Title:           8: Courier, Trader, Emissary
Author:          fluffymalamute
Pastebin link:   http://pastebin.com/1hVwGBhG
First Edit:      Friday 13th of February 2015 01:31:01 PM CDT
Last Edit:       Last edit on: Saturday 11th of June 2016 05:02:28 PM CDT

Inside the floor was a paler stone, and herringbone patterns had been etched lightly into the entire surface. They had entered into the middle of a large single room whose curves mimicked the hallway they had left. The wall however would have to be two hooves thick solid stone. Grey was beginning to mistrust that this was all natural and merely carved out with pickaxes as he had first surmised, but didn't yet know what else to believe about the construction he was looking at. A gentle breeze brought cool air that nevertheless smelled of the desert above the city. No other rooms were immediately visible; both a couch and a bed were visible from the where they stood. So perhaps this was indeed a large studio apartment, which would put it at nearly triple the floor space of their apartment back home.
 
So, the way you figured surface area, he tried to remember the math from a pre-war history book, related to how a triangle had three sides, and a circle, like a wheel, had none at all. Eightyish hooves in the short way, from the door he'd just come in to the wall by the bed, and roughly oval except the back wall was more curved and the front wall was less curved ... call it eighty by a hundred forty hooves times three, except you divided by four to get a squashed wheel's area. Roughly ... eighty five hundred? Spacious by anypony's measure, although the resident seemed to prefer spartan furnishings, as most of it was empty space.
 
And a blue necklace. Stranger yet, it was being worn by a fairly skinny colt. He was laying on the floor near a low table in front of the couch, and working on some sort of puzzle. He had a dingy green mane that was wild and uncombed in the extreme, but a tail that was the most striking purple Grey had ever seen. In between was a coat of golden yellow sand. When he looked up the colt immediately stood up and offered a cautious smile to the newcomers.
 
"Nogg please clear table. I think we have new trader moving in, yes?" Said the middle aged griffon. As the colt shoved his puzzle into a wooden crate, Grey noticed the blank flank, lending a guess to his age.
 
"Should I get some sparkle cola or whiskey or are they not high enough rollers?" The colt suddenly blushed and looked at the newcomers and started apologizing "I'm sorry I didn't mean to arbitrarily pass judgement. It's just, you know that's stuff spendy. And you have wings."
 
This last, was aimed of course at Stormflight, who flicked his ears in acknowledgement at the colt. "My name's Stormflight, kid. Nice to meet ya. What's cheaper, then? Whiskey or water or century old Sparkle cola?"
 
The colt latched his blue eyes onto Stormy's ice blue eyes for several seconds. And then he flew through the air, low ceiling notwithstanding, to stand before the dashite and interrogate him.
 
”You're not a pet! I can tell by how you stand!” He stepped back a little, and looked back and forth quickly between the siblings. ”Where'd you get him? Why's he here, I thought pegasi were illegal?” Turning to the middle aged griffon, who still had not identified himself, the colt asked ”Where'd they come from? Don't mud ponies pull the wings off of pegasi?”
 
”Nuage Cadeau, I have just met them I do not know where they came from. Nothing is illegal, either. Only sometimes ponies shoot you, and yes pegasi get shot more than mud ponies.” Turning to his guests, the griffon apologized for the colt's enthusiasm. ”The great leader likes to make everypony uncomfortable. So he ordered a pet Enclave to steal a foal. It was successful, and this rugrat was the result. Pleased to meet Nogg, rare emissary of great leader pony.”
 
Pear walked up to the colt and offered a hug as greeting, and the colt returned the hug. ”So, my name, despite the cornflower blue coat, is Pear Rump. Our mother is, like, insane? Or at least some of the time so don't mind her if you meet her I guess but I'm Pear.”
 
”Yeah, I know about names.” He blushed, tracing random lines on the floor with a forehoof as he watched himself. ”My name's Nuage Cadeau, which is Fancy.” He looked up at Pear again. ”It means cloud's gift. Even though, I guess I found out about a year ago my parents didn't abandon me so much as Temnyy wanted me to know about this place first.”
 
”You should let them talk, Nogg. They come from another city.” The griffon motioned for them toward the table, which had a woven rug under it. The party all seated themselves on the floor, across from the griffon. Nuage practically in Stormflight's lap, which Grey was surprised to see didn't seem to bother the elder pegasus much. By all appearances the griffon guard had forgotten about his equine charge. As he shuffled his wings the long feathers of the underside trailing edge could be seen to be a deep red. ”Now you want to set up shop, yes? How often you will be coming back to sell again?”
 
