"Uhh." Valey blinked, staring across at the mare she hadn't counted on running into. "Heya. Yeah, I'm back."
Crystal was well-groomed as usual, with bags under her eyes that spoke of too much sleep and a good two inches left in her shoulders if she stood straighter. But her coat and mane were well-cared for, and her foal was bigger, too, fitting tightly despite her new, expanded uniform. She stared at Valey with eyes that hadn't hoped in ages.
Flinging caution to the winds, Valey strolled closer. "So, you actually wanna talk to me? Like, no offense, but this doesn't happen every day."
"Since when do you not?" Crystal asked dryly. "Well, here I am."
Valey glanced back at the entrance. This was an unusually warm welcome from the bitter mare... "So, uh, my ship just got here and we've got an injured pegasus and could really use calling in a favor with that healing machine thing in your hospital. You know where any of the local honchos are, like maybe Percival? Someone who could help us with that?" Her eyes shifted. "If we could get that taken care of, I'd love to hang out with you, and stuff..."
Crystal gave her a look that suggested she was wrong about everything, but didn't waste time nodding. She turned, letting Valey follow her backside up a staircase and through several doors with the efficiency of someone who did this for a living. Valey had to admit, it wasn't a terrible place to be when her host wasn't making her feel awkward and being depressing.
Quickly, they came to a study, the door open and Percival poring over documents in all his regalia behind. Valey hadn't seen him often, but it wasn't difficult to remember the griffon's brightly-colored robes. "Admiral," Percival greeted, looking up. "I see our distinguished guests have returned. Allow me to make you two comfortable."
He rose from his chair, stepping around the room, and quickly drew out two chairs from caddies in the wall, their backs designed the same as the wall paneling to make it look like there was nothing there. Valey nodded appreciatively at the plushness, then frowned as he closed the door. "I get being a cool dude, but don't nobles usually have maids around to... you know... do maid stuff?"
Percival made eye contact as he returned to his desk. "You know our secret. No need to put on airs with you."
"Uh huh." Valey glanced at Crystal's sizable belly. "The one where that's yours. Don't worry, I won't tell. But look, before anyone starts on that, I've got some business real quick?"
Percival watched her. "Your crew are esteemed guests of state. Everyone is aware you have permission to come and go and use our docks as you please."
"We need a bit more than that." Valey scratched her ear. "Hospital stuff. Got someone who's real busted up. Think you can cover that?"
"It shall be done." Percival stood up, walking to the door and preparing to leave. "Wait one moment."
When the door closed behind him, Crystal looked expectantly at Valey. Valey looked back. "Look, I don't know how things are between us," she began. "I'm pretty sure you still think I'm a nuisance at best, and I really wish you'd be nicer to me. But since we ran into each other, what's up?"
Crystal's face shadowed. "I need help."
"Really?" Valey raised an eyebrow. "I mean, not that you don't, but things are bad enough you're willing to ask?"
Crystal glared at her.
Before Valey could figure out what next to say, the door opened again and Percival stepped expediently back through. Once he was inside, he bolted it behind him, and Valey couldn't help but notice the room's lights were focused on the doorjamb. No one would be sneaking in.
"You," Percival began, seating himself again at his desk, "I've heard things about. Travelers are starting to reach us again from Ironridge, but the most important things are from Crystal, here." He motioned to her with a talon. "My queen."
Crystal's brow creased, also looking at Valey. "You're rude, pushy, think you're far more sensitive than you are, and keep looking at me even though you know I belong to someone else." Valey winced, narrowing her eyes, but Crystal continued. "You're also stubbornly committed to doing what you want, and for some unfathomable reason you want to help me even though I push you away. I've known you for months now. And you're strong enough to fight in the tournament and reach the third round." She swallowed, looking like she was eating gravel. "I strongly dislike you, but the alternative is losing my family and my life. You're our only hope."
Valey glanced nervously around for anything hidden. "Uhh... look, I kind of showed up just now to get some medical help for my friend. I didn't actually say anything yet about running back here to throw myself into a bonfire for you guys. So, uh, sorry if you're reading into this..."
