Cal,

You do not answer when I knock on your chambers, but I know you are in there. It is your right as a friend to avoid me if you need time to think, but none have seen you for days. That is your right as our Guide, too. To think, and to meditate before you stake out a course for us to follow. If you need to think, then think. The escape of the Equestrians and all the recent dissent no doubt has your mind busy, and you know where to find me if you wish to speak. I stand by all I said and did during the strife. I long ago swore never to give you false counsel, and those words remain. Now, I think I shall swear never to hold my silence again, either.

That is not why I write this, though. I have yelled this at your door, but still you do not answer, so I put it in letters.

A winter-born came to me earlier today. Alustros of Winter’s Dawn. He claimed he had failed to gain your ear, and knew to ask me in his stead, but he did not explain his purpose—except to ask me to tell you that a Borthessa of Spring’s Song has failed to ‘check in’ twice.

Either Alustros is incompetent, thinking me so stupid that I do not understand, or you have told him I can be trusted. I think perhaps both are mistakes from your perspective now.

An hour’s inquiry has taught me that Borthessa told her friends she was asked to make a long journey the day your previous ‘visitor’ to the Grove returned. Alustros is your spymaster, and you have lost eyes on the Ephydoerans. Lost one of our number. Furthermore, the heron are gone. They left some time yesterday or the day before without a word.

Will you hear my thoughts on the Equestrians now? Are you ready to see reason, or will you cling to the support of those who speak your name the loudest? Koltares asks for your instructions, ready to chase after the Equestrians into the deeps of the jungle. He sits at your absent talon like an overgrown ghor-parrot. It is wrong of him to debase himself so, and wrong of you not to stop him. I think you know this.

Our home and all its kin, all is restless. Your people need you now more than ever.

I need you.

-Vel

Rainbow Dash stretched, yawned, and grabbed another bite of peach while she scratched her side with a wing. Speed was good. Stressing about stuff? Not so much. Instead of either, the three ponies did something in between, settling for the efficient yet unhurried routine that marked most their mornings. Food, water and packing up while they made small talk.

Dash felt something settle around her neck, and then at her back, Rarity fixing the strap of Dash’s saddlebags while Fluttershy secured the ohron.

Okay, perhaps this morning was a touch more hurried than most. In the interest of leaving the creepy statue and its underground chamber behind, Dash didn’t protest in the least. That didn’t mean she wouldn’t finish her breakfast, though. She even opened her eyes.

“I can’t believe we overslept,” Rarity muttered, shaking the considerably less wet blanket out. “Rainbow Dash? Would you carry the blanket again? It’s a lot lighter now.”

“Oh, I can take it,” said Fluttershy, smiling at her. In the glimmer of Rarity’s magic, the blanket folded itself and landed neatly atop Fluttershy’s back. Rainbow Dash let out one final, great yawn and tossed the peach core over her back. As an afterthought, she kicked out with a hindleg right before it hit the ground, sending the seed flying towards the gap in the stone tilework. It disappeared into the darkness left by the missing tile without a sound.

“Score,” said Dash, grinning to herself before she turned to Rarity. “And ‘overslept’? Really? We flew up a mountain. Twice. We all deserve two sleeps in a row, at least.”

Rarity frowned.

“What?” Dash asked. “You don’t—”

“I don’t think you can say ‘sleeps’,” said Rarity, shaking her head. “The rest is quite right, and I agree.”

Rainbow Dash laughed. “Okay, fine. Long naps? Nights of sleep? Who cares. If what you’re saying is that we can’t get away from this creepy place fast enough, I’m with you, really. Let’s go!”

Rarity had actually already started going, to be fair, but she’d come no further than the edge of the stone circle, four hooves scarcely on the dry and bare soil of the slope before she stopped. Ahead and below, the sunlight had already dried the treetops, and the sky was almost completely clear with not a raindrop in sight.

“I fully support going, but we never really decided on where, did we?” Rarity asked. She opened a saddlebag and peeked inside while she waited for a reply, muttering under her breath. Sigil box, check. Glass jar, check.

“Wherever we’re going, it’s gonna be slow,” said Rainbow Dash. While they’d no longer have to ford or fly across rivers with every step, she could tell the ground was sodden down below. Puddles everywhere, too.

“I thought we agreed that the glare beasts had to cross over the mountains,” said Fluttershy, stepping around Rarity. She pointed ahead and to the side—south, Dash noted.

“Yeah?” Dash asked.

Fluttershy yelped as she started sliding down the hill, her wings out for balance. She brought herself to a halt at the bottom of the hill, breaking her slide against a tree.

“I’m sorry, I thought we talked about it,” Fluttershy called from below. “If they’re having problems with the glare beasts in Ephydoera, and not in Vauhorn or Orto, or not any problems we’ve heard of, that means they probably cross over the mountains somewhere near Ephydoera.”

“With you so far,” said Dash. She leapt into the air and landed on the slope, sliding down the hill sideways, drifting and kicking up as much dust as she could. Her little journey came to a soggy end at the bottom when her hooves sank slightly into the soft soil. She stuck out her tongue and lifted a hoof out of the black soil, dripping with water.

Fluttershy shrugged. “We’ve been going north a lot since we left the Grove. First north from Ephydoera on the other side of the mountains, then north here in the Cauldron. We’re probably far north of Ephydoera, so I guess we could head south. Maybe there are some passes there we haven’t seen.”

Rarity took step after cautious step down the slope, brow knit in concentration and her teeth biting down on her own tongue. Rainbow Dash could already see her start to slide and casually took a few steps sidewards.

“You wanna go south. We came from the south,” said Dash, frowning slightly.

“Ah, no, no, nonono—help me!”

Predictably, Rarity started sliding just as they had. The hill was a lot more amenable coming rather than going. Rarity, despite her dramatics, slid down the hill backwards at a slow walking pace at best. Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes and extended a wing, cushioning her flank and stopping her descent.

“Oh. Thank you, dear,” said Rarity, breathing out a sigh of relief.

“Uh-huh. You know, you’re not getting away from stepping on the wet muddy ground,” Dash said, grinning.

Rarity turned around, stared at the mushy soil, sighed again and walked on with a wet squish. She stared at her hooves, every step bringing a new flavour of distaste to her expression.

“We’ve been messy for like… half our trip so far,” Dash added.

“Mm, it’s not very muddy, it’s just… icky. Besides, I managed to dry off and restore my coat to a semblance of its usual lustre yesterday, that’s why I’m not exactly looking forward to this.” Rarity shook her head. “Anyway, I have to agree, it feels a little strange to be walking back in the direction from which we came. Not that I can tell we are in fact backtracking.”

Fluttershy nodded ever so slightly. “I just thought that’s what we agreed to do yesterday. It’s just a suggestion anyway. We could probably keep going north if you really want to.”

“Eh, pass. You’re right. All the mountains further north are even taller, and I don’t know what else we’re gonna do. South’s a pretty good idea,” said Rainbow Dash with a shrug and a grin. “There’s gotta be a good place to cross there. There were some way smaller mountains east of where we slept the first night.”

“As long as we can avoid the Morrowsworn, which was why we headed north in the first place,” Rarity added, extracting her hoof from a particularly soft and wet patch of dirt with a loud schlorp. “And assuming we can even get there in the first place. At this rate, that’ll be a while.”

“Heh, yeah, no kidding,” said Rainbow Dash. “Let’s try flying a bit later tonight.”

“Yes. First, we’ll need to get south, and then we’ll… well, start looking, I suppose,” said Rarity. “I do hope you simply missed a particularly low pass. If the little beasts have a different way of crossing, like the Morrowsworn’s strange tunnel, I don’t see how we are going to find it. This would no doubt be difficult even if we knew exactly how these glare beasts get across the mountains.”

“That’s another thing Odasthan could probably tell us about,” Fluttershy agreed, sighing. She stepped over a low branch, her wings flaring up to keep their blanket from falling into the soaked soil.

Dash nodded. “Uh-huh. And as much as I don’t like to say it, he was super fast, too. Way faster than us, and he doesn’t have to go around trees and hills and stuff. We can’t even see where we’re going half the time. Speaking of which, I’m just gonna head up and check where we are.”

Fluttershy giggled. “I can still see the hill right behind us, there,” she said, pointing with a wing. Dash glanced over her back, and sure enough, they hadn’t even lost sight of the dry slopes of Creepy Hill.

“Right, okay,” Dash said, her cheeks itching. “Maybe it’s a little early. I’ll check in a bit.”

It was going to be a long day. She could tell.

“It’ll dry alright, I’m sure,” said Rarity, letting go of the blanket, folding it and putting it on top of Fluttershy’s back once again. “We’re lucky. With this humidity, it’s a miracle that any of these fabrics survive. The mark of quality, I suppose.”

“That’s good. I don’t know what we would do without that blanket, really,” said Fluttershy, letting out a sigh of relief. “We really do need to thank Ligilia for it again sometime.”

