The Sky Above

Twilight couldn’t imagine ever having to sail through something like this – she’d be lost in an instant! They were moving low through one of the countless snow-covered, tree-scattered troughs laying between mountain peaks and ridges that looked so much like every other peak and ridge that she knew she’d never have a hope in heck of remembering them later.

Tassle – the unicorn – was piloting right now, her eyes jumping rapidly between her compass and their surroundings; seated pressed up against the side of the ship’s dodger was Fluff, his muzzle held close to a mapbook as he occasionally called out directions and landmarks.

“Should be a river coming out of a gully on the right,” he said, flicking the map with a dulled talon. “’Bout ten miles out.”

Tassle grunted.

Twilight was doing her best to keep out of the way, both of the sailors and the wind. Apparently the town should be just around the next few peaks, but she’d yet to see anything in the way of roads, leaving her to wonder just how the place went about trading and travel. Admittedly, given how much the entire continent seemed to love building everything they could underground, she wouldn’t be surprised to hear there was a highway under these very trees.

She shuffled over to get closer to Squirrel. “So what kind of docks do they have here? Can’t be anything big.”

“I imagine it’ll be like Weld,” Squirrel said, looking pleased to have something to distract her from the cold. “Little scaffolds for us and empty fields for the big ones.”

Twilight nodded – she’d figured as much, but it wasn’t like she had anything else to do with her time. “And you’ve really never been there?”

“Because I grew up in Snowbound? Nah – I know it’s close and all, but vacations are things you do far away, you know? You don’t travel to the neighbouring town just to sightsee, no matter how neat it might be.”

“I guess...” Twilight trailed off uncertainly. “I can agree with the sentiment, at least.”

“Bit of a tourist back home, then, eh?” Squirrel said, pausing a moment to take a pull from her canteen. “What’re the places there like?”

Twilight thought about it a moment before replying. “Much more above-ground,” she decided on. “Grottos aren’t particularly common in Equus, although we’ve some very impressive cliffside castles. Otherwise... the scenery changes, but I suppose everything else remains more or less the same, bar the odd exception.”

“The same as everywhere, huh,” Squirrel chuffed. “Still, it must be nice to see two whole, different continents and all their cities and lakes and stuff, even if this one is a little... how did you once put it? ‘Quaint’?”

Twilight laughed and gave her a friendly shove. “Hey now, I’d like to think I’ve improved a bit since then!”

“Way back when, just a few weeks ago?” Squirrel grinned, shoving her back.

“I’m a fast learner,” Twilight drawled. “But seriously, you try learning about a new continent exclusively through its ivory tower, and see how you turn out.”

Squirrel chuckled. “’Ivory tower,’ eh? The diplomats that bad?”

“In hindsight? Oh, yeah.” Even now, she could hardly believe the disconnect between the people – Avalonians and Equusians alike – that worked in the diplomatic corps, and the actual reality of the lives around them. “Definitely happy to just stick with being a librarian.”

“Keep it simple, yeah,” Squirrel agreed. “Well, that and your projects.”

“Yep – that and my projects.”

“There it is.”

Twilight grunted as Squirrel pointed out the town, only just now coming into view despite that they were practically on top of it. Built on one of the few, relatively-flat outcroppings within the seemingly-endless field of mountains and valleys, Shade-Under-Down was... small, she decided. From what she’d been told, while at least some of it was built underground – for protection, given how dangerous many of the creatures still roaming the mountains were – most of the homes and workshops were built partially into the top-layer, their roofs covered in reedy grasses and the surrounding earth rising so high up their walls that there was often little more of the building visible than a chimney, door and windows. They were, in essence, burrows.

Heavily-clothed smudges could be seen walking through channels cut into the muzzle-deep snow. Almost all of them changelings, Twilight mused to herself, still feeling uncertain about them. “Where’s the docks?”

“’Round one of the ridges, I guess.”

The airship continued to slowly circle around to the far side, its main furled and its fins and mizzen at half. Twilight had done her best to pick up on what they were doing as they sailed – it seemed too valuable an opportunity to waste – and found herself pleasantly surprised that none of it looked that difficult; at least, the actual doing of the thing seemed easy – the trick seemed to be in knowing exactly what to do, and when. There were more than a few times that they’d quietly, mutually set about manipulating the sails or rigging, or redirecting the ship’s course from around this peak to around that other one, without any cause or trigger that Twilight could comprehend. Still, hoisting, furling and point-of-sail all looked fairly straightforward.

“I imagine a ship like this would cost a fortune,” Twilight half-asked.

“Tempting, isn’t it?” Squirrel said with a sly look. “It’s actually not that much – the problem’s the endless maintenance: after a decade or so, you’ve pretty much spent as much again on the dang thing as it cost in the first place.”

That sounded about right to Twilight -- sails tear, metal rusts and arcana fails, given enough time. “It was just a passing thought.”

The docks, such as they were, consisted of a paltry double-row of scaffolds barely three-stories tall and just long enough to hold a triplet of trisails; they were empty now, though, their walkways unplowed and their beams lined with icicles.

Rainbow stood waiting at the end of a hastily-cleared pier. “All good!” she yelled, waving up as the ship, her fins folded close against her hull, slowly drifted into berth.

It was moments later that Fluff started tossing down lines, Rainbow hurrying to tie them off on hastily-revealed bitts; soon enough, the Settler was down, her fenders bumping dully against the pier. “This sorta stuff would’ve been useful to know weeks ago, right Twi!” she shouted over teasingly as she finished up her cleat hitch.

