//------------------------------// // Chapter 6 // Story: Apostle // by EquestrianKnight97 //------------------------------// Several miles away from New Horseleans, within the muggy swamplands obscuring any view of the buildings from the nearby city, a single wagon drawn by two stallions ran down the single visible dirt road. Inside of the wagon were seven mares, a young male dragon, and the luggage they brought with them sitting in the center space. The steaming humidity of the late morning atmosphere was enough to turn the group into a near sweaty mess, with a certain orange mare having to take off her stetson hat in order to wipe away the salty liquid that pooled on her forehead. "Land's sake," Applejack commented with exhaustion. "This summer heat is sappin' the strength outta me like a mosquito out for a bloodfest. Ah knew leavin' this late after sunrise would cause problems." The mare's tiredness soon turned into annoyance as she looked ahead of her. "If only somepony hadn't spent so much time conversin' with somepony else." The irate earth pony shot a glare at Rarity, who sat on the other side of the wagon with Twilight, Starlight, and Fluttershy. The white unicorn wore a green blouse that had chestnut brown swirly designs in the center and whitish-green sleeves that were nearly see-through. The entire attire itself appeared to be something more suitable for springtime rather than summer, though it was still appropriate to wear for warm weather like today. Knowing that she was the subject that Applejack was referring to, Rarity blushed out of embarrassment -- with the reason behind her friend's frustration already known to her. "I do apologize, dear Applejack," she said sincerely, "but I just couldn't help myself. The mere coincidence of encountering a fellow dressmaker at the train station who I've met before while attending to business at Canterlot was just fartoo interesting to let be. I figured that it would take you girls some time to find a wagon to rent, so it seemed quite reasonable to catch up with her as she waited for her train." Rarity giggled as her mind wandered to another thought. "And it was quite the endearing conversation. I was even lucky enough to trade in one of my clothes for this quite lovely blouse she made herself. Her attire always did have a southern appeal -- quite suitable for those living in places like New Horseleans." "I think it looks really well on you, Rarity," Spike announced, making sure that his compliment was accompanied by a greeting smile. Seeing the dragon's beaming face, the unicorn returned the favor with a fellow smile and a wave of her hoof. Applejack remained unamused. "While Ah'm pretty sure that it was nice for ya to be all catchin' up and whatnot with an old friend, ya do remember we're on a potential friendship mission -- right? The fifteen minutes we lost waitin' for ya to finish with yur chattin' could have just made things harder for us down the road, especially if these trolls won't be reachin' any common ground for whatever reason." The realization caught up to Rarity like an unexpected visit from a stranger. "Oh! Well, um..." she mumbled, abashedly. "I guess I was a bit selfish by not keeping track of the time, but hopefully a small delay won't cause any problems for us." "Man, I really hope that we'll be able to see a bit of the city before we go back home," Pinkie Pie said. Out of everypony on board the wagon, she seemed to be the only one unaffected by the heat, despite having as much sweat as the others. "The Festival might not be around this time of year, but I'm sure that New Horseleans is still packed full of fun and surprises!" "You're right, Pinkie," Rainbow Dash said, swiping her forehooves away at the gnats surrounding her. "The city is definitely going to be more lively at night, and hopefully we won't have to worry about too many bugs being--- OW!" At an instant, the cyan pegasus cupped her hoof on one of her ears in response to a small insect bite. To her annoyance, the culprit managed to fly away before being squashed, as evident by her dissatisfied groan when looking at her hoof. "Yeah!" Spike chimed in, looking enthusiastically at Pinkie beside him. "Hopefully if I'm allowed to go out, I could visit all sorts of places. There might even be a convention going on -- since it's still summer. New Horseleans has to be big enough to have at least a few each year." Fluttershy giggled. "Well, we if do get to spend some time in the city, I guess it wouldn't hurt if I visited an animal sanctuary I heard about just outside of the city. It's supposed to be an actual safe haven for creatures instead of just an exhibition like some zoos." "That does sound really interesting, everypony," Starlight said with a modest smile. "With that mishap up in the Crystal Empire and the situation that we're about to dive into, it wouldn't be a bad thing if you all gave yourself a little bit of enjoyment afterward." "I do agree, darling," Rarity said. The white unicorn levitated a clear water bottle from one of the bags on the wagon floor and brought it up to her lips for a quick sip. "There are some well-renowned spas around that provide just elegant mudbaths from what I've heard -- along with other treatments, of course. As much as I love and appreciate the spa workers back home, I'm just dying to try out---" A loud male voice from ahead interrupted Rarity and broke the group out of their amusement. "All right, folks!" exclaimed one of the wagon drivers. On queue, the wagon took a sharp right turn and entered onto another dirt road. Less than a mile ahead was a large red arch that revealed a few small buildings down its center. "We should be at Miracle