Half Note rose with the sun, and she would have beat it in a fair race. While it was still peeking over the horizon, the pink Earth Pony was on her hooves, collecting her meager possessions. She'd been given a few gifts from the Buffalo - feathers and beads and the like - but her favorite was a fringed jacket with swirling patterns of blue beads, given to her by Mourning Dew and the young Buffalo they had seen at her side on occasion - the Shaman had called him Night Owl, and the way she treated him led the mare to believe he was either an apprentice or a close relative.
Smiling, Half Note donned the jacket and felt the soft, smooth material settle on her coat. She looked to the denim skirt she had picked up in Appleloosa, and grinned wider, happy to trade the uncomfortable garment for this treasure.
As she picked it up in her teeth, her grin was replaced with a grimace. Underneath the unloved garment lay the red, silken skirt that Firelock had worn. The Earth Pony looked over to her friend, sleeping soundly under a blanket. She couldn't get rid of this one yet.
She shook her head and finished packing up, leaving the skirt out for Firelock, no longer envious of the fine material it was made out of. A few minutes passed after she had finished packing, and her friends still slept - she proceeded to pack away the few things they had as well before waking them up.
Tornado Bolt grumbled, but rose quickly. Firelock seemed to rise with grace, but moved much more slowly. The Pegasus was hopping from one foot to the other while the Unicorn collected herself and her things. She lingered a little bit in donning the red skirt - only a moment, but Half Note noticed.
"Are you done yet?" Tornado Bolt whined even as Firelock hefted her few remaining possessions onto her back.
"Yeah, yeah." The Unicorn huffed and turned towards Half Note. "Well, we should get going, I guess. Any ideas on how we're going to get to the Crystal Empire?"
Half Note blinked. "Um...I figured we'd walk?" She started out, putting the rising sun on her right side. "Why the Crystal Empire?"
Firelock snorted, but followed nonetheless. "The bird said 'North to the City that shimmers.' Seemed pretty straight forward. As far as walking, I don't know about you, but walking all the way through the Frozen North until we find the Crystal City doesn't sound that fun to me."
Half Note stopped and blushed. Firelock walked ahead of her before turning around and leveling her eyebrows - who knew eyebrows could be so derisive - at the Earth Pony. "Well? Any ideas, Winddancer?"
She gaped, mouth moving up and down with no sound. Tornado Bolt shrugged from above "We could walk to Los Pegasus and catch a train to the Empire from there. It might take us a few weeks to make it, but I know we can't be too far."
Firelock glared at Half Note for a moment before nodding. "Best idea we've got. As far as anypony else is concerned, we're adults. We can get tickets easily enough." She squinted at the Pegasus. "You still have the leftover bits from Appleloosa, right?"
"Pfft no, I ate them. What do you do with extra bits."
The Unicorn rolled her eyes and started walking. "I think we're fine. If we're short we can pawn off some of the things the Buffalo gave us. Shouldn't be hard in a city like Los Pegasus." Half Note touched the beaded jacket she wore and bit her lip, but followed the Unicorn once again. Compared to the months of the Stampede, their relaxed pace felt agonizingly slow. Yet they slowly left the camp and it's sleepy Buffalo and moved North and West - towards the coast and the big city. Though they moved slow enough that conversation was possible, Firelock said nothing, keeping her back to her two friends. Half Note desperately wanted to break the silence, but wasn't sure how, and thus lingered behind.
Tornado Bolt stopped swooping above and dropped down to hover near the pink Pony's face. "So whatdya think your Mark means, huh?"
Half Note's ears folded back at the same time as Firelock's. The Unicorn quickly shook herself and sped up slightly. Half Note noticed; Tornado Bolt did not, keeping her attention on the Earth Pony mare.
"Well, I guess it has something to do with how I could hear the Spirit Song, or something about dancing..."
Tornado Bolt shook her head and cut the thought off. "No no no, that's how you earned it. I wanna know what you think it means."
Half Note stumbled. "I'm not sure what you mean."
Tornado Bolt sighed. "Look, okay. My Mark is a Tornado. Have you ever seen me do anything with weather?"
Half Note shook her head. Tornado nodded.
"Exactly. See, when I got mine, I was really confused for a bit. What I did was, see, some of my friends back in Cloudsdale thought reading was super-lame. I really liked it, but I didn't want my friends to think I was lame, so I laughed when they called people eggheads and read Daring Do at night when I went home. But then one day they got a hold of a book somepony had checked out from the library - I don't even remember what it was called, but they were talking about throwing it over the edge of the city. They were laughing as they dared each other to be the one to do it, and all I could think about was what could be in that book, what story or what knowledge, how awesome could it be and they wanted to literally throw it away without even looking. Then one of them dared me to be the one to do it."
Half Note blinked into the silence. "...And?"
"I said no. I made up some excuse about how it was the library's property and it was probably illegal. The colt who dared me shrugged and then tossed it over the edge. I dove after it, caught it, flew back up and called my friends names in so many big words that if they had understood what I was saying they probably would have beat me up right then and there. When I took the book back to the library, the librarian asked me what I got my Mark for."
Half Note said "That doesn't have anything to do with tornadoes, though."
The Pegasus laughed. "That's what I thought at first. I tried a bunch of weather stuff right after I got it, but I stunk at it. My dad worked as a weatherpony, and when I complained to him that my Mark must be wrong, he said something like 'Well, tornadoes are the hardest form of weather to control. It can take a whole town of Pegasi to make one change direction.' And then my Mark made more sense. I do what I want, what I think is right, and sucks to be the Pony trying to make me change."
Half Note hmmed and stared at the grass that she walked over.
Tornado Bolt positioned herself to hover in front of the pony, locking eyes with her. "So you got yours doing some fancy spirit stuff with some Buffalo. That's gonna be an awesome story, but coming out with" the Pegasus waved her hooves and spoke in a mocking, high pitched voice "'Well I guess I'm good at dancing or something' is a pretty lame conclusion to draw from it. So, what do you think it means?"
The Earth Pony stopped. "I'm...not sure. I'll have to think about it, I guess."
Tornado Bolt nodded and started flying forward again. "Fair enough - it took me forever to figure mine out, can't expect you to have yours ironed out the next day."
Half Note chuckled and trotted to catch up with her friends. "I'm not used to you being so...deep. When did that start?"
The Pegasus turned a winning grin on her "Since this turned into an adventure story, that's when!" She laughed. "One of us has to be the wise, mentor figure!"
The two ponies caught up to the Unicorn, who, while still silent, had a trace of a smile on her muzzle.