The Crystal War Book I: A Spark to Light the Dark

by NatureSpark

Ch.17 The Art of Patience

~Chapter 17: The Art of Patience~

It took a moment for Draft’s mind to work out where he was upon waking up in the morning. The strange room came into focus around him as he sat upright in the cozy bed. Once the pegasus had managed to remember the events of the previous night, he fell back on the mattress with a contented sigh and stared up at the plain off-white ceiling. They’d actually found Silver Blood last night, he remembered, like they had originally planned to do weeks ago. A knocking on the door brought the stallion down from his elated thoughts and back into the real world. They still had many more miles to travel before he could really take a rest. After another bout of knocking, Draft rolled off of the bed and swiped a hoof through his flowing mane to push it out of his face. He assumed it was his brother at the door bothering him.

“Draft, wake your lazy flank up,” Downpour’s voice called from the other side of the wooden barrier. “You already missed breakfast and we have things we need to do today.” Great, the tired stallion thought, I just woke up and he’s already hurling insults around. Draft opened the door and was met with the irritated visage of Downpour staring back at him.

“Alright, I’m up. What do we need to do that’s so important?” Draft asked his brother, giving his stiff wings a good stretch as he left the room. “Besides waiting around for Chestnut all day.”

“Well, first I was thinking that we would go smoke this joint,” Downpour said as he pulled out the white, rolled up paper and dangled it in his brother’s face. “Then I wanted to go check out this little collection of shacks that they call a town.”

“Okay, let’s go,” Draft replied with a yawn. It would give them a way to pass some time at least. They started walking down the stairs and the younger pegasus began to hear the sound of music from somewhere in the cottage. “Where’s that coming from?”

“I think Silver is playing the piano,” Downpour replied.

“Hmm, I didn’t peg him for the instrument playing type,” Draft commented. The old stallion seemed a little too stuck up to bother learning how to play, in Draft’s opinion. He would have expected Silver to just hire somepony to play for him, but to his surprise the aristocratic pony was actually very good. The docile tones caressed Draft’s ears softly as they made their way to the living room

The brothers rounded the corner and came face to face with the sight of the grey maned unicorn, keying a beautiful symphony of notes from a large piano. His eyes were firmly shut, yet his hooves moved with an unnatural ease. Draft stood perfectly still as he absorbed the sounds emanating from the piano, lost in the emotions that the song stirred in his heart.

“Why don’t you use your horn to play?” Downpour questioned. “Most unicorns do.” Draft’s reverence was broken by his brother’s interruption.

“Using a spell to play a song takes only the knowledge of the magic used to perform it, my ignorant colt, but if you wish to play an instrument with true passion and skill, playing by hoof is the only method you can use,” Silver stated flatly and then rotated on his bench to face the two pegasus. “I take it that you two found the accommodations acceptable?”

“Yes sir. It was nice to be sleeping in a real bed. I hadn’t realized how much I would miss that simple luxury,” Draft replied as he took a seat on one of the comfortable chairs that furnished the room. “So Silver, where’d you learn to play the piano like that anyway? It was something else.” Downpour remained standing in the doorway. The stocky pegasus seemed to be impatient and Draft remembered that he was waiting to smoke. Oh well, he can just wait for awhile, Draft decided, it’s not like it will kill him to be patient. He was actually interested in learning more about this odd Canterlot stallion. The duke smiled at Draft and scratched his chin for a moment, as if trying to decide how best to tell his tale.

“As a colt, my father was quite busy with politics, so I had ample time to pursue whatever whims caught my interest,” the duke began. “I remember attending the Grand Galloping Gala one year and finding it rather bland.” That didn’t surprise Draft in the least. Any party filled with stuck up aristocrats sounded very boring to him. “I spent most of the evening whining to my mother about everything I could think of.”

“Can you get to the point here?” Downpour urged, his small well of patience having apparently run dry. To his younger brother’s amusement however, Silver merely dismissed the brash pegasus rude interruption with a wave of his hoof.

