Agate's Vigil

by Wingnut

Twisting Paths

❅ ❆ ❅

One of the first things that Agate found out was that crystal deposits were not ubiquitous across the island. Once they all got up and got ready to go, her guides led her to the nearest entrance of one of the underground mines. Seeing as they were originally dug out for cold storage, the tunnels were connected to a bunch of pony's cellars, and they were very much still in use. After a bit of poking around, the group ran into some of the owners checking up on the state of their shelves, and they were happy to provide more details about the history of the place.

"Yes, when the spirit stones were discovered, a bunch of families started digging deeper to see if they could find some for themselves, but less than half actually found any. Many have wondered whether there could be more hiding just under the surface, especially lately, what with the other deposits running dry. Few are willing to just dig blindly, though. It's really hard work, which is disappointing if you don't actually have anything to show for it," A mare explained while checking a large clay pot for cracks.

"I could check, I think... Hay, that's exactly what I'm here for. I'd still like to see the places where the crystals actually were first, though," Agate replied, rubbing her chin thoughtfully.

Following some simple directions, they made their way down some twisty, narrow passages. It was pitch black, which Agate quickly solved by charging a crystal Harpoon had on a bangle she was wearing. The filly scanned the walls intently with her spirit sight as they climbed deeper, trying to see the familiar shapes of crystals in the orange glow. Not a single one presented itself, though, which made her worry a little. Surely there had to be at least one or two still in the walls that the snowponies had missed?

They passed a few bigger chambers, which likely held large deposits that got completely mined out, Agate still seeing nothing. Eventually, they made it to a dead end, the three mares sitting down near the entrance while she trotted around in a small circle, her muzzle scrunched furiously at her lack of success.

"Maybe there just aren't any left around here, Agate?" Seaweed asked after a few minutes.

"There should still be some, even a tiny shard that's too hard to see or too small for anyone to bother with, or something. I know I saw them when I was going through that mountain. Heck, I was able to see them through the snow while I was trotting around through the tundra. We had a big scavenging trip and everything because of it! Why can't I see them now?" Agate muttered angrily, squinting at the walls.

"Did you do anything differently the time you were able to see them through rock? Can you remember exactly what you did?" Wave Splash asked.

"I don't know, I didn't do it on purpose. I was just walking through some rocks in a collapsed section, and- Wait."

Freezing in place, Agate blinked a few times before trotting right up to a wall and shoving her head inside it. Everything instantly turned dead silent and dark. Snorting soundlessly, she blinked again. Slowly, familiar shapes began appearing in the darkness, making her smile.

"Okay. So that's how that works..."

Turning her head left and right, she examined her surroundings. This location really did look tapped out, but at least now she was able to tell it for certain. Only a few small glimmers greeted her sight in the immediate vicinity, though she was able to see something bigger deeper in the rock. Slowly stepping forward, step by step, she disappeared into the wall completely.

Which left three very confused mares in the mine.

"She's... Going to be alright... Right?" Wave Splash asked, scratching her head.

"Well, uh... Not like she needs to breathe, right?" Harpoon asked, still watching the spot where she last saw Agate's tail vanish.

"She's a sweet filly, but spirits are still weird," Seaweed added, the other two agreeing in low mutters.

❅ ❆ ❅

Moving through solid rock was strange. After stumbling a bit, Agate found that she was able to put her hooves down wherever she wanted to, which let her climb up or down with little effort, though it was a bit disorienting. She ended up standing sideways a few times, which made her head spin when she looked around. Periodically glancing back at the glowing forms of guides to get her bearings, she circled the mine shaft that they arrived through, scanning the rock the entire time.

She saw a few chunks of citrine here and there, but they didn't look like they were worth bothering with. There were some big deposits that she could see deeper in the earth, but she wasn't sure just how deep they were. Either way, they were likely unreachable, given that the snowponies were wary of digging too far and getting flooded. Agate wasn't able to hear the sea in this particular tunnel, but she certainly understood their reluctance.

"Guess we should go back up top and look for seams closer to the surface, now that I actually know how to find them."

"Hey," She said casually, reappearing from inside the walls.

"Gah! Don't do that!" Wave Splash shouted, jumping up in surprise and bumping her head into the low ceiling.

"Sorry," Agate apologized sheepishly, her ears folding in embarrassment.

Harpoon patted Wave Splash on the back as she quietly grumbled. Glancing at the pair, Seaweed stood up and stretched her legs, turning to Agate. "So, did you find anything?"

"Kind of? Nothing close by. At least I found out why I wasn't able to see the crystals before. Turns out, I need to stick my head into the ground. Or at least my eyes, probably. Anyway, let's go up and go through the places near the surface again. I should be able to tell whether there's anything that's easier to reach now."

Forming a line, the group climbed back up, Agate occasionally stopping to stick her head into a wall, or even walk into it fully to walk parallel to the mares as they ascended. She saw a few seams that she thought might be promising, but wasn't entirely sure, given that she didn't actually know what, precisely, constituted a large deposit to the snowpony miners.

As they began snooping around the cellars and tunnels closer to the surface again, they ran into a large, gray-coated stallion climbing upwards from one of the lower passages. He was actually carrying several baskets of rocks from below, in which a few glimmers of concealed crystals could be seen. Given that he was obviously a miner, Agate immediately took an interest in him.

"Name's Boulder," He introduced himself. "And I heard of you. Agate, aye? They say you can smell a spirit stone a league away."

"Not... Smell. Haven't smelled a thing since I died. And not really from that far, no. But if I look through the rock, I can see them, right in the walls. I haven't found much up here yet, but there's definitely a few deposits that you missed," The filly explained.

"Hrm. That's good. There's not many of us like me here, but we do enjoy being useful. Would be a shame if we had to quit," He drawled slowly, plodding along towards the exit.

"Not many like... You?"

"Miners," He grunted. Seeing Agate following him silently, he slowly elaborated. "It's hard work, up here in the north. I know the westerners have ways of digging through the rock. They light a fire, they say, and pour cold water on the stones right after, which makes them crack to pieces. But wood up here is a rare, precious resource. Sure, the sea keeps washing up bits of driftwood on the beaches, but it's a pittance compared to the huge forests they have access to. Tools are harder to get too, since the westerners are also the ones with access to metals. We trade for some, but all of that put together means there's few ponies interested in doing this kind of work. Though, some say that it's simply because there's few ponies like me, who feel more in touch with the stones than the snow. Who knows."