It was Grey's turn to blush. ”I'm not sure at all, sir. This is my first trip and I just know that there's a wonderful opportunity for our cities to benefit from each other.”
 
”He's a history buff.” Pear interjected, seating herself opposite the griffon that was probably Redwing. Grey had briefly looked forward to hinted at refreshments, but there were none on the table, nor any signs of a contract to read over. ”He thinks we can recreate what we lost by joining with everybody else.”
 
”Right. Well,” Grey tried to reroute his train of thought. ”I want my people to come here and experience something this foreign, and I know that we can brew turpentine, so that will sell well. And water. Our water talisman is cracked almost to breaking but I bet we can spare a few bottles per trip of clean drinking water.”
 
The griffon's eyebrows shot straight up, and Nogg burst out laughing, his wings flapping in time. Grey noticed a deep blue on the underside of his feathers, to match his eyes, which Grey thought an interesting arrangement, all things considered. The colt stopped laughing long enough to say ”I've seen shrewd business ponies sell a bottle for twenty caps.”
 
”From the poor, to the poor. Gangers, those.” The griffon seemed upset at something the colt had seen. ”It is fourteen caps up top, if you can make it past second.” To the would-be traders, the griffon explained ”Our great leader, who has never seen fit to share his name, by the way, believes Nogg should spend part of each day playing with poor earth ponies in third level.”
 
”They can't help they were born to ex-raiders and thieves. They're just foals, like me.” whined Nogg. ”They cower from you because you make it clear you don't trust any of them.” he further whined as he got up to retrieve a water bottle and some cups.
 
”I do not trust them because they learned what it means to be pony, from almost raiders and almost thieves. Do not forgot how many of our criminals are from third.” The catbird responded without looking at the young pegasus, but rather staring at the wall behind Grey. He took a breath, and again speaking without looking at anypony, added ”You must know your uncle Temnyy does not send you down there to make friends. He sends you every day to learn, and comparing those foals to the caravanner's foals on second is valuable.”
 
Balancing cups on his wings, Nuage came back with a small jug of water in his teeth. As he was setting these things down, he pointed his nose at the griffon, keeping his eyes on the refreshments as he put on the table. ”Yes, Redwing. I understand that and I do compare them. That's why I still don't know why you don't trust them just because they're poor. Isn't that what all this is about? We're poor mudponies and Temnyy hopes to open regular discussions with the rich ponies above us?”
 
The griffon suddenly looked much older; saddened as he focused on the glasses of water being poured by their young host. ”Sky ponies toss mud ponies into the fire too. That there is no lava handy does not stop them from telling us all to go away.”
 
”Can I ask something, mister?” Stormflight hesitantly interrupted as the griffon retrieved some paper forms and an inkwell. ”What authority do guards have, here? I mean, is there a jail or brig, or can you only throw ponies to their death once they cross far enough over the invisible line?” While waiting for an answer he helped distribute the four cups with a bottle's water split between them.
 
The griffon considered the stallion's question, and gestured to him with his claws. ”When I was asked, many years ago, to help this town stay in order, I was given many authorities. Our great leader did not trust me with his name, but he had created a thriving town that demanded honor among citizens. Now, if you speak to him of it, and I will not say the town's name because it is a sore point with him, but he believes they devolved into chaos and fighting; the war all over again.
 
”Not so. They wanted to be a normal town, with normal thieves, and a normal jail. Great leader left them to their death, and several times a year I visit my cousin Shadow who lives there. Is doing well.
 
”As to this town, is same design. No jail ever, but I could stare, or cut thieves open, and yes I have killed many without so much as a trial because guards' eyes were trial enough. Oh!” The griffon used a single claw to indicate Stormflight's wings. ”Do not fly over river of fire when criminal is tossed in. Even up at first level the sudden updraft may push you out of sky. Narrow stream of hot air surrounded by still cold air, you understand.”
 
Stormflight nodded. Grey looked at his folded 'wings' and wondered. They didn't work by any variant of aerodynamics, so perhaps he just wouldn't be subject to things like updrafts. Then Grey had to focus again because the griffon had gone back to talking.
 
