When the Everfree Burns

by SpiritDutch

Bridge Chapter 4: Coming in to Coltcutta

Six Weeks Before the Summer Sun

The sun was hot and the air was damp, but the Maredian Sea between Zebrastan and Saddle Arabia was calm in spring. The Flyer Kyte chased the sun east, gliding through flat seas. Life was, for the moment, uneventful.

Rainbow Dash was napping peacefully on the mermare figurehead of the Kyte, dreaming about playing leapfrog with a pair of red fillies, when a deafening crack jolted her awake. She slipped off her narrow perch, almost hitting the smooth waters below before she remembered her wings and flapped back up to the level of the top deck.

Gilda was leaning over the forecastle, taking aim with her fancy new breachload arquebus. She shifted from one talon to the other, testing how it felt from each side, before squeezing the trigger and releasing the spring-loaded flint arm to strike the powder pan. The gun let off another shot with a mighty roar, and Gilda was nearly thrown on her back as it bucked upward in recoil.

Rainbow waited for the ringing in her ears to pass. “Do you have to test that thing now? You know it’s my designated naptime.”

“The wind is totally dead, and everypony else is in their bunks.” GIlda flicked a thumb in the direction of the stair belowdecks. For most of the pony crew, the tropical sun was intolerable, even when clad in protective clothes. Doubly so without a breeze. “This is the only time I can be up and test here without the sailors complaining.”

“But do you really need to? Seems like it's working fine to me.” Dash asked skeptically.

"Nopony complained when Do was practicing with her little pea-shooter."

"Because it was half as loud." Dash said. "Can't you wait?"

“Well, would you wait to try out a new flying trick you thought of?” Gilda shot back.

“No…” Dash admitted. “I mean, well… You know, I haven’t thought of any new tricks in a while. I’ve been in a funk since Clawstantinople.”

Gilda stepped away from the side, slotting the gun in a makeshift strap she'd made that rested on her back. “Okay, I'll bite Dash. You'd rather talk about your feelings."

Dash blushed. "N- No! I didn't mean to-"

"No please." Gilda bowed deferentially. "Tell me about your funk. Is it really nothing me or your new friend Do could help with?”

“It’s like, I don’t know.” Dash shook her head. “There’s always a little doubt pulling me away. I'm hardly up in the sky anymore. In Baltimare I was the fastest weathermare up there, and I always had time to test a move. Since we left it's been a new sky every day and..." She sighed. "Is it the air? Something doesn't feel right."

"Hey, I hear you. I didn't do well when I left home for the first time either." Gilda nodded, popping open the gun's powder tray and scraping off the residue. "At first I was dizzy, then I was seeing things. I was sick to my stomach for days. Heh, maybe it was something I ate."

"That's when you made your little snack rules, huh?" Rainbow teased weakly.

"N- No! You don't know what you're talking about." Gilda blushed angrily. She smacked the powder pan closed. "Don't you ever shut up about that?!"

"Sorry, sorry." Dash stared at the deck, tracing the grain of the wood with her eyes. "Why's this a touchy subject now? We were joking about it before."

"Humph." Gilda flicked another small lead ball down the barrel. "Gosh who know. Maybe I, seeing how amazingly it went when you decided to face your past, decided to have a go."

That struck Dash silent. Gilda felt a little guilty about the bluster, but it was less every time, ever with Dash.

"Yeah, and you know where that line of thought leads us." Gilda hoisted the gun up and took aim again. "Whatever crap you had to go through in Cloudsdale, you better believe Godswing is a thousand times worse. So basically, I'm done thinking about the past. Forever, hopefully. A new continent, a new life..."
She squeezed the trigger, and the arquebus blasted back with a mighty retort. The shot hit the water a hundred meters away with a modest splash.
"Forget why things the way they are. They just are. Crucifying ourselves over mistakes is getting us nowhere."

Dash was apprehensive about that idea. "But G, we have to learn from our mistakes."

