The eyes really threw me off at first, but after taking a closer look I was able to notice stripes on the being in front of me. Huh, a zebra, didn’t expect to see one this far from their homelands. Calming myself after being startled, I continued on my way through town wondering where everypony was. I greeted the zebra as I neared, “Hello there, I haven’t seen a zebra around these parts before.”
She lowers her hood before she replied to me, “It is true that the features of my face are not a common sight seen around this place. Zecora be the sound of my name, would you do the honors of telling me the same?” The way she spoke threw me off a bit, but considering who lives in this town it’s not really that strange. “My name is Flarenza; I’m just in town to pick up a few things before I head back to my home near the Everfree. Especially as I finally cleared up the last of the mess from some haunting issues it had.”
My wording seems to have surprised the zebra, “A haunting issue you had you say? Those are things that aren’t easily driven away. What was the cause of such a feat, to cause this being’s end to meet?” It takes me a second to word this carefully, “Well it wasn’t all that easy. It took the actions of me and another unicorn to clear it out, the main reason as it was tied to an object. While I performed the spell to get rid of it, the other unicorn destroyed the object it was tied to.
She seems honestly surprised by this, “You seem like such a simple mare, but not if you use magic so rare.” I try to play it down a bit and turn the conversation to more mundane things, since I’m not sure how safe it is to divulge the origin of the spell. As we talk I find out that she actually lives inside the Everfree and is in town to get certain plants and herbs. Unfortunately everything seems to be closed whenever she arrives, which I find distinctly odd.
Seeing as she has no reason to be in town she prepares to head back to her home, but on a hunch I decide to ask her about the flower since she seems knowledgeable about plants. Her eyes widen at the sight of it, “This is a plant you should not provoke, for it goes by the name of Poison Joke. For this is not just a simple flower, it does odd things to those in its power. For within its form chaos it does conceal, to be unleashed on those that give a feel.”
She goes on to mention a cure for its effects, which interestingly enough are in that book I was planning on reading. Thanking her for the help, I decide to let her have one of the vials of the powder from the dangerous pepper plant. She takes it curiously, and only needs to remove the stopper to recognize the scent it gives off, causing her eyes to widen in surprise, “This gift is more valuable than you know, as the plant it’s from only grows in my home.”
I grin a little at this, “Normally that would be true, but I used to travel around a lot until I settled here. Your home was one place I passed through and I kept some seeds from my time there, as well as some powder which served me well in escaping various beasts.” She thanks me once again for such a precious, to her, gift and we then part ways. As I head further into town looking for somepony else to be around, I spot a young filly following after the zebra.
Wondering at how she is the only pony I’ve seen around I head in the direction of a store that deals in kitchen appliances and knock at the door. It takes a while, but the owner eventually peers outside to notice that only I am around and seems to breathe a sigh of relief before opening the door fully. I eye them oddly as I enter and just look around the place.
I look around the place and don’t notice what I am looking for and check with the owner to find out that it is an item they can get on order, but it usually takes a while due to the difficulty in getting the gems. When I let them know that I already have one that can be used they look surprised, but quote a much lower price than before and say they can get it there in a couple days. Concluding our business and paying them I head back outside to notice everything seems to be open again.
“Well this is odd, it looks like they were all avoiding Zecora for whatever reason,” I mumble to myself as I head towards the library. Luckily it is still open as Spike is there who greets me, “Hey there Flarenza, it’s been a while since I’ve seen you come here. Twilight isn’t around right now; her and her friends are busy chasing Applejack’s sister who followed after Zecora.”
“I think I saw her when Zecora was leaving, small yellow filly with red mane and a big red bow?” I ask. “Yep, that’s her. I hope nothing bad happens, especially with what everypony was saying about Zecora.” My ears perk up at that, “Huh, I thought it was odd that everything was closed when she was around, not sure why ponies would avoid a zebra. Not like there is much difference between them.”
This catches Spike’s attention, “Wait, you mean you knew she was a zebra as well? I thought Twilight was the only one who knew that.” I just give him a look that I gave to Twilight before, “Um yeah, pony that has traveled outside Equestria here.” I chuckle at the bashful look he gets at this, “Anyways, there’s a book I’ve been meaning to take a look at since I was here last. Even though Zecora confirmed what I was looking for it still has something I could use.”