”But our great leader, and I ask those who are not marked emissary like Nuage, not to call him by name since it's not his name anyway but the name of a titled lord from Griffon mythology, he wanted greater confidence in fairness. Ponies need reason to leave desert behind; to live here in volcano. So, he spends all his time finding the most guilty, and executing them himself. Guards mostly just look busy, and big, and act as spies.” Redwing looked around his room, making a point to stare into any dark crevice or shadow but not, Grey noticed, at the ceiling. _So something pony sized. Can 'great leader' turn invisible, then?_
 
The door was slammed shut, and the red speckled gray mare whom the trader had this afternoon called Desert Rose, was standing inside, her necklace definitely red, and her eyes definitely pronouncing death. Currently they were pointed at the griffon, but the colt jumped up from his place on the floor and cautiously looked at the mare, taking a couple steps towards her.
 
”Nogg. I'm sorry for my appearance. How are you?” No inflection, but the eyes softened as they found the pegasus colt.
 
The colt's face lit up and he cantered joyfully into the mare's offered hug. ”Temnyy! There are out of towners talking about trading with us I want you to be nice to them. No hitting alright?” The colt whipped around and sat underneath the mare's chest, a foreleg wrapped around the mare's right front leg. ”Stormflight, Pear, uh ...” Grey said his name so he could continue with the introductions. ”Greyhorn, this is Temnyy Kogot Krasnykh Peryev”
 
The griffon stood up so he could bow, although he used only his neck and did not move his legs or back or wings to his 'great leader' but said, cryptically, ”Lovit i poyedayet malkov”
 
”Stealer of children, was that?” She asked the griffon, who had already straightened back up.
 
”Eater, actually, sir.”
 
To which the colt looked up at the mare and added ”Children of fish, actually. Something about the fire being made of water once?” At that Redwing burst out laughing, and the red roan mare looked askance at the colt, who shrugged. ”Anyway where did you put Desert Rose?”
 
At this the mare's face fell, and she gently hugged the colt. Walking slowly to the low table, she said ”Desert Rose decided ... well, I think she was told to decide this, but she seems to have decided that we don't need a former unicorn telling ponies what to do, and she apparently thought that the caterers would protect her. Or something, I'm actually not sure yet.” The mare seemed to blink back a tear, and had to look in a generic direction that was not at the colt to finish. ”Desert Rose is not with us, anymore.”
 
The colt's face fell, and he asked ”Is that why Broken Claw isn't here playing cards with uncle Redwing?”
 
”It may be, Nogg.” Since the senior griffon guard had left the furniture to stand in the more open section of the room, the others slowly followed him. ”I think he knows something. He's not at his own house either so I don't know where he is.” Looking up at the griffon now, she asked ”Do you? Have you seen anything, Redwing?”
 
The griffon shook his head. ”I have not seen him all my shift today, and he did not visit last night, but children at the stairs of third said he came to work today, so he is not far gone if he hides, or runs from you sir.”
 
The mare sighed, and stood before the trio of visitors. Her gaze fell on Stormflight Trees, and her eyes narrowed sharply. Thinking there could be serious trouble, Grey spat out the first thing that came to mind. ”He's my pet its okay.”
 
Stormflight, Grey suddenly realized, was sweating. He was very nervous about something and he was making a point to not look at Temnyy, who angrily said, eyes never wavering from Stormflight's face, ”Since I personally break every Enclave scum and make them pets to sell to my beloved mud ponies, I know for a fact that is not true.”
 
Nogg nervously jumped up and ran past, to stand against Stormflight's tail area, and almost shouted at Temnyy ”But look he doesn't have a cutie mark anymore! He's a blank flank and he travels with mud ponies; I bet he's one of those rainbow dash things where they help ponies look!”
 
Temnyy was shorter than Stormflight, but the stallion was still clearly intimidated as she took several steps closer. She wasn't wearing so much as a saddle bag, so no hidden weapons, but Grey knew earth ponies could be ferocious fighters in a hoof to hoof fight. Grey held his ground and watched, hoping this could be talked out. ”A dashite, miss." Stormy's voice didn't crack, but sounded close to it. And he still wasn't looking at her, instead standing at attention, sweating heavily.
 
”Do you know something about me, then, Enclave?” the roan mare approached as she spoke; her eyes bright but her voice a growl. ”Seventy years ago, there was a pegasus town about half a day's flight north by north east of here. Do you know why it's not there now?” She seated herself a scant four hooves away from Stormflight's face.
 
