Autumn Blaze wasn't exactly keen on calling herself a hero of the kirin village. She did get everyone's voices back through sheer determination and loyalty towards her brethren, but she was just doing what was right. In all honesty, she was driven partially by selfishness, her need to have a friend whom she could communicate with in words instead of just body language.
Still, when Rain Shine offered her a chance to go to the Dragon Lands after telling her of a potential alliance, she was up to the task. She knew why her glorious leader had chosen her, of course -- she saved her entire village and was the kirin who was most in control of her draconic powers. But if this was some kind of weird set-up for an ambassador position within the village, she wasn't so sure she was ready to jump on that yet. It probably wasn't, but hey, food for thought.
The Dragon Lands weren't all too far from the Peaks of Peril, and were easy to get to when you had the ability to walk on water. The only bad part was that Autumn had to stop for directions, because the map she was given was old and faded, but that was what animals were for. Even in spite of their warnings to not go to the Dragon Lands, she pressed onward, skills obtained during her unfortunate banishment being given a chance to shine. After all, an outdoorsy creature thrived well in nature.
One of the first things she noticed upon reaching the edge of her destination was the heat. It didn't bother her, but the change in temperature was very noticeable. Taking a deep breath, she went forward, her vision catching the soaring figures of dragons both big and small. Deep inside, she wished she could fly, even though the rumors that there were kirin out there who could sounded silly enough to be false. She knew of no living kirin who could fly.
"Another pony?"
The annoyed voice made Autumn lower her head and blink. An orange dragon with purple scales was making her way over to her with a bored look on her face.
"You're probably here 'cause of Twilight, are you? She sent you here, right? Probably to check on us or something." The dragon scoffed. "Typical."
When Autumn felt she had room to speak, she took the opportunity. "Actually, no, I'm not here 'cause of 'Twilight'. She sounds cool, though." She put on a friendly smile. "Name's Autumn Blaze, but you can just call me Autumn. I'm a kirin here to estab-"
"Hold on." The dragon held her claws up. "You're a what?"
"A kirin. They're kinda like ponies, but more dragon-like. Scales, horn, all that jazz. Hey, do you like jazz? 'Cause I know some really great songs, but unfortunately I-"
"Oh jeez, would you just shut up already?!" the dragon snapped, fire eking out from the corners of her mouth. "Give me one good reason why I shouldn't make you into dinner."
Autumn opened her mouth, contemplating telling this dragon that she was here for business first and pleasure second but deciding to go the "show, don't tell" route instead. She took a deep breath, the exhale producing a massive stream of flame that went on for as long as her lung capacity would allow.
The dragon and the kirin stared at each other for the better part of a minute.
And then, the flabbergasted dragon said, "Okay, you win."
"So this is one of the tons of lava pools we got here." Smolder gestured to her left, where a couple of dragons were lounging. "Relax in 'em, dive in 'em, heck, drink 'em if you like."
A curious Autumn trotted over and stuck her hoof in, to the surprise of the other dragons. "Sorry, boys. Just testing something." She pulled it out and examined it, not finding any of her fur burned off or feeling any pain. It was to be expected, but maybe lava was different. Up until then, she hadn't known. It was kind of cool, actually.
"So," Smolder began, as her and Autumn walked. "Guess you'd like to meet the Dragon Lord, huh?"
"The Dragon Lord?" The name sounded weird to Autumn, but common sense at least told her it sounded like an important title. "Your leader?"
"Yeah. She hasn't been Dragon Lord for too long, but she's the toughest dragon here. Beat out every other dragon at the Gauntlet of Fire."
Autumn's mouth made the shape of an O. She trotted up to Smolder's side. "What's the Gauntlet of Fire? Is it like a fire-breathing contest?"
Smolder scoffed. "Nah. You gotta go through a super tough obstacle course to retrieve the Bloodstone Scepter. If you're the first dragon to touch it, you become the new Dragon Lord."
Her pace slowing slightly, Autumn tried to recall how Rain Shine became the leader of the kirin village. It was long before her time, but it wasn't a tale that impressed many young kirins, even before the Stream of Silence incident. And Rain Shine had no successor, nor was she planning on retiring soon.
She decided to stuff a mental note in the back of her brain as she resumed speed. "What does the Scepter do?"
"Jeez, you ask a lot of questions, don't ya?"
"Hey, if I'm gonna establish an alliance between my village and your...uh...village..." Autumn rolled her hoof around. "Then I should probably learn everything I can, y'know?"
