//------------------------------// // Chapter 25 // Story: To Perytonia // by Cloudy Skies //------------------------------// Twilight Velvet & Night Light Shimmer Road 44b Western Face Canterlot Dear Ms. Velvet and Mr. Light I’m sorry for something as impersonal as a letter, but Princess Luna and I are a little busy these days. Otherwise, I would invite you to the Castle to discuss this, but it seems a little excessive when I really only have a simple question. One for Spike, in fact. Would you ask him if he has used his dragon’s breath to try to send any letters using our enchanted scrolls lately? Maybe he just had an accident? If he has, remind him that the scrolls attuned to the palace are not for play, and to please be careful in the future. If he has not, then don’t worry. There is no cause for alarm. I just thought it would be best to ask. I hope you are doing well, and please tell Spike I said ‘hi’, unless he is the one reading this. In which case, hello, Spike. I am sure Twilight Sparkle and all her friends will be back home before much longer. -Princess Celestia From the Office of the Princesses, Canterlot Mnt. “If you want to spend so greedily of my time, I would very much appreciate some explanation,” said Deimesa. The peryton still wore the same subtle yet permanent frown she’d put on when they left the house. Dash would be lying if she said she didn’t enjoy that. “Uh-huh, I bet you would,” said Rainbow Dash, grinning hugely. “And you already have some explanation. You asked what I meant by weather work, and we’re gonna show you weather work. Telling you more than that would spoil the surprise! Left, right, or straight ahead?” Deimesa nodded ahead with her antlers. “Straight across here, then right when we can no longer go forward.” Two other small groups of peryton moved in the same general direction as they, most with bags slung about their necks. One doe levitated a basket of fruits at her side. “There are no parks in the southern quarters, so most who desire a touch of green have their meals by the edge of the Saltwood,” Deimesa added. “I meant to ask,” said Fluttershy, her head tilted. “We didn’t see any forests nearby when we arrived. Or, there was some to the west, I suppose it’d be, along the coast, but not near the city.” “This is not much of a forest, either,” said Deimesa with a shrug. “A year ago I might not have said this, but touring the demesne, I have seen the Splitwood from the Northern Crown, and compared to that, the Saltwood is barely a copse of trees. Will you at least tell me why you need a forest for this demonstration? Is ‘weatherwork’ euphemism for being a forester?” “No, it’s nothing like that, though weather mares like Rainbow Dash sometimes work with foresters,” said Fluttershy, glancing over at Dash. “Rainbow Dash? Why do we need a forest?” “Oh, we don’t. At all. I just wanted to get out of town for a bit,” Rainbow Dash admitted with a laugh. “And to get some shade.” She hovered in the air and did a lazy barrel roll before touching down again, keenly aware of Deimesa’s eyes on her. She hadn’t said anything about Dash’s aerial acrobatics yet, far from fawning like Aroris at the festival in Orto, but the big-eyed stares from both Deimesa and the peryton they passed spoke volumes. They rounded the street-corner, and then the next. The stone tiles and the tall buildings disappeared all at once, but here were no farms. Instead, the city gave way to dirt paths that spread out westwards, trading gaily painted walls for thin and multi-trunked trees in a landscape that never became half as dense and thick as the Splitwood at its worst. Clearly this was a favourite picnic spot for the peryton, and breakfast was apparently an acceptable excuse for a picnic, too: A few families, friends, and the occasional single peryton sat scattered about the narrow paths under the sparse canopy. “We don’t need to be away from the city for any other reason, do we?” Fluttershy asked after a long silence, her voice and look both laden with obvious skepticism. Accusation, even. “It’s not like you wanted to go somewhere with nothing to… break?” “Relax!” Dash said, giggling. “We’re not going to cause any natural disasters!” “Good,” said Fluttershy, smiling to herself. She nodded once, evidently satisfied. “Not because I don’t want to, but because I told Rarity we wouldn’t,” Dash added, a little more quietly, but Fluttershy either didn’t hear her, or didn’t take the bait. Probably the latter. Fluttershy shook her head ever so slightly. “You are doing Chorossa’s work today,” said Deimesa. “I know less now than I did when I woke up this morning.” “Yeah, well, you’ll know how awesome pegasi are in a bit, so just hold onto your wings for a second,” said Dash, looking straight up and smiling with satisfaction. The clouds she’d seen when they left the house were still around despite the breeze that blew in from the coast. “Can you just… stay here for a second? We’ll be right back,” she said, eyeing a particularly fluffy cloud. Deimesa looked around and gave a demonstratively full-bodied shrug. She walked over to sit by a tree not too far away from a couple who had their breakfast, a stag and a doe watching the ponies openly. Dash spread her wings and looked to Fluttershy. “The small cumulus right above us?” Fluttershy asked. She wasn’t even looking at Rainbow Dash, her eyes on the sky. “Read my mind,” said Dash, and just like that, the two of them took off, Fluttershy sketching her own spirals to gain height as they ascended, Rainbow Dash working her wings hard to shoot straight up instead. When she saw she was ahead of Fluttershy, she pulled a loop, and then another, adding little corkscrews as she went, tasting the air. Dash stopped by a cloud that appeared in front of her. It didn’t matter whether it was the cloud Dash had set her eyes on a minute ago. With all the twists and turns she’d made, she couldn’t tell. It didn’t matter whether if it was the one Fluttershy meant, either. They both hovered by the same fluffy cloud mass together in the end, Fluttershy hanging mid-air with effortless ease despite her slightly slower wing-beats. She never looked as good as she did when flying, her entire body working all at once, now with the extra effort of labouring in the morning heat. “Rainbow Dash?” Dash blinked. “What? Did you say something?” “No, but you looked a little distracted,” said Fluttershy, smiling at her. “I was going to ask if we should take this cloud down.” “Yeah, sure,” said Rainbow Dash, shaking her head. She zipped up top and gave it a gentle push. Fluttershy fell in with her a second later, the two of them guiding the cumulus towards the trees. Not much of a forest at all, Rainbow Dash noted, easily able to see the entirety of the park-like spot where all the peryton sat, but her eyes weren’t really on the ground below. She was content to look at Fluttershy as they flew. “You look really happy today,” said Fluttershy, tilting her head, but she smiled bright as she said it. “I’m glad.” “Yeah, well, you look good too,” said Dash. She clapped a hoof to her muzzle in mock horror. “Oh, I meant, you look happy too. Oops. My bad.” Fluttershy giggled and shook her head to get her mane out of her face, the pink tresses trailing her on the descent. “Well, thank you. And I am, too—oh, careful, don’t break the cloud.” “Eh, I know what I’m doing,” said Dash, but she checked her speed a little. A portion of it had in fact started breaking up. She blamed the Perytonian