“How did Aria know we were here about her sisters?”

Rainbow flew all day, every day. It was just what she did. Even when everypony else was walking, she’d be in the air, almost hovering just to stay as slow as them. She could handle staying out longer with Lightning. Of course she could.

But her wing joints were really starting to get sore. It wouldn’t have been so bad if they could land for a few minutes and then get going again after a stopover, but their first heading had been away from the other islands, so there was only deep water underneath them, and nothing else until they got back to Marewo.

The flight back to Ponyville was going to hurt.

“I’d guess one of them told her,” Lightning shrugged.

Her wings were probably fine, since she hadn’t crossed half of Equestria already that day.

After a second, Lightning added, “Or she figured out that since we don’t really interact with the outside world, they were the most likely link to whatever trouble you arrived because of.”

But how would the message have got there in time? Spitfire had been talking to Sonata only the day before, and, although she’d needed to wait around for a while for Rainbow to be ready to fly, there was nopony in Equestria who could catch the two of them once they were in the sky. And hadn’t Spitfire said that Sonata had still been in with Twilight and Starlight for a while longer? So how had she been able to get a message out?

They just didn’t know enough about the sirens.

“Ever met either of them?” She tried to make it sound like a casual question, just something somepony would naturally ask in her situation. But ‘undercover’ wasn’t really her style – she was more about punching and kicking in all directions as the changelings tried to close in on her – so she felt a bit sick with the pressure of having to act like that.

Maybe Rainbow was better at it than she thought, though, because Lightning didn’t act like there was anything suspicious about it when she answered.

“We met up with Sonata in Las Pegasus for a couple of days. She brought Filthy Rich along, too; I’m not sure why, she doesn’t so much need a coltfriend as she does a foalsitter, or at least a care worker.” Lightning wiped one hoof over her eyes and down her face as they flew. It was probably too much to hope for that she was getting tired from the flight and wanting to head home, rather than just thinking about Sonata. “I only lasted an hour before I left the rest of them to it and went off to find the bar. Half an hour after that, Aria joined me.”

Just as Spitfire hadn’t known about the sirens’ history until being told on the flight over, Rainbow wished she’d asked more about what Sonata had said. “They don’t get on, then?”

Lightning snorted. “There’s a reason we use the term ‘sisters’ here for the other two sirens – it’s because Aria can’t stand the thought of calling them friends.”

So it was kind of the opposite of Rainbow’s own bond with Scootaloo, who liked to see Rainbow as like a big sister because friendship hadn’t been close enough for her? But, thinking of Fluttershy and Zephyr Breeze, Rainbow had to admit that brothers and sisters could be close without actually liking each other.

“So she doesn’t even like Sonata, but you still went to Las Pegasus to see her?” It came out sounding a bit more accusing than Rainbow had meant it to, probably because she’d remembered Zephyr existed. She tried to laugh it off, scratching the back of her neck, and then explained, “I wouldn’t have thought either of you would feel like you had to do something like that if you didn’t want to.”

From the looks of it, Lightning took that as a compliment. She blushed, which Rainbow guessed was less to do with the compliment itself and more about how she hadn’t lived up to it that time.

“It’s a weird bond those two have,” Lightning said. “They can’t stand each other, but can’t stay apart for too long. Like they’re joined by need, not want.”

That was… kind of sweet? Maybe? It had kept them together for a thousand years or something. And also explained why they lived so far apart.

The blue waters rushed underneath her, somewhere between the colour of Lightning’s coat and her own. Something about the way the ocean extended out in all directions made her feel small in a way that open sky didn’t. The sky felt like something she was in charge of, but the ocean didn’t care if she was there or not.

“What about Adagio?”

Lightning’s expression changed immediately, the half-friendliness she’d been showing since their conversation about the Academy disappearing. Her voice was just as flat as her mouth and eyes.

“I’ve met her once.”

Ouch, Rainbow winced, that was even worse than how she might once have answered about Gilda or Lightning herself. She felt her ears turning red and her back knees pressing together, which only reminded her how much they ached. “That bad, huh? When?”

Before answering, Lightning gave her a long look with serious eyebrows. Normally Rainbow would have taken the hint and moved onto a different subject, but with Fluttershy missing it was too important to let go, so she didn’t look away from Lightning’s stare.

“She came to visit a couple of months ago.” Lightning looked straight ahead of her as she talked and flew, even though there was nothing to look at besides empty sea and sky, and she clenched her jaw after finishing.

“Wow,” Rainbow raised her eyebrows, reacting more than she normally would to try to get Lightning to say more. “Nopony else has seen her at all since she arrived.”

Muttering under her breath almost too quiet to hear, Lightning said, “Maybe they should count themselves lucky.”

Having only picked out most of the words, Rainbow had to put the sentence together in her head and go through it once or twice before it made sense to her. But how did you then answer in a conversation if you weren’t sure whether you were meant to hear what the other pony said or not?

