//------------------------------// // 17. Almost There // Story: Like Fireworks in the Sky // by SpyroForLife //------------------------------// It was a happy day when the road construction team finally came in view of Sunny Oasis. Tempest and Discord were working the day shift as usual, and they came around a dune when suddenly, there it was. At first seeming to shimmer like a mirage, but then becoming clear as they moved closer. A lake surrounded by palm trees and grass, with wooden houses built up along one side. On the other side, she could see other small trees being grown, though couldn't tell the species from here. “We're almost there!” Tempest called to the others, who hooted and clapped their hands, thrilled to almost be done. “I think we'll get this done in another day or two,” Discord commented. “Ma'am, you should go ahead and meet our friends,” one of the storm creatures said to Tempest. “I'm sure they've missed you.” “Oh, well...” Tempest considered it, looking to Discord. “Go on, I told them how much better you've been doing when I planned out the road,” he said. “They really want to see you. I've got things covered here.” “Alright, I'll make a quick trip.” She turned and galloped for the town. It took about ten minutes to get to it, and she was panting and sweating by the time she passed onto the grass. Her legs shook, and she took a moment to just paw at it, enjoying the texture. Part of her almost wanted to just lean down and take a bite, but she resisted, looking around the town. The residents seemed to be in a good mood, and happily came to greet her. “Hi, everyone!” she said, shaking hands and patting people on the back. “Oh, you're all looking great, how are you?” They told her they were doing well, and a few offered to take her on a tour. She agreed, and was led around the edge of the lake. “This is so pretty,” she said, looking around. “So much nicer than Klugetown.” She watched as a storm creature fished nearby. “We're lucky we were able to claim this spot,” the leader of her group, who had red-tinged fur on his back and thus went by Rusty, replied. “I guess the desert is just so big that it was missed. I mean it is kinda out of the way. But it's the perfect location. We have that huge forest to the north, only a two mile walk so it's easy to bring wood back from, and we have fresh water. And don't worry, we're careful that we don't overfish it.” Tempest nodded. “Sounds nice. Do you have a garden?” “We do, we have a community garden and most of us have our own personal gardens too! Let me show you.” She was shown to the community garden, which had several varieties of crops. There were also banana trees, and her stomach growled just looking at them. “This one is ready to be picked,” Rusty commented, looking at one tree. He smiled at Tempest. “Go ahead, grab one or two.” “Are you sure?” she replied. “Absolutely! Go on!” Tempest started to use her magic to pull one of the branches down, but then Rusty just lifted her up in his hands, holding her over his head so she could reach. She was startled for a moment, then laughed and grabbed a banana from the bunch with her mouth. Once she pulled it free, she was lowered back down. “Thanks,” she said. “No problem. But oh...” He glanced at her head. “I guess you could have just used your magic, since your horn is all better.” “Yeah, but it's okay, I appreciate the help.” She peeled the banana and took a bite as they kept walking. “So who's the mayor of the town?” “That would be my older brother, Dusty.” “Captain Dusty?” Tempest asked. “The very same! Just, not a captain anymore, obviously.” “I didn't know you were his brother.” “Aw, well...” Rusty rubbed the back of his neck. “We didn't really talk much back then and I didn't really have a reason to bring it up. The Storm King pretty much made us all hate each other, but I reconnected with him after we were freed.” “I'm glad to hear it. So how's Dusty doing these days?” “Pretty good, he's expecting a kid now. I'm going to be an uncle!” “Oh, wonderful!” They made their way over to the town hall, which was bigger than the one back at Klugetown, but was designed to look more like a house. There were young palm trees growing on either side of the sidewalk leading up to it, along with various flowers. Tempest wasn't sure if she should knock or just go in, but Rusty went ahead and swung the door open, leading her in. The entrance hall was filled with chairs and tables, where a few citizens sat around chatting. They didn't seem to be on any particular business, just hanging out. Rusty showed Tempest over to a desk where a receptionist sat. “Ooh, this is real formal,” Tempest commented. “We really wanted to make our town as normal as possible,” Rusty explained. “We hope to get involved in trade routes, and hopefully even get the train to come out here, so we can have visitors. It gets kinda lonely.” He turned to the desk. “Hello, can I head up to see Dusty?” The receptionist smiled and checked a notepad that sat in front of her. “He should be free, go on. And hi Tempest, good to see you.” Tempest nodded. “Good to see you too. Um...” She had to think about it. She spent most of her time on the Storm King's main skiff and didn't get to see the troops that worked on the other ones very often. This woman was slightly familiar but she couldn't place a name with her face. She tried to discreetly look for a name tape. “I'm Mary, we didn't get to see each other very often,” she replied. Rusty nudged Tempest. “She's Dusty's wife.” “Oh! Oh, hello!” Flustered, Tempest reached across the desk to shake her hand. “So, when did you get married?” “It was a few months ago. We secretly sent each other notes though before that, back when we were in the Storm King's army. We always wanted to be together, and once we were free, we were able to be.” “Well, congrats!” “Thanks!” Mary reached into a drawer of her desk and passed over a picture. “Our wedding was very small, but it was perfect.” Tempest looked at the photo. It showed her and Dusty, a well built and ashy-colored storm creature, kissing in front of the lake. The palm trees around them even seemed to lean together into a heart shape. “You look great together. Well, I'm very happy for you.” She handed the picture back. “I was worried you guys would struggle to be nice together after everything we went through, but it seems like you're doing pretty well out here.” “Ah, well...” Mary put the picture away. “We've been hearing a lot of good things from our