Song by about five minutes or so." Much like Ponyville, Miracle Song itself was but a small, humble town within the southern swamplands of Equestria, populated mostly by quaint cottages and a few stone and wooden buildings where businesses resided. South of the town was a bayou where animals lived in both the shallow waters and sunken trees, and from that body of water ran a winding river that went through the middle of the town. To the west of Miracle Song was a forest range filled with dense trees that obscured any peak from an outside point of view. Any extensive tour that Twilight and her friends would have been taken on was put on hold when they reached the entrance of the town. After getting off the wagon, Twilight and the others were met by a mare and several stallions, with the mare introducing herself as an assistant of the mayor and explaining that the stallions were there to take their belongings over to a hotel where they would be staying. As the stallions loaded the possessions out of the wagon, the assistant directed the eight visitors to the town hall in the center of Miracle Song. Within several minutes, they arrived at a large white marble building that appeared like a mansion -- its elegant design proving it to be the fanciest structure in the town. A side entrance on the right side of the town hall led all nine into a garden that laid in the center of the building. Amongst the flower beds, bushes, and trees was a gazebo that Twilight could see was occupied by several ponies. Following a stone path, Twilight and the others walk up into the gazebo and see three ponies seated at a circular table full of food and refreshments, with four other ponies standing behind them near the railings. When the seven ponies, all dressed up in clothing underneath the cool, refreshing shade, noticed Twilight Sparkle approaching, all of them, including the ones that had sat down, stood up straight before bowing down before the Princess of Friendship. Bashfully, the purple alicorn nodded her head in acknowledgment. "Hello there," she greeted. "I appreciate that you and Steven Magnet requested that I come down here. I promise to do my best in ensuring that this issue is taken care of as soon as possible." "Of course, princess," said the red earth pony stallion seated in the middle. "Take a seat anywhere you want -- if you please. And don't hesitate to take anything from the table." Following the middle-aged stallion's words, Twilight sat herself at the table, picking a chair that faced the stallion sitting across. To her right, Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie sat down, while Starlight and Rarity took the chairs on the left -- leaving the table fully inhabited by eight ponies. "My name is Sunwood," said the red stallion with a greeting tone and grin. "Mayor, of course, of our lovely Miracle Song. I hope that your trip down here wasn't stalled or uncomfortable in anyway." The purple alicorn shook her head. "Nothing too serious," she said, with a warm smile, appreciating the mayor's welcome. "I'm just sorry that we had to meet under dire circumstances." "Ah, yes. Of course. Hopefully we can nip this thing right in the bud before it goes too far." "Well," Twilight started, before pausing to cough and clear up her throat. "For starters, you could fully explain the story behind this dilemma. While Steven's letter covered the basics, he wasn't able to or didn't disclose the full story." Though his cheery, positive outlook never faded, Sunwood seemed unsure of how to respond as his eyes shifted around for a bit before the words came out of his mouth. "It all began about a week ago. One of the merchants of our town that often traded with the trolls noticed one day that no one was there to meet him at the usual spot near the border. He mentioned how the trolls of the fire nation of the Confederation were walking through the forest doing their business, but ignored his requests for a conversation. When he told me that I found it quite odd, so I went to the trading spot myself, given that I have a rather friendly history with them." "Did they say anything when they saw you?" Twilight asked. Sunwood nodded. "Indeed. I beckoned the fire trolls as they were hauling material through the forest. They didn't approach me, nor did I even ask them yet why they didn't want to trade, but they started making these accusations that didn't make a lick of sense to me." "Like what?" "Well, for one they said that they knew about something I did with the Swamp Nation -- even though I had no idea what they meant and even told them that, but they just ignored me. And secondly, they said they weren't appreciative of how dumb I thought the fire trolls were. Again, I made the same statement -- about not knowing -- but they didn't want to engage with that, either." Twilight sported a confused frown. "I don't understand. They didn't explain in further detail the supposed offense you committed against them with the swamp trolls?" The question brought the mayor's grin down a bit, though it never went away. "These trolls, while I mean no offense, are known to be a very impatient species -- both with themselves and other creatures. From all of my interactions with them, the trolls rather delve into lenghty conversations. They rather just finish up as soon as possible with a sentence or two. Something like that." "One thing that bothered us the most," said one of the ponies standing behind the mayor, "is that the fire trolls mentioned how they were at war with the swamp trolls, and that for our collaboration with them, the charms keeping the dangerous insects out of Miracle Song would no longer be put in place. We spent a