Remedy Cross
Remedy Cross had to admit that today had been rough on her. The dragon attack was bad enough without an unknown criminal wanting to fillynap her. There was also the issue of Brass being located in the town and that the mayor of New Terra wanted her to look over the problems left by the cursed trader.
She didn't know what was going to be done to Brass or if she would be shipped over to Equestria to pay for her crimes... or simply kept in New Terra for any problems she had committed or information they wanted from her. A part of her couldn't help but think it was just to try to use Brass just to get something from Equestria instead of giving her to them for free.
Remedy looked back at her current patient as the donkey turned zebra looked mildly annoyed as she wrote down some more notes on her clipboard. It was surprising to see the increasing amount of racial transformations without the obvious tell tale signs of chaos magic. It would have been rather fascinating if there wasn't any dark magic involved.
Remedy tapped the zebra’s foreleg testing for motor control “And you were a donkey before this happened?”
The zebra nodded “The name’s Yanky of course most folks just called me Yanky Doodle. I have to ask… do you have any idea what the whole zebra mark thing on my flank means?”
Remedy glanced at the zebra version of a cutie mark and shrugged “I’m sorry but you’d have to ask a native zebra.”
Yanky sighed as he shook his head “Figures… Do you have any idea who long it will take to turn me back to normal?”
Remedy’s horned glowed as she as focused on removing the taint of the dark magic from his body. Yanky closed his eyes as she did her best to remove the taint of the dark magic before a flash of light went off. When he opened his eyes he sighed heavily in relief happy that he was back to his normal donkey form.
Yanky started to get up only for Remedy to reply “Now we just need to make sure everything is okay.”
He glanced at Remedy in concern “Okay…”
Remedy noticed his nervous expression and sighed “Right now we just have to make sure there isn’t any side effects or strange lingering sensations. That’s why we do a medical check before seeing if we can turn you back.”
Yanky nodded as he watched Remedy pull out the medical tools again “Isn’t just turning me back to normal solving that problem?”
Remedy shook her head as she continued “Dark Magic is banned due to the lingering effects it leaves on both the caster and the victim of the curse. While we may have gotten rid of most of it we just need to make sure that it is completely gone. Even then there is the matter of making sure certain movements or reactions have returned to normal.”
Yanky chuckled nervously as he replied “Well most folks say there isn’t that much of a difference between zebras and donkeys…”
Remedy nodded her head “It’s more important when there has been a larger racial change… and to see if any possible dark magic flares up during the process. If it does than I can get rid of any remnants that were left instead of waiting to see if you’ll turn back into a zebra or start talking only in rhymes.”
Yanky nodded as Remedy looked back at her list. Sixteen cases and so far she had only been able to treat four of them. It was going to take time for her to remove the more extensive amount of dark magic in the other victims and making sure that everything turned out alright. It was just very exhausting dealing with dark magic as it took a lot of magic and hard work to remove it.
With the current list she was already planning on seeing if New Terra had a Spa as she felt exhausted. She tried to keep up with the check up making sure Yanky was completely cured before scheduling him with another appointment a two days later to ensure that he was okay.
Remedy placed his medical report along with the others as she tried to figure out the fastest way to send these to Celestia… along with a request for a book or medical journal about possible side effects of dark magic on other races.
The next patient entered the room as Remedy turned around and spotted a group of changelings staring at her. She kept her mouth shut and tried to figure out if one of them had been changed into a different race or if they used to be a different race. After all there was a ‘sea pony’ that used to be a diamond dog so anything was possible at this point.
A voice shouted “I told you it’s alright. She’s from Canterlot!”
The changeling turned around as she could hear one of them say “But there’s nothing wrong with you!”
“What if she takes you away?” another one hissed
Remedy took a deep breath and sighed “What’s the problem?”
The changelings slowly parted ways as… Remedy rubbed her eyes as she looked at the changeling in the center of the group. Instead of the standard black changeling with holes in their legs stood a soft teal changeling with a hint of amber around her throat with beetle like wings and an almost cape like… tail or was that bit of wing outside of the caprice? The center or chest of the changeling was just a slightly darker shade of teal as she looked… she looked like a fairy book character.
The changeling spoke in a feminine tone as she sighed in embarrassment “Please tell me you can fix this?”
