tried. None have lasted. They just can't do justice to his legacy. It's like the job knows he's still alive, and still fit for duty..."

Gerardo tipped his head. "Pardon my asking, but why don't you fill it? You seem capable enough."

"Several reasons," Shinespark answered. "First are the legal ones: Sosa is and always has been a society of stallions. It's how our culture works... a culture that grew up around Riverfall, a city of mares, though I'm sure you know about that already. Now that the cities are separate, it could be time for that to change. How much respect ponies have for me is certainly a sign of that. But still, I would have to become the first mare chief in the history of Ironridge, and that's not a useful place to focus my efforts."

"And second?" Gerardo asked, sitting back.

"Second, I don't have a brand, as you can clearly see." Shinespark stretched, showing off her bare, orange flank. "I don't know if you've put it all together, but Sosans change their names when they earn their brands. There's a difference in naming schemes... compare mine to Mobius and Arambai, for instance. After what happened eight years ago, it isn't as much of a deal, of course. There are quite a few grown stallions now who changed their names despite never getting branded, but I never did, and... that's just not something I want to possibly make ponies focus on, right?"

"Ah. Yes. Of course. That." Gerardo's face shadowed. "I was going to say, Ironridge seemed remarkably... Never mind. I believe I'm sensing a pattern in your priorities here, however?"

"Probably." Shinespark laid her chin on the chair's armrest, taking a second of silence. "The real reason I don't try to become a factory chief is because I don't need to. It wouldn't help what I'm trying to do, which is improve Ironridge for everyone. In the Stone District, they already talk about me as 'the good Sosan.' I don't want to establish myself as a leader of Sosa. I want to be a symbol to all of Ironridge."

Gerardo let the silence hang, then sighed, savoring it. "Well, for a pony who knows far more than is safe to tell, you've certainly been a much more pleasant conversationalist than Selma."

"Thank you." Shinespark bowed. "It's something I make an effort to do. Now, we should probably talk more about these bombs."

With a flap of his wings, Gerardo nodded emphatically. "I can confirm that would be prudent, yes..."

Bombing Dilemma

"So." Shinespark spread her hooves, an imaginary map sitting on the table between them. "Dealing with bombs. First, let's imagine what would be the worst-case scenario, right?"

"Of course," Gerardo replied.

Shinespark nodded. "Right. So, the Water District is on the eastern end of Ironridge. The primary mountain range this city is built against runs from east to west, and we are nestled into a corner where that turns to northwest. Mhm?"

Her horn lit, and she began flicking dots of telekinesis at the table, as if they could help her track her thoughts. "The eastern rim of the Earth District crater is a small, short mountain range that runs north to south, sticking out of the main range. There's a hole in it, about the size of one mountain peak... Think of it like a set of teeth, with one missing. Or, whatever the griffon equivalent of that is."

Gerardo nodded. "Consider it considered."

"Good." Shinespark turned back to the table. "The east and west dams stretch across that hole, forming the lake where a mountain could be. They're parallel to each other, running north to south, and there's just the one mountain peak to the north."

She moved her telekinesis slightly. "So, the west dam can be seen from all of Ironridge, the east dam from almost none of it. That makes sense, because someone would have noticed the bombs if they were visible. Right?"

"Right," Gerardo confirmed.

"Now, if the east dam is gone, the water will rush out..." More moving telekinesis. "And then go north, because the mountain slope there goes down that way, since the mountains run from east to west. Sosa lies along the river basin to the north of the mountain that forms the north wall of the reservoir. So, the east half of Sosa would get hit the hardest. That's Arambai's old factory, where Nimwick is now."

Gerardo peered at the half-formed figures on the table, assembling it all in his brain.

"Okay. A lot of the land around Sosa has been sculpted," Shinespark continued. "A long time ago we messed with the terrain a bunch to get the river to form a lake, and then have a lot of flat, low land around it where the factories are built, because we needed to be by the water. We still do that, sometimes. But what matters is that no matter where the water comes from, all of Sosa is on one gigantic floodplane, and the water won't drain down the river fast enough for anything that survives the initial wave not to get swamped. In short, we would lose everything..." She sighed, massaging her forehead. "We'd have to make a complete and total evacuation to ensure ponies were safe. Maybe leave a few to the west on towers, who can fly... and Sosa is all unicorns. We'd have to get help from wives and children who are pegasi. That would be a mess."

"Well, it is what Selma recommended," Gerardo remarked.

Shinespark's eyebrows rose. "Is it, now?"

"Well..." Gerardo hesitated. "Admittedly, I may be confusing it with my own advice. In the heat of the moment, I can't remember for sure if that was his exact counsel. Though it does seem a sound plan, does it not? As this is not a residential district, there should be no ordinary citizens about, and everyone here will be accustomed to leaving and have a home elsewhere to return to."

"Yeah... Sound..." Shinespark grimaced.

Gerardo stared. "You don't seem convinced."

Shinespark eyed him back, gaze level. "You don't think it's the slightest bit suspicious that a military commander who very definitely sees Sosa as an enemy would let you find yourself in a scenario where the logical course of action is to completely abandon our district, in turn letting anyone who pleased come in and do whatever they wanted? What if we did evacuate? What if those bombs are fakes, and all they want is a chance to run in here with nopony around to stop them? Do you have any idea how much there is in Sosa the Defense Force might want to steal?"

"I haven't but I can guess," Gerardo said, shaking his head. "And that does indeed sound plausible. Unfortunately, I possess neither a horn nor the knowledge to use one, and had to rely entirely on Selma's confirmation that the strange devices that very much resemble bombs are, in fact, bombs. It would be truly optimal if one with the ability to tell for certain could get up there, but that would require going back through-"

"I'll ask Braen to do it," Shinespark interrupted. "Regardless of her methods, she's skilled with magic and familiar with weapons, and can fly to get up there. And if it's a military matter, she'll definitely take it seriously."

Gerardo blinked. "You truly do seem in close contact with her. Given her history of robbing and assaulting your factory goods, I'd expect at least slightly more tension."

"It's a working relationship." Shinespark shrugged. "We have a lot to gain by cooperating, and really aren't all that different. Both of our primary goals are to inspire Sosans and give them hope, for one. Her version of empowering is just... a lot more brute-force than mine. But what matters is that she'll do it, and she won't be wrong."

"As a matter of fact..." Gerardo raised a talon, lighting up with recollection. "Now that we're discussing military means, I seem to recall Selma advocating we invade the Defense Force fortress. He greatly stressed that the triggering mechanism only worked from a short range, implying that if we completely secured the area near it, we would be safe. What do you make of that?"

"Well, no matter what, we need to get those bombs looked at." Shinespark shook her head. "We're not doing anything costly until we've confirmed that they're real. Unfortunately, he would know that, so either they will be real and just never intended to be used, or they're bait to get someone important to the Water District. Unfortunately, that might be a risk we have to-"

Suddenly, she flinched as if stabbed with a needle. Eyes constricting to pinpricks, both forehooves shot to the amulet dangling from her neck. "Oh no," she breathed. "That is not an alarm I want to have triggered..."

"What's this?" Gerardo abruptly stood in concern, sending his chair reeling. "Are you quite all right?"

"Go hang out in the Oasis, or talk to my mother or something," Shinespark directed, tone harsh and commanding. "I'll be back later, but I have to go, right now. This is urgent."

With a blue burst, she vanished in a flash of teleportation, leaving Gerardo blinking and alone in the conference room.

"Well, that was unexpected," he remarked to no one, drumming his talons and settling his wings. "I do hope it isn't a portent that I'm about to meet a watery doom."

Standing, he took three steps toward the door... then turned back to the table, his sword laying there, glittering and black. He blinked. It seemed a shame to leave it laying around where anyone could find and take it, and as Shinespark was correct that he would have to stick around to use the boat to Riverfall...

His talons closed around the hilt, feeling a pleasing sense of familiarity as they thrust the weapon back into the long-empty scabbard on his belt. Smiling merrily, Gerardo pushed open the door and exited to the rest of the complex.

Oasis Chatter

It was with sword in sheath that Gerardo Guillaume stepped out of the tunnels and into the Oasis' central room, enchanted sky shining in the colors of the evening around him.