"I guess that explains how it took hundreds of years for you to mine out all the crystals. Compared to the amounts we mined or made back home, this mine seems really small," Agate mused, watching him empty his baskets and carefully chip away the stone clinging to the crystals.

"Crystals. I heard you using that word before."

"Sorry. It's a habit I'm not sure I can break."

" 'M not asking you to break it. Can you explain it? What's the difference between "crystal" and "spirit stone"?"

"Uh, well... Crystals aren't really stones. They are very similar, yes, but the way they're made, and the properties they have... Well, besides the crystal's magical properties, I'm not sure I have the right words to describe it. It's like, umm... Well, what's the difference between a tree and a bush? Is a bush a small tree? Are trees just tall bushes? They're very similar, but ponies call them differently. I'm not the one who came up with it, It's just what others explained to me," Agate shrugged, stumbling through her explanation.

He nodded, mulling on something, though he didn't say anything for a while. Hammering on a small chisel with a rock, he carefully separated a large citrine chunk, rubbing the dust off with a hoof and holding it up against the light. Satisfied with his examination, he slowly sounded out the word several times. "Cry-stal. Crys-tal. Crystal."

"You don't have to change your words for me, really," Agate said, rubbing the back of her neck awkwardly.

"It's nothing new. We run into all sorts of strange, unseen, never-before-named things up here in the north. Some of them end up having several names, until ponies settle down on one. Clearly, you know far more about crystals than any one of us does, you've shown us that much," He explained with a shrug, sorting through his loot before dumping out the useless rocks.

"Well, alright then..."

"Are you going to look for more deposits now? Can I come with you?"

"I guess?"

He nodded, standing up and glancing at her guides. Slowly raising an eyebrow, he appraised them, squinting a bit. "I don't recall seeing you three in the tunnels before..."

Seaweed shrugged, dusting herself off. "Well, every foal on Shear has fooled around in there at least once, but no, we're not really the miner types. I don't see how you do it, really. I'm half your size, and the tunnels feel cramped already. And I keep almost tripping over my legs."

"Why are all three of you with her, then? You don't even need more than one pony to show the way down there, or anywhere else around Shear, really. Not to mention, while there's ventilation, it's slow. Too many ponies breathing up all the air for no reason is inconvenient," Boulder drawled out slowly, hefting his baskets on his back.

"Well, we... The three of us were chosen because we're quick with our kayaks and we know the surrounding waters. Our main goal was to ferry her to other islands, and to watch each other's backs while we were there. For now, we're just... Waiting until she's done with Shear, I guess."

"Then you should go fish, I think. Get yourself some fresh catch of the new season. I'll take up the honorable duty of being her guide. It is more fitting, I think, given that I actually know more about the earth here than you do," He said solemnly.

"That's... Fair, I suppose," Seaweed concluded, glancing at her companions and receiving shrugs in response. "I suppose we'll see you in the evening in our house then, Agate?"

"I'll be there," The filly confirmed with a nod.

"Let us go find some crystals, then," Boulder nodded at her, moving back towards the mine entrance.

Agate followed along, glancing curiously at the stallion. He seemed to have an unhurried air about him, taking each step and each word he said slowly, without any rush or excitement. As she found a large deposit of crystals that was only a few hooflength's deep, though, she was forced to revise her assessment. He was not slow, not at all. He was precise in all his actions. Measured.

After tapping the wall a bunch of times with a hoof, he nodded in satisfaction, picking up a stray boulder nearby. He did have a pickaxe, one that Agate recognized as one from the haul that the expedition to Dream Valley brought back, but didn't seem inclined to use it at the moment. Hefting the boulder in his forelegs, he rammed it against the wall, pulverizing the rock into dozens of shards, debris flying everywhere while Agate stood there, slack-jawed.

"Whoa."

A ghost of a smile crossed his face. "Not bad, aye? Makes my forelegs and chest sting a bit, but it's actually faster than using a pick. Bit rough, though. Let's hope I didn't break any crystals."

Agate expected him to stay and keep going at the deposit that she showed him, but he shook his head. "No need. I just wanted to crack it open so that it would be visible. Come, let's find some more and mark them down. I'll figure out how to divide them among my friends later."

The deposits that were deeper in the rock required special measures, though. Agate could see and point them out, but her descriptions ended up sounding too vague for Boulder. It took a bit of head-scratching for them to figure out how to measure the distance and direction, but once they did, everything went very smoothly.

"Thirty-two steps," Agate said, emerging from a wall. "Slightly slanted downwards, roughly... This much?"

Nodding, Boulder took his chisel and began carving some snowpony runes and numbers into the spot that Agate emerged from, marking precisely where the crystal deposit was. The odd pair of huge stallion and tiny spirit filly stalked the tunnels for the rest of the day, meeting other ponies now and then. As Boulder explained to her, since there was little competition for miners, they were free to claim more or less any place they wished. Pretty much all inhabitants of Shear dug around and worked on expanding their underground homes and cellars when the weather turned foul and the furious northern storms wreaked havoc across the isle, but once they cleared up, the ponies went right back to fishing, foraging and other things, leaving the few dedicated miners alone again.

If any of the other inhabitants found crystals during their expansions, they'd usually call on the miners, letting them loose and not even asking any pay in return, save for maybe a few crystal shards. "We pretty much do all the work for them. They get more space, we get our fair reward. Afterwards, all they need to do is smooth down the floors and walls a bit, if that," Boulder explained with a shrug.

Once they were done prospecting, the pair climbed back out into the open, stars twinkling above them. Boulder removed a strip of cloth that he previously wrapped around his muzzle to stop the dust, taking a deep breath. Tapping his chin thoughtfully, he turned to Agate.

"Were you able to tell at all just how many crystals you saw in all those deposits? Enough to, hm... Fill up a room?"

"Let me think... The first one was fairly big, the second... Then that one... Hmm..." Agate trailed off, mentally tallying up her findings. A few minutes of thinking later, she shrugged. "Well, rooms are different sizes, so... The elder's meeting room - you've been there, right? Honestly, it's a very rough measurement, but I think you'd get a full room like that."

