Chapter Six
Writ in Scarlet
“Welcome to the Winsome Shores,” said the periwinkle mare behind the counter across the spacious, turquoise-tiled lobby. Night Cloud stepped in and closed the doors. The right half of the lobby was cordoned off by a rope fence and dominated by empty, glossy wood shelves, and yellow globes hanging from the ceiling lit the entire room with warm yellow.
“The main baths are free to the public, the private rooms on the upper level are six bits per half-hour…” She froze as she looked up from a newspaper. “Per patron… oh! My goodness, Lady Night Cloud! I am terribly sorry!”
“No, please, you don’t need to…” Night Cloud groaned softly and set me down next to her. -I hate this part.-
“Madame Misty Glade, at your service,” said the mare, trotting around the counter and straight toward us. “Owner and operator of the bathhouse. How are you today, Milady?”
“It’s a pleasure, Misty Glade,” said Night Cloud. “I’m fine—Madame! Madame Misty Glade. Sorry.”
“Oh, never mind that, dear; it’s just a thing from my stage days. What brings you to town? Should I expect Her Highness to stop in today?”
Night Cloud wiped her hooves on the oversized doormat and said, “No no no. Blitz—Her Highness isn’t coming. I, um—the rain caught us in the street, that’s all. Could we have a private bath for a half-hour, please?” She levitated a dozen copper coins from her saddlebags and stacked them neatly on the desk. “Just the two of us. I’d prefer to avoid the attention of the other guests.” Night Cloud spread her wings halfway and said, “I, ah… tend to draw a lot of that.”
“I can imagine, dear,” said Misty Glade, peering down at me and behind us, at Wellspring and Polyrhythm in their distinctly non-casual and polished barding. “Oh, I’m probably not helping that, am I? Sorry, dear.”
“It’s fine.”
“Well, don’t let me keep you. Take the first room on the right; it’s first on the filling schedule, so it should be ready. Just test the water first, and watch your step.”
“Thank you, Misty.”
“Oh, by the way!” The mare pointed to the shelf-filled portion of the lobby to our right. “The Gilded Bell in Bellenast has sent us a permanent vendor. The renovations are almost finished, so you’ll be able to pick up your favorite shampoos the next time you’re passing through.”
Night Cloud smiled and glanced at the mare as we passed by. “I’m sure I’ll spend more than usual on my next visit, Misty. Today, I really just want a chance to relax.”
“Good thing you came here, then, dear.”
Night Cloud chuckled and trotted into the short hall that curved around the thick, tiled pillar that separated the lobby from the chamber beyond, and I hurried after her. Potted ferns lined a low shelf set against the broad pillar, and a heavy green drapes lined the hall. The curtains deadened our echoing hoofsteps around us, and the noise of the storm gave way to quiet conversations and the slightly softer whistling and drumroll of rain on skylights in the vaulted ceiling.
“Um…” I winced and lowered my head; my voice echoed and carried beyond the curving corridor. I inhaled sharply and looked up at the high, white ceiling and glass chandeliers that lit the next room. “Whoa…”
We stood on a tiled deck overlooking a long, spacious depression that occupied most of the vaulted chamber. A brass guardrail three meters from the entryway separated us from the recessed area, which housed two rows of four circular pools set directly into the floor on either side of a wooden walkway. Circular columns stood at the edge of the deck that wrapped around the cavernous room. Smaller pools occupied the deck behind a low, decorative wall covered with clay flower pots and well-laden towel racks. Several ponies in the sparsely occupied baths looked up at Night Cloud as she came into view of the lower level.
I laughed and hugged her foreleg lightly.
She smiled down at me and whispered, “Didn’t have anything like this in Neighvarro, I take it?”
I grinned as I shook my head slowly and met her electric blue eyes. “Not even close…”
She chuckled and flicked my mane telekinetically. Her smile became a terse, tense façade as she glanced at the small collection of ponies beyond the railing. The occupants turned their heads quickly away from us as if to pretend they hadn’t looked in the first place.
