Chapter 5: The Arc
It was about noon now. The mare, Whom he learned was named Twilight Sparkle, had finished questioning him, Thinking him strange, but otherwise well off. She had even told him a tale of a zebra (whatever that was) who she had thought the same way about not too far back. Despite his people skills being ten years in the closet, he was actually starting to make friends with these ponies in the town of... What was it again? Poniesburg? Oh well, it didn't matter.
"And that just about wraps it up," he said, all the creatures now fed and watered. "All that I have to do is check on..." He looked back at the list. "Angel."
"Well, he's probably inside, since I haven't seen him out and about all day." said Twilight with grin. "I'll just go check on him." She started toward the door, but was stopped by Akaitora'shoof holding down her tail.
"Actually, I think I should handle it. I am her cousin, after all." he lied. The story he had come up with had ended up with him being related to Fluttershy, a distant cousin that had been sending letters every so often from another part of Equestria. Where, exactly, he had failed to specify, but it was somewhere far away, that not even the trains could get you there. Fluttershy had gone to visit her aunt (of no name other than Fluttershy's Aunt), and to help nurse the family dog back to health. The weather had been rough, so instead of sending the message through the mail, not likely to run for at least a week, he had hoof delivered it.
In actuality, the reason he wanted to do it himself was so he could clean up any trace of last nights happenings. He had left behind his bottle of chloroform on the kitchen counter, and the rag lying on the ground. "Really, though, I'm quite famished. Would you mind going into town and getting me an Apple?" he asked, levitating a few gold pieces over in front of her. 'That should keep her out of the way for a bit...'
Twilight picked up the coins and held them close to her face. Her eyes glowed for a moment, and a bewildered look was plastered on her face. "Th- these- these are..." She stammered, causing Akaitora to peer at her questionably.
"Is there a problem? Is my currency out of date?" he asked, thinking that mayhap he should have taken her up on her offer of a lesson in recent history.
He Wouldn't get the chance, though, as Twilight collapsed on the ground, the coins falling to the ground in front of her. "Twilight!" he shouted, worried that he had brought this on. "Are you alright!?" Had he known that the coins would have done this, he would have just asked her off for the day. He looked around, finding no one. He picked her up with his magic, and rushed her inside, fearing the worst as he lay her down on Fluttershy's bed, and draping the quilt over her. Now realizing she had only fainted, he left her be for a moment to quickly set everything he had set askew last night in order, taking under a minute, then poking his head through the door, bringing the gold coins, still lying in the dirt, back into his cape pocket.
"Now where is Angel?" he asked no one in particular. looking up, he saw an ill-tempered bunny rhythmically tapping it's foot against the top of his hutch. "Ah, this should be quick." He wandered back into the kitchen and pulled a carrot from the refrigerator. He then levitated it over to angel, who quickly devoured it, unhappy that he received his lunch late.
By the time Akaitora got to the top of the stairs, Twilight had woken up from her daze, and was back on her hooves. "How long was I out?" she asked.
"About four minutes," was his reply. "Care to share what was so horrible about hese?" he asked, levitating the coins in front of her.
"Oh, well, uhhhm...." she started, trying to find the right words. "They're... Golden Florins."
"I know that, what I want to know is why they caused you to collapse."
"Well, you see... They've been out of circulation for years. Over time, they've grown less and less common, and more and more valuable over the past eight years. When you asked me to spend them on an apple, you were asking to pay three large orchards worth for them."
"Really!?" he asked, bewildered.
"I've never seen one up close before, and you have three." This comment left Akaitora dumbstruck. when he was searching the castle for scrap to use in his experiments, he had found several chests full. He was probably the richest pony in all of Equestria, and he hadn't known it.
"Well, I suppose I should convert it to your form of currency, then. Is there anypony nearby that can equal this out?"
"The nearest one that I can think of lives in Echelon Gardens, up in Canterlot."
Canterlot. The very thought of it made his stomach churn. "I can't go to Canterlot right now," he said, turning his head down. He had a bad history with a number of ponies in Canterlot, plus the trip would cost him at least three days, and his specimen would suffer, therefore his project would suffer. "It would take too long."
"Nonsense," chuckled Twilight, grabbing two of the coins and heading to the window. She opened it and shouted. "RAINBOW!"
Before Akaitora could react, there was a cyan pegasus with a mane of six different colors hovering just outside the window.
"Take these to the Echelon Gardens, and find someone who's willing to pay for them." She said.
"Florins!" the pegasus shouted. "How'd you get your hooves on these!?"
"My friend here had them," she grinned, pointing to Akaitora. "He doesn't have any bits, but he will soon!"