“Oh sure, which book is it you need?” I let him know, and once he retrieves it I take a seat in a corner of the room and begin to read through it. It doesn’t take me long to find what I was looking for. “Huh, Poison Joke Antidote, so it’s basically just an herbal bath? Some of these ingredients might be hard to find, but considering the problems the plant can cause they would be useful to have on hand.”
I jot down the information on the page onto a spare scroll as I consider the implications of the plant. I get a bit of a mischievous feeling as I wonder what people would think of it outside my windows. Looking through the rest of the book I catch a few other useful cures in it that could come in handy. Returning the book to Spike I head back out towards the book store.
Looking through it I don’t find any copies there, but I find that I can order what they don’t have through him. I place an order for a copy of it, as well as a few on gemstones and other metals for reference later on. Finishing there I head back towards home and stop out in front.
Taking the vial with the poison joke in it I carefully extract the seeds from it and scatter them over the cleared area underneath the front windows. Then with a bit of magic I cause them to grow a bit so that they are just starting to form. Nodding at this I head inside and down to the basement to charge the hearth stone for the day.
After doing so I consider the size it is now, “I really need to get those runestones set up, it’s already covering the entire manor so it shouldn’t be too long for it to cover the entire property. Heading back outside I head to the nearest river or stream and round up a few round and smooth stones. “This shouldn’t be too hard, just need to carve the right symbols into them and put them at the correct locations.”
It takes a while, but eventually I have four stones of similar size each carved with a different symbol. Placing the first three is easy enough as they are just cardinal points around the manor at the edge of the property. It’s the fourth one that is a problem, “Now to get to the point in the Everfree, unfortunately there isn’t a path in that part of it.” I consider the problem for a while retrieving my scrying crystal.
“I guess I’ll just have to just be careful out there, I just hope nothing big is in that area.” I make my way towards the entrance of the Everfree quickly as there isn’t long before nightfall. As I pass the cottage I catch sight of Fluttershy at work around it. Huh, I guess that’s where she lives at. I still need to pay her back for the help, though I didn’t know I was passing by her place all the time.
She looks up and seems to look towards my direction. Seeing this I casually wave to her as I head into the forest, causing her to cringe away for some reason. Shrugging at this I pull out my crystal and have it point the way to where I need to go, all the while keeping track of everything around me.
This section of the forest seems odder than usual, probably as it is off of the usual path most being seem to go. I can’t help but feel like I am being watched as I move through the forest though. I try to figure out the direction it is coming from, but no matter how hard I try I can’t seem to find it.
This is really not the type of feeling to have in this place. Anything you can’t see, but can see you is bound to be dangerous. Though something is really starting to seem odd out here, I could almost swear I’m seeing paths through the trees, but nothing really comes out this way that would use them. Where would they even go to any-
I stop in my tracks as I catch a hint of motion out of the corner of my eye. Turning quickly I catch a glimpse of what looked like a grey filly with a blonde mane. The problem wasn’t that there was a filly though; the problem was the hint of transparency in the available light. And just when I thought my ghost problems are over.
Seeing this I decide to exchange speed for caution and pick up the pace to my destination. It doesn’t take long for my crystal to ping out the location I need and I quickly bury the stone. Looking around me I notice that the light is slowly fading, hinting that night isn’t far away now. As I turn to head back the way I came, I catch sight of something through the trees.
“Is that a town over there? I don’t remember any mention of one being there, and I don’t remember one being marked on the maps, as if anypony would be crazy enough to have a settlement out here.” Remembering the ghost I saw, as well as the rapidly approaching darkness, I decide to leave the place for investigation later, preferably with a nice fast path back home if needed.
Making record time back towards the entrance, I exit the forest in a bit of a lather. “There really needs to be a map of this place. Maybe I can work on that later if I get bored,” I mutter as I pass by Fluttershy’s cottage. Before too long I return home and, after a relaxing bath, turn in for the night while forgetting about the town out there.