“And tell her of all the places the blanket’s been,” Dash added with a raspy chuckle. She reached out to touch it. It was a little damp and dusty both at once, but that was the worst of it. She ducked under a particularly adventurous root curving up into the air, her saddlebags nearly snagging on it. They made slow progress, but progress nevertheless. One moist, ridiculously warm step at a time. Rarity turned them slightly off their course and sat down on a flat stone that looked dry enough, wordlessly calling for a break. Rainbow Dash followed, and Fluttershy retrieved a half-full bag of water while she sat down.

“What about your own fabrics?” Fluttershy asked before biting down on the stopper. She opened it with a loud pop and gave it to Rainbow Dash, who gulped it down gratefully.

“I only have a few small rolls of silk left,” Rarity mused, glancing at her own saddlebags without opening them. “They survived the crash and the rain more or less intact, but I don’t quite know what I want to do with them. I honestly feel like I could make a dress. I think I’d like to. It’s hardly the place or the time for it, though.”

Dash gave the water back to Fluttershy, trading it for a peach. “Why not?” she asked. “You could probably whip up something before bed or whatever if you just wanna make something for fun.”

Rarity smiled. “Because I don’t feel like making something specific. I’d rather let my creativity run loose, and that’s something I do best when I’m comfortable.” She paused for a draught of water from the bag Fluttershy offered, smiling her gratitude, but she didn’t go on right away, glancing skywards instead. The sun pierced the jungle canopy, a blinding shaft of light touching the ground nearby.

“Right now, a glass of cold apple cider in my studio would be perfect,” the unicorn added. “Perhaps Applejack for company. She’s wonderful to work with, whether she feels like keeping quiet or talking about her day. I think I could make a wonderful dress with her body shape right now. Never mind the silks. I would work with… satins. Mm, yes.”

Rainbow Dash caught Fluttershy looking at her, and she smiled back at her girlfriend, stifling a chuckle she didn’t know the source of. Nothing about what Rarity said sounded ridiculous, really. She sounded dreamy, almost, talking about dressmaking the same way Rainbow Dash felt about lazing in her cloud-home right now.

The thought hit her like someone had tapped her on the chest with a hoof not ungently, the realisation that for the first time since she stepped onto the train to Las Pegasus, she felt really homesick. She’d love nothing more than to be back home in Ponyville, sharing a completely normal day with her friends, and with Fluttershy. To see what was different. A week or two ago, things hadn’t been the best, and she’d been glad of the distractions provided by this crazy place. Now, she felt good, and she could go for a slice of Ponyville. Or Cloudsdale. Or Canterlot. Wherever her friends were. Wherever Fluttershy was.

“I’d probably make her a matching hat as well,” Rarity added in a murmur. “Not to bother poor Applejack with more ‘frou frou fashion nonsense’ than I must, of course. It’d mostly be to make up for the atrocious lack of hats in this particular excursion. I rather suspect I know what Applejack would like in a hat by now, at any rate, and I could use any spare material to spruce up Twilight’s old dress.”

“I think that sounds wonderful,” Fluttershy said in a low voice. “I’m sure you’ll have all the time in the world to invite Applejack over when we get back home, you know.”

“Oh, I’m certain.” Rarity blinked, as though she woke from a dream, her eyes widening a touch. “Oh. Oh, but you mustn’t think I’m ungrateful for your modelling services here in Perytonia, either!”

“We didn’t,” said Dash, arching a brow. She glanced over at Fluttershy, who shook her head quickly.

“Never!”

“Good!” said Rarity, sighing. “Good. It’s simply, well... that’s six dresses made specifically for pegasus ponies—or rather, for particular pegasus and peryton concerns—all in a row, and this is hardly a place for dressmaking.” She frowned mightily at the jungle all around them as though she only now realised they were, in fact, in the wilds. Rainbow Dash grinned.

“Sure about that? You did make one dress here in the jungle. That yellow one? From the blanket?”

“I’m not quite sure what you mean,” said Rarity with an arch look and a sniff. “If you mean the dress we found under a rock, that one is clearly not my design.”

Fluttershy laughed first. A tiny snort and a giggle that set them all off, including Rarity, laughter echoing among the trees for a while until it trailed off into the relative silence of the jungle—meaning the sharp chatter of birdsong and a hundred other noises. “How about the two of you?” Rarity finally asked. “There are a lot of things we can’t exactly do while we spend all day travelling. What would you rather be doing?”

“We’re travelling, flying, eating weird fruit, and exploring creepy ruins,” Dash corrected her. “We’re doing lots of stuff here.”

“Oh, I don’t know,” said Fluttershy, deflating a little, sinking down until she nearly became a part of the rock—but though her ears wavered, she smiled all the same. “I worry about the animals back home, but I think I’m happy right here, really,” she said. “I wouldn’t mind not running for our lives or trying to escape for a change, though. I’m sure I could think of something else I’d like to do.” Her eyes slipped to her own saddlebags for a second before she shook her head.

Rainbow Dash stretched her neck left and right, looking away quickly, before anypony asked her what she wanted to do. She could do without admitting she just wanted to hang out with her friends, or that she wished her snout was healed so she could rub it along the ridge of Fluttershy’s short mane. Mushy stuff later. Right now, her wings itched.

“I’m gonna head up top to make sure we’ve actually gone south and that we’re not getting off course,” said Rainbow Dash. “You guys wanna wait here or come with?”

Fluttershy shook her head and smiled. “If you’re just checking our direction, I’ll wait. I’m a little tired, sorry.”

“That’s cool, back in a sec,” said Dash, waving a hoof and taking off. She didn’t blame Fluttershy one bit. She felt the heat wash over her the second she punched through the canopy, and her wings sagged mid-beat when she held a stable hover not far above the treetops. The sun was at the exact peak of its journey, and it didn’t get much hotter than this. She’d have to be quick.

North? There. Freaky hill? Probably one of the lumps way over there. Mountains? Yep. Looks familiar. They had stayed on course south, slower than ever. The last of the rain-clouds had long since dispersed, and the Cauldron was bare sky all around except an errant few clouds not too far off in the distance. She was about to head back down when she noticed one of the clouds fading from view, and another one slowly forming.

With the heat sapping her strength, she didn’t really have the energy to facehoof properly. She just angled her wings and cut a sharp descent back down to her friends. Of course.

“People know your regular mane-style really well,” Fluttershy was saying, her voice carrying amidst the trees. “But I’m sure they’ll still recognise you.” She giggled.

“Of course, dear, but at this point, some of my very brand in Ponyville is attached to my appearance,” said Rarity, touching her own mane. “If we come traipsing back into Ponyville like this, well, look at us. We look like adventurers. I’ll never be taken seriously again! Of course, this assumes we ever get back.”

“Oh, don’t say that!” Fluttershy scolded her.

“I know what he meant!” Rainbow Dash shouted. She landed with a wet squelch.

Rarity yanked the peach she nibbled on out of the way, and Fluttershy grimaced as she caught the worst of the splash from Rainbow Dash’s landing.

“Welcome back?” Fluttershy said, wiping her chest with a foreleg.

“We’re so stupid!” said Dash, pointing southwest with a wing. “He’s that way.”

“Who? The serpent? Did you see him?” Rarity asked, slipping off the rock to stand. “Darling, one bit at a time. How—”

“He said to chase the rain! Every time we’ve hit the air, there’s always been a few clouds about. Nothing much, just a few, right? Back me up here, Fluttershy!” said Dash, grinning. “I get it.”

“Um, I guess, yes,” said Fluttershy, frowning back at her. “I don’t know if they were rain, really, but it’s rare for the sky to be completely cloudless. There are usually a few clouds around here.”

“Not usually. Always. There’s only ever one set, and they’re moving!” said Rainbow Dash. “And yeah, they’re barely rain clouds at all. Remember when Odasthan gave us a ride? The feather-light showers following him all around? That’s him.”

“Oh,” said Fluttershy, blinking.

“I… haven’t seen this,” said Rarity, her brows high enough that it seemed they would fly off on their own. “But hearing it, this makes sense.”

“Of course it does! Come on—he’s heading north! If we head west from here, thattaway, we can probably catch him!” said Rainbow Dash. “All in favor of seeing if we can get a ride? Come on, let’s go!”

They didn’t waste more than a minute re-packing and setting off, but once they were moving again, the need for haste Dash felt couldn’t really speed them up much. Between the heat and the soft ground, they were back to a crawl. Rainbow Dash made a point of walking a little faster than usual, always a half-dozen steps ahead of the others to try to hurry them up a little.

“You’re very… enthusiastic about wanting to see Odasthan again,” said Fluttershy, who clearly noticed. She passed by the root Dash perched upon.

“Sure,” said Dash, shrugging. She hopped down and trotted ahead again.

“I’m glad, myself,” said Rarity, smiling. “Even if all the assumptions we’ve made are correct, we’ve amassed quite a few questions, such as what the Princesses really did here, if they really came to this awful Cauldron-place.”

“Or what really happened in that chamber,” said Fluttershy with a barely-suppressed shudder.

“And if ‘Yelgadar’ is the big bird in the picture, or if she’s the monster,” said Rainbow Dash.

