Lost Summer

Rarity walked through the mottled sunbeams cast by broken out stained glass windows in the keep’s entryway. Despite the pleas of her heart she'd ventured into the castle out of morbid curiosity. Gutted and defiled. What a shame. As she looked around, she couldn't tell if she was just imagining how it appeared in its heyday or if her designer brain was simply redecorating where it felt obliged. For a moment in time she used to live here.

The knob on the banister was missing where she started up the stairs. The blue carpet beneath her hooves was faded and full of holes. Chandeliers and candle stands were toppled across her path on the upper floor. She entered what she thought to be the royal bedchamber and drifted past splintered furniture and torn drapes to the open balcony doors. She stepped outside cautiously and looked over the railing into the courtyard below.

“The Castle of the Two Sisters,” she murmured, finally able to explain the strange feeling of deja vu she was experiencing. Though not nearly as grandiose and decayed as the abandoned castle in the Everfree, the ambiance was quite similar.

Rarity tapped her hoof on the rail and sighed. What happens next, she wondered. She couldn't just go home without figuring out who was behind the attack and the most obvious place to start was the queen. The outfit in Manehattan seemed sophisticated and could easily be operating professionally on behalf of a well established monarch. Assuming that line of reasoning held true, what did Rarity have that she wanted? It seemed she needed to go to where the Kirin were and do a little recon but she couldn't go as Summer Storm.

Having already left her bag at a suitable derelict house in town, Rarity went straight back to the old mare’s cottage. She knocked at the door and Fizzle called to her through the open window without showing her face.

Rarity allowed herself in. Hearing the soft clacking of wood on wood she returned to where she had seen the loom before. There Fizzle sat, weaving threads with her magic into a stretched canvas. The unfinished work looked to be a tapestry depicting Kirin in a town. It wasn't meant to be frivolous or flamboyant; it seemed to have intent like the chronicling of a historical event.

“That's so exquisite,” gasped Rarity. “I can't believe you got such small thread from trees. What is the picture of?”

“Queen Equinox feeding the masses and bringing economic prosperity to all Kirin.”

“Did that really happen?”

“I guess I can't say for sure because I’m not really a part of society but I kind of doubt it.”

“Why are you making it?”

“Not because I enjoy it if that's what you're thinking,” she grunted indignantly. “When I said they just let me live out here alone I didn't mention that I eventually had to make a sort of informal arrangement.”

“Oh, I see.” She eyed the larger than the rest, almost deified looking, pale purple figure in the center of the composition. Judging by the tapestry she was almost the same color as Twilight Sparkle.

“Have you made a decision about what you're gonna do?”

“Yes though I might need a little assistance from you if that's alright. But I need to ask you a question first. If I was to dye my coat in order to look like… let's say a fire Kirin, what color would you suggest I use?”

“Darker earth tones.” Her brow furrowed. “Why are you asking?”

“I wish to go see the other Kirin but it's possible that some of them are already looking for me and know what I look like.”

“That sounds like an awful idea.”

Rarity frowned. “The disguise?”

“No. Going there at all. But if you're really going to do it I have a dark red manganese powder that would make you a nice burnt sienna color.”

“Oh, that sounds nice… I'm afraid I don't really have anything to compensate you with aside from labor though.”

“Don't worry about it. It's not a big loss. You can get the stuff in pretty much any of the mines and it grinds up with little work. Just take a quarter bushel of it. That should be enough. The only thing I want in return is for you to not get me in any trouble.”

“I can do that. Don't worry. And thank you very much.”

Rarity spun in front of a broken mirror in her little commandeered house. Her muted yellow coat was now the color of a dark red wine. She'd held back her mane and tail fluff, meticulously applying the one to four mixture all the way up to the hairline. She winked one eye shut and smeared dye around it as she made sure to cover every last patch of visible coat.

“Well, who am I now?” she breathed. “Another new identity…”

She checked her profile and called it good. Then she put the leftover dye in a glass vessel she'd found in case she needed to do touch-up later. But at this moment the job looked natural and permanent. She had a feeling she'd be stuck with this color long after she needed it.

Rarity set the journal on the table and flipped it to the Kirin country map.

“White Glade,” she murmured, tapping the name.

Ash Forge was the name of the fire Kirin city. The three cities were arranged neatly in an equilateral triangle on the map. But now with all of Sky's Edge abandoned and its citizens relocated to join the others the configuration was different. Maybe they were all in a line. Or maybe they just made them one big city.

She looked up as a familiar sound met her ears, wooden wheels on stone. Curious, she left the table and cautiously approached the window facing the street.

“It's your turn to pull the cart.”

“Yeah, on the way back. You're complaining about pulling an empty cart. Lightning Kirin really are the weakest.”

“Shut up.”

“So which one of these dumps was your house?”

“I said shut up.”