A grey stallion sitting on the floor two pools along the right row held a pan of water over the small, light red filly in the pool as he washed her purple mane. In the far left bath of the lower level was an athletic, khaki-coated unicorn mare with a rust red and sunflower yellow mane arranged in multiple braids. Sitting across from her in the bath was a golden brown, auburn-haired unicorn colt.
The khaki mare paused in scrubbing her forelegs and looked up at us. Her eyes shifted from Night Cloud to me.
Night Cloud breathed deeply and continued toward a wooden door in the nearest corner of the opulent chamber. -I always take a private room; can’t stand all the staring.-
I followed behind her and looked through the railing on our left. The clean, clear water allowed me an unobstructed view of the drains spaced evenly around the bottom of the pool’s outer rim.
-Is, um… is this the standard in Bellenast?-
-Well, no, not anymore. I have a bath in my house, and it’s nearly a hundred years old, but they didn’t always have pressurized plumbing throughout the city. Bathhouses like this are still fairly popular; this one is more luxurious than most, but they’re scattered all over the city. You’d be amazed by just how much the average life expectancy in a big city increases when you have clean water, for drinking and cooking, and bathing… minus taking a dip in the river, of course; if you do that, there’s always a chance of contracting an infectious disease or waterborne parasite. I’m lucky I never did when I was younger.-
-Um… okay?-
-Sorry, that was a tangent, wasn’t it?- Night Cloud turned around outside the varnished wood door in the corner. “Um… Officer Wellspring, Polyrhythm—”
“We’ll wait here, Milady,” said Polyrhythm; the azure unicorn mare had a pleasantly airy voice. “I’ve been here before; the doors are soundproofed. Nice place.”
“Thank you.” Night Cloud opened the door and strode into the small, warmly lit room just beyond, and I followed her in. Glossy wood paneling covered the walls, and recessions between the panels hid soft, yellow lights spread around the room. Steam rose from the turbulent surface of the rounded tub set into the floor.
Broad steps into the water dominated the near side of the frothing bath. Thick, chrome faucets at the bath’s corners spewed a continuous, noisy flow of hot water into the slowly-filling pool.
Night Cloud closed the thick door behind us, pulled a heavy curtain across the doorway, and shut off the water faucets; the room grew quiet as the water ceased burbling and smaller, low-pressure jets at the bath’s edges activated.
“Whoa…” My voice reverberated around the square chamber. “This is… um…”
“It’s everything I hoped it would be.” Night Cloud unfastened the ties on the front of her caparison, which she shrugged off and hung on a wall hook near the corner of the room. The polished steel and pearlescent fabric of the gambeson gave her an appearance straight out of a history textbook.
“Um…” I stared at her in a flushed stupor for several seconds. “Night Cloud, you, um… I just want to say, um… you look really good in that.”
She grinned and tapped her hoof on the floor. “Thanks… it’s not what I’d call the most fashionable attire, but… I’m glad someone likes it.”
Giggling, I said, “Night Cloud, you could be the poster filly for fashionable. I’ve never seen any armor that’s… not ugly. I mean, Enclave armor is all designed for being flashy and intimidating, but not…”
“Inspiring?” I grinned as she turned halfway toward me began to unstrap the armor. “It’s more than just armor; it’s a symbol.” She unlatched a pair of buckles hidden under her collar and swung the peytral down on a strap attached to the cuirass, unfastened the girth straps and plackart under her belly, loosened the segmented croupiere, then lifted the entire suit away and set the ensemble on the floor in the corner.
“White and gold are Celestia’s colors. My tribe has always considered her a symbol of healing and renewal.” She sighed and glanced at the white caparison in the corner. “I may have left my homeland under less-than-ideal terms, but that was when I truly became a healer.” She chuckled and kicked a hind leg out, glancing back at her flanks. “Hardly the wisest color to wear over armor, but… I thought it was appropriate.”
“Well, um…”
She stood in front of me in only the pearl-colored gambeson. Diamond-pattern stitching covered the entire garment, a small flap covered her tail and kept it tucked under the croupiere, and a line of securing straps ran from her croup to her withers.
She smiled and tossed her mane back. “Are you… enjoying the view?”
“Yeah,” I mumbled. I met her eyes as she focused her cerulean magic on a spot on her back, and then every buckle sprang open at once. “Isn’t it kinda heavy? The, um… the rest of it, I mean.”