“Uhh,” Twilight suddenly blushed, shooting the sailors self-conscious looks. “Yes. I imagine it would. We can definitely talk about that later, though, right?”

Rainbow snorted, but let it drop – she could always tease her later.

With the ship as secured as Rainbow could make it – and Fluff hurrying around double-checking her work – Squirrel and Twilight hopped off to join her, having bid their farewells to the sailors. “We’ll need to check in once or twice a day,” Squirrel said as they ploughed through the snow towards the nearest of the stairs. “That way we’ll know when they want to leave in time to hitch a ride back.”

“Sure, sure,” Rainbow agreed easily. “But in the meantime... now what?” From where they stood on the slope they could make out what looked like about a third of the town proper, but there didn’t seem to be anywhere to actually go.

“There were some major cuts on the far side,” Twilight said, pointing towards the rough, rocky arm that seemed to cleave the town in two. “Might be an agora.”

While Rainbow hadn’t made out anything like that on the way in, she wasn’t about to say no to a direction. “An inn, some shops, maybe a mysterious lappy shop that sells a sliver? Sounds good to me.”

“It’s ‘lapidary,’” Twilight muttered as they carried on slowly and awkwardly down the steps, having to go sideways as they worked through the two-feet of untouched snow. “Reeeally wishing my jacket covered my belly better right now.”

“No kidding,” Squirrel agreed.

Quietly of the same mind, Rainbow did the one thing that seemed sensible to her – she hopped off the side, wings flared, and took to the air.

“Lucky goof,” Squirrel grumbled as she watched the mare fly tight circles above. “Maybe we should’ve bought snowshoes?”

“Could pick some up here?” Twilight said, chuckling. “Might be a touch bulky, though.”

“Play it by ear, I suppose.” She eyed Twilight, who still seemed tense. “You doing okay?”

Her answer was a moody flick of the tail.

“I just mean, they’re not going to eat you or anything, if for no other reason than I’m pretty sure Rainbow would object.”

“She probably would,” Twilight agreed. “Unless she thought she could get some shapeshifting tail out of it,” she added with a laugh. “But, no, I’m fine – I just need to meet some, I think.”

“You technically already have,” Squirrel tried. “More than technically – literally. They just didn’t look like ‘lings, is all.”

“I know, I know, it’s just... ugh!” Twilight groaned and fell to muttering to herself.

For the life of her, Squirrel couldn’t figure out what the problem was: dragons breath flame, pegasi find north, and changelings shapeshift – that’s just what they do; still, there was a problem, and she was trying to work out how to fix it. “Maybe it would help if you imagined yourself as a ‘ling? As in, you’ve always been one but no one bothered to tell you?”

Twilight seemed to pause for a second and consider it before shaking her head. “No... the conspiracy required to maintain that would’ve been far too large to last for more than a couple of years.”

“That’s... unexpectedly rational? Or expectedly so, at this point. Either way, you can say your hellos soon enough, I suppose.”

They’d arrived at one of the many channels cut through the snow, nearly tripping at first as they’d realized the paths had been set and cleared over wooden walkways, themselves raised nearly a foot off the ground. “For runoff, maybe?” Squirrel mused as they stepped up onto the planks, the wood clunking underhoof. “Although you’d still need to clear it.”

“Lyonesse has these on the way to their watchtowers,” Twilight said, relaxing somewhat. “It’s for that, and to avoid turning an ankle on the wet, icy rock; plus, you can drag things on them easier.”

“I think you mentioned that before?” Squirrel said leadingly, hoping to keep her distracted until she could talk to some ‘lings herself – the dang girl was far too prone to worry herself half to death if left to her own devices. “The place, I mean.”

“Old fortress city,” Twilight said as they reached a fork in the path, opting to head left and up the hill. “Backed into a steep ravine. Mostly a trade centre now, but still has a lot of well-maintained architecture and artifacts.”

“There for the study, eh?”

“Family vacation, actually,” Twilight smiled. “There’re some rather nice mountain lakes nearby, to say nothing of the city itself.”

“Sounds lovely,” Squirrel said. Around them, more and more little paths were branching off, leading swiftly to homes and squat workshops. “Sounds a bit like Shatterfalls, come to think of it.”

“That’s west coast, isn’t it?”

“Yep.”

The ground began to level out just as they stepped into a cleared alcove at the top of the town, the cold stone underhoof shaped into mosiacs of swirls and symbols; stout, steeple-roofed buildings lined the far side. “Looks like something from Drizzle, doesn’t it.”

Twilight nodded. “I imagine changeling culture amalgamates a great deal from those of others.” A few such ‘lings, their muzzles like so much blackened wood – all mottled browns and greys and blacks – peaked out from thick, fluffy hoods and scarves as they entered, stopping and staring openly at them. “Although I suppose we’re about to find out.”

“Mmhmm,” Squirrel agreed, peering back; even in daylight, their eyes shone bright. “Let’s carry on? I can’t imagine Rainbow’ll take long to get here.”

As if on cue there was a thump behind them as the last of their trio landed. “Hello, hello,” Rainbow said, her head on a swivel as she looked around, a smile on her face. “Didn’t expect the bristly tails or rabbity ears, I gotta say.”

“Well, they’re not ponies,” Squirrel said as she nudged the two of them onwards. “You’d think the whole ‘shapeshifting’ thing would’ve given that away.”

“Well, yeah,” Rainbow huffed. “But all the stories I’ve heard always made them sound... buggy, I guess?”

“’Buggy’?” Squirrel shot her an amused look. “How would that work? Pretty sure bug legs wouldn’t work if you got that big.”

