Time to Shine

by Easysnuggler

13. Wind Rain and Cat Birds

“It is also said that the alicorns of the Sun and Moon were the oldest beings on Equis. The wise don’t count the draconoqui or the nightmares and other extra-Equis beings as they are not from our world, and time is strange for calculating the lives of creatures who came from outside of Equis.”

—Pena “On the Origins of Ponies*_{(*and Others)} and Magic”

13. Wind, Rain and Cat Birds

In the morning Rizi woke alone, in a back room of the restaurant tucked neatly into a bed that was much too big for her. Her things all lay beside it. She did not remember falling asleep. There was a big purple feather with a light grey convex side lying atop a piece of paper.

Rizi, goodbye for now. I can’t stay. Sphinx must eat after naps, and I was out for a good long sleep. I hope to see you soon Rizi. Please visit me if you are near my hometown. I’ll try and write a better spell or maybe I’ll learn Poni.

Your friend,
Horsemarket the Sphinx

When she had finished reading the letter, she folded it neatly and put it in her pack at the bottom where it would be safe. She weaved the feather through her little brown cap carefully with her claws and thought it looked very dashing. Horsemarket had left fruit and apple juice on the counter in front. There was no lock for any of the doors and so Rizi just left them as they were. After a light breakfast, she washed, filed, and sharpened her claws, horns, and spines, and filled her canteen from the well out back.

She sat to meditate and find her inner dragon. After just a moment an insubstantial small blue Dragon Lord appeared. She seemed annoyed. “What? You know I do have other things I have to do? You’re not the only creature I have to watch.”

Rizi was a bit startled. “How is blue Dragon Lord here now? I was calling for my inner dragon.”

“And here I am. What do you want?” The blue dragon tapped her foot impatiently.

“Nothing specific, we’re supposed to meditate daily.” Rizi was very confused.

The two regarded each other. The blue broke the silence. “Well, wait till you have something to ask, I’ve got other things to do ‘kay?” The blue faded away as Rizi opened her eyes. Had she been daydreaming or imagining things? She rubbed her scaly eyelids and brow ridges and wiped from her snout to her backwards pointing ivory head horns with her claws, trying to wake up. That had been …weird.

She went on her way. There was no sign of the Sphinx. But then she hadn’t expected one. Her pack felt a bit tight, so she loosened it slightly and walked towards the growing cloud cover.

Small, ruined buildings began to dot the road here and there for stretches on both sides. Long abandoned houses and other structures mainly. She investigated one at lunchtime, but besides some blue and yellow flash bees and a small flyder she found nothing of interest. They did make for a nice change from fruit though.

The bees objected to being a snack and Rizi had to retreat well before she was full.

Slightly singed she continued walking westward.

The terrain was becoming marshy and boggy now with pools and narrow fens on both sides. She could see cragadyles and other creatures in the marshes off to the sides of the road. She waited for a medium sized specimen to clear across her path before she could continue. She could smell the ocean now, or that is what she assumed it was, salty with a hunt of decaying vegetation. The road began to become harder and harder to navigate, as the stones had shifted and sunk.

Rizi found herself scrambling up one stone and down another and hopping from block to block. But the ruined sections were infrequent, and she made good time besides. It was a few hours after lunch when she found a carcass beside the remains of a cold campfire. It had been a large creature, a pig or something. It had been gutted, cleaned, and cooked. The head was missing. There was a broken arrow with a wicked metal head in the fire. All that was left were bones. But all around the campfire were the claw marks of large birds and cats. More than one, but how many she could not tell.

Rizi thought back to Horsemarket. She had lion paws. The rear paws made by these were much smaller but still very similar. Griffons probably, she thought. She’d never seen a griffon of course, but there were pictures. They looked a bit scary, but Horsemarket’s mother or father had been one. Horsemarket was hardly scary at all. Ok a little bit scary, but who wouldn't be if they were as big and strong as her?

