"Is this some kind of lookout to watch for inbound ships?" Gerardo asked, apparently slightly more used to seeing things from above than Maple or Amber.
"Precisely," Arambai replied. "It fell out of use, after. Beats me why. You'd think ponies would come here just for the fun of it, but apparently I'm the only one who needs a place sometimes to sit and think, where nobody else will bother you. What do you think?"
Starlight gazed out across the river. The forest on the far side consisted entirely of thick, upright trunks, with no branches until the very top. She could see just as far through them as she could on the ground. And above them, in the distance... she saw the mountains.
"This must be what pegasi feel like..." Maple breathed, wonder in her voice as she stared at the ground far below. Beside her, Amber's expression indicated she felt similar.
"I can confirm that the view of the world from above is a very interesting thing," Gerardo added, wings shifting. "It seems a shame that this is not better-used..."
"This is super impressive," Amber finally said, eyes shining. "Thanks for bringing us up here."
"I know, right? And don't mention it." Arambai shrugged. "You're welcome to come back at any time. There's another entrance to the tunnels in that one single-story tower next to the river plaza that nobody lives in, if you ever need it."
"So, you took us here purely to sate my curiosity about the cave?" Gerardo enquired after the mares took a few more minutes to look around. "I can't tell if that's surprisingly generous or..."
"A waste of your energy when you could have just flown up?" Arambai asked wryly, then laughed. "Nah. Actually, I had something else I wanted to segue into, and this seemed like an appropriately dramatic place to discuss it. But enough about that." He shrugged, then changed the subject. "Having fun on your accidentally-forced tour of Riverfall, so far? Enjoying the cuisine?"
Gerardo smirked. "You can't expect me to answer that candidly when the chef who prepares half my meals here is standing right beside me. What's more, after living on canned goods and the likes of supply crate food for a month, anything is refreshing. However, it is remarkably good."
"Glad to hear she's taking care of you." Arambai nodded respectfully at Maple, who faintly blushed from the praise. "Have you gotten a chance to tour the fields where it's grown, yet?"
"I can't say that I have, no," the blue griffon answered, blinking.
Amber pointed a hoof at Arambai. "Hey, that's a dirty trick. You make all of Riverfall's food with magic. We don't even have growing fields!"
"Really?" Starlight asked. "Nopony mentioned this when you were trying to make me like him?"
Maple rubbed the back of her neck sheepishly, careful not to dislodge Starlight. "Umm..."
"If I may be frank, that's ridiculous," Gerardo retorted, pointing a talon at Arambai's bearded face. "I'm no mage, but I've taken the time to learn some of the theories of magic. Conjured materials cannot be maintained without at least some strain that can vary based on distance and abuse, and all unicorns have limits at which point the difficulty of conjuring more becomes extreme. Furthermore, all conjured materials are energy-neutral and are thus incapable of acting as fuel, including by means of digest-"
Arambai cut him off by breaking out in laughter. "Sorry," he said, wiping an eye after a minute. "Didn't mean to do that. It's just that you spent so much effort not taking me seriously there, and..."
"Wait a minute." Maple's brow furrowed. "When I was buying my house, the previous owner listed you as their supplier for raw food materials, and so have most of the marketplace vendors I've stopped to talk with. Don't tell me you're not the source of Riverfall's food?"
Starlight's brow continued to furrow. "Seriously, how didn't anyone tell me this?"
Amber frowned at her. "I guess we didn't think a kid would care about economics. Sorry."
"Now now," Arambai said, waving a hoof. "I didn't say that. Anyone want to take a guess at what's really going on?"
"So you're getting enough food for an entire town without magic?" Maple held a hoof to her chin. "I always thought you had a machine to do it, that was powered by the river, or something..."
Amber's eyes narrowed. "If you're not growing it and you're not making some other way, then you have to be importing it, and that means you have a way into and out of the town. Which would mean..." Her eyes widened. "Your teleporter? You've been teleporting food into Riverfall?"