Remedy glanced at the changeling “Can you be more specific? I’ve had a lot of patients today.”
The changeling took a deep breath “I was a changeling. Helped found the town… before the whole cruise incident I was a normal looking changeling… except my wings for some reason had a glittery sort of look. I don’t know why, but I liked how they looked.”
Remedy nodded her head as she hadn’t seen any changelings like this. There also didn’t seem to be anything wrong with her.
“Are there any problems or issues?” Remedy asked out loud.
“Nope! None! She’s perfectly alright!” a few voices spoke up.
“She isn’t starving anymore!” one shouted out in jealousy.
The colorful changeling turned her back and shouted “I wasn’t really starving when I had glitter wings!” She sighed and took a deep breath “My name’s Mirage and I’m an adventure and these changelings keep saying nothing is wrong with me.”
Remedy tapped her hoof against the ground as she knew about the changeling’s need to feed. She also knew that some managed to curb their hunger as others had turned glutinous and hostile. Most of her cases were trying to help the changeling integrate into society… mostly to obtain documentation for their approved disguise if only to prove that they didn't replaced somepony.
Remedy took out her notepad “So… what’s the issue?”
Mirage pointed at her body “How about the fact I look like I lost a fight with a makeup stand? I’m stuck as this for my base form.”
Remedy looked at her over again as changelings would have been a lot easier time being accepted into Canterlot if they looked like she did. In fact there didn’t seem to be a lot of information on changelings that was even known by the ones she talked to.
“What about hunger?” Remedy continued to ask “Any hunger, growth, or sudden pain?”
Mirage sighed as she shook her head “Besides my pride? I mean I liked how I looked. As for these guys… their natives and they keep pestering me on how this happened.”
Remedy glanced at the changelings as the other horseshoe just dropped. Reports of another group of changelings attacking the feral changelings. Of course any regular changelings that might have been hiding in or near equestrian borders would be wondering what in Tartarus was going on after hearing reports of changelings being spotted out in the open within Equestria!
She noticed their expressions as they seemed more like somewhere in between bodyguards that wanted to protect her and tag along ponies who only wanted to find out her secret.
“What about your hunger?” Remedy asked “Any issues in feeding… any increase or decrease in appetite?”
Mirage shrugged “Not really. I mean when I got the glittery wings I was pretty much okay. I was mostly passive as I didn’t really need spending time at the more active lover lanes.”
Remedy nodded as she continued writing this down “What about what happened before this change?”
Mirage rubbed the back of her head “Well… we kind of mistook the 'native' changelings for adventures… one of them tried to feed on me because he was starving and I tried helping him. I mean I knew he needed love and I could easily get some more and try to help him out once he calmed down.”
One of the ‘natives’ groaned “We’ve given love to other members of the hive plenty of time!”
One of the changelings behind him smacked him in the back of the head. Remedy was slightly curious where the native changelings got their love from or how the whole process really worked. Most of the adventure changelings really didn’t like sharing their love. They would share locations or give advice… but they didn’t share the ‘food’ they had gathered.
Remedy was rather curious about what the native changeling meant by giving love or how their culture worked? Was it biology, culture, or something else as there might have been other differences besides cultural differences between the feral changelings and the adventure changelings. That’s without even diving into Amber or the monster trees Gaichu experimented with.
Mirage glanced at the other changeling before rolling her eyes “As you can see I’ve gotten a lot of attention and complaints about getting my natural black caprice back.”
Remedy took a deep breath as before looking at one of the other ‘native’ changelings “I’ll need to ask you a few questions. Have any of you had glittering wings, shared love, and if possible how much direct feeding does you race normally rely on?”
One of the native changelings shifted about before saying “Why does that matter?”
Remedy looked back at her notes “For one thing this could be an effect from diet or stress… possibly environment.”
“How does environment come into play?” one of the native changelings asked out loud.
Remedy pulled out one of her older medical books “The easiest example would be Therstals or otherwise known as bat ponies. There have been some debates on if Thestrals are a subspecies of pegasi or if it’s the other way around. The region could have also played an effect as the chance of giving birth to a Pegasus in Cloudsdale than giving birth on the ground even if both parents are not pegasi. ”
Mirage glanced at her multi colored caprice “How does being in a desert result in looking like I lost a fight with a paint factory?”