"Gods willing there's going to be enough future for us to learn from. The past can die because I'm not afraid of it anymore. I will not run. I have the confidence to face the future head on." Gilda reaffirmed, harsher. She half-turned to Dash, gesturing with the gun. "You disagree? You'd rather live in your sad, pathetic past?

"G, I... I can't talk to you when your like this. I've got to go." Dash said dejectedly. "I'll see you, umm, later."

"See ya." Gilda nodded, already reloading for another shot. Dash retreated to the door to the cabins, and with a last glance, went below decks.

Gilda blew the residue out of the powder pan again. She felt like everything around her was going to hell, but there was something therapeutic about the repetitive task. Eventually, she hoped, she could reload it as fast as the earth pony sniper she'd taken it from. It was a beautiful device and it deserved her devotion and respect, but being accurate could only come with time.

She reached down for her powder horn, but it wasn't where she left it. Confused, she turned and found herself face-to-face with a grinning Daring Do.

"Good morning, Mis Gilda." Do said.

"It's past noon." Gilda eyed the powder horn that Do had clutched in her hoof. "Can I have that back?"

Do ignored her and leaned on the railing casually. "I was strolling by and happened to hear something quite odd. I was hoping you could clarify for me."

"Was it my new gun?" Gilda snarked.

"No, not quite." Do laughed emptily. "Did you, and please correct me if I'm wrong here, mention Godswing?"

Gilda leveled her arquebus and aimed it at Do's temple. "No." She said coldly. "I don't think I ever did mention it."

"You sure do love threatening death on ponies, or is it just on me?" Do laughed at the gesture. "Mis Gilda, please, let's be friendly here."

"You're getting a bit too tired to stay out in the heat, I'd say." Gilda scowled, ushering Do back with the gun. "You had better go inside before you get a heat stroke."

"I'm a bit out of your distance, aren't I? Wouldn't your talons do better in this situation?" Do rolled her eyes. "Come on, I just want to talk. You might have some answers to a question I've had for a while.

"Is it, 'what's a lead ball smashing through my skull and scrambling my brains feel like?' Because if so, I might have an answer all right." Gilda teased her claw against the trigger.

"Bloody griffins." Do sighed in exasperation. "Come on, you didn't load the damn thing! Just hear me out. It's not every day that somepony escapes Godswing and the School of the Black Bell."

"There's a reason for that." Gilda lowered her arquebus, but snatched back her powder horn. She went back to her reloading ritual. "Perhaps your eavesdropping also heard me say that Godswing is about the worst place on earth. Whatever treasure you think you might find there, FORGET IT. The endless screams that woke me every night of my childhood weren't ones of joy."

"Really?!" Do gasped. Her shock turned to glee and she launched into a battery of questions. "But, can you tell me about the island itself? How many live there? How many disciples of the School of the Black Bell are there? What about the Graffina? How about the Ossuary? Have they really brought back ponies from the dead?"

Gilda strained to ignore her, slowly measuring out gunpowder into the breach of the gun.

"Fine fine fine." Do placated. "I can understand I might me a touchy subject. But the knowledge! Oh, I just want to know! Rumors swirl the academic world! Ponies say they're just the visible surface of a huge network. Is that true?"

Gilda continued in silence.

"Well, um... Some other time then, please?" Do trotted back towards the cabins. "Oh psha! You can't evade me forever. Eventually, I will like to hear about that mysterious place. I will!"

Gilda slowly turned to face the jabbering mare. "Kindly, buck off!"

Do scrunched her nose and opened her mouth to say something, but decided against it. She completed her withdrawal into the cabins.

"I guess you really are a grave robber." Gilda grumbled, alone again. She wished the wind could come back and push the curious thoughts away from all the ponies. The last time a nosy pony had been so prying about her past, he'd ended up dead on the Baltimare waterfront.

---

The wind picked up early the next day and drove the Flyer Kyte east across the Maredian Sea to the western coast of Zebrastan. Through the telescope Gilda could see verdant jungle broken up by coastal villages constructed of red stone, and small dhows plowing the waters closer to the shore. Showing a great curiosity for the history of the place, Gilda snuck an older atlas from Magistrate Mare's cabin and read over it.