"Hmmm. Well, that's a few good year's worth of work, minimum. I'd say a decade or more, even. Some good trading could be done with such an amount. Still, it looks like this place is finally running dry," He surmised, his voice tinged with a touch of melancholy.

"There's the rest of the island, though, right? As long as the other deposits are not too deep..."

"Aye, that's also a possibility. For today, though, I think we're done. Go get some rest, and we can pick this up tomorrow morning, yes?"

"Sure. I'll see you tomorrow, Boulder. Good night."

"Good night, Agate."

❅ ❆ ❅

It took them four more days to survey most of the island. Boulder happily lent Agate his knowledge about the colors and textures of the stone that he most often found crystals in, which she helped confirm or deny by seeking out the deposits with her sight. She saw a whole lot of them deep below the surface, but that was useless knowledge to them. Fortunately, she did find a few sizeable seams in fairly shallow spots, including a large one in a cliffside on a beach. It was even already partially exposed, the waves having eroded the rock over many years.

"Funny how no one found this before, but this was a bit awkward to get to. Bit risky to dig down too, what with the sea right next to us... Maybe if we build a low wall of some kind over the entrance..." Boulder mused, appraising the location.

"It goes up as well as down, so there's lots you can get here safely," Agate reassured him, after diving into the cliff and double-checking to make sure.

"That is good, then. Still, you're not going to stop here, are you? You'll still explore other islands?"

"Yeah, that's the plan. Not sure how many I'm going to manage, or how long I'll keep going. No one really told me how much time I should spend on this or if I should stop at a certain date. Or after finding enough islands with crystals."

"The more the better, I suppose. Plenty of ponies and merchants that visited Shear said they wished there were more sources of crystals. There's lots of demand for their beauty, but the vast majority go to the shamares for their trinkets and enchantments, and regular ponies are averse to buying them for that reason. I'm certain ponies on the other islands would be very happy if you found more deposits there."

"Alright then. So, I guess... We're done here. It was nice working with you, Boulder."

"Likewise, Agate. I hope your search is successful, both this one and any future ones you might undertake. Be well, and thank you for all the wisdom you shared," The stallion said, giving her a respectful bow.

"I barely shared anything... *Ahem* You're welcome, Boulder. I should probably go to Silent Hoof now."

They parted ways, though Agate didn't rush straight back to the village. She spent most of her time with her head stuck in the ground looking for crystals, which meant that she barely even saw how the island actually looked. Deciding to take the scenic route, she climbed up on the cliff, following the shoreline below.

The island itself was indeed mostly bare rock or loose pebbles, though the locals were slowly transforming it. Using the broken rocks they'd pull out of the mines, they built many little pens with stone fences, dumping their refuse in them. It took quite a while for the stuff to actually rot away due to the brief summers and cold winds, but bit by bit, the nasty muck was turning into soil, albeit one that was still rather poor quality, apparently.

"Our tribe often asked the southerners to teach us how they manage to grow so much food. They gladly gave us advice, but too often, it wasn't really possible to carry out any of their instructions. For example, they said we needed to mix the compost with ashes, or the soil would end up being too "sour". I had no idea earth even had flavors, and we only get small amounts of ashes from the few times we actually have a fire going. Still, we throw in the bits that we get. Haven't really managed to grow anything yet, unless you count some grass stalks that popped up," Wave Splash explained to Agate one evening, after the filly spent a long day diving through rock.

Out in the distance, she could see the shapes of more boats approaching the shore. Apparently, the northerners didn't just go to their islands and stay there until winter came around again. Plenty of ponies kept moving both between the islands and the other tribes throughout the year, ferrying various goods back and forth. Among other things, the locals loved getting herbs from the western tribe to flavor their food with, and wood was such a valuable material that it was worth your time to haul it all the way across the sea.

For the local wares, seashells were a a curious commodity. Some were pretty and traded by themselves, but apparently they were the main ingredient in something called "stone glue". Upon asking, it turned out to be the mysterious, stone-like material that the houses in the island were reinforced with. Instead of magic, it was an alchemical concoction of some kind that needed lots of heat to produce, which made it both very scarce and highly valued in the north. The northerners traded the shells and other things with the westerners, bringing back small batches of the glue to improve and expand their homes.

Hearing a foalish shriek, Agate trotted closer to the cliff's edge. A group of foals with baskets were collecting shells on the beach, the few braver ones trying to outrun the waves and grab something from the water. The others looked on, laughing when they inevitably got splashed. After watching them for a few minutes, she began moving again.

Though the sense of wonder and disbelief Agate had at first was mostly gone, seeing sights like that still brought it back sometimes. Despite the inhospitable terrain - inhospitable everything, really - the snowponies managed to survive and thrive in the harsh conditions of the north, each tribe managing to figure out ways how to best live in their respective environments. It was one thing to hear stories about faraway places like Equestria, but seeing them yourself was something else.

She took her time wandering about, glancing at the sky now and then. Agate knew that Seaweed and the others more than likely were out fishing and collecting seaweed, so she didn't bother turning back towards the village until the Sun began to set. They told her that the other families promised them plenty of food for working with her, but they were still happy to top up their own reserves a little bit while Agate was busy.

Trotting towards the elder's home first, she walked through the door and went downwards, glancing around. The room was empty and the fireplace cold, with the last rays of sunlight shining through a few slim windows set into the top of the wall. Instead of glass, they used citrine crystals that they stuck together, which gave the light an orange tint.

"Hello? Anyone home?" Agate called out, unsure whether she should walk deeper into the house. Of all the things she missed from having a body, being able to knock took up a surprisingly high spot in the list.

It took her a couple more tries, but eventually, Silent Hoof showed up. Trotting into the room, he stopped briefly to stretch one hindleg, his joints popping. He didn't notice her at first, slight confusion on his face. Finally glancing down, he blinked, shaking his head and chuckling afterwards.

"Silly me. Apologies, Agate. Foals don't really visit me for business, and you slipped my mind for a moment there. Now then, let's see... How goes your hunt for the spirit stones?"

"Well enough, I think. I don't really know whether what I found was a lot or not, but Boulder said that it's more than likely enough for him to keep working until he's old and gray, and I've yet to explore any of the other islands."

