The city stretched across the mountain far below, spreading like a carpet.
I was lying on a handy cloud, surveying the checkerboard streets and tiny pedestrian specks below. Ponies moved unhurriedly to and fro, enjoying the afternoon sun. My attitude, though, was filled with rain, drops of worry tapping in the back of my mind.
Vinyl and Octavia were down there somewhere. I thought back to the gray mare, trying to figure out exactly what had happened in our talk. She'd tried to thank me… I think. Somehow, though, I'd ended up yelling at her.
I didn't want to yell at her. I didn't want to deal with her at all. I didn't regret saving her, but I sometimes wished life was a little simpler. If I could have been a little faster, a little stronger, maybe I could have arrived before… whatever it was had happened. She could be living a normal life. I could be comfortably scraping by, keeping my head low and out of trouble. I didn't want much from life. Something to eat, somewhere warm to sleep, and I'd be happy as a clam.
The last few days seemed determined to drag up years of my life better left alone. I felt responsible for her on some level, as ridiculous as that was. She'd demanded that of me, at the end. 'Take responsibility'. I sighed, trying to expel the sudden coldness in my stomach. Had she been sincere? I considered my father and everything he’d taught me, about war, poetry, life, and responsibility, pondering the rusting skills I'd so twisted to other ends. Dare I try to protect her? Would she even thank me for it?
Finally sick of chasing my own thoughts, I rolled off the cloud. My wings flicked wide as I leaned into a dive. I still had to pay my rent, and maybe even get my house back.
I stood at the counter in the Housing Airspace department and tried to keep the blades in my wings from opening. Staccato sleet hissed in my mind, tiny frozen pellets of frustration sliding down my spine.
I needed to complete Form 191-B. It was different from Form 191+B. However, it required Form 191+B, which in turn was dependent on Form B-191. The pony who could sign off on that, though, was out of town for the week. Instead, I could fill out Form 19-B-1, but that meant completing Form 191-B first.
I gritted my teeth, looking at an hour of wasted time chasing paper trails. The ponies here probably weren't trying to give me the runaround. Whoever had built this system, though, either wanted to kill me with paper cuts or loved a twisted sort of power-play.
"I'm done with this." I shuffled the papers together and carried them to the garbage. "No more for me for now. I'll sleep on Vinyl's couch for a week. Then I'll hire a lawyer, and then..." I crumpled the paper-pile satisfyingly and spiked it into the bin. "Well, then I guess I'll have to decide how much I like that house." I glanced around at the high wooden ceilings and polished mahogany counters. "Bureaucracy."
"Trouble?" a passing pegasus asked, snagging my attention. He had a deep brown coat, a windswept golden mane, and a faint smirk. One of his hooves was on the door as if to leave. "Have you tried form—"
I spat angrily in the bin.
He chuckled, and I couldn't help but smile.
"What's eating you, neighbor?"
"My house got towed." I put a hoof to my temple. "I've paid the rent, and I want to move it out of the holding zone. But! I need authorization, which means filling out the right form. That, however, requires seventeen pre-requisites, which each need authorization from nineteen independent entities. Or something like that." I glared at the wad of paper. "It's like trying to navigate a hailstorm with one wing clipped."
"Oh." He gave me a long look. "Hey, you got the receipt for your rent?"
"Uh." I glanced at the papers, before reaching into the garbage and rummaging for a minute. "Yeah, I should probably hold onto this one." I wiped a speck of spittle off.
"May I?" He held out a hoof. I cautiously passed it over.
"Looks alright…" He gave me another speculative glance. "You're Silver Lining?"
"Right, yeah." I pointed to my cutie mark, the thin gray outline of half a puffy cloud. "What's it to you?"
"Well, Silver, I'm Summer Swift." He produced a badge. "A Royal Guard. It just so happens, I sometimes work as a parking officer."
"What?"
"That means, perhaps unsurprisingly, that I have authorization to move your house. How do you feel about shortcutting all this? Let me give you a helping hoof."
My jaw slowly fell open. This was convenient. Perhaps too convenient, but I was in no mood to argue. I wanted my house back, and possession was nine-tenths.
"You can do that?"
"Yeah, well." He shrugged and produced a Guard’s badge. "I've got some discretion. The paperwork is a formality; I hate it too. The real power rests a little further down the chain." He reached over to the counter and snagged a pen, scribbling something on the back of the receipt. "If you know the system, you don't even need to cheat. I've signed your proof of payment. That means the proper owner can have an authorized pony move the house. I qualify. I've seen your ID." He pointed to my mark. "If it matches the mailbox, that's enough for me." He quirked an eyebrow. "Unless you're actually trying to break the law?"
"Um, no." My attitude shed clouds, frustration melting away as a glimpse of relief warmed me. Sunny blue appeared in my mind, with only a few stray wisps of annoyance remaining. "Thanks, Summer. It's nice to meet you."
"Same here, Silver. Let's go get your house." He glanced at the receipt again. "So, you're a Hunter. Keep you busy?"
"Heh." I chuckled. "Well, this week… things have been interesting."
