The Sky Above

It was light enough to see outside, though the sun had yet to fully rise. They were just entering a wide, rocky cirque, its bottom etched with countless little streams and rivulets all flowing together into a river whose bed now lay far behind them.

The cliffs and slopes ahead were riddled with scaffolds and shacks, tunnels and bridges. A great, diagonal gouge in the rock, several stories tall, leered out at them, while a brace of tower-clusters lay spread about the entrance, many of which were already host to other ships. Still more platforms covered the area around, full of canvas-covered gear and goods, or leading up to the faces of warehouses and offices built into the living stone. It was bustling and vibrant, if in a trade and dockside kind of way.

It was also in no uncertain terms an industrial frontend, far and again divorced from anything even remotely touristy.

“Squirrel,” Rainbow said, staring out at the gloomy marina. “I hate you.”

“Oh, come on! It’s not that bad,” Squirrel said, giving her a little nudge. “This is just the, umm, the ugly entrance? Yeah. The nicer one’s in the mountains. There’s a very pretty valley and everything.”

Rainbow shot her a skeptical look. “And the reason we’re at this one is...?”

“Trade convoy, of course! Can’t imagine them taking the scenic route, now can you?”

Rainbow sighed, grumbling under her breath as she stared out at the fast-approaching city. She could make out the shambling forms of hundreds of diamond dogs moving about, their earthy coats standing out against the sun-bleached walkways and pale stone. Ponies and gryphons, too, were hurrying around here and there, their neckerchiefs or collars marking them out as stevedores or mechanics or anything else.

With the sun not yet fully up, and countless lanterns and shards still lit all around the dockworks, the sight was actually rather pretty; even the gash that made up the main entranceway had an alluring glow to it.

“Geez, this is ugly,” Rainbow complained instead.

“It’ll be fine once we’re inside, Dash,” Twilight said. “And we’re seeing the sights, remember? We’re on vacation! Again! I’m sure the architecture alone will be more than worth the trip – I mean, can you imagine the type of buttresses they’d need to support the caverns? Or the lighting! Directing natural light so deep into the mountains must’ve been a task unto itself!” Twilight grinned, practically vibrating with energy. “Do you think there’s a tour we can take?”

“... of lighting shafts?” Squirrel shared a confused glance with Rainbow.

“Yes! Or the ventilation! That has to be worth a walking tour.”

Squirrel took a step to the side to avoid being continually whacked by Twilight’s swishing tail. “Maaaybe we’ll start with the normal stuff first? The markets and craft shops and the like?” She shot Rainbow a pleading look.

“Oh, yeah,” Rainbow hurriedly agreed. “We should totally check out all that stuff first – there’s a glowing rock and everything! We can walk through the, uhh, ventilation shafts afterwards. Definitely. Super definitely.”

“Well, I suppose...”

“Perfect!”

A pair of compact, sturdy-looking dirigibles, packing some of the biggest engines Rainbow had ever seen on ships so small, approached them on either side. “Like tugboats, right?”

“Mmhmm,” Twilight agreed. From where they were lounging near what passed for the bow on their ship, they had a pretty good view of the procedings.

As their own ship was slowly guided into dock, the sun arose behind them, bathing the city front in the morning light.

“Much better,” Squirrel murmured.

The docks were far more colourful than Rainbow had anticipated; banners and flags of all colours waved and hung from countless wires and towers – signals, she guessed, for the pilots to know what was what; everything, too, was speckled with the dull greens of moss and ferns peeking out from every ledge that could hold them.

“It’s quite painterly, isn’t it,” Twilight agreed.

Rainbow grunted.

The wind was howling through the scaffolds as they disembarked and stepped onto a wide, thick gangway off the starboard side. Only a hoofful of passengers were remaining behind; the rest joined them, jackets and coats pulled tight against the chill breeze as they hurried to the nearest stairwell.

Twilight had to fight to keep her balance as the tower they were on swayed violently.

“It’s sturdy enough!” Squirrel assured her over the noise, having noticed the spooked looks she was casting about. “It bends so it doesn’t break!”

Twilight groaned as she kept close. They brushed past a small group of short-haired gnolls making their way up, the ponies feeling positively short in comparison.

“They all look the same as back home,” Rainbow said, glancing back at the group. “Even the piercings look the same.”

Twilight was more than happy to have something to distract her. “Well, it’s not like they can have pups with anyone but each other.”

“And I can’t imagine that there’re many different ways to pierce an ear,” Squirrel added.

“Well, yeah – I know that,” Rainbow huffed. “But we don’t have a giant city of them, do we? Like, we’ve got the warren in the river-quarry, but it’s nothing major. I just wondered if the locals here would be different, is all.”

