//------------------------------// // Chapter 2. Fufflers // Story: A city of a thousand bridges // by DarkKnight_RUS //------------------------------// Starspire is actually a floating archipelago. It is a complex system of islands, suspended in dynamic harmony. Whoever thinks that it is ‘just’ a thestral city way up in the clouds is an uneducated fool. Some floating islands are enormous. Others can barely fit a single tower, or even a lonely tree. Farther out from the city are remote groups of floating cliffs were we can find wild creatures. Wild and dangerous, especially for three little fillies. No matter how brave they are. Regardless, Loadstar always thought that meticulous study and careful preparation can lower any risk to a minimum. Some would think that being a non-flying creature in Starspire must be a torturous pain. Endless bridges, twisty overpasses and a sea of stairs. Not to say that without someone's help, you would not be able to get to the far islands. But, Loadstar approached this, like any other issue she might have had, thoroughly and calmly. Just like any wise mentat would. First - all three were dressed in new coats made of silvery fabric. As Loadstar explained, that should symbolize purity of thought and dedication. And silver - is a noble metal, blessed by the Princess of the Night. Second - everyone had to say what they wanted for their cutie mark.. If they didn’t know precisely what they hoped to have, at least they should know what talent it would symbolize. And the first task on the CMS club's agenda was Aria Midnight's mark: Flyoneer. Visiting unexplored parts of Starspire, however, was problematic for Loadstar. The magic nature of the floating islands had gifted her with a horn instead of wings. Any kind of a carrying system that Grey and Aria might be able to wear was abandoned immediately - if something were to happen to any one of the three - the others would not be able to help. "Artificial wings" spells would not work either - too complex, even for the older thestrals, and even though Loadstar knew she had a natural flair for magic, she knew her limits well. "Cloud chariot" seemed sensible and reasonable, and most importantly, did not tax any magic, nor would it require many material components. Not expensive ones, at least. "So," little mentat started checking the list "Harnesses, two - check. Parachute, for emergency - check. Stiff cloud - check. Spell scroll, «cloud walking» - check". She adjusted the straps of the canvas bag with the parachute packed inside - in case the little wingless pony should fall off of the cloud that her friends would be towing. "Two tug ponies - check. Bookworm princess - check" added Aria acrimoniously. Loadstar did not mind. She had quickly realized that Aria's tongue worked faster than her mind. Probably because it was much longer and sharper. That was what she had said to her friends, causing a round of giggles. Cloud that should be able to support the weight of a pegasus or a thestral, was 'borrowed' from the storage. Specifically, they had to tear away a chunk from the rain mass that was delivered from Equestria as a source of water for the street's cleaning. After squeezing the water out of it, little thestrals created a soft and comfortable pillow that was able to float in the air under its own power. Loadstar could sit, lay, and even stand on it, casting a pretty simple spell onto herself, replicating the natural ability of pegasi and thestrals to walk on the clouds. Sadly, she had to use the spell scroll for that: it was just a little too complex for the little filly. Two little flyers could easily move the weightless cloud with their friend, not wasting any strength on keeping it afloat. "Provisions?" Asked Loadstar, fixing her glasses while at Grey Mouse, who, was responsible for packing. "Checked," shy thestral replied "Mushroom and flower sandwiches, three flyer’s rations, biscuits, chocolate and juice." "Magnificent," little mentat marked the list, "Warm clothes?" "Checked: coats, scarfs, leggings..." Little mentat quickly glanced at three tight bundles in front of her. Normally, ponies do not wear clothes, but here, way up in the sky, beyond the protective dome of the city, you could get really cold, really fast. "Wonderful," Loadstar marked another line on her list, "Equipment and tools... Aria?" "I don't know what we going to do with all this junk, but i got it all" She replied, even though the whole adventure was arranged for her cutie mark. "Here i got them load bearing harnesses with pockets and bags, tools, ropes and all that stuff. Just like in the list, mark that too." Thestral kicked the equipment piled in front of her. Loadstar nodded. "Good, we shall rely on your responsibility. In that case, let’s get dressed!" Next few minutes were filled with the rustling of clothes, quiet clanks and clicking of the locks, cheerful giggles and clapping wings. Soon enough, the cloud pulled by two little fillies departed away from the Spire and headed straight for the never-ending circle-dance of small islands of the archipelago called «the Belt» (Loadstar thought that ancient thestrals lacked in imagination). It got cold quickly: they went past the