“This is awesome!”
“This is insane!”
“Insanely awesome!” Little Braveheart hadn’t left the front of the zeppelin since it had taken off, the wind blowing her hair back and making her grin. “Look how far down the ground is! All those trees down there look like little toys!”
Brooks put his hoof over his mouth and took deep breaths. “I’d rather not think about it,” he muttered. Ash patted his shoulder comfortingly.
“Flying can take some getting used to, but it’s really amazing,” she assured him.
Sunny smiled from where she stood near the back, next to Hugo. The flightless griffon was standing behind a steering wheel, a look of immense concentration on his face as he carefully piloted them around the Crystal Mountains. Sunny had offered to take it from him multiple times, but he had always declined, saying that it was a very delicate machine, and he should handle it, as he was the only one who knew how. This always made Imara roll her eyes.
“How hard can a flying basket be to steer?” she would always ask.
“I can’t believe you had this sitting in your basement for so long,” Kailani said now, standing at the rail and studying the craftsmanship with an intrigued look. “It’s very detailed and precise.”
“Thanks!” For some reason, Hugo’s cheeks flushed, and he quickly diverted his attention back to the route. “I’ve always been looking for a way to fly without wings - you know, since-” He flapped his wings once and folded them up again. “But I never really had an excuse to try this one out - and a giant zeppelin flying over Griffonstone might raise some questions.”
“Didn’t they know how smart you were?” Kailani asked, looking shocked.
Hugo shook his head. “They actually thought I was a bit of a nerd… and that most of my projects were useless inventions that couldn’t do anything.”
“How ignorant are most griffons?”
Hugo fell silent, and Sunny said hurriedly, “I’m sure they’re just going through a rough period right now. Under normal circumstances, I’m sure griffons are quite lovely creatures, right, Hugo?”
“Something like that,” he muttered. “Though we haven’t had ‘normal circumstances’ for more than a century.”
“Oh.” Kailani put her claw on his shoulder, her expression sympathetic. “That must be hard. I… I can’t even imagine.”
“It’s fine,” the griffon said hurriedly. He glanced at the map Sunny had given him and glanced down at the snowy mountain range below them. “We’re nearing Yakyakistan - we should find a place to land. How about… right there?”
My friends are down there.
Sunny stood atop the mountain, staring down into the valley below her as the wind whipped at her mane. The snow had finally ceased, allowing her to see the glittering shield surrounding the Crystal Empire, protecting it from the cold. It seemed weaker now, not fueled by the same amount of energy as it had been before. But Sunny hardly cared.
Her friends were in there somewhere - she had a feeling. They were facing King Sombra, they were probably wondering where she was and if she was alright. She wondered if they had figured out that she had escaped the Legion of Doom. They must, or else she knew they would never have come up here - especially Hitch. He would never have left if he knew she was somewhere nearby.
They were down there… together.
The very thought made her heart ache.
“Sunny! We found it!”
She turned around to see a large yak running towards her, floundering through the deep snow drifts. The yak was surrounded by light as Imara appeared, grinning. “Yakyakistan,” she gasped, out of breath. “I-it’s just over there.”
“That’s… great!” Sunny smiled, but the changeling must have sensed that something else was bothering her friend. And it didn’t take her long to figure it out.
Imara stood next to Sunny as the earth pony turned to stare longingly at the valley down below, proving her suspicions correct. “Thinking about your friends, huh?”
“Yeah…” Sunny stopped. “How’d you know?”
“Oh, please, it wasn’t that hard to figure out,” Imara said teasingly, giving her friend a playful shove. “I’ve heard all about them from you, and every time you talk about them, you get this look in your eyes - and now it’s all over your face.”
Sunny sighed but didn’t deny it. “They’re down there right now,” she said quietly, and the feeling of saying it out loud reinforced her feeling that it was true.
“Does this have something to do with those strange feelings Kailani’s been getting?” Imara asked, glancing back at their camp, which was still on the zeppelin that Hugo had brought. “Because now she won’t stop shivering. Do you think they might actually mean something?”
She shrugged. “I’m not sure.” Sunny glanced at the sky, at the dark, swirling clouds above them. There was something… magical about them.
Imara transformed into a yak and gestured to behind her. “So… Do you want to go talk to some yaks or what?”
“Oh, yes, of course,” Sunny said hastily, following her through the snow. “What’s it like?”
“I only saw the outside,” Imara explained, her hoof sinking into a particularly deep drift. She growled and shook the worst of it off. “There’s this massive gate with two wooden yak statues that have seen better days, and I don’t know how to get inside.”
Sunny grinned, and her horn and wings appeared. “Lucky we have magic on our side.”
The yak village had a small town feel about it - probably because it was a small town. All the huts were wooden with straw roofs and had smoke winding from the chimneys from the fires that must be in there to keep out the cold. A massive fire roared in the center, surrounded by a few yaks, sticking close to the warmth despite the heavy blankets on their backs and their thick hair that must be adapted to the frigid conditions.
The yaks bore a striking resemblance to the buffalo - large and bulky in shades of black and gray, but the yaks were shaggier, and their hair usually fell in their faces in massive bangs. Some of them had it tied into beards under their chins, and they all had helmets with holes for their huge horns to stick out.