air. Low-hanging clouds weren’t usually this fragile. “Speaking of clouds,” said Dash, shooting her a look. “You ever think about making a cloud-house of your own?” The idea came out of nowhere. She vaguely remembered asking Fluttershy this before. She probably had. “Well, no. I… don’t think I’ve ever been as comfortable with cloud-houses as I am in my cottage,” said Fluttershy. “Well, duh,” said Dash, chuckling. “I meant in addition to your cottage. Just like… a hangout or something.” “I haven’t really thought of it, no,” Fluttershy repeated, chewing on her cheek. “I mean, I hadn’t. I don’t know.” Rainbow Dash nodded. She’d have to ask more about that later, for sure. Any excuse to get Fluttershy up in the air, even if just to try to make a cloud… something. They were nearly down at ground level anyway, and they got some strange looks now. Didn’t the peryton have weather magic at all? They looked like Pinkie Pie the first time Dash showed Pinkie Pie she could shape a cloud. Or the second time. Or any time Pinkie forgot so she could be amazed again. Deimesa’s face wasn’t far off that exact impression, was the point. “You… are moving the clouds,” said Deimesa, eyes wide and blinking over and over as she stated the obvious. She extended one of her wings and stared at her own feathers in confusion. “I don’t feel any wind that explains this—how?” “Well, magic, duh,” said Rainbow Dash. She let go of the cloud and hopped on top of it, while Fluttershy landed and packed her wings away. “Eh, actually, scratch that. Not magic-magic, but… uh.” “It’s pegasus magic,” said Fluttershy with a little shrug of her own and an apologetic smile, as though to say I’m sorry we have these powers. Deimesa slowly approached the cloud and poked a hoof at it. Her hoof went straight through, and the peryton followed after, stumbling a little. “You can’t touch it at all? Huh, that’s weird,” said Rainbow Dash. “Gilda can’t do any of the fancy stuff, but she can still sit on a cloud.” Rainbow Dash hopped up and down on the cloud just because she could. So soft. “So when you say you are… in ‘weather work’, you move clouds for your people in Ponyville?” Deimesa asked. Her eyes were transfixed by the cloud. Again she reached out and tried to touch it, and again she found no purchase. Rainbow Dash jumped off the cloud, shaking her head. “Nah. Or, I mean… kinda. We don’t move clouds for no reason at all, obviously. The biggest job I had was coordinating everything last time we filled the reservoir, but I do a lot more than just pushing clouds around.” She brushed her chest with a leg. “Just making all the weather for Ponyville, no big deal. Rain? Storms? Snow? Sweet sunny summer day? I gotcha covered.” Fluttershy’s raised brow was louder than any words. “Or,” Dash said, clearing her throat. “Fine, sometimes I… delegate that task. Like, tell Thunderlane to get off his butt and make sure the rain goes off on time. That sort of stuff. It’s not a full-time job, jeez. Pegasi are all supposed to help their nearest town.” “You make it rain,” Deimesa repeated, her tone entirely flat. “How did you gain this power? Or… all of you can do this?” “All pegasi,” said Fluttershy, nodding quickly, adding after a moment, “meaning Rainbow Dash and I, so, um, the ones with wings. Rarity has other magic, and so do earth ponies. You have magic we don’t, though. The things that the Ephydoerans did was very unique.” “Ephydoerans and ‘we’ are not the same in every respect,” said Deimesa. She leaned down and stuck her head inside the cloud, pulling back out and shaking her head right afterwards though she could barely have been moist at all. “It’s not a very… rainy cloud. We’d have to—hang on,” said Dash. “Fluttershy, give me a push from the other side.” Fluttershy did as asked, pushing with her forehooves while Dash did the same, and in a few seconds, they had the cloud at half its previous size. Dash gave it a little nudge to let it float over her head, waiting. “You’re all peryton, though, that’s all I meant,” said Fluttershy, looking to Deimesa and shuffling her wings. “Ephydoerans and Vauhornites.” “And you are all ponies, but you also have different magics,” Deimesa retorted. Fluttershy frowned ever so slightly, one of her ears quizzically bent, but the peryton waved a hoof to forestall any protest. “If I may be as bold as Helesseia upon the first compact, I am not interested in, or worried about who can do what magic, nor do I care about competing one way or another. I only wonder about this: you say rain as though—” The timing was perfect. Rainbow Dash didn’t even have to say anything. She felt the first drop hit her snout, and a second later, she stood in the middle of a light, localized drizzle so small it kept her tail dry. She tried to keep the smugness out of her smile, but from the way Fluttershy narrowed her eyes, she knew she failed. Dash caught a giggle out of her at the end, though. The nearby peryton couple hadn’t taken a bite out of their breakfast for the past five minutes. “That… that is amazing,” said Deimesa, her voice reverent, her jaw hanging open, her eyes wide, and her feather-tips curving away from her body. Rainbow Dash didn’t want to disagree, but getting praise for creating rain that even now dried up? It was a bit like getting cheers for getting out of bed in the morning—or perhaps like getting cheers for something else that was actually easy. Mornings were everything but. “Eh, that’s nothing,” said Rainbow Dash, grinning. She kicked the spent cloud apart with a zero-effort poke and a puff, shaking the wet out of her mane. “Fluttershy, wanna grab another one and show her some real cloudcraft?” “I’ll get one,” Fluttershy replied, nodding and launching into the air so quickly, Rainbow Dash forgot to follow. She just stood there watching Fluttershy ascend, deciding that they really only needed one more cloud, and that Fluttershy could handle it. She could watch those wings at work forever. She spread her own wings to match, just because. “You are very different.” Rainbow Dash was annoyed not because of the words, but because of the distraction. “Yeah?” she asked, only half paying attention to Deimesa. “I have spoken more with your—well, I understand you are not linked, but you may as well be,” said Deimesa. “Your love, then. I have spoken more with her than I have with you, but you are very different.” “Mhm,” said Dash. She smiled. Fluttershy flew from one cloud to the next, choosing a bigger cloud each time, finally deciding on a good-sized one easily ten paces across. “What’s your point?” “I don’t know that I have one,” said the doe, tilting her head. “Should I have one? She seems very nice.” Rainbow Dash snorted and grinned. “Wow, and I guess I’m chopped spinach, huh?” “I… did not mean to offend,” said Deimesa, drawing back. “This sounds like you think I have offended. I apolo—” “Relax!” Dash snickered. “I’m laughing, aren’t I? I’m joking around. I don’t care, you’re fine, and yeah, she is, in fact, awesome.” “Ah,” said Deimesa. She cleared her throat and glanced up at the sky. Fluttershy was finally on the approach. “Your… laughter is strange, that is all.” “Says you,” said Dash with a final little chuckle. She broke into a grin when Fluttershy landed. “Nice catch, Fluttershy!” “Thank you,” said Fluttershy, smiling wide. She kept a hoof on the cloud to keep it from drifting away. Dash could tell it was light. “What did you have in mind?” “Absolutely no idea,” said Rainbow Dash, rolling her shoulders. “I was