protective barrier that held the warmth and oxygen around the Spire. Their ears popped from changing air pressure, and breaths got deeper. But in a second, each one of them felt waves of lightness passing through their bodies. And that was most of discomfort that the little citizens of heights noticed; hereditary magic adjusted their bodies to the harshness of the open sky. Loadstar sat on her cloud and looked over the map. "That way!" she shouted, pointing at the cluster of islands to the right. "Those islands are mostly untouched!" "Any idea why?" asked Aria. "They are pretty close to the Spire." Little mentat was waiting for the chance to explain that. "There are no deposits of any minerals, almost no water, and very weak and sparse flora. First flyoneers marked them as worthless, and no one flew here after that. Who would need barren icy rocks, covered in sky-moss and salt-mushrooms?" "Now that's a real mentat," squeaked Grey Mouse. "Ask anything - get an answer." Loadstar blushed a little from such high praise, but Aria intervened. "Got anything better? that not real flyoneering - looping around a bunch of boring rocks." "Flying further is dangerous" Loadstar noted "Fine if we meet Bulgassars, those giants care not for little us, but what if we meet a flock of Night Weepers?" "I laugh in the face of danger" Aria shouted proudly and started flapping harder "Lets go over there!" Her hoof pointed at a decently large island quite far from them. Loadstar quickly guessed that it was over an hour away, and smaller cliffs were blocking their full view of the island in question. "Grey, your vote shall be a deciding one" Said Loadstar as she sat and crossed her forelegs. "According to the CMS's clubs rules, if there is a divisive question, decision will be reached by a vote «Two out of Three»." The shy filly almost fell from the sky, but Aria caught the initiative. "C'mon Mousy! You want me to get a cutie mark - right?" "Y-yeah, very much!" she squeaked in reply. "So to the big island we go!" "O-Okay..." "Two out of Three!" announced Aria, and pulled the cloud off of Loadstar's safe route. Loadstar pouted. "I could object, that the decision was made under duress..." "...But you yourself want to break free from annoying rules and schedules and try something new and cool?" Aria said looking back and squinting her golden eyes. Loadstar sighed and settled on the cloud. How could this hoodlum see her desires better than she could? "Fine," grumbled night unicorn, almost feeling disapproving gazes of adults back at the Spire. "Let's say that the vote passed." The island welcomed little fillies an hour later with lush flora. On Loadstar's command, the cloud was tied to the root of a tree that hung over the edge of the island. Influenced by disorganized magic, the tree grew several ginormous trunks that were intertwined like tentacles. Honesty, everything on this island looked gigantic: flowers that could cover an adult pony, mushrooms as big as a house, and trees springing like towers. After lowering their friend onto the solid ground, all three instinctively huddled together. But worse than the size of the flora was the unnatural silence. The weak and discharged wind could not rustle thick leaves nor plump trunks. No birds nor other animals could be heard either. However, Loadstar did not mind the latter. She did not want to meet any of the few dangerous creatures of the high-lands. Like an Eagle-ponyeater for example. Normally that bird would not be able to snatch a full sized pony, but little fillies, like the CMS's, could quite easily be her prey. "Sh-Shall we?" Grey Mouse peeped, cautiously folding her ears down. "Yeah!" Aria chopped the air with her wing. "Brave flyoneers, ahead HO!" "The Belts map shows this island as «insufficiently charted»" Loadstar noted. "We might be in luck." "Sure we are!" Aria proclaimed, marching forward. * * * When night sky’s stars moved far enough, and CMS-flyoneers settled down for a quick bite to eat, and Loadstar let out a breath of relief. It would appear that this island, like many others, had no settled fauna. Or rather had it in very small amounts. After all, seeds and spores could have been carried here by the silent and apathetic giants - Bulgassars - but for anything else, getting here without wings would be problematic. "I keep forgetting to ask," little mentat said in brief pauses between bites "Why were you allowed to go alone?" "And you?" Aria perked her ears. Loadstar boasted proudly: "I told my mentor, that i am going to have an outdoors exercise, and did not give any additional details, he didn't bother to ask." "Well, we told our parents that we are going with a real mentat." Loadstar looked at the grinning faces of her friends, and all three snickered. Truly, how easy it was to fool adults without even lying to them. "Quiet," said Aria, "You heard that?" Laughter seized momentarily. Grey Mouse, almost dropping her sandwich, voiced a meek peep. Loadstar swallowed her last bite and perked up her ears. Eerie silence was in the air again, intruded upon only by Mouse's scared breathing. Loadstar's red eyes peered at Aria inquiringly. The thestral filly spread her forelegs. "Maybe, i'm imagining