“I think that is rather clear, really,” said Rarity, cocking a brow. “The big monster was clearly defeated, so the bird-creature must be this Yelgadar person. Creature. Whichever.”

“Well, that’s really just another assumption we’ve made,” Fluttershy chimed.

“Yeah, and if Yelgadar is burning stuff up all around the jungle and they’re always fighting, that makes her sound more like a monster than a creature,” Dash said, nodding.

“I don’t know that I feel I even understand those words anymore,” said Rarity with a sigh, her magic lifting some ferns out of the way while she passed. “Creature. Monster. I am going to call Odasthan a ‘he’, and I’d rather not call anyone a ‘monster’ unless I have to. Let’s just give the word ‘creature’ a rest as well.”

“Semantics,” said Fluttershy, nodding and smiling.

“What?” said Dash, squinting.

Fluttershy shrugged. “Talking about the meaning of words.”

“Yeah. That’s what I’m asking,” said Dash, kicking off into a short-lived hover, flying backwards. “What does it mean?”

“‘Semantics,’” said Rarity. “The word means… well, it concerns itself with the meaning of words.”

“There’s a word that means the meaning of words,” Dash repeated, touching down. “Wow. That’s… the dumbest word I know now, thanks.”

Fluttershy giggled. “You’re welcome.”

Rarity perked her ears and slowed down to a halt, stopping the pegasi as well. Now Dash heard and felt it too. The gentle rumble that presaged the great serpent’s coming.

“I thought he was really far away,” Dash muttered as a single, nearly weightless little drop of rain touched her snout, somehow finding its way through the trees. She hadn’t really thought they would manage to intercept Odasthan, judging by his course, figuring she’d have to take to the air and chase him down later in the evening or something, but a great shadow wound its way between the trees in their general direction before they had even started their ‘chase’.

“Now I know,” said Rarity, lowering her voice a touch while she unfolded their tarp and put it over Dash’s back, shielding their still moist blanket. “I think my first question, the most burning query in my mind, is ‘can you turn off that rain?’, because I’ve had quite enough of it for a while.”

::I can no more cease the waters than you can will your great hearts not to beat, but I am glad to have two visits in such short a time.::

Dash grinned. “Hi again. You heading south soon? Can we catch a ride?”

“Also, um, we have some questions. If you don’t mind,” Fluttershy added.

::Your flight across the mountains did not go well, then,:: the strange voice echoed in Dash’s mind. ::Or have you found a promising path and come to say goodbye?:: Try as though she might, Rainbow Dash struggled to give it character except ‘not Rainbow Dash’. Neither harsh or soft, the voice was just there.

“I wish,” Dash said, shaking her head. “Nah. We tried. I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but those mountains are really tall. There’s barely any air up there. It’s crazy.”

“We didn’t really ‘notice’, either, actually,” said Fluttershy giving Dash a flat look. “That’s why we crashed.”

“Point.”

“We think we have some plans at any rate,” Rarity added, smiling beatifically. “You’re sure taking us a little further south is not an inconvenience for you?”

::I follow patterns and purpose. Right now, they allow for south. I do not have ‘inconvenience’. I have right and wrong directions, and if this day did not allow for south, I would not have gone south. Do not worry about me and my labour.::

And south they went, straighter than the serpent had ever moved during their first little journey on his back. The three ponies sat on his muzzle, as comfortable as they could be on the hard scales, with the drizzle refreshing in Dash’s face, and the wind whipping her mane behind her.

“What happened here?”

Fluttershy’s words. No preamble, no lead-up, no explanation. The pegasus licked her lips, staring into the great serpent’s orbs. Dash couldn’t tell if Odasthan looked back at her or not, but his reply was immediate.

::Much has happened here, and most of it I have seen. All of this I remember. I also remember that barely a tilt of the wheel of seasons ago, you asked me another question, and I explained to you that I cannot tell you all.::

He paused. Fluttershy looked to Rainbow Dash, and Dash didn’t know what to say or do except shrug.

::In fewer words, you must be more specific,:: Odasthan said, a trace of mirth invading Dash’s thoughts alongside the words.

“We found a… room,” Fluttershy said. “Under a hill. Right north of where you found us, there’s a hill with a statue—”

“Shaped like an ice cream cone,” Dash supplied.

“I don’t think they make ice cream for dragons,” Rarity said, scoffing. “How would he know what an ice cream cone looks like?”

“He’s not a dragon!” Fluttershy said. She paused, blushed ever so faintly and drew breath. “There’s a hill with a spiral statue, a little bit like Rarity’s horn, and we went inside it. We found a… picture story, and I don’t know if we understood it right. Do you know anything about it?”

::Little,:: said Odasthan, lapsing into silence. Dash remembered that the serpent was given to silence while thinking, so she counted to ten before she asked.

“Little what? You know the hill or you don’t, right?”

::The hill is older than I am.::

Glances exchanged again. Rainbow Dash tried to wrap her head around that. Odasthan knew or had known the Princesses, and from what Dash now understood, the Princesses had been here before, but it had to have been a long, long time ago, and if this hill was older than that? No, she decided. She couldn’t, in fact, wrap her head around that.

“But you’re super ol—”

“I understand it’s perhaps a little insensitive to ask,” said Rarity, raising her voice to drown out Rainbow Dash. “But you said you were quite a venerable personage yourself.”

::Compared to some, I am, but compared to myself, I am my own age, and I have spent more time in my own company than I have in yours.::

Dash squinted. “That’s not an answer at all.”

Fluttershy shook her head. “It’s okay. You don’t have to answer, really,” she said, clearly trying to keep the disappointment out of her voice. “The place was really confusing, so we just thought we’d ask. Sorry.”

::It is not for a lack of desire to answer that I am quiet,:: the serpent replied. ::I am trying to remember anything you may want to know, but… I have many memories.:: Those last few words carried a heavy weight as they were planted into Rainbow Dash’s mind, leading into another short pause. Dash sat still, watching the jungle whisk by below, while the mountains all around them barely seemed to move at all.

::Perhaps you should tell me what you found inside this hill.::

Telling the story as they had read it shouldn’t have taken very long at all, but with all the minor disagreements on what the pictures meant, the ponies had to settle for describing the images as they had seen them, from the valley—without a jungle, as Dash insisted—to the heron, the peryton and the two princesses in the very last image.

“We don’t know that they were the Princesses, though,” Fluttershy cautiously added at the end. “I mean, they probably weren’t, really—”

“I told you, Luna’s basically told me she’s been to Perytonia before, and we know Celestia warned the peryton against the heron,” said Dash, throwing her hooves up in the air.

“Perhaps,” said Rarity. “We’re fairly sure they’ve met with the peryton before, even though that is a lot of conjecture, guesswork and the words of people we really did not get along with. We of course have this gentle… gentle-serpent? We have our kind chauffeur's insistence she met them, of course—” she said with a gesture to the silent serpent who glided through the jungle with barely a sound. “But we don’t know that they came here, exactly.”

“Ugh, you’re doing the Twilight thing,” said Dash, sticking out her tongue. “All ‘well, technically’ and stuff.”

“Well, we don’t know, that’s why we’ve asked, um,” said Fluttershy, pointedly looking past Rainbow Dash and Rarity to the other end of the serpent’s head. “I’m sorry. Are we being loud?”

::I was thinking. And I enjoy listening to you speak.::

Fluttershy smiled brightly. “That’s nice. I’m glad.”

“You should come to one of Pinkie’s parties, or Applejack’s next Barn Slam,” Dash said with a chuckle. “It doesn’t get livelier than that, but I guess you don’t get a week off anytime soon, huh. That’s the story, anyways. Do you know it? Because you’re in it. You and the bird you’re always fighting or whatever.”

::Your words worry me. You misunderstand. We do not fight. We co-exist. We are opposites, we undo the work of the other, but in our differences, we create what neither of us could bring into existence separate.::

“Fine, okay, whatever,” said Dash, waving a hoof. “But the story—”

::Is accurate. That is how Yelgadar and I came into being. Celestia and Luna brought down the Fell, and from its core they made us.::

“Made,” Dash said. The word bounced off her head and escaped back through her mouth, failing to find purchase. It didn’t fit anywhere.

“I don’t understand,” Fluttershy said, her voice faint.

“You don’t mean—” said Rarity, interrupting herself, never finishing her sentence.

“They’re your moms?” Dash blurted.

Odasthan’s ethereal laughter echoed in Rainbow Dash’s thoughts long enough for her to blush and regret saying it. ::No,:: he said. ::Not in a way as you know it. From the Fell, we were made. Something better, something with a purpose instead of what came before. Creation and the cyclical instead of destruction and the consumptive. They were different times. I do not know I can put it into terms that you will find easier to understand now. From what I have seen of the world, even during the time of the Curinion, the terms of this world changed.::

“You mentioned that before. The Curinion. Who or what is that?” Dash asked, grasping for something, for anything to frame all these words and thoughts. Everything Odasthan said felt weird, disconnected, like it had nothing to do with them—or the Princesses she knew.

::A friend. I prefer not to speak of it. It is not relevant. Not related.::

And that certainly didn’t help.

