MLP ~ The Song of Seven

by ScarletSet

Harmonize - III

Somewhere in the mountains…

Tired…

Where are the comrades? The brothers?

Head hurts… Head hurts so much…

The little thing… The sparkly little thing…

Where did it go?

Hate it… Hate it so much…

Hungry…

It hides here, somewhere…

Trapped… Trapped…

Eat it. Eat the sparkly thing.

Head hurts so much…

The craggy cliffs, Valley of Life

Lightning Bug pulled herself up a stony ledge, and she couldn’t help but feel a little nostalgic for climbing the mountainside with Polaris. Only this time she had two chatty foals for company, and she didn’t find herself speaking up so much to fill the empty space.

She wondered if Polaris was more talkative or even less talkative if she wasn’t around. She thought of his hurt leg, and she tried not to think about him lying down on a stretcher with nothing to do.

“Hey, miss Lightning?”

“Oh!” Lightning turned around. Smokey and Snowy had their hoofs propped up on the ledge and were failing to hoist themselves up. “Sorry about that, here,” She leaned over and held out her hoof. She pulled Snowy up first, which made Smokey a little upset for some reason. They had set their boxes down before she pulled them up, and once they were on the ledge Smokey pulled the boxes up one at a time with his magic. “Sorry about that. I’m used to climbing with an older pony.”

“Older pony…” and Smokey grumbled something else under his breath.

“Polaris would just pull himself up and then grab his things with his magic,” Lightning said. “I did most of my climbing on my own.”

“Smokey can’t use his magic quite that well yet,” Snowy said. “He can barely lift another pony right now.”

“Can we stop comparing me to an older unicorn already?!”

The Star Pillar of Conviction was the highest one Lightning had seen. Its crest looked like an upwards arrow, or a pyramid, and its base was worn and covered with dust. “It’s tall,” she said.

“It is,” Smokey said.

“Is it the tallest one?” Lightning asked.

“No, that would be the final Star Pillar,” Smokey pointed to the north to the lake and the falls, where the sixth pillar rested. “They’re all the same, but the elevation there’s the highest.”

“Ah,” Lightning squinted and made out a bright red house near the lake. Further on the northwest side of the valley, she spied another series of houses much like Townsquare, but it was a touch smaller. “What’s that?” she pointed at the red house.

“That’s the schoolhouse,” Snowy said. She shuddered. “It’s closed for spring break.”

“You don’t like going to school?”

“I’m not as good at it as Smokey,” she said.

“Oh. I wasn’t that good a student either,” Lightning said.

“It’s not a pegasus thing, is it??” Snowy asked. “Are unicorns just smarter than us?”

“No! Of course not!” Lightning almost frowned. “Don’t ever think like that. There are plenty of smart pegasi!” Her eyes drifted back to the houses to the northwest. “What about that? Is that another town?”

“We call it Northtown,” Smokey said. “But it’s more of a neighborhood. I think father lived there before he became the Lorekeeper.”

“Oh neat!”

“It looks like they’re setting up the bonfire,” Smokey said. Somewhere between the shining lake and the small town a group of ponies were gathering pieces of wood and grouping them together in one massive mound.

“What are they going to do with all that?” Lightning asked.

“On the last night before the festival, once all the work is finished, everyone comes together for an early dinner around the bonfire,” Smokey said. “They’ll stay warm, they’ll roast food and chat, and they’ll camp out if they want. In the morning they’ll finish preparations and the festival can begin. Father might be waiting there when he’s done with his tour. We should head over there just to check once we’re done with the fifth pillar.”

“Hey, I can see Slash’s house from here!” Snowy said.

“Oh, does he live in Northtown?”

“What? No, it’s over there,” and Smokey pointed to a spot on the cliffs less than a mile away.

“That poor old thing?” Lightning Bug squinted down the cliffside. The houses they did see on the way to the pillar were rustic things on stilts, but this one in particular was just a wooden box. Even its roof was just a flat slab of wood. A lop-sided door hung from a broken hinge. It didn’t seem nearly big enough to house a large pegasus like Slash. “...How spartan of him.” If Polaris was to be believed, the only furniture inside that thing was a bed and a closet. “Why does he live so far away from everyone else?” she asked.

“People got annoyed listening to him train early in the morning,” Smokey said as he set down his box. “Among other things.” Smokey looked the pillar up and down. “I’m getting tired of using my horn,” he said. “Tired in general, really. Our entire morning and we’ve only done half of these things!”

“My wings are tired but you don’t hear me complaining,” Snowy said.

“Unicorns can’t use their horns on an empty stomach, Snowy. Not well, anyway.”

“Are you hungry, Smokey?” Lightning asked.

“I don’t know,” Smokey pointed up at the Star Pillar. “We got a massive sundial with it’s short shadow pointing straight down, that tells me it’s almost lunchtime, I had oat-bread for breakfast and haven’t eaten anything since!” He turned around and realized who he was talking to. “...I am a bit peckish, so to speak.”

“You didn’t pack a lunch?” Lightning asked.

“I didn’t think we’d be out here all day!”

“Nothing in the boxes either,” Snowy finished digging around in the box of candles. “Nothing edible that is.” No, candles didn’t sound very appetizing, Lightning thought. A little green grass went a long way when you’re waiting for food; she learned this in the army, but the cliffs barely had any grass to graze. There were only dry, stringy tufts jutting out from the rocks in a couple places. No good for eating. This time she was pretty sure the two children heard her stomach growl.

“Hm…” Snowy tilted her head. “Maybe I could run down to town and bring back some lunch!”

“Lunch costs money, Snowy,” Smokey said. “Do you have any bits?”

“...No.” Snowy looked at Lightning. “Do you have any bits, Lightning?”

“Nope,” Lightning said with a sigh. “Didn’t Tall Tail say what to do for lunch?”

“No, he trusts us to take care of ourselves,” Smokey said confidently. He cleared his throat. “But he can forget a few key details sometimes…”

“Well, maybe I can go down to town and borrow some food,” Lightning took a step back. “You know, borrow on credit. I should have something back at lunchtime.”

“Did somebody say lunchtime?”

The new voice boomed down at them from overhead. A shadow briefly blotted the noontime sun and covered the three. Lightning ducked low to the ground and peaked up. She first thought of mountchasers, but she saw this was just another pegasus flying down to meet them.

“Slash!” Snowy reared back and cheered.

“And he brought food!” Smokey said. Slashbuckler carried a few paper bags in his forelegs. He touched down right beside the pillar, but it was more of a hard drop. Once he was a pony-length from the ground, he just stopped flapping, and his heavy body slammed the rocks and dust beneath him. He just shook his mane and wings out and trotted over like nothing at all.

Lightning wished she was that confident when she had to land.

“Tall Tail knew he was forgetting something,” he said as he set the bags down. “So he had me round up some grub for you all.”

“Could you really hear us from all the way up there?” Snowy asked.

“Hear what? I just always wanted to say ‘Did someone say lunchtime.’ To be cool.”

“Oh.”

Slash opened the two bags, and Lightning’s nostrils were filled with the scent of fresh bread and cut veggies. “Sandwiches for today,” Slash said. “I got one for myself, the rest are yours.” He paused and looked around. “Say, where are Echo Shade and… the other guy?”

“The big-boy unicorn hurt his leg, so Echo went back to town with him,” Smokey said.

“Figures,” Slash said. He sighed. “They’ll probably get something to eat on their own. I went and bought two whole sandwiches for nothing!”

“What kind did you buy?” Lightning trotted over and sat down. Her stomach was getting impatient.

“Only the best Harmony has to offer!” Slash pulled out a very thin sheet of paper and set it down on the ground as a faux-picnic blanket. He reached into the bag and pulled out one sandwich after another and set them down on the sheet. “We got a grilled-veggie sandwich, a cucumber sandwich, this one’s beans and salsa, this one’s carrots and cheese, this one’s an egg salad, and this one’s just grilled cheese.” Slash smiled and pulled his hoof back. “You all take your pick, I’ll choose mine when you’re done.”

“Me too,” Lightning said. “You two go on ahead.”

“She’s so considerate…”

“You say something, Smokey?” Snowy asked.

“N-no! I just asked if you wanted cheese and carrots.”

“I don’t like cheese, really,” Snowy said.

“Then you can have the cucumbers. I’ll take the egg-salad.”

Slash took the grilled veggies, and Lightning chose the cheese and carrots, which Smokey floated over to her.

The bread was thick, fluffy and chewy, it had to be homemade. The crust was thin and flaky and tasted wonderful. The greens were sweet and crispy, and the cheese… it flooded her tongue with a strong, musty taste. She smacked her lips after she swallowed. She studied her sandwich.

“You don’t like it?” Snowy asked.

“The cheese is fresh,” Slash said. “Well… made yesterday fresh, I mean.”

“Hm…” Lightning peeled back the bread.

“...You can have mine if you want,” Smokey said.

“No, it’s fine.” Lightning took another bite, made a ‘blech’ face… and took another bite. She blech’d again, but she bit again. She was too hungry to stop. “It’s just so sour!”

“Don’t they have cheese in Meteoras?” Snowy asked.

“Yeah, but it doesn’t taste anything like this.” Lightning kept taking bites. “It’s not bad… just different.” She kept chewing.

Slash finished his sandwich first, which wasn’t much of a surprise. He reached for one of the two spare sandwiches, and in a matter of moments it was already halfway gone. The others were barely halfway finished, and Lightning would certainly take a while to finish her’s. Slash’s tail swished about as he stretched in his seat. He absently eyed his sandwich.

“So, miss pegasus? Lightning?”

“Hm?”

“I’ve been meaning to ask, what’s it like in the pegasus brotherlands?”

“You mean Meteoras?”

“Yeah, duh! I’ve been meaning to ask you ever since we met, but I didn’t have the chance.”

“In between beating up the unicorn, arguing with him all night and fixing the stuff you broke, you mean,” Smokey said as he finished his meal. His sister nudged him.

“I’ve never been there myself,” Slash said. “Some pegasi from here have, but I haven’t. I’ve always wondered what it’s like out there. I’ve read about the Brothers and their soldiers in books and stuff, but I’ve never been able to talk to a bona fide Meteoran. I wanted to visit, but then the Kingsveil went up.”

Lightning silently commended the pegasus. He was calm and concise, if not for the way his tail practically wagged and how he kept reordering his hooves. He was looking at her like some kind of celebrity, or a hero. It made her uncomfortable. It could have been worse, she supposed.

“What would you like to know? I’ll try to answer the best I can.”

“Okay! …Wow, I’ve been dreaming of talking to a real soldier my whole life but now that I’m here I’m not sure where to begin!”

“Just take your time, I’m sure you’ll…”

“Do pegasi really use punches as currency?!” Slash leapt forward and was mere inches away from slamming head-first into Lightning and knocking her over. “Have you ever solved a dispute by rite of honorable combat? Have you met the Imperium? Have you flown an airship?”

Lightning blinked. Slash shyly backed away and smiled at her, ears drooped. Lightning took a bite, blech’d, swallowed, and cleared her throat. “Um… I ‘ve never seen the Imperium face-to-face. I’ve seen soldiers fight, but I’ve never entered honorable combat. I’m pretty sure the punches thing is a joke… and I haven’t flown an airship.”

“What? Not one?”

Lightning shook her head. “Not one, I could fly on my own to wherever I needed to go most of my life. I haven’t been a soldier for very long.”

“How long have you been a soldier?”

“Um… five months? Maybe six?”

Slash looked completely mortified. He put down the sandwich he was eating. “You’re just a rookie,” he said.

Lightning almost frowned. “Yeah, I guess.”

“Aren’t Meteoran soldiers supposed to train their entire lives?”

“Maybe two hundred years ago, but not now,” Lightning said.