“As I was saying,” Silver continued, “I was getting tired of the whole affair, but just before I was about to run amok and get into some mischief, I heard a sound unlike any other. I followed my ears back into the ballroom and over to the musician’s platform. There I saw an earth pony playing the grand piano.” The old stallion seemed lost in his own story, as if the simple act of remembering had taken him back to that day as a colt. He stared far off for a few moments before he found his voice and continued. “She wasn’t the most beautiful mare I had ever seen, but while she played, every eye was focused intently on her. With smooth, deliberate movements she coaxed the most beautiful sonata to ever grace those halls. I was transfixed by this pony. Each note she played evoked a feeling of sorrow and pain, yet by the end of the piece, I also sensed a more subtle feeling that could only be described as hope.” A lone tear escaped Silver’s eye before it was brushed away. “It was only when the entire song was completed that you could tell it had been there, that fleeting emotion, but it struck a chord in me that night. Ever since I heard her, I have practiced, in an attempt to recapture the profundity of the mare’s playing.” The room fell silent, well, aside from the sounds of Downpour’s annoyed groan as he left the room. Draft thought back to the feeling he got when he sang for his friends and knew what Silver meant.

“Wow, I would love to hear her play sometime,” he admitted.

“As would many ponies, but alas, her time has passed along with her songs,” the duke wistfully replied. Draft could hear the mournful tremble of the unicorn’s voice and he took a deep breath to calm his own emotions.

“That’s a pity,” Draft said.

“Yes, yes it is,” Silver agreed.

Downpour had decided it was time to go outside and light his joint. Sitting around listening to sappy stories wasn’t really something he was interested in wasting his time on. The bluish pegasus stood there, with the rolled up herb sticking out of his mouth and realized that he had no way to spark it. What I wouldn’t give to have a little magic sometimes, he mused, but I guess being able to fly is more useful most of the time. Downpour started walking down the street, on the lookout for somepony that could lend him a little fire. A quick survey of the area made him realize how small the town really was. There couldn’t have been more than two dozen houses and nine or ten shops within its borders, though he could see other farm houses in the distance.

The pegasus scratched his head with one hoof and tried to think up a method of making a quick flame. None of the stores looked very promising, so he was forced to settle for walking back to Silver’s cottage and digging out of his saddle bag, the flint stone he had brought with him. Downpour started trotting back the way he had come, but stopped in his tracks when he got a look through one of the store windows. Through it the curious stallion could see some strange looking artwork on display and decided that it might be worth checking out.

“Hello,” Downpour called out as he shoved open the door. “Is there anypony here?” The room was very well lit, but there didn’t seem to be a sales pony anywhere. The pegasus whipped his head around when he heard the sound of a door slamming in the back of the store. “Hey, can I get a little service here?”

“In this shop of needles and art, the service you seek is the smallest part,” came the reply. The voice was accompanied by the strangest looking pony Downpour had ever seen. It was only after his brain took a few seconds to register the weird black stripes that ran down the stallion’s body that he realized the shop owner was, in fact, a zebra.

“What?” Downpour asked. The foreigner had a very unusual speaking pattern and it did nothing to put the pegasus at ease. “Look, I was just wondering exactly what it is that you sell here. I see all of these drawings,” he said, gesturing around the room as he spoke, “but none of them have prices marked or anything. Do you sell them?”

“The pictures that in here reside are to be placed upon your hide,” the zebra explained. The black and white shopkeeper motioned for Downpour to come up to him, so he reluctantly stepped up to the counter. The closer that the pegasus came, the more intricate patterns he could see in between some of the natural stripes on the zebra’s hide.

“Wait, are those permanent?” Downpour asked as he rubbed his hoof over one of the designs and found out that it felt the same as a pony’s skin. “That is so awesome.” He was definitely going to be getting one of those done on him. “So how do we do this?”