From then on, she kept an eye to the sky, glancing up at the clouds, but apart from eagles hunting very high up among the growing cloud banks she saw nothing. The temperature was dropping, and the wind picked up.

Two hours later the sound of waves greeted her. She passed a low set of sand dunes that had completely covered the road and there it lay, the celestial sea, stretched out from this shore to an indiscernible blue horizon. The wind was now blowing stiffly and chilling her. The sun was no longer warm, barely warming as it reached through the gathering clouds a final time. Night would be coming soon and all she saw was wreckage and ruins. There were rusting hulks of boats, smashed and broken oars, rope and other debris. Wrecked buildings and piles of rusting cables, wires and rocks, and broken concrete lay in the way. The distant beach, such as it was, was sand mixed with rocks and rusting metal pieces jutting out into the water. Smashed and rotten piers jutted out of the sea. There was certainly no sign of a ferry or other boat. The temperature continued to drop. Rizi warmed by food and her exertion could see her own breath. Struggling among the debris to get a look around, she slipped and skidded over sliding stones, getting wet, then wetter, cold, then colder, and miserable. Her cloak was soaked and clung to her back and her bedding was wet too, probably. But she continued, trying to reach the edge of the shore, to find some way to keep going. She couldn’t see her breath anymore.

The air was frigid, and the wind blew through her wet clothes over her body, further cooling her. Dizzy now and a bit delirious from the cold, she splashed through shallow pools and slowly clambered over barnacles, shells, and driftwood debris down to the water.

She had never been so cold. Not even playing in the snow as a hatchling. At least then she could hop in a hot mud pool or stand over a steam vent or next to a dragon. Here there was nothing. She began to shiver uncontrollably. A freezing light drizzle began to fall again. The clouds had closed the entire sky. Night arrived as she finally stepped to the edge of the softly crashing surf. A steady cold rain began to fall.

The sea was empty, bleak, and hopelessly vast. She shivered. Cold tears ran down her cheeks.

“Ok, hold it right there you. Don’t move lizard fish. I've got you covered.” A voice said from, from where? From high above her.

She turned her head up to face the voice, but still saw nothing. She took off the goggles she had forgotten she was wearing and could make out a warm dark shape leaning over what looked like a cloud not far above her.

“I said don’t move. I’ve got a quiver full of arrows with your name on them and I'm a good shot. I won’t miss this close.”

Rizi tried to stay still. But it was so very cold, and she was shaking and shivering uncontrollably.

“Rizi sorry mister voice, Rizi is shivering.” She shuddered “and cold.” She hardly noticed the breaking of more mirrored glass from inside her head now.

“Well of course you are, idiot. Its misses voice, thank you very much. That water is like thirty or forty degrees. Come away from there, back the way you came.”

“Can move?”

“Yes, go on, no not that way, go around to your left. Your other left. That’s it. Keep your claws where I can see them. Now walk up that concrete bit there and you can walk all the way back, it's mostly level.” The voice was walking above her in what was now almost total darkness. Rizi could just barely make out a warm red and tan shape flitting from cloud to cloud against the dark sky.

“Ok, now keep walking, bear a little to your right, you’re going to walk right up that sand dune, then turn left down that little gully there. Don’t try anything. I have excellent vision.”

She must, thought Rizi, other than the heat of her outline against the clouds now, I can’t see anything.

“Ok. There's a rotten little wooden walkway to your right, go over it. There's a building, it's buried in the sand there, but there are some metal stairs from the walkway leading down. Walk down there.”

“Why down?” asked Rizi. She was so cold; she knew she wouldn't be able to walk back up.

“It's dry, and my things are down there. I need to decide what to do with… whatever you are. As cold as you are, I think you’d better do as I say. This storm is about to break and when it does, we do NOT want to be outside in it.”

