Lost Summer

“Thanks for rescuing me,” gushed Autumn with a breathy pant, finally breaking the monotony of crunching leaves and snapping twigs. The chain rattled around her neck as they kept up a swift canter through the woods. They'd teleported some distance from the ruins before breaking into a long gallop. They slowed only after becoming winded, sure that they'd put enough distance between their would-be pursuers for the moment. They must have been nearing Sky's Edge by now, Rarity guessed.

“I’m Princess Autumn Blaze by the way,” she began with an almost carefree effervescence. “But I'm sure you already know that, I mean, you came to save me after all.”

Rarity nodded with flushed face. “It’s lovely to meet you. I'm Summer Storm. You may have heard some about me as well.”

Autumn’s grin faltered with sudden concern. “Summer Storm? The lightning princess? But you- you don't even look lightning.”

“That’s because I dyed my coat to hide my identity.”

The fire princess skidded to a halt in her tracks prompting Rarity to turn around and face her.

“You're seriously a lightning Kirin?”

Rarity betrayed an aggravated sigh. “Is that a problem?”

Autumn screwed up her face and looked away apprehensively. “I… just think it would be for the best if we parted here.”

“Why?” droned Rarity, certain that whatever words came out of her mouth next would be foolish and counterproductive. Her ears scanned for the sounds of other Kirin behind them.

“Because I've had more than enough of this crazy integration thing. It’s just more trouble than it's worth.”

Rarity rolled her eyes in disappointment. “I’m sorry, just forget I said all that about being a lightning Kirin and let me start over.” She cleared her throat and dropped her Canterlot accent. “Hello, my name is Spitfire. I'm a fire Kirin with a fire name from the fire city exactly like you so you can be certain that my life and opinions matter and that objective moral values such as helping someone in need have merit when I exhibit them. That put you at ease?” she asked flatly.

Autumn looked at the ground in embarrassment. “I wasn't meaning to say that you’re… not valid or whatever; I just need to be careful around other Kirin so-”

“You were completely fine with me a minute ago… when you thought we were from the same clan.”

“But I actually don't even know you,” she shrugged.

“Exactly. The only thing you know about me is that I'm a lightning Kirin who rescued you and you won't even give me a chance? The very least you can do to show your appreciation is to have an open mind. Not to mention that you're half metal right now and can't even use magic. Where are you going to go? Where do you think you're going to live now? We're in the same boat. They're going to be after the both of us for the same reason. It's only obvious that we should ally, don't you think?”

“I guess so,” she admitted.

Rarity turned back around. “Well, come on then. We shouldn't idle out in the open for long.”

“Okay but where are we going?”

“Sky's Edge.”

“Are you sure that's a good idea? That might be the first place they check.”

Rarity glanced back at her to make sure she was moving. “It's the best idea for right now.” - - -

Rarity squinted at the tarnished metal hole as she jiggled the bobby pin inside. There came a cathartic mechanical click and she pulled open the jaws of the collar, allowing it to fall to the floor of the old house with a thud.

Autumn groaned and rubbed her neck in relief. “Ugh, thanks. That feels so much better.”

“How long had you been wearing that ghastly thing?” asked Rarity, nudging the open restraint with one hoof.

“Since about noon. I don't usually wear it because I'm just locked in a room most of the time. She only puts it on me to take me out.”

“One more.” Rarity turned her attention to the much smaller clamp on her horn and began looking for the keyhole. “Uh…”

“It's on the back I think,” said Autumn, bowing her head again. “One of the reasons I never learned to pick it myself.

“I see it,” confirmed Rarity as she began to probe the lock. “You know, I have a set of lockpicks in my bag but I'm actually better with a bobby pin,” she chuckled.

“That one's been on ever since they caught me about two years ago.”

Rarity made quick work of the horn cuff, brushing it loose and letting it slide off. Autumn put a hoof on the base of her own horn just to feel the strangeness of it. She picked up a hazy glass bottle from the floor with her magic and set it on top of the table. Then she focused on a dried up leaf at her hooves and shot a spark from her horn, igniting it with a burst of flames. She stamped it out quickly.

“Still got it,” she smiled.

Autumn Blaze had fire magic. Rarity had a sudden recollection of the Kirin stories her mother used to tell her. Kirin always had elemental magic contingent upon their birth clan. She hadn't considered it yet but shouldn't she be able to use lightning magic? She didn't know how. No one taught her and apparently it wasn't some accidentally discoverable ability like crossing your eyes or whistling… at least not for her.

Rarity went to rummage around in her bag. “Well, now that that's taken care of, hungry?” She floated a pair of MREs into the air with a wry grin.

“Is that pack all the food you have?”

“Pretty much,” sighed Rarity. It's not going to last much longer.”

Autumn frowned. “I don't wanna take your food.”

“It's not my food, it's our food. We're a team. If you’re hungry, you should eat. You can help me scavenge for more later.”

Autumn jawed at her for a moment, left dumbstruck by the offer. “Uh… okay.”

Rarity ripped a bag open with her magic. “These taste much better heated up but chimney smoke would quickly give away our position if anyone comes looking I'm afraid.”