“If you wish to ink your skin,” said the shop owner pulling out a strange metal poker from behind the counter as he rhymed, “then this needle must go in.” Before Downpour could react, the zebra jabbed him in the foreleg with the sharpened instrument. The pegasus winced at the stinging pain and nearly hit the skin artist across the face, but stopped himself when he realized that the stab was most likely just to show him how much it would sting.

“Ouch!” Downpour exclaimed. “That hurt like hay.” The pegasus stood there long enough to contemplate how much he really wanted one of the tattoos before suddenly bolting through the front door. “I’ll be back in just a few!” he shouted back to the zebra as he ran off. Downpour sped towards Silver’s cottage with one thought dashing through his mind, he needed to grab some bits and smoke that joint. If he was high, then the inking would be even easier for him to sit through. Downpour busted through the front door of the duke’s home a few seconds later and hauled flank up the stairs.

“What’s your problem?” Downpour heard his younger brother shout up to him as he rummaged around in his bags. He chose to ignore the question.

“Got you,” Downpour said when his hoof grasped the flint and yanked it out. He lit up the joint at the same time his other forehoof found the bag of bits that he needed. Then the pegasus ran back out of the room, choosing to jump the stairs entirely and nearly bulling over Draft in the process. “Whoa!” Downpour barley managed to slow his momentum a few seconds before sending the both of them tumbling over.

“What are you doing running through somepony else’s house like a madmare?” Draft questioned. “Don’t you know how rude that is?” His younger brother was such a nag sometimes and besides, he had a good reason for running anyway. Why did Draft feel the need to be so annoying?

Downpour sidestepped his younger brother and walked out the front door explaining, “I’m going to go get some artwork done on my skin and I needed to light this joint. I ran down the stairs to keep the smoke from smelling up Silver’s house.” Now that he was in the open air, the eager stallion could take a nice long puff from the joint. “You see, I was just trying to be thoughtful.” He blew a large cloud of smoke in Draft’s face to help him make his point.

“Mhmm,” Draft mumbled, “if you say so.”

“Oh, I do say so. Now follow me while we smoke this thing,” Downpour replied. “I want to show you this really cool zebra shop.”

“A zebra shop?” his brother asked.

“Yeah, this zebra runs a shop that takes needles and uses them to make patterns on your hide,” Downpour explained. “It looks pretty damn sweet.” Just thinking about it made him smirk.

“What?” Draft questioned. Downpour facehoofed at his little brother’s stupidity and passed him the rolled up herb.

“Just follow me, okay? You’ll see what I’m talking about when we get there. I promise you that it is probably the coolest thing you’ll ever see,” he assured the younger pegasus. Downpour finished off their joint when it was passed back and snuffed it before walking through the doors of the shop. He led his brother up to the counter and called out for the owner. A moment later, the middle aged zebra walked out of the back and grinned at the familiar pegasus.

“I see you have come back to me and it looks like you’ve brought family,” the zebra said with a smile.

“Yeah, this is my brother. I wanted to show him the shop before we get started,” Downpour explained. “You don’t mind right?”

“Not at all my feathered friends,” the shopkeeper replied, “just pay me the bits and we’ll begin.” He pointed to a sign which had prices for various sized pieces of artwork. The two brothers walked around the room and began to examine the designs on display. There were strange patterns and symbols plastered on every open wall.

“Hmm, what do you think I should get?” Downpour asked. “I think I want something on my face.” He held up one of the pictures to his cheek and turned to face his brother. “That would be pretty damn intimidating, don’t you think?”

“I don’t know. This stallion seems a little, um, strange,” Draft said under his breath, so that the shopkeeper wouldn’t overhear him.

“Nah, he’s cool. I think he just talks like that because he’s a zebra,” Downpour shrugged. “Besides, anypony, er, zebra with stripes and markings that cool has to know what he’s doing.”