“Mmm… somewhat, but I hardly notice it when it’s tightened properly, and it should be even better once I’ve finished growing. It’s quite comfortable. The gambeson is like a nightshirt, almost.”
I giggled. “I think, um…” Night Cloud unfastened the two remaining buckles below her stifles and pulled the gambeson off. “I think it’s kinda sexy. Flattering, fits you really well.”
She laughed and set the gambeson on her piled armor in the corner, walked past me, and stepped slowly into the steaming bath. My eyes seemed to follow her tail of their own accord.
“Well?” Smiling, she sank into the water up to her neck and faced me. “Are you going to join me, or sit there and stare?”
“Duaaaah-ha. Hahaha. Um—yeah. Join you. Yeah.” I trotted straight down the steps and waded into the pleasantly hot water. “Um… okay, I feel like I’m floating, kinda… I’ve never, um… been in a bath this huge before.”
Night Cloud giggled and tugged me slowly through the water, and I kicked off the steps and paddled along on reflex. With every breath, I rose a little in the water, then sank again. “It’s almost a pool, really… I thought you’d be afraid. You can’t possibly have much experience swimming…”
“No, but, um… why would I be scared while you’re here?” She smiled and pulled me over to a recess cut into the edge of the bath. She lifted me onto the bench and sat on her haunches next to me; sitting on the submerged bench, my head was almost level with hers. “Um… why is this here?”
“For foals,” she murmured, “Or, um… smaller ponies. Children. So you can sit in the water, instead of having to swim the whole time… Crystal, I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have said it that way. I wasn’t trying to call you a foal.”
“Night Cloud…” I rolled my eyes and leaned on her, then nuzzled her throat. “You said you don’t think I’m a little filly,” I murmured, “I believe you. And, um… coming from you, it means a lot to me.” She giggled and hooked her foreleg across my back. “Really, I… um… I didn’t think you would, um… like me… at all. I thought you’d just brush me off.” She hummed softly near my ears and squeezed my back, and poured a levitated glob of warm water over my mane. “You, um…” I swallowed. “You do… like me… right?”
“Yes!” Night Cloud laughed. “Yes, I do, I do… I’m just… not as brave, or forthcoming as you are, Crystal… you just… say things, say what you feel, say what you think, and… I… I adore you for that. I admire you for that…” She leaned down in the water to hug me, and she whispered, “I envy you, Crystal… I wish I could be as brave as you. I’ve always been so afraid, and I’ve never been able to—to just speak my mind, the way you do, about this… about so many things… I was never so bold… never so certain…”
I set one hoof on her chest and hooked the other onto her leg. “I’m, um… I’m afraid, too…”
She smiled and nuzzled the side of my snout, and she said, “That’s what makes you brave. You may be afraid, but you still… commit to something.”
“Well, um…” I inhaled deeply against the pressure of hot water, and said, “May I kiss you again? Please?”
Night Cloud leaned back and giggled. She opened her mouth, and the smallest sound came out. “I…” She snapped her mouth shut and nodded.
“So you just jumped in the river to take a bath?” I murmured, massaging between Night Cloud’s wings with both forehooves under the water; she lay on the steps of the bath, submerged halfway up her neck, and I lay astride her back. “With the mud, and the fish?”
“Well, not all the time… mostly if you’re completely filthy, and then you just take a dip and scrub off on the banks. Saves potable water, to do it that way. Out there in desert, everyone has a few rain barrels; catch the clean water, use it later. Otherwise… I had to watch my little sister, Akatsi Kuovi, and help her bathe, teach her our chores until she could manage on her own. She’s four years younger than I am. We were always on the lookout for snakes near the river, and fish to catch…”
“Why’d you leave? It sounds like it was pretty nice…” I scooted forward and wrapped my forelegs around her, laying my head against her neck. “Really nice, honestly… you said, um… they tried to tell you how to live. What does that mean?”
“My elders tried to decide for me,” she said, “Which pony I would take as a partner… rather, they did decide. I simply… didn’t say no. I…” She swept her forehoof around underwater and murmured, “I didn’t know how to say no… didn’t know that I could. That was just… how my tribe did things. How we’d always done it. Tradition.”
