//------------------------------// // 3 - Village Curiosities // Story: A Phoenix Beyond the Veil - Amalgam // by gerandakis //------------------------------// Chapter Three Village Curiosities Sunset grabbed a copy of the relevant book from the royal archive early the next morning, but she and Hermione had quite a bit of trouble actually finding time to read. Emma and Dan, it seemed, had heard of their reading the previous day and were now conspiring to keep them busy. Either they had finally remembered the two had photographic memories, or someone else had ratted on them. It ultimately didn’t matter much. Sunset wasn’t entirely sure if she should be glad that they couldn’t actually read the title of the book. The author was a griffon and only spoke broken Equish. As such, her scientific work was written in her native griffonian. Sunset and, after a quick application of a lingual transfer spell, Hermione were the only ones who could actually read it. If they did, they might be more willing to give them a few moments to read. Then again, it might lead to questions she wasn’t really prepared or willing to answer at this point. She had known Hermione would be understanding, but she wasn’t sure how the others would take it if they were to hear of her latest little problem. Oddly, she wasn’t sure who would freak out the most - the only recently turned magical Grangers, or the Weasleys. On one hand, the Weasleys were more used to magic, on the other, the Grangers had had well over a year to get used to that idea and were already quite used to their concept of ‘normal’ going right out the window. Breakfast had been a rather... strange experience. She was well aware that she would now have to eat enough to feed her passenger as well as herself. Knowing what to look for, Hermione had also not missed that she was eating a bit more than usual, but none of the others seemed to have noticed. Thankfully, discussion of what they would be doing not only today, but through the rest of the week, did help to distract Sunset a little from the fact she now had a pony-salamander-thing residing in her gut. Ultimately, the tents were packed back up with a quick bit of magic and stowed back into Sunset’s bag where they usually resided. She couldn’t quite hide her amusement when she realized she had spent the last year of school carrying around what was effectively two small houses at more or less all times. And at the fact that it had taken her this long to realize. Over the first week of the holidays, Sunset had started to teach Hermione how to use a simple long-range teleportation spell. While she was already quite skilled at managing distance, her aim, so far, had been abysmal. That didn’t stop her from simply linking into Sunset’s spell of course, allowing her sister to aim both spells and transport the entire group to their next destination without the considerable strain teleporting the entire group had put on her magic the year prior. Said destination was not too far away, fortunately, as Sirius and Harry had offered to show them around Ponyville for the day. Keeping that in mind, Sunset guided the two teleportation spells to the sitting room of Sirius’ cottage. Seeing how only Sunset and Hermione had visited him and Harry here during the Easter holidays, the others hadn’t seen the house yet. Not to mention they weren’t used to Ponyville’s style of architecture. As such, there was a fair bit of staring going on as they took in the house. Ultimately, though, a house was something they had all seen before and they left a few minutes later to head into the town proper. It wasn’t a long walk, given that Ponyville was a relatively small town, but they took their time, giving those who hadn’t been here, Lavender, Seamus, Neville, and the Weasleys, the time to look around. Before too long they arrived at town square. The circular town hall attracted some attention, but the group moved on before too long. On their way to their next destination, Sirius greeted another pony whom he called ‘Mayor Mare’ who simply nodded with a smile before walking on, muttering something about mane dye. Taking a look at her brilliant pink mane and tail, they could guess what she was up to. They soon reached market square where they ran across Buttercup who was stood at the Apple family stall selling their usual range of products. Once again, only Hermione seemed to understand the true meaning behind Sunset buying a few apples for the road, eating one of them immediately. Now, Sunset, Harry and the adults were sat at a table outside Sugarcube Corner, a delightful little café at the edge of the square, chatting idly as they watched the others walk about the square taking in all the different usual and exotic things the small town market had to offer. The twins had said that some things about the town reminded them of Hogsmeade, the village near Hogwarts. Lavender managed to attract