Pf. Shoross
While you acted as Ryshalos shown the use of his legs—out of the station on errands—two stags arrived. They claimed to carry a message for three travellers from afar, and asked where they might find them. In Pelessa’s unquestioning naivety, I gave them directions to an acquaintance of mine, Neisos. He currently guests three ‘ponies’ of whom we should have been told long ago. Though my memory is thin, I myself have seen these creatures.
Now I wonder. They claimed to come from dockside quarters, but they spoke like no dockside kin I have ever met, and their speech was uncannily plain, like Helesseia’s own voice, and with no ambiguity or width to their words. They did not give names. I leave you this note in case they should return: I would like to know from which part of the docksides they wandered and for you to help gauge their intent. The others see no cause for alarm, so I do not either, but I ever tread in Morrashon’s shadow, seeking to know.
Beyond this, I am off my duties now and head home. When your shift ends, you should remember Myrtella’s flight at Calthess’ words during the morning hours and join me.
-Eirissia
The streets of Vauhorn were transformed. In the brief time they’d spent grabbing a quick snack and getting ready for this Alluvium-thing, the last rays of sunlight had been spent, and this time, no magical globes made up for the loss. The narrow alleys were lit only by the light of a pale half-moon and a smattering of faded stars. Luna must be busy or lazy, Rainbow Dash thought. Otherwise light grey stone turned obsidian in the coming night.
Neisos and Ohrinna headed right, Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy turned left, and it was with cautious steps in near-complete darkness that they traversed the alley. The city echoed with faint yet innumerable hooves and claws against stonework, far too many to all come from the occasional peryton walking the thoroughfare past the mouth of the alley.
“So, you want to head to the Ravenwall?” Rainbow Dash asked. “That’s where Neisos said the biggest bonfire was, right? If there’s somewhere to find a bunch of peryton and the coolest stories, that has to be it.”
“I don’t know, to be honest,” said Fluttershy. Rainbow Dash heard the rustle of her wings shifting against the fabric of her dress. “Maybe we could try to find someplace… smaller? I think that’d be nice.”
“Sure,” said Rainbow Dash. “We could just walk for a bit. They said this is gonna go on all night.”
“That’s what they said,” Fluttershy replied, and Dash could hear the smile in her voice. Finally they reached the end of the alley, and the light swallowed by the night and the city-wide blackout had its replacement. The plazas at the end of the road in either direction were brightly but haphazardly lit, many bonfires partially obscured by peryton casting long and dancing shadows. Even from here Dash could see a particularly large pile of wood set up for a huge fire at the center of each plaza, but both stood unlit.
“You sure your leg is fine?” Dash asked, glancing at Fluttershy’s side.
“I don’t feel anything, I promise,” said Fluttershy, smiling at her, and Rainbow Dash tried to take her word for it. At least it served as a reminder to Dash not to push Fluttershy around.
“We could head to the docks, if you wanted to,” Fluttershy added. “We haven’t even been to the seaside here yet.”
“Seaside it is!” Dash declared, wheeling them north and marching down the road with a bemused chuckle. “I don’t know how different docks can be, though. If there’s more kelp fishing going on there, if we can even smell it, we’re not sticking around. I’m calling it right now.”
Fluttershy giggled. “That’s fine. I’d just like to see the sea again. When we get back home, I think I’d like to go to the sea more often.”
“You could see it from Las Pegasus, too, you know,” Dash said. “But the train there has way too many detours. I wonder how long it takes to fly there. Can’t be too long.”
“Mm, I didn’t mind the detours that much, but I’m not sure Las Pegasus is… my kind of city,” Fluttershy said, shaking her head slowly.
“Heh, yeah, I guess not,” said Rainbow Dash. A few peryton hurried by, but no more wagons were about. A stag closed the shutters of a street-facing window from the outside in passing, glaring at it. Most of the peryton must be at the plazas by now.
“Isn’t Clopenhagen by the sea?” Dash asked, but the second she’d asked she winced at how stupid it sounded.
Fluttershy shook her head and smiled like it wasn’t the sort of stuff ponies should know. Like it was a fine question. “No, it’s by Lake Joyful, but it’s a really big lake. I was thinking maybe Sydneigh. Perhaps even a camping trip. The eastern sea has entirely different animals, you know.”
“Didn’t know, now I know, but I’m gonna be honest, I probably won’t remember,” Dash admitted with a burst of laughter. She shuffled the wooden bundle on her back around so it’d lie right. They neared the first plaza, and kept walking on through. All around the square were bonfires, most of them little more than campfires on flat stone around which sat groups of peryton. Some moved in to take a seat even now.
A hush hung over some of the fires where a single peryton spoke, and at others they were all engaged in discussion. With not a single magical light in sight, the flickering flames highlighted the forms of seated peryton—and of Fluttershy, her outline somehow shining brighter than the flames themselves. Dash didn’t even try to conceal the little glances she couldn’t not steal, her girlfriend turned into a shining corona of her own form when they walked near the fires.
While Fluttershy hogged her eyes, there was a lot to listen to. She caught a snippet of a sentence from an impassioned doe describing some Aspect or other struggling for breath underwater. At another fire, the deep and booming voice of a stag announced that he was Daros, condemning Myrtella for trespass. The next one over, a young peryton held a group of older listeners in their thrall, someone resting a leg around their neck for support—maybe a parent or an older sibling.
Dash’s ears ached from all the different stories going on, swivelling around trying to catch them all, but it was futile. More than once, Fluttershy had to nudge her to keep her moving, the other pegasus resolutely heading on until they’d crossed the square. In the distance glittered the fires of another plaza like this one, but the connecting road was dark and deserted by comparison. The multitude of voices faded and fell behind.
“Do the stories have to be about one of the Aspects?” Dash asked. She cast a glance over her shoulder, but already the bonfire storytellers behind them were as indistinct as the ones gathered down the road ahead, all reduced to backlit shadows.
Fluttershy shook her head. “I actually asked Deimesa about that, just in case. Usually it’s about the Aspects they know, but they can be about anything or anyone. That’s how the new Aspects are discovered. Someone just tells a story about something that isn’t one of the forty-nine Aspects, and… it sticks, I suppose.”
Rainbow Dash blinked. She looked over at Fluttershy to scan for anything suggesting that it had been a joke, but Fluttershy betrayed nothing like that. She simply tilted her head and looked askance at Dash.
“I’m sorry? Is something wrong?” asked Fluttershy.
“That’s how they decide which stories they believe in? Whether or not it sticks?” She snorted with brief laughter that became a helpless sigh. “I don’t get it. Phydra said to think of the Aspects like storybook characters or something like that, remember? It doesn’t work for me any more. I actually thought for a second I understood their Aspects and everything, but I really don’t. It’s driving me nuts.”
Fluttershy didn’t immediately reply. The fires of the next plaza loomed close. Rainbow Dash could hear the crackle of its bonfires and the susurrus of stories before the other mare spoke, and when she did, her voice was full of concern.
