A closer inspection of Watts Onion and his features: He was a bright yellow unicorn, having on him a green mane and a green tail with no other color on them. His tipped hat was a straw hat—a simple one, with no ribbons, flowers, or any other acessories or embellishments. The color of his irises was green just like his mane. His cutie mark consisted of two parts: an onion bulb and a bolt of lightning.
Right now, he had a gruff look upon his face, his eyes slightly bagged and tired, though the shadow from the hat hid much of the work implied.
"Watts Onion, why exactly are you here?" the same guard from before asked, still in that deep baritone voice but with a suggestion of peaked curiosity. "I didn't expect an onion farmer to be called here by the Princess herself."
"I don't know, either," he answered. "I thought you would know. You're the guards around here, right?"
"Look, Watts Onion," the guard said, firming up his tone and pointing a hoof at him—eyes narrowed dead straight. "I will not deny the recent string of defeats that the E.U.P. Guard has suffered. But, that is no excuse to disrespect and to mistreat us."
The stallion gulped, his rough attitude cracking.
"Do you understand, sir?"
Watts Onion sighed. "Fine. There, I said it. I'll mindlessly obey every—"
"And, subtle insults also count against you."
"OK, I'll dismiss that, too."
"Ambiguous talk can be used against you, too."
Watts Onion flailed his front hooves in the air. "What am I supposed to agree to, then?!"
"Stay calm, stay behaved. If you can follow those rules, then I'm sure we'll have a good time."
The stallion gave one more sigh before he resigned himself again to just sitting down on the royal castle floor.
A few minutes later, a creak.
Everyone inside looked at the door.
Shining under the early morning moonlight, glistening in its soft brightness, beaming with subtle sparkle—that was Princess Luna, entering the grand hallway, her mane and her tail flowing in their ethereal movements.
Everyone bowed down to the Princess of the Night, inlcuding Watts Onion.
A tense, thick silence.
Hoofsteps as the Princess walked on the red royal carpet.
Finally, she stood in front of the called for stallion, Watts Onion.
He was trembling, shaking. Teeth clattering, eyes closed.
"I am Princess Luna," she began, holding in her sway that commanding voice of a leader. "But, I believe that you know that already, Watts Onion. And, I have also observed one thing from you already."
Watts Onion merely peeked out from his shivering state. "W-what is it, Princess Luna?"
"That you haven't me before," Luna answered. "That I have only read your name and your credentials, never actually meeting you in person whether it is in this world or in the dream realm, though I do know your appearance from quick glances."
The stallion was still in that trembling terror. "OK, Princess. OK!" he managed to blurt out. "Now, w-why did you call me here, Princess Luna?"
Luna assumed a straighter position. "Watts Onion, you are to be tasked with the objective of investigating Winsome Falls for anything that is of note. Whether it be of suspicious activity committed by anypony or anyone else, or it be of some historical, long-forgotten treasure or relic that has been abandoned for reasons unknown."
"Why? W-what's wrong with Winsome Falls?" the stallion asked, slightly stuttering.
"I have garnered no specific reason," Luna replied, now pacing the floor but keeping her eye on Watts Onion. "The only thing that I am sure of is that there is a mystery, a peculiar anomaly, that must be solved and that must be cleared up. It may prove to be an embarrassment if it reveals itself to be a false alarm, but if it is something worthy of further interest and action, then it must be handled with almost immediately."
Then, she stopped pacing.
"I'm sorry to interrupt, Princess, but I don't understand."
Luna sighed. "You understand what I just said, right?"
"That, I do. But, w-why me? I-I'm just a simple unicorn farmer who plants and h-harvests o-onions. I've never done some i-investigating in my life."
"If you are concerned about there being not enough ponies to finish the task, then you are more than free to bring in some friends who you think are capable of solving the mystery or, at the very least, figure out what's going on over there."
"But, again, Princess—I a-apologize for further delaying your night duty, b-but, w-why me? Am I going to b-be the leader of the group?"
"For now, you are."
The guards merely watched, seeing the quavering stallion still in that nervous bow to the calm and collected Princess of regal composure. Some of them looked astounded, eyes wide at that proposition that the onion farmer was to be a leader of a group ordained by the Princess.
"I don't k-know what to say, Princess," Watts Onion finally said, his voice trembling still as he slowly stood up to a stand. "I f-feel overwhelmed by it all. What will my f-family say about this? M-my friends? The other ponies i-in town?"