Peeking from behind one of the closed shutters, Rarity watched as three uniformed Kirin traipsed by in a line, the one in the rear pulling a small, cart with nothing but a loose tarp and a rack with two partisans and a poleaxe. They all wore segmented helmets and moss green coats reinforced with exposed armored plates. These must have been the queen's soldiers. They seemed to be on their way toward Fizzle’s cottage.

The first Kirin she'd seen from the other cities. The reconnaissance mission had officially begun.

Rarity moved to the other window and watched the group ramble away down the road. She teleported outside behind the next house and continued to tail them, observing from hiding until they were pulling up in front of Fizzle's place. Rarity stayed just around the corner of the house next door.

“Ugh, c'mon. Hey, granny, where's the stuff?” one of them shouted from the porch.

It took a moment before an agitated Fizzle opened the front door. “What are you doing here with the wagon? You're days early.”

“Need more dye. New construction just started so hoof it over.”

“Just wait; it's all still inside.” She propped the door open and disappeared back in the house with a huff. She reappeared with a pair of floating baskets filled to the top with green and orange dye.

One of the soldiers let himself inside to snoop on the loom. “Are you finished with the new tapestry?”

The old mare grabbed more bushels of dye. “Can't be done for at least another three days.”

“Fine. The blankets are done though, right?”

“Yeah… mostly.”

“Hey, this one's not even full,” called one soldier as he received the basket of dye that Rarity had sampled.

“Yes. Because you're early,” spat Fizzle derisively. “Is this going to be the way it is now or can we get back on schedule? I need to know so that I can actually prepare next time.”

“Shouldn't be a problem next time but I don't make the rules.”

“Yeah well don't expect me to have a full stock when you come back for the tapestry.”

“Pleasure as always.”

Fizzle closed the door and the three soldiers secured the goods in the wagon, covering them up with the tarp.

Rarity pulled back behind the corner as they departed. She put a hoof to her chin in contemplation. Wherever they were going, that was where she wanted to go.

Lagging a bit behind them, she returned to her cottage and grabbed her spy gear and some food and water. Then she set off, trailing the soldiers as they left the stone streets and started down the rough wagon ruts that ran through the forest. She checked her compass and tentatively decided that they must be heading for White Glade, perhaps the seat of power.

She watched from behind, teleporting from tree to tree and never walking or making a sound. She drifted in and out of earshot of their conversation. Based on the banter and their colorations, they appeared to be two ice Kirin and one lightning. The lightning Kirin was the victim of constant haranguing by the other two.

“Did you hear that out that way there's ancient ruins supposedly.”

“Yeah that's a stupid story they just tell you to get you to never leave your city. There's monsters and an otherworld portal out in the woods.”

“Wait, there's ruins in the Buffer Zone? What are they of?”

“No there aren't.”

“Yeah, there are and I have no idea what they're from. I don't think anyone knows.”

“You haven't even seen them. Don't talk like you know.”

“Yeah, I've never been out there because everyone's told not to go in the Buffer Zone from foalhood. It's just something I overheard at the castle recently. Apparently they’ve been looking at it for years. They just don't tell us because it's not our assignment but I guess it’s a secret for civies.”

“We should go check it out then.”

“I just said it's none of our business and we don't have time to just go wandering around in the woods.”

“Then why bring it up?”

“Because I just remembered it and walking is boring without talking. Now what would you do with the living situation if you were the ruler?”

They carried on like that. The group made good time though and did not rest for the entirety of the journey which took a little over an hour. It was evening when the wagon ruts became streets again. They'd made it to White Glade, the ice Kirin city and her mother's hometown. Rarity lingered behind as the three soldiers got waved through a checkpoint guard station. A high wooden fence extended in both directions around the city on the other side.

Rarity spied through the monocular first just as she'd done at Sky's Edge. The first houses she saw past the checkpoint had living roofs topped with shaggy looking grass. She saw an influx of tired looking Kirin flooding by. They were drifting in from the outskirts. Fieldworkers probably. It must have been quitting time. Here there were Kirin of every clan mixing which told her that it was safe for her fire Kirin alias to be seen.

Rarity adjusted the strap on her bag. She waited for the guard to look away before teleporting inside. She exhaled and sauntered into town with a casual, confident gait. The faces she saw were weary and downcast but not too unsurprising considering the time of day. It wasn't necessarily an indictment of the regime in power.

She didn't have any money or social standing in this society. She didn't know anyone and no one knew her. She was nothing more than a strange transient.

Walking shoulder to shoulder with a pack of other Kirin, she singled out a straggler stallion in the back who wore a lanyard with an ID. She could spend more time creeping around first and risk becoming suspicious or she could just dive in. Her mother always said that ninety percent of being believable was projecting confidence.

“Oh, I've never seen you before,” she began, dropping her out of place accent. “What's your name?”

