//------------------------------// // Pins and Needlehorns // Story: Tales of Foxtor // by Foxtorwho //------------------------------// The long road was ahead and I was already feeling homesick, despite having half of what made home home travelling alongside me.  I turned to Sovent and Fidget to see if they maybe felt the same but from their looks of excitement I decided that it was unlikely. “So Seraph,” I trotted lightly forward til I was alongside him“what's it like in the crystal city?” He turned his head to look me over for a second before looking ahead, there was an old stone bridge in an arch just before the road turned slightly into town.  Instead of taking the bridge he jumped lightly into the river, the dried blood on his hide and robes billowed around him before being swept away by the current.  He climbed up the bank before engulfing himself in magic and spraying the three of us with ice cold water. He laughed “Apart from it being unbearable cold outside the capital city there's not much to tell” he glanced down at his robes with a sigh, noticing all the stab holes in them “Shimmer Stitch is gonna kill me” he said as he walked into a beam of sunlight and cast a shimmer across the tree trunks around him. I shivered a bit as the cold water struck me and my jaw couldn't help but drop at the sight of the crystal ponies coat in the sunlight. After a few seconds he stepped back into the shade and put his hood up, he turned and his golden eyes glowed softly as he looked us over with a smirk. “Before you ask, yes we all do that” he said with a soft chuckle before crossing the bridge into town. The town was called Needlehorn due to an old natural rock formation that looked like a long unicorn horn in the center of town.  The houses were a mixture of single story and two story built out of logs and other bits of scrap wood mostly shaded by the trees that were quite a bit taller than any structure in the town other than Needle.  Artogus had somehow beat us into town and was on top of the tallest building delegating an evacuation of the town. “Grab only the essentials! The followers of Discord have no want for any of your valuables” He stood proudly upon his rooftop, pointing at individuals with a hoof as he spoke to them, though none of them seemed to be cooperating with his directions.  They all looked up at him in confusion.  Who was this strange zebra to tell them what to do?  How do they know that they could trust said zebra?  Most of the townsfolk just started to ignore him and went back to their daily routine, which at this point in the day was sleeping. We all looked up at him with concern before he dropped lightly to the street. “I’ll keep working on them later” he said, looking our party over slowly “you all need to get going though if you want to have any chance of helping an old zebra do his job” he said with a wink as he pulled out his pipe, lighting it on a nearby torch and walking towards where we came from. Seraph trotted briskly past Needle “he's right you know, this town will need more fighters if he can't convince them to go and by the looks of it they're not going to budge.” Sovent snorted “If they're not gonna leave then we shouldn't be leaving Arto by himself to fight.” Fidget nodded in approval while I stayed quiet, not needing to say anything, both of them knew me well enough to know my answer. Seraph sighed and glared gently at us “if you three decide to stay you'll be making the journey to the crystal city alone, without a guide” he sat down at the foot of a huge oak tree whose roots formed a natural bench in the middle of the street and stared at us “I shouldn't have to explain why I don't want to encounter tham again…” he trailed off before shuddering slightly before regaining his cool composure. Putting a hoof to my chin I tried to think of a way to make this work for everyone which proved difficult seeing as I had yet to see anything farther than half a day's trot of Hightower. “How likely is it that they'll even find Needlehorn?” He shrugged “they're not exactly known for being great navigators, they're basically just mobs of insane ponies with a hyper-insane leader” he dug in a chest pocket and pulled out a map which he laid down on the ground in front of us all. We all gathered close around the old map in awe, having never seen a full map of what would someday be known as Equestria.  The map showed that the south was dry, swampy, and hot while the north was cold and barren. The center of the map was green from coast to coast with Canterhorns tall spire drawn in the dead center. I put a hoof on the map where Needlehorn was...it was wet.  I sighed, “this is us, where did you encounter your attackers?” I wiped my hoof on my cloak before looking up at Seraph. He pointed to a spot to the Northwest where a bunch of half circles of different greens were drawn “I encountered them in the Roiling Plains, didn't even see them til I was right on top of them” “Weren't we going to be travelling that way anyway? Why don't we just be ready for a fight and make ‘em hurt along the way to the crystal city?” Fidget said running a wingtip from Needlepoint to the frozen north. Seraph shook his head “I’d rather not encounter them with a group of 3 novices.  