Stormflight was taller than the former council mare, and making an express point not to look at her. ”Yes ma'am.” He swallowed. ”Except the catbird calls you sir so I can do that, too if you'd like. The stories are kinda varied at this point but we believe a race of body snatchers, or changelings...something invaded.” At this, the roan mare snorted. ”We found the bodies of most of our outpost eventually, but they had fallen through the curtain to the ground, deceased by small arms fire -- and some sprinkling of ashes we think are the remains of the missing bodies.”
 
”Like they turned on each other, one pony at a time?” The mare asked, squinting.
 
Stormflight nodded, almost imperceptibly. ”There were some garbled reports we put together to that effect. It looked like the Enclave stationed there had gone mad and were shooting their own.”
 
”By garbled, you mean recordings on individual pipbucks were all that was left after the megaspell destroyed the town and its nasty curtain of shame.”
 
Stormflight swallowed hard, again. ”Yes ma'am. Sir. All the changelings died or left, but apparently eye contact allowed some sort of extended control.”
 
”There were no changelings there.” After this, the growl left her voice. ”But yes, either killing me or, if I chose, making eye contact with me would be enough for me to switch to another Enclave. I'm not proud anymore of that day, but I remember it. Sadly, as no Enclave backed down from their destruction of the ground, I am now the only one that remembers.” And still the roan mare sat, watching Stormflight for a reaction.
 
He looked cautiously down, around his nose to barely look at the earth pony. ”You were there? Personally? Either that's a real good disguise, or you're in good shape for seventy plus years old.”
 
She sighed, and looked down. ”Not a disguise. And I'm not seventy. More like a hundred and seventy, now.” She looked up to squint at the pegasus stallion. ”My work was supposed to be turned against the striped horde. But you, our own kind supposedly, made yourself the bigger threat.”
 
The colt was getting nervous, and was walking along Stormflight's side, balancing himself as he kept his back upright and slid around to the elder pegasus' front left shoulder. ”I said don't hit them, Temnyy. They've been nice to me. You wanted me to be an ambassador to the clouds, right? So here's the clouds, right here. Let me talk to him if you'd like but he hasn't done anything wrong so you can't punish him for being a pegasus anymore than you would punish Tough Cookie for coming from a raider family group.”
 
The rose gray mare looked back and forth a few times between Stormflight, and Nogg before sighing dejectedly, neck lowered taking a few steps back. She was not grinding her teeth, and her ears now were just at an irritated angle.
 
"Colt is right, sir. Sky rat has not looked in disgust at one thing in this place, nor spoken ill of pony ways for entire time I have seen him." the griffon said with a flourish of a wingtip pointed at Stormy.
 
Grey didn't feel he understood yet, nor needed to interject questions about, why the former council mare was being addressed in the masculine. In fact he'd assumed it had to do with her level of authority and was just a cultural difference between this odd hole in the ground village, and his walled above the ground village back home.
 
Pear however, had had enough. She walked behind and around Stormflight, and was approaching Desert Rose / Temnyy Kogot. Nogg tried to distract and dissuade the necklaced mare by calling her name pleadingly, but Pear interrupted that. "I won't listen to another word until you explain what nonsense possesses these insane locals. Why does the catbird"
 
At that, Temnyy's head whipped to the right to make eye contact with Pear, and they both froze for an instant. Then the mare the trader upstairs had called Desert Rose, made a choking sound. A look of genuine distress was painted on her face, and Pear Rump, using a very odd diction, pointed to the gray and red mare and said "Nogg can you unhook that please? Before she falls unconscious."
 
But Redwing was faster, leaping the body length between them to grasp rapidly, the clasp of the glowing necklace. By the time Nogg was halfway there, the necklace was free, and falling to the floor.
 
Pear, still pronouncing her words oddly, thanked Redwing and Nogg, then sat down and stared at the former council mare.
 
Desert Rose's eyes were flicking quickly from pony to pony, blinking rapidly and breathing in short, shallow breaths. Her ears dropped in defeat and tried to pin in fear as she raised her right fore and pointed at Grey's sister. But the roan mare's words died in her throat as she saw her own upraised hoof, and froze as if it were a monster about to eat her. Pear Rump raised an eyebrow, and nothing more.
 
Hoping he could get an answer without getting 'hit', he asked "What ... just happened?"
 
Redwing retreated to his spot before the lunge for the necklace, but was now rotated so he was more nearly facing his visitors, although he hadn't rotated all the way to face them. Looking at the roan mare, he said ”Am truly sorry miss. He is in bad mood today; please forgive.”
 