They’d reached the bottom of the well; here, the platform broke off into several walkways heading off in seemingly random directions. Luckily, they were saved the need to choose which way when the leaders of their group of passengers made straight for the farthest one. Figuring they were heading for the inner city themselves, the three of them followed. “There are probably a Myriad cultural differences, Dash,” Twilight said, happy to be on solid ground again. When the wood planks changed to cut stone, she smiled at how well her new boots were working. “It’s part of why we’re here, after all. The locals will mark themselves out as unique soon enough.”

“The drizzlians, you mean,” Rainbow said.

“Oh, not that again.”

The three of them stood and stared up at the roof of the crevice far above. From down here at the threshold it looked so much bigger than it had from the air. “You could fit most any of the towers back home in here,” Twilight mumbled over the sound of running water.

“You’d have to tilt them a bunch, but yeah.” The diagonal slope was terraced and shaped into a massive stepped fountain; glassy waterfalls poured down over lips and through channels, weaving their ways through shard-lit sculptures and stone-carved statues. Standing proudly at its centre was a great winged deer – a peryton.

“Ooo,” Twilight cooed as she pointed to it. “That’s the First Fear, isn’t it! I’ve always loved that tale.”

“Gnolls do have the spookiest myths,” Squirrel agreed. “Living in pitch-black warrens and delving into the old depths will do that to you.”

Rainbow’s ears perked up. “Imagine if we could actually go down that far? That’d be waaay cooler than ventilation shafts.”

The growing crowds moving through the rift had begun to jostle them about; figuring they’d spent more than enough time loitering, they continued on down the passage. “Considering such depths are truly chthonic, we’d be in for a heck of walk,” Twilight said. She craned her neck for a look ahead, but couldn’t see much beyond the crowd. “I think I’d find them too intimidating, anyways.”

“I doubt tourists would have any way to get down there, either,” Squirrel noted. “I can see things opening up just ahead, by the way – we’re almost inside.” The occasional side-passage veered off either side, but it was the main atrium that held their attention.

“I can’t imagine there’s anything like that in Equus, is there?”

Twilight shrugged. “If there is, I haven’t heard of it.”

The rough, craggy stone walls began to take on form, becoming gradually squared, smoothed and polished; small dugouts were host to yet more statues, but Twilight couldn’t make out what they were. As they continued, a whitish-blue glow grew ahead, but how far away it was she couldn’t hope to tell.

It was almost a shock, then, when they suddenly found themselves at the top of a long, broad-stepped staircase, wide enough to host twenty abreast. A ceaseless barrage of noise echoed back at them from the massive market-agora at its base, easily a couple hundred metres deep and across. Stalls and buildings alike populated the area, with alleys both wide and narrow snaking throughout. Wood-and-stone buildings peeked out from every wall, while above – far, far above – the morning light shone in.

“Ohh!” Twilight smiled. “We’re in a sort of canyon, aren’t we?”

Squirrel nodded. “Yep! A lot of this place is proper underground too, mind, but most folk don’t really care for the dark. We’re in the dockside market right now – the farms and some more docks are up above, and a lot of the workshops and mines and stuff are below; plus, I think there’s supposed to be a really exotic market somewhere further in, by the underground canals.”

Rainbow groaned, managing to look disappointed even as she was just as clearly excited by the sight. “You mean this isn’t even an underground city? With all this sunlight? I feel ripped off.”

“I just said a lot of it’s underground,” Squirrel drawled, rolling her eyes.

“Still feel ripped off,” Rainbow muttered.

“Well, at least you can fly,” Twilight pointed out. “You wouldn’t even be alone in it.” The closer she looked at the canyon walls above, the more flyers she could pick out here and there.

“I know...” Rainbow fluffed out her wings. “I was just hoping for... oh, I don’t know. Something more, I guess.”

“More like in high fantasy?” Twilight asked as they started down into the forum. “With sconces and giant statues and red carpeting all about? The gnoll cities are certainly quite grand in them.”

Rainbow didn’t say anything, but her blush belied her feelings.

Twilight gave her a shoulder bump. “Hey – let’s keep exploring; we need breakfast, after all, and who knows what we’ll find? We can even check out the canals!”

Twilight settled down onto her stool, the others either side, and rested her elbows on the low counter bar. They’d found a cozy-looking place tucked right on a vibrant intersection; short curtains hung down from the rafters, just far enough to dampen the sounds of the street.

“I suppose that’s something I hadn’t really thought of before,” Squirrel said as they examined the menus scrawled above the grills. “That we’d have completely different books, I mean.”

“Entire libraries containing not a single thing I’ve ever read,” Twilight sighed dreamily. “It’s been fantastic.”

“Have you poked your muzzle in them at all?” Squirrel asked, looking over at Rainbow. “If you like fantasy, I know of a few good ones.”