A few heads turned when his door swung open, and more were turned by the murmurs of the first. His conversation with Shinespark had lasted for so long, though, that the room's population had considerably fallen for the night... fallen enough to make him brave. Confidently, he strolled to a table with three other stallions and seated himself, folding his talons and waiting to see what would happen.

The stallions' eyes lit up... but before they could gather the nerve to speak, a fourth appeared as if out of nowhere, yanking up a stool and joining his familiar, many-chinned face to the conversation.

"Hey, buddy!" Egil the guard laughed merrily, dropping a tankard to the table beside him. "You must've been in there for hours! Decided to come give the boys here a bit more of your time tonight?"

Gerardo shrugged. "I am presently closer to accomplishing my goals than I was when I entered this place, and am thus in a good mood. Unless you plan to fight me, rob me, betray me, recruit me for any dangerous shenanigans or attempt to bring harm to my friends, I see no reason not to humor you."

Egil rolled his eyes. "Bud, the whole reason this place exists is for ponies who want to get away from that. Everyone's friends in the Oasis. Speaking of which, lemme introduce you to the crew here!"

He pointed a hoof first at a stringy stallion with a wide mouth and dangerously pointy goatee, like Howe's but much, much classier. "This here is Live Wire..." His hoof moved on to the next, who had a long muzzle, longer mane, and deep bags under his eyes. "That's Off Switch, and then the third fine fellow with the blocky head is Crennel."

"Pleased to meet you," Crennel replied in a deep monotone that didn't seem to be deliberate, broad shoulders taking up half the table.

"It's a very great pleasure..." Live Wire grinned toothily, eagerly extending a hoof for Gerardo to shake.

"'Lo," Off Switch remarked, looking as though he was short several cups of coffee and hadn't decided whose fault it was.

"It... yes, likewise," Gerardo assured, reaching and shaking back. "I do apologize, though, if I fail to recall you later. I've been positively bombarded with new names as of late, and, well..." He tipped his head at Egil. "You, I believe I recall, but I'm afraid I've already forgotten the name of your companion."

Egil laughed. "Bardal? Hah! I told him he needed a better handle when he picked it out, but who did he listen to? Sure wasn't little old me! He's still doing our rounds, by the way."

"Ah, yes, quite tragic." Quickly agreeing, Gerardo turned back to the rest of the stallions. "So, I was meeting pleasantly with your leader when we were abruptly interrupted and she had to speed away, and I find myself with an indeterminate amount of time to kill before she gets back. What does one normally do around here to pass the time?"

"Tell stories. Complain. Talk about life." Off Switch shrugged, slightly more animated than his appearance initially suggested. "Old romances, lost dreams, bucket lists. What we'd do if we were chancellor of the Sky District."

"But we talk about that all the time!" Live Wire interrupted, voice just as sparky as his namesake. "Let's get some new stuff on deck. You got any stories to tell, griffon guy?"

Crennel nodded slowly in agreement.

"I... well..." Gerardo hesitated. "First off, since I don't believe it was said, I am Gerardo Guillaume, griffon adventurer extraordinaire. And I'll have you know ponies have been utterly enthralled before by me telling a tale of making a perfectly ordinary pot of soup, which in truth was as boring a story as they come. Are you sure you wouldn't rather hear something more substantial than the tales I have to tell?"

Egil shoved him. "So tell a better story, bud! Don't think we'll buy that you don't have them!"

Gerardo raised an eyebrow. "Would you rather hear the far-less-realistic tale of how I am an exiled prince from a far-off land, questing to raise an army and restore my birthright kingdom?"

"Gerardo, friend, we seriously couldn't care less how fake it is if it's good." Live Wire grinned, shaking his head. "Just tell a good story!"

Off Switch bobbed his head, a scarf wrapped many times around his neck. "Agreed."

"Eherm. Yes. Well, I'll see what I can do." Gerardo coughed into a wing, took several seconds to think, and began. "Once upon a time, I was traversing a port city bearing a load of cargo intended for a very important destination. I sought to travel by water a ways, so I sat down and said to myself, 'I should buy a boat.' Unfortunately, I was presently broke, as a result of being scammed into buying a land title deed I was lead to believe contained a great amount of treasure by a very dastardly llama who was far less friendly than he seemed. So I set about hiring myself out for odd jobs to raise capital, and in turn found myself teamed alongside a sellsword named Winsom I had crossed blades with in the past! It turned out he was just as dishonest as the llama, and in fact also a llama himself, but a lot more friendly, so together we plotted to rob a casino that was itself secretly a scam operation..."

An unknown number of hours later...

"...By the time we made it out of the cave my land title granted us access to, the thunderstorm had intensified to the point where the entrance was veritably a river. Fortunately, it was also bad enough to ground all air traffic, so Winsom and I made it back to the city without being annihilated by the patrol ships the government had searching for us. Following a climactic swordfight on the roof of the parliament building, we were able to enter through a slightly flimsy window and present all the evidence needed to force the prime minister's incarceration, right as he was about to sign the measure that would have opened the borders to the invading armies! We were offered fame and recognition beyond words, but I merely accepted a small boat as payment, dug out my crates from where I had stashed them in a hole at the side of a road, and sailed into the horizon, leaving for greater deeds."

Gerardo blinked, story finally finished. "And no, to my knowledge, Winsom never got to kiss the ousted prime minister's daughter, so there is your forbidden love."

The stallions at the table sat silent for a moment longer... then applauded, Egil slapping Gerardo on the back. "Now there's how you tell a story, bud! Go on, tell me it matters whether or not that all even happened!"

Gerardo grinned slightly back. "As a matter of fact, it contains slightly less fabrication than one might think. While it is greatly the product of embellishment, I did in fact find myself adventuring with a past acquaintance named Winsom in search of funding to purchase a boat, and it truly did involve him attempting an affair with the daughter of an influential leadership figure. Now, as to the invading-"

"Don't tell us!" Crennel interrupted, more passion in his voice than usual. "It breaks the magic!"

"Ah... well, my apologies." Gerardo drooped, headcrest sagging over one eye. He blew it out of the way, and added, "Additionally, my throat is the slightest bit scratchy after all that talking. Might one of you gentlecolts be willing to take up the tale-telling in my stead? I'm more than happy to receive my own introduction to Sosan lore, and as Shinespark does not seem to be back yet..."

Live Wire grinned ferociously. "Gerardo, I have more than got you covered. Want to hear about the latest in Sosan weapon prototyping?"

Possibly Classified

"Do I wish to hear about the latest in Sosan weapon prototyping?" Gerardo cocked his head, making a show of thinking. "Well, I can't say that couldn't be interesting. Please, do tell."

"Perfection." Live Wire slammed both hooves on the table, eliciting a chuckle from Egil and a dubious recoil from Off Switch. "Now, I was in the lab yesterday, making adjustments to a new master die for manacannon compression chambers, which are down to science enough that a hair's width could make them explode the bad way... and shut up, Crennel, I know how rare it is to hear me say that. Anyway, a... colleague had noticed that the firing nozzle on the casting machine was cracked and neglected to tell me until I already had a new vat of entwinement glue heating, and that is the end result of a three-week process that you really don't want to try stopping after it's started. So I was trying to get the filament that had already been fed out without pulling any-"

"Hey. You." Off Switch cut him off with a rasp, thick scarf shifting slightly as his head turned. "Look at the griffon's eyes. See that sheen of gloss? It means you're losing him. Tell a story you don't need a background to understand."

Live Wire blinked owlishly, broad mouth frowning at his companion. "...Once, I discovered that putting two cannons on your back gives twice as much firepower as one. They said it wasn't an original discovery, but it sure worked well."

"I... see," Gerardo replied. "Remarkably sophisticated. Though, while I do indeed lack the background to understand most of this technology, I'm hardly opposed to hearing about it."

"You should take him to the testing range," Crennel offered, speaking in slow-motion.

"That... could be interesting..." Live Wire's grin broadened, and he rubbed his hooves. "Hey, Gerardo. Down for a little explosive demonstration?"

"You know I'm in!" Abandoning his seat, Egil rose and moved to join him, pumping a meaty hoof.

"No," Off Switch grumbled, nevertheless rising too and moving to follow the group.