“So how did she get to yours without being seen?” She figured it was best to just ignore it and carry on from the previous thing she’d said, especially when that bit mattered more anyway.

“Teleport,” was all Lightning said. She bit her lip, too, and her voice was a little quieter than when she’d said Adagio came to visit.

“But she’s an earth pony…?” ...But only because Twilight made her one. If Adagio had found a way to adjust the pony body spell Twilight had set her up with, could she become a unicorn if she wanted to? Or a pegasus? Or…

“She wasn’t alone.”

Even with Lightning’s dark tone, Rainbow breathed a sigh of relief. Just the thought of Adagio being able to do magic again was a scary one, and it had been galloping away from her. Maybe if she responded in a joking way, she could put Lightning in a better mood to answer more?

“She travels with an entourage, huh? I might’ve known.”

That didn’t really help, going on the look Lightning gave her.

But looks weren’t going to find Fluttershy. She had to get something more solid from Lightning, so she had to keep going with it however hard Lightning made that.

“And what was she like?” Rainbow pressed. “Just how unpleasant can she have got in one visit?” Again she remembered Zephyr. Some ponies really only did need one visit for you to wish they never made another.

“Unpleasant?” Lightning raised an eyebrow at Rainbow, sounding a lot more interested in talking than she had been. “Far from it. I’ve never seen such good manners.” She still wasn’t quite relaxed, as far as Rainbow could tell, but definitely better than before. “Even Aria described her as being on her best behaviour. Though not within her earshot.”

Running a hoof through her mane, Rainbow frowned. “So what’s the problem?”

Several times, Lightning opened her mouth to answer, but then closed it again. She looked this way and that as she did so, until finally she said, “...She’s not like Aria, Rainbow.”

Well yeah, I wasn’t exactly expecting another round of margaritas when we got to her place…

But Lightning carried on, like she was still trying to figure out what to say as she went along, “Aria… You can kind of tell Aria is a villain. She’s all coolness, snark, and deliberately pressing ponies’ buttons, when she isn’t just rage.” Lightning smiled as she said it but also rolled her eyes, so it sounded like those were things she liked about Aria, but maybe they got old after a while.

Kind of like how they all loved how Rarity put so much effort into how she looked, but it got annoying when they were in a hurry, or needing to go someplace muddy?

“Adagio, though…” Lightning said, swallowing. “You wouldn’t know it.” She stared straight ahead again, but this time it seemed more dazed than moody. “You can be having the most normal conversation with her for a long time, and then out of nowhere one of her offhand responses will hit you, and it’s like your wings stop working and you’re plummeting towards the ground.”

You wouldn’t know?! With the lead siren, who tried to take over Equestria and make life as bad for ponies as she could? Even with Discord, you could tell. And that was after three or four years of him hanging out with Fluttershy!

“How do you mean?”

Blowing air out between her flat lips, Lightning made a face that said she didn’t know herself. “There’s no self-loathing there. But no towering ego either. She’s not ashamed or proud of what she is. But she doesn’t have the icy detachment that comes with being indifferent to it, either.”

So what did that leave? Starlight and Princess Luna had hated themselves for things they’d done in the past. Tirek, Chrysalis and Discord had boasted about how bad they were, or at least acted like it was something worth celebrating. And the third kind Lightning mentioned? Luckily, Rainbow didn’t think she’d met any ponies like that. Maybe that Canterlot food reviewer Rarity had mentioned would fit, but that was about it. And if Adagio was nothing like any of those…?

Lightning looked across at Rainbow, shrugged, and shook her head. “She’s just a nice, normal pony who is utterly at peace with being evil.” Then she went back to looking where she was going, like there was nothing else to say about it.

And maybe she was right, since Rainbow couldn’t think of much either. It was like somepony saying that Wonderbolts might be more awesome if they flew slower – so different to everything she had thought ever that she didn’t really know what to do with it. So she let the silence go on for a bit, because she wasn’t quite sure what else to do.

The ocean rushed by underneath them, but when looking back up to the horizon it was like they weren’t moving at all. Even with them flying only a wingspan above the surface, the water was so calm that they hadn’t seen any waves worth worrying about.

After a while, she started to see that if that was just how Adagio was, then, even if nopony else understood it, they still had to deal with it if they saw her. It almost didn’t matter why she might be that way, they just had to decide how to react to it.

“So why didn’t you just throw her out?” she asked. “I mean, it’s your place, so…?”

Coughing, Lightning looked away before answering. “It is, but only thanks to her.” She gave a sheepish grin. “Adagio bankrolls the whole thing.”

“Right. Yeah, I can see why kicking her out would be tricky.” Rainbow rubbed the back of her neck. “Why her?”