"Fair point," Smolder said. "Anyway, the Scepter gives dragons immense power. For one, it makes them huge. Like, you see that rock?" She pointed ahead of her to where a large crag sat. "They're bigger than that." Autumn's eyes widened, and Smolder continued. "For another, there are rumors that it's taken down past Dragon Lords before."
For a moment, Autumn imagined wielding the Scepter herself. The thought of "what if I had the Scepter?" became a spoken musing, though unintentional.
Smolder shrugged. "Probably nothing. You're not a full dragon. Besides, you'd have to take down the current Dragon Lord in a Gauntlet of Fire. And, not gonna lie..." She turned and swept her gaze over Autumn. "You probably couldn't handle it."
"I so could!"
"You don't have wings."
"What do wings have to do with it?"
"Some obstacles you have to fly through."
Autumn opened her mouth to fire another retort, but had herself a look around first. Sure, she could certainly climb up peaks and cliffs with little to no magical assistance, but if Fluttershy was any indication, wings were a good thing to have on you. So was the power of flight itself, for that matter.
"Touche." The conversation came to a brief lull. She looked to the sky next. "So...what's it like here? I mean living here."
A sharp tsh left Smolder. "Well, I don't exactly live here full time. Right now I live on the campus of the School of Friendship." Just as Autumn opened her mouth to object, Smolder explained. "The School's in Ponyville. It's where all kinds of creatures go to study and learn about how friendship is magic and stuff like that."
The name of the town lingered in Autumn's brain for a minute before it clicked. "Oh, Ponyville! Hey, do you know Applejack and Fluttershy?"
"Yeah. They're professors at the School."
Some part of Autumn's mind screamed at her, What are you doing here? You should be in Ponyville! You could learn so much more about the two ponies that helped you save your village! But she continued walking anyway. She was on a mission from Rain Shine, and she wouldn't fail. She couldn't fail, because some of the scars from the whole silencing dealio still persisted and she didn't want to let her leader down again. Besides, Smolder was a pretty cool dragon, and if Autumn had a chance to connect with the creatures she probably shared some DNA with, then why waste it?
"Ooh, can you tell them I said hi?" she asked. "Tell them it's Autumn Blaze, and she says hi."
"Will do. But I'm kinda on vacation right now and I'd like to enjoy my time here before I go back to the land of ponies."
"You sound upset about that."
"Not my ideal place to go. Ember says I'm a 'test trial' to see if she wants to send more dragons to the school. My friends said the same thing. 'Test trial' this, 'volunteer' that." A small stream of smoke was exhaled from Smolder's nostrils. "It's so dumb. I like my friends, but it feels weird being the only dragon in the entire school."
Autumn gave an empathetic nod, wondering if this was going to lead to some kind of an impromptu therapy session. "I get it. But hey, you have friends. Better than having everyone alienate you and then exile you from the village and you having to live alone in the woods for a really really really long time which isn't really so bad once you get used to it."
Both of them stopped walking. Smolder turned and stared at Autumn.
"Oh. Uh..." Autumn blinked. "Sorry. Didn't mean to ramble. I do that a lot."
"Gee, I couldn't tell," Smolder deadpanned.
"Hey! Smolder!"
A voice from midair caught Autumn's attention, and she craned her head up to find a blue dragon descending to the ground with mighty beats of her wings. Small, but taller than Smolder, enough that Autumn had to wonder for a moment if they were siblings, or at the very least related.
"Didn't expect to find you all the way out here." The blue dragon tucked in her wings and eyed Autumn curiously. "Who's this? A pony?"
"Kirin, actually. Part pony, part dragon." Autumn said, smiling and sticking her hoof out. "The name's Autumn Blaze. And you are?"
The dragon contemplated the outstretched hoof for a moment. "What are you doing?"
"...A hoofshake." Autumn gave a quick examination of her hoof, just to make sure nothing gross was on it. "You don't know what a hoofshake is?"
"Chest bumps, strong-leg grips, yeah. Hoofshakes or whatever you call them? No."
"Well, a hoofshake is easy. Just grab my hoof and shake it."
The dragon did so, but began to shake a little too hard, causing Autumn to vibrate even after her hoof was let go. She stumbled backwards a little ways and fell on her rump, her eyes spinning around in her sockets. "Smolder wazz right, huh...you really are zztrong..."
"Sorry about that. You okay?"
