Cirrus stared at the sapphire that was currently resting on her workbench. She didn’t have any work to do, so she decided to use her morning to think about how she could help Slatescale.
All Cirrus knew was that it had something to do with his hoard, and that whatever had happened, it must’ve been very painful for him. Else, he wouldn’t go from happy to sad in less than ten seconds the moment it was mentioned. Now, she just had to find out exactly what had happened.
Today, Spike would be joining the two of them again, to help teach Slatescale sign language. Maybe Cirrus could ask him for advice. After all, Spike was a dragon as well, so he probably knew a whole lot more about them than Cirrus did.
Cirrus’ stare intensified as she wondered just what could’ve happened. Slatescale is big, and a bit scary. Okay, really big, and to anypony who didn’t know him, he was probably really scary. Cirrus was terrified of him at first. His hoard couldn’t have been stolen from him, because you’d have to be crazy to try doing that.
Maybe Slatescale had to give his hoard up for something else. Something that was more important to him. No, that wasn’t right. Slatescale mentioned that he didn’t have any friends before meeting Cirrus, and she couldn’t think of anything else that a dragon would sacrifice their hoard for. It’s the single most important thing to them, and Cirrus had never heard of a dragon parting with their hoard for whatever reason.
It had to be something else, then. He could’ve lost his hoard in a freak accident. Maybe he had unknowingly stored it in an active volcano, and when it erupted, every single bit was lost.
No, that sounded absolutely ridiculous. Slatescale is much smarter than that.
Maybe Slatescale was actually the immortal protector of Equestria, and he didn’t so much have a hoard as that he was really guarding the most powerful artifacts in the world, and then, aliens disguised as ponies came and stole all of them, so Slatescale had followed them to the nearest pony settlement and—
No, that sounded absolutely ridiculous.
Cirrus sighed. She really needed to do some work or she’d drive herself crazy. She forced herself to stop thinking about Slatescale’s hoard, as she wouldn’t be able to get anywhere with simple guessing.
There was a knocking at the door. A very impatient knocking. Whoever it was, they’d probably been there for a while, as Cirrus had been so occupied with her thoughts that she hadn’t noticed the loud pounding. She quickly went over and opened the door.
On the other side was Rainbow Dash. “Hey C.C.!”
Cirrus raised an eyebrow. “Good morning, Miss Rainbow Dash. How can I help you?”
“Oh, you don’t have to help me with anything,” Rainbow Dash said. “I, uh...” She rubbed the back of her head with a hoof for a few seconds. “I came to say sorry.”
Cirrus raised her eyebrow even further. “To say sorry? What for?”
“I heard you couldn’t do any work because you were out of clouds.” Rainbow Dash awkwardly kicked at the ground. “I guess I felt a little responsible. You know, because I borrowed a few clouds from you. I really should’ve been a bit more considerate.”
Cirrus blinked a few times. Right, Rainbow Dash had borrowed a few clouds from her three days ago. While it had kept her out of business, it was nothing she couldn’t recover from. But how did Rainbow Dash know about that? “Did Miss Rarity tell you?”
Rainbow Dash nodded. “I talked to her yesterday, and she told me about you. I felt kinda bad for taking your clouds, so I brought you something.” She pointed up, prompting Cirrus to peek outside.
Hovering slightly above the house were a lot of clouds, in several different types. A few normal, white clouds, a few rainclouds, a few storm clouds, and one particularly volatile-looking cloud. Cirrus quickly counted them all, then gasped. “B-But this is way too much! You didn’t borrow this many! A-And I thought you needed these for the weather for the coming week?!”
“Don’t worry about that,” Rainbow Dash said. “I got you everything I borrowed from you, plus a little extra. And the weather is still fine. I went all over town to see if we could spare any clouds, so here you go!” She flew up and grabbed one of the white clouds. “Need some help putting these away?”
“Um, I, uh...” Cirrus stuttered. Her jaw flapped up and down uselessly a few times. “N-No, I can manage on my own.” She looked up at the clouds again. Stuffing them all in her shed would take a while. Plus, she wasn’t even sure if it’d fit!
“Cool!” Rainbow Dash jumped up, hovering in the air. “If you’re ever in trouble again, you know where to find me. See ya later!” With that, she sped off, leaving a still bewildered Cirrus behind.
It took Cirrus a few moments to recover from the shock, but when she did, she shouted “Thank you!” Though it was unlikely that Rainbow Dash even heard her. Cirrus would have to make absolutely sure to thank Rainbow Dash properly sometime soon.
Cirrus flew up, grabbing one of the clouds at random and pushing it towards her shed. She could get to work again! Her list of ponies to thank was growing at an incredible rate, too. Pinkie Pie, Rainbow Dash, and Cirrus probably had to thank Rarity as well, for telling Rainbow Dash about the situation.
As she put more and more clouds into her shed, something odd occurred to Cirrus. Rainbow Dash had put in a lot of effort to apologize. Rarity might have had some influence on that, though. But Cirrus didn’t feel like it the apology was necessary. After all, the weather was more important than her sculpting, so she didn’t mind helping out in a tight spot.