Lightning turned her bottom lip out and spread her front hooves. “She’s the one with the money. Loads of it.”

“How come?”

“I don’t know, really,” Lightning frowned, looking up to one side. “It suits her, so I never thought to ask.”

I guess when you’re friends with immortal singing fish-horses you just get used to stuff like that?

“Huh. Well, it’s very nice of her to set you two up like that.” And it didn’t sound like the sort of thing done by somepony who was completely evil. So that was a good sign, and maybe Lightning was wrong?

“It is, yeah,” Lightning nodded, breathing out deeply enough for Rainbow to hear. “I think it’s mostly just to keep Aria out of her hair. But it would probably stop if we told secrets to ponies like you that she’d rather we didn’t.” Her eyebrows squashed together. “And then we’d be stuck on an island with no food, no drink, nothing.” She pinched the skin on her throat, rubbing it as they flew. “We’re too far away to get ashore and back each day for work, and there’s no infrastructure closer. A mailpony comes by three days a week, but that’s it.”

If anypony that day knew first-hoof just how far it was to the mainland, it was Rainbow, and she had the tiredness in her wing muscles to prove it. No, that wouldn’t be a good trip to work and back each day, if that was the only option. “Then why live all the way out here, if it leaves you so needing Adagio to be nice?”

“Aria’s idea,” Lightning grunted. After a look from Rainbow pushed her to say more, she gave a sigh. “It’s what you do, isn’t it? Get rich, retire to a desert island.”

That was definitely Rainbow’s plan, someday. And she’d miss her friends unless they all did it too, so they’d all have to buy a desert island together. But hadn’t the sirens come from the ocean to begin with? So if a desert island was what they each wanted, why had they attacked Equestria at all? And since that had led to them getting exiled...

“So she’s living everypony else’s dream after the death of her own?”

Woah, that was deep. I should write that down or something. Maybe she could send it to A.K.Yearling as a suggestion for a line in her next book?

“Just as I thought the thing to do was to get away from it all,” Lightning admitted with a smile and a roll of her eyes, “and that that was done by disappearing to the other side of the land and working in a bar. It’s what you do.”

It wasn’t working, trying to guide Lightning in the direction Rainbow wanted. She might never get the answer that way. Lightning was too busy feeling sorry for herself over having the easiest life in Equestria, or acting dark and moody because that was what her villain marefriend liked or something. And none of that would help Fluttershy.

“I need to know where Adagio is.”

“I can’t tell you that,” Lightning answered, only just managing to make eye contact before quickly looking away again. She sounded quieter than Rainbow expected, too. Looking over Lightning a bit more closely, Rainbow narrowed her eyes, noticing more clues.

“...Your hooves are shaking. And that’s not just concern in your voice.” She pushed out one cheek with her tongue as she thought, but she was fairly sure she was onto something. “If somepony gave you a life like yours for free, you’d be nicer about them, whether you liked them or not. Even if they were as bad as you say; because they’d been that generous.” Even Rarity had never paid for somepony else just to live and do the things they wanted before – Sweetie Belle didn’t count. Although perhaps that was just because Rarity couldn’t afford to.

“She really does give us that; you can ask Aria when we get back if you like.” Lightning still didn’t really look in her direction, and didn’t deny the other bits, which only made Rainbow more sure.

“I believe you about that bit. But not just that you’re worried she might cut you off.” She looked carefully at Lightning again, so she could watch exactly what her reaction was. “It’s more than that. You sound scared.”

It was very quiet, but Rainbow still just managed to hear the sharp breath Lightning took, and wouldn’t have seen the tiny widening of her eyes if not already looking out for it.

“And I don’t know what could scare you,” Rainbow said, “because I’ve seen you come out of a tornado talking about how awesome it was.” So the idea of something scaring Lightning was kind of scary itself. “What could Adagio be planning?” She shook her head to herself. “Boatloads of money and a secret castle. What’s she got hidden away out there?”

The tendons in Lightning’s neck were standing out as she answered. “Not what.” She closed her eyes for a moment and tilted her head, like she was trying to fight off a shudder. “Who.”

“How do you mean?” Rainbow wondered if she should put a hoof on Lightning’s shoulder, but couldn’t take the risk she’d react angrily, not when she was that close to giving answers.

Licking her lips, Lightning said, “Adagio’s values are reflected in the company she keeps.”

After a second had passed, Lightning clearly wasn’t going to say any more about it, so Rainbow jumped in with questions that might get her to add more detail. “Is that ‘Hades?’ Fluttershy mentioned the name in her letter.”

“Hades?” Lightning asked, raising both eyebrows. She snorted. “Hades is the least of your worries.” She smiled at that, but her eyes widened too.

“Then who is it we should be worried about?”

Straight away Lightning’s smile vanished. “Can’t tell you that.”