“Whatever you say,” his little brother said as he headed for the door.

“Whoa, where are you going?” Downpour asked. “I thought you were going to help me pick something cool out and watch me get it done.”

“Nope, I’m going to go back to Silver’s house to wait for Chestnut, you know, like we’re supposed to be doing,” Draft replied.

“Oh please, this town is tiny,” Downpour retorted. “There is no way in Tartarus that Chestnut will have trouble finding us.” Draft was already out the door before Downpour had even finished talking. What a little foal, the older pegasus thought, as he resumed his search for the best design to have inked onto his face. Eventually he found exactly what he wanted and brought it up to show the zebra. “Hey, I want to get this one.” The zebra stared at him with the same stoic expression he always seemed to wear. “Over my eye,” the pegasus added. The zebra finally cracked a tiny smile and it made Downpour a little nervous, but he took a deep breath and steeled his nerves against the coming pain. It would be worth it when the tattoo was completed.

Time was creeping by at an agonizingly slow pace for Draft. He was so used to always being in a hurry lately, that having hours to spare made him a little uneasy. Thankfully, Silver was around to talk to. The pegasus figured there was a good chance he would have lost his mind without the duke’s stories about his youth.

“How exactly did you and Chestnut meet anyway?” Draft asked the unicorn. He had heard about most aspects of the stallion’s life in Canterlot and living as a duke, but he couldn’t fathom how the mule and the unicorn might have met under those circumstances. Chestnut was by no means royalty.

“Ah, that is quite the story, if I say so myself,” Silver replied. The older stallion lit up a pipeful of tobacco and began telling Draft about their first encounter. “I couldn’t have been older than twenty four at the time and I had grown weary of the city, so I decided one morning that I would take a vacation. As a young lord, I did not have many duties to perform or ponies counting on me. That made my escape quite easy indeed.” Silver chuckled and the sound of his infectious laughter had the pegasus joining in. “Now, I had never gotten out much, so I was unsure where to go. My only recourse was to pick a random town off of the map and set off for it.”

“Really, you just picked a place you knew nothing about and then went there?” Draft asked. The pegasus wished he could have done that sometimes. “That sounds exciting.”

“Quite so,” Silver replied, “but you would know all about that now, wouldn’t you?” Draft realized the old stallion was right. He was on his way to a new country that he knew very little about, the thought made the pegasus shiver momentarily. “As I was saying, I took a trip and wound up in Van Hoover. I was woefully ill prepared however, having brought nothing more than my bits and high expectations with me. I nearly froze to death within a few minutes of stepping foot outside of the stagecoach. It was shocking to say the least.”

“I can imagine,” Draft chimed in, while Silver paused to take a few long drags from his pipe. There was a large cloud of acrid smoke in the air by that point and the pegasus snickered at the thought of his older brother worrying about taking the joint outside. Obviously, he thought, Downpour was just making excuses like he always did.

“I wandered around looking for any signs of an open hotel for what must have been hours, but I had no such luck. There happened to be a blizzard on its way that fateful day and everypony was already bundled up, warm inside their houses and such. I thought I was doomed for sure, until this young mule caught sight of me on the way to his humble abode. I had always been told that royalty was above ‘half-breeds’, as they were referred to, but I was desperate and when he asked me if I needed a place to spend the night, I gladly accepted. My father would have been outraged had he known what I was up to, but I must say that I found Chestnut and his parents to be quite charming.”

“Wait, his parents? I know Chestnut is fifty, so how old are you?” Draft questioned. Then he mentally chided himself for asking such a rude question, but Silver didn’t seem to mind.

“I’m fifty seven, Backdraft,” the unicorn replied, “seven years that mules senior.”

“Wow, I would never have guessed it,” Draft admitted. The unicorn looked like he could have been five years younger than Chestnut, in Draft’s opinion, but he supposed that was just a part of being pampered for so long.