The great subcontinent was known by many names, for within its borders were thousands of races and languages. Only its most northerly extremes, those in contact with Mardia and Hars, were actually ruled by zebra lords, descendants of nomad lords from Sahella. Still the hippogryphs named the entire land after them, Zebrastan, and so the word of that place and its name travelled to Griffany and on to Equestria.

The individual histories of the hundreds of sultanates, shahdoms, and rajs bored Gilda, but the narrative of near total integration between the different populations of zebras, oxen, water buffalo, elephants, and ponies intrigued her. It was strange to consider, contradicting the Griffin and Equestrian tradition of the tribe-state and their histories of tribal conflict.
Grifins were relatively new to the continent, with a flotilla from Anterpwren arriving for the first time in 901 SS in search spice and riches. The lords of Zebrastan had welcomed the foreigners at first and all the others who came after, for their lands were as welcoming as one could find anywhere. But slowly the griffins of the GOC and the ponies of the EOC were chipping away at native sovereignty. The trade treaties were becoming more unequal every year, and the supposed visitors were impeding on the privileges of the kings more and more.

When she was tired of reading Gilda handed the book back to Mare, earning a confused and irritated look from the magistrate.

It took three days to round the southern tip of the Zebrastani subcontinent. Gilda took another book out of Magistrate Mare's office, one of charts and maps, and counted off the larger harbors as they passed them.
The ports were each as populous as Clawstantinople, with magnificent sandstone palaces surrounded by tracts of tiny houses and markets, and with hundreds of ships of many nations floating just offshore. Newer fortresses and trading houses, marring the cities like a scar, were the districts of the trading companies.
As huge as the cities were, they were still drowned out by the population of the countryside: Zebrastan was so populous that even small parcels of territory had the population of whole griffin kingdoms. That, more than anything else, was why the foreign powers were able to encroach, for centralizing power was an impossible undertaking. Local lords were too numerous and powerful to reign in, so said local lords found it easy and convenient to make treaties with the outsiders rather than their regional hegemony.

It was all so fascinating. How easy would it be to gather a small army and carve out a little empire for oneself in those populous jungles. The Princes of Equestria and other mercenaries were wasting their time fighting griffin wars when they could be real princes in Zebrastan.
As fun as it was to wonder, Gilda had to return those charts too. Mare mare grumbling indistinct threats if she tried to steal a book again, so Gilda promised to ask next time, and only steal it after Mare turned the request down. Mare did not find that funny.

After rounding the southern tip, the Flyer Kyte turned north-east, weaving through the tropical archipelagos of the Sunbasker Isles. The sandy shoals took longer than expected to navigate, a fact much lamented by Dash and Magistrate Mare, but Do and Gilda enjoyed the fleeting window into so-called paradise. The hot days were getting even longer, and Gilda's accuracy with the intricate arquebus improved.

After a few more days hugging Zebrastan's east coast on their way northeast, the Kyte turned due north. They had a strait shot to their next stop, so they made full sail to arrive before nightfall.

---

At long last the Flyer Kyte arrived Coltcutta, the largest city of all Zebrastan. It sat on an island at the mouth of the River Grana, overlooking the vast marshy estuary. To approach the city at all, ships had to weave through a network of canals cut into the swamp, which linked the inner lagoon to the sea. All the while the Kyte was observed by fortifications hidden on the soggy strips of land around them among the mangroves.

But soon the canal widened into Coltcutta's lagoon, and the city and dockland lay before them in all its splendor. They anchored in the middle of the water body, sufficiently out of the way of the cargo galleons entering and exiting the jetties.
The crew took the dinghies ashore for their long-awaited shore leave.

However Gilda and Dash stayed aboard, under order of Magistrate Mare.