The Kirin looked up at her in surprise.

“You're from Ash Forge like me, right?” she added, noting his coloration.

“Uh, yeah. My name's Brimstone.”

“I'm Spitfire. How long have you been working out there?”

He shrugged. “Since we started construction a couple of weeks ago.

“How funny. I'm usually good with faces but they do have me doing a lot of supply runs so I'm not there a lot of the time. What do they have you working on?”

“Reflection pool. Honestly I'd rather be doing that than the temple or the statues. I'm not really a sculptor or a mason.”

So they weren't farming. It sounded more like they were building some kind of monument. Why?

“Well that's one blessing,” she agreed. “I'm actually better at cooking myself but you gotta do what you gotta do.” She moved in closer and whispered. “So, what do you think of the project?”

Brimstone swallowed and looked around nervously. “This is the biggest waste of resources I've ever seen. Crops are dying and we're building a giant shrine? Not only that, ice Kirin incompetence and lazy lightnings are gonna make this take a decade longer than it's supposed to. You watch.”

Rarity cringed. “Well, maybe it's not the best setup but I'm sure it has more to do with individual strengths and weaknesses leveraged in the wrong places.”

They came up behind a gathering of idle Kirin and stopped. Curious, she craned her neck, looking ahead to see what the hold up was. It was some sort of queue and at the head of it were soldiers checking IDs and doling out worker rations from a parked wagon. This wasn't something she could participate in; she needed to get out of this line before her cover story fell apart.

Rarity pretended to look in her bag. “Oh, my ID. I must have dropped it somewhere. I need to retrace my steps.” She turned away. “Nice meeting you. I'll see you later I'm sure.” She walked away and pretended to look on the ground for a while until she was out of sight. Then she went back to scouting the area.

Rarity easily identified the castle at the center of White Glade. She wandered the perimeter, passing guards and surreptitiously examining the exterior out of the corner of her eye. It was just as austere in appearance as the one in Sky's Edge. They just lacked the warm whimsy of Canterlot Castle.

Every wall along the street had a hooful of propaganda flyers promoting unity in support of the crown or vigilance against parasites and enemies of the state.

Rarity smiled as she passed a lone lightning Kirin. “Hello.”

The Kirin said nothing but returned a confused stare as she walked by.

Rarity ended up at a tavern, an excellent place for her to eavesdrop and learn. The only issue was that she had no legal currency and therefore no way to purchase anything that would give her reason to just loiter around and listen. She certainly wouldn't steal from someone to make it happen either.

There were lights and music coming from within, what sounded like an accordion. There were a couple of Kirin sitting on the side of the stoop with drinks which gave her an idea.

She wandered into the alley beside the tavern and rummaged around until she found an intact green glass bottle. She cleaned it up and filled it with water from her canteen. Then she emerged from the alley. She sat down at the free end of the stoop with her bottle and gazed out into the plaza as the sun set. Then she took a tiny swig for show, trying not to dwell on where the bottle had been. I should have been an actress, she thought. But what an uncouth spectacle. If anyone at home caught her slumming it like this she'd never live it down.

“If you don't stop playing right now I'm going to make you eat that accordion,” came an angry voice from inside.

The music abruptly ceased.

Most Kirin she saw walking by looked dour and on task even though they weren't on the clock. An older fire Kirin stallion lumbered out of the tavern with an open bottle and sat down near her.

“Well, haven't seen you here before,” he grunted before tilting his drink back.

“Spitfire. Just moved over from Ash Forge.”

“Oh, they stick you on the monument?”

Rarity blinked. “Stick me on the… Oh, I see what you mean. Yes they did.”

“Not me,” he laughed. “My background is in analytics and management and that's where they let me stay. Name's Smokey Meadows by the way.”

A pair of ice Kirin stepped onto the creaky porch and brushed past the old guy. One shot a contemptuous glare at him and then at Rarity.

“Ugh, this place was so much better before the fire rabble infested it.”

“Our money’s just as good as yours,” he shot back dismissively before the door closed behind them. Then he drank more. “You brought us here,” he muttered.

Rarity frowned. She'd never experienced anything quite like this. How could they all just live this way? They were forced to live amongst each other but there was still an inescapable air of malice everywhere.

She looked back over the plaza bathed in orange and sighed. “Why does everyone seem so angry all the time?”

“‘Cuz we all wanna just go back to living in our own cities without mixing like we did before unification. Those were better times.”

“But we were all still angry and hated each other then too. Why? We're all Kirin who live in the same valley, we should give real unity a chance. Think of all we could accomplish if we were real allies.”

“That’s just how it's always been,” he grumbled. “They don't give us a chance, why should we give them a chance?”

“Don't you at least wish that things weren't this way?”

He scratched his neck beneath a graying mane. “Yes.”