Remedy shrugged as she didn’t know the exact reasons “Well it may be the desert climate as darker colors tend to absorb more light which would also generate more heat. So a lighter color would help could be a valid reason for this change. There has been various research projects looking into these factors… but sudden transformation could also include external or rapid change in environment.”
She tapped her hoof on the ground “Are there any large or ‘queen changelings’ around in the area or have you seen once since you’ve moved here… anypony?”
The natural changelings tried not to confirm or deny anything as they mostly kept silent and avoided eye contact. Mirage simply shrugged as she didn’t understand the question or didn’t know what to say. Remedy bet on the former as it would make more sense for her theory.
“Will Mirage was suddenly taken away from her home and thrust into a new environment. Then you have a smaller changeling community mixed in with a larger multi-cultured and racial community where you were suddenly placed in charge.” Remedy slowly explained as she watched their expressions “That would have caused changes, but the last deciding factor could have been the fact you were feed on.”
“But we…” one of the native changelings spoke up.
Remedy sighed as she interrupted him “It’s common for you, but not for them. The sudden change or stress could have been the final push needed for her body to enact radical changes to help adjust to the situation as it removed unnecessary talents in favor of more useful one depending on the environment.”
Remedy noticed their blank expressions and rolled her eyes “While changelings show equine traits you also have insect traits and certain breeds of bugs like caterpillars can undergo metamorphosis.”
One of the changelings spoke up “You’re kidding me.”
Remedy shook her head “In theory you would more likely get a therstal community to be born from a Pegasus community that lived in a cave or dark areas… and the opposite if you moved a therstal community into a sunny and bright place like Cloudsdale. The fact that her wings underwent a change could have been evidence that it was possible for a future generation to undergo a similar change until external forces caused a sudden shift.”
She looked back at Mirage “You mostly kept with a passive feed system. You just focused on the love around you than directly taking the needed amount for somepony else. You live in a community where nopony, dog or dragon cares about what you are as it isn’t uncommon to find larger areas filled with love without having to switch to a disguise or method that would require you to spend more energy just in order to feed yourself.”
Remedy smiled “I’d still like to go over a few medical checks and see if you have went under any physical or mental changes, but it may be that there is nothing wrong with you… except for maybe a molting issue in the nearby future.”
Mirage cringed as she whispered “Molting issue?”
Remedy rubbed the back of her head “The color scheme maybe due to a sudden coat… or chitin change so there may or may not be a molt change or two in the nearby future. Just make sure to inform me if there are any other changes or odd feelings or itch when we go over the medical test.”
Mirage nodded as Remedy made a mental note to look up the more colorful version of changelings in any of Equestria’s old myths. She rubbed her chin as she thought about the dramatic shift in appearance between the black changelings and the more colorful version of Mirage… Maybe one of those old mare tales actually had information about changelings.
******
Maxwell
You ever wonder how those zombie apocalypses on TV start? How such an obvious thing in hindsight only seems to keep growing worse? Like how that one guy who was bit keeps walking about claiming he’s alright only to be hacking up a lung every few minutes or how some people just think resting in a graveyard would be the perfect idea?
I think I finally understood what was going through their minds as I watched the ‘outbreak’ start to grow inside my little piece of the world. Jewels was introduced to a few people who built models… and it only occurred to me now just how bad or ‘simply’ a harmless experiment could be.
Jewels picked up a gundam unicorn model… only for it to be a unicorn version of a gundam. The old standard green zaku looked the same… if you swapped up the human version base for an earth pony base. Despite all of the mechs and anime gimmicks that had been made all of them had been ‘ponified’ for a lack of a better word. Sure the non-human mechs looked the same, but anything that was human bases was now a pony.
To make matters worse… now I had a group of people starting to mutter as they tried to figure this out “It can’t be this hard.”
Jewels shook her head “None of you managed to make a single one?”
Another one face palmed “Bipedal to quadruped. That’s means two feet. Give me a hand that implies hands and if a scarecrow is simply a cross with straw that means two hands, two legs, and a head.”
“Then why are you drawing a diamond dog Mat?” a griffin nearly shouted
The diamond dog growled “How about it’s because it bipedal? Still it’s a lot better than your griffin drawing!”