"This bucking sucks." Gilda moaned, eyeing the departing crew. The gun strapped to her back had become a permanent part of her getup. "It's going to get dark soon. We've been cheated."

"I was going to get a souvenir." Dash said longingly. "I never did get a chance in Clawstantinople, or Sahella, or Stirrup!"

"Quit your bitching ladies. This isn't a vacation." Magistrate Mare scowled. She looked severely annoyed. "As private contractors, the minimum hours of shore leave the EOC mandates is not extended to you. Not like you do any real work anyway!"

"Hey! We saved your bucking life, and beside, we're protecting the VIP!" Gilda snapped.

"I hired you, and you do what I say." Mare growled. "I tell you to stay, and you stay. If I happen to decide a VIP needs protecting, it is only with my issuing words that you do so. Got it?"

Gilda ground her beak. Mare still had the dirt on her, and without a satisfying trade there was little chance of the devious bureaucrat 'forgetting'. She bowed her head in surrender. "Yeah, I got it."

"Speaking of VIP, where is Daring?" Dash wondered.

"Probably in the hold, caressing her little sarcophagus." Gilda remarked sourly.

"Her what?" Mare and Dash asked simultaneously.

"Uhh..." Gilda stuttered. She had reported to Mare that she'd learned nothing of Do's plans in Stirrup. She would be mum about the sarcophagus until she saw advantage in it. "Her, uh, socks, and umm... guys. Socks and Guys. It's a risque leaflet I saw her flipping through the other day."

"How lewd." Magistrate Mare struggled to suppress a laugh. Dash looked upset that Gilda would share something like that.

"Good, you're all here." Do emerged from the cabins behind them. "I was afraid I might have to drag you from your cabins, half drunk. Uh, why are you all looking at me like that."

Mare laughed. "Oh nothing, just sharing a joke with the mares."

"Humph. Maybe you are drunk." Do rolled her eyes.

"What do you take me for? Somepony who looses sight of the world's color so easily? Ha, not while I have subordinates to boss around." Mare snorted. "Ahem, so, do you need something? So far as I remember you haven't scheduled any staff meetings for today."

"No, no scheduling! Somepony might find out." Do shook her head. "What we discuss can only be said in the strictest secrecy!"

Mare's face lit up in anticipation, but Gilda felt her ornery annoyance turn to dread. If Do said the wrong thing, her complicity in keeping the truth to herself would be exposed.

"Have you finally decided to come clean?" Mare queried innocently. "Because I would rather hear it from you than some snooping miscreant."

"That is a rather loaded question." Do glared, glancing over at Dash. "if you have an accusation, spit it out."

"Accusations? Mis Do, please oh please, do you take me for a prosecutor? I'm just a mare with curiosities." Mare nickered, bearing a predator's gloating grin.

"You've found something on her, you nosy bag." Gilda laughed under her breath.

"Have I. The dubious nature of Mis Do's finances has become known to me. I had to call in quite a few favors to extract that little tidbit from the EOC Investments Board. As I understand it the Chairpony Council was unaware when they approved your expedition, as the Planning Board told them that you would be covering most expenses. Yet you were clearly unable to do so, considering the poor state of your family lands and their continued need to borrow money to pay salaries. From whence that money that funded this trip actually came, I have not been able to determine." Mare said in even, advancing tone that, interspersed with little chuckled that belied the danger only the menacing glint in her eye revealed.
"All this to learn one thing: Your indebted to somepony. That makes you very dangerous to me, Mis Do."

Do's face by this point had scrunched so much she looked like she was eating a lemon. "You don't understand."

"I wasn't planning on forcing your hoof on the matter. I could decide differently though. See all those gunboats at the docks? They are EOC enforcement craft, and this is an EOC port. There are plenty of sailors in town who would do a shady task for a magistrate for a bit of silver."

"What kind of shady task?" Do bristled.

"The kind that gets you talking," Mare said, throwing a look at Gilda. "and may or may not end your involvement in this expedition."

"MY expedition!" Do yelled. "It was MY research and MY planning that put this together! I won't let anypony, not you and not the EOC, take it from me!"