"This where you want it?" Summer gave a final flip of his wings, expertly curling a zephyr away as the cloud-house drifted into place. It was nearly night. The lights were coming on in the city, sprinkling sparkles across the dim earth below.
"Yup." I swooped onto the front veranda, leaning out to peer at the airball field far beneath; we were over the college. "I've got a job here for a few more days, and they agreed to let me stay on the property while I work. I'll line up a proper airspace before I'm done. Thanks for the help." I raised a hoof, and he tapped it solidly. "I really appreciate it. Come in for a minute? Have a drink?"
"Don't mind if I do. I'm off the job."
As I pushed the door open, a small cascade of letters poured out.
"What the…" I scooped them up, skimming a few as I stepped in. Intaglio, Syzygy, Syzygy, Intaglio, Syzygy… this was all one day's mail? At the bottom I found a few lonely flyers, a back-dated bill, and some dead leaves. "Good grief." I sorted it quickly. Much of it was paperwork I'd already seen: the official piece of being hired by the University and Syzygy's report on the dusk-walker, in several envelopes. The last though, was much flatter and smaller. I slit it open.
If you need to find me, drop by.
-Syzygy.
On the back was a simple map, with a location circled. I frowned. I'd just talked with him yesterday, but… that was before I'd met Octavia.
Besides, I'd never seen his lab. He had the dusk-walker there.
"Hey, is this Cirrus Spirit?" Summer rummaged through my fridge, pulling out a half-empty six pack.
"Yeah, straight from the little bar by the weather factory. Pop 'em open." I smiled, gesturing for him to pass me one. "You from Cloudsdale?"
"No, but they make the best cloudwine."
"True, that." I popped my bottle open on the counter, stepping back onto the veranda to catch the last of the sunset. I sipped the drink. It tasted like home; light, sweet, and tangy. I settled down on the clouds, enjoying the clear sky and crisp air, my mindset matching the weather perfectly. Summer Swift sat beside me, sharing a companionable silence. I wanted to visit Syzygy, but I could relax for a bit.
Ding!
I stepped back, waiting. Syzygy's… place, whatever the location he'd marked on his map was, stood in a nice neighborhood. Far enough out-of-town for large houses, but near enough for the lawns to be manicured and the streets paved. It was low on the mountain and easy to navigate from the air, so I'd found it quickly.
I waited for a long minute, nearly ready to turn away. Maybe I'd left it too long. He could be asleep.
"Silver!" Just before I gave up, the door swished open. He grinned down at me, a half-dozen random implements orbiting his head. "Come in, come in! I didn't think you'd be here so soon, or so late!"
"Yeah, well." I shrugged. "Thought I'd take you up on your invitation."
"And I'm glad you did!" He ushered me into a dim foyer, closing the door as I looked around. It was lushly decorated, with knickknacks and bric-a-brac shoved into every corner, memorabilia and keepsakes layering the walls. "Things have been interesting to say the least. Come, come. Let me show you my lab!"
He led the way through the house, taking me swiftly through dark halls and past closed doors to a brightly-lit stairwell. I followed him down, watching closely as he fiddled with the things he was carrying. I spotted a stopwatch, a plant, a few vials, and a notebook.
"What's been happening?"
"This new specimen is fascinating. It's risen twice!"
"Really?" That was worrying, in several ways. "Wait, you killed it again?"
"Destructive testing." He led me into the lab proper. It was neat, almost compulsively so, with ordered glassware and measuring equipment marshaled on counters and tables. The array was eclectic and bewildering, with plants, old style crystals, newer electronics, notebooks, and metalwork mixed in cryptic arrangement.
It didn’t look evil. But then, neither did Syzygy, though I couldn’t judge him.
“And here’s my guest.” He led me over to a corner, where a startlingly secure enclosure stood, the vampire pacing inside. It had the characteristic dull, shaggy coat and slit eyes. Fangs distorted the jawline, giving it a predatory appearance.
He had a cell in his lab. Hmm. I looked around again, but the experiments and machines on display were impenetrable to me. His mention of ‘destructive testing’ floated back up in my mind.
“Have you heard of any of the Hunter factions moving? Intaglio promised to keep this quiet, but…”
“No, no. It’s early days, but you know how some of them will jump on anything. None of the more fractious elements have approached me, so I’d say what we’re involved in isn’t immediately obvious.”
“That’s good.”
“Perhaps. The smarter ones will bide their time. If somepony - or griffon - really wanted to hit Intaglio’s credibility, they’d play out plenty of rope before their noose showed up.”
I frowned, considering that. Distancing myself from the politics in the organization meant I didn’t usually have to worry about them, but this situation wasn’t giving me much leeway. I had some training on what leaders needed to contend with. Hopefully Intaglio could deal with it.
"Any leads on your guest’s identity?"
"No." He was silent for a moment. "No."
"Dang." I hadn't really expected any different.
"Still, I've learned… well, so much! I'd explain, but…" He quirked an eyebrow.
"If you can give it to me in non-jargon." I frowned back. "I'm not stupid, Ziggy, but I never studied unicorn magic."