Yes I just threw one infected person into a room full of normal people… or I just figured out how to make an eldritch cult that would bring about the end of the world as their writings and drawings would send people down into a spiral of ever growing madness forcing them to question their own sanity.
I looked back at the small models as I tried to figure out just why we could draw humans. Was it an attempt to prevent cultural contamination… which was oddly specific considering some of the stuff we had done. I mean I run a tavern with where people sing Disney songs makes meta jokes as Cloudsdale is trying to build airplanes… with limited success.
I looked out the window and at Canterlot Castle as I tried looking at it from a different perspective “How do you tell someone you’re human?”
First answer would be to simply tell them… then what? Do you draw a picture? Turns out you can’t draw a picture as every attempt is censored… but not in the same way cursing is censored. You draw a picture and you think human, but you draw something else making you look crazy.
Do you describe a human? Two arms, two legs, face… mostly hairless… trying to describe a human to someone who hasn’t seen one and that when you draw one you end up drawing something else would be problematic.
I looked at one of the mech models in front of me. Why didn’t I see this problem sooner? Was I just simply filtering it out and not paying attention… or was it being filtered out on purpose until someone pointed it out. Sort of like asking how many waiters are in a restaurant, but not being allowed to look when the question is asked.
I took a deep breath as there was an easy answer to this question.
I could just ask Celestia about any strange paintings or odd actions amongst the human population. All I had to do was simply walk up to Canterlot Castle and… Pallet is waiting for me outside.
I took a deep breath as I walked up to her and said “Is there anything else?”
Pallet nodded her head “Will Jewel's be alright?”
I thought back to the rather simple and yet complex question being held in the room behind me “At this point she just needs to vent and release all that pent up frustration before she suddenly explodes. I already sent Pocket Ace orders to help bring them a good lunch and something to help take their minds of the problem if they are still stuck on it.”
Pallet sighed in relief as she shook her head “Thank you… but I’m sadly going to need your help for a little bit longer.”
I tried to smile as I felt a creeping sensation down my back “With what?”
The Canterlot unicorn tried to smile, but I could tell she was tired “The Equestrian Cultural Festival is being held soon and since Lockheart had went missing… the work load was shifted over to us… and because Jewels needs time to rest we still need a qualified adventurer to help out with judging some of the artwork.”
I slowly shook my head “So you want me to look for some art majors right now?”
Pallet shook her head as she stared at me “I did request your services with helping me out… it’s just that I’m going to need that help a little bit longer today.”
“Right away?” I replied with a hint of panic in my voice
Pallet nodded as she replied “And right now one of my best artists is trying to recover and Celestia wants me to find a few more candidates to show off during the Cultural festival. Something to help show how Equestria has grown along with sharing parts of the culture of those who have found themselves lost in Equestria.”
I slowly nodded my head “Yes, but why do you need my help?”
Pallet smirked as she replied “Because you're honest and if someone claims a work, song, lyric, or quote that is not theirs then it would be best to quickly remove them and focus on those who are more deserving.”
“Besides…” Pallet continued as she pulled out a scroll and a bottle of ink with a quill “Not all of Equestria’s allies have gotten to know about certain cultural aspects of the adventurers or newer allies like Griffin Stone or Thunder Peek need a good impression of Equestria.”
I gulped as I caught on to the unspoken message “You mean politics.”
Pallet nodded “It is not enough to simply take a good tale. History needs to be shown or something to help stand out from the rest. There can be a theme or a trick being done, but what needs to be shown is an aspect or understand that shows a piece of civilization revealing to nobles of other lands that you are not mindless warriors who only know how to strike their foes with their swords.”
“And something to help stand out if it is shown to a noble.” I quickly added.
Pallet sighed as she slowly nodded her head “While rap and techno are ‘valid’ forms of music I doubt certain groups of high society would also agree.”
I shivered as I could deal with techno… and I did like certain rap songs it was just that I hated most forms of rap and techno music. I tried not to even think about songs or limericks that were written in a different language as some quickly start to sound strange or ‘off’ when you translated them to English.
An earth pony walked into the bar only to stare at me “Is this the pony that you hired?”
Pallet nodded her head “He has helped me out with another problem and he should be able to help point out anypony who is claiming a piece of art as their own original Noble House.”