“I thought every pegasi was a soldier!”

“We’re all under the military,” Lightning made a circle in the dirt with her hoof. “But we’re not all soldiers. The military controls everything, but only some pegasi actually join the army.” She made a smaller circle that overlapped with the first, and then she added a smaller one beside them. “Since the military controls everything, technically everyone’s a soldier. A pilot is a soldier, a librarian is a soldier, and a shopkeeper is a soldier. We serve our country and are paid for our work, even if we don’t fight dragons.”

Slash looked absolutely dumbfounded. “But you’re not a librarian or a shopkeeper, you’re a scout… right?” Slash asked.

“Yeah, of course! …Assuming everyone back home thinks I’m MIA and not KIA,” she muttered.

“What?”

“Nothing. I’m a Private and my job is a scout. I’m at the very bottom rung of the ladder.”

“So you are a soldier?”

“...Yes.”

And that gave him some relief. “Okay, good, was worried there for a second.” He held his heart and sighed. Lightning firmly bit another piece out of her sandwich, blech'd, and kept eating. She wasn’t sure how much he actually understood. She wasn’t the best at explaining things, but still. “So you haven’t flown an airship, but you totally could if you wanted to, right?”

“Ah, no. Sorry, that wasn’t part of my training.”

“Why not?!” and Slash was back to distraught.

Lightning shook her head. “Not a lot of soldiers fly ships anymore.”

“You don’t?” Slash cried. “But they’re the primary mode of transportation on Meteoras!”

“Again, maybe some fifty or so years ago, but not now. Right now every pegasus uses the trains, or plain ol' boats.”

“Boats?!" Slash cried. "And trains? Like the ones in Sylvain?”

“Trains are used all over Cabalos, but the pegasi invented them,” Lightning said. “And since a train takes so much less energy to move as opposed to a whole airship, most pegasi just take the train when they need to go someplace.”

“But a train can’t go over water!” Slash said. “Boats maybe but not trains... Can they? Do trains even run between the islands?”

Lightning nodded. “Some of them. I know for a fact Isle Mistral has a railroad that goes straight to the mainland. It’s miles long.”

“Wow…” and Slash sat back in his seat. “What do you use it for?”

“Supplies! Meteoras has a lot of water, but not a lot of real estate,” Lightning said. “Not a lot of ground to grow food. What we don’t grow in Clan Ponente we buy from Sylvain and they send it to us on the train. That’s how we get most of our fruits, vegetables and cheese!” Lightning took another bite. She chewed and swallowed. And she blech'd. “Where does the valley get it’s cheese from?”

“What do you mean?”

“You don’t have any railways here. How can you get your cheese from Sylvain?”

“Oh,” Smokey shrugged. “We make it ourselves.”

“How?”

Grrrr.

Lightning had a start. Her companions’ ears flicked. She heard another growl, and a snort. She peaked over her shoulder. A large, hairy thing padded up the hill, looking through the tufts of grass. It lifted its head from the grass and headed right for her.

“Um… guys?” Lightning stood upright. Her wings clamped to her side, and her hooves bunched together beneath her. Her tail twitched. The thing, which appeared only to be a ball of fur, turned to face her. It had two massive tusks and a large snout. Tiny, dark eyes regarded her carefully, and white markings ran across its face to its back. It swished its tail about as it went back to nuzzling the ground… and it moved closer to her.

“Smokey, Snowy?!” Lightning hissed as softly as she could. “Help! There’s this… big fuzzy thing!”

“Aw, it’s just a trog!”

The thing’s wiggling snout crept about Lightning’s hooves, and she fought the urge to scream and gallop away. Its snout traveled past her sandwich. She couldn’t stop staring at the glistening tusks jutting from its mouth, and she remembered the direwolves and mountchasers outside, and how many times they nearly managed to shred her wings and tail. She felt her coat surge. She pursed her lips. “What’s it want?”

“It’s just looking for a snack.” Slash said. “You aren’t afraid of something like that, are you?”

“I’m… uh…” It moved closer to her again and she looked away and closed her eyes. “I’m not good with big animals, okay?”

The look on Slash’s face made it seem like his whole world was crashing down around him. Snowy flew over and landed right next to the trog like nothing was the matter. The thing snorted when she landed but kept digging about. “They like roots and nuts. Some of the farmers let them roam about on their own during festival time. They get to celebrate just as much as we do!” Snowy stood up and rested her hooves on the trog’s head. It closed its eyes and growled softly as she scritched its thick fur. “There’s nothing to be afraid of, they’re just big silly piggy-wiggies~!”

Lightning relaxed a little and drew near. She reached one hoof and carefully scratched its head. The trog shook about and made her yelp. It walked into her, and she froze. It brushed its bristly forehead against her and then walked right past her to sniff at the ground some more.

“You’ve never heard of a trog before?” Slash asked.

“I’ve never seen one up close,” Lightning said. “I thought only farmers in Sylvain kept them.”

“The valley has plenty of farmers, and farmers need animals,” Smokey said as he walked over from the pillar. “For pushing, pulling, and… other things.”

The trog had completely lost interest and shuffled off someplace else, and Lightning finally settled down. She shuddered and picked her sandwich back up. “Sorry about that. Where did you say you get your cheese from?”

“We… make it ourselves?” Smokey said again.

“How?”

For a time the two didn’t say anything. It took Lightning a moment to realize they kept glancing at something. They were looking at the trog, still sniffing about the grass.

That made Lightning spit her sandwich out.

“Where did you think it ever came from?”

“I don’t know!” Lightning shook her head and sighed. “I guess I never thought about it too hard.” She looked down at her strange sandwich, and it took her about a minute to shrug and keep taking bites, and made a 'blech' face with each mouthful.

Slash leaned over to Smokey. “This Lightning Bug isn’t much of a soldier is she? Kind of a city slicker.”

“N-No! She’s not! I barely thought about trog milk either until a few years ago!”

“Lightning’s way older than you, though.”

“Yeah, but…”

They put all of their trash into one bag, which Slash took and got ready to fly back to town. “Thank you so much for the food!” Lightning said.

“Um… yeah,” Slash still had that expression from earlier when he took the bag and spread his wings. “See you all later,” and he took off.

“He’s nice,” Lightning said. “When he’s not excited.”

“He gets excited a lot,” Smokey said. He motioned back at the pillar. “If we hurry we can probably finish these before dinner.”

Once the fourth Star Pillar was finished, they made the long trek to the other side of the valley to finish the fifth, which was an interesting affair. To contrast the vibrant windswept forests, plains and cliffs from before -- a dense, wild forest miles wide clung to a spot on the west side. The river from the south split into directions after it passed Townsquare. One fed directly into the lake to the north, the other fed into this forest. The water made the plants sturdy and numerous, and the trees were so thick with foliage that they blocked out the sun. The ground was soft muddy, and pockets of bog perpetuated the interior. Calls of animals echoed through the trees, and the foals clung tight to Lightning when they made their way to the next pillar.

No pony lived here, so far as Lightning could tell.

The pillar was so overgrown with moss and mud that Lightning almost mistook it for a massive tree. Its crest resembled a single foreboding eye that surveyed its dense surroundings. Smokey was not comfortable using his horn in the forest, so it was completely up to Snowy and Lightning to tie the green ribbons to the pillar and set up the candles.

They hardly spoke the whole time, not until they were finally on their way out of the forest.

“It was so dim in there!” Lightning nearly tripped over a root on her way out of the clearing.

“They don’t call it the Dark Forest for nothing,” Smokey said.

“I didn’t think there’d be anything so scary in the valley,” Lightning said.

“Compared to outside, maybe not,” Snowy peaked over her shoulder. “But still…”

“This is the only spot in the entire valley that the first Harmonites never settled,” Smokey said.

“Why is that?”

“Some think they had to leave one part of the land untouched,” Smokey said.

“Or maybe they just thought it wasn’t worth it,” his sister said.

“Sir Rat Tail thought it was worth putting that here,” Smokey gestured back at the pillar. “Whatever that’s worth.”

“Why’d they make this one green?” Lightning asked. “Won’t that blend in with the rest of the forest?”

“Not at night with the candles lit,” Smokey said.

“Oh dear, what if a candle drops and starts a fire?”

“Please, all the mud and moisture would smother a fire before it had any chance to spread,” Smokey put down the box and dug for the ribbons. “Plus it’s too far from the bog to light any fumes.”

“Fumes?” Lightning’s question wasn’t answered.

“We didn’t rush it, did we?” Smokey asked slowly. “Do you think Tall Tail will notice?”

“If anything that took longer than the last one, not counting lunch,” Snowy said. “The mud and moss made it really hard to mount the candles.”

“How’d you get them on then?”

“Oh, that was easy,” Lightning said. “I just scraped the surface until they fit.”

“You what?!”

“Is something wrong?”

“Do you think Tall Tail will be happy that you possibly defaced a sacred artifact?”

“If the only thing keeping those candles off the forest floor was faith,” Lightning said. “I don’t think he’ll mind.”

“No, Faith was the first pillar, remember?” Snowy said.

“Help!”

The three froze in their tracks.

“Did you hear that?” Lightning asked.

“Is someone there?” The voice came from the northeast, around the edge of the forest.

The three carefully maneuvered through the greens and plants and found their way over. They came across a clearing. The ground was covered in patches of clear water, and beside them were pockets of mud the consistency of chocolate pudding. Plants gathered the edges of these pockets of moisture. A fallen tree was nearly completely swallowed by the bog, and it tilted at an angle as its trunk lay sunken beneath the mud. Sometimes the mud would bubble and burst, and the air was filled with a damp, mulchy smell.

A small group of ponies gathered around one particular patch of mud. They were all foals, and only one was an adult mare. Her son clung to her side with a paper bag in his mouth. Once Lightning and the others got close enough, they realized the problem.

A foal was nearly up to her belly in mud. She fought to keep her stomach above the surface. She wasn’t crying, not yet, but her eyes bulged and darted every which way. Once she heard Lightning and the siblings approach, she shook about. “No, don’t!” the mare said gently. “You’ll just work yourself deeper into the mud.”

“Oh…” the foal closed their eyes and whined.

“That’s Miss Felucia,” Snowy said. “I didn’t think she’d be in the Dark Forest.”

“She was probably trying to invite the witch to something,” Smokey grumbled. “Likely failed too.”

“Is something the matter?” Lightning Bug asked.

“Oh thank goodness, an older pony!” the mare trotted over to her. “They were all playing, and I was going to take them to the bonfire, but one got stuck.”

“Evidently,” Smokey said.

“How long has she been there?” Snowy asked.

“Ten, fifteen minutes?” Felucia said.

Lightning thought that was an awful long time for a poor filly to be stuck in the mud, but then she realized. Every pony present was a galloway. They didn’t have wings or horns, so there really wasn’t much any pony could do. “We tried pulling her out with vines,” one foal said. “But none of them are thick enough.”

“We tried biting our tails and pulling her out, but that didn’t work, really,” another said. All of their hooves were muddy.

“Well obviously if the risk of falling in and joining her is too great,” Smokey set his box down and stepped forward. “What you need is a little magic.” His horn lit up. “Step aside,” he held his head up and walked over to the edge of the bog. “You’re watching, right Miss Lightning?”

If four little foals working together couldn’t pull this pony out, could one unicorn and his magic really do it? “Um… yeah, I’m watching.”

“Excellent! Observe…” The little filly’s mane got tugged by an invisible force. “Heave… Ho!” Smokey jerked with his magic, and the pony did indeed move, but she was far from unstuck. “Hrm. Heave… Ho!” Still not free. Smokey frowned. “Heave…” The pony looked a little scared now. “Ho!”

Lightning had never heard magic ‘pop’ before. Smokey tumbled backwards and hit a tree. The pony remained in the mud. “I guess…” Smokey shook his head. “I guess all the ribbons and pillars really wore my magic out.”