<><><><><><><>
The next few days pass with little of interest, though with my gemstones dwindling I decide to head out and try to find a supplier or other way to obtain them. Seeing as dragons consume them as a part of their diet I decided to pay a visit to Spike at the library. Finding him was easy; getting him to talk was more of a problem for some reason.
“Equestria to Spike,” I say waving my hoof in front of the dragon for the third time today, unfortunately he seems to be completely lost in his daydreams this time. Sighing I head over to Twilight who seems to be studying something like usual, “Hey Twilight, I think Spike is broken. I keep asking him who I could talk to about finding some gems for my work, but he always seems to freeze up after mentioning somepony named Rarity.”
Twilight looks confused at first until I get to the name, “Ah yes, that. Let’s just say Spike has a little thing going on for her and leave it at that. She happens to be one of my friends and, while she works as a fashion designer, she is probably the best pony in town to talk to about the best places to acquire gems, in facts all the gems she uses she finds herself.” Thinking back on the friends I’ve seen her with, the only ones I don’t know the names of are the cyan pegasus and the white unicorn. Neither of them fully fits the description just provided though, the former being too rough looking to make dresses, and the latter too prissy looking to dig in the dirt.
“Well it sounds like a good place to start, where in town would I be able to find this Rarity?” The directions given by Twilight sound simple enough, in fact if I remember right they pass by the café I frequent in town near the end. Thanking her for the help I head out towards what she called Carousel Boutique.
Walking through the town I take in the sights more than I’ve done in the past, “I really should find out more about this town,” I mumble to myself as I wave to the passing gray mailmare, “Now that the manor is cleaned up I’ll have much more time to relax, so getting to know what’s around would be a good idea.” I wince at a crashing sound behind me, but my attention is then caught by a strange whistling sound.
Turning back to where I say the mailmare I see her stuck in a chimney, but there is nothing over there that indicates where the sound is coming from. Looking around I don’t see where it is coming from, but I do notice what I believe is the building I’m looking for, “What is it with this town and the way the design buildings? Even major cities don’t get this elaborate, and why am I hearing screaming n-“
I don’t know what just happened, all I know is that I’m now on my back and face first against the wall of the building I was walking to while in pain and dizzy. “Uh hey, are you okay there?” I hear from a gravelly voice somewhere above me. Removing my face from the wall and facing the voice and see naught but a prismatic blur. Shaking my head to clear it my eyes refocus on the form in front of me to see the cyan pegasus that seems to be part of Twilight’s little group of friends.
“What just hit me? First I was walking along towards this building, and the next moment I’m somehow making out with it.” My reply causes the mare to chuckle a bit, though it seems a bit forced, as she offers me a hoof up which I take. “Uh yeah, my fault there, trick didn’t quite work out,” I raise an eyebrow at this. “And why would you be doing tricks over the center of a populated area, in fact why would you be doing them in the first place?”
“Well where else will I find an audience to show how cool I am? Also I’m doing them so that I can show the Wonderbolts how awesome I am so they beg me to join them.” I draw a blank on the name she mentions, and speaking of names, “Who would these Wonderbolts be? And speaking of which, who are you anyways?” That was probably the wrong thing to say judging by how far the mares jaw dropped.
“How can you not have heard of the Wonderbolts!? They’re the best flying team in all of Equestria, everypony knows who they are. Also I’m Rainbow Dash, fastest flyer in all of Equestria and future member of the Wonderbolts!” I just look at her through her entire explanation; I really wonder how often I’ll have to explain the travelled outside Equestria bit. Though since she left me an opening…
I get a grin on my face at a chance of a little payback, “Well unfortunately I have been traveling outside of Equestria most of my life, and for you being the fastest flyer, you sure were the fastest at crashing into me. I would have expected that grey mailmare to be the fastest there but you sure beat her to that.” Once again she goes into a jaw dropping shock, but this time I’m actually laughing at it. Rainbow Dash looks to be about to try and make some sort of comeback, until we are both interrupted by an elegant voice from the building behind me.