"Right, right. Well, the biggest difference between this vampire and the corpses I've studied in the past, besides not being dead, is the strength of its… I hesitate to call it thaumology. It has a magic system of some sort, and that's fascinating in itself, but—"
Ding!
"More visitors?" He frowned and stepped over to a bench, where a fat slice of crystal was wired to an array of electronic components. He tapped something, and a flickering monochrome image appeared. "Hey, Silver." He waved me over.
"Yeah?" I leaned in to look.
"I know Vinyl, but is she…?" He pointed to a mare in the disheveled group on the screen, dirt and blood smearing her gray coat.
"That's Octavia. But I don't know him." I pointed to the last member, a slender brown earth pony. "They've been in a fight. And he's carrying… Is that a vampire?"
"We can hope!" He arranged the objects he'd been carrying, making one last note, and headed for the stairs. “Let’s go see.” I trailed behind, looking around the well-lit, well-organized, not obviously nefarious lab again, before heading up the stairs.
"Ziggy!" Vinyl smiled as he opened the door, shouldering her way in before he even greeted her. "And Silver. Can you two lend a hoof?"
"Sure, Scratch. What's all this?" He waved the group in, but I noticed that several of his medallions appeared behind him, wrapped in his nearly transparent aura. First and last, he was a professional.
"Long story, short version; we were attacked by a vampire, and it seemed to be targeting Octy—"
"Please don't call me that."
"—So we subdued it and brought it here. Also, you got anything red? Both of us could use a drop."
"Vinyl, Octavia, a vampire, and…?" He stared pointedly at the earth pony.
"Verdant Moss." The stallion nodded. "A friend of Vinyl's."
"He's cool, he's cool." Vinyl nudged Syzygy aside, heading for the stairs. "Come on, Ziggy. I want this corpse dealt with."
"Your caution is commendable." He shrugged easily, and followed her into the lab. "My cell, however, is occupied. I can adjust things, but it will take a minute."
"Cell?" She paused, staring back at him. "Why bother? Let's just stake it and dump it wherever you hide the bodies."
"Vinyl…" Syzygy sighed. "Despite what you and Silver might think, I'm not a serial killer. All corpses I recover undergo a full day's vigil, securely confined. After that, I make every attempt to identify them. When that fails, they're cremated. Though I sometimes dissect the interesting ones."
I watched Octavia's eyes flick back and forth as they conversed. Verdant Moss seemed to mainly tune out the conversation, staring intently at various random knickknacks as we passed.
"Besides, staking is rudimentary at best. Decapitation and disemboweling is much more thorough, although burning—"
"Does identification always fail?" Octavia cut in sharply, though her voice was light.
"If I may?" Syzygy turned to Verdant as we re-entered the lab. The earth pony allowed him to take the corpse, relaxing slightly as the weight lifted. "Miss Octavia, pony corpses are identified in two ways. Dental records," he gestured at the fangs, "and cutie mark." He motioned to the thick, drab, overgrown coat. Barely a splotch was visible on the flank. "The transformation, along with the damage and healing which usually occur after, often destroy any recognizable characteristics. I do my best, but I doubt even this poor soul's mother would recognize them now."
"Oh."
"Intaglio will scrape the missing pony files," I added. "Sometimes there are clues. Outbreaks in small towns usually have more closure. Vampires are pretty uncommon, though, and we come down hard."
"You can say that again." Vinyl gave me a wry grin. "Anyways, Ziggy, happy birthday." She nodded to the corpse. "Say, you got somewhere we can clean up a bit?"
"Bathroom's behind the thaumodolite." He pointed to a doorway half-obscured by an intricate machine, never taking his eyes from the corpse. Vinyl pushed Octavia gently towards it, giving her a reassuring nod. She left quickly.
"She doing okay?" I sidled closer to Vinyl, watching as Syzygy began rearranging the cell, slowly shoving the current occupant aside with a moveable panel.
"Better than I did." She leaned against me with a friendly sigh, and I could feel the tension in her neck. "She's a realist, so… She's not in denial, but she's smart and jumpy. Won't be led. Which is good, honestly."
"Mmm."
"She seems willing to trust us, but I'm not sure how to make that happen. You should talk to her, try and show your good side."
"Blech." I remembered how that ended earlier. "If you say so."
"Hey, don't be like that. You're personable, and ponies like you. Besides, I don't think she wants to dislike us. Give yourself a chance."
"Alright."
Syzygy finished his work, sealing the cell with sparkling spells and solid locks. The moving vampire prowled restlessly, its too-sharp eyes flicking across each of us in turn. The corpse, separated from it by an opaque wall, lay quiescent.
"Now, Vinyl." He turned to us. "You wanted a dose?"
"Yeah. For Octavia, really. I think she burns it faster than me."
"I don't have much. My inmates usually don't require sustenance. But I'll see what I can do." He moved away, quickly obscured by the furnishings in the lab.
"Right, well." Verdant turned to us. "You two can take it from here. I don't feel exactly welcome, so I'll be off. 'Night, Vinyl. Nice to meet you, Silver."
I nodded, and Vinyl gave him a farewell hug. He left, hooves quiet on the stairs.
"Tired?" I grinned at the DJ. "You seem extra touchy-feely." She stuck her tongue out at me but smiled back.
