The Sky Above

“So what’s this place called again?”

Twilight paused midstep before, with a little shake of her head, she carried on down the busy, cobbled street. “The Rat’s Jacket,” she said, speaking loudly to be heard over the noise.

Rainbow caught up from where she’d been lagging to tuck herself in close to Twilight. “Is that a good sign, or a bad one? ‘Cause rats and kitchens seem a bad mix.”

Twilight shrugged. “Squirrel said it looked alright, and as she’s heading back home in a couple days I figured we can’t really say no.” They’d been back in Hurricanum for only a few days now, and as none of them felt like cooking after the last couple of weeks, they’d been eating out most of the time.

“Even if she’s choosing rats?”

“I don’t think they’re actually selling rats there, Dash.”

“Makes sense, I suppose,” Rainbow nodded sagely. “Mice would be cheaper.”

Twilight gave her a flick of her tail as they turned off the bustling thoroughfare and down a much quieter alley, its looming walls and rooftops drowning out the noise of the street. “It’s somewhere down here,” she said, glancing at the many shops in passing – some selling curios or tools, while others merely bistros like the one they were looking for. “Near the base of one of the wire-towers.”

Rainbow frowned at the mention of one of the ghastly things, but bit her tongue. Trying to land in the shadow of one of them must’ve been quite unnerving, Twilight thought.

They reached a cramped intersection and hung a left, passing back out into sunlight, its warmth pleasant on their bare fur. “We still got that meeting with what’s-his-name tomorrow?” Rainbow asked.

“Mmhmm,” Twilight nodded. “Just need to finalize a couple of things before we head out ourselves.” With how long the trip back to Equus would take, the sooner they left the better. As much as she was loathe to admit it, the trip had left her feeling oddly... refreshed – but she was more than eager to get back to her work. She hadn’t been able to learn anything of any direct value while here, of course, but it wasn’t as though the Everfree was going to solve itself, and the time away had done wonders for her thoughts.

They carried on quietly as they veered down a steep, switchbacking staircase, the stone slightly slick in the cool shade. Not a minute later they exited back out onto a narrow street, the dusty cobbles cast in vibrant hues from the endless line of fabrics and sheets hanging from cables and posts all around. “Some sort of dyers’ quarter?” Twilight wondered, her muzzle wrinkling from the faint but acrid scents in the air.

“Looked colourful from above, but I didn’t exactly come in for a close look,” Rainbow grumbled.

They took their time going down the street, admiring their surroundings as they went, as there was more than just raw, dyed cloth here, but many finely worked rugs further along.

Still, it wasn’t long before they’d left the quarter behind. A couple of turns later Rainbow gave Twilight a quick poke with her wing. “Look.”

Ahead of them, swaying gently in the growing breeze and set above a little shop’s doorway, was a wooden sign. Painted in colourful strokes upon it was a cheerful, grey mouse in a dapper jacket. “Well, it doesn’t look so bad,” Twilight said, as she led the way to the door.

“Could be a disguise,” Rainbow insisted. “To get our guard down, then BAM! Rats in the pie.”

Twilight snorted.

The restaurant was tiny – just a single room a half-dozen lengths wide and maybe three or four times that long. At the table nearest the door, seated and waiting for them, was Squirrel.

“Hello you two,” the mare said, smiling as she gestured to the poufs. “Thought you’d be a while yet.”

Twilight took another look around the place as she took her seat. “Didn’t have much else on our plate, today. Cozy looking place, this.”

Rainbow nodded along. “You can hardly even hear the squeaking.”

Squirrel gave her an odd look. “Yeees? I had a quick lunch here a couple days ago – it was nice, and what with it being so close to the inn, it seemed a good place to meet up.”

“Yep,” Twilight agreed. Although they were staying at the same inn – courtesy of the diplomatic corps – they hadn’t been seeing much of each other during the day. “Did you manage to find anything decent?”

Squirrel shrugged. “Lots of nice souvenirs around, but they’ve been either too big or too expensive.”

Twilight hummed and shook her head. “I’m sure you’ll find something good before you leave.”

“I hope so – I’d hate to have to admit that Rainbow had it right about taking something from the mines.”