“Well, um…” Swallowing, I tapped my hooves gently on her and nuzzled her. “Was she nice? Or, um… cute? Your partner.”
“She?” Night Cloud chuckled. “Oh, Crystal Dew… sweetheart, I truly envy you… no, mio amíke, they chose my partner, my mate. They picked a stallion for me, our grand elder’s youngest son, years before they ever expected me to bear a child.”
“What?” I scowled and hugged her tightly, and I mumbled, “They didn’t know you—you didn’t say anything?”
“I was only eleven years old at the time, Crystal… I didn’t understand what it meant. He was just my friend, so… I didn’t think about it.”
“What the fuck?!” She jerked her head away from me. “Sorry,” I mumbled, “Didn’t mean to yell…” Nickering, I said, “But what the fuck? How could they—what’s fucking wrong with them? You don’t even—how could they force you to—”
“Shhhh… Crystal, please, sweetheart… I’ve left that life behind now… and I don’t want you to be angry about it; that doesn’t gain you anything. Besides…” I shook while she stroked her magic down my neck and across my back. “Ruido was my best friend. Ruido Valié—‘Bold Voice.’”
“Bold Voice,” I said, glaring at the lapping water. “You’re kidding.”
Night Cloud giggled. “Yes… the irony has not escaped me: Bold Voice, chosen for the mare too timid to speak for herself… he saved my life once. He fought off a pack of timberwolves with me when I went into the Forest of Leota, to collect some herbs for my mother.”
She grasped my left forehoof telekinetically and raised it up to a spot on her throat. “I don’t have the scars anymore, and I have my voice again, thanks to Blitz… but the feeling of an animal sinking its teeth into your neck… it never leaves you.” She shivered and smiled, looking at me from the corner of her eye. “Ruido stomped the one that had bitten me and kicked apart the others. Didn’t kill them, but it let him pick me up and run.”
As I rubbed my hoof on her neck and imagined disfiguring scars under her sleek coat, I muttered, “You should have just blasted them with magic. Not even fire; a good bang or bright light scares them off.”
“Well, I know that now, of course… back then, I didn’t know any real spells. I never learned to use my magic to fight, just to fight with something I held with it. A stick, a spear, a gun. There aren’t many skilled mages in my tribe. That’s one reason I decided to go to Bellenast: I wanted to learn more about magic, as well as medicine, more than my mother could teach me before she passed. She was an earth pony; there was only so much she could do with theory and books, and those were hard to find…”
“What about your dad?”
“My father…” Night Cloud spread her wings out and splashed them in the bath. “My father… was one of our elders, who picked Ruido for me… and after mother died, he—mmm…” She breathed deeply and stroked her magic along my foreleg. “It would be wrong to say he didn’t care, but… he focused more on his duties to the tribe, after mother passed, and less on his daughters.”
She twisted her neck around to nuzzle my shoulder. “Ruido convinced me to tell my father and the other elders that I couldn’t—rather, that I would not take him, or any other stallion, as a partner, and he stood by my side for that… most of them were angry, but Father—at that point, I don’t think he cared. He gave me his blessing to stay, or leave, and live out my life as I wanted.”
“Ruido thought I would be happier somewhere else… more than anyone else, he wanted me to be happy. He stood up for me, and taught me to stand up for myself. I’ll always love him for that.” Night Cloud levitated me out of the bath and set me on my hooves near a rack of hanging towels against the wall, then stood up and ascended the steps. I watched water trailing down and dripping from her belly while her soaked mane and tail dragged along behind her in the water. “And… I wanted to see another land besides my own.”
“And, um… that’s it?”
She shook herself, spraying water everywhere, then grabbed two towels off the rack behind me. “Well… I hoped I might find a mare my own age who would feel something for me… but I never really knew how to look. I suppose I still don’t.” Then she stopped, holding the towels still in the air. “Crystal,” she said, grinning, “Are you going to dry off, or… keep looking at me?”
I swallowed, snatched the closest towel, and mumbled, “I can do both, can’t I?”