“But this means you know of the heron,” Rarity pressed.

“If this was how you were born,” Fluttershy added. “Then what happened afterwards with the heron and the peryton leaving this place...” she said, looking pointedly to the side, to the dense jungle and the mountains surrounding them. “Did you, um, well… experience that? Do you know anything about it?”

::I know not to engage with the heron more than I must. It has been a very, very long time since any of them came near, so I think they must know we are done with each other. And why would they come here? What would they want with me?::

“What do they want with anyone?” Rainbow Dash asked, frowning. “No one's ever explained that to us.”

::I wonder if even they know their own agenda. Neither Yelgadar nor I can help you. Celestia and Luna told us what they knew when they taught us. They told us to be wary.::

“The same thing they told the peryton,” said Fluttershy, shaking her head. “It’s just like the First Stories that the peryton tell. It really doesn’t make it more clear.”

::Then you misunderstand. It is as clear as a droplet of rain, there simply is no more to tell.::

“Uh. No? There’s way more to tell. Like the creepy underground room? The weird glass and the symbols?” Dash said. “How do you explain that?”

Odasthan shrugged. Shrugs didn’t usually make sound, but then, Rainbow Dash didn’t usually speak with people who put words into her head either, so now she heard a shrug.

::I meant the heron themselves. Your guesses were correct and the pictures are clear, simple even though I did not see this for myself. The heron brought the peryton the tools to bring forth the Fell and goaded them into its creation. From the Fell sprung Yelgadar and I. Had Celestia and Luna not come, the Fell would have devoured the mountains and all within them. That is the craft of the heron, and what Celestia then called the final straw for her to banish them.::

“Oh,” said Rainbow Dash, who still didn’t think that was very clear or simple, but she certainly caught the gravity of the serpent’s words. She felt a lump in her throat even while she wondered if she really believed this. Maybe the problem was that the words were too simple for what he had said. Fluttershy’s face was ashen, and Rarity frowned deeply.

“When you say ‘devour the mountains’, that is a metaphor for what, exactly?” Rarity asked.

::It is not a metaphor.::

“I see,” said the unicorn. She let out a deep breath and retrieved their last bag of water, taking a long drink before she levitated it over to Rainbow Dash. “Next time we pass a river or something, would you fill it? Thank you.”

“Yeah. Sure,” said Dash.

The sun continued its journey, and for a while, the three ponies sat in silence atop Odasthan’s muzzle, carried along effortlessly. With some pleasure, Dash noted that they were moving really fast now. She recognised the first pass they had tried fall behind them far to the east. Once, Odasthan let them off to collect some food and water, mentioning a very bountiful grove. He circled the area once before he returned to pick them up again.

Maybe he was glad for their company even in the relative silence that followed. Dash had no way of telling, and she was glad herself—he was big enough that if he tried to smile, they’d probably fall off their perch. The serpent hadn’t asked them where they were going. ‘South’ was good enough for all four of them for the moment, it seemed. Four, plus the small flock of colourful birds that trailed them ever since their little foraging break. Fluttershy had said hi, and that was enough for the birds to want to follow for a little while, darting about in the air behind them. Dash thought she caught the great serpent’s eyes moving once, turning to look at their play.

The quiet had held long enough, though. Dash imagined the others were busy thinking about all these musty words and thoughts about the distant past. Dash resolved she would ask Luna about it when she got a chance, but that was all she could really do, wasn’t it? She still had more questions, and for all she knew, the way out of the Cauldron could be behind them. They needed to ask about that soon—and there was one other question she was surprised none of her friends had asked.

“What about the peryton?” Dash asked. They would be further to their east, and a little south. She thought she recognised the mountains over there, where the Bow was at its lowest. Somewhere over the hills and past the trees was the city where they had spent days in captivity.

::Hm?::

“There were peryton here before, right? If the peryton made this Fell thing and then kicked the heron out or something, why did they leave this place and head over to Perytonia? Was this Perytonia before?” She frowned, mentally bracing for some more ‘simple’ words that turned everything she knew on its head.

::They left. Though it has always been thus in my time, I also know this place was not always the Cauldron of Storms. Once Yelgadar and I started our work, the weather here made things grow quickly. I understand that made this place a poor home for others.::

Or not. Maybe some things were simple. At least there was a win for Dash here. “Told you there wasn’t a jungle here before,” said Dash, grinning at Rarity. Rarity rolled her eyes, and Fluttershy giggled.

“I guess the graffiti artist put a lot of effort into their work after all,” said Fluttershy, shaking her head. “What about the peryton who live here now? Do you know them?”

“Oh yeah. The Morrowsworn. Do they bother you? Do you bother them?” Dash asked, tilting her head sideways. “I mean, if you know everything that happens here, you know you have a bunch of jerks living right over there, don’t you?” she waved a hoof in their general direction.

::They rarely venture deep into the jungle. Sometimes I notice that they have visited Yelgadar’s paths to collect ashes, but they have not tried to speak.::

“That’s a shame. If you were friends, maybe you could just… convince them to let us through,” said Fluttershy, sighing.

“Yeah. Those mountains are way, way smaller,” said Dash, scratching gently at her itching, aching snout as she considered them. The peaks to the far east were about the height of the first pass, which was to say still ridiculously tall, but the lowest passes looked a lot more manageable. Hard to say for sure from here, but they didn’t look like they held a candle to the northern passes.

“I don’t suppose you feel charitable enough to fly us over there and let us over the mountains?” Rarity asked with a hopeful smile. “I imagine they’d think twice about bothering us if we fly over their city with you.”

::I would rather not force myself into their lives. They are new to this place, and they manage to live in peace with the Cauldron.:: The great serpent banked ever so slightly side to side, swaying and moving a touch more snake-like for a while as he cut through the jungle, the ponies barely shifting at all on top of his muzzle. ::It is impressive. I do not wish to ruin a good thing. They are a good thing.::

“Good?” Dash said, snorting. “Yeah, I don’t know about that.”

“The Ephydoerans in Perytonia below fight the things that come from the Bow,” said Fluttershy, fidgeting. “And the Morrowsworn live up here with no—well, we don’t know that they live here without problems, but they seem to be doing okay.”

“They’re not self-styled ‘warriors’ like the Ephydoerans, at least,” Rarity remarked, shaking her head. “I don’t know if I feel that absolves them, but I can see how they’re different.”

::You’ve mentioned other peryton before,:: the voice in Dash’s head said, sounding a little more lively and alert now. Less of a storyteller, more engaged. ::More of the Curinion’s people still live over the eastern side of the Cauldron?::

“Yeah. They’re way different from the guys up here, heh,” said Dash.

“They’ve bred apart for a thousand years, dear. The more I think about it, I’m surprised that there are any similarities at all,” Rarity said, her eyes on the same eastern mountains as Dash’s own.

“They still keep in touch. Or, keep eyes on the others, at least,” Fluttershy said, shifting her wings on her back. “I bet they could be friends if they tried, really. They’re only trying to do what they think is right.”

“We discussed that, dear,” said Rarity, lowering her voice a touch. “There’s not much we can do about what they believe.”

“Whatever. Right now, I wish they’d just look away for long enough for us to get out of this place,” Dash said with a grunt. “Maybe we should just try sneaking past them to see if we can find that stupid tunnel they used to get us up here.”

::A tunnel? If there is a way out, and you seek to get out, why haven’t you used it?::

“We’re not on speaking terms with them, really,” Rarity explained with a sniff.

::Ah.::

“Yeah,” said Dash, frowning. “It’s dumb. Whatever, we don’t know if they patrol the area. I don’t know if they can even catch us if we just fly as fast as we can past them, over them. Maybe we should just try.”

“We underestimated the mountains before. Even if the mountains there aren’t nearly as tall, the slopes are really long. We’d have to stop to rest,” said Fluttershy. “I don’t… I don’t know if I like taking the chance. They had those strange heron stones that ruined Rarity’s magic. Maybe they have something else, too.”

“I have to agree,” said Rarity, shaking her head. “If there are any other options, I’d rather explore that, first.”

Dash stuck out her tongue and exhaled loudly, even though she agreed. They didn’t really have any other plans or options, they just had a vague idea.

“Yeah, so, the whole fire-chicken thing,” said Dash. “And the thing we really meant to ask about, since we’re talking about getting out of here.”

“You’ve seen a chicken, Rainbow Dash,” Fluttershy retorted. “You know they weren’t chickens.”

“Our other plan was to follow these glare beasts, or ‘gadar-spawn’ if you like,” said Rarity, turning to the serpent. “Now, I understand you said you don’t leave the Cauldron, but these little burning creatures certainly do. They’re causing all kinds of mischief down in Perytonia, to hear the Ephydoerans tell the tale.”

::I did not know that, but even if I am surprised, I think it is like weather escaping the Cauldron—hm. No.:: Odasthan paused briefly. ::The weather bringing life to the continent is the purpose of the Cauldron. The spawn leaving the Cauldron, that is… perhaps an accident. Horn trimmings falling between the cracks. I do not think there is a solution to that.::

“Yeah, we’re not trying to fix that,” said Dash, shrugging. “We were just thinking of finding out where they go. Unless those chickens fly over the mountains even we couldn’t get through, they’ve gotta have some sort of secret passage or whatever.”