"I'll be fine." Autumn slowly got to all four hooves again. "What's your name?"
"Dragon Lord Ember. But you can just call me Ember."
That snapped Autumn out of her dizzy trance. She examined Ember up and down, blinking in surprise. This has to be some kind of dumb luck. If this is the new Dragon Lord...then I just found who I was looking for! This is great!
"I've been looking for you!" Autumn began. "See, I was sent here on a mission by my village's leader, Rain Shine. She offered the chance for us to have an alliance with you guys, if you'll accept. It does get a little lonely living in the Peaks of Peril all by ourselves...heck, we had our first pony visitors in a long time just a short while ago! So what do you say?"
Ember simply stared at the kirin, trying to take all the information in. After a minute or two, a confused look settled on her face. "Okay, I have...a lot of questions. First of all, why us specifically?"
"You didn't notice the scales on my back?" Before Ember could answer, Autumn blew out a small stream of fire. "Then I bet you noticed that."
"I...uh." Ember blinked. "You can..."
"Breathe fire? Yeah. I also have another form I change into when I get really mad!" Autumn grinned and leaned closer to Ember. "Go on. Try me."
Smolder stared in disbelief, clearly upset that Autumn had never told her of this factoid before. Ember, meanwhile, took the kirin's words as a challenge, smirking and crossing her arms. "You look as scrawny as a newborn dragon. Were you born yesterday or something?"
Nothing. Ember kept pressing.
"You can't possibly be part dragon."
"What, are you some kind of dopey princess?"
"Your mom was a pony and your dad-"
Within seconds, Autumn was engulfed in hot red-blue flames, every inch of her body covered in black. Her eyes were narrowed at Ember, her teeth bared as though ready to sink into good old dragon flesh.
Smolder's jaw dropped. "That is...so cool. You really are a dragon!"
Ember was, likewise, taken aback. "Huh. That's what gets you mad? Really?"
"My parents are a sore spot," Autumn explained through gritted teeth. She had to remind herself that Ember didn't really mean any of those comments, parent-insulting included, and took a few deep breaths to calm herself down. Once her emotions were regulated again, she changed back to normal and glanced at Smolder. "And it's part dragon."
"Well, I'm sold." Ember turned and waved Autumn forward. "C'mon. We'll head to my cave to talk."
What surprised Autumn the most wasn't the fact that dragons apparently lived in caves instead of somewhere airborne or somewhere deep underground. It wasn't the fact that Ember's cave looked too small for someone of such a high ranking in the hierarchy.
No, it was the massive amount of treasure that lied within it.
The shimmering lights of the gold and the jewelry were nearly blinding. None of the items certainly didn't look like anything Autumn had ever traded in the kirin village, though finding something as priceless as what was seen here was a very rare experience. Autumn had traded something with gold once. Real gold, she had been told. Her memory was fuzzy as to what the object actually was, though.
Still, as she approached it and levitated a large golden coin of some kind up, she got a growing urge to steal some of it. Maybe Ember wasn't so perceptive that she would notice a few of her things missi-
"Hey! Get your magic off of my stuff!"
A startled Autumn hastily dropped the coin. The resulting clink echoed throughout the cave. She turned around, her eyes scanning for any sign of Ember.
"Seriously? You can't use your horn as a flashlight or whatever? I'm right in front of you!"
"It's really only good for lighting up the immediate area."
"Ugh. Whatever. Just...walk forward."
Autumn did. She poured as much magic into her horn as she could, but even with her upside-down chevrons, her blue aura only took her so far. It only took her a half-minute of walking to wonder exactly how far she had gone into the cave.
After a few rounds of "keep going" from Ember, Autumn could finally see light, and then Ember's form. "Oh, thank goodness. I was really starting to worry I got lost in here or something."
"You probably would've if you kept walking deeper inside." Ember snapped. "So, a couple things. First of all, don't get ahead of me. The Dragon Lands are bigger than you'd think. And second of all..." She leaned down and put her nose to Autumn's to utter in a low snarl, "Don't touch my hoard. Ever."
Autumn put on a lopsided grin and chuckled. "Ah. Right, sorry. But why is it all the way in there, anyway? I mean, if I were you, I'd keep my home and my treasure in two separate locations. Maybe in a hole somewhere, or deep underground. If you keep them together, you kinda run the risk of getting robbed, don't you? Though we kirins keep 'em together, so maybe I'm being just a little hypocritical."