few days trying to get the trolls to talk things out with us before Steven came by and told us of his relations with you, but nothing would bring them out, and any attempt to enter the Confederation is too dangerous with the insects inside." Walking up behind Twilight, Dash put a hoof on the table and addressed the mayor. "If you don't mind me asking, what's the big deal with these bugs? Why can't you just deal with them with unicorn magic instead of relying on these troll charms?" The pony who had just talked, a teal-colored earth pony stallion, replied back. "Luckily, as the town's historian, I can answer that question. Before the town was settled seventy years ago, the bayou was mostly inhabited by these troublesome insects that made it near impossible for anypony to settle nearby. Since the bayou sits just near the border between Equestria and the Badlands, the magic of our homeland has little effect over here -- at least on a magnitude large enough to handle such a pest problem. "Despite such hazards, the bayou still held much value to prospective settlers, thus the founders of our town made a deal with the nearby trolls: in exchange for receiving modern Equestrian technology, the trolls would use their charms to keep the bugs within their side of the border. Since the trolls are naturally immune to such cretins, they didn't have any problem with agreeing to this truce." "Alright. So what kind of critters are we talkin' about?" asked Applejack. "Just how dangerous are they to y'all?" Twilight was eager and ready to answer her friend, but she was beaten to it by the historian. "There are over three dozen species of insects within the Confederation that pose a fatal threat to a pony's health. There are too many names for me to remember completely, but I can tell you of a few notorious ones: nanosecond mites, which can devour a full grown tree within seven minutes as a collective; greenwater slugs pollute the waters and ground once they absorb the nutrients inside; copperdust spiders are nasty big fellows whose webs produce a toxic dust as a byproduct; and finally there's consumption wasps, whose stingers can waste away at a pony's muscles, bones, coat, and hair." "Well, now I'm certain that we could all deal without those," said Rarity. Though the white unicorn was not in state of shock after hearing the unpleasant news about the bugs, the details concerning them definitely left her with a sour, unamused attitude. "I hope that anypony who had an unfortunate encounter with those wasps were able to be cured as soon as possible. I couldn't imagine losing my lush coat or mane to such bugs." "I'm a bit familiar with the creatures you just mentioned," Twilight said. "I read up on the fauna of this area on my journey down here, or at least as much as I could for the time. Regardless, the knowledge of how these insects could devastate your community and the surrounding swamplands is enough for us to dedicate ourselves into seeing if the trolls can cease their conflict just in time to save everything." Sunwood chuckled. "I greatly admire that, princess. Greatly admire that, indeed." Twilight stared intently at the mayor, trying to detect if anything in his composure was different from how she met him minutes ago. Though his smile had faulted quite a bit, Sunwood was still able to beam out a ray of optimism from across the other side of the table, from his toothy grin to his upright posture. On the other hoof, Twilight could see that the other ponies were not pulling off as convincing of an act as Sunwood was. Some of them held forced smiles that were probably meant to convince themselves that everything was okay more than her and her friends, while others, like the historian, wore sincere frowns or expressions of melancholy. "I don't mean to seem accusatory all of a sudden," Twilight stated to the mayor, "but are you certain that you have no idea why the fire trolls accused you and the town of plotting against them with the swamp trolls?" Sticking to his character, Sunwood retained his smile as he shook his head. "It beats me, princess. It really does. It's unfortunate that none of the trolls have even bothered to open up to us ever since this conflict. We're very lucky that Steven was visiting our town when this all went down. As the Princess of Friendship, we hope you'll be able talk both nations into letting go of their differences in order to save Miracle Song and the surrounding towns." Twilight smiled. "You're definitely right about that." "If you don't mind me asking, how are you and the Elements going to traverse through the Confederation? I would hope you have some spell or something to aid you against the insects within." "Once again, you're right on the nose. Along with my readings of the insects, I was also able to pick up on a book that had a spell that dispelled the hostile advances of creatures lacking complex reasoning skills. It'll only last for around twelve hours, but hopefully that should be enough time for at least some compromise to be accomplished." Sunwood looked up behind him at the historian. "If you wouldn't mind, lad, could you give them the maps?" The historian went around the right side of the table, from Twilight's perspective, and reached into his saddlebags to place down, one by one, four scrolls in front of the alicorn. "These are maps of the Troll Confederation," the historian said blandly, not even looking at the princess. "They were drawn a long time ago by pegasi and assistance from the trolls." Twilight gave him a quick smile as she levitated the maps into her saddlebags. "All right, girls. Let's get on over to the hotel. We'll make up our plan over there before leaving."