::Perhaps.::

Fluttershy rubbed at a foreleg with the other. “You haven’t seen any secret passages, have you? I don’t remember if we actually just asked you if you know of any way out of here, we just told you how we’re trying to get out of here.”

::I would have told you when first you mentioned seeking to leave. No. I am sorry. If you wonder about the spawn, you would have to ask Yelgadar herself.::

“I was afraid you would say that,” Fluttershy said, sighing and curling her tail about her body as much as she was able—barely touching her own flank with her short little snippet of hair. Dash chuckled and reached out to rub her side with a hoof to repair her frown a little bit. Sure, Fluttershy sounded about as enthusiastic about the prospect as she did whenever storm season draft rolled around, but she didn’t shy away, and that counted for something. Dash reached out with a wing to wrap around her adventurous girlfriend, too.

“Then I suppose we’re going to go see the big bird who is probably on fire,” Rarity said with a shake of her head. “I don’t suppose we could trouble you for directions?”

::I hear despair in your voices. Again you must understand that our differences do not make her the enemy. Long ago when Tadar the Elder wandered into the Cauldron, he confided that he found her more agreeable than he did me. It is not so simple. Yelgadar and I were set into motion long ago, and ever have we been this way.::

“But she’s on fire?” Dash asked.

::Well, yes. She is very much on fire.::

Evening had already come, so they travelled part-way into the night. Not wanting to get their poor blanket any more wet than it already was, Rarity put on her simple travelling dress for warmth, and the three ponies ate and drank on the move. Fluttershy apologised for the spills despite Odasthan’s assurances that he neither felt anything nor minded the crumbs and fruit juice soon washed away by the rain.

Rainbow Dash noticed a change in the jungle below them. The trees were always verdant, green and lively where the serpent swam through and between their branches and leaves, but a little further out, away from the swath of green left in their passing, things looked different. Patches of burnt and hollowed-out trees. Groves of ash, and once, a dried-out riverbed with both banks scorched and blackened.

When the serpent slowed, the moon shone through the wispy clouds that ever formed above his body. Rainbow Dash hadn’t known he could go any slower. He only ever seemed to move at one speed. Now, with the ponies still on his head, he moved in slow, large circles, creating a vibrant patch of green in a mostly desolate part of the burnt jungle.

::This is as close as I will go to the other side of the Cauldron. Any more and I will interrupt the planned cycles with a storm not warranted. Yelgadar will be confused about this incursion already, and I have made much work for her.::

“How do we find her?” Fluttershy asked, her tone suggesting she very much hoped that the answer would be “you don’t”.

::You wait for a night when she is ascendant and follow her flame.::

“And without the riddles?” Dash asked, raising a brow. “Because the whole ‘follow the rain’ stuff was stupid.”

::I am sorry you think so,:: Odasthan replied. ::You follow her flame. I do not know how much simpler I can make this. Perhaps I do not understand things as you do.::

“Ah. No, I see,” said Rarity with a pained grimace. “Because she’s the huge fire we could see from all the way across the Cauldron. You mean it literally.”

::As I meant for you to follow the rain literally, and you did. You understand. You also doubt yourself much, you three.:: Rainbow Dash heard an echoing laugh in her mind. ::Another sense in which you remind me of Celestia and Luna.::

Dash laughed right back. “Doubt? The Princesses?”

“I don’t know that the Princesses struggle with that,” said Fluttershy, clopping her hooves together. Rarity’s face was blank, one brow raised a smidge, but she said nothing.

::Perhaps times have changed,:: the serpent said, still pulling the great circles. ::I noticed the moon changed recently, however. I can tell they are as busy as ever.::

“Uh, yeah, that was kinda our fault, actually,” said Dash, scratching her head. “Whoops.”

“If you don’t mind, um, there’s something you said that I’ve been wondering about, actually. Before we leave,” said Fluttershy, her wings tight to her body.

::Yes?::

“You said you thought the Princesses would think you were… ‘details’. Why would you say that?” Fluttershy asked.

::Because they do much. Or did much. Some change the world more than most, while others change little. They are the former as are you. Yelgadar and I are the latter. Do not think that I am unhappy about this—but when you return to wherever they stay now, will you tell them that Yelgadar and I said ‘hello’? I think of them much. If either or both of them would visit within the next few thousand seasons, it would be a pleasant surprise.::

“Of course,” said Rarity with an emphatic nod.

“We’d be happy to,” Fluttershy added, smiling.

“Sure!” said Rainbow Dash.

::Then I think I will let you go. You have been a wonder. I look forward to the next time people such as you visit,:: he said, the head lowering to the ground, and just like all the other times Odasthan had stopped, his body and tail coiled behind him, refusing to stop. Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy and Rarity all hopped off the great serpent’s snout, landing on the dried-out ground together.

::I hope you find Yelgadar amenable, and I know your disagreements with the Curinion’s people here in the Cauldron will end in peace for all. With kindness in your hearts, it will.::

“I’m sure it will,” said Fluttershy, waving at Odasthan. The great head nodded once, slowly, a rare physical gesture from the serpent whose body seemed so disconnected from the voice they spoke to so much. Without another word, he disappeared back into the jungle, hidden by the leaves that only sprung where he moved, pointing back north.

“At least, I hope it will,” Fluttershy added when the serpent had gone and the rumbling subsided. She spoke to the divide between the dry dirt and the green jungle left by Odasthan’s passing. They were words the ponies had used so many times during their imprisonment by the Morrowsworn: “It’s all just a big misunderstanding with these Morrowsworn. They don’t really understand the Princesses.”

“Do we?”

Rainbow Dash perked an ear at Rarity’s answer, which was also a question. The unicorn’s brow was set in a worried frown.

“What do you mean? We know the Princesses,” said Rainbow Dash.

“What we know seems very far away from… from this,” said Rarity, waving a hoof to the odd, split landscape around them. She probably meant all of this. Everything they’d learned.

“So what?” Dash said, shrugging. “I didn’t know Fluttershy before first year of flight school. I know Fluttershy.” She tugged the pegasus in question close with a wing, Fluttershy letting herself be led closer and smiling in return. “I met you just after we moved to Ponyville, and I didn’t really get to know you before Twilight moved into the library. I know you, don’t I?” She grabbed Rarity as well until they all stood side by side.

The unicorn sighed, but smiled all the while as well. “Yes. You’re right, of course, and I appreciate the sentiment, darling, I do, but even if these Morrowsworn don’t tell the same stories and don’t remember the same details as the other peryton—and even if they don’t know the Princesses very well—I think I understand where this fear and awe came from, at least. Surely, you can see that. We’re surrounded by things they’ve supposedly done.”

Fluttershy leaned past Rainbow Dash looking to Rarity with her head at a tilt. “That’s true, but… I don’t know that I think just learning about someone’s past, or seeing their past in a different light means you should suddenly think a good person is a bad person. Maybe if they did something really bad? Maybe not? But I don’t think this is like that.”

Rainbow Dash flicked her ears in annoyance. “Yeah! Come on, Rarity. Are you saying we should blame Princess Luna for all the Nightmare Moon stuff, too? We’re way past that!”

“I said no such thing!” said Rarity, indignant. “I said that I understand where their fear comes from. It’s of course ridiculous to hold this against anyone, and I don’t even know there is much to hold against the Princesses here, I only meant that this misunderstanding comes from somewhere other than thin air. They’re afraid for a reason, even if the reasons are silly.”

“Right,” Dash grunted. It wasn’t like Rainbow Dash didn’t get it. Sure. Ponies who did scary things were scary. That was how things worked. On the other hoof, she couldn’t quite forget Princess Luna’s pained expression when Dash told her that the Morrowsworn peryton were afraid of Selyria. Afraid of Luna. “Okay. Sorry,” she muttered. “It just really cheeses me off when… ugh, all of this is stupid. The Morrowsworn stuff I mean. The stuff that happened here in the Cauldron isn’t stupid, that stuff’s just weird.”

“I’m sorry, too,” Fluttershy added, her ears drooping. “I didn’t mean to sound angry.”

Rarity rolled her eyes. “And you didn’t, darling dearest, I just…” she touched her mane with a hoof and sighed helplessly. “I don’t know what we are talking about any more, if I have to be honest. Even if we know almost all the facts, as Twilight would say, I still have no clue what to think of this.”

“I know I wanna ask the Princesses about it,” said Dash, pushing her saddlebags a little further back on her body. “Does that count? And we don’t know all the facts. We don’t know where to find this Yelgadar person. Thing.”

“We have a pretty good guess,” said Fluttershy, pointing past Rainbow Dash. Even before Rainbow Dash had turned all the way around, she could see the glow at the edge of her vision.

In many ways, it felt like they were chasing the sun. The three ponies trekked across dry ground, which was nice, towards a bright corona with a glimmering core that hurt Dash’s eyes—which was less nice. Having spent the entire day riding Odasthan, the idea of sleep simply never became a topic, and the ponies ate on the move for fear that the light would disappear. Dash remembered well that on some of the nights they’d seen the bright glow in the distance, it’d simply winked out.