"Good, good! Hmmmm, Boulder? Ah, yes, I remember. Reserved fellow. Very stony-faced, heh heh. So you talked to the miners already? Well, I still need to mark things down on my map. Claims and all, can't have them fighting over who claimed what first, and all that. Let's see... I think I left it back in the other room, or maybe..."

The old stallion rambled on happily, turning this way and that as he tried to remember where he left the map. Trotting back through the door, he returned with a large, rolled up scroll, followed by his daughter that told him to go to bed the previous time. She carried a small lamp of some kind, a tiny flame burning at the end of it. Together, they unrolled the scroll on the table, weighing the corners down with small stones. At a wave from Silent Hoof, Agate hopped up on a chair, examining the map.

Unlike the one painted on the wall, it only depicted Shear, in a fairly detailed manner. Picking up a stick of charcoal with his mouth, Silent Hoof turned to Agate. " 'O ahea' " he spoke, nodding to her.

"Okay, um... Give me a moment. There was this depression, right here... By the way, Boulder chiseled out some markings in the rock, so even if I'm a bit off, I'm sure you can find them. Anyway, there was a big deposit right there..."

They spent some time meticulously marking everything down, Silent Hoof making sure to both make the sigils legible and not to damage the map. The last of the sunlight disappeared quickly, but the lamp was just enough to see by. Once they were done, the elder examined the map intently one last time, eventually nodding with satisfaction.

"Well! Looks like that's one crisis that's averted, at least for quite some time. Someone other than me will have to figure out what to do next time, heh. Hm, let's see, what else was there, what else... Oh yes, of course. The other islands. Whenever you're ready, then," He nodded, turning towards Agate.

"Alright. I have no idea how long each one is going to take, so... I'll just come back here after every island to report, I guess?"

"Certainly! You could hop from island to island, I you prefer, but if you do find something, perhaps it'd be better to return, before you forget which island it even was. Well, perhaps your memory's sharper than mine... Either way, you know where to find me."

Nodding, she climbed down from the chair and moved closer to the map painted on the wall. She examined it in the faint lamplight while the elder and his daughter carefully rolled the map up again. Once they were finished, they all said their goodbyes, and the filly made her way back to Seaweed's place.

Agate was a little curious whether the three were sisters, but when she asked them about it, they laughed, shaking their heads. As it turned out, while they had rather similar skills and talents - all three were good at navigating the sea and fishing - they were from different families. The house was built by their kin for young ponies that were just starting to find their own paths, the mares banding together for a few years before moving on.

"It's a great way to get experience on how to live by yourself without your parents holding your hoof. We haven't found anyone to settle down with yet, but we're all a bit too big to live in our parent's houses. It feels good to have your own space, you know? You want your own room at first, but as you get older, even that ends up being stifling. Honestly, if I had to deal with my parents babying me one more day, I'd have gone to live outside in my tent," Harpoon snorted, cleaning and sharpening her weapon.

As Agate expected, the trio only returned from their fishing trip recently, enjoying some fresh catch for dinner. The mares greeted her with polite nods, their mouths too full to talk. The filly waited patiently until they finished, performing a few focusing exercises to pass the time. Once they were done eating and tossed the fish skeletons and other inedible bits in a bucket, they began inquiring about Agate's progress.

"So, how did it go? You told us that you had most of the island covered already yesterday," Seaweed asked, picking at her teeth with a large fishbone.

"I did, and I finished it today. Got it all squared away with the elder, and Boulder marked all of the deposits that I found. We can start travelling to other islands now."

"Sweet! Have you picked a destination yet?" Wave Splash asked enthusiastically, trying to wipe the grease off her muzzle.

"Honestly, I don't know. I think you should be the ones to do it. I have no idea which routes are the best to take, what the currents are, and all that other sea travel stuff. Just... Get me to the nearest island and when I'm done, we can hop from it to the next one, and keep going that way," Agate shrugged.

"Alright! Time to show our stuff!" All three mares grinned enthusiastically, immediately launching into a lively discussion about which way they should go, citing twisting currents, names of unfamiliar islands, spots to rest along the way, and other things Agate had no clue about. She half-heartedly listened in for a bit, but soon went back to her focusing exercises.

Eventually, they all went to sleep, agreeing to get up bright and early tomorrow.

❅ ❆ ❅

"Whoa!"

"Haha! Kayaks are way more fun than the umiak, right, Agate?"

"...Yeah, I guess so."

The three were gliding across the waves, Agate hugging the front of Seaweed's kayak. The small, agile boats were incredibly swift, but the tradeoff was the fact that they were only suitable for one or two ponies, and each one that the three mares owned was only built for one pony. Usually, Agate's mode of travel would be suicidal for both the passenger and the driver, but seeing that she didn't actually weigh anything, they all decided that she'd ride in front, like some kind of bizarre ornament or good luck charm.

Once they got up and geared up, the mares led Agate to the northern beach. It was the one place on the rocky island that had sand, some kind of current bringing the stuff in abundance to that spot, but passing the rest of the isle by. It also had seals, the fat creatures honking and jiggling about merrily as various other fisherponies were getting ready for their own trips. Some of them were talking to the seals, seemingly trying to convince them to come with.

"Sorry seal friends, no fishing with us for a while. We need to go on a journey," Wave Splash cooed, nuzzling one whiskery seal that replied with a wet snort.

Retrieving their kayaks from under a rocky overhang, they immediately departed for their destination. The first target was a place they called "Screeching Roost", named after the many birds that built their nests on the steep, rocky hills. With their increased speed, they made it there in record time, approaching the island with at least an hour's worth of daylight left.

This one was different than the islands that Agate saw before. Instead of sticking straight up out of the water, it seemed to be partially submerged. A long stretch of sand trailed right below the bottoms of the kayaks, the water no deeper than a pony was tall. The seafloor rose very gradually, and by the time they reached land, the mares were using the paddles to push against the sandy bottom, instead of paddling in the water.

Disembarking, Agate examined the shore critically while the mares dragged the kayaks higher up. She was fairly certain that sand could not contain crystals, but she could see the rocky hills that her guides mentioned previously. They were some distance away, but even from the beach, she could see the tiny dots of birds flocking around them.

"Judging by your expression, you're somewhat unimpressed," Harpoon noted.

"Well, I don't think that there's anything I can find in sand. It's loose all the way to the bottom, right? Guess I should go examine those hills, though. Might be something there."

