“Jeiroh,” Tranquility whispered softly, staring unabashedly ahead at the city. “Uros ero kahra losceroh soln.” She giggled softly, shaking her head. “Re gerla Equis sce farsca weh miorah du kemoshi losceroh harah suwastieh.”

“Sure,” I said softly, not comprehending what she said. My mind was still trying to fully process what my eyes were seeing, so I didn’t exactly spare much thought towards her statement.

“What’s their deal?” Moonlight asked Cam, pointing at us.

“Back where we come from, this kind of city only exists through the imagination,” Cam explained.

“I’ll say, it’s a bit shocking for me as well,” Reed said. “The city of Paradise, even with all the information that the Wolves have picked up from jumping around the multiverse, isn’t this… elegant.”

“We do pride ourselves on designing beautiful things,” Moonlight said, standing up a little taller. “After all, most of us are beautiful creations… most of us.” She sighed. “Some of us... later. I’ll tell you once we’re inside the city.” She glanced at Tranquility and I, rolling her eyes. “That could take a while.”

“Nah, I can get them focused,” Cam said, a grin spreading over her face. She reached into her box. “Where did I put the flashers?” she muttered loudly.

I didn’t fully register that comment at first, but Tranquility did, whirling around to face her. “Don’t you dare throw another explosive at me, young lady,” she commanded, eyes narrowed.

“Another explosive?” Moonlight asked.

“Welcome back to the real world, Tranquility,” Cam chuckled. “How was your zone-out session?”

“I… sorry,” she said sheepishly, an awkward grin spreading across her face. “But that’s not an excuse to say you’re gonna throw a firecracker at me!”

“It is for me!” she said cheerfully. “Now go wake up Fall before I do it my way.”

“We need to have some serious talks about how you treat us,” Tranquility muttered, walking towards me. She draped her wing over my back, startling me and causing me to jump a little. “Sorry,” she whispered.

“It’s fine,” I said, turning to look at her. “I just… got lost in the view. This is…”

“Just amazing?” Tranquility asked, completing my sentence for me.

“Yeah,” I answered, leaning in and nuzzling her. “That’s it.” She nuzzled me back, eliciting a hum from me.

“You two…” Cam said, rolling her eyes. “Sorry to break up your moment, but Moonlight wants to go. And besides, it’ll be better inside the city.”

“I suppose,” Tranquility murmured, standing up. I got to my hooves as well, smiling.

“What did you mean by ‘another explosive?’” Moonlight asked as we began to walk.

It took us a total of twenty minutes to walk around the pit to the entrance of Symphony. Tranquility and I spent no small amount of that time staring at the city. It just didn’t seem possible, looking more like a patch of frozen seaweed than a set of skyscrapers. Moonlight and Reed spent the whole time talking about the technicalities of the Crystal Mists, while Cam hopped up on my back about halfway through and started to rummage through her box, which she placed on Tranquility’s back.

When we got to the entrance, there were several more of the creatures waiting for us. They directed us onto a floating metal platform, which broke away from the edge of the pit and started to float through the city, delighting Cam and stunning Tranquility and I. We were able to fly on our own, of course, but seeing something that was solid metal begin to float through the air was kind of amazing. It was actually kind of amazing. And then there was the fact that the architecture of the city was even more wonderful up close. There were subtle patterns etched into the materials that played with our eyes as we passed the building, like those hologram birthday cards. However, instead of a specific design becoming visible as we passed, ripples of light seemed to wash over the buildings. It was really, really cool to watch. Reed was staring as well, and Cam climbed up onto my head to get a better view.

“It’s amazing,” Tranquility whispered softly, sitting down and leaning on me.

“I know,” I said softly.

The platform took us to the middle of a city before sharpy shooting upward, taking us along the curve of one of the buildings. Reed reached his paw out and let it run across the wall. A second later, he gasped.

“What?” I asked.