Gilda and Dash exchanged uneasy looks. Mare was putting on a show, and putting them in a corner as much as Do. If they refused to carry out her orders Mare made it clear Coltcutta was brimming with EOC lackeys to replace them.

"Then why don't you go ahead and say what you came to say, and I will decide if you are still of value to us." Mare cooed.

Do stewed silently for a moment, then turned back towards the cabins. "Then let's go see it."

Mare eagerly followed, but Gilda and Dash lagged a bit behind with Dash. "This has to be the most drama of any ship I've ever served on."

"We're not going to fight her, are we?" Dash whispered fearfully.

Gilda was feverishly trying to think of a way to twist the developing situation to her benefit, but so far as she could predict it could only get worse. Worst case scenario, both Mare and Do would have to die. "I don't know."

They descended into the bowels of the ship, oddly silent without the laughing and groaning of the crew. The creak of the boards and the quiet slap of waves against the hull were all that could be heard besides the clop of hooves.
Gilda kept an eye on Do's little pistol, still at her waist. If the pegasus decided to try something, it would be in the cramped confines of the passageways.

"You'll understand soon." Do promised.

They filed into the cargo deck undisturbed, making a small semicircle around the large cargo crate. Do fetched a crowbar from the corner and stuck it into the side.

"As I said before, this can only be shared in the strictest secrecy. Finding this has been the goal of years of work. Ponies on my expeditions have died, and I've been spied on attacked, and undercut the whole way. All for this." Do said solemnly. "I know I can't force you to, but please consider the forces who want to take this for themselves."

She leaned into the crowbar, cracking off the top of the crate. The sides came off in short order.

It was a sarcophagus, chiseled from solid brown rock, fabulously ornate in its design and embellishment. Onto its sides were etched detailed reliefs of exultant masses praying to a massive winged creature, and the many blessing the creature provided. On each corner were facsimiles of three figures, twelve in total, whose place of prominence might imply a saintly stature if not for the hideous faces that staring unblinkingly outwards. The lid of the sarcophagus was inlaid with an outline of the interred, but it was worn much more than the rest and it was nearly impossible to determine its features. However from the sheer size of the tomb it must have been at least the size of a hippogryph or changeling lord.

"How delightfully exotic." Magistrate Mare appraised. "What's inside?"

"A body, obviously." Do retorted, gesturing to the outline on the lid.

"Yes but whose?" Mare asked annoyedly.

Do frowned. "That's not something you want to find out. In case you can't tell, somepony went through a lot of effort to make this look passably hypogryphic. The design is heavily reminiscent of the Fires of the Gryph and this Bard copy was made as a devoted imitation. Whoever is in there wanted to be buried like a god, or close enough to fool somepony looking for an original Fire of the Gryph."

"It's kinda creepy." Dash agreed. The bizarre eyes of the twelve hideous figures seemed to follow her as she circled the sarcophagus. "And you pulled this out of Sahella?"

"I'm sure you've heard of the legends of the nomadic Bard that speak of the tower, and the lost empire that built it. From some thousands of historic texts, I pulled out a name corresponding to an Oasis in the deep desert: Al Myriadochtar. Roughly translated, daughter of the Myriad." Do summerized. "The Bard have forbidden the oasis to outsiders, on pain of death. To get past them I pretended to be the Andoulu queen, a farce aided by the chief you met, Maluka. Getting the sarcophagus out was a harrowing and epic adventure in and of itself, but we successfully made it back to Andoulu where you picked me up."

"And how exactly will this unlock fabulous riches in Chitin?" Gilda asked. If the sniper in Stirrup had been telling the truth there were more sarcophagi like it, and Do was searching for them.

"I can't tell you yet." Do replied, and she was quick to interrupt another threat from Mare. "Listen, I know you don't really believe me but I need to be able to trust you. So I will tell you this: It was the EOC Subsidiary Relations Chairpony, Emerald Rose, who provided the subsidy money to this expedition under my name."