"It's been a rough few days." She grimaced. "And this…" She waved to the corpse. "It took a lot out of me. I haven't fought - seriously, you know - for a while."
I nodded.
"More than that, I don't want to seem weak, afraid. If I break down, who knows what she'll think?" She sighed, rubbing her eyes. "But yeah, I'm tired."
We sat in silence for a few minutes until Octavia returned. She looked a lot better, with all the blood and most of the dirt gone.
"Your turn." She nodded to Vinyl, who smiled at me, stood, and left.
The silence rolled back in.
"Why do you make me nervous?" She broke the silence, pinning me with a glance.
"I'm not…" I glanced at her. "You don't look nervous." I wasn't picking up any action cues from her. On anything.
"Well, yes. But I feel it. There's an aura of danger around you, and it's not a visual thing. I got the same feeling from Syzygy, and from Vinyl and Verdant Moss when they were fighting. It's interfering with my concentration." She shook her head, as if to clear it.
"Hmm." I tilted my head, pondering. "Probably a vampire thing? A sixth sense, maybe. Lesse…" I blanked my paranoia, consciously trying to still my scanning senses, cutting out my peripheral vision, dulling my awareness of the airflows around me, flattening my ears to quiet the ambient noise, and folding my wings firmly. "Better?"
"Somewhat." She narrowed her eyes. "What did you do?"
"Dampened my combat awareness." I relaxed, letting my instincts return. She frowned slightly. "Sorry." I shrugged. "Syzygy and I have been at this long enough we don't relax, even when we're relaxing. I'm not going to sit here blind and deaf to make you comfortable."
"Fair enough." She nodded slowly. "It's annoying, but I'll learn to adapt."
"Just don't block it out. Of all the things happening to you, sensing danger's the one most likely to keep you out of fights. Just for this, the advice should be 'listen to your instincts', despite how treacherous the rest of them might be."
"…Yeah."
"And it's really hard to learn. Took me nearly two years to start reading the atmosphere, and even that relies on conscious observation."
"Any tips?" She locked her eyes on mine, giving me her undivided attention.
I paused, unsettled for a moment. My mind flashed back to my own training and the tension I felt towards her, the strange mix of debt and avoidance, sprang back full force. I swallowed, but continued.
"Don't focus on it too much. Just keep checking periodically. Once you're used to that, check more often. When you check without meaning to, you know you're on the right path. If you're good enough, you'll pick up threats without even realizing it." As I spoke, Vinyl trotted up, casually joining our conversation.
"Hey, Ziggy still not back?" She pushed her mane out of her eyes with a much cleaner hoof.
"I think he's— Oh, speak of the Nightmare." I pointed as he returned, two graduated glass beakers in tow. They each held a measure of brilliant crimson. Both mares focused on them immediately.
"These are for you." He levitated one to each of them. Vinyl gulped some immediately while Octavia took a small sip. "Now, I had a few questions. You said that this vampire was targeting you?" He pointed to Octavia. "Specifically?"
"It seemed so." Octavia frowned. "It came after me three times, ignoring the others even when they attacked."
"It did retaliate," Vinyl added, "but only enough to disengage. That's unusual, right? I've never heard of them doing that."
"Yes, very strange." Syzygy made a note, looking at them sharply. "Did it speak? Use magic? Seem… I don't know, intelligent in any way?"
"Not really." Vinyl frowned. "More just, focused. And it smells, but…"
Syzygy sniffed the air and glanced at me. I shrugged, shaking my head.
"Both of you smelled - still smell this?" They nodded, Octavia curling her lip in disgust.
"It's vile." She sipped her drink. "Cloying decay. Like nothing I've smelled."
"Hmm." He turned to the cage, touching a control with his magic. Sigils shimmered. He pulled a lever on the far wall, and in the background, the noise of fans rose. The calm, purposeful air currents flowing through the entire room picked up, quickly refreshing the atmosphere.
"Vapor exhaust," he explained. "Since the lab is underground. Better?"
“Much.”
“Thanks.”
"Hmm." I frowned. Something in that description bothered me. "Vinyl, just how good is your sense of smell?"
"Decent." She took another gulp, beaker almost empty. "Much stronger when I turn. I've never been bothered by garlic, but a few smells really stick out."
"Either of you smelled rotting flesh before?" As soon as I asked the question, Vinyl looked slightly sick. Octavia shook her head.
"That's quite enough of that." Syzygy gave me a sharp look. "Either of you have a guess as to why it was targeting you?"
"I…" Octavia paused, seeming to struggle for a moment, before stripping off the ragged scarf she was wearing to reveal a familiar opal pendant. "I've had this since the attack. I've been wearing it since I can't find the clasp. The vampire struck for my neck several times; I thought it wanted to kill me at first, but now…"
"Didn’t somepony bait you with that, Silver?" Vinyl looked to me. "What do we know about it?"
"Bait?" Octavia's brow crinkled.
"Not much." I shrugged. "Intaglio's looking into it, but the basic info was just a vague description and a caution that it's old, valuable, and likely magical. Oh," I paused, "and stolen." Vinyl winced.