"I am certain that they will almost be envious of your post," Luna said. "But, it is not to be held lightly—stumbling upon truths may unnerve the ponies unprepared for the act."
"I f-fully and I want to really, Princess," the stallion replied—though still shaking, was now more stable and brought about a smile on his face. "Whatever it takes to do w-what's right and good for E-equestria."
"So he says," a guard muttered under his breath and beneath suspicion.
Watts Onion bowed again, prostrating himself on the floor—trembling.
Everyone else looked upon this singular act.
Silence.
Luna took a few steps forward—slow, gentle steps.
She brought a hoof to the stallion's chin.
The stallion looked up.
A moonlit smile on Luna's face.
In that quiet night.
Yellow carriage fast on the lonely dirt road in the middle of the quiet night. The stars were still in their full number, the moon was still in its brightest condition—both shone their light upon the solitary landscape as a cool breeze brushed by, sweeping the fields of grass and the branches with leaves with its wind. Chirps of the crickets, hoots of the owls—they decorated and topped the land in its night.
The creak and clamber of the wooden wheels dashing, rotating in quick succession. The burly puller of the carriage galloping, speeding past the groups of apple trees and the bushes of flowers. Pants and gasps for air, although they didn't stop him from staying the course and maintaining his pace.
Inside the carriage, on the cushioned seat, lay a sleeping and snoring Watts Onion with a pillow on his head. A smile was across his face in between snores. Through the bumps, the twists, the turns—all that was sudden—Watts Onion slept soundly through it all, and even had a smile on his face.
Soon, buildings appeared in the distance—a settlement, a village of thatched cottages covered in hay roofs. Several lights were on, though not that many as could be seen from the not-so-near location of the carriage. Though, cresting over the hill, the pulling stallion finally came into a complete view of the town.
It wasn't a big town. It was quite small.
Fields of produce were at the outskirts—trees and ground crops were together in this place. Most of the buildings looked similar to each other, having those two characteristics that were there in other towns as well—thatches and hay roofs. Streetlights illuminated the town and, at this hour, they were the primary source of light since most of the building lights were off.
However, it was too far away to ascertain any more details of the town.
The carriage got nearer and nearer, pulling in at great haste.
Finally, it went past a wooden sign. The sign proclaimed, in bold letters: "Welcome to Ambling!"
A closer look of the town yielded a fuller result.
At the very early hours of the day, a few hours before the sunrise with its heralding of a brand new day in blue sky and white clouds and luminous sunshine, there weren't that many ponies outside. The ponies that were outside gave Ambling an amicable and amiable atmosphere to allay tiredness in: good cheer and loud yet courteous laughter being shared by groups of few yet close ponies, rumblings of carts and boxes as preparations went under way for the markets to open in the morning, interior lights showing ponies either writing now-unseen letters or reading novels at candlelight.
The road was still dirt, but it was now smoother and cleaner—less trash.
The pulling stallion slowed down, going from a gallop to a walk as he took in copious amounts of fresh air, passing by several houses.
Past a few glaring streetlights, past several ponies who gave the carriage no deep thought with a long look.
Then, stop.
The stallion, still tied to the carriage, walked up to the door, jumped up to the inside, and looked upon the resting Watts Onion.
A tap on the shoulder.
He groaned and yawned as he stretched his forehooves, his eyes opening with a leisurely start.
"I hope you had a good sleep back there," the pulling stallon said. "Now, it's time to go."
Watts Onion looked at the pony with a rested but haggard face.
"Come on, sir," he went on, urging him with an impatient hoof wave. "I don't have all night."
Watts Onion groaned again, stretching his forehooves again as he once more yawned.
"Will you stop with that?" he asked. "You're not making good use of me being as fast as I could."
"OK, OK!" the passenger answered, annoyed in tone and waving the driver off with his own hoof. "I'm sorry, but I have an important thing going on in this place right now, and I need every moment of the day to think about it and to plan well."
"Doesn't look like it when you're only sleeping."
"Eh, it'll seem the same," Watts Onion remarked as he hopped off the carriage. He turned to the stallion who then jumped off after him on to solid ground. "You're already paid, right?"
The driver nodded without a word.
"Then, I guess there's nothing else for you to do here," he said. Smiling, he went on. "Thanks for the ride."
"No problem," the driver said, smiling back as he pulled the carriage away, driving it farther down until he turned around at an intersection, finally disappearing behind a row of cottages.