"EMERALD BUCKING ROSE!" Magistrate Mare screeched, making everypony jump. "You've made a deal with Emerald 'Butcher' Rose!?!"

"I did, yes." Do stated matter-of-factly. "I'm a scholar, and I don't care about profits. I promised Mis Rose all monetization rights on what I find in Chitin. Right before I left for Sahella, she approached me again, and promised to bankroll my family if I agreed to certain stipulations, keeping the truth from you being one of them."

Mare stared into the floor trying to compose herself.

"She recommended you to the Chairpony Council for this expedition." Do continued. "EOC politics don't interest me, Mis Mare, and so I have decided that you and I working together will further our goals more than that secrecy. I've told you because you forced it from me, but now I can only hope it advances us to my goal."

"But what does Chairpony Rose want?!"

"If I had to guess, Mis Rose expects this expedition to ruin you." Do shrugged.

"Ruin me how?" Mare demanded.

"By making a fool of yourself like this. She knew you wouldn't accept the rather covert nature of this expedition forever." Do shrugged. "She's waiting in the wing looking for an excuse to replace you, or at least that is what I understood."

"Over my dead body." Mare growled.

"Maybe that's the idea." Do began reassembling the crate around the sarcophagus. "Far more likely than disgracing you, I should think, she's expecting you to die."

Mare gnawed her lip. "It's war then. How many on the board know about this, I wonder..." She took a step forward. "If you don't want to muck in EOC politics that suits me fine, but you WILL let me know ANYTHING that endangers this mission. I have to start accounting for Rose, and that means you have to too."

Gilda and Rainbow Dash stayed around until the two began plotting their future strategy. Because Do had said nothing about the other sarcophagi, everything she'd supposedly admitted was suspect in Gilda's view. Even though Gilda only had the sniper's word to go on, she was more willing to believe that Do was obscuring the truth about the outside threat, rather than it actually being an overly ambitious EOC bureaucrat 'Rose'. But, Mare believed Do.

What there was no doubt of was that the new alliance with Magistrate Mare couldn't have been more than superficial. Do needed Mare to get off her back and nothing more, and Mare herself would be far more committed to preserving her reputation than furthering Do's goals.
Gilda's concerns rested on what more frivolous information might pass between them, the little secrets as social lubrication, particularly concerning one griffin's heritage and eating habits.

"That was kinda scary." Dash said once they were back in her cabin.

"What part?" Gilda asked.

"Well I thought we'd have to throw her off the boat or something. I don't know if I could have done that." Dash sighed. "Having friends is hard."

Gilda looked out the window at the murky lagoon and the populous city of Coltcutta. She thought about telling Dash about her troubles, and she knew if she did Dash would pull out every stop to help her. Yet she couldn't quite bring herself to share.
Dash was so many things she was not: Trusting where she was cynical, outgoing not from a false and deceptive nature but genuine love of camaraderie, naive but also so brave when it was something that really mattered to her.
Yes, Gilda agreed, having friends was hard.

"Who do you think Emerald Rose is?" Dash asked, interrupting Gilda's musing.

"I'd bet she's related to the Roses of the Manehattan merchant-banker houses, which would make her just another greedy buisnessmare." Guilda speculated. "But a broad with a moniker like 'Butcher' isn't somepony I'd want to have looming behind the scenes."

"What do you think that means?" Dash wondered worriedly.

Inwardly, Gilda saw a possible third way if she made a deal with Rose, who might help to dispose of Mare and keep Daring Do in line, if there was any truth to Do's admittance. Outwardly, Gilda shrugged. "Magistrate Mare has a reason to be paranoid. I predict a new task soon for us."

Us, she said. For Gilda, whose own deepening paranoia saw her seeing enemies in every face and murder in every glint of light, it was a heartfelt admission of friendship.
"Stay hardy, Dash. I predict things are going to get more interesting from here, and that's not really a good things."

