Light broke around Maple, Starlight and Gerardo all at once, as the lift they were riding on emerged from the surface... and continued going up, shielded from the chill by a thick tubing of reinforced glass. Despite the mild temperatures of the Stone District, the land around the escalator's exit was caked in a near-glacial field of snow, freshly whipped and spread as if a storm had passed by not two nights prior. In the distance to the left, a path could be seen leading to a thin, gleaming metal spire, somehow kept clear of snow by jets of steam from roadside vents, and to the rear the white plateau dropped off, the distant fringes of the Earth District visible far beyond. And ahead... ahead lay the Ironridge Skyport.
It looked from a distance like a forest of glass mushrooms, buildings large and small with habitable domes set atop sturdy central pillars, as if they were docks designed to weather the snow drifts rising and falling like a tide. The mountain plane was surprisingly flat, at least for the immediate area, breaking up into more jagged peaks if one went too far in either direction. Another terminal complex loomed far to the right, and all around them, the outlines of dirigibles drifted. Far, far in the background, beyond all of the industry and technology and wealth, a sheer, horizontal black line marked the start of the real mountain range that Ironridge was merely a foothill for.
Maple was speechless, staring. Starlight had nothing to add. Gerardo left them to their awe and silence... and the platform leveled out, sliding further down its track to the skyport.
The sun was high in the sky when the lift platform docked, sinking beneath another grate and leaving its group of passengers standing in an unloading zone. A warning light flared, prompting them to get off before the next platform arrived... and once they did so, they had arrived.
Maple and Gerardo moved to the side, several steps away from the entrance. The interior of the skyport was pristine, polished, and decorated primarily in whites and blacks, a smooth marble flooring stretching between dark iron supports, but its most striking feature was the relative lack of ponies. The massive crowd from the Stone District entrance had dispersed, bottlenecked and strung out by the lift tunnel, and aside from a lengthy line of ponies waiting to use the outgoing transit, there was room... room enough for personal space, room enough to talk, room enough to breathe. Relaxing, Maple let out a breath she didn't know she was holding, and turned to see Gerardo doing the same.
"Well?" the griffon prompted. "I'm starting to wonder if this area of the city isn't slightly too official for what I had hoped, but-"
"I love it," Maple countered, silencing him. "Just... let me enjoy it. I'm glad we came here."
Shrugging, Gerardo paced forward, and she followed. They appeared to be in some sort of atrium, a series of successively higher, wider ringed walkways forming the outside of the room, and a plaza at the bottom filled with carefully-curated greens and even a small artificial river, complete with bridges. They were one tier from the base. "Should we find a way down there?" Maple asked.
"Hold," Gerardo instructed. "We'll do that, but at present I see a sign pointing us to the whereabouts of an informational kiosk..."
Once again, he took the lead, not-quite-prowling around the walkway, hugging the railing so as not to run into any of the pedestrians entering or exiting the numerous side passages. Eventually, the desired kiosk scrolled into view... with an accompanying line of ponies so long, it had to be cordoned off with strips of retractable tape. Gerardo drooped. "Well, it seems that's out of the question..."
Maple shuffled. "If you want to wait in line, Starlight and I can go sit by the water downstairs..."
"Appreciated, but..." Gerardo smiled awkwardly. "We've already abandoned my cargo to a potentially lonesome fate. Let's not get carried away with splitting up, now."
Minutes later saw them sitting on what might have been some artist's representation of a bench, listening calmly as a fountain fed the stream of water winding through a shallow cutout in the floor. They were in an alcove that, while hardly private, was still shaded by nearby plants and the overhang of the next tier. It felt out of the way, and that was enough for Maple's eyes to be closed, lungs steadily breathing air that had undoubtedly been ran through dozens of filtration systems, or possibly taken straight from the pristine mountains themselves.
"That was certainly an interesting conversation we overheard coming in," Gerardo remarked.
Maple merely sighed, but Starlight answered for her. "About the embassy investigation thing?"
"That one." Gerardo nodded, staring toward the middle of the plaza. "I can't say it's any of our business, but it sounds as if intrigue is a daily occurrence in Ironridge. You don't suppose this embassy that pegasus spoke of investigating belongs to our friends the yaks, do you?"
Starlight shrugged. "Maybe. Why? What if it does?"
Gerardo shrugged in return. "I recall it being mentioned earlier that they were funneling currency into Sosa in exchange for deliveries that were... never being delivered. A connection, perhaps?"
"Umm..." Starlight squinted. "Why would she care if the yaks were wasting their own money on weapons?"
"It isn't impossible that such could be an issue." Gerardo clicked his talons against the marble flooring in thought. "Currency imbalances, trade deficits... economic things like that which I am not professionally versed in. She hardly said much for us to speculate on, either. For all we know it could merely be bureaucracy it its finest and she was having a very bad day. Whatever the case, I pray it doesn't concern us any time soon."
Starlight narrowed her eyes. "Talking like that is asking for trouble."
"Heh. Yes, I suppose it is..." Gerardo chuckled beneath his breath. "You're spending too much time around me. Usually, I'm the one to point out the cliches of life like that."
No reply came.
The conversation drifted into a lull, all three sitting in a mixture of heavy thought and mere appreciation. That silence lasted for several minutes... until Starlight noticed a passing pink pegasus who appeared to be staring at them out of the corner of her eye. She blinked, waited... and the pegasus strolled on, out of sight. Minutes later, she returned, again walking past at the speed of no hurry and seemingly intent on stealing as many glances at them as possible.
Gerardo noticed, and beckoned. The pegasus faced them properly and took a step closer. "May I help you?" Gerardo queried.
"Not really," she answered, drawing into a comfortable speaking range. "I just wanted to let you know that your wings are really handsome. Hope I'm not interrupting anything?" Her manner had a certain survivor's confidence to it, as if she were regularly screeched at from behind a cage she knew to be impermeable.
"Why, thank you," Gerardo replied with a blink. "Unless the act of doing nothing counts as an occupation in and of itself, you are, in fact, interrupting nothing. Initially, we were intending to visit the information kiosk up one floor, yet our need was not as pressing as the line was long."
The pegasus brightened considerably, adopting a warmer tone. "Hey, what a coincidence! I just got off a shift there!" With a wing, she pointed to the official-looking shirt she wore. "Would you mind if I bought you lunch, then? I'd love to answer whatever it was you were going to ask there..." Hopefully, pointedly, she ignored Maple, who was watching her with a mixture of curiosity and suspicion.
Gerardo nodded at the two who shared the bench with him. "That would be very generous of you, and I'd be happy to accept. Though, might it be permissible for my traveling companions to join us? I feel it would be unfair to accept gifts for myself only."
"Traveling companions?" The pegasus looked sideways at Maple, evaluated her again, and breathed a sigh of relief. "Of course they can come." She extended a wing to Gerardo. "I'm Slipstream, by the way. It's not often we see griffons around Ironridge. Nice to meet you!"
"Gerardo Guillaume, griffon adventurer extraordinaire," Gerardo said, bowing, "and likewise. My companions are miss Maple and Starlight. Now..." His eyes scanned the heights of the atrium dome. "I imagine you have a destination in mind?"
"There is a food court," Slipstream replied with a nod. "It's very good. Please, follow me!"