"Why are we changing directions?" Felicity whispered urgently in Valey's ear, clinging to her back in a far less-ladylike manner than her usual demeanor. "Do be careful, darling!"
"I am!" Valey called back, keeping her voice as silent as she could in the quiet valley. "But I think someone's gonna start shooting at us if we go any further that way. So, we find another way!"
They descended toward the mountainside, both taking stock of the geography around them. The long, narrow valley they had flown in through revealed itself to have a river at the base, which emptied into a large lake wide enough across that someone would be hard to hear yelling from the other end. Judging by the mountains that bordered its other ends, it was open to the sea, a mostly-enclosed natural cove that was big enough to have even more-sheltered areas within it. From her knowledge of Sosa, Valey figured it would be a prime location for harboring ships... and with what she knew about Mistvale, that probably meant pirates.
"Alright, girl," Valey quietly panted, landing in a forested clearing and stretching her sore wings. "I hope you're feeling up to going it on your own for a bit, because I'm getting worn out. Whatever we're looking for is up ahead, and I really wanna see it before it sees us."
"I think so, yes." Felicity brushed herself off, getting to her hooves. "I know I just had an embarrassing showing back there, but I at least pride myself on being stealthy."
"Right." Valey nodded. "And if push comes to shove, is there anything else important you can or can't do I should know about?"
Felicity cleared her throat, looking slightly hesitant... and nodded. "My brand can manipulate the emotions of everyone nearby. Not change them, but suppress them or make them more intense."
Valey regarded her for a moment. "Huh. So you can lower tensions before a fight?"
"Among many other things." Felicity glanced away. "It's quite a tool for pushing isolated ponies into hasty or foolish decisions, and just as effective at inducing laziness or apathy. Just a warning, though, it affects everyone. So while I have years of practice keeping a level head and compensating for the effects on myself... apologies in advance if I mess with your head, darling. I'll only use it to keep us safe."
"...Well, great. Mind magic is my favorite." Valey sighed, then made eye contact, Felicity's red ones to her green ones. "I'm trusting you, here. And we're absolutely talking more about you afterwards."
Felicity bowed. "I think that will benefit all of us. Lead the way?"
Valey opted not to fly, creeping along the forest floor. She had almost no experience in this terrain; while the groves of Ironridge were carefully curated and everything she cared about was in the treetops, the forests of Mistvale were tall and coniferous. Blankets of twigs and needles coated the ground, and she could never tell when a hoofstep would be silent and springy or make a loud crack. Some steps contained loose rocks or even boulders, and her cutie mark barely warned her of an invisible patch of pitch where a piece of bark had fallen. In some places the undergrowth was heavy, and in others there was nothing, and she followed her best indication of danger downhill, sloping toward the cove and the river.
Felicity was far more graceful, shadow swimming up to her waist, with only her head and back and the arch of her tail sticking out above the forest floor. Sheepishly, Valey copied her, gliding along through the dimness partially submerged. First, they heard voices. Then they found a trail. Then they reached the edge of the forest.
Leading up to the water, on the side of the river and following it back into the woods, an artificial clearing had been forged. Tree stumps still remained at the closest border with the forest, and next to the river, logs were being cleaned and stripped of their branches and stacked in a well-maintained pile. A single building stood completed, built with one story and freshly-hewn timbers, and another looked to be on its way up, next to an area of hastily-erected shelters that had been reinforced over time. The place was inhabited; Valey counted about two dozen earth ponies and unicorns inhabiting the camp. But there were no griffons, pegasi, batponies or fliers of any kind.
"Smokeless fire," Felicity breathed, pointing to a stone-lined fire pit where a unicorn was holding a steady spell over a cooking pot and a flame fueled by chopped-up stumps. "And what are they building over there?"
Valey followed her gaze to where treated, curved boards were being assembled using sawhorses near the river. "Looks like a boat," she whispered back. "A pretty big one, too. At least the size of Shinespark's." She pointed across the compound, next to the finished building where a guard kept watch on the skies from a box on the roof. "I'm more worried about that."