Night Cloud chortled and sauntered over to me. She sat on her haunches directly in front of me, stretched her wing past me, and a click came from the wall, followed by a buzzing above us. I glanced up at the heat lamps on the rack protruding from the wall.
“Oh. Cool…”
“Warm, actually. That’s the point.” I rolled my eyes, then snickered. Night Cloud giggled. “I don’t mind if you look.” She tilted my head up with a hoof on my jaw and kissed me. -I suppose I’m used to ponies looking… it was always at a distance, and usually stallions, not… right here, in my reach.-
She carefully lay down, stretching her forelegs out on either side of me. I drew back to breathe, sitting flushed and grinning in front of her.
“It was never someone who could look me in the eye,” she murmured, “And admit to my face that she wants something from me… I truly admire you for that, Crystal. Your honesty, your earnestness.”
“Well, I’m, um… happy, and excited.” I pecked her lips one more time, then again, giggling and shaking. Her breaths tickled my snout. “Really happy… um… you, um…” Swallowing, I said, “You know you can use your tongue, right? It’s really fun.”
Night Cloud burst out laughing, bright and clear as a bell. “Crystal Dew, my sweetheart… forgive me for being inexperienced. The first pony I kissed was Ruido, and… for a stallion, he was nice, but… that wasn’t what I wanted. I… I suppose that… as much as being with him taught me that I didn’t want a stallion, it, um… it also made me afraid to try things.”
She let out a long sigh and bowed her head, nuzzling my snout, and her horn bumped against mine. “You’re the first mare I’ve ever kissed, Crystal,” she murmured. “My elders never would have allowed me to take a mare as a partner.”
I lurched up and reared, and hugged her tightly. “Night Cloud… your tribe sucks. I’m really glad you left them.”
She patted my withers. “I understand the sentiment, sweetheart, I do… but not all of them are bad. Especially not Ruido. He was only ever kind to me.”
“Fine. He’s cool, I guess.” I stomped my rear hoof on the tile and stepped back, looking at her electric blue eyes and pursed lips. “You know what? How about I just show you?”
“Show me what?”
“How to make out.”
“Is it normally that cold this time of year? And windy?” I followed Night Cloud down the cool, dimly lit hall of the inn to the second-to-last room on the left, trotting to keep pace with her. She carried her barding, saddlebags, and caparison along behind us in a cerulean haze.
“Cold? Sometimes. Windy… not usually. Don’t worry. There are plenty of blankets.”
She led me into the room and set her things in the far corner, where my power armor stood upright. My saddlebags and weapons lay next to it. The small window to the alleyway outside rattled in its frame as the wind howled between the buildings.
I stopped by the bed on the right; either one of the two mattresses set low on the floor in the rather cramped room would have been comically large for me, but for Night Cloud, it was barely adequate.
“Looks nice,” I mumbled, brushing my hoof on the smooth grey sheets. I stepped onto the thin mattress. “Whoa. Pretty soft.”
“I never had anything like this back home,” said Night Cloud, stepping around me to lie down first. “They still feel too soft for me sometimes. Too much give…”
Settling next to her, I muttered, “You don’t know ‘too much give’ until you’ve fallen through a cloud… basically the reason Eagle brought me to Cloud Loft in the first place.”
Night Cloud turned onto her side and pulled me to her chest; after our bath, the hint of lilac on her coat was gone. “You fell?” she murmured. “No wonder you don’t like flying… who caught you? Eagle?”
“No, this was before I met him. Over two years ago.” I tucked my head between her forelegs and nuzzled her pectorals. She turned off the ceiling lights, leaving us in only the cerulean glow of her magic. “It was, um… her name’s Coil Blur… and she was the first mare I ever kissed.”
Night Cloud hummed and began to tug her hoof through my mane, over and over. “I thought you had a talisman, for walking on the clouds… did it break?”
Giggling, I mumbled, “No… it worked exactly as designed. I, um… I was out on one of the periphery fields one morning. We use them for floater plots. You know, for things without deep roots, like potatoes, beans, tomatoes, squash… trellises and stuff.”