Leaving behind the circle of verdant grasses and plant life Odasthan had created, living trees became as scarce as the burnt paths had been in the northern part of the Cauldron. Dash couldn’t believe how fast Odasthan must have moved to get them this far south so quickly, but now she realised that they moved at a good speed, too. Looking directly at the light was pointless in trying to judge any progress. Instead, she noticed that the shadows cast by the dry and desiccated jungle sharpened.

A tree cast a blurry shadow where before it hadn’t. Perhaps an hour later, the shadow was clear, and now she could tell the glow ahead had… not grown, but rather, sharpened, just like the shadows. Rarity took off her dress even though it was the middle of deepest night. It had gotten warm, but the ponies were hardly strangers to walking in the heat. Dry ground and no obstructions made for swift travel. They were at an easy trot when the glow started to widen, no longer occupying just one single point ahead. They were drawing near.

“What do we say?” Fluttershy asked.

“‘Hello’?” Rainbow Dash suggested.

“I mean, what do we ask?”

“‘Hello, where do your flaming chickens that are kinda like horn shavings according to this big serpent you’re play-fighting with all the time go to get away from these mountains?’” Dash said, glancing over her back. She grinned, getting a flat look in return.

“That’s assuming we can even communicate with… whatever is up ahead,” said Rarity. The unicorn squinted, clearly trying to look dead ahead and failing.

“Odasthan seemed to think we could, at least,” said Fluttershy, sounding a little doubtful herself.

“Odasthan thought everything he said was ‘simple’,” Dash countered, rolling her eyes. “Even the peryton in Vauhorn understood that some of the stuff they said wasn’t obvious. Well, some of them did.”

The entire jungle was bright enough to be on fire now. If Princess Luna had forgotten to raise the moon this night, Rainbow Dash doubted she would have noticed. A bright yellow-orange light blazed like a tiny sliver of the sun placed on the ground, painting one side of every burnt-out tree and the ponies’ faces with same-coloured light that burned uncomfortably hot. No, ten steps ago, Dash’d felt uncomfortably hot. Now she felt like she had her face too close to the fireplace, and with every step her body told her to stop, that she was doing something exceptionally stupid. She shielded her eyes, waking at an awkward three legged walk for a few more steps, then turning to her friends. Rarity’s eyes were closed, and she leaned against a tree. Fluttershy held a wing in front of her face.

“Okay, this isn’t working, what the hay is this?” Dash shouted, even though there was no competing sound. In fact, it had gone more quiet than ever. Even in the mostly-dead jungle, there’d always been some sound in the background. Either birds or the distant warks of glare beasts they never saw. Now, dead silence reigned, but the light felt loud.

“I don’t think we can go any further,” Fluttershy replied, just as loud. “We have to go back!”

“Why is it still getting hotter?” Rarity yelled.

Rainbow Dash saw why. Or rather, she felt why. Unable to look directly ahead, she still caught movement in the corner of her eye, in the shifting of the few shadows that still survived. Something large moved, but unlike Odasthan’s approach, there was no rumble, no shake of the earth. The thing ahead was large, but not heavy. Immense, and if it moved, it was with ginger steps.

Rainbow Dash saw the shape of a wing extend out of sight, the shadows dancing madly, suddenly expanding, now disappearing. The heat bloomed, and Dash felt like she was on fire for a second before the blaze died down, evening out at the cozy sensation of only being slightly on fire.

::Pony-kin.::

“That’s us!” Dash said. She stepped fully behind the nearest tree, but it barely helped at all. Still her heart beat madly, her eyes hurt, and her entire body ached under the stress.

“Yelgadar, I presume?” Rarity asked, her voice strained. “I don’t suppose we could ask you to be a little less… bright?”

“And burning,” Fluttershy added. She lowered her wing just a touch, looking at her own feathers as though she expected them to catch fire. “If it’s very rude to ask you to stop, I’m sorry, but this is very, very hot!”

::I can no more quell these flames than you can will your clever minds to dullness, but we will speak. Hold!::

“Hold wha—” was as far as Dash got before another wave of heat washed over her, nearly blasting her off her hooves. Her own startled yell was drowned out by Fluttershy’s and Rarity’s yelps of fear and surprise, and a moment later, a strong draft pulled Dash in the opposite direction, smacking her into her hiding-tree side first, knocking the air out of her lungs. One of the small twisted branches on the ground next to her caught fire.

And then the heat relented. So did the light. Rainbow Dash shook her head violently from side to side to try to put her brain back in its place. Yelgadar had taken off. Where she had stood a moment before, Dash now saw a vast open glade of nothing but ash. Yelgadar herself sailed in generous circles far above the ponies, never once flapping her wings. Rainbow Dash heard Rarity draw a shuddering breath, while Fluttershy let out a deep sigh of relief, wiping her forehead.

::You come with purpose. I see it on your skin. You come bearing desire.::

Talking to someone who didn’t talk would never be normal. Rainbow Dash had gotten used to chatting with Odasthan while he carried them, but connecting the voice in her head with the shape in the sky didn’t come easy.

“We were hoping we could ask you about the glar—err, the Gadar-spawn!” Rarity yelled, her head turned to the sky.

::Not so loud. I hear you fine.::

Rainbow Dash chuckled privately. Odasthan had said something of the same. Perhaps he had even used those exact same words.

“My apologies,” Rarity said, clearing her throat. “But yes, we were hoping you could tell us something about your… children.”

::This is a strange passion, but ask! It is not often anyone ventures this deep.::

Dash blinked. She looked over at Rarity and Fluttershy to see if they, too, had noticed, but Rarity seemed intent on their conversation, and Fluttershy’s eyes were on Yelgadar high above as well. It was probably nothing. Rainbow Dash shook her head and squinted. Outlined against the sky, Dash thought she could see the bird’s shape, wings, talons and all. Definitely a bird of some sort, though bright and shifting, as though molded from flame.

“Well, yes,” said Rarity. “It wasn’t really something we planned for, if I have to be honest. We’re trying to get out of this place. I don’t know if you’re aware that these children of yours are leaving the Cauldron—”

::I was not.::

“—and we certainly don’t mind either way, of course,” Rarity hurried to add. “But we were wondering if you know where or how they leave. Perhaps we could leave the same way, that’s all.”

::It is no matter where the motes blow, but if I did not know they left the Cauldron of Storms, how would I know where or how?”

Rarity’s mouth hung open for a second and shut with an audible clack before she sighed through her nose. “That is all very… logical,” she added. “Thank you regardless.”

Rainbow Dash finally decided that the mind-speech did come with a voice. Listening to Yelgadar now, she realised Odasthan had in fact had his own, distinct voice, noticeable only in contrast to the way the bird now spoke. Yelgadar’s words pierced her thoughts rather than wash over them like Odasthan’s. She waited for Yelgadar to speak again, but the great bird circled them in silence, wordless for a minute while the ponies exchanged looks.

“What now?” Rainbow Dash asked.

“I don’t know,” said Rarity, shaking her head.

“I… guess we’re going back to the eastern mountains,” Fluttershy said.

::You are not asking the right questions.::

Rainbow Dash gave a start. She had thought the ponies had been dismissed, but the sudden voice inside her head said otherwise. She glanced skywards—even if it made no difference—waiting for an explanation.

::We could speak for a thousand seasons and still there would be things to say.::

“I… hang on,” said Rainbow Dash. She definitely remembered those words. Now she was sure: half of the things Yelgadar said were words she had heard from the serpent.

::You must ask where they would go. How they would go. Not where they go, or how they have gone. Motes could not climb the mountains. They would go through.::

“I’m not sure I understand the difference,” Fluttershy said, scuffing the ground.

“The difference is that it’s hypothetical,” said Rarity, frowning. “I don’t understand why that matters, but very well. Where would they go? We asked Odasthan, and he said he didn’t know of any way out of here.”

::The southern lance. He would not know it. He does not visit the corners of my side of the Cauldron, as I do not visit his. This is the cycle. At the southern edge lies the tunnel where, long ago, the Curinion’s people passed through to elsewhere.::

“A tunnel,” said Dash, grinning. “Alright, now we’re getting somewhere! Or ‘elsewhere’. We’ll take whatever. Where is it? Can you show us?”

::The lance fell long ago, and leads down into the deeps.:: The great bird dove a little lower, circling closer to the ponies. Once more the heat grew uncomfortable, and the entire jungle lit up, bright as day under the great flaming wings. ::It is a dark place, and you cannot pass.::

“We… we can try, maybe? What does a ‘dark’ place mean, really?” Fluttershy asked, nibbling her lower lip.

::Not dark as in dark and light. Beasts wander up from the earth.::

“Metaphorical dark,” said Fluttershy with a sigh. “That’s my least favourite dark.”

“Do you even have a favourite dark?” Rainbow Dash asked, but she neither expected, nor received a reply.