things" "What things?" asked Loadstar, picking up her lunch. "Like, someone rustling in the bushes?" The little mentat paused to think for a moment, and said, "Well, considering that we have not yet met anyone, I doubt that it would be anything dangerous. It feels like there isn’t any large fauna around here." After the lunch, the fillies spent quite long hours walking around the forest and climbing the cliffs. Yes, there were other creatures living on the island, but they were indeed small, proving in time that Loadstar's theory about larger creatures and their absence may be accurate. "Looks like this island formed from smaller ones quite recently," Loadstar voiced her new theory, while carefully descending from the crag that was deformed by a small vein of Levium, and looked like somepony’s toothbrush sticking out from the cliff. Unfortunately, finding the rare blue-ish crystals was not enough for a cutie mark to appear on anyone's flank. Loadstar chipped a couple of samples and placed them in her bag, carefully closing the flap. Levium always «fell upwards,» and could easily slip up into the sky. Aria shrugged, and Grey Mouse voiced a cautious approval that mentat would know what to do with it. The fillies relaxed and began talking cheerfully as they stepped into a glade. Another gigantic tree caught their attention. It's bark was covered in scales! Aria went to direct Loadstar's attention to that weirdness, when she noticed that the scales were moving. "Hold it!" whispered little mentat, bulging her eyes. Fillies stood motionless, as Grey Mouse peeped, again. "What's it?" Aria asked quietly, and horned filly pointed at the tree. "Fufflers. A whole swarm. Get the repellent, quick." Aria folded her ears. If examined closely enough, the fillies could see that the scales on the trees bark were, in fact, wings of enormous butterflies. If left alone, they do not pose much danger: there weren't a lot of creatures around Starspire that could harm a pony, even a little filly. But these beefy bugs were known to eat, among other things, any uncured fabric they could get, and that included fur. If a single fuffler could steal a hat of your head, a whole swarm… Movement on the tree's bark sped up. Grey Mouse let out another peep, while the second thestral was furiously rummaging in her bag. "Hurry up!" Loadstar hissed, "They get attracted by our body heat, hurry!" Aria, cursing quietly, upturned her bag and threw the contents on the ground. She remembered, for sure, that she had held the little brown spray bottle in her hooves when she was packing the bag. Sudden realization struck her. She remembered that she placed the bottle on her nightstand and... left it there while looking for the compass and altimeter. She slowly turned her head towards her friends and lowered her ears apologetically. "Sorry gal's" she whispered "Looks like I forgot to pack it..." As though waiting for those words, the swarm of gigantic butterflies took flight. The air filled with the furious fluttering of wings that drowned the screams of three hapless flyoneers… * * * ...Loadstar never thought that anywhere could be THAT cold. She was a bit jealous of her friends, who were tugging the cloud back to the Spire at flank speed and were warmed by flapping their wings. Loadstar had to get up and do push ups, while praying to the Princess of the Night that the cloud walking spell would hold for another half hour. She could not renew it: the scroll, among other things, fell victim to the fuffler swarm. Little mentat winced, remembering how vile bugs broke through her magic shield, and covered little filles head to hoof. Fufflers didn't rest, until they ate all the fillies had on them: clothes, harnesses, bags, but worst and most shameful of all, fur. All three woeful flyoneers were pale and utterly smooth, without a single strand of fur. Loadstar, imagining how she looked before and now, gritted her teeth in futile rage. What a disgrace! But worst of all was being in stratospheric heights without any protection. Before fufflers could finish their feast, the cold started to seep deep into the bones of all three CMS's. There was only one solution: run, and then fly back to safety at top speed. Back to the Spire, back home. "Can you fly any faster?" Loadstar screamed, when cold and humiliation overwhelmed her. "Q-quiet th-there!" replied Aria Midnight, breathing heavily. "You're not helping!" "Oo, Y-yeah, please forgive ungrateful me!" spitefully hissed Loadstar, rattling her teeth and holding herself with forelegs. Touching naked skin was just horrible. "Was it so hard to follow the list, when packing?" "You bore!" screamed Aria, without turning her head. "Me? A bore?" Loadstar stirred, "None of this would have happened if some dumb-head haven't forgotten the repellent! Or at least stayed on planned route!" "G-girls, D-don't fight...p-please?" Grey Mouse asked meekly, but Loadstar heard her: "Don't fight? You only have yourself to blame, Mouse! You have a head of your own! Why did you vote for her?! You always follow Aria's lead, you meek, limp blanket!" "Don't touch Mousy!" Aria stood up for her friend. "Oh, don't piss me off!" Loadstar hissed "Or I swear to Luna, as