It was close to noon. Up there on Mount Aris, past the huge stone gate entrance which extended far up and far high with the cliffs its walls, resided the Harmonizing Heights. In this windy place of rolling green with its wealth of trees, surreal chimes and knells floated through the air, moving in and out of ears. Birds flitted about from branch to branch, many taking to the air to experience the great height of this towering mountain; here, ducks waddled about by the rivers, being fed breadcrumbs by a lonely Silverstream.
She sighed hearing those ducks quack happily as they ate those tiny little crumbs and swallowed them big.
Silverstream sighed again, throwing another clawful of those tiny crumbs. “Dad, you were a good Dad….”
Wingbeats from behind.
She looked around, saw Terramar coming down to the ground. In a forlorn voice: “You’re here to check up on me, huh?”
“Pretty much,” was Terramar’s nonchalant reply. He closed his wings and approached his sister. Held his leg, nervous, ignoring the mossy stones around them where more birds perched on. “You OK?”
Silverstream shook her head. “How could I be OK? Dad’s dead!”
Terramar stood beside her, taking out his pouch of breadcrumbs. “I...I know….”
“You know?!” Silverstream yelled. “How dare you say you know?! He’s your Dad, my Dad, our Dad and the love of Mom’s life, and you say you know?!”
“Silverstream, wait up, let me explain—“
“I’m not letting you explain for yourself! He was there for you when you first took off with your wings! He was there for you when Mom helped the both of us swim around underwater! He was there for you all the time, and you say you know?!”
“Silverstream!”
She stopped, placed a claw on her chest. “Terramar?”
He sighed, lowered his head. “Didn’t you see me cry to sleep last night? I couldn’t stop then...of course, I’m going to be more than sad that Dad’s not here anymore.”
“Then why are you acting so calm?!” Silverstream asked in a shout, furious and roaring with her mouth open.
Terramar drew in breath, fearful. “It’s because we can’t cry forever.”
Silverstream gasped, holding her cheeks in awful disdain. “What?!”
He put a claw on her shoulder, calming her. “Sis’, as much as he’s precious to us—and we’ll never forget him—we have a huge situation on our fins—ahem, our claws...or both our fins and our claws with those changelings….”
Silverstream looked at him as the ducks quacked, half-closing her eyes in suspicion.
“Oh, wait—“ and he threw some breadcrumbs at the ducks, providing them a second serving.
Flapping her wings above the ground, Silverstream looked upon the ducks down there
He looked up at her. “We have to get back to Aris, see what we could do. I’ll get you some orange juice.”
Silverstream nodded, silent.
The two of them wrapped arms around each other as they flew towards the stone gate entrance, hovering over the streaming rivers and the lush trees, listening to those chimes and knells again before they could hear it no more.
Before the Harmonizing Heights, Mount Aris proved very homely when it came to living and working as a hippogriff. They occupied the trees which were carved and modified to fit their standards—windows of different colors, greenhouse-like modules at the tops; they also adapted to the different sorts of trees there: the short trees had one-floor houses the size of the average dining room, while the tall trees with their broad trunks and branches boasted multi-floor manors—if the word could be used for what were actually more elaborate treehouses. There were also some structures that stood on their own, located on the ground; they also looked like greenhouses, home to shops and stores.
However, there was no time to relax. Most of the hippogriffs present held a short no-handle blade somewhere, either on a holster or in their mane. The guards had more obvious weapons with their spears and lancets and arrows.
Standing by a tall treehouses where some snores could be heard, Silverstream and Terramar stood as if on post. In front of them was a group of hippogriffs flying around in the air, performing aerial tricks and wowing the small audience below.
“They’re going to regret it if they start now,” Terramar murmured under his breath. “If we’re unprepared when they come—”
“We’re all dead,” Silverstream said, shuddering.
“Not if we can help it.” He looked at his sister with a caring smile. “We got each other; we’re going to be safe.”
Silverstream shook her head, looking at her brother with trembling anxiety. “Safe for two days and then we’re out.”
“Don’t be so negative!” Terramar chided though keeping a hint of optimism in his tone. “We’re going to stand here. If they can’t take us, they'll never defeat the good side.”
Silverstream thought about it. A smile crept up.
“As long as there’s one of us,” Terramar began, his voice swelling, “then the changelings will never win.”
“Hi!”
Both siblings looked up.
Princess Skystar landing on the stone ground before them, sporting three shortblades in her light blue mane. Speaking with her pepper attitude: “How’re you doing?”
Silverstream frowned again, sighing once more. “Not so great.”
Skystar placed a claw on her shoulder, making her look up again. “Yeah, it’s really bad, isn’t it? Don’t worry; my Mom said she’ll have a stern talk with Seaspray. He’s not going to be expecting that!”
Terramar faced her, concerned. “What do you think will happen to him?”