---

Some kilometers north of theFlyer Kyte, deep in the slums of Coltcutta, a group of sailors were exiting a tavern. One of them, an earth pony, was separated from the group. Swooning drunk, he wandered the crowded streets until the day grew late, and the shadows crept up the walls and slowly the locals retreated into their homes for the night.

The sailor was hopelessly lost in the twisting and deserted streets. Now and then he heard laughter or yelling in unknown languages, or the yowl of cats, but for the most part he was all alone. He sat on the stoop of one of the ramshackle stone tenements, letting the waves of nausea pass over him until he was partially sober again.

"Good evenings. Hello!" A squawking stranger's voice said from above him.

"Huh?" The sailor looked up. The stranger was a hippogryph, shrouded in a loose red robe. She was tall for a hippogryph, and that was even when she leaned on her gnarled walking stick. In his lush imagination she must have been an unparalleled beauty under her obscuring robe. "Uh... Hi!"

"You wear ship workers' dress, and smell the ocean's salt spray." The gryph appraised. Her strange accent was one the sailor had never heard before. "Do you know of the ship known as Flyer Kyte?"

"Know her? Course I do!" The sailor exclaimed. "I'm her best knotspony! Not a knot on her worth naught if not knotted by me."

"Fortunate, fortunate! I have been asking much after her. Fortune to have founf one of you at last." The gryph stepped closer, and her hot breath washed over the sailor. It smelled vaguely of copper. "I do so much want to see that one, and she named Daring Do who rides her."

"Woah, phrasing." The sailor giggled drunkenly. He stood up after a few attempts. "You want to see the ship? Uh... Not sure that's aloud. Ask the magistrate I guess..." He trailed off, lips puckering. "She's a jerk though."

"Mmm, it need not be official. Just a small visit." The hippogryph insisted, grinding her walking stick into the dirty pavers. "You would be rewarded. Even if you were to provide simple opportunity, say, with distraction, it would be long enough. In and out, as you say."

"Hee hee, in and out." The sailor drooled. He sobered slightly from a brief upwelling of professionalism. "But, uh, like I, no can do. We're on a mission, and no visitors, even pretty ladies like you. I might loose my job!"

"Oh but we do want very much." The gryph's left eye began to glow a deep red, casting a sinister light over the whole street. Her normal eye stared with a fierce intensity, but the left was so confusing, so otherworldly, that the sailor's fear and panic were overwhelmed by confusion. "Would you show we when WE ask very, very nicely?"

"I can't." the sailor protested weakly. The warping and waving of the red eye was hypnotic, and he felt his lucidity drain away.

The hippogryph stepped closer, so that the sailor could feel the heat off her face. "Let Xaron sing you to your sleep."

"But I..." He collapsed in a dead slumber.

"Drink and mental depressants make your resistance so much softer. Silly silly silly ponies. Is life so bleak you poison your minds? Kak! It make our working so much easier!" The hyppogryph prodded the sailor with her stick to confirm his inability to resist. "Do not be between we and the prey, also. I want to see the Flyer Kyte and Do, and I will see it. Min'nevisee, Ava Xaron?"

She sat down and rolled the inert stallion into her lap, and pried his right eye open with her hooves. His dilated eye stared back up at her, hardly showing the turmoil in his dreams her red magic inflicted.

"You will not need that. I have a good replacement." She remarked, and unfurled her wings from under her robe. Between each feather was a shard of metal, each razor thin, that glinted wickedly in the red light. From the depth of her robe she pulled a stone sphere, the same size of a pony's eye.
"Careful sleep now. You will not want to awake when I do this part." She whispered, slowly lowering her veil of blades on his helpless face.

Comments

[SpiritDutch]

Thought it was about time to refresh this forsaken plot arc. Because plot is something I just can't get out my mind. The next chapter has run up to 15K words and still no end in sight, so it might be a few more days yet until I'm satisfied with it.
On an unrelated note, I'm vacationing in the mountains south of Grenoble in France right now. If anyone's in the area, holler out your window and I'll give a good yodel back.