"Well, I suppose I might as well oblige!" Game for anything that didn't involve being exploded himself, Gerardo neatly shoved his stool under the table where it wouldn't get in the way and stretched, vaguely aware of the amount of ponies at other tables paying him attention. It wasn't many, since there weren't many left in the bar, but it was enough to give him a tingling impression of being famous. "Might I ask that one of you lead the way?"

"Leading like a bad oil level leads you to the supply room." Live Wire strode ahead, pushing open the door to the corridors with a bombastic red aura and motioning for the rest to follow.

They slipped through the door, and it swung closed behind them, leaving a lone Crennel happily nursing three forgotten drinks, because it would have been a shame to let them go to waste.

Another door flung open into a deep, straight, iron-walled chamber that looked like it had once been used for cooling and ventilation equipment. Great sections of air ducts hung from the sides where they had been magically sawed off, and the majority of the room was taken up by a balcony overlooking a reinforced, burn-resistant track.

Live Wire unlocked a sizable cabinet with his horn, its face rolling aside to reveal rack upon rack of blasters, launchers, lasers, stabbers, slicers, choppers, clubbers, whackers and other assorted lawn care implements. "Any of these look fun to you, Gerardo?" he offered confidently. "I know I can think of some ones to recommend..."

As a square cube that slightly resembled a bucket tumbled in his aura like a ball spun on a hoof, Gerardo squinted. "Truthfully, I have no idea what to look for. Have you any you are particularly proud of yourself?"

"There's not really all that much here we made," Egil answered, shoving his girth through the testing range door. "Most of these finished products here are from the other two factories. Mobius has us doing more preliminary research, proof-of-concept types of deals, and who knows what happens with that?"

"Shinespark," Off Switch coolly replied, standing near the wall, mane long and black. "She's the one who controls everything, here. Mobius isn't the stallion he once was, so any time someone is doing something and you can't see who, it's Shinespark."

"Well... we do have these..." Live Wire shrugged, pulling out something that looked like a brass snail shell the size of a pony's head. "They're made here, by us."

"Are they, now?" Politely, Gerardo did his best to keep the conversation moving. "What does that one do, if I may?"

Live Wire grinned. "Egil? Mind playing the good guy again today?"

Egil shook his head, taking the machine in his aura and moving toward a staircase to the track below. "You enjoy your job far too much, sometimes, bud."

"We all have our ways of coping." Shrugging, Live Wire pulled out a turret with a long, slim barrel and several concentric rings attached to a wide nozzle. "Better than doing nothing all day. En garde!"

He followed Egil to the floor, and Gerardo peered at them over the railing in morbid fascination and suspense. Were the weapons really suited for a head-on duel?

"You may want to cover your eyes," Off Switch murmured, shuffling up beside him. "That long one makes a very big flash."

"I should like to think I'll be all right," Gerardo assured with a smile, nevertheless holding a wing near his face in case he needed to duck behind it at a moment's notice. With a small crackle of lightning, Live Wire's weapon charged to fire, aimed squarely at Egil... and then let loose.

A single, blinding, razor-thin beam streaked instantaneously from its end, moving so quickly it might not have been traveling at all so much as springing into existence, already spanning the gap between it and its target. Gerardo barely had time to blink before it splintered violently, however, filling the room with the sound of metal striking metal.

Egil held his shell protectively in front, and a broad umbrella of energy streamed from the hole, mushrooming out into a wall that broke the beam's advance. His portable shield sparked and crackled, yet held firm, its cracked surface glossing over and returning to pristine seconds after Live Wire's beam finally ended.

The attacking unicorn tossed down his laser and grinned. "How about that, Gerardo? Impressive?"

"Verily," Gerardo called back, unsure entirely what else to say.

"This thing..." Egil huffed after a moment of climbing, trying to get back on the overlook railing. "Developed completely in-house, with work from Shinespark herself!"

"The Defense Force contract that funds us doesn't contain any specifics," Off Switch interrupted. "We can make what we want... or what the chiefs want, at least. It's a good sign for integrity when a pony asked to make a weapon for a war she doesn't believe in brings you a shield instead of a sword."

"Now, now, while we're showing off the shield..." Live Wire interrupted, sticking his head up above the railing. "What say we show off some of the rest? I'm very partial to cannons, myself, but it's not too much of a stretch to show it off against melee instead..."

Definitely Classified

As Live Wire clashed an energized, sparking sword against Egil's mechanically-projected shield, Gerardo watched from the railing above, eyes half-focused and Off Switch standing disinterestedly by his side. The ponies around him seemed to be enjoying themselves sufficiently to stay out of trouble, and that meant it was as good a time as any to get a handle on recent events: namely, his conversation with Shinespark.

It was safer to assume she was on his side than Herman, Selma or anyone in the Stone District, for certain. But the air had been thick with unshared knowledge, and he had a strong suspicion she wasn't willing to help him purely for his own sake. At the very least, it would be for the sake of ideals.

That was the problem with the knowledge-is-power model Shinespark had confirmed, he mused: it made it impossible to tell whether someone was telling the truth so long as they had any cards left to play, and very rare to both see and identify a showing of true colors, let alone find them useful. Sharpie, for instance, he was reasonably sure had nothing left to hide, but was too weighted down in both personal baggage and information he was unable to share with her to be remotely useful as an ally. Shinespark spoke with conviction and seemed to believe in her words, but openly admitted to hiding uncountable things from the griffon. And finally, there were Maple and Starlight, both of whom were solidly on his side yet even more in need of protecting than he was.

With invisible satisfaction, he patted the sword hilt on his belt: at least that was back where it belonged. Aside from unreasonably maneuverable ponies in armor, it had been both perfectly unstoppable and completely nonlethal for the duration of time he had had it. Arambai had warned him, on that night of departure, to always go armed in Ironridge, and at last he had been reunited with the best weapon adventuring could find.

...Ironically, that meant his advantage would be at its greatest should any warfare or fighting break out. He decided not to think about that.

Down below, Egil managed to shove back Live Wire's assault, thrusting the shield-projector forward with his shoulder. Both stallions stopped, lightly panting, the sword growing dull and the shield sparking and fading from existence.

"Well, well!" Egil wiped his brow, then frowned at the shield. "Looks to me like that's all this little old thing can take without a recharge. What say you we break and look at something else?"

Live Wire grinned, leaning on his sword. "I have more than a few ideas..."

Alighting on the floor beside them, Gerardo tucked in his wings and took two steps forward. "Truly impressive, I must say," he commended, pretending he had been fully invested in the sparring match. "That shield certainly seems interesting. How does it work, if I may?"

"It takes one technical term you don't know and applies it to another, creating a third," Off Switch droned, descending the stairs the easy way. "In layponies' terms, science and magic."

Egil belched. "Well, everyone's gotta start somewhere, right? Listen, bud, here's a crash course, the very basics of the basics." He stepped beside Gerardo, slung one foreleg over the griffon's shoulders, and swung the other wide, as if picturing a vista. "Mana is energy. It gets conducted by stuff... rocks, most of the time. Sedimentary stuff like sandstone is a little worse, garden-variety crystals are a little better, diamonds and real gemstones are great. Pony bones are actually the best, but we don't use those for obvious reasons. Most kinds of wood are poor conductors, and then glass, air and metal don't work at all. Gold is a strange case, so let's not cover that. Starting from higher grades of crystal, you can grind the stuff into a powder and it'll work too, so long as you spread it thick enough. Following me?"

Gerardo nodded. Live Wire didn't respond, absorbed in tinkering with a weapon.

"Swell. Now, the more mana you've got in something, the more resistant it is to holding more, and the better grade of conductor that is, the slower that happens. The idea is that if you put something with a lot of mana and something with a little mana together, they even out... so the way you store the stuff is by taking a conductor, touching it to something with a lot of mana, letting it equalize, and then taking it away and surrounding it by air or metal so it doesn't drain. Then, when you want to use it, you touch it to something else... Simple, right?"

"Hmm!" Gerardo beamed. Between his old boat and past technological endeavors, the workings of mana cores and generation of power were hardly news to him, but Egil seemed to enjoy explaining it, so he played along. "That is, in fact, simpler than I thought it would be."

"Then your expectations were too low." Off Switch strode past, scarf ruffling beneath his sunken eyes. Reaching out with his telekinesis, he lifted the dormant shield device, slid open a hatch on one side, and popped out a moderately-sized hexagonal prism. "It's far more complex than whatever you were thinking. What he said is the amount of information children take to change the batteries in their toys."

