Lunch was taken with a subdued eagerness, Willow constantly yawning and Starlight never really having much to say. Amber and Gerardo mostly carried the conversation, which centered largely on their exploits as a result. Maple shuttled more food to the table in a constant state of fond exasperation, while Alder and Fir jabbered and egged the griffon on.
"So why can't you test your sword out, huh?" Fir asked, ears alert and smile confident. "What's it do? Shoot lightning? Freeze stuff? Summon a swarm of monsters to aid you in your hour of need?"
"It probably starts a tornado," Alder offered helpfully.
Gerardo laughed and shook his head. "Not remotely close, I'm afraid. It can cut through anything..." He sliced at the air with a cucumber shard for emphasis. "But when it passes through a living creature, it doesn't leave a mark. Instead, it saps them of their strength to such a degree that they become completely incapacitated." Seriously, he added, "Perfect for nonlethal combat, though hardly a toy. There's power in this thing to fell even a mighty yak in a single blow. The only cure is time."
"If it can cut through anything," Alder asked with an innocently confused expression, "why doesn't it chop its way out of its sheath when you're not using it?"
"Well... almost anything," Gerardo responded, flustered. "It would hardly be much use if you couldn't carry it safely when not in use, of course."
"I wonder if it can cut through the river filly's crystals!" Alder pointed at Starlight.
Fir gasped. "We should have a contest!" She pumped a hoof, eyes dancing with inspiration.
"River filly?" Gerardo asked bemusedly, batting his eyelids. "Is that how she's known after yesterday's incident?"
"No, it's-"
Alder didn't have much of a chance to begin speaking before he was loudly interrupted by Amber, who rubbed her hooves deviously. "So it can cut anything and make ponies tired? I can think of so many good pranks involving that..."
As Gerado repeatedly insisted that it wasn't a toy, Starlight stared thoughtfully at her salad, poking as she ate. It was remarkably fresh and moist. Willow must have had a good way of preservation. Now that she thought about it, however, where did all of Riverfall's food come from? If the town was completely isolated with no way in or out, they would need to have massive plantations somewhere to support so many ponies.
She dug through her memories, trying to recall her view of the town from atop the mountain waterfall. There, it had been heralded by a few plumes of smoke, but no breaks in the trees that she could recall for farmspace. Distractedly, she connected the smoke to fires, and realized disappointedly that neither Maple nor Willow had hearths. One of those would have been nice to warm up against, back when she had first arrived and was freezing. It would still be nice, actually.
Food, though. A second thought clicked in Starlight's head: earlier, Maple had fretted about population growth, and where the new ponies would be housed when they grew up. But wouldn't expanding food production be a bigger issue? The town's food supply would have to be extremely stable for that not to be the case. Additionally, Maple had also bought corn at the market. Wasn't corn something that required fairly warm weather to grow? In Riverfall, more often than not it was raining.
Suddenly, a collective rustle at the table made her look up, discarding her train of thought. Everyone's heads had turned, and Starlight followed their gazes to the staircase, which was presently being descended by a stallion.
The stallion, presumably Faron, stared back at the dining ponies and griffon with orange eyes. "No need to stop on my account," he muttered in a slow, weary voice that was slightly too deep for his darkly-colored build. "Just getting myself a refill."
"You're always welcome to join us..." Willow murmured, eyes closed as she half-slept.
Faron didn't respond. Instead, he paced with just as much speed as his words to the edge of the room, where he kicked open a large storage cabinet. Without using the dark gray horn on his forehead, he slid a crate about the size of an adult pony halfway out, reached in, and withdrew a clear glass bottle in his teeth. Colorless liquid sloshed inside as he set it down, pushed the crate back, and closed the door.
Starlight watched him first with curiosity, then suspicious recognition. There was something familiar about that crate... Her eyes narrowed, and suddenly flew wide. It was the same kind of crate she had seen in Sosa's camp in the mountains!
A vague memory flickered through her head of scanning a crate and finding it full of bottles. A second half of the memory recalled dumping it in the river, though as an experiment or in frustration she couldn't recall. Maple, Willow and Amber had found her floating in a crate. Had they found that one as well? Apparently so, and whatever was in it, Faron found worth drinking.
"You have a spirit collection?" Gerardo asked, apparently more curious as to the contents of the bottles. "Not that I question your hospitality, but isn't it customary to offer such to guests?"
"A what?" Amber scrubbed her ear with a hoof, confused. "This place is haunted?"
Willow sighed, face looking almost as peaceful as if she were really asleep. "No, it isn't. Alcohol is a Sosan thing, and not many ponies are accustomed to having it..." She trailed off, as if she forgot she was supposed to be talking, then resumed. "Why bother when nopony wants it? But help yourself..."
"Well, my apologies!" Gerardo chuckled, nevertheless getting up eagerly. "I hardly consider myself an aficionado, connoisseur, or even the biggest proponent of drinking in the first place, though I have learned that one can in fact get a very good impression of local culture merely by the way they brew their hard drinks. Hah!" He stepped toward the cabinet, reaching out and swinging it open.
"Mmmm..." Willow mumbled, so vaguely it could have been agreement or emphatic protest.
"Hah," Gerardo chuckled, pulling the crate out into the light. "Quite the label on this one. 'The cure to mountain madness.' Whoever packaged this had a real sense of adventure. Fitting, for a foothill town. I think I feel kindred already!" He pulled out a bottle in one talon, inspecting it quizzically.
"Quite the interesting bottle design, as well," he observed, running a talon over glass lettering formed by ridges in the bottle. "You ponies have an excellent ability to replicate the style of the antique. It even has an old Sosan emblem! The last time I saw a bottle that looked like this, it was in a smuggler's hideout that had been abandoned for decades, or perhaps centuries!" He tried to pop the cork, only for it to crumble beneath his talon and become stuck in the neck. His smile faltered. "What?"
"They're hard to get out," Faron sighed from the staircase, having not yet ascended. "It's worth it, though, to have something like this again. You never realize how much you'll miss it until you have something you truly want to forget..."
Gerardo squinted down the blocked bottleneck. "You may wish to have words with your supplier about this," he remarked, experimentally digging at it with a talon. "There is such a thing as too much antiquity, after all. It's never a good practice to have products that fall apart when used."
"We didn't buy it," Willow mumbled sleepily. "Found it floating down the river... just before Starlight..." She shifted in her chair, peacefully oblivious.
Instantly realizing what had been said, Starlight cringed... which only caused Gerardo's eyes to widen in intrigue. "Ironridge is dumping their detritus into the river? Including aged spirits and fillies?"
"The boxes didn't come from Ironridge!" Alder proudly proclaimed. "You found her floating north, from the foot of the mountains! Didn't you, mum?"
He sat there, eagerly wagging his tail like a puppy waiting to be praised for remembering a new trick. The rest of the room, however, was frozen as Gerardo put two and two together, muttering aloud to himself. "Floating north? Along with a crate that by all rights appears ancient... You couldn't possibly be from..." He raised an eyebrow. "Could you?"
The terrified expression on Starlight's face was all the confirmation he needed.