The sun was slowly setting across Sanctuary. I had actually managed to get to bed early for once and I found Midnight by the stream. She was laying by the edge, forehooves in the water as tiny little glowing flish fluttered back and forth around them, but in and out of the water.
"Hey," I said and moved to drop down onto the grass next to her, "How's your search doing?"
I thought her search for the Kirin and Kelpies was a bit of a wild goose chase to be honest. It was a bit world and even if any remained, it was so unlik-
"I found them," she said with a smile.
I did a double take, "Come again? You've been gone for two weeks!"
Midnight got exactly the same smug look on her face as Twilight did when she managed to surprise me with something, "My tip paid off. They lived in a small valley less than a day's walk from a train station."
I rubbed my forehead next to my horn, "...Bloody hell," I grumbled, "So why don't ponies know about them? Isolationists, curse, what?"
Midnight shrugged her wings, "Dwindling numbers and they're not much for travel in general. And nopony go to where they are, it is kinda isolated. Train station was a bit of an exaggeration, it's a stop in the middle of nowhere to take on water."
"Dwindling numbers?" I asked with a small frown.
Midnight nodded sadly, "They don't know if there are other Kirin somewhere else. But there are barely a thousand of them in the valley."
Barely a thousand. Buck.
"What are they like?"
Midnight looked thoughtful, "Imagine a unicorn. Now give them a mane, like a lion not a pony, their horn is more vertical and curved, splitting into a V about halfway up. Along their backs they have scales instead of a coat. On, and they have split hooves, like deer."
"Huh."
"Their magic is different as well," she continued, "While most can pull off telekinesis, their magic is much more elemental than a unicorns. Gouts of flame, gusts of wind, that sort of thing. They're so strongly bound to the elements that certain emotions can manifest them."
I slowly nodded, "So if they get really angry..."
"They burst into flames," Midnight said, nodding, "They had been having trouble with that a while ago and went through some pretty extreme measures to stop it. I helped them fix the problem."
"I see," I said and flicked one ear.
That would be a real problem.
"Just a thousand left," I said, letting out a sigh.
Midnight nodded, "Just a thousand. Their leader and a couple of others are coming with me back to Nocturnis. They want to see it for themselves before they decide if they want to move or not."
I blinked before my head snapped in her direction, "What!?"
Midnight smiled, "I talked with Rain Shine, their leader. She agreed that where they lived now was not working. She's hesitant to try to join pony society and I understand why, they look even more different than bats."
"Midnight," I said, "We live in wooden houses. In trees."
She frowned at me, "And that's not a problem, so do they."
"Why Nocturnis, why not Canterlot or Manehattan or anywhere else?" I asked.
"Because they don't trust ponies," Midnight said softly, "They're not isolationists as such, but they stayed where they are because the ponies they have sent out in the past has been treated with suspicion and in one case, run out of the village she was trying to trade with."
"So you want to bring them to Nocturnis?"
Midnight nodded, "Because to be frank, after hearing the stories of every bat me and Twi decursed I don't trust ponies not to buck it up with the Kirin... and there are so few of them left. I'll keep looking for other clues, but those thousand may be all that remains, Page. We have to help them."
"...We do," I agreed with a small sigh, my ears folding to the side, "You're right, Midnight."
"I’m sorry for making things more difficult, Page."
I shook my head, "Not your fault, Midnight. I would like to meet this Rain Shine as well."
Midnight nodded and got back to her hooves, "Getting time to wake up, we'll leave on the train today. Good morning."
"Good morning, Midnight."
She disappeared in a whirl of blue sparks and I was alone.
I looked out over the stream, slowly moving a hoof through the water, the flish fluttering and swarming around it, sending blue light through the air as the sun finished setting in the distance.
A thousand Kirin.
A thousand Kirin left. Coming to Nocturnis. A thousand more ponies, another endangered tribe.
I squeezed my eyes closed shut for a second, my hoof trembling.
Another, even more endangered tribe of ponies on the cusp of going extinct and even worse, they were elementals. They could burn the entire thing down.
Pushing myself to my hooves, I looked across the valley before I took a step forward.
Suddenly I was in bright sunshine on the other side of Sanctuary, in a valley filled with trees, streams, meadows and woodland critters, surrounded by tall snow capped mountains.
I closed my eyes, taking a deep breath.
Calm.
Another tribe of ponies. More, why is it always more responsibility, more difficulties, more, more, more...
I screamed and everything around me turned to ash in an instant.
Rearing up, I slammed my forehooves back down hard as my wings flared. Bedrock cracked, trees flashing into ash as the valley exploded, the mountains glowed red and the snow on their caps just disappeared into steam as they started to deform and melt.
I slammed my hooves down again and again, sending cracks exploding through the valley and lava exploded out of them as I screamed.