Rainbow shrugged. “Way too much work – wouldn’t even know where to start, you know? It’s not like they gave us a list of good stuff at the embassy.”

Squirrel hummed, drumming a hoof on the counter. “The Lady of the Deep? That’s fitting, considering where we are. Or The Rising Eclipse? Good series, that.”

“The first one could be okay...” Rainbow started, but was interrupted when a small gnoll approached them from behind the bar, his head barely visible above the counter. He was wearing a thin, open jacket and a dull green scarf despite the warmth.

“Hello,” he said in the soft, breathy voice common to his kind. “Know what you want?”

They chatted idly with him for a couple minutes before settling on their orders. Most of the food looked familar to Twilight, but there were a few things she didn’t recognize; she wasn’t feeling adventurous enough to actually try them, mind, but Rainbow was. “They might have something like that back in the city,” Twilight said as the gnoll stepped back to the burners. “I’ll admit I was really only looking at the non-fiction works.”

“Should try and grab a few of the big ones before you head home,” Squirrel continued. “It’ll be ages otherwise before they show up in Equus – I can’t imagine the trade between us is nearly good enough to justify carting books back and forth.”

“We could have them printed locally?”

Squirrel frowned. “Something about that doesn’t sound quite right...”

There was a clinking of porcelain as their food – they all ended up going with one manner of veggie broth or another – was set down. “I’m sure we can find something decent once we get back, Dash.”

“As long as it’s about underground cities, we’re good,” Rainbow said between mouthfuls. “And treasure hunts! And fight scenes!”

“Sure, sure,” Squirrel humoured her. “The ones I mentioned’ll be a good place to start.”

They quietly fell back to eating. Twilight wasn’t certain where they’d be heading off to next – some of the craftshops would be neat – but she felt they definitely needed to check out some of the older architecture, for Rainbow’s sake if nothing else.

She was assuming, of course, that the local gnolls followed the same habits as the ones back home. “Do they have tapestries here? In the old warrens?” she asked the others.

Squirrel nodded. “Should do; we going there next?”

“Fine by me.” They soon paid up and stepped back out onto the ever-busier street. The sky above had steadily brightened as they ate, illuminating the market nearly as well as an overcast day. “Any idea which way to go?”

“Nope!”

Twilight sighed while Squirrel smiled in amusement. “Let’s just... let’s just wander around, then, I suppose.”

“It’s more of a walking-town than a sightseeing-town, anyways.”

They picked a direction more-or-less at random – Rainbow could always get airborne if they got lost – and started walking. The loose plan was to spend the day and night here, then head back to the docks in the morning – best as they could tell from asking around earlier, there’d be at least one ship still waiting there to continue along the trade route.

Wandering past stalls and buildings purveying all manner of foreign food and gear made Twilight lament how light they were forced to travel; still, she kept a weather eye out for any bookstores.

“Shouldn’t there be a living-market around here, somewhere?” Rainbow said as they passed what looked like an engine-parts warehouse.

“Looks pretty lively around here,” Squirrel said, but Rainbow just huffed.

“You can take point if you like, Dash,” Twilight said, feeling a little embarassed for not having suggested it earlier – she’d fallen into the lead without even thinking about it. “You’ll know these places better, after all.”

“Alriiight!” Rainbow said, cheering up noticeably. “First thing’s first – this way!” She veered off down one of the many side alleys and headed fast for the edge of the canyon.

“What’s up?” Squirrel asked as she and Twilight fought to keep up through the crowds.

Twilight shot her a curious look. “Rainbow knows far more about these kind of places than me – how do you not know that?”

“‘How do I not know that’?” Squirrel asked, perplexed. “What do you – wait! I thought it was just books on the underground that she liked? Stories and stuff?”

“She likes anything and everything about it, actually,” Twilight said, smiling fondly at the rainbow tail flicking about between people still some lengths ahead.

“But she’s practically claustrophobic!” Squirrel hissed.

Twilight frowned at her. “She’s pretty good for a pegasus, actually. And what’s that got to do with anything?”

Squirrel couldn’t seem to think of anything to say to that.

They caught up with Rainbow on the quieter fringes of the market. Here, the area was lit with lanterns hung from long, thick cables and ropes; the glow of the day was behind them now, with nothing but rock several metres above. “There you are!” Rainbow called out to them, her tail still swishing eagerly. “Now that we’re out of the main touristy bit, we’re gonna want to look for any tall, narrow entrances – the ones with gouges on the sides.”

“Friendly,” Squirrel muttered as they started walking down the walls. Noticing the odd looks, she elaborated. “I’m not so, uhh, well-versed on gnoll culture? Working mines, sure, but mine-homes? Not so much.”

“Well, it’s a biped thing, ya know?” Rainbow smirked, looking like she was resisting the urge to tease their erstwhile guide with great effort. “Their front paws aren’t on the ground.”