“You didn’t even help!” Snowy said.

“Here, let me try!” Lightning took to the air and gently hovered over the filly. She didn’t take kindly to having a much older, heavier pony right above her, and she jerked about a little more. “No no! It’s okay! I won’t hurt you.” Lightning reached down and fixed her hooves firmly to the filly’s sides. She flapped her wings. The filly slowly rose from the bog! But the mud clung to her legs and had yet to break its seal.

The filly whimpered.

“Hey, listen,” Lightning said. She slowed her flapping. “We’re going to dip a little lower, and then I’m going to shoot into the sky with all my might, and then you’ll get out. Sound okay??”

“No.” The filly sniffled. “But it’s better than the mud.”

“Fair enough! On three… one, two… THREE!” And Lightning pulled like her life depended on it. She imagined pulling Polaris away from the dragon. She imagined carrying him across the forest to safety. Her wings beat like a helibird’s almost.

Pu-glunk!

With a pop and a hiss the mud finally gave up the ghost and the pony was free. The brighter, wetter sludge floated to the surface as the darker, drier layer settled on the edge of the bog. The foals hopped and cheered.

“I loosened the mud for her!” Smokey said.

“Yeah, Smokey,” Snowy shook her head. “You sure did.”

“The river’s right over there,” Lightning said to Miss Felucia. “Do you think anyone would be too offended if we gave her a quick bath?”

They must have been halfway to Northtown when they found the perfect bank alongside the river for a quick dip. While the other foals played and splashed each other with water, Lightning had the rescue-filly in a deeper section as she scrubbed her coat with her hooves to get all the dirt and mud loose. The little filly shivered, and Lightning felt pretty cold too.

“Almost done!” She said.

“And then we’ll warm you up by the bonfire,” Miss Felucia said. “Your mom will be glad to see you! …And glad that I didn’t inadvertently trap you in the mud! Heh…”

“It really is kind of irresponsible, isn’t it?” Smokey sat on the grass and looked to the side. “Letting the children of the valley run around free-range. There’s no telling what kind of trouble they could get into!”

“Children like us, Smokey?” Snowy asked.

“We had Lightning to look after us!”

“And they had Felucia.”

“Oh, it’s mostly my fault,” the mare said. “I told them if they wanted to take the shortcut, they had to follow my directions exactly, but I guess my directions weren’t good enough.”

“I for one think it’s high time the valley adopts some practices from outside,” Smokey said. “Take more precautions for our children! The foals of Meteoras don’t trot around unattended, certainly not where they could get hurt!”

“Actually, they do,” Lightning said. “Most pegasi grow up on the islands, and the sea’s never far away. But there’s no sense keeping them cooped up all day! And they’ll never learn if they don’t leave the nest, so it’s kind of necessary. If you don’t let anything happen to a kid, then nothing will ever happen to them, and that’s no good. It all worked out in the end, anyway.” Lightning splashed the filly’s face with water to wash some mud away. The splashes made the filly gasp and giggle.

“You know an awful lot about the Empire,” Felucia said. “You wouldn’t happen to be the Meteoran, would you dear?”

“Me? Yeah, I’m from Meteoras.”

“Oh gracious I was hoping to meet you!” Felucia hopped down the bank and closer to Lightning. “I heard so much about the outsiders but haven’t even seen one yet! I think it’s so neat that you’ve come to visit. We hear so much about the nations outside but we never see much of them.”

“I don’t think I’m doing anything that special,” Lightning said. “This has all kinda been one big accident.”

“Helping poor Wind Chime here wasn’t an accident,” the mare said. “I think it’s wonderful to have such a responsible mare visiting us. I think it’s exemplary.”

“Please, I’m really not doing that much,” Lightning felt the color rise in her cheeks. “ I’m glad I’m not screwing up for once. As often, anyway… Thank you.”

“Now then, let’s get these little ponies to Northtown before that storm kicks in!” Felucia looked overhead. “It’d be a real shame to cancel dinner over that.”

They chatted for a while longer, but once they were finished in the river and got near Northtown the mare took the foals in a different direction and they said goodbye. The foal shyly waved after Lightning before they disappeared into the crowd. “Let’s find Echo, or father,” Smokey said.

“Shouldn’t we go on ahead to the final pillar?” Lightning asked.

Smokey pointed. The final pillar was within running distance of the bonfire, less than two gallops from the furthest house. “It’s literally sitting right there. So long as we finish it before sundown, I don’t think another little break will hurt us.

“If you say so…”

“Why are we here again?” Polaris asked. Northtown was a much sparser settlement than townsquare. The roads were almost exclusively dirt. There was very little cobbled stone between the houses, and the lamposts were more rustic than even the ones in town. It still had food, and ponies busied themselves with snack carts and small open air cafes. They had just finished gathering the wood for that massive bonfire just outside town.

“For the big dinner,” Echo Shade said. “If you’re going to stay for the festival, you might as well join in. Not everyone’s coming, but Tall Tail will be here, and I reckon Lightning and the others won’t be far behind.”

“Shall I just stand around then? There isn’t work that needs to be done here?”

“I… I think it’s best that you leave that to the rest of us for now,” Echo said. “We don’t want to test your leg.”

“Good point.”

The two trotted along for a time.

“So hey, Polaris?” Echo Shade asked. One vendor in particular was serving a sort of grilled flatbread from ground corn. Its sweet smell wafted down the street as Echo and Polaris trotted by the edge of the settlement. “I’ve been meaning to ask… really I’ve been meaning to ask both of you, but everything’s just been so crazy and--”

“Do get on with it,” Polaris stepped along carefully.

“Right. What is it like back in Lustre? The Unicorn Motherland? I heard all kinds of stories but I’ve never been there myself.”

Polaris spotted a group of foals congregating by the corner of a street. They pointed and whispered at him, and he snorted. “I suppose you would, what with this community being so isolated. What would you like to know?”

“Anything really!” Echo said. “Have you been to the capital city? What’s the weather like in Lustre? Have you worked for the Holy Priestess? Are Unicorn Farmers really considered Lords and Ladies?”

Polaris paused. He looked behind each shoulder as they passed the foals. “I do in fact live in the capital city, and I have seen the Holy Priestess once before… and yes, technically every unicorn is a lord and lady, we have no distinction of working class back home. It’s not too dissimilar from the valley as far as that’s concerned, perhaps.

“The weather is much cooler than it is here. We have no true summer, we only have cold, colder, and one warm season. It is only unbearable for certain, short stretches of the year, and otherwise it is agreeable to the unicorn constitution.”

“What’s that mean? You don’t think the other nations are suited for unicorns?”

“But of course. Meteoras and Sylvain are too warm. Meteoras in particular is much too hot, whilst Sylvain is chaotic. Their weather shifts four whole times a year if I recall correctly, can you imagine?”

“...Um, well, what do you think of the valley? Our spring just started here.”

“It is acceptable, I suppose,” Polaris said. “But I fathom I won’t be here to see much more, we leave the day after tomorrow.” Polaris studied the bustling ponies around him. Some like the foals would stop and stare, but most paid him no mind, like he was invisible. He was used to the feeling, but not when surrounded by so many people. “None of you have left this valley at all, correct?”

“Oh, a few of us leave,” Echo said. “We used to send out merchants to collect important necessities from outside…” Echo glanced up past the mountains. The sky was blue, but there was the slightest hint of a dull gray at the fringes behind the peaks. “The Kingsveil kind of got in the way of all that,” she said. “We get by, but I think it’s been almost a year since anyone left the Badlands.”

“This Kingsveil,” Polaris said. “That is what you call the Stormwall?” Echo nodded. “So, no pony has left your little valley since this cosmic phenomena was observed, perhaps further back… hm…”

“How’s that?” Echo asked.

Polaris’ eyes wandered skyward, and he let out a huff. “Nothing, don’t worry about it.”

They had trotted nearly an entire block before Polaris froze in his tracks. “Wait a minute! If no pony leaves this valley,” he said. “Where on earth did all this come from then?”

“What do you mean?” Echo tilted her head.

“How large was this supposed original group that traveled with your founder?”

“Only a few dozen I think.”

“There are certainly more than a few dozen here today!”

“Oh that’s easy, they just had lots of kids! And their kids had lots of kids…”

“How?” Polaris asked. “Why, unless their dozens were perfectly divisible by three, how could each pegasus unicorn and galloway reliably find a mate? The genetic conundrum of this place has been puzzling me for some time now.”

And then Echo let out a soft sigh and her brow creased. “Oh, Polaris… You see, that was never a problem.”

“How so?” And then Polaris remembered the statue of Rat Tail. The Galloway born in Sylvain with a Unicorn tail. His eyes shrunk. “You don’t mean… no…”

A large flock of happy ponies trotted by, flatbreads hanging from their mouths as they contentedly marched back to work. Their tails bounced and swayed as they went, and Polaris finally saw it.

There was a galloway amongst them with the thin tail of a unicorn. His fetlocks and his build were unmistakably galloway, but his tail was thin and tasseled like a unicorn’s. It’s generally hard to see with a coat as dark as his, but the color drained from Polaris’ face. He glanced one way, and he saw a pegasus with a long, bushy galloway tail. He turned in another direction.

And then he saw a unicorn with a pegasus tail. A tall, proud, horned unicorn with the short, flayed tail of a pegasus.

His knees were trembling by then.

“Polaris?” Echo put her hoof on his shoulder. “Is everything okay?”

“You…” Polaris swallowed. “You intermingle.”

“Pardon?”

“Intermingle! Play for the enemy! Cross the streams!”

“Polaris!” and there came Lightning and the two kids. Smokey and Snowy carried the boxes, and Lightning came bounding over. She laughed and leapt into the air, and once more Polaris caught her with his magic.

“Private!”

“Yeah?”

“We have a serious problem!” He held her there for a moment and then set her down.

“What’s wrong? Are you sick? Ohmigosh is your leg---”

“My leg is fine,” Polaris looked around and sputtered. A mare passed by, one of the ponies he spied earlier.

He tugged her tail with his magic and stopped her in her tracks. Echo, Lightning, and the children cringed and backed away. Smokey covered Snowy’s eyes. Polaris pointed at the pegasus mare’s galloway tail. “This is the problem!” he said.

“Er, Polaris?”

“Does this not strike you as odd?”

“Polaris!”

Too late. The unicorn scholar received a sound buck in the face from the mare. She turned up her nose and stormed off. Neither Lightning or Echo hurried to make sure he was okay. He shook his head and stumbled back to Lightning. “This place… this entire valley… The three tribes are intermingling!”

That earned him a few looks from the onlookers. Echo laughed nervously and closed the distance between her and Polaris.

“Oh?” Lightning titled her head. “I knew that already.”

“How?! Why didn’t you say anything?”

“I mean, after the story about Sir Rat Tail I assumed it was normal.”

“Normal… Normal?!” Polaris shook his head. His hooves nearly failed him as he stepped about. “Mismatched tails… mismatched tails! The one tell of mixed heritage! You’re not supposed to find more than one in a hundred, let alone two in a row! But here in the valley…” And then he looked at Smokey and Snowy, and he finally got a good look at Snowy’s long, tasseled tail and Smokey’s short, birdish tail. “You too?!”

“Us two?”

“Your tails…” But then Polaris forced himself to smile. “You two are… native… to the valley… of course. Of course the valley’s young would have more tails mismatched. And both your sets of parents… such a case would have to be isolated to this area.”

“Both our what?” Snowy put her hooves together and thought hard, but then her brother spoke up.

“We had the same parents,” Smokey said. Polaris gasped. “We’re twins.”