The change to the feminine was odd, but not as odd as what Grey's sister was doing. ”What *did* happen, miss? Normally I ask something lewd like, who's got the girl bits now ... except.” At this, the pale blue mare picked up a back leg, and wove it in a circle a few times, hoof just above the floor. ”I'll have to go elsewhere if I want to change *that*.”
 
”Pear?” Grey glanced at Nogg, who was looking at the ground, his ears unsure what position they wanted to settle on.
 
The gray mare who had just came in, managed a shaky ”I'm over here, Grey.”
 
Grey looked at the blue mare, whom he knew as Pear Rump, but she was smirking, and looking only at the former council mare. ”Nogg, is that what you meant by _hitting_?”
 
Nogg shook his head. ”No, Grey. That was a full transfer. Half transfers are when you fall asleep and wake up, sometimes in another pony's body, weeks later when Temnyy gets around to putting you back in charge. I've actually never seen what hitting looks like; just the effects. Like when foals would bully me Temnyy” at this, the colt pointed at his sister. ”would pick on them back, and they'd ... not do that to me again.”
 
Grey listened to the two mares carefully, and decided he could indeed hear the characteristic diction, despite the voice change, in the red and gray former council mare. It was a bit creepy not least of which that it happened, but particularly that it happened so fast, and with so little fanfare.
 
”You can full transfer me back, though, right?” Roan Pear said, tears forming. Blue mare Temnyy was looking back at Pear still but had a deeply contemplative, unfocused look on her face.
 
With a mixture of sadness and distractedness, Temnyy finally responded. ”Your arrival here puts me in mind of some of the political shifting that's been going on. I'm afraid this town is going to collapse.” At that, she looked back at Redwing, and looked like she was about to say something but instead looked around the room. At the couch, then at Grey, briefly at Stormflight with an involuntary pinning of her ears before looking down at Nuage Cadeau, where her gaze stayed a little longer.
 
”Sir?” Pear again, her voice shaking in fear. ”Since you can have any young pony from your town, can you give me back”
 
Temnyy looked up, like before, rapidly making eye contact, and then both mares jumped, just a very tiny amount.
 
Temnyy, back in the speckled gray body ”So you're saying I should keep my arthritis to myself, then?” The same smirk she had in Pear's body. Aimed at Pear but this time it looked like it belonged. Her head dropped again to Nogg, who had followed Temnyy's transfers without distress. Since the colt had only referred to this pony by name, never by title, Grey wasn't exactly sure what she was to him. Uncle? Schoolmaster? ”Nogg you're very special to this town. Proof that the sky rats can live down here. I hope someday you'll be a trader to the skies but that can't happen if you get caught in the middle of stuff going on down here. I want you to travel with these ponies to their home town and stay there. For a few weeks at least preferably until you hear stuff here is settled.”
 
Thanks for asking our opinion, great leader. Aloud, Grey said ”That won't necessarily work out, sir.” It felt weird using the masculine title to a mare, but now he understood their great leader probably spent more of his time as a stallion, and probably preferred the title for historical reasons.
 
Stormflight shuffled his wings and interjected ”If you think they'll let me in, they'll let him in. I'll just say he's my nephew or something if we need to do that.”
 
Pear looked like she was about to start crying. ”I was your foalsitter when you were that age.” _And all the younger ages too since Mom ... wasn't always entirely there._ Pear looked up at Grey ”We can leverage this for that trader's stall, right?”
 
Grey's eyes were scowling, he was pretty sure. ”What about in a few years, you know, when he starts looking at the mares?”
 
Pear actually hadn't considered that. ”Well we'll just ... I mean, he. If he lives with his Uncle Stormy. Because at least it's not I mean ...”
 
Temnyy raised her right foreleg straight up into the air. ”Question.”
 
While Grey was sighing just so he could shove his pride far enough aside he could answer the obvious question, Stormflight mumbled quickly ”Something about the stallions all missing so the mares have been ordered to pimp themselves to the remaining three.”
 
Nogg held his head at a quirky angle, and asked Grey ”So, that just means I can get an okay marefriend even if it turns out I'm awkward with the ladies, right?” Pear actually grimaced.
 
”Let's not worry about it. You won't be the only colt so maybe it'll play out just fine.” Next problem, how to we get back with a young and inexperienced to the wastes traveler?
 
