I really don’t know what motivates Rainbow Dash, mother. It has to be something unearthly. Something out of this world. Something bigger than the rest of us combined.
How ironic it is--not to mention flattering--that she chooses to invest all of her strength and energy in seeing us past the next hurdle safely. Any other pony with wings would have just ditched us when trouble showed its ugly head. I mean, why else would you have wings--except to fly away from something?
Rainbow Dash is no coward, but there are still many things that she is afraid of. I think it stands to reason that the most courageous of us are oftentimes the most insecure. What is Rainbow afraid of? Well, losing her friends, obviously. She cares far too much for Pilate and Belle than she is willing to admit, and she has no small amount of respect for the rest of us as well.
I think I understand why Rainbow has remained relatively aloof throughout most of our stay in Lerris. It’s most likely that Kera’s going to come east with us, but there’s still a good chance that she could stay all the same. I’m sure this fact hasn’t slipped past Rainbow Dash, and it must be biting at her. After all, if Kera could be leaving the party, who’s to say that Pilate and Belle aren’t next? Or Eagle Eye? Or myself or Propsy?
To hide her anxiety, I believe, she has endeavored to commit herself full-force into planning mode. While Pilate and Belle are busy mulling over Kera, Rainbow is busying herself with… well… the future.
“Oh yes, the Strip of Flurries is navigable.” An old pony with a flaky beard nodded from where sat on the shady patio of a midtown restaurant. “But that doesn’t mean you won’t come out the other side without losing quite a few cobwebs in your noggin’.”
“Really?” Rainbow’s voice cracked from where she hovered over the group of wrinkly equines. “Cuz Collins made it sound like merchants pass through that area all the time…”
“Bah!” A graying stallion coughed, wheezed, and slapped the table. “What does that frolicking Archer Point filly know?! The closest she’s been to experiencing the Frozen Sea is that one year she spent recovering from a fall into an icy river!”
The nearby mares and stallions chuckled.
“Okaaaaay…” Rainbow’s ruby eyes narrowed on the group. “So, do any of you ponies know about travellers who’ve passed through?”
“Some of us are old enough to,” another pony said, straightening her mane in the gray glow of midday. “Thing is, Xona usually dealt with the merchants from the east. Very few passed their sapphire cities to reach the valley.”
“Yes, Lerris and Archer Point have predominantly traded with the Southern Shores,” a stallion said in a whispery voice. “Only merchants that traveled west past the Xonan hubs were few and far between.”
“Yeah, but do you remember any of them?”
The elders mumbled amidst themselves.
At last, a portly stallion rubbed his stubbled chin and muttered, “There was one group of merchants, come to think of it. Not only did they make it past the Strip of Flurries, but they settled somewhere in the Storm Mountains.” He turned and squinted at the others. “What were their names? The Cabal? The Quorum?”
“The Herald?” Rainbow attempted, eyebrow raised.
“No no no…” The elders shook their collective heads, until at least one of them spoke up. “The Lounge!”
Rainbow made a face. “The Lounge…?”
But the many ponies were already murmuring their acknowledgement. “Darn silly soundin’ name if you ask us, but them Lounge folks were the deal deal. They settled northeast from here. Far away, just west of the Frozen Sea. Seems like they were really desperate about mining skystone. Dangerous business, that.”
“What did the Lounge want with Skystone?” Rainbow asked.
“Apparently their ships got badly damaged on the way here, and Skystone was the only thing that could get ‘em back home.”
“You mean across the Frozen Sea?”
“Yuppers.”
“Why, cuz the Strip of Flurries was super treacherous or whatcrap?”
“Well… reckon it was more than that…” One elder stammered.
“Yes. Yes, it was more.” A mare at the back of the group scooted forward in her chair. She gestured with a trembling hoof. “I was maybe twenty winters when they first showed up in the Valley. Downright frightenin’ group of merchants. You could never see their faces, on account of the masks.”
Rainbow blinked. “Masks?”
The mare went on. “And they always were standin’ all still-like. As if they were waitin’ for glaciers to melt. Heh.” She smiled crookedly. “They came here asking for anypony with the expertise in skystone minin’. We had to tell ‘em that, on account of the war, we couldn’t venture past the Xonan blockade that was formed there at the time.”
“Even now, those blue towers stand against the storms!” spoke a stallion out of turn.
“Who’s tellin’ the darn story?! Huh?” A few elders chuckled as the mare shook her head and glanced once more at Rainbow’s fluttering figure. “Well, they needed the skystone to get home. It’s been a lifetime since that meeting. Spark knows if they ever got what they were clamberin’ for.”
“After all these years, I bet,” Rainbow said, nodding.
“I’d hope so. Poor fellas just wanted to get back home.”
“But they’re still situated north of Mainland Xona?” Rainbow leaned forward. “The Lounge, that is?”
“Yes, I reckon. Why?”
“Well, if they finally got the skystone they needed, it makes sense that they’d keep a trading post in the mountains so that they can ferry stuff to and from the far side of the Frozen Sea,” Rainbow thought out loud. “I figured the Jury could swing by there on the way towards the eastern shoreline. Maybe they’d be willing to give us some hooves-on advice.”
“Oh, I very much doubt that, dear.”
“Huh?” Rainbow blinked. “Why not? Are they a bunch of jerks?”
“No, I’m just sayin’ that they wouldn’t have any hooves at all, on account of them not bein’ ponies n’all.”
“Oh?” Rainbow’s eyes darted between everypony. “Just who are they?”
The group merely shrugged, exchanging nervous glances.
Rainbow took a deep breath. “Does anypony here in Lerris know exactly… who lives just beyond the Frozen Sea?”
A mare shook her head. “Fraid not, darlin’. Place is almost as dense as the Grand Choke of legend. Figured whatever’s on the far continent, it’s best keepin’ there, just as we’re best to keepin’ to here.”