“Probably get kicked out of the navy,” she said, pawing the flat stony ground. “She said he’s too careless about lives. ‘If you don’t trust anyone, why bother?’ Those are her words, not mine.” A pause; she turned back to Silverstream. “What about we hang out at the diner? You know, the one with the grilled fish and the tomatoes and salt—mm-mm! They’re putting in the sugar as well!”
Silverstream still frowned.
Skystar pinched her cheek. “Come on, cousin! Remember when you won the Fish Champion Contest years ago and I lost to you by one fish?”
Terramar budged Silverstream on the back. “And since you’re all grown-up, your appetite’s even worse now!”
She could not help but smile at that.
“If they have it again,” Skystar said, tapping her head—“no, they will have it again! When they’re going to have the Fish Champion Contest again, they’ll have to bring you in as the defending champion!”
“Wasn’t Shore Coast the champion last year?” Silverstream asked.
“He told me he won’t be back for a few months since he’s staying over in Seaquestria,” Skystar replied, “which means you have to return ‘cause the other champions are staying underwater! You’re here!”
“You’re seriously going to bring back the Fish Champion Contest?” Terramar asked the bubbly Princess.
Skystar laughed. “Not today, but soon! I am a Princess, after all!”
The three of them opened their wings and flew their way past the treehouses, headed for the diner.
The diner consisted of many tables and one counter. The walls were made of glass, the roof was made of glass—everyone inside had a full view of the outside; no matter which way they turned their heads, they always saw a different house, a different hippogriff doing a different activity like this yellow one over there by the pack of stones, making balloon animals for a line of eager fledglings, or that one over there feeding the birds on the ground with seeds.
Several hippogriffs and a few ponies ate at the tables, feasting on the local cuisine over sizzles and fizzles from the kitchen: roasted sunflower seeds, crisp wheat mixed with corn, cooked pistachios with cashews and other nuts, fresh oysters and fresh shrimp, pure crabs and lobsters, and pickled mushrooms. The ponies stayed away from the meat, though, so they helped themselves to their self-limited fare.
The diverse smells of the foods wafted together to form a new, beckoning aroma which made customers’ mouths water.
Gathered at one table were Silverstream, Terramar, and Skystar, munching on the food with their cups of orange juice.
“...and she said we’ll be getting something from Chrysalis herself when we get to her,” Skystar continued, capturing the attention of her two cousins. “We’re going to free everyone in those hives!”
“Wasn’t that always the plan?” Terramar asked, leaning his head to the side. “Aren't we supposed to free the prisoners?”
“Really?” Skystar scratched her chin. “Oh, forgetful me! How could I ever forget that?”
Terramar snickered and held up a fork. “Is it the lobster?”
“Stop it!” Skystar yelled though comical, putting that fork back down. “Lobsters don’t make you forget, silly! That would be weird if lobsters were this kind of food you avoid because it removes your memories!”
Terramar picked up an oyster, about to eat it. “What’re we gonna do if we find a changeling who doesn’t want to fight?”
Skystar rubbed her head, thinking, letting Terramar eat his oyster. “That’s a toughie. He’s a changeling but he also wants to be our friend because he doesn't want to fight...so he has to go to our jail until it’s over, staying under our protection. After that, we talk to him and give him a head start on a new life, one that hopefully doesn’t involve stealing love from their neighbors.”
“What’s he gonna do, hoard all the shrimp?” Silverstream chimed in with a rather playful tone. “Don’t they survive on love?”
“That’s the problem,” Skystar said. “Mom doesn’t want to deal with it, but when we win, there will be changelings who want to cross over to our side.”
“What if we tell them they can take, like...a certain level of love?" suggested Silverstream."Like five percent?”
“That’s the same as telling them to not eat when they’re hungry,” Skystar said with a tinge of worry.
“We arrest anyone who eats way too much and doesn’t give to others,” Terramar noted, now holding his fourth oyster. “Sis’ does have a point.”
Skystar picked on her food with her blade. “Yeah, that’s true, but what’re we gonna do to adjust to their love needs? Do we start dating them?”
The siblings chuckled at that one, bringing Skystar to laugh at her own words.
The laughter died down, and the Princess smiled. “If they take you, I will miss you so much! I hope we’ll never be separated!”
“Me, too!” Terramar yelled and looked at Silverstream.
She raised her claw to the air and shouted, “Me, three!”
And the hippogriffs hugged each other over their food.
Then, the blasts of trumpets.
They looked out the window walls.
Hippogriffs flying to the sky, taking out their blades.
Over there, by the center of the town, the flag of the Hippogriff Kingdom flapping with the gust.
The cousins looked at each other.
Skystar took out one of her blades from her mane. “They’re almost here. Let’s do this.”
The siblings took out their blades without a word and without a sound.
They flew out of the diner with everyone else, even the chefs and the waiters with their blades gleaming.