Solicitor Lin Yueshi, Esquire, looked at the odd group in his office. His gaze lingered on Pinkie Pie’s very pink hair and Rainbow Dash’s spread of colours. Their clothes appeared to make them upper-middle class. Applejack’s undersized Stetson hat seemed to throw him off a bit. He barely noticed Apple Bloom’s pink bow.
“So,” he said softly, “You wish me to procure on your behalf as many properties as possible, centred on the playpark at the end of Magnolia Road?” He cut his eyes to the open briefcases on his desk, one with gold ingots and the other with gems. “After converting these items to pounds because you have no bank accounts or other funds available?”
Twilight nodded happily, “Precisely!”
He stared at them a moment longer, then tilted his head from side to side, peering at their clothes and out the two windows in his corner office. “Alright,” he finally said, “Where’s the camera?”
The Equestrians exchanged puzzled glances — except Pinkie Pie. She suddenly held up a camera. “Right here,” she said, as a brilliant purple flash filled the room.
“Gah! Pinkie!” Twilight said severely, amid the grumbling of the others. Prince Blueblood gave her an intense disapproving glare.
Pinkie ignored them, of course, and handed the solicitor the photograph ejected from her camera.
Harry put his hand over his eyes. The camera, while normal for Equestria, looked like something out of a 1930’s film. By Earth standards, it was an antique. Except it delivered instant pictures.
Blinking at the spots that now edged his vision, just as they did for the Equestrians, the solicitor said, “I mean the telly, for the prank show you’re filming.” He glanced at the picture in his hand and dropped it on the desktop. He gestured at the briefcases, “There’s no way anyone would walk around with a briefcase of gold. It’s far too heavy for a man, much less a woman, to casually carry. The top layer is probably lead with gold paint and everything below it is plastic. And those gems are probably all glass.” He looked intently at Twilight. “No one in their right mind walks around with several million pounds in gems without a massive security detail.”
Prince Blueblood stiffened, as he looked down his nose at the solicitor. “I assure you that both the gold and the gems are genuine! Both came directly from the Castle Vaults.” His refined and cultured accent marked him as definitely an aristocrat. He leaned over and slammed the briefcases’ lids closed. “Take us to a jeweller! That will prove it!” He glanced at Twilight who was nodding in agreement.
Lin studied him carefully for a moment. The man, introduced simply as Blue Blood, had been looking down his nose at Lin during the entire meeting, saying nothing, but his bearing was very much that of an aristocrat. And Harry knew that while it was traditional in British and Chinese families for the men to be in charge, it was clear that Twilight was calling the shots in spite of her obvious youth. The fact that Blueblood had glanced at her after his announcement and checked for her approval proved it, if anyone was watching. Which the solicitor was.
“Alright, let’s do that.” He reached over, closed the lid, and secured it with the odd buckle it used. He grabbed the handle of the briefcase with the gold ingots. Harry could see that the solicitor thought Twilight was bluffing. The man stared, stunned, when he could barely get the briefcase to stand on end.
Applejack tsked, and took the briefcase from him, lifting it with only a minor strain. Then she closed the other briefcase and picked it up. Pinkie was in a corner of the office doing arm-bends with a barbell with weights that had the numbers “40” stamped on them. Seeing that Lin was staring at her, she dropped them to the floor with a resounding — wham! — that indicated the numbers were not fake.
He gave the other Equestrians an outraged look, then turned back to Pinkie Pie. His lips were tight and Harry could see he was about to tear into Pinkie for damaging his office floor. What he saw, though, was nothing except Pinkie Pie smiling innocently at him — no barbells, no damaged floor. He stared, frowning for a moment at where the barbell had hit the floor. With a puzzled look he stepped around his desk and led them into the reception room. “Judy, I’ll be back in fifteen minutes.”
۸- ̬ -۸
The jeweller picked up the phone and dialled. “Good morning, Charles, what’s the current rate for gold? And the discount? Thanks. I’ll explain later.” He hung up the phone and looked up at his friend.
The Equestrians stared. The thought that information was so easily acquired through such a small device was overwhelming. It was one thing to hear about such a device, and another to see it in action. In addition, he had said he was calling an associate in London, a distance that they knew was over a day’s round-trip away for non-pegasi in Equestria. And even the fastest Pegasus — excluding Rainbow Dash, of course — would take at least an hour, if not two, to make that same round-trip. The convenience of such quick communications, as well as the business and military aspects of it in getting things done, was not lost on any of them.
