"An' then she was cheatin' too, so I did to her what I did to all the others, I did. I'd have burned her whole family down if I had the chance! But I invited her sister down to our den first all pleasant-like... I always had eyes for her sister... an' the little rat varmint ratted us out on where it was! Woke up to a soldier's sword in my face. He can burn too! Burn, burn!"
Starlight had finally found another prisoner. She watched with morbid fascination as he had a one-sided conversation with a batpony statue, glad she didn't perfectly understand what he was talking about and wishing she understood less. The magical barriers, she had discovered, muffled sound in addition to preventing escape, so she was leaning on the bars, one ear poked through as she hoped to glean something useful.
The prisoner was a griffon, looking ironically ratty for his accusations. His talons and the plumage around them looked blackened and scarred, as if they had been burned badly in the past: she didn't doubt he was being literal about burns. His voice carried a tense, desperate strain of injustice that Starlight knew all too well, and he didn't seem the least self-conscious about confessing his anger to a ghastly statue.
"An' the worst part? When they busted us, they didn't even have the decency to string us up for real crimes. Said it was 'cause she was a mare and I was a bird, an' her sister, too, and all the others! Nobody cares about yer' laws, Garsheeva! Now she's gonna claim both of them, when they belong to me. I want 'em. She can't have 'em, you hear? Whoever this paper says you are, Stanza, I want everyone to burn..."
Thoroughly disturbed, Starlight backed away from the cage, leaving the griffon in silence to his insane ramblings. He held even less interest to her than the guards she occasionally passed, and clearly had nothing of value to say or do. Flicking her shadow-shrouded tail, she left him to his fate and continued on her way.
"Nnngh... Mmph..." Valey greedily gulped down water, standing with her head upside-down beneath a faucet on a farmstead that she had just detached a watering hose from. That was one of the benefits of her cutie mark: she could always tell when food or drink was safe, and slurped at the spigot with reckless abandon.
"Sounds like you really needed that," Amber's voice remarked through the sound stone clutched beneath her wing.
"Bananas, yes," Valey gasped, coming up for air. "Should have brought a bottle or something. Think I'm gonna see if I can get one before flying on. Had to go way longer than I liked before finding this."
"While you're still in farm country, grab some saddlebags for food, too," Amber advised. "I flew over Wilderwind and Gyre on my way here and it didn't look like there were a lot of trees. You're still thinking Starlight is up there, right?"
Valey shut off the spigot, leaning against it and taking a moment for the water to work its magic, already feeling rehydrated. "At the rate I've been going, and how far off she still is? Yeah, pretty much. Good news is, she hasn't moved all night and all day. It's like... what, three hours until sundown? Feels like I might... might be able to reach her by sundown tomorrow..." She interrupted herself with a massive yawn.
"Is that counting sleep?"
"Nah, I'm good." Valey tried to get up, her entire body protesting and reminding her that she had been speed-flying for twenty-four hours after using a healing potion to recover from a brutal fight with Wallace. "Only been up for what, thirty-six hours? I can do this."
"And still fight to help Starlight once you get there?" Amber sounded suspicious. "Valey, are you sure?"
"It's not about whether I can!" Valey slumped, her wings not wanting to work, feeling like she had drank too much and yet still needed to drink more. "I h-have to..."
There was a patient silence from the other end. "Girl, you have to," Amber soothed. "I wasn't there for Ironridge, but remember how beat-up you said you were for that last bit? Imagine if you pushed yourself that hard, flew for fifty hours straight, fought off whoever captured Starlight, and then were so exhausted you collapsed, couldn't get her out of there, and you both got captured again?"
Valey winced. "Yeah, and imagine if I take twelve to sleep and am then too late!"
"Valey, we have leads." Amber sounded pained. "From what Senescey said, it might have been orchestrated that she go there by the Night Mother. That means someone wants something with her, and until they get it, she might be safe."
"Yeah?" Valey countered, struggling to her hooves. "But we don't know that for sure. What if it's a coincidence? Maybe Senescey's advice was supposed to help us and we just ran into some lunatic by chance? Like, going to the pros when you've got something wrong with you is usually good advice, right? What if this is, like, pirate revenge for the boat we blew up two months ago?"
"It's our best guess. We have to hope. And Valey, you have limits, and you can't help anyone if you break yourself pushing yourself past them. Please take care of yourself, okay? Please?" Amber's voice was pleading.
Valey took a step forward, looking towards the northern sky. "No. Have to... keep... Oh, bananas..."
She slumped forward, relenting to her weariness and Amber's advice, and was asleep in the grass in seconds.
Gazelle padded proudly down a hospital hall in Stormhoof, round ears flicking and tail swishing as he observed everything with feigned disinterest. Meltdown's inspectors and the hospital staff alike did their best to pretend he wasn't there; he had no business in the hospital and he knew it. Yet, he was also the High Prince, and there was nothing they could do to make him leave.
Condition after condition, ward after ward he passed by with a casual, sharp-toothed grin, occasionally stopping to stare over an inspector's shoulder or wish a patient well. Especially the children. The only thing he was looking for was anything of interest, true to his patented style of investigating: sticking his nose in everything and seeing what stuck back. The hospital was on edge, it was easy to tell, but that was more the fault of Meltdown and her team causing such a presence.
"Um... excuse me, Your Majesty?" A tug came at his leg.
"Hmmmmm?" Gazelle blinked down to see a little filly, her tufted ears and leathery wings quite distinctive against Stormhoof's usual population. "Well hello there!" He grinned regally down at her. "Never thought you'd be meeting a prince here, did you?"
The filly seemed cowed. "Um... Hello..."
Gazelle patted her on the head. "Oh, have no fear, have no fear. I have a sister who's about your age, you know! It leaves me with a soft spot for tykes like you. What can old Gazelle do for you, kiddo?" He grinned benevolently. "Say an autograph, and I'll have to use one of my own feathers to sign it."
"Well..." The filly winced. "My mother is sick and nobody was with me so I got lost, and I ended up in the basement where it looked like I wasn't supposed to go, and there was a statue like the ones Mom used to talk to but I had never heard anything from, and it talked to me and told me there would be a prince here and he could make her better if I brought him to the statue. Can you help? I remember the way..."
Gazelle's grin turned into an intrigued frown. "Well, how curious. A personal summons? For me? I just might have to follow along and see what this is all about! Lead the way, young filly, lead the way."
The foal did as she was instructed, Gazelle silently padding along. She seemed about to explode from nerves, so he did nothing to prod her, even though he knew where the hospital's dusk statue was and felt certain he could find a shortcut. By the time the statue drew into sight, he had already resigned himself to what was about to happen.
"Here we are!" the filly squeaked. "Now can you... can you... Huh?" She twitched, eyes unfocusing.
Gazelle sighed and leaned against a wall.
The filly cried out, suddenly twitching again and then spasming... and then her body was washed in a spire of green flame as the dusk statue's glow briefly intensified. It was over in less than a second, and a tiny, filly-sized sphinx stood before him, effortlessly looking down on Gazelle despite the height difference.
"We need to talk," the Night Mother said.