“That’s simply wonderful,” Rarity muttered. “I suppose that’s where all the other monsters come from. That means there really is only one valid way out of here, and that’s the tunnel the Morrowsworn brought us in through.”

“And the mountain passes,” Dash said.

“And all the low mountain passes are on the other side of the Morrowsworn town,” Fluttershy supplied with a rare, sardonic smile.

Rainbow Dash chuckled. “At least we know where we’re going, I guess. We’ll just try to punch through, run around or fly over their town. What’s the worst that—”

“Rainbow Dash, please,” said Fluttershy, clenching her eyes shut. “Please stop saying those kinds of things.”

Rainbow Dash tapped the ground. “Huh. Yeah, no, you’re right. We kinda already know the worst that’ll happen because they’ve already caught us once.”

“We won’t make the same mistakes again,” said Rarity with a sniff. “We’re on to their dirty tricks now. Is there anything else we should… ask while we are here?” she asked with a skywards glance. Yelgadar still pulled great circles around where the ponies stood, a blazing sun in quick orbit around the three travelers.

::Morning comes. I cannot be here then. My patterns take me elsewhere.::

“I don’t… think so?” Fluttershy replied to Rarity.

“Not unless you have any other ideas on how to get out of this place. Do you?” Rainbow Dash asked, shielding her eyes with a wing as she looked up at Yelgadar. “Or, if you want, ‘how would you get out of here’?”

::Over the mountains. I would fly.::

“Yeah, thanks,” said Dash, sighing. “Okay, that’s it. Hey, thanks and all. I guess riding on your back isn’t really gonna happen without getting extra crispy, so we’ll just… walk?”

“Thank you for your time, even if the answers weren’t what we hoped,” said Rarity, smiling.

“You’ve been ever so kind, thank you,” Fluttershy added, nodding. She pointed away and added, a little more quietly. “North-east is that way.”

::If that is all you wish, then you must tithe.::

Rainbow Dash paused before she’d even turned around completely, not a single step taken. She blinked.

“Tithe?” Rarity asked, repeating the word. “What does that mean, exactly?”

::I have been of use to you. You must be of use to me.:: the voice said, sharp, loud in Dash’s mind. ::You have taken knowledge from me, and must give in return.::

“Um,” said Fluttershy, licking her lips.

“I… don’t—what. You don’t take knowledge by hearing someone say something,” said Rainbow Dash, frowning. “If that was true, Twilight wouldn’t have anything left inside her head.”

The bird flew a little lower still, her orbit yet closer. Dash kept a wing over her head now, trying to keep her breathing steady. Yelgadar did not say anything more.

“Perhaps we can share some ‘knowledge’ of our own?” Rarity asked. “I understand both you and Odasthan were created, whatever that means, by the Princesses, and we know them. We could tell you about them, or… or anything else you’d like, really. It’s not an unreasonable request at all, we simply don’t know what you want.”

::We do not have time for words. I must move. You must make a sacrifice.::

“I’m sure we could give you a gift,” Fluttershy said, her voice trembling a little as the great bird dropped lower, tightening its circles. “If—if you just let us know, um... we have food, and some dresses, and gems. Maybe you would like the gems?”

::Sacrifice, not gifts,:: the response came, loud and echoing in Dash’s mind. ::The Curinion understood this. His sacrifice for our meetings was his antlers. What will you leave behind?::

“Well, we don’t have antlers, I’m terribly sorry!” said Rarity, her eyes on the ground just like Dash’s, fighting the strain.

::You have horns.:: A brief pause. Rainbow Dash felt something touch the inside of her head. ::You have wings.::

“I only have the one horn, and I am quite fond of it!” Rarity said. “And I don’t quite know that pegasi fly as well with just one wing, so that’s not really an option!”

::I do not give options.::

“Okay, I’m not liking where this is going!” Rainbow Dash said, her voice loud to her own ears. It was impossible not to yell under the heat bearing down on them now, the temperature once again taking on a quality of sound on its own.

::If this is the greed of pony-kin today, I will show you compassion in turn. I will better you.:: said Yelgadar. The heat let up, slowly at first, but faster and faster with every passing second. Cool night air rushed in to fill the gap, a chill wind that Rainbow Dash thought she would never feel again, cold under her wings and against her coat. Rainbow Dash gulped in air, her head still spinning from the onslaught of the oppressive heat.

::I will grant you a second gift.::

Rainbow Dash still struggled to breathe normally when she looked up and finally saw Yelgadar’s full shape. She was larger than any dragon, her vast wings and rich plumage made from flaming feathers that trailed off into impossibly long ribbons of fire chasing her to describe the creature’s direction. She had ascended sharply, and now she turned. Yelgadar hung backlit by the moon for a single instant, then turned towards the ponies. Head-on, a humongous sharp beak opened with a cry that hit Dash’s thoughts rather than her ears.

::I will gift you fire.::

“Run.”

It didn’t matter who had said it. Maybe they’d all said it at the exact same time.

“No, fly. Fly—fly! Rarity! Get on!” Dash shouted, possibly arguing against herself. “Rarity! Magic! We’re going, let’s go!”

For a second, Rarity herself had wings. She galloped towards Rainbow Dash and jumped, wrapping herself around Dash’s neck while her horn lit up with the strange light Dash had come to associate with the peryton body magic.

“What—” was all Fluttershy said, the rest of the sentence stuck in her throat as she stared up at the growing light on approach. There was no sound outside of that one word. Yelgadar made no sound, the night was silent, and Rarity’s magic was noiseless.

“Going!” Dash repeated. She didn’t bother adjusting her saddlebags or tell Rarity to mind her wings. She spread her wings with all her might, pushing anything out of the way, slapped Fluttershy on the flank with her feathers while yelling something encouraging, and then galloped east and kicked off. She held back for only a half-second, but when she saw Fluttershy moving in the corner of her eye, she gave her wings their all. Still the burnt-out junglescape grew brighter.

“Please be reasonable!” Rarity shouted. “We can come back tomorrow and tell you stories or whatever you’d like!”

And brighter.

“Not the time for talking!” Rainbow Dash snapped.

Brighter and hotter.

“Fluttershy! Up above the trees! We’re toast if she gets close anyway, and dodging stuff slows us down!” She didn’t wait for confirmation, didn’t ask if Fluttershy had heard her. Rainbow Dash put herself above the dead trees and flew on. Fluttershy followed, glimmering wings beating madly.

And the light got brighter still. Rainbow Dash risked a glance over her shoulder, if only to check if her tail had caught fire yet. Right away, she wished she hadn’t looked.

The huge flaming creature was catching up. Even as she watched, Yelgadar opened her beak, and a light brighter still flashed. Rainbow Dash veered left on sheer instinct, the shift so violent her ohron snapped loose and flew off, and a split-second later a stream of fire or light—was there even a difference, a distinction any more?—pierced the air where Dash had been. The beam slammed into the ground ahead of them, scoring the ground and spraying dirt everywhere. Hot mud slapped against Dash’s face as she and Fluttershy punched through the explosion.

Rainbow Dash opened her mouth, both no sound came out. She’d looked forward for a moment, but when she again looked behind her, she realised she had missed another flash. The second lance of pure heat bore down on her, and there was no time to move. Like when she’d miscalculated a particularly daring stunt, Rainbow Dash had exactly enough time to consider that she’d messed up big time, except this time, she had a feeling it’d lead to more than a week off the air. The beam slammed home—in the ground below her. Dash caught a pulse of Rarity’s horn right before the impact, and the otherwise straight line of molten stuff bent away from Rarity and Rainbow Dash, instead disintegrating another portion of the jungle behind them.

“Nice work!” Dash shouted.

“Let’s not rely on me doing that a second time!” Rarity yelled back into Dash’s ear. Another beam pierced the night air, this one aimed at Fluttershy. The other pegasus banked left and narrowly avoided it. Rainbow Dash winced. They couldn’t keep this up forever, and Yelgadar still gained on them. Her great wings spread out behind them until the burning mass of feathers blotted out the horizon, and the heat kept getting worse. However hard Dash worked her wings, it never seemed to be fast enough, and no way could Rainbow Dash keep this up with the heat sapping her strength.

“This isn’t gonna work!” Dash said. “Fluttershy! Switch!”

“What?!” Fluttershy replied.

“Switch!” Dash repeated. She flew a little closer to Fluttershy, ducking under another blast from Yelgadar, shielding her face with a leg as they dove through yet another dirt-spray. “The thing we practiced! Take Rarity and keep going, I’ll get her off our back!”

“We practiced doing it while holding still!” Fluttershy retorted, an edge of panic in her voice. “If we crash—”

“If we don’t crash we’re still toast!” Dash snapped. She locked eyes with Fluttershy. “We don’t get a second chance, and we have to. We don’t have time for ‘if’s. We’re doing it!”

“There has to be another way!” Fluttershy replied. When Rainbow Dash angled herself a little closer, Fluttershy edged away, and a moment later, the two of them both had to dodge another blast.

“There isn’t!” Dash said. “And we don’t have time to argue! Come on, Fluttershy!”

“We can’t!” Fluttershy said. “I can’t!”