“Should we be talking like this?” Twilight asked, interrupting them as they crossed through the centre, a large firepit lying dormant there beneath a circular roof. “I’m pretty sure they can hear us.”

Judging by the frowns from the ones nearest, she was right.

“Oh, uhh... right,” Squirrel blushed. “So, umm... which one?” She nodded towards the facing buildings: at two-stories tall, their lintles deep and their panes dark, they were easily the most prominent structures in the town.

“Centre?” Rainbow suggested. “Looks the most governmenty, at least.”

“I thought we were looking for an inn?”

Rainbow shrugged. “Looks kinda inny, too.”

None of the changelings seemed inclined to stop them, happy enough as they were to simply gather in twos and threes and gossip. Twilight couldn’t say she was pleased about that, but she could, at least, understand. “Inn first, girls,” she said as she led the way into the middle building. The door was heavy, its hinges well-oiled, as it opened into a foyer.

“Well, this is nice,” Squirrel said, and given the polished wood floor, elegant furniture and bank of windows across from them, Twilight couldn’t disagree. “Heckuva fireplace, though,” she added, nodding towards the faintly-crackling fire tucked off to the side.

“Mmm,” Twilight hummed distantly, her eyes drawn to the changeling looking owlishly at them from behind a paper-laden desk.

Head cocked and blues eyes shining brightly, the clerk spoke. “Hello?” she said questioningly, her bat-like wings rustling at her sides. “Ponies?”

“Indeed,” Twilight said, taking the lead once more as she crossed the foyer. “We’re looking for... uhh...” she trailed off, utterly distracted by the changeling’s short, glistening canines. “Umm?” There was an exasperated huff behind her before she was gently nudged aside.

“What Twi means is, is there an inn or someplace we can stay?” Rainbow said, her tail swishing merrily behind her. “Your earrings look great, by the way.”

“Oh!” The changeling smiled sheepishly. “Thanks. We’re more of an ‘everything’ building, but we’ve always got a couple rooms for the odd traveller, especially one with such vibrant hair – is it natural?” She spoke with a higher and more expressive voice than Twilight would’ve expected.

“Hey,” Squirrel said, guiding her away from the desk and towards the bay windows. “While those two flirt, let’s see what the view’s like.”

She was hardly being subtle just saying it aloud like that; on the other hoof, it wasn’t as if they were in any sort of rush, and they had just started talking preening versus oiling, so it’d probably be a while before they could rent a room, anyways. “Sure,” she began, before a more pressing thought came to mind. “Actually, on that note, uhh,” -- she dropped her voice low – “you and I are mares, right? And gryphons are hens, so...”

Squirrel laughed as she sat down heavily on a worn window-facing sofa. “Does and bucks,” she said, still grinning. “Think deer – or rabbits, more like.”

Twilight sat down next to her, doffing her panniers as she did. “The ears’ll make a good mnemonic.” The room was just a touch chilly, but she didn’t doubt it’d be cozy indeed if it were full of people and the fire was roaring; perhaps it was used for celebrations or games – it certainly had the space for it.

“The view’s decent, though, isn’t it?”

And it was. Before them lay the snow-covered river-valley that sprawled beneath the town’s outcropping, the mountains rising sharply either side. “Doesn’t seem like there’s much for farmland?” Twilight wondered, noting the absense of any of the rectangular patterning that normally marked such out, even in winter. “Doesn’t look like Snowbound.”

“Think it’s mostly burrowed greenhouses and mushroom tunnels, here,” Squirrel said uncertainly. “I have to admit, I never really paid much attention to that kind of stuff as a foal.”

Twilight smiled. “Fair enough,” she said, glancing back at Rainbow and the doe. “Perhaps Dash could tell us later? Sounds like she’s learning a lot.”

Squirrel snorted. “Sure, sure – no doubt they’re deep in discussion about local agriculture.”

Twilight giggled as she turned back around. “Alright – maybe not, then.”

“Aw, don’t worry, Sparkle – I’m sure we can find you a nice, sexy changeling of your very own while we’re here.”

“Oh wow,” Twilight laughed. “I think that might be a bit more than I could handle right now.” She gave another soft snort. “Maybe we should just focus on the sliver?”

“Fine, fine,” Squirrel conceded. “It’s about time for lunch, isn’t it?”

Twilight nodded and began rooting around in her panniers for something to eat. Undoubtably there was at least one good restaurant in town, but as another glance showed Rainbow still happily chatting away, she found she didn’t much care to interrupt her and spoil her fun.

It was little later that found Rainbow wandering back over to them, smiling widely as she leapt up onto the couch. “Thought we’d lost you there,” Twilight joked.

“Nah,” Rainbow shrugged, her nonchalance belied by the slight blush dusting her cheeks. “Just talking. This’s the inn, by the way, and Sparrow says there’s a market inside next door.”

“No restaurants?” Twilight asked, noting the doe’s name.

Rainbow shook her head as she fished out an oatbar. “They’ve a kitchen here for banquets and stuff, but no – there’s only like a thousand people all told here, so there’s not really much of a reason for one.”

“That’s... more people than I’d’ve thought,” Twilight said.

“Farming communities are always really spread out,” Squirrel elaborated. “So what’s the plan? Any leads?”

“Sparrow’s not heard of it,” Rainbow said, shaking her head. “And they don’t have any gem shops or whatever around; she said we should probably just ask the mayor.”

“Sensible,” Twilight nodded. “Hopefully they’re not too busy for us.”

“Can’t imagine there’s much for them to do.”