However, the last time Cirrus apologized to somepony was when she visited Pinkie Pie two days earlier, who had told her that an apology wasn’t necessary, either. Maybe ponies tended to exaggerate when they thought they owed somepony something. Cirrus chuckled to herself. She should apologize a little less in the future.
After a few minutes, Cirrus only had one cloud left to stash away. The really volatile one. She hadn’t ever seen a cloud as black as this, and even lightly touching it with a hoof caused little sparks to jump from it. Dangerous, and definitely not fit to use in any normal sculpture. She had to find out what to do with this some other time.
Cirrus spent the following afternoon as planned: learning sign language, together with Spike and Slatescale. Everything had gone off without a hitch, and they were making some progress on learning the alphabet. After a few hours, it was getting harder to concentrate, so they decided to put the book away and call it quits for now.
While Cirrus and Spike were talking about various things, with Slatescale listening, Cirrus decided now was as good a time as any. “Hey, Slatescale? Where did you live before coming here?”
Slatescale raised an eyebrow at her.
“You know, uh...” Cirrus mumbled. “I’m just curious.” She fidgeted nervously. She really didn’t want to accidentally upset Slatescale again.
Slatescale raised his head, looking northward and scanning the horizon. After a few seconds, he pointed at a mountain. It was a pretty large one, but not particularly high. Only the very top was covered in snow.
“Huh,” Spike said. “That’s pretty close to the mountain Twilight and the others went to one time.” He pointed at another mountain, this one much higher. “A big, red dragon lived there. You know him, Slatescale?”
Slatescale shook his head.
“So, you lived in a cave there?” Cirrus asked. “I bet it was really high up.”
Slatescale answered her first question with a slow nod, then scratched his chin for a few seconds. He then stuck his claw out and twisted it around a little, giving a shrug.
“So, not all that high,” Cirrus said. “Maybe you can show it to us sometime?”
Slatescale reeled back for a second, frantically shaking his head. He quickly wrote something in the ground: ‘NEVER GO THERE’.
“What? Why?” Cirrus asked. “It’s just your home, right?”
Slatescale wrote something in the ground again, then narrowed his eyes and gave Cirrus a stern glare. ‘PROMISE’.
“Um...” Cirrus stared at the message for a while. “O-Okay. I won’t go to your cave, then.”
Slatescale shook his head, then underlined the word ‘PROMISE’.
“I promise!” Cirrus said. “I promise I won’t go to your home. I’m sorry I mentioned it.”
“Wow,” Spike said. “You take this seriously, huh, Slatescale?”
Slatescale nodded, then wrote something again. ‘TOO DANGEROUS’.
Spike looked at Cirrus and raised an eyebrow. “Good to know, I guess.” He looked up for a little while. “Geez, we’ve been here for a while, huh?” he said, pointing at the sun. “It’s getting pretty late, I should head back to the library. Twilight is gonna turn me into a purple saddlebag if I don’t get back soon.”
Cirrus grimaced. She wouldn’t put it past a princess to be capable of that. “You know, I should head home, too. I have some work to catch up on.” She made sure her saddlebag, containing the book on sign language, was tightly secured. “I’ll come visit you again tomorrow, Slatescale!”
The three of them quickly said and waved their goodbyes before Cirrus and Spike headed back home.
When she was absolutely sure Slatescale couldn’t hear them, Cirrus spoke up. “Hey, Spike. What do you think is in Slatescale’s home?”
Spike shrugged. “I dunno. Whatever it is, I bet it’s really bad. I mean, Slatescale is a huge dragon, and even he doesn’t go back there!”
Cirrus craned her head backwards, seeing the mountains in the distance. “Still, I’m curious. If it’s that bad, he must’ve lost a whole lot. I want to help him get it back.”
“I don’t think that’s a very good idea,” Spike said. “It’s his home we’re talking about here, and he made you promise not to go. You can expect dragons to be serious about that kind of stuff. Trust me, I know.”
“Yeah, I get it,” Cirrus said with a sigh. “I promised, and that’s that.”
A few minutes later, the two of them reached Ponyville. Getting home was straightforward from here, but Cirrus had other plans. “Hey, Spike? You go on ahead. I, uh... I need to get some stuff.”
Spike paused and raised an eyebrow. “Stuff? What kind of stuff do you need?”
“I, uh, I need, uh...” Cirrus stuttered. “I need to get some work-related stuff. Yeah, some things for cloud sculpting!”
Spike crossed his arms. “What kind of stuff could you possibly need for cloud sculpting, except your hooves and a few clouds?”
Cirrus bit her lip. “Uh, you know, lots of stuff! Very complicated. I’ll tell you some other time, okay?”
“Riiight,” Spike said, narrowing his eyes and slowly turning around, heading towards the library. “See you later.”
After Spike was gone, Cirrus breathed a sigh of relief. That was close. She couldn’t let Spike catch on to her plan, one that she really didn’t like: she was going to have to break her promise. And to do that, some supplies were in order.