You don't even have your blades yet, it'd be a slaughter” He pointed at the map farther west “ this region was where the followers first were documented, it's taken almost 20 years for them to travel this far east.  I don't think they'll reach the village until long after you've returned” I looked at the distance between Needlehorn and the point Seraph made out west and nodded “I think I'm comfortable with the distance then.” I looked to Jolt and Sovent and got a silent nod from them both “But what of the Roiling Plains? Shouldn't we be avoiding them if we know they're being watched?” He seemed to ignore my question and instead scooped the map up in the white aura of his magic and neatly folded it, putting it back in the pouch it came from.  “Shall we go?” He took a few steps toward the road north before looking back at us. I took a long look back at Needlehorn before turning and following Seraph. ------- I stopped speaking when I noticed a beam of light shining down into the center of the training area, silhouetting the stained glass dome onto the floor, two crescent moons opening to either side of the sigil of my order.  I blinked my focus away before looking at the girls who had fallen asleep on the dusty old couch.  After a second of thinking about the day I realized that the three of them were late for school.  “Hey!  You’re late for school fillies!” I woke the three of them with a start and I never saw a pony who climbed the stairs out of the sanctuary that fast before or since. I tapped a gemstone near the stairs and the flames illuminating the sanctuary died quickly before I climbed the stairs in darkness up to my home where I was greeted by a soft ringing coming from near my bed.  Looking to it I saw my homemade device to let me know my mail had arrived was active and was accompanied by the presence of my pet phoenix, Lapis.  Both Celestia and I had acquired our phoenixes at the same time, mine a lovely deep blue color and hers a rich red that she named Philomena.  I greeted Lapis with a light scratch under her chin, causing her to coo softly.  “Good morning beautiful, did you find me some mail?”  She nodded enthusiastically as I floated the letters from the hanging basket.  One from Zecora, one Rarity and one from Trixie.  “Huh.  Haven't heard from Trixie in a long while.  I wonder how she is” I said as I opened her letter first. Foxtor, I took your advice and decided to try being a magician it's worked out wonderfully and I’ve made enough to buy a house on the north side of the lake Ponyville is next to… I forget its name. I was hoping to have you over so we could catch up soon and let me thank you for the advice.   Write back soon, The Great and Powerful Trixie! I laughed and set her letter aside to respond later and went to open Rarity’s letter pausing a moment to admire the purple wax seal she used to close it before cracking it and opening it wide. Don't forget our appointment Foxtor, meet me at the boutique at noon. ,Rarity Her writing was a beautiful flowing calligraphy that had to be more work to write in than it was worth, but I had to admire her quest to make everything in her day as beautiful as possible.  Zecora’s letter was a plain scroll tied shut with a blade of grass from the Everfree forest. The message itself was written in the zebra alphabet made up of swirling angular glyphs, which my grasp on was a little rusty, so it took a few minutes to read. Foxtor I’ve cooked your requested brew Come see me tonight when the dew is new Then the future you seek will come into view I tossed the other two letters onto my desk with Trixie’s letter, tossing Lapis a treat as I trotted out the door and towards town. ------- My walk to Ponyville seemed shorter than normal due to the immense amount of thoughts that were running through my head.  Why were things so quiet across Equestria?  I hadn't heard word from any of the individual orders of the assassin brotherhood apart from them disbanding in over a year.  News that I would normally be happy to hear, but after all my years as an assassin I knew better than to not be suspicious about the lack of problems, hence my request from Zecora. My train of thought was interrupted by the stone arch bridge into Ponyville, the same one Seraph took a dip next to to wash all the blood off himself.  The river that it crossed was dammed and diverted into the river that passed by my house long ago, leaving a shallow creek that gave off a gentle babble of water.  I leaned over the rail of the bridge and looked down, watching a small fish lazily swim against the current for a few moments. Ponyville was strangely empty today, the usually busy streets were nearly barren save a few lone ponies who were wearing warm clothing to stave off the fall chill in the air.  One turned and stared at me for a few moments, looking me over with a perplexed look.  It was uncommon for me to go to town without my robes on so most of Ponyville didn't realize I was part fox, my coat threw most ponies off guard.  The mare waved at me once she saw me notice me staring at her, I waved back to be polite and shook my head a little some ponies I tell you I thought to myself. I arrived at the boutique right as the town clock hit 12, knocking once before entering and being greeted by the gentle scent of fabric and a slight hint of a familiar mares perfume “Good afternoon Rarity” I said, coaxing her head out from behind her sewing machine. “Ah! Is it that time already?  