The past three hours were an interesting experiment, to say the least. Rainbow Dash had flown over every square inch of the rooftops of Rust. She had seen the city's highs, its lows, its segmented sections and its jagged edges. She had flown to such extremes that she was secretly surprised that none of the guards had attempted to halt her or rein her in. All the while, she was able to see the platform city's decrepit districts, as well as its more “pristine” courtyards. She spotted urbanscapes that obviously must have belonged to the city's upper elite, with terraced buildings scaling taller and taller, glittering in the afternoon sunlight. Every now and then, Rainbow would spot serious-muzzled stallions and mares trotting in pairs, trios, and quartets—all eyeing the crowd while keeping tight-lipped and vigilant. It eventually occurred to her that a survey of this city was a great deal less stressful to make than the hours she had spent soaring over the lengths of Val Roa. For one thing, she wasn't the only pegasus in sight, so flying over the city summits was far from conspicuous. For another, she wasn't constantly worrying about the all-seeing-eye of a Changeling Queen. And yet, despite all of these enthralling elements, there was one thing that made the entire endeavor mind-numbingly frustrating.
“Y'know, it'd really help if I friggin' knew what Echo looked like,” Rainbow growled.
Twilight Sparkle giggled and giggled.
“Mrrmmmff...” Rarity pouted, folding her forelimbs in mid-drift. “If you ask me, I'd say this entire search is utterly fruitless. Can't we just return to the hotel? And its hammock?”
“Yeeeugh...” Rainbow shuddered, gliding over a metallic spire. “Don't tempt me.”
“What's the matter, Rarity?” Twilight hummed, smiling across the pegasus at her spectral companion. “Not enjoying the sights?”
“Is it possible for a mother hen to admire an egg-eating viper?!” Rarity grimaced. “Celestia above, if I still had a stomach, I would utterly vomit!”
“Sorry, Rarity,” Rainbow droned. She glanced at a series of apartment buildings looming over a rippling canal. “If I had my way, I'd have our adventures take us to far less... garish places. Just for you.”
“'Garish' doesn't even begin to describe it!” Rarity squeaked. She pointed with a limp hoof. “Just look at those vomitous exteriors! Doesn't anypony this side of the ocean at least believe in paint anymore?! And those balconies! So barren and stricken with mildew!” She covered her eyes. “Eeeeugh... wake me when it's all overrrrr.”
“Don't give up hope, Rarity,” Twilight said. “We've yet to get to Shoggoth. Who knows? Maybe sea ponies have a penchant for exterior decorating.” She looked across the way. “What do you think, Rainbow?” A beat. She arched an eyebrow. “Rainbow?”
“Funny...” Rainbow gazed to her right. She pointed at a hollowed out, charred buildingside. “That place looks like it suffered a really nasty fire.”
“Yes, indeed. So?” Twilight blinked. “The residents of Rust don't exactly appear to be... quick to renovate things.”
“Yeah, but—like—that's the seventh place I've seen that looks burnt to a crisp.” Rainbow looked at Twilight. “Is this place super friggin' fire-prone or what?”
“You know, she does have a point,” Rarity remarked. “A lot of the buildings we've passed are... quite barren, to say the least.” She pointed at one of the blackened spires. “That structure, for instance, with all the seared windows?”
“Yes...?”
“It's completely skeletonized on the inside,” Rarity said. “I'm not sensing a single piece of furniture. Now, there are literally thousands of ponies trotting the streets of this place. You'd think they'd want nothing less than to fill every available living space on this floating... palace..”
“Maybe it's unsafe.” Twilight shrugged. “If a flash fire consumed a large building, I wouldn't want to live there either until I was certain the place could stand on its own.”
“Yes, but Twilight...” Rarity's brow furrowed. “I can sense the foundation of the place. That building is structurally sound. Such is the same with the other buildings that Rainbow is speaking of. It's... rather haunting.”
“Huh...” Twilight rubbed her chin in thought. “You know, now that you say that, it is rather odd.”
“Well, hold the thought,” Rainbow said, suddenly descending towards the second level of suspended platforms. “We've just got ourselves a doctor's appointment.”
Rarity and Twilight looked to see Theanim Mane positioned in the middle of a metal street. He turned from talking to a pair of tradesponies and smiled at Rainbow Dash's approach. “Ah! Miss Dash! At last!” He smirked as she landed in front of him. “Allow me to guess... you've realized that you haven't a clue what Echo looks like.”
Rainbow wheezed, catching her breath. “Forgive me, Doc. I guess... uhh... I got a bit hammock-crazy there.”
“Did you get a good feel for the city, at least?”
“You can say that and a half.”