thinking of maybe making like… a table or something out of solid clouds or whatever—” “That’d be nice,” said Fluttershy, nodding. “—until I realised how lame that is,” Dash finished. “Oh,” said Fluttershy, her ears wilting. “Come on, we can do anything. If you wanna make a table out of cloudstuff, that’s like… stuff for a lazy sunday when my wings are busted after a hard day of training or a crash or something,” Dash said with a snort. “Well, I guess the good and bad news is, that’s probably going to happen sometime soon after we get home, isn’t it,” said Fluttershy with a small frown of her own and a pointed glance at Dash’s back. “Pretty much,” said Dash. She spread her wings and critically inspected her curiously green wings. Her discoloured but marvellously functional wings. “Or, y’know, scratch that. I think I’m gonna take it easy for a bit. I don’t wanna be grounded again anytime soon.” “I think I heard you say that before,” Fluttershy said. “Maybe… every time your wings are healed.” She giggled, and Dash rolled her eyes. Rainbow Dash swatted at the air in front of Fluttershy with a wing, not bothering to move over to actually poke her. “So,” said Deimesa, a little louder than normal. If her voice didn’t betray her impatience, the way she scuffed at the ground did. “You call this ‘cloudcraft’? You can do more than make rain?” “Can we ever,” said Dash. But what? She could think of at least a thousand cool things to do with a cloud, and a good half of them began with a thundercloud. The problem with that was that Fluttershy wasn’t very fond of thunder and lightning. There were plenty of other options, of course, but she couldn’t quite put the idea away. Nor could she forget the words of the date yesterday. Fluttershy had suggested Rainbow Dash could inspire people. Did that extend to Fluttershy? Her girlfriend hadn’t talked about herself at all, but maybe it still worked. If Fluttershy was right, if Rainbow Dash could get a wounded peryton back up in the air—and she still hoped to see that—could she get Fluttershy within a thousand paces of an active thundercloud? She knew Fluttershy had a good reason to be afraid of thunderclouds, but they were simply too cool to live an entire life without. Right now, nothing was more exciting to Dash than the idea of Fluttershy messing around with thunderclouds like it was no big whoop. Maybe she’d even impress the peryton breakfasting around here, get a few cheers? Forget that last part, really. What really mattered was that Fluttershy had confided in Dash that she wished she wasn’t quite so afraid of them. “I got an idea,” said Rainbow Dash. She tried for her most confident smile, the kind she reserved for special occasions, such as all the time. “How about some thunder?” She saw Fluttershy’s pupils shrink a little. She saw the way she shifted her wings, but that was all. Fluttershy took a deep breath and smiled after a moment, nodding almost enthusiastically. “Sure,” said Fluttershy. “We can try to make a storm cloud.” “Storm clouds?” said Deimesa, tilting her head slightly. “I… you may have shown me strange things that belong to the First Stories, if anywhere at all, but you can tame storm clouds? Is this a pegasus joke?” An eager Fluttershy and a skeptic audience. If there were perfect conditions to make thunder, they were these. The peryton breakfasting about the park-like forest area clearly paid attention to them, but so far that was all they had garnered. Polite, if rapt interest. Rainbow Dash cracked her neck and stretched her entire body out. “Do you think we can do it with a cloud like this, though?” asked Fluttershy, poking at the fluffy white thing she’d brought. “In Ponyville? No way,” said Rainbow Dash. “But as hot and humid as it is here, and with the wind coming in from the coast? We just pack it tight and let it cook. Shove some air in there to bring the cold and we’re golden.” Fluttershy nodded and started packing the cloudmass together, shoving at it with her forelegs. Her head popped over the rim of the cloud. “You know that with your experience, you could get a magnus-level storm license even without taking classes, right? You should be glad Mayor Mare never asked to see your license. If she knew you didn’t have one—” “I’d still have to take an exam or a test or something, and I’d have to explain how I got so good at it,” said Dash with a snort. “Besides, I haven’t heard any complaints about my storms.” “That… might be because you don’t have an office,” said Fluttershy, her ears splayed. “Mayor Mare gets a lot of complaints, actually.” “Storms being too awesome doesn’t count as a real complaint,” Dash asked, grinning. “I think she knows, anyway. And, if she paid me enough that I could have an office, she could hire any other licensed storm-maker, so… it’s like a catch-a-kazoo.” “A catch twenty-two?” Fluttershy asked. “Gesundheit,” said Dash. The cloud was barely pony-sized now, and a lot darker than before. Fluttershy landed, took one step back, and then another. “I don’t think you understand how strange this is to me,” said Deimesa letting out a short caw of laughter. Nervous laughter, perhaps. She leaned in closer, poking a hoof at the dark grey cloud. Her head jerked back when it came away wet, her small eyes wide as can be and her wings nervously rustling. “I… this is amazing.” “I told you, we know,” said Dash, laughing. “What now?” the doe asked. “You say this will thunder? This little thing?” “Just relax. It’ll do that, and more,” she said, giving Fluttershy a wink. She knew that Fluttershy knew, too: a stormcloud like this wouldn’t just let out thunder. If they had done it right—and Rainbow Dash always did it right—they’d get a real, albeit tiny, lightning strike, and she couldn’t wait to see the doe’s face at that. “More than thunder,” Deimesa repeated. She raised her hoof as if she wanted to touch it again, but did not. “I do not understand how such a little thing can do even that. Is it not just a heavy rain cloud?” “It’s a surprise, just have a little patience, come on,” said Rainbow Dash, rolling her eyes. “Fluttershy, you wanna prime it, or should I?” Fluttershy took a deep breath and puffed out her cheeks, letting it out slowly. Finally, she shook her head. “I think it’s okay if you do it.” “Sure,” said Dash. She punched a hole into the center of the cloud and took off, fanning wind into the cloud while Fluttershy braced it from the other side. She gave it a few flaps extra just to be safe, and packed the hole shut. When she put an ear to the cloud afterwards, she swore she could hear a tiny rumble, noting with satisfaction that the core already built energy. She also noted that Fluttershy still hadn’t run away. Maybe next time, she could get Fluttershy to start the cloud core mixing instead, but whatever the case, while Fluttershy’s ears told Dash she was worried, the other pegasus’s worried smile was still a smile. That tiny victory felt a thousand times better than anything else. As nice as it was to think she might’ve helped Neisos a little bit yesterday, right now she could look at Fluttershy and smile back. She wished this moment would last. “So. Now what?” asked Deimesa again, who evidently did not share this opinion. She glanced back and forth between the two pegasi. “Why does it not shed its water?” “Because it’s building,” said Dash, trying to temper her annoyance a little. She wasn’t annoyed with Deimesa’s impatience, of course. What concerned her was the idea that she might not actually end up