Time truly flies when busy doesn't it?” she said as she floated her red rimmed glasses off and onto the desk. “Please pardon my mess darling, I’m in the midst of crafting my spring line while my inspiration is still fresh in my memory” I smiled and shook my head “Consider it pardoned” I chuckled. She smiled and floated a measuring tape out of her desk drawer and as fast as I could blink she measured everything she needed to make me the robes she promised. “That's all I need” she said floating a drawing to me “Sweetie Belle dropped by on her way to class today and said she saw this in one of your journals.  Is this something you wear often?” I looked at the drawing and smiled softly.  It was a highly detailed drawing of familiar armor with swirling designs laid into its surface with a slightly lighter metal. “your sister is quite the artist, I’m surprised she was able to draw this from memory so accurately” I nodded “I do wear it quite often too, not as often as I used to but still..” Rarity smiled and floated another drawing over “Lovely!  I had this drawn up in preparation” the drawing was of a faceless pony wearing a long coat with buttons from the belly up to it neck, using a white and black sash as an accent under the belt in addition to the armor Sweetie Belle drew.  “As tacky as I find it I plan to make the robes themselves out of a nice leather and will color match the dye to match your favorite princesses coat”  she said the last part with a wink, getting a bit of a blush out of me. I nodded, Sweetie Belle had obviously took in a lot of information when she was looking through my journals with Scootaloo and Applebloom.  “I excited to see them finished” I said grinning at her. “Well if you don't have anything going on today you're welcome to stay here and relax while I work on them.  Sweetie Belle and the others were planning on spending the evening here and I’m sure they'd love to hear more of your story..” she looked at me amusedly. I rolled my eyes and flopped onto a red velvet chaise in the middle of the room. “ They enjoy my story that much huh?” She swapped out the thread from her sewing machine and proceeded to draw out a pattern onto a sheet of leather “The girls seem to love it, it seems like a dreadfully dark tale to me but if you tell it while I’m in the room I’ll have no choice but to listen won't I?” I glared at her for a moment before she glanced up and giggled “I’m sorry darling, it just doesn't seem like the kind of story I’d enjoy, being a mare who looks ahead and plans for it as a job” she put a hood to her chin “But looking ahead sometimes means looking back as well so maybe it would be good for me to hear after all” I was about to respond when the door to the boutique swung wide and Sweetie, Scootaloo and Applebloom walked in dripping wet, it must've started raining not long after I arrived and the three of them had got out of school in a downpour.  I laughed at the three “did you swim here?” I asked.  My answer came in the form of Applebloom shaking like a dog and spraying water all over me as well as the room around her, causing me to scowl and blow a airy raspberry to attempt to get droplets off my muzzle as well as a shriek of annoyance from Rarity. “Applebloom!” She said in her dramatically exasperated tone she so often used “Heh sorry Rarity” she said as she watched her fling water droplets off a full sheet of blue hide she was planning out the cuts on before grabbing a stack of towels with her magic, tossing them onto the fillies. “Dry yourselves off, you're ruining the couverture” she said before getting back to work on the sheet. One of the many things I had to admire about the mare was her near seamless transitions from French to Ponish, I’d yet to see another who had the skill.  I looked down at the three fillies sitting on the floor in front of me, towels draped over their backs staring at me. “I suppose you want me to keep the story going” I said with a slight eye roll and the three of them nodded in unison.  Chuckling and opening my mouth to start I was interrupted by the front door of the boutique slamming open again and a familiar purple pony trot in and get ready to shake off like the fillies before I grabbed Scootaloo’s towel in my magic and threw it at her.  “Careful Twilight, you don't want to cause a storm in here too.” Rarity raised an eyebrow at me and frowned. Twilight giggled and dried herself off, sitting down next to the fillies “Sorry! I’m just so excited.  Princess Celestia said you were old but I didn't realize you were a thousand years kind of old.  When I heard you were telling tales of the pre-princess days I just had to come here and hear for myself, and take lots of notes!”  she pulled out a stack of thick notebooks, a quill and a inkwell before looking at me with a manic grin. I sighed softly before smiling “I suppose you can…”  I leaned back and adjusted the pillows on the chaise while I thought about where I had left off, getting slightly distracted by the designs carved into the ceiling for a split second before catching my train of thought again.  “So we traveled north from Needlehorn…”