"What's this about bait?" Octavia tried again.
"If I may?" Syzygy leaned in, staring at the pendant. The gem scintillated in the brightly lit room, throwing sparkles of chromatic fire.
"I… fine." She turned, allowing him a closer look.
"Hmm, faint readings." His aura flickered across the gem. "Opal is soft, amorphous; getting a spell to hold would be difficult. But its magic content is much higher than average due to the hydration, and if the phenomenotation required flexibility—"
"Can you get it off?" Octavia cut into his jargon firmly.
"Huh?" He looked up, concentration broken. "Hmm." His aura flickered again, and he paused.
"What's the hang-up?" Vinyl's horn lit, but she stopped when he glared at her.
"Sorry, just trying to figure this out. Short answer, yes. Long answer, yes, but it's probably not a good idea. This pendant is magical, and it's interacting with you somehow, Octavia. Removing it's a gamble. I wouldn't bet on it being a good idea." He gave her a sympathetic smile. "Sorry." He sighed, but his grin widened. "This is fascinating, though." He turned to the vampires in the cage. "I've learned so much in the past few days." He paused, considering. "I've been sifting through everything about vampires for so long, and I think I'm finally starting to grasp some leads. The piece that keeps popping up, the only really coherent part of the spell, is the control aspect."
"Oh?" Octavia leaned forward, ears swiveling towards him.
"Yeah." He looked to her. "How much do you know about vampirism?"
"A little. Things applicable to me."
"This applies to the vampires I’ve seen before, nightwalkers, and also the new one. It acts differently, but simply seems more advanced. I’ve been calling it a dusk walker. Neither is very like an invert. Those,” he pointed to the cage, "have a sort of hierarchy, enforced by the spell. The first to be infected is the alpha, and any it bites are forced into submission. My sample size is small, but the effects are strong. When you rose, these two dosed you with its blood—"
"That's the one that bit me?" Octavia's eyes snapped to the dusk walker, then flicked back to us. "Dosed? Blood?"
"Yeah." Vinyl shifted uncomfortably. "You were incoherent, homicidal. Afterwards you came out of it and ran… straight into a sunbeam."
"Oh." Octavia rubbed her nose. "Yeah."
"Anyways, that blood likely broke the hierarchy you'd been forced into,” Syzygy said, “which should have removed the mental suppression. Afterwards, you regained your faculties."
"So if you could find his alpha?" She waved at dusk walker.
"I… don't think that would work." He frowned. "I've scanned Vinyl, and there are fundamental differences in her internal magic which explain her high functioning profile. It would be enlightening, I'm sure, but there seems to be a degradation in the spell each time it's transferred. Its faculties aren't suppressed, they're damaged. Still, there's a chance." He sighed. "I won't terminate it unless I'm forced to. I could guess, if I knew more about the transformation point, but I've got nothing to go on. Not like you."
"You spoke," I interjected, "minutes after you'd been bitten."
"So, this… spell. It's more than a disease?"
"I think so." Syzygy nodded. "And my current guess is that it's about control. Imagine an army of invincible, absolutely loyal soldiers."
"That's horrifying." Vinyl shuddered. "But… that's not what we've got."
"No." Syzygy sighed. "No, it's not. Monsters don't make good weapons. What we see is more like an explosive than a sword. It's devastating, but that alone dulls its effect. What's more, I've never seen any sort of intelligence behind the patterns. The cause of outbreaks have always been impossible to pinpoint. Before this." His eyes turned back to the pendant.
"Tell me what you meant by 'bait'." Octavia touched the necklace, brushing away his magic.
"Well, when I found you I was on a commission," I said. "That necklace was stolen and I was hired to retrieve it. The situation was passed to me by a contact. He vetted it for the Hunters, but it didn't go to the general board. Intaglio never saw it. I talked to the pony who'd lost it, one Sun Dew. It seemed legit. He gave me a tracker and I headed out. When I got there, I met up with Ziggy, who'd traced a vampire to the same place. We found you, and… well. Anyways, when I got back, Sun Dew had vanished."
"Hmm." She frowned, taking another sip from her nearly empty beaker. "And I just happened to be present…?"
"That's what it looked like to me. If you and Ziggy hadn't been there, I've no idea how it would have ended. Likely a much bigger, more noticeable mess. If somepony wanted a reaction, they’d have plenty to work with."
"So." She shot me a sharp glance. "Why you?"
"That's…" I paused, ears slowly flattening. "It wasn't necessarily me. It could have been aimed at the organization as a whole, or likely Intaglio."
"You don't really believe that." She finished her drink. All three of them stared at me for a long moment. I frantically sorted through my responses. Syzygy had some idea that my magic was odd, and Vinyl knew I was a lot more educated than my age and apparent background would suggest. Still, Intaglio had enemies. My feathers fluffed slightly as imagined air-pressure dropped, the Storm shifting quietly in the back of my mind.
"Just because I'm paranoid, doesn't mean they're not out to get me." I tried to pass the joke off with a weak smile. "And I know the boss isn’t liked by everypony. Yes, the job was—"
I stopped as Octavia froze.
