Amethyst Harbour was a big city, so obviously we didn’t have time to see it all in one day. That being said, Annika wanted to try to show us some of the major landmarks before lunchtime. She didn’t have a hover-jet, or even one of the old-fashioned ground vehicles, for obvious reasons, so we mostly had to rely on public transportation. Luckily, the transit system in Amethyst Harbour was state-of-the-art and could be easily used to get anywhere in the city quickly.

Not only were there three underground mag-lev train routes with stops all around the city, but also large capacity passenger hover-jets that ran regular aerial routes with landing pads citywide. You could catch either at one of the scheduled stops or at Central Station, which was in the large commercial zone in the middle of the city. Annika told us that we would probably end up heading there for lunch since Superior Centre Mall was close by and one of the best places in the city to go shopping.

It was strange being out of the Fairy Ward, and the hospital in general. Poppy seemed to feel the same and we were both constantly alert to any potential dangers like stray dogs and cats that might think we were tasty. My sister seemed similarly tense and watchful at first, but she had been in the hospital for the longest of the three of us and was only now starting to come to terms with being Altered after months of hiding from it and the world at large.

I think part of our nervousness was from being in such a large and unusual city that we were unfamiliar with. We were all too used to the safety of the hospital and not used to interacting with many people aside from one another and the doctors and nurses. It wasn’t just dealing with strangers though, it was dealing with the public in general as visibly Altered people for the first time, in a place where our safety couldn’t be assured.

Sure, Annika tried to reassure us that Altered have all the same rights and protections under the law as regular humans in Amethyst Harbour, but it was still kind of scary with how Altered get treated in some places and how people like my uncle and grandparents talked about them. Even the Centaur woman had to admit that while the city we were in was pretty safe and Altered-friendly, the rest of the world was… less hospitable to us to varying degrees. And that didn’t even include the inherent dangers of being Sprite-sized. I guess that we had some tradeoffs for being so small and fragile though, we had our elemental magic, we could fly, and we could hide in most places that larger creatures couldn’t if the need arose.

Our first stop was Memorial Park, which was just across the street from the main gates to Vanguard University’s campus. Both the park and the university campus were located on a large portion of the very first Incursion Zone, which had essentially been the entire original town of Amethyst Harbor. The whole town had been leveled in the unexpected, otherworldly attack and most of the residents were either killed or captured. Less than a hundred people survived, mostly families living on the outskirts who had time to get away or hide.

From what Annika told us, one of those residents who would become one of the first Altered, was Commander-general Kline. When Altered began to prove their worth and capability to fight effectively against the Titans and were released from captivity and from being studied as lab rats, he represented the Altered in negotiations with the UN to form what would later become the Vanguard. He had insisted that their headquarters and a sanctuary for Altered be built on the site of his former hometown, the site of the first Incursion.

From there, Amethyst Harbour expanded as Altered, their families, and those who wanted to study the growing fields of magic and the Altered themselves flocked to the area. It expanded even further over the decade after the University was finally opened in 2030 to give Altered an education and recruit and train new members for the Vanguard. Now, the city boasted over a hundred thousand people and almost rivaled nearby Thunder Bay in size. Close to half of that population were Altered, and represented most of the world’s current Altered population, at least of those Altered who had started as humans.

As Annika told us the history of the city that she had learned since coming to Amethyst Harbour, she and Lyra led us through the park to the memorial that the park was named for. The park was mostly a large, open field with the occasional shady trees, and colorful flower gardens surrounded the low, cast-iron fence that surrounded the memorial itself, which stood at the very spot where the first Breach opened, as a reminder of what we had to fight against. The memorial was a large obelisk of black marble and bore the names of everyone who had died or been taken through the Breach during the first Incursion.

We spent long enough at the memorial to pay our respects with a moment of silence and then explored the rest of the park a bit. With its mostly open field of grass and shady trees, it looked like a nice place to spend a summer day, especially once we got to the sandy beach at the lake shore. There were picnic tables and the biggest and strangest playground for kids I had ever seen near the beach as well. Families, both human and Altered, were in the field, on the beach, or near the playground, playing or having picnics as they enjoyed their weekend and made the most of the sunshine.

Now that we were at the park, little Lyra was practically chomping at the bit to do some running around and pleaded for Moonlight to show herself. “Pleeeease, Moonlight, I wanna have a race with you!” the little Centaur girl begged. “It’ll be fun, I promise!”

Moonlight was reluctant, but I managed to convince her to do so, and it was nice seeing the Unicorn out and getting some exercise as they ran around the field. Lyra was practically glowing with happiness as she ran around with the Unicorn and tried to keep up, though she was still young and had neither the stamina nor speed that Moonlight did. That didn’t stop her from trying though, and she promised the Unicorn that she would get fast enough to beat her in a race someday when they finally halted so the Centaur girl could get a bit of rest.

Moonlight showing herself was not without consequences. She had the attention of practically everyone in sight and, given that we were in a popular park on a Saturday, that was a lot of people. While she was running with Lyra, it wasn’t much of a problem, but the moment their race was over and they rejoined us, curious people and wide-eyed children began to approach us. Thankfully, she was patient with the children, letting them get some petting in, but once those of us fresh out of the hospital started getting antsy about the crowd, and people started firing questions at us, such as where they could buy a Unicorn too, we decided it was time to excuse ourselves and Moonlight made herself ethereal once again.

The university campus was right across the street from the park, and since Lyra had burned off some of her seemingly boundless energy, Annika asked if we wanted to see about a tour since we were already close by. After discussing it though, Poppy, Kelly, and I decided to wait on that. It sounded like we were going to be going there on Monday anyway, and we could save the tour for when we got there or after we got settled in.