In the morning
Kites—those flying shapes of different colors and of different materials were in the air, adorning the sky with their free range of movement and their freedom of creative expression as each one was different from the other. Those kites gave the Ambling sky a touch of uniqueness like when the other towns had, at times, brought out their own kites with their own flavors and their own styles. Of course, when there were pegasi in the clouds, managing the weather of the day, the town's sky was livened up more as those flying ponies went here and there, bringing in and bringing out clouds of various shapes and sizes to create what was supposed to be a very good sky, perfect for the inhabitants of the town on the ground.
What was there on the ground besides the houses and the stores and the dirt roads? Alongside the aforementioned market—which was small yet teeming with activity as the small crowd gathered there making a lively noise—there were some other attractions and locations inside Ambling that gave its citizens a colorful life: over there was the city park, arrayed in flowers and bushes and trees so arranged as to maximize the beauty that could be gained from the small square which also had a river and a few benches; a little bit beyond the park was the train station, which was merely a simple wooden structure half-surrounding a section of the railroad, providing passsengers a place to alight from a train and a place to board on to a train; a building in the middle of the town that served a public purpose by being purposefully spacious and sparsely decorated with things such as furniture, as it was a building in which any kind of event or occasion could be held in—on the wall was a recorded hoofwritten history of the events that took place there in recent, modern times like the wedding of more than several couples, the birthday parties of a few celebretees, the venue for many a simple blow-out just because it could be done; a simple auditorium where, from time to time, classical music was played with its symphonic melodies and its organized auditory delights as the strings, the brass, the percussion, the winds all played their part in bringing forth the music that sprinkled a typical Ambling day way into the night.
These were only but a few of the several interesting sights and sounds of Ambling.
Now, at a bench, feeding a few ducks on the sidewalk from his place at the bench was a pegasus. He held a bag of breadcrumbs, throwing what's inside on to the ground as the ducks happily ate what was there. There was a smile on the pegasus's face as he continued filling the ducks' bellies.
Watts Onion approached the pegasus as he walked into view. "Hello, Isobar."
Isobar gave the unicorn a smirk. "What are the goings-on lately, Onion?" he asked as he shooed the ducks away.
Onion sat up on the bench. "Not much. Well, it is much, but, hopefully, it'll all be over in a jiffy."
"What's supposed to be over in a jiffy? Got some new hybrid of onion or something? You're the type who likes to try out something new—I wouldn't be surprised if you got some quick-growing onions about you."
A short laugh. "As much as I want to try that one out, I don't think I'll have the time to research on quick-growing onions."
"So, what's the business, then?" Isobar asked, scratching his head which had his white mane. "You've got too many onions so I have to help you?"
"It's not time, yet. Usually." A pause as Onion looked upon the row of buildings in front of him. "Actually, it's more complicated than that."
"How much more? Like, are we going to be going to other kingdoms in search for onions?" Isobar let out a snicker.
"Not that complicated, but it's somewhere on that level."
"So, it is that complicated."
"Not quite."
Isobar gave his friend a slightly less happy look. "What is it? Spill the beans."
"We're going to Winsome Falls," Onion answered.
"Good!" Isobar yelled, grinning and holding his hooves up in the air. "We're going camping! I've always wanted to camp with some buddies. Too much time in the sky made me a bit far-out when it comes to appreciating what you see on the surface. I even bought a new camera for just such the occasion—we can take pictures of the natural plants and animals. After that, I might get too tired of that and I have to get back up to the sky."
"Floating on a cloud throughout the trip wouldn't be so great, would it?" Onion gave Isobar a knowing look. "But, that's beside the point. We're not camping at Winsome Falls. We won't be having picnics and we won't be relaxing at the lakes and at the rainbow falls."
"Then, it's gonna be boring," Isobar said. "What are we going to do there if it's not for camping?"
Onion gulped. He cleared his throat.
That caught the attention of the pegasus who tilted his head in confusion.
"We're going there," Onion replied, "to investigate something."
Some seconds of silence as the pegasus expressed the shock on his face.
"You're joking, right? This is just a joke, right?"
"Why would you think it's a joke?"
"Why else would you wanna say that you're investigating Winsome Falls? What kind of news is going on there? Tell me, huh?" He brought his front hooves to the air in playful protest. "What, huh?"
"What if it was an order by none other than Princess Luna herself?" Onion said.
Now, Isobar gulped. "Princess Luna told you to investigate Winsome Falls?"