"Vinyl, I feel strange." There was an unusual harmonic in her calm voice.
"What? What's wrong?" Vinyl jerked to look. Octavia didn't shift an inch, although her eyes started to cross.
"I'm… tingly."
Vinyl's gaze snapped to Syzygy, eyes narrowing. She snatched up the beaker Octavia had been drinking from, and sniffed it once.
"This is unicorn blood!" The annoyance in her voice cut the air.
"Well, yes." Syzygy shrugged. "You were insistent and it's all I had," he waved to a small piece of gauze on his foreleg, "on hoof, as it were."
"You…" Vinyl's eyes drifted to her own empty glass, and a look of mild disgust crossed her face. "You could have warned me, at least! She's never tasted outside her ponytype!"
"But I gave you the same. In a blind trial, it's important the control—" He cut off, leaping backwards as a shard of white, nearly invisible magic leaped from Octavia's forehead, zipping across the room to break something fragile in the depths of the lab. "Excellent!"
"You, you… Gah!" Vinyl grabbed Octavia and started murmuring in her ear.
"Did you hurt her?" I leaned in on Syzygy, bringing a bladed wing to bear on his neck.
"No, no. She'll be fine." He brushed me away calmly, even as he manipulated something on the counter. "This recording will be invaluable, and although her surges may be disorienting, I was never dangerously strong."
I ducked behind a table as a ring of magic rippled overhead. I subconsciously tested the Storm, but its grumbles were quiet. I looked up as a chorus of clinks and chimes rang out.
"I am a talented multicaster, though," Syzygy said reflectively, as nearly every single piece of glass in the room started singing as it rose into the air.
"I hate you."
"Don't be that way, friend!" He leaped at me, throwing up a shield as the vibration increased. I jammed my hooves in my ears.
Moments later, we were covered in glass as everything exploded.
"I'm not helping you clean this up."
“Of course, of course.” Syzygy shook himself off and backed away, letting his shield dissolve. I shook shards of glass from my wings, slowly standing.
“Plbth!” Vinyl spat out a shard, brushing pieces from her coat and mane. “Syzygy, this is the most irresponsible, reckless, downright stupidest thing I’ve ever seen you do! If you ever try something like this again, I’ll personally kick you into next week! If she’s hurt…” She let the threat trail off, turning to the mare in question.
“Hehehe…” Octavia had a distant look in her eyes. The surges had stopped and she seemed calmer, but a few shards of glass were orbiting her erratically. As I watched, she brought one to her leg and made a shallow cut. She watched intently as it healed, giggling and bringing another piece to bear.
“Stop that!” Vinyl snatched the shard, but she simply replaced it from the mess on the floor.
“Is she going to be okay?” I moved closer, concerned.
“She’ll be fine!” Syzygy grinned.
“Yeah, probably.” Vinyl focused and lifted her entirely in her aura. “The magic is messing with her head; it was too much, too different, too fast.” She glared at Syzygy again. “I swear, Ziggy…”
“Come on, let’s get her out of here.” I lifted myself gently off the ground, careful of splinters, as I floated to the stairs.
“Yeah.” Vinyl fell in behind. “If she takes a dose and goes straight to bed, most of this should fade by morning.”
Suddenly, I felt very ready for bed. Tomorrow I had class, and students to attend to.
Oh yes. And a dragon. Can't forget the dragon.
"This. Is. Boring." The mint-green pegasus hovering before me crossed her forelegs, giving me a disapproving frown.
"Look… Greensward, right?" I sighed, turning my attention away from the drills I had most of the class flying in the air below.
"Yeah."
"Okay. It's like this. I'm not an entertainer. I'm your teacher. We're flying drills today, and tomorrow, and probably the day after that, because I'm taking this job seriously and the basics are important. We'll play a game after I have some idea how capable you are as a class, and I'm certain you can all work together as a team. And not a moment sooner."
"But I can do all this!" She waved in frustration, pointing to where the group was practicing formation flying in four-feather wedges. I'd decided to focus on coordination and awareness over physical capability. These ponies needed to get the rough-and-tumble sorted out of them, and forcing reliance on wingmates was a good way to start that.
"She can," Beau said. I looked to him, ice-blue wings folded as he sat on the cloud next to me. "Greensward's good."
"Alright…" I gave her a once-over. She was trim, with neatly kept wings. She took long, slow strokes, and hovered with the bare minimum of expended effort. I spread my wings, feeling the air around her, and nodded slowly. She was maintaining the flow smoothly. "What do you want to learn then?"
"What?"
"I'm not just letting you leave class," I explained patiently. "However, on Beau's recommendation, I can give you a little leeway like him."
"What's he learning?" She shot the dragon a curious glance.
"The finer points of working with cloudcrete," Beau replied. "Silver built his own home." He pointed upwards, where my abode drifted.
"I can't teach him anything athletic." I shrugged. "Our magic is too disparate."
"Teach her to sideslip."
I glanced at Beau.
"She can contrail. She should be strong enough."
"What's a sideslip?" Greensward glanced between us, confused.
"I'll show you." I stood, shaking out my wings. "Alright, Greensward. You ever been interested in trick flying?"