“I don’t think Rarity or I understand it that much better than you, you know, but we know they’re important to the peryton, and that’s what matters,” Fluttershy said. “Besides, now that you mention Phydra, she also said that the First Stories were special, so I guess there’s a difference between those and what’s happening here, where they all help make the new stories. I’m sorry if this bothers you, but a lot about Perytonia is still confusing to me, too. I promise.”
“It doesn’t bother me,” said Rainbow Dash. She scratched at her flank with a wing and lowered her voice a tad as they passed by a particularly quiet bonfire. “It makes me feel stupid. I’ve asked Neisos about this like… three times. Or, well, about stuff like this, and I think he’s actually really trying to answer, but it doesn’t work because I don’t even know what the question is.”
“Well,” said Fluttershy, for once the louder of the two, “if that makes you stupid, and I don’t think it does, we both are. Maybe it’d be more fun to try to enjoy the stories while we try to understand them, anyway. They’re just—” she paused, as if she expected Dash to finish the sentence for her, but when Rainbow Dash didn’t, she smiled and did so herself. “—different. And that doesn’t have to be so bad.”
Rainbow Dash huffed, forcing a smile of her own. “Yeah, you’re right.” She leaned over to nuzzle Fluttershy’s cheek. “Heh, thanks. Sorry if I’m being a party pooper. We should just find a fire and sit down, see if this is any fun. D’you wanna pick one of these? I think I heard something that sounded a little exciting.”
Fluttershy looked around, but she didn’t stop. “If you don’t mind, I’d like to walk a bit further. These are all a little… crowded.”
Dash shrugged. She didn’t really see the problem since Fluttershy had been fine sitting in the massive crowd of the Sunwise Run—but then again, Fluttershy had said she wanted to see the sea, so whatever. Dash didn’t protest when they left another plaza behind. This time, the end of the road didn’t present a square with fires casting a glow on the city, but rather, a mass of masts and sails.
“Huh, so they do actually have boats here in Perytonia,” said Dash. A peryton passed by going in the opposite direction, giving them an unabashedly curious look.
“Of course they do,” said Fluttershy, shooting her a frown that could barely be called that. “Most of the boats were just away when we were in Stagrum—”
“Wow. Way to kill a joke, Fluttershy,” said Rainbow Dash, staring at her, deadpan.
“Oh,” Fluttershy said, her mouth hanging open for a second. “Okay, sorry,” she said, letting out a little giggle. “I really should’ve gotten that. I was thinking of something else.”
“Not about boats? Or… ships? Which is which again?” Dash asked. Some of the masts ahead towered above the buildings by the docks, great masses of sail-cloth only barely lit by fires they couldn’t yet see.
Fluttershy shook her head slightly. “No, about Rarity.”
“Ah. Yeah,” said Dash. She’d made up her mind about the way Rarity was acting, but she didn’t know where to begin. It’d be talk for the sake of talk, so she just waited. She could tell Fluttershy was going to say something more, anyway. She knew, and Fluttershy knew she knew, just like things were supposed to be. Finally things were right again in the world. Since her wings were busy keeping the bundle of wood steady, she just walked a little closer to her girlfriend instead.
The only sounds on the empty street were distant voices and their own hoofsteps echoing faintly off the buildings. It all lent the night an otherworldly air not quite like anything else Dash had experienced, a shadowy half-tunnel filled with faintly reverberating sounds. To simply call it a huge outdoors ghost-story sleepover thingy was like saying that running was just like flying, or that a sailboat was like an airship.
The street exited onto a generously wide path heading west and east, the sounds of their passing replaced by the creak of wood that would’ve been lost in the city life on any other day. A small distance to the west, someone had lit a bonfire on the deck of a ship, and a few smaller fires dotted the tiled street. The dockside area was quieter than the inner city plazas, and a lot darker besides. Rainbow Dash swished her tail against her skirt just to see if it was quiet enough to let her hear the sound of tail-hairs against fabric. It was.
Fluttershy gave the smaller fires an appreciative glance, but kept moving. She pointed them east into the darkness, and Rainbow Dash didn’t ask. They walked to the lapping of waves and the occasional groan of the docked ships. Dash kept glancing out to sea, past the forest of masts and rigging, and it was impossible to say what made which noise, all the ships shifting slowly, almost dreamlike. Fluttershy headed them for a single bonfire far in the distance, and while Rainbow Dash doubted Fluttershy had planned this exactly, she moved with purpose.
“I really worried Rarity would fret over carrying these bundles of firewood on top of the dresses, since it might snag on the fabric and ruin them, but she didn’t say anything at all,” said Fluttershy, her brow creased.
Rainbow Dash glanced over her back without thinking. “Yeah, you’re right, but she pretty much said she doesn’t really care.”
Fluttershy nodded. “And that’s what I’m worried about. That’s not really normal for Rarity. She cares a lot about everything she makes.” She sighed and slowed down for a moment, touching the hem of her dress. “These are really pretty. She put a lot of work into these.”
“I… yeah,” said Rainbow Dash, peeking down at the chest of her vest. She didn’t know a lot about fashion, but she liked to think that if Rarity made something bad, she’d know it. Dash snorted. No, that thought didn’t stick. She wasn’t sure Rarity was capable of not pouring her heart into her work. Besides, Fluttershy did know dresses. “But, okay… if it’s not her being tired or anything—”
“I don’t think it is,” said Fluttershy, shaking her head. “She’s doing better now—”
“—and it’s not because she’s sick—”
“She’s really taking that a lot better than I thought, too,” Fluttershy added.
“—then maybe she’s just being Rarity?” Dash finished with a shrug.
“I don’t see how that helps at all,” Fluttershy said, sighing and tilting an ear. “I’m not even sure what you mean.”
Rainbow Dash scuffed at her own snout as she thought. Or rather, and she tried to remember what she’d already decided. “I don’t know exactly, but you remember like… uh, what, a month before we left? Two months? I don’t know, before the low cloud season, anyway. She was planning on making Applejack a dress for her birthday.”
Fluttershy nodded and smiled. “I do remember that. She went a little… overboard with that dress.”
“Yeah. A little. Don’t think Granny Smith’s ever gonna look the same way at Rarity ever again,” Dash repeated with a low, harsh chuckle. “What I mean is, when she gets a dress or a scarf or whatever stuck in her head like that, she’s just impossible.” She rolled her shoulders as they walked. The ships on their left were getting smaller, the buildings on their right lower. The one bonfire ahead was still far away, but she could see the end of the road. That didn’t make a lot of sense.
Fluttershy looked over at her, holding her gaze for a moment. Her mane shone, backlit by pale moonlight. All else was dark.
“Maybe you’re right,” said Fluttershy, finally looking away. “Did you try asking her about her new project? She couldn’t even say what she was making.”