“Being cooped up in Canterlot your whole life tends to make ponies soft and stuck up, unlike our friend Chestnut,” the duke explained. “He has been a hard worker and dedicated friend for as long as I have known him, which is saying something.” Silver broke into another round of laughter, which eventually changed into a bout of coughing. It didn’t sound very healthy to Draft, but once the unicorn had caught his breath, he continued speaking. “I lived with their beautiful family for over a week before my father sent one of his servants out to find me. I worked, laughed and loved like a common pony and I must say that it was one of the greatest experiences I have ever had. Sadly, all good things must reach their end and eventually duty called, so I was forced to return home. Chestnut and I always remained in contact after that, even when he left to go gallivanting around the world for years on end.”

“Why did he decide to leave Equestria anyway?” Draft asked. He loved hearing all of Silver’s stories. Sitting around and listening to a pony who had years of wisdom far beyond him was a nice change of pace from traveling in boredom for days. The duke looked off into the distance and smoked on his pipe while he mulled over the pegasus’s question.

“Draft, my young friend, he left because of heartbreak and if you would like to hear that story, than I think it would be best to hear it from the source,” Silver quietly explained. They both sat still in their chairs and Draft thought about all that he had heard, while Silver continued to smoke from his pipe. The tranquility of the cottage was shattered eventually, as Downpour had returned from his tattooing. The younger pegasus glanced over at his older brother when he walked around the corner and nearly choked on his own laughter when he saw Downpour’s face.

Downpour had been expecting stunned silence, amazement or jealousy when he showed off his new facial ink, but he hadn’t expected the laughter that he received. He had picked out a pattern that looked sort of like a ‘D’ and had it put on over his right eye. It had taken all afternoon, because the zebra had taken the needle and hammered it into his skin repeatedly to set the ink, but the finished product had looked amazing to Downpour. The fact that it hurt so badly, even while high, just served to make it seem even tougher looking to him. His brother didn’t appear to feel the same way about the finished product though.

“You look so goofy,” Draft stated. “I love it!” Downpour’s younger brother doubled over in laughter and even Silver couldn’t hold back a few chuckles at the pegasus’s expense.

“You two are just jealous,” Downpour huffed.

“Yeah, that’s it,” Draft chuckled. The younger pegasus took a few deep breaths to stave off his laughter, but started right up again as soon as he looked his sibling in the face.

“Buck off,” Downpour said humorlessly.

“I do not believe that there is any need for that type of language right now Downpour,” Silver said as he got to his hooves. “I am certain that your brother was simply taken aback at the abrupt alteration of your visage.”

“He’s right. I didn’t mean anything by it,” Draft said. “It’s actually kind of cool. Not that I’d ever get one, but I think it suits you just fine.”

“You probably wouldn’t be able to last through a whole session,” Downpour replied.

“Oh yeah, did it hurt pretty badly?” Draft asked him.

“Well, he did stab me around the eye with a needle a couple hundred times, so… yeah it did,” Downpour said as he flopped into a cushioned chair with a huff. “What have you two been up to the whole time I’ve been gone?”

“I was just regaling your brother with stories of my youth while we waited here for you and Chestnut,” he duke explained before walking down the hall to the kitchen, after finishing with his pipe. “I would imagine that you must be famished. What say you to a late lunch?” Downpour’s stomach grumbled his answer for him.

“Some lunch sounds great, Silver,” Draft added. The brothers rose up from their chairs and made their way to the kitchen to see if they could lend the unicorn any assistance with the meal. The blue glow of Silver’s magic was already filling the kitchen though and he assured the brothers that their assistance was unnecessary, so they decided to wait at the dining table instead.

“Holy hay, Silver, is there anything that you can’t do well?” Draft asked the old stallion as he plucked another sweet roll off of the table. The grey pegasus wasn’t even hungry by this point, but the food was so good that he couldn’t stop eating. His brother was in the same position he was, trying his best to swallow one last bite of the delectable desert that was still sitting on his plate. There had been many fancy dishes that the two pegasus had never even heard of.