friends down in Klugetown and it's inspired us. You've taught them a lot and we want to learn too. There's still plenty of conflict going on out in town, you'll have work to do.” “And I'm up for it,” Tempest vowed. She really has grown confident in her ability to bring people together. Maybe she wasn't as good as Twilight, but she was getting there. She chatted with Mary for a while longer, then headed upstairs with Rusty. Dusty's office doors were wide open and they let themselves in. The room was moderately sized, with bookshelves lining the walls to the left and right, with a big window directly across from them. And at the desk in front of the window sat the creature that Tempest still thought of as Captain Dusty. “Dusty!” she called, bounding across the room. “Tempest!” He got up and went around the desk to meet her, and she let him sweep her up into a hug. In true storm creature fashion, he spun her around as he did. Luckily, she was used to it now. “I'm glad you made it! Wow, you're looking good.” “Thanks!” She blushed, idly messing with her mane. She knew he was looking at her horn. It was always the first thing people noticed. “So, I guess what I heard about you getting your horn fixed was true. How is it now?” “It's great, my magic has stabilized and now I can use even more powerful spells than before.” “That's good. Wow, even more powerful. I'll need to watch out for you.” Dusty went over to grab his brother's hand. “Rusty!” He pulled him into a hug. “Haha, good to see you! Even though it's been a day since we last saw each other.” Tempest waited for them to finish hugging, taking a seat. Dusty went back around to his own seat, and Rusty sat next to her. “So, I saw that the road has almost made it out here. We really would have liked to help, but we haven't quite gotten around to digging up our own stone yet. Most of our work has gone toward bringing in wood, fishing, and gardening.” “It's no problem,” Tempest assured him. “We've got more than enough stone. In a few more days the road should be complete, and you'll have an easy route to Klugetown. Besides... maybe you can pay us back by using some of that lumber to help us build a rest stop along the way. We were thinking of having a motel about halfway down it.” “Hm, sounds like a good idea.” Dusty pulled over a notebook, writing that down. “I'll get in touch with Curly to work out the details. So are you here to stay now?” “Not quite yet,” Tempest admitted. “I'm gonna make sure the road gets finished, and see to a few other things back in Klugetown, but then I'm coming back here.” “Alright. Take your time. Things are going pretty good here. There's... a few little things we need help with and can use your opinion on, but they can wait until you get here.” “Okay. So, I heard you're going to be a father?” Dusty messed with the fur of his neck. “Oh, did Rusty tell you? Heh, well, yeah. The lady downstairs, Mary? That's my wife. We're expecting a kid in about four months.” “Boy or girl?” Tempest asked. “We don't know and we don't really have the medical equipment out here yet to be able to check. So it'll be a surprise!” Dusty seemed pretty excited about it. “What do you want?” Rusty asked. “It won't matter to me, but I kinda want a son. But Mary wants a daughter, so we'll see.” “What if you get two, a boy and a girl?” Tempest said. “Ahaha, don't wish that kind of misfortune on me.” Dusty shook his head. “We're pretty sure it's just one. But if it is two, well, that'll be just fine too. We have more than enough resources to take care of them. Though... hm, we kinda need to build a school. I'm not the only one settling down and having kids. Sending them off to Equestria is a bit much unless they get into a boarding school...” “Klugetown has a school,” Rusty pointed out. “It does, but that's quite the walk to go on twice a day,” Dusty said. “In fact that'd be nearly impossible unless you were rushing. We'd really need to build a train track. We could certainly have a shuttle of some sort between our towns, at least until we get the actual train out here... but I don't know.” “We could build a school here,” Tempest said. “Princess Twilight opened her own school a few months ago, she knows all about it. I'm sure she'll be thrilled to help you build your own.” “Is that right? I'll need to talk to her then. But we won't need that for a couple years.” They talked for a while, Tempest learning about the happenings of the town, but finally she decided to get back to work. She thanked Dusty for meeting with her, and asked Rusty to thank everyone that showed her around. Then she headed outside. She slowed as she approached the end of the grass, where it faded into the sand that seemed to stretch on endlessly. She ran her hoof into the grass, glanced over her shoulder, and leaned down to grab a quick mouthful. It may be plain, but sometimes you just couldn't beat the taste of fresh grass. She lifted her head and kept walking. It took several minutes to get back to where Discord and the others were. She greeted them and went to check the cart of sandstone that had been hauled out. It was almost empty. “Glad you're back,” Discord said. “How are things?” “It's going pretty well in Sunny Oasis,” Tempest said, pulling out a large chunk of rock. “The mayor, Dusty, said everyone's getting along pretty well since Klugetown has been sending them my various friendship lessons. But he promised that we'd still have work to do.” “That's good. I can't wait to get a move on. I've been just rearing for a change of scenery.” Discord stretched, and several pillars of sand burst up around them and took on the shape of various creatures. “The storm creatures don't like me using my magic for things but I've been itching to spread some chaos!” Tempest thought about it as she lowered the rock into the ground. “Yeah, I imagine so. Maybe we could do some magic lessons together later. I've missed that.” “Absolutely! I think I want to have you work on conjuration, how does that sound?” Discord lowered the pillars back into the ground and instead poofed up a tennis ball, tossing it to Tempest. She caught it and gave it a few bounces. “I think I'd like that.” She threw it back, and when Discord caught it, he multiplied it into several different balls, including a basketball and football, and began juggling them. She laughed, and he grinned as he tossed them onto his snout, balancing them. He definitely needed to use his magic more. And Tempest had an idea for what he could do with it.