“Yeah. I have no idea what she’s up to,” said Dash with a shrug. “She’s being all sneaky and secretive.”
Fluttershy shook her head. “I don’t know that she’s trying to be secretive. I get the impression she doesn’t know what she’s doing. That’s worrisome at least.”
“She can’t be all obsessive and crazy if she doesn’t have anything to be obsessive about,” said Rainbow Dash with a giggle. “Come on, you know Rarity. She’s just busy.”
“Mm. Probably,” Fluttershy allowed. Now she smiled. “After all, if we were back in Ponyville, she’d probably be in her studio planning these things alone, and we wouldn’t even notice.”
“Exactly! I was thinking the same thing,” said Dash, but her grin faded when she realised her hooves touched grass. Fluttershy ground to a halt as well.
Distracted, Dash hadn’t noticed that they’d hit the end of the road. The woodwork of the outer docks continued for another couple of dozen strides, but there was nothing on their right. The last of Vauhorn’s buildings were behind them, and no farms occupied the lands near the coast: just in front of the ponies lay a huge and expansive beach below a small grass ridge. Far in the distance, some domed structures complicated the outline of the cliffs further along the coast. Dash vaguely remembered seeing them from the hills on their approach. The quarries Neisos mentioned, perhaps?
“Alright, what now?” asked Rainbow Dash. She raised a brow and looked at Fluttershy, trying not to laugh. She had no idea what had compelled Fluttershy to take them here, but she expected Fluttershy to mutter some unneeded apology or other, or for the other pegasus to wake up and admit she’d been distracted as well.
“I don’t think that’s a normal bonfire,” said Fluttershy, doing none of those things. She stepped off the road and picked her way down from the little grassy overhang, following a narrow path leading down to the beach. Rainbow Dash didn’t have much choice, neither in following, nor in feeling a little excited by Fluttershy’s determination, wherever it came from and whatever it led to.
Rainbow Dash squinted. “It’s a boat,” she said, scrunching her snout. “That’s a boat on fire. What the hay?” She felt her pulse quicken for a second before she realised that the peryton around it showed no signs of alarm.
A group of peryton, six or seven of them, sat in a loose semi-circle around a small burning boat. A long furrow in the sand led from the water’s edge to the middle of the beach. Maybe the boat was too wet to catch on fire entirely? Whatever the case, wood lay piled up against its bow burning merrily away.
Dash wasn’t just pulled along by Fluttershy’s impetus any more—now she had to know what was going on for herself. Fluttershy’s dress dragged along the beach, the tide receded, and the sand was cool under Dash’s hooves. Just as the smell of burning wood drifted in, they drew close enough to hear voices.
“—and there she found her,” a coarse voice said. “Selyria met with Chorossa, and together they watched the creatures’ joy upon dancing under the crescent effigy, having also seen their neighbours scorn the same idol. Chorossa insisted that this was simply their way, and that to look too closely would cause ripples unneeded. Better to leave it, she said.”
Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash exchanged looks. They were close enough now to make out detail on the peryton in the fire-lit gathering. One of the listeners saw them, and after a curious head-tilt, waved them over without a word.
“Selyria rejected Chorossa’s words,” the speaker went on. He was a large and swarthy peryton—and never before had Dash found such a perfect use for the word. Swarthy. Parts of his antlers were chipped off, one eye didn’t seem to open completely, and one of his wings was bandaged. He smiled briefly at them, but continued uninterrupted, his words addressed to the fire.
“She drew her cloak of night about her and listened to their words, unseen and unheard, to learn that during the long night years ago, these joyous dancers who loved the starry sky had read into it a gift, where their neighbours found fear.”
Rainbow Dash motioned Fluttershy to an empty spot around the fire and sat down herself. There was plenty of space. Dash stretched her wings out in full, happy to finally get to put the firewood down.
“Thus, this is a story of learning,” said the gravel-voiced stag. “Of how Selyria’s tools can be as the wings of Vestrus, of how her cloak can aid in knowing. A bid for Selyria’s thirst for knowledge, too, so often forgotten. Those who doubt it must better remember the First Stories. She, too, hungers to learn.”
Waves lapped against the shore, the fire crackled and popped, and for a while, Rainbow Dash could hear Fluttershy’s quiet breath next to her left ear, all the peryton unnaturally silent. Just when Dash was getting creeped out in earnest, the peryton tapped their hooves on the sand, clapping. The sound of six peryton stomping the sand wasn’t much to write home about, but both Dash and Fluttershy joined in.
“You are right about Selyria and the First Stories,” said a grey-brown doe sitting next to the large stag. She almost disappeared behind his large bulk. “It is a less common part of her, but I am not sure about the message you bring. Duplicity and misdirection as a tool for knowledge?”
“I expected those words, and many will understand the problem thus, but this story must be shared somewhere,” said the stag in a gruff voice. “My friend’s exploits deserve that. She was chased away soon after, and barely escaped unharmed. I hope that some of you will carry these thoughts with you, because though these tools need not be used, we must be aware of their potential. Selyria will tell us this through her story.”
Some of the peryton nodded at that, but no one else offered comment. The stag looked over at the ponies, breaking into an almost unsettlingly wide and toothy grin. “I see that Selyria has a torrent of gifts for us tonight, bringing more fuel for the fire, too! What manner of creatures are you? Do you speak?”
“Sometimes,” said Rainbow Dash, raising a hoof by way of greeting. “Hey. Name’s Rainbow Dash. This is Fluttershy.”
“You sit with Mesarra,” said a doe on the far side. “My friend, the stag with no voice, is Phymos.”
“I am Vulenos,” declared the large and decidedly swarthy stag.
“Niressi,” said another doe. “This is Alartos, and—”
“Neralos, capable of speaking his own name,” a small stag shot. “What is your purpose?”
“Oh, we’re just visiting,” said Fluttershy, smiling at the assembled peryton. “We’re from Equestria. Um, nice to meet you. Please, don’t mind us.”
“I do not know the kin who ‘minds’,” said the one called Alartos, craning his neck in a little bow. “Unless you are as Esorys clothed in Eakus’ colours, you are welcome. Will you add to our fire tonight?”
“If it’s not too much to ask, maybe one of you can put the wood on the fire?” Fluttershy asked, looking from the firewood to the large fire. “Without magic, it’s a little...” she trailed off while Rainbow Dash pulled the string of her wooden bundle, bit onto a branch and tossed it at the fire with a flick of her head. It collided with a clack and flopped back out onto the sand barely singed.
“Best I can do,” said Dash. Some of the peryton laughed, and a magical glow surrounded some of Dash’s firewood, leaning branches and logs one by one against the bow of the boat.
“It is a good time to visit,” said Mesarra. She levitated a water-bag out from somewhere out of sight, putting it in front of the stag next to her. “This Alluvium will lead to great stories, I can tell.”
“Yesterday, you could tell it would be a good day,” said Phymos in a low voice. “You nearly broke your neck falling down the stairs right afterwards.”