“... and?”

“You’ll work it out,” Rainbow snickered, clearly enjoying herself.

Twilight left them to their play as she fell a few lengths behind. It was pleasantly calm here, the sounds of hawkers and machinery neatly muffled by the tall warehouses and stacks of pallets and equipment set up around them.

So far the whole ‘second vacation’ thing seemed to be going alright, best as Twilight could figure it; this time, at least, they’d actually made it to a destination without crashing first. Drizzle had a certain grandness to it, too, but she had to admit it wasn’t much different from some of the sites back home; with a little luck, though, Rainbow should be able to sort that out.

“We’ve got something here!” Rainbow hurried forwards towards a small, well-lit adit; thin scratches marred the corners either side. Although little decorated, the tunnel had a well-used feel to it.

The other two caught up to her. “Well done, Dash,” Twilight smiled at her, looking just as eager as Rainbow was to finally start looking around somewhere cool.

“No sense waiting, then,” Rainbow said, leading the way as the other two kept close behind.

Squirrel lingered a moment at the entrance. “I still don’t get the scratches.”

“Try walking on your hinds,” Twilight said, motioning Rainbow to slow down.

Squirrel looked skeptical for a moment before rearing up and taking a few steps towards them. Like any pony, she could walk around like that just fine -- if rather slowly -- but it wasn’t long before she began trailing a hoof along the wall for balance.

“There!” Rainbow smirked with an exagerated roll of her eyes. “See now?”

Squirrel paused a moment, before – “Oh.”

“Exactly! It just only happens if they’re going fast around corners, is all.” Even gnolls were a tad clumsy at speed.

They carried on down the passage. It was thoroughly unremarkable at first, but soon came to be decorated with simple paintings daubed straight onto the rough stone. “It should get way fancier further in,” Rainbow lectured, happy that for once she was the learned one. “These are just directions – I don’t know how to translate them, though; of course, it’s the real market we’re looking for. After that, we’ll have to ask someone for permission – we’ll kinda be walking through the dogs’ homes, you know? Gotta ask first.”

Rainbow’d never actually been well into an old warren before – she’d bugged the quarry dogs back home until they’d let her in, but it was all new stuff there, barely a decade old. She’d only ever read about the first cuts before, and while she doubted they’d live up to what she’d read in all her books – fantasy or otherwise – there was no way she was passing up the opportunity.

“There should be a river or stream at some point,” Rainbow continued, her voice echoing down the tunnel and mingling with the gentle susurrus of conversations far ahead. “These places always get made around one. Should have some real fancy carvings on the walls, too.”

“Sounds interesting,” Squirrel hedged as she shot her a look. “Just, umm, just out of curiousity – these books... are they, uhh...”

Rainbow huffed. “Just ‘cause they’re in the fiction section, doesn’t mean they’re all made up. Sorta. You know what I mean.”

“They’ll be based on real locations, to be sure,” Twilight said, coming to her aid. “I’m sure whatever it ends up looking like, it’ll be far more interesting than the ‘touristy’ places.”

“Exactly.”

The tunnel abruptly opened up into a wide, circular chamber, open at one side. A wrought-iron spiral staircase pierced the centre through roof and floor, whereas a railed opening beyond stared out like a window into a narrow chasm or pit. Blocky copper statues, their bases pitted and marred with patina, lay about the walls, interspersed with warmly-glowing carved shards set on plinths.

They seemed to be in some sort of atrium, not least because of the near-constant stream of comers and goers passing to and fro, shooting them curious little glances as they went.

A trio of gnolls looked up at them from the far rails; the ponies stared owlishly back. “Not to be rude,” one of them – a tall, rakish dam – said loudly in her raspy voice. “But are you lost?”

“No!” Rainbow squeaked, cursing her voice for betraying her. “No, uhh – no. We were just looking for the inner market and maybe see some of the first cuts?” She hadn’t intended that to come out as a question.

The dam snorted. “Just don’t break anything,” she said, pointing a paw vaguely at the room below.

“Of course! Of course,” Rainbow coughed. “We’ll just, uhh... yeah.”

Squirrel laughed and walked past her, giving her a flick of her tail as she did. “Smooth as ever, Rainbow; let’s get going.”

Rainbow spluttered as she took a few quick steps to keep pace, looking anywhere but back at the dam or any of the other gnolls about. Their boots clacked on the thick, grated metal steps as they descended. Unlike in a building, where one floor immediately led to another, here the stairs bored deep into the rock, the light of the floor well below peering up at them from the open centre. Looking down, Rainbow figured they were a few floors above some sort of shallow pond at the stairs’ base.

They were barely halfway down the blessedly empty stairwell when a hurried clattering came from behind. “Ah! Hello again,” said the same dam from before once she’d caught up. “Figured you might get lost; want some company?”