Live Wire looked up from his tinkering, grin broad. "Says you and your black boxes. Tell Gerardo about the black boxes, then! Those are batteries, too!"

"...No." Off Switch stared back, straight down his muzzle. "That's precisely why you weren't chosen to work on this project. Information is handled on a need-to-know basis and nobody could trust you with delicate secret-keeping."

Gerardo paused, vaguely sure they were on the verge of discussing something not meant to be discussed... and decided not to intervene.

"He's working on the black boxes, Gerardo," Live Wire said, doing his best to force eye contact. "They're replacements for mana cores that supposedly never need to be recharged. It's scientifically impossible, but they already have proof-of-concept prototypes."

Off Switch scowled. "Stop making foolish, erroneous statements in an attempt to make me correct you and talk about the project."

"As a matter of fact..." Gerardo butted in, wings spread to appear bigger. "I'm all for hearing interesting secrets, but perhaps we shouldn't be so quick to raise tensions in a room full of explosives?"

"That sounds mighty good to me!" Egil agreed, pulling a fresh hexagonal cartridge from a shelf and stuffing it into the vacancy Off Switch had left in the shield. He slid the door closed with a clack, and fired it up, a full-strength dome of energy arcing out once more.

"Thank you," Off Switch sighed, moving back to stand next to a wall.

"Killjoys," Live Wire muttered.

A disgruntled silence ensued, and Gerardo quickly decided to break it with a question about the last successful topic of conversation. "When recharging these cores... mana ultimately comes from the ground, does it not?"

Egil nodded. "That's one of two places. You can also charge them straight from a unicorn horn, though that's hard and not as potent unless you're a really buff mage. But it makes sense that since rock is a conductor, you'd go to the ground to find it, right? Turns out all of the ground is infused with it, and the deeper you go, the more there is. It comes from there, too, so we don't have to worry about no finite supplies."

"Interesting," Gerardo remarked, hoping Off Switch wouldn't cut in again. "I take it this is one of those deeper-is-better types of situations?"

"Yes and no." Egil shrugged. "It does become more concentrated as you go down, but ultimately, you reach a threshold where the rock is so suffused, it conducts better than diamond. Nopony wants to actually bury cores and dig them up to recharge, so we stick long conductive pylons deep in the earth, and hook them up to charging stations. But once you pass that threshold, you stop seeing any benefit from going deeper, so... why bother?"

"The city banned it, too," Live Wire added, licking his lips. "Quite some time ago, in fact. It seems like an odd restriction, considering nobody wanted to do it... except maybe me. 'Just because it's a bad idea doesn't mean nobody will try it,' they said. It's as if they prophesied my existence. I'm almost proud to take it personally!"

"Oh?" Gerardo looked up. "Now I'm curious as to their rationale."

"It's because there's nothing wrong with the present system," Off Switch answered. "Practical experience shows that there's no benefit to going deeper, and we aren't wanting for power in the first place. However, if the concentrations continue to increase with depth at the rate they have been, they eventually reach levels where phenomena we can only theorize would occur. There's always the chance someone would try to bore a deep enough hole to find out."

"And how does the rule go again?" Live Wire asked slyly. "If it's never been broken before, best to find out how much it can take?"

"You're missing the point." Off Switch shook his head. "We can't replicate those conditions in a lab. For all we know, rocks explode when under that much pressure and would kill anyone who attempted to descend, or worse, cause an earthquake under all of Ironridge. And what would you do when concentrations were high enough that the air itself became energized?"

"You wanna know the funner reason?" Egil cut in. "Because the world has all sorts of legends that are thousands of years old about monsters and ancient evil and their ilk that aren't around today, yet never about them being outright destroyed. No one knows where they are, and no one knows what the bottom of the world looks like, if it even has one... See what I'm getting at?"

Live Wire hung his head. "Admittedly, that sounds like too much excitement even for me. Still, it does have some appeal..."

"If that excuse works for you, so be it. What matters are the combined dangers and non-necessity of going down that far." Off Switch shifted his scarf and stared up at the exit, clearly pondering whether it would soon be time to leave.

"Hmm..." Gerardo stood, on the fringes of the conversation. "I'm curious, just what kind of depths are we talking about?"

Off Switch eyed him back. "Several stories is sufficient for normal charging. You could bury a stone beneath a second-level basement and see it charged in a day. For maximum efficiency, you need descend about ten. To see anything truly beyond safe prediction, you would have to bore several miles."

"I... see. Most interesting." Gerardo filed the information away for later, noting its primary use as things Ironridge ponies are superstitious about. "Well, I believe I have seen everything you have shown me. Is there more to do here, or shall we make ourselves elsewhere?"

Egil trotted to the stairs, their metal rungs groaning under his weight. "I might be game for heading home for the evening, I think. It's been a fun night of slacking, but Bardal's gonna kill me if I'm still here when he gets done with rounds!"

"I think I've just had a flash of inspiration for a new combo weapon," Live Wire muttered excitedly, carrying several implements toward a far door in his aura. "It'll be night labbing for me, tonight. Here's a hint: it involves a harpoon and an ammunition clip..."

Both doors clicked shut, and Gerardo suddenly found himself alone... with Off Switch. The stallion stared back at him, unblinking.

"...I suppose I ought to get going myself," Gerardo said awkwardly, shifting his weight between talons.

"Do me a favor," Off Switch interrupted before he could leave. "And don't accept any favors from any ponies here."

"Pardon?" Gerardo blinked, trying to parse the contrary requests.

"You disabled several Sosans two nights ago in a skirmish in the Earth District," the stallion said, voice low in the echoey room. "I wasn't there, but I still know it. So do a lot of other ponies. They aren't sure what to think about you, but they think you're strong. Some are afraid of you. Others think you're here to help them. I don't know how strong you really are, but it isn't as much as they're expecting. Everyone here has expectations of you, so try not to get caught up in them."

Gerardo gulped. "I shall keep that in mind. The heads-up is most appreciated."

"Think nothing of it." Off Switch stood for a moment, then slowly climbed the stairs and left the room, turning the lights out as he went. Gerardo was left there, amid glowing indicators and dormant weaponry, suddenly hoping much more fervently that Shinespark would hurry her return.

Bygone Days

The central room of the Oasis was even quieter when Gerardo stepped back inside, soft indigo light shining down from the enchanted ceiling. Streaked with a flurry of stars and lacking clouds or a moon, it was unblemished by light pollution of any sort, reminiscent of the very best kind of nights one could spend while traveling. Since no ponies were pressing on him with demands for attention and he had no goals to attend to, he took a moment to stare up, reveling in the expert enchantment.

Slowly, his eyes wandered down the walls, tracing the rivets that bound metal plates together and occasional squares where an access panel had been welded shut. The stage at the room's far end sat unused, its curtain hanging high above the floor, a small lectern standing humbly at the head. Across from it, the bar counter was unstaffed, most of its dispensers covered with cloths for the night.

At the tables, only four ponies remained. Two stallions chatted inaudibly over plates that had long-since been licked clean of food, and three tables over, a third had fallen asleep, head resting sideways on the surface in front of him. The last was a large figure, keeping a watchful vigil of the entry door from beneath a gray-and-purple hood, her square white muzzle just visible beneath.

Gerardo silently tapped forward, letting his talons strike the floor with just enough force to announce his presence.

Without turning her head, Matryona slipped a long wing free from her cloak, nudging a stool out in invitation. Gerardo took it without word, waiting to see if she would initiate conversation.

"We have a room for you, too, if you would like it."

"Thank you." Gerardo nodded at the door, himself and Matryona watching each other out of the corners of their eyes. "I believe I'll seek to retire soon, but not perhaps yet. I would very much like to finish my conversation with your daughter, and am not nearly to the level of exhaustion that I must sleep early. Do you have any clue as to when she will return?"

"I haven't," Matryona replied, holding still. "Shinespark often leaves too quickly to tell anyone where she is going, and she wouldn't tell you if you stopped her and asked."

There was a slight pause, before Matryona continued, "You have your sword back. I take it what you discussed was productive?"

Gerardo blinked. He couldn't remember whether the pegasus had left the room before Shinespark had brought out his sword... Had they discussed this ahead of time?