And Polaris just about screeched. Several words tried to tumble out of his mouth, but the sound just wouldn’t come. Echo had to grab him by the shoulders. “Polaris? Polaris, listen. I’m sure you’re a nice guy, a great guy, and there’s not a hateful bone in your body, but you gotta take a breath and calm down before you say something stupid! …Again, I mean…”

---

A cup of something sweet and fruit flavored did Polaris good, but he was still suffering from some form of culture shock. Echo sat across from him at the table, at the very same outdoor cafe Tall Tail had bought fried bananas for them, in fact. When Polaris wasn’t staring off into space, he was looking at a chart Echo had drawn on a napkin. She had been explaining something to him for the last twenty minutes or so.

“Don’t they teach this in Lustre?” she asked. “You’d think something so important would be common knowledge for such an educated nation.”

“No…” Polaris said. “We surely have studies published someplace, but they are not sought out being so… uncomfortable a topic.”

“Uncomfortable,” and Echo mumbled something else under her breath. “Indeed. Look, one more time.” She pointed down at her chart. “Pony genetics are weird, really weird, even by other creature’s standards. If, for example, a unicorn marries a galloway and they have a foal together, they’ll give to birth to either or. They won’t have a half-galloway or a half-unicorn. You follow?”

Polaris nodded glumly.

“But if a galloway with a unicorn parent marries another galloway… then they’ll only give birth to another galloway, at least ninety-nine percent of the time. Generations could pass, and you’d never know a galloway’s great-great-grandfather was a unicorn! In other species, you’d get genetic tells from mixed heritage, but in ponies you’d be lucky to have anything more than an eye or a mane color pass on. Or a tail, of course, but outside the valley that should be pretty uncommon. It’s all very weird, but that’s just how it is.”

Lightning and the twins returned with their own treats from the food stall. They heard most of the conversation even from afar, so they weren’t missing much once they took their seats.

Polaris blinked a few times. “If even part of that is true… then no pony has any guarantee they don’t have an ancestor from another nation.”

“Yeah, kind of!”

“Well… unconventional genetics regardless, how can this valley thrive if there are only so many ponies to go around? Surely some must be related to another in some fashion after only a few generations.”

“Oh, of course,” Echon nodded. “That’s where new blood comes in.”

“New blood?”

“New foals entering the valley.”

Polaris shook his head. “How does that even happen.”

“The magic leads them here,” Echo sat up and pointed back at the statue of Rat Tail. “Just like how Rat Tail led the misfits and unwanted ponies to the valley, when a foal has nowhere to go, their wandering will take them to the valley of life. The magic protects them from the worst of the Badlands, and the residents of Harmony will take care of them once they make it here. Some return to their nation when they were old enough, but most stay.” She smiled and sighed. “In the old days it used to happen all the time. Now we’re lucky if we get a new resident before five years pass.”

“Do you know of any such ponies?”

“We had some arrive not too long ago,” Echo reached over and ruffled Snowy’s mane. “Smokey and Snowy here are foundlings. They were barely three years old when they wandered into the valley and Tall Tail took them in.”

Polaris shook his head. “Then who’s to say their birth family isn't looking for them? Who are the ponies of Harmony to just claim any foal that enters the valley?”

“Life is a lot easier in Cabalos than it was in the old days. The nations have orphanages, and charities, and communication is so easy… it’s much harder for a foal to simply be forgotten. We assume if a foal ends up in the valley, they truly have nowhere else to go.”

“But how…” He trailed off and didn’t finish.

“How what?”

“How can you guarantee…” and he trailed off again.

“Guarantee what?”

“Proper social development?” Polaris asked.

Lightning thoughtfully sipped her fruit drink. Echo kept smiling, something about her expression made the shadows on her face darker. Smokey and Snowy shifted uncomfortably in their seats. She took another sip. “How do you mean?” Echo still smiled.

“Can pegasi and unicorns really tend to each other’s needs?” Polaris asked. “Say you have a foal raised by two ponies of a different tribe?”

“We have plenty of those,” Echo Shade’s brow was set in a straight line. Polaris had to work hard not to fumble.

“Or perhaps two parents and a foal, and each are one of the three tribes?” Polaris asked.

“Again, several,” Echo Shade squinted. “What are you getting at?”

“Can a pegasus raised by unicorns really be the best they can be as opposed to being raised by pegasus parents? Will parents be able to meet a foal’s every need if they’re not… the same… um…”

“Okay,” Echo held up a hoof. “Now I advise you to stop that train of thought before I smack you upside the head.”

Echo Shade gestured around her. “Look, most everyone’s happy and comfortable in their skin because they know growing up that it’s normal to be surrounded by all these different kinds of ponies! Not everyone is raised the same, but everyone’s circumstances are already different! That’s true whether you were born in the valley or outside.”

Polaris was politely taking everything Echo said in silence.

“I may be just a bit biased,” she said. “And I’m not saying you couldn’t get the same experience from a single-tribe community, but I for one don’t feel deprived by being around a bunch of non-unicorns because I had all kinds of ponies to learn from and make friends with! You’re new here so I’m explaining it to you, but if you want to discuss social theory with other Harmonites, I advise you tread carefully, capisce?”

Polaris swallowed. “I guess I capisce.”

Afterwards they decided it was time to look for Tall Tail and figure out what they should do next. They finished their drinks and snacks, paid the vendor, and went on their way. With nothing better to do, Polaris didn’t speak much the entire time.

“How was the doctor?” Lightning asked Polaris. “That’s where she took you, wasn’t it?”

“She didn’t,” Polaris held up his leg and frowned. He set it down. “I was subject to some kind of home-remedy by a grouchy basement-dweller in a shack. It worked well enough, credit where it’s due.”

“Not your cup of tea, huh?”

“Not in the slightest.”

“Tea… tea… That nice filly made the best iced tea I’ve ever had. I wonder where she’s at… I could really go for another cup.”

None of them noticed Slashbuckler drift by with a piece of bread in his mouth. He took a big bite and fell in step with Echo. He eyed Polaris’ front leg, which still had some of the potion left on it. “I see he’s met Apple Gloom,” he looked at Lightning. “Is that why he was freaking out earlier?”

“No,” Lightning shrugged. “I guess Lustrians don’t like the idea of the three tribes having foals together.”

“Oh. Heh,” Slash took another bite. “Doesn’t surprise me at all.”

“I was shocked, that’s all,” Polaris said. “I was under a different impression after speaking to the two of you. Miss Unicorn, your parents were both unicorns, correct?”

“I think so?”

Polaris pointed at Slash. “And you are full pegasus, right?”

“Oh, I’m a pegasus alright,” Slash said with a nod.

“That’s good…”

“My dad was a Galloway, though.”

And Polaris made that weird, squeaking screeching sound again. Lightning held his shoulder and Echo ran between him and Slash. “Now-now, let’s not start that again!”

Polaris took only a moment to compose himself. “Quite right,” he said. “New discoveries are about… allowing oneself to be surprised. I suppose…”

“Miss Lightning, before I forget!” Slash galloped over to Lightning. “Atten-hut!” and he screeched to a stop and stood at attention. “Present heart!”

Lightning blinked. “Hm? …Oh!” And she stood upright and stamped a hoof. “Sir!” She wore a serious expression and saluted with her wing. Slash did the same. The two bowed their heads and flourished their wings at their sides. They stepped closer and held out their hooves.

“Through the fire and thunder!” Slash said.

“Powerful wonders!” Lightning said.

“Bold and unafraid!”

“Meteoras remains!”

And then they clenched their hooves together.

“OO-RAH!”

Slash bashed his forehead into Lightning’s skull. She wobbled a little, blinked a few times, but she stepped away and saluted to Slash one last time, and he did the same. “That was great! I’ve practiced Meteoran Salutes and battlecries, but I never knew a pony who could actually say them back! You really are a soldier!”

The air left Polaris’ lungs as he held his heart and stared, aghast. “Are you TRYING to kill her?! What if that gave her a concussion?”

“Oh, I’m fine!” Lightning said. She shook her head and smiled. “That didn’t hurt one bit. Us pegasi have notoriously thick skulls.”

Polaris blinked. He waited a moment before speaking. “That was very candid of you just now.”

“Mh-hm!” Lightning nodded and smiled.

“Once more, Miss Shade!” They all recognized that voice. It was Paper Pusher, the elder. The frail old mare was accompanied by another elder who looked even older than her. She side-eyed the group. “Once more when there’s noise, it’s you and your motley crew! …Which only seems to be growing bigger by the day.” She turned to her companion. “Is everything finished?”

“I uh… I…” the older stallion had to find his breath. He eventually gave up and just nodded. “I just received word.”

“And of the perfectly bare stone pillar standing behind us?”

He shook his head and smiled. “On hold, Tall Tail’s request. The storm, you know.”

The sky boomed once as if in response. “I guess that saves us the trouble of asking,” Smokey mumbled.

“Then I suppose things can finally wind down for now.” Paper Pusher looked back at Echo Shade. She motioned her head in the direction of the campfire. “Your master is waiting for you. Do make sure the dinner stays under control while you’re there.” And she trotted off.

“That’s a lot of concern for something she never attends,” Slash tore out another bite from his snack.

---

It was good to see Tall Tail again. He stood next to the large pile of wood that had accrued right by the lake. A fairly large crowd was gathering, and ponies were carting over wagons and bags full of food. The foals had gathered in a neat clump nearby, just like when Lightning and Polaris first came to town. Lightning couldn’t imagine being responsible for all those little foals for such a big part of the day, but he didn’t seem any worse for wear.

“Miss Lightning! Thank you so much for your help. You’ve earned yourself a break. Sir Polaris! Back on all four feet, I see?” Tall Tail smiled. Polaris set his brow and grumbled something. “Echo, take you and your friends over there. Smokey, Snowy, you too. Everyone?!” Tall Tail’s deep, grand voice carried over the group. “I know you’ve heard this a lot over the past few days but we really are proud of all we’ve managed to accomplish.” A few cheers and hoots came from the crowd.

“With the Pillar of Hope as my witness, I can confirm on behalf of all the elders that construction is concluded and Harmony is finally ready for the festival tomorrow.”

An ovation followed, and a few ponies even stood up for it.

“Us Elders and those adjacent have a few finishing touches to take care of, but we thought we’d bust out the bonfire and get this ball rolling first. The food will be ready to fry in just a moment, but first! How about a word from the Headhorse?”

And a hush fell over the crowd. The older stallion from earlier, sans Paper Pusher, slowly worked his way over to Tall Tail with slow and deliberate hoofsteps.

“Who’s the he?” Lightning whispered to Echo.

“The Headhorse is in charge of Harmony,” Echo whispered.

“Like a mayor?”

“Kind of? He’s supposed to have final say on every decision the council makes, but mostly he just stands there and looks pretty.”

The Headhorse breathed in and out a few times. “Now then…” he almost whispered. Every pony leaned forward a little as they strained to listen. “Hoo, my lungs just ain’t what… where was… hm…”

“The bonfire, sir,” Tall Tail whispered.

“Ah yes! Of course! Er-hem,” and some vigor entered his voice. “I know this happens every year, and I know you know the elders love our stunts to keep you all happy.” That earned a laugh from the crowd. “But we really do appreciate you all putting up with us, and big meals like this is the least we could do. This all started when I was a foal if you could believe it! Though surely the tradition stretches much farther back… back to Sir Rat Tail myself if I recall… But that’s more of Tall Tail’s expertise.

“I could reminisce for you all, or give another long-winded speech about how great and productive we all are, but there a few buckets of oats and barrels of carrots over there that deserve much more attention than me, and I can’t wait to have a bite myself! So have at it says I, by gar!”

And the old horse horked and spat into the firewood. Everyone cheered.

“What a wry old horse,” Lighting heard Polaris say.

“Stay back, everyone,” Tall Tail said. A few unicorns stepped forward, including Smokey, and they carefully lowered their heads so that their horns touched the base of the pile of wood. “On three! One… three!”