“Yet I did not!” Mesarra protested, nearly drowned out by laughter from the others.
“I can tell that you are a great fortune-teller,” said Neralos, nodding gravely. “In all sincerity, hope you do not work at weather-telling.”
“I do, in fact,” Mesarra said, glaring at him through another burst of laughter, Vulenos’ caws so loud the sand nearly shook. Rainbow Dash raised a brow.
“You guys don’t know each other?” Dash asked. She’d assumed they were all friends. More than any of the inner city fires, this looked like some sort of picnic. They just needed marshmallows to complete the picture. And perhaps a normal campfire. “And what’s with the boat?”
“The two of us do know each other,” said Mesarra, extending a wing to cover Phymos’ back, the stag smiling back at her.
“As do we, unfortunately,” said Alartos, indicating Niressi and Neralos, receiving a roll of the eyes and a grin in return.
“And I sit in Pyn’s shadow, solitary tonight, but only tonight,” said Vulenos, the weather-worn stag smiling faintly. “If only family and friends gathered around a fire, the stories would not spread—and the boat? I had no more need of it, and it burns, so why not?”
“Why would only fast friends gather at a fire? The proceeds of the Alluvium are obvious and known,” said Neralos with a shrug.
“To one who has attended twelve Alluviums every year without fail, yes, but not to them. Do you not see?” Vulenos retorted before Dash could protest. He gave Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy a searching look. “When one travels far, the simplest of things become less than obvious, but you would not know this, young-feather.”
Neralos snorted loudly. “If I had known the Bent Feathers were giving out lectures for free, I would have come sooner—no, I lie. I would have stayed away.”
“Do recall a story or two of Eakus’ grace, Neralos,” muttered Alartos. “You are being rude.”
“You’re one of the Bent Feathers?” asked Fluttershy.
“And I return to you a question: you have heard of us?” Vulenos replied, letting out a caw of laughter. “Yes, yes I am, and I don’t see how it matters. I come here as we all have, to share a story and spread its knowledge. To spread it as far as it will fly by the interest of all kin. You heard some of my story of Selyria’s subterfuge just now?”
“We did,” said Fluttershy, nodding and smiling. “I’m sorry we missed the beginning.”
Vulenos shook his head. “You missed very little. Only a short journey around the edge of the Bow to find the strange folk who lived there, and their habits. You heard the important part, and my friend would be glad to hear travellers from foreign lands had heard even part of it.”
Rainbow Dash squinted at the strange stag. Part of her was tired of thinking about all this stuff, but it was hard not to be curious. “Yeah, but… you said this was a story about Selyria’s travels, but you also said this was for a friend. Are you friends with Selyria? That’s… not possible, is it?”
That got her a few strange looks, none of them offended or rude, but simply uncomprehending. Only Vulenos smiled and inclined his head slightly. “My friend—Valessi is her name—she made this journey, but by committing her actions and the lesson as I see them to a story, a story in the context of an Aspect with… with a known identity, I seek to spread what may be learned from it.”
“That is a curious way to explain—well, anything,” Phymos said, tilting his head sideways.
“I have answered this question before those who are not kin twice before, little claw,” said Vulenos, smiling at the speaking stag before he turned back to the two ponies. “Does it help, or does it create further questions only?”
“I think it does, for me at least,” said Fluttershy, smiling back at him and nodding her head.
Rainbow Dash felt Fluttershy’s eyes upon her. She nodded absent-mindedly as well. “Sure. Yeah, okay, I guess that makes sense.” She locked eyes with the soft-voiced stag on the other side of the fire, Phymos. “How would you explain it, then?”
Phymos looked taken aback. “I—I ah, that is… I have not thought to answer, I meant no quarrel. Perhaps—perhaps I would say that to ask of the relationship between the story as lived and the story as told through kin and Aspect is to question the strength of Deiasos’ shadow, or to bend—”
“Okay, hang on, please stop,” said Rainbow Dash, holding up a hoof before her head exploded. She pointed to Vulenos. “I’m gonna go with his version, no offence. Sorry. Telling a story like it happened to someone else, yadda yadda, teach people stuff. That works.” She grinned at Vulenos. “Thanks.”
“If we’re asking questions, do you mind one more?” Fluttershy asked, her voice trailing off as she looked around.
“Not at all,” said Vulenos, looking around as if to see if anyone disagreed.
“Why are you all the way out here?” Fluttershy said.
“Tradition,” replied Vulenos, the word rumbling forth with gravity. “We Bent Feathers attend every Alluvium to spread the knowledge of our travels to those who care, and those who care come here to listen in the fire and smoke. Rarely do our stories—usually of Selyria, Pyn and Ilyra—travel as far as the largest of the fires, but they reach the ears that care for these things.”
He paused to let out a soundless snort, his body rocking slightly. “Usually, only the last five bonfires have concepts, demands or themes, and some may say this tradition of ours breaks the greater rules of the Alluvium, such as they are, but I think there is in all peryton a healthy disrespect for the usual—and, speaking of disrespect! Ressa! Osos!”
Rainbow Dash hadn’t heard the two peryton approach. They were tall and lanky, and both a bright white Dash had mostly seen in does, but with colourful green, blue and purple feathers on wing and tail both. They sat down by the fire, smiling, waving and nodding all around.
“Ressa held us up, and will lie of this,” said one.
“Osos cannot tell truth if held to Helesseia’s fire,” said the other, grinning toothily and slapping Osos’ side with his feathers. “The others will be here soon, and—why hello, what is this we see? Strangers! Strange ones!”
Dash waved and said her hellos, and Fluttershy did the same, though Dash could tell the other pegasus’s attention was split between the newcomers and three more peryton who even now made their way down the beach towards them.
“Ponies, from Equestria, which I myself have heard of—but only heard of,” said Vulenos with a bemused smile of his own.
“Then it must be far enough away that not even Selyria’s wings can span the gap with you on her back,” said Ressa with a dip of the head. “Welcome. Tell me, Vulenos, have you shared your story yet? Are we late, and are any others yet to speak?”
“We are most of us done, none having wished to wait,” Vulenos replied. His antlers glowed faintly, and another log from Fluttershy’s firewood bundle made its way to the flame. “I will share mine with you two again tomorrow before I leave if you will hear it and let me borrow space in your bed. I am needed elsewhere soon.”
“Trouble?” asked Osos, a brow raised.
“Hopefully not,” said Vulenos. He shook his head. “This is not the night for worries, though!” he boomed. “I am ever as Pyn before untouched soil at the promise of one of your insights, but first I would see if we can ask these visitors to share a story. Ponies, do you have a story to tell?”
“Oh,” said Dash, scratching her neck. The idea hadn’t really entered her mind, and even now, she still had no idea what made for a good story to a peryton. It’d be a lie to say that she didn’t have any stories to tell, but all the adventures that came to her mind had one common aspect.