“Don’t remind me,” Rainbow grunted. “Should’ve taken one of those soulgems when we had the chance.”

“No kidding.”

They fell to companionable silence as they ordered some drinks and salads, content to merely lounge about while they ate.

“So!” Squirrel said as they finished eating. “You two find anything useful? For when you’re back home?”

“I’ve a few ideas,” Twilight said. “Nothing solid, though. I was really hoping to find something to act as an anchor or taming agent here – I’ve finally gotten access to the polis libraries! The good, private ones! But: nothing.” She rolled her shoulders, fuming quietly at the memory of so many tens of hours spent pouring over texts in vain. “The only positive is that I’m confident now that the Everfree’s some sort of shattered leyline – some of the books referenced something similar happening centuries back in Calendar.”

“There’s more than a few stories about that, actually,” Squirrel said with a smile. “Epic adventures as the heroes tried to tame the wild magic. Doubt any of it’s of any use to you, though.”

Twilight grunted. “Mmhmm. Doesn’t do much good when they don’t explain how they managed it, now does it?”

“Could go there?” Rainbow chimed in, looking suddenly far more interested than she’d been since they sat down. “To Calendar? And ask around?”

“We’re supposed to be going home in a few days, Dash, and it’s not like we can just get in an airship and fly there overnight.” Twilight let out a noisy sigh. “Even if they’d let us take out another – which they won’t – I reeeally wouldn’t trust it to keep us up.”

“Doesn’t help that you gave all the money back, either,” Rainbow pouted. “Can’t even rent one.”

“They wouldn’t charter to us anyways.”

The trio fell back to silence as they paid and left. They’d meandered a good ways back to their inn before Rainbow spoke. “Hey – you’ve been to Calendar, right? ‘Cause I totally remember you saying something like that.”

“Yep,” Squirrel nodded. “Saw the sights while I was between convoys once, years back. Didn’t see anything that’d fix broken leylines, though.”

“The spellwork’s not really the problem here,” Twilight said, staring down at the cobbles as they walked. “Or the power. And it’s a grand leyline, technically – a crossing of two leys,” she added for Squirrel’s benefit. “Something’s caused it to... I don’t know, unravel? Unfix itself? Whatever it was, it happened centuries back.” She huffed noisily, frustrated that she was never able to get close enough to the centre to find out for certain. “It’s an anchor I was hoping to find – some manner of ward I could tie it down to. I’m pretty sure there’s something else going on there as well, but for the life of me I can’t figure it out.”

“Sounds... complicated?” Squirrel snorted at her own ineloquence. “This all seems well out of my depth.”

“It’s alright,” Twilight said, sounding now more melancholic than annoyed. “It’s just that with our time here almost up, the fact that I haven’t found anything to help is weighing on me.”

“Maybe something’ll come up,” Squirrel shrugged. “You never know.”

The end of another day had come, leaving Twilight feeling just as drained as every other she’d spent in the polis. She had ended up heading back to the stacks for another pass, skimming through books and scrolls alike, but without any luck; she knew she was fixating on this, no nevermind that the whole point of Cadance sending her here in the first place was to get her mind off things, but she couldn’t get herself to pass up on the opportunity to find something of value.

She entered their room and collapsed on her bed, wriggling around in frustration. “No luck?” Rainbow asked, glancing up from her gear.

“Mmff,” Twilight groaned as she rolled over and saw Rainbow rooting around her stuff. “What’re you up to?”

“Oh!” Rainbow looked mildly alarmed. “Just, umm... packing?”

“‘Packing’?” Twilight said skeptically. She sat up to get a better look. “Are those oat bars? And faery shards? Dash...” She leveled a soft glare at the pegasus. “We’re not going to Calendar.”

Rainbow bore a hunted look. “I don’t know what you mean! This is just, uhh, just in case.”

“Just in case of...?”

“Our ship going down! Yeah! That’s it.” Rainbow gave a satisfied nod. “In case our ship goes down on the way home.”

“Uh huh.” Twilight narrowed her eyes.