Opting not to risk a potentially troublesome subject, he instead said, "Think of it as a token of my agreeing to remain here for a time, until I have sufficiently ensured our business is finished. A signature on my honor, in other words."

Matryona sat silent. The two talking stallions walked past, having finally abandoned their table in a quest for the door, their dishes still sitting, unbussed. Well-oiled hinges swung shut without a squeak. Twice as much time as that passed afterward... and eventually, she said, "Your friend sleeps fitfully."

"Ah. Yes. Her." Gerardo's face fell. "...You were watching her sleep?"

"She wasn't comfortable," Matryona explained. "Even to ponies from the Stone District, it is important that we be tolerant and hospitable, as much as possible. So yes, I watched her in the same way a mother walks past her child's room at night."

"I see." Gerardo wasn't entirely sure what he expected, or why he asked aside from latent paranoia from the Defense Force, but felt it would be awkward to let the conversation die then and there. "How often do you have guests in this place? Of the vein of myself, that is. Non-Sosans."

"Rarely," Matryona sighed. "Much of what they're for is to care for the families of our workers when they need it, such as during a housing transition, or if one has a condition of any type that requires ponies nearby to help. Once, you know, Sosa was the entryway to all of Ironridge. Remnants of that time are why the Earth District and we prize hospitality so much. But now, we are at the far back of Ironridge, surrounded by a climate alien to visitors and separated from the entrance by walls of propaganda from ponies who like the new way of things and fear that all of Sosa is like the Spirit, wanting to turn back time and in turn erase their own progress. Ponies just don't come to Sosa any more."

"My condolences," Gerardo offered, unsure of whether to interrupt the matriarch's reminiscing.

"The ponies here feel it heavily," she continued, hood reflecting her somber tone. "Ten years ago, it started. Seven years ago, it finished. That's recent enough that everyone remembers it, whether they were a worker or a foal, but more than long enough ago to idealize what it used to be like. They don't comprehend in terms of 'I want the past.' When they look at their home, they think, 'I don't want the present' instead. ...At least, that is what Shinespark says."

"Oh, really?" Gerardo lifted an eyebrow. "Forgive me, but I can't help but sense a but..."

Matryona nodded. "I am not from Ironridge. For nearly two decades, I never even set hoof in the city. When I did, I came when it was at its greatest... during the dying days of Project Aslan. The Ironridge I first saw was magnificent, and Sosa was its capital. Every pony at every corner was overflowing with optimism, every direction you could look was decked in color. I was there to spread more joy and happiness, dancing in a traveling performance troupe. I even met a handsome, powerful stallion who took an interest in me... Mobius. None of it lasted, of course. I assume you've heard many times what happened to the city. That tragedy hurt me tremendously, and I never looked at the world the same again... but the memory of that first impression was even more powerful. The Sosans here see their city as what once belonged to them; what was theirs to give to and share with others and was taken away. But I saw it from the other side of the window, and always will."

"...I see."

Gerardo let the conversation die. He had a feeling it would be rude to break the silence; there was no question in his mind that Matryona was being as painfully honest as possible. How did that line up, when Shinespark had emphasized exactly the opposite as a virtue?

His mind wandered over the catwalks and corridors of the factory above, where two guards on patrol had jovially invited him to their base despite the admittedly-suspicious circumstances of their meeting, then down to the testing room where two out of three had been more than eager to show off their work, no matter how secret it had been intended to be. He thought of how Shinespark had spoken frankly and passionately about her beliefs and goals, almost going so far as to apologize for having things she couldn't tell him. And now Matryona...

Looking at them, the Sosans didn't seem at all like a band of ponies who had once had everything, and had it taken from them over a series of brutal blows. Up close, they seemed far too innocent, too optimistic, too hopeful for anything their situation would warrant possible. How could that be? Was there something about their history he still didn't understand, something that made their spirits that unbreakable? Or had Shinespark really done that much for them?

...With a slight misting of his eyes, his thoughts turned to the trapped bombs along the eastern dam, and for a split-second he felt just as protective of the Steel District as Shinespark did. But he wiped the thought away; it would be dangerous to become overconfident or deviate from his plan, even though things were going well and his sword had been reclaimed.

"You seem lost in thought," Matryona remarked, hood shielding her mane from the enchanted starlight above.

"Perhaps." Deciding to repay honesty with honesty, Gerardo added, "Just contemplating the attitudes the ponies here seem to possess. All in all, they're far more innocent than I could have expected, given their situation."

"They are," Matryona admitted, stoic and tall. "Part of it is denial. They've been through so much, so quickly, they don't want it to be true. Enough that when somepony tells them it isn't, so long as their needs are met..." She sighed, head turning toward the table. "Remember, Sosa's crises isn't one of means, but of meaning. What the ponies need most is to know that they matter, and what they do is still important, now that they are unable to do what they've done for centuries. They want to believe, and they need to be told. They know that they should, as well. Part of me... shivers, whenever I think about what would happen if someone tried to break them entirely. I think they would try to break them back."

Gerardo listened, pondering a world of isolation a short river-ride away, where actions ponies took could never affect more than just their community, trying to reconcile that with how far a pony would have to fall in Ironridge to believe they could do more if they just left. "...How familiar are you with the situation of how I entered Ironridge?"

"I know every detail Shinespark does," Matryona answered calmly. "From the letters he writes us. They're mostly about science, but he told us about you and Starlight and Maple. Willow and Amber, too."

"Hmm..." Gerardo sighed, sitting back. "Well, I'm... Hmm. Now that I think about it, would you be terribly offended if I asked precisely how your and Shinespark's familial situation works? From what I've gathered, she is Mobius' foal, yet treats Arambai as her father?"

"That is correct." Matryona nodded. "It's a very, very long story... but the important parts are shorter. I fell in love with Mobius during my first visit to Ironridge. It was a very brief affair. My friends at the time told me it was part of an infatuation with the city itself, and I don't trust my judgement to say they were right or wrong. After that, I returned to the city when Shinespark was born, but it was at a time when there was a lot of political drama happening, which I got swept up in. Eventually, Arambai rescued me from it and hid me from the public eye, allowing me to live out my existence and raise Shinespark in secret. I fell in love with him, too, for real that time."

She folded her hooves beneath her robe, voice silvery in the starlight. "He cared for me and her... sometimes more like a proud uncle than a father, but he was there for her. Mobius had said he had no need for heirs, but eventually Shinespark began to grow up and show off amazing talents, and in turn he began to desire a relationship with her. Now, he dotes on her with all kinds of material and political favors, though it matters little when she is already richer, more powerful and more loved than he. It's too late, though. He wasn't there for us when we needed it, and she will never truly think of him as her father."

"I see..." Gerardo mused. "From everything I've heard, it sounds as though Mobius-"

At that moment, the room sparked with a soft flash of light, and Shinespark materialized on the stage. Her mane was wind-blown and looked like it had been rained on, and she waited out a breath or two before climbing down to the floor, trotting toward Gerardo and Matryona.

"Welcome back," Matryona invited, gesturing with a wing and pulling out a free stool.

"It's true," Shinespark replied, sapphire eyes alight with an unquenchable fire. "What dad described in his letters. I saw it, and it's really true."

Matryona sat silent for a moment, facing away such that Gerardo couldn't read her expression. Then, she climbed down, spread her wings... and buried her daughter in a hug. "You doubted him?"

"No," Shinespark muttered back. "It's just... it's been so long. So many years, and I can't believe we're almost there..."

Gerardo hesitated, unsure of whether to butt in. "My apologies, but I'm afraid I'm missing the point..."

Shinespark extracted herself from her mother's embrace, nodding up at Gerardo. "I have a lot to fill you in on. But first, I think we have an unfinished conversation to get back to?"

"That would be most appreciated." Gerardo bowed deeply. "I was up at the crack of sunrise this morning... which is admittedly not that early, thanks to the mountain's shadow, but still, the night is beginning to get to me. I would enjoy it immensely to not feel as if I were sleeping on unfinished business tonight."

"Of course. Let's get back to my office, then." Shinespark nodded in return, tracing her hooves along the metal floor as hew aura eagerly propped open the door, several strides away. "I think we'll discuss an exact plan in the morning, but there are some things we can go over now."