Rizi saw little choice and climbed down the stairs. A warm orange hot, bundled shape landed behind her at the top of the stairs wrapped in heavy cloth. She glanced back. The dark outline of a six limbed body glowed with heat through the dark. A cold bow and arrow were visible against the warm body and the warm orange body in turn against the cold dark sky.

Rizi reached the bottom.

“Ok. Take off that pigsticker and put it down over there. Slowly. Ok now the rest of your things, just take them off and put them down.” She was cooperating. Slowly. She couldn’t move fast. As cold as she was, she didn’t think she could run or defend herself at all. She felt foolish for being taken off guard and letting herself get so weak from the cold. Her numb fingers made taking off her pack and belts difficult.

Rizi was still shivering but here out of the wind it was better, or at least not getting worse. Soon divested of her possessions, she stood by the pile near the far wall of the small room. The figure still hadn't moved from the stairs.

“Scorcher sent Rizi on quest to Canterlot.”

The voice said “Never heard of her. Can you make a fire?” The voice was female probably now that they were out of the wind.

“Scorcher is a drake, need flint, ok?” She gestured at the vest containing her tinderbox.

“Okay. There’s a small fireplace ahead of you and to the left.” The voice shifted something at the top of the stairs, a tarp or covering overhead, the rain began to patter on it.

Rizi took her tinderbox and walked towards the stone hearth slowly and painfully. A fire pile with nice small tinder and shavings had been set already. She tried and tried to light a fire, but it wouldn’t take. Her fingers were too numb and shaking and she couldn’t make the motions with her claws and blow fast enough. She began to cry again.

“Stop that. Stop that. I’ll do it. Look, go and sit down over there.”, the figure motioned to the side, a single hot orange taloned claw visible brightly in her vision in the near total darkness.

She did as she was bid, not moving when the figure sat down, her notched bow laid aside. The creature picked up something long and sharp near the wall, held it close and sat down by the chimney. Glancing at Rizi who had not moved at all, it took up the flint, deftly striking it and getting the sparks to take in just two quick strikes and two short breaths. The outline of the head of a creature that looked like an orange bird was briefly visible in the darkness.

In a few minutes the creature had a good fire going.

“Hey you, now, tend that.”

Rizi did so gladly, the fire burning brightly in front of her. The fireplace and chimney threw warmth and light into the room, ruining Rizi’s dark vision and drowning the room in shadows and light but warming her up. She almost crawled into the fireplace, her cold blood and near frozen body slowly heating as flames licked the wood.

“Is that better, lizard?”

Rizi nodded.

“Well hang up those wet things on those pegs. That bedroll and cloak are soaked. Wring them out and hang them. It's like you’ve never camped in the rain.”

“Never, no”. Rizi said quietly. She imagined shards of glass falling through moonlit darkness.

“Well, you can’t let your things get wet like that. You’ll get hypothermia in the wet, wind and water like that. Your body will just shut down and that's it, no more griffon. No more Rizi either whatever that is. What are you anyway? Are you a dragon hatchling? You don’t look fat and dumpy enough. There are supposed to be dragons around here somewhere.”

“Rizi kobold, kobold like dragons long ago.” she said sadly, turning her head slowly. Now she could see the head of the griffon. It was brown, orange, and yellow she saw now that there was light. Its eyes were metallic silver, more metallic than Scorchers were and round. It had a wicked looking beak and sharp looking talons. It was far larger than a kobold. “And voice is griffon, kitty-bird.”

The griffon made a noise like a chicken baw-hawking in what Rizi thought was laughter. “Gwen, you can just call me Gwen.”

“Oh, nice, is short name like Rizi.” Rizi was finally warming up back to normal temperatures for a kobold. “Kobold nicknames short four, five, six letters.”

“It's not really Gwen, I just go by that. It's really Gwendolyn, but I hate that name. It sounds like a pony princess name.” She was easily three times Rizi’s size. Muscles bunched under her clothes.

“Gwen is a pretty nickname, like Rizi.” Rizi said, trying to seem friendly and harmless.

