I sat alone at the prow of the Daughter of Wintergreen, letting the wind lift my wings. Standing there with my eyes closed, I could almost understand why so many ponies liked to fly. They could have this feeling whenever they wanted, and without a machine to restrict their movement. The Daughter of Wintergreen brought with it a noisy thaumic impellor, and a floor that shuddered and listed gently with every passing gasp of wind.
“Didn’t think I’d find you up here!” Dawn said. I didn’t turn around, and wasn’t surprised to feel her sit down beside me a moment later. I moved over, making room at the front of the ship. I still didn’t open my eyes. “Shouldn’t you be in the library, or… doing other scholar things?”
Finally I looked up. Just beside me, Dawn’s face caught the bright orange light of sunset. Behind her the clouds spread like an ocean, more welcoming than the real water far below. I can’t believe I got away with this. Possibly the prettiest creature in the whole world. This was just supposed to be a book.
“Staring at me is not a scholar thing,” she said, reaching over and closing my mouth with a claw. “Though I do like to see a pony appropriately recognizing my majesty.”
That’s right. Better thinking about that than being a half-breed. “You bet,” I said. “I… have a lot of work to do on the book. But I keep expecting the navy to show up and stop us. Or worse… if they’re going to shoot us down, I want to see it coming.”
“Your eyes were closed,” she said, shoving me backward with a claw. Way stronger than a pegasus, though she was no earth pony. “Don’t make stuff up. You like it.”
So much for getting away with it. I nodded weakly. “I didn’t before. It was dangerous and pointless. Pegasus ponies in Equestria work so much harder to live in the clouds, you wouldn’t believe. Cloudsdale has an entire infrastructure of thousands to do what a few hundred and a train could manage on the ground. All for the luxury of living up high.”
“I’ve heard about it!” Dawn bounced around me to the other side, hopping up onto the railing. Her claws dug into the wood, but I didn’t hear anypony try to stop her. Considering what they were being paid, I suspected she could rip off whole sections of the deck without objection. “We should add it to the list! Mom said you should take me on a tour… have you been there before?”
“Nope,” I admitted. “But we can see it together. Hopefully after I finish the book, so Twilight doesn’t come and kill me.”
“The princess?” She tugged on my hoof, dragging me back towards our quarters. I didn’t resist, and not just because of the other things we might do there. My notes were down there, along with the book I was assembling. All my interviews, all the internal sources I’d collected from the Republic. Baring a few gaps we would soon fill, it was shaping up to be quite an academic achievement.
I wonder if I can defend my thesis and get executed by Canterlot at the same time.
We had seen a few griffon ships pass so far, and none had tried to shoot or follow us. Maybe Dawn’s departure was secret. Maybe we’d actually survive to reach Equestria.
Maybe I somehow wouldn’t cause an international incident that would torment both countries for a generation to come.
“Here!” Dawn tugged me all the way over to my massive world map, which was now pinned on one wall. At least the Daughter of Wintergreen had a proper captain’s quarters—now our home, and possibly would be for some time to come.
There was already a clear division between “my” side of the room and “hers,” considering the desk on my side along with reams of notes and papers and piles of books. It was hardly the quiet studio for me to assemble my masterpiece—but it was enough.
The only real question left wasn’t whether we would assemble enough information to complete the book, but whether Dawn would leave me enough free time to do the assembling.
“Right here!” she said, settling my hoof on the Equestrian map, right over Cloudsdale’s spot. “Put a pin there! We’re going!”
I nodded, removing one from the wall and pressing it into the paper. There were only two others so far—Canterlot, and Mt. Aris. At the rate they were being added, we would probably be visiting every city in Equestria by the time we actually got there.
“Cloudsdale isn’t actually here,” I said. “Or, it might be, but it probably isn’t. We’ll have to visit after we’ve been somewhere else, since it moves. The factory goes wherever needs weather the most.”
She shrugged, finally letting go. “That’s for you to figure out. That’s what you’re good for, right? Books and directions and scrolls and… that stuff.”
“Hopefully a few other things.” I leaned in close, kissing her.
After a while, she reluctantly conceded the point.
We faced no obstructions during our departure from Accipian’s waters. The occasional merchant ship hailed us without incident. No armada, no assassins. Each day I felt more amazed, but there it was.
As much as I wanted to visit New Scythia first, captain Bluejacket’s own advice won out in the end. “Still Republic territory down there, in a loose sense. Colony, maybe. But I think you want to stay away until it cools down a little more. The Wintergreen isn’t a fast ship anymore, and there isn’t a ship in the sky faster than the telegraph.”
Griffonstone, on the other hand, was a firmly Equestrian territory, stronger now than it had ever been during the war.
I tried to use our time in transit productively, and sometimes I succeeded. Other times I was with Dawn. It was a good thing I’d finished most of the book before leaving Equestria, or I wouldn’t stand a chance of getting Twilight her draft by the deadline.
Eventually Griffonstone came into view below us, a city as transformed by the Migration War as anywhere in Accipio.