“Well, I mean it’s already happened once, right? So it’s definitely going to happen again. Probably. Although...” she trailed off with a hopeful look. “Now that you mention it, we could always hang around a bit longer? Have that sightseeing trip we wanted to do?”

Twilight huffed and settled back into the blankets. “We already did that.”

“Ship went down – doesn’t count.”

Twilight groaned when she realized it kind of didn’t. “We can’t exactly stay here forever, Dash – we have to go home sometime.”

“Well, yeah – I know that,” Rainbow shrugged, kneading the ground uncomfortably. “But we’re here now, aren’t we? And I know the embassy people will still foot the bill for a while yet. And don’t you want to see Drizzle? It’s big! And underground! And probably has treasure!”

“You could say that about every city if you wanted to,” Twilight insisted. “Or something similar, at least. Simply getting back home will be a journey in itself.”

“But, Twiii!”

“Ugh.” Twilight flinched away. “Not the puppy-dog eyes! We just got back to civilization, Dash!”

“But Twiiiiii,” Rainbow wheedled. “Gnolls and treasure and stuff!”

Twilight couldn’t help but feel annoyed at just how weak she was to whining. “I don’t even know how we’d get there,” she sighed. “Fiiine. But if we’re going to Drizzle, then we’re hitting up Calendar, too! Might as well see what we can there.” She knew she’d given in awfully quick, but as she still hadn’t found anything to help with the Everfree, a good part of her didn’t want to leave, either.

“Alriiight!” Rainbow beamed. “So how’re we getting there, then?”

Twilight facehoofed. “You didn’t even plan that much?”

“Nah – I’m awful at that kinda stuff,” Rainbow shrugged, not looking at all abashed. “Could ask Squirrel? Oo! Could go with Squirrel!”

“Oh! Right,” Twilight said, perking back up. “She’s heading back home anyways – we could escort her?” Now that she’d relented, she was feeling rather excited about it all.

“Exactly! On the plus side, we’ll have a guide. On the flip side: it’s Squirrel.”

Twilight snorted. “We’ll be sure to avoid any swamps, then. Let’s go find her.”

Rainbow followed close behind as they exited their room and made their way down the long hall, lit at this hour by a line of dull, orange shards. “Think she’s still up?”

“Mmhmm – it’s only an hour past supper.”

They carried on around the bend, the moon just visible through the skylights above. Rainbow hadn’t expected it to be quite as easy as it was to convince Twilight for the extra trip – maybe she really did want to do it all along? She knew that Twi could be oddly stubborn about these things sometimes.

They had more than enough time to get home, anyways – no one was expecting them back anytime soon, and it wasn’t as though they weren’t getting paid.

Having reached the right room, Twilight gave a polite knock at the door. “Hey Squirrel,” she said through the wood. “You have a moment?”

“And that’s the plan,” Rainbow said, having taken point.

“Seriously?” Squirrel said, amusement clear in her voice. “I thought you were both eager to get back to Equus.”

“Meh.”

“What Rainbow means is, there’s no actual rush to get back,” Twilight said from where she’d been pacing by the window. “An extra week or so isn’t really adding all that much.”

“And I imagine your sudden willingness to visit Calendar is just a coincidence?”

Twilight snorted. “Hardly.”

“Well, whatever your motivations, I’m glad you’ve chosen me as your guide,” Squirrel said, puffing herself up.

“Uhh... no offense Squirrel, but I think I’ll plan this one out,” Twilight said hesitantly, staring fixedly at the rug. “To, umm... give your skills a rest?”

“Definitely,” Rainbow quickly agreed. “You’re all planned out – let Sparkle handle this one.”

Squirrel deflated like a limp balloon. “Oh goody.”

Rainbow gave her a comforting pat. “Hey, cheer up! Think of it as free lessons on how not to get horribly lost all the time.”

“When you put it that way, I feel so much better.”

“Good! So how we doing this?”

“Convoys?” Twilight half-asked as she ceased her pacing. “What schedule do they run?”

Squirrel hopped up onto the bed, curling up near the pillows before she answered. “A fairly loose one. They always go along the same paths and in the same directions, but you’ve kind of got to get to one of their stops a couple days early – just in case.”

“And if we miss one?”

