Hearthfire was happy to see more of Dew’s world. It bore no resemblance to Equestria or Manehattan, but at the same time was instantly familiar; a curious sensation. The city-under-construction was not absolute, and as they walked side by side, they slipped down alleys that led to scraps of rolling meadow, or green-carpeted marshes that squelched satisfyingly beneath their hooves. The creatures they met were as enchanting and full of life as their surroundings, the sapling trees and the omnipresent climbing vines were home to hordes of colourful birds and flitting insects. Dew walked amongst the flourishing chaos with the air of a proud mother, continuously excited by and delighting in the pure existence of the lives she was responsible for. It was almost possible for Hearthfire to lose herself in it all, and forget that she was here for only a limited time; a fact which Dew seemed utterly oblivious of, and showed no sign of ending the tour any time soon...
“This is all wonderful, Dew, perhaps I should be returning to the buffer? Cas is waiting for me, and I wish to visit the other Seasons while I still have time.”
“Oh, you are right, how inconsiderate of me, Hearthfire.”
“Not at all. Thank you for inviting me.”
“Quite all right, my dear,” Dew accepted her thanks easily, and in a blink they were back in the grassy quadrangle beneath the sky blue gazebo once more. For the first time, the ruler of the Spring seemed unsure, but she pressed on doggedly:
“However, before you leave, could I perhaps make one small request of you?”
“Well, I’m sure I can consider it at least. What do you need?”
“The item the king of the Winter was after, could I see it?”
Just like that, Hearthfire was on edge. The question slipped in innocuously enough, a little hesitation but nothing that should trip alarm bells as swiftly as it had... but she was a stranger in a strange world, no matter how pleasant and friendly the place and its owner might seem. She was playing by a set of rules she didn’t understand, guided by guesswork and cryptic hints. Hadn’t the king been just as friendly and accommodating, too, until he had his eyes set on something that he wanted?
“I don’t see the harm in letting you look at it,” she started, uncertainly, “I don’t know if I should let you touch it, though.”
“Oh my, aren’t we cautious?” Dew did her best to laugh it off, but it rang a touch hollow. “I suppose that will have to do, and I shall chalk it up to another lovely opportunity ruined by the Ice King’s greedy paws. If only I had come for you first, little pony of the Spring, we could have gotten along so much better...”
Hearthfire smiled as if she was taking Dew’s words as the joke that her tone suggested, and found the shard once more, still resting on top of the other contents of the Box from earlier. She unwrapped it, and held it up for the alicorn-shape to look at. Dew stepped first one way, then the other, peering at the shard from all angles, kneeling to bring Hearthfire’s hoof up to her eye level, peering as if she could consume it with her gaze. For her part, Hearthfire kept her eyes on the prize, too. It made her feel like the mark at a game of Find the Lady, sure she could spot the trick if only she could focus hard enough...
“It is impressive,” Dew murmured, rising to her full height once more. “It is a small fragment, to be sure, but a tiny fragment of a whole the size of the world. I’m positively tingling with ideas for what I could do with it, you know. A little piece of the Winter? Oh my.”
She looked away when she was done, turned her back on Hearthfire, and asked quietly, “Are you sure that there is nothing I can offer you that might persuade you to part with it?”
“I’m certain.”
“Very well,” she sighed, “You’d best put it away, Hearthfire, before it tempts me to some drastic action.”
Hearthfire hadn’t realised that she was holding her breath until she finally remembered to exhale. She wrapped the fragment again, careful not to let any part of her body come into direct contact with the frostbitten surface. When the Box was closed and stowed away once more, Dew turned back, all smiles again.
“I’m sorry that you had to see that. It is in our nature to covet, I’m afraid. I hope I’ve not dissuaded you from visiting me again, if you still have the time.”
If you’ve got nothing nice to say, don’t say anything at all.
“I’ll have to see. I... don’t actually know how much time I’ve got left.”
“Yes, I suppose it probably is confusing to somepony used to the rise and fall of the sun to tell the time. The buffer will know.”
She extended a limb for a farewell hoof-shake; Hearthfire took it, and that was when the supreme ruler of the Spring chose to strike. Dew pulled, hard, setting the smaller unicorn off balance, and as Hearthfire’s eyes went wide with surprise, their gazes met.
It was coming home.
- her hoof grasped the handle, and twisted, and she pushed open the front door of her parent’s Manehattan apartment. The sound of her father’s hoof-driven lathe was coming from the rear of the house, where one room was given wholly over to his workshop. Five paces down the hall, and to her left her mother was sat at the kitchen table, with the morning’s copy of the Mercury folded beside the her half-finished breakfast. Her mother glanced up from her reading with a look of surprise that broke and metamorphosed into joy. They hugged, and her mother planted kisses on her cheeks as Cas danced at their heels. She pilfered a morsel from the breakfast plate as they split apart, and crept back out into the hall - no need really, no way her father would hear her approach over the sound of his hobby - and paused outside the door to his sanctum. Her hoof grasped the handle, and twisted, and she pushed open the front door of her parent’s Manehattan apartment -
Falling down the alicorn’s gaze, window into the bottomless expanding fractal that the pony-shape concealed, she struggled feebly, but it was useless. It wrapped her, enveloped her, threatened to subsume her, strangle her in layers of recursive assault.
Then Cas bit her leg.
Pain blossomed up from below, fracturing the hypnotic illusion and sending the damaged variant cascading through the web at the speed of thought.
“Ow!” Hearthfire yanked her back hoof away from the source of the injury, and promptly lost her balance and fell sideways. The alicorn was left with the choice to either release her or be dragged down too; she chose to keep her footing and abandon her grip.
The grass was slightly damp, and had an early-morning chill to it that assisted in bringing her back to her senses. Cas was stood between her and Dew, hissing venemously; Dew was looking down at the pair of them with a mixture of confusion and anger. Hearthfire was careful not to catch hold of those eyes again. She doubted she could resist a second time, even though she now knew what was coming.
“I see.” Dew took a step closer, her eyes narrowing dangerously, and Cas was forced to give ground.
“Send us back to the buffer, right now!” Hearthfire demanded, squeezing her eyes shut to protect herself and hoping against hope that it would work here the same way it had in the Winter.
* * *