Twilight shot Rainbow and Squirrel a couple of quick glances; seeing no opposition, she smiled at the dam. “Sure! We’re not entirely certain where we’re going, although I don’t think we’d actually get lost.”

The dam shrugged, her heavy jacket clinking dully. “Apparently I’ve got nothing better to do; plus, what are those voices you got?” She fell in beside them, standing a full head above even Squirrel, as they continued down the steps.

“Charming ones,” Rainbow answered. “Super charming ones.”

“Kinda – yeah,” the dam easily agreed. “I’m Raster, by the way.”

“Rainbow,” Rainbow said, eying Raster’s numerous silver earrings while the other two introduced themselves. “I like the rings – go well with your coat.” She was pretty sure that was right – the books always had people complimenting a gnoll’s metalworks to get on their good side, and the quarry gnolls seemed to like it whenever she did it – but she was way more familar with sharp-tongued gryphons than dogs.

“Aww, aren’t you sweet,” Raster said teasingly. “Don’t often see ponies in boots – at least, not on the fores. They’re nice.”

“We had a bit of a... trek, I suppose,” Twilight answered. “Just a week back. We’re still more than a little chipped up.”

“I see,” Raster said, crooked beams of light from the room below dancing over her face – they were nearly at the bottom, now. “Must’ve been quite the journey – I still can’t place those accents, you know.”

Rainbow wondered if they’d be explaining that to everybody on this trip – they really did sound foreign. “We’re travellers from distant shores,” she began, panning a hoof dramatically. “From yonder the, umm...”

“Calise.”

“Right – thanks Twi – the Calise sea! Here for treasure and bounty and more besides!”

Raster blinked, bemused. “Riiight,” she drawled. “Across the Calise.”

“Definitely.”

The dam sighed, but was spared coming up with a response when they reached the bottom of the well and got their first look at the room below.

A stream burbled merrily past, fed by several minute ceramic tubes jutting out of the walls at intervals, while a small, glassy pool had formed beneath the stairs, reflecting the light of dozens upon dozens of weak faery shards, their sheer number enough to light the passage. Along the stream was an elaborately cobbled walkway, designs wrought upon it through stones of different shapes and colours. From here, the tunnel appeared to open up once again just around a soft bend ahead, while carrying on narrowly behind them.

“See that bridge just over there?” Raster said, pointing out a wooden arched bridge just to their backs, a little ways downstream. “That’ll eventually get to the first cuts; upstream, though, is our little market.”

“We’ll check that out first?” Rainbow said, taking point as Twilight seemed far too distracted by the little murals built into the ground to answer. “Sound good, guys?”

“It’s your show,” Squirrel shrugged easily enough. “Twilight?”

“Hmm? Oh! Sure – but look here! These look amazing!”

They walked over to check out what had caught Twilight’s eye: all along the boardwalk’s edge polished stones had been set not flat, but raised and angled upwards in the ground; spiral patterns were etched out by the tilted stones, their shadows and shiny tops creating bumpy flowers and swirls.

“Those are a century old, I think?” Raster said, having followed close behind. “Or more, maybe. Painful to walk on, if pretty.”

On second look, all of the walkway was decorated with cobbles like these, but laid flat and easy to walk upon. “Cool,” Rainbow said, checking out the stepped arches and precisely-cut walls. “Finally something that looks like a proper undercity.”

“Just being in a cave isn’t good enough?” Raster asked, amused. “And this area’s hardly big enough for a city – it feels like there’s barely a few hundred living in the old sections, these days.”

“Waaay better than that main market up above – that could’ve been in Beech for all it looks like it,” Rainbow insisted.

“Well, glad you found what you were looking for,” Raster said, bobbing her head gently upstream. “Our market’s more of a collection of shops and – if you know where you’re going – homes. Shall we?”

They started down the walkway, Raster sauntering beside Rainbow at the lead. Much like them, Twilight wasn’t in any particular hurry – she was still caught up in the intricate designs subtley covering so many of the cornices and stone columns around them; that, and she had a feeling Raster was setting the pace – she felt more like an escort than just a bored dog.

It certainly was shaping up to be more interesting down here than above, though there was no way she wasn’t checking out some of the other areas later – she’d love to see how they compared to the inner sections of Canterlot back home.

“I can’t imagine there’s only a few hundred gnolls here,” Twilight said as she and Squirrel trailed behind. “The city’s far too big.”

“Could be she just meant in this little community?”

“We still aren’t far off from where Rainbow’d first found the side tunnel,” Twilight admitted thoughtfully. “I suppose it could be a coincidence... although with how tall Drizzle sounds to be, could there be a series of little communes like this?”