Night Cloud stopped stroking my mane, setting her foreleg instead across my withers, and the tiny metal plate embedded on my back there. “And here I was,” she whispered, “Thinking you might somehow grow plants straight from the clouds…”
“What?” I thumped my hoof on her ribs. “No. That’s ridiculous.”
“I’ve never been to a city in the clouds, sweetheart,” she murmured, scraping her hoof on the plate on my back. “I don’t know what to expect.”
“Anyway, um… that spring, I was just walking around, before the sun came up, and… there was this totally smoking hot mare flying laps around one of the orchards. She went out every morning to exercise. I saw her doing laps sometimes, when I was on the way to school, and, um… after our final exams, I, um… I started going there every day to watch her fly.”
Night Cloud giggled and squeezed my back. “Of course you did…”
I rolled my eyes. “She was hot, okay?” I shuddered and took a breath. “I… sort of spaced out most of the time. Watching her. One time, she stayed out longer than usual, and… I forgot to recharge my talisman, and… and I fell. Straight down, screaming, because I was too busy checking her out to zap my stupid necklace with a little magic.”
“She must have noticed quickly,” murmured Night Cloud, “If she was able to catch up to you…”
“She almost didn’t.” I shuddered and laughed, and clutched her foreleg tightly. “I was falling for nearly a minute… then she caught me, and flew down and landed in the middle of nowhere… there was just tall grass everywhere. Couldn’t see very far, but there was a tree stump, I remember that. It was covered with mushrooms and vines, and there was a bush growing up around it, and there were little bugs everywhere. We both just… sat there for… I dunno, half an hour, maybe. I cried at first, then we both started laughing.”
“Let me guess,” whispered Night Cloud, “You kissed your savior?”
“Uh-huh.” I nuzzled her chest again, nodding. “I thought she was the most amazing pony ever, and…” I snickered and mumbled, “Then she told me she had a coltfriend… but she was cool about it. Then, um… well, she carried me back up. Took a while, too. Lot harder to fly up than straight down… good thing I’m so small, right?”
“Mmm… you are easy to carry.”
“For a long time, I was so afraid my talisman would fail again, or I’d forget to charge it… I stopped going to school, stopped going outside… Professor said… he said he knew a place I could go, where I wouldn’t need to wear a talisman ever again.”
“Cloud Loft.”
“Yep. He, um… he contacted someone he knew there, and… about a week later, Eagle showed up. He stayed in Neighvarro for a few weeks, and we hung out in the berths… Professor wanted to know if I’d be happy with him.” I took a deep breath, relishing her warmth and the smell of her coat. “I flew all the way across the Enclave’s entire territory just because… because I was watching a pretty mare fly around the cloud fields.”
“Hmm… quite a tale.” Night Cloud kissed my neck and wrapped her wing around me, and she said, “I’m glad you started watching her… and I wish it had been under kinder circumstances, but I’m glad you left Cloud Loft, and chose to come to Bellenast.”
“Me too.” I lightly poked her belly with my rear hoof and mumbled, “You know… if someone told me there were really big, strong mares with gorgeous wings in Bellenast, back when I fell? I think I’d have walked here all on my own.”
She giggled and murmured, “You’re silly… and, um… hormonal.”
“I’m pregnant.”
“I think you were silly and hormonal before that, mío amíke.”
A hoof rapped on the door.
“Come in,” said Night Cloud, raising her head and shifting her wing up to my neck.
“Hey,” said Eagle softly, “Uh… where’s Crystal?”
“Right here,” I said, lighting my horn with emerald green.
“Oh.” Eagle came around to the side of the bed and nuzzled the back of my neck. “There’s a bad storm coming. Might be pretty cold tonight, so, ah… here.” He dropped a folded blanket on the bed behind my back. “Shouldn’t need it, but if you do…”
“I think I’ll be fine, Eagle,” I said patting Night Cloud’s chest. “Plenty of warmth here.”
“Oh, yeah,” he said, chuckling as he approached the door again, “But your blanket might need her own blanket… goodnight, both of you.”
“Thank you, Eagle,” said Night Cloud.
“Welcome.”
The door shut, and Night Cloud hummed by my ear. “He may not be your father,” she murmured, “But I think he’s a good parent.”