//------------------------------// // The Faith Chasing Changeling // Story: The EK // by Magi Tail Welkin //------------------------------// The Weather-Ponies arranged for a wild and windy week across the Everfree Kingdom. Princess Twilight advised ponies to stay indoors unless necessary. A lot of branches feel from the trees, Sweet Apple Arches tarpaulined as many trees in the orchard as possible. Dustbins tipped and slipped. And in Huntersfield several houses need retiling, and a lot of the citizenry did not wish to wait, which meant Time Turner needed to hire help, and not just from the Guard to keep him safe in the unpredictability of the weather, but also just any-pony able to do roofing, since no sooner did he finish one job another needed doing. On top of his special radio system got interfered with as the receivers got buffeted about. The winds died down at the end of the week. Cipher meanwhile trundled down the roads with extra care, even though he needed to make up for lost time, having helped Fluttershy with her animals and at the Sanctuary, Riolu volunteered to stay and help, off-hoofed, she noted the various creatures there began to make the Sweet Feather Sanctuary into a community. He glanced at a fallen tree. A thought crossed his mind ‘I wonder if the Reverend has kept that stamp for me? Maybe I should stop at the Castle and see him. I hope he remembered.’ The Reverend did tend to remember the important things, like guests and service times, but small things, like say, the brakes of his scooter, well, no-pony really knew. After a few minutes he stopped at the Castle of Friendship. As he got up to climb down the wind turned fierce and almost blew him off. Thankfully the cart acted as a shield against the wind. He knocked on the door. Almost immediately both opened with considerably speed. A long snort and large pair of green eye blinked at him, a sharp toothy grin appeared and a deep, however childlike toned voice greeted him “Hey Cipher, what brings you here.” Cipher, being one who could change his appearance at will got accustomed to the, well, dragon sized Spike quickly, Fluttershy even didn’t get scared at him either, since she knew him to be the same Spike as ever, although the engaged couple currently stood within a minority of Ponyville residents. Still the fouls found sliding down Spike’s tail very entertaining, and he proved most helpful to the construction workers since he could act as a living crane, with his tight grip and flight. The Changeling Prince smiled “Oh nothing much Spike, just here to see the Reverend, is he in?” “Sure is, he’s been pouring over maps of the area for days, part of Twilight Special Project.” “That continues to stay mysterious, can’t you say anything about what it is?” “Sorry, I Pinkie Promised not to tell, you know what’ll happen if I break a Pinkie Promise.” “No, not really, but I can imagine.” He shivered. “Yeah. Later then.” And the purple dragon proceeded to trudge down the corridor, occupying most of the space available. Cipher meanwhile headed for the Vicarage Wing. To his surprise it now included a bell, he rang it and waited. The door opened and Reverend Farthing stood there, a little flustered. Cipher did his best to be polite “Hello Reverend, I just popped by to see if you kept that Sea Pony stamp from yesterday?”, the Reverend looked a little confused, then he bright “Oh, of course Cipher,” he turned to his desk “I didn’t know you took up stamp collecting.” “Oh, it’s not for me, Dinky’s starting to so I thought she might like it.” “Very kind of you to think that Cipher. Now where did I put it?” Cipher looked around and noticed the suitcase and the half-packed clothing “Sorry to interrupt, but are you off somewhere?” “Oh yes, Church Convention, taking palace in Bridle City. First one since being ordained.” He lifted a couple of maps and found an opened envelope “Ah, here’s that stamp.” He magically gave the envelope over. Cipher took it with his “Thanks.” The Reverend sighed “Such a nuisance, I’ll have to visit every-pony to cancel meetings while I’m away. Such a bother, and with a train to catch too.” He went to the case and finished his packing “First my regular congregations, I know Perks and family are so I can tell him when I’m down at the station, and Flash knows so he can tell his family, but there’s Waddle at the retirement home, a Miss Minuette is staying with Miss Heartstrings and Bon-Bon. Then there are those ponies who come for advice or for tea on Sunday afternoon after the service.” He shut the lid “I’ll just have to hurry, my train leaves in an hour, I think.” Cipher nodded “I hope you get around town in time. Cheerio, have a good trip.” He went back to the cart. Gingerly, encase the wind tried