“As a matter of fact, I have never been able to paint that well,” Silver replied in a completely serious tone, “although I can honestly say I have tried a fair number of times.”

“You should teach Downpour a thing or two about cooking,” Draft told the older stallion. “I don’t think he can slice an apple without burning it.”

“Oh, that happens once and now you always have to bring it up,” Downpour huffed. Silver opened his mouth to ask a question, but Draft cut him off before he could get it out.

“Don’t bother asking,” he said. “You wouldn’t believe me if I told you.” The two pegasus silently locked eyes with each other from across the table before breaking into laughter at the memory.

“If I eat one more bite, I think I’m going to be sick,” Downpour stated as he shoved his plate away from himself. All three of the stallions let out satisfied sighs and got up from the table a moment later. Silver picked up a plate and began to clear the lunch away, but the brothers stopped him before he got the chance.

“Please, let us clean up,” Draft said. “You’ve already done more than enough for us.” The younger pegasus took the plate from his host and began gathering up the rest of the dishes, balancing them on his wings with grace that only a pegasus could manage.

“Yeah, letting us stay here was nice enough, but this great meal was icing on the cake,” Downpour added as he grabbed the remaining dishes and followed his sibling into the kitchen with them.

“That is very gracious of you both,” Silver stated with a smile.

It didn’t take long to get everything cleaned up when they were working together and soon the entire kitchen was spotless. Downpour was contemplating rolling up a joint to smoke when he heard a knock on the front door. As he was tossing the last of the perishables into the compost bin, the pegasus heard a familiar voice coming from the living room.

“It took me forever to walk all the way over here. I nearly died from exhaustion on the way. I really wish that they’d just get those damned railroads figured out already. What the hay have you noble ponies been doing up in Canterlot these past couple of years anyway?” Downpour glanced over at his brother and they exchanged knowing glances. Chestnut had finally arrived in Ponyville. “Good Luna, look what the manticore dragged in. Feels like ages since I’ve seen you boys, but where’s Nature Spark at?” Chestnut asked. The old mule looked pretty beat, which didn’t surprise Downpour, considering all of the traveling he had been doing.

“He’s not here,” Downpour responded. “He already left with Strata to go talk with the hippogriffs about forming an alliance like you suggested.” He took a seat facing the mule and his younger brother sat in the chair beside him.

“Good, I was really hoping he would take my advice,” Chestnut said. “I was worried he would be too put off by the fighting between the griffon tribes to even consider it, but I guess that unicorn has more sense than I give him credit for.”

“Well, Strata can be pretty convincing when she wants to be,” Draft replied. He hadn’t spent as much time with the hippogriff as his older brother, but even he knew that much about her.

“She can be a bit fiery when she wants to be,” Chestnut agreed. “Ever since she was young, she’s been very outspoken. I suppose growing up as she did would have that effect on anypony.”

“Mhmm, that’s why I asked her out,” Downpour said with a smirk.

“Really? Well, bravo, Downpour,” the mule replied. “She’s definitely a keeper.” Chestnut stretched his legs out with a tired groan before asking, “Do you two happen to have any of Spark’s herbs on you? It’s been a while since I’ve smoked and I wouldn’t mind relaxing a bit before we get to talking.”

“I do not believe that they brought any with them, otherwise I am certain that they would have informed me,” Silver said as he turned his head in Downpour’s direction when the pegasus cleared his throat.

“Actually we do, but I swear that if I knew you smoked I would have said something earlier,” Downpour sheepishly replied. Silver shot him a look that could only be interpreted as one of betrayal, causing the pegasus to feel terrible. How was he supposed to know that rich ponies got high too? He just figured that smoking herbs would be giving those uptight ponies one more reason to look down on him, not that he usually cared, but he actually valued the duke’s opinion. Silver was the only aristocrat that Downpour didn’t find aggravatingly stuck up. The tattooed stallion sat motionless for a second before he noticed everypony staring at him.