“It’s lined with magic,” he whispered. “Powerful magic.” He held out his paw, closing his eyes. A second later, he sighed. “I felt some of it flow into me, but I can’t overpower the blocking spell. You do good work, Cam.”

“I try,” she said smugly, snuggling deeper into my mane.

“It’s lined with privacy riffs,” Moonlight said.

“Why?” I asked. “What’s a privacy riff?”

“A privacy riff is a set of notes so complicated that we can’t see through it, and every building is devoted to living space,” she answered. “Would you want someone staring into your window?”

“Every building?” Cam asked.

“Yes,” Moonlight confirmed. “There are millions of us, and more are constantly appearing. Every few years, we have to double what we have.”

“Wow,” I said.

“Privacy riffs… runic magic,” Reed said. “The… People of Song are an arcanarunic species. Interesting.”

“That’s not a word, but whatever,” Cam said.

The platform kept rising for another minute or two before it abruptly stopped. We didn’t fly off, surprisingly. Moonlight walked forward and pressed her hoof up against the side of the building. A ring of light pulsed out from it, and four panels slid back to reveal a dark, square doorway. Moonlight stepped through it, and I gasped.

As soon as she passed through the doorway, violet and blue light blossomed throughout the dark space, revealing a large, two-level living space. A bookshelf rested in the back-left corner of the first level, and that was pretty much it. There were no other objects that I could see, but somehow, the room was still stunning. The designs on the buildings outside continued onto the walls, floor, and ceiling, but the violet light played upon them even more, highlighting subtle patterns that weren’t visible outside.

“Come on in,” Moonlight said, smiling softly. We did. As soon as we made it inside, the panels slid closed, cutting off the light from outside and plunging the room into a dim, soothing purple glow. “Welcome to my house,” she proclaimed.

“Now I’m a bit jealous,” Reed commented. “Add a bit more decorations and this place could surpass the Alpha’s house.”

“Why would we need possessions?” she asked softly, floating up off the floor. “It’s better to have space.”

“I guess…” Cam said, placing her box next to the bookshelf.

“It’s amazing,” I whispered softly. “Are all the homes here like this?”

To my surprise, Moonlight winced. “Not all of them,” she mumbled. “Only Songs like me get lodgings like this.”

“Songs like you?” Tranquility asked, canting her head to one side. “What does that mean?”

“Um…” Moonlight began. “Sit down, why don’t you.” We did, with Cam climbing onto my head again. I didn’t really mind it, for some reason. “Not all Songs are created equal,” Moonlight said sadly.

“That can’t be true,” I said.

“It is,” Moonlight said. “Let me explain. Do you remember earlier how I said that I was made out of everything that went into my song’s creation?” We nodded. “Well, a lot went into me. There was time, effort, emotion, and care. My melodies were well-thought out, edited, and polished. My composer had a purpose in mind when crafting me, and he stuck with it to the end.”

“So?” Cam asked incredulously.

“I’m very, very lucky,” Moonlight said. “All of that allowed me to become complex, with a high intelligence and quick mind, and most importantly, an actual personality. Not all of us are that fortunate.”

“So some of you guys aren’t too deep, big deal,” Cam dismissed.

Moonlight’s eyes narrowed, and a feeling of tension and anger beset the room. My ears folded back, and Cam burrowed a little deeper into my mane, trembling slightly. Tranquility spread her wings slightly, and Reed raised a paw as if he was going to cast a spell. “Yes, it is a ‘big deal,’” Moonlight whispered, her voice gaining its quality from when we first met her. “And don’t ever imply that it isn’t again. You don’t know what you speak of.”

“Sorry,” Cam squeaked, hunkering down even more than she already was. I dipped my head down and slid her out of my mane, catching her and pulling her into a soft hug, and I. Moonlight relaxed slightly and looked away from us.

“A-anyway,” she said, grimacing. “As I was saying, I’m one of the luckier songs. My composer really cared about me.” Her eyes narrowed. “Unfortunately, not every composer cares about their compositions.