As she held the door open, letting Gerardo and Matryona pass by, her eyes flickered to the sash that held his newly-sheathed sword. "I take it that means you agree to stay and help us as long as needbe?"

Gerardo shrugged. "For what my help is worth. As you've said yourself, though, I am a player with sadly few cards to contribute at present."

"Lucky for you I'm good at finding meaningful things for others to do!" Shinespark smirked gently, then followed, closing the door behind her. "Here's what's important, though. I've thought about it... and you can leave tomorrow, if you want, under some conditions. You can also stay and help us. All you have to do is hear me out first. I know what I would do, of course. ...Anyway."

"You make it sound almost foreboding," Gerardo remarked as they traversed the corridors beneath the Steel District, eventually coming to Shinespark's office. "What kind of conditions are we talking about, here?"

They stepped inside the office antechamber, Shinespark immediately making for the door to the back conference room. "Oh, you'll find out."

Once again, she held the door open with a hoof, Matryona's cloaked form gliding through on graceful hooves. Gerardo stepped into the dimly-lit room himself... and immediately collided chest-first with a tall, full-body suit of polished golden armor.

An Offer

Gerardo stood still as a statue, and so did the pony he had bumped into.

He had no ears to flatten, and her metallic ones were incapable of the motion. Presumably, judging from the size of her helmet, they were already pressed against her skull inside, though he felt no solidarity in the knowledge.

She wasn't as tall as he was, even with the golden plates' thickness adding to her height, but it felt as if that difference was magnified a thousandfold in the opposite direction. It might have been her horn, long and fluted and thick enough to accommodate the real thing inside. It might have been her eyes, covered by lenses so dark that not a hint of light shone back out. It might even have been the way her armor interlocked so finely it could have been airtight, completely devoid of motion... though he knew from firsthand experience just how rapidly she could carry herself when she wanted to.

Commander Braen stood inches from his chest, and every bit of confidence he had gained from recollecting his sword had vanished like water in a golden, impassive sieve.

"...Commander," he croaked, talon itching protectively toward his sheath.

"There's no need for that." Shinespark flicked it away with a dab of telekinesis, closing the door and locking the four of them in the room. Steadily, the manalights reacted to her presence and came alive, glinting off Braen's metal coat. "We're all allies here, I can assure you."

Gerardo said nothing. Neither did Braen.

"Please." Shinespark dropped into a chair across the table, not lounging like she had earlier. "Have a seat."

Slowly, deliberately, Braen clinked toward a chair, the first indication she had given that there was actually a pony inside the stoic suit of armor. As she sat, the light illuminated a three-triangled emblem on her flanks, exactly like the one that adorned the office door outside.

The chair creaked beneath her weight.

"Look, if this is a big deal, I'm sorry I didn't warn you she would be coming." Shinespark sighed, putting her hooves on the table. "It's hardly a secret that I have some of my dad's penchant for drama. But really, is it that big of a surprise? I told you already I'm in contact with her. I proved it by getting back your sword. In fact, you should be able to guess precisely why she's here."

Gerardo blinked, brain in overdrive, exploring all facets of the situation. "How did she get down here without me seeing her pass?" he asked, seizing on a discrepancy.

"There are other ways."

"I see..." Gerardo muttered to himself, trying to think of something to say next.

Logically, Shinespark was right. She had forgiven him for disabling the Spirit ponies she apparently took responsibility for, after all. Would she not have confirmed Braen would do the same?

"Well, from this reaction I think I already know what you'll say when I make my offer, but whatever." Shinespark pushed out a chair with telekinesis, offering it more aggressively. "Braen went and looked at the bombs. They're real. Selma wasn't lying about the trigger mechanism, or anything else. His sealant spell was real, too."

Mechanically, Braen nodded, confirming what Shinespark had said.

Gerardo gulped. "I take it that is unfortunate?"

"She also found something else," Shinespark continued. "A note. It was left on the overlook, and addressed 'To Whom It May Concern.' Selma signed it, and it was written in his horn."

One talon at a time, Gerardo stepped closer. Braen's head tracked him with perfect efficiency, her metallic wing replicas coiled at her sides. The sabaton where his sword had struck looked newer then the rest of her armor, he noticed. She hadn't been limping.

"The note assumed that we would want to invade; to attempt taking over the fortress militarily to ensure no one could bring a transmitter in range. It's obvious Selma wants us to do that. Unfortunately, that doesn't tell us anything about his goals, because whether he wanted to help or trap us, he would still say that. Selma prefers solving things by force."

Gerardo reached a chair, sitting at an angle so he could see both Shinespark and Braen at the same time. That put Matryona behind him and out of his line of sight, but she was just as silent as the Spirit commander.

"What it said..." Shinespark's voice dropped to a growl. "Was that tomorrow evening, he would muster every pony in the Defense Force who could fight to the bridge atop the eastern dam. There's an old road leading up the north face of the mountain, impassable by cart but possible to traverse by hoof... either for an assault, or a retreat. On that, we have no idea if he was lying."

"...What, then, do you intend to do?"

Shinespark folded her hooves. "We're still working out a plan, but most likely? Everything. That's for the morning, though. What matters is that we will have to take action."

Gerardo clicked his beak. "I must say, you sounded considerably more upbeat about that excursion when you were talking with Matryona in the lobby earlier."

"Well... there's good news, too. For me." Shinespark sighed, then looked him straight in the eye. "I guess I'll be as direct as possible: I don't know if I'm willing to let the ferry run tomorrow evening. I'm considering an evacuation, and that would mean keeping the river clear, too. As a favor to you, though, I could run it in the day... partway there. You'd have to fly the remainder of the distance."

"And carry my friends, I presume?" Gerardo grimaced. Flying with two ponies at once, even if one was a filly, sounded like an unreasonable load for cross-country travel.

"Maybe." Shinespark toughed the table, then leaned forward again. "The conditions for that are that you would have to stay in Riverfall for a bit. If you're not going to help us directly, I want to make sure you stay as far away from Ironridge as possible... and that would mean a quarantine. It sounds harsh, but I've done harsher. It wouldn't be for long, hopefully, but I don't know how much you know and can't take any risks, least of all right now. I'm sorry."

"...And the second condition?" Gerardo glanced keenly at her, managing to tear his gaze from Braen.

"Your friends will get an offer of their own," Shinespark said. "They may not want to go back with you. It isn't a decision you'll have time to make as a team."

Gerardo blinked. "I'm sensing you want for me to stay."

"I'd appreciate it." Shinespark nodded. "But it's your choice."

Gerardo pointed a talon at Braen. "And it's all right that we're discussing this in front of her?"

"She already knows."

"...I see."

For a moment, the room sat in silence. Eventually, Shinespark said, "You've been to Riverfall. You met my father, and whatever you did there, it earned his trust enough that he let you come here, to Ironridge, with some of the most valuable, exclusive, and dangerous information in the city... knowledge about where he is, what he's doing... You already know some of the best-kept secrets of our side. You haven't struck me as incompetent, and you've shown you have some things to offer our cause. Leaving for Riverfall isn't the only option. You could join us, instead."

Gerardo paused, picking apart her words. "Precisely what would such a job entail?"

"I'd tell you everything." Shinespark folded her hooves. "Everything. And then I'd trust you just as much as the precious few who also know. After that, you'd do everything in your power and more to help us. We're almost there, so it wouldn't take long. This isn't something you'd be committing years of your life to. But it will be messy and possibly dangerous, and would take one hundred and ten percent. We'll take care of your friends, so you won't have to worry about them. It would be just you... with an opportunity to do something truly great for the world. If you've ever felt like my ponies, like you'd do anything for a chance to make a difference... this is one of the biggest differences anyone will ever have an opportunity to make. What we're doing here is about more than just Ironridge. We could change the world."

Eyes narrowing, Gerardo glanced between Braen and Shinespark. "Something tells me you two are much more than casual business associates to be saying such things in front of each other."

Shinespark nodded. "That's easy to explain."

Further explanation didn't come, and Gerardo realized it was in lieu of him saying yes. He blinked, carefully contemplating. "Forgive me my skepticism, but in light of my experiences with this city, I feel it is well-earned."

"Of course." Shinespark nodded. "Ask all the questions you need."

Gerardo returned the gesture in appreciation. "I think I'll do just that..."