“If you say so.”

“Yes, true.” Rizi blinked at the sparkling silvered glass dust in moonlight she saw in her mind's eye for a moment. “Real name Green, Cute and Prizing Quiet.”

Gwendolyn laughed at that. “Ha, ho, Green yes. You are aggressively green. As for Cute, maybe to other kobolds, maybe so, maybe to me too, but Prizing Quiet? Oh no, not on that beach! I found you by following the clatter and crash.”

“Gwen griffon not seeing Rizi at best. First time at seashore, holes, slips, falls.”

“Yea the footing out there is tricky.” The griffon continued to size her up. “You don’t seem very dangerous. How about we decide to trust each other a little? Maybe trade a little information? I'm out here looking for other griffons.”

“How come?” Rizi blinked. She saw or imagined more glass dust falling through moonbeams again, just out of sight. The wind was picking up outside and the rain was falling harder.

“King Gerald is expanding the borders. We need new hunting grounds. The griffon lands are all hunted out. So, the king sent a dozen heavily equipped armed and experienced griffon foragers south last season across the Stampede Stream. They split at the south side of the crossing. Half went east and half went west. They were supposed to hug the coast and search for fish and food and come back. But the ones that went west never did. My younger brother Gerrard was with them.”

Rizi nodded to show she understood. “Rizi not see any griffon cat birds.” Hunting could be dangerous. Sometimes bad things happen to a hunting party.

“Ok. Well, that sucks. You came here from the east? Down that big road?”

“Yes, Rizi follows the road from Dragonholme.” The griffon seemed very well armed to be just a hunter. “Hunting hard, Rizi hunt, can be dangerous.”

“That way?” Gwendolyn pointed back west. Rizi nodded.

“Gwen hunts with armor, bow, and sword?”

“Ha, well yes. Not exactly hunting. Well, honestly, I’m a scout, not a hunter. A corporal-knight, part of the griffon military, see this badge?” She turned and showed some two upward pointing chevron stripes sewn to her outer garment.

“I volunteered to find the other griffons when they didn’t come back, only now, everything’s turned strange.” The large cat bird frowned.

“Suddenly my wings are working better than they ever have. I mean I was an okay flier before, but now I’m seriously good. And I can do new stuff. Like that standing on clouds crap I did to follow you. No griffon can do that. It's like I’m super-griffon.”

“It is the magic, it has returned.”

“What do you mean?”

“Scorch asked Rizi to go to Canterlot” Rizi looked at the griffon. Her silver eyes looked at her orange ones intently. “Scorch became Dragon Lord and magic returned.”

“What, like his becoming this Dragon Lord or whatever caused it? And what's a Dragon Lord? Is that like the king of the kobolds? Shouldn’t it be kobold-lord?”

“No, and no, Scorcher is big dragon. Dragon Lord leader of kobolds and dragons. Kobolds and dragons are like friends forever?”

“Like allies? Like they help each other and fight together?”

“Guess so. Fight slingtails, salamanders, rocs, and cave eels.”

“I don't know what most of those are, but a roc, like the gigantic birds that eat elephants? How could little guys like you help with something like that?”

Rizi, full of pride, smiled and nodded. “Try to eat baby dragon, kobolds distract.” Rizi said with pride. “Sometimes kobold get eaten, but never dragon.” Rizi noticed Gwen had stopped pointing the sharp spear in her direction.

“Wow, so like a mutual defense pact? Griffons have those with each other. Aeries banded together against outside threats. They say ancient Griffonstone started like that. We used to just trade for bits, but that stopped a long time back. Manticores bugbears, rocs, and hydras raided us again and again even high up on mountain tops. Eventually all the griffons banded together and took our lands back. It took a long time and was a lot of hard work. We won peace, but that brought its own problems.” Gwen took off her outer rain slicker and hung it on the fire.