No less than three different magic sparks from their horns and the wood was quickly set ablaze. The wave of heat made everyone’s mane fly back, and Smokey tumbled back into Echo. An absent-minded pegasus flying nearby was sent rocketing into the sky from the updraft. Slash watched them ascend higher and higher. “...They’ll be down in a minute,” he said. “...I think.”

With the bonfire lit, everypony went to work. Pans, pots, and all kinds of cookware were brought over to the fire. Ponies poured sticky dough that had been left to rise all day into pans with latched lids, which they closed and stuffed right into the coals of the fire. Long stakes were lined with corn, carrots, radishes, and potatoes, and these were set against special stands that kept them at just the right angle to toast nicely against the heat. Stews and soups were whipped together on the spot, and the pots were set to boil.

Unicorns did most of the cooking, pegasi did most of the meal prep, and galloway brought all of the ingredients. A steady train of meals sent to the fire to cook and meals coming off ready to eat formed. Ponies sat in the grass and talked or played while they waited. Foals ran about as their parents worked or socialized.

“Is there anything we can do to help?” Lightning Bug asked.

“Oh please, just kick back and relax, hon!” Echo Shade said. “You’ve done a great job all day. Leave it to the rest of us.”

“Smokey, Snowy?” Tall Tail called. His two children quickly reappeared at his side the moment they heard his voice. “You are free to do as you please, but the Pillar of Hope will not be bare by tomorrow morning, is that understood?”

“Yes, father.” The two foals nodded their heads.

“Good, so long as that is clear… have any of these ponies started making treats, or is it all just been food so far?”

“Just plain ol’ food,” Snowy said.

“Hrm. Snowy, if you could do me one favor, could you fly back to town? We need a big bag of marshmallows.”

“But we don’t have any at home, father.”

Tall Tail’s bushy eyebrows arched. “Really? I could’ve sworn there was a great big bag sitting on the dinner table, nearly big as you.”

Snowy’s eyes lit up. “Can we make smores?!”

“Only if you’re quick.”

“Oh boy oh boy!” And she was nothing more than a white streak in the air, dashing back to town for the bag.

“Now then, Echo Shade?”

“Yes Master?”

“I need to go speak with the elders. You watch the foals.”

“Um… okay!” Echo forced a smile. “But what should I do?”

“You’re training to be a lorekeeper, aren’t you? Just keep them entertained and away from the fire.” And he trotted off.

“He likes to tell people what to do, doesn’t he?” Polaris asked with a huff.

“He’s the master,” Echo said with only a little resignation. “But I let him get away with it. He’s nice enough when things aren’t busy.”

“I’ll go grab you all some grub!” Slash stood up and went for a place in line.

Thunder boomed lightly overhead. The sky was still bright, and the sun had yet to set over the mountaintops, but Lightning was still nervous. “If it rains, do you think they’ll call off dinner?” she asked.

“Honestly I haven’t a clue. This place is so odd, maybe eating soggy food as you sit drenched in the rain is a time-honored tradition here!”

“It is definitely odd,” Lightning said. “But I like it here.”

Polaris scoffed. “Certainly not more than your home country, private?” Lightning didn’t answer. “Private?”

“It’s nice here,” Lightning said. “And everyone’s nice to me. At least… I haven’t screwed up bad enough to get them mad at me yet. I’m not sure I ever will! I just… I don’t think I’ve ever felt more at home since I was a little filly back in Mistral.”

“Yes, but what about your comrades? Or your family?”

Lightning thought long and hard. The light drained from her eyes. The orange flames of the bonfire flickered on her face. “Nobody will notice if I disappear for a little bit,” she mumbled. “Not that anyone ever has.”

“What was that?”

“Nothing, look! Slash is back with the food!” And Lightning ran up to Slash before Polaris could ask any more.

Sandwiches toasted to perfection, roasted carrots and potatoes, bowls and bowls of soup, and a pitcher full of iced tea was laid down on a large picnic blanket. Lightning had to suck up some drool. The cheese sandwich felt like forever ago.

“I can only grab a quick bite,” Echo said. “I gotta get back with foals. Plus, got to work early on my summer look!” she said with a wink and a toss of her mane.

Slash rolled his eyes and bit into a sandwich. Polaris prodded a bowl of soup with his spoon. “Never had any before?” Slash asked with a full mouth. “They don’t make soup in Lustre?”

“We make soup, thank you very much,” Polaris said. “I’m just not sure what this is.”

“It’s just potatoes, veggies, and stock,” Echo said. “Perfect after a long day of work! …And stress.”

“Where’s the protein?” he asked.

“I thought Lustrians didn’t like meat, so…” Echo said.

“Who said anything about meat? Where are the mushrooms? Really, even some beans would suffice at this point.”

“You’ll live,” Slash said.

Polaris looked Slash in the eye and downed a mouthful of the soup. They glared at each other as they finished their meals.

Lightning slowly worked on a veggie sandwich and savored every bite. She found herself bobbing her head, and before long she realized that some ponies had busted instruments and started playing. Echo was doing the same, she even started humming along.

“Oh! That’s catchy!” she said. “I don’t think I’ve ever heard it before.”

Some ponies finished eating and formed groups to dance. Strings and drums and flutes filled the air as musicians sat in the grass and played for the dancing ponies.

Echo was practically bouncing, even as she ate.

“Miss Echo! Miss Echo!” Tall Tail’s group of foals called out to her. “Dance! Dance!”

“Oh, I can’t!” Echo called over. “I just ate!”

But then she saw the young stallion with the lute strumming along to the music. He looked her way with his deep golden gaze and winked at her.

“...I might have time for one…” Echo grabbed a cup, downed it in one gulp, wiped her mouth, and thundered away.

“What’s she doing now?” Polaris asked.

“Just watch,” Slash said with a sigh. “You’ll know soon enough.”

Lightning turned around to watch.

Echo Shade galloped over, she stopped short, and then she leapt into the air, letting loose a shower of sparks right before she landed. The foals oohed and aahed. She stood upright and twirled around. Her horn left trails in the air. The pony with the lute quickened his tempo as Echo stepped to the left, to the right, and twirled with her mane and tail in the wind. Against the orange blaze of the bonfire, she looked wonderful.

Echo knelt down and drew a little shape with her magic. A glowing squirrel appeared, and it was just as lively as a real one. It glanced around, scratched its ears, and dashed around the grass. It sped by the foals and made them stand up and laugh as it passed. It brushed by Lightning, who felt the sparkly magic prickle her coat. It jumped up and nearly landed on Polaris’ face. He yelped and ducked to let it pass. He grumbled again. A few more magical creatures appeared and dashed about the group of foals. They sped away and leapt into the air before dispersing into a series of sparks.

A trail of magic flowed from Echo’s horn. It followed her like a ribbon, blowing in the wind, trailing her as she moved. She moved like a ribbon dancer as she twirled her magic around. She formed a lasso that spun on the ground. She stepped into the lasso, and she stepped out, and then it returned to its ribbon shape and she spun it around and around.

“I got it!” Snowy’s voice came from down the hill. The white pegasus filly flew over, dragging a thick cloth bag with her feet. She was panting, but she was smiling. Her father ran to meet her.

“Good job, that was fast.”

“Father, what’s Echo doing?”

Tall Tail looked over to the music and dancing. “What is she doing indeed?”

Lightning looked up at him. “She’s just having a little fun,” she said.

Tall Tail’s brow furrowed. “Lorekeepers can entertain, but we are not ourselves entertainers. We don’t draw attention to ourselves. Echo Shade!” he called.

“Yes master?” Echo wasn’t bothered in the slightest. The lutist continued to play.

“Don’t you think this is all a little distracting?” Tall Tail called.

“I was supposed to entertain the foals, wasn’t I?” she called back.

“Yes but… This is prime opportunity to hone your craft!”

“I am honing my craft!”

The music reached a climax. The lutist managed to pluck a delicate and intrinsic melody before following up with a wild strum to several different chords in a row.

Echo twirled her ribbon around, and around, and around, and its shape melted into several tiny lights, like a spinning galaxy. It grew larger and larger, and the moment the last note was hit, the lights exploded with a sound like fireworks.

Magical diamond dust showered the cheering foals as Echo took a graceful bow. The musician joined her. The moment they raised their heads they started chatting incessantly.

“That was traditional Sylvain folk music!”

“You recognized it! I knew there had to be some filly around here who knew her music. Imagine my surprise when it came from a unicorn! You’re a talented, interesting mare, aren’t you?”

“Me a mare? Oh stop it, please,” and Echo giggled and waved his words away. They shared a few more words before they parted ways smiling.

Tall Tail huffed. “Paper Pusher isn’t here, but that doesn’t mean she isn’t lurking around the corner, waiting to spoil everything.”

The musician passed them by. “Nice playing, bard!” Slash called over. “What’s your name again?”

“Hi, Meadow!” Lightning cheered and waved.

“Why haven’t I seen you before?” Slash asked. “You should perform in town more often.”

“Why thank you,” Meadow turned to Tall Tail. “Toss a coin to your bard, good sir?” he asked with a smile.

Tall Tail looked at the young galloway and groaned. “Oh hay, where did you come from?”

“I’m but a simple bard. If I were to answer truthfully, I’d have come from both everywhere and nowhere at all!”

Slash blinked. “How’s that?”

“I was afraid of that,” Tall Tail said. “You’re another Outsider.” Meadow smiled. “Just keep a low profile, would you?”

“But sir? This is the lowest I operate!”

“I can vouch for that,” Polaris said glumly.

Meadow looked back at Slash. He had stopped smiling.

"Something the matter?" Meadow asked.

Slash set his brow. He opened his mouth several times. "I'm… I’m suspicious of you!" And then he turned around and went back to his meal. Meadow just shrugged and trotted off.

“Excuse me?” a tiny voice asked. Lightning looked beside her. A little colt gently tugged her shoulder. “Is miss Lightning here? The outsider?”

Lightning swallowed. “That’s me?” she said.

“My mom was wondering if you’d mind if she sat and ate with you?”

Lightning looked over and saw Miss Felucia coming her way, balancing a tray of food on her back. She smiled and waved, and Lightning waved back. “I don’t see the problem!”

“Do you mind if she invites a few friends over?” he said. “They’re all really curious about you and mister Polaris.”

“I don’t see the problem, so long as it’s just a few.”

It was more than a few. A small audience congregated around the picnic blanket where Polaris and Lightning ate. Slash, Echo and Smokey sat next to her. Polaris didn’t care too much, but Lighting was paralyzed. It felt like every little thing she did was being analyzed and judged by this gaggle of mares and stallions. She nervously sipped her drink.

“This is her? She doesn’t look like a soldier.”

“She’s the one who pulled Rose’s girl from the bog over by the forest.”

“Really? She’s strong. Are all Meteorans that tough?”

Lightning’s hooves rattled her cup as she sipped more tea.

“So, miss Lightning?” Miss Felucia asked. “Why don’t you tell us a bit about yourself?”

“M-me? Oh, I don’t see the point in that. There’s not much to say…”

“There’s plenty to say! You’re our first visitor in years! We gotta know everything!” A mare next to Felucia said. “Just pretend you’re a popular pegasus princess and we’re all your loyal fans waiting for the juicy gossip! Just relax and let loose! Tell us everything.”

Playing the part of a princess did not incline Lightning to relax. She gulped. Echo sat next to her and smiled.

“Oh, okay. Um… my name is, uh… my real name is…” her face was flushed. “Everyone just calls me Lightning Bug,” she said. “That’s what I like people calling me.”

“Hi, Lightning Bug!” the crowd said in unison. Lightning squinted and tried to smile.

“Don’t kill the mockingbird,” Polaris sipped some tea of his own.