"Oh jeez. You have a lot to learn about dragons, for being part dragon yourself." Ember moved towards a small flat rock off to the side, a part of a small cluster of other flat rocks. "Sit."
Realizing this would get her closer to netting an alliance, Autumn sat across from Ember and gazed at her expectantly. She absorbed every single detail told to her about dragons, from how tough and aggressive they were to their long lifespans to how some liked to torment po-
"Hooooooold on just a sec, there." Autumn held up a hoof. "You guys hurt ponies?"
"Not all of us. Since I became Dragon Lord and started making...ehh...friends with ponies..." Ember's body seemed to shrink in on itself and shiver for a moment. "...dragons haven't been attacking them as much. Mostly the young ones who haven't matured yet."
Autumn's eyes narrowed ever so slightly. "Why did you just tremble when you mentioned being friends with ponies?"
Ember blinked in surprise. "We aren't exactly used to friendship and all that cutesy stuff. We're tough and proud of it," she explained. "Even after that visit to Spike and his friends in Ponyville, I'm not completely used to friendship. For the sake of strengthening the bonds between us and ponies, though? I'm trying to get better."
"Good for you!"
Autumn thought she could see a slight blush creep onto Ember's face. But...could dragons even blush? As much as she really wanted to ask, a part of her knew Ember wouldn't answer that, and so she decided to, for once, keep her mouth shut.
"So if you want us to...be friends with you...or team up with you, or whatever..." Ember rolled her hand around. "Maybe you should tell me about yourself."
"Well, I'm not so sure I wanna tell you."
There was a pause. Ember stared at Autumn, but just when she was about to open her mouth, the excited kirin declared her intentions to sing a song all about her species and her village. Unaware of Ember's visibly uncomfortable reaction, the song lasted a grand total of five minutes as Autumn sung all about the history she had learned when she was young, her fellow kirin, and of course, the Stream of Silence incident that she helped to resolve.
When the song ended, Ember shifted in her seat. "Uh...that was..."
"Good, right? You don't get this good of a voice overnight, lemme tell ya."
"...Sure. But can you maybe...not do that again?"
Autumn stared at her as though she had spoken blasphemy. "Dragons don't sing?"
"No. Why would we need to sing? Is that some kind of weird pony thing?"
"See? You just rhymed! That's a good start!" Autumn exclaimed. "Singing's great! Makes you happy, gets others singing along too..." She nudged Ember gently. "You should try it."
Ember stood up. "I'll consider it." Her head moved towards the cave. "I'm gonna go get some gemstones to eat. Stay there. I'll be right back."
What Ember had said didn't hit Autumn until her blue form had disappeared into the darkness. "She eats gems? Like...real gems?" Autumn scratched her head. "Seems like a waste if you ask me. They're better off traded. Wonder if there are any around here I can take back home."
She stared at the ground. Gemstones wouldn't suddenly float to her, or so she thought. She honestly wasn't sure, as the only talk she had ever heard of gemstones was when fellow kirin were talking about their value. Finding them was another story, and she hadn't ventured out far enough from the Peaks of Peril to go searching. Banging on the ground with her hoof only served to bring her pain.
"You've gotta be kidding me!" she exclaimed, trying again and again to dig at the hard ground but finding that her hooves just weren't made for digging in anything but dirt.
"Hey. Wasn't sure if you-"
Though innocent, Ember's arrival was the straw that broke the kirin's back. Autumn shapeshifted into her Nirik form, glaring at her with hot-blooded intensity.
Ember blinked. "Uh...what's...going on?"
Instead of responding, Autumn held up a hoof and trotted away, ducking behind a nearby rock and taking a deep breath in through her nose. The resulting pillar of flames, and the resulting scream, caught the attention of a lot of dragons. Ember, in particular, simply stared, keeping a hold on her gems.
When the flames died down, Autumn came back out in her usual form. "Ahh, much better. You were saying?"
"I was...gonna ask what was going on."
"Oh! I was trying to dig for gemstones. I thought, 'huh, it's weird that she eats them instead of selling them', so I wanted to dig up some to take back to the kirin village."
Ember's head tilted slightly. "You sell these things?"
"They have higher value than you'd think. Especially since hardly any kirin's found one."
Rustling through her pile, Ember took out an oval-shaped green gem and held it out. "You wanna try one? If you don't like it, I'll have it."