“Uh, I know you guys aren’t crazy for stories about fighting and stuff,” Dash said. “So I guess you don’t want to hear about the hydra butt we kicked, or the changeling invasion we stopped?”
Raised eyebrows and silence. Curiosity or incomprehension? Both? Think, Rainbow Dash, think. Maybe she should admit that they’d really just planned to sit in and listen? She wasn’t one to turn down an audience, though.
“Any suggestions?” Rainbow Dash asked out of the corner of her muzzle, lowering her voice a tad and leaning closer to Fluttershy. She knew full well that Fluttershy wouldn’t want to perform in front of a crowd of strangers, but for some reason, the other pegasus looked decidedly nervous. Another peryton wandered across the beach from the city and sat down by the fire, and Fluttershy rustled her wings.
“Well… it’s really just about telling any story that has a point, right?” Fluttershy asked. “Anything from Equestria would be new to them. It could even be about something simple, like… right before we left, when the six of us went to have dinner and all of us thought the others had remembered to bring bits? Or any of the times one of us helped someone else when they really needed it, or learned something, like the friendship lessons. Those kinds of stories are my favourite.”
“I was thinking something with at least a little more action,” Rainbow Dash admitted, sticking out her tongue as she thought. Her own last birthday? No, with the party games Pinkie made up, that probably counted as fighting or mortal peril. Last weather patrol meeting? Yeah, good luck finding a lesson or moral of any kind in that shouting match.
Fluttershy leaned a little closer still, whispering now. “Maybe that’s fine, really. Do you think they’d maybe appreciate one exciting story, and one other story?”
“Isn’t it just one story per person? I’m still fuzzy on that,” Dash replied. The other peryton had started talking amongst themselves, either bored or, more probably, politely giving them a little time by greeting the newcomers. Rainbow Dash could feel the energy building in the air regardless—or maybe that was her own excitement. Fluttershy hadn’t shot down the idea of an exciting story. The peryton might appreciate a story with some flank-kicking just because it would be different, right? Nightmare Moon, Discord, or that stupid party game, which had been the bigger challenge?
“I think it’s one story each, yes,” said Fluttershy, nodding slowly and smiling with infinite patience. “And there’s two of us.”
Suddenly, everything added up. Fluttershy meant to step up and tell a story as well. That was why her eyes kept darting about, scanning the small crowd assembled around the fire. That was why her wings wouldn’t keep still half the time, and were otherwise glued to her back. That was why her tail lay curled close to her body, and the very second Rainbow Dash realised, her blood froze. She felt the excitement well up in her, just like she had been excited at the prospect of Fluttershy playing with the storm clouds earlier today.
Today. As recently as today she had been reminded of how bad things could get when she pushed Fluttershy out of her comfort zone. She tried to quell the electric excitement that welled up in her at the thought of Fluttershy getting up and seizing everyone’s attention like it was no big deal—no. The exact opposite of that.
What really excited her was the thought of Fluttershy doing it exactly because it was a big deal. Fluttershy pushing past her fears and raising her voice, talking about… talking about whatever. It didn’t matter whether she planned a story on how they kicked Discord’s butt, or if it was about tea at her cottage. All eyes would be on her as she soared past her reservations and delivered a story. As she proved that she could.
It hadn’t gone very well with the thundercloud.
She wouldn’t get zapped by lightning this time, but she could quail under the weight of all the peryton staring at her. She might stumble under the pressure and feel horrible for having tried, or run away crying. There was barely a full dozen peryton here, but as friendly as they were, this was no gathering of familiar faces from Ponyville. Fluttershy had told Rainbow Dash time and time again how an excess of attention made her feel. Only recently had Dash listened.
Fluttershy licked her lips and cleared her throat, a gesture too subtle to get attention, but loud enough to make her intent clear to Rainbow Dash. “I’ll go first, if you don’t mind,” Fluttershy whispered, and as quiet as she was, Dash still heard the tremor in her voice. She could see Fluttershy’s chest moving with practiced, deep breaths. Any moment now, she meant to poke the thundercloud again. Less than an hour ago, Rainbow Dash had resolved not to let that happen again.
Time stood still. This year’s hurricane season might as well have been yesterday for how keenly Rainbow Dash now remembered it. Rainbow Dash had been so excited to show Fluttershy that she could do her part, too. Instead, she’d succeeded in breaking her, in bringing her to tears.
Would Fluttershy have strapped herself to the cart in the Morillyn Gorges if Rainbow Dash had tried harder to stop her? Would she have nearly hurt herself pulling that awesome—no, that ridiculous, dangerous stunt if Rainbow Dash hadn’t watched?
She certainly wouldn’t have gotten zapped by lightning today without Rainbow Dash’s stupid insistence. Today, Dash had resolved to stop. Today, she’d finally—no, today, she had again realised what a crummy thing it was to bully her girlfriend, and it happened without Rainbow Dash doing anything.
Did Fluttershy do this for her? Was this because of Dash? Why else would she do it? Apparently, her presence was enough. Sitting on the cold sand watching and listening, Rainbow Dash was about to make Fluttershy do something that could only end in tears.
Fluttershy took a final, deep breath, and Rainbow Dash watched it all happen impossibly slowly. Her chest rising, the subtle shift of her haunches behind the fabric of her dress. Fluttershy began to get up.
“Hey, so!” said Rainbow Dash, scrabbling against the loose sand. Time moved yet again, released from her grip, and Dash was up on all fours so fast she doubted she’d ever sat at all. A hush fell over the crowd, all expectant peryton faces trained on her—and on Fluttershy who stood with her, looking at Dash. Maybe Fluttershy thought Rainbow Dash would introduce her. Maybe she thought Dash would kick her loose and watch her flounder. Rainbow Dash was a better pony than that.
“I don’t know if we’ve got a story for you tonight or anything, actually. We didn’t really plan anything, so, uh, sorry to disappoint you. Maybe one of you—Ressa was it?” she asked, tossing the name in the vague direction of two of the newcomers. “Whatever your name is, I’m sure you’ve got a bunch of stories, awesome stuff! We should probably listen to those! You should, I mean.” She was rambling. She couldn’t stop. Trying to encourage someone else to speak wouldn’t stop Fluttershy from feeling forced to tell a story and break down into tears. Rainbow Dash had to remove the problem right now. Rainbow Dash was the problem.
“I—uh, I gotta go, actually,” said Rainbow Dash. “I gotta… go do a thing. I’ll catch you later. I’ll be back, I mean, maybe, probably—seeya!”
Rainbow Dash flashed Fluttershy a smile as she took off, a frozen instant of open surprise in her girlfriend’s eyes she wished she could unsee. Dash’s take-off sent Fluttershy’s mane askew, and then Rainbow Dash was away. The burning boat below receded until it became just one little glow among hundreds below.
Some bird or other passed Rainbow Dash going the other way. The large shadow let out a cheep that sounded like it belonged to something far smaller than the shape that shot past her. It might not’ve been a cheep, really. It could’ve been a peep. Hard to tell those apart.