to play tricks, climbed onto the seat, took the reins and started it up. After entering the village and crossing the high street the winds changed, zigzagging between alleys and jumping over rooftops. Thankfully it only played and didn’t turn malicious he called at the Post Office to collect the letters. Muffins poked her head from under the counter as he entered, Cipher rubbed the back of his neck “I’m not late, am I?”, the Post Mistress shook her head and smiled “Not really, although I thought you might have trouble getting through what with all the tree blown down. Why did you move into Fluttershy’s?” Cipher blushed “Well, we are engaged, and since I have cart I can travel, Fluttershy couldn’t leave her cottage with her charges for long, and they all like me, although Angel is a little stroppy.” To change the subject, he mentioned about the Reverend and his trip to Bridle City “Which reminds me.” He produced the envelope with the Sea Pony stamp “You said Dinky has a stamp collection, I thought she could do with this.”, Muffins smiled brightly “She’ll love it. I’ll put it on the living room table, won’t be long.” And she disappeared through the door. As Cipher waited he filed through one of the newspapers on the rack. He reached the Religious column of the Equestria Daily. At the top read “Convention of Bridle Moved.” Cipher read the article, the Convention centre at Bridle got hit badly by a recent storm from the north at the proposal of Princess Celestia the Convention planned to move to Ponyville. Muffins came in and gave the few letters over. Cipher explained “…I’d better find the Reverend and tell him.” “Bye Cipher, I hope you’re in time.” “Bye.” He shut the office door and quickly started the cart up. Unable to make a turn in the high street he decided to use the first country road to meet a road back to the Castle of Friendship. With less than an hour to find and inform the Reverend he would need to roll fast, disregarding the winds and the debris. He turned a corner and flinched he shouted, “Look out Time!” Time Turner stood, with the Lorry parked nearby, digging a small landslide from the road. Cipher swerved hard into an open field. He slid and carved grooves into the grass and earth, not helped by the strong winds. His magic flared out of fear and the cart jerked faster. One of the doctor’s helper stood near the open gate at the other side of the field. Cipher called out “Get out of the way! I can’t stop!”, the helper jumped over the gate as Cipher passed “Sorry!” he called getting back on the road. At his current speed he wouldn’t stop in front the of Castle in time. Instead as he neared the crystalline structure he called the magic off, effectively putting the cart into neutral and jumped down in front of the cart and put his weight on it, to both calm himself down and to strength himself up, he thought about Fluttershy, shutting his eyes to concentrate better. The pressure on his side ended. He looked at the cart, then to his side and jumped. He stood with only inches behind him, the cart and the side of the Castle. Taking a few breaths, he slowly made his up to the door and entered. Twilight ran up from the Vicarage Wing “Cipher, have you seen the Reverend?”, he shook his head and explained why he came. Twilight turned worried “I just got the letter from Princess Celestia, I thought I just missed him.” She started to hyperventilate “I’ll have to coordinate a major Church gathering, find places for the attendants to stay, organise the events, I could really use the Reverend’s help!” Flash appeared and wrapped his wings around her “Twilight please, calm down, you’ll stress the fouls!” Cipher looked back to the doors “I’ll do my best to find the Reverend. You’d better stay here, he might call back before he leaves for the station, you never know, he might have forgotten something.” Twilight took a deep breath and exhaled, before taking a few extra breaths “Thanks Cipher, you might catch him at Rarity’s, he’s been talking with her about the décor for our Special Project.” “Thanks for the advice, cheerio.” He trotted out and took a flying leap onto the cart seat. Just as he gripped the reins, and before he even sat comfortably charged his horn and reversed the cart. With enough room for the turning circle he swung around and speed as fast as the wooden wheels would allow and headed for Carousel Boutique. Again, the country roads proved the quickest in the weather. He then spotted a hole in one of the drystone walls and smirked ‘That impromptu backroad could save me time.’, he twisted the reins and turned into a rough lane. The cart jumped and jittered on the cluttered and potholed road. Cipher turned a corner and stopped “Oh no!” A trailer with a large chuck of tree trunk blocked the road, “Now who’s left that there? I’ll never get passed with the cart.” He sighed ‘Only one thing for it now.’ He took his post bag and jumped off the seat, his wings fluttered and he followed the lane. His wings nearly gave out as he landed on the path before the Boutique. Rarity saw him from the window and opened the door for him “Hello Cipher dear. May I inquire why you’re without your cart? And to why you are in such a rush?” “You may Rarity. I’m trying to catch up with the Reverend,” and he explained a bit about the emergency “Have you seen him?” She nodded worried “I’m afraid you just missed him darling,” she put her hoof on his shoulder “I hope to Celestia you get that message to him in time, but please, for Fluttershy’s sake, do push yourself too hard.” “I’ll try not to, but how can I catch up to him? I’ve left the cart a mile down that country lane.” “He did say he needed to call at Time Turner’s, something about his watch, you might catch him there, he’s going on hoof, but,” she went around the back and pushed a scooter towards him “Scootaloo left one of her old scooters to Sweetie Belle as a birthday gift, she hardly uses it, just bring it back in good condition darling.” “Thanks Rarity, the CMC have pushed me to do something at least one. I’ll do my best to take care of if.” He hopped on the scooter and pushed on down the road. The old scooter’s steering proved a little stiff, and a squeaky wheel felt wobbly. ‘I wouldn’t want to do this every day.’ He coasted down the hill and rang the bell encase any-pony came along the way, being a filly’s scooter, it didn’t have brakes, but Cipher being a Changeling on a mission speed meant everything. A sharp bend, almost at right-angles appeared at the bottom of the hill. Cipher tried to turn, but the stiff meant he overshot and rolled up embanked sides. He lifted the handlebars up and rested the front wheels on the top of the wall. Swung the base around. Before flicking it off and continuing. The slight momentum allowed him some distance up the next hill, but a quarter up he needed to rely on hoof and wing. Once again deciding to cut out the middle lane, so to speak, he went as the crow flies. While the road circled around the crest of the hill Cipher getting off the scooter pushed it over, he paused to catch his breath ‘I’ll be glad when this is over.’ At the top he could make out the workshop at the back of Time Turner’s ship. He remounted and coasted down. The rocky and step sides threw him about. It very much reminded him of when the CMC took him barrel rolling, expect instead of laying sideway and being spun, thus able to see what would be directly in front of him, this time he saw every rock, and the stiff handles made it hard to evade a few. Then braced. From off-road briefly onto road. CRASH. Straight into and through the backdoor of Time Turner’s workshop. The doctor walked up to him and chuckled “Hello Cipher, is this some type of express delivery? Whatever are you doing? Are you alright?” Pulling himself up, Cipher examined the scooter, the handle now dented and the wobbly wheel rolled along the floor and bounced off the wall before spinning and clattering to a halt on its side. He sighed and looked to Time “To quickly answer, no this isn’t to do with the Royal Mail, I’m trying to catch up with the Reverend, and yes I’m alright, it’ll take a lot more to break my new armour.” Time Turner glanced at the door to the shop “You’re too late to catch him here Cipher, he’s already gone. He did say he’d pop into see Mr Waddle at the retirement home before he catches his train.” Cipher sighed “And I’ve ruined Sweetie Belle’s scooter for nothing.” The doctor trotted to his toolbox and picked out a spanner “Leave it to me, I’ll fix it, I thought it could do with some improvements, never got around to asking though. As to getting to the Reverend in time.” He rummaged into a crate. And pulled out two pairs of roller skates “You can borrow these, I’ve just mended them.” He chuckled “You’ll definitely move when you’ve got these on. I’ll help you put them on.” “Well,” Cipher said as he magically tied the back pair on “I said I’d try anything once. And I must catch the Reverend before he catches his train.”, Time helped with his front hooves. Then after helping the Post-stallion to stay upright on all wheeled fours, gave him a push out the door. Cipher turned his leg slightly and he turned to the road. His front right hoof slipped. But he kept going. Time Turner shouted from the door “You’re doing fine!” Cipher manged to get the hang of the wheels, up until he got halfway up a hill. He slid back. Angling his skates, he managed to stop. With his wing he pushed on forward, like with the scooter, since he didn’t