Arambai slapped his forehoof. "One leap of logic too far, there. Teleporting food... heh... Nah, I do it by boat. Same way we get more Sosans showing up every now and then from Ironridge."
"By boat?" Maple squinted. "But we haven't seen any for years! When..."
"More like where," Arambai answered. "I told you, those tunnels are connected to an advanced western loading dock out of sight of the village. I just run a barge every night that brings in food for the next day, along with every once in a while some poor pony who needed to leave their old life behind."
"So what you're getting at, if I know my heroic scenarios," Gerardo cut in, "is that you do have a way out of this town, and you're about to offer it to me in exchange for some favor. Is that it?"
"Well..." Arambai shrugged. "Maybe. That's one way of putting it. But it's less a matter of payment and more one of risk management, so it'll take me a while to decide. Of course, the fact that I'm telling you now is proof I'm highly considering it."
"Risk management?" Gerardo's headcrest perked. "I'm unused to being considered a threat by anything but scum and villainy. Should I take that as a compliment?"
Ignoring the question, Arambai said, "Yeah, risk management. You think an old stallion like me can just make a mountain full of food appear out of thin air? Because it's just as easy here as it is in Ironridge. All that's gotta come from somewhere, in addition to the power for the boat. Truth is... before all this air travel business started, I used to be a very influential pony. Quite well off, with connections in high places. I don't think you lot have any business knowing exactly how that worked, but a large part of the reason I'm here now is because Riverfall is off the map, and I need to be, too. You follow me? I can't let hide nor hair of you leave this village until I've got some manner of assurance you won't spill the beans about me being here. Or any of the other Sosans, for that matter. The stuff in my shop, too."
"Who else knows about this boat?" Maple interrupted to ask. "I mean, you don't want us to tell ponies in Riverfall about it either, right?"
"Think of keeping quiet about it here as a sort of test," Arambai said with a shrug. "If you tell anyone, I'll find out, but I've already got damage control in place on that one. And, uh... sorry, Gerardo." When the griffon stared back questioningly, Arambai added, "I just tied your ability to leave to the secret-keeping ability of a couple of mares, didn't I...?"
Maple, Gerardo and Amber all shared a glance that wondered exactly what was going on.
"This feels slightly like a threat," Gerardo finally said. "Something akin to blackmail..."
"It ain't just for me," Arambai replied. "This town is full of hideouts who don't want anything more to do with the world and would hate if it came knocking on their doors. I may be a beneficiary, but I also more or less built the place. It's kind of my responsibility. Besides, I didn't say you could never leave. I've just gotta... trust you, you know? Just give it a day or two more, I'll think of something. All the Sosans here know about that boat, by the way, so don't worry about letting it slip to them. But nobody else, even their wives!"
Maple bit her lip. "Even Willow?"
Arambai shrugged. "I made this deal with all of them when they came. You wanna stay here, you don't mess with others. That includes spreading around ideas that make ponies want to leave. Once the floodgates are open, this is just another backwater town that's no good for keeping secrets."
"This is... a lot to take in at once," Amber admitted, blinking at the ground. "I mean, you've always had a way out of here... since the very beginning... and never told anyone..."
"Yeah. Sorry, but there's not much of a better way to break that than all at once, with the warnings attached." Arambai shrugged and turned toward the bridge back to the ground. "Those two storerooms we passed, by the way? Stuffed with enough nonperishables saved from the shipments to last this town two full years. More, with rationing. Seeds and landscaping equipment, too. So if worst came to worst, we could shut down the ferry, add some military defenses in the river, and grow our own food. It wouldn't be pretty, but it would be a living. Just thought you should know. Feel free to stay here, and head back whenever you like. I've got some experiments to wrap up back at my house."
He stepped down the bridge and out of sight. Soon, Gerardo and the three ponies were alone on the platform, mid-afternoon passing gradually around them.