impressed. What if she didn’t think the thunder and lightning was as cool as Dash did? Rainbow Dash frowned. That was entirely too likely. After all, these peryton lived through the most violent yearly storm that Rainbow Dash had ever seen in her life. “Building?” Deimesa asked. Granted, freaky weather happened in areas not controlled by pegasi, and outside Equestria that was all the time. The cool part wasn’t the weather itself, even though that was plenty cool. “Well,” said Fluttershy. The cool part was that Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash did it with hoof and wing. At least, that’s what other ponies found cool. To Dash, that was normal. Still, if Deimesa wasn’t impressed, it didn’t hurt to have a backup plan. Preferably one that wasn’t a full-blown hurricane. They’d probably had one of those last week when the storm passed through here. “We just started a process inside the cloud—oh, listen! There’s the first rumble of the thunder, did you hear it?” asked Fluttershy. Though in truth, the more Rainbow Dash thought about it, the more she doubted that Vauhorn really suffered the worst of the yearly storms. It’d start to break up by the time it came here, right? “It still does not rain,” said Deimesa, her smaller ears stiffly pointing skywards, though Rainbow Dash scarcely paid attention any more. “Curious. Can you make it rain by touching it, or must we wait?” No, that didn’t add up. The storm wouldn’t break up from winds coming inland, obviously. Dash smacked her forehead. Sometimes, she could be so oblivious. “Oh. Um, well, I probably shouldn’t. It’s not going to let off any water anyway, and I don’t want to spoil Rainbow Dash’s surprise,” said Fluttershy. Besides, these storms refused to behave the way storms should. No storm should persist for that long. Probably. It was hard to tell without a proper sense of scale. “She seems preoccupied,” said Deimesa, shaking her head. “I am not as Esorys before the unwatched fruit, I simply wonder what this thing can do. This is very new to me.” You could only really get a good impression of what was happening from a proper overhead view, and she’d not gotten above the storm. Now, she regretted that. The alternative was, of course, she admitted to herself with a sigh, a map. “Oh. Um, maybe I could...” said Fluttershy. “I really don’t know if I should.” Maps still didn’t make as much sense to her as she’d like. Whatever the case, the point remained. She needed a better trick than a stormcloud as a backup. Perhaps a tiny twister? With all the people around, she’d need to control the twister well if she didn’t want to send everyone’s breakfasts flying. “You do it, or you do not do it,” said Deimesa, shrugging. “I simply wonder what it is this thing will do. I am no stranger to storms.” Of course she could control a twister. They just had a nasty habit of becoming—well, calling them tornadoes was a little dramatic. A single pony couldn’t make a true tornado, but sometimes a twister got a little large. Things happened. Imagining the look on Deimesa’s face when she saw Dash manage a twister, keeping it in place? Priceless. “Oh, okay,” Fluttershy said with a sigh. “If you’re really that curious, it’d be very mean of me to keep you waiting. I don’t like surprises either. See, if I just give the cloud a tiny little poke—” Or better yet, seeing Fluttershy manage a twister— Crack. “Fluttershy!” Dash yelled, the name wrenched from her. She caught a blinding flash and whipped around so fast she swore she could see the lightning bolt strike, her ears ringing from the blast. Fluttershy stood frozen with a hoof on the now drained and sullen grey cloud, Deimesa’s weight rested on her hind-claws, and the other peryton spectators stared or hurried away or had never been there in the first place, not mattering at all. “Are you okay?” Dash asked. She hadn’t meant to ask the dumb, inane question, but she did, and she needed to hear Fluttershy speak. A thin line of scorched fur ran across one of Fluttershy’s hindlegs, and her tail-tip had been flash-burned away. Fluttershy slowly lowered her head, a movement infinitely smaller than the way her chest heaved for breath. Rainbow Dash could hear her panting all the way over where she stood—which, a second later, was right next to her. Rainbow Dash didn’t know what to do, so she hugged Fluttershy tight, wrapping her forelegs around her neck. “I’m fine,” said Fluttershy, her voice thin. She hugged Rainbow Dash back without much strength at all. “Maybe… maybe we can make some very, very tiny dust devils instead.” “Dust devils sound great,” said Dash, letting out a sigh and closing her eyes for a moment. “I really did not understand. If you had told me—” Deimesa began, her lips peeling back in disgust. “No. I will unsay those words, that is an excuse, and I have none. I am sorry. Please understand that, at least,” she instead said. The peryton doe’s look was imploring. “I am sorry. I did not mean to goad you.” “It’s fine, really,” said Fluttershy, a smile tugging on her lips. “I’m the one who is sorry. I can be, um… I could be better at putting my hoof down, I guess, but it was just an accident. That lightning should’ve struck straight down, not sideways. The chances of that happening are really very, very small. It’s over now anyway.” Rainbow Dash said nothing. She herself had more experience with storms, but Fluttershy knew the theory just as well. Poking the thickest wall of cloud-matter shouldn’t have zapped her. There was no foul play, and nopony could even call it carelessness—just extremely bad luck. “This way,” said Deimesa, pointing left when they hit an intersection. “It should be a shorter way home.” She shook her head. “But, no, I should not have asked. I should have understood that you dealt with strong magic that can cause harm, magic that needs to be treated with respect. I may as well have caused your wound, begging at best to be as Pelessa in her wondrous naivety.” Fluttershy sighed. “It’s not really a wound, honestly.” She paused mid-step to lift her left hindleg, inspecting the charred line that ran straight across her hock. “My coat just got singed, and don’t worry about the tail, either. I didn’t feel a thing, and it was just as much my fault as yours.” Rainbow Dash listened for a note of doubt in Fluttershy’s voice, for any indication that she’d actually been hurt, but there was none. Fluttershy and Deimesa both blamed themselves, and they’d been playing this game of apologies all morning and the better part of the afternoon, a second game while they messed around with eddies and rainclouds. Now the three walked the outer streets of Vauhorn on their way back, and they were still going at it. They were still ignoring Dash’s part in it. Rainbow Dash kept walking, now looking at Fluttershy’s burnt tail-tip, now trying not to, instead looking at the peryton who all seemed to be moving in the same direction as they. Their trek back to Deimesa’s family’s house merged with a small-scale migration from the edges of town and towards its center. Most of the peryton carried bundles of wood balanced on their back. It’d been Rainbow Dash’s idea, and she’d started it. Fluttershy had nearly gotten badly hurt, and there was no point in discussing whose fault it was in the end. Rainbow Dash had a hoof in it. She wasn’t much for tear-laden confessions or apologies, and Fluttershy clearly didn’t see it the same way Rainbow Dash did, but Dash knew one thing for sure: she’d been wrong. Suggesting