“Where are you from?”

“Um… Meteoras. All pegasi…” Lightning noticed Snowy trot over and sit down. “...Most pegasi come from there.”

Pause.

Polaris leaned over. “I think they knew that.”

“Oh.”

“How far is your home from here?” a stallion asked. “Did you fly all the way?”

“I couldn’t, it’s much too far,” Lightning said.

“Even if you flew really, really fast?” Snowy asked.

Lightning nodded as she took another drink. “Even if I flew really, really fast,” she said with a smile. “It’s got to be several hundred miles from here, maybe more.”

“Is that longer than the valley?” Snowy asked.

“It is MUCH longer than the valley, come now, Snowy,” Smokey rolled his eyes and looked all important-like and educated. “Why the valley itself is only… only… hrm…”

“We have a map,” a stallion said. “One moment.”

Echo and Snowy cleared a spot on the blanket, and the pony unrolled a thick, old looking map and laid it down. It looked like it should lead to buried treasure, it was even yellow with little gashes out of the edges. All it was missing was an X on the spot.

It was a very old depiction of Cabalos. She could clearly make out the islands of Meteoras, the mountains of Lustre, and the plains of Sylvain, the largest of all. The shape of the continent was very crude, but the mountains and rivers and elevation was very detailed. The text was loopy and elegant-looking, and the margins were covered with notes about the different nations. It was pretty accurate, but some islands of Meteoras were missing, and the Dragonlands were just one large blob at the bottom of the map. ‘Here there be dragons,’ indeed.

The map must have been penned before radios, telegrams, and other long-range communication was available to ponies.

“The valley must end up somewhere in the middle here,” the pony circled around the center of the map with his hoof. “Where do you live?” he asked. The other ponies circled the blanket and crept closer to get a better look. Lightning barely noticed, she was starting to calm down a little.

Lightning sipped thoughtfully as she pored over the map. “I live right…” She pointed her hoof at one of the large islands near the bay of Meteoras, near Skydancer’s Peninsula. It seemed so small now. “Right here, Clan Mistral. That’s where I was born.”

The group gasped. “That’s two thousand miles at least!” Echo said. “You’ve come a long way.”

“What did you do over there?” a colt asked. “Is every pegasus really part of the army?”

“Kind of. I only became a soldier a few months ago,” Lightning said. “I joined the Border Patrol and got stationed near the dragonlands.”

“Did you ever fight any dragons?” Smokey asked, wide-eyed.

The truth was there were many jobs a pegasus could take back home that seemed prestigious compared to guarding the border, but Lightning had never seen anyone act nearly as impressed as Smokey did just now. It felt kind of nice.“Y-yeah of course!” She said with a confident flap of her wings. “That’s what the Border Patrol is meant for! There are nasty dragons trying to sneak into our land all the time to carry away our livestock and crash our airships. That’s why it’s up to us to scare ‘em off. We’re a really special unit, everyone relies on us a lot!”

The crowd oohed. A few even stamped and clapped their hooves.

“That’s so cool! You’re a hero!” Snowy said.

“Well, I wouldn’t say that,” Lightning said with a shy smile.

“What’s it like over there?” A pegasus asked.

“It’s… it’s home. It’s wonderful,” Lightning gazed to the east and smiled. “The sky is always so bright, the sea is so blue and shines like a diamond… There are boats and ships both on sea and in the air. The islands are beautiful. The ones farther west are covered in trees and forests, and the ones to the east are covered in these giant beautiful buildings called skyscrapers. The capital of Stratopolis has the tallest buildings in the empire. Maybe the entire world!”

“How do they build them so high?”

“Cloudcraft.”

“What’s that?”

“It’s what pegasi do to build tall, superlight buildings. We just mix clouds with our building materials. It’s super efficient, and cost-effective! Cause we’ll never run out of clouds.”

Everyone laughed at that. Lightning liked it. It was good to make people laugh.

“Whatever do they do with all those floors?” an older fellow asked. “What’s the point?”

“Pegasi live in them!” Lightning said. “But usually it’s reserved for only the most decorated soldiers.”

“Did you live in a skyscraper, Lightning Bug?” someone asked.

“Oh, heavens no!” Lightning giggled. “I grew up in Asperhone, that's a small town in Mistral. I grew up in a little house on stilts by the beach.”

“Then how did you end up in the badlands?”

Lightning paused.

Why indeed? Where to begin?

“Um… When I became a soldier,” she said. She pointed at one of islands near the dragonlands' border. “We were stationed here, near clan Sirocco to the south. We were supposed to check for dragons and then have a rendezvous over near the border-sands… But then dragons chased us over the border.”

“No way!” Every foal present was on their hooves now, even Smokey and Snowy. “There were dragons in the badlands??”

“What did they look like?”

“How big were they?”

“Were you scared?”

“Did anyone get eaten?”

“Hush all of you!” Echo’s horn flashed. They all shrank back. When they looked back at Lightning, she didn’t look very scared, or worried, or even that upset. She let out a very tired sigh.

“We all got caught in a thunderstorm,” she said. “I don’t really know what happened after that. I don’t even know what happened to them.”

The group was quiet for a while.

“Why did you become a soldier, Miss Lightning?” a mare asked.

Lightning tried to smile. “I just wasn’t a good fit anywhere else,” she said. “It happens. I tried being a delivery pony for a store, but that didn’t work. I tried working on a railway, that didn’t work either. I even worked at my dad’s factory for a little while.”

“And border patrol was the best fit?” someone asked. Nobody said anything. Lightning’s eyes wandered across the map. Smokey looked confused, but Snowy and Echo shared a glance. Lightning reached up and tugged at her necklace.

“Please,” Polaris said. “Save your stunned silence. We haven’t even talked about Lustre yet.”

“That’s right! Sir Polaris, what’s it like back home? Do the unicorns build their own skyscrapers?” the group got chatty again, finally.

“We have no need,” Polaris said. “Our cities are completely underground.”

“Really?!”

“Indeed. Astir na Nog is completely embedded into the tallest mountain. At night, you can see the lights of the city shine through the stone. At the peak of the mountain lies the skydome. That’s where the Holy Palace rests, where the Holy Priestess presides. The dome lets the palace bask in the sun during the day, and the moon at night. It was where I worked and lived most of my life.”

And that was just the start of the questions and answers about Lustre.

“What an absolute priss,” Slash grumbled. “Couldn’t let you keep the limelight for more than a minute, could he?”

Lightning didn’t say anything. She was actually having trouble talking. Her throat hurt. She tugged and tugged at her necklace until it nearly broke, but that wasn’t the reason why. Her lip trembled.

Echo touched Lightning’s shoulder and led her away from the group.

“Lightning? Hon?” she asked gently. “Do you miss your home?”

And Lightning’s voice almost broke. “A little,” she gasped. “Just a little.”

“Lightning, I never wanted to pressure you into anything! If you want to go back to your family I--”

“No! It’s fine!” Lightning sniffled hard and ran a hoof across her snout. “I can’t go back yet, not until, well.. It’s fine! I want to stay, I really do.”

“You’re sure?”

“Sure I’m sure! I just get emotional sometimes, that’s all. I haven’t been in the army long enough to get it beaten out of me.” She tried to laugh, but Echo didn’t look very convinced.

---

The party was winding down a little. Most of the ponies’ bellies were full of food and cheer. It wouldn’t last long, word was once everyone settled down a little, dessert would begin.

Assuming the thundering clouds above didn’t finally break into a storm.

There was about an hour of sunlight left.

“Polaris?” Lightning whispered.

“What is it?” The two helped pick up the scattered odds and ends from the cook out. They were being gathered together and brought by the great big lake to be cleaned.

“Thanks for earlier. When you talked about Lustre.”

“Earlier?”

“You took the heat off me when I started getting… um…” She tugged her necklace. “I appreciate it, that’s all.”

“I’m sure I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

They handed the pots, pans, and cooking sticks over to the ponies at the lake. They had a tub of soap and a pile of sponges and scrubbers. One round of cleaning and the pots looked brand new. They didn’t seem to mind getting a little bit of soap into the lake. It probably wasn’t the harsh kind the nations used back home. The two walked away to grab one more batch before heading back.

A little bit away, Lightning picked up a pan with her hooves, but it slipped from her grip. She fumbled and gasped, but she couldn’t catch it. It was an old pan, and its handle snapped off once it bounced on the grass. For a moment Lightning just stared at the broken thing.

“I’m sure they don’t mind,” Polaris said. “They’ll just melt it down and make a new one.” When he looked over at her, Lightning’s lip was trembling. She wouldn’t look away from the thing she broke. “It was just an accident,” he said softly.

“It’s always just an accident!” Lightning shook her head and stomped away. Polaris ran the broken pan back to the washers by the lake, and Lightning was right where he left her. He motioned towards the bonfire, and she followed him.

“You weren’t serious, are you?” Polaris asked.

“Serious about what?”

“Never returning to Meteoras. Leaving your comrades.”

“I never said that! I might just stay for a bit, that’s all! …Assuming I don’t make things worse,” She said. “I can make sure they all know I’m okay later.”

Polaris swished his tail as they walked back to the bonfire. “So long as it doesn’t impede your mission, whatever that was,” Polaris said. “It occurred to me that you’ve never directly told me what happened to you before the badlands.”

“What is there to say?”

“Private, you’ve been very dodgy about the whole thing. Border patrol, soldiering… it’s not exactly age appropriate work, is it? Hardly a much of an honor either. You told me your stormtouch kept getting you into trouble. Losing all your jobs, joining the military, getting deployed out here… they wanted to get rid of you, didn’t they?”

Polaris paused. He turned around. Lightning had stopped following him. She studied her hooves.

“Private?”

She looked up at him and frowned. “Figured that out all on your own?” and she walked away.

“Private, wait!” Polaris galloped after her. She idly walked the edge of the lake, she kept glancing at the big body of water, and her eyes drifted down to her reflection. Polaris walked in step with her. He was quiet again. It was almost ten whole minutes before anyone spoke again.

“I’m sorry.”

“You’re right though. That’s your problem, Polaris,” Lightning shook her head and sighed. “You’ve got no tact, but you’re always right. They wanted to get rid of me.”

“What could you ever do to warrant such a thing?”

“It’s because I’m such a stupid, clumsy pegasus, that’s why!” and Lightning really did start to cry. “I crash into things, I break things, and the moment I think I can do good, my stormtouch always gets in the way! MY STUPID STORMTOUCH!” she slammed her hooves into the water. Her hooves sparked as she sobbed. “But nobody said anything! They just kept smiling and smiling. Nobody’s allowed to tell a Clan Mistral pony that she doesn’t belong! They’ll just clam up when you’re around and talk behind your back when you leave. And then they’ll hand over the pink slip and say goodbye, with a smile.”

She calmed down a little. She pushed part of her mane away from her face.

Polaris pursed his lips. “I take it pegasi care more about saving face than being honest.”

“Yeah.”

“And every pegasi was like that? Surely not your parents.”

“Of course not. I was their kid. They love me, they have to. They kept telling me how great I’d be if I just looked a little longer, because I was their girl and they’d love me no matter what. But to everyone else… I was just Lightning Bug. The screw up. The military was the only place that would take me on. But I knew it was just a matter of time until I screwed up as a soldier, and it’s just a matter of time until I screw up here.”

“These ponies seem reasonable,” Polaris said. “I’m sure they’d take care of you, no matter what.”

“No! That’s even worse!” Lightning said. “There’s nothing worse than being surrounded by people who think they’re obligated to help me!”

“And why is that?”

“Because… because…” Lightning shook her head. She looked north. Her eyes settled on the pillar. Polaris saw a gleam in her eyes.

Lightning suddenly took off, and Polaris followed her.