“It wasn’t much of a problem back when I was written. Back then, a piece of music was an undertaking, taking a lot of time and effort to do correctly. Because of that, only a few people who were serious about music wrote songs. Almost every song that was created was like me. But a few decades ago… that changed.

“I don’t know why, but songs started pouring in at a much, much faster rate. At first, we were happy, but then we started noticing problems. The Songs would come in… incomplete. Missing body parts became common. A lot of the time, the new songs would only be able to express a few emotions. Sometimes… they wouldn’t even have a mind, their body being an empty shell.

“The Whole Songs looked into the matter and found something disturbing. These incomplete Songs were being made by the same artists every time, and they appeared very frequently. We came to the conclusion that songs were being… mass-produced… without thought, effort, or care being put into them.”

“Why is that a big deal?” Cam asked softly.

“You don’t understand how much actually goes into creating a song,” Moonlight answered. “It takes blood, sweat, and tears to get finished if the composer cares. There are screwups and times where the artist just doesn’t want to continue, but they push on anyway, just to see their message or dream get through. It’s most of what the People of Song are, and if that’s taken away, we’re nothing.” She fixed Cam with a piercing stare. “To put this in perspective for you, imagine that you were running away from the Mages, except this time, it’s not because of your morals, it’s because you simply can’t comprehend any other option.” Cam pressed a little harder against me. “Stuff like that is the harsh reality for many Songs, and for others, it’s even worse,” Moonlight stated sadly. “It’s the most unfortunate and sorry fate that can befall a creature, in my opinion. And that’s why it’s a big deal.

“Once this started happening, the Whole songs divided the city up into sections. The lower tiers of the buildings are for the Incompletes, and the upper floors are for us. The Incomplete living spaces are just that: incomplete. They have poorly maintained, small, gritty rooms. I pity them…

“One of the most heartbreaking things for us to watch here is a musical artist who starts out creating Whole songs devolve into making Incomplete ones. We’ve seen it time and time again, but I think that the most profound time was with the explosion of the dubstep genre. The main artist who started it burst out into the mainstream, full of care… and then others started to make his kind of music. Just to keep up… he stopped caring and tried to pump out songs as fast as possible.” She let out a small chuckle. “Incidentally, when a dubstep song was first created, it was the biggest Discordant scare we’ve ever had.”

“That’s the second time you’ve mentioned the Discordant,” Reed said, leaning against the wall. “What exactly is that?”

“It doesn’t really matter,” Moonlight responded.

“But it’s a good way to get off this depressing topic,” Tranquility said.

“Good point,” Moonlight conceded. “The Discordant is an old legend. It tells of a creature who is completely and utterly cut off from the magic of music. Some creatures don’t sing, but they’re still connected to the magic. This creature, however, sings, and sings loud. It’s said that the song of the Discordant will completely destroy a Song, something that’s thought to be impossible.” Moonlight rolled her eyes. “It’s a bunch of hooey if you ask me.”

“Cool,” Cam said, slipping out of my arms and walking over to her. “I’m sorry for what I said earlier. I didn’t know…”

“It’s okay,” Moonlight responded. “I should have realized that when you said that, so I’m sorry for snapping at you.”

“That’s fine,” Cam said, her smile returning. She walked over to her box and started to rummage through it.

“Cam, can you come over here?” Tranquility inquired.

“Why?” she asked.

“We need to talk,” Tranquility said. Cam’s ears folded back a little, and she sighed.

“Can I get some food first?” she asked.

“Yes,” Tranquility answered. Silence beset the room for a moment before Reed shifted slightly.

“So… the People of Song have mythology and lore?” he asked, leaning forward slightly.

“Yes,” Moonlight responded.

“Can you tell me about that?” he asked hopefully.