They relaxed a little while longer on the couch, enjoying as best they could the warmer air before they’d need to head on back outside. Eventually, though, Twilight stood up to have a few quick words with the doe and secure their room. “I’ve got this, Dash,” she said as she crossed over. “It’ll just be a minute.” Privately, she felt like she needed to talk with the changeling alone, even if it was about something so dreadfully mundane as renting a room, if only to prove to herself that she could.

“Umm, hello,” she said as she approached the counter. “We were hoping to rent a room?”

The doe looked up from her paperwork to give her a wan smile, her long ears folding back gently. “Yep.”

Twilight blinked as she waited for her to continue. “Rainbow indicated you had one available?”

A short nod and a ruffle of wings followed. “A few, yes.”

While one part of Twilight was busy trying to reconcile how the doe was acting now compared to how she was with Dash, another part was getting increasingly impatient. “How much for the room, then?” she asked tersely.

The doe frowned for a moment, her stance dropping minutely. “Inn’s for travellers: too cold outside most of the year. We’re not the city.” That said, she bent back to her work -- her ears standing straight as arrows -- as though Twilight weren’t even there.

Twilight spluttered silently for a few moments, completely at a loss, before turning around to rejoin the others.

“Well?” Squirrel asked. “How was it?”

Twilight took her time answering as she settled back down on the cushions. “I don’t know?” she finally said, still confused about the whole thing. “I think... no, I really don’t know. It was weird.”

Rainbow grunted and gave her a disappointed look. “I’d asked Sparrow before I came back here to act normal around you – so you’d get to talk to a changeling, you know? Instead of a changeling that was acting like a pony.”

“Oh. Ohhh!” That was annoyingly obvious in hindsight. No wonder the doe had come across as so normal when they’d first come in. “But wait a minute – I’m definitely still missing something here.”

“Squirrel?”

“It’s mostly body-language,” Squirrel said, eying Twilight curiously. “That and things like tone and expression. How’d you not notice it? Even from here I could read her mood, and I’ve never even spoken to a naked ‘ling before.”

Twilight blushed, frustrated that an old shortcoming of hers was rearing its head once again. “I’m not always... good... with people.” An understatement in the past, although she’d felt that she’d come a long ways in the years since.

Beside her, Rainbow draped a downy wing over her. “Hey – cheer up, Twi! You’re loads better than you used to be. I guess changelings are just sorta hard-mode about this kinda thing.”

Twilight grumbled as she leaned into the hug.

“I mean, it’d make sense for them to be all weird to talk to,” Rainbow continued, sounding suspiciously like she was about to reach some sort of punchline. “They need some sort of downside to counter their sexiness, after all.”

And there it is. Twilight snorted despite herself. “Yeah, yeah – fine.” She sighed as she made to stand back up, Rainbow’s wing falling off her. “I never did book that room – I’ll be right back.” And, before her embarassment could stop her, she strode straight back to the clerk.

“Hello again,” she began as the doe glanced back up at her, a brow raised in doubt. “Just to clarify: would it be alright if myself and my friends spent the night here? In one of the rooms?” There. A touch stilted, but she couldn’t be any more clear than that.

The doe gave her an unimpressed look. “Seriously? Of course you can – I thought I’d said that.”

So she’s in ‘pony mode’ then. “Oh. Well... yes. You did,” Twilight agreed awkwardly. “I, umm... sorry? Yes – that’s it. Sorry. About earlier, I mean, although given this is only our second interaction there’s no other time I could be referring to. Unless we’ve met? Before? If you weren’t looking like a changeling?”

The doe blinked at her, nonplussed.

“Was I rambling? I’m definitely rambling,” Twilight nodded, shooting a quick glance over her withers at the other two – with a little luck, one of them would be right behind her and ready to put her out of her misery. Nope, Twilight sighed, seeing the pair of them staring at her from the couch. “So,” she continued, tapping her hooves clumsily on the desktop. “Uhh...”

The doe’s look of confusion slowly morphed to pity. “Maybe you’d be more comfortable back with your friends? The rooms’re upstairs, by the way – just don’t make a mess. And you do know I’m not going to eat you, right?” she added, looking as though she could barely believe what she was saying as she shot a quick glance at the couch.

“Right,” Twilight nodded. “I know that.” She opened her mouth to say something more, but what little was left of her nerves gave out; she turned and practically ran back to the others.

Rainbow started to say something, but Twilight barely heard her as she leapt up onto the couch and curled up into a tight ball, her muzzle wedged between her panniers and the backrest.

She was still trying to get her breathing under control when she felt a heavy weight on her back: judging by its rythmic rise and fall, she guessed one of them had nestled their head on her barrel; peeking open an eye, she found herself nearly face-to-face with Rainbow.

“It’ll be fine,” Rainbow murmured, a wing coming out to once again drape over her flank. “Sparrow’s not gonna eat ya, and I’m sure whatever you said isn’t the worse thing she’s heard.”

Twilight shuffled a little, enough to get her head properly back out into the open. “Why does everyone think I’m afraid of getting eaten!” she huffed indignantly, fighting down her blush.

“Well...” Rainbow trailed off suggestively.

“Oh for goodness’ sake, Dash,” Twilight grumbled. She wiggled a bit to get Rainbow off her until she could sit up properly. “I’m fine,” she insisted, hunched over and refusing to look either of them in the eye. “We have a room – upstairs, somewhere – so technically everything went swimmingly.”

Rainbow snorted and gave her a reassuring nuzzle. “Sure it did.”

They stepped back out into the chilly afternoon light with a new objective in mind. “So the mayor’s just next door?” Twilight asked, mostly just to try and recover from her awkward hurry out of the inn.