“I can heat it up without smoke,” said Autumn exuberantly. She floated a hanging heavy skillet to the table.

Rarity examined the cookware before sprinkling water on it and whiping it out with her fetlock. “Clean enough, I suppose. My standards have really gone down hill.”

“You and me both. Just a couple of princesses making instant food while squatting in a rundown house.”

Rarity spread two bags of stroganoff over the old skillet. Autumn picked it up with her magic and gave it a measured heat charge so as not to burn it, a skill she'd honed while in hiding.

“So… where have you actually been this entire time?” asked the fire princess.

“Would you believe that my adopted mother and sister are ice Kirin and I've lived my entire life as a pony in Equestria until about a week ago?”

Autumn scratched her head. “Kind of… yes actually that makes sense. You're a lot different than most Kirin I've ever met, especially for an outling.”

“A what?”

“Kirin from another clan.”

“Oh… Where I come from there are three different types of ponies that all live together in harmony and the differences between them are greater than that of the three Kirin clans. I might be speaking as a naive interloper but I don't believe for a second that Kirin can't also live the same way.”

Autumn stook the skillet. “It's a nice thought but it's just difficult to envision because I've never really seen it before. It's been like this everywhere for so long. It's what everyone is used to.”

“I think harmony starts with the leadership but it sort of sounds like the queen’s words don't quite match her heart and certainly not her methods behind the scenes. If we're going to find a way to sink this plot and be free of it I need you to tell me everything you know about the queen, the crystal and her plan to use it. Explain it to me like I'm a complete outsider from a foreign land because I am.”

Autumn sighed. “It's a very long story. Where do I begin? The queen has ruled the ice Kirin for decades since she was called Princess Windchill.

Rarity blinked with intrigue as she floated a disposable fork into the stroganoff to stir. “Wait, she used to be called Windchill?”

“Yeah, she changed it to Equinox as part of her rebrand after she annexed the other cities. She leans hard into all that unity and teamwork stuff. She flies all the clan flags at the castle. Equinox is supposed to be a neutral sounding Kirin name.”

A shiver went down Rarity's spine. Princess Windchill. That was the name she'd gleaned from her mother's journal. The ruler she'd disobeyed. The very same princess who had ordered her dead when she was only a foal. The irony. Now she desperately needed her alive.

Autumn absently took over the fork with her magic and began gesturing with it, her tail lashing animatedly behind her.

“So I'm minding my own business as a new princess, struggling with inherited crises from my mom when the ice princess gets it in her head that then would be a great time to take us down and it was. The fighting didn't last long. We surrendered. I ran. I spent a terrible two years basically hiding in a hole. Then I spent another two years incarcerated in White Glade where I became a test subject for ancient magical experimentation. I was told that Sky's Edge fell less than a month after us.

The food began to sizzle as its aroma went airborne.

“What were the conditions like in captivity?”

“Honestly it could have been worse. I had a simple but partially furnished room and they fed me regularly. Still a lot more humiliating than life in hiding though and everyone on the outside probably assumes I'm dead just like they do you.”

“Anyway, after she annexed the other two clans, Equinox pivoted her reign as a happy smiling occupation. She preaches unity between the clans but it's all really in servitude to her.”

“And what about this crystal business and the ruins?” pried Rarity, sniffing the skillet hungrily.

“Well, it's a moonshot. Part of her ultimate plan. The queen wants control over all Kirin. She says it's about unity and making a better civilization but whether she actually believes in that or is just placating us is anyone's guess. At best she's very confused. At worst, diabolical. I like to go with the latter.”

“Mmhmm,” mused Rarity skeptically. “Are you implying that you'd rule differently if you were in her position?”

“Me?” laughed Autumn nervously as she stirred the skillet. “Um… If I ruled all the clans from Ash Forge Castle… Well I wouldn't be doing this whole forced integration thing. I’d install loyalists in the other castles to help me govern all three cities. And I probably wouldn't even bother with the crystal, assuming I even knew about it at all.”

Rarity purses her lips. “Now that I think about it, How do ruins and a crystal like that, which are relatively close by, get forgotten about for so long?”

Autumn shrugged. “Kirin are stubborn and just not very adventurous. Everyone wants to stay in the city they were born in and is too scared or uninterested in exploring beyond its borders. In the past we had three roads connecting the cities like a triangle and that was the biggest adventure anyone went on. No one had any reason to walk through the middle of the triangle. When the queen ordered everyone out of Sky's Edge it forced them to make an unthinkable decision between living in a new place with new Kirin who they considered their enemies or taking their chances trying to live outside beyond the cities. If you ever see a Kirin off the beaten path, literally or metaphorically, it probably means they're desperate.”

“Would that same logic apply to what the queen is doing with the crystal?”

“I think so. I don't know much about what’s been happening outside the castle walls but I get a sense that things just aren't progressing the way she hoped they would. From what I've overheard, this Unity Crystal is supposed to be able to change Kirin hearts.

“Do you know any of the specifics of how you control it or how it works?”

“Not really. They keep me in the dark about most things. All I know is that you need all three clan princesses to start it up. The queen’s daughter, Princess Winter Wind is probably the most knowledgeable about the temple and the crystal. She's like the head researcher for the project.”