“Cheep yourself,” Rainbow Dash muttered, but she put no energy into it, just like there was no effort in her flying. She was barely flying at all, really—she just glided on weak thermals from the city below, her wings idle and the dress flapping in the wind. She wished she could still feel her heart hammering in her chest from the takeoff, but she felt little.
Fluttershy would be fine, of course. Fine and having a good time with all the peryton, and better for a lack of Rainbow Dash around to push her into the ring and demand that she put on a performance. Even now, Rainbow Dash kinda wanted to see it, which was why she’d done the only thing she could to fix it: she’d left. She would see Fluttershy tonight anyway, and she’d probably have to explain, but that stuff would work out.
They’d be fine. Now, Rainbow Dash was aware that it wasn’t enough to not want to push Fluttershy around. She had to work on it. She had an aura about her that needed minding. Not just her regular aura that made everything more awesome, but a sneaky, second aura that made Fluttershy want to push herself hard, usually with disastrous results. Like the wagon—which she had to remind herself was a disaster and not awesome at all. Even though it kinda was.
Rainbow Dash dipped a wing and turned around. She’d almost left the city for the farmlands surrounding it, and there was nothing to see there now. No fires burned in the outskirts. Most of them were confined to the inner city plazas, but she spotted an occasional fire on a rooftop and a scattered few by the docks. One tiny fire, distinct by its solitude, burned right outside the city, on the beach to the east.
All the bonfires made the rest of Vauhorn seem unnaturally dark by contrast. Darker than the silent farms surrounding the city. Darker than the little wanna-be forest and the cliffs, and darker than the road that pointed due west along the coast to Cotronna, to their goal. Rainbow Dash ducked her head and tucked her wings in for a second to build speed, heading for the docks.
Above, the stars were now out in full, a chaotic mirror of the fires below. Or maybe the fires below were less random stars ordered by the peryton. Some of the bonfires were down to embers, and in a plaza right below her, a huge pile of wood lit up in a sudden roar of flame larger than any of the others. Dash cut through the cold night air, angling herself towards the docks.
Time must have passed. The bonfire by the beach had been deserted, and the fire burned low. No point in going back. She was glad. The decision was out of her hooves, and there were no takebacks. Dash smiled, deciding that she’d done the right thing. Over and done with. She’d taken the weight off Fluttershy’s back, and now the passage of time had taken the weight off hers in turn. Dash folded her wings tight and let herself fall lower still, looking for somewhere to land. Anywhere challenging would be good.
A pier? Too big. A roof or a chimney? Still too easy, and besides, she didn’t know which of the bits of building were solid and which were not. At this speed, painted rock was indistinguishable from an awning of cloth. A ship’s mast? Tempting, but someone would probably get mad at her if she missed and cut some ropes or whatever. Besides, she’d just spotted something equally good. Rainbow Dash steered her descent towards the very edge of the water.
Just outside the harbour, a small pier was marked for expansion, and some logs poked out of the water just beyond it. They were hard to make out in the darkness, but if she missed, she could always pretend she meant to do a cannonball into the sea. She dove faster, flapping her wings to add to her speed. Nothing to break the sound barrier. Nothing to write home about. Enough to get the blood flowing.
The sea rose up to meet her, faster and faster. Her vest pressed against her chest, one of the buttons wiggling about madly as though it wanted to tear away. Faster, faster, stop!—Dash spread her wings, breaking the dive at the last second, quick and powerful wingbeats arresting her fall. Her hooves impacted with a perfectly synced clop on wood, planting her like a weather-vane on the wooden pole and rattling her skull pleasantly. She grinned and gave herself a mental pat on the back, looking out at the sea and its shades of dark blue nothingness.
“Are you Iagasus come?”
Rainbow Dash whipped around so fast she got her own tail in her face and nearly fell off her little wooden perch in surprise. At the edge of the pier stood a light brown peryton she must’ve missed earlier, their head cocked sideways in open question.
“Jeez, don’t sneak up on me like that!” Dash snapped. “Wait. Hang on, am I what-now?”
“I have not snuck, I have stood here for a while now, before you came hurtling down from the sky,” said the peryton with an indignant frown. “I asked, are you Iagasus come, the Aspect of the word spoken in the thirteenth hour? He who brings council when it is needed the most? Are you he?”
Rainbow Dash stared at the peryton across the water, her eyes narrowing. “It’s she, not he. I seriously didn’t think I cared—” she spread her wings again, and sailed across to land on the pier proper. The peryton turned to keep eyes on her. “—but it’s getting really old. I’m not a stalli—wait, no. I’m not a ‘stag’.”
The peryton dipped its head. “Then I am as Eakus upon his first offence.”
Rainbow Dash waved a hoof. The last of her annoyance from being startled drained from her when she drew a fresh breath. “Whatever. It’s cool.”
“It is, for a summer night,” the peryton agreed.
“No, I meant—actually, forget it,” Dash said, rolling her eyes. “Yeah. It’s a bit cold out.” She shuffled her wings. The doe, if she was in fact a doe, stared at her, and Dash privately decided that if she made more small talk about the weather, Dash would rather dive for the sea, but the silence was equally uncomfortable. She should probably just say goodbye and leave, but what had the doe said when she landed?
“How the hay can you think I’m some sort of Aspect?” asked Rainbow Dash, one brow cocked. “You can’t touch them.”
Dash felt a touch on her side as the doe gently prodded. She stared blankly at the doe who calmly put her dainty hoof back down.
“That was why it was a question, and that is why I was confused. Now I know not to be,” said the doe with a shrug and a lurking smile. “But what am I to think when you arrive for me like this, exploding out of the darkness like a curiously garbed avatar of any and all Aspects whose stories one needs?”
Rainbow Dash chuckled. “Obviously, you should think that I’m a pegasus pony travelling from Equestria, and that I happened to take a late night flight with a fancy landing stunt, jeez. Anyone here could figure that out.”
Another blank stare.
Dash sighed. “That’s a joke. It’s funny. Just pretend I said something that you think is funny, and tell me I’m like whatever Aspect is the funny one. Maybe clap a little, throw flowers if you’ve got’em, that sort of stuff.”
“I am adrift like Phostos with nothing to offer,” said the doe, shaking her head slowly.
“Heh, I actually understood that,” Rainbow Dash muttered, distracted. Past the doe, a large pack of peryton walked along the causeway of the dock. They were too many to just be friends, and moved in procession following a lead peryton who carried a half-burnt log in their magical grip. “Where’s everyone going?” she asked, watching the group turn down the first street leading deeper into the city.
The doe cast a backwards look. “The Alluvium, of course.”
“Yeah, of course, but where are they going?” Dash asked again, tapping a hoof on the wooden boards. Some peryton were easier to talk to than others, and this one was a two out of ten, tops. “I thought everyone was gonna sit around fires sharing stories and stuff all night.”