Autumn rapped it with her hoof a few times. Knowing that she was running out of things to trade with her preferred dentist to pay for all of her appointments made her shake her head. "I'm good, thanks."
"Eh, more for me."
As Ember began to feast, Autumn watched her go at it. She suddenly felt thankful she had filled up only a short while before she reached the Dragon Lands -- not that looking at gemstones made her hungry, but she always believed that seeing someone eat made you hungry too.
"Sho anyway..." Ember took a seat. "If you want an allianch, you got it."
A moment passed. Autumn blinked. "I...huh?"
Ember swallowed her bite. "You and your village wanted an alliance with us, yeah?" she said. "Consider it done."
Stammering followed this sudden answer, as Autumn's brain began to short-circuit from how smoothly and easily the answer flowed out. She really thought Ember would be a tougher sell than that. "Really?"
"Yeah. You seem cool. You're part dragon." Ember gave a halfhearted shrug as she took another bite of gemstone. "One condition, though."
"What?"
"I wanna come and shee the kirin village for myshelf." Ember slightly squinted her eyes. "Come to think of it, why didn't Rain Shine come and shee me hershelf? Why'd she shend you? You shome short of an ambashador?"
Choosing to ignore the flecks of gem that were escaping from Ember's mouth and littering the rocky ground in front of her, Autumn frowned. "Uh...well, Rain Shine doesn't want things to get out of control when she's gone. It's rare that she leaves the village at all, actually."
Ember opened her mouth to reveal the gross chewed-up bits of gemstone inside, then closed it, swallowed, and hummed. "That...actually makes sense. I mean, things get crazy around here when I'm gone, but someone's gotta establish diplomacy, you know?" She snickered. "And besides Smolder, I don't think any of these dragons know what the word 'diplomacy' even means."
Autumn couldn't help but laugh at that. "I can buy that. No offense."
"None taken."
"But to answer your question, I'm not an ambassador. I'm...really not sure I wanna become one. I did help save my village, and I did meet two of Equestria's most renowned heroes, but going around and making friends and alliances with other Equestrian denizens isn't my speed."
"So you're a homebody."
"Ah-" Autumn raised a hoof, then lowered it. "Yeah. Guess you could say that. Never traveled beyond the Peaks, even when I was exiled."
"Hmm." Ember took another bite. "You traveled here all by yourself."
"Only because kirins are very nature-oriented. Wouldn't have survived outside of the village if it weren't for my awesome green hoof." Autumn rubbed her leg nervously. "Besides, I couldn't just tell Rain Shine 'no' and get exiled again."
"That'sh what you're sho worried about?" Ember swallowed. "If you ask me, you're worrying too much. Never met her, but Rain Shine seems cool. She trusts you enough to send you here to meet me, at least."
Autumn glanced up at her and considered her words. After some thought, she slightly squinted her eyes and asked, "Do you think I should be an ambassador for the kirin village?"
"You're ashking me?" Another bite of gem, though the chewing slowed as Ember became deep in thought. "Well, bashed on what you're doing here...I don't shee why you shouldn't." A mischievous smile crept onto her face as she swallowed. "You're forgetting something, though."
"I am?" Autumn looked around. "What? What is it? I don't think I lost anything on the way here. Eh, but most of the stuff's in hammerspace anyway."
Ember chuckled. "You haven't proved your worth. Your strength." she said. "Just 'cause we're friendlier towards ponies doesn't mean we're gonna get too soft."
Dumbfounded, Autumn could only stare at her. Was the impressive display of flamethrowing before not enough? What did Ember mean by "proving her worth"? The question swirled around in her mind.
Ember shoved the rest of the gems in her mouth and began walking away, waving Autumn towards her with her hand. Autumn, fueled by curiosity, followed.
"All right, the dragon -- or kirin -- who can breathe the most fire wins! And ladies, don't get burned."
In all honesty, Autumn was half-expecting a firebreathing competition. After all, given how Ember and Smolder liked her own display (however small it was), it was to be expected. Still, if it would help net an alliance with the Dragon Lands, she was more than happy to do it.
Ember went first. Taking a nearby rock and throwing it into the air, she shot out a pillar of bright pink fire that rocketed into the sky. The rock was quickly reduced to rubble and fell to the ground like snow.
Having never seen Ember's fire before, Autumn could only stare. There was no way she could match that, could she? Not unless she transformed into a Nirik, and she couldn't do that without getting mad. All she could do was try her best with what she had.