Felicity frowned, seeing the target: a large, triangular assembly of wood built with taut ropes and a large rock in a sling.
"That's a catapult," Valey murmured. "Someone here is ready for a siege."
"Technically, darling, it's a trebuchet," Felicity quietly corrected, pressing up against Valey's side. "And yes, they are. I vote we listen and try to get something about who these ponies are."
Valey put a wing over her back, pulling her further into the shadows. "Yeah. Quick inventory stock in my saddlebags, I've got the sound stone, a battery, my anti-batpony flash club... not a lot to work with for espionage."
Felicity smiled, touching a wing to her lips. "Leave this all to me. And be ready to control yourself, darling. Intensifying things."
They stealthily made their way over to a set of log benches near the shelters and the fire where three stallions were eating without talking. For a moment, Valey felt normal... and then there was the strangest sensation that almost registered in her ears. She felt all at once more curious about this place as a whole, almost enough to put an attitude on and walk into the middle of the clearing like she owned the place. But before she could decide whether it was a good idea, Felicity pre-emptively grabbed her and held her close, seeming to read her mind. Suddenly, Valey was far more aware that Felicity, the pony who was hugging her, was a mare and very attractive. She folded her ears, cheeks burning, letting her ally know she was getting an idea for what this talent did and was planning on doing absolutely nothing her brain told her.
"Argh!" a stallion grumbled from the benches, throwing down his empty wooden bowl as he succumbed to the mark's emotional enhancement too. "My horn hurts!"
"Shut it, Vargas," another stallion sighed, hiding his unshaven lips behind his bowl. "Boss isn't back yet. We still might reach that ship."
Vargas massaged his temple. "We have no idea how thick these clouds even are from day to day! For all we know we could have powered the signal half that hard and they would have seen it, or had three times this many unicorns and still been completely invisible! For all we know it was a sarosian ship and they flew on by on purpose."
"You ain't suffering alone," the third stallion, also a unicorn, muttered. "Probably gonna have to pause construction for the day after putting all that work into things. But have a little hope. You ever heard of a sarosian airship?"
"I know next to nothing about Mistvale," Vargas growled. "It's why we don't usually do business there! For all I know they have all the airships here and that's why the Empire was so reliant on us."
"Put your frustration somewhere useful, please," the second stallion said. "The moment we let our tempers turn us on each other is the moment we let those accursed bats win, if the boss doesn't kick our rears for it first. Speaking of which, show some faith! She does as much work as the rest of us put together to survive out here."
"Come on," Felicity mouthed, her breath tickling Valey's ear. "Tell us more about your boss, or these sarosians..."
The quieter unicorn shook his head and stood up. "Whatever. I'm gonna get more stew and maybe take a shift on the fire. I feel like doing something productive for some reason."
Vargas scoffed, but quickly found himself alone. Grumbling, he retrieved his bowl and left, too.
Valey felt her curiosity recede as Felicity pulled her further away from the camp, though her cheeks stayed red. She started swimming on her own, though, and once they had put a good five minutes between them and the ponies, they finally deemed it safe to stop again and converse in hushed voices.
"Well," Felicity declared, standing up. "That was certainly a start. We learned-" She turned to face Valey and blinked. "Oh my. You're... err... quite pink, darling. Was I...?"
"Your cutie mark," Valey mumbled, wishing she had a bucket of water. "My problem. No big deal."
Felicity gave her a knowing look and a teasing smile. "Well, let your mind wander where it needs to, so long as you don't get critically distracted. To use a favorite phrase of yours, perhaps we should talk about this later?"
Valey groaned.
"Present problems first, darling." Felicity patted her on the back, but... suddenly, Valey's mind felt leveler and emptier, and she didn't notice as much. "Better? Now let's focus on what to do next. As best as I can guess, these ponies are familiar with airships, not of the Empire, and hoping for a rescue..."