“I’m not an assayer, Lin, but these,” the jeweller waved his hand at the dozen ingots on his counter and the briefcase beside them, “appear to be twenty-four carat gold. The current rate, with discount, is two hundred pounds a troy ounce. These ingots are one and a eighth ounces, an unusual size, so that makes them . . .” he turned to a calculator and punched the buttons, “two hundred twenty-five pounds each. And there are one thousand and sixty-six, bringing the total to two hundred forty thousand, seven hundred and fifty pounds.” He sighed and took off his glasses. He pulled out a cloth from behind the counter and started cleaning the lenses.
“I can’t buy them all, I simply don’t have the funding, but I’ll take ten of these for two thousand, two hundred and fifty pounds. The rest you’ll have to take to The Gold Bullion Company.” By including the discount rate, he protected himself in case the ingots were not as pure as he thought. Not to mention that he avoided any transportation costs that normally applied.
He looked over at the other briefcase. “These gems are of unusually high quality. And I estimate that you have over 20 million pounds worth in the briefcase, assuming they are all of the same quality as the ones I examined.”
He separated twenty diamonds from the handful of gems he had examined. “I can give you twenty thousand pounds for these. The rest you’ll have to take to G. F. Williams unless you want to tote them around and sell them individually.”
Twilight looked at Applejack. Applejack shrugged. She turned back to the stunned-looking solicitor. “That sounds reasonable to me,” she said. “We do need some immediate spending money, so what would be the best way to do this?”
Lin blinked slowly, thinking. “I think that we need two cheques, James. One for the gems and one for the ingots.” He turned back to Twilight. “We’ll cash the smaller cheque and open an account with the other.”
۸- ̬ -۸
Back in his office, Lin handed Twilight forty-three fifty-Pound notes. Before she could take the bundle, though, Pinkie popped up beside them and grabbed it. Smiling broadly she tucked it into her hair. Twilight rolled her eyes, but didn’t say anything. The solicitor, on the other hand, stared at Pinkie, trying to figure out how she had done that.
“I will set up your business account with the other cheque later this morning. And this afternoon I’ll see about selling the gems and gold,” the solicitor said, still staring at Pinkie who was now wandering around the office and peering behind the pictures on the wall. “With luck, I’ll have that all finished by supper and can start on acquiring the properties you desire.”
“Good,” said Twilight. “We need a place to live immediately, so I thought we could offer the three houses closest to the playpark double their value if we can move in immediately. The owners must move out immediately, taking their personal possessions, of course, but leaving the furniture. They have to move out by Sunday evening. We’ll pay all expenses, of course, until they find a new home.”
Lin stared at her. “I’m not sure we can process the sale that fast. And I’m not sure we’ll find any takers, either. Not on such short notice.”
She shrugged, “Then offer triple to the first one to agree. You can go to quadruple if you feel it’s necessary. We need a house to occupy on Monday! Getting the paperwork isn’t nearly as important a rush, as long as we are physically in the house on Monday.”
“Alright,” he said. “If I can get the gems processed fast enough, I’ll offer the owners the extra amount in cash.”
“Excellent!” Twilight wriggled happily in place. “Now for the next part.” She nodded at the aristocrat beside her. “Prince Blueblood is the ambassador for our home country, Equestria, to the United Kingdom. We need you to tell us how we can establish diplomatic relations.” She smiled broadly.
He stared at her dumfounded. “Prince? Ambassador?” He turned his stare to the Blueblood. He sat down in his chair behind his desk and just stared blankly at the wall behind them.
After a moment’s silence, “Uh, Twilight? I think ya broke him,” said Applejack
Pinkie giggled and the fillies and Harry exchanged amused looks. Pinkie held up a paper bag and twisted closed the opening. Then she blew into the bag and made it bulge. She held it in one hand while getting ready to pop the bag with her other hand.
The solicitor shook his head and called out the open office door. “Judy? Come here a moment.”
Pinkie gave him a disappointed look and dropped the paper bag.
“Yes, sir?” came the quick answer as the brunette stepped into the office.
He pointed at the ingot-laden briefcase beside Applejack. “Take that briefcase to The Gold Bullion Company in London. Do not let it out of your sight. It has one thousand and fifty-six twenty-four-carat gold ingots. Do not leave without a cheque or verified deposit. The current rate with discount is two hundred pounds per troy ounce. The ingots are one and one-eighth ounces each. You can expect approximately two hundred thirty-seven thousand, six hundred pounds. If it is less than that by two thousand or more, call me. Have them wire transfer it to this account, if possible.” He quickly copied the information from the bank form and gave it to her.
“And call Midland Security, have them send an armoured lorry for you as soon as possible, with two extra guards as an escort. Offer a bonus if they get here before ten.”