“Princess Winter Wind… That's interesting. The queen has made herself ruler over all Kirin but the crystal only seems to recognize the three clans’ princesses and not her.”

Autumn set the steaming skillet down on the table. “I think it's done. If things were going the way they were supposed to by this time Winter Wind as well as you and I would be the ruling princesses of our clans. Equinox had her time but she thinks she has the magic touch now and isn't interested in passing the torch to her daughter any time soon.”

Rarity began serving food onto a flattened bag as her plate. “If we could convince Winter to join us, could we then perhaps use the crystal to mold Kirin society into something better than what it is now and better than what Equinox wants it to be?”

Autumn began picking hot noodles straight out of the bowl with the other fork and continued talking with her mouth full. “Maybe but that's a big if. We don't even know if it actually works; all that stuff That Winter's into could be fairytales for all I know. Though they do seem pretty invested. The other problem is that Winter pretty much always does what her mother wants. However…”

She raised a hoof to punctuate. “We could make her cooperate in the exact same way they made me cooperate and what I assume they would have done to you.”

Rarity frowned. “You mean we'd need to kidnap her somehow.”

“Yeah,” she smirked devilishly with sauce encrusted teeth. Then she gestured to her metal bonds on the floor. “Got all the fixings,” she put in a singsong voice. “You know how to do stuff like that, right? You're like some kind of special ops ninja?”

Rarity laughed weakly. “I know how to do some things. The rest of it I'm just making up as I go along. I'm afraid abduction wasn't part of my formal training.”

Although avoiding and thwarting abduction was. Perhaps formulating an effective kidnapping plot was simply a matter of reverse engineering her defensive training… and her harrowing experience at the hotel in Manehattan. Wouldn't that be an interesting turn of events, the shoe on the other hoof.

“Before we do anything crazy, can you assure me that if given the opportunity, you'll strive to help make a peaceful and friendly society between the cities?”

Autumn wrinkled her brow. “But what about the queen?”

“Don't worry about her right now. I need to know that we're on the same page and fighting for the same thing or I'm just wasting my time. Do you want to live in a world where all Kirin are free and respect one another no matter their clan or origin?”

Autumn clenched her eyes shut. “In general… I guess so… but you have to tell me your story now.”

“Fair enough.” - - -

The shadow of the mountain stretched over the town. Autumn curiously swayed the crystal pendant in the air with her magic like a pendulum.

“I bet they chipped a bunch of little pieces off of the Unity Crystal to use as detectors,” she nodded to herself. “That's really clever… You know what the craziest thing here is though? It's that an ice assassin just threw away everything she ever knew because she couldn't follow an order. Not only that, she just decided you, some other clan leader's foal, would be her responsibility.”

“I guess everyone has a breaking point,” muttered Rarity, tracing a knot in the grain of the table. “As you said, if you see a Kirin off the beaten path it probably means they're desperate. Just days ago she told me she couldn't just leave me to grow up to be a princess because they were so awful.”

Autumn gave a knowing laugh. “It's like she did a little social experiment with you. I guess it worked because you're like no Kirin princess I ever met.”

Rarity rubbed her face wearily. It was hard to know if she felt incredibly grody from rough living or if it was just the texture of the dye in her coat. Either way, she desperately wanted a trip to the spa as a pony for her nerves and her muscles. She was tired of feeling uncomfortable and adrift in more ways than she could count. She just wished she could undo everything and go back to living as a busy, but blissfully unaware, up and coming fashion designer.

“I don't think I'm up to sneaking into a heavily guarded castle the way that my mother did.”

Autumn raised a hoof. “We don't have to. Winter regularly leaves the castle and has her favorite haunts. I assume she has guards like the queen though so that will make things difficult.”

“We must give you a dye job like me so they can't recognize you. We'll have to do your mane though. I think if you looked ice it would be most advantageous for us.”

Autumn nodded in agreement. “We should consider relocating. Maybe the mines. There's lots of mines here, right?”

“Yes but I don't know. If they find us in a mine then we're-” She stopped abruptly, ears standing at attention.

“What?”

Rarity shushed her and they both fell silent. They could hear what sounded like soft hoofsteps on the walk outside. Quickly and quietly Rarity whipped a throwing knife from her pack, muscles tensing as she focused on the front door.

“You home?” called a brittle voice from the other side.

Rarity sighed, almost laughing. “It's just Fizzle, the mare I told you about. She floated the knife behind her. “Come in.”

The door swung open and a floating casserole heralded Fizzle's arrival. “I made extra if you want. Oh…” She stopped to scrutinize Autumn up and down. “Didn't know you had company.”

Autumn raised a hoof with an awkward grin. “Uh, hi. I'm-”

Fizzle covered her ears in alarm. “La la la la! Don't wanna know why you're here or what you're doing! La la la la!” She floated the food to the table and set it down between them before quickly showing herself out.”

“Thank you,” called Rarity.

“That was weird.”

“She just doesn't want to be culpable for our suspicious activities if anything bad happens. It's obvious we're up to something.”