I bit my lip as I waited to see which group would go first “So… are any of them going to sing or…”
Noble House rolled his eyes “Another group is dealing with songs as… some ponies had a few good songs but were worried about some sort of Mouse from Disney appearing if they sang the songs at a festival. Also I am not sure about some of the… forms or music that your culture has.”
I couldn’t help but smile “You mean rap or techno…”
“Rock and Roll is also one…” Noble House replied in slight annoyance “Or any things that involves generating enough noise to shake the very foundations of a stage.”
I looked back at the center of the room… the room was mostly empty except for the three seats we had and the rather large clock that hung above the door. This almost felt like American idol in a sense… all that was missing was a stage and someone who could give enough insults to make people cry and yet keep them watching for more.
I took a deep breath as all I had to do was just give an honest opinion and point out someone using any famous lines or paintings from history. How hard could it be?
******
I sat in one of the chair inside the some random room back in the museum as the room was almost empty. The walls were left with a simple white coat of paint. The chairs were rather comfortable… as they kind of reminded me of the Crystal Chairs in Twilight’s Castle. They were large enough for you to sit/stand on as if you were a cat except they were made out of wood and the back support didn’t tower over your head.
Pallet sat in between me and Noble House as the rest of the room was left bare… making us seem almost like some sort of council that decided the fate and lives of people below them. I mean we were judging what would be shown to be presented in a Cultural Festival… but not determining if somebody was being judged guilty or being sentenced to death.
A diamond dog walked into the room as he stared at us with a slight hint of nervous fear as… the chairs were kind of imposing. Still he kept his back straight and placed down his set of art supplies and presented a black canvas to us.
He made a slight bow towards us and replied “My name is Smith.”
Noble House glanced at the black canvas “And what is this?”
The former human turned and shook his head “Oh I’m more of a speed painter. The canvas was covered in black gesso as I let it dry before putting sap green in the middle and blue around the outside.”
Noble House stared at the painting in confusion “It still looks black to me.”
I also had to admit that it did seem a little bit strange seeing a black canvas. Most painters or sketch artist I had seen at a park used white paper… and that was mostly drawing someone’s face. Sure it helped earn a couple of bits, but I wasn’t sure if this would be enough to impression Pallet or Noble House.
Smith nodded his head as he didn’t seem worried “Art supplies were also cheaper back home. Now I’m going to be adding white to the painting as your friend wanted a drawing a picture of the northern lights.”
“Why white?” I couldn’t help but ask.
Smith chuckled “Because that color will be able to pick up the blue and green I already put on the painting. All that’s left is showing off and painting the picture.”
“Showing off?” Noble House asked in confusion again.
Smith glanced at the Canterlot unicorn “Art supplies are cheaper back home and being labeled a professional artist or making a career out of it… I’m just not one of them. Still I’d like a spot to help inspire a couple of other artists or show them a few new tricks. If you have any questions please wait until the end.”
Smith turned back to the painting as he started to get to work. At first his work seemed a little bit sloppy as he made a couple of crude brush strokes to make the ‘northern lights’ only to go back other with a dry brush smearing the paint a little before going back against with a wet brush with water to make to appear much better.
He quickly swapped his paint brush for a wooden stick… the end was more of a curved as he placed a dab of paint on the end of it before spreading it across the side of the painting. The more paint he added gave a thicker layer of white and the less paint he placed on it gave a lighter shade to help create depth in the painting as he was adding mountains to it. He finished off the mountains by using the drying brush as he went back to painting again.
He quickly grabbed one of his smaller brushes and started making lines underneath the mountain which soon turned into trees as he finished off the bottom of the painting with a few quick brush strokes. The brighter areas of white were used to mark the land as the more murky area near the center of the bottom of the picture was then turned into a lake.
I saw the smile on his face as he added a few trees near the front of the picture and even added a bit of snow onto them. It was a rather good painting he had made in just under ten minutes.
Smith smiled at Noble House and grinned “You’d be surprised at what you can accomplish with just three colors and a few minutes of your day.”
Pallet smirked as he had used only a few colors to accomplish his piece of art. It was fast, used a limited pallet… and helped showed how creative some people could be.
Pallet looked at the painting for a little bit longer before replying “So you are just making copies of this painting?”
Smith rubbed the back of his head “I have a few others and some friends who also do a bit of speed painting like this. All we just ask is for someone to give us the supplies we need. Then you can just auction off the paintings made and either donate it to whatever cause is being done.”