Once again, it was amazing how the yaks easily ignored Sunny, though perhaps it was because she had trusted Imara to join her, disguised as a yak, and it seemed to dampen suspicions.
Sunny and Imara walked around, Sunny tagging along a few steps behind in case they needed to pretend that she was Imara’s slave or something that would help sell their story. The two looked for any yak that could possibly be in charge, or be in a position to know them.
“They all look the same,” Imara muttered to Sunny out of the corner of her mouth. “How are we supposed to know who’s in charge?”
“Keep looking,” Sunny whispered back. She was interested in a yak that was following their progress - or, at least, she thought he was. She couldn’t see his eyes - his tannish hair kept falling into his eyes, and he was repeatedly blowing it out of his eyes frustratedly. “Maybe he has a bigger helmet or something.”
“All the helmets are the same size,” Imara hissed back. Still, she kept looking.
As the day went on, it only got colder and colder, and Sunny found herself wishing she had a thicker coat like the yaks did. She tried to gravitate towards the roaring fire in the center, but the yaks all gave her angry looks if she tried to sidle too close. She eventually sat in between two of the huts, blocking most of the wind. She felt awful about it - leaving Imara to do all the investigating - but she could hardly feel her hooves now.
“Haven’t found what you’re looking for?”
Sunny’s head jerked up to see a yak staring at her, the same yak that had been watching her all day. His coat was charcoal black, and he angrily pushed his bangs out of his face. She caught a glimpse of his green eyes before his hair flopped back in front of his face, and he let out a long suffering sigh.
“N-no,” Sunny shivered, her teeth chattering.
“I assume you’re not from around here?”
“N-nope.”
“And I don’t suppose you’re going to tell me where you’re from?”
Sunny shook her head. She was too cold to trust herself to think properly, so she decided it would be best if she kept her mouth shut.
“What’re you here for?” He blew his hair out of his face and stamped the ground to warm his hooves. “You know, in case - in case I know where it is.”
Sunny hesitated. “W-we were w-wondering if w-we could t-talk t-to your leader? I-if that’s possible.” She winced at the obviousness of her words - maybe he would get the wrong idea and not take her to their chief at all. Or maybe they were like Griffonstone, and they didn’t have a ruler at all. All the yaks did seem kind of idle.
The yak flinched. “Um… you might want to come back another day.” He looked up at the sky. “It’s cold season… still. Prince Sujeed doesn’t like the fact that it hasn’t warmed up at all this year, so he’s in a bit of a… mood.”
Sunny’s heart sank. “So… we can’t talk to him?”
“Oh, you can talk to him all right - I just hope you’re ready to spend half the day shouting about unrelated topics.” He jerked his head in a way that told Sunny he was rolling his eyes. “And you most certainly will not get what you came here for.” The yak thought for a moment. “Actually, you rarely ever do, even in warm season. Prince Sujeed is very stubborn about what he wants.”
On the one hoof, this meant Sunny would most likely be unable to convince him to not attack ponies. On the other, this also made it unlikely that Cozy Glow would have convinced him to attack the ponies in the first place. She felt a slight spark of hope.
“What did you want to talk to him about?”
“I…” Sunny swallowed. “What do you know about ponies?”
He shrugged. “Someone visited us a week ago saying that ponies wanted to exterminate us all. I myself am not sure what I believe. I mean, ponies have always left us alone, and I don’t really see why they would suddenly decide to attack us.”
“And if they didn’t? What would you do?”
The yak thought for a moment. “I don’t know,” he eventually decided. “I suppose I would try to tell them the truth, though I’m not sure if they would believe me - so where’s the use in trying?”
“What if you could do something else to help change that? Something… out there instead of in here?”
The yak thought for a moment. “I think… that I might be willing to help with that.” He stuck out his hoof. “My name’s Lukas.”
Sunny grinned and stood up, taking the yak’s hoof. “I’m Sunny. And I’m trying to change the world.”
They shook, and Sunny turned, the blood moving back into her hooves, making them tingle painfully. “Come on. Let’s go find my friend, and then I’ll introduce you to my other friends - we’re all doing our part to try and change the world for the better.”
“Sunny!” It was Imara, running towards her and Lukas at top speed, tripping over her long yak braids and falling headlong into a snowdrift. “Blugh… Sunny, the yak prince won’t talk to us. He won’t see anyone. He’s having a screaming fit right now that I had absolutely no interest in getting involved in.” She stood and sheepishly shifted her hooves. “Sorry.”
“No, no, it’s okay.” Sunny nodded towards Lukas. “We got the help we need, anyway. And besides, I’m thinking this is something we should do without the help of monarchs and rulers and leaders and such. Less rules to follow that way.”
Imara grinned. “I like no rules,” she said, a mischievous smile crawling across her face. “So count me in on that. But… what do we do now?”
Sunny took a deep breath. Now… Now there was one more stop they had.
A very particular spot. One she had no idea how to find, but knew what - who - waited for her there.
It was time to find her mysterious dream pony.