Winter walked through the village, at all the kirin enjoying their best lives. They were talking, and so could he. But was he a kirin? He was shaped like one, but even that was odd. He looked girlier than the other boy kirins he saw. He looked girlier than some of the girl kirin he saw. He wasn't born a kirin. He didn't know their ways.

Silence.

He thought silence and stoicism was the root of being a kirin, but that wasn't true. They weren't quiet! They were kinda stoic, but not the stoic Winter had been practicing. He knew nothing of the kirin.

He could go home.

He could grab Summer and Maple and just... leave.

But that hardly felt like a satisfying answer. "No." Ah, his favorite word. But he needed something else...

There! He spotted her talking with another kirin at a stand, buying some fruit? Winter walked up to her quietly as they exchanged bits.

The lady kirin turned to leave and started. "Oh! When did you get there?" She was smiling, that was good. "You're so quiet."

"Yes."

She started anew. "Oh, did they fix you?" She nodded with a gentle smile. "That's a nice voice, you shouldn't hide it. It clears up a few things."

Winter inclined his head at that.

"Well." She seemed to understand him fairly well, that was nice. "You have a stallion's voice. Soft, but stallion. When you talk, it's pretty clear which you are." She glanced away and back quickly, coloring faintly. "You are a stallion, right?"

"Yes." Winter turned a hoof on himself just to aim it at the lady kirin, raising both hooves.

"Wait?" she asked, getting a nod from him. "Sure. What are we waiting for?"

"Bad at... talking." Winter licked over his lips. "Kirin. Teach me?"

"Teach you Kirin? We speak Ponish." She flickered her ornate ears. "Awful entitled of them, calling it that. A lot of creatures speak it. Not really 'ponish' if everyone's using it..."

Winter considred that a moment, but that was a distraction. "No." He had that word nailed down tight. "To be kirin." He turned both hooves at himself. "Not good kirin. Not know kirin. Help?"

She angled her head as she sank to her haunches. "Huh... Well, we have holidays and..." She frowned with new thoughts. "I'm not the one that's best for this." She stood up. "But I know a nice kirin that is. Come with me?"

"Yes." He followed after her with a little smile, radiant on his scale. "Thank you."

"You're quite welcome." They looped around the town to a small amphitheatre. There was a lot of young kirin looking at Twilight Sparkle as she went over something or other. There was a drawing of a pony behind her.

There was another adult there, a mare with a patient look, seated on her haunches. She was watching the young kirin more than whatever Twilight was going over. Winter's guide went right up to that one. "Afternoon!" They nodded at one another. "Wanted to talk to you about him." She pointed back at Winter.

She leaned around the other mare to look at the quiet Winter. "He's the one they're talking about." She put her cloven hoof over her snout. "Pardon me, that was rude... But I hear you... I hear a lot of things." She lowered her hoof. "My students are ever the source of gossip. Gossip and seasonal sniffles. Two constants of the teaching life."

Winter leaned in, curiosity not well hidden. "Teach. Me?" He pointed at himself. "Kirin."

The other mare shook her head. "I think he wants to learn how to be a kirin."

"Oh! Hm." She circled around Winter. "But you are a kirin... How would I teach an acorn how to be an acorn, or lecture an apple on being an apple?"

Winter shook his head. "No." Ah, that word had its uses. "Not kirin." He pointed at himself. "Something else. Then kirin. Teach how kirin, please."

The other mare rubbed at her cheek. "I think he wants to know a lot of what you're teching the foals here. That's why I brought him. He has the physical part down, but not up here." She tapped at the side of her head.

"Hm." She looked over at Twilight still rambling. "Let's start with the basics... Thank you, I'll take this from here."

The other mare smiled brightly. "Great! Good luck, Winter!" She departed with his friendly wave in the action.

The teacher pointed to herself. "Introductions. I am Still Insight. You are.."

"Winter Flames." He was thankful he was talking. Giving a name silently could be trying at times. "Hello."

"Hello to you too." She inclined an ear. "You are talking as if you just started talking."

Winter shrunk at that. "Yes."

"Were you silenced?" She tapped at her own throat. "I thought they fixed everyrin."

Winter shook his head. "I... thought." He frowned. "Thought..."

"Calm down," gently bade Still. "There's no rush."

Her patience was a soothing balm. "Thought kirin were quiet."

"Sometimes they are." She pointed at her class. "Most of them are being quiet, like good students. The moment I allow them, they will get quite loud, like foals. Kirin are creatures, like any other. We are loud, and we are quiet. Never either forever."

Winter felt a smile coming, and didn't resist it. She was teaching how to kirin, and she was a real kirin. First hand accounts, at last! "Thank you." He tapped himself gently. "Am I bad kirin?"

"What? No!" A few foals peeked over and she waved for them to pay attention to Twilight. "No... Some kirin are very quiet. Up to them, and up to you. That doesn't make them bad kirin, or good ones. They just are. What's important is what you do with the sounds you do make, and in the silence. Are you nice?"

Winter nodded quickly. He was a good and nice kirin! Or so he hoped.

"Then how quiet you are doesn't matter as much." Still gently patted Winter on the shoulder. "Do you know about nirik?" His confused expression spoke volumes. "Ever get angry? So angry you..."