“The first fires have given out,” said the doe. “Now, we—they will seek out the larger fires, gather and tell the stories that found the most favour, and then again until we all gather at the last fire with the stories that echo the loudest.”
“Right,” said Dash. That bit was uninteresting by itself. Less interesting than one detail, anyhow. She narrowed her eyes. “‘They’, huh? What’re you doing here alone? I don’t see any other peryton moping, staring at the sea.”
“Why would you ask?” the doe said, her snout crinkled in a way Dash didn’t know peryton muzzles could. “What role do you play tonight?”
“Because I’m curious, because I’m bored, because it’s cold but I don’t feel like heading back home just yet, and because I’m in the mood for a story that makes sense.” Dash scratched her snout in the nook of one of her wings. “Take your pick. Take all of them, I don’t care.” She didn’t know which was more true, but she did know she didn’t feel like heading back right now, and besides—
“Who’s this Iagasus, anyway?” Dash asked before the doe had a chance to answer. “Aspect of whatever, brings help when you need it? Don’t think I’ve heard of that one before.” She raised a brow. The doe didn’t look particularly imperiled. “I don’t suppose you have a secret hydra problem?”
“All know of Iagasus, of course,” said the doe. “But few speak of the one who brings not deed, but word and sage advice to they who need it in the thirteenth hour. Perhaps because it is hard to weave a story around one whose stories are always particular and never general. Most of his stories remain personal for that reason.” She let out a sigh and turned to leave. “It is unimportant, you are strange, and I will find another place to be.”
Rainbow Dash soared over her head, landing on the other side of the pier.
“C’mon, now I’m really curious,” Dash said. “What’s up? Maybe I can help out!”
The doe did not miss a step, walking around her. Dash flapped her wings twice, flying upside-down to land right in her path again after a single half-loop. A peryton who didn’t remark upon how awesome she was at flying had to be way down in the dumps. Now she had to help. She spread her wings to block the doe’s passage.
“If you tell me you’re doing great, I’ll stop bothering you. Promise. If you’re not, what’ve you got to lose by telling me?” Dash asked.
The doe paused at that. She wasn’t so much staring at Rainbow Dash as she simply rested her eyes upon Dash’s with impassivity that shamed the average Ephydoeran.
“Pretend I’m this Igga-whatever, it doesn’t matter to me,” said Dash, grinning. “I’m outta this place tomorrow, probably, and I don’t know anyone you know. There’s like… a fifty percent chance I can help out even if you’re not having problems with a hydra.”
“Why all these words of a hydra?” asked the doe through narrowed brows.
“They’re awesome! Three, five, maybe even nine heads? It’s like you’re beating a bunch of monsters all at once—but that’s not the point,” Dash said, flexing her wings. “I’m guessing you don’t have a monster in your bedroom, so what’s up?”
Another bout of silence, but in the end, the doe shook her head and walked over to the pier’s edge. She cast Dash a surreptitious glance. “If you will be my little avatar of Orsshur, a vector for the new, then I will speak,” she said.
“You know, jokes about my size may actually change my mind,” said Dash, frowning, but there was no point getting too worked up about it. Even if this doe was her age or younger, she was a fair bit larger than Dash was. “Whatever, go on.”
“There is a stag,” she said.
Rainbow Dash let out a breath as her heart sank. Love trouble? Seriously?
“I have been fond of Nelyssos for a long time, and I do not know that he feels as I do. We have grown close, but not in the way I would wish,” said the doe, going from unreadable and reticent to gabbing in the blink of an eye. “This Alluvium, I left behind all my friends and went to a small gathering by the eastern quarters, a fire where I knew none. I thought speaking of my… uncertainties through the Aspects would be a welcome release.”
“Right. You told everyone about your crush as a story about someone else,” said Rainbow Dash, nodding.
The doe nodded in return. “I have been told I have the gift of speech. I wrapped it in Myrtella’s voice, and it… was appreciated perhaps too much. The others saw in it a useful lesson on appreciation of the desirable from afar. Not unlike Morrashon’s vigil with Myrtella on the Long Night.”
“I’m guessing that is… not good?” Dash asked, one brow raised a smidge.
“The others agreed it was the strongest story around our fire. As is custom, now that the greater fires are being lit, my story is taken to all the other fires to be shared.”
The doe cast her eyes over the edge of the pier, staring into the dark waters below. “The story will be heard by hundreds at least. I am no fool. It carries some wisdom, but it is not so profound that it will be told further than the nearest plazas. Still I worry that Nelyssos will hear it by chance. He will recognise some of the images I used. He is clever and we know each other well. He may understand everything.”
Rainbow Dash walked up to stand side by side with her. She meant to lean out over the water to get her attention, lock eyes with her for effect, but she simply wasn’t long enough. Dash kicked off and hovered out over the water in front of the doe.
“So if I get your… ‘problem’ right, you may have let it slip that you like this stag, and you’re afraid he won’t hear about it?” asked Rainbow Dash.
“That is the exact opposite of the issue. I worry he will,” said the doe, shaking her head. “Our words do not meet, and I think we are communicating poorly.”
“No, we’re not,” said Dash. She flew a little closer, forcing the doe to back up so she could land in front. “Something that happens, happens. If you can’t do anything about it, if you can’t even react, then that’s not a ‘problem’. That’s just... stuff. You’re not out there yelling for people to stop telling this story, so your real problem is that you don’t know for sure that he’ll hear about this. You’re worried he won’t hear it and understand you like him. You’re worried he doesn’t want to touch your antlers or whatever it is you peryton do.”
“I don’t—”
“You understand me fine,” said Dash, rolling her eyes. “If he doesn’t hear this story because he’s at the wrong bonfire or because he’s asleep tonight or something, nothing’s happened. You’re back where you started. If he does, I don’t know if that’s like, uh, romantic to you people or not. If it is, great. If not? If this is as weird to you as it is to me? Guess what? You probably wanna be the one to tell him instead!”
“You are suggesting that I fly ahead of my own words and become as the Ever Soaring when he—”
Dash groaned. “I know like… two of your stories, so no, I’m not saying you should do something ‘like’ or ‘as’ someone else. I’m saying maybe you should be yourself right now, and that yourself—that you—should do something, yes! If the cat’s outta the bag, you have to roll with it!”
The doe blinked. “I… do not know what a ‘cat’ is, nor do I know why I would put them in, or take them out of a bag for rolling.”
Rainbow Dash laughed and flew over to land on one of the pier’s supports nearby just so she didn’t have to look up at the doe all the time. She flexed her wings atop her new perch. “Go talk to him if you want him to know, or don’t if you’re fine taking a chance on nothing happening,” she said. “If you ask me, and you should because I’m awesome, you go tell him. Or maybe you shouldn’t take life advice from someone you just met. I don’t know what you really want. I just met you, but those are your options anyway. I don’t see what else you can do. That’s all the ‘help’ I have, sorry.”