A wave of anxiety washed over her, but she persevered, taking the biggest breath she could and closing her eyes to focus. Within seconds, she had a stream of fire going that began growing steadily. The sounds of surprise and mockery from the other dragons were ones she tried to tune out, letting her fire grow bigger and bigger.
Somehow, she could hear the shock written on Ember's face, but she kept going until the fire reached up into the sky. She tried to think of things that were annoying, but didn't exactly send her over the edge. Things like a kirin who wouldn't move out of the way despite many "excuse me's" or a stubborn boulder who blocked her path were good starts, ones that let the fire grow bigger.
But the more she thought about these little inconveniences, the more upset she got.
And when the straw landed on the kirin's back yet again, she broke it singlehoofedly by transforming into a Nirik.
Shocked reactions came from the gathered dragons as they watched Autumn give a ferocious echoing roar of her own in between the roaring of the fiery pillar that shot upwards. It would have hit Ember square in the face had Autumn not reared her head upward, screaming at the sky and letting out a slew of unholy kirin-like curses that, to the dragons, was nothing more than pure gibberish.
The entire act lasted for nearly a minute, and when Autumn was done, she lowered her head and grit her teeth, glaring at the dragons who quickly began muttering amongst themselves. Her gaze moved to Ember, who stared at her wordlessly, and it was then that she let down her emotional barrier. Taking a deep breath, another pillar of fire marked her changing of forms back to her normal kirin one.
"Uh..." Ember glanced from side to side. "Looks like we...have a winner."
Autumn blinked. "Whuh?"
"That was some impressive firebreathing you just did. Like, you could've hit me with that blast!" Ember chuckled. "Not that it would've hurt me, but still."
"I..." Suddenly, it dawned on Autumn. She facehoofed. "Ohhh shoot, I turned into a Nirik, didn't I?"
"And then some."
"And I won?"
"Sure did. I didn't know you could breathe fire like that. Though-"
"I can't!" Autumn exclaimed. "I can't breathe fire. Kirin don't breathe fire."
"I dunno, seems like you just proved that wrong," Ember said. "You're part dragon. So firebreathing kinda comes naturally to you."
Autumn put a hoof to her temple in sheer disbelief. Sure, Ember was an expert in dragons and their behaviors, of course, but a Kirin breathing fire seemed far-fetched. Throughout the stories she had been told, not once did breathing fire ever come up, at least as far as she remembered.
"Ha...well...guess I'll take your word for it." She began to bob up and down. "So what do I win?"
"Bragging rights and respect."
Autumn stopped. "Oh," she said, with just an edge of disappointment. Not that she was really expecting any kind of grand reward like currency, but it would have been nice to receive some material object for a first-time feat she never thought she could pull off.
"C'mon."
"Huh? Where are you going?"
"You're not staying here, are you? This isn't, like, a vacation kind of thing?" Ember asked, waving her hand around erratically. "'Cause my cave isn't for visitors."
Most of Autumn's items were hidden in handy-dandy hammerspace. She hadn't packed all too much, even with her outdated map, because nature provided several items she could use if she ran out of essentials like food and water. With that in mind, she hadn't planned out how long she was to stay at the Dragon Lands. Rain Shine never gave her a time limit, anyway.
"Uh..." Autumn turned around. "No. The Peaks of Peril aren't far from here, so I could get here and back in about a day."
Ember breathed a sigh of relief. "Sorry for the abrupt question. It just came to me." She began walking away, waving Autumn along with her hand. "But I'm taking you to the lava pool to relax. You deserve it."
Autumn trotted after her, giving meek waves to the dragons who were chanting her name.
Leaving the lava pool was the hardest part, especially when Autumn was just about to drift off and got poked with a sharp claw. It was a shame that the Peaks of Peril didn't have any lava, because she felt that the lava pool was better than the hot tub back at the kirin village. But hey, with the alliance she just secured, maybe she could invite more and more kirin to the Dragon Lands to experience its wonder for themselves. It was a hop, skip and jump away, after all.
As she weaved her way through the underbrush that hid the kirin village from view, her eyes caught Rain Shine casually talking to a couple of kirin. She picked up the pace, excited to share the good news and what she learned while also feeling nervousness weave through her gut.
"Ah, Autumn Blaze." Rain Shine turned towards her and bowed her head for a moment. "You're back from your travels, I see. That was quick."