"Need us to do anything?"

"Not really? You can rest a bit. You were paddling really hard there."

"Yeah, problem with that is, your forelegs get tired while your hindlegs get numb and ache for some exercise," The mare chuckled, shaking her head. "Come on, we'll trot with you for a while."

"Alright."

The group made their way deeper inland, glancing around. Even though the islands have been thoroughly explored and visited by multiple ponies in the past, the mares were far more alert, keeping their ears up and their weapons close by. Now that they weren't travelling in a large herd like they did before, they couldn't afford to be careless.

Low, hardy grass covered the sandy soil, tiny green shoots barely visible through the old and dried stalks. Spring was arriving to the north surprisingly quickly, given that the tundra was still covered in a deep layer of snow during their journey a week prior. It was as if the air was warmer around the islands, which couldn't be right, since ponies told her that the sea was cold.

Shrugging at the oddities of uncontrolled weather, Agate continued her trek through the dunes. It took them a little while to reach higher ground, by which time the Sun began to set. Fortunately for her, the amount of light didn't really affect her abilities. Getting close to one of the hills, she examined it, hearing various bird calls from higher up.

"Uh oh. I think those are gluttons up there," Seaweed remarked, watching a few of the birds in the sky.

"Guess we better back up," Harpoon chuckled, quickly turning around and trotting a short distance away.

"Huh? Gluttons?" Agate asked, turning back towards her guides.

"Yeah. Some also call them stinkers. They feed on dead things, mostly, which makes them smell... Quite unpleasant, let's say. We're usually fine with them - they even follow our fishing boats and eat the bits of fish we throw away, sometimes - but if you get close to their nests, they tend to get you to leave by vomiting all over you. And given what they eat... Well, ponies say the stink lasts for days, and if it gets in your eyes, you're going to have real problems. You'll be fine, but we're going to back up a little, alright?" Seaweed explained, slowly trotting backwards.

"Oh, sure. No problem. I'll just... Get to work, then," Agate nodded, focusing her sight.

Falling into a rhythm that was starting to become more and more familiar, she held her focus for a good minute with her eyes closed, opening them and immediately sticking her face into the stone. Turning in every direction, she scanned the depths of the hills, looking for the familiar glimmers of crystals. Failing to find any, she circled the hill, finding another spot and repeating the process, stepping halfway into the cliff this time.

"Nothing here..."

After she made sure nothing was there, Agate returned to her guides, shaking her head. "Nothing in this one. I'm going to trot around for a bit, examine the other locations. Since they all have bird's nests, you should go and make camp. I'll be done in... A couple hours, I think."

"Sure thing. We're going to set up a bit closer to the beach, perhaps behind that one big dune that we saw. Don't overwork yourself," Seaweed nodded, getting up and leading the others away.

"I'll be fine," Agate reassured the mare, turning back towards the hills.

❅ ❆ ❅

In the end, Agate wasn't able to find any crystal deposits on that island. They moved on to the next one, and the next one after that, and so on. Agate saw squat islands, tall islands, sandy islands, rocky islands, flat islands, curvy islands, elongated islands, big ones, small ones, and just plain odd ones. Some only took a day to examine, while others needed more time to comb through.

A good portion of them were either inhabited, or used as resting spots and fishing grounds by various families. They were always happy to see the group, treating Agate and her guides with respect and warmth. Usually, the travelers would have had to come back to Shear and resupply due to the very low cargo capacity of the kayaks, but the islanders were more than happy to host and feed them, which allowed them to continue their travels without having to backtrack.

For Agate, the novelty of sea travel and the different islands slowly wore off, though it was still fairly interesting. True to what Seaweed and the others said during the first journey by sea, though, the strangest and most fascinating things were the bizarre creatures that sometimes surfaced from the depths.

"What in the world is that? Some kind of weird seaweed?" Agate squinted, seeing something colorful bobbing in the water.

"Hm? Maybe we can fish it out, we could use a sna- Oh! Hahah! No, Agate, that is definitely not seaweed," Seaweed laughed, following Agate's gaze towards the spot she was looking at.

"Then what...? It's so... Slimy looking, and splayed out all over the place with those, those.."

"Tentacles, Agate. That, little filly, is a jellyfish. What do you think?"

All three mares looked at Agate, trying to hold in their laughter as the filly scrunched her muzzle at the incomprehensible creature. She kept trying to find something that would mark it as an animal - eyes, nose, mouth - but kept coming up empty. At the same time, it didn't look like any plant that she ever saw. Giving up after a few minutes, she shook her head.

"That's a fish?"

"Of a sort, heh!"

"I'll... Take your word for it."

Laughing, the mares paddled away, leaving the fish made of jelly behind.

❅ ❆ ❅

"Oh, hello there, friend! How are you doing?" Wave Splash asked, smiling at a seal that suddenly surfaced near her kayak.

The seal snorted, wrestling with a tangle of red limbs that wrapped itself tightly around most of it's body, flexing it's neck back and forth and trying to bite at the mass of tentacles.

"Is that another jellyfish?" Agate asked.

"No, that's an octopus," Harpoon said, unconsciously running her hoof along the shaft of her weapon as she watched the two creatures wrestle.

"Should we... Help the seal?"

"Probably not. They eat octopi all the time. This one just grew a bit too large, apparently, but I think he'll manage."

They all watched the watery wrestling match with bated breath for several minutes. The seal didn't look particularly concerned, though, so Harpoon didn't intervene. It took the animal a whole lot of tries, but after a bunch of wiggling and rolling, diving and resurfacing, it finally managed to get a good grip on the octopus's main body with it's teeth, chomping on it fiercely and pulling it off itself.

The water got muddled with some kind of inky black substance, but they could still see the mass of tentacles twitch a bit before it stopped moving altogether. The seal dropped it from it's mouth, examining it critically before chewing off a tentacle and slurping it up.

"Aww, just look at you, you successful hunter, you!" Wave Splash cooed, reaching for the seal before pulling back as her kayak wobbled.

The other mares giggled as the seal blinked curiously. Grabbing the rest of the octopus, it swam closer to Wave Splash, looking at her with those big black eyes, wiggling it's whiskers a bit.