“What are you waiting for, lad?” Silver questioned him. “I have been sitting around here smoking my tobacco all day, when you two could have provided me with a much more suitable plant to pack into my pipe.” The bluish colored pegasus smiled awkwardly as he got up from his spot in the living room.

“Give me one minute and I’ll go grab some,” downpour replied. As he trotted out of the room, he could hear the old friends talking behind him.

“These young stallions today have no manners, do they, Silver?” Chestnut asked.

“I should say not,” the duke huffed.

Downpour ran into the spare bedroom he was using and rummaged through his saddle bag until he came up with the pouch of herbs. It wouldn’t last long between all four of them, but he figured that he could get more later, someway. Snatching up what he had, Downpour bounded back down the stairs and hopped back into the plush chair. “Okay, I’ve got it,” he told them as he handed the pouch to the white unicorn. Silver’s horn lit up as his magic picked and loaded the herbs faster than Spark could have ever managed to do. Within seconds the pipe was cherried and the old stallion was happily puffing away. The pipe finally made its way around to Downpour and he was just starting to take a puff off of it, but paused when he noticed Chestnut giving him a strange look.

“What? Why are you staring?” Downpour asked. “Do I have something on my face?”

“I hope so,” Chestnut blinked. “If not, then I must be much higher than I thought I was.”

“He’s looking at your zebra tattoo,” Downpour’s little brother informed him. In all the excitement of Chestnut’s arrival, the bluish pegasus had completely forgotten about his new facial marking. It was going to take some getting used to.

“Oh yeah,” Downpour mumbled. He touched a hoof to his eye and winced at the contact. “Pretty sweet, isn’t it? I got it done at that zebra shop down the road.” Chestnut didn’t appear to be any more impressed with it than his other two companions.

“It’s, uh, interesting to say the least,” the mule replied as he scratched his bald head. “If I remember right, that is the zebra glyph for patience. Not something that I would have expected you to get tattooed.” He opened his mouth as if to expound on the subject, but seemed to think better of it and remained silent instead. Silver and Draft just looked at each other and began laughing again. Downpour did his best not to show his embarrassment.

The four of them continued smoking on the joint until it was just a nub before Draft finally snuffed it out. Downpour was still trying to get over the fact that he was smoking with an actual Canterlot duke. Seeing a refined stallion getting high tickled his funny bone in a way that the pegasus couldn’t quite explain. Of course, once Silver and Chestnut were both thoroughly baked, they sat around and told stories for an hour or more, but Downpour decided to let them catch up. There was enough time to talk about his and Draft’s problems later that night. For now the brothers were just happy to lay back and enjoy the company.

“Okay, okay. I see that look,” Chestnut said. Draft glanced around confused, because it almost sounded like Chestnut was talking to him. “You’re right. I think we’ve reminisced enough for now. Why don’t you two bring me up to speed on the current situation?”

“I wasn’t giving you a look,” Draft replied. The mule raised an eyebrow at his statement. “Well, maybe I was, but I really wasn’t trying to hurry you or anything.” The younger pegasus shifted in his seat uncomfortably. He really hadn’t meant to rush them, but they did have important matters to discuss and time was ticking.

“You should stop messing with the youngster’s head, Chestnut. Can you not see you’re making him uncomfortable?” Silver snickered at his old friend’s antics and began working his magic to load some tobacco into his pipe.

“I’m old, so it’s practically my right to have fun at young ponies’ expenses,” the mule said with a smile.

“Yeah, my brother is pretty fun to screw with,” Downpour chimed in. The younger pegasus facehoofed in annoyance. I guess I didn’t hear the announcement for ‘Everypony Pick on Draft Day’, the pegasus thought.

“Alright, boys, fill me in,” Chestnut said, adopting a more serious tone. “Have you found out anything more about who’s behind this mess?”