“Good. Then fret not.” Theanim trotted down the street, motioning for Rainbow to follow along. “I've made inquiries of at least a dozen ponies since we last parted ways.” He cleared his throat. “It took a few bits, mind you, but I was able to get a faint lead on my old companion's current whereabouts.”
“Oh really?”
“Seems like the fellow has been loitering around the Dust District,” Theanim explained. “Makes sense, considering his photophobia...”
“Heh.” Twilight grinned. “Every city called 'Rust' must have a 'Dust District.'”
“Come to think of it...” Rainbow glanced off in mid-trot, thinking aloud. “I think Gray Smoke had a 'Rust District...'”
“Come again?” Theanim remarked.
Before she could answer him, Rainbow caught sight of another burnt-down building. “Say, Doc. This might sound a bit random, but have you noticed the—”
“Charred remains of once-glorious residential establishments?”
“Err... yeahhhhhh...” Rainbow nodded. “And are they all really places of residences?”
“Yes. And exclusively.”
“Oh dear,” Rarity remarked, blinking at Twilight. “That's distressing.”
“Am I and my two marefriends the only ones weirded out by that?” Rainbow asked.
“I too was concerned,” Theanim said. “And if I weren't so ardent on finding Echo, I would have asked more questions regarding the issue.”
“But you have asked some questions...?”
“Yes.”
“And?”
“The locals claim that there's been a faulty series of mana-crystal charged heating systems.” He glanced aside at Rainbow. “A series of merchants took up shop in town over the past five years—a group of unicorns. And they sold these heating systems powered by enchanted crystals. However, they proved to be defective... disastorously so.”
“And—what—the apartments just went up in smoke?”
“Evidently,” Theanim said. “Thankfully, the Syndicate swept in and ran the irresponsible cretins out. There've been considerably less blazes since—especially now that the items in question have been recalled.”
“Well, that's a relief!” Rarity exclaimed.
“Still, it's inconceivable that such a mess would happen to begin with!” Twilight exclaimed. “Don't the trades ponies here have common decency?”
“Kind of a sucky situation to happen for no reason, eh?” Rainbow asked. “For a group of ponies so big on making and preserving coin, you'd think they'd be more careful about stuff like that.”
“Indeed. Which is why it's a good thing that the Syndicate's driven the irresponsible lot out.”
“And everypony here is—like—cool with the way things turned out?”
Theanim shrugged. “They didn't say otherwise.”
“Hmmmm...”
“Alas!” Theanim pointed ahead, grinning. “The entrance to the Dust District!” However, as the pair made their way to a shadowed ramp leading down to a lower platform, the scientist slowed his trotting steps. “Wuh oh.”
“What's the matter?” Rainbow asked.
“Hmmm...” Theanim lifted his goggles, squinting at a pair of tightly-suited equines minding the entrance. Each group of ponies who approached the ramp were stopped and forced to talk with them before pressing on. “It... appears to be a checkpoint of some sort.”
“A checkpoint?”
“It would seem that the Syndicate only wants certain loyal merchants in the streets of the Dust District.”
“They can do that?”
“It's their city, Miss Dash.”
“Hrmmmm...”
“Do not worry, my good mare.” Theanim smiled, holding a hoof up. As she hovered in place, he trotted onwards. “Allow me to take care of this.”
The two shifty ponies finished talking to a group of equines. After nodding them off, they turned their attention to the approaching doctor.
“Stop right there,” one pony said sharply, his brow furrowed like a diamond's edge. “What's the password.”
“Password?!” Theanim chuckled heavily. “Oh, dear stallion, surely you jest! This is Rust! Not a foals' clubhouse!”
The two merely glared at him.
“Verlaxion's sleet...” Theanim blinked. “You aren't joking.”
“You obviously haven't been in Rust in a long while, buddy,” one said. “It's pretty simple.”
“You want down in the Dust District? You give us the password,” the other added.
“Or you pay a fee.”
“Erm... what kind of a fee?”
The two stallions exchanged glances. At last, one said, “Fifty bits.”
Theanim's eyes bulged. “F-fifty?!” He gawked at them. “Why... that's never been charged for anything in this city before!”
“And we've never seen your stuffy face before,” one of the stallions said. “You speak up, pay up, or you get on the bad side of our Boss.”
“The Boss must be truly desperate these days,” Theanim muttered. “Hrmmmfff... and you won't make an exception for a member of the Order?”
“You want to do science? Go dunk your head in the canals and search for jellyfish.” The stallion pointed towards the rest of the city. “If you haven't got the bits, then take your Continentalist badge elsewhere.”
