"Squawwwwk!" With a clatter of his beak, a surly griffon snarled at Rainbow Dash in passing. "Watch it, softy! Get your own damn flying lane!"
Rainbow Dash shuddered, strafing to the side as she approached the upper branches of a massive crystalline tree. "Ooomf!" She bumped into the ruffled chest of an even larger brute.
"HEY!" The griffon slapped her upside the head. "I'm flapping here! I'm flapping here!"
"Sorry! Jeez!" Rainbow rolled her eyes, flying off with a flick of her tail. "Go lay an egg or something."
"Maybe I will!" The griffon stuck her tongue out and soared towards the lower struts. "Down your throat while you're asleep, windbag!"
Rainbow struck quieter air, but that wasn't saying much. The atmosphere above the stalk was perpetually filled with grunting, shrieking, hissing voices. It was like being in a pet store full of parrots, only every bird was sentient, angry, and had a bone—or beak—to pick with the only hoofed creature in nearly four hundred miles.
Wh-Whap! A lion's tail smacked Rainbow across her left wing, throwing her off balance. "That was just a warning, sissy!" snarled a scarred griffon through a triply scarred beak. "You so much as think of prancing around the Spotted Egg Branch, and we'll have your guts for garters!" His wing buddies laughed and spat in the air.
Rainbow Dash sighed.
A tiny statue poked his head out of her saddlebag. "I think I like it here."
"Oh sit on it," Rainbow growled, her eyes as hard as ruby daggers. She flew counter-clockwise around the thick, central stalk of the tall-tall spire. "The less time we spent here, the better."
"Mmmmm... for Apple Bloom's sake, right?"
"And for mine," Rainbow groaned, tilting her head up... up... ... ... up. "I swear, if I don't get this over with soon, there'll be two dead ponyvilleans by the end of this week."
The city was unlike any other Rainbow Dash had visited, much less even seen in pictures. Although she had often heard of the Crystal Tree Roosts, she had never bothered with envisioning them. Above her stretched branch after branch of sturdy, horizontal pylons, all jagged and natural in formation—albeit unnatural in composition. Seated atop the translucent, glittery boughs were sporadic clumps of earth, straw, and hay—all compacted together over centuries and centuries of avian colonization. So much time had passed since the griffons first nested there that trees and miniature forests even grew on the thicker patches of relocated soil, dangling hundreds upon hundreds of feet over the otherwise desolate plateau below. Between each branch, countless griffon bodies darted and flew, taking their business and trade from building to building, filling the air with a constant buzzing, chirping commotion.
"How beautifully ugly," Lancie said, bearing a fanged smirk. "I'm rather fond of the architecture, really. It's like watching ballet in reverse." He blinked. "With chainsaws." He smiled even more.
"I guess it is... kinda awesome," Rainbow Dash muttered. She looked due north to where two more spires stood high above the ground, likewise buzzing with griffon life. Beyond those two, she knew—beyond the layer of distant fog—at least three or four more trees were supposed to exist. "But I'm not here to sight-see." She flew straight up. "I gotta make it to Town Hall."
"And just where is that?"
Rainbow gulped, squinting against the winds. "According to Twilight, it's always the highest elevated branch."
"But of course," Lancie said, stifling a yawn.
Rainbow looked back over her shoulder. "I thought you had these bigflank trees back in your time."
"I did," Lancie said in a melodic tone. "Granted, they looked considerably different at the time." He squeezed his stone nostrils shut. "...and they weren't quite so infested."
"Heh. I hear ya."
"To be honest, I'm surprised that griffons live here and not ponies."
"Why's that?"
"Well, don't you know, Sparky?" Lancie smirked. "These kind of trees were once very... very integral to the sort of thing that makes you and your five fellow friends tick."
"...huh?"
Lancie rolled his eyes. "Eh... never mind." He fought another yawn. "Once upon a time, these crystal trees used to frighten me."
"I've no friggin' clue how."
"That's right," he grunted. "You don't." A beat, and he smiled. "Still, I do credit them for inspiring me to take up gardening."
"Uhhhh... really?" Rainbow blinked. "Gardening?"
"Ohhhh yes yes yes! Why, I had a rather elaborate collection of obsidian glass seeds just ripe for the planting!" He tapped his chin in thought. "Now... where did I put all of them?" He shrugged. "Ah well..."
"Well, botany is not on the agenda," Rainbow grunted. She flew past several more grumbling griffons and made for the highest branch of the spire. "I've gotta get my butt to town hall and speak to whoever is in charge... Mayor Pelican."
"For real?" Lancie blinked. "That's his name?"
"Pfffft!" Rainbow rolled her eyes. "I don't bucking know! But it stands to reason that some griffon in this place runs the show..." She pointed due west at the hazy clifface beset with blurring winds. "And whoever they are, they're the ones who have the authority to let me through that barrier."
"Uh huh..." Lancie nodded, ducking as they narrowly avoided collision with a flock of squawking youngsters. He blew and sneezed from the resulting cloud of down feathers. "Pfft! Pfftbeh! Ahem... and just how are we certain they'll... erm... raise the gate, so to speak?"
"... ... ..." Rainbow Dash was staring down, her absent-minded gaze locked on a distant bough below, covered in verdant green vegetation.
"Erm... earth to Sparky? Hello?!"
"Uhh... yeah..." Rainbow finally ripped her eyes from the lower bough and redirected her gaze skyward. "Convincing Town Hall..." She shrugged and accelerated past the criss-crossing air traffic. "How hard could it be?"