“It’s definitely tall,” Squirrel agreed. “Spreads out into the mountains behind a ways, too, apparently.”

“Would make a heckuva commute.”

The passage opened up into an agora of sorts. Here, several streams flowed in and out under wooden boardwalks to pool together into a wide, central pond, the burbling of water over weirs a constant backdrop to the chatter of shoppers and passersby. A series of tiered stairways snaked all about, leading to narrow walkways and countless homely-looking doors as it wound its way up what looked like a massive old mine shaft. At the very base of the shaft, and spilling out right to the water’s edge, were open storefronts.

“Food,” Twilight noted as she glanced around; as near as she could tell, they were the only non-gnolls around. “Clothes, tools – I don’t know what I was expecting, really.” She and Squirrel hurried to catch up to the other two, already weaving through the thin morning crowd as they headed for one of the shops. “Find something?” she asked as they caught up.

“It’s a spice shop!” Rainbow grinned back at her. “We totally gotta get something local while we’re here.”

Twilight nodded back, not seeing anything wrong with that – whatever they ended up getting should pack well enough.

As she stepped over the threshold a wave of pungent scents washed over her from the battery of heaping piles of ground spices in all manner of earthy colours. On shelves around them lay wide glass jars, brimming with dried leaves and uncut roots; even the rafters were in spots draped with dried sprigs of one thing or another. She was well out of her depth here.

“Is any of this stuff... new?” Twilight asked, keeping close to Rainbow.

“I’ve seen a bunch of this stuff back in ‘Canum,” Rainbow said, pausing at each bin or pile to give the spices a smell, her wings gently wafting the air around. “But I don’t know a couple of ‘em – anything unique here?” Rainbow added this last to Raster.

“A few things over here, yeah,” Raster said, gesturing her further down the line; she seemed pleased with Rainbow’s interest. “Come.”

Twilight trailed a little ways behind as they climbed up steep staircases and along circular walkways. Raster had insisted on taking them up to one of their gem shops – considering it’d be filled mostly with uncut and unfinished jewels, it should make for a very different sight than the kind they’d’ve found in the city’s main thoroughfares.

“So why’s it called a lapidary, anyways?” Rainbow asked from ahead. “It’s not like is has anything to do with bunnies.”

“... bunnies?” Raster looked nonplussed. “What do bunnies have to do with anything? A lapidary is a gem expert.”

“Isn’t a lapis a bunny?”

“Actually,” Twilight cut in, unable to help herself. “You’re probably thinking of ‘lepus,’ Dash, although that would refer to hares, not rabbits.”

Rainbow appeared to mull that over for a second. “No... no, I’m pretty sure lapises are bunnies – ‘Shy must’ve mentioned that before, I’m sure of it.”

Twilight sighed, and not for the first time wondered if Dash was being serious or not.

They were nearly halfway up the shaft when Raster stopped outside an otherwise mundane-looking doorway. “We’re here,” she said with an expansive gesture.

“Well, let’s not keep them waiting!” Twilight smiled; she was feeling more than a little pleased with herself for just how not winded she felt after that climb – all the exercise these past few weeks was paying off!

They stepped into a crowded workshop, a dry, dusty taste to the air. It was well, if somewhat sporadically, lit by crisp, white zephyric lamps; there was an intermittent thumping coming from some backroom, but otherwise they were the only ones present.

“I think Crest might be somewhere in back,” Raster said as she began weaving her way through crates and laden tables. “I’ll go check.”

While the dam was in the back, the three of them started cautiously poking around; unfortunately, there wasn’t much in the way of gems on display. “I imagine they’re all wrapped up,” Twilight said, rearing up against one of the tall, gnoll-height tables to stare down at a box filled with crumpled balls of parchment. She gave one a tentative poke. “I wonder why she brought us here?”

“Could be interesting to see some partially-cut stones,” Squirrel guessed from across the room. “Might have a particularly big one here, right now.”

“Hmm.” Twilight was doubtful – the way Raster had coached it on the way up, there was something especially interesting in the shop right now she thought they’d like to see, and it wasn’t just because it was big.

“Well, what’s the hurry?” Rainbow cut in, setting down a box she probably shouldn’t’ve been rooting through in the first place. “We’re on vacation! We’ve had lunch, dinner’s ages away, so what’s the harm in chilling out in some backroom for a bit?”

“Nothing, as such,” Twilight admitted. “I’m still curious, though.”

It was little later when Raster came back in. “Oh good – you’re still here. Crest is still holding it – come!” She seemed eager to chivvy them into the next room, a smile beaming on her muzzle.

“I getta see it first, right?” Rainbow said, hurrying to join the dam. “As ambassador to ponykind, I totally get to see it first!”

“Of course,” Raster said, rolling her eyes. “Because I’ve never seen a pony before.”