He turned back to Twilight. “In the interests of speed, I’ll transfer the funds for the gems to our corporate account, here, instead of your new account, as Judy will with the ingots. Later, I’ll transfer the remaining gem money over. That way we don’t have to worry about someone at the bank slowing things down because of such rapid activity in a new account.”
She and Blueblood nodded their agreement.
Eyes wide, the secretary just nodded as she took the paper. She walked over to Applejack, reached for the briefcase, and then failed to lift it even an inch. It did wobble slightly as she leaned back down against it in reaction to its failure to move.
“Have the guards move it for you, Judy.”
Numbly, she said, “Yes, sir,” staring in surprise at the immovable object.
Applejack chuckled. “Here, let meh move it to by the door.” With only a little strain, she picked up the briefcase and set it in the reception area by the door, and out of their immediate way.
The secretary stared, amazed. “Got a bit of muscle to her, doesn’t she?” Judy said in a low voice.
Harry laughed, “You should see her hauling a wagon-load of apples by herself! Makes it look like she’s pulling a kid’s wagon.”
The solicitor and the secretary turned and stared at Harry in bewildered disbelief. Why would a woman be pulling a wagon by herself?
“That’s my sister!” said Apple Bloom proudly as she picked up the briefcase of gems with both hands, struggling, and moved it opposite to the ingots.
Lin stared at the girl. He knew how heavy that case was. He’d tried to move it on James’ counter and it had barely budged. Harry knew it had to weigh at least as much as the little filly did, which, if he hadn’t known her earth-pony strength, would have stunned him, too.
The secretary stepped back to her desk and started dialling the security company. When she was done with that call, she would call the bullion company and warn them she was on her way with a significant amount of gold to exchange.
The solicitor shook his head slightly to clear his thoughts. He spoke slowly, “First, I will have to conduct a bit of research into that field. Even with my associate, Mr. Zhao Fuxiao, doing the conveyances, it will take several days. And I have current clients that I cannot put off.”
Twilight exchanged looks with Blueblood. He raised an eyebrow. She shrugged. She turned back to Lin. “The property is of higher priority right now, so that will have to do.”
He paused, then said, “I’ll also need to see your bona fides. I’ve never heard of this country of yours . . . Equestria? And I wonder why you can’t do money transfers from your banks to ours instead of dealing with gold and gems. Not that it really matters if you prefer to do business this way instead.”
“That’s a bit of a story. I think we’ll need to show you before you’ll believe us. It’s not far, I assure you.”
“Alright,” Lin said, standing up, “Give me a moment to retrieve my car and I’ll follow yours.”
Twilight looked at him, puzzled. “We don’t have a car. We walked.”
The solicitor stared at her. “If James hadn’t assured me the ingots and gems were real, I’d think you were trying to prank me.”
Prince Blueblood spoke up. “I believe we should first get our financial arrangements in order,” he said fussily. “Once those are settled, and the initial houses purchased, we can turn our attention to establishing an embassy. Today, Mr. Yueshi can get the gems appraised and sold. Tomorrow, he can come to the playpark at the end of Magnolia Road and we can establish our bona fides, as he put it.”
“Excellent suggestion, Blueblood! Is that acceptable, Mr. Yueshi?” asked Twilight.
He nodded.
Harry suspected that with the amount of pounds the Equestrians were handing around the solicitor, he could easily put up with their eccentricities. And even if they were pranking him, the four gold ingots they had given him would more than pay for his time today and tomorrow.
“Judy,” he said, “Call Midland back and tell them to send two armoured lorries, I need to make a trip to G. F. Williams in London with this other briefcase.”
The Equestrians spent the rest of the morning exploring Little Whinging’s businesses — including an 11:20 AM viewing of Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves in the Little Whinging Cinemas. Thelma and Louise followed it at 2:05 PM.
Cultural differences aside, to say they were stunned at the experience was an understatement. They had missed lunch, but had gorged themselves on popcorn, candy, and sodas, instead.
Dinner was back in Equestria at Apple Bloom’s home.
“Hey, Sweetie Belle?” Harry said after they had helped clear the table and do the dishes, “Do you know that gem finding spell your sister uses?”
“Yeah.”
“Well, I was thinking, maybe we could dig up a few gems before it gets dark? You heard how much the jeweller said the briefcase was worth. I thought that maybe we could dig up a dozen or so and trade them in for spending money of our own. We’d probably only get a hundred bits or so each to last all year at the school, but it’d be our bits to spend on what we want!”
“Oooo! That’s a great idea! Ice cream whenever we want. Yes!” Scootaloo pumped her foreleg in anticipation.