Noble House nodded as ‘free money’ was golden to his ears. Pallet seemed interested the technique as he helped explain what he was doing and the reason behind it. He also showed what could be done with a limited pallet and the ‘showing off’ as Equestria apparently didn’t have ‘speed painting’ in the same way on earth or it wasn’t held in the same manner.
I glanced at the other two “Any complaints?”
They shook their head as Noble House replied “Just give us a list of supplies that you need and the names of those who are also attending. We’ll get a booth ready for you, but just be prepared if someone asks for something a little bit more complicated.”
Smith nodded his head “I understand. I’ll just add that we will not be drawing any famous monuments as we are not familiar with all of them… much less how certain famous castles are suppose to look like.”
Pallet nodded as she wrote it down as Smith left the room. I took a deep breath as this didn’t seem too bad.
The next person entered the room revealing herself to be a tan Unicorn with chestnut mane and a cutie mark of a pile of sand. She pulled out a glass panel of a rather impressive image of the great wall of china along with a Chinese dragon fighting a tiger.
She took a deep breath “My name is Terra and I don’t have the same budget or talent with paint but I do have a knack for sand. I can show you a drawing to prove I don’t simply ‘magic’ up a painting.”
Noble House frowned a little as Pallet replied “What is the painting that you currently have?”
The unicorn looked at the windows “Can we close the blinds first.” The lights were dimmed leaving the room dark as she light up her horn revealing the depth and detail of her painting with a light behind it “It’s an image of the Great Wall of China… a bit of Chinese culture.”
Noble house nodded “And the art?”
Terra took a deep breath as she tried to keep calm “It’s sand art… or for some Sand Animation. Sand Art like the painting is just a painting used by certain amounts of sand to generate darker shadows or lighter shades of light across the painting. You hold it up behind a light or a candle and you get a black and white painting for to look at.”
She looked down back at the spare sheet of glass she had “As for Sand Animation that is a technique and style used by adding amounts of sand to the painting and drawing out scenes. Then adjust or modifying parts of the painting to add new detail or help make a story as the sand if shift about from scene to scene. Usually it’s done with fingers… or wings… just something to help pour sand and move it about.”
Pallet rubbed her chin “Can you show us?”
She put down the glass as she pulled out a container full of sand along with a candle. The glass was placed over what looked like a small table without any paneling as the candle underneath started to flicker.
She walked out of the room and said “Fiddle, Echo I’ll need your help.”
A griffin and a unicorn entered the room as the griffin seemed to have various objects with her as the unicorn nodded. In a flash of azure blue light a copy of the glass on the table appeared on the wall like an old movie screen as the griffin pulled out a guitar and played a few notes as Terra went to work.
She grabbed a handful of sand and slowly poured enough onto the glass creating a fishing pier as she used a light sprinkle of sand to create a setting sun. We watched her use her magic to slowly parcel out more sand underneath the pier creating shadows before making a sunset over the ocean before finish with an Earth Pony sitting at the edge of the pier.
Pallet looked at Terra in curiosity as she adventure started pushed away some of the sand at the opposite end of the pier as the buildup of sand started making the outline of a face. Terra moved back to her container of sand as she made eyes and a mouth to the ‘pony’ before it took on the shape of a siren.
Sand was added underneath the ‘head’ creating a shadow as if the siren was rising out of the ocean as she was soon holding the earth pony at the palm of her hoof before blowing as the sand was shifted obscuring the sea and the pier into a breeze of air. The earth pony was then obscured as the sand as pushed aside leaving the image of a bird flying in the sky. The breeze continued to grow removing the siren from the picture only for another bird to be made as it was pointed at the bird that was on the pier.
More sand was pushed away until the two birds grew closer as the image grew until they finally touched. Sand was placed back onto the painting darkening the image leaving the faces of the two birds. Terra shifted the sand away from the bird faces creating an earth pony and a Siren kissing each other in romantic embrace.
The music continued to shift as Terra wiped away the two ponies leaving a bright outline of a moon and a trail. She moved the sand creating small trails of light as the straight trail of light became a path of light left in the ocean as the earth pony and siren stood next to each other as birds flew in the light of the moon.
