Morning dawned with the sun blocked by the eastern riverbank, but even if it hadn't been the sky was overcast and periodically threatening to drizzle. The commerce building was alive and bustling around them anyway, though by Nyala's account it had never gone to sleep... and she knew, because neither had she.
"I don't like it," she murmured, staring out a window as the rest of the group ate breakfast, finally untethered from the charging cable. "Why do I know what sleep is if I can't go to sleep myself? All I remember are things that are inconvenient..."
"I feel ya," Valey sighed, digging at her plate with the tip of her tongue. She had sat around for most of the night trying to convince the ensouled armor that being an unresting sentry wasn't so bad at all, ultimately surrendering and being low on sleep herself as a result.
"I want to dream," Nyala mumbled, tracing a smiley face in the window fog with a golden metal hoof.
Maple was up because she was the cook, Starlight was up because Maple was, and Shinespark and Slipstream were up of their own accords, the former too interested in Nyala and the latter too used to a morning job to reasonably stay asleep. Jamjars was missing, as was normal, so the group as it usually was sat and ate in subdued silence... minus Gerardo.
"Should someone wake him?" Maple asked, glancing up the staircase. "He's the local. I'm trying to cook things like what I see in the restaurants here, but I'm not the most experienced judge of griffon cuisine..."
"Who, Birdo?" Valey flicked an ear. "Nah, he left a while ago. Said he felt like doing some recon. Not exactly sure for what, but that's his call..."
Starlight slumped, picking through her food with a telekinetically-held fork. It had too many mushrooms, not that she was about to tell Maple and hurt her feelings. "He's probably looking for Wallace," she said instead. "To tell him about something or other."
"Good morrrrrning," a familiar voice that definitely wasn't Gerardo purred. Starlight glanced up to see a smirking yellow filly waddle down from above, her poofy wig wobbling with every step she took. "Who are you asking about?" Jamjars asked, strolling in a circuit around the room and helping herself to some food in her aura. "Gerardo? Oh, he might be somewhere. What's this?" She sniffed at the food she had taken.
"Biscuits and gravy," Maple replied, "and if you haven't had any you're missing out. We got them one afternoon in Stormhoof when you were somewhere else."
Jamjars flicked her tail approvingly. "Keep up the good work. Now, I have to return to the supremely important task of decorating my room, but if you're looking for Gerardo there's some kind of fight brewing in the town square. I didn't stick around to see if he was in it, but it wasn't easy to miss. Talk to me later if you're going to see the windigo, by the way. I went back to interrogate it and learned some useful things."
Everyone was slightly too surprised to stop or question Jamjars as she climbed up the staircase. "Jamjars!" Slipstream snapped the moment she was out of sight. "A fight? What kind of fight? And why did you go down there all alone!?"
"Well, at least she looks safe," Maple sighed. "I suppose there's no point in feeling shocked or angry now, but that really isn't a smart thing to do..."
"What, stick around a fight or chillax with a windigo?" Valey shrugged. "She's already enough of a sneak that I dunno if a windigo could talk her into much she wouldn't do already."
"Help me decorate my room and I'll tell you what it said~!" Jamjars sang from above, clearly enjoying herself.
Starlight sighed, slumping into her plate. "Do you want me to?" she asked, resigned that she'd get dragged into Jamjars' schemes some way or another. Besides, it was better than risking getting caught up in a fight that didn't involve her.
"Suit yourself," Shinespark said. "I'm going up to see what all the fuss there was about. Valey, Nyala, you coming?"
"Me?" Nyala tilted her head. "I definitely don't think I know how to fight."
Valey thumped her on the leg with an encouraging knee-bump. "Yeah, but I do. And only someone really serious about beating people up would go around in public wearing armor like that, so if we get into a scrape? Boom, all you need to do is make everyone think you're the bigger threat! Then I'll wipe the walls with them while they aren't looking. Come on, this is what I do for fun."
"I'm going up," Slipstream volunteered. "Not planning on getting involved with anything, but I'm curious."
"I'll wash the dishes," Maple sighed, swiping Valey's empty plate out from beneath her nose and carrying it back to the kitchen.
"Well, look who came," Jamjars announced, not even needing to look up when Starlight peered through the ajar doorway to her self-appropriated cabin room. "You're predictable, but also reliable. I really don't think the others realize what they're missing out on by not being friends with me. Slipstream at least tries, but you're still the only one who bothered to show up, aren't you?"
Starlight frowned. "That's a kind of rude way to say thank you. What are they missing out on?"