It wasn’t that simple, unfortunately. Wielding a shovel with your mouth was hard! And while Harry could levitate a shovel, slamming it into the ground was another story entirely. Even using his magic just to hold the shovel steady was a trial — he’d bashed himself in the face more than once when the shovel wobbled as he jumped his fore-hooves on the shovel’s spade.
Two hours of spell casting and digging later, they had fifteen small gems barely as big as the ones the Equestrians had given the solicitor to sell.
“Well, this is disappointing,” said Apple Bloom. “Jest a bunch of small gems.”
“Eh.” Said Scootaloo. “If they’re as nice as the others from the Royal Vault, we’ll still get a couple of hundred or so bits for all of them!”
“I’d take even fifty bits,” Harry said. “It’s better than nothing!” He had never had any money he could call his own.
Sweetie Belle sighed, “Guess we should head on home, then, it’s getting dark.” She started walking back towards Sweet Apple Acres. Just as they reached the edge of the field they had been scanning, Harry said, “Hey, just for luck, how about one more time?” The unicorn filly sighed, but closed her eyes and built the spell in her mind before releasing it and looking around for any tail-tell glows. To her amazement, she saw a very bright spot just barely into the treeline beside her. “Hey, look!” called Apple Bloom, pointing at another spot behind Sweetie Belle that was just as bright.
Based on how bright they were, the four ponies figured they had found two huge groups of gems! A few minutes of digging later, they had two large rocks sitting in front of them. “Those don’t look like gems to me,” Scootaloo said, discouraged.
Sweetie Belle snorted. “Give ‘em a good stomp, Apple Bloom!"
Shrugging, Apple Bloom reared up and slammed her hooves on the larger of the two. There was a loud CRACK, and the stone fractured. A second slam of her hoof, and it shattered to reveal four purple gems, each as large as one of their hooves!
Sweetie Belle laughed. “Rarity is always telling me about finding bunches of gems inside hollow rocks. Sometimes it’s lots of little gems, which she prefers, sometimes it isn’t.”
A repeat performance on the smaller rock yielded three large red gems. That gave them a total of seven large red/purple gems and fifteen small gems.The seven big ones were almost as big as their hooves.
With the seven big ones in hoof, they were happy with their haul. Harry was especially happy about not having to ask Twilight for spending bits.
After a bath in the big tub in the barn — and miracle of miracles, no tree sap was involved — they were ready for a sleepover in Apple Bloom’s room.
۸- ̬ -۸
As planned, Lin showed up at eight in the morning at the park. Harry and the fillies were playing on the climbing bars where it seemed the fillies were deliberately trying to put Harry in the position of looking up their dresses. The fact that they hadn’t underwear to wear, yet, made the situation all that more embarrassing for him.
As ponies, fillies and mares didn’t seem to care about keeping their privates covered at all times with their tails — it was the colts and stallions who got all flustered and upset should their sheaths fail to hide their privates adequately. Some mares, and some fillies, tried to get those failures to take place as often as possible, enjoying both the stallion’s discomfort and the thrill at seeing what normally was carefully hidden. And laughing at the stallions’ failure to control themselves.
In Equestria, Harry had gotten used to seeing things like that and usually ignored it as much as his filly friends did. If he accidentally saw the fillies’ privates, so what? Just so long as he kept himself under control and in-sheath, things were fine. And the fillies were his friends, so they didn’t play such mean games.
It was different, for some reason, now that they were girls. He found himself blushing and looking away. Which they found funny. And led them to create more of those situations. In some ways, it would have been better if they had not been wearing clothes at all!
Anyway, he noticed Twilight walking over to meet the solicitor, followed by two transformed guards and Applejack. Rarity had stayed back in Equestria making notes on the fashions she had seen the day before. Dash was “. . . stretching my wings,” as she put it — she had really hated not flying yesterday. Pinkie was baking and Fluttershy was, well, being Fluttershy — hiding with her animal friends.
“Hey, fillies, he’s here,” Harry said.
They dropped back to the ground and the herd started walking over to intercept the adults. They were, after all, the most expert at using the portal. And Harry, being a person from Earth, would have the best chance of keeping the man calm when he first saw Equestria.
“I sold the gems to G. F. Williams, provisionally, for thirty million pounds, the exact amount will depend upon the results of the gems’ actual valuations. Considering it was Friday afternoon, they expected to complete the valuations by Tuesday. They did ask me where these gems originated. I told them that my client had acquired them over many years and was now liquidating their holdings. They did advance me a bank cheque for one million pounds, which I added to your business account at Barclay’s. I kept out five hundred thousand for conveyances this weekend.
“And I secured your first property at Eleven Magnolia Road yesterday evening . . . .”
۸- ̬ -۸