The sand shifted in the ocean slowly bloomed into trees and flowers as the setting moon and couple were replaced with a bright heart. Sand was slowly added as the couple stood at the on a fallen log as the earth pony and siren and a foal.
The music ended as Terra smiled “Do the pictures or the ‘sand animation’ interest you?”
Pallet slowly nodded her head “It was certainly different.”
I smiled as things were looking up. Maybe this was just the break I needed from all the madness. I just needed to take a good look at the things in life and try not to think about my problems or how nobody seemed to know how to draw a human.
******
I had seen many forms and pieces of art. Some stood out as pieces of earth culture adapted to Equestrian understanding… others of pieces of history drawn out like when the Berlin wall was torn down. Some pieces of art were simply not accepted as they were not interesting enough and others…
The human turned earth pony smiled “What do you think?”
“What is that?” Noble House spoke out in disbelief “No I mean what is that?”
Pallet shook her head “It doesn’t seem to be paint of any type that I know of.”
“It’s a human!” He spoke out loud with a mad grin.
I looked at the… tapestry? I don’t think it was a painting considering most of them used a canvas… and their paintings didn’t look like they moved. I mean sure there were optical illusions where you could make a painting look 3D but I could almost swear some of the lines were literally moving on their own!
The object in question made me shiver as various colors mashed together only for dark shadowed black lines to flicker about making shapes and images my mind couldn’t possibly understand… and apparently I wasn’t the only one judging from the slightly worried faces of Noble House and Pallet.
I kept watching them as Pallet hesitantly replied “An Adventurer? Uh… what type of adventurer?”
The former human chuckled as his smile seemed a little bit hinged as he replied “Hu-man.”
I looked back at them as Noble House replied “Adventurer?”
He shook his head as he seemed to grow more frustrated “I’m not crazy. Miss Eiferer had illegally placed me in that Asylum. I am sane. Completely sane!”
I shivered as I dreaded asking my question “What exactly is your… object made out of?”
The former human glanced at his art piece as he replied “Blood, sweat, and tears.”
Pallet glanced at me as she whispered “That’s an expression right?”
I chuckled nervously “Just checking what it’s made out of so that we can make sure that we can place it within the right conditions… Saddle Arabia is bringing an ice sculptor and some of the paintings need protection from humidity or sun…”
The former human nodded “Oh… It’s mostly hair… a few scales and feathers…”
“How was this piece even accepted?” Noble House spoke out in slight horror.
The former human scrunched his face “I think Gilded Coffers said he liked the emotion the tapestry gave off and the glance into a sight unseen by most.”
I slowly nodded my head “Okay we’ll get in contact with you if there is a spot available to help… preserve the tapestry.”
The former human nodded as he dragged it out of the room as there wasn’t anything left behind. We all waited a few moments before he left to tell each other our real feelings about the art he had made.
Noble House shoved his face into his hooves and muttered “How in Celestia’s name was that even allowed to be made?”
Pallet shivered as she tried to come up with a positive comment “Well it was… an accurate feeling or description of madness. The unseen lines trying blur together to bring forth images that have been forgotten by the mind as you are left with a sense of unease glimpsing at something you should know, but can no longer remember?”
My skin froze as a chill washed over me as the tapestry came back to my mind as I accidently spoke out loud “The Tentacled horror from beyond my stars spoke, and Von Neumann help me, in my madness, I understood its words.”
Noble House slowly nodded his head “Alright let me rephrase that… How was it allowed to even be made? I mean… did you hear what he used to make it?”
I shivered as I remember the items “What was that part about Eiferer?”
Pallet face hoofed as she muttered “She was the earth pony who tried an alternative method in helping or dealing with the adventurer population. They had memory loss and as you saw with… did anypony catch his name?”
Noble House shook his head “I think the cursed tapestry seared his name from our minds.”
“It’s not cursed simply because there was no magic in the tapestry…” Pallet replied with slight hesitation “Being placed in an asylum for the mad built just for them probably had a few side effects. I mean what did he mean by stating it was an adventurer? That’s just a title or a term like princess or mayor… is Adventurer the term of an actual race?”
It took a few moments for my brain to finally register what was just said. The sanity impaired human had just said human and everyone else heard the word adventurer… was the word human actually censored?