”Next question, if I may.” Temnyy had put her hoof down but was still looking at Grey for answers to this odd side discussion. ”What event, and I don't mean to pry or judge, but how is it you have no stallions at all? How big is your village?”
 
Rinse, repeat. ”Alicorn monsters came and carried off every stallion they could find, plus a few unicorns. After the casualties were counted, we went overnight from two hundred strong to less than seventy. Two colts at that time, four have been born since but five of those have the same father so the other two working stallions have been asked to ... get around more.”
 
Temnyy's eyes darkened, and her eyebrows dropped low enough to almost occlude the pupils entirely. ”The Goddess. Of course.” She closed her eyes, and looked away. ”This is pretty far south. The hive mind would have difficulties staying connected. They probably won't be back.”
 
Redwing had heard enough to know where this was going. ”Nogg pack things. You travel to their village.” Then, his beak mostly facing Stormy since he was in the middle of the trio, ”I will expedite your application. But tonight I will put you up in rental spot at level three, and get you supplied in the morning. Sir?” He looked down at Temnyy's ears, which politely rotated back to listen to her guard's words. ”We have monies for sending them off? Or do I use pocket caps I am carrying?”
 
Temnyy pointed at Nogg, and said ”Use his foalsitting funds. I'd tell you who's carrying them but Desert Rose was the head of finances. I'm sure we'll find everything.” And with that, the trio was escorted out by the griffon.
 
Who handed us off to a unicorn guard wearing the same vest with blue stripes. ”If you see Broken Claw send him to me, yes? Late for card game and also great leader has been here and is gone.” The unicorn nodded curtly at the lie, and walked us to an especially narrow stairwell at 22.
 
On level three, at 350, was a wide door; possibly the widest Grey had seen yet. It was an amalgem of wood and metal, with a spring loaded hinge and no latch. Inside, a sign hung over the curved desk, saying 'Third & Out / cheap beds for ponies who got kicked out / or don't want to be seen on third'
 
The guard didn't have any caps himself, but his word was accepted. Also, the receptionist, an earth pony mare with a coat so dark yellow it looked brown in the pale artificial lights, responded to questions about Broken Claw with ”Haven't seen him in a few days. He's got a fling with that money mare I guess. The one with the roan coat? Always paid with caps too so there wouldn't be a paper trail but everypony knows Broken Claw's beak down here.” She also said, in response to seeing Stormflight ”Hey we need his owner to sign a pet release form.”
 
”I'm not actually a pet.” This recieved blinking stares of disbelief from both the unicorn & earth ponies. ”Hey, it's like your sign says,” Stormflight used a wingtip to point to the etched wood hanging over the receptionist. ”I got kicked out. So, now I'm here.”
 
”You got kicked out ...?” The receptionist, release form held in a fetlock still.
 
”Of the clouds.” Stormflight turned to show off his lack of a cutie mark. ”No brand but they were expecting me to die by nightfall so they just never bothered to come back with proper equipment.” The receptionist reluctantly put the release form back, and just got the guard to sign the governmental agreements form, which apparently stated the Great Leader of Pony had not expressly directed this rental and was not expected to visit these particular ponies during their stay.
 
”The guards can run up a tab but their commander can't?” Grey asked, thinking the question's implication were very odd.
 
”Our leader tends to strangle ponies when he's down here. Either the receptionist -- that's how I got promoted, actually -- or the ponies that stay here.” The guard added that revolutionaries were encouraged to stay at rental squares like this one because, when caught yes they were kicked out of the village after some torture like a broken leg or gouged out eye, but if they were caught in more clandestine places he tended to torture them until they agreed to jump, on their own, into the fire.
 
”Nice guy” was Pear's observation.
 
The guard shrugged. ”It's a nice town actually. I've lived in three so far. The laws as recommendations thing is weird but the system as a whole works out since we all have to mind our Ps and Qs to avoid sudden painful death.” And with that, he left and the receptionist handed Grey a key, with directions on how to get there.
 
The room had a power source, and a hotplate plugged into it. So while Pear heated up some of their pre-war foodstuffs, they tried to make sense of what they'd learned over the course of the day.
 
Pear, while stirring the mashed potatoes, ”Are you sure about doing business with a town whose overmare no one has seen? I mean, the guards and emissaries might know he can do that full transfer thing but I bet he hops around a lot. That's why ponies who just live here don't comment on it.”
 