“If she’s in,” Squirrel said, humouring her as she led them into a squat building across the alcove. “Although I have a funny feeling the only thing we’re going to find here is some more cultural exchange for you.”

“Be that as it may, we’re still checking.”

The door swung open with the barest of squeaks, emptying them into a small antechamber of sorts; there was an empty desk off to the side, a half-open double-door ahead, and a slew of attractive carvings and paintings set on tables and walls; the air was warm and stuffy.

“There’s some neat stuff here,” Rainbow said, rearing up to get a better look at a pod of soapstone orcas. “Don’t think we’re anywhere near a coast though, are we?”

“Couple hundred kilometres to the north,” Squirrel said. “Should we go say hello?”

Now that she’d mentioned it, Twilight could make out the vague sounds of muttering in the next room. “Yeah,” she said, taking a deep breath. “Let’s do it.”

She was nearly to the doors before Rainbow stepped in front of her, cutting her off. “Hey Twi?” she started hesitantly. “You know I’m super fond of you, right? Like, you’re my best friend, right?”

Twilight sighed, already knowing where this was going. “Mmhmm?”

“So... how ‘bout I do the talking on this one?”

“Alright,” Twilight said immediately, trying not to show the relief she felt as she did. “Take the lead.”

The adjoining room was wide and circular, with tall, boxy windows lining the pale wooden walls. Lush planters sat on its many sills, while above hung creeping vines and stranglers wrapped around the many beams. At the very centre was a partially snow-covered skylight, completing the feeling of being in an ornate greenhouse.

A large, harried-looking doe looked up at them from amongst stacks of paperwork and notebooks. “Oh!” she said, her voice musical and full of pleasant surprise. “You’re not what I expected.”

“Oh, I know,” Rainbow chirped, striding over to meet her. “I doubt you often get mares as cute as us in here.”

Smiling wryly and flicking her heavily-studded ears, the doe snorted as she leaned back in her chair. “Uh huh. Because that’s definitely what I meant.”

“Knew it!” Rainbow grinned cheekily. “So anyways, we were kinda looking for the mayor – Sparrow next door said they might be able to help us?”

“That’s me,” the mayor grunted with a tired shake of her head. “Tern. I don’t suppose whatever you need’s easy? I don’t mean to be a bad host, but we’ve our own problems here.”

“Anything we can help with?” Rainbow asked, head cocked as she tried to read the upside-down papers.

“Thanks, but no – it’s mostly resource distribution.” The mayor – Tern – shuffled the papers she was working on aside and gave them each a look in turn. “I imagine you’re not just looking for good sights to see? Wouldn’t be much sense to sending you three to me if so.”

“We’re looking for a silver thing,” Rainbow nodded, still smiling widely, tail swishing to and fro. “Can’t find one in the city.”

“Silver?” Tern blinked. “We’ve some copper and soapstone mines, although they’re quite shallow.”

“I think it’s magical silver?” Rainbow paused to share a look with Twilight. “Hey Twi – it’s a magic rock, right?”

Twilight started, barely believing that she was already getting dragged into another conversation with a changeling. “Uhh... yes? I mean, no.” She took a deep breath and approached the pair of them. “It’s not a ‘silver thing’ – it’s a sliver. They form at grand leylines and resemble cloudy quartz, although with a few novel magical properties.”

Recognition flew across Tern’s face. “A talon, then?”

“Yes!” Twilight exclaimed, relief flooding through her body – maybe this wouldn’t be a waste of time, after all. “That’s it! Do you have one? Only we’ve been looking everywhere for one of these, and there’ve been so many false leads and some of the shopkeepers have been so rude and, and!” She cut herself off and took another deep breath. “And it would be great if you had one,” she said as she fought down a blush.

Squirrel chuffed as she came up beside her. “I think you might’ve just blown the negotiations for us, Sparkle.”

“Ah. Right.” She was definitely losing the fight now. “Anyways, can you help us?”

Tern drummed one of the curiously hardened paws that changelings seemed to have on the desk, a faraway look in her eyes. The three of them waited quietly until she gave a brisk shake of her head. “After a fashion, yes. Might I ask how you even thought to come here?”

Finding it considerably easier talking to a changeling that was acting like a pony, Twilight nodded. “We tried to find one in Drizzle, but the lapidarist there said they were shorted one from Snowbound; likewise the contact we found in the city said much the same of here.”

“Hmm,” Tern hummed contemplatively. She hesitated before continuing, as though she didn’t really want to say anything more. “I know the contract. We’d had a few like it, all around the same time, all for the same thing. I suppose you wouldn’t know it, but there’s a grand leyline not far north of us; now I can’t imagine for the life of me why, but a pawful of requests came in over the last year to have us send out expeditionaries to search for any talons that might’ve formed.”

“Some new academia?” Twilight mused, interupting the doe as she thought aloud. “A research paper or novel use, perhaps. Would have to be well-funded, though, and most aren’t. Hmm...” She trailed off, barely aware of her surroundings before giving her head a hearty shake – she needed to focus.

“Maybe?” Tern shrugged, seemingly unconcerned with the buyers’ motivations. “The point here’s we were able to satisfy some of the requests, but not all, and not for lack of trying.”

Figures we’d be too late, Twilight thought, sagging in disappointment. “Oh.”

Rainbow chose that moment to chime in. “Well, where’d they go, then? Might still be able to buy ‘em off the buyers.”

“Doubt she’d tell us,” Squirrel said; behind them, Tern leaned back to watch. “Suppliers blabbing like that’d be... rude? Yeah – I’ll go with rude.”