"Are you offering it to me? Aww, you sweetie, you really don't have to. Come on, eat up, you need to bulk up after winter," She waved it off, smiling at the seal.

The seal snorted, shaking it's head and splashing in the water a bit. Dropping the octopus again, it chewed on it half-heartedly, it's demeanor somewhat unenthusiastic.

"I think that's too big to eat in one go, even for a seal," Harpoon remarked.

"Well... It's terrible to waste food..."

Reaching in with the shaft of her weapon, Wave Splash retrieved the tentacled mess from the water, carefully setting it down across her kayak, with half the tentacles on one side and half on the other. The seal snorted and honked, swimming off into the distance.

"Thank you, friend!"

For the rest of the trip, Agate couldn't keep her eyes of the sucker-covered tentacles swaying about, making it appear as if the creature was still alive. Sea animals were weird.

❅ ❆ ❅

Not all meetings with the dwellers of the deep were benign, though. They didn't encounter any leviathans, fortunately, but something still tried to make a meal out of them. At a nondescript patch of water between two islands, they caught the attention of one of the many northern predators that sought to make ponies its prey.

"Harpoon, I think there's an eel in the water," Seaweed spoke quickly, her voice tense.

The mare reacted instantly, dropping her paddle and pulling her weapon off her back. Agate didn't know what an eel was, but the mares clearly had a strategy planned out for such an encounter. Seaweed began splashing the water loudly with her paddle, while Wave Splash also reached for a harpoon, making sure not to let her paddle fall into the water. Looking down, the filly tried to see the creature that was chasing them.

It was really hard to tell whether there was actually anything down there, the water black and murky. When she focused her spirit sight, though, she could see an undulating, serpent-like form circling them, steadily approaching Seaweed's kayak. After two more circles, it darted in so fast, Agate could barely even comprehend what happened.

A slimy-looking head and a maw full of huge teeth burst out of the water, chomping on the paddle and biting half of it clear off. The eel was entirely black, which camouflaged it very well in the water. When it burst out, though, Wave Splash and Harpoon had a clear shot. They quickly threw their weapons, skewering the eel from two sides.

It made no sound, though it thrashed fiercely, making Seaweed's kayak rock as she quickly paddled away with half her paddle missing. The harpoons had ropes attached to them, which the mares tried to pull back in, but the beast was too fierce. Wave Splash was forced to let go of hers lest she capsized, while Harpoon managed to yank her own out, ripping a chunk of meat from its neck.

The wounds were fatal, and its twitching kept getting slower and slower, the fish sinking back into the depths. The mares weren't inclined to stay around and finish it off or try to fish it out, though, swiftly going back to paddling with extra speed from the adrenaline rush. At Agate's questioning look, Seaweed shook her head.

"They are known to sometimes attack in swarms, and the blood in the water might attract bigger predators. We'd best make ourselves scarce, especially seeing that we're down a harpoon and I'm slower with just half a paddle."

"It all happened so fast. Are they a big danger in the sea? I don't recall hearing any stories about them..." Agate mused, scanning the water for more of the slithery forms.

"They're not... Very dangerous, as long as you have someone to watch your back. They rarely attack ponies, and when they do, it's pretty easy to bait them out like we did. They probably think we're some helpless animal splashing in the water, so they don't try very hard to be stealthy, which helps us a lot. If they were a little more careful, well, they'd be a bigger danger," The mare explained.

"As for the stories, far from every animal gets them. Just the really... Big and flashy ones, I guess. Or magical ones. There's lots of fairly regular creatures in the north that don't really get covered in epic legends and those kinds of retellings. The eel... Eh. Relatively dangerous, but not something you can turn into a proper, dramatic story by the fireside. As you said yourself, it happened very fast," Harpoon added.

Agate nodded, still keeping a lookout. Nothing else bothered them during the journey.

❅ ❆ ❅

"Well, well! Very impressive, very impressive indeed. Quite the journey. Ah, reminds me of my youth, back when I was spry and energetic... Anyway, let's see... This one, that one, and the one after that..." Silent Hoof muttered, dipping a brush into a pot of paint.

The group of prospectors were back in Shear, sitting in the elder's map room. They spent a month and a half travelling from island to island, having managed to examine a good thirty islands during that time. While Agate's guides were tired, they were entirely willing to keep ferrying her around all the way up to winter, if need be. After a couple days to rest and maintain their equipment, of course.

The elder was adding either tiny X's or symbols of crystals to the islands that they pointed out. The search was not very fruitful, though not a complete failure, either. Shear was not the only place with crystal deposits after all, Agate having discovered accessible deposits in three more islands. While the stallion was busy, they scanned the map, trying to choose their next destination.

"We could go south..." Wave Splash muttered.

"There's a few more islands to the west, though, even if they're smaller," Harpoon pointed out.

Neither one of them had any strong feelings which way they should go, lazily pointing out various options. Silent Hoof, however, frowned, examining the modified map. "Now this looks interesting..."

"What is it, elder?" Agate asked.

"Well. If you look here... Shear. Then, Seal's Flipper. After that, Winged Isle, and finally, Mossy Rock. Shear, and the three islands that you managed to find crystals on, all form a line," He explained, tapping the wall.

That made them all focus, the mares sitting up straighter. Seaweed squinted, following the elder's hoof. "Hmm, so it does. Which stands to reason that, if we were to follow it, we would have better odds than choosing at random. And it goes... North-northwest, towards... Oh. Hrm. That's..."

Agate tilted her head, wondering what the mare's reaction meant. Her lips were pursed tight, and the others weren't looking very enthusiastic, either. Looking at the part of the map the chain of islands led to, she saw markings that didn't really make sense to her. A good part was white instead of the gray or sandy colors used to mark islands, and there was a number of jagged spikes drawn sticking out of the sea.

"What is that place?" She asked the silent ponies.

"It's called the Twisting Spires," Silent Hoof began, after clearing his throat. "It's an odd location. There is an island there, surrounded by lots of jagged rocks sticking out of the water. Which isn't strange in and of itself - what makes it unusual is the very strong currents surrounding it, which suck in anything floating in the water, including the vast majority of the ice floes that drift in from the north, which then get trapped between the spires. The island ends up being encased in a shell of ice of sorts, which lasts for most of the year."