some curious gazes from some of the townsfolk, which Sunset explained was due to her being a griffin here in central Equestria. You could sometimes find some in other parts of Equestria, like along the eastern coast or in Cloudsdale, but most didn’t travel much further inland. Ponyville was, after all, located near the center of Equestria, well over two thousand kilometers from either coast. At the Grangers and Harry’s questioning looks, her and Sirius then proceeded to explain the city of Cloudsdale, what it was, and how it functioned. As they talked, the others gathered around as well, listening closely. The very idea of a migrating city made of clouds was completely alien to them. Sunset had mentioned the name on occasion, but never actually gone into detail. “Wait, was that that huge cloud I kept seeing last year?” Harry suddenly asked. “The one with rainbows coming off it?” Sunset nodded with a smile. “Yeah, that’d be the one. We could visit if you want, but I’d have to read up on the cloud walking spell. I know there is one – actually more than one, if I had to guess – but the few times I’ve visited Cloudsdale with Princess Celestia she always cast it on me. I’d guess it’s similar to the spell I used to solidify the clouds in our tents, but I don’t know for sure.” “And if it’s the only thing keeping us from falling Merlin knows how far,” Sirius agreed, “it’s probably better to look it up first.” “There wouldn’t be too much to worry about when it comes to falling. Cloudsdale does have lookouts, especially for younger foals who haven’t quite managed flight yet,” Sunset remarked. “Still, better safe than sorry. And it’s about eleven kilometers, actually.” “How far?” Hermione just sighed. “Remind me why wizards are still using the imperial system again? Oh right, trapped in the past, I forgot. A bit over seven miles.” “Wow … that’s high,” Ron admitted. “Yup. So probably best avoid turning back to human form there. I don’t think humans can actually breathe properly that high up,” Sunset agreed. “Not sure why ponies can, though.” Hermione tapped a hoof to her chin thoughtfully. “Can just any pony breathe properly up there, or does the cloud-walking spell also make it so non-pegasi can handle the altitude?” “Pretty sure the spell doesn’t have anything to do with it.” Sunset was looking up at the clouds thoughtfully. “And I did have a harder time breathing up there if I recall correctly, but it was still a lot easier that it supposedly is for humans.” “So,” Dan inquired, “everyone up for visiting there tomorrow?” It didn’t take long before he had agreement from all sides. After having spent half a year of first-year flight lessons surrounded by friends, all helping him to overcome his fear of heights, even Neville agreed, if only because he knew that he’d be literally surrounded by flyers ready to catch him should he actually fall. “Alright,” Hermione finally spoke up, once the decision was made. “We know what we’ll do tomorrow. What do we do now?” Sirius smirked. “Now we have lunch. I know you wouldn’t really have lunch at a place like this back home, but over here, the kind of things they sell in a café are considered perfectly reasonable food.” As those new to Equestria looked over the menu, and then sampled the food itself, they had to agree, though Lavender found herself wishing they had some meat. As they ate, watching the goings on around, and, to the confusion of most of the natural born humans, above them, Sunset found her mind wandering. After living on Earth for over a year it was a bit strange to come back to Equestria, to once more see a world where a third of the population could fly. Wizards had brooms, of course, but a good number of them never went beyond basic training in their use. Then, she had heard, there were flying carpets that were banned in wizarding Britain because of some law about enchantable muggle artifacts getting in the way. Why brooms didn’t fall under that but carpets did was beyond her, but she was well aware that laws rarely made complete sense. Still, it got her thinking. Brooms, clearly, weren’t usable by ponies. Not for flight, at least. And carpets were, if anything, more of a gimmick than an actually viable means of transportation at any time but the height of summer. Brooms had the same problem with weather, of course, but with the prevalence of racing brooms they tended to be faster, mitigating the issue somewhat. The thing that really would be needed for unicorns and earth ponies, and humans, of course, was a properly made flying vehicle. Not a muggle artifact enchanted to fly and repurposed into a means of transport, or even a land vehicle enchanted to fly. No, a proper vehicle, designed from the ground up with magical flight in mind. Perhaps she could take inspiration from muggle fiction, or even muggle aircraft? Though perhaps not the latter, given how many parts on them magical flight