Rainbow reared up to lean nonchalantly against the desk. “Could bribe her? I can totally make, like, a really nice cake or something – I can do ice cream and everything.”

Tern rolled her eyes.

“I’m pretty sure they’ve worked out how to bake here, Rainbow.” Squirrel sat down with a huff, apparently content to play along. “Don’t we have money?”

Twilight, meanwhile, was busy trying to figure out just what was going on – she knew she was bad with people, but she was fairly certain this wasn’t a very logical way to go about things. “Sort of?” she ventured. “I mean, yes – a fairly good deal, given we had to work the East Wind – but we still need some of that to get back home.”

“Might be some sort of winter race here?” Rainbow twisted around to face the mayor. “Is there any sort of race or that kinda thing happening? That I can win, but instead of a trophy I get a talon?”

Tern gave her an even look. “No.”

“Shoot.”

“I could always help with the paperwork?” Twilight tried. “If it’s anything to do with maths or organization, then I’m your mare.”

Another roll of the eyes. “Still no.”

Twilight tried not to wilt.

“Well, you know,” Squirrel began with the air of someone about to push their luck. “I can cook alright too – if a cake isn’t good enough – ”

“An ice cream cake!” Rainbow corrected. “With real ice cream!”

“Right, right – if a real ice cream cake’s not good enough, I could always do up some sort of fancy dinner to go with?” Squirrel paused to gauge the mayor’s reaction. “Or a lunch? Breakfast? I’m pretty good with both.”

“I could help clean?” Twilight added, now thoroughly lost. “Or wait? I’m pretty sure I could work out how to in time.”

The mayor responded with a loud, defeated sigh. “If I tell you where to find one, will you leave me alone to get back to work?”

“Yup!” Rainbow grinned, spinning around to face her. “Totally.”

Tern gave another huff before continuing. “There was at least one more that our scouts found, but it was down in wyvern territory.”

“How’d you know it was a sliver?” Twilight asked, trying not to think too much about just where it was. “If you couldn’t get close to it, I mean.”

“They’re like little suns,” Tern said with a shrug. “Don’t know how to explain it to a pony.”

That kind of made sense to Twilight – as the slivers were incredibly mana-dense, and changelings needed ambient magic sources to survive, then seeing them as exceptionally bright seemed entirely reasonably, even at a distance. “Fair enough. Wyverns, you say?”

“They’ll probably eat you.”

“Uh huh,” Twilight said, already lost in plans. “Where’d you say they were?”

“It’ll be really slow. And hot.”

“Mmhmm,” Twilight hummed, this time turning to fish a local mapbook out of her panniers. “Could you point it out on here?”

“Fiiine, fine,” Tern sighed, indicating a place not far to the northwest.

“Thank you!” Twilight said, already turning to go, far too lost in thought to give heed to proper decorum. “Daylight’s burning, girls!”

She could just make out a soft snort as they pulled the door shut behind them. “Ponies are weird,” Tern muttered with a shake of her head as she turned back to her work.

“That went well!” Twilight chirped, feeling more than half pleased with herself. “An entire conversation and not a single faux pas!”

“It was definitely fun, yeah,” Rainbow smiled, taking a moment to readjust her scarf and overcoat – is was colder than she’d remembered outside. “Got us a place on the map to go to, too!”

“Looks like it’s perhaps a half-day’s hike,” Twilight said as she tried to estimate the distance in her head. “We can plot that better tonight.”

Squirrel looked less than eager, however. “What about the dragons? Only, I don’t think she was kidding.”

“Shouldn’t be a problem,” Twilight said lackadaisically. “Between Rainbow and I, we should be able to work with them just fine.”

“Yeah,” Rainbow agreed. “Plus, if we can wrangle the place out of the mayor, then I’m sure dealing with some dragons should be easy as pie.”

“I’m pretty sure she wasn’t even trying to hide anything,” Squirrel mumbled. “We never actually gave her a chance to answer us when we asked.”

Rainbow just shrugged. “Same difference.”

They stood huddled together next to the alcove’s central firepit while Twilight tried to figure out their next move. A quick glance at the mostly-blue sky made it clear they were passing mid-afternoon – time had really flown since they’d arrived. “We should stock up,” Twilight said. “And ask around about the area we’ll be heading to.”

“We stocked up literally yesterday, Twi,” Rainbow snorted. “And, I hate to say it, but how’re we even going to get to wherever it is, anyways? It’s all snow out there.”

“I was kind of hoping to follow whatever path the scouts took.”

“They’d’ve come and gone weeks or months ago,” Squirrel pointed out. “And any goat paths’ll be impossible for us to find.”

Twilight floundered for a moment before rallying. “Well, all the more reason to ask around, then.”

And with that they were off again, back down the narrow channels, this time though with eyes and ears open for anything resembling a general store or workshop – anything, really, that could possibly have some knowledgeable gossips milling about in it. It wasn’t long before Twilight and Squirrel had started to lag a short ways behind, Rainbow being far too eager to keep checking out the sights to tarry.

The curious looks from the locals had likewise only increased, as quick glances and perked ears met them at nigh on every corner. “You’d think they’d’ve satisfied themselves with the sailors,” Twilight muttered.

“It’s a small town, Twilight,” Squirrel said, giving the nearest pair a nod and a smile. “Live it up! They’ll get bored soon enough.”

“Mmm,” Twilight hummed, still feeling put off by the attention.

“Hey,” Rainbow said, bobbing her head towards one of the many branches. “This looks good.”

