The train attendants did notice the damage as they moved. The dwarf scratched behind his head as he looked up at the damage. "Bloody..." His eyes swept over the car and its inhabitants. "Anyone missing?"
Roll shook her head. "Negative. We are all well and whole."
"A dragon... figures. We need to prepare for that. Ain't no one gonna ride it if they have to worry about great bloody reptiles takin' a bite out of 'em!" The dwarf frowned thoughtfully. "Well, you can move to another car if ya want, or don't, if ya prefer the sun and stars for company." He fished out some small tickets. "Food's on us for the trouble."
The car emptied out, and they ate well for the remainder of the trip. Food on the train was far superior to what they had been managing on the hike towards the train station or the laborious flight from the gnoll caves.
Sunset looked across at Twilight nursing a water. "So, stupid question, but if you can make water whenever you want, why buy water?"
Twilight looked confused for a moment. "I... just never thought about it before. I mean, it's not as if I could make water for long." She tilted her head and her horn glowed as her glass refilled itself under her power. She chuckled at her trick and looked across, refilling Sunset's glass with some sparkles. "Ta da!"
Sunset pulled from her mixed drink softly. "Not bad." She raised a brow as a thought came to her. "Ice cubes?"
Twilight reached a hoof across the table and brushed across the top of the mug as it began to freeze over under her chilly powers, becoming ice cold swiftly. "I don't know how to make cubes specifically, but that's good enough?"
A dwarf nudged Twilight with her flask. "Hey, turn that cold this way. An ice cold one would really hit the spot about now."
Twilight blinked in surprise, but smiled. She brushed the flask with a hoof, bringing chill down upon it. "Huh, guess I could get a job if I really wanted it."
The dwarf lady tipped her flask towards Twilight before taking a long pull of her chilled drink. "Oh, aye. Ye could run a chilled warehouse and likely make a killin' if'n ya wanted to. Thanks!" Off she went, rejoining her friends.
Roll shook her head. "I don't understand. The drink has the same composition, no matter the temperature. Why would chilling it make it more enjoyable?"
Sunset snorted softly. "You kind of need to 'be there' to get it, but trust me, the temperature of a drink makes a difference."
"I do trust you." She looked down at True. "What will you do in Viljatown?"
He looked up at her and pointed a hoof at her, then the other mares, then himself and he squeaked.
Twilight smiled a little. "I appreciate the vote of confidence, but me and Sunset are going to go home eventually."
He pointed at himself, then Roll, then put out a hoof at Sunset and Twilight at once.
Sunset blinked... "You want to--"
The train started to slow and there was noise as people gathered by the window, distracting the conversation. They were approaching the newly-founded city of Viljatown. Its Greco-Roman architecture, not that this world had a Greece or a Rome, and its overall size put it at a scale that seemed to make all other towns they had seen seem tiny in comparison. It was the first true city they had seen in the world of Everglow.
As the train pulled into a station where other trains were already parked, the attendants guided people to the doors and helped the disembarking process. There were no customs or other things to pass through before being allowed into the city, so they walked right off the train and found themselves surrounded by the city on all sides.
Roll pointed southwards. "The town that holds my tribe is south of here. The rail goes in that direction as well, but I took a caravan to get as far as I did, still, since the dwarves are in that direction, I assume the rail is complete that way."
Sunset nodded at that. "Alright, but our first goal is to find someone that can get us home."
"And alerting those with the power to save my children," the voice gently reminded Twilight. "If you are the hero I need, I will reward you as much as I am permitted."
"Permitted?" Twilight glanced around. Learning where to face the faceless was still a trick.
Sunset raised a brow. "Is she talking to you again?"
"You may be inexperienced, but surely even you can envision such wonders I might bestow upon you. Please. They can--"
Sunset bopped Twilight on the head, disrupting the conversation. "Snap out of it, Twilight. Now, Under said that, what, some ponies are better at plane magic?"
Roll nodded. "He specifically mentioned divine casters." She raised a brow. "Does Twilight not qualify?"
"W-what?" Twilight wheeled around on Roll.
"Your power, is it not given by divine agency?"