soon as I get my strength back, I will morph you into a fuffler! And eat you!" Mentat's horn flashed red, once more casting a heat wave over three bodies. She had  nearly exhausted her powers, but luckily, lights of Starspire were closing in fast. "What saddens me most, is that none of us got a cutie mark after all of that," Aria noted, breaking the awkward silence. If Grey Mouse had asked her to lay her cards on the table, Aria would have been ready to admit that it really was her fault. But she was just not ready to openly admit that yet, not while it proved that the little mentat was right. Loadstar didn't have anything to say. She just sat on the cloud helplessly, suppressing the urge to cover herself. The humiliation was just starting to sink in; they all had to go to school tomorrow. And even if winged doofuses deserved their punishment, why was she getting punished with them? Just imagining the mockery she would received from other young mentats, she could barely stop herself from crying. Her pale-grey skin blushed red, and a short cord, all that was left of her pretty and groomed tail, coiled under her. «Oh Luna, why me?» she thought, looking at the night sky. «What have I done to cause your wrath?» "Go to our place!" screamed Aria, and it took Loadstar a moment to realize that Aria hadn’t been talking to her. She understood soon enough. Aria and Grey pulled the cloud to the tower where little rascal lived with her parents: the captain of the Lunar Guards, Midnight Blade, and his wife, a daylight pegasus - Shiny Sun - who had moved from the surface to live with her husband. Well, it was logical. Grey Mouse’s parents lived farther away from the edge of the city, and Loadstar’s boarding school was right in the middle of the city. She really didn't want to go there right now. No way she could be seen by her classmates and teachers in this state! The snow-white pegasus, Shiny Sun, didn't ask anything when she saw three shaved, frozen, and whimpering fillies at her doorstep. "I should have guessed," was all she said, giving the profusely blushing mentat a quick glance. The first thing she did was to pull a large tub of hot water, in which all three of the «flyoneers» were dunked. And only after a cup of warm milk, given to them while they warmed up in the bath, did she start her questioning. Aria took lead, but Loadstar couldn't hold herself from few snarky comments. Shiny listened to their tale, smiled, and patted her daughter saying: "Be grateful you all aren’t pegasi". "Why?" Aria asked quickly. Snow-white mare explained. "Fufflers eat fabric and fur, but feathers are a delicacy for them. If you were pegasus, you would have been stranded on that island, and frozen solid." "Are you going to punish us?" asked Aria sullenly. But the daylight pony just shook her head, smiling. "I think you were punished enough, my brave flyoneers. Hopefully this will teach you to be more careful outside of Spire." An opened door caught everyone’s attention. In the next second, Loadstar dove into the tub with a squeak. On the doorstep, dressed in his invariably blue coat, stood a mentat - Blue Sage, professor of transfiguration, and a part-time High Archivist at the Academy, Shiny Sun's superior. "Good evening, sir," the white pegasus said in greeting. "Thank you for coming." "Mum!" cried Aria. "Why did you call mister Sage?" "So that he can pick up Loadstar, of course. And to bring her some clothes." Pale-grey ears, missing their characteristic tassels, peeked over the edge of the tub. "Master, can i skip school for a week?" asked little mentat plaintively. "Not a chance," He replied, putting a bundle next to the tub "You will definitely go. Here is your parade uniform, you shall wear it daily, while the fur grows back." "But Master!" Red eyes were watery, and her voice broke. "They will laugh at me!" Shiny Sun sighed. She’d learned long ago that it was futile to beg the senior archivist for anything. "No «Buts»" said the elder mentat. "Your transfiguration exam is in five days,and it will determine which students are ready for practice. Not only that, this will be a good lesson for you." Loadstar, whose ears now become the hue of the setting sun, just sobbed. She wanted to fall through the floor, floating island and smash the ground somewhere around Equestria. She suddenly felt two hooves on her shoulders. She raised her watery red eyes and met with a pair of golden eyes. "I'm sorry," said Aria Midnight. "It was all my fault. I promise that I will listen closely to your advice." "Forgive me too," whispered Grey Mouse. "I should have weighed the options... like you did." Loadstar sniffed, and looked at Blue Sage. He was standing there silently, waiting for something. Shiny Sun stood next to him, pretending to look out of the window at something very interesting. Little mentat sighed, and lowered her eyes. "Yeah, well... I goofed too. Sorry for being so rough on our way back. You saved me after all..." Next she felt two thestrals hugging her. "Friends?" Aria asked. "Friends," Loadstar echoed. "Friends," whispered Grey Mouse. A quick glance at her master confirmed that he was still standing there, a smile tugging at the corner of his lips...