She nodded.
"Follow me." I glided off the cloud, grinning approval as she trailed my right wing, Beau fell in slightly below on my left. I made a few slow strokes, limbering up, before gathering my power.
"The real trick to fancy flying is magic control." I wrapped a breeze around us, using it to carry my voice to her. "You've got decent command over the air around you, and that's a good start. Your magic can do more than that. It reduces your weight, making it easier to get off the ground, and increases your reaction speed. With some practice, that can be controlled. If you're lighter, you can climb faster and turn tighter, but with more practice you can also do something like this."
I pulsed my power, accelerating as the surge rushed from my core and streamed off the tips of my feathers, forming a red-and-gray-streaked contrail. I heaved with one wing as it lit, tucking the other and rolling. When I came out of the maneuver, I was twenty feet straight left. I pulled into a hover as the trail faded, showing a square zig-zag.
"That's a sideslip. It's the beginning of super-maneuverability training, acrobatics past where just your wings can take you."
"You can teach me that?" She narrowed her eyes, focusing on the trail as it vanished.
"Yeah. If you can contrail, you're halfway there. It's less useful in airball, because even a slow formation can take on a lone flyer, but…" I shrugged. "You saw me use it against him." I pointed at Beau.
"And if the whole formation can do that?" She grinned.
"It takes intense discipline to do coordinated super-maneuvers in combat. There's a reason the Wonderbolts are elite." I grinned back. "It makes things pretty interesting, though."
"Teach me!"
"Give me a minute." I turned back to the class, surveying them. "Gotta keep these guys on track."
"Left two three four, right two three four, up two three four— Cut, cut!" Greensward and Beau broke step as I dove between them.
"Look, Greensward, this is important. Be delicate. Magic is about control." I waved at her smeared contrail. "If you can't tighten your focus, you'll never get it right. You've got power in here," I poked her barrel, "but if you don't feel it, you can't use it. Concentrate!"
She nodded, focusing. "But why are we dancing?"
"Because," I sighed, "it's about control. Dancing in flight takes precision and grace." I waltzed a few cubes, showing her crisp angles as I flashed from step to step. "Have you ever trained in dueling?"
"No."
"Then you need to learn to dance." I shrugged. "When you get it, you'll understand. Watch Beau, take it slow, and—"
"Heeeeeeey!"
"Huh?" I looked down. On the field far below, a cream-and-blue speck was waving at us. "Who's that?"
They shrugged.
"Great. Come on." I gave Beau a second's head start before I folded my wings and plummeted.
I landed easily, moments after the dragon. Greensward floated down carefully, unwilling to make as sudden a stop.
"You're not Fair Play!"
The speck was a cream-colored unicorn, wearing light-blue, neatly-stitched saddlebags to match her mane, and carrying a few instruments and a notebook in her aura.
"Correct." My voice was flat. "I'm Silver Lining, his substitute. And you are?"
"I’m Shimerelle!" She gave me a huge smile, pumping out a thousand watts of enthusiastic energy. I tried not to flinch but failed when Beau stepped entirely too close and gave her a long sniff. Her eyes popped wide, and her smile got even broader.
"Beau," I snapped, "Don't smell ponies. We don't like feeling delicious."
"But I’m so sweet!" She giggled and circled the dragon quickly, inspecting him. "Mister Beau, can I ask you some questions? How hot is your flame? Do you your scales absorb magic? Can I have one? How high do you fly? Can you cast—"
"She smells like magic," Beau mumbled.
"She's a unicorn, Beau." I snorted as she tried to pry one of his wings open, bubbling the whole time. Greensward watched, expression caught between annoyance and amazement.
"No, it's similar—" He cut off as Shimerelle poked him in the ribs with a hoof. "Would you stop?"
"But I’m curious!" She grinned at his annoyed snarl, leaning forward to peer into his mouth. "Do you shed teeth? Can I have your extras? Can you—"
Beau clammed up, shuffling inwards and mumbling something about ponies and cavities.
"Miss Shimerelle!" She snapped away from him, focusing on me again. "What are you doing here?" I glanced upwards, checking on my class. They were flying better.
"Oh, yes!" She bounced towards me. "I'm studying pegasus flight for my project, you see, and I saw your contrails. They were square! So, I wanted to know—"
"We were dancing." I cut her off before she could release another avalanche of inquisitiveness.
"Oh, fascinating! Can I watch?"
Silence fell for a moment. I blinked, waiting, but no more questions appeared. She was staring at me, wide-eyed and hopeful. I thought for a long minute, weighing this annoyance against being a 'good' teacher. Besides, I half-expected her to simply float up on bubbles of curiosity if I left her here.
"Can you fly?"
"Noooo…." Her smiled lessened slightly. "But! I can cloud walk if you bring me one."
"I can carry you up," I offered. Her eyes lit, and she started pulling instruments from her saddlebags. "Greensward, you ever seen a distance lift?"
"No."
"Alright, watch carefully, this will be educational. Miss Shimerelle—" I paused as she threw a hoof around my neck, hugging me tightly. "That won't be necessary." I detached her firmly and stepped back. "Stand there."