”From the sounds of your home village,” Stormflight started, a nearly empty water bottle in his hoof. ”It's got some weird things too. Stuff that outsiders would not want to know too much about.”
 
Grey would have been happy to cook the dinner but Pear had already started, so he was looking his harness and wings over for signs of wear. Not that he knew what they'd look like, but he didn't want his wings to fall off mid flight either. ”I didn't get the sense Temnyy Kogot had much of an agenda. Aside from taking the Enclave down a notch, I mean.”
 
While Stormflight looked away at nothing in particular, Pear said ”He actually has an agenda with the Enclave but I think he's going about it all wrong.”
 
”Snatch all the foals and raise them as dashites, you mean?” Stormflight hadn't moved his head, but had managed to unclench his jaw long enough to comment indirectly on Nogg. Grey could just make out that he was mouthing the words ”Cloud's Gift.” but no sound came out, even when the pegasus' ears pinned flat against his neck and he repeated the phrase.
 
”That's the wrong part I was talking about. The right part is he wants trade relations. He sounds like he's okay with them living up there so long as the come down here once it a while.” Pear started doling out the potatoes into three equal piles. ”Hey Stormy if I wrote a letter would anypony be able to deliver it? Like, I want a pen-pal in the clouds.”
 
Stormflight's ears unpinned as he snorted in derision. ”Good luck with that. The ponies with wings aren't allowed back on pain of death, and the ponies without wings cain't deliver nothing. I suppose if a unicorn teleported the letter,” Here the buck hefted his water bottle to indicate Grey's horn with the bottle's lip. ”But since no one down here knows where to teleport it to, it'd just float back down through the clouds, unread and now soggy.”
 
Pear opened a can of alfalfa gravy and started adding it to the potatoes. ”Could you tell us where to send it? Since I mean, you'd know where their cities are.”
 
Violent headshaking, 'no' ”Not a chance, ma'am. That, they'd destroy whole cities down here to protect. Isolation and privacy is the primary reason the cloud curtain gets left up. See, they don't trust mud ponies not to megaspell them again so they do a lot to make sure nopony knows for sure where their cities are.”
 
Grey looked up from his inspections. ”Mud ponies megaspelled the pegasi? Before or after the war?”
 
Stormflight's ears sheepishly slid to the side as he swished the remaining water around his nearly empty bottle. ”Err, you know. During. Although I guess technically we should say it was the mud ...”
 
”...Zebra?” Grey finished for him. ”Does anybody up there know we mud ponies sorta got megaspelled by the same zebra?”
 
Stormflight was actually blushing as he waved his hoof around trying to misdirect the conversation, water sloshing violently within its container. ”Mud zebra / pony. The not wing-ed have, according to what the history books. Our history books say, at least you know the way it's taught and most of the voting citizens believe strongly even if the ground was safe to inhabit we have to make sure Cloudsdale doesn't, you know we don't have another Cloudsdale on our hooves.”
 
Grey was glaring at the pegasus, and also starting to understand Leader Temnyy's desire to steal foals from them. Although how he managed in the first place was still confusing as a used haypile.
 
Pear, handing the poor flustered buck a plate of food, asked ”So, I wonder, would you call a half pony half zebra a zony?”
 
Rolling his eyes as he levitated his own plate to him, Grey said ”You're assuming that an honest working stallion could have those kind of feelings for a female zebra, and further that she would have a foal for their efforts.”
 
Between mouthfuls, Stormflight added, his eyes never leaving his plate. ”It can happen. Zony is one of the nicer word” At which point he looked up, and saw Grey glaring, and Pear looking skeptically askance at him. ”Well, again our teachers. I guess we've never seen it but they say. Well what they say is that when the zebra rise again they'll, uh, their stallions will storm through and force themselves, you know, on our mares but the offspring won't have wings so the zebra will have to raise them and will sue the mares all the way to Neighvarro courts getting foal support payments from yeah I know what it sounds like that's, you know, sorta compressed from about six different sources but I'm moderately sure I'm not the only one who put it together like that.”
 
Grey, for one, was speechless. But Pear was not talking because she was busy laughing. She did finally manage to say ”So, you believe that a zebra's primary concern is that your cloud-based tax monies be used to raise foals they don't want because their educational system was nuked into the stone age?”
 
Stormflight buried his muzzle in the remains of the mashed potatoes, mumbling ”Not when you put it like that, miss.”