Instead, our guides led us back to the underground station that served as the University stop along the city’s main mag-lev train route. My sister and Annika had both bought transit day passes since we would be taking either trains or transit hover-jets at least a few times today, but fortunately children under twelve and Altered under a certain size rode free, so Lyra, Poppy, and I didn’t have to pay. We didn’t even have to stop at a station to switch to a different route since the next stop that Annika had planned for us was along the same route.

That stop was Lakeview Tower. It was a massively tall tower of gleaming steel and glass that had a glass elevator and dwarfed every other building in the city in height. From the observation deck on the top floor, we could see the whole city spread out in every direction and we got a fantastic view of Lake Superior stretching out toward the southern horizon as well.

The view was absolutely amazing, and Annika used it to show us some of the more important and easier-to-spot landmarks like the Vanguard’s headquarters and main base, the hospital for Altered Care, Memorial Park, the University, and the commercial zone that was practically right under our feet. I could have stayed up there taking in the view forever, but as it approached lunchtime, we all started to get hungry. So, with food on our minds, Annika took us back down the glass elevator to discuss what to have for lunch. Annika told us that the tower had a restaurant on the floor beneath the observation deck, but it was very expensive, and we would have needed reservations to get in during the lunch rush.

Since the Superior Centre Mall was close by and within walking distance of the tower, we decided to just get something for lunch in one of the food courts there before starting our shopping. Annika didn’t take us on a direct route to the mall though. Instead, she took us on a bit of a detour, saying that there was a store she wanted to show us first.

Annika stopped us in front of a little shop, and I would have guessed that it was a leatherworker’s shop or something from some of the stuff in the windows, but there were horseshoes there too. I was trying to wrap my head around this weird mass of leather straps with metal buckles in the window when I noticed them. Part of the contraption even looked sort of like the seat of a saddle. “Wait, horseshoes? What is this place?” I wondered aloud as I fluttered backward from the window to look for a sign.

The Centaur woman’s finger pointed above the door of the shop, where a sign said Mounting Trail Harnesses and Sundry. “You said that you were looking for a proper saddle and some other things for Moonlight so your sister could ride her, and now that I’ve met your sister, that makes a lot more sense.”

The name clicked in my mind, but I wasn’t sure if this place would have what we needed. If they had saddles, wouldn’t they be displayed in the window? “I think I might have a gift card for this place,” I told her. The name was certainly familiar, and I had scanned and uploaded the gift cards I had gotten in preparation for this shopping trip so I would have to check the digital wallet linked to my comm crown.

“This place is the main supplier of harnesses and gear for the Vanguard and anyone else with a Pegasus or Gryphon. See those leather straps in the window? That’s a riding harness, the wings make normal saddles impractical for Pegasi and Gryphons,” Annika explained as she gestured to the straps in question. “They also make horseshoes for Centaurs and Pegasi and various other necessities too. They don’t have a lot of saddles, but I know they make them because some Centaurs make a little extra cash by acting as ground transportation for two-legged folk and get them made here.”

“I guess that makes sense,” Kelly said thoughtfully. “Yue was telling me that there’s a breeding program for Pegasi and Gryphons because they’re smart enough to be trained and far too useful to the Vanguard to be ignored. They’re quick and maneuverable in the air and offer an advantage to people with long-range, offensive special abilities or magic. They can focus more on attacking and avoiding attacks by staying strapped into the harness and just giving commands to the mount when needed since hover-jets, even small ones, are impractical in combat and usually targeted and shot out of the air by Titans before they can do much.”

“I have friends serving in the Vanguard right now, and it’s more than just that. Though that is a huge part of it,” Annika responded. “Some people are buying personal mounts from the breeding program that they train themselves, with help from the Vanguard animal trainers, so the commands are more intuitive for them and to form bonds with their mounts. They use them not only for combat but also to get around the city instead of using a hover-jet or just to enjoy the occasional flight.”

“I’d probably do that too if I were big enough,” I admitted with a grin. “Flying is fun, and it explains why there are already procedures in place for recruits having personal mounts. I was a little surprised when Captain Monroe suggested that as a compromise for Moonlight.”

“Fortunately, we don’t need mounts to fly, Love. We have wings of our own,” Poppy said cheerfully.

“Yup, and flying under our own power never gets old,” I agreed with a grin. “I’m gonna check my wallet and see if I was right about having a gift card for this place. The name sounds familiar, and maybe we can find what we’re looking for here instead of having to special order stuff, Sis,” I added as I turned my grin on my sister who was looking thoughtfully into the store window.

“It’s worth a try,” Kelly finally agreed with a nod. “At the very least we can get horseshoes here. Moonlight really should be shod if she’s going to be spending time walking around the city.”

-Hmph, do I truly need those things?- Moonlight grumbled in my mind.

“You haven’t been getting a lot of exercise since you’re staying ethereal so much, Moonlight. You could injure yourself or damage your hooves without them, especially if you need to walk on the roads or sidewalks for some reason,” I pointed out. “Putting them on you won’t hurt if you cooperate, and Kelly has done it before on the ranch.”

-Fine. If you believe that I need them, then I will allow it, my Maiden,- she replied with something akin to a mental sigh of resignation.

It took a moment of mental searching, but I found the gift card in my digital wallet. “Huh, that’s weird, there doesn’t seem to be an amount here, maybe it’s glitched. I’ll have to find out what’s up with this gift card, but Moonlight agreed to it, so let’s see what they have. I don’t know if we’ll be able to buy any of it today, but we can at least have a look,” I informed everyone.

“I was thinking of getting a new set of saddlebags for shopping anyway, it was part of the reason I wanted to stop by here,” Annika agreed as she approached the door to the shop, causing it to slide open before motioning for her daughter and the rest of us to follow. Eager to see what the shop had, I joined Poppy atop my sister’s head as she followed Annika and Lyra into the shop.