I’d seen images of this place from long before Accipio had influence here, in what one of Twilight’s own papers described as “the total breakdown of a people without an identity.” The griffons who once lived here were severed from Accipio by many generations, though some of the ruins that endured had reminded them of former glories. But friendship and cooperation were pony values, and so indulging them was evil.
The end result had been a city that was more like a hundred thousand little city states. There were no public services, no ruler, no court. The ancient photo pinned in my draft showed buildings collapsing, trash in the streets, and evidence of violence between the birds who once lived there.
Griffonstone didn’t look anything like that anymore. Its construction resembled any other city in Equestria in basic plan, with its central castle forming a city center to be surrounded by other government buildings. The homes spaced around it followed the same model as the ancient ones, and a few looked like they might be the same ones.
But most of this city burned near the end of the war. The details are unclear even to me, though I have some idea. It wouldn’t have taken much to burn it, based on that old photo.
Like Caesarea, more important buildings had been built taller, with balconies and other entries on the top floor. But like most places in Equestria, there were also doors on the ground. This city didn’t ostracize those without wings.
“Not much of a dock in Griffonstone,” Bluejacket called from just beside me, gesturing down over the railing. “It’s a humble place for certain. But the birds are kind enough. Never even hear any horror stories of ponies going missing here.”
“I think I know the truth about those rumors,” Dawn added, landing beside me and draping a wing over my shoulder. “They’re stolen by ruthless birds, never to be released. I know I’m not ready to let go.”
For a bird who had been nervous about what our relationship might do, she was now—flippant, almost. Her joy was one of the things that made her so pretty, so I wasn’t going to complain. I certainly wasn’t embarrassed about our relationship. Worried, maybe… but hiding was out of the question. The emperor already knew. The only one who didn’t yet… Sweet Celestia I need to write to Twilight before she hears rumors about this.
I would send a telegram from Griffonstone, right before we left. That way she couldn’t tell me to come back, or do anything else that might interrupt the research. ‘Sorry, Princess! We’d already left! What, I forgot to say where we were going next? I’m so sorry!’
“You said there was an… administrator we could talk to?” I asked, glancing to one side. “Isn’t that right?”
“Yeah…” Dawn’s ears flattened. “If you want to talk about boring scholar stuff, you want Gabriella. She apparently started off right down at the bottom of the ladder when Vengeance was oppressing griffonstone for their own ends or whatever. But she was just too good at everything, and so she rose through the ranks. Kind of an… icon of sorts for the freedmen. Now she’s retired, and she administers this place to keep her young.
“Can’t we do something fun first? Griffonstone is supposed to be really old… the old Endurance clan has a lot of history. My father said they used to be proud birds.” She lifted into the air, hovering over the railing as the Daughter of Wintergreen drew into dock. Bluejacket returned to the helm, leaving the two of us mostly alone there.
“Sure.” I nodded deferentially. “I wouldn’t mind doing fun things with you. I don’t think we’ll be able to find me flying lessons, though. We can’t stay here that long.”
“Oh, don’t even worry about it.” She grinned mischievously, landing behind me and lifting one of my wings with hers. “They’ve got a monastery here. Some of the birds are loyal to my father’s house. I bet at least one of them is a flight instructor. We’ll bring the teacher with us!”
I rolled my eyes, but mostly for effect. Learning to fly did seem increasingly practical.
We did some fun things first. The city did have a history. There were old trails into the canyon, though we could go only so deep before the natural hazards of the climate forced us up again. I visited the library to purchase a few books, the museum to learn a little about the nightmares of the Migration War.
Then Dawn got bored of “scholar stuff”, and we used gold I never could’ve dreamed of to pay for a dinner from the fanciest restaurant in the city. We ate the finest creation of the resident master, Gustave Le Grand, and spent the night on a rooftop hotel to watch the stars
Dawn’s trip to the monastery—for religious observance as well as recruitment—was the opportunity to finally make my way to the administrator’s office for an interview.
Gabriella’s office wasn’t in the palace, but in a towering building nearby, connected with a huge bridge over the ravine to fields and plantations. A minotaur guard stopped me at the door, wearing metal links around his hands but no chains connecting them.
I winced at the sight, lowering my head apologetically as we made our way up the stairs. “You were a slave,” I said, incredibly awkward. “I’m sorry, but why would you want to wear those anymore?”
The minotaur laughed, loud enough that the whole stairwell seemed to shake. “To remember that no pony needed to set me free. Gina and I together—we achieved this. She set herself free, helped each of us do the same. Of course other slaves wish to forget. Their freedom is nothing to them, if a pony pen gave it. We took ours.”
This was something new to me, but I resisted the urge to try and interview him about it right here.
“Gina…” I repeated. “I think I may’ve spoken to your master. She’s the city lord of Caesarea, I believe. You’ve come a long way.”
He clasped me on the shoulder with one paw, grinning enthusiastically. “Aye, little pony! Far indeed! Worked for many a year for her, out of service for my freedom. But it was too quiet, not enough blood to be shed.”
They reached the top of the stairs, and the office door. The minotaur swung it open for me.
Now all I have to do is somehow get out of this city without the princess coming to kill me.