"Well, she also told me that I can bring along some friends to help me out. So, by extension, you're also under her orders now since you're one of the friends I'm bringing along."
"Wait, wait, what?!" Isobar yelled. "You're getting way too ahead of yourself! I know that if the Princesses tell us to do something, we should really do that something because it must be for good reasons. But, do you have any idea what we're supposed to be—"
"Luna herself wasn't so sure," Onion said. "All she knew was that there was something that looked a little off in Winsome Falls." He adjusted his hat, looking up at it as he rotated it a little. Then, back to talking to the pegasus: "That's not helping much, and it would be great if the Princess herself would accompany us there, but she does have the rest of us to watch out for in our sleep."
Isobar merely looked at his unicorn friend in dumb-foundment. "Did you think this whole thing through, Onion? Because, I don't want you to be jumping at opportunities left and right just to—"
"It's not that. I wasn't looking for a job from the Princesses. Princess Luna specifically called for me."
Isobar gasped. After a short while, he said, "OK, now you're cooking! Well, you being a natural talent at handling onions both in farming and in cooking, it sort of makes sense that you would be cooking with both onions and garlic since garlic is just a variant of the onion if you take the word 'onion' in its broadest sense and—"
Onion was looking at his friend with a stern face.
"I thought you didn't know what the joke was about. Had to be safe." He shrugged and smiled.
"I know what you were talking about," Onion said. "And, honestly, this is not the time to be making jokes on the fly. Princess Luna wouldn't be telling anypony to go to Winsome Falls for a silly reason. There must be something big at work in the place, or at least it would look like there's something big at work there. Even if it's just the weather, at least we would be giving some peace to the Princess's mind."
"Yeah, that would be awesome to place on the wall. 'Watts Onion, the pony who gave peace to the mind of Princess Luna.' Then, there would be a portrait of you on the paper. It's just like a diploma!" He spread his front hooves wide open as if to display the imaginary diploma in front of him.
"Didn't I just tell you to knock the joke-telling off?"
Isobar shrugged again. "Probably?"
Onion sighed as he got off the bench. "I'll think more about this, alright? In the meantime, think about it as well. You're a very good friend and that's despite you and your busy work with your organization."
"And, you're also a very good friend and that's despite you and your busy farm work," Isobar said back.
"Huh? Was that friendly sarcasm?"
"Only for you to find out, my kind friend!"
Onion sighed as Isobar laughed on the bench.
He walked away.
At the wooden desk, sitting on a chair, head rested there as his hooves held his hat in front of him.
The room was mostly made up of wood, brick, and mortar. A single bed lay over there, with a simple and plain blanket and pillow. A bookshelf with various books was at the wall alongside a few family pictures showing what they were: on one picture, a stallion and a mare in each other's arms, facing the camera—an Earth pony stallion and a unicorn mare alongside four children, two stallions and two mares. They were all smiling, all beaming with happy grins.
Posters on the wall of Daring Do and the Power Ponies, covering up much of one wall and bringing a little bit of variety to the room. The windows let in the bright sunshine, bringing in rays of light. Over on the side were the stairs.
Watts Onion sighed, still holding his hat. "What have I gotten myself into? Yesterday, I was just minding my own business, taking care of the onion crops. Now, I'm on a mission as if I'm some sort of detective. Of course, a detective would need his assistants—not a single assistant, because I have no idea how this will actually work. Then, there's the journey to Winsome Falls which isn't hard, but I can't just take a taxi to the place. No airships—that's out of the question; too expensive, and I wouldn't want to waste money in getting there because, even if we do get there, what are we going to do? Just see if there's anything fishy and report to Princess Luna? I know that it's not going to be that simple—there's more to it than just telling Princess Luna what's over there. I hope that it's just a false alarm like what she said, because if it's a false alarm, then we would be over with this business fairly fast."
Then, Onion stood up and kept his hat on the desk. He paced the room, looking at the window as he did so with its bright blue sky just beyond the wall.
"She didn't sound urgent," he said. "It's not like I have to go there right away. She's probably expecting me to take a few days at most to get all I need and to bring in all the friends I could get for the task like how she said it." Then, a halt to his pacing. "Maybe it would end up being nice—Winsome Falls is beautiful, after all. Surely, Isobar would be glad to bring in his new camera there no matter what."
Then, he dropped himself on his bed.
Onion groaned.
"I'll just see what's gonna go on later."