Twilight shook her head. "I don't think it counts, I mean... It feels like the cold comes from inside of me, not from something... else. She woke it up, but she isn't powering it."
"That is quite well said," agreed Lashtada.
"So we need a cleric or an oracle." Twilight pointed deeper into the city. "And we're not likely to find those around the train station."
"What about that castle? There are probably powerful people there."
Sunset sighed softly. "Look, if she's going to whisper to you, I don't suppose she could, you know, do it loud enough for us all to hear?"
"I can only speak to you because you carry a mote of my unblossomed power. The foal I was ready to give you has become the tie that bridges us. It will never grow into a pony," she sighed out the last as if it were quite a pity indeed. "But it keeps us close."
Twilight shook her head with a fierce blush. "She would if she could, but I get the idea there are laws the gods have to follow. She can only talk to me because you interrupted her when she was, you know, before."
True poked her leg softly until Twilight looked at him, then pointed off into the city.
"Right, no answers here." Twilight lowered and True scaled her quickly before she began to trot. "There are two places we could go. We could visit the castle and try to see someone powerful to get some help, or we look for a temple and see if a priest with enough cleric or oracle levels is around to lend us a hand, er, hoof? Whatever, either way."
Sunset shook her head as she followed with Roll. "I don't know which is more terrifying, the fact that you talk about this like it's still a game, or the fact that it's about as logical as anything else." She looked to True on twilight's back. "Hey, are there any, what Lashtada priests around? She seems to like us, possibly in all the wrong ways, think her priests might be willing to help?"
Roll was the one to give an answer more intelligible than a sad squeak. "Unfortunately not. Myself excluded, the worshippers of Lashtada are almost universally short-legs, and they were all captured or killed." She inclined an ear with a soft mechanical whir. "I am afraid we will find no divine casters of her's here. I am no divine caster."
Twilight nodded as she looked around, then wandered up to a random pony. They were well-dressed, certainly by the scale Sunset would use for pony clothes. Most ponies were dressed in the city in one way or the other. True was about the most naked person in quite a distance. "Excuse me?"
"Hmm?" The mare turned to look at Twilight. "Yes?"
"Oh, uh, we were wondering..."
Sunset put a hoof in front of Twilight, brushing her back. "What my friend was trying to ask is if you happen to know where the churches are?"
The mare, a bit leery at Twilight's timid approach, brightened when Sunset posited the question clearly. "Oh, the temple district is that way." She pointed with a hoof. "New to the city? Welcome to Viljatown." She looked at True with a raised brow. "You should dress your children though. A bow and arrows are hardly suitable attire."
Twilight cleared her throat as she looked up at her back at the pony resting there. "Oh, right. Where would you, um, suggest for that?"
She pointed to a small boutique on the corner. "I've seen some stylish things there, other than that, you're on your own. I don't have any foals of my own." She nodded at the group and moved along.
"She's too busy attempting to win life by securing money. By the time she does so, she will lose and be unable to have any foals at all. Such foolishness from city ponies." Lashtada sounded sad as she said it, sad and accusing.
Sunset was already moving for the boutique. "Let's have a look. At the least they should be able to direct us to a more, uh, foal-friendly tailor."
Roll looked through the window first. "Not my style." She turned to enter despite that. "We may find something True enjoys."
True squeaked in confirmation and hopped down from Twilight as soon as she was inside. His eyes roamed over the clothing as he wandered to and fro, almost lost.
"My people learn to garb themselves when traveling, but home, what use do they have? A belt to hold a tool, a pouch to hold other things, certainly, but anything else, just in the way," whispered Lashtada. "Your clothing isn't bad. It doesn't block someone from--"
Twilight's blush reached a critical level and she shook her head violently, disrupting the conversation.
A stallion approached, gaunt, with a smile on his face and glasses perched just above his eyebrows. "Hello there! What an adorable little foal you have, and in need of my talent, I see." He reached for True, who shied away but ultimately allowed himself to be scooped up. "We have some things that'd fit you just fine."
Roll trotted up to the proprietor and fished out some coins to offer him. "We would like him to be presentable."
"Presentable?" He took the coins with a swipe of a hoof. "We do far more than presentable here! Give me a few minutes and I'll have him looking fabulous!" He wandered off with True securely in grip.