End Goal

Shinespark's conference room wasn't poorly lit, but the atmosphere was tense enough to physically change the shadows, drawing Gerardo's eyes to the edges and crevices and little dark spots filled with things unseen. Matryona had left at some point, leaving him alone with the room's real presence: Shinespark and Braen, sitting on opposite sides of the table yet both staring directly at him. He hesitated, throat briefly paralyzed.

"You were going to ask something?"

It was Shinespark who broke the silence, rocking a hoof back and forth on the table idly. She didn't break eye contact.

"Ah. Yes, of course..." Gerardo swallowed, and again was able to speak. "When I was leaving Riverfall, Arambai gave me a lengthy speech of advice. One of his primary points was to avoid becoming tangled up in choosing a side at all costs. You and him are on the same team, yet you request me to directly disobey his words? Because this is an invitation to take a side if I've ever seen one."

"We wanted you three to remain inconspicuous for as long as possible," Shinespark answered. "That's why we didn't ask you to stay a while when you were entering the city. Arambai said you had other business in the city to attend to, and really, it's a nice place on the surface. We wanted you to enjoy it... but not risk you getting too sympathetic with the Defense Force or the yaks. That's why he said that. It turns out, though, that the Defense Force did a pretty great job of alienating you on their own, so that didn't wind up being an issue."

Gerardo clicked his beak. "And how do I know that my friends actually are in good care, seeing as I haven't seen them in more than a day?"

Shinespark frowned. "Do I look like the kind of pony who would lie about the safety of ponies my father specifically told me needed to be protected?"

"A valid point..." Gerardo's talon lowered, his objections being dealt with one by one. "Now, you speak of sides, but who precisely would we be working against? The Defense Force and the yaks?"

"Ironridge isn't held in the grip of a malignant conspiracy," Shinespark said, shaking her head. "At least... I hope not. Where it is is crushed between opposing influences who all want the most they can get out of it without thinking of the ponies who live here, and yes, the yaks are a part of that. Remember, we're not working to make an Ironridge where there are sides who are winners and losers. We're working in the name of the city, against anyone who would try to stop us, and we have a plan. For now, our only enemies are those who are trying to divide the city further."

"And wouldn't that include her?" Gerardo pointed a talon at Braen. "From what I've heard and seen, the Spirit is slightly less fair and significantly more military in its approach."

Shinespark shook her head. "You can't change the rules by playing by what you want them to be. There's a lot of things we've had to do to get this far we'd never want anyone to do in an ideal world, but that we've had to do because if we pretended everything was honest and fair, someone would stop us. You'll need to be okay supporting someone who is slightly hypocritical... but I can assure you, my heart is in the right place and I believe in the world I'm working for. If my motives were anything less than pure, the Ironridge of today would be my paradise."

Gerardo squinted. "When you say 'a lot of things...' what kinds of moral atrocities are you referring to?"

A blue aura lit the room, and a padlock on a display case undid itself. Shinespark didn't move.

Instead, Braen got to her hooves with a clank of armor and walked to the case, interlocked plates moving seamlessly around her. She reached the open compartment... and stretched, one metal wing unfurling itself to its full gleaming length.

Gerardo's jaw dropped, light from above catching on individual metal feathers that flowed over each other with grace that made the rest of the smithery look like foals' play. It was apparent from their size and construction that no real wings could fit inside... wasn't it? "Those wings can move?"

"Yes, but that isn't the point." Shinespark watched Braen carefully, the metal mare reaching her wing like a hand into the case. She drew it out, held it over the table... and deposited a shard of smooth, black glass, polished to a mirrorlike sheen that absorbed all color, reflecting the ceiling above in grayscale. "This is. We've been using these ever since they first appeared, knowing full well what they can do to ponies who don't have brands. That's how far we're willing to go."

"I see..." Gerardo blinked slowly. "Would you at all mind if I made a specific request for a reward? While I am inherently dispositioned toward wandering hero work, it does very much help..."

"You can ask." Shinespark met his gaze as Braen slowly hid the dark stone away where it belonged, tightening the door on her way back. "If I can help, I'll make a good effort."

"Well..." Gerardo gulped. "My original task, as I have explained, was to deliver a set of crates to the Defense Force. My original goal, as I may have glossed over in an attempt to avoid divulging any knowledge that could prove sensitive, was to obtain in payment a Writ of Harmonic Sanction from Yakyakistan. Now, as my crates are very likely still in this city, and the payment may have been here to begin with-"

"We can do that," Shinespark interrupted. "Maybe not get your permission specifically, but if you want to go to the Plains of Harmony..." For the first time that meeting, she grinned. "You might be a lot more interested in exactly how we plan to fix Ironridge."

"Oh really?" Gerardo raised an eyebrow.

"Oh, really." Shinespark nodded, grin broadening. "Here's a hint. Sosa used to be the gateway between Ironridge and the rest of the northern world. Now, the Sky District is. If we want to give Sosa that role back without taking away what the other districts have..."

"Then it follows that you... need a new world to be the..." Gerardo breathed, eyes so wide they were watering from strain. "I have no idea how you plan to do that, but if I follow your implications correctly, you may consider me on board."

"Well, it seems we have a deal!" Shinespark beamed, getting up from her chair and trotting around the table to shake his talon. "Now, we've got a lot to cover, and as it's getting late and we have this bomb business to deal with tomorrow..."

"Expedience would be a virtue, yes," Gerardo finished for her. "Perhaps it would be useful for me to inform you of certain major points I've already deduced, then, to save the time of explaining them?"

"Oh?" Shinespark's brows rose. "What kinds of points are we talking about?"

"For one, I have a very accurate hunch as to the identity of the pony sitting silently inside that suit of armor there," Gerardo replied, unable to help feeling slightly smug.

Shinespark smirked. "Do you, now? Go on, let's hear it."

Gerardo bowed. "Of course. You see, I managed to embed my sword in her right front forehoof during our altercation in the forest, which would expectably warrant for her to have a limp. Additionally, she showed up in the Defense Force fortress on what was arguably a very foolhardy mission at precisely the time my friends may have been in need of a rescue. Now, this potential rescue attempt occurred shortly after I made a visit to Chancellor Dior, and was promptly shooed away as if he had somewhere very urgent to be. However, during my short time there, I could not help but notice he possessed a limp in his right front leg."

Eyes narrowing in impending victory, he pressed on. "Furthermore, as it is readily apparent now, you and Braen seem to trust each other significantly more than you're willing to let on in public, and you also have quite a high opinion of Arambai. As Arambai told me personally that Dior would be a trustworthy and versatile recourse should I ever find myself in an extreme amount of trouble... I propose Braen is not in fact a she, but a he."

Shinespark's jaw dropped slightly in awe, and she whistled. "That's remarkable," she managed. "You didn't even follow the clues we left. You just stumbled into that conclusion on your own..."

"...Clues?" Gerardo's pride faded to the kind of polite, innocent smile one gives when being accused of a crime they never even knew existed, slowly sliding into a frown of confusion and denial. "You... did what? I'm afraid I don't understand..."

"You're right about one thing," Shinespark said, dodging the question. "Dior is helping us. He's one of the most trustworthy ponies I know, and is one of the elite few who know every last secret Sosa has to keep. He's been in with us since the beginning, since before he snuck his way into the chancellorship through guile, luck, a bunch of superstitious yaks and a very useful brand. He's an invaluable ally who protects us from curious snoops like your friend Sharpie, who mean well but have no idea just how much is out there for them to stumble into. He keeps the yaks happy, the economic council competing against each other instead of Ironridge, and lets us have things like the weapons contract that supplies massive amounts of off-the-record funding. But most importantly? He's a scapegoat."

Her eyes were hard with determination as she talked, having long since abandoned her chair. "Dior intentionally set himself up so that, in case of a true catastrophe, he could take the blame. If the Spirit ever went too far... If they took what we tell them too literally and irreparably hurt our cause... he could be passed off as Braen, and stop them from taking down what really matters. It would be a tremendous setback, but it's a fall he's always been ready to take. Because the truth is that we can lose the Chancellor's office, and we can let Sosa lose hope, and we can lose contact with Riverfall and lose the Spirit and lose all of the factories to a flood and still have a chance, so long as the true keys to our salvation remain safe and intact."

Gerardo leaned forward, asking the most important question. "Then what is this mythical core pillar on which everything hinges? Who is inside that suit of armor, and how are they so important?"