He found her a few strides away. Tall Tail was guarding the box of candles and ribbons that Smokey had just finished consolidating. “Girl, you’d best forget about it,” the unicorn pointed at the sky. “The heavens are ablaze! You’ll likely hurt yourself.”

When Tall Tail wasn’t looking, Lightning leaned down to Smokey. “Smokey?”

“Yeah?”

“Could you help me with something? It would mean a lot to me.”

“Sure…! Anything!”

“What’s the pattern for the ribbons on the Pillar of Hope?”

“Oh, that’s easy.”

“Private!” Polaris called to her just as she took the box and flew away, to the pillar.

The thunder was still rolling when Lightning finally reached the final star pillar. She clamped the box in her hooves. She could still hear the distant shouts of the ponies below. Amongst them she could hear Polaris. They didn’t understand, if there really was another thunderstorm coming, that meant she was the only pony who could safely fly. Everyone else should just stay on the ground. She watched Smokey and Snowy for each Pillar, she knew how to wrap these ribbons all by herself. She wished she thought of the candles though. Maybe somebody else would just take care of that later, when it wasn’t so windy.

Windy like the night the dragons attacked her team.

Echo Shade had called the final Star Pillar ‘the wings,’ and now she saw why. Its symbol was a kind of arrow, or a beacon, with large wings at either side. She could clearly make it out from almost a mile away, and the closer she got, the taller it got. It was exactly the same height as the previous pillars, but for some reason flying up to it on her own made her feel so small.

Lightning swallowed and prepared to land. She got the yellow ribbons ready and pegged the first one to the ground. She grabbed it and flew carefully up to the top. She wrapped it around, just like Smokey had said, and tied it. A few more to go.

She tried not to think about flying dragons when she grabbed the next ribbon and tied it.

“Private!” Polaris had finally caught up with her. “The old man said to leave it be!”

“I’m almost finished!”

“They’ll take care of it later, let’s run back before the storm really hits!”

“Storms don’t bother me, remember?” She flew down to grab the next ribbon.

“It’s-it’s pointless!” Polaris tried to stop her but she already flew away. “You have no reason to put yourself in so much danger.”

“It’s not pointless!” Lightning flew back down and pegged the next ribbon in. Polaris used his magic to move the box, but Lightning dashed for it and got the next ribbon anyway. She flew it up and tied it. “I have to do it, I have to help!”

“Why though?” Polaris asked. “Why go through all of this? Heck, why follow me up the mountain in the first place!”

“Because!” Lightning flew back down and pegged the ribbon.

“Because what?”

“Because I’m tired of being a useless pegasus that everyone else has to baby! I’m tired of being coddled by captains, being pitied, and sitting around while everyone else does the hard work!” She grabbed the fifth ribbon and tied it.

“And doing this will make it all better?”

“I… No…” Lightning grabbed the final ribbon. “But it would be a start!” She tied the ribbon down. “I want to be better… I want to be a pony people can depend on. I want…”

Lightning flicked her ears. She thought she heard something. Music? Like what she heard on the mountain? No, this was a voice. It was extremely quiet, almost drowned out completely by the thunder, the more she thought about it, the louder it seemed to get.

She looked down at Polaris, he wasn’t saying anything anymore. No other pony was nearby. She didn’t even see the hooded figure from before. It was when she looked back at the Star Pillar of Hope that the voice finally grew loudest.

“Private, what’s the matter?”

Could he not hear it? She could barely hear Polaris with the sound in her ears. She felt her coat prickle. The thunder boomed one more time.

A javelin of light from above struck the pillar. It was pure white. It blinded Lightning and sent her hurtling below with ribbon still in hoof. It was not there one instant and gone the next, the light remained on the pillar and grew brighter and brighter, and the noise filled Lightning’s ears. She knew she hit the ground, and she could feel Polaris run over to her, but she couldn’t hear any of it. The strange noise still overpowered everything.

Then silence. The light disappeared, so did the sound, and for a moment all Lightning could hear was ringing. She felt a shoulder heft her to her hoofs, and her vision finally cleared. Polaris supported her and gently led her away from the pillar. She could see the bonfire and the other ponies gathered back by the lake. She heard booming. It came again and again, its echoes rattled throughout the valley like a cannon shot from a Meteoran airship.

Every pony watched the skies, expressionless.

She heard Polaris swallow. “That sound…” he looked to the west, to Rat Tail’s Watch. “It isn’t the thunder.”

And then they both heard it, that awful sound.

A distant howl. Everything in the valley fell completely silent. Another howl, louder.

And then a roar that blasted from the west. The ground shook, birds flew from their branches, and every pony felt their legs tremble.

And then silence again.

“There’s no way…” Echo whispered.

“There’s a dragon out there,” Slash said. “A big one! I was right!!” and he dashed away.

“Slash, no!” Echo had no hope of keeping up with him. Slash departed, and following his example, the other ponies started shouting and panicking.

“A real dragon?”

“How did it get so close to the valley?”

“What are we going to do?”

Polaris and Lightning bug made their way back to the bonfire and watched the frantic ponies group together and watch the west side of the valley like it was a torus ready to charge. “Everyone please,” the head horse called. “Calm down! We mustn’t make matters worse!”

Their answer was a wave of confused jabbering from the residents that drowned out any other attempt at restoring order.

“Hey, hey!” Tall Tail’s deep, booming voice finally overtook the clamor. “Wouldja shut up and calm down for a moment? The Headhorse has something to say.”

Occasionally the scratching, crumbling sound would creep into the valley, but besides that nobody made a sound. Not even the animals it seemed.

“Thank you Tall Tail,” the headhorse shakily made his way to the front of the lake. “Such a nice young boy. Where was I… yes. This is not the first time danger has found its way near the valley, but its timing certainly couldn’t be worse! I can’t think of the last time a monster or beast managed to choose so auspicious a day to cause mischief. There are a few things we must remember… the magic of the valley keeps us safe.”

The Headhorse gestured to the Star Pillar of hope behind him. “Beasts and even a few monsters have wandered within these cliffs before. That monster certainly is loud... but I reckon its bark is worse than its bite. Secondly… we know the caverns. Beasts have swooped down from the sky before, or climbed the cliffs, but nothing has ever penetrated the caverns proper. Unless such a thing is capable of cutting elderstone…”

Polaris checked to make sure Lightning was alright on her own, and then he marched towards the Headhorse. A few elders had gathered around him. Paper Pusher tried to shoo him away, but Tall Tail let him pass. Polaris opened his bag and produced the sliver of elderstone he had collected when he and Lightning first entered the tunnels. He passed it to the Headhorse with his magic. “We must remain calm, collected, and… er…” the old horse squinted at the small piece of rock. He looked back at Polaris, whose grim expression didn’t need much explaining. The Headhorse swallowed a few times.

“I behest you all in the name of the Wanderer to remain calm… meanwhile I must conduct an emergency meeting with the other elders.”

“And you should come with us,” Tall Tail said. “Both of you,” he pointed with his chin at Lightning. She kept her head low and trudged forward. She and Polaris stuck with Tall Tail as the elders formed a small circle there at the lake. Echo was not invited, but she managed to hover around the group a few paces away without getting dismissed.

---

“It can cut elderstone??” an elder cried.

“With its bare claws,” Polaris said.

“What is the meaning of this?” Paper Pusher asked. “What do these two know about a dragon outside? They’ve been working for the past days for the festival, haven’t they?”

“Oh,” Tall Tail shook his head. “Get with the times, Pusher!”

“Excuse you?”

“These aren’t residents, they’re outsiders! I invited them to stay for the festival!”

“Outsiders in our midst?! During one of the most important times of year?” The old mare held her heart and gasped, and absolutely none of the other elders showed so much as an ounce of surprise. “You all knew?”

“Please!” Timewinder said. “I think the more pressing matter is what we’re going to do about our own people. If this was brought to our attention yesterday,” she sideglanced Tall Tail. “We might have handled the situation more tactfully, but that’s no longer an option.”

“My point still stands.” Paper Pusher looked around, but the other elders went on speaking without her.

“Worse comes to worst, we’ll have to organize an emergency shelter,” Oaksaw said. “I’m thinking the grotto near the northern falls should be as safe as any.”

“We should prep the guard,” one elder said. “Tell the boys they’re working overtime. They should expect the worst.”

“No!” Lightning cried. “You can’t! That dragon will just gobble them up!”

“We’re no Meteorans, stranger,” the elder said. “But our guards are not pushovers. A dragon won’t be any more dangerous than any of the other creatures prowling the mountains.”

“You don’t understand,” Lightning pointed at the elderstone in the headhorse’s hooves. “This is a giant dragon, the likes of which haven’t left Dynamis in years! It’s stories high, and it‘s much stronger than a pack of direwolf or a torus. My own squad of pegasi soldiers couldn’t take it! If your men aren’t careful…”

“Lass,” Oaksaw the carpenter said. “This may sound strange, but can a dragon that large even fly? Honest question.”

Lightning shook her head. “It can’t. Its wings aren’t big enough.”

“Then we’re safe from an attack from above.”

“I wouldn’t rule that out,” another elder said. “It seems to me this thing could climb the Great Barrier if it were patient enough.”

“The noise has died down for now at least. Perhaps we shouldn’t be hasty. It may just move on.”

“Maybe someone should have told Slashbuckler that.” The elders shared a brief, sad laugh.

“What riled it up in the first place?” Timewinder asked. “We heard rumblings of such a thing for days but nothing so conclusive as now ever happened.”

Polaris cleared his throat. “I think Private Lightning Bug is the only one who can answer that question.”

Lightning gulped. What was she supposed to say? That she heard music? That she thought the Star Pillar of Hope, an ancient artifact made of stone lit up like a Meteoran Winter Tree?

“Um… Have any of you heard of Stormtouch?” Only Tall Tail nodded his head. “I’m a pegasus who can control, well, lightning, (control used lightly here). Sometimes it gets out of control, and I zap other ponies, or I get zapped by thunderclouds. The last time I used my Stormtouch, I struck the dragon, and then I was separated from my squad. I met it once outside, and it recognized me. I think after that bolt just now, it knows I’m here in the valley.”

“Excuse me!” Paper Pusher said. “Am I the only one here that sees what’s happened?” She marched right up to Lightning. She shrank back against the elder’s stare, but Polaris stepped beside her. “You carried important evidence on your persons, withheld valuable intel from the Council of Elders, and freely pranced about in our midst, ate our food, enjoyed the bounties of our sacred home… and only now when danger is nigh do you come clean! What are we to do about this?”

Lightning concurred. What should they do? She never wanted to lie, or keep the dragon a secret. She was just following Polaris’ lead this whole time, and even he said it wasn’t the best idea. Confessing right after something dangerous came knocking wasn’t the best look. If they decided then and there to kick her out of the valley, she’d be at peace with it, but not before she could give her ultimatum.

She’d leave the valley before she let that dragon destroy their home.

“Where do we keep her?” an elder asked.

“The guardhouse?” one stroked his chin. “No, that wouldn’t be safe enough.”

What?

“Loathe I am to admit,” Oaksaw said. “That Guardhouse is a rickety old box of wood. If that dragon makes it into the valley, it ain’t protecting nobody.”

Protect?

“Should she hide with the others?” Timewinder asked. “Would the dragon find her? Where would the outsiders be safest?”

Tall Tail furrowed his brow and tapped his hoof. “They’d be safest out of the badlands, but so long as that thing is prowling outside there’s no sense even letting them leave the valley. It’s as Oaksaw said, if the worst does come they should all go to the grotto. We can only treat them as one of our own, as we’ve been doing.”

Paper Pusher looked at each of her fellow elders. “You can’t be serious.”

“Serious about what?” Tall Tail asked. “Protecting ponies who come to the valley, the way Harmony was intended? Even if there was some misdirection, I don’t see any reason to punish them yet. Aren’t we supposed to uphold Sir Rat Tail’s beliefs?”