“Technically, we are ambassadors,” Twilight said as she and Squirrel joined them. “Sort of.”

“Because you’re from across the Calise, eh?”

“Precisely,” Twilight nodded, neatly ignoring the doubt in Raster’s voice.

“Well, I don’t know what kind of stones you’ve got hanging around back in wherever, but I don’t think you’ve seen much of these.”

They stepped through a doorway and immediately into another, low-ceiled room; Twilight could make out small lathes, machine-drills and sanders, amongst other things, but her attention was drawn chiefly to a thick, wooden crate seated beneath a single, blazing lamp.

Behind the crate, and looking curiously at them, was an old sire, his coat starting to turn grey with age. “These the tourists, then?” he rasped, fiddling with the dull green shemagh around his neck as he shot Raster a glance. “Odd seeing them outside the canyon.”

“They wanted to see the cuts,” Raster said, giving a good-natured shrug. “Figured I’d show them the sliver while they were here.”

Twilight’s ears shot up. “Wait – sliver?” She scurried forwards and reared up, peering intently down at the crate; whatever was in there was still swaddled in cloth. “You’ve got a sliver!”

Squirrel stepped up to join her, staring skeptically at the crate. “I don’t know the term.”

It was the sire – Crest – that answered. “Mana in physical form,” he huffed. “They pop up sometimes where the leylines intersect; not particularly valuable, but rare nonetheless.” This said, he started to carefully unwrap the stone.

Leaning forwards, Twilight got a glimpse of shifting colours before the final fold fell away. There, nestled within the cloth, was an oblong, blocky crystal, about as long and wide around as her arm. It was milky white, but with an oily rainbow-like sheen to it.

Rainbow shoved up alongside her, taking a good look herself. “Is that it?” she asked in a flat voice. “I mean, I’m sure it’s very special and all, but...”

On the one hoof, Twilight could see where she was coming from – the sliver was, for all intents and purposes, a slightly colourful block of quartz – but on the other hoof... “Dash! Do you have any idea how extraordinary something like this is? Natural arcane constructs are beyond rare! This is, this is – ” She struggled to find the right words.

“Well, at least one of you is finding this interesting,” Raster noted. Despite her words, she still seemed more amused than anything.

Rainbow couldn’t really see the appeal. Twilight was still gazing hungrily down at the rock, but it wasn’t exactly the kind of thing that came to mind when someone said ‘gemstone.’ On the plus side, Squirrel seemed just as confused.

“Are you selling?” Twilight said, her voice quiet but intense as she continued to stare down at the sliver.

Rainbow started. “Wait – what? You want to buy it?”

Crest snorted and frowned. “Not for sale. What would a tourist even need such a thing for?”

Twilight didn’t seem put off by Crest’s comment. “What’s the buyer offering? I can probably match it.”

While Rainbow didn’t know why Twilight seemed to be willing to make an argument of it, she was fairly certain aggressive haggling was not the right way to deal with gnolls. “Easy there, Twi,” she said, giving her a friend a little poke. “If the sliver thing’s not for sale, then it’s not for sale.”

Crest grunted, his expression easing up as he covered the stone again. “Listen to your friend, pony. Raster?”

The dam nodded and began shooing the three of them out of the room. “Come! Crest is busy; we’ve taken up enough of his time.”

Twilight didn’t seem to want to tear her eyes away from the crate, only reluctantly leaving the room with the others; as there wasn’t much going on in the front, they carried straight on back onto the walkway, Raster close in tow. “We can have a look at the first cuts, if you like,” she said, looking disapprovingly at Twilight. “They’re not far from here.”`

“Sounds good,” Squirrel answered immediately, as she and Raster took the lead. “How old are they, anyways?”

While the two of them chatted, Rainbow fell back to join Twilight, who’d started lagging behind. “Hey,” she said as she came up alongside her. “What was all that about?”

“That was a sliver,” Twilight said distractedly, staring down in thought. “I didn’t think we’d just, just bump into one! Do you have any idea how rare those are?”

“I think you asked that already. What’s so special about a lump of magic quartz, anyways?”

Twilight huffed, but kept quiet. It wasn’t until they’d descended the last of the steep and narrow staircases and set hoof on the stoney bottom again that she spoke. “There aren’t many things that could help us with the Everfree – I mentioned I needed an anchor of sorts?” She waited until Rainbow had nodded before continuing. “Well, a sliver should work as one.”

Rainbow mulled that over for a moment. “That rock can do that? It doesn’t even glow!” She shook her head in mock disappointment.

Twilight chuffed, a small smile on her face. “I won’t bore you with the details – just that that thing could’ve been the answer I’d been hoping to find.”