"Hearing what I did with the windigo, for one," Jamjars imperiously declared. "But more importantly..." Her face split in a silly grin. "Look at these!"
Starlight felt a groan building in her chest before she even looked at Jamjars' bed. The poster of Melia and Sirena that had been stolen from the Spirit hideout in Ironridge wasn't where she remembered Jamjars hanging it, and the remnants of tape on the walls suggested it had been repositioned at least three times, but now spread on the bed with assorted weights keeping them unrolled were five more, and Jamjars was pulling yet another from her mane.
"How...?" Starlight's eyes crossed. "You really like them, don't you?"
"How did I find these beauties?" Jamjars guessed, telekinetically flattening a poster that showed Sirena making an epic stretching pose before a microphone, Melia hanging with one hoof wrapped around her sister's neck and warbling her heart out while upside-down. "Remember that clown who dared to rob one of the world's best mares in the hospital? While you were interrogating him in front of that building, he was going on and on about what a Sirena fan he was and how the other was trash, so I figured I'd do him a favor and put his money where his mouth was for him. I still don't know why his room was full of posters of both of them. Probably a guilty pleasure. Either way, he wasn't needing these any more."
"...You stole posters from a thief, and the posters are of the mare he was stealing from." Starlight gazed uncertainly at the new collection. "Okay."
Jamjars smugly held out another. "Like I said, I was doing him a favor. Didn't want anyone discovering his dirty secret, did we? Anyway, I think I have enough for most of my important walls now, so if you ask really nicely, I could let you have a say in how they're arranged..."
Starlight frowned. "What did you even ask for help with, then?"
"Oh, I'm kidding." Jamjars strolled past and patted her on the back with a forehoof. "I actually desperately need help deciding where to put them. You can do that for free. If you want one for yourself, that's where it'll cost you... but since we're friends, I could give you a great price."
"Now you're trying to sell me stolen goods," Starlight sighed, taking a closer look at the posters. Now that she saw several together and thought about it... "Are you sure those aren't illegal? They look sort of... saucy."
"Saucy?" Jamjars' eyes widened, and she dropped her present load, giving Starlight a sudden, massive, unavoidable hug. "Eeeeeeeeee!" she squealed, rocking back and forth and lifting off the ground to the point where she nearly tipped Starlight over. "I knew you could recognize this stuff! Ready to tell me which one you think is hotter yet?" She pulled back, rubbing her chin. "After meeting them in real life, I'm going to say Sirena. I followed them both a lot, and Melia's kind of a downer. Especially this morning. How about you?"
"Neither," Starlight groaned, rubbing her forehead. "Neither! I don't get crushes on mares twice my age! And I don't need to have one to know-"
"Fillies who are your age?" Jamjars asked sharkishly.
Starlight pushed her back with a hoof. "No. As I was saying-"
Jamjars grimaced. "Colts your age? Poor thing."
"No! Shut up!" Starlight swatted at her. "I'm trying to-"
"Hmm." Jamjars seemed satisfied. "Well, one of those was a much more emphatic no than the others. It's okay to have a first crush, you know. What were you saying?"
Starlight groaned, taking a minute just to grumble. "They're sisters, aren't they? Siblings aren't supposed to like each other, and they never look like this in real life. But some of these make it look like they're flirting with each other."
Jamjars appraised the posters again. "Didn't stop someone from making them. And for some sad, lonely stallion out there, I'm sure that's just part of the appeal. Anyway, are you going to help me figure out where to put these, or what?"
"You were going to tell me about the windigo," Starlight sighed.
"Oh. That." Jamjars flicked her short mane, wig placed carefully in a corner. "Short version, it's annoying, but has clearly never had siblings. Maybe it got under my coat just a little, but it never did anything aside from trying to goad me into being reckless and stupid. So rather than visit it again or give it what it wants, I'm just going to do the least-reckless thing possible and tell everyone everything I can anyway. Then I'll go back, but only to gloat."
"That sounds dangerous..." Starlight frowned. "You're sure you're not getting trapped somehow?"
"Please." Jamjars ran a hoof over her ears. "Me? Getting trapped? I can recognize a snare a hundred miles away. It tried a little, but there's nothing it can do if I decide to take a day first to cool down and think things over before talking to anyone. Remember, it's the one who's locked up in a hole."
Starlight was hardly put at ease by the reassurances, but at least they were better than an open statement of bad intentions. Sighing once again, she sat down and resigned herself to pointing at various places on Jamjars' walls, wondering why she kept getting dragged into this.