"Yeah, the place blocked the way for quite a while for our ancestors. You need to swing around it in a wide arc if you want to go further north, and while the island itself is not completely inaccessible, you can only really approach it from the south when all the ice melts, which sometimes takes all the way up to autumn. You see, after the big ice floes drift in from the north, they slowly break apart as they melt, and the sea on the southern side gets covered in hundreds of pieces of ice, all of them grinding and smashing against each other as the currents drag them back and forth. Trying to enter those waters in a boat is suicide," Wave Splash elaborated, glaring at the map with her hooves crossed.

"Okay, so... We've been at this for, umm... Two months now? I guess there's no way to get to it safely for some time, then?" Agate inquired.

"Not quite, youngling. Even when it's covered in ice, you can get to it from the north relatively easily... If you have the stomach for it, of course, heh heh. The solid ice sheets on the north side get pushed all the way against the shore, and a pony can just hop on and gallop all the way to the island, if they find a suitable spot to disembark. Obviously, they need to either drag their kayak up on the ice with them, or have a partner waiting for them when they come back to ferry them home. It's a challenge, but nothing insurmountable, heh. Ahh, good times," Silent Hoof chuckled, reminiscing about something.

Agate glanced at her companions. The mares didn't look particularly enthusiastic, but she could recognize the glint in their eyes that most northerners seemed to get whenever they heard the word "challenge". The three glanced between each other for a few minutes, before Harpoon spoke up.

"I haven't been that far north yet, you know. Seems like a good opportunity."

"Mmmm, well... I'm not one to back down from a challenge..." Seaweed continued.

"If our mission points us there, then I think we're obliged to go," Wave Splash opined.

They all turned to Agate in a creepily synchronized fashion. Blinking in surprise, she folded her ears. "Uh..."

"The final say is yours, of course," Seaweed nodded at the filly.

"Well, I mean... Not like anything bad can happen to me, but I don't want you to put yourselves in danger for no reason. So, if it's really not dangerous..."

"Life's a danger," Silent Hoof shrugged. "But no, as long as you do everything right, everything is going to be fine. With how cold all that ice makes the air around the island, there aren't even any predators living there. It's quite barren."

"I guess we can go, then?"

The mares grinned. Wave Splash hopped off from her chair, trotting closer to the map. "Alright! Now, we can swing around from either direction, but there's almost no islands on the eastern side, and sleeping in a kayak is precarious, to say the least. We should island-hop through here, starting with..."

She started listing various names, plotting a route along both familiar and unfamiliar islands. The others chimed in with suggestions now and then, listing pros and cons. Agate sat back and let them go at it, seeing as they were the experts. Names of islands drifted in and out of her ears, until the final one made her perk up.

"...And then, we can get a few day's rest and some advice at Fanged Shore before going for the Spires."

"Fanged Shore?"

"Yes? Is there something about that island, Agate? It's the biggest settled one around there, and we could use the rest," Wave Splash asked curiously.

"Nothing wrong, just a familiar name that I remembered from a conversation. Some... Friends of mine live there."

"Well then, that sounds great! I don't think either one of us actually know any of the locals there. Why didn't you say you had friends before, by the way? We could have swung by to visit them. Meeting only during the Gathering is a bit limiting."

"Um, well, this is an important mission, right? Ponies said so, at least. And it's not like they're close by... Right?"

"Hmm, well... Let's see, this distance, that island there, that passage..." The mare trailed off, looking at the map and doing calculations in her head. A few minutes later, she nodded. "I suppose you're right. The trip could take us anywhere from a week to ten days, I'd say. Or more, if there's a storm. Either way, it doesn't matter, because we are going there now."

"Guess we know our next destination. Come on, then, we have some equipment to patch up and replace," Seaweed nodded, getting up from her seat.

Saying their goodbyes, they left the elder's home, preparing once more to hit the (metaphorical) road.

❅ ❆ ❅

After some proper rest, food, and maintenance, the group was speeding across the water once again. Turning west at first, they traveled through some islands that they already examined before reaching new ones. Agate still checked them for crystal deposits, but each one turned up empty, which only made them more curious to find out whether the elder's hunch was right.

Meanwhile, the three mares, while youthful and energetic, also had a bit of youthful overconfidence. Even without bad weather slowing them down, the trip still took eleven days. The unfamiliar waters confused them, or so they claimed, though it was obvious that the sheer distance was an impediment as well.

Regardless, they made it to Fanged Shore in one piece, if a bit worn out. Stone spires surrounded the island, both in the water and on the shore as well, which was clearly where the name came from. They didn't look very sharp, eroded by the waves as they were, but the sight was still impressive.

Groaning, Seaweed dragged her kayak up on the beach in a tiny bay, rubbing her sore legs. "Well, that hurt."

"We'll get stronger for it," Harpoon replied, grunting as she pulled her own kayak up.

"Wish we could just skip to that part," Wave Splash snorted with a wry smile.

Agate looked around curiously, trying to find a trail or a path of some kind. While the island was clearly inhabited, snowponies never really bothered with paths, northerners doubly so, not even spending the time to put up a guidestone like the southerners did in the tundra. Fortunately for them, it was usually easy to find the settlements, even on the bigger islands.

"Ugh... Mind if we catch our breath a bit, Agate?" Seaweed sighed, flopping down on the sand.

"It's fine, take your time. I'll go to try and find which way the village is. Be right back," She nodded, trotting off.

The search didn't take long. All she needed to do was find a relatively high spot, and look around. Even with how rarely the northerners lit fires, she could see a few trails of smoke in the distance, which she followed with her eyes to find their source. The village on this island looked rather impressive even from a distance, potentially being bigger than the one on Shear.

"Found it," She announced, coming back to her companions.

"Well, might as well get a move on," Seaweed grumbled, grabbing her gear and slowly climbing up from the beach.

In some of the less-populated islands, visitors would warrant the heads of the families coming out to greet them personally and inviting them into their homes. The inhabitants of Fanged Shore were clearly too numerous for that, though they still gave the group curious looks as they passed by. Then again, it might have been due to the fact that Agate was accompanying them.

"Alright, Agate, I'm guessing that you don't actually know where to find this Glacier Glider mare?" Seaweed asked, shaking some sand from her coat.

"Not really," The filly shrugged. "Not like I've been here before."

"Time to ask, then."