Gwendolyn became animated during her explanation and began pacing the room a bit. “Our numbers have grown, and the land is worn out and can’t fill us, so we look to expand, so now I'm searching for lost hunters.” She put her bow in the corner now and turned to face the fire again.

“I found some camps before they made the turn south. I found one fresh cairn with a single stake, with the name Gustav. Plenty of fish and food along the route but even with one dead, that's still five missing griffons. So far, I've only seen empty camps and you.

“And sorry about earlier. I thought you might be trouble for me, not be in trouble yourself.” She flapped her wings, fluffing out her brown feathers. “All this empty land is getting to me. I haven’t seen another speaking critter for nearly two moons. But it’s clear you have your own problems and aren’t looking to give any. No offense.”

“No offense taken Gwen, Rizi accepts apology. It's okay. Rizi was in trouble, no?” Rizi began to relax. It seemed this griffon creature was friendly or at least not hostile.

“Yes. Thanks. I found nothing dangerous or even interesting until I reached the big road here. You?” She looked at Rizi, who was warming her claws and turning her cloak over.

“Um, just a big hungry bug. Tried to eat Rizi, killed it.” Rizi could feel something funny going on. Like cleaning the edges of a picture frame, dusting something off with a breath. Her eyesight was tinted blue for just a moment. Rizi shook her head.

Gwen started to speak. “I did have one close call. A few days back, I saw something enormous, a big purple monster way up in the sky flying east. I hid, but it either didn't see me or ignored me.”

“Look like griffon, but with pony head?”

“Yes, I think so?” Gwen was setting out a bedroll near the fire. She set down the spear. Rizi relaxed.

“Horsemarket, big Sphinx, friendly. Not a monster, just lonely.” Rizi turned her steaming bedding over and upside down. Her cloak was already nearly dry.

“You know that thing? I was so scared. I thought I was going to be dinner for sure. It was flying so fast and turning so quickly. It was hunting eagles.”

“If polite, Horsemarket safe. She likes games and riddles too much. Not safe to play riddles with. Stakes much too high, life and death. Winners learn interesting things. Losers become her dinner.”

The griffon gawked at her in shock. “And your friends with that?”

Rizi grinned and nodded.

“She was so big. Her talons were the size of my legs. I’d be terrified.”

“Some dragons are much bigger.” Her vision tinted blue again and she got the impression of dust being blown off and moonlight streaming through an open window and of a dragoness being very pleased with herself.

The griffin looked at her strangely. “Are you feeling ok, that's twice now your eyes have gone well, I don't know, a bit blue. At first, I thought it was a trick of the light. It was like you had a whole different set of eyes.”

“Rizi not alone in head, Rizi thinks.” She heard a dragoness chuckling. Rizi set out her now drier bedding on the floor and stretched out in front of the fire.

“Wow, that's a weird problem I'm glad I don't have.”

“It's okay. Rizi is working for two Dragon Lords. Scorch and tiny blue inner dream dragon.” She heard grumbling, and her head suddenly felt clearer.

“Tiny, I thought dragons were big, and aren't Dragon Lords the biggest?”

“Dragon Lord is best dragon. Most dragons much bigger than Rizi, yes? Little ghost blue one not so much. Scorch would fill this entire room.”

“No way.”

“Others are much bigger still. Scorch is my size to Smolder.”

“I can’t even picture that”.

“It is a lot to take in. May I please ask a question?”

“Sure.” Gwyn laid out her bedroll.

“Did you hunt along the road?”

“No, why?”

“Rizi saw a campfire. Bones of animals only. Griffon tracks and an arrow. Like that black one over there.” She pointed to the arrows next to the bow against the wall.

“Rizi, this is important, how many griffon tracks?”

“Could be three, maybe more.”

“Will you show me in the morning?”

“I will take you Gwendolyn.”

“Gwen please. Just go to sleep. I’ll stay awake and spell you to watch at dawn. I only need a few hours anyway in the morning.”

“Gwendolyn makes it seven.”

“Seven?”