Sunset sat beside Twilight. "Good thing the clothes we came with seem to be alright."
Roll raised a brow slightly. "A curious fashion, but they appear well-constructed and expensive."
Twilight quirked a smile. "That's a kind of fashionable. We look like we're rich enough to not care if something is exactly 'in style' or not, right?"
Roll nodded. "Precisely."
Heh. Twilight's practical cryokinesis reminds me of when my party was dragging a huge boar's corpse to an outpost to claim the bounty and I made sure it wouldn't rot en route. Ray of frost: the wizard's gentle repose!
Quite the novel way to establish a link with the divine, but to be expected for a fertility goddess.
Also, that city air is unhealthy. It encourages typos:
Extraneous quotation mark.
Approach, and an uncapitalized Sunset.
And your little world just keeps getting a bit richer with every chapter. I'm really liking how you're portraying Twilight, and the dynamics between her and both Lashtada and Sunset and in between is just fun, but I'd also like to see a bit more of Sunset and how she's handling things.
Still, another fun chapter.
7331124 Typos cleared from the air. At least they haven't begun a full industrial revolution, so the air isn't as bad as it could be.
Um, the last time I saw the definition of being rich enough to not care about appearence, you wernt in the 1%, you were at the sort of level where small countries tried not to annoy you, in case you went to visit them and your army of supporters destroyed their economy.
The sort of level where the leaders of a city know you arrived, or their spymasters wouldnt be expected to be employed for very much longer.
So, if Twilight is Twoflower, Sunset would be Rincewind, and Roll would be the Luggage, and Trueshot would be the kid who wants to be a barbarian but is better trained?
Oh wow, Might not have the source for Kinetisist, but found a selection of clockwork entities.
Clockwork Soldier. Strength plus 18 over base human equivalent? Talk about One Punch.
Lets see, Improved Unarmed Strike, Cleave From The Air, Improve Cleave From Air?Sigh, forgot what it was, but its what Maud has.
I'd take that.... if she DIDN'T think of it in chapter 9!
Care -> car?
Not sure if it's a typo, it just the guy's accent...
7331510 Sure, except she was offered water, and she took it. Just because she can doesn't mean she thinks to do so if she doesn't have to.
7331524 just saying, she actually said,
But she did think about it before. slightly confusing.
7331519 Oops, fixed!
Sunset needs to lighten up a tad with Lastada. Yes, she's a sex goddess intent on getting them all laid whether they're wanting to or not, but she's also been a very useful ally so far.
7331403
I'm rich enough to not care about my appearance, and I'm broke.
Hey wait, what about Turves? Turves is between Sun's Tears and Viljatown, and it's older than the empire, so it must be there, even in this period.
It had (or "It featured" if you want it to sound fancy) and put a comma after Rome
whir (I think)
himself to be scooped up
trotted
7332002 Yes, rich enough to not care about appearance includes anyone who buys their own clothes.
7331679 Lashtada needs to rein herself in, or she's going to drive away the only allies she has left.
and horn glowed - and her horn glowed
With its Greco-Roman architecture - With Its Greco-Roman architecture
a Rome and its - a Rome, and its
Twilight lowered - Twilight lowered herself --or-- Twilight kneeled/knelt down
soft mechanical ear - soft mechanical whir/whine
casters of her here - casters of hers here
glassed perched - glasses perched
Roll trot up - Roll trotted up
*****
I'm late to this party, but it's still fun reading and trying to guess where this is all going. I'm absolutely positive that it'll be smooth sailing from here, nothing can go wrong now.
It's a matter of chemistry. Temperature can affect how the compounds that deliver flavors and scents are taken up by the tongue and nose. For alcoholic drinks, it can tame harsher elements and allow other nuances to be more easily detected. Also, a cool drink on a hot day is just pleasant.
Coming soon: Ponyfinder - Hipsters!
7335131 Typos fixed. That's a bit more chemistry than most ponies of Everglow would get outside of a hoofful of alchemists.
7332405 Fix'd!
7332405 Oh, and Turves totally came up. They stopped there and got the Author faithful there,