they play around with thunderclouds was a terrible idea. As much as Dash loved her, Fluttershy could still be a doormat. There was a huge difference between inspiring others—between trying to make people be their best, trying to give Neisos some encouragement—and pushing her girlfriend around. What kind of pony would do that? An attempt to ‘help’ Fluttershy get over her fear of thunderclouds, something she probably didn’t even remember telling Dash about, had nearly gone horribly wrong. None of this would have happened if Rainbow Dash could just keep the promise she made to herself back in Ephydoera. Don’t. Push. Fluttershy. It’s not complicated, Rainbow Dash. When had she gotten it back into her head that it was okay to do that? Fluttershy clearly didn’t intend for this to happen when she told Dash all those things at their date. She just meant for Dash to be better at helping other people out. That was fine. That was something Rainbow Dash could do. How many other stupid stunts could have gone wrong, anyway? Fluttershy could’ve gotten hurt when she crashed the cart in the gorge. Hay, even when she flew the cart over the brook on the road to Stagrum—also at Dash’s insistence—the cart could’ve upended on top of her and seriously hurt her! Even now, Fluttershy kept close to Dash. It confused Rainbow Dash a little at first: After the near-accident, Fluttershy had been really… cuddly, smiling as though she was really happy, but Rainbow Dash knew she couldn’t be. In fact, the more Dash thought about it, the more it made sense. If Fluttershy had gotten scared, of course she would want Rainbow Dash close. Fluttershy still talked to Deimesa about something or other, but she walked close enough that her coat brushed against Dash’s. Dash rubbed the side of her head against Fluttershy’s neck just to reassure her—and Fluttershy smiled back, returning the gesture by nuzzling the top of her head. It was still confusing, really. Dash knew she was better at reading Fluttershy’s body than she was at interpreting her words, but right now her girlfriend’s worries were hidden so well not even Rainbow Dash could see them. Fluttershy’s wings hung loose and free, her ears were perked, and her now slightly shorter tail swayed at her back. If she didn’t know better, she’d think Fluttershy was genuinely having a great time. Fortunately, she did know better. She knew that she had to be frightened underneath her perky demeanour. “—hope nobody’s going to miss those trees,” Fluttershy said. Dash blinked, tuning back into the conversation. Apparently the apology-fest was over. “Okay, objection,” said Dash. “That was one tree and the other ones were bushes,” she said, laying her ears flat. “I dare you to find somepony else who can control a twister that well, anyway.” “Perhaps my words for these things are not the same as yours,” said Deimesa, cocking a brow. “But I thought you meant to do as Fluttershy did and make a spinning wind that gathered leaves, which she called a… dust devil?” “Sure, but my twister did that, too,” Dash said with a snort, eliciting a giggle from Fluttershy. “Nobody used those bushes anyway. Right?” “That side of the wood? I doubt they will be missed,” said Deimesa, craning her neck to look straight up. She’d cast the occasional skywards glance every now and then for the past minute. “Those who prefer walking the greater demesne will have some questions, but wonder is good. Perhaps this is how Anhori will be defined, through stories of wonder over uprooted bushes.” Rainbow Dash looked up as well, trying to figure out what Deimesa looked at. There was a shadow of some sort flying overhead, but the sun got in her eyes when she tried to make out the details. “An osprey flies right overhead, still,” said Deimesa, frowning slightly. “You fed an osprey while we ate our lunch. Is it the same one, still hungry?” “Oh! Flappington is still following us?” Fluttershy asked. She, too, looked up, smiling when she spotted the great winged shape. “He did say he felt a little lonely these days. Maybe he’ll come by for a visit tonight. I’ll have to find some more grapes.” “You weren’t making a joke. You actually speak to animals. You speak their language.” Deimesa shook her head slowly. “I would refer to an Aspect to help me understand, but there is nothing like it to draw upon. The closest is unstoried words of The Curinion, said to speak to the beasts of the Bow, but I am lost.” “Well, I don’t know about language,” said Fluttershy, pushing her mane back from her face. “I can’t make the exact same noises an otter makes, or even a fox, but we understand each other, at least.” “I do not know that the difference matters,” said Deimesa with a desperate warble of laughter. “I am still lost. Can all of your kind do these things as well?” “Nah, the animal stuff is all Fluttershy,” said Rainbow Dash, hovering up to stretch her legs mid-flight. She covered a yawn with a hoof. “It’s… part freaky, part awesome? Mostly awesome. You should see her back at her cottage. I don’t think there’s an animal within a day’s flight of Ponyville that doesn’t come by and say hi every once in awhile. She’s pretty much Ponyville’s biggest animal celebrity.” Dash grinned twice as wide when she saw Fluttershy’s burgeoning blush. “I’m still a little surprised you can’t touch the clouds at all,” Fluttershy said, evidently brooking no discussion or praise of herself. “I’m sorry for bringing it up again, but I always thought it might be because of our wings, so I thought maybe you would be able to at least shape them a little.” “It’s not just pegasi. Gryphons can touch clouds, at least,” Dash said. “And Luna can definitely do weather-y stuff, but I guess you weren’t there, last nightmare night,” Dash added in a mutter. The singe marks on Fluttershy’s leg reminded her of the weeks it had taken for her own coat to regrow and cover up the burn marks on her butt. How long would it take for Fluttershy’s little burn to go away? How long until Dash forgot that she was not supposed to push Fluttershy around again? Rainbow Dash snarled at herself internally, willing herself to remember this moment. “Birds can’t, though,” said Fluttershy, frowning slightly. “Not the… I guess you could say the uncivilised ones, but it sounds so judgmental.” “Yeah,” said Dash, glad for the topic, for the distraction. She shook her head. “That’s half the reason geese are so terrifying. You can’t even hide out in a cloud. They just act like the clouds aren’t there. They keep coming.” She suppressed a shudder. “I still do not know that I can understand it as magic,” Deimesa said, shifting her wings. “Your friend Rarity, her magic is far more… if mine is a clumsy chisel made of wood, hers is a syrra blade. I cannot match what she does, but I understand it is magic. I cannot understand what you do with your hooves. Or your animal speech.” “Yeah, I don’t know. It’s… whatever. Some pegasus eggheads at Cloudsdale University could probably tell you more about it the pegasus magic,” said Rainbow Dash. “But hey! If you think all the stuff we did today is cool, you should see Cloudsdale.” Rainbow Dash hopped into a hover, flying backwards. “That’s where we actually make the weather. Or, uh. That’s the motto, anyway.” “You… make the weather there?” Deimesa asked with a skeptical squint. “Is that not what we have done now today?” “Yeah it doesn’t make that much sense,” Dash admitted. “It’s a terrible motto.” “Cloudsdale makes the clouds in the first place,” Fluttershy explained. “Some pegasi can do it with just their bodies and a source of water, but making all the clouds… well, manually, that wouldn’t be very efficient. They also make the rainbows and many other things that are hard or impossible to do alone. Like snowflake templates.” “All the clouds,” Deimesa repeated. “Do you mean to say… that is where all clouds come from? That is hard to accept.” “Nah, just Equestria,” said Dash. “And yeah. Making clouds? Way tedious.” “But weather does not stop at city limits. That is why we get the summer storms from the Bow,” said the doe. She gave Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy a long look. “Are you pegasi ultimately responsible for the seven days of the storm, then?” “Whoa, no, hang on,” said Rainbow Dash. “That’s—no! No. I… I don’t think so? Hang on, let me think.” Fluttershy pursed her lips, her eyes on the tiled road as they walked. “No,” she said after a moment. “There are a lot of things that affect winds, but we mainly do water redistribution for crops and… I think the term is ‘local seasonal changes.’ Um, it’s probably a lot to explain, but I really don’t see how it could affect anything outside of Equestria much. Besides, we’re on the opposite side of Perytonia to the Bow, and that’s where the storm came from.” Rainbow Dash nodded quickly. “Yeah. We’re just trying to keep things normal, not… freaky like the borders or here where seasons change by themselves all the time.” She scratched her head. “But uh, anyway, don’t you need those storms, too? It’s really dry here.” Deimesa nodded in agreement. “Now that you ask, yes, we do. Vauhorn would be lost without them. It contributes to the groundwater, even though most peryton don’t realise.” She raised a brow. “I realise now I sound like I accused you of wrongdoing. I’m sorry for that.” “It’s cool,” said Dash, exhaling loudly. At last they left the outskirts of Vauhorn and entered the city proper again. Though the air was rapidly cooling, the shade from the taller buildings was more than welcome. Here and there, peryton moved in groups carrying the same bundles of firewood they’d seen on their backs for a while now. Some of them even pulled carts loaded with timber, and Dash now realised they were setting up for the fires of the Alluvium, but clearly the ones moving wood now were the early birds: The first plaza they reached was still set up for some kind of market, and busy enough that she landed to walk with the other two. “We should have gone around,” said Dash, muttering an excuse-me to a masked peryton who pushed past her with an apology of his own. Either peryton were big on last minute purchases or the plaza was a heavily trafficked thoroughfare. Most seemed to just be passing through, and she saw more than a few peryton packing their stalls together even now. If there was a theme to the market, Dash didn’t see it. Here some fabrics, there some tasty-smelling fried bread, and next to that particular stall, one that sold various tinctures. “Oh! I’ll be right back,” said Fluttershy, ducking past Rainbow Dash, moving for a nearby stall with innumerable little jars and bottles marked in crow-footed script. Dash didn’t even have time to ask what she was doing. Fluttershy was already over there, digging into her saddlebags to produce some bronze slivers, her words lost in the din of the plaza. “It was not an accusation, but a comment on your recklessness, I think,” said Deimesa. She stepped to the side and shepherded Dash out of the way of the crowd, placing the two next to a peryton who tore down her stall. “The what?” Dash asked. “This ‘Cloudsdale’,” Deimesa said as Fluttershy rejoined them, stashing a bottle in her saddlebags. “It sounds reckless to me.” “Sorry?” asked Fluttershy. She looked up with the straps of her saddlebags in her mouth. “I mif’h fh’omething?” “No, I’m confused,” Dash admitted, cocking her head. “What about Cloudsdale is ‘reckless’?” “To so wantonly change things,” Deimesa shook her head and pointed ahead, setting the little group moving again. “No, let me try again. Change is fine, but to have such power, that is reckless. I am impressed with all you have shown me today because it is interesting, but it is also… unsettling.” “Being able to make rain is power? And ‘reckless’?” asked Rainbow Dash, her snout crinkling of its own accord. “You know, I’m fine with that kind of reckless. Well, every kind of reckless. Mostly.” “Maybe we did a poor job—excuse me—” Fluttershy walked a little closer to Rainbow Dash, flashing a smile at a passer-by. “Sorry, maybe we did a poor job of explaining it. It’s not really power. You know, there are a lot of things we don’t understand completely about peryton, either, and we’ve been here for weeks. Goodness, over a month, now. I’m still amazed by how great you are at working with stone, and we still don’t understand the Ephydoerans half as well as we’d like to.” “Didn’t Rarity say something like that?” asked Dash. “We’ve seen your place up close. If you came to visit and saw Cloudsdale for yourself you’d see it’s fine.” She grinned. “As long as you don’t drink the liquid rainbows. Or stick your head in the cloud compressor. Don’t do that.” “You may be right, but it sounds entirely too fantastic to my ears,” Deimesa admitted, smiling at that. “Sure, but I think if anypony tried to explain the Grove in Ephydoera to me, I’d say the same. Trees that big? That place is crazy,” said Rainbow Dash, grinning at the thought. Already she felt the tree shrinking in her head, trying to fit into a memory. “And the great plaza in Orto? Jeez, you could fit Ponyville there. You have amazing things, too.” “Ephydoera and Orto may. I have never been there. Vauhorn does not have these things,” Deimesa countered. Fluttershy tilted her head. “Maybe you just say that because you are used to the things you have, like… wonderful tiled streets?” “And the houses,” Dash added. “Painting every house with all sorts of crazy stuff? That’s awesome. Confusing, weird, but also awesome.” “You might be right. I have not thought of it like this,” was all Deimesa said, evidently satisfied with that conclusion. She halted, and Dash held out a hoof to stop Fluttershy from colliding with a crossing peryton. The three waited at a little crossroads in between market stalls, an artificial little street crossing in dire need of a traffic conductor. “If you have been to Ephydoera, I must ask,” said Deimesa, shooting Dash’s back a glance. “I assumed your wings’ colour was just a curious coincidence—” “Can we not?” Dash asked. It came out a little snappier than she’d intended, but she knew it’d remind Fluttershy of everything that had happened in Ephydoera. “Not what?” Deimesa asked, raising her voice a little to compensate for the background noise of the market. Someone was making a lot of noise nearby. “It was an accident, and I’m getting tired of having to talk about it,” Rainbow Dash said, her snort lost in the din. “You haven’t really explained it to anyone so far,” Fluttershy pointed out. She splayed her ears when Dash looked at her. “You don’t have to, of course, but it’s clear that everyone notices and is curious.” Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes. “Fine. What do these wings tell you? What do you think happened?” Deimesa blinked and looked between Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash. “They… tell me nothing? I know that in many of the stories, the Ever Soaring painted his wings green, and that the Ephydoerans do so as well. It is supposed to be the mark of a warrior, particular to the wardens. That is what gives me pause. I know the colour carries great importance, but I had not thought to ask detail.” “Cool. Let’s go with that, whatever,” said Rainbow Dash, pushing her saddlebags back to cover more of her wings. If only she could turn her wings inside out like a vest to show another colour. She remembered Rarity making something like that, once. “Not to change topics—” Fluttershy said once they made some progress through the plaza again, albeit at a crawl. “Please, do exactly that,” said Rainbow Dash. “—but maybe we should pick up something for Rarity while we’re here?” “Sure. What’d you have in mind? I didn’t bring any money, just the food we had.” Dash wiggled her sides. She’d just tossed some fruit on top of the leftover fabrics and empty water-bags in her saddlebags, and whatever lay beneath that didn’t sound like gems or perytonian bits. “Maybe some tea?” Fluttershy suggested. “I haven’t seen any tea around, though.” “Tea is a winter drink. You won’t find much of it now. Hot drinks in summer are not common and won’t come to market for a little while yet,” Deimesa said, looking left and right as they walked, just like the ponies did. More stalls offered food, jars, boxes—one even presented a variety of the glowing globes Vauhornites used for light indoors. “How about a handkerchief?” Rainbow Dash asked, slowing down next to a stall that carried nothing but. At least, they looked like handkerchiefs. “These are for blowing your nose, right?” “Or cleaning other things, yes,” said Deimesa. She levitated up a piece of cloth embroidered with some abstract symbol that meant nothing to Dash, maybe a letter. The stall-keeper stag smiled at them. “I think that’s a good idea,” said Fluttershy, smiling as well. “Do you see any you like? Something to remember Vauhorn by, probably. She’d like that, I’m sure.” “How much are they?” Dash asked. “Three slivers if you choose quickly,” said the stag, “I am about to leave, and would rather not become as Glandros upon the mountaintop.” Dash pointed to two at random. “Fluttershy, pick one of these two?” she asked. “Oh, um, left?” Fluttershy asked. Slivers changed hooves, and Dash packed away a white handkerchief embroidered with a pair of wings and a wave—maybe an ocean or something?—and soon they were on the move again. Moments later, they were finally out of the plaza, and Dash could breathe again, no longer forced to stare at hundreds of peryton necks and chests. There were still a lot of peryton about, though, more and more of them carting wood around. For a while they walked parallel to a full-sized cart loaded with lumber. “I do hope she gets better soon,” said Fluttershy. “Who, Rarity? Yeah. Maybe we can get going tomorrow,” Dash agreed. “She looked good today. We can hit Cotronna in… how many days did you say?” “Less than a week this time, probably,” said Fluttershy, smiling at her. “You are eager to leave Vauhorn,” said Deimesa, looking down at the two ponies with a raised brow. “Eager to get to Cotronna,” Dash corrected her. “And to get home, really,” Fluttershy added. Rainbow Dash nodded. “Yeah, and that. Both. It’s got nothing to do with Vauhorn, but we got stuff to do. ‘Diplomats’ and everything, right?” She couldn’t hold back a bark of laughter at that. The three moved to the side of the road to let a cart pass going the opposite way. This road was a little more narrow than most, and soon Deimesa turned them onto a broader, familiar-looking street. Dash recognised the long beach painted along three buildings on their right. “Your eagerness, then, is because you carry treaties for Cotronna?” Deimesa asked. “That’s right,” said Fluttershy, nodding. “Well, more of an invitation, really. I think the Princesses wanted to discuss treaties together instead of having everypony negotiate separately. We’re not actually trained diplomats.” “What does a trained diplomat actually do?” asked Rainbow Dash. She chuckled. “We’re just messenger mares, really. I don’t even know how we’re supposed to be… didn’t they say ambassadors? I don’t know what that’s supposed to mean.” “It just means that we represent Equestria,” said Fluttershy, as though that explained everything. “But you’re right. We really just carry a message, we don’t have the authority to negotiate even if we wanted to.” “Shoot. What about all my plans to… uh… negotiate a—wow, this is so boring, I can’t even make a joke about it,” Dash admitted with a sigh. They turned a sharp left, putting them onto the familiar alley that held Neisos and Ohrinna’s house. At least, Dash felt sure it was the same alley until she turned the corner, but it took her a moment to recognise it in the growing darkness as the sun sank lower. Hadn’t the magical streetlights been lit at this point yesterday? She only barely spotted the two peryton leaving the alley on the opposite side, no doubt carrying firewood like everyone else. She couldn’t tell. A little light spilled from the occasional open window, but even as she watched, shutters were closed and light muted. Deimesa walked ahead without commenting on the darkness. At least the flat and clean roads made it safe to walk without light. “While I remember: did you talk to the Council of Vauhorn?” the doe asked. “Did we ever,” Rainbow Dash laughed. Fluttershy giggled as well. “We really did talk. We spent almost an entire day talking to them, sharing our stories.” Deimesa grinned, mounting the steps to the house and pushing the door open with a little burst of magic. “That sounds like something the council would appreciate. Well timed ahead of the Alluvium, too, though I hope you have saved something for tonight.” “Yeah, about that, are we late or something?” asked Rainbow Dash, casting one final glance down the darkened alley. If someone told her it was all over and that it was the middle of the night, she wouldn’t be surprised. “You are just in time!” came Neisos’ voice from inside. “Why are you turning off the lights?” asked Rainbow Dash. She turned her head to watch as Neisos stood beneath one of the globes that hung from the ceiling. His antlers glowed brightly, and the globe first dimmed, then winked out. “Not all the lights,” Ohrinna said, returning from the kitchen with a small bundle of wood and placing it by the door. “Only the ones that may spill out through cracks in shutters and curtains.” “Tonight,” said Neisos, beaming, “the only light outside will be the bonfires—all the better to attract the new stories and guide them to those of us who wait.” “Stories aren’t moths, you know,” said Dash, chuckling. She turned to watch as Neisos approached the final globe in the room. This one he left aglow with a muted light. “Maybe… we can think of them as fireflies instead,” suggested Fluttershy, puffing out her cheeks. “I don’t like thinking about moths and fire.” “Sure, but my point is, it’s not like that—” said Dash. “Please stand still,” Rarity said. She didn’t sigh so much as the words came out as a sigh by themselves. The unicorn rubbed bleary eyes and tugged at Dash’s skirt. “Sorry,” Dash muttered. “Stories are neither moths nor fireflies, of course,” said Neisos, smiling. “But those who wish to tell stories can be guided by the light of a good bonfire.” He spared a grin for Fluttershy. “And not to worry. Peryton, at least, have the good sense to avoid tripping into the fire. Mostly.” “Mostly?” Fluttershy asked, her eyes going wide. “Neisos, please,” said Ohrinna. “Did