They passed back through the little open market square, weaving around the gnolls and stalls as they did, until they’d gotten back to the streamside passage. Rainbow noticed her feathers had ruffled a touch and quickly smoothed them – she hadn’t much cared for how much the locals had been staring at them back there. “Bit of a coincidence, isn’t it?” Rainbow noted. “To just happen to bump into one?”

Twilight shrugged. “Kind of? Technically, I can think of a brace of different things that could’ve helped, and across all of them they’re not too rare – they’re just faaar too expensive in most cases; a sliver’s one of the few things I could’ve afforded, but...” She slouched, dejected. “They’re not selling.”

Rainbow wasn’t certain what to say to that – the sire was obviously upset with Twilight’s attempt to buy it, so there was no chance of changing his mind now. “Maybe we can find another? I mean, if there’s one here, maybe there’re chunks of others around, too.”

“It doesn’t really work like that,” Twilight mumbled, but gave Rainbow another soft smile. “It’s alright – I’ll get over it.”

Rainbow wasn’t exactly happy about that, but as there wasn’t anything to be done about it, she dropped the subject. They were well past the spiral stairwell now and the walls had started to take on an angular, blocky appearance; they were still clearly well-maintained, but had a more natural curve and lustre to them, as though cut by tools built for efficiency above all else. “It’s just the bits around the first cuts that’re still like this, right?” Rainbow asked, hoping to steer the conversation back to tamer grounds. “All rough and stuff, I mean.”

“Mmhmm,” Raster nodded as she and Squirrel slowed down a touch to let them walk astride. “Part of the looks of it. The woven history in our warren isn’t too extensive – there’re a lot of warrens throughout the city with other bits – but should be more than worth the trip.”

Rainbow didn’t doubt it – she was looking forward to seeing a real gnollish history tableau! She’d been wondering what one had looked like for ages now.

Raster suddenly took a hard right and disappeared down a narrow passage that Rainbow hadn’t even realized was there at first. “Come along,” she called back to them. “It’s just down here.”

Catching up, Rainbow saw she was leading them down a steep stairwell, lit only by shards set near the floor. “Moody,” she mumbled as she joined the others in descending.

“It is rather atmospheric, isn’t it,” Twilight agreed, pausing a moment to lean down and check out one of the lights. “Oh! That’s neat – they’re in little polished dugouts.”

“Helps reflect the light back,” Raster agreed, looking once more relaxed. “Some greyfurs had this set up a few decades back – said it built things up better.”

They carried on down the stairwell for several long minutes, passing no one else along the way. “We must be quite deep by now,” Twilight observed. “Not looking forward to the climb back up.” Even with her newfound fitness, all those steps were going to be rough.

“You’ll manage,” Raster said.

“I wouldn’t’ve thought the warren would’ve started so far below the surface,” Twilight continued. “If nothing else, the ventilation problems should’ve been staggering.”

Raster once again seemed pleased by her interest. “You can’t see it from here, of course, but we’re not too far from a cliff face – there’ll be light enough in a minute. The main reason though are the faults here – although its course has drifted, that stream you saw upstairs still runs down through channels in the cuts; since getting free-flowing water anyway underground can be quite difficult, setting up a new warren with good light, air and water already in place was irresistable.” The dam sounded like she was reciting from rote, but Twilight could hardly blame her – all that would’ve happened long before she was born.

“Is there any need to actually stay underground? I mean, wouldn’t it just be easier to stick near the surface where everything already is?” Twilight knew the simple answer, of course – it was both cultural and instinctive to gnolls – but couldn’t help herself asking the question anyways.

“Wyverns,” Raster answered. “At least, in this range. Mountains are always home to something nasty, if you’re near the good minerals.”

Rainbow perked up beside her. “There are dragons around here?” Her tail swished gently behind her. “Like, pyre and everything?”

“Fond of gnolls and dragons, eh?” Raster chuckled. “Just wyverns, though – up top, near the farms; they keep their distance, and we keep ours.”

“You know much about dragons?” Squirrel asked. “Or is this just your books speaking?”

Rainbow shot her a glare. “I know dragons! Lots of them! Or about them, anyways. Spike’s a dragon, so I know some stuff.”

Squirrel snorted. “There’s no way a dragon would be called ‘Spike.’”

“He is too! Tell her, Twi.”

Twilight fought the urge to sigh. “Spike’s a pyre dragon back home. I can’t pronounce the name his mum gave him, but somehow or other everyone started calling him ‘Spike,’ and the name stuck.”

“I would not recommend visiting these ones, pony,” Raster cautioned. “They bite.”

The stairs ended abruptly, spilling them out into a wide hallway; the walls were covered in glassy-smooth divots, as though the stone was scooped out, and not cut. Sunlight looked to be pouring into a large room ahead. “It’s pretty plain at this entrance,” Raster said, looking for the first time a bit self-conscious. “But come! It’s nicer further in.”