simply didn’t need. It wasn’t anything she could deal with for the moment, and, she suspected, it would become vastly easier once Hermione and her figured out magical computers, but it was an interesting idea to file away for later. She should probably make a note of it somewhere. “So, what do we do now?” Ron’s question pulled Sunset out of her thoughts. She had barely even noticed that everyone had eaten up and the meal had been paid for. The group was getting up and ready to move on. Sirius chuckled. “Now I’ll show you probably the most bizarre building in town.” Sunset looked at him for a moment, then grinned. “I know what you mean. I’ll wait for you there.” In a flash of light, she vanished. It took the group a few minutes to leisurely walk down Manehattan Road until they reached the third large square the town had to offer. Like Town Square and Market Square, Library Square wasn’t actually a square at all. All three of them were actually circular. But where Market Square had been devoid of any permanent architecture and Town Square had held the small hamlet’s town hall, Library Square held the building that was its namesake at its center. It was immediately clear to the rest of the group what Sirius had meant. Golden Oaks Library was a bizarre building indeed. The entire building seemed to be formed from a single, ancient, and very much living, oak tree. A door and windows poked through the bark and they even saw a balcony atop one of the larger branches. “And they say earth ponies don’t have magic,” Sirius said with a snort. The others soon managed to stop staring, but they were still intrigued how one would run a library inside a tree. As such, the group entered the ancient tree through the colorful front door and looked around. “Ah, your young friend mentioned you’d be coming by.” Turning, the group saw a unicorn mare standing beside them. Where some ponies, like Granny Smith, had seemed old, this mare looked to be truly ancient. “Prose Warden at your service, resident librarian. How may I help?” Sirius smiled winningly. “No need to worry, I’m just showing my friends here around town. And what tour of Ponyville would be complete without visiting Golden Oaks?” The old mare chuckled. “True enough, I suppose. So our local hero has some friends over?” Sirius just rolled his eyes. “Has everypony been gossiping about that again? I just did what anypony would have done. I happen to have combat experience. Might as well make myself useful.” Prose smiled wryly. “True heroes often don’t want to be called that. Part of doing the right thing for the right reason, I guess. But I’ve heard of the spells you were using there. Have half a mind to have a look at them for myself. But what use would they be to an old mare like me? I may have been in the guard back in the day, but it’s been a hundred years since. These days I just guard my books.” Sirius smiled. “Somepony has to. They won’t guard themselves.” An amused giggle drew the group’s attention to Sunset who had walked up beside them, a book levitating beside her. “Well now, sounds like someone’s gone native. You like it here, Sirius?” Sirius just chuckled. “Well, I haven’t had the best experiences back home. Fighting in a civil war, seeing my best friend and his wife murdered and then being thrown in prison for a decade … I guess just being treated normally is a nice change after that. I may have been slightly biased.” He turned around upon hearing the sound of Sunset’s hoof meeting her face, followed by her rubbing her horn after being reminded that that particular gesture was a lot more unpleasant when one had hooves, then turned back, taking note of the librarian’s horrified expression. “My apologies madam, I tend to forget that most ponies around haven’t experienced these kinds of things.” He chuckled ruefully. “Admittedly, most wizards back home haven’t either.” Prose Warden watched as Harry and Hermione hugged him from both sides. “Really not from around here, are you? I’ve never seen nor heard anything of the sort, even back when I was in the guard. Then again, I guess they call it the Celestial Years of Peace for a reason. Before then, oh ho ho … Those were wilder times. Though I guess there really are only stories left nowadays.” Sirius nodded thoughtfully. “Back where we’re from things are a bit different. There’ve been smaller skirmishes over the centuries, sure, but things only went really bad in the last century or so.” Prose nodded slowly. “Well, if you’re looking to recover you couldn’t have picked a better place. Quiet, peaceful, and if you have any business that needs taking care of, Canterlot is only half a day’s train ride away.” Sirius nodded with a wide smile. “So I’ve found. I know I wouldn’t have recovered half as well back in my family’s old home. Or even if I’d found a place of my own. I’ll probably move back home at some point, but I’m happy here for the moment.”