Squirrel shrugged. “Anywhere from a week to a month, really, this far from the coast.”

Twilight grunted as she resumed pacing. “We’ll have to plan this carefully, then.”

“Well, the one I was going to take home – we’ll be taking that one, I presume? – would take us through Beech and Drizzle along its way. Should be hitting up Calendar after that, but I didn’t check.”

“Might make getting us back here at the end of it difficult,” Twilight muttered. “Any barges or caravans we could take if needed?”

“Barges, maybe, but there aren’t any caravans around these parts.”

Twilight hummed and nodded.

“Are there even any roads around here?” Rainbow chimed in. “‘Cause now that I think of it, I don’t think we ever passed over any on the way here.”

“With how big and consistent the trade convoys are, anybody who could afford to construct an actual road network just uses airships or the rivers instead. Plenty of roads in the west, mind,” Squirrel added.

“Weird.”

“Intercity roadways would be a great deal more difficult to finance and maintain here than back home, Dash,” Twilight chided. “These are poleis, remember – most of these cities are effectively their own countries.”

Rainbow shrugged. “Still weird.”

“In any event, we have a course.” Twilight paused to lift open the window and stick her head out for a few moments. “Past twilight, now,” she said once she’d closed the window again. “There’s a night market, but we’re probably best waiting until tomorrow to stock up.”

“No kidding,” Rainbow said, feeling more than a little beat from the day. “Shouldn’t be much to pick up, anyways; plus, this convoy comes in when, exactly? Day after tomorrow?”

“Around noon, yeah,” Squirrel said, looking far more cheerful than she’d been since they’d arrived. “They’ll hang around for hours, mind – lots of cargo to transfer, if nothing else.”

“Alriiight!” Rainbow said, giving her tail a happy flick. “Vacation time!”

A damp fog had cropped up the next day, flowing slowly off the lake in dense waves. Being this high up, the hill Twilight was on was well out of it, though it made for quite the sight when looking back. “Like an island in the clouds,” she mumbled, turning back to her climb.

She was alone this morning, the other two having gone out together to gather supplies and learn more about the convoy’s route; it was up to Twilight, then, to notify the embassy. She didn’t anticipate any problems, but she couldn’t help but feel nervous – she knew they weren’t actually expected to perform any official diplomatic duties while they were here in Avalon, but as they were essentially just vacationing on the corps’ budget, it felt a touch awkward to be heading out again, and so soon, too.

“Perhaps I can convince them they owe me for recovering the banknotes from the last ship?” Twilight continued to herself as she approached the tall, stony embassy, its ruddy brickwork covered in ivy. She let out a deep breath. “Welp, here goes nothing.”

Rainbow fluffed out her wings irritably; she and Squirrel were circling around to the dockside markets, passing through the fog as they did. She couldn’t wait until it burnt off – moving through the stuff always felt so strange, like she was pushing her way through one unending length of gauze.

“Does it really bother you this much?” Squirrel asked, having been shooting glances at Rainbow since they’d first entered. “Weathermare and all?”

“It’s fine, normally,” Rainbow groused. “When I’m flying through it, I mean – it’s even kinda fun, ‘cause if you angle yourself just right you sorta bounce off it like water, ya know? But walking through it? Bleh.”

“It is rather dense,” Squirrel agreed. “Atmospheric though.”

“I guess...”

They continued to weave their way through the early morning crowds, the sounds of gulls and stevedores ringing out all around. Looming like dark shadows in the fog were the many tall warehouses and workshops that littered the shore, itself dotted by countless piers and a single large marina, protected from the rough waters of Chestnut lake by a long arm of stone and rubble built out into the water.

The silhouettes of great ships, swaying in the choppy waters, were just visible far off to the side. “Never been on one of those,” Rainbow said, jerking a wing towards the moored vessels – hopefully some chatter would help distract her. “The flying ones, sure, and a few dinghies, but nothing big like that.”

Squirrel looked at her in surprise. “You two took an airship all the way across the Calise? Shoot! I didn’t know any were crossing it yet.”

“Just a few,” Rainbow shrugged. “Would’ve been cooler to take a boat, but Twilight was being stubborn – I think she thought if she put up enough of a fuss about going, Cadance would let her off the hook.”