“She has my friend!” Rainbow knew saying something like that and expecting Lightning to care – at least more than her own fear – wasn’t going to help much, but she could hardly stop herself.

But it did seem to soften Lightning a little bit. “Aria might tell you; she knows Adagio a lot better than I do, so she can take more risks in that respect.” Lightning shook her head, and kept shaking it as she carried on speaking, like she couldn’t stop. “But I’m saying nothing. There are some who you do not cross or sell out.”

Rainbow locked her jaws together, keeping her mouth shut and grinding her teeth, because she knew if she didn’t she’d say something that would make things worse. She tried to concentrate on taking slower, more even breaths, only flaring her nostrils a few times when she lost control. She couldn’t look at Lightning.

But she became aware after a while that Lightning was looking at her.

A hoof poked her shoulder. “You might be able to figure it out for yourself, though,” Lightning said, and turning to her at last showed a supporting expression on her face, like Soarin sometimes gave Rainbow after a hard practice session.

“How?” She grabbed at the top of her head with each front hoof, pulling on her mane. “She could be anywhere. All we know is that there’s a castle in a desert.” Releasing her mane, she shook her forelegs, still bent at the knee, hooves to the sky above her. “Somewhere!”

It was over so quickly she might have imagined it, but she was fairly sure Lightning rubbed her shoulder before letting go and returning to the normal forelegs-straight flight position. “If you wanted to withdraw from the world and live where nopony would ever find you, where would you go?” She sounded like Twilight did when trying to explain something, trying her best to go through it in steps small enough for Rainbow to follow, even if that was really annoying.

“Here, I guess,” she scratched her head.

“Right. And if you were vain enough to want a whole land to rule over, how could you do that without riling up the princesses?”

The princesses ruled the whole of Equestria, and the only places they didn’t came with bigger problems, like dragons, yaks and griffons. No way around that that she could see. “...I’m not sure you can,” she frowned.

Lightning gave a sad smile, the kind which said it was a lesson she’d learned the hard way. “You pick a land so unappealing nopony else would kick up a fuss, so empty they might not even notice.” She looked away, her eyes appearing to drift over the view in front of her. “That’s the secret to keeping hold of your successes: build something nopony else wants.” She turned back to Rainbow, adding, “No one ever felt cheated out of being wingpony.”

That is… really depressing? Especially when Lightning’s life was one that a lot of ponies would be jealous of; did that mean she didn’t believe it herself, or that she didn’t realise how lucky she was? In the middle of that thoughtful moment, Rainbow also remembered that Lightning never had met Vapor Trail, which might have changed her view.

But anyway, where did Lightning’s answer actually leave her? “Ok, so, a big empty desert.” She tried not to sound too frustrated – because Lightning was trying to help, even if not in a very helpful way – but some might have still come through. “That’s kind of where I started anyway.”

“So you need a way to narrow it down,” Lightning said like it was all that easy. “Somepony in one of those areas who might have seen a stray castle.”

That was a point, though. Castles weren’t hard to spot, and were the sort of thing ponies might mention. If it was an old castle, somepony might know about it, and if Adagio had had it built since she arrived in Equestria, then there had to be records of construction teams and stuff doing the job.

“Yeah, there’s got to be somepony I could ask. I could put the word out to the mayors of all the desert towns and cities, getting them to check building records and that kind of thing.”

That would take time, but Twilight could probably get it done quicker. Maybe Spike could send the instructions out to everywhere with his magic dragon breath?

Lightning narrowed her eyes and pressed her lips together. “I think you might be missing something there.”

Then tell me! If anyone had seen anything, the town mayors would have access to the records, or could maybe suggest which ponies might be worth speaking to about it. If there was an easier way, great, but it was like being made to guess a secret while the other pony just sat there grinning. Lightning at least wasn’t doing that, or looked like she was trying not to.

Shaking her head to herself with a hoof over one eye, Rainbow admitted, “...Probably, but, since I don’t know what, I’m kinda stuck.”

“Come on,” Lightning groaned, “it shouldn’t be this way around. I was the one looking up at those above” – She pointed to herself with both hooves, then to Rainbow instead – “you were the one preoccupied with those below we were treading on to get there.”

“Meaning what, exactly?”

“Meaning here you are, your first port of call to talk to those living a life of luxury, unaffected by and unconcerned for the world. And your first suggestion is the mayors of all those towns?” She scratched her jaw. “Maybe you should be asking the little ponies.”

Maybe Rainbow had just got used to having a princess as a friend, but finding Fluttershy definitely sounded like a problem in that kind of league. She could ask everypony in Equestria if they’d seen anything, but it would take forever, and she needed answers straight away.

All she could answer Lightning with was a confused look.

Lightning covered her face with a hoof, then waved them both in the air each side of her head, shaking them with each word. “She and Aria swap letters three times a week! Clearly the postal service know where to find her!”