Taking her time catching up – she didn’t want to slip – Twilight followed Rainbow down the path, Squirrel close behind. Immediately she could see what had caught her eye as they stepped out into the muddy, slushy courtyard of a large workshop, its bay doors slid half-open; inside, a small group of changelings looked to be sitting around the shop, apparently just idling and chatting away the day.

“In we go, then,” Rainbow said as she confidently strode straight into the building and immediately drew everyone’s eyes.

Twilight and Squirrel hurried in behind her, barely receiving a glance in turn while Rainbow finished her hasty introductions.

“So?” Rainbow said to the battery of blank stares. “What do you think?”

A large buck in a thick, colourful jacket spoke first. “You’re going to get eaten.”

“Very eaten,” a smaller doe agreed.

“And burnt,” added a young-looking buck.

“Oh yes,” the smaller doe nodded. “Very burnt.”

Rainbow gave an exasperated huff. “We’ll be fiiine. We just need to know where to go, is all.”

“Might make us accessories,” colourful jacket said, nodding slowly like one bestowing great wisdom. “If you get eaten, it could be us that takes the blame.”

“That’s not wrong,” said an elderly doe curled up near a heating stone, her muzzle nearly obscured by a silky-looking green shemagh. “Be a right bit of fuss, that would.”

The other changelings nodded alone agreeably.

“Could sign papers?” Squirrel said, speaking up beside her. “Saying it’s not your fault if we get eaten and or burnt?”

The changelings looked to colourful jacket for guidance. “Well,” he said slowly. “I suppose that could work. Don’t have any paper, mind.”

“Verbal contract?” Twilight suggested, wondering once again if there was some sort of social code she was missing, or if changelings were just plain weird. “Those hold up in most courts.”

“Could do, could do,” colourful jacket conceded.

“Why do you even want to go?” small doe asked. “Tourists normally stick to Shade when they’re here.”

“Ahh!” Rainbow exclaimed triumphantly. “But we’re not tourists! We’re explorers. Adventurers! It’s different.”

“Well, why didn’t you say so!” the elderly doe huffed. “Let’s see that map of yours.”

Not even bothering to ask how she knew they had a map, Twilight fetched it out of her panniers and laid it out on the worktable. “The mayor said the scouts last saw the sliver right around here,” she said, pointing as closely to wear she remembered Terns’ paw tapping down.

“Sliver of what?” young buck asked, rearing up to better peer down at the map.

“A talon,” Squirrel said. “It’s another word for a talon.”

“Ooo!”

“I saw a couple of them coming in a few months back,” small doe chirped. “Warm as anything! Can’t believe we didn’t keep them.”

“No sense wasting away in front of some fancy rock,” colourful jacket grunted. “It’s a false warmth, anyways – you’d die clutching it, if you were on your own.”

“I know, I know,” small doe grumbled. “Still, though.”

Tuning out the others, Twilight focused on the directions the elderly doe was giving her. “And you should still see it just fine,” the doe continued. “Just remember to keep the dark cliffs on your left, and the light on your right, and you’ll manage that part just fine.”

“Right,” Twilight nodded. “Then it’s just working our way through the maze until we find our wyverns’ nest.”

“And then get eaten, yes,” elderly doe added sagely.

“We’ve worked with wyverns and pyres in the past, so we should be okay. I’ll call it if things don’t feel right.”

The doe hummed doubtfully, but left it at that.

Twilight, on the other hoof, was feeling more confident about their chances than she had all trip. “Thank you,” she said as she carefully memorised the map. “This is perfect.”

“Well, hopefully you’ve got a good use for it in mind.”

“A project of mine needs an anchor,” Twilight began, but found she wasn’t much interested in explaining it all given how many things they’d likely need to collect for the trip. “This should help. Any idea where we can find some supplies for this?”

“Bottom of the hill,” the doe said as she shuffled back to the heating stone. “Near the water wheel.”

From the looks of it Twilight had finally finished interrogating the poor ‘ling. Rainbow shook her head fondly – here they were with the perfect opportunity for her to be socializing and getting more comfortable with the locals, and instead she was using it to just keep planning out their next step. “She’s starting to mutter,” Rainbow said, nudging the young buck she’d been talking with in the ribs. “Should probably go; nice talking to you, Puffin.”

The buck gave her a good-natured nod before hurrying to chat with Squirrel.

Approaching the table, Rainbow reared up close alongside Twilight. “All good?” she asked, looking down at the scattering of notes and papers. “No way you managed to write all this just now.”

“Hmm? Oh, no – I just like to review my old notes before I make new ones. We’ve a destination, and from the sounds of it a pretty good path to get there.”

“Sure, sure – neat. Super neat.” Rainbow paused a moment to try and figure out how to say what she wanted to next. “Umm... do you wanna chat to anyone else while we’re here?”

Twilight spared her a glance as she unsheathed a pen and began writing. “Why? Besides, I was talking to... well, I suppose I forgot to get her name, but I was talking to her nonetheless.”

Rainbow gave her a poke. “Watercress. And see? Perfect chance right now to say hello to some ‘lings.” She gave her another poke when she still seemed hesitant. “Think of it like a learning thing? ‘Cause I could totally tell everyone when we get back home that you had the perfect chance to talk to changelings, but you wanted to write a book instead.”

That seemed to do it.

“Fiiine!” Twilight huffed, though a faint smile dampened any heat. “I’ll go talk to people. Happy?”

“Yep!”

It was nearly an hour before they’d excused themselves, Twilight’s impatient pacing and glances at the sun having finally gotten too great to ignore. “We’ll see you later!” Rainbow shouted back to the ‘lings as they crossed the muddy courtyard. “Keep warm!” She wasn’t certain that was quite the right way to say it, but as the idea of warmth seemed pretty big to them, she figured she could at least try.