It took asking five different ponies, but eventually, they were directed to a sturdy-looking home, built next to a large mossy boulder. It was partially dug into the ground in the traditional northerner style, though the local soil at least looked easier to get through than Shear's solid rock.

Standing before the door, Seaweed turned her head towards Agate. "So, would you like to knock and introduce us to your friends?"

"I can't knock," Agate said with a small, awkward smile, demonstrating by partially passing her hoof through the wood.

"Oh... Right. Silly me," Seaweed blinked, turning back towards the door and rapping her hoof on it several times.

There was some faint shuffling from deeper inside, which slowly resolved itself into the sound of unhurried hoofsteps. A stallion opened the door, Agate recognizing him as Glacier's husband. He looked Seaweed up and down with a raised eyebrow, his expression mildly curious.

"Well now, it's a big village that we have here, but I know I haven't seen you around before. What brings you travelers to my home?"

Unconsciously straightening out her back, Seaweed cleared her throat. "A mission from the chieftain himself, though it is not tied to you. The reason we came to your abode specifically is our spirit guide," She explained, stepping aside and pointing to Agate.

"Hello, elder," Agate spoke, nodding towards the stallion. She didn't think she even talked to him properly before, but she was certain that he would remember her.

Both of his eyebrows went up in surprise at seeing the spirit. It took him a minute to recognize the filly, which only made him more surprised. "Well now, this is unexpected, to say the least. I remember hearing of your mission, Agate, but you're quite some ways away from Shear. What made you take such a drastic detour?"

"It's a long story, but we think that there's a good chance of finding crystals in the Twisting Spires isle. Since we have to approach it from the north, we had to come here, and it'd have been very rude if I didn't visit you while I was here," Agate summarized.

"True, true. And this is where you'll be staying, obviously, we'd bring unspeakable shame on our family otherwise. I'm certainly not leaving a daughter in the cold, even if it's no longer a danger to her. That includes your companions, obviously. We open our doors and tend our hearths for you, guests of far away. Will you partake in our warmth?" He waved a foreleg inside, reciting the traditional phrase.

"Thank you, we are grateful for your hospitality," Seaweed nodded, her expression a little confused. Lowering her voice to a whisper, she bent down towards Agate as their host turned around and went inside. "Daughter?"

However, he heard her anyway. "My wife adopted her, in a way. Not that she moved in with us, but family is family, no matter how distant."

"Oh. I see..."

The group of travelers followed him inside, entering a large room that was clearly used for food preparation. Pots of salt lined the shelves, with lots of knives and chopping boards hanging off the walls. Drying fish and stalks of seaweed hung from the ceiling, while Glacier Glider was gutting and cleaning fresh catch from a large basket.

"Who was it?" She asked, keeping her gaze locked on the fish.

"You'll never guess who the wendigo dragged in," He chuckled.

"Hmm? What, did my cousin drop by? It's really not like him- Oh. Well now," She said, looking at the visitors with slight disbelief.

"Hello, Glacier," Agate waved.

"Agate! You cheeky ghost, what are you-" She shouted, standing up and raising her forelegs as if to hug the filly, but changed her mind after remembering that she was covered in blood and bits of fish guts. "Heh, sorry. Got some fish to deal with, first."

"No worries."

Her shout alerted the other inhabitants, and moments later, the Flurry twins were firing off questions aimed at Agate, one of them managing to jump on Harpoon's back and startling the mare. After telling the naughty filly to apologize, the family sat their tired guests down, demanding to know the full story of what brought them there.

"Alright," Agate began talking while Glacier kept cleaning fish, having roped in her twins to help. "We examined around thirty islands, and while looking at the map, Shear's village elder noticed something..."

Comments

[Wingnut]

Another chapter is out, in which Agate travels further north yet, learns more about the northern tribe, and watches a seal fight an octopus.

[Spacemarine64]

Ay, good times, for a new chapter of the only story that is good and updates somewhat regularly. I can't wait to see what twisting spires brings.

[StarzGecko]

What a chapter. So much interesting stuff she has done and saw in the North Sea, which I can’t wait for her to maybe fall off into the ocean for a new adventure later on. It’s interesting the path is leading to a certain island that is said to be closed off… I wonder what’s going to be over there?

Agent companions are all sweet mares. Hopefully they’ll fish out a guy for them someday

It’s nice seeing Glacer. I wonder if Agent would stay with her more if she didn’t have much to do?

Can’t wait for more this is definitely a great chapter.

[TheDoctorRet]

Happy to see Agate meet again with Glacier and het family back!

[hehelover]

Been meddling with my heavily modded Skyrim for quite a bit recently and the way Agate walked in rocks reminded me of the effects of toggling off player collision in that game. Maybe Agate could also try stepping in the air. Probably too powerful of a skill, but should be fun nonetheless.

Well, what's the difference between a tree and a bush? Is a bush a small tree? Are trees just tall bushes?

There’s one thing I’m sure though: bamboos are just tall grasses.

[BirdsBooksBrownies]

A few minor typos in this chapter, mostly of the missed or swapped letters variety.

An unusually straight line of gem-touched islands...mysterious.

[Wingnut]

11499495
K, I'll have a look tomorrow to fix stuff.

[new55]

That was a good chapter.

[DerpieDoo]

What a beautifully written story, I know it's good by how deeply immersed I got, really felt like I was there. The flip side is it's now insanely late and as much as I want to keep reading, I'll have to return tomorrow.

Thank you very much for such a fine tale, and I love the artwork too!

[Wingnut]

11500963
That's good to hear, since I was worried about immersion. A side effect of writing a story yourself seems to be the inability to immerse yourself into it, at least for me. Probably since you have to constantly analyze the technical side of it, whether you're forgetting something, if something you wrote just now might contradict what you wrote previously or create plot holes, etc.

[DerpieDoo]

11501437
You are doing a really good job, I can't recall seeing any of the common jarring breaks like random flipping between first and third party, oddball grammar, spelling mistakes or incorrectly chosen words. The pacing feels spot on and all the characters, Agate especially, feel believable. Please keep up the good work!

[TheAbsoluteRadiance]

Agate's journey is going well I see. But yeah, The crystals forming a straight line is quite weird geologically.

[Wingnut]

11502314
Who knows? They live in a magical world, where rocks can be grown on rock farms.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ley_line