She nodded and started training measuring devices on me.
"This is the same technique used to carry a chariot," I continued. "If you learn to use your magic properly, however, you only need to be near the target." I spread my wings, gathering the surrounding air. I pushed a dab of power at Shimerelle to mark her before flapping. She lifted lightly on my breeze, giggling and taking notes. "It's how I controlled the cloud ball when I flew against Beau, leaving my hooves free. It’s part of lifeguard training."
We ascended slowly, past practicing groups of students. I stopped a few with blasts of my whistle, giving pointers and encouraging them to watch their leaders and cycle through positions. In a few minutes we were above the herd. Shimerelle cast her cloud walking spell, and I settled her carefully on the fluffy islet I'd been using to watch. She pranced for a moment before looking straight up.
"Is that a house? Is it yours? Can you see my house from there? Did you build it? Can I visit? Is it fluffy? Is—"
"Yes yes no idea yes no yes please stop talking."
She fell silent, grinning brightly and scribbling my answers on her pad. I sighed, relenting slightly.
"Sorry. You can ask questions, but I need to pay attention to my class, so please slow down. Beau, Greensward, take it from the top." They nodded and resumed their waltz.
"So!" Shimerelle smiled brightly, stepping lightly over to the edge of the cloud. "Tell me about pegasus dancing!"
"Well…" I thought back, skimming the histories I'd learned. "Back in the days of Pegastopolis…" I carefully watched my students, trying to split my attention three ways.
"…Imping is grafting a spare quill in place of a broken one." I spread a wing, pointing to one of my blades. Shimerelle leaned in close, sketching a quick outline of the socket. "Sometimes we use synthetic, but most save them from a molt— hold on a minute." I broke off my impromptu lecture, diving towards the dance. Class was nearly over, but I was still keeping a close eye on the drills.
"What?" Greensward was surly, perspiration running down her coat. Dancing was hard work, and I'd been pushing her.
"That. What you just did? That was it." I grinned. "You got a proper flit in that last step. Excellent work!"
"Really?" She grinned broadly.
"Really. Now do it again." Her grin dimmed slightly, but she firmed her stance and bowed to Beau as I soared back to the cloud.
"Sorry, where were we?"
"Griffons!"
"Well, I don't know what—" I paused. Shimerelle wasn't looking at me. She was pointing out past the airfield, over the University, where two lighter specks were approaching with long, swift strokes. "Oh."
My stomach sank as they grew nearer, and I recognized the leader, a big tiercel with black feathers and white fur.
"Bloody hail."
Shimerelle gave me a curious glance.
"Pardon my Prench. This is exactly the sort of attention I'd rather dodge. Please don't talk for a few minutes?" She nodded meekly, but started scribbling furiously as the griffons drew near, the second hanging back as the leader fell into a hover slightly above us.
"Silver." The lead griffon touched a claw to his neck.
"Auric." I returned the salute cordially. "What brings you here?"
"Whispers on the breeze." He shrugged. "Is this what Intaglio has you doing? A Hunter of your caliber?"
"Please don't patronize me." I sighed. This was going to be tiresome. "You know I respect and support the current chair."
"Don't you, though." He chuckled deeply. "Intensely."
"I have my reasons. Did you need something, or are you just trying to disrupt my class?" I bared my teeth at him.
"I had no idea you were such an adept instructor." He glanced at Greensward and Beau, waltzing careful cubes below. "The Steel Breeze can always use talented teachers."
"Stop wasting my time, Auric."
"Yes, yes. Of course. It's just so interesting to see you stepping outside your safe little rules. Makes me wonder." He peered at me intently.
I swallowed a retort, although my feathers bristled.
"Hah, well." He shrugged. "I guess my questions will wait. I just thought you might enjoy meeting the newest member of my squadron. This is my niece." He waved the second griffon forward. As I focused on her, my stomach lurched again. I tried to hide my shock behind a forced smile, and it might have worked.
"I'm Silver Lining. Nice to meet you, miss…?" I trailed off, pretending I didn't know her name.
"Gilda." Her brow curled in puzzlement, but she played along. "Gilda Highwind." She offered me a claw, which I shook carefully, taking the time to school my features.
"Enjoy Canterlot." I nodded and cocked an ear as a distant ringing sounded. "I'd love to stay and talk, but it's time for me to dismiss class." I waved to Auric, who grunted a frustrated farewell, and tumbled from the cloud. Beau folded his wings below me as I blasted my whistle, careful of his promise.
The herd assembled quickly on the ground. I complemented their improvement, smiled at Greensward, and watched them disperse. Finally, it was just me and Beau. I gave a long sigh and let myself relax as responsibility faded.
“What was that about?” He stared up at the departing griffons.
“Trouble,” I grumbled. “Part of why I never really wanted this job. He’s not exactly friendly to our boss.”
“And the other? Did you know her?”
“A lifetime ago, we were nearly friends.”
"Heeeeeeey!" A voice floated down, cutting our conversation.
I groaned. High on the cloud, a cream-and-blue speck was waving at me.
I flapped tiredly into the air, grumbling all the way.
I'd known this job wouldn’t be simple.