“Actually,” Downpour cut in, “we were sort of hoping you might have heard something.”

“Me? I’ve been hiding out in the blasted woods for over a week,” Chestnut replied. “The only thing that I know is that there has been patrols of griffons sneaking around the skies of Equestria lately.” He let out an irritated grunt before finishing his statement. “Those flying pests have been looking for Silver and I no doubt. I don’t think they’ll find us though, because I gave them the slip numerous times.” Silver appeared relieved to hear the news. “It’ll take more than some uppity young griffons to catch this old mule.”

“I am most pleased to hear you say that, Chestnut,” Silver sighed. “It would seem that the years have not caught up with you quite yet.” Smoke streamed out of the duke’s nostrils as he spoke. Draft didn’t know how the unicorn could stand to smoke as often as he did. If Draft tried that, he didn’t think that he’d be able to breath for long.

“Well, the princesses have given us the task of acting as emissaries to the Crystal Kingdom. We’ll most likely be leaving for the north in the morning,” Draft informed the older stallions. Chestnut grew quite for a few moments as he mulled over what the grey pegasus had told him.

“The north you say? Hmm, that’s going to be a brutal trip, it’s almost winter after all,” Chestnut muttered. The brothers knew that fact all too well. “I’ll send you off with a written guide about what to expect during your travels. That’s about all I can do to help you out.”

“We’re happy with any help we can get,” Draft replied. Honestly, he would have been happier with some solid information about the perpetrators of the act, but the pegasus supposed that they would just have to settle for some survival information.

“I can say with a fair amount of certainty that our government is not behind the capture of the Crystal Empress. There is not one pony of power that would see any gain from a war at the moment,” Silver added matter-of-factly. That narrowed the list down, but not by very much.

“That’s not really going to help us,” Downpour replied. Draft groaned in his head at his brother’s lack of conversational tact. Downpour could be so callous sometimes.

“Thank you, Downpour,” Draft said acknowledged with a good amount of sarcasm. “Do you think that the griffons are acting alone?”

“I highly doubt that. Their mercenaries at heart and always have been, so I’m sure that they were paid for their actions,” Chestnut replied. “By who though, still remains to be seen.” The mule shrugged his shoulders, as if to say that he was tapped out of useful information. The brothers hadn’t really learned anything new, but at least they got the chance to converse with an old friend before they had to leave the country for a few weeks.

“Hmm, well, I guess that we’ll just have to solve this mystery on our own then,” Downpour yawned as he got to his hooves and stretched out his short legs.

“Yeah, thanks for all of the help though,” Draft added. The younger pegasus let out a yawn as he stood up beside his brother. “I think that I’m going to head to bed though. We’re going to need all the rest that we can get before we leave.”

“Now that Chestnut has arrived, I hope that you two will not mind sharing a room for the night?” Silver asked as he tapped the ashes out of his pipe.

“No, not at all,” Draft replied.

“I guess its fine,” Downpour agreed.

“Splendid. Well then, I guess we will see you two before you leave in the morning,” Silver said. The brothers nodded in agreement as they left the living room and headed up the stairs.

“Goodnight, boys,” Chestnut added. “I think we’ll stay down here and chat for awhile.”

“Goodnight, Chestnut,” the brothers replied together, “and goodnight, Silver.”

“Sleep well, you two,” the duke said as they headed for the stairs. “You have many long days ahead of you.” The pegasus went to their bedroom after that. They decided to share the room that Downpour had stayed in, because it was larger. After setting up a place for Draft on the ground, it didn’t take the brothers very long to drift off into a deep sleep.

Author's Note:

Not much happening in this chapter, but I wanted to show a some of the character diferences between the brothers, as well as bring Chestnut and Silver together for awhile. Fun fact: my friend that Downpour's character was originally based off of, does have a facial tattoo, although it isn't a 'D'.