“You mean human?” I asked out loud
Noble House shook his head “Is adventurer an actual race or are you still trying to recover from the tapestry?”
I shook my head as I prepared to save my own butt… and send out a slight warning to everyone else in the tavern/adventurer community… just as soon as I figure out how to do so without sounding insane.
“Sort of…” I replied out loud “I mean in the same way Princess in Equestria could be counted as a term for alicorn or Celestia, but most people would say adventurer is an occupation.”
Noble House slowly nodded his head “One last question… is the stories of Lovecraft fictional stories or nonfiction considering that line you tossed out?”
I shook my head as I quickly replied “Oh sorry about that… I just sort of realized the meaning behind the madness as it suddenly made sense to me… not that he’s a part of an eldritch cult. It might be a good idea to get him away from that tapestry and into a support group or something.”
Pallet slowly nodded her head “I’m also making a note for Celestia or somepony to check up on Gilded Coffers just to be safe.”
I nodded my head as anything non-magical that could make a magical unicorn question if it was cursed or not was probably worth a note of concern. I looked back at where the tapestry once stood as I could only imagine how bad it would have been being trapped in an asylum trying to say your human… only to have everyone else hear that you're saying you’re an adventurer.
The fact that nobody could seem to draw a human wouldn’t help and then being tossed into a room with other sane people slowly growing insane… No wonder some of them went a little bit nuts. It also explained how nobody seemed to be able to say they were human…
I pulled up my menu as it had been such a long time. I looked at the arcane device as no one could really see it. No one could read any of the messages sent by it unless it was to another adventurer… any language you spoke was automatically shifted to ‘English’ or Equestrian so to speak. So when you put it like that then it wouldn’t be surprising to find out that the word human was also censored.
Why was that word censored? We’ve been here for a while and technically we’ve done far more ‘damaging things’ like building certain inventions early or raising an army of killer drones to attack people. We’ve got a magical system that can literally make us into heroes of old or walking power houses. So what made human a term to be censored when we could do just about literally anything else?
I shook my head as the more answers I found only seem to lead to more questions. I wished there was somebody else I could talk to or dump these questions on.
Noble House took a deep breath “Okay now that we’ve recovered from that show… let’s see what the next one holds.”
The door opened up as a former human turned changeling grinned “The Le Frolif Nor Tof!”
I frowned as he was trying to sound fancy but in reality he was just making up words to hide the excuse for his garbage… no it was pieces of toothpicks, a few shards of broken ceramic and glass before a pile of glow or some sort of sticky substance held it into a vague shape as the ‘cave’ was still had bits of feather, scrolls, and whatever else didn’t stick to the mass of the stick substance.
Pallet looked at the piece with interest and Noble House rubbed his chin. The changeling grinned as I promptly face palmed. I wonder if this was how ‘modern art’ was started? Did someone accidentally spill a bit of glitter glow into their garbage and pulled it out to displace as a unique piece of artwork?
I mean no one could have made that piece if they actually tried making it as I was expecting to see a piece of a soda can mixed into it.
Pallet spoke up “So where did the inspiration of the piece come from?”
The changeling put a hoof over his heart “A simple modest changeling home out in the deep lands of my homeland.”
I felt like groaning as he was trying to pretend it was something. Nobody knew what a changeling was and nobody could really say a changeling home didn’t look like that since nobody had really seen one.
I felt like cringing as Noble House replied “And what is the exact translation of the piece that you just said?”
The changeling took a deep breath “The noble home of the simple worker… of course some of its meaning is lost in translation.”
Noble House looked at me as he didn’t seem to be buying the former human’s story and Pallet was somewhere debating on the line that separated garbage from art. Yes art is a matter of perspective… but this was just pushing it.
I shook my head as Noble House nodded as he gladly replied “Sorry but this is not one of the pieces we are looking for.”
The changeling frowned as he replied “You’re not doing this out of an attempt to discriminate the changeling population?”
I groaned as I quickly replied “No we are not…”
The changeling marched out of the room muttering something about a lawyer or something. I tried not to sigh as I did expect a few bad eggs.
Hopefully the next one would be… oh sweet Celestia.
The former human turned diamond dog was carrying what looked like painting of a cheese burger as she smiled “Simple pleasures.”
I just simply buried my face in my hooves and prayed to god that they didn’t pick it.