Crystal looked unsurprised. "I know you didn't. You still came back once before, after two months. That's more than anyone else has put up with me except Percival and Meyneth. I'm not waiting for you to offer. I'm asking. Please help me. Please help my Percival's child."
"Uhhhhh..." Valey blinked, eyes flickering between Crystal, who was hugging herself, to Percival, watching her intently. She had no idea what to make of this, had forced Crystal as far from her mind as possible during the Mistvale trip and barely remembered where things stood, except that Crystal was provocative, bitter and mean, and she took it as a challenge when the older mare said she was beyond aid. "So what's that entail?"
"If we could help ourselves, we would have done it. That's for you to figure out, if you can." Percival watched her, folding his talons atop a stamp on his desk. "Crystal has told you our problem. Sarosians breed true to their partner. In her womb, our child is a griffon. Chauncey's trusted doctors have verified this time and again. To Garsheeva, our union is a crime, crossing species lines without being a sphinx, and the child will stand as proof of that like blood on our talons and hooves."
"Neat." Valey nodded. "So why doesn't she give birth in secret somewhere, then just pretend it's someone else's and her kid died and everything will be peachy? You've apparently got some doctors in on this."
Crystal's ears pressed back in a painful grimace. "Because of my grandfather," she said.
Percival nodded. "Chauncey and Crystal have a negative relationship. At first, he blessed our union, and we took it as an attempt at reparations. He is loyal to Izvaldi, after all. A year ago, after many failures at the tournament and an inability to legitimize our relationship with a wish, what you said was even our plan. Izvaldi's sphinx is dead and has been for years. When word becomes public, my reign will end. I would abdicate quietly, withdraw with Crystal from public view, and we would start a family together out from the eye of any goddess, using the remnants of our resources to shield us. But then, when she became pregnant..."
Crystal's breath started to heave. "That traitor," she hissed, "That traitor. H-He... wanted to use us..."
"Chauncey has a fascination with the divine," Percival continued, not breaking speech as he slipped from his desk and picked Crystal up, caressing her until she calmed, clinging to him. "It drives him to do great things in the service of Izvaldi and my mission... to create an equal land for griffons, ponies and sarosians alike. You can see where I would foster that desire. But Chauncey disregards Garsheeva and the Night Mother, believing neither are here to help that missions. He wants to make his own god, a champion for sarosiankind that will lead them in Garsheeva's visible style, someone the rest of the Empire cannot ignore. Our child..."
"He wants our child as a flag," Crystal choked. "To take them a-and put them on a pedestal where the whole Empire can see them for as long as it takes Garsheeva to knock them down! He wants to use the product of our love as a taunt against powers that will crush him and us along with him! To rub our child in the goddesses' faces to show what he got away with letting us create. He's insane... Either he's l-lost his mind, or has given up and wants to take us down with him!"
Valey's eyebrows both rose. "Wait, seriously? What kind of nutcase basically declares war on Garsheeva and the Night Mother at the same time? Has he always wanted to do this? You told me last time or the time before hiding underground was possible!"
Crystal bitterly swallowed. "I-It was possible until recently. He was still going to use our child as a standard, but wait until something more happened. I would be protected underground with the child after the birth. But then you took away Puddles, who he was using for experiments and also kept us Wallace Whitewing. Now he's had setbacks, and we can't win the t-tournament. Now once our c-child comes, it will be the end..."
Valey's face fell again. She could tell which direction her heart was being pulled already. This plight was stupid, and it wasn't hard to see why Crystal was such a wreck if she had to deal with something like that on top of the Empire's usual conditions for sarosians. But that didn't mean there was much she could do...
"How much time do you have?" Valey asked, glancing at Crystal's belly.
"At best?" Percival looked up. "A month, if it was a normal pregnancy, to her due date. But griffons are slightly larger than ponies, and there's obviously never been a recorded case before to use as a precedent. This far along, we fear every day could be our last together."
"Oh bananas." Valey leaned forward, rubbing her forehead. "Yeah, you two are in deep."