“Oh no!” Paper Pusher pointed at Tall Tail. “Don’t play the ‘Sir Rat Tail’ card! That’s an appeal to an idealized figure of authority and you know it!”

“Excuse me?” Lightning raised her hoof. “Do I get a say in this?”

“I concur,” Polaris said. “What if I don’t want to hide in the valley like a foal? What if I want to help?”

“We’re doing our best to speak in hypotheticals, son,” Tall Tail said. “We need to understand our options as thoroughly as possible. There’s the chance the dragon has already left! Then it’d be pointless to do anything we’ve just spoken of.”

Lightning was about to raise her hoof again, but then the air was pierced by this whooshing sound. Every elder instinctively leapt back just as something fell from the sky and landed between them. Lightning yelped and fell over, already preparing to fight or fly, but she didn’t see a dragon. An old, polished bronze shield had dug itself into the ground. Was that dust drifting off of it, or hot air?

Lightning blinked. Wasn’t that the same shield she and Polaris found in the cave?

The sound of rushing wings and then hoofsteps heralded the return of a blue pegasus with a messy yellow mane. “I don’t know about you guys,” he trotted over and drew the shield from the ground, like a sword from a stone, and clamped it onto the leather strap on his foreleg. “But so long as that dragon’s out there, I’m not resting one minute. I think we owe it to Rat Tail’s legacy to make sure that thing stays as far away from the valley as possible.”

“Slashbuckler, where on Cabalos have you been?!” Echo called over.

“I just ran out to take a look,” Slash said. “Look! I found my shield, finally! I musta dropped it when I first found that branch.”

“What did you see, Slash? Is the dragon gone?”

“Oh, no. It’s definitely still there,” Slash said with a shrug. The other elders groaned and held their heads. “It’s been clawing at the mountains non-stop, but it stopped right around the time I turned around. I could still hear it breathing…?”

Lightning sighed.

Slash looked at the elders and smiled. “So… what’s the actual plan?”

“You didn’t hear anything they talked about?” Echo asked.

“No. Like I said, I don’t know about you guys, I literally just got here.”

“Then why’d you launch your shield at us??”

“I heard you arguing and thought it’d be kind of cool to break it up with a dynamic entrance.”

The elders groaned again.

“Listen to me, please!” Lightning pointed at Tall Tail. “I’m the one with the most experience with that dragon. The valley shouldn’t have to do anything. I’ll head out and lead the dragon away from the valley. That way you can have your festival and no Harmonite will have to be hurt.”

“Out of the question!” Tall Tail said. “Your armor isn’t even finished getting repaired, you’d be even worse off than when you came here. Besides, no pony, Harmonite or not, is leaving the Valley of Life until we have a plan.”

“Slashbuckler,” an elder said. “How quickly do you think you can round up all the fellows on guard duty today?”

Slash shrugged. “An hour or two if I’m not hurrying.”

“Good. Find them all, and tell them that the elders will need them tonight, and to await further orders.”

The headhorse nodded to himself as he handed the elderstone back to Polaris. “You keep that for now, lad. Thank you. Now if you excuse us… the elders must make a decision in private.” And then Echo led them away.

The rest of the Harmonites were chatting amongst themselves while the elders continued their secret huddle. The panic had died down, and some of the ponies were even joking amongst themselves, but it remained tense. The valley was still quiet. No birds were singing, and there was no sign of the little critters scampering about.

Lightning groaned and shook her head. Once they were out of earshot, Echo nudged her with a smile on her face. “Isn’t this great?”

“What part of a giant dragon outside the valley is great?” Polaris asked.

“Wait,” only just now did Meadow’s voice finally return. “There’s a dragon??” he called from somewhere in the crowd. “Since when?”

Echo nervously laughed and answered Polaris’ question. “I mean, nobody is ready for Slashbuckler being right about something,” she said with a nod. “I was just worried they were going to kick you out, but they’re going to protect you like any Harmonite! Isn’t it great?”

“No!” Lightning backed away. “No, it’s not!”

“Private?” Polaris asked.

“Why should any of them have to worry about our mistake? My mistake? The dragon shouldn’t be anywhere near the valley to begin with!”

“They might hear you,” Polaris said.

“Hear what? That I lied to them? That this is all my fault?”

“It isn’t, though! No more than I for coming to the mountains, no more than you for finding shelter here.”

“If I was a better soldier I wouldn’t have to run and hide all the time,” Lightning said. “And I’d be able to help without getting you all in danger.”

“Enough, enough!” Polaris’ horn flashed, and Lightning stepped back a little. “This ceaseless self-pity is pointless. The situation was not preferable, the options you were presented with were not favorable, you might have made a single mistake and that’s being generous. Even if every ounce of blame fell squarely on your shoulders however, nothing you say will make yourself feel any better.”

Lightning held her heart with a hoof. “Feel better? Who cares anything about how I feel?”

“Oh please, Private! It’s been clear to me from the very beginning that your incessant need to help others and this whole saga of shame and belittlement you carry is nothing more than a matter of pride.”

“Pride?” Lightning stamped her hooves and flapped her wings. Energy crackled over her coat. “Pride? Polaris, I don’t think you of all ponies are allowed to talk to anybody about pride!”

“Perhaps it takes one to know one.” The two ponies got up in each other’s faces and stared each other down. The unicorn’s horn shone, and the pegasus’ wings surged with energy.

And then Echo stepped between them. “Please, both of you!” she said. “Arguing won’t help either. Let’s just wait for the elders to come to a decision, then we can go from there… calmly.”

The fire left Polaris’ eyes, and his magic ceased. “...Quite.”

The energy on Lightning’s coat dissipated. She lowered her gaze. “I’m sorry for yelling,” she mumbled.

“Fellows?” The headhorse called. Lightning and Polaris were instantly attentive, but the clamor from the crowd persisted.

Tall Tail brought a hoof to his mouth. “Eh-hem!”

That got their attention.

“We have determined that there is no cause for alarm,” the headhorse said, and instantly the crowd responded with incredulous shouting. “The dragon will surely move on in a matter of hours, if not days.”

“Have you gone deaf, old horse? That thing was crying for our blood!”

“It’ll swoop from the clouds and destroy everything as we sleep!”

“Hush now, hush!” Tall Tail called. “Your concerns are noted, but our faith in the magic protecting the valley is strong. Even if the creature is as dangerous as we fear, it still has the tunnels to pass, and even so we rest in the knowledge that nothing evil has ever entered the valley. We must remain hopeful.”

“Nothing evil has entered yet!” someone called from the crowd.

Timewinder cleared her throat. “The outsiders have offered valuable insight on the situation, and we have surmised there is nothing to fear at this moment, but just to be sure…” she glanced about the elders, who all nodded at her. “We will post a guard, one tonight, and one in the morning, in which they shall leave and check for the dragon. Wanderer willing, they will find nothing, and the festival will proceed as planned.”

“This emergency meeting is concluded. Tall Tail, we leave these outsiders in your hooves,” the headhorse said. “All preparations for the festival is complete, you are free to do as you will this night. Go in peace.” And the elders slowly dispersed and made back for the town square. Tall Tail returned to Echo and the twins.

“Father, what do we do if the dragon does enter the valley?” Smokey asked.

“It won’t come to that,” Tall Tail said.

“Are Lightning and Polaris in trouble?” Snowy asked. “Do they have to leave?”

“Oh, of course not. There’s really nothing to worry about.” All the other ponies had returned to the bonfire. Some had brought treats to roast, and some were already playing games, if only slightly quieter than they were before. The thunder ceased, and the clouds rolled by peacefully. “See? Everything is back to normal. Let’s just enjoy ourselves for now.” Tall Tail walked back to the bonfire and carefully seated himself in the grass.

“I thought for sure the elders were going to cancel the festival,” Smokey said.

“Has that ever happened before?” Lightning asked.

“No,” Smokey bit his lip as he looked to the far west, where the roaring had come from. “But we’ve never had a dragon come this close to the valley either.”

“Hm…” Polaris furrowed his brow.

“Smokey, Snowy!” Tall Tail called. “Have our outsider friends had smores before?”

“Smores?” Lightning asked. “Not in a long time.”

Tall Tail smiled. “Snowy, why don’t you show Lightning how to roast some treats over the fire.”

“Oh, okay!”

“I could actually use some sugar,” Lightning said. “All that flying and storm-touching is draining.” She kept walking, and then she noticed that Polaris wasn’t following.

“You go ahead, Private, I’m not hungry.” Polaris stepped back. “I’m going to go find my tent. I may end up pitching it nearby.”

Snowy brought Lightning two bags in her teeth. One was full of white, fluffy things, the other was chocolate pieces. Lightning tried a marshmallow, and it was much sweeter than anything she had ever tasted. It was made with honey. Smokey showed Lightning how to balance the pieces carefully on a large cookie, which was held over the fire by a set of tongs. He knew the exact time to pull it out before it started to burn, when the chocolate had just finished melting and the marshmallows gained a nice golden finish, and the dry cookie was soft and supple from the heat and moisture. It was delicious, of course.

The other ponies had brought their own treats, some were kept in tubs full of cool water to enjoy, while others were placed over the fire. Some placed dough inside round metal pans, put a lid over it, and set it in the coals of the fire. Once they pulled it out, they had a sweet yellow cake with a crispy, chewy bottom. One pony shared his cake with Tall Tail’s family and his guests.

Dusk had fallen, and the light of the bonfire created an orange circle that the ponies huddled around for warmth. Meadow got out his lute and played some songs. He attracted a small audience, mostly fillies. Echo talked at length about this or that, but her master was relatively quiet. The only time he spoke was to tell Snowy to be careful of the bonfire. She was practicing her skydancing, and she tried to fly too close to the fire for his tastes.

As the night wore on, and ponies started heading home, it seemed the panic had completely died down, and everybody was back to joking and laughing, but Lightning could barely bring herself to smile at anything.

She saw Polaris with his saddlebag stride by, and she ran up to him, but before she could say anything, a strange sound made both of their ears twitch. The other ponies kept talking and laughing, but Lightning and Polaris both heard the faint, distant sound of claws raking rock. They’d hear it for the remainder of the night.

Elsewhere…

Found the spark…

Found it…

Found it…

Rock…

Found it…

Found it…

Break rock…

Found it…

Found it…

Soon…

Head hurts so much…

Author's Note:

I think it's time to lay down some groundwork for our vision for this story.

Once this premiere storyline concludes, we'll proceed to post more 'episodes.' These will be mostly self-contained, but they will all advance the story. They will also be done on the cheap! They will be written to be posted as fast as possible. Details will be sparse, and we'll be relying on characters and dialogue to carry the story. This means ideally there would be less wait-time between chapters.

We have a question for our readers.

Should we continue to post episodes on this story, or should we post the new episodes on their own entry? The only reason we ask is because the difference in writing style and the massive opening chapters might feel obtuse to some. Then again, it's likely that any finale we have planned will return to the descriptive writing style of the premiere. It may be simpler to just stick to posting on this one, but any input you have would be appreciated!

Next chapter will be posted when it's done^TM.

Comments

[Bandit1990]

It'd probably be best to keep everything in one story. The big opening chapters may be daunting, but they do the majority of the heavy lifting for world building.

[Charedfirescale]

I didn’t think dragons in this world were sentient

[Martydi]

Well, a bit late, but I'm caught up with the story. And I gotta say, I'm really liking it. There's some very interesting worldbuilding involved, the characters are distinct and memorable, the dialogue is fun to read. I'm eagerly waiting for the next chapter.

Should we continue to post episodes on this story, or should we post the new episodes on their own entry?

If they are connected to the main story, I think it'd be best to post them here.