Winter got that. "Yes." He perked and sank almost at once. "I... do not like..."

"It has its place." Still pointed off. "Autumn showed us that. When the need is there, be glad you have it, but there are ways to keep it calm when it's not." She had his complete attention. "It'll come out without asking if you let a lot of anger build up." She turned to the class as a whole. "Pardon, Twilight. Class; When you're feeling very angry?"

"You let it out," shouted the class as one, bursting into foalish giggles. Everyrin knew that!

Still nodded at Winter. "Don't hold it back. If you're angry, or sad, or anything else, be that. It's not wrong to be any of those things. Holding them back gives the nirik power to break free when you don't need it."

Winter's eyes were wide with wonder. It all made a lot of sense, having it said out loud like that... Bottling up emotions was bad! He knew that... He knew that and he forgot it, trying to be a perfectly stoic kirin... Dumb.. "I feel dumb." There, he admitted it, and he already felt a little better. "Thank you."

"You should never feel dumb for not knowing something." She booped the nose of her largest student. "Maybe if you ignore what you know."

Winter wriggled his nose with a muted squeak. "Yes... Let it out... Then no nirik?"

"That's most of it." She shrugged. "But, sometimes, if there's a powerful reason, you will get angry, or sad, or something else. Especially if you need to protect a loved one... Don't hold the nirik back, it's part of you. Invite it free, and be it." With a rush of flames, the teacher combusted. No anger, no tears. She was just on fire. She still had her gentle smile despite the licks of flames. "You are the nirik too."

Winter couldn't help himself. He reached out and put a hoof on the Nirik, and he didn't burn. "Not burn."

"Oh." She fizzled out with a puff of smoke, returned to her kirin self. "It's very hard to burn a kirin, and even harder to burn a nirik. We are creatures of calm flames, burning tranquility." She laughed gently. "It's in our names." She pointed to herself. "Still, quiet, calm. Insight, a flash, bright, sudden." She turned that hoof on Winter. "Winter, cool, calm, sedate. Flames, hot, burning, urgent. We are both of those things. That is what being a kirin is. That is what being a nirik is. Take pride in both halves."

Winter tilted his head left and right. "How... nirik?" He reached out a hoof, and it refused to just be on fire by thinking fire at it.

Still grasped his hoof between both of hers. "You have to feel it. That rush of urgency. Anger's an easy one to reach for, everyrin knows what it's like to be mad..."

Did every kirin? Winter had worked so hard not to feel it... but he had felt it. He thought back to the times he burned and raged, unable to stop. That frantic thumping in his chest and the manic sensation. He had to do something! He just didn't know what!

"There you are."

What? Winter looked down over a burning leg. He was on fire. He was a nirik. In his startled jump, the flames went out, returning him to normal.

"You have the start." She patted him gently on the head, just behind his horn. "You can get the rest now. You just need practice. Now, it has been a delight showing you a few things, but I do have a class." She nodded to them as Twilight was wrapping up. "If you'd like, come back when the sun's low. The class will be home, and we can talk more."

Still walked to the front of the class. "Thank you, Twilight. Class, what do we say to nice creatures?"

"Thank you, Teacher Twilight," they said as one, giggling loudly right afterwards.

Twilight dipped her head at the Still and the class. "A pleasure. I hope that has proven enlightening." She looked past Still, to where Winter was sitting. "Oh, Winter. I hope that was a nice chat?"

"Quite." Still gently patted at Twilight. "Now, you've done your part, twice over from my counting. Class, let's continue." She was back in teaching mode, and the class proceeded.

Twilight went to Winter. "Good afternoon."

"Hello." He smiled at the friendly unicorn. "Can talk?"

"You can," she verified.

That was not what he had meant... "Time. Talk about Fetlock."

Twilight perked. "You came here for that?"

"No." He pointed at Still. "Lean about kirin. Learn about nirik." He smiled gently. "Good learning. I am... glad I did that... I will do it again. But I want to... learn... about Fetlock."

Twilight inclined her head. "Alright. You are a victim of hers, so, yes. What do you want to know?"

"Who is she?" That felt like a safe starting point.

"A unicorn." Twilight pointed up at her own horn. "Like me. Much less regarding of friendship or moralities, unlike me... As I said before, she makes creatures, often to replace a lost or 'missing' one her client has in mind."

"Where?"

Twilight shook her head. "A fine question! Manehattan, usually, but she travels, a lot, and is good at hiding in the cracks of society. She seems to advertise through word of mouth. Somepony heard of her, who told somepony, who told Summer. She then went to Fetlock and described what she wanted, and then you..."

Winter inclined his head slowly. "And then me..." He sat up. "Am I a monster?"

"No!" Twilight pressed both hooves on his front. "You are a victim. As a creature, you're fine, and quite nice from what I've seen. You are loved, and have friends. Whatever your origin may be, these are not things anypony can argue with."

Winter leaned in, nose twitching. "Would you be alright, if she made another Twilight, even if they were very nice?"

Twilight worked her mouth silently, imagining that. "I..." That was a heavy question! "I would..."

Author's Note

Winter understands the basic of his fiery side, and is better for it, I vote. Don't bottle up them emotions!

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