Dash picked at her dress absent-mindedly, staring out at the water herself. There wasn’t much to see, just endless dark blue. It took a good minute before the doe said anything.
“You may not be Iagasus made touchable, but your words carry his weight,” she said. Steps against wood slowly receded, and her voice faded as she went. “Those are the ‘options’. I will see if I can find Nelyssos. I do know what I want.”
“Cool. Good luck,” said Dash. She waved a wing without looking back. However much she loved to help out, the good feeling she’d had a moment ago cooled by the minute, like a mug of warm cider in a snowdrift.
She couldn’t forget Fluttershy’s words even if she tried. You could make a boulder sprout wings and fly. Only, giving strangers advice didn’t feel half as good as the idea of Fluttershy stepping up to tell a story. Of Fluttershy bringing the thunder. Of Fluttershy saying “I did it,” no matter what it was.
The doe would probably get shot down. If Rainbow Dash had left her alone, she’d figure something out. Instead, Rainbow Dash crashed into her life and shoved her ahead, right into bad advice, probably. Rainbow Dash had planned to stand with her back turned for cool effect, but now she had to turn around to see if she could spot the doe, to fly after her and take back what she’d said. Too late. The doe was already gone, the docks lacking entirely in solitary peryton. The only other creatures about were a couple of high-flying birds and two peryton by a street corner nearby.
Rainbow Dash squinted. Neither of them were does, best as she could tell, and when she stared at them, they turned and left. It wasn’t worth thinking about: Peryton were weird at the best of times. Alone again, the pier lost its lustre, and she hopped off her perch, trotting away from the docks and towards the city proper.
She didn’t know what she was looking for, but once Dash hit the first of the wide thoroughfares, it became blindingly obvious where she was headed. Instead of a gathering of small fires, the plaza ahead held a single, huge bonfire next to the ever-present central fountain. There had to be hundreds of peryton gathered around it. Rainbow Dash trotted in its general direction.
Peryton were definitely weird. Only they would build a huge fire in the middle of summer. Granted, it did get cold at night. Dash shrugged as she made her way down the road, darkened buildings passing to either side in silence. It smelled like cold and nothing else. Maybe a whiff of smoke. Idly, she wondered what the others were up to.
Rarity probably slept—or worked on her mysterious project. Maybe Deimesa was out and wandering the streets if her younger siblings were asleep. She might run into her. What about Neisos and Ohrinna? They were probably sat around a fire like this one.
Would Neisos share the story of the day he met three awesome ponies? Would they be Aspects in the story, instead of themselves? Rainbow Dash would be… was Glandros the name they used a lot in Ephydoera? The cool athletic one, anyway. If they were after new stuff, a story about ponies would probably make it to the biggest bonfire they had. It’d easily get just as much applause as whatever was going on ahead. She was finally coming up on the plaza now, just as a roar of stomps began, applause building.
Maybe Neisos and Ohrinna would fly between the bonfires. She imagined she could see it now, Neisos soaring about with a big grin on his face, no longer putting himself down or worried about what others thought. The idea tickled her, and before she could stop herself, another image sprang to mind. She imagined she could see Fluttershy in front of a huge crowd applauding her.
It took Rainbow Dash a moment to realise that the reason she could see it was because that was exactly what happened in the plaza. Dash stopped dead in her tracks at the edge of the square. Over the heads of the crowd, she could just barely see a yellow pegasus in a dark, high-necked dress upon a tiny, makeshift stage so close to the fire she was nearly lost in its glare.
Her girlfriend nodded and smiled politely at the stomps of approval, though she kept her face half-hidden from view behind her mane. Even as Dash watched, she ducked and disappeared into the crowd, the applause slowly dying.
Dash took wing quicker than a lightning bolt. It didn’t take her more than second to spot Fluttershy walking through the crowd with Vulenos, the stag immediately recognisable by his bandaged wing. The pair headed for the edge of the plaza, Vulenos all but ploughing a way for the smaller pegasus.
“Hey, Fluttershy!” Dash called. A bunch of the peryton looked up, but she barely noticed, flying over their heads with all the speed she could muster. She touched down at the edge of the crowd just as Fluttershy and Vulenos pushed their way through. “Hey!” Dash called again, smiling when they saw her. Vulenos paused by the edge of the gathered peryton, and Fluttershy stopped right next to him.
Fluttershy said nothing at first, opening her mouth and closing it again without a word. She stared at the tiles of the plaza floor and let out a breath, while Vulenos inclined his head slightly in mute greeting.
“I just got here,” said Dash, gesturing to the fire. Another peryton stepped up on the stage, and the chatter slowly died down. She lowered her voice a tad to match, an excited whisper instead. “Was that a story you told—I mean, was it yours? Something you made up? I know they say it’s not a competition, but it sounds like it kinda is, and if you’re telling stories here at this huge fire, that means you’re winning, right? That’s awesome!” She couldn’t contain it. She moved over and slung a wing over Fluttershy’s shoulder, jostling her a bit.
“I think there is wisdom in Salhalani’s stories this moment,” said Vulenos, nodding his head away and to the side. “Which is to say, I will be over there if you need me, Fluttershy.”
“It wasn’t really a story I ‘made up’, but thank you,” said Fluttershy. She remained stiff under Dash’s touch, and she didn’t smile until she turned to Vulenos. “And you don’t have to go. If the story passes here, and if you don’t mind, do you think you could tell the story at the next bonfire? I’d come with you, of course.”
“I will do as you ask if that is what you wish,” Vulenos rumbled in his deep voice, nodding. “The story remains yours, and I hope you will tell it again yourself, but I will aid if I can. I suspect your words will find favour to be told again and again.”
“They seemed to like it, that’s why I’m a little nervous,” said Fluttershy, shaking her head slightly. “Thank you so much—I’ll see you back at the house, Rainbow Dash.”
Fluttershy glanced over at Dash with those final words, her tone as flat as her face was expressionless. Dash’s wing slid off her back as Fluttershy walked away. Vulenos nodded to Dash and followed, leaving Rainbow Dash alone. Another peryton bumped into her, apologising for nearly stepping on the smaller pegasus.
Finally the last few minutes caught up to Rainbow Dash. Sometimes, her thoughts were slower than her wings. Fluttershy had told a story as part of the Alluvium, and she was winning. Why was Rainbow Dash excited about that? She noticed a hundred little details about Fluttershy as she walked through the crowd with Vulenos a moment ago, wings tense, tail drooping, ears too rigid, suppressing her tremors even as the crowd’s applause faded. She’d noticed and immediately forgotten, blind to it just now.
Fluttershy had gone on without her. She’d gone on, forced into this even though Rainbow Dash tried her best to leave her alone. Did she blame Rainbow Dash? She had to, but even though Dash knew she had messed up big time, she got the impression that she had hurt Fluttershy by leaving, too.
What else could she have done? Why did none of this help?