“Then you get this thing off our backs!” Dash said, speaking between gritted teeth. The heat had passed ‘unbearable’ a while ago, and now she felt like she sat on a campfire. She barely had time to get out of the way of the next beam. The great bird was right behind them, a dark and shiny beak set in a burning head stretched out towards the ponies. Soon, Yelgadar could just open her mouth and gobble them up or whatever else she wanted.

Fluttershy’s eyes flitted between Rainbow Dash and Yelgadar. Dash caught the glint of tears in her eyes, her mouth yawing wordlessly. “I… I can’t. I don’t know how,” she said, sobbing.

“And I do!” Dash lied. “So you’ve got to take Rarity! Trust me! Let’s go!”

“We’ll make ourselves a target!” Rarity said.

“Yeah! And you’ll do your magic and keep her from shooting us down!” Dash said. They didn’t have the luxury of a plan. They didn’t even have the parts to make a plan with—Dash didn’t know if Rarity could do that, to say nothing of moving over from Rainbow Dash to Fluttershy’s back all the while. She didn’t even know if she could do her own part.

“Okay, watch the wings!” Rainbow Dash shouted, banking to the right. And Fluttershy held her course this time. Her eyes wide and wet, Fluttershy flew steady. Rainbow Dash calmed her breath and shut the world out, reducing all of existence to two pairs of wings and the way they shifted the air. Fluttershy’s larger wings forced to flap faster than the lankier pegasus was used to, Rainbow Dash’s own wings having to do more with fewer flaps, making the most with each movement. Her joints screamed with the strain of the unnatural beats, her muscles ached from the stress and the heat.

Their wingtips touched, once, but she didn’t stop. Closer and closer. Mud hit her on the side of her face, but she barely noticed. Light blossomed at the edge of her vision, evidence of Rarity doing her job, but Dash didn’t care. The next time her wings came down, touching would mean crashing.

Which was why they didn’t. Their wingbeats matched, and the two pegasus’s eyes met for a brief instant, Fluttershy’s face stuck between abject panic and determination. Or maybe it was just panic and the heat dried her tears before they could form. Whatever the case, understanding passed between them. They didn’t need to speak. Three more beats and they were close enough. Two, one, and then they touched. Simple as that. Two of them flew as one, side to side, with one wing each. Time dilated, and Rainbow Dash swore she could feel Fluttershy’s heartbeat, not just her own—and then she blinked. When she again opened her eyes, Fluttershy looked behind them, and the spell was broken.

“Now!” Rainbow Dash said. “Go! Rarity! Move move move!” The rest of the world rushed back into existence. Into significance. Rainbow Dash could see Yelgadar’s great wings flanking them on the upbeat now. She flapped her one free wing as steady as she could, keeping an even beat while she felt Rarity scramble over to Fluttershy’s back, hooves scrabbling for purchase, forelegs leaving her neck. A sharp pulse of light, this time without an explosion. A solid line of light pointed from right behind Rainbow Dash to the nearest mountain, deflected at the last second and leaving a distant cloud of smoke.

“I’ve got her!” Fluttershy said.

“Alright! Kicking off in threetwoonego!” Dash said, doing just that. She gave Fluttershy’s side a light push to drive them apart, both pegasi wobbling and dipping for a second, falling towards the ground—now vibrant jungle rather than dead trees—before they found their rhythm again.

“Fluttershy, you keep going!” said Rainbow Dash, pulling up alongside Fluttershy again for a second. “Rarity, give me light so I can find you again later! I’ll get this stupid bird off us.” She twisted around mid-air and jammed her wings together in front of her, sending a blast of wind towards Yelgadar to all the effect of blowing at a roaring bonfire. Rainbow Dash’s entire body glowed.

If she didn’t have time to make plans, she didn’t have time to be scared, though. She just needed to do something. Anything. And if a little bit of wind didn’t help, she needed to try more of it.

“New plan!” Dash shouted, louder than the roar of wind in her ears, louder than the screams of her brain telling her to get out of there. “Fluttershy! I need you to fly faster, keep ahead of her for a bit and I’ve got this!”

If Fluttershy or Rarity made a reply, Rainbow Dash didn’t hear it—unless the panicked scream was Fluttershy’s. Probably. Dash pointed her snout skywards and pulled up. The heat of Yelgadar passing below her reached a crescendo—and then it was over. Just like Rainbow Dash hoped, the bird chased after her friends, and didn’t stop to gobble on Dash. Already things were going better than expected.

Dash started climbing right away. No time for leisurely circles or ‘punishing’ forty-five degree climbs: Rainbow Dash flew straight up, cutting through the pre-dawn air with reckless abandon. Sure, her wings protested, but then, they’d been protesting for a while now. She’d gotten ample practice in ignoring them. She needed air, and a lot of it.

Far, far below, Yelgadar’s beak was like an arrow pointing towards the tiny speck that was her friends, both parties shrinking by the second as Dash gained height, and in the beast’s wake was nothing but destruction. Her flowing feathers were like a blanket that left burnt trees and ashes in their wake. No burning. Just burnt, as though the jungle was fully consumed in the instant of Yelgadar’s passing. A distant boom reverberated across the Cauldron, followed by a rumble. The impact of the beam Rarity had deflected towards the mountain finally reached Dash’s ears.

Rainbow Dash kept climbing, stealing quick little glances down below every few seconds to keep tabs. Either Fluttershy had pulled ahead, or the bird was never as close as Dash thought it was. Close to the roiling waves of heat Yelgadar put out, it had felt as though she was everywhere, but Fluttershy flew ahead of her now.

Dash finally halted her ascent, hovering for a second, squinting at the scene. No. Fluttershy had definitely pulled ahead. She flew like a pegasus possessed, Fluttershy and Rarity a single spark of blue, bright even next to the eye-watering flames of Yelgadar—but whatever distance she’d gained she now lost. Yelgadar gained on Fluttershy again, faster and faster. Rainbow Dash shook her mane out and nodded at her wings, still glowing with Rarity’s magic.

“Alright,” she murmured. “Don’t fail me now. We’ve got work to do.”

Rainbow Dash dove. She pointed her body straight towards the beast chasing her friends. At the dumb bird who wanted to eat Rarity’s horn and burn Fluttershy’s wings. If Yelgadar didn’t want to leave them alone, Dash would have to make her.

Glittering feathers struck out against the air, adding to her speed, propelling her far faster than a simple fall. Rainbow Dash’s mane stood out straight behind her, and she tucked her legs in tight, jamming them against her body. Flap those wings. Harder. Harder. Full strokes. Yeah it hurts. Keep going. The air pushed against her. The air told her to slow down, and she returned a rude gesture. Dash held a foreleg out against the push-back. Enough, said the air. Not a chance, said Rainbow Dash. More.

Her ears popped and she lost sound. Her vision blurred. Adjusting her course became harder and harder with each passing second, and she was running out of seconds. Suddenly, Yelgadar gaining on her friends was the lesser problem: The ground rose up to meet her, far, far too quickly. Still she sped up, still she knew she could go faster. Still she had more to give. More. More—

She punched through. The wind and the air let her go. She couldn’t hear anything, she couldn’t see much through the tears that streaked off her eyes, and now she could barely feel anything at all. Nothing pushed back against her, the air sliding off her body. Colours played at the edge of her vision, and she outraced them too.

The flaming creature grew ten sizes with every moment. She would hit it before her next breath—except she didn’t aim for Yelgadar herself. She had to get between the beast and Fluttershy, hope there were no trees right in her path—and then, speeding along as fast as any creature could ever possibly go, she simply needed to pull a sharp turn.

The good news was that if she could make one turn at this speed, the next thousand turns would be a lot easier. The bad news—she didn’t get a chance to consider those. Rainbow Dash shot past the fire-beast too fast to even feel the heat, and then she turned.

Right away, her wings flared up in pain, and she thought she’d lost them both, that her wings were simply gone—but panic was a thought, a feeling. Those belonged in the brain, and Dash was pretty sure her brain kept going straight ahead. She screamed, yelled, and cursed as she banked as hard as she could. Rainbow Dash chased her own tail around and around in a circle, and then she passed it. Her voice shook. Her body shook. Her bruised muzzle throbbed with pain. She turned so fast, she didn’t feel sick, she felt un-sick, a brief moment of clarity she couldn’t explain or do anything about—and then somepony flipped a switch.

Air resistance came back with a vengeance. Dash smacked against a solid nothing, her jaw suddenly hurt, and one of her wings folded of its own accord, hopefully still pointing the right way. She didn’t know. Before she fully realised she’d lost control, she was flying a wingless flight, catapulted away and over the treetops in a rainbow-trailed arc.

Rainbow Dash got one last, upside-down look at her work. A full-sized tornado trapped one of Yelgadar’s wings, the howling winds wresting the great beast down to the ground with a thunderous crash and a piercing cry. Entire trees were sucked into the tornado, and the top of the funnel spouted flames drawn from the bird’s massive wings. The airborne firestorm illuminated the entire Cauldron in a false, early dawn.

We’re totally the good guys. And awesome,Dash thought, unconscious before she hit the ground.