“And now here she is, trying to stay even longer,” Squirrel smiled. “Avalon grew on her.”

“Nah – home’s way better than this,” Rainbow chuckled. “I mean, Avalon’s all neat and all, but, umm... yeah.”

“Fair enough, I guess,” Squirrel sighed. “You’ve got family and stuff at home, after all.”

“Yep!”

The markets were clustered at the far end of the pier, raised up above the surrounding area while still low enough to hear the slapping of waves upon the piles below. Despite the early hour, it was bustling. “Keep close!” Squirrel called out, the two them momentarily separated by a line of loaded delivery carts.

“It’s fine!” Rainbow shouted back. “I know what we need, and if we get split up we’ll just meet back up at the inn!”

Squirrel quickly crossed the aisle to rejoin her. “Sure, but it’ll be silly if we just end up buying the same things, so stay close.”

Rainbow shrugged, but seemed to see enough sense not to argue.

The air stunk of fish as they wove through the haphazardous arrangement of stalls, some colourfully set with fruits and vegetables just brought in from the many orchards and fields ringing the lake, while others still were piled high with ice-packed oysters, clams, and more besides. As much as Squirrel wanted to grab a few choice picks of this and that for a group supper later on, priority was on grabbing some new gear first.

It wasn’t long before the salty tang in the air mixed with the bitter smells of lingering dyes and oils. “We’ll need something thick,” Squirrel began, her gazed darting about between the many established shops. “But not too thick – it gets cold up there, but we’ll still need to be able move about easily.”

“Speak for yourself,” Rainbow said, puffing out her chest. “I’ll keep to something light; Twi’ll need something good, though.”

“Definitely,” Squirrel agreed – the memory of the little unicorn shivering in the mines kept coming to mind. “Might find something here.” They’d stopped outside a shop stuffed full of boots and gloves, with nearly every part of every shelf covered in wares.

“In we go, then,” she continued. They wandered around a bit lost at first, passing by shelves of clothes clearly meant for gnolls or gryphons, and even past a table laden with thin, high-buckled boots just for deer, before they found what they were looking for.

“Bit expensive,” Rainbow muttered to herself as she looked over the pony-makes. “At least, I think. These expensive, Squirrel?”

Squirrel set down a fluffy set of boots she’d been examining. “For their quality? No. Besides, aren’t you two on your country’s budget?”

“Still don’t want to get ripped off,” Rainbow said; nonetheless she showed renewed interest in the boots. “Alright, let’s get this done – still need some new jackets after this.”

It’d taken far longer than Squirrel had hoped to get out of there. Aside from Rainbow taking her time – she’d proven surprisingly picky – they’d then needed to sort something out for Twilight; luckily, Rainbow had gotten her sizes before they’d left.

“Think she’ll like them?” Rainbow asked, the tips of Twilight’s new boots poking out of her panniers.

“Can’t see why she wouldn’t,” Squirrel said, pausing on occasion to wiggle her legs and test her own ones’ fit. “She doesn’t seem the type to be much fussed about clothing, anyways.”

“Yeah – she really isn’t, is she.”

Their hoofsteps echoed far more dully off the planks than it had before when their hooves were bared. Squirrel had never cared for the feel of steel horseshoes, and it’d seemed that the other two shared her tastes; unfortunately, the unexpected roughness of the past few weeks had chipped and worn away so much of their hooves that full knee-boots were pretty much their only recourse.

It was a bit of a pinch to her own budget, mind, but as she’d saved a decent deal portaging down to Hurricanum instead of sailing, she had plenty to spend.

“Here we are!” Rainbow said, interrupting her thoughts. Squirrel looked up just in time to see the tip of her rainbow tail disappearing amongst a wall of coatracks. Looking forward to replacing the now abominably-ratty coat of hers with something nicer, she followed her in.

Twilight stepped wearily up the stairs to the inn’s second floor, the late-afternoon light bleeding in through the skylights above. Talking to the corps had taken far more time than she’d anticipated; plus, she couldn’t resist taking another peek at the stacks one last time before she left.