Autumn bowed as well before she spoke. "Well, turns out the Dragon Lands isn't too far from here. Only about a day or two's travel, at least if you take the scenic route." She giggled at her own joke, though it came out more anxiety-ridden than she intended. "Ember and I made plans for a return visit, too. Did you know that we're part dragon? Crazy, right? And we can breathe fire!"
Rain Shine raised a hoof. "Autumn, please slow down," she urged, glancing towards her hut. "Perhaps it's best if we continue this discussion inside."
Keeping her mouth shut, Autumn nodded and followed her leader, her peripheral vision managing to catch a few kirins who were looking her way and muttering amongst themselves.
Once both leader and subordinate had a seat, Rain Shine cleared her throat. "Now, first things first. Do we have an alliance with the Dragon Lands?"
"And more!" Autumn exclaimed, leaning forward and letting her hooves rest on the table weaved out of sticks and leaves. "Ember -- she's the dragons' leader, you see -- she told me that kirin are welcome in the Dragon Lands anytime!"
"Ember..." Rain Shine paused. "I see. How delightful. I suppose I'll have to pay her a visit in the coming days."
"Not if she comes to you first. She said she wants to meet you and get to know you."
"Hm. I suppose that makes sense." Rain Shine tapped her chin. "In that case, she will be welcomed with open hooves."
"Great! So what's second things second? You probably wanna know about the whole fire thing, don't you?"
For a moment, Rain Shine hesitated. "Yes, actually. You mentioned that kirin can breathe fire?"
Autumn's smile turned into a frown. "Yeah. That's not gonna be a problem, is it? 'Cause I may have impressed Ember by giving her an awesome fire display but I know how flammable things get here and I really don't want the village to-"
Rain Shine held up a hoof, a silent but polite cue for Autumn to stop talking. "I will meet Ember outside of the village, as a precaution." A twinge of nervousness lingered in her voice in the last sentence, but went away with the next one. "As for kirin breathing fire...I..." She sighed. "It is information that has been withheld from the village for many years. And I'm sure you know the reason why."
Of course Autumn knew why -- she was there when it happened. She gave a solemn nod.
"I'd like to advise that we do not tell other kirin for the time being. A lot of us are still working on getting our Nirik forms under control, after all," Rain Shine said, narrowing her eyes slightly. "And that is a strong 'we', Autumn."
"Yes, yes, of course! My lips will be sealed."
With a soft hum, Rain Shine's expression relaxed. "Good," she said, with just a slight edge of "you better be." She reached a hoof towards a map that looked far newer than what Autumn was given, and examined it for a moment. "Given how you performed well at forging an alliance for the first time in the history of kirin, perhaps it wouldn't be too much to ask of you..."
Autumn stiffened. Her heartbeat quickened. She had won the firebreathing competition against Ember, and had lots of time to think about being an ambassador on the way back, but her conscience told her it wouldn't actually be a possibility. This wasn't some kind of trial run or anything. Except...well, she wasn't sure, but it certainly seemed like she was about to be proven wrong.
"Autumn, would you be interested in possibly traveling to other lands to build alliances with other creatures?"
There it was. The big question. Really, Autumn had no reason to decline, especially with her track record. "Uh..." She glanced off to the side. "What other creatures are we talking about, here?"
"Equestria is diverse. There are many creatures that live within it. Ponies, dragons, kirin..." Rain Shine pointed to a spot in the upper-right corner of her map. "But there are more out there. And the more we manage to befriend, the better off our village will be."
Autumn didn't recognize the place, nor its name of "Griffonstone". What even was a griffon, anyway? It sounded more like the name of a monster than anything else. Still, she couldn't deny that going outside of the Peaks to meet a new creature had been somewhat exciting. Maybe it was the fact that she was on a mission instead of on a period of exile, or maybe it was the chance to make new non-kirin friends beyond the two equines she managed to befriend.
She gazed into Rain Shine's eyes. Promise and determination for a potential new era of kirin-dom were plain to see within them. If Ember told her she could do a good job in being an ambassador, then maybe her leader was on to something.
With a single nod and thoughts of all the new places she had yet to travel to, Autumn met the promise and determination with that of her own. "All right. Sign me up."
Author's Note
I had originally wanted to flesh this story out a lot more and take a different angle with it, but I procrastinated way too much, swapped from a different story to this one halfway through the contest runtime, and cut this story a bit too close to the deadline for my liking. (Also, I have no time this week to actually polish it enough to make it viable. It's passable, at the very least.)