Rizi nodded. “Kobold bound to seven words. Blue fix. Now syllables are okay. Or words. Letters.” The little kobold warm once more nodded and fell asleep.

—

Ember’s avatar Rizi was sleeping. For the first time in a thousand years, Ember herself dreamed.

Blue moonlight shown through velvet curtains in the high windows of the topmost room in the Tower of Unity. All the doorways were dark. A tall and nervous purple alicorn with a cracked horn paced back-and-forth. A fire appeared and burst over her head and a tiny scroll fell to be caught in a shaky purple aura. Opening it quickly, Twilight Sparkle scanned the hastily written lines. It was what she expected, good news, not the best news but good enough. “Ember! The deep strike expedition was successful. The door to the Nexus is shut, sealed, locked, barricaded, and barred. Nothing will be going or coming from there again.”

“Well, that’s a relief.” Ember heard herself say.

The small blue dragon was Ember. Ember was watching herself from outside. She was watching herself read a dragon fire scroll. She heard herself continue to speak.

“I just heard the same, through Smolder. The dragon distraction did the job. The rest made it back safe and sound. How long until they get here?”

“I don’t know, I’ve been monitoring things. Any contact from Celestia and Luna?”

‘Oh, I’m dreaming.’ Ember thought. ‘This is my dream. It's been a while.’

There was commotion. Reports. Screaming… tragedy. Ember thought ‘This was from the last time I saw the moon. So very long ago now. I miss Luna. I hope she'd be proud of the job I’ve been doing.’

“No. I’m pretty sure they’ve moved on. I can’t feel them anymore, not even a little.”

“Oh, I’m sorry Twilight…” dream ember, real ember, memory ember said.

By Ember’s command the dream slowed to a crawl and stopped. Summer Breeze, Skyla, and her twins and… Cadance. Ember thought ‘I don’t have time for this.’

“Rizi, Rizi wake up.”

“She can’t hear you.” A pale mare with a candy-colored blue and pink mane spoke. The cat pupils of her light blue eyes streamed purple smoke. A counterfeit Flurry Heart.

“Nightmare.”

“You think you can move your little pawns without me noticing?”

“They moved themselves. I’ve done nothing. You on the other claw have been laying traps.”

The nightmare’s body began to lose all color, turning a ghostly blue, white. It said “I like this memory. You keep returning here. It's like a chipped tooth or a splinter in your mind. You just can’t leave it alone.” The false alicorn turned her head to look and the memory resumed.

For a moment Twilight just stood there with her eyes closed. Finally, she said quietly. “Cadance knew the risks. The rest volunteered.” She looked at the bat pony Dust. “Summer Breeze?” Dust shook her head.

“Shiny will never forgive himself. I don’t know what Flurry will do. She was completely against this.”

“Enough nightmare. You've taken enough. Your time is over.”

“Once again, I’ve only just begun. The sphinx was a bad tool, ill-suited for the job. But little orphan alicorn Flurry? I’ll snuff out her fire and freeze her heart to ice. Ice Heart will have a free hoof. Can I get her to open Tartarus before I possess her? I bet I can. Some of the Nexus Legions are kicking around down there, I can feel it. With the right light touches I might not need to possess her at all. I might even take a crack at Starscout.”

The tower tinted a bright yellow green. A small kobold voice asked, “Dream Dragon Lord, where is Rizi now?”

The nightmare was suddenly gone. Rizi stood behind the Blue Dragoness in the tower of Unity when hope had crashed down to near defeat.

She turned and looked at the Kobold. “Nowhere Rizi. This is just a bad dream, and it isn’t even yours. This is… a memory of a place that held hope once. But it's all gone now. It doesn’t matter.”

“I’m dreaming of great tower. They called it Twilight’s Folly.”

“Perhaps it was Rizi. It was a beautiful dream. But it's time to wake up now.”

Author's Note:

Horsemarket wrote herself. Just saying.