She muzzled open the door to her room to find the other two already inside and chatting. “Hey Twi!” Rainbow called out as she picked up and waved around the scruff of a thick cotton jacket.

Doffing her panniers, Twilight went to join them. “Good! You look like you found something decent.”

“Yep! That one’s yours,” Rainbow continued, getting up to rummage around behind her. “Got some knee-boots here, too.”

Twilight picked up the jacket and tried it on. She was pleasantly surprised to find it fit almost perfectly, with the back running all the way to her dock and the fluffy collar snugged right up around her neck; with the included hoodie she wouldn’t even need a scarf.

“It looks great,” Twilight said, eying the boots next; from the looks of it, they’d gotten something similar between the three of them. “No new hat?” she asked Squirrel. Since reaching the city they’d more-or-less thrown away all their clothes, so heavily torn and fouled they’d become.

“Nah,” Squirrel shrugged. “Didn’t see anything decent. It was more for the looks, anyways.”

“Fair enough,” Twilight nodded – it wasn’t as though it were winter, after all. “All we need now is some travelling food.”

“Which we can get tomorrow,” Rainbow said as she hopped up onto the bed. “We’ll have all day. Embassy go alright?”

Twilight huffed. “Lots of eyerolling, but they couldn’t exactly say ‘no,’ now could they? I did have to give them a rather vague date-of-return, though – we haven’t plotted things out well enough to say more than ‘a couple weeks at most.’”

“That’s probably about right,” Squirrel said. “Bit of room for error, really.”

“Mmhmm. Now, that said we do need to plan things out – at least a little.” Twilight started shuffling around for her new mapbooks, flipping the sturdy canvas-bound thing open once she did. “I’ve some nice detailed ones here.”

“No more backwater maps, eh?” Squirrel said as she sat down next to Twilight to better see them herself.

“Nope!” None of the maps were city-scale – bar the one for Hurricanum – but she was hoping to pick some up along the way; nevertheless, the ones she had should be more than adequate for their trip. “So, let’s see here... the convoy we’re taking will pass through Wanderbelle, I imagine?”

“Yep. It’ll pass over Beech on the way to Drizzle, then off home. It’ll almost certainly stop at a couple of other little places along the way, too – or at least some of the ships will, and we should be able to barter passage down with one of them if we want.”

“Not as predictable as I’d’ve liked,” Twilight grumbled. “But I suppose it’ll have to do.”

Rainbow bounced across the bed to join them. “We walked it all once – we can do it again. I’m way more interested in the underground one.”

“Well, we’ll have time there,” Squirrel pointed out. “Trade ships are always going in and out of Drizzle – a lot of the finer mechanisms for ships are made in the city.”

“They make airships there too?” Rainbow asked, looking interested.

“Nah – most of what they make makes its way up to Snowbound for the rest of the work.”

“Well that’s boring,” Rainbow pouted. “I thought there was supposed to be big gem mines and stuff there.”

“Oh, well, there’s that too,” Squirrel conceded. “Airships are way cooler, though.”

Rainbow just flexed her wings in response.

Twilight continued, hoping to get the conversation back on track. “Wanderbelle shouldn’t take too long to get to after that. And you say it hits Calendar next?”

“Yep – we double-checked earlier,” Squirrel said, nodding her head towards Rainbow. “It’ll hit up Fluff and Eyr along the way; after that it’ll break up, but some good part of it should head back through Beech and here again.”

“Basic as courses go, but I can work with this,” Twilight said, quietly pleased that she was feeling alright with the possibility they’d be winging it. “We’ll want to get up early tomorrow.”

“Hold on – what?” Rainbow gave her a shocked look. “But the ships won’t even be here til noon!”

“Well, yeees,” Twilight conceded. “But we wouldn’t want to risk oversleeping and missing it.”

“Nuh uh – we’re sleeping in, Twi.”

In so far as Twilight was concerned, sleeping in was just begging for disaster. Still, though... “Up an hour after sunrise, then?”

Rainbow gave her a poke. “Til nine – at least.”

“... eight?”

Another poke. “Eight-thirty.”

Twilight sighed. “Fiiine – we’ll sleep in.”