Shinespark wore a mysterious smile. "Myths, you say? It's interesting you should word it that way..."

With a rustle of folding metal, Commander Braen's faceplate began to retract in on itself, her helmet folding back and out of the way. In less than a second, the rim of the armor's neck was exposed, its golden metal having completely retreated from the chinguard up.

Gerardo's jaw dropped, and he stared, speechless, at what he saw.

Meanwhile, Starlight

With a magnificent squelch, Starlight bit into a tangerine, practically purring as juices dribbled down her fuzzy chin.

"Clean that off, you," Maple murmured, looking up from her own meal to wipe the nectar away. "It'll get sticky if you let it dry."

Starlight dubiously accepted the treatment, then turned back to her food, beginning the process all over again. Maple groaned.

"You two certainly are carefree," a male voice remarked from a nearby doorway.

Redshift's brother Fernand leaned against the entrance, coolly observing Maple and Starlight as they sat on bar stools by a counter, a bucket of cores and rinds on the floor growing gradually fuller. "Enjoying the selection?"

"What is it," Starlight asked around a mouthful, already reaching for another piece from the basket on the counter, "with Ironridge and fruit? It's good, but it's like it's all everyone here ever eats."

Fernand blinked. "You aren't aware? Ironridge is one of the few places in the world with the climate to grow crops like these so perfectly. They're a cultural staple and the city's most renowned export, particularly now that we are no longer in the business of building boats."

"I kind of agree," Maple added, halfway through a papaya. "They really are delicious, but how healthy is a diet with this much sugar?"

"Well, there are other crops, too." Shrugging, Fernand drew up a stool alongside them and sighed, staring up at the ceiling. "The Stone District's reputation is for residences, but the terraces of its western half are largely for farmland, not roads. Wheat, rice, potatoes... But those can be grown anywhere. They aren't things for impressing foreigners."

At that moment, Elise walked through the door, practically gliding on stately hooves, an understated dress hanging from her shoulders that nicely complimented her sky-blue mane. "Hello, Maple, Starlight!" Her eyes lit up as if she had been searching for them for some time. "I wondered if you would still be here."

Maple shrugged. "Well, there's been no sign of our friend, so I don't see why not?"

Elise giggled, voice musical. "Oh, I meant in the kitchen. I recalled the twins interrupting your nap earlier, and spent all this time checking the bedrooms first!"

"What did you want to see us about, then?" Maple asked, ears twitching. In the distance, rain beat violently against the roof, its thick background rush the kind of noise one would only notice when it was gone.

"Nothing important." Elise's horn lit, light vanishing from the corners of the room as a ghostly, colored flame materialized in the fruit bowl and levitated her over an apple. "I'm just paranoid that the lights will go back out, and need something to do with myself."

Maple smiled back, taking a fresh piece of fruit in one hoof. She couldn't say it, but Blueleaf needed likely never worry about random power outages again. "Coming from a pony who's had plenty of bad happen over the past day and a half... I wouldn't worry about it. Maybe the world will give us a break today?"

"Maybe it will," Elise agreed, with a smile that was pleasant but unconvinced.

Rather than reply, she reached to take a bite... and found her hoof suddenly empty. "Huh?" She squinted, and slowly turned.

The peach sat on the dimly-lit countertop, being examined from a hair's breadth away by a pair of eager, slitted green eyes.

"Are you gonna eat that?" Valey's face asked, poking barely out of the shadows.

"Waaugh!" Maple flailed backwards, falling from her stool and landing heavily on her shoulder. "Ooomf!"

Elise and Fernand simultaneously rushed forward to help her, and were over halfway there when Valey stood entirely, holding the fruit morosely and looking down from the counter. "I guess that's a 'no,' huh?"

"Y-You!" Fernand froze in his tracks, a shaky hoof pointed upwards. "I'm aware of you! You're a Defense Force commander!"

Valey rolled her eyes and sighed. "Admiral..." she muttered under her breath.

"That was mean," Starlight protested from the side, her own fruit forgotten. "Could you say hello normally, for once?"

"Sister," Fernand demanded, "please remove this enemy combatant from our house at once!"

Elise ignored both him and Valey, however, kneeling and helping Maple up. "Are you all right?"

"Ooof... yeah..." Maple gingerly stood. "Just one more bruise to add to all the rest. Nothing a weeklong vacation and the world's fluffiest bed can't fix..." With a crack, she stretched, arching her back and making sure her spine was in proper place. "She's the one we were waiting for, by the way, so please don't start any fights."

At that, Elise finally looked up, acknowledging Valey's presence. "You are?"

"Valey," Valey belched. "Doesn't everyone know that?"

"You are their friend," Elise corrected, gentle eyes narrowing beneath her sky-blue mane. "Who they've been waiting here for?"

Valey shrugged, biting into the stolen peach. "Not my fault if they want to call me that, but I guess?"

Elise looked to Starlight for confirmation, Maple having already said her part.

"She's the one we were waiting for," Starlight repeated with a nod.

Carefully, Elise gave the batpony a final scrutinization... then drew back a step. "Very well." With a half-curtsy, she added, "Then you are welcome-"

"Sister, I must object!" Fernand loudly protested. "You know full well who she is! If we allow her to remain here, she might..."

"Might what?" Valey leaned over the counter edge like a vulture, smirking. "Eat all your fruit? Put all your dishes in the wrong cupboards? Tell a really bad joke? Here's one: what do you get when you cross me and a seagull?"

"That's perfectly irrelevant! Sister-"

"A see-eee-eeegull! Hah! Get it?" Valey grinned broadly.

Fernand gave her a stupefied expression.

"Nothing? Really?" Valey's face fell. "You stinking killjoys. That was worth at least a boo."

"Sister," Fernand groaned, "please do something about her!"

Valey lifted an eyebrow. "Okay, that's like the fifth time you've said that. And seriously, I'm trying not to judge, but it's giving me the impression here that you have a little thing for her, or something?"

"You two are ridiculous!" Elise giggled madly as Fernand sputtered. "Really, Fernand, she's not doing anything wrong right now. Have you even met her before?"

Fernand grimaced. "No, and I'm sorely wishing I had kept up that streak..."

"And neither have I," Elise hummed, bouncing her shoulders. "At least, not in person. So as long as she behaves, I'm perfectly fine with her being our guest."

"Uhh..." Valey hesitated, drawing a hoof to her chest. "Wow, thanks? Tip from a pro, though; never trust a bat. Like, you guys have heard the stories about me, right?"

"I have." Elise nodded. "I'm also a believer in judging ponies not by their pasts, but their presents. Unless you actively try to endanger or hurt my family and friends, you are welcome here."

Valey grinned, flexing a foreleg. "And what can you do about it if I do?"

"Then I will kick your rear all the way back to Yakyakistan, along with that of anyone who gets in my way," Elise replied, tone dangerously calm.

"Bwaah hah hah!" Valey doubled over, slapping the countertop and cackling. "You have no idea who I am if you think you can do that. But seriously, though, don't worry about it; I like you. Your kids are safe. And your, uh, 'brother.'"

Fernand bristled, but was finally smart enough not to respond.

Elise, however, smiled mysteriously. "I don't look like a very good opponent, do I?"

"Eh, you're just saying that to make me underestimate you." Valey waved a hoof. "You can probably do something crazy like punch out a yak or hit really hard with a frying pan. You are kinda shrimpy, though. But I'm invincible, so it's no contest."

Nudging Valey with a hoof, Maple interrupted. "I know you're having fun, but shouldn't we get going? The day's more than half over, and we still need to get all the way to Gnarlbough and then Sosa by nightfall..."

Valey grimaced. "Eeergh..." Staring up at the high, vaulted ceiling with its dark red coating and gold-trimmed supports, her eyes wandered to an upper window, pitch-black save for the ruthlessly pounding rain. "Are you guys sure about that? It's really nasty out there, and you were already basically ready to collapse. You'd barely make it past the city gates without dying of hypothermia. I mean, I'm in great condition, and the only reason I dared come back here was because it's nice and dry inside shadows."

"Well, what else are we going to do?" Maple shrugged, a slight note of desperation in her voice. "Gerardo is probably looking for us, and he'll never find us here. Besides, there's still a long time before sundown!"