I miss something interesting during my journey?” asked Deimesa, frowning at her parents. The younger doe stood by the stairs, every now and then popping up to the upper floor to, as she had put it, “ensure that neither of the two beasts destroyed anything else,” letting the others have the living room while they prepared. “Let’s just say that one of your mother-aunts has some feathers to re-grow,” Neisos said with a caw of mirth. “You laugh like that to her face and see how she appreciates it,” said Ohrinna with a shake of her head. “They will write books full of stories containing Helesseia’s fire without, after that.” Neisos sobered rather quickly. “Oh, oh no. That is not in my plan,” he said, pointing to the kitchen. “I will go get a little more wood for our friends and leave this smile behind in the other room, in case we meet her.” Rarity gave Rainbow Dash’s vest another tug and a magical pat, the unicorn circling her once and nodding appreciatively. “There,” she said, looking at the two pegasi. “I think that is as good as it is going to get, and they fit you as well as they ever will. I understand I made a mistake in relying on old measurements for your bodies. Since when were you a two and four fifths across?” “We’re looking better than ever, you say? Thanks, and yeah, you’re right,” said Dash, grinning wide. She moved up to Fluttershy and nuzzled into her neck and chest-coat. Her girlfriend had never been so well toned before—and probably never blushed quite so hard. “Not that I mind, but you’ll have plenty of time to be all lovey-dovey with each other tonight if you wish,” said Rarity with a huff. She brightened the glow from her horn a little. “For now, what do you think of the dresses?” “You’re not coming with?” Dash asked, tilting her head. Rarity shook her head. “It’s already cold outside, and this thing will go well into the night. If I am to get better by tomorrow, I shouldn’t. I feel better, but I think we can all agree it’s best not to risk it.” “Oh. Yeah, no, that’s right,” said Dash, sighing. “Please take care of yourself and get some rest,” Fluttershy agreed, giving Rainbow Dash a nuzzle before she took a step away, glancing over her back. The long, sweeping dress she wore was some dark shade of green, long enough to completely swallow her tail, especially with its tip missing. If Dash had a complaint it was that there was entirely too much dress and not enough Fluttershy. In that sense, she enjoyed her own vest and short skirt a lot more, all red and white with even more space around the wings this time. Rarity said the colours complimented her, and she had to take her word for it. “I think it looks wonderful, Rarity,” said Fluttershy, smiling at the unicorn before she turned her gaze to Dash. “I think yours really shows off your wings and your legs.” “Thanks,” said Dash, stretching out her legs one by one, watching Fluttershy as she did, and judging by the laughter and the flare of her cheeks, it wasn’t just a compliment on Rarity’s dressmaking skills. “So, um, what did you want us to do, again?” Fluttershy asked, her eyes still on Dash. “Just try to see what the peryton think of the dresses? Maybe… ask one or two of them?” “Mm, no, there’s no point to that, really,” said Rarity. She gave both of them one final, scrutinizing look and walked over to the table to grab a sip from a bowl of water. “Uh, no point?” Dash asked, following her. “I thought that was the entire point?” “I’m confused too,” Fluttershy said, nodding along. “I’ve spoken enough with Deimesa and the others enough to understand Vauhorn’s stance on fashion,” said Rarity. “Or their lack of one.” She cast a glance towards the stairs, where Deimesa, Ohrinna and Neisos were engaged in a conversation Dash couldn’t hear. “In case you missed it, and I know you haven’t, they don’t do clothes, and if I had any designs on trying to change that, I recently learned that no one wears any clothes or masks tonight.” Fluttershy nodded slowly. “I guess that makes sense, actually.” Rainbow Dash squinted. “Right. Because they wear stuff to pretend they’re the Aspects or whatever, and tonight’s all about… not that?” “They refer to Aspects’ specific stories, not the Aspects themselves, dear, but yes, that’s the essential truth,” Rarity agreed, taking another sip of water before putting the bowl away. “Any other day of the month, the dresses would have been considered props, and tonight, well—I asked Deimesa and Neisos both, and they agreed that it’s not offensive in any way. It’ll just be considered strange and irrelevant. Normal and unremarkable because we’re already strangers.” She shrugged and let out a soundless snort that shook her body. “I’m sorry, Rarity,” said Fluttershy, deflating a little. She reached out to touch Rarity’s chest. “So there’s no way?” Dash asked, frowning deeply. “You’re giving up without even trying?” Rarity chuckled. “Darling. It’s not giving up. If I’d given up, I’d make washcloths of these dresses—terrible washcloths with silk in the mix, but nevertheless. If the peryton here like the dresses, that’s an unexpected but wonderful success, but I mostly made these to have something to do while I work on other, more promising plans. I’m mostly concerned with trying to get the attention of the Cotronnan court, hoping perhaps that will matter more.” “Is there anything we can do to help with that?” Fluttershy asked, smiling. “Mm, no,” said Rarity, shaking her head resolutely. “Deimesa will stay here for most of the evening, so I’m going to ask her what the most common Aspect here is. I know they say they pay attention to all of them, but there has to be a most popular or used Aspect—and a costume of some sorts that is more Vauhorn than anything else, surely. It might not have anything to do with Cotronna, but call it research. If you want to make me happy, you two have a wonderful night together, hm?” “If you’re sure,” said Fluttershy, a worried frown on her face. “Go,” said Rarity, stifling a yawn and gracing them with a tired smile. “Go and have fun, you two.” “I think we can manage that,” Rainbow Dash replied, grinning back. She headed over to the door with Fluttershy, waiting while Deimesa and her parents said their goodbyes, the young doe tossing them a parting wave and disappearing upstairs. “So, we just grab one of these?” Rainbow Dash asked, pointing to one of the bundles of wood neatly bound together with a thin rope. Neisos levitated one of the bundles onto his back, and Ohrinna did the same. “It is customary to add to the fires you join,” said Ohrinna, nodding. “Again, you do not mind us taking one night to ourselves?” asked Neisos, tilting his head. “It has been a while, you understand.” “It’s fine, jeez,” Dash laughed. When Fluttershy put one of the wooden bundles on her back, she shifted her wings a little to make it lie right, then put a bundle on Fluttershy’s back in return. “I think me and Fluttershy are happy to get some more time together, too.” “Especially since we’re going to be back on the road again soon,” Fluttershy said, smiling. “We will see you later tonight, or tomorrow morning?” “Yes, with allowances for certain kin sleeping until mid-day after the Alluvium,” said Neisos with a glance at Ohrinna. “You are just as bad, do not even pretend you are not,” Ohrinna retorted. “Have you said good-night to the children?” “Good-night, you little hellions!” Neisos called, breaking into a sharp-toothed grin. “There, now I have. Let us go. Stories need to be told—and heard!”