“And just what is all this about racket out here? How can I concentrate on creating beauty if somepony keeps making so much noise?” Rainbow Dash looks towards the shop a bit warily before turning a glare to me as she just flies off, leaving me to clean up the mess. I turn towards the entrance of the building as it opens revealing the purple maned, white unicorn I’ve seen with Twilight.
Hoping to stall any further tirades and any potential problems I start apologizing, “I apologize for the disturbance Miss, while I was part of the noise you heard, a certain rainbow maned pegasus crashing into me and sending me into your fine establishment was what started it all. She left before you left the building in a bit of a bad mood.” The unicorn, who I’m guessing is Rarity, looks at me blankly for a second before she speaks, “Of course, Rainbow Dash. While she is a loyal friend, she does get a tad, reckless at times. Though why do you say she looked to be in a bad mood, darling?”
“Well that is partly my fault there,” I say with a bit of guilt, “When she was all bragging about being the fastest flyer around, I kind of mentioned how fast she was at crashing as she beat that gray mailmare at crashing into me. Really hope she’s okay now that I think about it, every time I saw her she ran into something.” Rarity’s eyes widen at this, though she thankfully chuckles after a moment.
“You compared her to Derpy of all ponies? While she is such a sweet mare, she does have a bit of an issue with crashing often, the poor thing. Don’t worry about Rainbow Dash being too mad about that though, she’ll probably just do her usual sulking until she can get back at you with one of her silly pranks.” I raise an eyebrow at this and wonder what I may have gotten myself into considering the ego on the cyan mare.
“Well I guess that’s not too bad of a punishment for that,” though she did run into me first I think instead of saying it. “Anyways I was on my way here anyways, if you are who I believe you are I was told you could assist me with something Miss…” This sets Rarity of into what seems to be a well-rehearsed speech. “Oh pardon me about that, I am Rarity, owner of Carousel Boutique, where every garment is chic, unique and magnifique. And who might you be, darling?”
“I am Flarenza, owner of the now renamed Ogetsu Manor,” I reply to her. She is thrown off by the new name a bit until she realizes where I’m talking about. “You mean you’re the brave soul who bought that place? It’s nice to finally meet the pony who cleaned up that eyesore of a place, but you mentioned you had business here? While I’d love to help you, I’m far too backed up on orders at this time. It would be at least a month before I’m open for any more dresses.”
I ponder what I would even need a dress for in the first place, and just shrug it off for later. “Well actually it’s not a dress that I am here to discuss, I was recommended to you for other talents that I’m told you possess.” Rarity raises an eyebrow at this warily, “Oh? And what talents would those be, darling?”
I turn to my pack and levitate out one of the enchanted gems I have on hand, “I’ve heard you were the best pony to talk to about locating gems in town. As you can see with this one I am able to imbue them with a certain level of enchantments. Unfortunately I am running out of the ones I brought with me from my travels and need to find a local source. Granted I’m not sure what I can do with the local ones until I have a chance to experiment on them a bit.”
Throughout my explanation Rarity was examining the gem with a critical eye, “This really is a nice quality gem, and I don’t see many of this type come through town either. And you say you did the enchantment yourself?” I nod at this as she continue, “I may need to see what else you can do, good quality enchanted gems aren’t easy to come by and I know I can use them in some of my outfits.” She finishes examining the gem and thinks for a bit.
“While I don’t have any gems to spare at this time, it really is no secret where my source is, darling. A decent trots distance out of town is an area where there are many pockets of gems. If you need I can pick up some extra my next trip out to save you the time.” I decline the offer and instead get directions to the field. Seeing as she was busy before crashing into her building I thank her for the help before bidding her goodbye.
Stopping by the café for a quick meal, I decide to just wander through the town and purchase things at random that catch my eye. Soon I had filled my bags and started to make my way home. Seeing as there was still plenty of time left in the day I decided to take a longer way home. As I passed by the area that led to the cabin and forest I spotted Fluttershy in the distance. I wave to her when I think I she notices me and I continue on my way, until I stop and do a quick double-take and peer at her in the distance.
“That blue thing in her hair, is that a…? Nah, couldn’t be…” I shake my head and continue home, though not without feeling a sense of dread.