From there, Moonlight launched into an enthusiastic retelling of the surprisingly extensive myths that permiated the Song society. Cam got herself a few pieces of jerky and walked over to Tranquility, who began to quietly speak to her. Over the course of their conversation, Cam’s ears drooped even more, and she looked towards the ground. I frowned slightly and trotted over to them. As soon as I got within earshot, Cam sighed and climbed into Tranquility’s arms, who began to gently rock her.

“Sweetie, I’m not saying for you to get rid of your confidence or snarkiness, I’m just saying that you might want to be a little bit more careful with what you say,” Tranquility murmured softly.

“But… I’ve never done that before,” Cam responded softly. “And it’s fun to say what’s on my mind, or cut down stupid statements…”

“Is it worth it if you hurt someone that you care about?” Tranquility asked softly.

Cam paused for a moment before leaning forward and burying her head in Tranquility’s chest. “No…” she murmured softly. Tranquility didn’t say anything, instead wrapping her wings over her. I walked over to them and wrapped my own wings around them. Tranquility sighed and rested her head on my shoulder.

“She’s not used to being reprimanded or corrected,” she murmured softly. “I think that was hard for her.” I nodded softly and hugged her a little tighter.

“But it was necessary to tell her that,” I said.

“It was,” she whispered.

Reed and Moonlight eventually wound down their conversation. Reed seemed very happy with what he heard. In that time, Cam drifted off in Tranquility’s arms.

“Is Cam okay?” Moonlight asked.

“She’s just asleep,” I responded.

“Oh,” she said. “I thought she was hurt. We Songs don’t need to sleep, so her lack of motion was unusual.”

“Okay,” I responded.

“Do you guys need to sleep?” she asked.

“Eventually,” Tranquility responded. “And I’m feeling a little tired right now.”

“I am as well,” I said.

“Then sleep,” Moonlight said. “I’ll just go outside.”

“Thanks,” Tranquility said, laying down and rolling onto her back so that Cam could sleep on top of her. I lay down next to her and pressed against her side, closing my eyes. Within a few seconds, I fell into a peaceful slumber.

Author's Note

Cam isn't used to being told that the way she does things is wrong, and she took it hard. Don't worry, it'll get more tolerable.

So yeah! New chapter, and this one was a bit late again. Christmas was hectic, and so was New Year's Eve. Speaking of which, HAPPY NEW YEARS! Hopefully, this year will be better than 2016. *Checks news.* Oh, you have got to be FU-

Another reason that this chapter was late is that I was working on another, non-fanfiction project of mine. It's about halfway done, and I think that you guys might enjoy it. If I remember, I'll stick it in the author's notes of this story. I will DEFINITELY make a blog post about it. I'm excited about it.

Speaking of things that I'm gonna stick in the author's notes of this story... I DREW CAM!

Or her head, at least. Her symbol that appears when she uses magic is in there, too. Believe it or not, I actually do okay-quality sketches. Unfortunately, they're not as good as what my friends can do. But one of them might actually do some art for me for free, which is absolutely awesome, so that might show up in later author's notes.

And now... you've missed it, but it's back... THE THESTRAL LANGUAGE GUIDE!

“Jeiroh”- Wow.

“Uros”- A

“Ero”- Chance

“Kahra”- Wrapped

“Losceroh”- In

“Soln”- Gold

“Uros ero kahra losceroh soln”- Another thestral saying. The direct translation is ‘A chance wrapped in gold.’ However, the phrase was coined to communicate that, whenever someone is given a chance, they should take it, no matter how ridiculous it seems.

“Re”- I

“Gerla”- Suppose

“Sce”- Is

“Farsca”- Behind

“Miorah”- Rest

“Kemoshi”- Reality

“Harah”- Its

“Suwastieh”- Technology.

Quick question, do you guys want me to copy-paste the ENTIRE language guide into every author's note for a chapter with the thestral language, instead of just the new words/phrases? Would that be easier for you?

But anyway, enjoy the new chapter, and enjoy the new year! And as usual, tell me if I screwed up with my conventions!

~Pyrepinna