need his wings to support his body in the air he could focus the angle completely on propulsion. Still, he sidestepped the last couple of yard to the crest. He reared up and steadied himself on a fence. He stood straight. Gravity took over, and the wind. Frowning he accelerated down. At the bottom one of Time Turner’s helper carried a ladder as he walked from one field to another across the road. Cipher ran into the back of the ladder, the pony spun, ending up facing to other way, dizzy and confused at what just happened. Meanwhile Cipher continued as the hill dipped. A junction lay ahead. Going too fast to go either way, Cipher didn’t even have the choice but to head first, then head over heal and over a wall. Filthy Rich riding on one of his carts other than his mobile shop, with the Reverend Farthing at his side saw this and told his lacky to stop at the folk in the road. The entrepreneur looked over the wall “I thought I saw Cipher dive over the wall.” The Changeling steadied himself up and peered over the wall and shook his head “I’m not roller skating again.” He muttered, then he looked at his unexpected audience “Hello Rich,” then he smiled “Ah Reverend, thank goodness you haven’t gone to Bridle City.” While struggling to remain upright he explained about the storm at the Port city, then about Princess Celestia’s message to Twilight and finally the lengths he went through to try and find him. In the end the Reverend merely nodded “Lord bless us,” he said, “what a good thing you caught me in time.” Rich looked along the road “I’d offer you a lift back to your cart, but on these hills me friend here,” pointing to his puller “can only puller so many up these hills.” Cipher nodded “I understand Rich. I’ll make my own way back.” The Reverend looked back “Big Macintosh is coming, we’d best not get in his way.” Rich nodded to his puller and they trundled off. Big Mac trotted up and stopped when he saw Cipher, he pulled an empty trailer behind him “Howdy Cipher.” He glanced back “Sorry blocked the road this morning, I was helping Time Turner. Couldn’t so much with the Farm out of action. If you like I’ll give you a ride back to your cart.” Cipher smiled “Thanks very much Big Mac, I’ve had a tiering, I couldn’t walk it, much less skate.” He magically untied the wheeled shoe off his hooves and he fluttered onto the trailer. Big Mac watched with bemusement “What in tarnation’s with the roller skates?” As the eldest Apple Sibling pulled the Changeling Prince along the road, Cipher explained the entire day’s events. Big Mac listened “That explains that tiering day, although sounds as if trying could fit too.” “Oh definitely. I’ve only got a few letters today, I think I’ll just finish my rounds and after sorting out the roller skates and Sweetie Belle’s scooter, then I’ll go home to Fluttershy and rest.” “I don’t blame you, especially in this weather.” Cipher frowned his eyebrows “You know, the last time we had such a long conversation was while we were on the road to that weekend camp. Can I ask, why is it you don’t talk so much?” Big Mac grunted “Long story, Granny Smith can tell better than me. Let’s just say as a teenager I used to be a chatterbox and always going on tangents. Just thought I should stop all the talk and do the listening.” They passed the North-Eastern Windmill, Windy Miller and Dotty waved as they passed. “You know,” Big Mac said, “On the subject of roller skates, the Major said he once had an instructor how tried to teach combat on roller skates.” Cipher blinked “I’d say you were being silly, but I know the Major to be honest when without reason to lie.” Presently they turned into a sideroad and it became bumpier. Finally, Big Mac stopped at the Auto-magic Cart. The farmer turned back to the Post-stallion “You alright now Cipher?” “Fine now, thanks Mac. Cheerio.” “Yep.” And he trotted off. Cipher got aboard and started the cart off once more. He followed the generally disused road back to the main one. Turn into it and headed back to town. He did stop at Carousel Boutique to explain to Rarity. She nodded “I could see why Sweetie didn’t use it, I just thought as an emergency, still, thank you for telling me Doctor Turner’s repairing darling.” “Your welcome Rarity, and thanks for understanding.” “It’s quite alright my dear. Now you have a nice day. I’m sure both Fluttershy and Riolu will want you back home safe and sound.” Cipher chuckled “I’m with them on that. After I’ve finished the rounds and a couple of lose ends I’m heading back to cottage.” “A wise decision, goodbye Cipher.”, he nodded “Bye.” Flicked the reins and slowly made his way, no more fast action and recklessness for the day, or the week if he could manage it. But you never know with Ponyville.