Theanim exhaled slowly. “Very well then. I read you loud and clear.” He shuffled back towards where Rainbow hovered.
“My goodness...” Rarity folded her forelimbs, pouting. “Quite charming, this Syndicate.”
“Bad news, dude?” Rainbow remarked.
“The city has... grown more paranoid since the last time I was here,” Theanim remarked. “I've experienced checkpoints before, but never have I seen the lower districts so closely guarded.” He fanned himself, glancing forlornly at the metal lengths of the place. “The Syndicate must be feeling the pinch somehow...”
“And just who's this 'Boss' guy?”
“Someone I'd much rather not have dinner with, thank you very much.” Theanim slid his goggles down and groaned. “Let's press on elsewhere.”
“Wait just a sec, Doc.” Rainbow pointed. “He said he'd let us down for bits.”
“Erm... yes. Quite.”
“Since when has that been an obstacle before?”
“Please, don't think ill of my generosity, Miss Dash,” Theanim said, smiling nervously. “As much as I've laviciously provided for our transport here, it goes without saying that I am... mrmmm... n-not made of bits.” He gulped. “I apologize sincerely, but I do very much want to possess my own fortune when all of this is said and done. Not everypony can travel as far as you can, after all. That goes as much for the bit bag as it does for one's intestinal fortitude. Heh...”
“Well, shoot...” Rainbow Dash frowned. “You're certain Echo's hanging out down there?”
“Most certainly.”
“Then there's gotta be another way to get to—”
Suddenly, Twilight zipped up, breathless. “Rainbow! I know it!”
Rainbow did a double-take at her. “Know what?”
“Hmmm?” Theanim squinted through his goggles. “Do one of your friends have a solution?”
Twilight leaned in and whispered in Rainbow's ear.
Rainbow blinked, then gaped at her. “That's it?!”
Twilight nodded.
“How...?” Rainbow looked across the platform. The two stallions stood at least one hundred feet away—where they halted group after group of ponies. “How'd you even get over there to hear it? That's like a gazillion miles away!”
“Well... uhm...” Twilight fidgeted in mid-air. “I wasn't sure how to say this, but...”
“But what?”
“Ever since we picked up Rarity, I've... been able to go double the distance than before.”
“Wait, seriously?” Rarity remarked. “You were once reined in even tighter?”
“Hold the soundstone,” Rainbow grunted. “Since when has this been a thing?”
With her eyes locked with Rainbow's, Twilight drifted backwards. She reached a spot nearly thirty meters away before a translucent wall of lavender energy held her like a barricade. She kicked against it and flew back. “See...?”
Rainbow's jaw hung agape. “I... I never even noticed that!” She winced. “All this time... I feel like a dang idiot.”
“About what, my dear?” Theanim remarked.
“Don't feel bad, Rainbow,” Twilight said. “It wasn't until a day or two ago that I noticed.” She smiled nervously. “Right at the end of our sea voyage. I just... didn't expect to be able to go the distance. It's like that old thought experiment with the baby elephant chained to a rock.”
“Pffft... friggin' crazy.”
“Remarkable,” Rarity hummed. “Then—that must mean when we wake Pinkie Pie...”
“Yeah, my mind's already buzzing,” Rainbow droned.
“Please, do fill me in if you can, Miss Dash,” Theanim begged.
Rainbow smirked and motioned him to follow her. “Allow me. Courtesy of Twilight.”
“Very well.”
Rainbow Dash approached the two stallions. They were just done nodding off a group of merchants when there hard eyes met the mare's. “Halt—”
“Relax, buds,” Rainbow chirped. She pointed at Theanim. “My goofy friend here forgot to wait for me. Pffft... desperate for that coral, do you know what I mean?”
Theanim hissed, wincing sharply.
The stallions merely sighed, looking bored. “Password, please...?”
“Ahem...” Rainbow glared at them. “... ... ... 'Just. Essay.'”
Silence.
“Right.” One stallion's nostrils flared. The two parted ways, motioning into the dark depths of Rust. “You may pass.”
“Dang skippy.” Rainbow motioned. “Hop along, Doc.”
“Erm... by all means.” Theanim shuffled nervously after her. He tipped his goggled. “Good day—”
“Don't rub it in, Einstallion,” Rainbow hoarsely whispered in his ear.
“Erm... a thousand pardons,” Theanim stammered, ducking into the Dust District along with Rainbow. “There are times when I wish I was as smooth as you.”
“Pffft... nopony's perfect.”
Twilight cleared her throat indignantly.
“...or as magical,” the pegasus said, winking over her shoulder.
Twilight smiled proudly, her cheeks pink, and soon they were encased in shadow.