With a quick salute, the pegasus sped off, faster than any pegasus he had ever seen, leaving behind a rainbow trail.
"Wow, she's fast!" Said Akaitora, aquite the feat with his jaw on the ground.
"You have no idea," chuckled Twilight.
Author's notes:
Expect one of these in every chapter ending in 0 or 5. I like to chat with my audience a bit, get to know who I'm entertaining.
One of the biggest complaints I've had about this story is that the chapters are too short. 1-4 were between 800 and 900 words. This one was a little over a thousand. I agree that the chapters are too slow, but really, I'm just pitching ideas around, seeing what sticks, and trying to avoid writers block. I want to try to keep the word count close together, and if you've never written your own story, before, you have no idea how hard that is. Sometimes you get stuck at roughly 200 words, and can't for the life of you decide where to go next. Other times, you have to go back and divide the story up into several pieces. I had to do that with this chapter, actually. The words flew from my fingers with such ease, by the time I stopped to check my word count, I was over 2,000. Needless to say, I shortened it for your sake. Biggest problem is, Ideas are popping from my head like popcorn, and I have to keep writing to satisfy the itch. needless to say, the next few chapters should be fruitful.
I've begun a list of spells that Akaitora has, because, when you spend as much time as he has working with spells, you start to bend the laws of reality. Expect more long and arduous rants about how magic works, as well as how flight works, because that's pretty much the bulk of the story.
I also found that mixing the cultures of the past into today's culture would yield some interesting results. You saw how Twilight reacted to those florins. A lot can change in ten years.
Well, that ends the first act of this little play, and the setting is in place and the plot's moving forward. I'd say it's a good time to take a break, but who am I kidding? It's time to write more and only feed it to you a day at a time, no matter how much I write in a day. I know, I'm mean. But, hey, you can just sit back and enjoy the ride.
I can understand a lot changing in 10 years but the reaction to the Florin is kinda how someone would react to somebody giving them a Doubloon to go pay for something. Sure we are talking about rare gold coins but the time difference is a fair bit larger I believe. Of course it would make sense if these Florins were being destroyed or, considering they are gold, being smelted down to cast newer coins. In that case finding Florins intact would be considerably more rare even though the time span is so short.
I admit I liked his explanation on his spell that reabsorbs the energy he loses thru running or whatnot so he doesn't get tired. I will admit I wish more fics that had a heavy focus on Twilight or some other character using spells would try to explain them more often. Magical technobabble may seem like padding but technobabble or magibabble in this case I guess does tend to have it's place in stories.
Nice, but you're not making much sense on the last bit. I can garuentee (as a writer myself, go check it for an example) that more words = better reading, no exceptions. A rule of thumb I use is generally "Unless the actual story words is equal to or over 1K, don't post it."
Don't mistake this for hate, call it advice.
Interesting implementation of currency though, and now I have to wonder what the exchange rate is from the Canadian dollar to 'bits' is.
In Canada
Bag of apples (8 ish apples) = 5$ (ish)
In Equestria
One apple = 3(ish) bits
Assuming I don't suck at math, each apple IRL is 1.6 dollars.
Ergo
The exchange rate is 1.87 (1.9 rounded)
So for example 2000 bits = 1069.5 dollars, roughly a 1:2 ratio in the dollar's favor. (1.9:4 or something)
Or to use a slightly more accurate example, let's use cupcakes.
Assuming each one IRL is .70$, and three bits were used to purchase one in the show, and also assuming I'm not doing it wrong we find one bit = .05$ (ish) so something like 2000 bits is equal to 100 dollars. A 1:20 ratio again in the dollar's favor.
...dammit I nerded all over the floor again...
79142 One word to answer your first point: hyperdeflation. Hyperinflation is why a few thousand yen is only a couple dollars, that's why German marks were about twenty to a penny before it fell silent to the Euro. It can happen, it has happened, but here, it happened in reverse.
As for the other point, I feel that explaining the why's and hows for spells makes them seem more complex, and you want to think about them. It adds interest. That's why I make descriptions of the new spells part of my lists. Granted, there are laws on how far I can go, but they can be bent if need be.
79151 Mayhap somepony should come up with an exchange rate. I've seen Apple being sold for anywhere between 1 and 6 bits, and there is no higher form of currency except what I just wrote that I have even heard of. It might just be a bad idea to only have one unit of currency to support an economy. I now think some kind of economic system should be set up that works around bits, creating easier means of carrying money.
For the exchange rate I contribute: 1 Florin = about 3,000 bits (to a collector, that is. But they know the real value is sentimental)
I'm liking this story. The new Unicorn reminds me a little of Robotnik from that one story that made it to EQD.