The scattered goodbyes she got in turn seemed to echo that.

Trailing the other two back into the channel, they made their way back downhill and along the way they’d first come up that afternoon. While Rainbow couldn’t see just what, exactly, they could possibly need to buy for tomorrow’s trip, she also couldn’t see any reason to object.

“So what’s the plan?” Squirrel asked. “We’ve already maps and food and all that.”

“More talking practice?” Rainbow ventured.

“We’re just checking,” Twilight said, ignoring her comment. “We’ve time til evening, and you never know what they might have.”

“I suppose,” Squirrel said, suddenly sounding rather nervous. “I doubt they have anything to deal with dragons, though. What’re we going to do about that? ‘Cause I really don’t want to get burnt up and eaten tomorrow.”

“We’ll trade for it,” Twilight said matter-of-factly. “Dash and I’ve worked with wyverns a little back home; assuming they have a similar culture here, we should be able to barter for the sliver.”

“Right, right – of course,” Squirrel said. “You’ve gone crazy. Of course. I should’ve seen this coming, really: the diplomats drove you insane. Somehow.”

Twilight sighed, pausing a moment at an intersection to work out which way they needed to go. “I’m not crazy, Squirrel,” she said after Rainbow pointed them right. “I’ve studied this extensively – having a pyre dragon for a friend saw to that.”

“Crazy,” Squirrel muttered. “I still don’t believe you about him.”

“Well, I didn’t believe there were such things as changelings just scant days ago.”

“Don’t worry so much!” Rainbow said, giving Squirrel a soft swipe with her wing. “You’re fretting worse than Twilight does.”

“I am not!” Squirrel argued over Twilight’s grumbling. “I’m being sensible! Sensible! They’re dragons! I know they’re not animals or anything, but still! Dragons!”

“Now you sound like Dash,” Twilight chuffed. “You could just stay here if you like?”

Squirrel narrowed her eyes, the very image of wounded indignation. “Never. As your guide --”

Rainbow tried very hard not to snicker.

“As your guide,” Squirrel plowed on, shooting her a look. “It would be utterly remiss of me not to come along; besides, you two’d probably end up tumbling into some snowy canyon halfway there without me.”

“Oh definitely,” Rainbow smirked. “Just like we’d still be lost in a swamp without you.”

Ultimately, there hadn’t been anything worth getting at the general store, bar some rope at Squirrel’s insistence; unfortunately too, Rainbow hadn’t been able to get Twilight to do any chatting with the shopkeeper. “Well, there’s always this evening,” she muttered to herself as they made their way back up to the alcove.

“I heard that,” Twilight said, rolling her eyes back at over her withers. “We need to get to sleep early tonight: it’ll be a long day tomorrow and I want us up at daybreak.”

“You’d think there’d be some sort of conflict,” Squirrel said with a vague wave of a hoof. “With them being so close? A few hours hike is nothing if you can fly.”

“There’ll be an agreement of some sort,” Twilight countered. “Goodness knows what it looks like, but there’s no reason they couldn’t’ve come to an accord – must have, really.”

“But then why couldn’t they retrieve this sliver themselves?”

Twilight stopped in her tracks, head cocked. “I... don’t know?” She started up the slope again, Squirrel and Rainbow keeping close behind. “We never did ask the mayor.”

“Maybe it’s a ‘keep off our lawn’ type of agreement?” Rainbow suggested. “Like, they can be neighbours, but if anyling crosses some imaginary line, they get eaten?”

Squirrel coughed uncertainly. “So where does that leave us, then?”

The mayor was still in. Rainbow nudged open the office door, pausing nary a moment before striding straight up to the doe. “Hello again!”

Tern looked up at them, a wry smile on her face. “Wondered when you’d come back. Forgot to ask something earlier, I presume?”

Of course she knew this’d happen, Rainbow thought to herself with a chuff. “Maaaybe. I guess in hindsight we kinda should’ve maybe asked why you couldn’t just get the talon thing yourself?”

Tern set down her pen and leaned back in seat. “I do believe I mentioned the wyverns? Big, scaly, winged carnivores? That might be why.”

“Well, yeah,” Rainbow said, glancing a moment at Twilight and Squirrel as they held back. “But why don’t they just come here and eat everyling? Don’t see any wire-towers around here.”

Tern frowned at that, although Rainbow couldn’t blame her – those towers were nasty. “We wrote up a treaty some generations ago, of course. Surely the stories survived?”

“Yup,” Squirrel chirped as she looked to Rainbow to continue.

Alright, Rainbow thought rapidly. Mayor’s acting annoyed, but she’d fiddling with her ear like Sparrow was when she was being coy. Could try... “Okay, then,” she said, rearing up once more to lean against the desk. “So it’s not a treaty – no way you guys signed away walking rights to something a stone’s throw away. Loophole maybe?”

Tern leaned an elbow on the desk, muzzle resting on her paw. “Not exactly. Why the worrying now? You seemed confident enough before.”

“It’s weird, is why.” She tapped a hoof idly on the desk before the pieces slid into place. “They don’t want to trade, do they? That’s gotta be it,” she said, grinning widely.

Tern snorted, grinning right back. “Yes. And no. You three are on vacation, aren’t you?”

“Kinda, yeah,” Rainbow shrugged.

“Well, there you have it, then! Vacations are all about the experience – not the trip home. Go visit the dragons: if they don’t eat you, then you’ll understand.”